John Endecott: A Biography [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674429765, 9780674499607

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LONDON : H U M P H R E Y MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

JOHN ENDECOTT e/f

biography BY

LAWRENCE SHAW MAYO

"A grave, strong man, who knew no peer In the pilgrim land, where he ruled in jear Of God, not man, and for good or ill Held his trust with an iron will" WHITTJER

Cambridge,

Massachusetts

H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS 1936

COPYRIGHT,

I936

BY T H E P R E S I D E N T AND F E L L O W S O F H A R V A R D C O L L E G E

P R I N T E D A T T H E H A R V A R D UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U . S . A .

TO WILLIAM CROWNINSHIELD ENDICOTT A lineal descendant in the ninth generation from Governor John Endecott

CONTENTS CHAPTER I. II.

PAGE SIR E D W A R D

COKE

AND OTHERS

NAUMKEAG

6

III.

THE BAY

IV.

A RIGHT FOUNDATION

V. VI.

COMPANY

21 LAID

IX. X. XI.

33

THE NEWCOMERS

49

TROUBLE

60

AND MORE TROUBLE

VII. " O R C H A R D " VIII.

3

72

HOT WATER

79

CORSELETS AND ARROWS

93

TWO

STRONG

MEN

104

ONE THING AND ANOTHER

121

CONSERVATION AND EDUCATION

134

XIII.

A WAVE

145

XIV.

FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS

158

NO BED OF ROSES

171

OTIUM

189

XII.

XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI.

OF LIBERALISM

CUM

DIGNITATE

ONE JESUIT A N D T H R E E

BAPTISTS

200

THE ENDECOTT ROCK

218

THE

235

QUAKERS

TURMOIL

257

T H E SIGN IN T H E H E A V E N S

273

INDEX

287

ILLUSTRATIONS

GOVERNOR ENDECOTT Frontispiece From the original portrait, painted about 1664 by an unidentified artist; now owned by William Crowninshield Endicott. Facing page INSCRIPTION BY ROGER WILLIAMS TO JOHN ENDECOTT . From the fly-leaf of a copy of Herwologia Anglica by Henry Holland (London, 1620); in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

66

THE ENDECOTT PEAR TREE .

74

•GOVERNOR ENDECOTT'S SUNDIAL

.

.

.

76

MAP ILLUSTRATING THE CONTROVERSY OVER BOUNDARY BETWEEN MASSACHUSETTS-BAY PLYMOUTH PLANTATION

THE AND 126

BOSTON'S FIRST TOWN-HOUSE

232

Drawn for the Proceedings of the Bostonian Society from the original specifications. SIGNATURE OF GOVERNOR ENDECOTT, AND E A R L Y SEAL OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY

242

From a document of 1658 presented to William Crowninshield Endicott by Mrs. Godfrey Walker-Heneage of Coker Court, Yeovil, Somersetshire. THE ENDECOTT T E R C E N T E N A R Y MEDAL

.

.

.

.

284

JOHN

ENDEGOTT

CHAPTER

I

SIR E D W A R D C O K E AND O T H E R S

N T H E winter of 1627-28 an earnest group of Puritans in Old England were looking about for the best man they could find to manage and revitalize a moribund plantation on the shore of Massachusetts Bay. There seemed to be enough Englishmen who, with their families, were ready to cross the perilous Atlantic and start life afresh in the New World; but these prospective colonists must have a leader and the plantation must have a wise and strong manager, if the enterprise was to succeed. Who was the right man? And where was he to be found? History easily answers the first question: that man was Captain John Endecott. But where the Puritan group found him still remains a mystery. Of this Endecott, prior to 1628, history gives us but one fleeting glimpse; and though that glimpse, which occurs in 1617, suggests interesting possibilities, we can only guess concerning its significance. On November 2, 1617, Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and Sir John Villiers, brother of the favorite of James I, signed a document that settled the marriage portion of Sir Edward's daughter Frances. To Sir Edward and to Sir John it was a very important document, for the first was rich and the second was not — and the second had recently married the lady Frances. But its importance to us is not concerned in any way with the pounds and shillings that meant so much to them. It interests us merely because one of the five men who witnessed the seal-

I

4

SIR E D W A R D C O K E AND OTHERS

ing and delivery of the deed — and in testimony thereof appended their signatures — was John Endecott,1 the future Governor of the colony of Massachusetts-Bay. Of course, what we should very much like to know is how Endecott happened to be present on this occasion. Was he a friend or retainer of Sir John Villiers? If so, he was in strange company for a Puritan. It is more logical to assume that Endecott was in some way associated with Sir Edward Coke — for the author of the Commentary on Littleton was a good friend to the Puritans. Possibly Coke's attitude towards them was due to coincidence alone; that is to say, he may have been on their side only because the law was on their side. Still, there was probably more to it than that. He must have had at least a latent respect for these subjects who, like himself, were trying to hold their own against the aggressions of James I and his archbishops; and Coke's encouragement of Roger Williams suggests that in certain instances he had not only respect but affection for Puritans. About the time when John Endecott was signing his name on the Coke-Villiers indenture, Roger Williams, still in England, was taking down in shorthand what he heard in the Star Chamber when the Privy Council sat therein as a court to try great offenders. What business the child — for he was probably not more than fifteen — had to be present is not stated. But there he was; and when he presented Sir Edward with the results of his labors, Coke, who was a member of the Privy Council, decided that Roger was no ordinary boy. Accordingly, he sent him to school at Charterhouse, whence Williams went on to Pembroke ColI. The original document, an engrossed parchment over three hundred years old, is among the family papers of William C. Endicott, of Danvers, Massachusetts.

SIR EDWARD C O K E AND OTHERS

5

lege, Cambridge. 1 And if Williams was as sincere as we like to believe he was, he suffered a real pang when several years later he had to leave England without paying his respects to his former benefactor. It does not follow, of course, that because Sir Edward Coke liked and encouraged Roger Williams he also liked and advanced John Endecott. He may never have even known Endecott. But if he did, the cordial relations that existed between Williams and Endecott when both had been translated to the New World take on new meaning. Roger Williams, it will be remembered, got into discord with the Boston church in 1631 and found it advisable to seek more congenial surroundings. Thereupon he received a call to Salem, where Endecott, who was locally supreme, gave him both welcome and protection. This suggests that the two men had a common bond before they greeted each other on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, and it may well be that the bond was no less a person than Sir Edward Coke. ι . James Ernst, Roger Williams, p. 25.

CHAPTER

II

NAUMKEAG

N THE nineteenth century genealogists were inclined to assign Dorchester, England, an inland town not far from Weymouth, as the birthplace of John Endecott. They had to choose some place, and as his first appearance in American history was not unconnected with the Reverend John White and the trading company known as the Dorchester Adventurers, Dorchester seemed to be a logical guess. It must be stated, however, that they were seldom if ever positive in this attribution and left the case open for better evidence. Even today no one can prove that they were wrong, for no one knows exactly where nor exactly when Endecott was born; but the recent tendency has been to assume that Devonshire rather than Dorset was the scene of his childhood and youth. It appears that Endecott is, or was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, unquestionably a Devon name. In that county were to be found any number of families whose names terminated in "cot," "cott," or "cote," which signified "cottage." There were the Heathcotes, for instance, whose early ancestor presumably resided in the hither cottage; there were the Middlecotts, whose homestead must have been the middle cottage; and there were the Endecotts, whose antecedents spelled their name Yendecote and thus proclaimed that the family once lived in the yonder (more distant) cottage. One genealogist has gone so far as to select the charming village of Chagford, on the edge of Dartmoor a few miles west of

I

NAUMKEAG

7

Exeter, as the spot where our John Endecott first saw the light. He has made it clear that many Endecotts, and at least one John Endecott, flourished in that part of Devon in the early sixteen-hundreds; but the present writer is at least hesitant about accepting this John Endecott as our John Endecott. 1 So until some searcher, more fortunate than the others, produces conclusive proof that the future Governor of Massachusetts-Bay was born at this or that place, we must try to be content with the general assumption that his family, and probably he himself, came from Devonshire. The year of Endecott's birth is known, however, for we know the year of his death and we know his age at that time; and subtracting one from the other we get the auspicious year of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588, as the year of the birth of John Endecott. It was also the natal year of John Winthrop. Who will say that fundamentally 1588 is not the most important date in the history of Massachusetts? If it had not been for the defeat of the Armada and the birth of John Endecott and John Winthrop, where should we be today? Wherever he was born, John Endecott had, as we have seen, gravitated to the metropolis before he was thirty years old, and was in some way associated with Sir Edward Coke in 1617. That one glimpse of him we have, signing his name as a witness to the indenture between Coke and Villiers, and then he disappears into the mists of time for a period of ten years. In March, 1627/8, he emerges as one of a group of associates to whom Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, grants a piece of land in far-off New England, a bit of territory lying for the most part between the Merrimac and ι . S e e Sir R o p e r L e t h b r i d g e ' s The Devonshire Ancestry and the Early Homes of the Family of John Endecott ( 1 9 1 4 ) .

8

NAUMKEAG

the Charles rivers and extending westwardly to the Pacific Ocean. Let us for a moment review the familiar steps that led up to that historic grant. The Dorchester Company was a group of public-spirited West Country merchants who decided that a permanent colony could be planted on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay. Their primary object was to establish a better American base for the fishing industry of the West of England. That industry was already a going concern, but it would stand improvement. Ships were frequently sailing from England to the Grand Banks and the Gulf of Maine and bringing back dried fish that was marketed in France or Spain, but there was a sad lack of efficiency in the management. The fishermen were not sailors, and the sailors were not fishermen. Consequently, on the way to and from New England the fishermen were no better than "dead-heads"; and during the fishing season the sailors were idle, for the vessel rode at anchor in some American harbor, while the fishermen went out in small boats to make their catch. Apparently still another set of men had to be brought along to build fish wharves and to cure the fish. More likely than not the wharves and racks of one season would be appropriated or wrecked by other fishermen before the original owners returned to the New England coast in the following spring. So there were plenty of expenses to offset the profits, and some sort of solution was very much needed. The solution that occurred to the mind of the Reverend John White, the minister at Dorchester, was to start a small colony on the American mainland, a colony of fishermen who would build, guard, and repair the wharves, clear and plant enough land to make themselves self-sustaining, make salt from sea-water, and in the appropriate season catch and

NAUMKEAG

9

cure fish to be shipped to Europe. 1 If a minister of the gospel could be persuaded to settle among the colonists, he might spend his spare time in Christianizing the Indians. The proposition sounded good, the Dorchester Company was formed, and in the summer of 1623 a beginning was made on Cape Ann, a little south of Gloucester Harbor. About a dozen men spent the following winter there, and in 1624 and 1625 a f e w more were added to their number. But the enterprise did not succeed. The colonists did not take to agriculture, and the fishing business itself ran into various kinds of hard luck. In 1626 the Dorchester Company was thoroughly discouraged, and in 1627 it dissolved, leaving its handful of colonists to shift for themselves on the beautiful but bleak shore of Cape Ann. No, it is not fair to give the impression that the Dorchester Adventurers utterly abandoned their employees at Gloucester: in the first place, it is recorded by the author of The Planters Plea that the "most part of the Land-men being sent for, returned; but a few of the most honest and industrious resolved to stay behinde and to take charge of the Cattell sent over the yeare before." Furthermore, these stalwarts were given a strong, resourceful leader. His name was Roger Conant; we shall meet him again, but for the present we must turn our gaze to Old England, and see what, if anything, rose from the wreckage of the well-intended Dorchester Company. The Reverend John White was not the type of man to be easily discouraged. He had seen the Dorchester Company fail to the tune of about £3000, 2 but he still believed that the idea was sound. And when Conant suggested that " in following times" the base on Massachusetts Bay "might prove ι . Samuel Eliot Morison, Builders of the Bay Colony, p. 26. 2. Frances Rose-Troup, John White, p. 7 1 .

IO

NAUMKEAG

a receptacle for such as upon the account of religion would be willing to begin a foreign Plantation in this part of the world," 1 he determined that somehow the thing must continue. Among the members of the erstwhile company he found a few who agreed with him to the extent of being willing to send over " twelve Kine and Buls more." These it was hoped "might not onely be a meanes of the comfortable subsisting of such [settlers] as were already in the Country; but of inviting some other of their Friends and Acquaintance to come over to them." And conferring casually with some Gentlemen of London, [the Dorchester enthusiasts] moved them to adde unto them as many more. By which occasion the businesse 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. 2 In so much, that some men shewing some good affection to the worke, and offering the helpe of their purses, if fit men might be procured to goe over; Enquiry was made whither any would be willing to engage their persons in the Voyage: by this enquiry it fell out that among others they lighted at last on Master Endecott, a man well knowne to divers persons of good note: who manifested much willingnesse to accept of the offer as soone as it was tendered: which gave great encouragement to such as were upon the point of resolution to set on this worke, of erecting a new Colony upon the old foundation. 3

From this turning point the resuscitation of the Conant community appears to have been a relatively easy matter; for "hereupon divers persons having subscribed for the raising of a reasonable Summe of Mony," there came into being "The New England Company for a Plantation in ι. William Hubbard, A General History of New England (1848), p. 1 0 7 . 2. T h e sixth definition of " v u l g a r " given in Murray's New English Dictionary is: " C o m m o n l y current or prevalent, generally or widely disseminated, as a matter of knowledge, assertion, or opinion." 3. The Planters Plea (attributed to J o h n White), pp. 7 5 - 7 6 , as reprinted in Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, L X I I , 4 1 9 .

NAUMKEAG Massachusetts," which took over the assets of the defunct Dorchester Company. On March 19, 1627/8, the Earl of Warwick granted to the new company "alle that part of New England in America" lying between lines drawn three miles north of the Merrimac River and three miles south of the Charles — from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The historical world is weary of the names of the first six grantees as they have been printed and reprinted through the centuries, but we must linger with them for a moment in order to realize how close the connection was between the old Dorchester Adventurers and the new promoters of the plantation in Massachusetts. We dwell upon the first six because theirs are the only names mentioned, the rest of the grantees being referred to as "others whome they have associated unto them." The first name is that of Sir Henry Rosewell, of Ford Abbey. He was a Devon man of considerable importance locally. Though not a member of the Dorchester Company, he probably had heard a good deal about it, for he knew John Conant, a brother of Roger, and had presented him to a living in Somersetshire. And as he was a strong Puritan, it may well be that Roger Conant's suggestion of establishing a haven for religious refugees was the bait that lured him into the present enterprise. It was not many years before Sir Henry himself was summoned before the Court of the High Commission for not attending his parish church, and for allowing others than members of his family to attend services in his private chapel.1 Next comes Sir John Young, of Colyton; his father, Walter Young, was one of the original members of the old company ι . There is a paper on Sir Henry Rosewell by Frances B. J a m e s (now Mrs. Frances Rose-Troup) in Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association, X X , 113-122. See also her John White, pp. 1 0 7 - 1 0 8 .

12

NAUMKEAG

— and incidentally a staunch Puritan. Thomas Southcott, of Mohuns Ottery, had been a stockholder in the Dorchester Company. John Humfrey was the treasurer of the old company; unlike the others, he resided at Dorchester. Of John Endecott, more anon. Simon Whetcombe, the last on the list, was " a wealthy citizen and cloth-worker of London." Presumably he was one of the gentlemen " conferring casually" with whom led to the formation of the new company. His brother, Robert Whetcombe, was one of the Dorchester Adventurers. In general, one might characterize the six as being for the most part substantial men of Devon who had some connection with the Dorchester Company and a leaning towards Puritanism. How and where the New England Company, as we shall call it for want of a better name, discovered John Endecott we shall probably never know. Conjecture is easy but futile.1 The only certainties are that he was "well knowne to divers persons of good note" and that his readiness to go out to New England was the spring that started action. It is interesting that Endecott himself embodied the three outstanding features of the new company: a Devonshire background, a London foreground, and a Puritan attitude towards matters ecclesiastical. The New England Company received its grant in March, 1628. About the twentieth of the following June the Abigail, Henry Gauden, Master, sailed from Weymouth, England, bound for Massachusetts Bay in New England, with fifty or more "planters and ι. The usual conjecture has been that Matthew Cradock, a member of the New England Company and the future Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, was the "discoverer" of Endecott. This is based upon the fact that Mrs. Endecott, formerly Anna Gouer, was a cousin of Cradock. New England Historical & Genealogical Register, I, 203; also Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, I, 383.

NAUMKEAG

13

servants" under the direction of John Endecott. 1 Endecott's instructions have disappeared, but we are told on good authority that they were dated at London, May 30, 1628, and were signed by fourteen of the associates, including Matthew Cradock, John Humfrey, and Hugh Peter.2 The names of ten or twelve of the passengers on the Abigail have come down to us. Of these colonists the large majority appear to have been men from Dorset.3 A few months before the dissolution of the Dorchester Company, Roger Conant, who had been appointed manager of the so-called colony at Cape Ann, decided to move the settlement from the neighborhood of Gloucester Harbor to a more promising spot fifteen miles towards the south. The new location was at the mouth of a small river and at the head of a fair harbor. By the Indians it was called Naumkeag. Conant probably knew the coast of Massachusetts Bay pretty well, for since his departure from the Plymouth Colony in 1624 he had spent some time at Nantasket (Point Allerton) and then moved on to the North Shore. It is not unlikely that Naumkeag, the site of the present city of Salem, had attracted his attention as he passed it on his way to Cape Ann, for as soon as responsibility for the welfare of the remaining employees of the Dorchester Company descended squarely upon his broad shoulders he transferred them and their few belongings to Naumkeag. This wise change of base was effected in 1626, and Conant and three others — J o h n Woodbury, John Balch, and Peter Palfrey — ι. In June, 1914, a memorial of Endecott and the sailing of the Abigail was unveiled at Weymouth, Dorsetshire, by Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain, a lineal descendant of John Endecott. 2. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts (1795), I, 16, note. 3. T h e list is given in Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth, p. 59, and in Essex Institute Historical Collections, L X V I , 3 1 7 - 3 2 4 .

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NAUMKEAG

promised to remain on the ground if supplies were sent to them from England. So it came to pass that when Endecott sailed with reinforcements in 1628, the destination of the Abigail was not the rocky headland of Cape Ann but the more inviting shore of Salem Harbor. Much has been written of the character and personality of John Endecott, but the most satisfactory description comes from the pen of Captain Edward Johnson about 1650. Captain Johnson liked to write, but he was no indoor scholar; he was a vigorous pioneer, clerk of the town of Woburn, and commander of its military company. He knew a man when he saw one, and in " M r . John Indicat" he saw " a fit instrument to begin this Wildernesse-worke, of courage bold undaunted, yet sociable, and of a chearfull spirit, loving and austere, applying himselfe to either as occasion served." 1 This, then, was the type of man at the head of the emigrant band that made the long journey across the Atlantic in the Abigail. A long journey it was — eleven weeks from shore to shore — but on September 6, 1628, the Abigail dropped anchor in Salem Harbor and her sea-weary passengers went ashore to get their first impression of New England. T o Endecott this sweet-smelling land of goldenrod and asters, of broad salt marshes and winding creeks, probably looked as blessed as it did to any of his company, but administrative problems soon presented themselves and dulled the edge of his enthusiasm. Probably history has exaggerated the difficulties that arose and the spirit shown in dealing with them, but difficulties there certainly were in the transition from the old order to the new. Conant had done admirable work in transplanting the emI. Wonder-Working Providence of Sions Saviour in Neui England (edited b y W i l l i a m Frederick Poole), p. 19.

NAUMKEAG

15

ployees of the defunct Dorchester Company to Naumkeag and in holding them together for two years thereafter. At least once they had been tempted to pull up stakes and move to Virginia. John Lyford, who like Conant had drifted from the Plymouth Colony to Naumkeag, had sickened of New England even as Plymouth had sickened of him. He was a minister, and it was only natural that he should have considerable influence in Conant's community. When he departed for the South, more than one was tempted to go with him; but Conant was resolute, and his strong personality prevailed upon the men to stay at Naumkeag. But now the situation was different. Conant had been superseded by a newcomer. A flock of new colonists backed by a new company had arrived in their midst. What provision was to be made for the forlorn hope that had prepared the way for their coming? What rights had they to the lands they had cleared and to other fruits of their labors? It was not long before an understanding was reached, and tradition has it that the establishment of good relations was celebrated by renaming Naumkeag "Salem," the Hebrew word for peace.1 Whatever jealousy, if any, existed between the old settlers — Allen, Balch, Conant, Gardner, Gray, Knight, the Normans, Palfrey, Tilley, and Woodbury — and the new people — Endecott, Brackenbury, Gott, Davenport, and others — was soon obliterated by a common enemy, the dismal winter of 1628-29. Meanwhile there was plenty of work for both parties — houses had to be ι . T h e tradition m a y be true, yet Endecott wrote from " N a u m k e a k " in M a y , 1629. T h e first use of the name " S a l e m " appears to be in Charles Gott's letter to William Bradford, written from " S a l e m " J u l y 30, 1629. See Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, I I I , 68. In his New-England's Plantation, which was written in the summer of 1 6 2 9 , Higginson mentions " o u r Plantation at Salem, for so our T o w n e is now n a m e d . "

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NAUMKEAG

erected, thatch had to be cut, and Endecott had the Company's house at Cape Ann taken down and then set up at Salem for his own use.1 Before he had been at Salem ten days, Endecott wrote a letter to the home office of the New England Company. The letter has disappeared, but its contents can be deduced to a certain extent from the replies which it evoked from Matthew Cradock and the Company in February and April, 1629.2 From these we glean that Mrs. Endecott, who had made the voyage to New England with her husband, was not well; that Endecott had allowed the colonists to plant tobacco at Naumkeag; that some of Conant's men believed the new company intended " t o make them slaves"; and that Endecott would favor adding to the colony a few Frenchmen "that might bee experienced in making of salt & plan tinge of vynes." Much as we should like to know more of his satisfactions and disappointments upon arriving in New England, we must rest content with these reflected fragments. But of at least one of his activities of the next few months we have a fairly complete account. This was the renowned expedition to Merrymount, now Wollaston. Of the waifs and strays and wastrels who resided on the shores of Boston Harbor prior to the coming of John Winthrop in 1630, by far the most picturesque — and probably the most disreputable — was one Thomas Morton, who had established himself on a bit of high land on the coast between Boston and Weymouth. He and his cronies, according to Governor Bradford, "set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing aboute it many days togeather, inviting the ι. John Wingate Thornton, The Landing at Cape Anne, p. 80. 2. These are printed in Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, I, 383-398.

NAUMKEAG

17

Indean women, for their consorts, dancing and frisking togither, (like so many fairies, or furies rather,) and worse practises." 1 Furthermore, Morton had a disturbing habit of trading firearms for furs in his dealings with the Indians. What this might lead to alarmed the other settlers all along the coast from Plymouth to Piscataqua, and they united in a determination to restrain him.2 Twice he was warned by the authorities of Plymouth. When it was clear that admonition did not have the desired effect, Miles Standish with eight men went to Merrymount, broke down the door, captured their man, and carried him off to Plymouth. This was in May, 1628. A few weeks later Morton was sent to the Isles of Shoals, whence he was shipped to England. When John Endecott appeared upon the New England scene, the capture and deportation of Morton were what might be termed "ancient history," but of course reports of the episode reached his ears. There is no reason to suppose that he believed Merrymount to be within the limits of his jurisdiction, though later it turned out so to be; yet Endecott, either from curiosity or from a sense of duty, or both, determined to visit the place. To Merrymount he went, accompanied by a small party from Naumkeag. Morton was not there, of course, but the Maypole was; also a few of Morton's followers. And as the Maypole plays an important part in the episode, it may be well for us to remind ourselves that this was no ordinary, beribboned pole such as children dance about on May Day. Whatever Morton did, he did on a large scale. His Maypole, as described by himself, was " a goodly pine tree of 80 foote longe . . . with a ι . William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (M. H. S. edition), II, 48. 2. For this good cause the plantation at Naumkeag subscribed £ 1 10s. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, III, 63.

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peare of buckshorns nayled one [i.e., on] somewhat neare unto the top of it: where it stood as a faire sea marke for directions how to finde out the way to mine Hoste of Ma-re Mount." 1 The magnitude of this emblem of abandon doubtless delighted Morton and his comrades and the " Salvages, that came thether of purpose to see the manner of our Revels." But it produced a wholly different effect upon the mind of John Endecott. We lack details, but Bradford supplies the broad outlines: " T h a t worthy gentleman, Mr. J o h n Indecott . . . visiting those parts caused that M a y polle to be cutt downe, and rebuked them for their profannes, and admonished them to looke ther should be better walking; so they now, or others, changed the name of their place againe, and called it Mounte-Dagon." 2 The winter of 1628-29 may not have been any more severe than the average New England winter, but it was a new experience to those who had come over in the Abigail, and they suffered accordingly. Except by hearsay or tradition, the author of Wonder-Working Providence knew no more of that winter in Salem than we do, for presumably he did not come out from England before 1630. And yet his account of it probably comes much nearer to the truth than could the unaided imagination of the twentieth century, 1. Thomas Morton, The New English Canaan (edited by Charles Francis Adams), p. 277. 2. William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (M. H. S. edition), II, 4 9 - 5 1 . Dagon was the god of the Philistines. Judges 16:23. W e do not know the exact time of Endecott's expedition to Merrymount, but I assume it to have been the autumn of 1628. Bradford says that it was " shortly after" Morton was sent to England, which was in the summer of 1628. It may have been several months later, however; for in a letter to the Company dated M a y 27, 1629, Endecott complained " o f the prophane and dissolute living of divers of our nation, former traders to those parts, and of their irregular trading with the Indians." Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 48.

NAUMKEAG

19

and therefore it is worth quoting. Scarcity of food appears to have been the chief difficulty. T h o s e that w e r e sent over servants, h a v i n g itching desires after novelties, f o u n d a reddier w a y to m a k e an end of their Masters provision, then they could finde meanes to get m o r e ; T h e y that c a m e over their o w n m e n h a d b u t little left to feed on, a n d most b e g a n to repent w h e n their strong Beere a n d full cups r a n as small as w a t e r in a large L a n d , b u t little C o r n e , a n d the poore Indians so far f r o m relieving them, that they w e r e forced to lengthen out their o w n e food w i t h Acorns, a n d that w h i c h a d d e d to their present distracted thoughts, the D i t c h between E n g l a n d a n d their n o w place of a b o d e w a s so w i d e , that they could not leap over w i t h a lope-staffe, yet some delighting their E y e w i t h the rarity of things present, a n d feeding their fancies w i t h n e w discoveries at thè Springs a p p r o a c h , they m a d e shift to r u b out the Winters cold b y the Fireside, h a v i n g fuell e n o u g h g r o w i n g at their v e r y doores, turning d o w n m a n y a d r o p of the Bottell, a n d b u r n i n g T o b a c c o w i t h all the ease they could, discoursing betweene one w h i l e a n d another, of the great progresse they w o u l d m a k e after the S u m m e r s - S u n h a d c h a n g e d the Earths w h i t e f u r r ' d G o w n e into a greene M a n t e l l . 1

All this sounds more or less merry, but as a matter of fact sickness made the winter dismal indeed.

As there was no

physician or apothecary in Salem, Endecott sent to Plymouth for medical aid, and it was not long before Samuel Fuller came up the coast to do what he could for the sufferers. 2 Fuller had come to Plymouth in the Mayflower in 1620, had seen the Pilgrims through their first terrible winter, and was in a position to sympathize with and help vitally the newcomers at Salem. T h e diseases that afflicted the hamlet had begun their work on board the Abigail·, with some it was scurvy, with others it w a s - " a n feavore."

infectious

Both pests "spread also among them a shore,"

and many died.

A m o n g those w h o succumbed was Mrs.

1. Wonder- Working Providence of Sions Saviour in New England (edited by William Frederick Poole), p. 20. 2. William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (M. H. S. edition), II, 90.

20

NAUMKEAG

John Endecott.

When thanking Governor Bradford of

Plymouth for the loan of Fuller, Endecott wrote one of the most gracious and heartfelt letters that ever came from his pen. It has been quoted in many a book and on many an occasion, but it merits a place here as well.

As Bradford

wrote, when he interpolated it in his History of Plymouth Plantation, "because it is breefe, and shows the beginning of their acquaintance, and closing in the truth and ways of God, I thought it not unmeete, nor without use, hear to inserte it."

It is dated "Naumkeak, M a y u .

Anno. 1629."

Right worthy Sir: It is a thing not usuali, that servants to one m[aste]r and of the same household should be strangers; I assure you, I desire it not, nay, to speake more plainly, I cannot be so to you. Gods people are all marked with one and the same marke, and sealed with one and the same seale, and have for the maine, one and the same harte, guided by one and the same spirite of truth; and wher this is, ther can be no discorde, nay, here must needs be sweete harmonie. And the same request (with you) I make unto the Lord, that we may, as Christian brethren, be united by a heavenly and unfained love; bending all our harts and forces in furthering a worke beyond our strength, with reverence and fear, fastening our eyes allways on him that only is able to directe and prosper all our ways. I acknowledge my selfe much bound to you for your kind love and care in sending Mr. Fuller among us, and rejoyce much that I am by him satisfied touching your judgments of the outward forme of Gods worshipe. It is, as farr as I can yet gather, no other then is warrented by the evidence of truth, and the same which I have proffessed and maintained ever since the Lord in mercie revealed him selfe unto me; being farr from the commone reporte that hath been spread of you touching that perticuler. But Gods children must not looke for less here below, and it is the great mercie of God, that he strengthens them to goe through with it. I shall not neede at this time to be tedious unto you, for, God willing, I purpose to see your face shortly. In the meantime, I humbly take my leave of you, committing you to the Lords blessed protection, and rest, Your assured loving friend, Jo:

ENDECOTT

CHAPTER

III

THE BAY COMPANY

HILE Endecott and Samuel Fuller were becoming acquainted with each other at Naumkeag and finding themselves in accord on the engrossing subject of church polity, tremendous activity was going on in the office of the New England Company in London. On March 4, 1628/9, that somewhat informal organization with a grant of land on the shore of Massachusetts Bay was transformed into a corporation holding a charter from the King. Expanded in personnel, resources, and powers, and buttressed with royal authorization, it became the Massachusetts Bay Company, and forthwith entered upon a program of colonizing endeavor that made the efforts of its predecessors look like faint-hearted gestures. Headquarters hummed with business. Ships for transporting planters and employees were bought and hired; contracts were entered into for all kinds of supplies — from eight pieces of artillery "for the forte" to "2 fferkins of soape"; a military engineer, a civil engineer (with a knowledge of minerals), and a surgeon were engaged; applications for special arrangements were pondered and acted upon; and the selection of three or four appropriate ministers required no small amount of time and debate. The records of the Bay Company for this period almost vibrate with forethought, energy, and enthusiasm. No longer was John Endecott to be merely the New England agent of a somewhat obscure trading company. On April 30, "having taken into due consideration the meritt,

THE BAY C O M P A N Y

22

worth, & good desert of Capt. John Endecott," the Company appointed him " t o the place of present Governor in our said plantation." 1 This does not mean that he was chosen head of the Massachusetts Bay Company, for he was not. That office had already gone to his wife's cousin, Matthew Cradock, whom Hubbard quaintly terms " a prudent and wealthy citizen of London." But Endecott was to be Governor of the plantation in New England, and he was to be aided by twelve "of such as shalbe reputed the most wyse, honest, expert, & discreete persons resident upon the said plantation." He and his advisers were " t o bee entytled by the name of the Governor & Councell of Londons Plantation in the Massachusetts Bay in New England." On this Council the Company placed seven of the most promising colonists who were going to Naumkeag that spring. Endecott and these seven were to choose three more to be added to their number; the two vacancies remaining were to be filled by representatives of "the former planters" — that is, of Conant and his stalwarts. The Governor was empowered " t o call courts and meetings in places and at tymes convenyent," and he and his Council together were authorized to make " all manner of wholsome and reasonable lawes" not contrary to the laws of England, and to administer justice upon malefactors and to inflict "condigne punishment upon all other offendors." 2 At his inauguration the Governor should take an oath " t o draw on the natives of this country, called New-England, to the knowledge of the True God, and to conserve the planters and others coming hither, in the same knowledge and fear of ι.

2.

Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 361. Ibid., 1,363.

T H E BAY COMPANY

23

God." 1 As we shall soon see, when John Endecott swore that he would do a thing, he did it — regardless of the consequences. About the middle of February, Cradock notified Endecott that he might expect three, or possibly four, ships from England in the spring, and asked him to prepare for their arrival by building habitations for two or three hundred men, women, and children. Also, it was suggested that he assemble a return cargo for two of the ships — beaver, fish, timber, sassafras, sarsaparilla, sumac, and at least a ton of "silke grasse." As it turned out, the Company found it necessary to provide six ships, and when the time came for obtaining a license for embarkation the throng of emigrants numbered three hundred men, eighty women and maids, and twenty-six children — not to mention one hundred and forty head of cattle and forty goats.2 The six ships of the fleet bound for Naumkeag were the Talbot ( " a good and strong shipp of 300 tunnes"), the George Bonaventure ("another strong ship also"), the Lion's Whelp ( " a neat and nimble ship of 120 tunnes"), the Four Sisters ("as I heare of about 300 tuns"), the Mayflower, and the Pilgrim. The George was the first to start across the Atlantic. She set sail about April 15, and had on board a duplicate of the charter, which was to be delivered to Governor Endecott by Samuel Sharpe, a passenger recently appointed one of his Council.3 Ten days later the Talbot and the Lion's Whelp departed from Gravesend. In all probability the Four Sisters, the Mayflower, and the Pilgrim fol1. The text of the oath is printed in Alexander Young, Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, pp. 2 0 1 - 2 0 2 . 2. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, I, 293. 3. This copy of the charter is now in the Salem Athenaeum.

24

THE BAY COMPANY

lowed about four weeks later.1 Towards the end of June the emigrants on the Talbot got their first glimpses of New England, and to at least one of them it was indeed the Promised Land. This was the Reverend Francis Higginson, one of the ministers deemed worthy of the task of caring for the souls at Naumkeag. When he caught sight of Cape Ann, he became exuberant and recorded in his journal: " a s we sayled along the coasts we saw every hill and dale and every island full of gay woods and high trees. The nearer we came to the shoare the more flowers [a kind of seaweed he had described in an earlier passage] in abundance, sometymes scattered abroad, sometymes joyned in sheets 9 or 10 yards long, which we supposed to be brought from the low meadowes by the tyde. Now what with fine woods and greene trees by land, and these yellow flowers paynting the sea, made us all desirous to see our new paradise of New England, whence we saw such forerunning signals of fertilite afarre off." 2 While the Talbot was manoeuvring to enter Salem Harbor, on June 27, her colors were spied by some of the planters on shore and word was sent to Governor Endecott. He immediately dispatched two men in a shallop to pilot her in, but a thunderstorm swept her back towards Cape Ann, where she found refuge and good anchorage in Gloucester Harbor. Even this disappointment did not damp the enthusiasm of Mr. Higginson. He praised God, found it " a fyne and sweet harbour," and was charmed with the place when ι. Francis Higginson's Journal, pp. 3 - 4 , as reprinted in Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, L X I I , 285-299; also Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 400. Oddly enough, a number of the passengers in the Mayflower were Pilgrims from Leyden who were coming at this late date to add their number to the church at Plymouth. See Bradford in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, III, 65-66; and cf. Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation (M. H. S. edition), II, 64-66. 2. Francis Higginson's Journal, pp. 19-20.

THE BAY COMPANY

25

"four of our men with a boate" went to an island " a n d brought backe agayne ripe strawberries and gooseberries, and sweet single roses. Thus God was merciful to us in giving us a tast and smell of the sweet fruit as an earnest of his bountiful goodness to welcome us at our first arrivali." The next day, being the Sabbath, the Talbot did not proceed to Naumkeag; but on Monday, the twenty-ninth, she passed through "the curious and difficult entrance" to the harbor; and once within, " i t was wonderful to behould so many islands replenished with thicke wood and high trees, and many fayre greene pastures." The George was already at anchor there, having arrived a week earlier. On the morning of Tuesday, June 30, Governor Endecott came aboard the Talbot, welcomed the passengers to New England, and invited Mr. Higginson and his wife to come ashore and lodge at his house — which they did. Naumkeag itself was not a very exciting place. It consisted of about ten houses, " and a faire House newly built for the Governor." The latter was probably the Dorchester Company's house removed from Gloucester in the preceding fall and set up at Naumkeag. In Endecott's garden Higginson saw a "store of green Pease growing" which he found to be " a s good as ever I eat in England" — and probably much better. Presumably it was in this same garden that he saw "Turnips, Parsnips and Carrots" that were "both bigger and sweeter then is ordinarily to be found in England," and also pumpkins and cucumbers. Furthermore, the Governor, encouraged by the luxuriance of the vines of the wild grape in the woods, had planted a private vineyard "with great hope of encrease." No mention is made of any housing facilities for the present influx of settlers, and it is not surprising to learn from Higginson that " w e that are

26

THE BAY

COMPANY

setled at Salem make what haste we can to build Houses so that within a short time we shall have a faire Towne." Those that did not settle at Salem, about one hundred in number, moved southward and westward along the coast of Massachusetts Bay until they reached a point of land between the Charles and the Mystic rivers, where there was " a s fat blacke Earth as can be seene anywhere." This attractive promontory the Indians called Mishawum, and its sole white inhabitants were a retired blacksmith named Thomas Walford and his wife. If Walford liked solitude, as presumably he did, he was not to enjoy it much longer. Mishawum was clearly within the territorial limits of the Bay Colony, and Endecott was not averse to seeing it transformed into a town by the name of Charlestown. The hundred settlers swarmed ashore; Thomas Graves, the civil engineer who had just come over, laid out the form of the town and divided some of it into two-acre lots; 1 before the autumn of 1629 brought its suggestion of the approach of winter, there were two towns in the colony of Massachusetts-Bay, Salem and Charlestown. One of the first duties confronting Endecott after receiving a copy of the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company and instructions from its London governor, Matthew Cradock, was to deport five undesirable boys who had come over on the Talbot. According to his instructions he was to send home by the Lion's Whelp any planters or servants that proved incorrigible, " rather then keep them to infect or to bee an occasion of scandali unto others," and these boys came pretty clearly in that category. T o dispose of five unregenerate youngsters was a simple matter, a mere detail. I. Richard Frothingham, History

of Charlestown,

p. 21.

THE BAY C O M P A N Y

27

But to make proper arrangements for the hundreds of men, women, and children who were admitted to the plantation was not so easy. In the first place, one had to distinguish between those who came over at their own expense and those who came as employees of the Company or of some individual in the Company. The home office intended that the servants should be divided into groups and housed accordingly. In fact, it sent Endecott a paper outlining the nature of this division. But the servant situation was complicated by the fact that some were employees of the Company, some of private individuals, and some of both. For instance, Sir Richard Saltonstall and Mr. Isaac Johnson sent over servants and cattle, and Endecott was desired to provide for their present accommodation.1 This was vague, but probably required less bookkeeping than the item of two coopers whose expenses were to be evenly divided between the Company and Mr. Cradock, or that of six shipwrights who were to be charged two-thirds to the Company and one-third to Mr. Cradock. Fortunately, Mr. Cradock appears to have had his own agent, Samuel Sharpe, on the spot; but even so, there must have been abundant opportunity for misunderstanding and confusion, if the Company's instructions were as bewildering to Governor John Endecott as to the modern reader. It will be remembered that the Governor was to be assisted by a Council of twelve men. Of these twelve, seven were appointed by the Company, three were to be chosen by Endecott and the original seven, and two were to be elected by the pre-Endecott inhabitants of Naumkeag. Sometime during 1629 this body appears to have been organized. It made at least twenty-two laws for the governI.

Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 391.

28

THE BAY COMPANY

ment of Massachusetts, but what they were we do not know. All that is certain is that " a b o u t 22. of C. Indecutts lawes" were reviewed by the Privy Council in the winter of 163233 and passed muster.1 Unfortunately, our only contemporary detailed account of Endecott and his Council comes from the pen of Thomas Morton of Merrymount, and was written in one of his most disrespectful moods.

Morton, it should be explained, re-

turned to Massachusetts Bay in 1629, having escaped all punishment in England. As he was informed of Endecott's visit during his absence and of the felling of the Maypole, he can hardly be regarded as an impartial observer where Governor Endecott was concerned.

Perhaps what he re-

corded was not history at all, had no foundation whatever in fact. T h a t would not have troubled Morton. But as it is our sole contemporary account of some of Endecott's doings in the summer of 1629, we must quote it for what it is worth: H e e [Endecott], resolving to m a k e h a y whiles the Sonne did shine, first p r e t e n d e d himselfe to be sent o v e r as cheife Justice, fosoth, a n d tooke u n t o h i m a councell; a n d a w o r t h y one n o d o u b t , for the C o w keeper of S a l e m w a s a p r i m e m a n in those i m p l o y m e n t s ; a n d to a d a M a j e s t y , (as hee thought,) to his n e w assumed d i g n i t y , hee caused the P a t e n t of the Massachusetts, (new b r o u g h t into the L a n d , ) to be carried w h e r e hee w e n t in his progresse to a n d froe, as a n e m b l e m e of his authority: w h i c h the v u l g a r people, not a c q u a i n t e d w i t h , t h o u g h t it to b e some instrument of M u s i c k locked u p in that covered case a n d thought, (for so some said,) this m a n of littleworth h a d bin a fidler, a n d the rather because hee h a d p u t into the m o u t h e s of poore silly things, that w e r e sent alongé w i t h h i m , w h a t skill he h a d in Engines, a n d in things of q u a i n t devise: all w h i c h p r o o v e d in conclusion to be b u t impostury. T h i s m a n , thinking n o n e so w o r t h y as himselfe, tooke u p o n h i m infinitely:

a n d m a d e w a r r a n t s in his o w n e n a m e (without relation to his

ι . Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Third Series, I X , 257; Acts of the Privy Council (Colonial), I, 183-185.

THE BAY COMPANY

29

Majesties authority in that place,) and summoned a general appearance at the worshipfull towne of Salem: there in open assembly was tendered certaine Articles devised between him and theire new Pastor Master Eager, 1 (that had renounced his old calling to the Ministry receaved in England, by warrants of Gods word, and taken a new one there, by their fantasticali way imposed, and conferred upon him with some special guifts had out of Phaos boxe.) T o these Articles every Planter, old and new, must signe, or be expelled from any manner of aboade within the Compas of the Land contained within that graunt then shewed: which was so large it would suffice for Elbowe room for more then were in all the Land by 700,000 such an army might have planted them a Colony with[in] that cirquit which hee challenged, and not contend for roome for their Cattell. But for all that, hee that should refuse to subscribe, must pack. T h e t e n o r of the Articles w e r e these: That in all causes, as well ticall as Politicali,

wee should follow

Ecclesias·

the rule of God's word.

Apparently Morton was present at this general meeting for organizing into one body politic the inhabitants of the colony of Massachusetts-Bay. In his account of the proceedings he refers to himself, as usual, as " mine Host," an abbreviation of "my honest host of Ma-re Mount." This made a shew of good intent, and all the assembly, (onely mine Host replyed,) did subscribe: hee would not, unlesse they would ad this C a u t i o n : So as nothing be done contrary or repugnante to the Lawes of the King-

dome of England. These words hee knew, by former experience, were necessary, and without these the same would proove a very mousetrapp to catch some body by his owne consent, (which the rest nothing suspected,) for the construction of the worde would be made by them of the Seperation 2 to serve their owne turnes: and if any man should, in such a case, be accused of a crime (though in a sense it were petty,) they might set it on the tenter hookes of their imaginary gifts and stretch it to make it seeme cappi tall; which was the reason why mine Host refused to subscribe. ι. Morton's sobriquet for the Reverend Samuel Skelton, of whom more anon. 2. The Separatists.

