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1 ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02963 6450
Gc 974.402 Sa32sk Sketches about Salem people
SKETCHES ABOUT SALEM PEOPLE
THE CLUB 1930 Salem, Massachusetts
974.45 Sk 2
Allen County Public Library 900 WODS Cticet PO Box 2270 Formy Wear. 11: 00001 2278
NEWCOMB & GAUSS CO. ... PRINTERS ... Salem, Massachusetts
FOREWORD
For a considerable number of years a group of Salem men, "The Club," has pleasantly and profitably main- tained existence, in spite of utter lack of constitution and by-laws and with no other officer than a self-appointed secretary who successfully defies impeachment.
A great variety of interesting, closely studied papers has been presented at its winter monthly meetings, each member in turn being host and in turn reading his pro- duction at another member's home. 1378440
As early as the tercentenary of the establishment of the government of Massachusetts Bay in New England was beginning to be discussed, a suggestion was made and adopted that prospective papers should be confined to studies of local history pertinent to the observance and that the series be published as The Club's contribution to the permanent recognition of so salient an anniversary.
The following monographs, for the most part biograph- ical, are accordingly submitted to the public, in the hope that they may be found of timely interest and of real value.
2. cava $ 10,00
3777
CONTENTS
The Public Service of John Endecott in the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony by William Dismore Chapple Local Government Under the First Charter by Harrison Merrill Davis
Roger Williams by Rev. Milo E. Pearson, D. D.
The Worshipful Simon Bradstreet, Governor of Massachusetts by General William Andrews Pew
The Bible Commonwealth of Massachusetts by General William Andrews Pew Philip English by Ralph Bertram Harris Witchcraft by Fred Gibson Robbins, M. D., D. M. D. The Life and Times of Richard Derby, Merchant of Salem 1712 to 1783 by James Duncan Phillips The Great Awakening by Rev. Thomas Henry Billings, Ph. D. Jonathan Haraden by Samuel Henry Batchelder Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke by Richard Hall Wiswall Stage Point and Thereabouts by J. Foster Smith Ralph C. Browne: An Appreciation by Rear Admiral Reginald R. Belknap, U. S. N.
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From the duplicate in possession of the Essex Institute MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY CHARTER
INI
From the duplicate in possession of the Essex Institute
THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF JOHN ENDECOTT IN THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY.
BY WILLIAM DISMORE CHAPPLE.
:
By the Great Patent of New England, James I, on the third of November, 1620, granted to "the council estab- lished at Plymouth in the County of Devon for the plant- ing, ruling, ordering and governing of New England in America, and to their successors and assigns forever, all that circuit, continent, precincts and limits in America lying and being in breadth from the fortieth degree of Northerly latitude to the forty-eighth degree of Northerly latitude, (in other words from the Northerly line of Vir- ginia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence) and in breadth through the mainland from sea to sea." One of the attempts made by the Council of New England to give value to its prop- erty was by dividing the territory among its individual members. Twenty noblemen and gentlemen in 1622 di- vided among themselves in severalty the country along the coast from the Bay of Fundy to Narragansett Bay. The region about Cape Ann was awarded to Lord Sheffield. The Patentees resolved that these parts should be counties and the "lords of the counties may of themselves subdivide their said counties into manors and lordships as to them shall seem best." Each shareholder thus became the law- ful proprietor of his portion with absolute title thereto, clothed with all the powers of government originally in the king and by him vested in them.
Edward Winslow, a leader of the colonists in Plymouth, was sent by them to England in 1623 to further their in- terest in the fisheries. Lord Sheffield became interested in Winslow and conveyed his portion of New England to "Robert Cushman and Edward Winslow and their associ-
(1)
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THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF JOHN ENDECOTT
ates at Plymouth in New England." The original of this Sheffield grant is now preserved in the Essex Institute.
