USA > Massachusetts > The landing at Cape Anne; or, The charter of the first permanent colony on the territory of the Massachusetts company > Part 1
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Gc 974.4 T398 1776009
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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= ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 7470
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/landingatcapeann00thor_0
THE
LANDING AT CAPE ANNE;
OR
THE CHARTER
OF THE FIRST PERMANENT COLONY ON THE TERRITORY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COMPANY.
NOW DISCOVERED AND FIRST PUBLISHED FROM
Che Original Manuscript.
.. . WITH AN INQUIRY INTO ITS AUTHORITY AND
A HISTORY OF THE COLONY. 1624-1628 .. ROGER CONANT, GOVERNOR. BY JOHN WINGATE THORNTON. 1818 ~~
"OBSCURA PROMENS. "
BOSTON: GOULD AND LINCOLN. NEW YORK : SHELDON, LAMPORT, AND BLAKEMAN. 1854.
1776009
F 844 .87
Thornton, John Wingate, 1818-1878.
The landing at Cape Anne; or, The charter of the first permanent colony on the territory of the Massachusetts company. Now discovered and first published from the original manuscript. With an inquiry into its authority and a history of the colony. 1624-1628. Roger Conant, governor. By John Wingate Thornton ... Boston, Gould and Lincoln; New York, Sheldon, Lamport, and Blakeman, 1854.
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CHELF CARD
xii, 84 p. front. (fold. facsim.) map. 22 25.5°m.
1. Massachusetts-Ilist .-- Colonial period. 2. Cape Anne, Mass-Hist. 3. Council for New England. 4. Dorchester company.
i
1-12050
1
Library of Congress
F67.T51
1
Copy 2. .
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and wolff by four of Christ Off and Every funk per fond ad (hall' build, plant, or inhabit, or white (Dall' offer, or make Them to build, plant, or in babiff within the Sanos Be ad afarefor granted, without the love and fitente of the ford robert, and Bread of theire afins 2010 the MandatoryEns both further donennt, and grant That open a lawful furby badd and fafen of the aforefan Samog, and your information gyven to the fan for ShefferD Bid Beins, or afins of the Mecats, Bounds, and quantity of Sans which the for tofeet, and Brand there fries, afforiats , or afinns (ball take in and be by, then there algoriafs, forbants, or af Bons inhabited ad afect fais be the fore does Shefeels bid gente on afyns, at and open the car rafonable regnet of the law Procitaferd, or their offertaty (hall and will be, good and Sufficient Ofurante in the Same Grant, Enfcoffe, confirme and aflott buto the fair Robert Ou know and Coward informe there afforiaty, and digits all'and every the faid Lands for to be taken in wiffin Spare of canton Hard next after the Date bereof wad fais ample, and beneficial manner, at the fais word Chefers Bis feines, or a Magnes news Bane, or Betcafict half habe the fame Landget any of them granted buto Bingerthem for furt cent, and budes fury doncunteran tropi fois ad Berlin are toute pues (mutatis mutandis ) to Dall' and will affe at aff trans fatcafet Byon neo fonable request made to Bim the foi sons Steffens Bid ~ Beins, or a finns By the ford Edward and Robert theire hems, a Motiatysona Mand, or any of flew grannf, proture, and make good, lawfully & Sufficient Fefferd, or other Grants of Autorporation there by the Kid biberfaferd, and flein Oferiats hall have flerty and lawful authority from finne to frme to make and fallut Lains, Owo mums, and Confitutons for the taling, orderingand governing of futh per fond ad nowe are com Bocator which hereafter balle plantes, and inka Biff there and in the meane fome bufil futt, Granat be made It Balle lawful for the ford Robert, and. ESwats there bene, afforiats, and Ifund by tonfonts of the greater part of them Coc fabli E futh Somos, probifond, and One pring ad ate or hallen By them thought mof fift, and tousement for the government of the faid plantator whith balle from time to come toEtutes, and domini fur byla furt, ofiter, or officers, and the fordibude take dow there d prints of the most part of the Mallsfert, and make those of groupadattivais That the Por Land, Probifond, and courants whit ford, ct thatbe agreed on, be not repugnant to the Laws of England, or to the orderd &Confitmond of the APrefront, and donnell of New England Provided further Bat the law buttofed there Bene, and funteffe fall for watfuerledy the Jie Son GARantes 13 LES and foripod, to be there ARecife Sore, and for anficate and des Service auto bio LoVor bis forte Nes, of Bis, at theis a inslie onone Fromfaton The fame halle efaffiches, and feet In Withcy wofereof the faid parties not Befe profond Indentures Interchangeably home gutt thesice Lanos and Stals Che Say, and peared first about written.