30

THE BAY COMPANY

Several years after this time Winthrop described Thomas Morton as being " old and crazy." Probably that was a correct description of him in 1645, but certainly in 1629 he was no fool. Religious enthusiasm might induce others to throw away their rights as Englishmen, but he was not going to be caught in that manner. Of course, the charter stated that the laws of Massachusetts-Bay must not be "contrarie or repugnant to the lawes and statutes" of England, but even so there is something to be said for Morton's insistence that that clause be iterated in Endecott's code to which the planters were invited to subscribe. But there is no reason to suppose that the Governor paid any attention to his suggestion. The plantation could get along perfectly well — better, in fact — without the black sheep of Merrymount. Why then doctor the fundamental law to suit his whim? Whether Morton agreed or not, the Colony was to be governed by the Laws of Moses. If he did not like it, he could get out. According to "mine host of Merrymount," the new colony started out on a communal tack. The details are not clear, but his description gives one a general impression of the scheme. " It was then agreed upon that there should be one generali trade used within that Patent, (as hee said,) and a generali stock: and every man to put in a parte: and every man for his person, to have shares alike: and for their stock, according to the ratable proportion was put in: and this to continue for 12. moneths, and then to call an accompt." From the point of view of Thomas Morton, if there was anything more absurd than a plantation governed by biblical laws, it was a communal arrangement of this kind. He declined to enter into it, and within six months had the pleasure of seeing it come to grief. The two

THE BAY COMPANY

31

men in charge of the common store mismanaged it — he implies that they were dishonest — and there was a loss of "one hundred markes" which had to be made up by the planters.1 But we have gotten ahead of our story, and must now return to other problems of organization that confronted Endecott in the summer of 1629. Of the three ministers sent to Salem in 1629,2 the first and foremost was Samuel Skelton. To us of today the name Higginson has come to mean so much that is in every way satisfactory that it is easy to assume that Francis Higginson was the first choice of the Bay Company when selecting ministers for the plantation. But such was not the case. Although Higginson was the elder man by six or seven years,3 to them the great shining light was Samuel Skelton, whom the world has since practically forgotten. In a letter to Endecott the home office speaks of Skelton as "well knowne to yourselfe," and adds that he was specially chosen because "we are informed yourself have formerly received much good by his ministry." 4 This is all very interesting, but not exactly enlightening. Who was Skelton and where had Endecott known him? As far as it touches Endecott, the answer is unsatisfactory. Skelton was a graduate of Cambridge (Clare Hall), where he obtained the Bachelor's degree in 1611 and the Master's degree three years later. He was baptized at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, February 26, 1593, and so was presumably a man in his middle thirties when he came to New England. ι . Thomas Morton, The New English Canaan (edited by Charles Francis A d a m s ) , pp. 3 0 5 - 3 0 8 . 2. T h e fourth minister, R a l p h Smith, was not sent out b y the Company, but was merely allowed to go. Records of the Governor and Company oj the Massachusetts Bay (edited by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff), I, 390. 3 . Higginson was baptized at Claybrook, in Leicestershire, August 5 , 1 5 8 6 . Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I, Vol. I I , p. 3 6 8 . 4. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 3 8 7 .

32

THE BAY C O M P A N Y

After receiving his degrees from Cambridge, he became the rector of Sempringham, Lincolnshire, and it is supposed that he was chaplain to the Earl of Lincoln, a prominent and influential Puritan.1 Skelton was not only a Puritan, but a Separatist as well — which may account for his being silenced by the Church of England. He wished no bishop or king to stand between him and God; nor did he see that those officers had any place in the church of Christ. Did not Jesus say, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them"? 2 What could be clearer than that as a justification of separate churches as distinguished from a great organization like the Church of England? This was the important point upon which Endecott and Samuel Fuller had agreed; and though more writers than one 3 have tried to persuade the world that it was Fuller who made a Separatist of Endecott, the Governor's own statement indicates that instead of being converted he merely found that the Plymouth belief was "the same which I have proffessed and maintained ever since the Lord in mercie revealed him selfe unto me." Just when that revelation occurred, he does not say. But as he had "received much good" from the ministry of Samuel Skelton, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he drew his Separatist convictions from that source; for, as we shall see, few Puritans leaned further towards Separatism than did Samuel Skelton. 1.

Alumni Cantabrigienses,

Part I, V o l . I V , p. 83.

2. Matthew 18:20. 3. See, for instance, an editorial note to William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation ( M . H . S. edition), I I , 90, which states that " t h e arguments of Fuller so wrought upon Endecott as to produce a positive alteration in opinion." Hubbard is more guarded in his statement that " there is no small appearance that in whole or in p a r t " the Salem planters "received their platform of church order from those of N e w Plymouth." William Hubbard, General History of New England (1848), p. 117.

CHAPTER A RIGHT FOUNDATION

T

HE

"new"

colonists,

IV LAID

as w e have seen, arrived

Salem towards the end of June, 1629.

at

A month later

the plantation had calmed down sufficiently to make possible the organization of a church, the first church in the colony of Massachusetts-Bay. W e are fortunate in having a first-hand

account of that occasion, written from Salem a

few days thereafter. T h e writer was Charles Gott, w h o had come from England with Endecott in the Abigail

in 1628;

his narrative constitutes the major part of a letter to G o v ernor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony, which runs as follows: Most worthy and much respected friend, Mr. Bradford; I with my wife remember our service unto you and yours, thanking you most humbly for your great kindness when we were at Plymouth with you: Sir, I make bold to trouble you with a few lines, for to certify you, how it pleased God to deal with us, since you heard from us; how notwithstanding all opposition, that hath been here and elsewhere, it hath pleased God to lay a foundation, the which I hope is agreeable to his word, in every thing: The 20th of July, it pleased God to move the heart of our governour, to set it apart for a solemn day of humiliation for the choice of a pastor and teacher; the former part of the day being spent in praise [praier?] and teaching; the latter part was spent about the election, which was after this manner; the persons thought on (who had been ministers in England) were demanded concerning their callings, they acknowledged there was a two-fold calling, the one an inward calling, when the Lord moved the heart of a man to take that calling upon him, and fitted him with gifts for the same; the second (the outward calling) was from the people, when a company of believers are joined together in covenant, to walk together in all the ways of God, every

34

A RIGHT FOUNDATION LAID

m e m b e r (being m e n ) are to h a v e a free v o i c e in the choice of their officers, etc. N o w w e b e i n g persuaded that these t w o w e r e so qualified as the apostle speaks of to T i m o t h y , w h e r e he saith a bishop must be b l a m e less, sober, a p t to teach, etc. I think I m a y say as the e u n u c h said u n t o Philip, w h a t should let h i m f r o m b e i n g baptised, seeing there w a s w a t e r a n d he b e l i e v e d ; so these t w o servants of G o d clearing all things b y their answers (and b e i n g thus fitted) w e saw n o reason b u t that w e m i g h t freely give our voices for their election after this trial: T h e i r choice w a s after this m a n n e r , every fit m e m b e r w r o t e , in a note his n a m e w h o m the L o r d m o v e d h i m to think w a s fit for a pastor, a n d so likewise, w h o m they w o u l d h a v e for teacher; so the most voice w a s for M r . Skelton to b e pastor, a n d M r . H i g g i n s o n to b e teacher; a n d they a c c e p t i n g the choice, M r . H i g g i n s o n , w i t h three or four more of the gravest m e m b e r s of t h e c h u r c h laid their h a n d s on M r . Skelton using prayers therewith.

This

b e i n g done, then there w a s imposition of hands on M r . H i g g i n s o n : T h e n there w a s p r o c e e d i n g in election of elders a n d deacons, b u t they w e r e only n a m e d , a n d l a y i n g on of h a n d s deferred, to see if it pleased G o d t o send us m o r e able m e n over; b u t since T h u r s d a y , (being as I take it, the 5th of A u g u s t ) is a p p o i n t e d for another solemn d a y of humiliation, for the full choice of elders a n d deacons a n d o r d a i n i n g t h e m ; n o w , good Sir, I h o p e that y o u a n d the rest of G o d ' s people ( w h o are a c q u a i n t e d w i t h the w a y s of G o d ) w i t h y o u , will say that here was a right f o u n d a tion laid, a n d that these t w o blessed servants of the L o r d c a m e in at the door, a n d not at the w i n d o w : A n d thus I h a v e m a d e bold to trouble y o u w i t h these f e w lines, desiring y o u to r e m e m b e r us to M r . Brewster, M r . S m i t h , M r . Fuller, a n d the rest of the c h u r c h ; so I rest, at y o u r service in w h a t I m a y till d e a t h . 1

To modern ears all this sounds like a rather dull performance. In fact, it sounds more or less like an old-fashioned parish meeting followed by an ordination. To a certain extent that is just what it was; but instead of being oldfashioned in 1629, it was — for the group of Englishmen at Salem — such an innovation that it was virtually revolutionary. In Old England one had to accept as his pastor whomever the bishop saw fit to appoint to that parish. In many instances, to be sure, this arbitrary method was temI. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, III, 67-68·

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35

pered by the fact that a local magnate had the privilege of nominating the candidate, or, as in the case of Boston, Lincolnshire, the town itself possessed that privilege as far as one of its churches was concerned.1 If the magnate or the corporation was Nonconformist, a Nonconformist minister would presumably be appointed — if the bishop was fairly tolerant. But of course no one could be placed in charge of the spiritual welfare of a group of English subjects unless he had been ordained by a bishop — that is to say, unless a bishop had admitted him to the apostolic succession by laying his hands upon him. Furthermore, since William Laud had become Bishop of London, in 1628, any Nonconformist minister was in danger of being "silenced" by the Church if in word or deed he deviated from Laud's idea of orthodoxy. This background makes peculiarly interesting the procedure adopted by the Salem planters when they organized their church in the summer of 1629. The effect of the free atmosphere of the American wilderness is at once evident. Instead of accepting a minister appointed by a bishop, they now chose their own, and to this extent at least became Separatists rather than nonconforming members of the Church of England. On the other hand, being true-born Englishmen, they clung to a traditional ceremony, though the significance of that ceremony was something entirely different. The form which they retained was the laying on of hands, but in their new environment the hands were not those of a bishop but those of the most godly of their own number. Doubtless this ceremony gave the impression of conferring authority upon their minister and their teacher; but if so, it was not authority derived from the Established I. Edward Channing, History of the United States, I, 288.

36

A R I G H T FOUNDATION LAID

Church — for that had already been done by some bishop or bishops in England when Mr. Skelton and Mr. Higginson were ordained. Now by a similar rite their parishioners conferred authority upon them, and one is inclined to believe that in doing so the members of the new church considered that they were superseding, not supplementing, whatever authority the bishop had given these ministers. In other words, those who had left England as Nonconformists became Separatists almost as soon as they set foot upon the American strand. At first sight it may seem that this conclusion is arrived at rather precipitately, but subsequent events tend to sustain it. For instance, Charles Gott took pains to write a description of the election to William Bradford, the Separatist Governor of the Separatist colony at Plymouth, and closed his letter with an expression of hope that they of Salem had laid " a right foundation." From the Plymouth point of view, only a Separatist foundation could be considered right; and he knew it. Then, again, the behavior of Roger Williams in 1631 is fairly convincing evidence. In that year Williams declined an invitation to occupy the pulpit of the church at Boston because he "durst not officiate to an unseparated people"; but when Salem asked him to come and minister to the planters there, he did not hesitate to accept the call. Years before this time John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims in the Old World, had predicted that "if the old puritans were secure of the magistrate's sword, and might go on with his good licence, they would shake off the prelate's yoke, and draw no longer in spiritual communion with all the profane in the land; and though they then preached and wrote against separatists, yet, if they were in a place

A RIGHT FOUNDATION LAID

37

where they might have their liberty, they would do as they did." 1 Robinson was right, and had he been living in 1629 he would have been quite justified if he had remarked to William Bradford, " I told you so." Certainly the Puritan planters on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay, under the leadership of Endecott, Skelton, and Higginson, fulfilled to the letter his prophecy that "if they were in a place where they might have their liberty, they would do as they [the Separatists] did." The church at Salem was as independent of the Church of England as was the church at Plymouth. Congregationalism had been made the "right foundation" for the church in Massachusetts-Bay. Although the colonists at Salem numbered two hundred or more, only about thirty appear to have been eligible for membership in the church. Just what qualified one as a "fit member," to use Gott's phrase, is not revealed; but the number who met the requirements is reasonably certain, for their confession of faith and covenant was "written out for the use of thirty persons." 2 " W e covenant with the Lord and one with another, and do bind ourselves in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal himself unto us in his blessed word of truth." 3 Having agreed upon this foundation and having elected their minister and teacher, the Salem church set apart the sixth day of August for further organization. When that day came there were fasting and prayer, and ι. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 418. 2. Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial (1855), p. 99. 3. Cotton Mather, Magnolia (1702), Book I, p. 18. The covenant set forth by Dr. Mather is one adopted by the Salem church in 1636 and is probably an enlargement of the covenant of 1629. Therefore I quote only the portion which it is reasonably certain must have been part of the original agreement. See Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial (1855), pp. 462-464.

38

A R I G H T F O U N D A T I O N LAID

sermons and prayer; and " in the end of the day, the aforesaid confession of faith and covenant being solemnly read, the forenamed persons did solemnly profess their consent thereunto; and then proceeded to the ordaining of Mr. Skelton pastor, and Mr Higginson teacher of the church there." 1 The feature that chiefly differentiated this occasion from the earlier meeting was the presence of Governor Bradford and others from the Plymouth Colony. Coming from so great a distance and having been "hindered by cross winds" in the Bay, these guests from the South Shore did not arrive in time for the early part of the services; but while the congregation was still in session, in they came "and gave them the right-hand of fellowship, wishing all prosperity, and a blessed success unto such good beginnings." 2 The "right hand of fellowship" has become so familiar a phrase that it is not easy to realize that on this occasion it was used for the first time in the New World. Nor can we realize, even in the least degree, what that expression of comradeship meant to both churches. Ecclesiastically speaking, the Pilgrims at Plymouth had been up to that time absolutely alone in the American wilderness. Now they beheld and accepted a sister organization with which they could discuss their problems and whose presence on the opposite shore of the Bay gave them comfort and additional courage. If it meant this to the men of Plymouth, how much more it must have meant to the colonists at Salem, both the seasoned and the unseasoned, to know that in this beautiful but sometimes terrifying wilderness there were other Englishmen who believed as they believed and would stand by them in their struggle for the right way of life. ι. Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memorial (1855), p. 99. 2. Ibid.

A

RIGHT

FOUNDATION

LAID

39

Nathaniel Morton, a contemporary Pilgrim, tells us that after this occasion " m a n y in the same w a y . "

others joined

to the

church

A m o n g the candidates for admission

none could have been a more interesting convert than one E d w a r d Gibbons, of T h o m a s Morton's disreputable community at Merrymount across the Bay. If Gibbons came to the ordination to scoff, at least he remained to pray. M a t h e r tells the story in his Magnolia,1

Cotton

and it surely de-

serves retelling here. A t a time when the church was to be gathered at Salem, there was about thirty miles to the southward of that place, a plantation of rude, lewd, mad, English people, who did propose to themselves a gainful trade with the Indians, but quickly came to nothing. A young gentleman belonging to that plantation being at Salem, on the day when the church was gathered, was at what he saw and heard, so deeply affected, that he stood up, expressing with much affection, his desire to be admitted into their number, which when they demurred about, he desired that they would at least admit him to make his profession before them. When they allowed this, he expressed himself so agreeably, and with so much ingenuity and simplicity, that they were extreamly pleased with it; and the ministers told him, that they highly approved of his profession, but inasmuch as he was a stranger to them, they could not receive him into their communion, until they had a further acquaintance with his conversation. However, such was the hold which the grace of God now took of him that he became an eminent christian, and a worthy and useful person, and not only afterwards joined unto the church of Boston, but also made a great figure in the commonwealth of New-England as the major general of all the forces in the colony; it was Major-general Gibbons. A m o n g other contributions to our knowledge of the organization of the church at Salem is a statement of M o r t o n of Plymouth that makes one wonder whether our Puritan ι. Cotton Mather, Magnolia Christi (1702), Book III, p. 75. M y attention was called to this incident by Thomas Wentworth Higginson's Life of Francis Higginson, pp. 86-88. Quoting Scottow, Colonel Higginson makes it clear that Gibbons "was no debauchee, but of a jocund temper."

40

A RIGHT F O U N D A T I O N LAID

ancestors were not more liberal in their religious thought than we of the twentieth century are apt to give them credit for being. According to Morton, " T h e confession of faith and covenant, forementioned, was acknowledged only as a direction pointing unto that faith and covenant contained in the Holy Scripture, and therefore no man was confined unto that form of words, but only to the substance, end, and scope of the matter contained therein." 1 As the sun went down on that memorable August day in 1629, Governor Endecott may well have heaved a sigh of relief and satisfaction; but in the back of his mind lurked thoughts of trouble ahead. T h e church was now fully organized and upon " a right foundation," but unfortunately there were those in and near Salem who did not take that view. Among others was the Reverend M r . Bright, one of the three ministers sent out by the Company in the spring. Without doubt M r . Bright was a good Nonconformist; otherwise he would have remained contentedly in England rather than face the perils of the Atlantic and of the New World. But unlike his colleagues, Skelton and Higginson, Mr. Bright was not ready to renounce his allegiance to the Church of England. Though some aspects of that institution did not entirely please him, nevertheless it was the Church, his church, and all the exhilaration of being in a new, unfettered environment had no effect upon his affection for it. H e loved his prayer-book and almost all that went with it, whereas Skelton and Higginson " did not at all use the book of common prayer," and " d i d administer baptism and the Lord's supper without the ceremonies." Nowadays there would be room enough, even in a small community, for two I. Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memorial (1855), p. 99.

A R I G H T FOUNDATION LAID

41

ministers who felt as Skelton and Higginson felt, and also for one who preferred a less simple form of service. But at Salem in 1629 the inclusion of a third divine with a different point of view would have disrupted the plantation. In a new colony harmony is more important than any other single consideration, except the bare necessaries of life. Happily for Salem, Mr. Bright was persuaded to move on almost as soon as he had landed and to become the spiritual director of the town that was being planted at Mishawum, now Charlestown. Francis Bright was an Oxford man and a disciple of John Davenport, the future founder of New Haven. Furthermore, he was considerably younger than Samuel Skelton and Francis Higginson, both of whom were Cantabrigians. The Company had directed that one of the three ministers should find his work at the mouth of the river Charles, but had not stated which should be the one. They were to settle that question among themselves; and if they could not agree, Endecott was " t o make choice of one of the three by lot." As we find no record of the Governor's resorting to chance, we may conclude that Skelton and Higginson succeeded in persuading young Mr. Bright that his field was at Mishawum — and that Endecott saw to it that he departed thence before a schism began. Two weeks before the Salem church was organized he was safely out of the way, and very likely quite as content to be by himself in his own corner of Massachusetts-Bay as he would have been to be linked with a Separatist colleague at headquarters. At the other end of the line, so to speak, was Mr. Ralph Smith, whom the Company had allowed to come over on his own initiative. After granting him permission to take passage in one of the ships bound for Massachusetts, the home office was alarmed by the discovery that he was not

42

A R I G H T F O U N D A T I O N LAID

a Nonconformist but a Separatist. However, negotiations had gone so far that there was no turning back then. The best it could do was to write Endecott what the situation was, and order " that unless he will be conformable to our Government, you suffer him not to remain within the limits of our grant." As it turned out, Mr. Smith would probably have been entirely at home in the Salem church; but on arriving in New England he and his family quietly took themselves off to Nantasket (now Hull) and made no trouble for anyone. In his leaky Nantasket cabin the Plymouth people discovered him in 1629; and as they were then without a settled pastor, and as Smith "was werie of being in that uncoth place," they let him come to Plymouth.1 Their first preacher had been an unfortunate choice, if not actually a rogue. When they had got rid of him, they listened for a while to a candidate who turned out to be "erased in his braine." Naturally they were cautious about inviting this unknown Mr. Smith to be their minister. In the course of time, however, he proved his worth, was chosen to that office, "and so remained for sundrie years." As far as divergent tendencies among the ministers were concerned, Governor Endecott and his plantation had emerged very well from a disturbing situation, but there were even more formidable sources of unrest still to be reckoned with. Among the more important of the colonists who came out in the recent fleet were two brothers named Browne, of Roxwell, in Essex. Although neither of them was a stockholder in the Company, both John and Samuel Browne are listed among those to whom Massachusetts was granted in March, 1629. John was " a man experienced in ι. William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation

(M. H. S. edition), II, 88.

A R I G H T FOUNDATION LAID

43

the lawes of our Kingdom," and his apparent interest in the plantation had so impressed the Company in England that they appointed him a member of Endecott's Council at Salem. He was also a member of the governing board at London. His brother Samuel was a merchant; and according to a contemporary, both were " men of estates, and men of parts and port." The presence of such men at Salem would lend tone to the Colony. Governor Cradock recommended them highly in a letter to Endecott, and directed that two hundred acres of land be allotted to one or the other immediately. All seems to have run fairly smoothly between the Brownes and Governor Endecott until the church was organized. The Brownes had assumed that it would be a purified Episcopal church such as they had longed for in the old country. When it turned out to be one of those despised Separatist affairs, they were shocked and indignant — and they were not long in finding others who were not entirely pleased with the ecclesiastical revolution that had taken place in their midst. The next step was to hold services of their own, in competition with those of the regularly organized church of Salem. At the meetings promoted by the Brownes "the book of common prayer was read unto such as resorted thither." Governor Endecott heard of these developments and saw a schism growing apace. This would never do. He called the Brownes before him and his Council and asked them to explain their behavior. They defended themselves on the ground that Skelton and Higginson had stepped out of the Church of England and were Separatists, whereas they, the Brownes and their followers, preferred to "hold to the orders of the Church of England." Unfortunately for their cause, they made their defense with too much heat, and instead of

44

A RIGHT FOUNDATION LAID

stopping with the accusation of Separatism they added that the recently elected ministers "would be Anabaptists." To the seventeenth-century ear the word "Anabaptist" had a very unpleasant suggestion; it had various specific meanings at various times and places, but the general connotation was disagreeable. To be called an Anabaptist in 1629 w a s about as uncomplimentary as to be called an anarchist at the present time. Bringing in an epithet of this kind was an error on the part of the Brownes, and it was to cost them dearly. The reply of the ministers, as reported by Nathaniel Morton, 1 is a bit bewildering. Naturally they denied that they were Anabaptists; but they went further than that and denied also that they were Separatists. In their minds, no doubt, there existed a definite distinction between Separatism and the form of church government which they had set up at Salem; but to us, as to the Brownes, that distinction is not discernible. Skelton and Higginson maintained that "they did not separate from the church of England, nor from the ordinances of God there, but only from the corruptions and disorders there." This representation was approved by the Governor and Council and by " the generality of the people." Of course it did not satisfy the Brownes; and when they said as much, and with considerable spirit, Governor Endecott told them " that New England was no place for such as they"; and he and his Council decreed that they should be sent back to England when the ships made their return voyage. In a recent letter from the Company, Endecott had been instructed as follows: " I t is often found that some busie I. Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memorial (1855), p. 100.

A RIGHT FOUNDATION LAID

45

persons (led more by their will than any good warrant out of God's Word,) take opportunitie [of] moving needless questions to stir up strife, and by that [meanes] to begett a question, and bring men to declare some different judgment, (most commonly in things indifferent) from which small beginnings great mischiefs have followed, we pray you and the rest of the Councell, that if any such disputes shall happen amongst you, that you suppress them, and bee carefull to maintain peace and unitie." Furthermore, he had been directed "if any prove incorrigable, and will not bee reclaimed by gentle correction, ship such persons home by the Lyons Whelpe, rather then keep them there to infect or to be an occasion of scandal unto others; wee being fully perswaded that if one or two bee soe reshipped back and certificate sent home of their misdemeanour, it will be a terror to the rest, and a meanes to reduce them to good conformi tie." 1 These two passages were not adjacent in the Company's letter, but Endecott chose to interpret them as if they were. To his mind it was clear that the brothers Browne came within the category of "busie persons"; also, it was clear that they would not "bee reclaimed by gentle correction." Though it took courage to deport men of their social standing, courage was a virtue that Endecott never lacked. When he was convinced that he was right, no question of expediency ever stood between him and action. He had given evidence of this at Merrymount when the Maypole was hewn down; he exhibited it now in the case of the Brownes; and time and again, as we shall see, the rule held good throughout his troublous career. Of the difficulties in New England the Company took ι.

Records of Massachusetts

Bay, I , 3 9 3 - 3 9 4 ·

46

A R I G H T F O U N D A T I O N LAID

cognizance in September. The long sea voyage was not sufficient to cool the ire of the outraged Brownes, and they arrived at London in savage mood. The matter was brought up at a General Court, or as we should call it a stockholders' meeting, on the nineteenth of the month. Letters from Endecott and others were read, and a committee of eight was appointed " t o hear the said differences." Of the members of this committee the Company chose four — and their names are noteworthy: John White, John Davenport, Isaac Johnson, and John Winthrop. Probably this was John Winthrop's first experience with the type of problem that was to become all too familiar to him in the next decade. The other four were chosen by John and Samuel Browne. Although the Brownes were present in person and thus, other things being equal, would have had a distinct advantage over the supporters of Endecott, it seemed likely from the outset that the case would go against them. They had written private letters to various friends in England telling of the bad treatment they had received at Salem. These letters had crossed the ocean safely, but instead of being forwarded to the addressees they were held by the Company. At a meeting of the General Court on September 29 it was decided to open and read some of them, since it was suspected that the Brownes " had defamed the country of New England, and the Governor and government there." Accordingly this was done, and all the letters from Samuel Browne were " kept to be made use of against him as occasion shall be offered." Otherwise the Company treated the Brownes fairly, and provided them with a copy of Endecott's accusation "that they may be better prepared to make answer thereunto." 1 Obviously, the committee's I. Ibid., 1,54-55.

A R I G H T FOUNDATION LAID task w a s a difficult one, but it w a s performed well.

47 The

general conclusion appears to have been that both parties were somewhat at fault. O n October 1 6 a letter to G o v e r nor Endecott w a s read and signed b y the officers of the Massachusetts B a y C o m p a n y .

It explains itself, and the

reader will probably agree that it reflects no little credit upon the good sense of those w h o from afar were trying to keep the N e w E n g l a n d ship of state on an even k e e l : 1 Sir: As we have written at this time to Mr. Skelton and Mr. Higgison touching the rumors of John and Samuel Browne, spread by them on their arrival here, concerning some unadvised and scandalous speeches uttered by them in their public sermons or prayers, so have we thought meet to advertise you of what they have reported against you and them, concerning some rash innovations begun and practised in the civil and ecclesiastical government. We do well consider that the Brownes are likely to make the worst of anything they have observed in New England, by reason of your sending them back against their wills for their offensive behaviour expressed in a general letter from the Company there. Yet, for that we likewise do consider that you are in a government newly founded and want that assistance which the weight of such a business doth require, we may have leave to think that it is possible some undigested counsels have too suddenly been put in execution, which may have ill construction with the State here, and make us obnoxious to any adversary. Let it, therefore, seem good unto you to be very sparing in introducing any laws or commands which may render yourself or us distasteful to the State here, to which (as we ought) we must and will have an obsequious eye; and as we make it our main care to have the Plantation so ordered as may be most for the honour of God and of our gracious Sovereign who hath bestowed many large privileges and royal favours upon this Company, so we desire that all such as shall by word or deed do anything to detract from God's glory or his Majesty's honour may be duly corrected — for their amendment and the terror of others. And to that end, if you know anything which hath been spoken or done, either by the ministers (whom the Brownes do ι . T h e letter is printed in Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 4 0 8 - 4 0 9 . For the sake of clearness I have taken the liberty of modifying both the spelling and the punctuation.

48

A R I G H T FOUNDATION LAID

seem tacitly to blame for some things uttered in their sermons or prayers) or any others, we require you, if any such things be, that you form due process against the offenders and send it to us by the first, that we may, as our duty binds us, have them duly punished. So, not doubting but we have said enough, we shall repose ourselves upon your wisdom; and do rest Your loving friends . . .

One might suppose that after their trying experience in New England John and Samuel Browne would have thought better of Old England, and would have been quite content to spend the remainder of their days there. But if the careful annalist of Salem is correct, this was not the case. Within five years of the time of their unceremonious deportation both were again in Salem " to fill a sphere of usefulness and respectability." 1 But before then Governor Endecott had found himself superseded as chief magistrate of the Bay Colony. I. Joseph B. Felt, The Annals of Salem (1829), pp. 38-39. Savage says they "came not to our country any more." James Savage, Genealogical Dictionary, I, 269.

CHAPTER THE

V

NEWCOMERS

HE winter of 1628-29 had been a hard one from every point of view and, as we have seen, among those who succumbed to its fearful rigors and privations was Mrs. John Endecott. The winter of 1629-30 was even more deadly. Unaccustomed to the severity and changeable nature of the New England climate, more than eighty persons died at Salem during the winter months,1 and many of the survivors were barely able to drag themselves about when the song sparrows and bluebirds returned to the shores of Massachusetts Bay and gladdened the hearts of the planters with the promise of spring and summer. More than once during that dreary season the optimistic Mr. Higginson must have wondered whether he had adequately described a New England winter in the list of " discommodities that are here to be found," which he had written during the previous summer and had sent back to England for publication. All he had said of it was true, but had he not perhaps understated the case? " In the Winter season for two months space, the earth is commonly covered with Snow, which is accompanied with sharp biting Frosts, something more sharpe then is in old England, and therefore are forced to make great Fires." 2 For the immediate future of the colony of Massachusetts-Bay it was well that his manuscript was

T

ι.

Massachusetts Historical Society Collections,

2.

Francis Higginson, New-England's

First Series, V I I I , 38.

Plantation — as reprinted in Massachu-

setts Historical Society Proceedings, L X I I , 315.

50

THE N E W C O M E R S

sent on its way before he had an opportunity to revise it on the basis of actual experience. As it was printed it probably encouraged to come hither many who might have remained behind, had they known what they were to encounter. While Endecott and his Council were dealing with the Brownes, in the summer of 1629, exciting changes were taking place in the management of the Company in England. On July 28, Governor Cradock, disturbed by various developments in church and state, laid a startling proposition before the stockholders. Apparently the idea originated with himself. It was this: " that for the advancement of the plantation, the inducing and encouraging persons of wealth and quality to transport 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." In other words, if the right kind of poeple were willing to move to New England, would it not be for the best interests of the Company to transfer the management to them and discontinue the present system of divided sovereignty which had a Governor in London and a Governor at Salem? Cradock asked those present to regard the proposition as confidential and to give it careful thought. Four weeks later a dozen of the more influential members met at Cambridge, England, and agreed among themselves that if the whole government of the enterprise could be legally transferred to those who would actually reside in New England, they and their families would emigrate to those parts by the first of March next. The next step, of course, was to obtain assurance that it would be legal to have the corporation resident elsewhere than in England. This was a vital point. More than one authority on the law has

THE N E W C O M E R S

51

claimed that the transplanting of the Company was not legal,1 but fortunately for our ancestors the AttorneyGeneral, and even the King, did not take that view. Thus there appeared to be no reason why the Cambridge Agreement should not be carried into effect. On October 20 a meeting for reorganization was held and new officers were elected. John Winthrop, the outstanding member of wealth and quality, was chosen Governor, and in that office he superseded both Matthew Cradock, the English head of the Bay Company, and John Endecott, the Governor of the plantation. John Humfrey, formerly treasurer of the Dorchester Company, was elected Deputy Governor. To make amends to Endecott, and also to supply Winthrop with a right-hand man whose knowledge of local conditions would be invaluable, the Company elected Endecott one of the Assistants or, to use a modern analogy, one of the board of directors. Endecott had already been an Assistant, having been appointed such in the charter which was issued in the previous March. But his " beeinge out of the land" induced the Company to put another in his place at a meeting held on May 13.2 Now it became advisable, perhaps essential, to elect as Assistants only those influential members who were likely to be in New England in the following year. Consequently the personnel of the Board was somewhat changed and Endecott was elected to it almost as a matter of course. It would be interesting to know what the Salem Governor's reaction was when he learned of the metamorphosis of the Bay Company and pondered its significance. As a good Puritan and good New Englander, he must have rejoiced in this promise of new strength for the 1. See John Stetson Barry, History of Massachusetts, I, 175. 2. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 40.

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THE NEWCOMERS

cause and for the Colony. But it is not always pleasant to find oneself superseded as the head of a community, even if that position has been anything but a bed of roses. As far as we know, John Winthrop was at this time only a name to John Endecott — a good name, to be sure, but what sort of man would he be to work with and under? Under the old régime Endecott had got along very well, all things considered, and in moments of doubt it was reassuring to him to reflect that Governor Cradock was his wife's cousin. Well, whatever lay in store for him personally, the only thing for Endecott to do was to play the game — and he played it. About sunrise on the morning of Saturday, June 12,1630, the boom of a cannon, followed by a second boom, announced to the Salem planters the approach of the Arbella, flagship of the fleet bringing the Bay Company to its new home. A vessel in the employ of the Plymouth Plantation was lying in the harbor, and a skiff soon put off from the Arbella to communicate with her. Meanwhile, the Arbella crept cautiously "throughe the narrow streight betweene Bakers lie and Little lie [Little Misery?], and came to an Anchor a litle within the Hands." 1 Here she was greeted by Mr. William Peirce, master of the Plymouth vessel, who having paid his respects went ashore to notify Endecott. This manoeuvring and exchanging of courtesies appear to have consumed a good part of the morning, for it was early afternoon before John Endecott came down the harbor and up the side of the Arbella. With him were Mr. Skelton, the pastor, and another man, whom Winthrop calls " Captain L e v e t t " ; the latter, we surmise, was Captain Lovett, one of ι. Winthrop's Journal, as published in Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, L X I I , 352.

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Roger Conant's stalwarts.1 Thus the new Governor was appropriately welcomed by his predecessor in authority, by the head of the Salem church, and by a representative of the old guard of Naumkeag. This ceremony being over, Endecott escorted Governor Winthrop, the Assistants who came with him, and also a few other gentlemen, to the hamlet. The captain of the Arbella, whose name was Peter Milborne, and some of the ladies were included in this party; and while they supped on venison pie and beer, many of the less distinguished passengers were ferried to the land, strolled over the green fields, and feasted on wild strawberries which they found growing there in abundance. Land, June, wild strawberries — what more could these sea-weary emigrants ask for ! In the evening most of the Governor's party returned to the Arbella, " b u t some of the women stayed behind." Who can blame them? Ten weeks at sea are enough to make almost anyone wish that he (or she) might never see a vessel again. Two days later the Arbella, despite a contrary wind and a narrow channel, was warped into the inner harbor, and with a salute of five guns from the flagship Governor Winthrop went ashore. Welcome as the sight of any land was to the newcomers, a nearer view of Salem was distinctly discouraging to those in authority. As Thomas Dudley, one of the Assistants, expressed it, " Salem, where we landed, pleased us not." And the description he gives of the conditions that prevailed there easily explains his reaction: W e found the colony in a sad and unexpected condition, above eighty of them being dead the winter before; and many of those alive, weak and sick; all the corn and bread amongst them all, hardly sufficient to ι. John Winthrop, History of New England, edited by James Savage (1853), p. 30, note 3.

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feed them a fortnight: insomuch that the remainder of an hundred and eighty servants we had the two years before sent over, coming to us for victuals to sustain them, we found ourselves wholly unable to feed them, by reason that the provisions shipped for them, were taken out of the ship they were put in; and they who were trusted to ship them in another failed us, and left them behind; whereupon necessity enforced us to our extream loss, to give them all liberty; who had cost us about sixteen or twenty pound a person, furnishing and sending over.1

No, Salem would never do as a place of settlement for those who had just come over and for those who were still on their way. It was too depressing. A more promising situation must be found. While waiting for the other ships to come in, some being destined for Salem and others for Charlestown, Winthrop devoted himself to a study of this new country. All along the shore he went: up Mystic River and down, out to Noddle's Island (East Boston), to Hull, and back by Dorchester. He came to the conclusion that for his purposes, at least, Charlestown was better than Salem, but even Charlestown was not ideal. Vessel after vessel came into the Bay — the Ambrose, the Mayflower, the Whale, the Hopewell, the William and Francis, the Trial, the Charles, and the Success.

The Talbot had lost fourteen passengers on the way over; many of those on the Success were "near starved." The captain of the Mary and John, which had sailed ahead of the others, refused to carry his passengers to either Salem or Charlestown. Instead he landed them and their goods at Hull and left them to shift for themselves. All up and down the shores of Boston Harbor there were bustle, confusion, and grief. About a hundred of the new emigrants lost heart ι. Letter from Thomas Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln, March 12, 1 6 3 0 / 1 , as printed in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, VIII, 36-47.

THE NEWCOMERS

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and returned to Old England in the same ships that had brought them out. Two hundred others died before winter.1 Governor Winthrop himself received a heavy blow when his son Henry was drowned at Salem on the day after his arrival in New England. Nevertheless he preserved an undaunted exterior, and set apart the eighth of July as a day of thanksgiving "in all the plantations." Towards the end of July the time had come for organizing a church at Charlestown — a church that was soon to become the First Church in Boston. To this ecclesiastical meeting came prominent men from Salem and Plymouth as well as the leaders in the immediate vicinity of the mouth of the Charles. Among the pious and learned who attended were John Endecott of Salem and Dr. Samuel Fuller of Plymouth. These two, as we have seen, had become close friends. A few weeks earlier Fuller had written to Governor Bradford of "Captain Endecott (my dear friend, and a friend to us all) " and had termed him " a second Burrow." 2 By this phrase he doubtless meant that Endecott was as good a Separatist as one was likely to find, for Henry Barrow (1i. 1593), virtually a saint in the Congregational calendar, was an unyielding Dissenter of the preceding generation, who was imprisoned and finally executed on a charge of sedition. Endecott was indeed made of the same stuff, but happily for him and for us he was surer of his liberty and life in New England under Charles I than was Barrow in Old England in the reign of Elizabeth. At the Charlestown meeting, Fuller persuaded Captain Endecott to accompany him to Plymouth, and young Isaac Johnson, one of the most substantial of the Assistants of the Bay Colony, agreed ι. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, V I I I , 40, 41. 2. Ibid., III, 75.

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THE NEWCOMERS

to come too. But when Fuller approached Governor Winthrop on the same subject, the busy chief magistrate shook his head and politely replied that he could not be absent " t w o hours." 1 We do not know positively that Endecott made the promised visit to the Old Colony, but we do know that on or about August 18 he was back in Charlestown for an important personal engagement; for under that date Winthrop recorded " Captain Endicott and [blank] Gibson were married by the Governor and mr. Wilson." 2 Mr. Wilson was, of course, the minister John Wilson who was soon to be elected teacher of the church in Boston. The bride was Mrs. Elizabeth Gibson, a widow, who had come out in the Winthrop fleet. Originally she was Elizabeth Cogan, a daughter of Philobert Cogan of Chard in Somersetshire.3 Where she had recently lived in England is a matter of speculation, but genealogists incline to agree that her home was in Cambridgeshire.4 Her sister Mary was Mrs. Roger Ludlow, wife of one of the Assistants.5 This relationship accounts for Endecott's occasional references to " m y brother Ludlow," though strictly speaking Roger was not even his brotherin-law.6 1. Ibid., III, 76. 2. Winthrop's Journal, as published in Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, L X I I , 354. 3. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, X L I I I , 3 0 9 - 3 1 0 ; also letter from Henry F. Waters to William Crowninshield Endicott, October 9, 1 9 1 2 , in the "Endicott Papers" (box 12, folder 1) at the Massachusetts Historical Society. 4. Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth, p. 70; Charles Edward Banks, The Winthrop Fleet 0/1630, p. 72; Charles M . Endicott, Memoir of John Endecott, p. 38. 5. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, X L I I I , 310. 6. Letter from Charles Edward Banks to William Crowninshield Endicott, June 4, 1930, in the "Endicott Papers" (envelope A ) at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

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Governor Winthrop's plan was to establish his colonists in a single, fairly compact plantation somewhere on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, but the sickly condition of the people and rumors of "some French preparations against us" made it advisable to disperse, and scatter a number of settlements along the coast from Dorchester to Lynn, and up the rivers as far as Saugus and Watertown.1 In 1613 Samuel Argall, an enterprising English commander, had wiped out the French beginnings at Mt. Desert Island. It was not improbable that the French would be glad of an opportunity to balance the score by a descent upon the new colony of Massachusetts-Bay. "This dispersion troubled some of us," wrote one of the leaders, " but help it we could not, wanting ability to remove to any place fit to build a town upon, and the time too short to deliberate any longer, least the winter should surprize us before we had builded our houses." 2 So it came to pass that by the end of the summer of 1630 a number of hamlets fringed the Company's domain. Historically the most interesting of these was the one planted on the inviting, three-hilled promontory that lay on the other side of the Charles from Charlestown. The migration across the river was due to the popular grievance that the water at Charlestown, except one brackish spring near the shore, was not fit to drink. Apparently there was plenty of water to be had on that peninsula, but our ancestors looked with suspicion upon any source that was not a living spring, and as disease was spreading among them one can hardly blame them for their distrust.3 On the slope of one of the hills across the Charles, in a region called Shaw1 . Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, V I I I , 3 9 . 2. Thomas Dudley. Ibid. 3 . Richard Frothingham, History of Charlestown, p. 42.

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mut or Trimountaine, lived a solitary gentleman named William Blackstone. What legal claim he had to his land is not clear; but if possession is nine points in the law, his claim was fairly good. He was there before these new people came streaming in. Tradition says that he was a clergyman in the Church of England who had no quarrel with that institution but merely preferred to lead a secluded life in the New World. However this may have been, he lost his seclusion and gained immortality, in local history at least, by a generous act in the summer of 1630. Learning of the plight of the newcomers, he told some of their leaders of a neverfailing spring at Shawmut and invited them to be his neighbors. Over the river they came, established themselves in his vicinity, and on September 7 renamed the promontory Boston.1 Winthrop adjusted his mind to the geographical looseness of his colony. As Dudley remarked, they could not help it. But at least the organization must have a capital. The Governor visualized this as a fortified town, preferably at a strategic point. There the governing body — the Governor and Assistants — would reside, and thence the affairs of the Colony would be administered. Autumn had passed into winter and the days were at their shortest and most cheerless before a satisfactory site was agreed upon. In the first week of December Winthrop and his associates had made up their minds that the capital should be built on the neck of land between Boston and Roxbury, but a week later the committee " to consider of all things requisite" made an unfavorable report and the question went over to a meeting to be held " that day sennight" at Watertown. On December r. Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, I, 75.

THE N E W C O M E R S

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21 the leaders met as had been planned, " and there upon view of a place a mile beneathe the towne, all agreed it a fitt place for a fortified towne." 1 The approved site was that part of Cambridge now dominated by Harvard College. Our ancestors named it Newtowne, but when the College came into being a few years later the name was changed to Cambridge. Before the end of December, 1630, all the Assistants except Samuel Sharpe and John Endecott had agreed to move to Newtowne in the spring and so give the capital governmental and social prestige.2 Sharpe, who was Governor Cradock's agent, was planning to return to England in the near future, and therefore it mattered little whether he came into the agreement or not. As for Endecott, he had already formed attachments, sentimental and economic, that would have made it unreasonable to ask him to leave Salem. His "fayre house" was there, and also his garden. Furthermore, his position in that community was unique. Elsewhere he was Captain Endecott, but in Salem he was Governor Endecott — and always would be, no matter who might be the chief magistrate of the Colony, with headquarters at Boston or at Newtowne. ι. Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, L X I I , 356. 2. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, First Series, V I I I , 41.