About 1623 the Reverend John White, rector of Trinity Church of Dorchester, England, a most eminent Puritan preacher and who is often called the father of the Massa- chusetts Colony, became interested in the founding of a settlement in New England, and as some forty to fifty fishing vessels from the West of England were fishing for cod and bartering for furs off the New England coast, he conceived the idea of establishing a settlement there and recounts in the Planters' Plea, written by him in 1630,
That these merchants bethought themselves how they might bring that project to effect, and communicated their pur- pose to others, alleging the conveniency of compassing their project with a small charge, by the opportunity of their fish- ing trade, in which they are accustomed to double-man their ships, that, by the help of many hands, they might despatch their voyage and lade their ship with fish while the fishing season lasted; which could not be done with a bare sailing company. Now it was conceived that, the fishing being ended, the spare men that were above their necessary sailors, might be left behind with provisions for a year; and when that ship returned the next year, they might assist them in fishing, as they had done the former year; and, in the mean time, might employ themselves in building, and planting corn, which with the provisions of fish, fowl and venison, that the land yielded, would afford them the chief of their food. This proposition of theirs took so well that it drew on divers persons to join with them in this project; the rather because it was conceived that not only their own fishermen, but the rest of our nation that went thither on the same errand, might be much advantaged, not only by fresh victual, which that Colony might spare them in time, but withal and more, by the benefit of their ministers' labors, which they might enjoy during the fishing season; whereas otherwise, being usually upon those voyages nine or ten months in the year, they were left all the while without any means of instruction at all. Compassion towards the fisher- men, and partly some expectation of gain, prevailed so far that for the planting of a Colony in New-England there was raised a stock of more than £3000, intended to be paid in in five years, but afterwards disbursed in a shorter time.
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Winslow and his associates at Plymouth conveyed to White and his associates a site at Cape Ann for fishing and planting, and the Dorchester Company landed four- teen persons to pass the winter and sent out livestock, erecting a house and stages to dry fish and vats for the manufacture of salt. But everything went amiss; mis- haps befell the vessels, the price of fish went down and "the land men being ill-chosen and ill-commanded, com- menced falling into many disorders and did the company little service." An attempt was made to retrieve the affair by putting the colony under different management. The Dorchester partnership heard of "some religious and well-affected persons who had lately moved out of New Plymouth on account of their dislike of their principals of rigid separation," of which number Mr. Roger Conant was one, "a religious, sober and prudent gentleman," whose brother recommended him to Mr. White with whom he was well acquainted. He was at Nantasket and the Dorchester Partnership engaged Conant to be their super- intendent at Cape Ann to have charge of all of their affairs including fishing and planting. The Reverend Mr. Lyford, who was with Conant at Nantasket, agreed to be their minister but the change in management was not followed by the profits which had been hoped for and "the next year the adventurers became so far discour- aged that they abandoned the further prosecution of this design and took order for the dissolving of the company on land and sold away their shipping and other provi- sions." But Mr. White was not discouraged and at his suggestion when most of the land men returned to Eng- land, a few of the most honest and industrious resolved to stay behind and take charge of the cattle sent over the year before, and not liking their seat at Cape Ann and finding "a peninsula with good harbors called by the Indians 'Nahumkeike'," Conant and his companions re- moved there in the fall of 1626. Rev. Mr. Lyford refused to remain and being unable to persuade the others to leave, he and his wife went to Virginia where he shortly died. Conant's wife must have been with him as their fourth child, Roger Conant, Jr., was born in 1626, the first white child born in Salem.
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THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF JOHN ENDECOTT
White wrote to Conant asking him "not so to desert the business, faithfully promising that, if himself, with three others, whom he knew to be honest and prudent men, viz: John Woodbury, John Balch and Peter Pal- frey, employed by the Adventurers, would stay at Naum- keag, and give timely notice thereof, he would provide a patent for them, and likewise send them whatever they should write for, either men or provision or goods where- with to trade with the Indians." With difficulty Conant prevailed upon his companions to persevere.
A year elapsing after Mr. White's promise and nothing of importance having been heard from England, John Woodbury was sent there to procure supplies and his appeal aroused the Rev. Mr. White to greater exertions. According to a deposition in the Essex Registry of Deeds, Volume 5, Leaf 108, Humphrey Woodbury, a son of John Woodbury, deposes that his father after three years' ab- sence in New England returned to his home in Somer- set, England, where he remained for half a year and that he returned with him to Naumkeag, arriving in June, 1628.