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Lakugraphed by lippen & Handlard i'm the Original in the Byvejsion of J. Wingate Thorsten Any
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" APOLLOS WATERED, BUT PAUL PLANTED ; HE THAT BEGUN THE WORKE WAS THE GREATER MAN. YOU SHALL HAVE MADE THIS ISLAND, [ENGLAND] WHICH IS BUT AS THE SUBURBS OF THE OLD WORLD, A BRIDGE, A GALLERY TO THE NEW ; TO JOYNE ALL TO THAT WORLD THAT SIIALL NEVER GROW OLD, TIIE KINGDOME OF HEAVEN. YOU SHALL ADD PERSONS TO THIS KINGDOME, AND TO THE KINGDOME OF HEAVEN, AND NAMES TO THE BOOKES OF OUR CHRONICLES, AND TO THE BOOKE OF LIFE."
Dr. John Donne's Sermon to the " Honorable Virginian Company," Nov. 13, 1622.
"LET IT NOT BE GRIEVOUS TO YOU, THAT YOU HAVE BEEN INSTRUMENTS TO BREAK THE ICE FOR OTHERS WHO COME AFTER WITH LESS DIFFICULTY : THE HONOR SHALL BE YOURS TO THE WORLD'S END."
Letter to the Plymouth Planters. - 1623.
"SMALL THINGS IN THE BEGINNING OF NATURAL OR POLITIO BODIES ARE AS REMARKABLE AS GREATER IN BODIES FULL GROWN."
Dudley's Letter to Lady Bridgett, Countess of Lincoln, March 12, 1631.
"MY HOLD OF THE COLONIES IS IN THE CLOSE AFFECTION WIIICH GROWS FROM COMMON NAMES, FROM KINDRED BLOOD, FROM SIMILAR PRIVILEGES AND EQUAL PROTECTION. THESE ARE TIES WHICH, THOUGH LIGHT AS AIR, ARE AS STRONG AS LINKS OF IRON."
Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America, 1775.
1
2
PREFACE.
As the geologist discovers vestiges of the primitive globe and its inhabitants in the pebble and the fossil, as the geographer explores great rivers back to mountain rivulets, so the historian finds eloquent witnesses of former generations in crumbling monuments and obscure parchments, and traces national greatness to its beginning. Thus the incidents in the early lives of the good and great are gleaned with interest and veneration, and the events in the dawn of a nation's existence are clothed with dignity and importance, proportionate to its after intelligence and greatness.
The distinct and authentic history of the planting and growth of the American colonies, peculiar to us, in contrast with the legendary and obscure origin of many nations in the Old World, has ever afforded satisfaction to the philosopher and historian, and whatever tends to its completeness, will be received with interest.
The following pages prove that Massachusetts begins her history not at Salem, nor under the patronage of the organization which obtained the charter of March, Anno 1627-8, but in the spring of the year 1624, at Cape Anne, where the colony was established under the authority of THIS HER FIRST CHARTER the very initial of her annals - now first presented to the public.
It is venerable, as the historical foundation of the Society or State, which, continuing under various charters and titles, in the year 1780, adopted the name of the COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
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viii
PREFACE.
It is remarkable as guaranteeing the principles of free government vindicated in the Revolutionary struggle ; that the government is of, from and for the individual, the people, the body politic, and not they for the government. From the recognition or denial of this principle, results freedom, or despotism.
This venerable instrument opens to the mind a vision of the past, and in the quiet depths of thought, those obscure but mighty men, now men of renown, rise from their tombs; and we feel as it were that our lives are united with theirs, while we study the privileges that encouraged their hearts, lighted their future with hope, and supported their onward steps. This tract relates to the first colonial lustre - the period commenced under the authority of this, the first, or Cape Anne charter, and embraced in the years 1624 to 1629.
The parchment was in the possession of the Hon. Paul Dudley, F. R. S., Chief Justice of Massachusetts, son of the younger Governor Dudley, who may have received it from his father, Gov. Thomas Dudley. The narrative, written more than a year since, has been enlarged, developing more fully the authority on which the char- ter was issued.
My thanks are due to Rev. Joseph B. Felt, for his aid and for valuable original documents in the Appendix. Several of the scarce works cited, were from the library of my friend, Charles Deane, Esq., whose familiarity with this period of American history, has been of much service in editing the charter.