CHAPTER TROUBLE AND MORE

VI TROUBLE

T

H A T there were disadvantages in living so far from the seat of government is apparent from a letter Endecott

wrote to Winthrop in the spring of 1631, and as there is nothing more satisfactory than a contemporary's description of the world in which he moved, we shall quote it in full: Right Worshipful, I did expect to have beene with you in person at the court, and to that end I put to sea yesterday and was driven back againe the wind being stiffe against us. And there being no canoe or boat at Sagust 1 I must have beene constrained to goe to Mistick and thence about to Charles town, which at this time I durst not be so bold, my bodie being at this present in an ill condition to wade or take cold, and therefore I desire you to pardon mee. Though otherwise I could have much desired it by reason of many occasions and businesses. There are at Mr. Hewson's plantations 5 or 6 kine verie ill and in great danger, I fear they will hardlie escape it, whereof two are myne and all I have, which are worse than any of the rest. I left myne there this winter to doe Mr. Skelton a pleasure to keep his for him here at Salem, that he might have the benefit of their milk. And I understand by Wincoll that they have been ill tended and he saith almost starved. Beside they have fed on acornes and they cannot digest them, for that they vomit exceedinglie and are so bound in their bodies that he is faine to rake them and to use all his skill to maintaine life in them. I have willed him to be there till he can bring them to some strength againe if it be possible. And I have given him malt to make them mashes of licoris and annis seedes, and long pepper, and such other things as I had to drench them. I could wish when Manning hath recovered his strength that you would free him; for he will never doe you or Mr. Hewson service, for when he was ι. Now Lynn, Massachusetts.

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well he was as negligent as the worst of them. Mr. Skelton, myselfe and the rest of the congregation desire to be thankfull to God and yourself for your benevolence to Mr. Haughton's child. 1 The Lord restore it to you. I prevailed with much adoe with Sir Richard [Saltonstall] for an old debt heere which he thought was desperate, to contribute it, which I hope I shall make good for the child. I think Mr. Skelton hath written to you, whome he thinks stands most in neede of contribution of such provisions as you will be pleased to give amongst us of that which was sent over. The yeele-potts you sent for are made which I had in my boate, hoping to have brought them with mee. I caused him to make but two for the present, if you like them and his prices (for he worketh for himself) you shall have as many as you desire. He selleth them for 4 shillings a pieece. Sir, I desired the rather to have beene at court because I heare I am much complayned on by goodman Dexter, for striking him. I acknowledge I was too rash in strikeing him, understanding since that it is not lawfull for a justice of peace to strike. But if you had seene the manner of his carriadge, with such daring of mee with his armes on kembow &c. It would have provoked a very patient man. But I will write noe more of it but leave it till wee speak before you face to face. Onely thus farre further, that he hath given out if I had a purse he would make me empty it, and if he cannot have justice here he will doe wonders in England, and if he cannot prevale there, hee will trie it out with mee heere at blowes. Sir, I desire that you will take all into consideration. If it were lawfull to trie it at blowes and hee a fitt man for mee to deale with, you should not heare mee complaine; but I do hope the Lord hath brought me off from that course. I thought further to wry te what my judgment is for the dismissing of the court till corne be sett. It will hinder us that are farre off exceedingly, and not further you there. Mens labour are precious here in corne setting tyme, the plantations being yet so weak. I will be with you, the Lord assisting mee, as soone as conveniently I can. In the meane while I committ you to his protection and safeguard that never failes his children, and rest Your unfeigned loving friend to command, J o : ENDECOTT.

Salem, the 12th of Aprili 1631. 2 ι. Elder Henry Haughton of Salem died during the winter preceding the arrival of the Winthrop fleet. Joseph B, Felt, The Annals of Salem (1827), p. 39. 2. The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), I, 55-57.

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Goodman Dexter, he of the "armes on kembow," was Thomas Dexter of Lynn. That he was a troublesome fellow there can be little doubt. A year or so after this time he was bound to his good behavior till the next General Court and fined £5 "for his misdemeanor and insolent carriage and speeches to S. Bradstreete, att his own house." 1 Before March, 1632/3, he had misbehaved again; this time the Court ordered that he be "sett in the bilbowes," disfranchised, and fined £40 for speaking reproachful and seditious words against the government of the Bay Colony and finding fault with the acts of the Court, "saying this captious government will bring all to naught, adding that the best of them was but an attorney." 2 Six months more had hardly passed when he was fined twenty shillings for drunkenness.3 He had his quiescent moments, too, it appears, for in 1643 he was fined for "sleeping at meeting, and slighting the ordinance of baptism" ; 4 but from Endecott's letter it is evident that the time of their altercation was not one of these. On the other hand, it must be admitted that on that occasion Endecott's intensity and soldierly habits got the better of his temper. Winthrop dealt with the matter with his usual consideration and justice. The case did not come up until Endecott was present. This was at the meeting of the Court of Assistants held at Boston on May 3, 1631. Then a jury was impaneled and the case heard. Endecott was found guilty and damages to the amount of forty shillings were assessed against him. 5 Whatever our ancestors may have thought of the verdict from a personal standpoint, the Court ι. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, I, 97. Ibid., I, 103. Ibid., I, 108. Joseph B. Felt, The Annals of Salem (1827), p. 174. Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, I, 86.

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of Assistants had made it clear that in the eyes of the law one of the common people had the same rights as one of the Magistrates. This year of our Lord 1631 was destined to be full of trouble for Captain Endecott in his relations with the new government of the Bay Colony. When the ship Lyon came into Boston Harbor early in February, after a very stormy passage from England, she brought much-needed provisions for the settlements and also a handful of new colonists. Among the latter was Roger Williams, a brilliant young minister " of whom they were wont to say in Essex, where he lived, that he was divinely mad." 1 At the time of Williams's arrival in New England, Governor Winthrop described him as " a godly minister"; 2 after a few months of his society Governor Bradford characterized him as " a man godly and zealous, having many precious parts, but very unsettled in judgmente." 3 As we of today see it, the difficulty with Roger Williams was not that he was " unsettled in judgmente," but that he viewed the world with the clearness of vision of a child. All the conventions and doctrines that kings, bishops, and parliaments had constructed to make the business of life orderly meant nothing to him. Why, for instance, were church and state inseparably linked, when it was so clear to him that religion was a personal affair between man and his Maker? What right had the king of England or any other monarch to grant land in America to his subjects, when that land really belonged to the aborigines? He questioned this, and he questioned that; and found 1. William Hubbard, A General History of New England (1848), p. 206. 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), I, 50. 3. William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation ( M . H . S. edition), I, 161.

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that there seemed to be no satisfactory answer to his questions except that the workaday world was organized along those lines. To an idealist of Williams's intensity this was no answer at all, of course. Of his peculiarities the leaders of Massachusetts-Bay knew little if anything when he arrived in their midst. All they recognized was a man with a brilliant mind and a winning personality, who looked upon New England as the Promised Land. At the moment, at least, he seemed to be Heaven-sent, for their teacher John Wilson was about to return to England to bring his wife to the new country. Williams gave promise of being an admirable stop-gap in the church. Accordingly, he was approached on the subject (he says he was "unanimously chosen"), presumably with every expectation that he would accept with enthusiasm. But Roger Williams was then, as always, an unpredictable person. When the proposition was made to him, he replied that he could not "join with the congregation at Boston, because they would not make a public declaration of their repentance for having communion with the churches of England." In other words, he was a Separatist and would not accept an appointment from a group that still clung to the thought that it belonged to the Church of England. That thought did still lie in the minds of many of those who came out with Winthrop. Much as they objected to certain aspects of that church, and much as they had suffered from its prelates, in 1631 they still cherished in their homesick hearts the feeling of membership in it. From their point of view they still belonged to the National Church. It was too soon for them to realize that the First Church in Boston was not just a purified twig of the old tree, but a sapling of a different species. Under the circumstances it is not surprising that Williams's reply

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struck them as being both a rebuff and a rebuke. About this time he stirred the leaders of the Bay Colony further by declaring that a Magistrate had no right to punish a citizen for breach of the Sabbath "nor any other offence as it was a breach of the first table." 1 How Williams came to this conclusion is as baffling to us as it was to those who were endeavoring to found a Bible Commonwealth in New England. But one thing is certain: from this time forth the brilliant newcomer was regarded with suspicion in the settlements near the mouth of the Charles. How this change of sentiment was to involve John Endecott in difficulties will soon appear. In the troublous summer of 1630 the Reverend John Higginson, teacher of the church at Salem, had died of " a n hectic fever," in the forty-third year of his age. All that wonderful enthusiasm which colored his first impressions of the New World could not preserve his life through a second year of privation and disease. Francis Higginson was dead, and the Salem church was without a teacher to supplement the work of its pastor, Mr. Skelton. From August until the following April the congregation got along as best it could. Then, when it appeared that Roger Williams was no longer preëmpted by the Bostonians, the Salem planters invited him to be their teacher and he accepted the invitation. The church at Salem, as we have seen, had been founded as an organization entirely independent of the Church of England. Therefore, it was not at all disturbed by Mr. Williams's insistence that one should repent ever having belonged to that venerable institution. Most of the men of Salem had repented that very thing more than once, and ι. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), I, 63; Savage defines " the first table" as the first four of the Ten Commandments.

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still repented it. To all appearances this Williams was just the type of man they had been seeking for many months; and as far as they could see, the choice of a teacher for their bereft church was nobody's business but their own. Unfortunately, Governor Winthrop and the Assistants at Boston took a very different view. In their eyes the colony of Massachusetts-Bay was a unit, civil and ecclesiastical, and if one of its churches were allowed to elect an unorthodox pastor or teacher, there would be no predicting what evils might not creep into the state. The question was taken up at a meeting of the Company on April 12, and a letter was written to John Endecott, the recognized head of the Salem plantation, telling him that they at Boston "marvelled" that the church at Salem had gone so far as to elect Williams "without advising with the council"; 1 in the same document Endecott was requested to forbear from proceeding further until the church had conferred with the Council. The responsibility for the alarming course that had been pursued was placed squarely on Endecott's broad shoulders — where, no doubt, it belonged. Winthrop's letter, coming in at the very time when John Endecott's mind — and perhaps his conscience — was troubled with thoughts of the complaint Thomas Dexter had made against him, made him pause. After all, the situation was different from what it had been in the more or ι. Ibid. It is by no means clear what "the council" represented in Winthrop's mind at this time. The "standing council" of magistrates, elected for life, was not created until 1636, so it could not have been that. A council of all the ministers or churches in the Bay Colony is conceivable but not probable. Presumably, Winthrop used the word " council" as a convenient phrase for the Governor and Assistants, or for the Assistants alone. For instance, a few weeks earlier Winthrop wrote, " We held a day of thanksgiving . . . by order from the governour and council, directed to all the plantations." History of New England (1853) I, 56.

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not prejudice a plantation." On this basis Endecott had been given forty or fifty acres of meadow in the autumn of 1637,1 and we may be reasonably sure that he chose his meadow land in Essex County. At that time Winthrop and Dudley had been awarded a thousand acres apiece, and their expedition to Concord — in the following spring — to select their grants is related in one of the most charming parts of Winthrop's Journal. " T h e governor and deputy went to Concord to view some land for farms, and, going down the river about four miles, they made choice of a place for one thousand acres for each of them. They offered each other the first choice, but because the deputy's [Dudley's] was first granted, and himself had store of land already, the governor yielded him the choice. So, at the place where the deputy's land was to begin, there were two great stones, which they called the Two Brothers, in remembrance that they were brothers by their children's marriage, and did so brotherly agree, and for that a little creek near these stones was to part their lands." 2 Endecott, having received his large grant in June, 1639, apparently did his choosing in the following summer. The Concord River lured him not; he was too loyal to Essex for that. Instead he chose five hundred and fifty acres north of Salem on Ipswich River, and his possession of this tract was confirmed by a vote of the General Court in November.3 For one reason or another it was not "layd out" — that is to say, officially bounded — until twenty years later. That was done in the spring of 1659, and a neat contemporary sketch of the property makes it clear that it was situated in the southern part of the ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 206. 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), I, 317-318. 3. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 277.

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present town of Boxford and in the western part of Topsfield. On the east it was bounded by Fish Brook; on the south it included a few acres of swamp and meadow land on the south side of the Ipswich River. 1 One of the more interesting letters that Endecott wrote to his friend Governor Winthrop in this period concerned the ship Mary Rose of Bristol, England, which was blown to bits in Boston Harbor by an explosion of twenty-one barrels of powder she had on board. She was a vessel of about two hundred tons, and apparently her captain and all her men but one perished in the disaster. The immediate cause of the explosion remains a mystery to this day, but the fundamental cause was fairly clear to all good Puritans, for the master and company of the Mary Rose were for the most part "profane scoffers," who had jeered at the manners and customs of New England. When the local churches held a day of fasting and prayer for Old England, representatives from all the other visiting ships came ashore and took part in the observance; but they of the Mary Rose kept aloof and remained on board. This, of course, caused unfavorable comment in and about Boston. On the following Sabbath the master of the Mary Rose was again conspicuous because of his absence from meeting. All the other captains attended, but not he. On the next day a New England acquaintance sought him out and asked why he did not come; "his answer was that he had a family of his own, and that they had as good service on board as we had on shore." 2 Less than an hour or two after this ill-considered retort occurred the ι. The original map is in the Massachusetts Archives, " M a p s and Plans," 3 1 . There is a photostat copy among the " Endicott Papers ' ' in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. See also Sidney Perley's History of Boxford, p. 2 1 . 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 13.

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explosion, in which Winthrop quite naturally saw a "judgment of God upon these scorners of his ordinances and the ways of his servants"; and what he learned soon after from Endecott served only to strengthen his conviction. Endecott's letter was written at Salem and is dated July 28, 1640 — the day after the disaster.1 Dearest Sir, — Hearing of the remarkable stroke of God's hand upon the ship and ship's company of Bristol, as also of some atheistical passages and hellish profanations of the Sabbaths and deridings of the people and ways of God, I thought good to desire a word or two of you of the truth of what you have heard. Such an extraordinary judgment would be searched into, what God's meaning is in it, — both in respect of those whom it concerns more especially in England, as also in regard of ourselves. God will be honored in all dealings. We have heard of several ungodly carriages in that ship, as: 1. In their way overbound they would constantly jeer at the holy brethren of New England, and some of the mariners would — in a scoff — ask when they should come to the Holy Land. 2. After they lay in the harbor Mr. Norrice 2 sent to the ship one of our brethren upon business, and he heard them say, " T h i s is one of the holy brethren," mockingly and disdainfully. 3. That when some have been with them aboard to buy necessaries, the ship men would usually say to some of them that they could not want anything, they were full of the Spirit. 4. That the last Lord's Day, or the Lord's Day before, there were many drinkings aboard with singings and music in times of public exercise. 5. That the last fast the master or captain of the ship with most of the company would not go to the meeting, but read the Book of Common Prayer so often over that some of the company said he had worn that threadbare, with many such passages. Now if these or the like be true, as I am persuaded some of them are, I think the truth hereof should be made known by some faithful hand in Bristol or elsewhere, for it is a very remarkable and unusual stroke. Pardon, I pray you, my boldness herein. You shall command me in any service I can do. I write the rather because I have some relation that ι. Endecott's letter is printed in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, V I , 1 4 1 - 1 4 2 . 2. The minister at Salem.

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way, and shall therefore be glad to be thoroughly informed of these things. This being all at present, I leave you with the Lord, desiring mine and my wife's hearty love and service to be remembered to yourself and your dearest yokefellow, and rest Yours ever assured, J o : ENDECOTT

CHAPTER CONSERVATION

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XII EDUCATION

OWN government in New England was the natural outgrowth of parish government in Old England, and the transition from one form to the other may be traced fairly easily in the early records of the town of Salem. The people who came to Massachusetts-Bay early in the seventeenth century had grown up in communities where the parish was the ecclesiastical, social, and governmental unit. In that unit the churchwardens, elected by the parishioners, were primarily temporal officers. They were two in number, and upon them and the constable rested the main responsibility for conducting the affairs of the parish. In their administrative duties they were assisted by various minor officers such as overseers of the poor, waywardens (surveyors of highways), and the parish clerk.1 The system appears to have worked satisfactorily in England, and the logical course for our ancestors to pursue was to duplicate it in New England. This they attempted to do at the outset, but it was not long before the Old World system was modified to suit frontier needs and conditions and so developed into the form of town government which is dear to the hearts of all true Yankees. Until Winthrop and his cohorts arrived on these shores Massachusetts-Bay was a scattered plantation governed by

T

I. Edward Channing, Town and County Government in the English Colonies of North America (Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Second Series, X ) , pp. 11-21.

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John Endecott and his Council. There could have been no more than two parishes, Salem and Charlestown, and these probably enjoyed few governmental powers, if any. The two communities had separate churches, but the temporal power remained in the hands of the Governor and Council. In the summer of 1630 the situation was entirely changed. Endecott ceased to be Governor, Salem was well-nigh overrun with new inhabitants, and groups of people were settling here and there along the shores of Massachusetts Bay. Local government became imperative, especially in Salem because of its remoteness from Winthrop's headquarters. Thereupon Salem became a self-conscious parish, and its affairs were administered by substantial men who corresponded to the churchwardens and their associates in Old England. Among these the first and foremost was John Endecott. How he and his colleagues received their authority in these early days, we do not know. Presumably they were elected in a parish meeting, as they would have been in Old England, and thus were given the power to direct the business of the community. A striking feature of their records is the invariable use of the word " t o w n " instead of the word "parish" to describe the political entity of Salem. This may or may not have been an innovation, for in England the terms were more or less interchangeable; yet it gives the records a New England flavor and makes us feel more at home with our ancestors than would be the case if they had used the word " parish" when speaking of themselves as a political division of the Colony. In March, 1635/6, the Colony as a whole recognized and accepted the governmental ideas which had developed at Salem, and perhaps elsewhere, and the General Court voted that the freemen of every town, or the major part of them,

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should have sole power to dispose of their lands, " t o grant lots, and make such orders as may concern the well ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders of the General Court." It further allowed them " to choose their own particular officers, as constables, surveyors for the highways and the like." Nothing was said about selectmen, but in one guise or another they made their appearance in Salem soon afterward. In December, 1636, they are called "the towne representative"; three weeks later they are spoken of as "the thirteene men that are intrusted for the tyme being with the affairs of the said towen"; 1 in June, 1637, the town elected twelve men to manage its affairs; in December, 1638, the number was reduced to seven, and it appears to have remained at that figure for some time thereafter. Endecott, who kept the records from December, 1638, through December, 1646, did not use the term " selectmen," but usually referred to the board as " the seven men." Although the town records do not show that he was elected to the board until December, 1638, it is evident that he supervised all that was done by the town from the very beginning, for the minutes are interlined or amended in his handwriting long before the date of his election, and whenever signatures attest the validity of the record his name heads the list. Among the various duties of " the seven men," the most important was the granting of land to desirable settlers. In the very early days this was done, theoretically at least, by " the freemen of Salem" assembled in town meeting; but we are inclined to suspect that even then the actual allotment ι. In every parish in Old England there was a governing body of thirteen men that consisted of " such only as had before been churchwardens and constables." Ibid., p. 19.

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was determined by the leaders—John Endecott, Roger Conant, Thomas Gardner, and a few others. The general scheme adopted in 1634/5 was that "the least family shall have 10 acres, but greater familyes may [have] more according to their nombers." 1 This plan of distribution did not apply to the inhabitants of that part of the town known as Marblehead, however; those people were not farmers, but fisherfolk, for whom " a howse lott and a garden lott or grownd for the placing of their flakes" was deemed sufficient! 2 Nor did it apply to seventeenth-century spinsters who aspired to live their own lives. The case of one Deborah Holmes settled that point beyond question. The entry in the town records under January 16, 1636/7, is this: "Debora Holmes refused Land, being a maid and would be a bad president to keep hous alone." It was agreed, however, that something should be done for Deborah, and in shorthand it was added " but hath four bushels of corn granted her, one by Mr. Endecot, one by Mr. Stileman, one by John Woodbury and one by Mr. Verrin." This tendency of unmarried women to desire real estate seems to have been especially disturbing to Endecott, for at another point in the minutes he wrote in, and later scratched out, "all presedents and evil events of graunting lotts unto single maidens not disposed of, it is ordered that noe single maiden not disposed of in mar[riage] " — and there it breaks off, and we shall never know what the vote was, if there was one. Now and then, of course, a prominent citizen was granted an extra slice of the town lands, and when that individual was Roger Conant or John Endecott there could have been no objection or criticism; but we are grateful to the clerk for entering 1. Essex Institute Historical Collections, I X , 8. 2. Ibid., I X , 27.

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the argument against a proposed grant of " some land beyond fforest River" to Mr. John Humfrey in May, 1636. Although Endecott moved that it be granted, someone opposed the measure "Least yt should hinder the building of a Colledge, which would be manie [men's] losse." As this was the year in which the General Court founded Harvard College, leaving it to the next Court to stipulate where it should be situated, it is not unlikely that those who opposed the grant to Humfrey hoped that the College would find a home on the banks of Forest River, rather than on the banks of the Charles.1 As early as January, 1636/7, the selectmen of Salem began to be alarmed by the extent to which some of the inhabitants helped themselves to timber standing on land as yet ungranted to individuals. The land and the timber on it belonged to the town as a whole, but that fact did not deter certain lawless men from treating them as if they were their own property. They felled the best trees, sawed them into boards, and shipped the lumber off to a better market than they could get at home. Endecott and his colleagues saw that if this devastation of the public domain continued it would not be long before all the best timber would be gone and the people of Salem would be put to it to find good building material within the limits of their town. Consequently a town meeting was called and it was voted to lay an export tax of five shillings per hundred feet on all timber cut in Salem and shipped out of town. The vote is recorded in the handwriting of John Endecott, and we are inclined to believe that he was its chief sponsor.2 Four years later the lumber question was still troubling him, and he wrote ι. ibid., I X , 16. 2. Ibid., I X , 31.

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Governor Winthrop that he thought it would be well to have the General Court pass a general conservation law. 1 This was not done until many years later, but in the meantime Endecott did what he could to correct the local situation, which, in spite of the export tax, seems to have been about as bad as it had been before that measure was voted. In the winter of 1640-41 his hand was strengthened by a new development in town. Following the exhortation of the Reverend Hugh Peter and some other public-spirited men, Salem had determined to enter upon a program of shipbuilding.2 This, of course, brought home to the people the need of conserving their stock of good timber. With characteristic initiative, Endecott caused a town meeting to be called, and at it a vote was passed confiscating all "felled timber trees within two miles of Salem," or within one mile of Marblehead, that were fit for the purposes of shipbuilding. This was drastic, but probably justifiable; and in the following May the town made its position still clearer by declaring the cutting of any tree not on one's own property an offense punishable by a fine of twenty shillings for every such tree felled.3 As far as we have been able to discover, these votes of the town of Salem under the leadership of Endecott were the first measures adopted anywhere in the New World for the conservation of natural resources. Late in the winter of 1640-41 John Endecott further proved his natural leadership by advocating the establishment of a free school in Salem. We Americans of a later age take free education in public schools so much for granted that it is almost impossible for us to realize the full signifi1. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, V I , 143. 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 29. 3. Essex Institute Historical Collections, I X , 107, 1 1 2 .

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cance of the step proposed by Colonel Endecott at the session of the Quarterly Court in March, 1640/1 .x In Old England in the time of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts elementary education was widely diffused, but in general it did not rest on the taxpayers for support. Endowed schools were the rule, some endowments having come down from preReformation days and others having been established more recently by well-to-do persons who hoped to enter Heaven more easily as the result of their benefactions.2 Thus by 1625 there were in existence at least five hundred endowed schools scattered over the land from which our ancestors migrated to America. Here and there a community had to eke out the income of the local school by grants of money, and this burden no doubt fell upon the taxpayers; but the foundation of the institution was usually an endowment. This was the school system with which Endecott and his New England contemporaries were familiar, but somehow it was not suited to the needs of the towns of MassachusettsBay. The Indians had not founded any monasteries that could be despoiled for the advancement of New England education; nor were there enough rich saints or sinners who wished to endow common schools. One educationallyminded saint there was, to be sure — J o h n Harvard. But Harvard's interest was not in grammar schools, but in higher education such as he had derived at the University of Cambridge, and he made his momentous bequest accordingly. By 1640 it was clear that some provision should be made for teaching the rudiments of learning to all the children who lived in towns, for a Bible Commonwealth that 1. Here I have followed Joseph Barlow Felt's Annals of Salem (1845), I, 428, although I have not found in the records of the Court the entry quoted by Felt. 2. Edward Channing, History of the United States, I, 4 3 1 .

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did not educate its young people would certainly prove to be a house built upon the sand. Boston had already taken steps in this direction; there is on record a town vote of 1635 that one Philemon Pormort " b e entreated to become schoolmaster for the teaching and nurturing children with us," and we know that in 1636 Harry Vane, John Winthrop, and other gentlemen of means subscribed money towards the master's salary. 1 The school thus established was a public school to the extent that its doors were open to all children regardless of the social standing of their parents; but the parents were probably expected to pay tuition fees according to their means. The deficit appears to have been taken care of at first by contributions from generous citizens, but in the lean year of 1641 the town placed the finances of the school on a firmer foundation by devoting to it the income from leased town land on Deer Island in the harbor. Salem must have had a school as early as 1639, for in that year the town chose "young Mr. Norris" to teach it.2 Like the Boston school, it was probably financed by fees paid by the parents of the pupils. Then came the economic crisis of 1640-41, reduced incomes, and the question as to what was to become of the school. Endecott pondered the problem and urged that a town meeting be called to consider the establishment of a " f r e e " school. A meeting was held in April, 1641, but with what result in the field of education we do not know, for only a portion of the record has been preserved. That meeting may have produced the seed from which, in the following year, sprang an important legislative act of the Great and General Court. The Court, " taking into consideration the great neglect in many parents and ι . John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 47. 2. Essex Institute Historical Collections, I X , 97.

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masters in training up their children in learning and labor and other employments which may be profitable to the common wealth," ordered that "the chosen men" in every town should be held responsible for the training of the children in that town. Idle, illiterate, and undisciplined youngsters were not to be tolerated; if their parents did not provide employment for them and see that they could "read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of the country," then the town authorities were to apprentice the children to persons who would do this. The General Court did not stipulate how the younger generation should be taught and kept occupied, but it made it clear that the desired end must be accomplished or the selectmen would be prosecuted ! 1 Salem's response to the vote of the General Court was heard on September 30, 1644, when the town ordered that such as had children to be kept at school should bring in their names and should state what they were willing to pay for their education for a year; more important than this was an additional clause which provided that "if any poore body hath children or a childe to be put to schoole and not able to pay for their schooling That the Towne will pay it by a rate" — in other words, by general taxation.2 From this groping for a system of public education three principles emerge. The first two are visible in the law of 1642: (1) parents are morally responsible for the teaching and training of their children; (2) if parents neglect the education of their children, the town authorities must take that duty upon themselves. To these Salem added the third: (3) for the education of the children of the indigent, town ι. 2.

Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I , 8 - 9 . Essex Institute Historical Collections, I X , 1 3 2 .

CONSERVATION AND EDUCATION money should be provided by general taxation.

143 Salem,

therefore, enjoys the distinction of being the first town to try the experiment of taxing all its property-holders in order to make the rudiments of learning available for the children of the poor. 1 As John Endecott was the recognized leader in Salem at this time, it is not unlikely that the idea originated with him. Three years later, in the well-known Massachusetts law which made the maintenance of a school compulsory in every town of fifty or more householders, this method of supporting elementary education was mentioned by the General Court, and with modifications it was gradually adopted throughout New England. As the law of 1647 is a landmark in the history of American education, it may well be quoted here in full. It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded by false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers, that learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers in the church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors, — It is therefore ordered, that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of 50 householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught ι . George H . Martin, The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System, pp. 50, 5 1 . In this innovation Salem preceded Dedham b y a few months. T h e Salem town meeting was held on September 30, 1 6 4 4 . T h e Dedham vote was passed on J a n u a r y 1 , 1 6 4 4 / 5 . ® u t Dedham went further than did Salem, b y providing a school that was " f r e e " to all children in the town without regard to the financial resources of their parents. Dedham Historical Register, I, 86.

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for in other towns; and it is further ordered, that where any town shall increase to the number of 100 families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university, provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year, that every such town shall pay to the next school till they shall perform this order. 1 ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, II, 203.

CHAPTER

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T T H E annual election in the spring of 1641 Richard Bellingham of Ipswich was chosen Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, carrying the day by the narrow margin of six votes; John Endecott was chosen Deputy Governor. As Bellingham had been Deputy Governor in the preceding year and Treasurer during two or three years before that, his election to the office of Governor might sound like normal political advancement, but as a matter of fact the choice of the voters on this occasion contained much more significance. For the first time in its brief history the Colony entrusted the chief executive office to a citizen who resided elsewhere than on the banks of the Charles. And as if to emphasize the point, it elected another gentleman from out of town to be Deputy Governor. Bellingham's name was familiar to the voters, but it conveyed an idea entirely different from that suggested by the names of Winthrop and Dudley. The latter gentlemen might differ with each other on minor issues, but they were united in their conviction that if the Colony was to be well governed it must be ruled with a strong hand, and behind that hand there should be sound judgment. They were right. But it was inevitable that other minds and other temperaments, especially among the governed, should question now and then the soundness of the judgment that affected their daily living. Among the more prominent of these dissentients was Richard Bellingham of Ipswich.

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Bellingham was a man of means who had been associated with the Bay Company since its organization in 1628/9. He came to New England from Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1634, and in the following year was elected Deputy Governor under John Haynes. This sudden political elevation was probably due, in part at least, to the fact that in Old England Mr. Bellingham had represented many of these same people in Parliament when he was a member from Boston in 1628. He appears to have been one of those well-to-do, independent-thinking men who for one reason or another sympathize with the common people more than with those in their own walk in life. If he had lived in the twentieth century, he would undoubtedly have been a prominent member of the Democratic party. In the Bay Colony he was the recognized friend of those whom Winthrop described as "the meaner sort." Recently he had made himself conspicuous by giving the retort discourteous to Governor Winthrop in a session of the Court of Assistants and challenging his authority.1 A few years earlier such behavior, which was outrageous, would have hurt Bellingham in the public esteem, but as it occurred at a time when the citizenry was becoming restive under the Winthrop-Dudley régime it appears to have produced the opposite effect upon the minds of the voters. A few months later came the economic crisis of 1640, and with it, of course, increased discontent with those at the head of the government. The election of 1641 was an unfortunate affair, not because it turned out Dudley and put in Bellingham — for that resulted ultimately in better appreciation of a conservative administration — but because it was open to quesI. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853),

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tion. A disputed election is always to be lamented, for it prevents the losers from being reconciled losers. It could not have been pleasant for Winthrop to see the election go to the man who had insulted him in the presence of the Assistants less than two years before; and the manner in which the election was conducted made this even harder to bear. In those days the voters in the outlying parts of the Colony might cast their ballots in their respective towns and have them sent to Boston in sealed packages, or they might make a trip to the metropolis and in person drop their votes in the ballot box at the town house. The former method was encouraged by those in authority, but the latter method was preferred by the freemen. Election Day came in May or June, and it afforded the country people an excuse for coming to town and enjoying a little excitement.1 At the Court of Elections on June 2, 1641, everyone was expected to hand in his ballot at the door as he entered the town house, but a number of those present, presumably countrymen, were unaware of this new regulation; and when it was announced that Richard Bellingham had been elected Governor by a margin of six votes, there was a great to-do.2 One can almost see the disappointed rustics drawing forth paper ballots from their pockets and clamoring for an opportunity to deposit them. The Magistrates in charge were adamant: if you had not handed in your ballot at the door when you came in, you had lost your opportunity to vote at that election. That was all there was to it. Whether Winthrop or Dudley would have defeated Bellingham, if it had not been for this misunderstanding, we shall never know. If the Bay Colony was weary of decorum and scrupulosity ι . Samuel Eliot Morison, Builders of the Bay Colony, p. 86. 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 42.

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in high places, it was soon to have a taste of the reverse of those qualities. And if John Winthrop was human, he must have smiled to himself when he wrote in his Journal the story of what occurred on November 9, 1641 — though with his innate gentility he prefaced the entry with these words: "Query, whether the following be fit to be published." On that day Governor Bellingham married for the second time, and his bride was Penelope Pelham. He was just turning the half-century mark, and she was twenty-two years old; but the disparity in their ages did not cause so much comment as did other aspects of the match. Penelope was being courted by a friend of the Governor's who lived in Bellingham's house. The onlookers considered that it was a match, and Bellingham had signified his approval of it. Then " o n the sudden," as Winthrop expressed it, "the governor treated with her, and obtained her for himself. He excused it by the strength of his affection and that she was not absolutely promised to the other gentleman." If his indiscretion had stopped at this point, there would have been a deal of talk about town and through the countryside for a few weeks and then the Colony would have dropped the subject. But Bellingham seems to have been made dizzy by his governorship and to have considered that he was a law unto himself. Under an order of the Court persons contemplating matrimony were required to announce their intentions long enough in advance to make it possible for the bans to be read at meeting on three separate occasions prior to the marriage.1 Richard and Penelope must have known the law, but flattering themselves that it did not apply to such as they, they disregarded it completely. It was customary, too, ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 275.

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to be married by a Magistrate. Bellingham, being in a hurry, decided that since he was the chief Magistrate in the Colony there was no reason why he should not perform the marriage ceremony himself, and he did so! Even in the eyes of the erstwhile insurgent democracy this was a little too much. And from that hour the popularity of Richard Bellingham entered upon a rapid decline.1 A few weeks later he changed some important figures to the extent of £20 without notifying the General Court. When the change was detected and he was called to account for it, he made light of the matter and told the Court he "did it in jest." 2 Thenceforth all confidence in him was gone, the General Court got out of hand, and the remaining sessions were a series of squabbles "which did much retard all business." 3 Oddly enough, this inharmonious session was marked by the achievement of one of the most important steps in the constitutional history of the Colony. This was the adoption of the Body of Liberties, a codification of the fundamental law of Massachusetts-Bay. Agitation to this end had been going on ever since 1635, and it could not be downed. Winthrop and the other Magistrates thought it both unnecessary and undesirable: the Colony was governed in accordance with the best principles of the Laws of Moses and of the English Common Law — and that was enough. But the people took quite a different view of the situation. They wished to know precisely what rights they possessed as citizens and to what extent their liberty was restricted by the government. The General Court kept passing laws, and the Magistrates were continually passing judgments; but the ι. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 51-52. 2. Ibid., II, 62. 3. Ibid., II, 60.

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basis on which this accumulation of legislation and judicial action rested was altogether too nebulous. How far might a man or woman go in self-expression? How far might the government go in suppressing individual liberty for the good of the Colony? The fundamental principles might be clear enough in the mind of John Winthrop, and the Magistrates might know what laws had been passed by the General Court, but the average citizen knew none of these things until he got into trouble. Then it was too late. What was needed was a written code to which anyone might turn for information, guidance, and security. Gradually the agitators prevailed, as agitators usually do when their cause is good and sometimes do when it is not, and in the autumn of 1641 a code known as the Body of Liberties was laid before the General Court. It is a remarkable document and, as a brilliant and understanding historian has said, it is " i n a class with the Petition of Right and the Instrument of Government." 1 T o one of Puritan descent it is a peculiarly moving document, for it brings home to him with singular directness the convictions and aspirations of his ancestors, the principles and ideals that underlie the New England he knows and loves. It was primarily the work of one man, Nathaniel Ward, who, like John Harvard, was a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In recent years he had been pastor of the church at Ipswich, Massachusetts. When the Body of Liberties had been revised, amended, and adopted by the General Court, it was voted that nineteen copies of the instrument should be made — presumably for distribution among the various towns. In that vote ι . Samuel Eliot Morison, Builders of the Bay Colony, p. 233.

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it was stipulated that no copy was to be considered valid unless signed by the following three men: John Endecott, Emanuel Downing, and William Hathorne. 1 It would be interesting to know why these three, rather than any other triumvirate, were appointed "signers." It is rather striking that all three were from Salem. Truly this was a year when that part of the country was in the saddle ! But what else did these three names stand for in the minds of the General Court? Probably Endecott was named because he was Deputy Governor, and in its present mood the legislature preferred to have the executive branch represented by him rather than by his political superior, Bellingham. As for Emanuel Downing, it may well be that he was selected because he was John Winthrop's brother-in-law, and consequently his signature would evidence the sanction of the Winthrop-Dudley party in the Colony. William Hathorne was one of the recognized leaders of the Deputies at this time, and so an appropriate representative of that branch of the government. When the Deputies split off from the rest of the General Court three or four years later, he became the first Speaker of their House. This man Hathorne is interesting in many ways. The direct ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne, he was as unlike his famous literary descendant as any human being could be. He was an assertive, belligerent hustler, who enjoyed politics and made the most of every opportunity for his own advancement in that field. In Salem he did not enjoy the prestige that came to some from being of the earliest stock — that is, of belonging to Roger Conant's group. Nor was he one of the Endecott colonists. He came over with the WinI. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 344.

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throp contingent in 1630 and settled at first in Dorchester. He does not appear to have moved to Salem until late in 1636 or early in 1637; but once there he immediately made his presence felt in town affairs. Endecott seems to have thought well of Hathorne at the outset, for the newcomer was granted two hundred acres of land in advance of his arrival; 1 and within a year he was elected both selectman and Deputy to the General Court. When he came to Salem he was still in his twenties. By the time he was thirty he had become a prominent member of the colonial legislature; and in December, 1641, he made himself more conspicuous than usual by an open altercation with his neighbor, Deputy Governor Endecott. The drafting and adoption of the Body of Liberties was, as we have seen, a victory for the people over the Magistrates. It gave them what they felt they needed, a written code of the principles and laws by which they were governed and judged. But to the mind of William Hathorne it did not go far enough, because it did not establish and describe the penalties for minor offenses. The crimes that involved the penalty of death were clearly stated in that document, but what the punishment should be for lesser offenses was left to the judgment of the Magistrates. From the point of view of the Magistrates this was as it should be: they wished to consider each case on its merits or demerits, and to let the punishment fit the criminal rather than fit the crime. We of the twentieth century are coming to be of their opinion, but not so Mr. Hathorne in December, 1641. He and a few others "were very earnest to have some certain penalty set upon lying, swearing, etc." Endecott and ι . Essex Institute Historical Collections, IX, 36.

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some of his magisterial colleagues disagreed, and said so. But William Hathorne was not one to be trodden under foot by Endecott or anyone else. He went from principles to personalities and charged Endecott with "seeking to have the government arbitrary, etc., and the matter grew to some heat." Apparently Endecott kept his temper on this occasion, for " the strife soon fell, and there was no more spoken of it that court." 1 But while the sparks were flying, there must have been those in the room who, remembering the Endecott of an earlier day, looked for an explosion. It was at this session, too, that Hathorne displayed almost unbelievably bad taste in an effort to make room for himself on the Board of Assistants. He proposed that " two of their ancien test magistrates, because they were grown poor," be "left out" — that is to say, not renominated for office. Apparently he regarded the Magistrates as forming an aristocratic body for which one should be ineligible if circumstances prevented him from living in a manner appropriate to that station. As Winthrop had recently met with severe financial reverses, we assume that he was one of those at whom this shot was aimed. If so, it was contemptible in Hathorne to make the proposal at this time, when Winthrop was smarting under the recent defeat of his party in the gubernatorial election as well as suffering pecuniary distress. The Reverend John Cotton liked it not; and though on most occasions he was a mild man, he spoke sharply on the subject on the next lecture day. Besides pointing out the bad manners involved, he " told the country that such as were decayed in their estates by attending the service of the country ought to be maintained by the country, and not set ι. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 67.

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aside for their poverty, being otherwise so well gifted, and approved by long experience to be faithful." 1 And Winthrop adds, " This public reproof gave such a check to the former motion as it was never revived after." All honor to John Cotton! In the spring of 1642 the Court of Elections met about the middle of May. Bellingham's downfall was a foregone conclusion, and down he fell. John Winthrop was elected Governor and John Endecott Deputy Governor. The disapproval that was accorded Bellingham did not extend to his Deputy, nor was there any reason why it should have done so. Endecott had played the game in a difficult time and had played it well. But let us turn from the rough-andtumble of the political world to a calmer scene on the north bank of the Charles, where the one-time capital named Newtowne had quietly turned itself into the college town of Cambridge. Affairs at the College went badly under its first head, Nathaniel Eaton; but when he had been gotten rid of and the reins of academic administration had been placed in the hands of the first president, the Reverend Henry Dunster, the real Harvard began. By September of 1642 the longsuffering students who had entered in 1638 were deemed ready to receive the Bachelor's degree, and the College celebrated its first Commencement. According to a vote of the General Court in 1637 the Board of Overseers consisted of six Magistrates and the ministers of six important towns, including Cambridge. The magisterial Overseers, headed by John Winthrop, are named in the vote; and though three of them happened to be the Governor, the Deputy Governor, ι.

Ibid., I I , 67.

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and the Treasurer of the Colony, subsequent events make it clear that holding one of those offices did not make one ipso jacto an Overseer. 1 Likewise the names of the ministers are listed.2 In neither group does the name of John Endecott appear — yet it does appear among those of the other Overseers on the Commencement program of 1642.3 How and when he was added to the Board has never been satisfactorily explained, but we surmise that it came about in this way. Of the six Magistrates elected Overseers of the College in 1637 one of the most attractive and appealing was Roger Harlakenden. The romantic sound of his name may be partly responsible for the interest he awakens in one's mind and heart, and the fact that his estate in England was " Colne Park, or the Little Lodge," inevitably adds to the effect. But there is more evidence in his favor than those superficial items afford. Thomas Shepard, pastor of the Cambridge church, speaks of him as his "most dear friend," and Shepard knew him both in Old England and in New — in fact, they came out together in 1635.4 Winthrop, in his restrained way, calls him " a very godly man, and of good use both in the commonwealth and in the church." 5 So one gets the impression that Roger Harlakenden was a Puritan of the gentler sort, both in breeding and in spirit. When he died of smallpox at Cambridge in New England in Novem1.

In 1642 Dudley and Bellingham were still Overseers but no longer

D e p u t y Governor and Treasurer. T y n g was Treasurer of the Colony, but not an Overseer until after Commencement. 2. 3.

Records of Massachusetts Bay, I, 217. T h e Commencement program may be found in New Englands First

a tract published in London in 1643 John Langdon Sibley's Biographical

and

Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University,

17-20. 4.

Fruits,

reprinted in N e w York in 1863; also in

Samuel Eliot Morison, Builders of the Bay Colony, p. 41.

5. John Winthrop, History of New England

(1853), I, 334.