ENDECOTT'S FIRST CONNECTION WITH THE ADVENTURERS
White, in the Planter's Plea, recounts that "Some then of the Adventurers, that still continued their desire to set forward the plantation of a Colony there, conceiving that if some more cattle were sent over to those few men left behind, they might not only be a means of the com- fortable subsisting of such as were already in the coun- try, but of inviting some other of their friends and acquaintances to come over to them, adventured to send over twelve kine and bulls more; and conferring casually with some gentlemen of London moved them to add unto them as many more, by which occasion, the business came to agitation afresh in London, and being at first approved by some and disliked by others, by argument and disputa- tion it grew to be more vulgar; insomuch that some men showing some good affection to the work and offering the help of their purses if fit men might be procured to go over, inquiry was made whether any would be willing to engage their persons in the voyage. By this inquiry
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it fell out that among others they lighted at last on Mas- ter Endecott, a man well known to divers persons of good note, who manifested much willingness to accept of the offer as soon as it was tendered; which gave great encouragement to such as were upon the point of resolu- tion to set on this work of erecting a new Colony upon the old foundation."
According to a pamphlet published by Sir Roper Leth- bridge in 1912 it appears that Endecott was born at Chagford, Devonshire, England in 1589, the son of Thomas and Alice Endecott. Little is known of his early life or occupation but Felt found at the State House a bill which Endecott, in his own writing, presented to the General Court, for the care of a man who had been left in his charge, in which he describes himself as a chir- urgeon. He was of a family of respectable standing and moderate fortune and belonged to that class in England called gentlemen. His letters show that he was a man of liberal education and cultivated mind. He had been a parishioner in Dorchester of the Rev. John White and also of the Rev. Mr. Skelton, who later became pastor of the First Church in Salem. While a resident of Lon- don John Endecott married Anna Gower, a lady of influ- ential family and a cousin of Matthew Cradock, the gov- ernor of the Massachusetts Company in England. Some of her needlework is still preserved in the Essex Insti- tute. He was in his fortieth year when he emigrated to New England and from the fact that he is from the first referred to as Captain Endecott it is apparent that he must have had some military experience.
The following extract from Johnson's "Wonder Work- ing Providence of Sions Saviour in New England," pub- lished in 1654, will illustrate the estimation in which he was held at this period :
The much honoured John Indicat came over with them, to governe, a fit instrument to begin this Wildernesse-worke; of courage bold, undaunted, yet sociable and of a cheerfull spirit, loving and austere, applying himselfe to either as occasion served, and now let no man be offended at the author's rude verse, penned of purpose to keepe in memory
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THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF JOHN ENDECOTT
the names of such worthies as Christ made strong for him- self in this unwonted work of his.
John Endicat, Twice Governour of the English inhabiting the Massachusets Bay in N. England
Strong valiant John 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, then 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, the Christ hath thee their Generall promoted :
To shew their love in place above, his people have thee voted.
Yet must thou fall, to grave with all the Nobles of the Earth,
Thou rotting worme, to dust must turn, and worse but for new birth.
On March 19, 1628, the Plymouth Council granted to Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Younge, Thomas South- cott, John Humphrey, John Endecott and Simon Whet- combe, their heirs and assigns, all that part of New Eng- land extending from three miles North of every part of the Merrimac River to three miles South of every part of the Charles River, and from the Atlantic to the South Sea, upon condition that one-fifth of all the gold and silver discovered in the granted territory should pass to the crown. Many disputes later arose as to whether the boundary was parallel to the Merrimac River and three miles from it or whether it ran East and West from a point three miles north of the most northerly portion of the Merrimac River.
Endecott was the only one of the six patentees who came over at the time and none of the others ever came excepting John Humphrey, who had married Lady Susan, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln and sister of Lady Ar- bella Johnson. He came over in 1632 and returned to
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England in 1641. Endecott, accompanied by about fifty people, sailed from Weymouth, England, June 20, 1628 in the ship Abigail, Henry Gaudan, Master, and after a successful voyage of about ten weeks arrived at Naum- keag on September 6, 1628. They were welcomed by Conant and his three sober men who waded into the water and bore their new governor upon their shoulders to the shore.
Naturally the old planters were disappointed that their settlement was to be absorbed and their authority super- ceded by that of the new government but it appears that the Massachusetts Company treated them with great con- sideration and kindness, for their letter to Endecott of April 17, 1629 says :- "And that it may appear, as well to all the world, as to the old planters themselves, that we seek not to make them slaves, (as it seems by your letter some of them think themselves to be become by means of our Patent,) we are content they shall be par- takers of such privileges as we, from his Majesty's espe- cial grace, with great cost, favor of personages of note, and much labor, have obtained; and that they shall be incorporated into this Society, and enjoy not only those lands which formerly they have manured, but such a fur- ther proportion as by the advice and judgment of your- self, and the rest of the Council, shall be thought fit for them, or any of them."