J. WINGATE THORNTON. BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1854.
.
1
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
RIGHIT BY DISCOVERY - EARLY VOYAGES - COLONIES PROJECTED) - UNSUCCESSFUL - THE VIRGINIA COMPANY CREATED 1606 - KING JAMES' ILL BEHAVIOR - VIEWS OF THE ADVENTURERS. . 1-7
CHAPTER II.
REASONS FOR CREATING A NEW COMPANY - THIE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL INCORPORATED IN 1620 - ITS POWERS - ITS POLITICAL IMPOR- TANCE - PARLIAMENTARY DIFFICULTIES - PROPOSED DIVISION OF TERRITORY AMONG THE PATENTEES - PLAN OF DIVISION - PRO- PRIETORS' NAMES - ROYAL SANCTION OBTAINED - LORD SHEFFEILD'S TITLE. 8-16
CHAPTER III.
WRIOTHESLEY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, THE PATRON OF BARTHOLO-
. MEW GOSNOLD - GOSNOLD SAILS FOR NORTH VIRGINIA, IN MAY, 1602 - DISCOVERS CAPE ANNE- NAMES CAPE COD - VISITS MAR- THA'S VINEYARD - BUILDS A FORT AT ELIZABETH'S ISLAND - CAP-
著學了703
X
CONTENTS.
TAIN JOHN SMITH VISITS AND NAMES NEW ENGLAND, IN 1614 - MASSACHUSETTS ESTEEMED A PARADISE - IT IS VISITED BY THE PLYMOUTH COLONISTS - SOME OF THE : COLONISTS REMOVE то NANTASKET - ROGER CONANT - BAD CONDUCT AND DISGRACE OF LYFORD AND OLDIIAM.
17-27
CHAPTER IV.
PLYMOUTH COLONY SENDS WINSLOW AS AGENT TO ENGLAND - FAME OF THE COLONY IN ENGLAND- REV. JOHN WHITE OF DORCHESTER. - LORD SHEFFEILD BECOMES INTERESTED-GRANTS A PATENT FOR CAPE ANNE-COPY OF THE CHARTER- CAPE ANNE OCCUPIED - FAILURE OF EFFORTS AT CAPE ANNE-DISAFFECTION OF THE LONDON MERCHANT ADVENTURERS - LEVETT'S ACCOUNT OF PLYMOUTH AND CAPE ANNE IN 1624. 28-38
CHAPTER V.
PURITANISM IN ENGLAND - BISHOP LAKE AND REV. JOHN WHITE FAVOR NEW ENGLAND - REASONS FOR COLONIZING -THE DORCHESTER COM- PANY - THEY ESTABLISH A COLONY AT CAPE ANNE UNDER THE SHEF- FEILD CHIARTER - ROGER CONANT APPOINTED GOVERNOR - HOSTILITY OF LONDON MERCHIANTS - THEIR AGENT HEWES MAKES REPRISALS OF PLYMOUTH PROPERTY AT CAPE ANNE- GOVERNOR CONANT EFFECTS PEACE. 39-47
CHAPTER VI.
REVERSES AT CAPE ANNE- LOSSES -THE MERCHANTS ABANDON THE COLONY - TIIE COLONY PURGED OF ITS WORTHLESS MEMBERS - GOV. CONANT PREVENTS ITS DISSOLUTION - THE COLONY REMOVED TO NAUMKEAG - INDIAN HOSPITALITY -GOV. CONANT'S FIRMNESS SAVES THE COLONY - JOHN WOODBERY SENT AS AGENT TO ENG- LAND. 48-53
£
£
xi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
THE COLONY IN 1627- GOV. CONANT'S CHARACTER AND SERVICES - WOODBERY'S MISSION TO ENGLAND - FINDS MEMBERS OF THE OLD DORCHESTER COMPANY - A NEW COMPANY ORGANIZED - A PATENT OBTAINED -THOMAS DUDLEY, ESQ. AND HIS FRIENDS BECOME INTER- ESTED - THE COMPANY HAD NO DEFINITE NAME - HUMBLE BEGIN- NING OF THE STATE RECORDS - WOODBERY'S RETURN TO THE COL- ONY - CHARACTER OF THE COMPANY IN ENGLAND - JOHN ENDECOTT ARRIVES AT SALEM AND SUPERSEDES CONANT - NEW IMPULSE TO COLONIZATION. . 54-60
CHAPTER VIII.