I,

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ber, 1638, at the age of twenty-seven years, Winthrop wrote, with not a little emotion, " h e died in great peace, and left a sweet memorial behind him of his piety and virtue." The vacancy that his passing made in the Overseers of the College was a minor matter in comparison with the loss to the Colony as a whole; but the hiatus in the Board had to be filled, and John Endecott, as a Magistrate of long standing, was the logical man for the place. Curiously enough, there is no record of a vote adding Endecott to the Board prior to September 27, 1642, about three weeks after the first Commencement, at which time the body was reconstituted and he, as Deputy Governor, went on it ex officio} It is conceivable that his inclusion before Commencement was an extralegal anticipation of the terms of that vote. O n the whole, however, since Mr. Harlakenden died almost three years before this time, it seems reasonable to suppose that Endecott was regularly elected at some time between November, 1638, and September, 1641, and that his election merely failed to be recorded. That first Harvard Commencement must have been very much a family affair from the point of view of some of the Overseers. Among the nine candidates for the Bachelor's degree, whom he characterized as " y o u n g men of good hope," 2 Governor Winthrop could see his nephew George Downing, son of Emanuel Downing of Salem. According to his uncle, George was " a very able scholar, and of a ready wit and fluent utterance." 3 Another candidate was Samuel Bellingham, son of former-Governor Bellingham who was one of the Overseers; and still another was John Wilson, son ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, II, 30. 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 105. 3. Ibid., II, 297.

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of the vigorous Reverend John Wilson of Boston who was a member of the clerical branch of the Board. Endecott's boys were still children, playing in the fields and woods of " O r c h a r d " ; but it does not require much imagination to picture the Deputy Governor as gazing upon the nine " y o u n g men of good h o p e " at Cambridge that September day and reflecting that before many years had passed John and Zerubbabel would probably be present at similar exercises and be listed on the Commencement program as in artibus liberalibus initiati Adolescentes.1 ι. Although we cannot be positive that Endecott was in Cambridge on this day, Winthrop wrote: " Most of them [the Overseers] were now present at this first commencement, and dined at the college with the scholars' ordinary commons, which was done of purpose for the students' encouragement, etc., and it gave good content to all." History of New England (1853), II, 105.

CHAPTER FOREIGN

XIV

COMPLICATIONS

HE Winthrop-Endecott administrations of 1642-44 were relatively a period of quiet in the colony of Massachusetts-Bay. One would like to be able to say that it was a time of peace and prosperity, but it was hardly that. In political circles there was more or less discontent. Thomas Dudley was sulky and tried to resign from his place as Assistant. This looks very much as if he was piqued or hurt by not being reelected Governor. Whatever the real reason was, he was finally persuaded to remain in the lesser office of Assistant and do his duty by the Colony. Richard Bellingham was in opposition to those in authority, but that was to be expected. Not entirely discredited in the eyes of the people, he was now an Assistant and therefore still in a position to try to obstruct the measures of the administration. This he did, but the results suggest that few legislators took him or his views very seriously at this time. As to prosperity, the times were still bad, but there were signs of better business. Those who dealt in barrel staves seem to have found a ready market for their product whenever a vagrant merchantman called at Boston. The Wine Islands

T

— the Madeiras, Canaries, and Azores — needed staves for casks and had discovered that the best, or at any rate the cheapest, came from far-off New England. They liked our dried codfish, too, and could use a substantial amount of it — especially during Lent. Our ancestors were not unmindful of this market for their goods, and to make it doubly

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profitable they built ships of their own to carry their products tö foreign parts. Yes, here and there business was looking up, though there was still plenty of distress among the common people. The latter part of the summer of 1642 was unusually rainy, and this was bad for most crops, though good for Indian corn. Unfortunately that staple had fallen into disfavor in the last year or two, and so the heavy rainfall benefited very few. In the days of overproduction corn was so plentiful that it was not accepted as pay by shopkeepers or by laborers, and naturally many people gave up planting it. Now corn was scarce, and many who might have grown it and lived on it were reduced to eating clams, mussels, and dried fish.1 This was all very depressing, but it was also rather wholesome — not the diet, perhaps, but the general situation; for laborers and carpenters, who a few months before demanded exorbitant wages and scorned corn in payment, were now willing to do a day's work for what it was worth, especially if they were paid in corn. Trade with England was still flat, and the occasional ships from that part of the world brought very few new colonists to Massachusetts-Bay; but the West Indies exchanged cotton, hemp, and flax for New England products, and textile industries of one kind or another were instituted in various towns in the Bay Colony. Among these enterprising communities the young town of Rowley, in Essex County, showed the greatest zeal in these manufactures.2 The minor excitements that seem to be essential to cheerful living were supplied by a thunderstorm in which a windmill on Copp's Hill in Boston was struck by lightning; by a severe earthquake that occurred one Lord's Day morn1. John Winthrop, History of New 2. Ibid., II, 144.

England

(1853), II, 113.

i6o

F O R E I G N COMPLICATIONS

ing at seven o'clock; and by the salvaging of the hulk of the Mary Rose, the vessel of sin that was blown up in Boston Harbor in July, 1640. The débris of the Mary Rose cluttered the passage between Boston and Charlestown to such an extent as to obstruct navigation, and one Edward Bendall offered to free the harbor of the wreckage if he might have whatever he recovered. The General Court agreed. Bendall contrived a diving bell, and let us hope he felt recompensed for his pains. However that may have turned out, the performances with the diving bell and the discovery of some wadding heavy with gold and silver coins must have afforded no small amount of diversion to the inevitable onlookers.1 The major excitements of the years 1642-44 cannot be treated so lightly, for they constituted serious business for those in authority and led to interesting developments in the history of the Colony. The first of these was the threat of trouble with the Indians. The second concerned our ancestors' relations with the French in Acadia. The first led to the formation of a league of certain colonies, which is usually called the New England Confederation. The second was the more or less innocent forerunner of other events which reminded the men of Massachusetts-Bay that their Gallic neighbors towards the northeast were near enough to be a potential danger. Towards the end of the summer of 1642 Connecticut was stirred and thoroughly frightened by a rumor that the Indians intended to wipe out all the English settlements soon after harvest-time. Roger Ludlow and other prominent men in the Connecticut Valley notified MassachusettsI. Ibid., II, 87.

FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS

i6i

Bay of the conspiracy and advised nipping the thing in the bud by an aggressive war against the savages.

If the Bay

Colony would send a hundred men to Saybrook, the Connecticut government would join them there with forces of its own. Upon the receipt of these tidings Governor Winthrop consulted his Assistants and called a special session of the General Court. Meanwhile he took the precaution to disarm the neighboring Indians, especially those on the Merrimac River. When the General Court assembled, it wisely decided against going to war; and after conferences with representatives of the southern Indians, all the seized arms were restored to their former owners.

The days of alarm

were over, as far as Massachusetts-Bay was concerned, but the possibilities that existed in the recent situation led to a congress of the colonies most interested. These were Connecticut, New Haven (at that time a political entity distinct from the Valley towns), Plymouth, and the Bay. Representatives of the four governments met at Boston in M a y , 1643, and in two or three sessions agreed upon some interesting Articles of Confederation. As we see it, the main idea was to form a league for protection against the French on the north, the Dutch on the west, and the Indians in their midst; but since a federation would be useful for other purposes, the Articles provided for some other matters of common interest, such as the extradition of criminals and fugitive servants. Under the Confederation each colony was to appoint annually two commissioners; this board should meet in the several governments in succession — though two meetings out of every five must be held in Boston. A permanent capital on middle ground was suggested, but it never came into being.

The astonishing thing about the Articles of Con-

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federation is that Massachusetts-Bay was willing to agree to them without enjoying more power in the councils of the league. Her population was as large as that of the three other colonies put together, and her wealth was greater than their combined wealth; yet she was to have only two commissioners out of thé eight, and might be dragged into war or bound in other matters by the votes of her smaller sisters.1 How this worked out in practice we shall see in a later chapter. If the basis of representation in the New England Confederation was remotely responsible for the basis of representation adopted for the United States Senate, it seems doubly unfortunate that the Bay Colony agreed to such a one-sided arrangement in 1643. All things considered, however, the New England Confederation was an admirable step in the right direction, and the fact that it carried New England through King Philip's War thirty years later suffices to prove its importance and efficacy. Since 1635, or thereabout, two Frenchmen on opposite shores of the Bay of Fundy had been engaged in a dispute as to which was the rightful lord of Acadia. That part of the French empire then included both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. At Port Royal, on the sheltered side of the peninsula, dwelt Charles de Menou, Seigneur d'Aunay Charnisay, who is more conveniently known in history as D'Aunay. Across the Bay, at the mouth of the St. John, resided Charles Saint-Etienne de la Tour, whom we shall call La Tour. D'Aunay derived his authority from the king of France; La Tour based his claim to Acadia upon a grant I. E d w a r d Channing, History of the United States, I, 4 1 7 . T h e Articles are printed in J o h n Winthrop's History of New England ( 1 8 5 3 ) , I I , 1 2 1 - 1 2 7 , in W i l liam Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation ( M . H . S. edition), I I , 3 5 4 - 3 6 2 * and elsewhere.

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163

of land from the Company of New France, and upon various grants and commissions from other sources which were revoked before the summer of 1642 made its way up the fogladen coast. Legally D'Aunay had much the better argument, but La Tour had lived in Acadia from boyhood and he did not intend to submit to the newcomer.1 Of the down-east feud the English colonists on the shores of Massachusetts Bay would have known little and thought less if La Tour had not made his existence felt by attacking an English trading wigwam at Machias, where he killed two of the men he found there, captured the other three, and seized all the goods. This was in 1633. Two years later D'Aunay, not to be outdone by his rival, raided the Plymouth trading station at Castine and took possession of it in the name of the king of France. Massachusetts-Bay was invited to join Plymouth in an attempt to recover Castine, but declined to do so because she had no funds for the purpose. She succeeded, however, in persuading D'Aunay to release some Englishmen who had fallen into his hands; but as he took his time about doing so he was looked upon with distrust by our ancestors.2 La Tour probably surmised this, for in the autumn of 1641 he sent an envoy to Boston offering reciprocal freedom of trade and asking for assistance in his private war with D'Aunay. The Bay Colony accepted the former proposal and declined the latter. A year later a second envoy sailed into Boston Harbor. He was accompanied by about fourteen men and " brought letters from La Tour to the governor, full of compliments, and desire of assistance from us against Monsieur D'Aulnay." 3 Although ι. Francis Parkman, The Old Régime in Canada (1910), Chapter I. 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), I, 204-205. 3. Ibid., II, 106.

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they were Papists, the Frenchmen attended the Puritan church meeting and complimented Governor Winthrop on the good order of the Colony. This made a favorable impression, of course; but aid against D'Aunay was wisely withheld. In June, 1643, La Tour himself appeared. He came in a somewhat impressive ship that carried about one hundred and forty persons besides himself, and her progress up the harbor caused uneasiness if not actual alarm in Boston and Charlestown — for who could say that this was not a raider? Citizens hurriedly armed themselves; fully aware that the Castle was without a garrison and more or less dilapidated, they began to wonder whether the Colony had not carried economy a bit too far. Even Governor Winthrop admitted that "if La Tour had been ill-minded towards us, he had such an opportunity as we hope neither he nor any other shall ever have the like again." But La Tour was not ill-minded — at least not outwardly so. He came with a definite purpose, and the attainment of his object required all the friendly gestures he could make. He wanted help, and he explained his unfortunate situation to Winthrop. The fine ship now at anchor in Boston Harbor had been sent to him from France, but it could not get into St. John because the mouth of the river was blockaded by "two ships and a galliot" commanded by D'Aunay. La Tour himself, having viewed the situation from his fort on the river, had run the blockade in a small boat and joined those who were forbidden to enter. Now he had come to Boston to see if the Englishmen would not help him to drive his enemy away. Governor Winthrop replied that he would talk it over with his Assistants, and on the following day those who could be reached assembled and heard La Tour present his

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165

case. The captain of the ship was present, too, and the fact that he and his crew were Protestants was not without effect upon the minds of the Puritan worthies. He unrolled an engrossed parchment bearing the seal of the Vice-Admiral of France, which proved to be his commission to take supplies to L a Tour. Besides this he had a letter from the agent of the Company of New France; this was addressed to L a Tour as Lieutenant-General of Acadia, and its contents recounted D'Aunay's machinations against him and warned La Tour to be on his guard. The papers appeared to be genuine, and as the letter was of recent date the Magistrates of the Bay Colony considered them to be fairly good evidence that L a Tour, rather than D'Aunay, was the rightful lord of Acadia. Even so, there were one or two details in his past that needed to be explained. Was he not the man who had raided the trading wigwam at Machias and killed two Englishmen there several years ago? La Tour assured them that the killing was due to an accident and that all five Englishmen concerned in the unfortunate affair were drunk. As to the raid itself, it seemed to be understood that incidents of that kind were due to the fact that there was as yet no settled boundary between New France and New England. Winthrop and his counselors, apparently without much deliberation, told L a Tour that, as New England was now a confederacy, Massachusetts-Bay could not help him officially until she had consulted her sister colonies; but if he wished to employ any of the citizenry or hire any of their ships for the work in hand, they " thought it not fit nor just to hinder any that would be willing to be hired to aid him." 1 ι. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 130.

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The Frenchman was delighted and expressed his appreciation of their kindness. Within a month he had hired four ships and a pinnace and had engaged the services of about seventy fighting men. On July 14, 1643, his fleet sailed out of Boston Harbor, bound for St. John. Meanwhile, however, John Winthrop was beginning to discover that he had proceeded too fast and too far. Probably his first misgivings came in consequence of a letter he received from his colleague John Endecott hardly a week after the Magistrates at Boston had sanctioned the arrangement that La Tour found entirely satisfactory. The contents of the letter make it clear that Endecott was not present at the emergency meeting of the Assistants; and it is clear, too, that if he had been there probably a different answer would have been given to the persuasive "Lieutenant-General of Acadia." Tradition has it that in his youth Endecott had fought against the French in the Netherlands. However that may have been, he was less trustful of that race and their ways than was John Winthrop, to whom he addressed these lines on June 19, 1643: 1 Dear Sir, I am glad that La Tour hath not aid from us; and I could wish he might not have any from the ships: for as long as La Tour and Daulney are opposites they will weaken one another. If La Tour should prevail against him, we shall undoubtedly have an ill neighbour. His father and himself, as I am informed, have shed the blood of some English already, and taken away a pinnace and goods from Mr. Allerton. It were (I think) good [if] that business were cleared before he had either aid or liberty to hire ships; yea, or to depart. Sir, it is not the manner abroad to suffer strangers to view forts or fortifications, as it seems these French have done. I must needs say that I.

The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), I, 127. Here, as

elsewhere, I have taken the liberty of modernizing the spelling and punctuation.

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COMPLICATIONS

167

I fear w e shall h a v e little c o m f o r t in h a v i n g a n y t h i n g to d o w i t h these idolatrous F r e n c h . T h e c o u n t r y hereabouts is m u c h troubled that they are so entertained a n d h a v e their liberty, as they h a v e , to b r i n g their soldiers ashore a n d to suffer t h e m to train their m e n . A n d g r e a t jealousies there are that it is not D a u l n e y that is a i m e d at, — seeing such a strength will neither suit such a p o o r design, a n d L a T o u r a m a n of w e a k estate, as it is said. W h e r e f o r e , other m e n ' s h a n d s are e m p l o y e d — a n d purses, too — for some other service. B u t I l e a v e all things to y o u r serious considerations, desiring the L o r d to g u i d e y o u therein to the glory a n d p e a c e of the churches here, to w h o s e grace I c o m m i t y o u a n d h u m b l y rest Y o u r s truly ever, J o : ENDECOTT

Endecott may have been the first, but he was not the only man in the Colony to lament the unneutral action of the Governor and his local advisers. Ministers preached sermons about it and quoted passages from the Scriptures to sustain them. Those who disapproved what had been done found many a chapter and verse in the Old Testament that proved it was iniquitous. Those who approved Winthrop's policy refuted their opponents with other passages from the Old Testament and supplemented these with precepts from the New. Winthrop knew his Bible from Genesis through Revelation and must have been bewildered by the contradictions it seemed to contain on the point at issue. Apparently he found chief comfort and support in the parable of the Good Samaritan.1 He needed all the comfort he could derive from that or any other source, for he was a thoroughly conscientious man under fire; and among those who criticized his course with La Tour were some of the men he respected most in all the Colony. A month after Endecott's gentle admonition there came a sharp reproof from the ι . John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 136.

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chief men of Ipswich — young Richard Saltonstall, Simon Bradstreet, Samuel Symonds, Nathaniel Ward, and others — who declared, " W e have little hope to revoke resolutions so far transacted and ripened, but we presume it shall not be taken amiss if we labour to wash our hands wholly of this design and whatsoever ill consequences it may produce." 1 Cynics may point out that those who protested most loudly lived in parts of the Colony that could not benefit from traffic with La Tour. Boston supplied him with ships and men at a good price, and consequently Boston's conscience was not troubled by the breach of neutrality involved. A more reasonable explanation of the sectional difference of opinion would be this: Boston was exposed to the charm and good manners of a polite Frenchman and was so dazzled by them that she lost her head; the more remote places viewed the situation with cold detachment, and kept theirs. Endecott, as we have seen, was one of those who disagreed with Winthrop and those who had advised him. But he knew from his own experience what the Governor was going through at this time, and while others criticized he extended a friendly hand. Endecott did not change his position — not he, for he was still convinced that a mistake had been made. But he defended his chief as best he could and sent him both consolation and advice in a letter that must have warmed Winthrop's troubled heart. Addressing him as "Dearest Sir," Endecott wrote: I find that your troubles are many, and especially about this French business. The Lord in mercy support you. I am much grieved to hear what I hear; and I see more of the spirits of some men than ever I thought I should see. The Lord rebuke Satan. Sir, be of good comfort; I.

The Hutchinson Papers

(published by the Prince Society), I, 129.

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COMPLICATIONS

169

I doubt not but our God that is in heaven will carry you above all the injuries of men, for I know you would not permit anything, much less act in anything, that might tend to the least damage of this people; and this I am assured of, that most of God's people here about us are of the same mind. The rumors of the country you know; they rise out of ignorance principally and much out of fears; wherefore I pray you let there be satisfaction given as soon as you conveniently can, in the way you wrote me of, for I find the spirits of men in this country are too quick and forward. I cannot excuse myself, yet I bless God not to wrong you; but according to the information and light I received from you I acted publicly so far forth as to break down all prejudices against yourself or the rest that advised you. Our prayers here are publicly and privately for a good issue of it, and that continually. I hope God will look upon your sincerity in mercy and will hear our requests.1 When L a Tour with his ships and mercenaries appeared at the mouth of the St. John River, D ' A u n a y saw that he was outnumbered and speedily withdrew his blockading squadron.

This was not enough from the point of view of

L a Tour, and he and his fleet gave chase across the Bay of Fundy. D ' A u n a y made Port Royal safely and proceeded to fortify himself there. La Tour called upon him to surrender, and D ' A u n a y refused.

L a Tour was for an assault on the

place and urged the Massachusetts men to assist him. This their commander, Captain Hawkins, wisely declined to order; but he agreed that those of his men who wished to assist L a Tour in the attack might do so.

About thirty

volunteered to fight, and there was a skirmish that resulted in D'Aunay's men being driven out of a mill. When the mill had been set on fire and some standing grain burned, L a Tour called off his forces and sailed away to his own bailiwick of ι. Ibid., I, 134. The "satisfaction" referred to by Endecott took the form of a long letter from Winthrop to Saltonstall and others. It is printed in ibid.,

I, 136-147. The original letter from Endecott to Winthrop is in the "Endicott Papers" in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

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St. John. Towards the end of August the Puritan contingent returned to Boston, "not one person missing or sick." Thus subsided, for the time being, "the French business" which had created a great controversy in MassachusettsBay in the summer of 1643. Through good luck no one but D'Aunay was the worse for the episode, but many a man in the Colony felt that good intentions and good luck were not firm enough ground on which to build a foreign policy. If Winthrop were reelected Governor it would be tantamount to approving his conduct in this affair. Excellent man though he was, he had blundered once and might blunder again. So it came to pass that at the election in May, 1644, John Winthrop was gently demoted to the office of Deputy Governor, and the highest place in the state was given to John Endecott.

CHAPTER

XV

N O BED OF ROSES

N D E C O T T could have had no illusions about the office of Governor of Massachusetts-Bay. It was no bed of roses, and he knew it. Sometimes one wonders that he or any other conscientious Puritan was willing to occupy that position; but men in public life appear to become insensitive to criticism and misrepresentation; some seem even to thrive on them. Endecott's willingness in this respect is not hard to understand: as Governor of the Company's plantation, he had been abruptly superseded by Winthrop; as impulsive Magistrate he had been harshly disciplined by the General Court; he had seen young men jostling their elders and betters in an attempt to control the government, and he had seen at least one political favorite make a sorry spectacle of himself as head of the Bible Commonwealth; by degrees he had risen to the office of Deputy Governor; the times called for a firm and experienced hand at the helm; the people called for John Endecott, and he accepted the responsibility of steering their ship of state through troubled waters to a safe port and bringing his constituents to better times and better ways of life. In spite of foreign complications during the preceding administrations, the General Court had found time for more or less domestic business. One of the important measures adopted in 1643 divided the Colony into four shires or

E

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counties — Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk.1 This was a logical outgrowth of an earlier vote dividing the Colony into four administrative districts, though territorially the old districts and the new shires did not wholly coincide. The creation of counties was primarily for purposes of administration, but almost immediately it assumed a political significance that was not foreseen in certain quarters. Essex County, from the time of Nathaniel Ward through the era of Henry Cabot Lodge, has possessed and displayed a genius for politics. The setting apart of that region as a unit strengthened a natural tendency, and it was not long before it produced interesting developments. At the final session of the General Court in the Winthrop administration, it was agreed that before its next meeting the Deputies should assemble in their several shires to prepare business. This sounded like a reasonable measure that would save time for all concerned when the Court should meet. It was put through by " those of Essex," and was carried out by them and by their unsuspecting brethren of the other counties. What programs of legislation, if any, were drawn up by the hoodwinked deputies of Suffolk, Middlesex, and Norfolk matters little. Probably there were none. Certainly there were none that could contend with the schemes of the Essex organization; and when the Court met, the representatives of the smaller towns, somewhat bewildered, fell into line behind the Salem and Ipswich politicians and found themselves voting for various strange and doubtful measures. The first of these would transfer the seat ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I , 3 8 . Norfolk was not the present Norfolk County, but was literally " t h e north f o l k " — those living beyond the Merrimac, including the towns of N e w Hampshire which had recently requested to be taken under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts-Bay.

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of government from Boston to Salem. More than one argument could be advanced in favor of the change. The Colony was bound to expand northward rather than southward, for twenty miles south of Boston it would run afoul of the Plymouth Plantation. Towards the north it had already spread forty miles to its authorized boundary just beyond the Merrimac, and now that New Hampshire had asked to be taken under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts-Bay, the Colony might be said to extend sixty miles northward from Boston. Of this domain, which ran along the coast from Cohasset Harbor to the swirling waters of the Piscataqua, the geographical centre was much nearer to Salem than it was to Boston. With the election of Endecott the same should be true of the political centre. In the minds of the politicians of Essex, Boston had gone by. Salem should be the capital of the Colony, the General Court should meet there, the treasury should be established there, and to complete the arrangement four men of Essex plus seven of the Magistrates should constitute a special Council " t o order all affairs of the Commonwealth" when the General Court was not in session. The chief promoter of this audacious program was none other than William Hathorne, he who had bearded Winthrop and baited Endecott.1 As Speaker of the House of Deputies, now a separate branch of the General Court, and with the Essex machine behind him, Hathorne guided the bills safely through the lower house with little difficulty. But the Assistants were not so easily persuaded, and their consent was necessary if the measures were to become law. According to Winthrop, the Magistrates discerned a plot, ι. John Winthrop, History of New

England

(1853), II, 210.

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and finding the proposals "hurtful to the commonwealth, refused to pass them." The Essex politicians did not accept defeat with good grace and continued to fight for their principal point, the creation of a special Council with power to act in the interim between sessions of the General Court. On this Council, as we have seen, there should be three members of the House of Deputies and Nathaniel Ward — all four from Essex County. The Magistrates maintained that under the terms of the charter they were and always had been the Governor's Council, and needed no addition to their numbers. As a last resort the Deputies tried to extort a promise from the Assistants that if an emergency should arise during the summer nothing should be done until the General Court met. When Endecott and his colleagues replied that they would do as they saw fit, Hathorne retorted, " Y o u will not be obeyed." 1 William Hathorne was becoming a nuisance, if not a menace. In another political manoeuvre the Essex group was more successful. For commissioners to represent MassachusettsBay in the New England Confederation, Simon Bradstreet of Ipswich and William Hathorne of Salem were chosen. This selection grieved Winthrop and probably the rest of the conservatives, partly because the other colonies elected men of greater distinction and partly because these two were "both eastern men, quite out of correspondency with the other confederates." Humiliating though it was to be represented by these insurgents, it was far better for the Magistrates to yield on a matter of personnel than on a constitutional issue that infringed upon their authority and might imperil the colony. They shrugged their shoulders and accepted the situation. I.

Ibid., I I , 206.

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Domestic strife subsided with the end of the first session of the General Court. Then who should come sailing into Boston Harbor but Monsieur La Tour ! Finding that Governor Endecott was not in the metropolis, he sought him out at Salem. His mission was much what it had been a year ago. D'Aunay had been to France and was now on his way to Acadia with a strong force to crush him. Would not his friends the English assure him of aid against his enemy? Offhand one might think that Endecott would have received him coolly and might even have suggested that it was time he stood on his own feet. But as yet no one in the Bay Colony had reason to think that he was the pretender and that D'Aunay was the official representative of the king of France. Furthermore, the Colony had an old grievance against D'Aunay, for two years before this time he had taken Castine from the Plymouth Plantation, and since that time had threatened to capture any Massachusetts vessels that traded with La Tour at St. John. Accordingly Endecott welcomed La Tour as if he were an old friend, and called a meeting of the Assistants and ministers to listen to his tale of woe. This meeting was held at Boston on July 23, 1644, and the Frenchman presented his case so convincingly that most of the Magistrates and some of the ministers were satisfied that he was a neighbor in distress and that the Colony should assist him. However, as three or four of the Assistants were hesitant and a number of the ministers absent, Endecott wisely deferred a decision and called another meeting. This was to be held at Salem, and it was hoped that more of the clergy would attend and advise. At Salem, therefore, a week later Endecott laid the situation before his counselors again. Some remained skeptical about La Tour, and others

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were unwilling to sanction any plan unless it was done unanimously. A compromise that suited everybody was to leave La Tour in uncertainty but take advantage of the opportunity to lay down the law to D'Aunay. Consequently a fairly strong letter was written to D'Aunay reciting the Colony's grievances against him and disclaiming all responsibility for whatever harm La Tour's English mercenaries might have done in the preceding year. 1 As D'Aunay had written to their Governor in French, this letter, which was signed by eight of the Magistrates, was written in English; " but understanding that he had been formerly scrupulous to answer letters in English, we therefore gave the messenger a copy of it in French." 2 Towards the end of the summer it was clear to L a Tour thai the government of Massachusetts-Bay was not what it used to be. His visit had gained him nothing except a pleasant talk with the Puritan Governor and the embarrassment of seeing one of his men placed in the stocks at Boston because of a minor offense. However, our ancestors took care not to make an enemy of L a Tour; when he departed, on September 9, the militia paraded to do him honor, and Winthrop and others accompanied him to the wharf. As he sailed down Boston Harbor, his bark saluted with all six of her guns. The militia returned the compliment with a volley from their muskets and their one field piece; and all the ships in the harbor shot off their guns to bid him Godspeed. It was high time the Bay Colony should learn and ob1. The Colony's copy of this letter is preserved in the Massachusetts Archives, II, 482-483. It is printed in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Third Series, V I I , 9 9 - 1 0 2 . 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 220.

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serve a little international law, for problems in that field were being forced upon her at almost every turn. While Endecott was formulating a policy for the L a TourD'Aunay situation, a Captain Stagg came up the harbor and anchoring between a British ship and the Charlestown shore called upon her commander to surrender. Captain Stagg had twenty-four guns and a commission from Parliament. The other ship hailed from Bristol, a part of England then dominated by the King's party, and by the rules of the game she was accounted a royalist vessel. Captain Stagg had also a half-hour glass. He turned this up and told his victim that he would expect an answer within thirty minutes. It was not long before news of this challenge reached the ears of the Bostonians and a crowd gathered on Copp's Hill to witness the outcome. Some said the crew of the Bristol ship would blow her up rather than surrender; others looked forward to a one-sided duel between the two vessels. All in all it was a very enlivening half-hour for everybody. By the time the sand had run, the unfortunate royalist had decided to yield, and yield he did. Thereupon several interesting questions arose. Was the English Parliament a foreign government? Was the colony of Massachusetts-Bay a neutral state? If it was not an independent neutral, to which party did it belong: to the King, from whom it had received its charter, or to Parliament, with whose general principles and aims it was sympathetic? And, finally, did the local merchants who had loaded goods on the Bristol ship stand to lose those goods as prize to this friendly enemy? These and more were some of the riddles suddenly propounded to Governor Endecott in the summer of 1644. Profiting no doubt by Winthrop's recent experiences, and controlling his own natural inclination for pre-

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cipitate action, Endecott brought the matter up at the Salem conference which, as we have seen, had been called for another purpose. The Magistrates and ministers had their hands full indeed. The second phase of the French business could be turned off without definite settlement, but this invasion of the sanctity of Boston Harbor by Captain Stagg and the loss of pounds and shillings by some of their own number was a matter of immediate and vital concern. This was no theoretical question to be decided by passages from the Bible. Neither was it a case that could be solved by the principles of international law. For a situation of this kind the only rule to follow was the rule of expediency; and though there was some difference of opinion as to what was expedient, the conviction grew that Parliament had superseded the King as the foundation of their government and consequently Captain Stagg's commission from Parliament should be respected.1 The fact that his ship mounted twenty-four guns doubtless influenced Endecott and his advisers in making up their minds, but even so one feels that they ppndered the problem with a certain amount of detachment and made a decision that was both shrewd and sound: Massachusetts-Bay was, for the time being, subject to the British Parliament, but "if the Parliament should hereafter be of a malignant spirit," the Colony might at any time change her mind and become an independent state ! This solution was a happy one as far as the Colony as a whole was concerned, but it did not do much to cheer the local merchants whose unpaid-for goods had been seized by Captain Stagg. At the Salem conference Stagg displayed I. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 2 2 3 - 2 2 5 .

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his commission from Parliament, and that document made it entirely clear, not only that he had the right to take as prize any Bristol ship in any port, but that he must bring in its cargo unbroken if he was to share in the spoils. The Boston goods were a part of this cargo and so could not be taken out and returned to the consignors. To calm the fears of the merchants Endecott assured them that when the ship and cargo were condemned Parliament would without doubt exempt their wares and they would not be the losers. This assurance was good as far as it went, but to the minds of the merchants it was not sufficiently substantial, and they demanded an immediate trial in a New England court — in fact, they procured an attachment against Captain Stagg. At this point Winthrop, who had handled the situation in Boston from the beginning and had handled it well, intervened and persuaded them to leave the case in the hands of Endecott and the Assistants. A special meeting of the Magistrates in the vicinity was held, and they issued a formal statement to the Admiralty giving the facts of the case. As we hear no more of the merchants and their worries, we may assume that restitution followed in the course of time. Another incident in the busy summer of 1644 concerned Thomas Morton, one time of Merrymount, whose boisterous followers Endecott had endeavored to discipline about fifteen years before. It will be recalled that on that occasion Endecott caused the notorious Maypole to be cut down and charged Morton's company " t o look well that there be better walking." Morton himself was absent, having been deported from New England by the authorities of the Plymouth Colony. A little later Morton returned ; Endecott liked it not, but he was suffered to remain at large until late in

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the summer of 1630. Then he was arrested, imprisoned, and somewhat violently deported by the strong arm of Massachusetts-Bay.1 Once more in Old England, Morton allied himself with those who were striving to bring about the revocation of the charter of the Bay Company and to compass the downfall of its colony. Those sinister forces all but succeeded. Then he amused himself by writing and publishing his New English Canaan, a burlesque account of life in New England based on his own experiences. In spite of all these activities, which were well known to our ancestors, he blithely reappeared on our shores in the summer of 1643 — not at Boston, to be sure, but at Plymouth. There he was tolerated for a while, an unwelcome guest and a suspicious character, about whose presence Edward Winslow wrote an apologetic letter to Governor Winthrop.2 He visited in Rhode Island, too, where he talked as if he were about to dispose of large tracts of land in New England, " and from Cape Ann to Cape Cod was one." 3 The government of Massachusetts-Bay kept itself informed about Morton's movements, and in this surveillance no eye was keener than that of John Endecott. In his book Morton had called Endecott " the great swelling fellow of Littleworth" 4 and had cast other aspersions that were not likely to be forgotten by that spirited gentleman. Endecott bided his time. In the spring of 1644 he was elected Governor, and a few week later his time came. Hearing a rumor that Morton had gone by sea to Gloucester on his way to points farther east, he wrote Winthrop: " I sent a warrant to ι. Charles Francis Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, I, 2 4 1 - 2 4 3 . 2. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, V I , 175. 3. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, I I , 147, note 2. 4. Thomas Morton, New English Canaan (edited by Charles Francis Adams), p. 304.

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Gloucester to apprehend him, if he be there, for it is probable he hath endeavored a party to the southward and now he is gone to the eastward to do the like. It is most likely that Jesuits or some that way disposed have sent him over to do us mischief, to raise up our enemies round about us both English and Indian. If you can send me other speedy advice what to do herein I shall endeavor to put it in execution." 1 With almost three centuries between us and Thomas Morton it is easy to smile at Endecott's suspicions and precautions; but we must remember that in 1644 Morton's machinations against the Colony were still very fresh in Puritan minds. Even though he was now considerably slowed down and so poor that he was "content to drinke water," 2 he was still a dangerous man — or would be such if the tide of fortune should turn against Parliament in the Civil War then raging in England. Accordingly he was arrested, and in September came up for trial at Boston. In the presence of Endecott and the Assistants he denied as much as he could, but the evidence against him was too strong. Back to jail he was sent. There he languished for a year, while the Colony awaited further evidence from England. By that time he had become an embarrassment, and the question was what to do with him. Although it was clear that he had no money, it was decided to fine him £100 and set him at liberty. Ostensibly his liberty was for the purpose of finding the amount of the fine, but it was generally understood and universally hoped that he would make use of it to depart in peace from Massachusetts-Bay. This he did soon afterwards, going to York, in the Province of ι. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, V I , 148. 2. Ibid., VI, 175.

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Maine; there, "poor and despised," he died within two years.1 With La Tour gone to the eastward, Captain Stagg put in possession of his prize, and Morton locked up, Endecott was entitled to a respite from urgent business — but respites do not always come when earned. Encouraged by the decision in the Stagg case, some Boston merchants decided to seize a royalist vessel lying in the harbor. If MassachusettsBay was not a neutral state, but a branch or an ally of the Parliamentary government, why was not any ship from a royalist port liable to seizure by good Puritans? To our way of thinking this was a strained extension of the principle recently set forth by Endecott and his counselors; but as these enterprising merchants had lost a ship to the royalists not long since and now saw an opportunity to recoup that loss, we should hardly expect them to take a wholly impartial view. Endecott was not sure that they were not right; and having called a special session of the Magistrates, he requested the master of the ship to surrender her to the Colony pending a trial. This, as it happened, the captain was quite ready to do, for there were also in the harbor some London ships that were likely to pounce upon his vessel at any moment. Accordingly he surrendered to the Bay Colony. Everybody was pleased except a Captain Richardson of one of the London ships. He had a commission from the Admiralty and he intended to make use of it. Although Deputy Governor Winthrop told him distinctly to keep his hands off, he prepared to go ahead with his own plans. When word of this reached Endecott, who was at a meeting of the Magistrates, all the Governor's fighting blood was up ι. John Winthrop, History

of New England

(1853), II, 232-235.

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in an instant. He and his associates arose, went down to the waterfront, and climbed aboard the disputed vessel. Apparently Richardson's men had got there before him. At any rate her captain was gone, and it was understood that he was a prisoner on board the London ship. Endecott, thoroughly roused, sent two men to Richardson with orders for him to come ashore. When these orders did not produce the desired result he fired a shot from the battery. It was well aimed and cut a rope in the forward part of Richardson's ship. One of her men went below to return the fire, " but it pleased God that he hurt himself in the way, and so was not able to go on." 1 A stranger without authority saw fit to fire another shot from the battery, and the situation began to look like a free-for-all fight. Endecott was in his element. This was the kind of business he knew all about, and sending forty men aboard the royalist ship he prepared for a battle. At this point Captain Richardson, overflowing with explanations, excuses, and apologies, came ashore and accepted his defeat. For the trouble he had caused he was fined a barrel of powder, and then was dismissed. But the royalist ship remained in the hands of the colony of Massachusetts-Bay. When Endecott had talked the matter over at more length with the Magistrates and some of the ministers, she was turned over to the Boston merchants who had conceived the happy idea of making her their prize. While this business was occupying Endecott's time and attention at Boston, his neighbors at Salem were experiencing a mild thrill of their own. Into their harbor came a small boat bearing a Frenchman and about ten companions. The strangers asked for Governor Endecott, and when it ι.

Ibid., II, 239.

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was learned that he was in Boston, their spokesman — who was "supposed to be a friar, but habited like a gentleman" — dictated a letter to him asking when and where he might confer with him. His name was Marie and he came from D'Aunay of Acadia. It would have been interesting to see Endecott's face and hear some of his remarks when this letter reached him. Verily, he must have thought, when it is not one thing in this life it is another. However, he invited Monsieur Marie to come to Boston, and it was not long before the two men met for a conference. Endecott called together the Magistrates, and the Frenchman explained the purpose of his visit: D'Aunay desired peace and friendship with the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay. Marie opened the negotiation by showing his credentials from D'Aunay and D'Aunay's commission from the king of France. In the latter document, which bore the great seal of France and the privy seal as well, La Tour was denounced as a rebel and a traitor and D'Aunay was authorized to seize him and bring him home for trial. There was no longer any doubt about the status of that gentleman. D'Aunay felt that he had a grievance against the Massachusetts Puritans because of their behavior in the summer of 1643; but his king had charged him not to hold that against them, for they had acted in good faith, believing as they did that La Tour was Louis's Lieutenant-General in Acadia. 1 This cleared the air and put Endecott and his associates in a very receptive frame of mind. They would be glad to talk peace, but nothing conclusive could be done without the approval of the New England Confederation. If Monsieur Marie would set down his proposals in writing, they would be glad ι . Francis Parkman, The Old Régime in Canada (1910), p. 3 1 .

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to consider them. Thereupon Marie betook himself to the house where he was lodging and wrote the draft of an "agreement between John Endecott, Esq. Governor of the Massachusetts in New England, and the rest of the magistrates there, and Mr. Marie, commissioner of Mr. D'Aulnay, Knight, Governor and Lieutenant General of his Majesty the king of France, in Acadie." As he arrived in Boston "very late" on Friday, and saw Endecott on Saturday, it is probable that he devoted the Puritan Sabbath to writing and rewriting the protocol of the proposed treaty. On Monday he and the Magistrates resumed their sessions — and an interesting occasion it was. Encouraged by his friendly reception, Marie had included in his protocol an article that would bind Massachusetts-Bay to help D'Aunay against La Tour. This was more than Endecott was willing to do. Peace was one thing; aid, active or passive, was another. Marie was loath to yield on this point. For half a day he talked to Endecott in French and to the others in Latin; but it availed him little. Endecott and his associates signed an agreement, drawn up in Latin, but took care that nothing in it prevented their people from trading with any Frenchmen anywhere.1 On Tuesday Monsieur Marie expressed his appreciation of the attention and courtesy he had received in Boston and made haste to depart. The Magistrates supplied him with horses and an escort to Salem; they even offered him a bark in which he and his retinue could be transported to Acadia more comfortably than in his own small vessel, but this he quite naturally declined to accept. I. Winthrop's translation of the agreement may be found in his History of New England (1853), II, 2 4 2 - 2 4 3 ; the Latin text is printed in Ebenezer Hazard's Historical Collections, I, 5 3 6 - 5 3 7 , and in The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), I, 1 6 4 - 1 6 6 .

NO BED OF ROSES In September, 1645, the agreement was ratified by the Commissioners of the New England Confederation, and peace with D'Aunay became the law of the land. At peace with D'Aunay, on friendly terms with La Tour, cordially cooperating with Parliament yet mindful of the welfare of his fellow-citizens who might be the losers thereby, Endecott now faced the most difficult problem of all — the problem of restoring harmony within the government of the Bay Colony. The question had been on his mind ever since his election in the preceding spring, and the discord that marked the first session of the General Court had emphasized the need of conciliation among the various factions. The major quarrel was between the Magistrates, who constituted the upper house of the legislature, and the Deputies who, under the leadership of William Hathorne, seemed determined to wrest all the authority they could from those in higher station. But there was another dissension that troubled Endecott: the Magistrates were not all of one mind, and thus could not present a united front when challenged by the less conservative representatives of the people. Richard Bellingham and Richard Saltonstall were almost invariably on the other side of every question that arose, and though they were a very small minority it would be well to conciliate them and bring them into the fold if that were possible. At the close of the session Endecott looked about him for a board of arbitration, a body that would be respected by all and might have sufficient influence to bring in an era of cooperation. This he found in the clergy, and to them he turned over the task which neither he nor any of his associates could have performed. At the Salem conference, which was held towards the end of July, he made a speech in which he lamented "the great

NO BED OF ROSES differences and j airings which were upon all occasions, among the magistrates, and between them and the deputies," and pointed out that these were largely due to "jealousies and misreports." He even implied that the clergy had been remiss in not doing what they could to correct the situation, and he asked them " t o be mediators of a thorough reconciliation, and to go about it presently, and to meet at Boston two or three days before the next court to perfect the same." 1 The ministers agreed to do what he requested of them. As far as we know this was the first time in the turbulent history of Massachusetts-Bay that a conciliatory plan of this kind was adopted, and it is indeed remarkable that John Endecott, by nature a strong-willed, combative man, was the one to introduce it. For the time being, at least, it seems to have been extraordinarily successful. During the summer the ministers collected the various points of disagreement and made up their minds who was right and who was wrong. At the opening of the General Court, towards the end of October, they reported their findings and gave their reasons, and many a bitter issue was quietly laid to rest. No more during Endecott's administration was heard the voice of William Hathorne defying the Magistrates and telling them they would not be obeyed. And if Bellingham and Saltonstall continued to question the authority and policy of their colleagues in the upper house, they must have done so with more urbanity than heretofore, for Winthrop relates that " i n all these differences and agitations about them, they continued in brotherly love, and in the exercise of all friendly offices each to other, as occasion required." 2 ι. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 2 2 7 - 2 2 8 . 2. Ibid., II, 257.

NO BED OF ROSES Endecott, the peacemaker, had achieved what appeared to be an impossibility — complete harmony in a commonwealth of intense Puritans. On this wave of better understanding his administration rode serenely through the autumn of 1644 and the following winter and spring. In May, 1645, people of the Bay Colony were in so cheerful a frame of mind that they forgot old animosities and elected as Endecott's successor the most conservative of conservatives, Thomas Dudley. For their Deputy Governor they chose John Winthrop. Thus the principles of the founders were endorsed by a fickle people who, only four years before, had been eager to turn to new leaders and new notions of government. To Endecott was accorded the office of Sergeant-Major-General, in which he was subordinate to the Governor alone as commander of all the military forces in the Colony.1 And it hardly need be added that he was elected an Assistant. With Dudley, Winthrop, and Endecott, the great triumvirate, at the head of its civil and military affairs, Massachusetts-Bay may well have thought that the Millennium was at hand. But the Millennium has, and always has had, a disappointing way of retreating into the future at the very moment one begins to count upon its advent. I. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 5 1 .