They were also granted the right to continue the rais- ing of tobacco, which was greatly desired by them but the growing of which was objected to by the promoters of the Dorchester Company. Conant was a man of great tact and judgment and by his advice the old planters accepted the authority of Endecott and became an efficient part of his colony.
In commemoration of the happy settlement of all dis- putes between the old planters and John Endecott's party, the name of the settlement was, a month after Higgin- son's arrival, at his suggestion, changed to Salem, mean- ing "peace." White, alluding to this controversy between the old planters under Conant and the new comers under Endecott, in speaking of the change of name from Nahum- keik to Salem, says that it was done "upon a fair ground
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THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF JOHN ENDECOTT
in remembrance of a peace settled upon a conference at a general meeting between them and their neighbors after expectance of some dangerous jar." In this connection he also refers to the opinion held by some, that the Indi- ans might formerly have had some intercourse with the Jews, observing, "Howsoever it be, it falls out that the name of the place which our late Colony hath chosen for their seat, proves to be perfect Hebrew, being called Nahum Keike, by interpretation, The Bosom of Consola- tion." Cotton Mather also says "Of which place I have somewhere met with an odd observation, that the name of it was rather Hebrew than Indian; for Nahum sig- nifies Comfort and Keik signifies a Haven; and our Eng- lish not only found it a haven of comfort, but happened also to put a Hebrew name upon it; for they called it Salem, for the peace which they had and hoped in it; and so it is called unto this day." Mather probably de- rived this whimsical etymology from Scottow, who says, "Its original name was called Naumkek, the Bosom of Consolation, being its signification, as the learned have observed." Captain John Smith spells it Naemkeck, Naemkecke and Naimkeck. Conant in later life said he had no part in naming the town.
It was the policy of the new company to appoint only strong men to office, men whom they knew could be trusted so far removed from headquarters, and John Endecott was known to John White, promoter of the col- ony, as an efficient business manager whose courage and integrity no one ever questioned. The colonists were also urged to "choose such as are found both in profession and confession men fearing God and hating bribes." Endecott was surely such a one who could govern a weak and striving colony with firm hand, overcoming every obstacle, crushing insubordination and excluding every hostile element which might weaken or divide the colony.
THE FIRST WINTER IN SALEM UNDER ENDECOTT
The new settlers together with the old planters already at Naumkeag, made a colony of about sixty people, and Endecott at once assumed authority and began the build- ing of houses and undertook to prepare the colonists for
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the approaching winter. On September 13th, a week af- ter his arrival, he sent back to the Adventurers in Dor- chester a letter which gave great encouragement to them. Richard Brackenbury by a deposition recorded in Regis- try of Deeds, Book 5, Page 107, and made by him on January 20, 1680 at the age of eighty years, deposes that he came over with Endecott and landed on September 6, 1628 and found living at Naumkeag old Goodman Norman and his son, William Allen, Walter Knight and others who were of the Dorchester Company, and that they had sundry houses built at Naumkeag, as also had John Woodbury, Mr. Conant, Peter Palfrey, John Balch and others. According to the deposition Knight told the governor that there was a large house erected by the Dor- chester Adventurers near the fishing stage at Cape Ann. Endecott thereupon sent Knight, Brackenbury and others to take down the house and move it to Naumkeag, where it was erected for the governor on what is now Washing- ton Street somewhere between Federal and Church Streets, and which Endecott occupied most of the time as his resi- dence until he removed to Boston in 1655. This house was two stories high, of the prevailing order of archi- tecture of the period called Elizabethan, which was but slightly removed from the Gothic.
Soon after Endecott's arrival he sent Ralph, Richard and William Sprague to explore the country around Mishawaum, now called Charlestown, where they met a tribe of Indians called Aberjinians by reason of whose consent they commenced a plantation. They were fol- lowed by other colonists the next year. Endecott's rea- son for such speedy action was that he anticipated that William Blackstone and William Jeffries, under authority of a son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, would undertake to put John Oldham in possession of this locality, and the next year he was especially instructed by his em- ployer, the Dorchester Company, to hold this territory as against Oldham.