CHAPTER OTIUM

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XVI TE

O H N E N D E C O T T was now a man of fifty-seven or fifty-eight years of age. For his services as Governor during the past year he was granted ϋιοο, 1 and with this honorarium and the satisfaction of knowing that he had made an excellent record he retired to his beloved Salem. On his shoulders rested much if not all of the responsibility for the conduct of the military affairs of the Colony for the next twelve months, but there were few war-clouds in the sky, and even if war should come it was unlikely that a man of his years would be obliged to take the field. The future looked bright, and a bit of leisure would not be displeasing to one who had had little opportunity to superintend the development of "Orchard" with its myriad young fruit trees. Dudley and Winthrop could cope with the major affairs of state, while he would enjoy a little relaxation in Essex County. As it turned out, war did come in the summer of 1645; but Endecott appears to have been disturbed only indirectly. The war, such as it was, amounted to little more than preparation for an expedition against the Narraganset Indians, a tribe in southern New England that was a disquieting element to its neighbors both red and white. At this time it was making trouble for the Mohegans, who turned to their friends the English for protection. The Com-

J

I. Records of Massachusetts Bay, II, 116.

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missioners of the New England Confederation were persuaded that the situation was serious and they held a special meeting to decide upon a course of action. Their first move was to command the Narraganset chiefs to come to Boston and explain their behavior. When this summons was answered with defiance and word was received from Roger Williams that " the country would suddenly be all on fire by war," the Commissioners decided that " G o d called the colonies to a war." Naturally Massachusetts-Bay was less affected by the Narraganset-Mohegan quarrel than any other member of the Confederation; but membership in the league dragged her into it and she found herself called upon to supply one hundred and ninety men — almost two-thirds of the Confederation's forces — to go to the war. 1 The chief command was entrusted to a Bostonian, Major Edward Gibbons, and perhaps that appointment helped to reconcile our ancestors to this interruption of their regular summer work. Forty men were sent off at once to reassure the Mohegan chief, Uncas, and to give his enemies a suggestion of the wrath to come. Then there was a great bustle of military preparation throughout the Bay Colony, including Essex County. Troops were mustered, equipment assembled, and ships collected. Apparently the impressment of private property for the good of the commonwealth was done by the civil authorities and not by the military. Otherwise, Major-General Endecott would not have found it necessary to write the following letter to his old friend, Deputy Governor Winthrop.2 ι. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 225. 2. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, V I , 149-150. Here, as elsewhere, I have taken the liberty of modernizing the spelling and punctuation.

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Sir, — There is a horse of one Goodwife Ingersoll, a widow, which is pressed for the service of these wars. I cannot prevail with the constable to release him. I would not willingly put forth any power against the service of the Country, but the truth is it is a horse which I always, on occasion, ride on, and I have none other of mine own at present to use; my mare is now great with foal which I used to ride, and my other mares are not yet backed. Besides, this horse I have in price, because I would not be unfurnished upon all occasions. And if the horse should go, it will be a loss to the Country, for I know he will be spoiled. He is a costly horse. She is offered ten pounds for him, and I think ι o li will hardly fetch him. T h e constable might have good mares, and he saith seeing the warrant is for horses he will not take a mare. D o in it what you shall see good. It is true the woman hath another young horse, but she hath not seen him this three or four months, and if she could find him (which is a question whether she can or no, or whether he be not lost) yet being a young horse not used to be rid, he would also be unserviceable. Further, I thought good to write unto you that there are some pressed which are serviceable men and they have no arms. If the clerk of the band were sent for and dealt with, that he hath not been so careful in this particular, it were well. There is some cause why I should not do it, otherwise I should not have thus written. The constable is glad to press other men's arms to supply theirs, so that some will be disarmed amongst us unless you could supply them there with the Country's arms. I see that if we should be put to it against a foreign enemy, that the Country is raw and much unfurnished, I shall look to it (God willing) for the time to come. I am sorry you are so troubled about these occasions. T h e Lord in mercy carry you through them. In whom I am Yours ever Jo:

ENDECOTT

Salem the 20th of the 6 mo. 1645. This morning the captain came and told me that divers Indians were found driving away the cattle at the head of the river, near my farm, and shot at the keeper of them and at the cattle, but I hope it is false. However, there are 5 horsemen sent out to understand the truth of it; and to seek after them, if true. I purpose tomorrow, God willing, to range the woods with some more company, if the news be true.

Fortunately for Endecott, Goodwife Ingersoll, and the horse, the proposed war with the Narragansets was sud-

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denly called off. When the savages learned that the white men meant business, their sachems hastened to Boston and made a treaty of "firm and perpetual peace" with the New England Confederation and with all its Indian allies and friends.1 During the first few months of their administration Dudley and Winthrop had troubles enough without the additional burden of an Indian war in which their colony would have had no immediate interest. The era of good feelings that had marked most of the Endecott régime came to a sudden end in the spring session of the General Court. Soon after the inauguration of the newly elected Governor and Deputy Governor, Winthrop was accused of having exceeded his authority in his method of dealing with a squabble among the inhabitants of Hingham. This accusation led to a public hearing of the case before the Deputies and the Magistrates, a hearing that Winthrop chose to regard as an impeachment and trial of himself. His attitude and consequent course of conduct were not only justifiable but very astute as well; for if he had taken his seat among the other Magistrates at the hearing there might have been complaint that he was acting as a judge on his case. He avoided this by sitting "beneath, within the bar," in the Boston meeting-house, like any defendant in a criminal court, thus bringing home to the people the full significance of the Hingham complaint and winning to himself the support of many persons who had regarded the "hearing" as just another dispute between the governing class and the governed. As always, John Winthrop behaved admirably under fire. His accusers and defenders did not conduct themselves so ι. John Gorham Palfrey¡ History

of New England,

II) 229.

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well. Becoming excited, they spoke out of order, created confusion, and delayed the progress of justice.1 The wearisome business dragged along into the early part of July, but it ended in a complete vindication of Winthrop; and to prevent the recurrence of such tumult and indignity the Court imposed fines and costs amounting to £100 2 upon those who had caused all the disturbance. For the time being at least there was little danger that the government of the Colony would sink into what Winthrop called " a mere democracy." The remainder of the political year was comparatively tranquil, and when election time came, in May, 1646, Winthrop was elected Governor, and Dudley Deputy Governor. Endecott was continued in office as Assistant and as Sergeant-Major-General, and he was also chosen one of the two Commissioners to represent Massachusetts-Bay in the New England Confederation.3 Up to this time election to the latter office had been kept in the hands of the General Court, but in this year it was turned over to the people. The fact that they chose Endecott to three important positions in the government indicates the place he had won and still retained in their minds and hearts. The chief excitement of the political year 1646-47 grew out of a petition of Dr. Robert Child and some other malcontents who wished to have the franchise extended to include all members of the churches of England or Scotland. As we have already noted, in the Bay Colony one could not vote or hold office unless he were a member of one of the local churches. Being one of the congregation did not suf1. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 277. 2. Records of Massachusetts Bay, II, 113. 3. Ibid., II, 187.

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fice, for as everybody knew there were too many black sheep in those flocks. In order to be a member, and so a voter, one had to have had a religious experience and a past life that satisfied the inner circle that he was fit for admission to its number. These requirements Dr. Child, a Presbyterian, and Samuel Maverick, a Church of England man, and sundry other inhabitants could not meet. Consequently they felt that the system should be changed. They petitioned the General Court for relief; and, what is more, they threatened to appeal to England if they did not get what they asked for. From the point of view of Winthrop and Dudley and a great majority of the Magistrates, both of these propositions were preposterous. The colony of Massachusetts-Bay was getting along very well as it was. Why let down the bars and allow Tom, Dick, and Harry to enter the fold? If these unorthodox persons did not like the way things were run in New England, they could go elsewhere — and would never be missed. In England, it was true, a common cause had made political bedfellows of Independents,. Nonconformists, and Presbyterians, but the situation in Massachusetts-Bay was entirely different. The Deputies took the same view as the Magistrates, and it was not long before the petitioners received their answer in the negative and were roundly fined besides. Here was unanimity such as had seldom marked an issue before the General Court. Thus in their attempt to modify, perhaps to overthrow, the old régime Dr. Child and his associates really did the Bay Colony a service, for the result was a solidity of feeling that augured well for the community. Furthermore, their petition precipitated the calling of a synod or council of churches to enunciate the principles upon which the ecclesiastical system of Massachusetts-Bay

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was based. This synod, which was held at Cambridge in the late summer of 1646, in the spring of 1647, and in the summer of 1648, confirmed and crystallized the order that had prevailed for the past fifteen years or more. This was not Independency, the system of the Plymouth Colony, in which each church followed its own light and was entirely independent of every other. Endecott and Roger Williams had hoped to see that principle adopted in MassachusettsBay, but they had been overruled. Our ancestors loved freedom, but they also cherished order; and they could not be persuaded that Independency might not lead to chaos in church and state. To them the ideal system was the Congregational, an arrangement under which each church was a distinct ecclesiastical entity watched over by all the other churches in the Colony. When occasion arose, a synod should be called to express its opinion on a debated question. The synod should have no power to act directly upon an individual Christian, but it could advise an individual church, and in extreme cases "might withdraw the countenance and fellowship of the churches represented in it from the offending church, thus making public their sense of its ill-desert, and their own exemption from responsibility." 1 To the character of the people of Massachusetts-Bay the Congregational system established by our Puritan forbears was admirably suited, and it has proved its worth through the changing conditions of over three hundred years. In the autumn of 1648 John Winthrop wrote to his son> John, Jr., who had moved to Connecticut: " M r . Endecott hath found a copper mine in his own ground. Mr. Leader ι. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 183. For a detailed account of the Cambridge Synod and its Platform, see Williston Walker, The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, pp. 1 6 7 - 2 3 7 .

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hath tried it." 1 The "ground" was not at Salem nor at the farm at Salem Village, but in that tract of land on Ipswich River, in the present towns of Boxford and Topsfield, that had been granted to Endecott in 1639. Mr. Leader, who had "tried it," was a metallurgist who had come to New England at the behest of the younger Winthrop; in fact, he was the manager of the ironworks recently established at Lynn. 2 And though that enterprise was not a commercial success, Richard Leader was recognized as the best authority in the Colony on ores and metals. When he told Endecott that he was the owner of a copper mine, that gentleman can hardly have been displeased. Ten or twelve years before this discovery Thomas Morton, in his sportive New English Canaan, had written: "They say there is a Silver and a gold mine found by Captain Littleworth: if hee get a patent of it to himselfe hee will surely change his name." 3 As a rule Morton's little jokes were not relished by John Endecott, but perhaps he of Merrymount was something of a prophet after all! Endecott had always been interested in the mineral possibilities of Massachusetts-Bay, and when the ironworks at Lynn were being promoted he wrote the elder Winthrop: " I want much to heare of your sonnes iron and Steele. If the country will not be incouraged by so usefull a designe, to enlardge themselves for the advantage of it, I know not what will." 4 Bewildering though the second sentence is, the passage as a whole suggests Endecott's sentiments on the subject of natural resources and their use in 1. Robert C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop, II, 382. 2. For an excellent brief account of this venture, see Samuel Eliot Morison's Builders of the Bay Colony, pp. 276-279. The ironworks were in that part of Lynn which has since become Saugus. 3. Thomas Morton, New English Canaan (Prince Society edition), p. 220. 4. The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), I, 150.

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local industries. As far as we have been able to discover, what he now attempted on Ipswich River was the first experiment in mining copper undertaken by any English colonist in America. Copper was there; there was no doubt about that. For two or three years Endecott had it mined and melted, presumably in small quantities, and became convinced that if the thing was to be a success he must import skilled artisans from Sweden or Germany. He set about doing this, and also petitioned the General Court for additional land near the mine.1 Ostensibly he would need this land for the wood that was on it; smelting operations would, of course, require a deal of fuel. But one suspects that it may have occurred to him, with an equal degree of conviction, that the ground on which the trees grew might also contain copper ore. In October, 1651, the Court granted his request "provided he set up his said workes within seven yeares." 2 The proposed site for the plant was a district on the south bank of the Ipswich River known as Blind Hole — an appropriate appellation, as Endecott and others were to learn to their disappointment.3 We wish we knew more, much more, of the how and when of that disappointment. It may have been connected with a falling out that occurred in 1651 between Mr. Leader and the government of the Colony, a falling out so serious that Leader was haled into court and fined. Apparently his quarrel was not with Endecott as a private citizen or business associate, for it in1. Massachusetts Archives, V o l . L I X , folio 45. There is a copy of this document in the "Endicott Papers" in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, box 3, folder 13. 2. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I I , 256. 3. A contemporary map showing Endecott's holding and the Blind Hole region is preserved in the Massachusetts Archives, " M a p s and Plans," 31. A photostat copy is among the " Endicott Papers" in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

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eluded the General Court and the church at Lynn; it was a disagreement with the whole existing order. As manager of the Lynn ironworks Mr. Leader had a hard row to hoe. Labor was scarce and far from tractable; accidents occurred; the town of Lynn imposed taxes that were too high; and the stockholders were impatient for dividends. Probably Richard Leader had an attack of nerves in 1651 and spoke his mind too freely. The Court, having fined him £250, relented when he acknowledged his fault and reduced the fine to £50.* But the episode and the example of the ironworks did not tend to encourage John Endecott or anyone else to go much further in copper mining at that time. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the mine, or at any rate a copper mine in Topsfield, passed into other hands; it was experimented with as late as 1839, but according to tradition the last company that was interested in it removed only enough copper to make a head to a cane for one of the directors.2 The pursuit of copper has caused us to neglect for the moment Endecott's political progress in the years 1646-49. Until 1649 he was reelected each year to the offices of Assistant, Sergeant-Major-General, and Commissioner of the United Colonies of New England. In 1648-49 Thomas Dudley was Governor, and John Winthrop Deputy Governor; and towards the end of March, 1648/9, Winthrop died. There would have to be a new candidate for his office at the elections to be held on the second day of May, and the logical man for the place was John Endecott. There seems to have been no good reason why Thomas Dudley should not have been continued as Governor; but by one of those pe1. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I I , 2 2 7 - 2 2 8 . 2. Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society, II (1896), 7 3 - 8 1 .

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culiar rearrangements which had become characteristic of the political life of the Bay Colony, Dudley was chosen Deputy Governor and Endecott was elected Governor. Doubtless it was on this occasion that Captain Edward Johnson of Woburn was moved to write his well-known tribute to one whom he saluted as J o h n Endicat twice Governour of the English inhabiting the Mattachusetts Bay in N. England. Strong valiant J o h n wilt thou march on, and take up station first, Christ cal'd hath thee, his Souldier be, and faile not of thy trust; Wilderness wants Christs grace supplants, the plant his Churches pure, With Tongues gifted, and graces led, help thou to his procure; Undanted thou wilt not allow Malignant men to wast: Christs Vineyard heere, whose grace should cheer, his well-beloved's tast. Then honoured be, thy Christ hath thee their Generali promoted: T o shew their love, in place above, his people have thee voted. Y e t must thou fall, to grave with all the Nobles of the Earth, T h o u rotting worme, to dust must turn, and worse but for new birth. 1 ι . Wonder- Working Providence of Sions Saviour (edited by William Frederick Poole), p. 19.

CHAPTER

XVII

ONE J E S U I T AND T H R E E BAPTISTS

HE reign of John Endecott — for it was virtually that — began in May, 1649, and ended with his death in March, 1664/5. ^ t r u e that during two of those sixteen years he was not Governor; but when he was not Governor he was Deputy Governor, and the entire period in Massachusetts history might well be termed the Endecott era. He was fortunate in coming into power at the end of the 1640's, for the economic tide had clearly turned and New England was enjoying more and more prosperity. Politically, too, the times were favorable. Charles I was dead, and in his place a strong, fearless Puritan guided the destiny of England. Whether or not the people of Massachusetts-Bay approved the execution of their sovereign, they realized that many of their chronic fears departed with him. As long as Cromwell was at the head of affairs in England, Congregationalism had little to fear from its ancient enemy, Episcopacy; and the recurrent threat that their charter would be taken away from them was in abeyance, if not actually dead. Whatever they might do, the New Englanders felt reasonably certain of being understood by the government of England, perhaps even commended. For Puritans on both sides of the Atlantic the Millennium had arrived — and they made the most of it. One of Endecott's first acts, though trivial in history, was significant of the attitude of mind of our ancestors, and for that reason deserves mention here. It was an announce-

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ment and an exhortation on the part of the Governor ánd some of the Magistrates, and since it is preserved in the records of Harvard College,1 we suspect that it was aimed at the younger generation rather than at contemporary dyed-in-the-wool Puritans. It is dated May 10, 1649, a n d runs as follows: Forasmuch as the wearing of long haire after the manner of Ruffians and barbarous Indians, hath begun to invade new England contrary to the rule of Gods word, which saith it is a shame for a man to wear long hair, as also the Commendable Custome generally of all the Godly of our nation until within this few yeares Wee the Magistrates who have subscribed this paper (for the clearing of our owne innocency in this behalfe) doe declare and manifest our dislike and detestation against the wearing of such long haire, as against a thing uncivil and unmanly whereby men doe deforme themselves, and offend sober and modest men, and doe corrupt good manners. Wee doe therefore earnestly entreat all the Elders of this Jurisdiction (as often as they shall see cause) to manifest their zeal against it, in their Publike administrations, and to take Care that the members of their respective Churches bee not defiled therewith, that so such as shall proove obstinate and will not reforme themselves may have god and man to bear witnes against them.

The manifesto is signed by nine Magistrates, and of the nine names that of "Jo: Endecott, Governor," leads all the rest. Some may smile at this attempt to curb human vanity by regulating personal appearance, but there are those even in the twentieth century who would be glad if the power of suasion could be similarly used against some of the barbarous fashions of our own time. And who will say that they of the seventeenth century with their effort to maintain a standard by exhortation and patrician example were not nearer right living than we with our easy-going tolerance of much that we dislike and disapprove? ι.

Colonial Society of Massachusetts Publications,

Records," Part I), 37-38.

X V (" Harvard College

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The correspondence that Endecott carried on with John Winthrop came to an end when Winthrop died in 1649. There was no one who could take his place in Endecott's regard, but naturally the Governor tried to continue the traditional friendship of the two families by writing now and then to John Winthrop, J r . The younger Winthrop was now engrossed in developing the resources of eastern Connecticut, and he had established himself and a handful of associates at Pequot, which we now call New London. As news from England could not be expected to reach the mouth of the American Thames as rapidly as it reached the mouth of the Charles, Endecott relayed to his friend there what he learned from the Old World. Some of these reports were probably exaggerated before they reached New England, but Endecott passed them on for what they were worth, and so we get at least a picture of what our ancestors believed was going on in England. Good news though most of it must have been to Puritan ears, Endecott's letters are noticeably free from exultation or vindictiveness. This may have been due to caution on his part, for in the seventeenth century one seldom was sure that his letters would not be intercepted and used against him. Or the restraint which we associate with the Puritan way of life may account for it. In any case no Anglican or Royalist can accuse John Endecott of exhibiting bad taste in the lines he wrote to the younger Winthrop from Salem on April 28, 1650. 1 I doubt not but you have heard of the newes of England and Ireland; in the generali all yet goes on well, Ireland is almost if not altogether subdued. England is quiet, notwithstanding the last new oath to be true to the State as it is now moulded without Kings or Nobles in Parliament. The A r m y hath taken the oath. All the Garisons have taken it, ι. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, VI, 1 5 2 - 1 5 3 .

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and the Lord Maior and many Aldermen have taken it. And such as refuse it, are as out-lawes, without benefitt of Courts of Justice or votes to choose parliament men. The arriers of souldiers pay is paid out of the King's Land made over to them and their heires forever which they willingly accept of. The Archbishopp's house at Lambeth is sould and pluckt downe, and it seemes sould upon that condition, and I thinck the rest will scape no better. . . . Mr. Peters [Hugh Peter, formerly minister at Salem] is Colonell of a foote regiment in Ireland.

While Massachusetts-Bay was solidifying into a prosperous, homogeneous, and relatively secure colony, things were not going so well with its northern neighbor New France. The Jesuits who dominated the situation at Quebec had been making good progress in converting various Indian groups to Roman Catholicism and in partially civilizing them. This was especially true of the Abenakis, an Algonquin people who dwelt on the Kennebec River in the present state of Maine. But with the formidable Iroquois, whom Champlain had attacked several years earlier, the French made no headway at all; in fact, there was always the unpleasant possibility that these western Indians would fall upon Montreal and Quebec and wipe out New France. Just as La Tour had felt the need of English aid against his private enemy D'Aunay, and vice versa, so now the Governor of New France wished to enlist the strength of New England against his public enemy the Iroquois. It was not easy to see how this could be brought about; but the French are a resourceful people, and it was not long before he and his Jesuit friends conceived a possible way. The government of the Bay Colony had recently approached the authorities at Quebec on the subject of a reciprocity of trade. New France had not given its reply. Here was a basis for negotiation: if the Puritans would help the French reduce the Iroquois, New France would grant our ancestors the

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desired economic privileges. As this proposition was obviously one-sided, the French tried to balance it by arguing that it was New England's duty to make war on the Iroquois anyway: those tribes were a menace to the Abenakis, and the Abenakis were under the jurisdiction of the English — at least they lived in territory claimed by the Plymouth Plantation. Even if Plymouth and Massachusetts-Bay had been one government, the argument would have been somewhat flimsy, but from the point of view of the French it was logical enough; and in the autumn of 1650 Father Gabriel Druilletes made his way through the wilderness of Maine and along the coast to Boston to lay the proposition before the Governor. 1 The political year 1650-51 was one of the two years in the Endecott era when John Endecott was not Governor but only Deputy Governor of Massachusetts-Bay. Accordingly, the man with whom Father Druilletes attempted to negotiate a treaty was not Endecott but the venerable Thomas Dudley. Dudley called a meeting of the Magistrates, gave a dinner in honor of Druilletes, and listened to his proposals. What answer was given to the envoy at that time we know not, but in all probability he was told that no definite action could be taken without the approval of the General Court and of the United Colonies. Neither do we know whether Endecott was present at this interesting meeting; but it was not long before he himself was host to the Jesuit visitor. After a side-trip to Plymouth, Druilletes returned to Boston and there took passage on an English bark bound for the Kennebec region. Off Marblehead they ran into bad weather; and Druilletes made good use of the delay that I. Francis Parkman, The Jesuits in North America (1910), pp. 4 1 6 - 4 2 3 .

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resulted. Going ashore, he was well received by the minister at Marblehead, and was passed on to Endecott, who appears to have been occupied at the time with sessions of the Essex Court. W e are fortunate in having the Jesuit's own account of the incident, which occurred about the middle of January, 1 6 5 0 / 1 . 1 I went to Salem, to converse with Sieur Indicott, who speaks and understands French well; he is a good friend to our people, and desires that his children shall continue in this friendship. Seeing that I had no money, he paid my expenses, and had me eat with the Magistrates, who during eight days gave audience to every one. I left with him, in the form of a letter, a power of attorney which he asked of me, in order to act efficiently during the General Court of Boston, which was to be held on the thirteenth of May. He assured me that he would do his utmost to obtain consent from the colony of Boston, which served as a standard for the others, — telling me that the governor of Plymouth had good reason for seeking that from the colonies. At my departure, he told me that he had read carefully what I had left in writing on behalf of Monsieur our governor, and of my Catechumens, and that he perfectly understood it; that he would despatch a man to take a letter to me at Kennebec; and that he would tell me, as soon as he could, what he had done in this matter and had obtained from the Magistrates.

Whether Endecott felt that he had given so many assurances is a question, but there can be no doubt about his hospitality to a storm-tossed Frenchman whose religious beliefs were diametrically opposed to his own. After a few days the optimistic Druilletes was on his way again, and he arrived at Piscataqua (Portsmouth and its vicinity) before the end of January. But his mission to New England proved to be a failure.

When the Commissioners of the United

Colonies met at New Haven in the following September they courteously but firmly refused either to declare war I. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites), X X X V I , 94-97. Here and there I have not adhered strictly to the printed translation given by Thwaites.

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against the Iroquois or to permit volunteers to be raised in New England to help New France in its difficulties with the Indians. Doubtless Endecott's friendly feelings towards Father Druilletes were partly due to their common interest in the welfare of the better type of American Indian. The Jesuit sought to save their souls by converting them to Roman Catholicism. The Puritan wished them well in general, was glad to see them become worshipers of the Englishmen's God, and took an especial interest in the type of missionary work that was being carried on in Massachusetts-Bay by the Reverend John Eliot, pastor of the church at Roxbury. Eliot's name is so familiar to most New Englanders that it is hardly necessary to elaborate upon his virtues and efforts here. But as we are apt to forget that his plans for the Indians included their well-being in this world as well as in the next, and as he was a sociologist and not just a pious Christian minister who translated the Bible into the Algonquin language, it may be well to refresh our memories in regard to his thoughtful system of education. Like any other Puritan divine, he was eager to expand Christendom and bring the light to those who lived in darkness. In addition he appears to have seen what many did not see: that if the white man and the Indian were to be good neighbors, the latter must learn to live as the white man lived. If one race lived by agriculture and the other by hunting, if one was a settler and the other a nomad, sooner or later conflict between the two was inevitable. The English were and would continue to be steadily encroaching on the Indians' hunting grounds, and the time would come when starvation would drive the aborigines into open hostility. The fact that they had sold their lands to the newcomers would not restrain

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them from violence when they discovered that they must either regain their domain from the English or be slaughtered by hostile tribes who inhabited the western country. Eliot believed that the New England Indians could be taught the art of husbandry, and that if groups of them were placed on reservations here and there in the Colony they could be gradually turned into contented British subjects.1 Eliot's first experiment was at Natick, an attractive district on the Charles about fifteen miles west of Boston. In 1651 the General Court set apart a generous number of acres there for the purpose, and Eliot established a sort of educational and industrial institute for the Christianized Indians of that vicinity. Contemporary accounts give the impression that the thing was a success, for the time being at least. Of these accounts few are more interesting or encouraging than that of Governor Endecott, who visited the establishment about October 1, 1651, and wrote a report to the President of the Society for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England. The Society with the long name was an English corporation, composed of philanthropic members who yearned to Christianize the Indians of this part of the New World and were willing, almost eager, to contribute money for the cause. Doubtless the distance from England and the picturesqueness of the American Indian provided a romantic element that appealed to their imagination. However that may have been, the Society took its work very seriously and we may be certain that more than one member read every word of ι. For an excellent account of J o h n Eliot and his work, see Samuel Eliot Morison's Builders of the Bay Colony, Chapter X .

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Governor John Endecott's letter,1 which was printed with others in a tract entitled Strength out of Weaknesse; or a Glorious Manifestation

of the further Progresse of the Gospel among the

Indians in Mew-England. For our purposes, however, the passages that relate to his visit to Natick will suffice. T h e Foundation is laid, and such a one that I verily beleeve the gates of Hell shall never prevaile against. I doubt not but the building will goe on apace, w h i c h I hope will make glad the hearts of Thousands. T r u l y Gentlemen, had y o u been eare and eye-witness of w h a t I heard and saw on a Lecture-day amongst them about three weeks since, y o u could not but be affected therewith as I was. T o speak truly I could hardly refrain from tears from very j o y to see their diligent attention to the word first taught b y one of the Indians, w h o before his Exercise prayed for the manner devoutly and reverently (the matter I did not so well understanding) but it was w i t h such reverence, zeale, good affection, and distinct utterance, that I could not but admire it; his Prayer was about a quarter of an houre or more, as w e j u d g e d it; then he took his T e x t , and M r . Eliot their T e a c h e r told us that were English the place (there were some Ministers and diverse other godly men there that attended me thither) his text was in M a t t h . 13. 44, 45, 46. H e continued in his Exercise full hälfe an houre or more, as I j u d g e d it, his gravity and utterance was indeed very commendable; w h i c h being done M r . Eliot taught in the Indian tongue about three quarters of an hour as neer as I could guesse; the Indians w h i c h were in number men and w o m e n neer about one hundred, seemed the most of them so to attend him, (the men especially) as if they w o u l d loose nothing of w h a t was taught them, which reflected m u c h upon some of our English hearers. After all there was a Psalme sung in the Indian tongue, and Indian meeter, but to an English tune, read b y one of themselves, that the rest might follow, he read it very distinctly without missing a w o r d as w e could judge, and the rest sang chearfully, and prettie timeablie. I rid on purpose thither being distant about thirty-eight, or forty miles, and truly I account it one of the best Journeyes I made these m a n y years. Some few dayes after I desired M r . Eliot briefly to write me the substance of the Indians Exercise, w h i c h w h e n he went thither again, namely to Naticke, where the Indians dwell, and where the Indian

ι . Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Third Series, I V , 189-191.

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taught, he read what he remembered of it first to their School-Master who is an Indian, and teacheth them and their Children to write, and I saw him write also in English, who doth it true and very legible, and asked him if it were right, and he said yea, also he read it unto others, and to the man himselfe, who also owned it. T o tell you of their industry and ingenuitie in building of an house after the English manner, the hewing and squaring of their tymber, the sawing of the boards themselves, and making of a Chimney in it, making of their groundsells and wall-plates, and mortising, and letting in the studds into them artificially, there being but one English man a carpenter to shew them, being but two dayes with them is remarkeable. They have also built a Fort there with hälfe trees cleft about eight or ten inches over, about ten or twelve foot high, besides what is intrencht in the ground, which is above a quarter of an acre of ground, as I judge. They have also built a foot bridge over Charles Rivers, with Groundsells and Spurres to uphold it against the strength of the Flood and Ice in Winter; it stood firme last Winter, and I think it will stand many Winters. They have made Drummes of their owne with heads and brases very neatly and artificially, all which shews they are industrious and ingenuous [««:]. And they intend to build a Water-Mill the next Summer, as I was told when I was with them. Some of them have learnt to mow grasse very well. I shall no further trouble you with any more Relation at this time concerning them. Endecott's friendly feeling towards his Indian neighbors was reciprocated by them, and it is a pleasure to record that as a token of their regard for him they presented his son, John Endecott, Jr., with a tract of land about the year 1660. As such a gift was invalid in the eyes of the law, the recipient petitioned the General Court for a confirmation of it. this he was disappointed.

In

His petition was refused; " b u t

considering the many kindnesses that were shown to the Indians by our honored Governor in the infancy of these plantations, tending to the common good of the first planters, in consideration whereof the Indians were moved to such a gratuity

unto his son,"

the Court granted

younger Endecott four hundred acres of wild land.

the

It was

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not long before he selected this domain, which appears to have been in the present town of Pelham, New Hampshire, a few miles north of Lowell, Massachusetts.1 Our Puritan ancestors believed that it was possible to discover the true religion, the relationship between man and God that was entirely acceptable to the Almighty. Furthermore, they believed that they had discovered it, and that here in Massachusetts-Bay it was practised. Through the Bible, His Word, God had tried to convey His wishes to mankind, but unfortunately man had distorted those messages and had wandered into error. Through their ministers the people of the Bay Colony had been shown the truth, and God had made it manifest that He was pleased. Being thus blessed, they saw that it was their duty to preserve the truth intact and not let it be tampered with by little foxes, wellintending or otherwise, whom Satan deluded and let loose in the vineyard. They had braved the perils of the deep and had faced every kind of hardship in New England in order to create one community in this great world where the relations between God and His children were ideal. They had wrought well and had succeeded, and they did not intend to throw away what they had attained at great cost. During the first ten years of the Colony's existence they had weeded out the questioning Roger Williams and the self-illumined Anne Hutchinson and her followers. Early in the ι 64-o's a new error threatened to endanger the reign of truth. This was the doctrine that the baptism of infants was not sufficient in the sight of the Lord as a stepping-stone towards salvation. Baptism, to have any real value, must be the voluntary act of a more or less mature person who ι. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part I, 427, 444.

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realized what he was doing when he professed faith in Christ. Sprinkling the forehead of an unthinking babe might be a pious gesture, but it indicated no choice on the part of the soul involved and consequently was invalid either on earth or in Heaven. To the twentieth-century layman with no theological predispositions there seems to be a good deal to say for this point of view; but as it did not coincide with the truth as discovered and expounded by the ministers of Massachusetts-Bay, it was looked upon as a pernicious weed that should not be allowed to grow in the garden of the Lord. If those residing in other places, such as Rhode Island, liked it, let them tolerate it; and let those who were deluded by it go thither. The Bay Colony knew the truth and would keep itself undefiled. Unfortunately for the Baptists, some of their adherents in Europe, especially in Germany, had acquired a bad name because of their riotous acts. Although those who were addicted to lawlessness and violence constituted probably only a very small fraction of all the Baptists in the Old World, it was generally believed that all members of that denomination were anarchists. Therefore, when the new doctrine began to gain adherents in Massachusetts-Bay about 1644, the General Court passed a law banishing from its jurisdiction all persons who, having been convicted, continued to oppose infant baptism. As a matter of fact, the Magistrates did not choose to execute the law in all cases, but probably the great majority of them were satisfied that it was a good bit of legislation to have on the books — to be made use of if those who were Baptists at heart showed signs of becoming dangerous to the commonwealth. It was a good club to hold over the heads of certain obstinate men; but as long as they did not attempt to spread their peculiar notions they would

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be let alone by the authorities. And for the most part they were let alone. But when, in the summer of 1651, outside agents of the sect took it upon themselves to invade the jurisdiction of Massachusetts-Bay, the Magistrates felt that the limits of their wise toleration had been reached and passed. In July of that year three prominent Baptists from Rhode Island appeared at Lynn, where they sought out William Witter, an elderly, quiescent adherent of their faith, and held a service at his house on the morning of the Lord's Day. One of these self-appointed missionaries was John Clarke, formerly a resident of the Bay Colony but now minister of the church at Newport and an Assistant in the government of Rhode Island. As a sympathizer with Anne Hutchinson, he had left Massachusetts-Bay more or less involuntarily in 1637, and many of the Magistrates must have remembered him well. On his present visit he was accompanied by Obadiah Holmes and John Crandal. Holmes was an excommunicated member of the church at Seekonk (Rehoboth) who with others had very recently set up a Baptist meeting within the limits of the Plymouth Plantation and had been called to account by that colony for doing so. Before removing to the Old Colony he had been a member of the church at Salem, " with whom he had walked six or seven years." 1 John Crandal was a relatively unimportant Rhode Islander, who sometimes represented Newport in the General Court of his colony. All of these men must have known that ever since 1644 " t o openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants, or go about secretly to seduce others from the approbation or use thereof," renI. Isaac Backus, History of New England (edition of 1871), I, 176.

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dered one liable to prosecution in Massachusetts-Bay. And if, after conviction, he "wilfully and obstinately" continued either of these practices, he would be banished. Clarke, Holmes, and Crandal came to Lynn in July, 1651, with their eyes wide open; perhaps they were even looking for trouble, and it could have been no surprise to them when the door to William Witter's house opened and they were taken into custody by two constables with a warrant from a Magistrate at Salem. Instead of putting them in jail, the officers of the law escorted them to the local alehouse or ordinary. At dinner there one of the constables suggested in polite terms that all should go to meeting in the afternoon, and to meeting they went. Upon entering the meetinghouse they found the congregation in the midst of prayer. Clarke removed his hat for the moment; but when seated, he put it on again, opened a book, and fell to reading. The constable pulled off the offending hat, and all seems to have been fairly orderly until the service was over. Then Clarke rose and asked leave to address the congregation. The pastor appears to have granted his request but to have warned him to keep away from controversial subjects, and the visitor began to hold forth. He had not proceeded far in his discourse before mentioning that in his opinion those assembled were not walking "according to the visible order of our Lord." At this point he was interrupted by Mr. Bridges, the Magistrate who had ordered his arrest, and told to be silent. Then the three Baptists were led away to the inn, where they spent the night under guard. On the following morning Obadiah Holmes, " i n contempt to authority," was again at William Witter's, where he baptized "such as were baptized before." 1 It was not ι. Ibid., I, 189.

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long before Clarke, Holmes, and Crandal were sent to Boston and locked up in the prison there. When the Court of Assistants sat, about a week later, Clarke was sentenced to pay twenty pounds or be well whipped. Thereupon the defendant asked to see the law under which he was penalized. This was somewhat irritating to the Magistrates, because there was no written law that prescribed or authorized the sentence they had pronounced. It was just one of those cases where the judges had to decide what was the right thing to do and then announce a penalty. If Clarke had been a Bay Colonist, he would have understood the situation; but being a Rhode Islander, he did not. Endecott, who presided at the trial and pronounced the sentence, was especially irked by this questioning; and if Clarke's account of the incident is true, the Governor turned upon him, telling him he "deserved death, and said he would not have such trash brought into their jurisdiction." 1 And he added: "You go up and down, and secretly insinuate into those that are weak, but you cannot maintain before our ministers. You may try and dispute with them." As usual, Endecott meant just what he said: if Clarke wished to discuss the merits and demerits of infant baptism, he might do so with the clergy, who would be glad to show him his error. Nothing was said about a public debate in ι. Ibid., I, 1 8 1 . Another contemporary account gives a slightly different version: " M r . Cotton in his sermon immediately before the Court gave their sentence against Mr. Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandal, affirmed, that denying infant baptism would overthrow all, and this was a capital offence; and therefore they were soul-murderers. When, therefore, the Governor, Mr. John Endicott, came into the Court to pass sentence against them, he said thus, You deserve to die, but this we agreed upon, that Mr. Clarke shall pay twenty pounds fine, and Obadiah Holmes thirty pounds fine, and John Crandal five pounds, and to remain in prison until their fines be either paid or security given for them, or else they are all of them to be well whipped." Ibid., I, 194.

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which Clarke would argue for one side and the Massachusetts ministers for the other. But as this was what Clarke desired, he chose to interpret the Governor's words as a challenge to debate. Inevitably an apparent misunderstanding resulted. To clear the air, the Magistrates sent for the prisoner, and having told him that he was not sentenced for his peculiar beliefs " but for matter of fact and practice," asked him what he intended to talk about if the debate were granted. Clarke replied that he would send them a brief outline of the points he wished to take up. These seem to have been: the invalidity of infant baptism, freedom of speech in matters religious, and freedom of conscience in the same field. The gist of his remarks was: Either you of Massachusetts-Bay are right and I am wrongs or I am right and you are wrong. If you, or your appointed expounder, can prove that I am wrong, that will settle the controversy; if you, or he, cannot, then I wish to stay and bring the light to the Bay Colony. 1 Who was to be the judge of the debate is not clear; but the Magistrates were open-minded, to say the least, and told him " the motion was very fair and like unto a disputant." All they asked was a little time to prepare their side of the case. Clarke returned to prison and awaited developments. A few days later the keeper of the prison received an order to "release and set at liberty the body of John Clarke." According to Clarke, this unexpected occurrence was due to "the indulgence of tender-hearted friends" who took it upon themselves to obtain his freedom by paying his fine without his consent and contrary to his judgment. Nevertheless, when he found himself released it did not take him I.

Ibid.,

I,

182.

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long to make up his mind to return to Rhode Island while the way was open for him to do so. Before starting on his journey, he wrote a brief note to the Magistrates informing them of his intended departure and adding that if his request for a "dispute" were formally granted he would cheerfully come north again to take part in it. On that day, or the following, Endecott and four other Magistrates sent him a letter acceding to his petition for a debate, provided he would keep close to the points agreed upon for discussion. Furthermore they promised, on the same terms, immunity from " damage by the civil justice." For one reason or another John Clarke chose to find fault with the form or phraseology of their reply, and within a few days he disappeared in the direction of Rhode Island. The great debate never came off. Meanwhile John Crandal, who had been sentenced to pay £ 5 to the Court, was out on bond supplied by the jailer. When Clarke returned to Newport, Crandal went with him — and the jailer settled his account with MassachusettsBay ! Thus far the incident of the Baptists savors of opéra bouffe. But we must not forget Obadiah Holmes. He remained to be dealt with, and in the eyes of the Magistrates he was several degrees more offensive than either of his companions. He had made trouble in the Plymouth Colony before he made trouble for the Bay. Furthermore, he was accused of going a second time to William Witter's house and of rebaptizing persons there. He remained in prison until the Court met early in September; then his sentence was carried out. He had been given his choice of paying a fine of £30 or being " well whipped." Although there were, he claimed, those who would have paid the money if he would have allowed them to do so, he chose to be a martyr.

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He expected Endecott to be present at what he called "the place of execution " ; but in this he was disappointed.1 When he asked leave to make a speech to the crowd that gathered about the whipping-post, Increase Nowell, one of the Magisstrates, replied quite properly, " I t is not now a time to speak." Nevertheless, the Baptist began a harangue which he tried to convert into an argument with Mr. Nowell. Finally the man with the whip stripped Holmes to the waist and laid on thirty strokes with a three-corded lash. I.

Ibid.,

I, 191.

CHAPTER THE

ENDEGOTT

XVIII ROCK

N T H E year 1652 her enemies saw, and doubtless whispered among themselves, that the colony of Massachusetts-Bay was virtually an independent state and one that showed symptoms of becoming an empire. But fortunately for John Endecott and his constituents her enemies were not in a position to be at all dangerous. The Bay Colony was at peace with all foreign nations, and with the Indians as well. The only temporal power that might make trouble for her was the Parliament of England, and from that body as then constituted she had little to fear. It was true that Cromwell had recently entertained the thought of persuading the people of New England to remove to Ireland, where they could be useful in keeping the conquered inhabitants in subjection; but that unpleasant possibility had been headed off by Endecott. Writing as one Puritan to another, but speaking for the whole General Court, he had discouraged the idea pretty conclusively: although no hindrance would be placed in the way of any persons or families who might choose to remove to "any parts of the world where God calleth them," the people of Massachusetts-Bay were doing very well in their present environment and had no desire to migrate again. That Endecott could be highly diplomatic when the occasion demanded it, is evident in his reply to this man whose slightest wish might become law throughout the British Empire. 1

I

ι. Endecott's letter is printed in Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 520-522.

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219

When Parliament did not make its desires known, Massachusetts-Bay went her own way without saying so much as " b y your leave." As trade with the West Indies increased and the Colony prospered commensurately, Spanish dollars flowed into the jurisdiction and became part of the accepted currency. To a certain extent this was a boon to our ancestors, for the English coin they had brought with them from the Old World had a way of trickling back to its homeland, and barter in the form of Indian corn and other produce was an awkward substitute for hard money. On the other hand, more or less of the Spanish specie proved to be counterfeit. Something should be done to place the local currency on a sound basis, and the resourceful people of Massachusetts-Bay decided to mint shillings, sixpences, and threepences of their own. These and English money should be the only legal tender. In May, 1652, the General Court established a mint and appointed a mint-master.1 If one had bullion, plate, or Spanish coin that he wished to use for purposes of exchange, the thing to do would be to turn it in at the mint and receive its value in the new coinage. As an ingenious measure for the common weal, this step, taken while Endecott was Governor, reflects no little credit upon the persons who proposed it and carried it out. For more than a generation the coinage of so-called pine-tree shillings and their lesser brethren was continued, and in 1662 — also under Endecott — a twopenny piece was added to the family. The dies used in casting them were changed now and then, but after October, 1652, the fundamentals of the design remained the same: "Masathusets" and a tree, on one side; and "New England," a year of our Lord, and the I. Records of Massachusetts Bay, III, 261-262.

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denomination of the coin, on the other. The year was always that in which the minting of that kind of coin was authorized. Thus all shillings, sixpences, and threepences bore the date " 1652"; the twopences, " 1662." 1 The value of a Massachusetts coin was in each case threequarters that of its English prototype. Presumably this ratio was adopted because the cheapness of living in New England made units of reduced value more convenient in the conducting of everyday affairs. It may be, however, that the purpose was to discourage the flow of our currency to England. A shilling that was worth only three-quarters of an English shilling was not likely to be accepted by merchants there, and so would stand a better chance of remaining in the place of its nativity. For whatever the Yankee contrives or adopts there is apt to be a good practical reason. Under the terms of her charter the western boundary of the Bay Colony was the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, wherever that might be. Thus she might expand in a westerly direction for three thousand miles and still be within her legal rights; but westward expansion beyond the fertile valley of the Connecticut did not interest the Massachusetts men of the seventeenth century. What did interest them was the Atlantic seaboard with its facilities for fishing and shipping. They were attracted too by desirable inland territory within fifty miles of the Atlantic, especially if that land was situated on more or less navigable rivers. The Plymouth Plantation was the first neighbor to feel crowded by the vigorous new colony, and, as we have seen, Plymouth made way for it with little opposition. A few years later the Piscataqua region — the New Hampshire that had been and I. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 403-404.

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was again to be — found it politic, even desirable perhaps, to come under the jurisdiction of the well-regulated Bay Colony. And although the general trend of expansion was towards the north and east, there was at least one settlement on the coast of Connecticut, Southertown (now Stonington), that maintained that it was a part of Massachusetts-Bay. In fact, the Bay claimed the territory by right of conquest from the troublesome Pequots, and in the course of time the Commissioners of the New England Confederation decided that it was hers.1 Long before that point was settled our ancestors focused their eyes on a more important field for expansion — the coast of Maine, where scattered settlements had grown up under the proprietorship of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his successors. He of the resounding name had died in 1647, and those who acquired his New England domain seem to have neglected to provide for the welfare of its inhabitants. In the absence of any proprietary government worthy of the name, the planters along the coast from the Piscataqua to the Kennebunk set up an administration of their own. This suited some but not all, and it was not long before word reached Massachusetts-Bay that there was one party that was in favor of obtaining a new charter and another that was inclined to come under the jurisdiction of the Bay Colony, if that could be arranged. It is needless to state that these developments interested our ancestors very much. Socially and politically the Maine hamlets had always been looked at askance by Boston and its vicinity. Winthrop scorned the people of Acomenticus (York) because they had chosen a tailor to be their mayor.2 ι. Ibid., II, 382-383. 2. John Winthrop, History of New England (1853), II, 121.

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Endecott, and probably others, suspected that there were royalists in that benighted part of the world. 1 But now that there was a possibility of quietly annexing the coast of southern Maine, those towns and some of their inhabitants became more attractive in Massachusetts eyes. In May of 1652 the General Court studied its charter and arrived at the following plausible conclusion: that the northern boundary of its Colony began at a point three miles north of " the northernmost [¿¿e] part of the river Merimacke" and ran thence " upon a straight line east and west, to each sea." 2 If, as was hoped, the latitude of this point was as far north as the mouth of the Kennebunk River, then all that part of the coast of Maine belonged to Massachusetts-Bay and could be annexed without the consent of its inhabitants. The next step was to appoint commissioners who should explore the Merrimac and "find out the most northerly part." The men chosen for the task were Captain Simon Willard of Concord and Captain Edward Johnson of Woburn; the latter gentleman was none other than the author of that contemporary history of the Colony usually known as Wonder-Working Providence of Sions Saviour.

In July the commissioners assembled their party of explorers and surveyors and pushed northward up the course of the Merrimac. Besides Willard and Johnson the group included John Sherman of Watertown and Jonathan Ince of Boston, a recent graduate of Harvard College of the Class of 1650 who was still a student at Cambridge. 3 For guides ι . Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, V I , 1 4 8 . 2. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I I , 2 7 4 . 3. J o h n Langdon Sibley, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, I, 2 5 6 - 2 5 8 . Ince seems to have been not only a graduate student, but also the College butler, and to a certain extent President Dunster's secretary.

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223

through the wilderness they took with them " two Indians well acquainted with Merremack River and the great lake to which wee went; born and bred all their daies thereupon, very intelligent as any in all these parts as we conceived." 1 When they reached the point (now Franklin, New Hampshire) where the Pemigewasset and the Winnipesaukee rivers unite to form the splendid Merrimac, the commissioners had to make up their minds as to which stream was the Merrimac and which was merely a tributary. As the Pemigewasset came down from the north and looked larger than the Winnipesaukee, which flowed in from the east, the evidence seemed to be in favor of the former. But the Indians insisted that the Winnipesaukee was the true Merrimac, and Willard and Johnson were persuaded to accept their verdict. Eastward and then northeastward they followed this river and a small chain of ponds until they found themselves on the shore of a great lake bordered with hills and mountains of unusual beauty. The Indians called the place Aquedahtan, and the lake Winnipesaukee. Here, said the explorers, is the head of the Merrimac; and on the first day of August the surveyors got out their instruments and observed its latitude. They found this to be 43o 40' 12".2 Modern map-makers make it 43o 36' 2" — but that is a detail that does not concern this narrative. The northern boundary of Massachusetts should run east and west through a point three miles north of this spot. About midstream in the outlet of the lake, and rising above its gliding surface, was a boulder of generous proportions. Upon its oblong top one of the members of the party, ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part II, 242. 2. Ibid., III, 288; I V , Part I, 109.

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presumably the youthful Jonathan I nee, cut the following inscription: EI SW WP I OHN ENDICVT GOV IS II which the visitor to the Winnipesaukee region of New Hampshire may still see if he cares to do so. Aquedahtan of the Indians has become The Weirs of the present day, and the rock that served as a monument for Sherman and Ince is known far and near as the Endecott Rock. The inscription of 1652 is usually interpreted thus: E I represents the initials of Edward Johnson, capital I being interchangeable with capital J in the orthography of the seventeenth century — and a much easier character for an amateur sculptor to cut into stone with his cold-chisel. S W stands for Simon Willard, the other of the two commissioners appointed by the General Court. W Ρ is an abbreviation of Worshipful, the customary tide of a governor of the Bay Colony, and it relates to I Ο Η Ν E N D I C V T G O V , which needs no explanation. I S commemorates John Sherman; and 1 1 is the initialed signature of the industrious engraver, Jonathan Ince, to whom we are indebted for making the Endecott Rock one of the most interesting monuments in New England. In the eighteenth century the obstruction of Winnipesaukee River somewhere below this point caused the surface of the river and lake to rise, and the Endecott Rock with its inscription disappeared from view and perhaps from the memory of man. According to Philip Carrigain, one-time Secretary of State of New Hampshire, its dis-

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covery or rediscovery early in the nineteenth century " was made in consequence of a dam having been constructed across the head of the Weares . . . to facilitate an excavation and clearance of the channel, for the passage of the new and elegant Steam Boat, Belknap, to a winter harbor at the young and rising village [Laconia], five miles below." 1 Carrigain does not give us the year of the emergence of the boulder, but from another source we infer that it must have been about 1833, for that was the year in which the Belknap was built.2 Carrigain suggested calling it "the Endecott Rock," by which name it has been known for more than a hundred years and probably will be known for centuries to come.3 Returning from their mission, Willard and Johnson reported their findings to the General Court, and about a year later the Court dispatched a party to the coast of Maine to locate there the latitude of 43 o 40' 1 2 " plus three miles. This was placed on the shore of Casco Bay opposite the northernmost point of an island called "the Upper Clapboard Iland." 4 This was entirely satisfactory from the point of view of Massachusetts-Bay, because it established her boundary well to the north of all the settlements in southern Maine. She lost no time in annexing them; in fact she seems ι . New England Historical and Genealogical Register, I ( 1 8 4 7 ) , 3 1 1 . 2. Benjamin Franklin Parker, History of Wolfeborough, p. 5 1 0 . F o r a detailed account of the rediscovery and preservation of the Rock, see Report of the Commission for the Preservation, Protection, and Appropriate Designation of the Endicott Rock (Concord, 1 8 9 3 ) . 3 . In more recent times a rugged mountain in the town of Gilford, overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee, has been given the name of Endicott. Its summit is about five miles southeast of the Rock. A b o u t 1 9 1 3 the author inquired of a countryman how it came by the name. In substance the reply was this: " S o many folks asked me the name of the mountain I had to give it one, so I called it Endicott." 4. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I I , 3 6 1 - 3 6 2 ; I V , Part I, 2 0 7 .

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T H E ENDECOTT R O C K

to have anticipated a favorable report, for before the commissioners were sent to the eastward she broke the news to the inhabitants that they were regarded as squatters and invited them to accept the jurisdiction of the Bay Colony. One by one the hamlets along the coast — from Kittery to Falmouth (Portland) inclusive — agreed to the terms offered by Massachusetts-Bay. The acquired territory was organized into a new county called Yorkshire; the nearer towns were granted the right of representation in the General Court at Boston, but the more remote plantations were regarded, for the time being at least, as possessions rather than as integral parts of the dominating colony.1 Verily Massachusetts-Bay seemed to be on the highroad to empire. Locally the great event of the winter of 1652-53 was a conflagration that threatened to reduce the town of Boston to ashes. Although Endecott resided habitually at Salem, he appears to have been in the colonial metropolis at the time of the fire; at least he gives that impression in a letter he wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., on March 18, 1652/3. 2 " T h e late great fire at Boston, wherein 8 houses were consumed and 3 young children burnt, and it was a wonderful favour of God the whole town was not consumed of the fire; Mr. Wilson's house and goods, Mr. Blackleech his house and goods. The other [s] I have forgotten their names. It was the most dreadful fire that I ever saw, by reason of the barrels of gunpowder which they had in their houses, which made men fearful to come near them. The Lord sanctify his hand to us all." Peace, prosperity, and confidence in John Endecott — these three were the political principles of Massachusetts1. John Gorham Palfrey, History of Mew England, II, 384-389. 2. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth'Series, V I , 1 5 4 - 1 5 5 .

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Bay in the middle of the seventeenth century, and she clung to them with a will. In 1652 England had gone to war with the Dutch in the Old World, but Endecott and his associates saw no reason why this disturbance should affect the relations between New England and New Netherland. If their commonwealth had been situated nearer to the Hudson River, perhaps they would have taken a different view. About that we can make no positive statement. We do know, however, that the New Haven colony and to a certain extent Connecticut looked upon the Dutch as unfriendly neighbors who would be glad to expand at their expense. And now that the two mother countries were at war they readily believed rumors that Governor Stuyvesant was inciting the Indians to fall upon the English settlements on Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River. In March, 1653, word of the alleged plot reached Boston, and a group of the Magistrates there summoned a special meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonies to consider the emergency, if emergency it was; and to prevent loss of time they sent letters to sachems of the suspected tribes, demanding the truth of the situation. The chiefs denied all knowledge of a conspiracy, and sent four or five messengers to Boston to answer any specific questions that might aiise. The Magistrates were convinced that the southern New England colonies were needlessly alarmed; the Dutch were not so black as they had been painted. When the Commissioners met at Boston, in April and May, it was evident that the attitude of the Bay Colony did not prevail in their councils. New Haven, Connecticut, and even gentle Plymouth, were more than suspicious of evil designs emanating from New Amsterdam. They looked for, perhaps desired, open hostilities, and scheduled Massa-

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ROCK

chusetts-Bay to provide two-thirds of the five hundred soldiers " i f God call the Colonies to make war against the Dutch."

1

T o Endecott and his associates this was highly

embarrassing. Their commonwealth did not wish to go to war; their hearts were not in it, and their ministers advised against it. Yet under the terms of the New England Confederation they were bound to carry out the will of a majority of the Commissioners.

The question was: should they

obey the dictates of their consciences and refrain from what they believed to be an unnecessary and unjust war, or should they live up to their man-made agreement with the other colonies? For New Englanders anywhere and at any time this would be a very difficult problem, for one of the fundamentals of their code is that " a bargain is a bargain and must be made good." On the other hand, they have a still deeper desire to do what is right in the sight of the Lord. The latter is the basis at least of what has come to be known as the New England conscience. Probably history presents no greater conflict of the two than occurred in the hearts of the Bay Colonists in the spring and summer of 1653. Even the two Commissioners who represented MassachusettsBay disagreed. Simon Bradstreet, a son-in-law of Thomas Dudley , was firm in his opposition to war, while belligerent William Hathorne was in favor of it.2 T o its eternal credit, as we see it, the General Court sustained Bradstreet, and on M a y 28 the Deputies voted that they did not feel " t h a t we are called to make a present war with the Dutch."

3

The New Haven Colony was disgusted to the point of rage.

It and Connecticut would undertake the proposed

1 . Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collections, I I , 2 3 1 . 2. Ibid., I I , 302. 3. Ibid., I I , 254.

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war themselves if they were allowed to enlist volunteers and obtain supplies of various kinds within the jurisdiction of the Bay. Messengers were sent to Boston to ask for this privilege. When they reached Endecott the General Court was no longer in session. Accordingly the request from New Haven and Connecticut had to be answered by the Governor. He and his Magistrates wrote a conciliatory reply, but made it clear that they did not believe that the Court would be willing " either to shed blood, or to hazard the shedding of their subjects' blood, except they could satisfy their consciences that God called for it." 1 If war came, Massachusetts-Bay would be a strict neutral. For a few weeks it looked as if the New England Confederation would break in pieces on the rocks of this dissension; but when the Commissioners met again, in September, they agreed with the General Court of the Bay "that no authority or power either in parents, masters, magistrates, commissioners, etc., doth or ought to hold against God or his commands." 2 On her part Massachusetts-Bay showed her good will towards the Confederation by declaring that "so far as the determinations of the Commissioners are just and according to God, the several Colonies are bound before God and men to act accordingly, and that they sin and break covenant if they do not." 3 But she was unshaken in her belief that war with the Dutch at that time would be unjust, and consequently there was no war. There was no war, but in the spring of 1654 it looked very much as if Massachusetts-Bay, in spite of her convictions, ι . John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 320 — citing New Haven Records, I I , 1 8 - 2 2 . 2. Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collections, I I , 275. 3. Ibid., II, 282, 283.

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would have to fight New Netherland. Cromwell, now Protector of the Realm, had made up his mind to seize New Netherland, and what Cromwell resolved to do on land or sea was usually carried into successful execution. In May and early June, 1654, two or three British ships bearing a handful of troops appeared in Boston Harbor. These were to form the nucleus of an expedition against New Amsterdam, and the commanders were authorized to raise additional forces from New England volunteers.1 New Haven and Connecticut, the instigators of the Cromwellian enterprise, were delighted; the Bay Colony was not so well pleased. Should she now allow the enlistment of volunteers within her jurisdiction? At a special session of the General Court, she decided that she should do so. To choose between one's convictions and the entreaties of three lesser plantations was one thing; to disregard the known wish of Oliver Cromwell was another. She bowed to the will of the Protector, and permitted the visiting commanders to raise five hundred volunteers within her limits; 2 but that she did so with misgivings was clear to at least one officer of the expedition, who reported, "Massachusetts did not act with that life that was expected, supposing they had not a just cause for such a work." 3 Then occurred a freak of history that may or may not have eased our ancestors' consciences. Word was received that England had made peace with the Netherlands. Truly this was a manifestation of divine approval of the position taken ι . Cromwell's instructions may be found in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fourth Series, II, 2 3 0 - 2 3 2 . 2. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 5 2 3 - 5 2 5 ; Records 0/ Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part I, 195. 3. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1675-1676, p. 89.

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by Massachusetts-Bay ! But the sequel was not so comprehensible. When the expedition against New Amsterdam was necessarily given up, the English squadron sailed away to Acadia, where, oddly enough, La Tour was now officially ensconced as Governor and Lieutenant-General. St. John and Port Royal were easily captured, and all the territory from the Penobscot to the Gulf of St. Lawrence was added to the British Empire. This extraordinary seizure — for England was supposedly at peace with France — may well have embarrassed Endecott, for he had recently assured Madame D'Aunay (who had now become Madame La Tour!) that Massachusetts-Bay had no designs upon Acadia and only friendly feelings towards the lady herself.1 But as it turned out, little harm was done in that quarter. England kept Acadia, to be sure, and renamed it Nova Scotia; but La Tour was made one of three proprietors of the new province, and he and his lady were probably as contented under the British flag as they had ever been under the French. There must have been occasions when John Endecott wished that Oliver Cromwell did not have so many " ideas." First came his scheme of planting New Englanders in Ireland; then came his upsetting expedition against New Netherland; now, in the autumn of 1655, he proposed to strengthen England's hold on the island of Jamaica by populating it with Puritans from Massachusetts-Bay. Jamaica had been wrested from Spain earlier in the year. The problem was how to make possession secure. Cromwell's advisers recommended that the place " b e inhabited by people who know the Lord and walk in his fear, that ι . Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 241, no. 182a. Endecott's letter is dated June 1 2 , 1 6 5 1 . There is a copy of it in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, " E n d i c o t t Papers," box 3, folder 13.

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by their light they may enlighten the parts about them." Obviously the most appropriate people to approach as prospective settlers were the followers of Endecott and Winthrop.1 From Cromwell's point of view it was a good proposition for all concerned: the New Englanders would be glad to move to a warmer clime, and Puritan England could count on their enterprise and loyalty to develop Jamaica into a valuable and tenacious part of the empire. An envoy was sent to Massachusetts-Bay, offering what appeared to be liberal, even alluring, terms to those there who would move to Jamaica. Endecott and the General Court were taken aback. For several months they pondered but did not reply to the letter the envoy presented for their consideration. It was not so much a question of what to say as how to say it. Cromwell must not be offended. Finally, in the fall of 1656, the General Court succeeded in composing a suitable reply that dwelt upon the Bay Colony's devotion to the Protector but could leave no doubt in his mind that the inhabitants of Massachusetts-Bay preferred to remain where they were.2 Endecott signed the letter, and with the hopes and fears of every true New Englander it was sent on its way. As it was generally understood that Cromwell had quite set his heart on this scheme, the relief must have been great when John Leverett, our agent at London, reported that, though the Protector was disappointed, he was very reasonable and said he would not insist upon it.3 It may be that at that time his mind was so occupied with other matters, such as Parliament's prospective offer of the British crown, that ι . John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 390. 2. The letter is printed in Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts· Bay, I (1765), 192. 3. Leverett's own account of the interview may be found in Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 190, note.

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what might or might not happen in far-away New England or Jamaica concerned him little. But we like to believe that the true cause of Cromwell's yielding on this point was the esteem in which he held the people of Massachusetts-Bay, whose integrity and intensity he saw personified in their Governor, John Endecott. Although he had been Governor of the Colony almost continuously for six years, Endecott still resided in Salem and came to Boston only when affairs of state required his presence there. It must have been an inconvenient arrangement, especially during prolonged sessions of the General Court, or when the Magistrates met frequently; but that was primarily Endecott's concern rather than that of his constituents. When, however, in May, 1655, he was elected Governor for the sixth time and there seemed to be no reason to believe that he would not be reelected annually as long as he was willing to serve the Colony in that capacity, the General Court decided that he or "whosoever shall be chosen governor from year to year" should, "with the first opportunity, make his abode in Boston, or some adjacent town or place within four or five miles of Boston." A vote to that effect was passed on May 23, 1 and soon afterwards John Endecott moved his household and some of its effects from Salem to the capital. His new home was in the present Scollay Square, in a hired house that had lately been owned and occupied by Mr. David Yale, a prominent merchant.2 In fact, it is said that Elihu Yale, the benefactor of ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I I , 3 7 3 - 3 7 4 · 2. M r . Samuel C . Clough places the property between 1 4 and 19 Tremont R o w inclusive. Colonial Society of Massachusetts Publications, X X , 2 6 4 - 2 6 6 . Tremont R o w is now numbered as a part of Scollay Square. A t 26 Scollay Square is a bronze tablet marking the residence of Governor Endecott and the birthplace of Elihu Y a l e . See also Justin Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, I I , xliv.

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the university that bears his name, was born in that very house a few years before this time. Thus Endecott became outwardly a Bostonian, and continued to be one for the nine or ten years of life that remained to him. Like a true Bostonian, he contributed to the welfare of the community in which he resided, and when the town asked for funds for a new hall in 1656 he subscribed £2 i oí — which was probably more than he could well afford to give. 1 But his heart remained in Essex County. It was not until November, 1664, that he gave up his membership in the Salem church and was dismissed to the First Church in Boston.2 By that time age and infirmity had convinced him that he was likely to end his days on the eastern slope of Beacon Hill and not on the smiling shores of Salem Harbor or among the apple trees at "Orchard." ι.

Antiquarian

Papers (Worcester, 1879), p. 40.

2. Joseph B. Felt, Annals of Salem (1827), p. 223.

CHAPTER

XIX

THE QUAKERS

I

F THERE is in this world a religious group that lives up to the teachings of Jesus better than any other, most of us will agree that that group is the Society of Friends, or, as it is usually called, the Quakers. From the time of William Penn through that of Herbert Hoover they have gone about doing good in a quiet but thorough manner that commands the respect and admiration of all thinking men. Their simple theology, belief in God and in His direct communication with man, is what most of us have come to believe, whether we admit it or not; and their simple code of ethics, the Golden Rule, is what we subscribe to in our hearts whether we practise it or not. Centuries of warfare and its dire results have finally persuaded the more civilized nations that the Quakers with their doctrine of peace and good will are and always have been right. Yet no one can accuse them of being spineless. When convinced that the cause is just, no human being can be more resolute, more fearless, than a Quaker. The heritage of the Society of Friends is for the most part a noble one, and nobly they have maintained and continued the tradition. Some of us of Puritan ancestry now regard the Quakers as more enlightened Puritans, for spiritually the two groups had much in common; both were earnestly striving for the same end, the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven in a workaday world. Unfortunately they did not agree as to the method whereby that objective could be attained; and as each was intense and as their

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THE Q U A K E R S

paths crossed, the immediate result was a conflict in the Bay Colony in the middle of the seventeenth century that does not add to the glory of either. Soon after the Baptists had been taught to go elsewhere with their heretical doctrines, Endecott and his associates in the government of Massachusetts-Bay heard from England of a new sect that was creating a controversy there. Probably few Englishmen knew precisely what these converts of one George Fox believed, but many were certain that they did not like its manifestations. These manifestations were a disrespectful attitude towards things held sacred by all other Christian sects and an apparent contempt for all civil magistrates. Added to these was a refusal to take part in military service. To expose the undesirability of these fanatics and their doctrines, a number of their adversaries wrote books and pamphlets; and as this form of fighting was legitimate for them, the Quakers replied with treatises of their own. When two of the Quaker dissertations reached the shores of Massachusetts-Bay in the summer of 1654, Bellingham was Governor; and though in earlier days he was almost invariably on the other side of every question, on this occasion, as far as we know, he made no objection when the General Court ordered that all available copies of the books be burned by the executioner in the market-place at Boston.1 Almost two years passed before the thoughts of our ancestors were again turned seriously towards the new peril. In the interim the Quakers had gained many active adherents in Old England, and even Cromwell was at a loss to know how to deal with them. Neither prosecution nor persecution seemed to deter them; and wherever they were ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, IV, Part I, 204.

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most disliked, there they were certain to appear and become the centre of riotous actions on the part of the rabble. In the spring of 1656 the General Court of Massachusetts-Bay considered these things and took them so to heart that it appointed a public day of humiliation, primarily " to seek the face of God in behalf of our native country, in reference to the abounding of errors, especially those of the Ranters and Quakers" there.1 It is not unlikely that the Court hoped incidentally to make known in this way its position in regard to Quakerism and thus discourage any Friends who were contemplating coming to New England. If so, that hope was extinguished a few weeks later when two Quaker women arrived at Boston on a vessel from Barbados. Endecott, now Governor again, was out of town at the time,2 presumably at his farm in Salem, and the task of meeting the situation devolved upon Deputy Governor Bellingham. Bellingham ordered the visitors brought before him, decided that they were Quakers, and had them put in jail; when the vessel that brought them should sail they should be deported on it. Some books that they had brought with them were turned over to the executioner to be burned. These orders were carried out, and for the moment the Bay Colony was satisfied that it knew how to cope with the menace that had annoyed and baffled other parts of the world. But the end was not yet. Early in August eight more Quakers, four men and four women, appeared in Boston, newly arrived on a vessel from England. Endecott was ready for them, and he and his advisers speedily accorded them the same kind of reception ι. Ibid., IV, Part I, 276. 2. George Bishop, New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord (Philadelphia, 1885), p. 14.

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that had been given to their predecessors: they were locked up in the town jail, there to await deportation; and as the vessel that brought them did not set sail again for several weeks, their confinement was necessarily long. Meanwhile an episode occurred that hurt rather than helped their cause. The jail was situated on one of the lanes 1 that led from the Governor's residence to the meeting-house, and one Sabbath-day morning when Endecott, accompanied by several other gentlemen, passed it on his way to divine worship, a volley of epithets greeted his ear. They were delivered in a feminine voice, they issued from a window of the prison, and were obviously directed at him. The voice was that of Mary Prince, one of the Quakers, and her remarks were highly uncomplimentary. "Woe unto thee," she cried, " thou art an oppressor." Then followed a series of imprecations that have not come down to us verbatim. This diatribe would have ruffled the temper of any man, but Endecott preserved his dignity and continued his solemn progress. Not long afterwards he and the other Magistrates received an outrageous letter from the owner of the too-wellremembered voice, a letter that was little short of scurrilous. The Endecott of an earlier time would have exploded with wrath if he had received such an epistle, but years of experience with all types of men and women and of devotion to the common welfare had changed him. The Endecott of 1656 read the letter and saw in it only the outpouring of a distressed, embittered soul. The writer was deluded, probably unbalanced, but that was all the more reason why he should try to help her. If this Mary Prince felt bitterness towards him, he would melt her heart by returning good for ι. The present Court Street, then known as Prison Lane.

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evil; and if she was mistaken in her religious convictions, as he believed she was, he would do his best to show her her error and give her truth in its place. As he could hardly go to her, he had the Quakeress come to his house, where he met her with a truer Christian spirit than some have been willing to see in any Puritan. Perhaps it would be too much to expect that his guest, after her imprisonment, would come in the same spirit; but if Mary Prince had done so, if she had been gentle and persuasive in the manner of the modern Friend, the course of Massachusetts history in the next few years might have been very different from what it was. Unfortunately Mary Prince was not that type of person. Probably things would have gone better if Endecott had had more confidence in the power of his personality for the task in hand, for one strong, sincere soul bent on kindness can work miracles when it deals with another in a private conversation. He was too modest to realize this truth in his own case, and furthermore he felt the need of authorized expounders of the Gospel to refute the errors of Quakerism, patent though those errors were to him. Accordingly, when Mary Prince came to Endecott's house, she found herself confronted not by the Governor alone, but also by two ministers; and as Quakers regarded all ministers with antipathy, the possibility of her having a friendly discussion with her distinguished host was ruined at the outset. Before the interview was over she had berated them as "hirelings, deceivers of the people, Baal's priests, the seed of the serpent, of the brood of Ishmael, and the like" — all of which undoubtedly she believed, but might better have kept to herself. Endecott was disappointed, but still retained hope of working a change in her heart. He sent for her again, and again she came. But the second meeting was no

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THE QUAKERS

happier than the first. Mary Prince returned to prison hostile and unconverted, and presumably was still in that frame of mind when she and her companions were deported.1 Not Massachusetts-Bay alone but all the members of the New England Confederation felt strongly on the subject of Quakers. Between the time of the arrival of the eight unwelcome visitors and the date set for the next meeting of the General Court the Commissioners of the United Colonies assembled at Plymouth and recommended that each legislative assembly should take steps to prohibit the coming of Quakers into its territory; and if any should come, or arise in its midst, they should be "forthwith secured, or removed out of all the jurisdictions." 2 Within a year every colony had followed this recommendation. In October, 1656, the General Court of the Bay began a series of legislative acts intended to dissuade any Quakers from coming into the Colony, and also to discourage any inhabitant from showing sympathy for them or their precepts. When the penalties of 1656 proved ineffectual, new and more painful punishments were prescribed; but still individuals and little bands of Friends persisted in coming into the forbidden ground and there proclaiming their disagreement with the principles of the founders. Men and women were jailed, scourged, and deported; but still they came, or, worse than that, returned. In 1657 the exasperated General Court ordered that Quakers who, after having been punished once, returned to the Bay Colony should ι. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 197. For Quaker interpretations of the interview, see George Bishop's New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord (Philadelphia, 1885), p. 13, and Richard P. Hallowell's The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts, p. 44. 2. Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collections, II, 349.

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suffer as follows: for the first offense, the loss of one ear; for a second offense, the loss of the other ear; for a third offense, he or she should have the tongue " bored through with a hot iron." 1 In 1658 three undaunted Quakers came back, and each lost an ear. These Friends were a determined group — but so were the New England Puritans. John Endecott especially was a man who, having set out to accomplish or prevent a given thing, was not likely to turn back. In September, 1658, he was the presiding officer of the Commissioners of the New England Confederation, and he and his colleagues regarded the situation as serious but not yet hopeless. If nothing else would put fear in the hearts of these disturbers of the peace, the threat of death probably would. Accordingly the Commissioners recommended that each colony make a law that " such Quakers as shall come into any jurisdiction from any foreign parts, or such as shall arise within the same, after due conviction that either he or she is of that cursed sect of heretics, they be banished under pain of severe corporal punishment; and if they return again then to be banished under pain of death; and if afterwards they shall yet presume to come again, then to be put to death as aforesaid, except they do then and there plainly and publicly renounce their said cursed opinions and devilish tenets." 2 This was harsh language, and a harsher penalty, and when the Commissioners signed the recommendation one of their number drew back. This was John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut. To his associates he must have appeared weak-kneed, but to us he appears quite the reverse. It takes courage to be a minority of one when ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, IV, Part I, 308-309. Women Quakers were not to lose their ears, but were to be severely whipped instead. 2. Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collections, II, 400.

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feeling runs high. Winthrop was not convinced that the death penalty was expedient in this case. Wise and just, like his father before him, he probably saw that if the threat of death failed of its purpose a colony would have to choose between non-enforcement of the penalty and actual execution of the law. Either course was likely to be embarrassing to a government. He was willing to lay the matter before the colonies, but declined to give it his recommendation. T o his signature he appended this reservation: " Looking at the last as a query, and not an act, I subscribe." 1 A group of twenty-five prominent Bostonians did not share Winthrop's hesitancy. Quite the reverse. They felt that the recommendation of the Commissioners was too lenient. Why not make death the penalty for returning even once after banishment? That was what was needed. Accordingly they sent a petition to the General Court asking for such a law.2 Some of the most respected men in town were among the signers, and one gets the impression that their purpose was not the persecution of an uncongenial sect but the preservation of law and order. In October, 1658, the House of Deputies considered the recommendation of the Commissioners and the petition of the Bostonians. Banishment on pain of death was not new in the legislation of Massachusetts; there was a fairly recent law of that kind against Jesuits and Roman Catholic priests,3 but since its passage a younger, and perhaps gentler, generation of Puritans had begun to make itself felt in the General Court. For several days it was 4 question whether the measure asked for ι. Ibid. 2. Massachusetts Archives, X , 246. It is printed in Richard P. Hallowell's The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts, pp. 1 5 3 - 1 5 6 . 3. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I I , 1 9 3 ; I I I , 1 1 2 .

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1658

THE Q U A K E R S

243

by the Bostonians would be passed by the lower house. There were frequent conferences with the Assistants, and much debate in the House itself. Finally, with a provision that alleged Quakers should be given a preliminary trial by a special jury, the bill was passed by the Deputies by a majority of one. The Assistants appear to have given their approval with less hesitation.1 Henceforth, a Quaker who returned even once after being banished must expect the penalty of death. For almost a year the new law worked well, and its bloodless functioning seemed to indicate that John Winthrop, Jr., had entertained groundless fears. In the spring of 1659 six Quakers were deported, and they remained away. But in September there were four new ones in Boston, and three of these made a speedy return after banishment. Two were men, ardent young men, named William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson; the other was Mistress Dyer, wife of a fairly prominent Rhode Islander. On October 19 the offenders were brought before the General Court, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged on the eighth day following. On the twenty-seventh they walked hand in hand — Mistress Dyer between the two young men — from the jail to Boston Common. As they passed through the crooked streets they tried to make speeches to the crowd, but their words were drowned out by the beating of drums. At the gallows Mistress Dyer witnessed the hanging of her two companions. Then she was blindfolded, and a halter was placed about her neck; but at the moment she expected to ι. George Bishop, New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord (Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 83-84; Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 198, note. The text of the law may be found in Records of Massachusetts Bay, IV, Part 1,345-347·

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QUAKERS

be executed she was taken down and escorted back to prison. Her reprieve was due to the intercession of her son; and though she protested that she did not wish to avail herself of it, she was given no choice. On the following day she was taken bodily from the jail, placed on horseback, and started on her way to Rhode Island.1 An eminent historian once remarked quizzically, " I t is not the historians who write history, it is the household poets." So it has been with at least one incident in this trying period in Massachusetts history. Despite the fact that Whittier's stanzas entitled "Cassandra Southwick" are classified under " Legendary" in the table of contents of his poetical works, the world believes and probably will continue to believe that "dark and haughty Endicott, the ruler of the land," did his utmost to deport " a gentle girl and dear" and sell her into servitude "in the Isle of fair Barbadoes, or on Virginia's shore." Cassandra's description of her frustrated persecutor is too vivid to be effaced by the prosaic fact that it was the whole General Court and not the Governor alone that attempted to get rid of a Quakeress in this way; and through the centuries Whittier's rhythmic lines will blight the name of John Endecott in the mind of the public. I looked on haughty Endicott; with weapon half-way drawn, Swept round the throng his lion glare of bitter hate and scorn; Fiercely he drew his bridle-rein, and turned in silence back, And sneering priest and baffled clerk rode murmuring in his track. 2 ι. George Bishop, New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord (Philadelphia, 1885), p. n o . 2. This quotation and another are used by permission of, and by arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company.

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The records make it painfully clear that one Provided Southwick, whom Whittier preferred to call by her mother's name Cassandra, had her troubles. For attending Quaker meetings and for being absent from orthodox worship, she and her brother Daniel were repeatedly brought into court at Salem and at Ipswich. Sometimes they were released; more often they were fined; and on at least one occasion the judges ordered that Provided " b e set by the heels in the stocks an hour for calling the court persecutors." 1 Their fines the Southwicks either could not or would not pay; and as they also refused to work off the indebtedness thus thrust upon them, something had to be done to prevent the government from being stultified. Thereupon the General Court authorized the County Treasurers in such cases " to sell the said persons to any of the English nation, at Virginia or Barbadoes," for satisfaction of the fines.2 This the Treasurer of Essex County endeavored to do in the cases of Daniel and Provided Southwick; but apparently only one sea captain was approached on the subject, and as he was not interested the matter was dropped.3 Deporting a prisoner and selling his services for a given number of years to the highest bidder in some other part of the empire was a regular practice in England in the seventeenth century; in fact, a considerable part of the white labor in Virginia was provided in that way. After the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell made use of this system to dispose of a number of his prisoners of war, and two or three hundred sturdy Scotsmen were shipped to Massachusetts-Bay in ι. 2. 3. phia,

Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, II, 106. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part I, 366. George Bishop, New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord (Philadel1885), pp. 88-92.

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THE Q U A K E R S

1652. 1 Thus there was ample precedent for our ancestors' scheme for collecting the fines due from Daniel and Provided Southwick and getting rid of those individuals at the same time. As we have seen, nothing came of it; but quite naturally Quaker chroniclers considered it an outrage,2 and in Quaker circles the attempt to sell Provided Southwick into servitude became a familiar tale. John Greenleaf Whittier grew up in the Quaker tradition, and in the course of time he was moved to give Provided Southwick the more romantic name of Cassandra and immortalize her in a stirring poem. To change the lady's name was no doubt within the limits usually allowed to poetic license; but it is unfortunate, if no more than that, that the poet permitted his imagination to run riot in the picture he drew of Governor John Endecott. Love of justice was deep and passionate in the breast of John Greenleaf Whittier; yet, curiously enough, he was far from fair to Endecott in this instance. Apparently he was so imbued from childhood with the belief that Endecott was a "smiter of the meek" that without hesitation — and certainly without research — he accepted it as fact and made him the principal villain in an imaginary drama. If he had to have a villain, he might with more justification have given that unpleasant rôle to William Hathorne, for a contemporary Quaker account states that in a case similar to that of Daniel and Provided Southwick "William Hathorn, though he was but an Assistant in the Court gave judgement against him [the defendant] and ad1. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, I I , 280, note; The Hutchin-

son Papers (published by the Prince Society), I, 264-265.

2. See William Sewel's History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress, of the Christian

People called Quakers (London, 1725), pp. 2 1 6 - 2 1 7 , and Joseph Besse's Collection of the Sufferings of the People called (Quakers (London, 1 7 5 3 ) , I I , 197.

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vised ' That if he had not, nor would not pay, they must send him to Barbadoes and sell him, to pay for it.' " 1 Whittier, like Endecott and most of the rest of us, mellowed as he grew older, and it is only fair to both Quaker and Puritan to reprint here a letter from the poet written in after years.2 The sentiments expressed in it can never undo the harm Whittier did to the name of John Endecott, but they make it well-nigh impossible for anyone — even of Puritan stock — to feel enduring resentment towards the author of " Cassandra Southwick." West Ossipee, Ν. H. 14th 9th mo., 1878. Geo. M. Whipple, Esq., Dear Friend: I am sorry that I cannot respond, in person, to the invitation of the Essex Institute to its commemorative festival on the 18th inst. I especially regret it, because, though a member of the Society of Friends, and, as such regarding with abhorrence the severe persecution of the sect under the administration of Gov. Endicott, I am not unmindful of the otherwise noble qualities and worthy record of the great Puritan, whose misfortune it was to live in an age which regarded religious toleration as a crime. He was the victim of the merciless logic of his creed. He honestly thought that every convert to Quakerism, became by virtue of that conversion a child of perdition; and, as the head of the Commonwealth, responsible for the spiritual as well as temporal welfare of its inhabitants, he felt it his duty to whip, banish, and hang heretics to save his people from perilous heresy. The extravagance of some of the early Quakers has been grossly exaggerated. Their conduct will compare in this respect favorably with ι . George Bishop, New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord (Philadelphia, 1885), p. 92. A n examination of the Essex County records reveals the interesting fact that on none of the various occasions when Provided Southwick was sentenced by that Court was Endecott one of the judges. Hathorne almost invariably was. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, II, 103, 106, 135» 193» 202, 3 1 5 , 342. 2. Essex Institute Historical Collections, X V , 1 9 0 - 1 9 1 .

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that of the first Anabaptists and Independents; but it must be admitted that many of them manifested a good deal of wild enthusiasm which has always been the result of persecution and the denial of the rights of conscience and worship. Their pertinacious defiance of laws enacted against them, and their fierce denunciations of priests and magistrates, must have been particularly aggravating to a man as proud and high tempered as John Endicott. He had that free-tongued neighbor of his, Edward Wharton, smartly whipped at the cart-tail about once a month, but it may be questioned whether the Governor's ears did not suffer as much under Wharton's biting sarcasm and "free speech" as the latter's back did from the magisterial whip. Time has proved that the Quakers had the best of the controversy; and their descendants can well afford to forget and forgive an error which the Puritan Governor shared with the generation in which he lived « I am very truly thy friend, JOHN G. WHITTIER.

When Mary Dyer was reprieved by the Magistrates and escorted towards the southern boundary of MassachusettsBay, it was hoped and expected that after her truly horrible experience at the gallows she would not feel called upon to return. But unfortunately for all concerned Mrs. Dyer was one of those Quakers who did not hesitate to carry out whatever instructions they received, or fancied they received, from the Almighty. So it came to pass that in the spring of 1660 she reappeared in Boston, where she was immediately arrested and put in prison. Towards the end of May she was tried by the General Court, found guilty, and condemned to die. Endecott and the other Magistrates still hoped that a tragedy could be averted, but they hoped in vain. At the gallows Mrs. Dyer was offered freedom if she would promise to go out of the Bay Colony and stay out. This time she was resolute. "Nay, I cannot," she said, "for in obedience to the will of the Lord God I came, and in His will I abide

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faithful to the death." 1 She was hanged on June 1. In March, 1661, one more Quaker was executed for returning after being banished. In his case, too, the Magistrates did what they could to save him from the gallows. They told him that if he would promise to go to England and give them no further trouble he might depart without more ado. But William Leddra was as firm as Mary Dyer had been; he declined the offer of clemency and met his fate with the fortitude of a martyr. Massachusetts-Bay had made a psychological mistake, and she knew it. The penalty of death for banished Quakers who should return to the jurisdiction-was not accomplishing its purpose. Instead of keeping fanatics out, it was luring them in and occasioning a series of unpleasant trials and executions. Our ancestors had no desire to put anyone to death because of his religious convictions. What they wished was that he or she would see the truth as they saw it or go elsewhere. But having got themselves into a position where they virtually had to carry out their threat, they sincerely regretted the course they had taken. The majority of one in the House of Deputies that prescribed capital punishment for a second offense rapidly dwindled to a minority when confronted with facts that disproved its theory. In May, 1661, the General Court, "being desirous to try all means with as much lenity as might consist with our safety to prevent the intrusions of the Quakers," changed the law so that henceforth the death penalty would not be incurred short of a fifth offense — that is, a fourth return after banishment. As it was hardly conceivable that even a Quaker would choose to come back to the Bay Colony after being ι . George Bishop, New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord (Philadelphia, 1885), p. 4 5 1 .

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whipped through town at a cart's tail on three separate occasions, it was unlikely that the executioner would ever be called upon to brand one with the letter R on the left shoulder (the penalty for a fourth offense), and unthinkable that any should ever be hanged. With this milder measure 1 Massachusetts-Bay seems to have been satisfied, and subsequent events proved that it saved her from what, in her heart, she really dreaded. Strange-acting Quakers continued to disturb her peace. One of them, a man, smashed bottles in the Boston meeting-house and prophesied, "Thus will the Lord break you." Another, a young woman, went naked through the town of Salem; and another young woman startled the church of Newbury by appearing in their midst in the nude. All of these fanatics, and doubtless many more, were dealt with by the authorities of the Bay Colony; but under the new law no Quaker was ever hanged, nor was any branded on the shoulder like a rogue. Just three days before Mrs. Dyer ascended the gallows in Boston, Charles II rode into London in glory and became in fact the king of England. The dismal news of his accession did not reach New England until the end of July; but when it did, chills went down the spine of every true Puritan. The Millennium was over, and Massachusetts-Bay must reef her sails for the stormy days that would inevitably follow. How our ancestors met the situation in general will be narrated in the following chapter. For the moment we shall consider its bearing upon the status of the Quakers in their jurisdiction. Charles II was no Quaker; but if he had to choose at this time between favoring Puritans and favoring Friends, the chances were that the latter would come out ahead. This presupposition was confirmed by a letter from John I.

Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part II, 2-4.