In 1625 Captain Wollaston and a sporting gentleman named Thomas Morton, with a large number of indented white servants, undertook to found a settlement within what is now the City of Quincy calling the place Mount
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THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF JOHN ENDECOTT
Wollaston. After a while Wollaston became tired of his venture and carried away many of his servants to Vir- ginia where he sold them at a good profit. Morton there- upon seized the place and persuading the remaining servants to become his partners, proceeded to sell rum and firearms to the Indians, teaching them how to make bullets and to load and fire. The settlers, especially those at Plymouth, were very much disturbed by this action, realizing that this settlement had become the headquar- ters of all the undesirables who had come to New Eng- land, and that the sale of firearms to the Indians would result in great personal danger to themselves. Therefore Miles Standish was sent to capture Morton, which he did, and in June before Endecott's arrival he was shipped back to England. Before Morton's capture he had changed the name of the locality to Merrymount and had erected a May Pole eighty feet high on which he and his associates posted scurrilous notices, attacking the other settlers and those in authority, together with obscene and vulgar jokes and rhymes. When Endecott arrived he visited Merrymount, as the report said, "in the purify- ing spirit of authority" and had the May Pole cut down, "rebuking the inhabitants for their profaneness and ad- monishing them to see to it that there should be better walking." Morton returned to New England in August 1629 but was shipped back to old England later under suspicion of being concerned in a murder, and thereafter was a very bitter opponent of the colony, publishing a scurrilous book called "New English Canaan," poking fun at all its various officials and always referring to Endecott as Captain Littleworth.
Speaking of the party who were there with Wollas- ton, Governor Bradford said:
Amongst whom was one Mr. Morton who, it should seeme, had some small adventure (of his owne or other mens) amongst them; but had little respecte amongst them, and was sleghted by ye meanest servants. Haveing continued ther some time, and not finding things to answer their · expectations, nor profite to arise as they looked for, Captaine Wallaston takes a great part of ye sarvants, and transports them to Virginia, wher he puts them of at good rates, selling
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their time to other men; and writs back to one Mr. Rassdall, one of his cheefe partners, and accounted their marchants, to bring another parte of them to Verginia Likewise, intend- ing to put them of ther as he had done ye rest. And he, with ye consents of ye said Rasdall, appoyneted one Fitcher to be his Lieutenante, and governe ye remaines of ye plan- tation, till he or Rasdall returned to take further order thereaboute. But this Morton abovesaid, haveing more craft then honestie, (who had been a kind of petiefogger of Furne- fells Inne) in ye others absence, watches an oppertunitie, (commons being but hard amongst them) and gott some strong drinck and other junkats, and made them a feast; and after they were merie, he begane to tell them, he would give them good counsell. You see (saith he) that many of your fellows are carried to Virginia; and if you stay till this Rasdall returne, you will also be carried away and sould for slaves with ye rest. Therfore I would advise you to thruste out this Lieutenante Fitcher; and I, having a parte in the plantation, will receive you as my partners and con- sociats ; so may you be free from service, and we will con- verse, trad, plante and live together as equalls and supporte and protecte one another, or to like effecte. This counsell was easily received; so they took oppertunitie, and thrust Lieutenante Fitcher out a dores, and would suffer him to come no more amongst them, but forct him to seeke bread to eate, and other releefe from his neighbours, till he could gett passages for England. After this they fell to great licenciousnes, and led a dissolute life, powering out them selves into all profanenes. And Morton became lord of misrule and maintained (as it were) a schoole of Athisme. And after they had gott some good into their hands, and gott much by trading with ye Indeans, they spent it as vainly, in quaffing and drinking both wine and strong waters in great exsess, and, as some reported, 10" worth in a morn- ing. They allso set up a May-pole drinking and dancing aboute it many days togeather, inviting the Indean women, for their consorts, dancing and frisking togither (like so many fairies, or furies rather) and worse practises. As if they had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of ye Roman Goddes Flora, or ye beasly practieses of ye madd Bacchin- alians. Morton likewise (to show his poetrie) composed sundry rimes and verses, some tending to lasciviousnes, and others to ye detraction and scandall of some persons, which he affixed to this idle or idoll May-polle. They chainged
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