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25 1

Le vere tt, the Colony's vigorous and resourceful agent in London. His letter was dated September 13, 1660, and was addressed to Governor Endecott and the General Court. 1 In it Leverett made the disturbing remark, " T h e quakers I heare have been with the King concerneing your putting to death those of theyr friends executed at Boston." And after his signature he added, "Some quakers say that they are promised to have order for the liberty of being with you." These rumors were too alarming to be ignored. Endecott and his fellow-magistrates immediately called a special session of the General Court to devise measures for preventing the realization of their worst fears. One of the means adopted was a letter to the King — and a remarkable letter it was. Like true-born Englishmen, the representatives of the people of Massachusetts-Bay knelt before their new monarch and declared their loyalty to him. With more than one biblical reference, they asked him for the continuance of the civil and religious liberties conferred upon the Colony by his royal father. But when they came to the subject of the Quakers, our Puritan ancestors held their heads high like the independent Yankees they had unconsciously become and spoke out as man to man. Excitement may have impaired their rhetoric, but there is no suggestion of repentance or contrition in their presentation of the case: Concerning

the

quakers,

open

and

capitali

blasphemers,

open

seducers from the glorious Trinity, the Lord's Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed gospell, and from the holy scriptures as the rule of life, open enemies to government itselfe as established in the hands of any but men of their owne principles, malignant and assiduous promoters of doctrines directly tending to subvert both our churches and state, after all other meanes for a long time used in vaine, w e were at last constrained, for our owne safety to passe a sentence of banishment ι.

The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), II, 40-42.

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against them upon pain of death. Such was their dangerous and impetuous and desperate turbulency to religion and to the state civili and ecclesiasticall, as that how unwilling soever (could it have been avoyded) the magistrate at last, in conscience both to God and man, judged himself called for the defence of all, to keep the passage with the point of the sword held toward them; this could do no harm to him that would be warned thereby, their wittingly rushing themselves thereupon was their owne act, we with all humility conceive a crime bringing their blood upon their owne head. The quakers died, not because of their other crimes how capitali soever, but upon their superadded presumptious and incorrigible contempt of authority breaking in upon us, notwithstanding the sentence of banishment made known unto them; had they not been restrained, so far as appeared, there was too much cause to fear that we ourselves must quickly have died or worse, and such was their insolency that they would not be restrained but by death; nay, had they at last but promised to depart the jurisdiction, and not to returne without leave from authority, we should have been glad of such an opportunity to have said they should not dye. 1

The letter to the King was signed by "John Endecott, Governor," and was issued "in the name and by the order of the generali court of the Massachusetts." It is not likely that Endecott wrote all, or perhaps any part, of the epistle. The phraseology of most of it suggests a more skillful pen than his. But we know Endecott well enough to be certain that he would never have placed his signature at the end of it unless he had agreed with every sentiment expressed above. Thus we may regard the indictment of the Quakers and the explanation of the treatment accorded them as the Governor's own view. And whether we like his attitude or not, it is clarifying, to say the least, to have the situation set forth as the Puritans saw it. Few will say that their exposition was not both straight from the heart and straight from the shoulder. ι . Ibid., I I , 45. T h e present writer has compared this version with a copy of the original (Colonial Papers, X I V , 62) and has emended the text accordingly.

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At the same special session the General Court framed a set of instructions to Leverett telling him how it desired him to proceed in these troublous times. Among them was one entreating him "above all things else to dissuade his Majesty from allowing the Quakers theire liberty heere (which God forbid)." 1 If any Puritan could have achieved this, John Leverett was the man; but Charles II lent a more receptive ear to an English Quaker named Edward Burrough. Moved by his representation of the difficulties of the Friends in New England, the King authorized an order to be sent to Endecott and other governors in those parts "that, if there be any of those people called Quakers amongst you, now already condemned to suffer death, or other corporal punishment, or that are imprisoned, and obnoxious to the like condemnation, you are to forbear to proceed any farther therein." 2 What they should do was to send the prisoners to England for trial. The order was issued on September 9, 1661 ; and as if to make its reception more humiliating, it was given to Samuel Shattuck, a banished Quaker of Salem in Massachusetts-Bay, to deliver to Governor John Endecott at Boston. Needless to say, Shattuck made haste to be on his way to New England. Other Quakers provided him with a ship commanded by a Quaker captain, and on a memorable day in November he and the shipmaster knocked at Endecott's door in Boston. They were admitted, and when the Governor came to meet them he found Shattuck standing there with his hat on. Endecott, either from custom or by design, also wore a " h a t " — presumably the skull-cap one sees in ι . Ibid., I I , 49. 2. Ebenezer H a z a r d , Historical Collections, I I , 595. Papers, Colonial Series, American and West Indies, 1661-1668,

Cf. Calendar of State pp. 5 5 - 5 6 .

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the portrait of him. Shattuck might be the bearer of an order from the king of England, but that distinction should not entitle him to remain covered in the presence of the Governor of Massachusetts-Bay. Endecott ordered Shattuck's hat to be removed, and it was removed. Then, having given his visitor official recognition and received the papers from his hand, the Governor took off his own " h a t " and bade those in attendance to return Shattuck's to him. To those who like dignity in high places Endecott's insistence upon decorum on this occasion will always seem right. He and his constituents might be overruled by the king of England, but that was no reason why any man on any business should be allowed to show apparent disrespect to the head of the government of the colony of MassachusettsBay. After looking at the papers Endecott suggested that he would like to consult Deputy Governor Bellingham, who lived near by, and he invited Shattuck and his Quaker seacaptain to follow him. Leaving them at the door, Endecott was closeted with Bellingham for a few minutes. When he joined them again, he said with characteristic directness, " W e shall obey his Majesty's command." 1 I. William Sewel, History of the People called (Quakers (London, 1 7 2 5 ) , pp. 2 7 3 - 2 7 4 . Before the end of November the General Court sustained Endecott by ordering " t h a t the execution of the laws in force against Quakers, as such, so far as they respect corporal punishment or death, be suspended until the Court take further order." Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part I I , 3 4 . Bishop implies that a number of Quakers were released from prison at this time. T h e " D i a r y of J o h n H u l l " (American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, I I I , 1 9 7 ) gives a similar impression. Hutchinson maintains that " b e f o r e the receipt of this letter, but probably when they were in expectation of it, all that were in prison were discharged and sent out of the colony." History of Massachusetts-Bay, I ( 1 7 6 5 ) , 2 0 5 . A n order of the General Court, M a y 28, 1 6 6 1 , was probably the basis for Hutchinson's belief. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part I I , 1 9 - 2 0 . T h e royal suggestion that those who were in prison should be sent to E n g land for trial was carefully ignored b y the Magistrates of Massachusetts-Bay.

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NOTE In preparing this chapter of Endecott's career the author chose to discard as historical evidence the stories of the sufferings of the Quakers as told by William Sewel and Joseph Besse. From the Quaker point of view this may appear to be an evasion, because much that these writers narrated to the discredit of Endecott and the Puritans may have been the truth; but as their detailed accounts appear to be based partly upon hearsay or embellishment years after the event and not upon documents of the time, the present writer has felt that he should not accept them at their face value. The one exception to this rule is Sewel's narrative of Endecott's reception of Shattuck and the royal order in regard to Quakers imprisoned in New England. Here the details supplied by Sewel seemed so innocuous to either side and so enlivening to the story that he was willing to include them for what they may be worth. William Sewel, a Dutch Quaker, published his monumental History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress, of the Christian People called (Quakers in 1722. In the Preface he informs the reader that the compilation and writing of his work was " a Labour of more than five and twenty Years," and that it is based partly upon "several Pieces and Letters" which he copied in England in his youth and upon the memories of "some ancient people." That Sewel was industrious and that he strove to tell the truth, few will doubt; but when one finds him quoting verbatim what Endecott said on this and that occasion one naturally questions his authority. And as Sewel seldom cites his authority, and as he wrote at least a generation after Endecott's death, one is likely to reflect that the evidence is not very good. When evidence that is prejudicial to either party in a controversy is not good, it seems best to disregard it entirely. Joseph Besse published his two-volume Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Çhxakers in 1753, almost a century after the events described in this chapter. The title-page announces that the collection was " T a k e n from Original Records and other Authentick Accounts." The present writer has found it possible to trace to their source and to accept some of the "original records," such as laws passed by the General Court of Massachusetts-Bay; but the " authentic accounts" seem to have been drawn largely from Sewel's History. And as he finds it advisable to discard Sewel, so also he finds it logical to disregard Besse when based on Sewel. In a different class he places the First Part of George Bishop's New

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England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord. Bishop was not in New England in the period which he describes, and it is quite possible that he was misinformed as to certain details; but since he was a contemporary, and since he published the First Part of his work in 1661, at which time those whom he accused could have made reply if they had wished to do so, it is only fair to consider that his bitter narrative was at least founded on fact. Furthermore, the author feels justified in accepting as the truth Thomas Hutchinson's account of the behavior of Mary Prince. Hutchinson's reputation as a careful and impartial historian of all periods of Massachusetts history except his own is secure; and though in this instance he does not give his authority, one assumes that he had a good basis for his statement. The document, if document it was, may well have been among those lost or destroyed when his mansion was ruined by the Boston mob in August, 1765.

CHAPTER

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N T H E same July day in 1660 — and on the same ship — that brought to New England the news of the restoration of the Stuart dynasty, there arrived at Boston two grave gentlemen named Edward Whalley and William Goffe. Upon landing they proceeded directly to the residence of Governor Endecott, who received them with every courtesy. They brought with them letters from two Puritan ministers of Westminster, but their own family connections and well-known careers were ample testimonials. Whalley was a first cousin of both Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden; he had made a notable record in the Civil War, and had more recently been one of the ten Major-Generals to whom Cromwell had entrusted the local administration of the realm. Furthermore, he had been a member of the High Court of Justice that had sent Charles I to the block. However a Bostonian might feel about the execution of the King, there was enough else in Whalley's list of achievements to attract attention and command respect. Goffe was Whalley's son-in-law; he, too, had distinguished himself in the late upheavals in England, and he too had been one of those who signed Charles's death warrant. These two men had decided that Restoration England was no place for such as they, and when it was clear that Charles II was about to be proclaimed king they wisely sailed for Massachusetts-Bay. On the day of their arrival in New England they paid their respects to Endecott, and then

O

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moved on to Cambridge. There they found the environment congenial, and during the next few months they visited various towns in the vicinity and were often seen in Boston. They did not disguise themselves, and probably there were few Bostonians who did not know that they were " the regicide judges." Public opinion was plainly in their favor, and once when they were insulted by a troublemaker the offender was haled into court and bound to his good behavior.1 In the town of Boston there were, however, a few transient royalists. One of these was Thomas Breedon; another was John Crowne. It was not long before Breedon took it upon himself to complain about the presence of the newcomers whom he regarded as "declared traitors and murderers." If we may believe his statement, he went to Endecott and advised him to have them arrested. The Governor was not accustomed to being told what he should do, and he liked it not — especially from this quarter. Furthermore, he probably knew that in the Declaration of Breda Charles II had promised that none of the Puritan leaders was to be punished except by act of Parliament. So far no word had come of an act that affected the lives or liberties of Edward Whalley and William Goffe. Accordingly he replied that unless he received orders from England to do so, neither he nor anyone else would take action against them. Breedon soon found himself distinctly unpopular about town — especially in administrative circles. Various persons gave him the cold shoulder and referred to his behavior as "malignant." One official went even further and in the presence of several members of the General Court taunted him with, I. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 214.

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"Speak against Whalley and Goffe, if ye dare, if ye dare, if ye dare." 1 Having made no progress with Endecott, Breedon wrote a letter to Deputy Governor Bellingham and sent it to him by a servant who was instructed to wait for an answer. Bellingham proved to be even less responsive than Endecott had been: as soon as he ascertained that the letter was from Thomas Breedon, he bade the bearer " be gone, told him he had nothing farther to say to him." 2 For six months or more Whalley and Goffe went their own way in Cambridge and Boston, attending meetings and lectures, supping with President Chauncy, and paying visits to various prominent citizens.3 According to John Crowne, they were made much of—especially at Cambridge, "where they preached and prayed, and gained universal applause and admiration, and were looked upon as men dropped down from heaven." All went well until the end of November; then it was learned from England that a recent act of Parliament, the Act of Indemnity, marked these distinguished visitors for destruction. This news, which seems to have been unexpected, tended to divide public opinion in regard to Whalley and Goffe. Some felt that it was now in1. Colonial Papers, X V , 30; in the Public Record Office, London. 2. Breedon's statement is printed in Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, III, 3 9 - 4 1 . The present writer accepts it as historical evidence only when it does not run counter to Thomas Hutchinson's narrative of the regicides in New England. Hutchinson had before him Goffe's " J o u r n a l " and based his account upon that. Breedon turned informer against the regicide judges and against Massachusetts-Bay, and may well have embroidered upon the truth when he wrote his version for the authorities in England. The same holds good for John Crowne's story, though Crowne appears to have been a higher type of man than Breedon. Crowne's deposition is printed in George Chalmers's Political Annals, pp. 2 6 3 - 2 6 4 ; and in part in John Gorham Palfrey's History of New England, II, 498, note. 3. Fragments from Goffe's " J o u r n a l " are printed in Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, V I I (1863-64), 2 8 1 - 2 8 3 .

26ο

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expedient for the Colony to harbor them; others rallied to their support. As the winter of 1660-61 wore on, Endecott had the matter more and more on his official mind, and on February 22 he held a meeting of the Magistrates to decide whether the regicide judges should be arrested. The board was opposed to taking that step; but in the minds of Whalley and Goffe it was clear that the time had come for them to depart, and within a week they disappeared in the direction of New Haven. The regicides left the Bay Colony at a very convenient moment for all concerned, for within a few days a newspaper arrived in Boston, via Barbados, containing a proclamation issued in the name of the King which commanded "all his subjects in any of his dominions" to seek and seize these men. Thomas Breedon, after receiving many rebuffs in the colonial capital, had gone to England, where he told those in authority what he knew about Whalley and Goffe and what he thought of the government of MassachusettsBay. Now Endecott had no choice — unless he was willing to defy Charles II; and quite properly he and his Assistants issued on March 8 a warrant for the arrest of the two men. It was sent to Springfield and to other remote towns in the Colony, but the recent guests of Cambridge and Boston had passed beyond the jurisdiction of Massachusetts-Bay. For two centuries and a half the question has been asked: "Did Endecott and his associates smile when they issued the warrant and sent it to every corner of their colony?" The question remains unanswered. Whether they smiled or not, they could truthfully say that they had done their duty. The time for amusement was not long. On March 5 Charles I I had issued a mandate to Endecott to secure Whalley and Goffe and ship them to England, and this posi-

TURMOIL tive order reached Boston early in May. 1 The Governor read it and knew that his Majesty meant business. Without a meeting of the Assistants, he commissioned two ardent royalists, who had recently arrived from England, to search for and apprehend the objects of Parliament's displeasure. Indeed, he went even further than this, and armed the agents with letters to the governors of Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth, and New Netherland. With each of these letters he enclosed a copy of the King's mandate. In writing to the English governors he merely expressed his expectation that they would discharge their duty to his Majesty; in his letter to Peter Stuyvesant, he virtually asked that Colonel Whalley and Colonel Goffe be arrested and delivered to their pursuers, " with meet help to convey them out of your limits into the English jurisdiction, to be sent as by his Majesty is required." 2 For taking these steps without a formal meeting of the Assistants, Endecott was criticized in some quarters, but even his critics admitted that what he did had to be done in one way or another.3 From another source we learn that he discussed the matter with the nearest Magistrates, even if he did not call a meeting for the purpose. The two young men whom Endecott selected for catching the refugees were Thomas Kellond, a merchant, and Thomas Kirke, a shipmaster. His instructions to them are dated May 6, 1661, and they are fairly explicit: 4 the pursuers were to "make speed to Hartford and Guilford in ι . The royal order is printed in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Third Series, V I I , 123. 2. Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, III, 41-42. 3. American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, III, 202. 4. Colonial Papers, X V , 50; in the Public Record Office in London. There is a transcript among the "Ëndicott Papers" of the Massachusetts Historical Society, box 5, folder 1.

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Conecticot and New Haven Jurisdictions" and deliver Endecott's letters to Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of one colony and to the Deputy Governor of the other. From that point the discovery and arrest of the regicides were to devolve largely upon the local authorities, though Kellond and Kirke were told to "make diligent inquiry after the said Whalley and Goffe, where they were last, and how they went thence, and to acquaint the authority of the place, and inform them that a strict account will be expected." On the surface Endecott's instructions give the impression of a serious, determined effort on his part to find and bring in the fugitives. But it stands to reason that if his heart had been in the chase he would not have entrusted the work to two young Englishmen who were entirely unacquainted with the lay of the land and with the traditions of its inhabitants. If he had really wished to run Whalley and Goffe to earth, he would have selected quite different agents. The appointment he made was doubly clever: it virtually insured the regicides against discovery and seizure, and it protected Endecott from being accused of giving the task to men who would do it half-heartedly. If he had chosen Boston Puritans and they had failed, it is certain that someone would have pointed out that his apparent cooperation was nothing but pretense. Therefore he selected eager royalists — whose youth and ardor he knew would avail them little in an unfamiliar and unsympathetic environment. During the remainder of the month of May, Messrs. Kirke and Kellond saw a good deal of the landscape of New Haven, Connecticut, and even New Netherland; they met a number of distinguished persons; and they heard a good many reports as to where the regicides had been; but they

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returned to Boston empty-handed. 1 On M a y 29 they made a written report to Endecott, and he in turn sent it on to two of the ministers of Charles II.

A little later he wrote

another letter to England in which he held out hope of the arrest of Whalley and Goffe, for they had recently been seen "creeping through a field of corn" near New Haven. 2 The Governor assured his correspondents that upon hearing this rumor he and his Assistants wrote to the New Haven authorities " t o stir them up to a faithful diligence and further endeavor for their apprehending."

3

But early in

August he seems to have come to the conclusion that there was no longer any point in being optimistic. In a letter to the Earl of Clarendon he remarked that the latest news of the regicide judges was that " they are escaped their pursuers and are probably got upon the sea towards Holland."

4

There is no reason to believe that Endecott knew that at that moment the two fugitives were hiding in a cave on the eastern side of West Rock near New Haven. The search for them was never seriously renewed, and after spending two or three anxious years in the New Haven Colony they found a permanent abiding-place in Hadley, a frontier town within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts-Bay. Charles II had not been king many weeks before he found himself besieged by all kinds of men cherishing all kinds of grievances against the government of Massachusetts-Bay. The King himself could not be bothered with such complaints, and as soon as he had created a Royal Council of Foreign Plantations he referred matters of this kind to that ι . Their report is printed in The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), I I , 5 2 - 5 7 . 2. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Third Series, I, 5 2 . 3 . Colonial Papers, X V , 8 3 ; in the Public Record Office in London. 4. " C l a r e n d o n Manuscripts," L X X V , 75 s ; in the Bodleian Library.

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body. Among the first discoveries made by the Council was the fact that the King had never been formally proclaimed in Massachusetts-Bay. This was a scandal indeed, and early in April, 1661, it directed that orders be sent to Endecott to supply this deficiency. When these instructions reached the Governor at Boston, he seems to have been genuinely surprised and mortified. The fact is, it probably never occurred to him, or to anyone else in authority, that this formality was expected. One can hardly blame them, for after all there never had been a new king since they came to New England and so there was no precedent to follow or to break. In Old England things of that kind had been done for them, not by them. Endecott and the General Court had written more than one groveling letter of congratulation to Charles II, and they had supposed that their duty stopped there. Humbly and somewhat lamely Endecott did his best to explain this oversight when he wrote to England towards the end of the summer, and he sought to strengthen his position by giving a brief account of the belated ceremony and celebration which had now taken place. The proclaiming was done on August 8, 1661. According to Endecott it was performed by the Secretary of the Colony, "in the best form we were capable of, to the great rejoicing of the people, expressed in their loud acclamations, God save the king! which was no sooner ended, but a troop of horse, four foot companies, then in arms, expressed their joy in their peals; our forts and all the ships in our harbour discharged, our castle concluding with * * * * * * a ll thundered out their joy." 1 To the humble and adulatory letter of the preceding ι. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Third Series, I, 52-53.

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winter Massachusetts-Bay now found it advisable to add another, even more humble and more adulatory. Presumably it was drafted by the General Court, but Endecott had to sign it. There was much in it that must have gone against him, but the closing phrase was sincere enough for anyone: "yea, as the Lord was with David, so let him be with your most excellent majesty, and make the throne of King Charles the Second greater and better than the throne of King David, or than the throne of any of your royal progenitors." 1 By concentrating his thoughts on that somewhat ambiguous line, even John Endecott could stomach what went before and sign his name to the letter without a qualm. Early in January, 1660/61, Charles's Council for Foreign Plantations appointed a committee to investigate New England and what went on there,2 and it was not long before that committee and the Council itself were full of business. Persons who had grievances against the people of Massachusetts-Bay appeared from all directions. There was Thomas Breedon, whose premature zeal to arrest Goffe and Whalley had made him unpopular in Boston. There was Edward Godfrey, who had thought he was Governor of the Province of Maine but soon found that his province was only a part of Massachusetts-Bay. There was John Gifford, who had had unhappy experiences in his attempt to manage the ironworks at Lynn. There were Lyonell Copley and a group of associates, stockholders in the ironworks, who alleged that their estates in New England had been seized for the iron company's debts. There was Samuel Maverick, formerly of Noddle's Island (East Boston), a Church of 1. Records of Massachusetts Bay, IV, Part II, 32-33. 2. Colonial Papers, X I V , 59; in the Public Record Office.

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England man who had endured the Puritan rule as long as he could and had finally returned to England in disgust. And there were, of course, a number of Quakers who had not forgotten their sufferings in MassachusettsBay. Many of these malcontents, and others too, were invited to hearings in the month of March, 1661. Captain John Leverett, the Bay Colony's agent in London, was summoned too, and was instructed to bring a copy of the charter with him. The reports that were handed in on this occasion or soon thereafter are interesting reading. Breedon's bristled with venom and misrepresentations, and probably it was his question, " W h y do they not proclaim his Majesty?" that led directly to the formalities and celebration of the following August. The purpose of his narrative is summed up in the following sentence: " O f how great concernment it is that there should be a speedy course taken for settling and establishing this country in due obedience and subjection to his Majesty may appear, by the two hectors, Whalley and Goffe, daily buzzing in their ears a change of government in England and also by the multitudes of discontented persons of their gang, going and sending their estates there." 1 Edward Godfrey told the story of the expansion of the Bay Colony which resulted in the swallowing up of Maine.2 John Gifford was not far behind Breedon or Godfrey when it came to scandalizing the name of New England; he dwelt especially on two unpleasant topics: the mint, and the funds sent over from England for missionary work among the Indians. According to him, the minting of pine-tree shil1. Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, I I I , 40. 2. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1661-68,

pp. 18-19.

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lings was nothing but a Yankee device for making a threepence on every English shilling; the people over there melted down the King's coins and then issued new ones that were only three-quarters of the value of the old. As to the funds collected in England and sent to Massachusetts-Bay " t o christianize the Indians," that was a fraud perpetrated by "Parson Hugh Peters": the money went into private pockets and never benefited the Indians at all ! 1 Lyonell Copley and his fellow-stockholders told a sad story of having invested £15,000 in the ironworks in New England with no result except that their estates were seized "for supposed debts"; there was no justice in that part of the world.2 What Samuel Maverick added at this time to the pile of complaints, we do not know; but two or three years later he wrote to the King and stressed the fact that for about thirty years he had resided in New England and had been debarred all liberty, civil and ecclesiastical. He wished to make it clear that there were many thousand loyal subjects in a similar situation, and that unless something was done for them there would either be a civil war in MassachusettsBay or persons like himself would "remove to the Dutch or other places." 3 As to the Quakers, they filed an itemized account of the hangings, banishments, fines, and whippings that had been their lot in the Bay Colony, and begged Charles I I to do something that would put a stop to their being abused, allow the exiles to return to New England, ι . Colonial Papers, X V , 45; in the Public Record Office. There is a copy of Gifford's letter in the "Endicott Papers" of the Massachusetts Historical Society, box 5, folder 1. 2. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1661-68, p. 17. 3. State Papers, Domestic, Entry Book, Charles II, X I I I , 3 3 5 ; in the Public Record Office.

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and enable those still there to "enjoy quietly their habitations." 1 Of the many complainants, Captain Breedon and Samuel Maverick appear to have carried the most conviction with the Council for Foreign Plantations. Largely as a result of Breedon's story of the "injustice, usurpations, and exorbitances of the governments there," it reported to the King that "New England hath in these late times of general disorder strayed into many enormities, and hath invaded the rights of their neighbors, judging and overruling, by the power of the greatest province (which is that of the Massachusets) other lesser provinces of the same colony." There was much more in the report, all to the discredit of Massachusetts-Bay, " by all which it appears that the government there hath purposely and upon design withdrawn all manner of means [of] corresponding or being understood, or having their affairs judged or disposed of in England, as if they intended to suspend their absolute obedience to his Majesty's authority, until time shall farther discover how far necessity or their interests shall compel them thereunto." In closing, it suggested that if the New Englanders did not mend their ways at once and become "settled in their full and due obedience," the King might employ Captain Breedon " for the drawing or reducing them to a perfect obedience and conformity, he being about six weeks hence to return thither upon his own concernments, and being one who hath a good estate and interest there, and seeming to be a prudent dexterous person for such a service." 2 Of all unwelcome persons who could have come to Boston in the summer of 1661, excepting the Devil himself, prob1. Colonial Papers, X V , 3 1 , pp. 9 - 1 1 ; in the Public Record Office. 2. Ibid., X V , 42; in the Public Record Office.

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ably Breedon was the most unwelcome; and it was not long before he amply justified the regard in which he was held. Altogether too sure of himself and his future, he "behaved with great insolence in the face of the Court, usurping authority, and laying his commands on them; but he soon found they had not lost their spirit. They committed him to prison for his contemptuous carriage, and afterwards fined him two hundred pounds, and ordered that he become bound in two hundred pounds, with sureties, to be of good behaviour, standing committed until sentence be performed." 1 Nevertheless, Breedon's behavior, or news of the recommendation of the Council, or both, gave the General Court a good deal of food for thought. If matters in England were taking the turn they seemed to be taking, would it not be wise to send additional agents to London to strengthen Leverett's hand? At first there was lack of agreement on this point, but at a special session in December it was resolved to send over Simon Bradstreet, an Assistant from Andover, and the Reverend John Norton, teacher of the First Church in Boston. The proposed mission seemed to be ill-starred from the very beginning. Neither Bradstreet nor Norton was at all eager to go to England; probably they dreaded the responsibility more than the voyage, for much depended upon the results of their efforts and the prospect of a happy outcome was almost nonexistent. Endecott and Bellingham were strongly opposed to the whole idea of sending over anyone; they preferred to stand their ground here in New England and await developments. In fact, they felt so strongly on the subject that they declined to take part in the meetings I. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay,

I (1765), 224-225.

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of the committee appointed by the General Court to draw up instructions for the envoys. This was a strange state of affairs, and it suggests that the forces of the Bay Colony were not pulling together in a grave emergency. The explanation seems to be that the time had come when younger men should guide the destinies of Massachusetts-Bay. The "old guard" of the Bible Commonwealth may have been right in their belief that the less attention they paid to Charles's Council for Foreign Plantations the better it would be for the state, but the younger generation did not take that view. When funds had to be raised by private subscription to provide for the expenses of Bradstreet and Norton, it was they — "new people" with newly made money — and not the remnants of the founders, who did most of the financing;1 and it was they who propped up Norton's wavering spirit until he was safely aboard a ship bound for England. To be fair to the melancholy Mr. Norton, we should remind ourselves that his heart was not in the mission, and he himself, as subsequent events proved, was really in poor health. His final determination to go and do what he could for the Colony was little short of heroic. The additional agents reached England early in the spring of 1662, and contrary to the expectations of many of their fellow-countrymen they succeeded admirably in their undertaking. Puritan members of the aristocracy, notably Lord Saye and Sele, helped them at Court, and Charles I I appears to have been remarkably open-minded and tolerant. There was no reason in the world why he should not have revoked the precious charter of the Bay Colony, turned the place into a royal province with an appointed ι. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 521-524.

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Governor, and established episcopacy there. A vindictive monarch would have done these things, and more. But whatever else he may have been, Charles I I was not vindictive. He was amused rather then annoyed by the manners and customs of his New England subjects, and he did not take too seriously the clamor of those who had grievances against the American Puritans. In a truly gracious letter dated June 28, 1662, he assured Massachusetts-Bay that he would renew the charter and would forgive all colonists who had been careless of their loyalty to the House of Stuart during "the late troubles." He would, however, have to insist that the forms and usages of the Church of England be tolerated there, and that men of good character, orthodox religion, and good estate be admitted to the Lord's Supper and the franchise, regardless of their "persuasions concerning church government." This toleration need not extend to Quakers. Something had happened since that day in September, 1661, when Charles became the temporary champion of "those persons" and ordered that all under indictment or in prison be released and sent to England for trial. Just what had brought about a change in his attitude the King did not state, but evidently he had discovered that their principles were "inconsistent with any kind of government." Consequently he had found it necessary to make " a sharp law against them," which he would gladly see duplicated in Massachusetts-Bay.1 Viewed through the perspective of almost three hundred years, the achievement of Leverett, Bradstreet, and Norton and their English friends appears almost marvelous. One would hesitate to say that the Bay Colony did not deserve ι . T h e letter is printed in The Hutchinson Papers (published b y the Prince Society), I I , 1 0 0 - 1 0 4 .

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such kind treatment from Charles II; but certainly she received more clemency than she should have expected. Yet many of our ancestors could not or would not see it in that light. Instead of rejoicing in what was saved, they dwelt gloomily on what had been lost, and did not hesitate to blame Bradstreet and Norton for the restrictions the King placed on their ancient liberties. This, said they, shaking their heads, is the beginning of the end of the good old Colony of Massachusetts-Bay. Norton was more criticized than Bradstreet, because more had been expected of him. Ill and supersensitive, he suffered acutely from the opinions he heard expressed, and he imagined that all his friends had forsaken him. Withdrawing into himself, he brooded over his unhappiness, and within a year from the time of his return to New England he died. There can be little doubt that a broken heart hastened his end.

CHAPTER

XXI

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T

HE critical attitude that the people of MassachusettsBay displayed towards Bradstreet and Norton was soon reflected in their treatment of the King's expressed wishes. Charles II might be amused by the peculiarities of his New England subjects, but clearly our ancestors were not amused by his presuming to tell them what changes they must make in their civil and ecclesiastical system. Recovering from their first fright, they decided to heed the royal mandate as little or as much as they chose, and no more. The conduct of the affairs of the Bay Colony was their business and not his. Accordingly they revived a suspended law against the Quakers, ordered that henceforth writs be issued in the name of the King, and paid little or no attention to various other suggestions contained in his letter.1 Charles expected a reply to his gracious epistle, and had taken pains to point that out. But no reply came forth. A spirit of independence is an admirable trait, but in this instance were not our ancestors behaving rather stupidly? They were playing directly into the hands of their enemies in England, and those enemies, especially Samuel Maverick, made good use of the opportunity thus afforded them. When Charles signified that he would not revoke the charter, he did so more or less conditionally and assumed that the conditions he outlined would be met forthwith by ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, IV, Part II, 58-59.

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Massachusetts-Bay. Month after month went by and nothing happened. Meanwhile Maverick was insistently calling upon Lord Clarendon, the power behind the throne, for action» In letter after letter he called his Lordship's attention to New England's unregeneracy, proposed a number of reforms, urged that a commission be sent over to investigate the situation, and advocated also the seizure of New Netherland.1 At first he suggested that a Governor-General be appointed, and it may well be that he pictured himself occupying that office. But Charles and his ministers were not ready to go so far as that. The idea of an investigating commission met with favor, however, and in the spring of 1664 Samuel Maverick, Colonel Richard Nicolls, Colonel George Cartwright, and Sir Robert Carr were sent out on this errand. Of the four commissioners Maverick and Nicolls were the most important and the most formidable; Maverick was the prime investigator, and Nicolls was to command an expedition against New Netherland. With Stuart duplicity the King issued two sets of instructions to the commissioners; one set was for use in public, the other for their actual guidance. According to the former,2 which was garnished with expressions of royal regard and affection for the colony of Massachusetts-Bay, they were to study and determine boundaries, give redress to Indian chiefs, inquire into educational institutions, administer justice where it was clear there had been injustice, and send to England a detailed report on the whole organization and administration in that part of the world. In their secret instructions the commissioners were told to insinuate them1. New Y o r k Historical Society Collections for the year 1869, pp. 19-43, 4 5 -

50» 56-57·

2. Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, III, 51-54.

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selves " b y all kind and dextrous carriage into the good opinion of the principal persons there," so that the New Englanders would see that a few changes in their charters would be not only harmless but actually beneficial to them. For the present the two main objects were: to persuade them to accept a royal Governor and to place their militia under an official nominated by the crown. As steppingstones to these ends the General Court might be induced to elect Colonel Nicolls in place of Endecott, and to choose Colonel Cartwright Major-General of the Colony. That Charles and his advisers were a bit dubious about the success of this attempt at peaceful penetration appears in this clause of the instructions: "But how to approach to those two points we cannot tell, but must leave it to your skill and dexterity. . . . " 1 How to do it was indeed an important question; and of all possible ways Samuel Maverick immediately chose the worst. It was intended that the investigation of New England, like the attack on New Netherland, should be a surprise. Of course the King wrote a letter to Governor Endecott,2 telling him what to expect and what was expected of him, but that letter was to arrive by, and not ahead of, the commissioners. The plan was excellent, but the King had not reckoned on the lack of discretion of which Samuel Maverick was capable. Arriving at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a few days before his associates came into Boston Harbor, Maverick dashed off an exuberant letter to Captain Breedon in Boston ordering him to go to the Gov1. Z W . , III, 5 7 - 6 1 . 2. Colonial Papers, X V I I I , 5 3 ; in the Public Record Office. There is a transcript in the "Endicott Papers" in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, box 6, folder 8.

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ernor and the Assistants and tell them what was in store for them! 1 One cannot help having more or less sympathy for Maverick. He was established on the shores of Massachusetts Bay before our ancestors came hither in 1630; he never felt at home with them or with their view of life; he was obliged to change his abode to suit their convenience, and they fined and imprisoned him when they believed him to be a menace to their well-being. He had taken all this discipline with cumulative resentment. Now the tables were turned, and it was they who were to suffer. At this point exhilaration got the better of his judgment. Had he bided his time but a few days more, and had he shown a "kind and dextrous carriage" when he arrived at Boston, Charles's commissioners might have smiled their way into the good graces of more than one person of importance in Puritan Massachusetts-Bay. But when he appointed Captain Thomas Breedon to be the bearer of the news of his arrival in New England, he proved himself one of the most undiplomatic diplomats in history. Even without this advance information from Maverick, Endecott knew very well what had been going on in England and that a British squadron was likely to appear in Boston Harbor at almost any time.2 In spite of the secrecy which we assume to have surrounded the transactions of the King and his advisers, Endecott seems always to have known what was happening at the meetings of the Privy Council and what was in prospect for the Bay Colony. Thus months before Charles ordered the release of Quakers confined in Massachusetts-Bay, Endecott and the General Court took all the point out of that order by opening the 1. Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, I I I , 65. 2. J o h n G o r h a m Palfrey, History of New England, I I , 583, note 3.

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prison doors and virtually driving the erstwhile prisoners out of the Colony. 1 Before the Council for Foreign Plantations commenced its sessions for receiving complaints, Endecott and his associates knew with remarkable accuracy who were likely to be the complainants and what grievances they would bring in. So now, in May, 1664, several weeks before the ships bearing Maverick, Nicolls, Cartwright, and Carr came up over the eastern horizon, the General Court was informed of their appointment and proposed program. Whatever the means of communication may have been, it appears to have functioned perfectly. The General Court's response to the news of the coming of the commissioners was almost militant. They ordered the commander of the Castle (now Fort Independence) to notify Endecott and Bellingham at once when the ships came into view. The sacred charter was entrusted to a special committee for safekeeping, and another committee was appointed to go on board the flagship and present the respects of the General Court to the commissioners.2 The latter committee was to request that only a few soldiers be allowed to come ashore at one time, and that these come unarmed. This was a reasonable request, for it was based on the town's experience with wild soldiers and sailors earlier in the seventeenth century. It was not likely that those who came hither in Restoration days would behave any better. Having made these mundane preparations for the advent of the commissioners and their attendant forces, the Court appointed a day of fasting and prayer, and awaited developments. Colonel Nicolls and Colonel Cartwright and part of the ι . Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part II, 19-20. 2. Ibid., I V , Part II, 101-102.

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fleet and soldiery came up the harbor on the afternoon of Saturday, J u l y 23, 1664. The two ships were the first bona fide British men-of-war the Bostonians had ever seen in their port, 1 and their presence — regardless of their mission — caused an unusual stir in the New England metropolis. On the following Tuesday Governor Endecott held a special meeting of the Assistants, at which the commissioners exhibited their credentials and delivered the King's letter. Their instructions they kept out of sight, except the part relating to the expedition against New Netherlands This was in accordance with royal orders; it would not be wise to have Massachusetts-Bay know too much before she had authorized the raising of volunteers for the attack on New Amsterdam. The date set for the departure of these forces was August 20, and so there was not time to be frittered away now in the bickerings that were certain to arise when all the instructions of the commission should be known. Endecott and the Assistants considered what was laid before them and replied that they would call a special session of the General Court for August 3. The Court would decide what should be done. The commissioners did not like so noncommittal an answer, but it was the best they could get; dropping a few words about further business later on, they hoisted their anchors and were off to New Netherland. On August 3, 1664, the General Court met at Boston and took up the business for which it had been summoned. Endecott was absent, presumably ill, for he would hardly have chosen to be away from so important a meeting. First of all, the members placed on record their allegiance to the ι. John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, II, 578. 2. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I (1765), 230.

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King — and in the same sentence proclaimed their determination to adhere to their charter "so dearly obtained, and so long enjoyed by undoubted right in the sight of God and men." 1 Having more or less cleared the air with this declaration, they cheerfully authorized the raising of not more than two hundred men, who should cooperate with the royal forces against New Netherland if called upon to assist in that enterprise. Then the King's long-neglected letter of June 28, 1662, was considered, and with apparent compliance the Court passed a law that admitted to the franchise certain non-church-members who were orthodox in religion and possessed good reputations and taxable estates.2 " Orthodox in religion" was the King's own phrase, and by it he probably meant any Trinitarian Protestant, especially any Episcopalian. Our ancestors took him at his word, but carefully circumvented the spirit by legislating that a man's orthodoxy must be approved by the local clergy. As it was not likely that many clergymen in Massachusetts-Bay would find an Episcopalian or a Baptist "orthodox," this clause was a joker; it practically nullified the ostensible extension of the privilege to vote and hold office ! This was as far as the Bay Colony would go; and as this was not very far, she found it prudent to write a long address to the King giving the best possible account of herself and begging him to consider her a quiet and dutiful child. The closing passage is truly eloquent and deserves a high place in our early colonial rhetoric: 3 1. Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part I I , 166. 2. Ibid., I V , Part I I , 1 6 7 - 1 6 8 . 3 . T h e Address is printed in full in Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts-Bay, I ( 1 7 6 5 ) , 5 3 7 - 5 4 3 ; also in Records of Massachusetts Bay, I V , Part I I , 129-133* a n d 168-173.

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R o y a l Sir, it is in y o u r p o w e r to say of y o u r people in N e w - E n g l a n d , they shall not die. If w e h a v e f o u n d f a v o u r in the sight of our K i n g , let our life be given us at our petition (or rather t h a t w h i c h is dearer t h a n life, that w e h a v e v e n t u r e d our lives a n d willingly passed t h r o u g h m a n y deaths to obtain) a n d our all at our request.

L e t our g o v e r n m e n t live,

our patent live, our magistrates live, our laws a n d liberties live, our religious e n j o y m e n t s live, so shall w e all yet h a v e further cause to say, from our hearts, let the K i n g live forever !

This was the last and the noblest document that Governor Endecott was to sign and send to his Majesty Charles II. Before the King's unpleasantly tart reply 1 reached New England, John Endecott had passed from a world of tasks and trials to a realm of everlasting peace. The recruiting of volunteers for the expedition against New Netherland did not go off very well. John Hull recorded in his Diary, "Few volunteers presented themselves, though the drums beat up and proclamation made in the severals towns for them." 2 It was midsummer, and who wishes to leave New England on any business at that season? It mattered little, however, for New Amsterdam surrendered easily to Colonel Nicolls and his squadron on August 29, 1664. The reserves from Massachusetts-Bay were never called upon to take the field. With the conquest of New Netherland behind them, the commissioners — with the exception of Nicolls, who became Deputy Governor of New York — turned their attention to an investigation of the New England colonies. They reassembled in Boston about the middle of February, 1664/5, but did not attempt much business there until the end of April or early in May. In the meantime they made a study of the Plymouth Colony and of Rhode Island. As their ι. The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), II, 1 1 5 - 1 1 7 . •2. American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, III, 212.

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activities in Massachusetts-Bay came after Endecott's death, a detailed account of them does not belong here. It will suffice if we assure the reader that the net result was a highly unfavorable account of the Colony,1 one that might have led to many unwelcome changes for our ancestors if Charles and his ministers had not been engrossed in much more urgent affairs when the commissioners' report was received. Happily for Massachusetts-Bay, the Dutch, outraged by the seizure of New Netherland in time of peace, had gone to war with Britain; and it was not long before a Dutch fleet was in the Thames, capturing Sheerness and burning three British men-of-war. Under such circumstances the King and his advisers had no time to devote to the reorganization of a more or less harmless colony called Massachusetts-Bay. The situation was not without its suggestion of poetic justice: a dozen years or so earlier, the Bay Colonists had prevented an unwarranted attack on the Dutch colony of New Netherland; now it was the Dutch who indirectly delivered them from the hands of their enemies. In the arduous spring of 1657, when Magistrates and Deputies were wrestling with the problem of the Quakers, Governor Endecott fell ill and was obliged to give up all work for a number of weeks.2 In spite of his age — almost seventy years — and in spite of merciless hot weather, the rugged constitution that had carried him through many a New England winter asserted itself and restored him to health in the course of time. But it is not unreasonable to suppose that it was this spell of ill-health that turned his ι . It is printed in Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, I I I , 110-113. 2.

The Hutchinson Papers (published by the Prince Society), I I , 26.

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thoughts towards making his will. This he did two years later. That document is interesting chiefly because of the light it sheds on the nature of the possessions of an eminent citizen of Massachusetts-Bay in the middle of the seventeenth century.1 To his wife he bequeathed the "farm called Orchard" and all that pertained to it, with the understanding that at her death that property would be divided "indifferently" between his sons John and Zerubbabel. To her should go also all the furnishings of the house in Boston; the house itself did not belong to him. Furthermore, she was to have "Catta Hand," off Marblehead, and a quarter of Block Island, both of which had recently been granted to him by the General Court — the latter in recognition of "his great services to this country." John, who made his home in Boston, should have a farm in Salem and also a farm on Ipswich River. To Zerubbabel, the younger son, now a physician in Salem, he bequeathed three hundred acres of the main farm on the Ipswich and a farm adjoining it. The remainder of his territorial holdings were to be divided between the sons, the elder to receive two-thirds and the younger one-third. To his grandson, Zerubbabel's boy, and to the ministers of Salem and Boston he left appropriate remembrances in money; and finally, "to the poor of Boston, four pounds to be disposed of by the Deacons of the Church." As the testator stipulated that some of his books and his share of Block Island might be sold " to helpe pay debts," one infers that John Endecott was more or less land-poor at the time he made his will. On the evening of November 17, 1664, a magnificent ι. It is printed in Essex Institute Historical Collections, X X V , 1 3 7 - 1 4 0 . T o the antiquarian the inventory of his estate is even more interesting. Ibid., X X V , 144-148.

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comet appeared in the eastern heavens, and for almost three months New Englanders stared at it and marked its westward progress. What did it betoken? Some recalled that the wheat crop of the preceding summer had been almost a complete failure, and they wondered whether this was an omen of worse agricultural calamities in 1665. Others thought of the precarious political condition of Massachusetts-Bay, and read in the comet a warning of disaster when the royal commissioners should have completed their tiresome investigation. Still others remembered that a dozen years ago there was a comet in the skies, and that soon thereafter occurred the death of the Colony's most beloved minister, the Reverend John Cotton of Boston.1 Did the present celestial wonder portend the passing of . . . ? Governor Endecott gazed at the sign in the heavens and meditated. Whatever the true meaning of the phenomenon might be, he knew that the days remaining to him were few indeed. He was old and weary, and though he would have liked to live to see the charter confirmed and the future of Massachusetts-Bay assured, perhaps this was as good a time as any to go. Sometimes it must have seemed to him that there was instability within the Colony as well as pressure from without. A number of the churches now virtually admitted to membership sons and daughters who had never experienced religion. Was this as it should be? His own church, the First Church in Boston, disapproved of the innovation, and both temperament and tradition made Endecott oppose it. But it might be for the best, after all, for neither of his sons had experienced religion and so, under the present system, neither was a church member or a I. Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I ( 1 7 6 5 ) , 226.

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voter. Yet if the old way was right in the sight of the Lord, how could the new way, too, be right? It was a problem — and it was only one of many problems. There were times when it seemed as if his life in New England had been nothing but a series of problems — from that September day in 1628, when he landed at Naumkeag and became the Governor of a feeble plantation containing not more than one hundred inhabitants, until the present, when he was the Chief Magistrate of a vigorous, almost too successful colony with a population of twenty-five thousand. Yes, it had been a struggle; but in spite of everything, past and present, the achievement had been worth the effort — more than worth the effort. Under the date of March 15, 1664/5, J ° h n Hull, the master of the mint, wrote in his Diary: Our honored Governor, Mr. John Endicott, departed this life, — a man of pious and zealous spirit, who had very faithfully endeavored the suppression of a pestilent generation, the troublers of our peace, civil and ecclesiastical, called Quakers. He died poor, as most of our rulers do, having more attended the public than their own private interests. It is our shame: though we are indeed a poor people, yet might better maintain our rulers than we do. However, they have a good God to reward them.2

Here and there one comes upon the statement that Governor Endecott was buried near King's Chapel, under what is now the sidewalk in front of that building. But lately the northwest corner of the Granary Burying Ground has been established as the true location.3 ι. Zerubbabel was admitted to the Salem church on November 6, 1666. Daniel Appleton White, Neub England Congregationalism (Salem, 1861), p. 69. 2. American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, III, 2 1 5 - 2 1 6 . 3. William Crowninshield Endicott, Memoir of Samuel Endicott (privately printed, Boston, 1924), pp. 7 1 - 7 2 .

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When the General Court met in May, 1665, the Colony, " i n remembrance of the good service of the late John Endecotj Esq., Governor," assumed most if not all of the expenses of his funeral, and granted his widow £160, to be paid to her in equal installments over a period of five years. In 1671 the Court again showed its appreciation of his good works by voting her a pension of £30 per annum for the remainder of her widowed life.1 In the two hundred and seventy years that have passed since the death of John Endecott the appraisals of his character and career have been many and diverse. Although it is a truism of historical writing that a man should be judged by the standards of the time in which he lived, that excellent principle has not always been adhered to by those who have written about Governor Endecott and his contemporaries of Puritan Massachusetts-Bay. But even in the antiPuritan atmosphere of 1930 there was one student of American history who regarded our ancestors with characteristic insight and charity, and had the courage to present his view of them to his less clear-sighted fellow-citizens. When Calvin Coolidge made his brief but notable address at Watertown, Massachusetts, he did not mention John Endecott by name; but some of the words he uttered on that occasion are singularly applicable to this founder, who, for more years than any other, was the Chief Magistrate of the Bay Colony: It is natural that we should give consideration to the early settlers of the old Bay State. They were a very wonderful people. I doubt if anywhere there can be found a similar number who so impressed themselves on those who came after them. That they had faults is not surprising. They were human. I do not think we need pay too much attention to these. The reason for considering the faults of others is to I.

Records of Massachusetts Bay,

IV, Part II, 151, 487-488.

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avoid a repetition of those faults. I think that there is little danger of the people of to-day making the same errors as the people of three hundred years ago. We shall find it more profitable and instructive if we give the major part of our attention to the virtues that these people possessed and exemplified. They were devoted to religion; sometimes it is charged that they were narrow in that respect. If they were narrow, it was not a blighting and destructive narrowness, but a vital and productive narrowness. The narrowness was like that of a mighty torrent which makes a smooth path, that after it the stream may flow on smoothly to its destination.

INDEX

INDEX Abenakis, converted by Jesuits, 203. Abigail, 32; carries Endecott to Massachusetts-Bay, 12-13. Acadia, 162; see under L a Tour and D'Aunay. Adams, John, on the Endecott pear tree, 75. Agriculture, early efforts of Endecott, 25; tobacco, 16; vines, 16, 25, 77; corn, 159. Ambrose, ship, 54. Anabaptists, accusation of the Brownes, 44; see under Baptists. Andover, Mass., 74. Anglican Church, see under Church of England. Arbella, flagship of the Winthrop fleet, 52. Argali, Samuel, destroys the French settlement at Mount Desert, 57. Baptists, controversy in Massachusetts-Bay over, 210-217; their doctrine, 210-211 ; confused with anarchists, 44, 211; banishment prescribed for, 211 ; proselyte in Massachusetts-Bay, 212-213; Clarke, Holmes, and Crandall apprehended, 213, and imprisoned, 214; Clarke given the opportunity to debate, 214-216; Clarke released, 216; Crandall released, 216; Holmes whipped, 216-217. Barrow, Henry, Separatist; and Endecott compared, 55. Bellingham, Richard, chosen Governor, 145; liberal tendencies of, 146; election dispute over, 146-147; his precipitous marriage, 148-149; loses popularity, 14g; defeated by Winthrop, 154; in opposition to the General Court, 158; and Ende-

cott's conciliatory measures, 186188; deals with the Quakers, 236237, 254; opposes mission to the Royal Council of Foreign Plantations, 269-270. Bellingham, Samuel, at the first Harvard Commencement, 156. Bendall, Edward, salvages the Mary Rose, 160. Bentley, William, on the Endecott pear tree, 74-76; on the Endecott sundial, 77. "Birchwood," grant of to Endecott, 72· Blackstone, William, invites settlers to Shawmut, 58. Block Island, 93, 95. Body of Liberties, adopted, 149-151. Boston, England, 146. Boston, Mass., early settlement and naming of, 57-58; great fire at, 226; becomes the Governor's official residence, 233. Boundary dispute between Plymouth and Massachusetts-Bay, 125-127; between Massachusetts-Bay and Maine, 222-226. Bowyer, William, 77. Boxford, Mass., 131; copper mine near, 196. Bradford, William, on Thomas Morton, 16; sends Samuel Fuller to help Endecott's settlers, 19-20; quotes Endecott's letter of thanks in his History, 20; informed of the church established at Salem, 36; attends Salem church services, 38; and Roger Williams, 63, 79, 82; critical of the 1636 Pequot expedition, 102; boundary commissioner for Plymouth, 125-126.

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INDEX

Bradstreet, Simon, 62, 168; represents Massachusetts-Bay in the N. E. Confederation, 174; against a Dutch war, 228; delegate to the Royal Council of Foreign Plantations, 269-271. Breedon, Thomas, royalist; denounces Whalley and Goffe to Endecott and Bellingham, 258-259; stirs up trouble in England, 260; complainant to the Royal Committee Investigating New England, 265-268; jailed in Boston, 269; orders Maverick to warn Endecott of the royal investigation, 275. Bridges, Mr., 213. Bright, Francis, disciple of John Davenport, 41. Brown, Richard, 85. Browne, John, Anglican; his quarrel with the Salem church, 42-48. Browne, Samuel, his quarrel with the Salem church, 42-48. Burrough, Edward, influences Charles II to protect New England Quakers, 253. Cambridge, Mass., site of Harvard College, 59; capital of Massachusetts-Bay, 59. Cambridge Synod, 194-195. Cambridge, University of, 31, 69,140, 150. Canonicus, Narraganset chief, 94. Cape Ann, Mass., 13, 14; settled by the Dorchester Company, 9; Francis Higginson on the beauty of, 24· Carr, Sir Robert, commissioner to investigate New England, 274. Carrigain, Philip, on the Endecott pear tree, 224-225. Cartwright, George, commissioner to investigate New England, 274; proposed Major-General of Massachusetts-Bay, 275; arrival, 277. " Cassandra Southwick," Whittier's poem, 244-247.

Castine, Maine, attacked byD'Aunay, 163. Chagford, England, possible birthplace of Endecott, 6. Charles, ship, 54. Charles I, disparaged by Roger Williams, 80; beaten by Scots at Newburn, 114; death of, 200. Charles II, becomes king, 250; protects Massachusetts-Bay Quakers, 250-254; demands the seizure of Whalley and Goffe, 259-260; proclaimed in Massachusetts-Bay, 264; gracious to Massachusetts-Bay,2 70271; insists on Anglican toleration, 2 71 ; ceases to protect Quakers, 271; ignored by Massachusetts-Bay, 273274; appoints a commission to investigate New England, 274; receives allegiance and penitence, 279-280. Charles River, and the Massachusetts-Bay-Plymouth boundary dispute, 124-127. Charlestown, Mass., settlement of, 26; Francis Bright minister at, 41 ; church organized at, 55. Charter of the Massachusetts-Bay Company, fear for its loss, 80, 88, 200, 270, 277. Chauncy, President, 259. Child, Robert, demands franchise extension, 193. Church of England, rejected at Salem, 33-37, 65; championed by Francis Bright, 40-41, by John and Samuel Browne, 42-48, by Samuel Maverick, 193-194; decried by Roger Williams, 64; fear of its discipline in New England, 88; its members denied the franchise, 193-194; Charles II demands toleration of, 271 ; technical toleration granted by the General Court, 279. See under Separatism. Civil War, English, effect in New England, 1 1 3 - 1 1 4 ; questions of inter-

INDEX national law in New England, 176178, 182-183. Clarendon, Lord, 274. Clarke, John, Baptist, 212-216. Climate, winter of 1628-1629, 18-20; Francis Higginson on, 49. Cohasset, Mass., 124. Coke, Sir Edward, 3; connection with Endecott, 4-5; befriends Roger Williams, 4-5. Coke, Frances, 3. Commission to investigate New England, appointed, 274; instructions, 274; activities, 280; report of to Charles II, 281. Communal experiment at Salem, 3031· Communion, sacrament of, at Salem, 122-124; and Roger Williams, 92. Conant, Roger, 22, 137; leader of the Dorchester Company settlement, 9; suggests Massachusetts-Bay as a religious refuge, 9-10; moves the Dorchester Company employees to Naumkeag, 13-15. Congregationalism, 200; at Salem, 37; established by the Cambridge Synod, 195. Connecticut, joins the N. E. Confederation, 160-162; and the Dutch war threat, 227-231. Connecticut River, 227. Coolidge, Calvin, on Puritan character, 285-286. Cooper, Rebecca, her marriage to James Downing stopped by Endecott, 108-109. Copley, Lyonell, complainant to the committee investigating Massachusetts-Bay, 265, 267. Copper, Endecott's mine, 196-198. Cotton, John, on veils for church, 8284; condemns proposal to oust impecunious Assistants, 153-154. Council of Foreign Plantations, created, 263; directs Endecott to proclaim Charles II, 264; investigates New England, 265-268.

291

Council of London's Plantation in the Massachusetts-Bay in New England, 22. Cradock, Matthew, 13, 16; chosen head of the Massachusetts-Bay Co., 22; proposes to transfer the government of the Company to New England, 50; succeeded by John Winthrop, 51. Crandall, John, Baptist, 212-217. Crime and punishment, 1 2 1 - 1 2 2 ; of an old offender, 62; of Baptists, 2 1 1 - 2 1 7 ; of Quakers, 236-237,240243) 2 45. 249-250. Cromwell, Oliver, 200, 257; plans to transplant New England Puritans to Ireland, 218, to Jamaica, 2 3 1 233; decides to take New Netherland, 230. Cross of St. George, defaced by Endecott, and the result, 84-90. Crowne, John, royalist, 258; on the reception tendered Whalley and Goffe in Massachusetts-Bay, 259. Currency, in Massachusetts-Bay, 219220; complaint of John Gifford to the committee investigating New England, 266-267. Daisy, the ox-eye, introduced by Endecott, 74. Dandey, Roger, guardian of Endecott's son in England, 68, 70. Danvers, Mass., 72. D'Aunay, Charles de Menou, Seigneur d'Aunay Charnisay, claim to Acadia, 162; raids Castine, 163, 175; his quarrel with La Tour, 163165, 169-170, 175-176; sends an envoy to Endecott, 184; his agreement with Massachusetts-Bay negotiated and ratified, 185-186. D'Aunay, Madame, correspondence with Endecott, 231. Davenport, John, founder of New Haven, 41, 46. Davenport, Richard, 85. Deportation, of Thomas Morton, 17;

292

INDEX

of five boys on the Talbot, 26; of John and Samuel Browne, 45; of Quakers, 245. Devonshire, England, probable birthplace of Endecott, 6-7. Dexter, Thomas, his altercation with Endecott, 61-63. Dorchester, England, 6. Dorchester, Mass., 57. Dorchester Adventurers, 6; see under Dorchester Company. Dorchester Company, history of, 8 - 1 1 . Downing, Emanuel, 108; designated to sign the Body of Liberties, 1 5 1 ; his connection with Endecott's son in England, 68-69; informed of Endecott's mutilation of the colors, 84; his son's marriage thwarted by Endecott, 108-109. Downing, George, 69; at the first Harvard Commencement, 156. Downing, James, his marriage thwarted by Endecott, 108-109. Dress, veils for church, 82-84. Druilletes, Gabriel, envoy of New France, 204; entertained by Endecott, 205-206. Dudley, Thomas, 128; on the sad conditions at Salem, 53-54; convenes the Assistants to consider Endecott's mutilation of the colors, 8 5 86; succeeded by John Haynes, 87; member of the Standing Council, 103; disagreement with Winthrop, 1 1 0 ; requests that Hugh Peter go to England, 1 1 8 ; granted land by the General Court, 130; loses a disputed election to Bellingham, 1 4 5 147; tries to resign as Assistant, 158; elected Governor, 188, 198; receives Father Druilletes, 204. Dunster, Henry, first president of Harvard College, 154. Dyer, Mary, Quaker; sentenced to be hanged, 243; reprieved, 244; returns from banishment and is hanged, 248-249.

Eaton, Nathaniel, head of Harvard College; his iniquities condemned by Endecott, 106-107; succeeded by Dunster, 154. Economic crisis of 1640, 1 1 3 ; relief mission to England, 1 1 4 - 1 2 0 . Education, in Massachusetts-Bay, 139-144; Endecott proposes a free school at Salem, 139-140; the English tradition in, 140; Boston hires a schoolmaster, 1 4 1 ; legislation of the General Court on, 142-144. Eliot, John, Indian missionary and sociologist, 206-207; his school at Natick, 207-209. Endecott, John, Governor of Massachusetts-Bay, first evidences of, 3—4; his connection with Sir John Villiers and Sir Edward Coke, 4-5; birthplace of, 6-7; associate of the Dorchester Company, 7-8; chosen to revitalize the Dorchester Company settlement, 10, 12; sails for Massachusetts-Bay, 12-13; described by Edward Johnson, 14; arrives at Salem harbor, 14; leads a descent on Merrymount, 1 6 - 1 8 ; death of his wife, 19-20; his letter thanking Gov. Bradford for the loan of Samuel Fuller, 20; his friendship for the Separatist Fuller, 1 9 - 2 1 , 32, 55; appointed Governor of the plantation, 2 1 - 2 2 ; his duties, 22; receives the Talbot, 24-25; his garden at Salem, 25; faces a servant problem, 27; he and his council depicted by Thomas Morton, 28-29; his code for the planters, 29; his friendship for the Separatist Samuel Skelton, 3 1 - 3 2 ; Separatism instituted at Salem, 3 3 - 3 7 ; divergent tendencies among the ministers, 40-42; trouble with the Episcopal Brownes, 42-44; deports the Brownes, 45; reports the Browne affair to the Company, 47-48; superseded by Winthrop, 5 1 ; an Assistant, 5 1 ; receives Winthrop,

INDEX 52-53; at the organization of the Charlestown church, 55; marries Mrs. Elizabeth Gibson, 56; refuses to leave Salem, 59; to Winthrop on his illness and trouble with Goodman Dexter, 60-61; fined for striking Dexter, 62; supports Roger Williams's appointment at Salem, 66; provides for his son in England, 67-70; entertains Winthrop at Salem, 71; granted "Birchwood," 72; builds at "Orchard," 73; his interest in horticulture, 73-74; his famous pear tree, 74-76; his house and grounds, 76-77; his children, 78; defender of Roger Williams, 81 ; to Winthrop on Roger Williams, 82; favors veils at church meetings, 82-84; defaces the royal colors, 8485; censured by the General Court, 86-87; fails of reëlection to the Board of Assistants, 87; again in trouble through Roger Williams, 90; jailed by the General Court, 91 ; commander-in-chief against the Pequots, 95-100; his mild tactics criticized by Lion Gardener, 100102; reëlected Assistant, 102; colonel of a Salem regiment, 102-103; elected a member of the Standing Council, 103; compared with John Winthrop, 104; his correspondence with Winthrop, 104-107; decries Nathaniel Eaton, 106-107; prevents the proposed James Downing-Rebecca Cooper marriage, 108-109; to Winthrop on Mr. Peter's matrimonial troubles, 112; opposes the 1641 mission to England, 115-117; his altercation with John Humfrey, 117-120; his magisterial duties at Salem, 121-122; ejects Mrs. Oliver from the Salem church, 122-124; commissioner in the PlymouthMassachusetts-Bay boundary dispute, 124-127; loses life tenure of the magistracy, 127-129; granted land by the General Court, 129-

293

131 ; to Winthrop on the Mary Rose disaster, 131—133; town administrator, 135-138; conservationist, i 3 8 - I 3 9 ; educator, 139-144; Deputy Governor, 145; designated to sign the Body of Liberties, 151; magisterial dispute with William Hathorne, 152-153; Deputy Governor, 154; Overseer at the first Harvard Commencement, 155-156; to Winthrop on the reception given La Tour, 166-169; Governor, 170; more trouble with Hathorne, 174; receives La Tour, 175-176; settles the Captain Stagg affair, 177-179; differences with Thomas Morton end, 179-182; deals with Captain Richardson on the prize question, 182-183; receives Marie, D'Aunay's envoy, 184-185; an agreement with D'Aunay negotiated and ratified, 185-186; moves to conciliate the factions in the Massachusetts-Bay government, 186-188; Sergeant-Major-General and Assistant, 188; retires to Salem, 189; confronts a prospective Narraganset war, 189-191; SergeantMajor-General, Assistant, and Commissioner to the N. E. Confederation, 193; .pioneer in the copper industry, 195-198; Governor, 199; his reign, 1649-1664, 200; condemns wearing long hair, 201; correspondence with John Winthrop, Jr., 202; host to Father Druilletes, 204-205; his interest in the Indians, 206; to the Society for Propagating the Gospel, on John Eliot's Indian school, 207-209; and the Baptist controversy, 210-217; sentences John Clarke, 214; invites Clarke to debate, 214, 216; discourages Cromwell's idea of Puritan transplantation to Ireland, 218; a native currency under his leadership, 219-220; the Maine-Massachusetts-Bay boundary adjusted,

294

INDEX

222-226; to J o h n Winthrop, Jr., on the great fire at Boston, 226; reluctant to support a D u t c h war, 2 2 7 229; to M a d a m e D ' A u n a y on peace, 231; discourages the transplantation of Puritans to Jamaica, 231-233; moves from Salem to Boston, 233; and the Q u a k e r problem, see Chapter X I X , 235; jails eight Quakers, 237-238; fails to convert M a r y Prince, 238-240; and the Quakers, 240-244; as depicted in Whittier's " C a s s a n d r a Southw i c k , " 244-246; Whittier's tribute to, 247-248; Q u a k e r laws mitigated, 249-250; to Charles I I on the Q u a k e r troubles, 251-252; ordered by Charles II to free all Quakers, 253; receives the K i n g ' s envoy, 253-254; entertains the regicide judges, 257; refuses to arrest Whalley and Goffe, 258; convenes the magistrates to decide on the regicide question, 259-260; issues a warrant for the arrest of Whalley and Goffe, 260; commissions two royalists to apprehend the regicides, 261; various adulatory letters to Charles II, 264-265; against additional agents to England in the 1661-1662 crisis, 269-270; proposal that he be succeeded b y Col. Nicolls, 275; ordered to receive the royal commissioners, 277; constantly informed as to the transactions of the Privy Council, 276-277; prepares for the reception of the commissioners, 277; receives the commissioners' credentials, 278; to Charles I I on Massachusetts' fealty, 279-280; illness of, 281; his will, 282; in retrospect, 283-284; his death recorded by J o h n Hull, 284; his burial place, 284; his widow provided for by the General Court, 285. Endecott, John, Jr., at " O r c h a r d , " 78; given land b y Indians, 209; mentioned in Endecott's will, 282.

Endecott, John, Jr., of England, 67-70. Endecott, Mrs. John, 16; death of, 19-20. Endecott, Zerubbabel, at " O r c h a r d , " 78; mentioned in Endecott's will. Endecott pear tree, 74-76. Endecott R o c k , 223-225. Endecott sundial, 77. " E n d e c o t t w e e d , " the ox-eye daisy called, 74. Essex C o u n t y , Mass., attempts to control Massachusetts-Bay politics, 172-174. Essex Institute, 77. Felt, Joseph B., 76. Fishing industry, early organization of in N e w England, 8; and J o h n White, 8-9; codfish market in the West Indies, 158-159. Four Sisters, ship, 23. Fox, George, 236. France, early fears of, 57; and the N . E . Confederation, 1 6 0 - 1 6 1 ; the La Tour-D'Aunay quarrel and Massachusetts-Bay, 163-170; N e w France seeks an alliance against the Iroquois, 203-206. Franklin, N . H . , 223. Friends, see under Quakers. Fuller, Samuel, succors the Salem settlers, 19; his friendship for Endecott, 21, 32, 55. Gallop, John, discovers the murder of J o h n O l d h a m , 93-94. Gardener, Lion, criticizes Endecott's Pequot expedition, 100-101. Gardner, T h o m a s , 137. General Court of MassachusettsBay, judicial power of, 121; sanctions town government, 1 3 5 - 1 3 6 ; orders free education, 141-142; adopts the Body of Liberties, 150; divides Massachusetts-Bay into four counties, 1 7 1 ; memorial of, to J o h n Endecott.

INDEX George Bonaventure, ship, 23. Gibbons, Edward, conversion of, 3g; chief in command against the Narragansets, 190. Gibson, Elizabeth, Endecott's second wife, 56. Gifford, John, complainant to the royal committee investigating New England, 265, 266. Gloucester, Mass., 1 8 0 - 1 8 1 . Godfrey, Edward, complainant to the royal committee investigating New England, 265, 266. Goffe, William, regicide judge, arrival in Massachusetts-Bay, 257; marked by the act of indemnity, 259; fugitive, 260-263. Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 2 2 1 . Gott, Charles, 33, 37; to Bradford on the organization of the Salem church, 33-34· Graves, Thomas, 26. Guilford, Conn., 261. Hadley, Mass., refuge for the regicides, 263. Harlakenden, Roger, Overseer of Harvard College, 1 5 5 - 1 5 6 . Hartford, Conn., 261. Harvard College, 59, 140, 2 0 1 ; bilked by Nathaniel Eaton, 1 0 6 - 1 0 7 ; at Salem, 138; Dunster chosen president of, 154; first Commencement at, 1 5 4 - 1 5 7 · Hathorne, William, against the 1641 mission to England, 1 1 5 ; designated to sign the Body of Liberties, 1 5 1 ; sketch of, 1 5 1 - 1 5 2 ; demands thorough codification of the laws, 1 5 2 1 5 3 ; attempts to oust impecunious Assistants, 1 5 3 - 1 5 4 ; promotes Essex County political plans, 1 7 3 - 1 7 4 ; represents Massachusetts-Bay in the N. E . Confederation, 174; his conciliation with the magistrates, 1 8 6 188; favors a Dutch war, 228; Quaker persecutor, 246-247. Haughton, Henry, 6 1 .

295

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, descendant of William Hathorne, 1 5 1 . Haynes, J o h n , Governor of Massachusetts-Bay, 87, 146. Hewson, M r . , 60. Hibbens, William, 1 1 4 . Higginson, Francis, 36; on his first glimpse of New England, 2 4 - 2 5 ; colleague of Samuel Skelton, 3 1 ; teacher of the Salem church, 34, 38; criticized by Francis Bright, 40, and the Brownes, 43; denies being a Separatist, 44; on New England climate, 149; death of, 65. Hingham, Mass., 1 2 4 - 1 2 6 , 192. Holmes, Deborah, 137. Holmes, Obadiah, Baptist, 2 1 2 - 2 1 7 ; whipped, 17. Hoover, Herbert, 235. Hopewell, ship, 54. Horticulture, Endecott's activities in, 25» 73-76. Hubbard, William, 83. Hull, J o h n , on recruiting Dutch war volunteers, 280; on Endecott's death, 284. Hull, Mass., 42. Humfrey, J o h n , treasurer of the Dorchester Co., 12; signs Endecott's instructions, 1 3 ; Deputy Governor of Massachusetts-Bay, 5 1 ; altercation with Endecott over the 1641 mission to England, 1 1 7 - 1 2 0 ; and the location of Harvard College, 137-138. Hutchinson, Anne, 123, 2 1 2 . Ince, Jonathan, with the Massachusetts-Bay boundary commission, 2 2 2 - 2 2 3 ; carves a memorial of the expedition, 224. Independency, 80, 1 9 4 - 1 9 5 ; see under Separatism. Indians, and the Dorchester Co., 9; and Thomas Morton, 17, 1 8 1 ; Christianization of, 22; and Roger Williams, 63, 80; and the N. E . Confederation, 1 6 0 - 1 6 1 ; Endecott's

296

INDEX

interest in, 206-210; and John Eliot, 206-209; a n d the threat of a Dutch war, 227; complaints on the handling of Indian missionary funds, 266-267. See under Narraganset Indians, Pequot Indians, etc. Industry, agriculture, 16, 25, 159; copper, 196-198; iron, 196-198; shipbuilding, 139, 159; textiles, 159. Instrument of Government, 150. Ipswich, Mass., 102, 145, 150, 168, 172. Ipswich River, copper mining near, 196-197. Iron industry, ig6-ig8, 265. Iroquois, enemies to New France, 203. Jamaica, a prospective site for Puritan transplantation, 231-233. James I, accused by Roger Williams, 80. Jesuits, see Chapter X V I I , 200; and Thomas Morton, 1 8 1 ; missionaries in Quebec, 203; banished by law, 242. Johnson, Lady Arbella, 118. Johnson, Edward, on Endecott, 14, 199; Massachusetts boundary commissioner, 222-226. Johnson, Isaac, 27, 46, 55. Kellond, Thomas, pursues Whalley and Goffe, 261-263. Kennebunk River, 221-222. Kirke, Thomas, delegated by Endecott to apprehend the regicides, 261. Land allotment, at Salem, 136-138. L a Tour, Charles Saint-Étienne de, claim to Acadia, 162; attacks Machias, 163; sends envoys to Massachusetts-Bay, 163; presents himself to ask aid against D'Aunay, 164; received by Winthrop and the Assistants, 164-166; given permission to recruit soldiers, 165; at-

tacks D'Aunay, 169-170; reappears at Boston, 175-177; attacked by Great Britain, and Acadia seized, 231. Laud, William, 35. Law, 22, 1 2 1 - 1 2 2 ; and education, 140-144; Body of Liberties adopted, 1 4 9 - 1 5 1 ; further codification sought, 152-153. Leader, Richard, metallurgist, 195198. Leddra, William, Quaker martyr, 249· Leverett, John, Massachusetts-Bay agent at London, 232; warns Endecott of Charles II's attitude towards Quakers, 250-251; summoned before the royal committee investigating New England, 266. Lion's Whelp, ship, 23, 45. Lovett, Captain, 52. Lowell, Mass., 210. Ludlow, Roger, 56, 160. Lyford, John, 15. Lynn, Mass., 57, 212; ironworks at, 196, 198, 265. Lyon, ship, 63. Machias, Maine, attacked by LaTour, 163. Maine, settlements coveted by Massachusetts-Bay, 221, 222; boundary dispute with Massachusetts-Bay, 222-226. Marblehead, Mass., 205. Marie, Monsieur, at Salem as D'Aunay's envoy, 183-186. Mary and John, ship, 54. Mary Rose, ship, explosion on, 1 3 1 ; salvaged, 160. Massachusetts-Bay, grant to the Dorchester Co., 7-8; Dorchester Co.'s colonization efforts, 9; Warwick's grant to the New England Co., i o l i , 12; Roger Conant's activities, 1 3 - 1 5 ; conciliation of old and new settlers, 15; Charlestown founded, 26; government transferred from

INDEX London, 50-51; Newtowne named capital, 58-59; expedition against the Pequots, 95-100; Pequots exterminated, 102; economic condition of before 1640, 1 1 3 - 1 1 4 ; the 1641 mission to England, 114-120; boundary dispute with Plymouth, 124127; the town government idea accepted, 135; provides for free schools, 142-144; Body of Liberties adopted, 149-150; joins the N. E. Confederation, 160-162; sought as an ally by La Tour, 162-165; divided into four counties, 1 7 1 - 1 7 2 ; sought as an ally by D'Aunay, 185; prepares for a Narraganset war, 189-190; sought by New France as an ally against the Iroquois, 203204; provides her own currency, 219-220; covets Maine settlements, 221-222; boundary dispute with Maine, 222-226; reluctant to support a Dutch war, 227-229; escapes transplantation to Ireland, 218, and Jamaica, 231-233; attitude towards Quakers,240-244, 248-249; Quaker laws mitigated, 249-250; in disfavor with Charles II, 263; neglects to proclaim Charles II king, 264; general complaints about to Charles II, 265-268; sends additional agents to help John Leverett, 269-270; under investigation by a royal commission, 274-281; admits certain non-church-members to the franchise, 279. Mather, Cotton, on conversion of Edward Gibbons, 391. Mather, Increase, 90. Maverick, Samuel, Anglican, 194; complainant to the royal committee investigating New England, 265, 267-268; member of a royal commission investigating New England, 273-274; his lack of discretion, 275276. Mayflower, ship, 23, 54. Merrimac River, 222-223.

297

Merrymount, 16-18. See under Morton, Thomas. Middlesex County, Mass., 172. Milborne, Peter, captain of the Arbella, 53. Military affairs, Pequot campaigns, 94-102; military reorganization, 102; and the New England Confederation, 160-161 ; La Tour recruits soldiers in Mass., 165; Endecott appointed Sergeant-MajorGeneral, 188; projected Narraganset war, 189-192 ; Dutch war threat, 227-231; preparations to receive Charles II's commission, 277; Nicolls appointed commander-in-chief against New Netherland, 274; troops raised in Mass., 278-280. Mishawum, 26, 41. See under Charlestown. Morton, Nathaniel, 44; on the organization of the church at Salem, 39-44· Morton, Thomas, early iniquities and deportation, 16-17; Endecott fells his Maypole, 17-18; on Endecott and his Council, 28-30; on the Salem communal experiment, 303 1 ; again deported, 179-180; reappears at Plymouth, 180; his apprehension and end, 180-182; on Endecott's mines, 196. Mt. Desert Island, Maine, French settlement at destroyed by Samuel Argali, 57. Nantasket (Hull), Mass., 42. Narraganset Indians, accused of murder of John Oldham, 93-95; projected war with, 189-192. Natick, Mass., the scene of Eliot's Indian experiment, 207-208. Naumkeag, see under Salem. Netherlands, war with England in the colonies, 227-231. New Amsterdam, 227; surrenders to Nicolls, 280. New Brunswick, 162.

298

INDEX

New England Company for a Plantation in Massachusetts, organization of, 10-12; employs Endecott, 1 2 13 ; becomes the Massachusetts-Bay Company, 21. New England Confederation, inception of, 160-161 ; organization of, 161-162; and the proposed Narraganset war, 190; divided on the Dutch war question, 227-231; recommends anti-Quaker legislation, 240-241. New English Canaan, Thomas Morton's burlesque history of New England, 180; quoted, 28-29, '96. New Hampshire, under jurisdiction of Massachusetts-Bay, 173, 220-221. New Haven Colony, joins the New England Confederation, 160-162; and the threat of a Dutch war, 227231; a refuge for Whalley and Goffe, 260-263. New London, Conn., 97; home of John Winthrop, Jr., 202. New Netherland, threat of war with, 227-231; Nicolls appointed commander-in-chief against, 274; troops for the war raised in MassachusettsBay, 278-280. Newbury, Mass., 102. Newtowne, 59; see under Cambridge, Mass. Nicolls, Richard, appointed a commissioner to investigate New England, 274; suggested to succeed Endecott, 275; arrival at Boston, 277; takes New Amsterdam, 280; Deputy Governor of New York, 280. Norfolk County, Mass., 172. Norris, Mr., 141. Norton, John, Massachusetts-Bay delegate to influence the Royal Council of Foreign Plantations, 269-271 ; death of, 272. Nova Scotia, 162. No well, Increase, 217.

Oldham, John, murder of, 93-94. Oliver, Mrs., demands admission to Communion, 122-124. " O r c h a r d , " Endecott's farm, see Chapter V I I , 72. Parish, the English unit adapted to New England, 134-135. Parliament, and the civil war status of Massachusetts-Bay, 177-178,182; offers the crown to Cromwell, 232. Peirce, William, 52. Pelham, Penelope, marriage to Richard Bellingham, 148-149. Pelham, New Hampshire, 210. Penn, William, 235. Pequot Indians, 221; campaigns against, 94-102. Peter, Hugh, signs Endecott's instructions, 13; and Endecott's son in England, 68-69; P a s tor at Salem, 110; his unhappy marriage, 1 ι ο ί 13; on the 1641 mission to England, 114-120; in Cromwell's army, 112, 203; and John Gifford, 267; death of, 113. Petition of Right, the, 150. Pine-tree shillings, first coined, 2 1 9 220; condemned as a Yankee device, 266-267. Piscataqua River, 220-221. Planters Plea, The, quoted, 9. Plymouth Plantation, sends Samuel Fuller to the aid of Endecott, 19-20; boundary dispute with Massachusetts-Bay, 124-127; joins the New England Confederation, 160-162; fear of Dutch war at, 227; under royal investigation, 280. Pormort, Philemon, Boston schoolmaster, 141. Port Royal, Nova Scotia, home of D'Aunay, 162-169; seized by the British, 231. Prince, Mary, Quaker, her trouble with Endecott, 238-240. Pym, John, 114.

INDEX Quakers, see Chapter X I X , 235; their faith, 235; discouraged by Bellingham, 236-237; decried by the General Court, 236-237; M a r y Prince berates Endecott, 238-240; under legislative pressure, 240-243; Robinson and Stevenson executed, 243; the case of M a r y Dyer, 243-244, 248-249; the "Cassandra Southw i c k " story, 244-247; deportation of, 245; Whittier as a champion of, 244-248; William Leddra put to death, 249; given milder legislation, 249-250; protected by Charles II, 250-254; complainants to the royal committee investigating New England, 267; lose the protection of Charles II, 271; restrictive laws renewed, 273. Quebec, Jesuits at, 203. Read, Samuel, finds a guardian for Endecott's boy in England, 67-70. Regicide judges, see under Whalley and Goffe. Rhode Island, a haven for Baptists, 2 1 1 - 2 1 2 ; under royal investigation, 280. Rich, Robert, Earl of Warwick, his grant to the N e w England Company, 7, II. Richardson, Captain, attempts to take a royalist vessel prize, 182-183. Robinson, John, foretells the spread of Separatism, 36-37. Robinson, William, Quaker, 243. Rosewell, Sir Henry, of the New England Company, 11. Rowley, Mass., textile industry at, '59Saint John, New Brunswick, residence of L a Tour, 162; blockaded by D'Aunay, 164-169; recovered by L a Tour, 169-170; seized by the British, 231. Salem, Mass., settled by Roger Conant, 13-15; arrival of Endecott,

299

14-16; disappoints Thomas Dudley, 53-54; suggested as site for Harvard College, 138; establishes a free school, 139, 141-143. Salem, Mass., Church of, see Chapter I V , 33; membership eligibility, 37; controversy with the Brownes, 43-48; and Roger Williams, 65-67, 91-92; and the wearing of veils, 8284; and the Communion question, 92, 122-124; Hugh Peter chosen pastor, n o . Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 27, 61, 168; and Endecott's conciliatory measures, 186-187. Sassacus, Pequot chief, 98. Saugus, Mass., 57. Saybrook, Conn., 166; threatened by the Pequots, 100-101. Saye and Sele, Lord, 270. Scituate, Mass., 125, 126. Selectmen, see under T o w n government. Separatism, championed by Skelton, 32, 37, Fuller, 32, Bradford, 36, Endecott, 32, 37, 55, 195, and Williams, 36, 64-65,195; introduced at Salem, 34-37; controversy over between the Brownes and the Salem church, 43-48; and Congregationalism, 195. Servant problem, 26. Sewall, Samuel, on the flag and cross question, 90. Sharpe, Samuel, on Endecott's Council, 23; agent for Matthew Cradock, 27. 59· Shattuck, Samuel, Quaker emissary from Charles II, 253-254. Shawmut, 57. Sheffield, Deliverance, her unfortunate marriage to Hugh Peter, 11 o "3Shepard, Thomas, pastor at Cambridge, 155. Sherman, John, with the Massachusetts-Bay boundary commission, 222-224. Shipbuilding, 139, 159.

300

INDEX

Skelton, Samuel, Separatist, 37, 60, 61; sketch of, 31-32; his influence on Endecott, 32; chosen pastor at Salem, 34; ordained, 38; disagrees with Francis Bright, 40-41, and with the Brownes, 43; replies to the Brownes, 44; disapproves of church conferences, 80-81; death of, 91. Smith, Ralph, Separatist minister at Plymouth, 41-42. Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England, Endecott's letter to on the work of John Eliot, 207-209. Southcott, Thomas, of the New England Company, 12. Southwick, Provided, Quakeress, 245246. Stagg, Captain, seizes a royalist vessel in Boston Harbor, 177-179. Standing Council of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, instituted, 103; authority of, 127-129. Standish, Miles, captures Thomas Morton, 17. Stevenson, Marmaduke, Quaker, 243. Stone, Captain, victim of the Pequots, 95. 97· Stonington, Conn., 221. Stoughton, Israel, commissioner in the Plymouth-Massachusetts-Bay boundary dispute, 125. Stuyvesant, Peter, said to be inciting an Indian war, 227; asked to apprehend Whalley and Goffe, 261. Success, ship, 54. Suffolk County, Mass., 172. Suffrage, and Dr. Robert Child, 193194; complaint of Samuel Maverick, 267; Charles IPs instructions on, 271; the General Court complies with the King's wishes on, 279.

Talbot, ship, 23, 25, 54. Textile industry, 159. Thanksgiving, proclaimed by throp, 55. Tobacco, at Salem, 16.

Win-

Topsfield, Mass., 131; copper mine at, T o w n government, 134-136. Trade, the economic crisis of 1640, 113-120, 159; with the West Indies, 120, 159, 219; with New France, 185, 203-204. Trask, William, 73. Trial, ship, 54. Trimountaine (Boston), Mass., 58. Trusler, Thomas, 122. Uncas, Mohegan chief, 190. Vane, Henry, Governor of Massachusetts-Bay, 94, 110, 141 ; sends an expedition to avenge the death of Oldham, 95. Veils, at the Salem church, 82-84. Villiers, Sir John, his connection with Endecott, 3-4. Walford, Thomas, first Charlestown settler, 26. Ward, Nathaniel, χ 68; compiler of the Body of Liberties, 150. Warwick, Earl of, his grant to the New England Company, 7, 11. Watertown, Mass., 57, 58. Weld, Thomas, 114. West Indies, migration to from Massachusetts-Bay, 114; trade with, 120, 159) 2 1 9 · Whale, ship, 54. Whalley, Edward, arrival of in Massachusetts-Bay, 257; marked by the Act of Indemnity, 259; fugitive, 260-263. Whetcombe, Simon, of the N e w England Company, 12. White, John, mainspring of the Dorchester Co., 8-10. Whittier, John Greenleaf, 244-248. Willard, Simon, Massachusetts-Bay boundary commissioner, 222-226. William and Francis, ship, 54. Williams, Roger, protégé of Sir Edward Coke, 4-5; arrives at Boston,

INDEX 63; declines the Boston pulpit, 36, 64; accepts the invitation of the Salem church, 65-66; moves to Plymouth, 67; returns to Salem, 79; rebuked by Winthrop, 80-82; disapproves of the cross in the royal colors, 84; banished by the General Court, 92; warns MassachusettsBay of a possible war with the Narragansets, 190. Wilson, John, marries Endecott and Mrs. Gibson, 56; returns to England, 64. Wilson, John, Jr., at the first Harvard Commencement, 156. Winnipesaukee River, 223. Winslow, Edward, boundary commissioner for Plymouth, 125; to Winthrop on Thomas Morton, 180. Winthrop, Henry, drowned at Salem, 55· Winthrop, John, birth of, 7; a member of the committee to hear John and Samuel Browne, 46; elected Governor, 5 1 ; arrives in New England, 52; greeted by Endecott, 53; his plans for a compact settlement not feasible, 57; his handling of Endecott-Dextercase, 62; early opinion of Williams, 63; criticizes Endecott for Williams's Salem appointment, 66; rebukes Williams, 80-81; on the Pequot war, 96, 100; compared with Endecott, 104; correspondence with Endecott, 104; to Endecott on the Downing-Cooper match, 109; his estrangement from Dudley, n o ; advises Hugh Peter on his marriage,

301

1 1 1 - ι 12; and the 1641 English mission, 114-120; opposed on the Standing Council question, 1 2 7 129; granted land by the General Court, 1 2 9 - 1 3 1 ; on the Mary Rose disaster, 132 ; subscribes for a schoolmaster, 141; defeated by Bellingham, 145-147; suffers financial reverses, 105, 153; Overseer of Harvard College, 154; on Roger Harlakenden, 155; receives La Tour, 163165; permits La Tour to recruit soldiers, 165-166; criticized for his handling of the "French affair," 166-168; confronts Essex County politicians, 173-174; chosen Deputy Governor, 170, 188, 198; defendant at Hingham, 192-193; chosen Governor, 193; on Endecott's copper mine, 195-196; death of, 198, 202. Winthrop, John, Jr., lieutenant-colonel of the Salem regiment, 102; correspondence with Hugh Peter, 112; his interest in metals, 195196; correspondence with Endecott, 202-203, 226; disapproves of the death penalty for returning Quakers, 241-243. Witter, William, Baptist sympathizer, 212-213. Yale, David, 233. Yale, Elihu, 233. York, Maine, 181, 221. York County, Maine, 226. Young, Sir John, of the New England Company, 1 1 .