REASONS FOR OBTAINING THE KING'S AFFIRMATION OF THE PATENT - DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE COMPANY IN ENGLAND AND THE COLONY -CRADOCK NOT GOVERNOR OF TIIE COLONY - CHARTER SENT TO ENDECOTT - UNION OF THE OLD AND NEW PLANTERS - NAMES OF THE PIONEERS - DISPUTES BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW COLONISTS - DANGERS OF THE COLONY - OLDHAM'S INTRIGUES - GORGES' CONFLICTING PATENT - GOVERNOR CONANT RESTORES PEACE -INJUSTICE TO CONANT AND HIS ASSOCIATES - ALLEVIATING CON- SIDERATIONS - CHARACTERS OF CONANT AND ENDECOTT - COMPANY'S VINDICATION - HARDSHIPS OF THE OLD PLANTERS. 61-68
CHAPTER IX.
RECAPITULATION - THE HISTORICAL IDENTITY OF THE COLONY - SERIES OF GOVERNORS AND CHARTERS - CHARACTER OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONISTS - THE FATHERS QUOTED -NEW ENGLAND SETTLED BY FUGITIVES FROM OPPRESSION -PRELACY DRIVEN FROM PLYMOUTHI AND FROM SALEM- ITS BANISHMENT NECESSARY TO THEIR SELF- PRESERVATION - VIEWS OF THE FOUNDERS OF NEW ENGLAND - TOLERATION NOT PROFESSED - DANGER FROM POPERY - THE PURI- TANS ESTABLISIIED THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 69-76
.
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xii
CONTENTS.
APPENDIX.
I. NOTICE OF LORD SHEFFIELD. 77
II. DEPOSITION OF RICHARD BRACKENBURY. 79
III. DEPOSITION OF WILLIAM DIXY. 81
IV. DEPOSITION OF HUMPHRY WOODBERY. 81
V. JOHN J. BABSON, ESQ , ON THE LOCALITY OF THE COLONY AT CAPE ANNE. 83
THE
LANDING AT CAPE ANNE.
CHAPTER I.
RIGHT BY DISCOVERY - EARLY VOYAGES - COLONIES PROJECTED -- UNSUCCESSFUL - THE VIRGINIA COMPANY CREATED 1606 - KING JAMES'S ILL BEHAVIOR - VIEWS OF THE ADVENTURERS.
A GLANCE at the earlier attempts at northern coloni- zation, and the several divisions and grants of the American coast, will show the proximate sources of authority whence the charter of Cape Anne was de- rived.
Upon the discovery of America, the European govern- ments established the principle that
" All a man sail'd by or saw was his own ;"
that the nation discovering the territory should have the exclusive right to acquire the soil from the natives, which title might be consummated by possession.1
Under this international law, Henry VII. on the fifth of March, in the year 1496, authorized2 John Cabot and
1 Chief Justice Marshall's opinion in Johnson ». M'Intosh,-a historical summary, " so clear and exact," that Judge Story adopted it as the preliminary chapter, (§§ 9 to 38,) of his " Commentaries. on the Constitution." Wheaton's " Elements of International Law," ch. iv. §§ 1-5.
" Rymer's Fodera, xii. folios 595, 596, contains this first English patent for dis- covery.
1
ЛИНЬ-ВИНО ЧА ВИЗОЛИО
2
CABOT'S FIRST VOYAGE TO AMERICA.
his sons Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, to sail under the English banners to the East, the West, and the North, to seek out lands unknown to any Christian people. In the next year, on the twenty-fourth of June, about five of the clock, early in the morning, Sebastian Cabot, in the ship " Matthew" of Bristol,1 first touched the shores of America, and in that voyage he acquired for England, by the right of discovery, her title to all that territory between the point of his first landing, in the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude, southward to sixty-seventh de- gree.2 A poet of the day thus alludes to it: -
" What an honorable thynge,
Both to the Realme and to the Kynge,
To have had his domynyon extendynge
There into so far a grounde
Whiche the noble Kynge of late memory,
The most wyse prynce the VII. Herry
Caused furst to be founde." 3
A second patent to John Cabot, from Henry VII. issued on the third of February, in the year 1498, permitted him to transport such of his majesty's subjects as might, in the language of the patent, "of their owen free will goo and passe with him," " to the londe and isles of late found." Three hundred men embarked in this ex- pedition, whose object was to find out " what manner of landes those Indies4 were to inhabite." The particulars
1 The name of the other vessel is not recorded. They sailed from the port of Bristol. Corry's Hist. of Bristol, 1816, i. 213.
2 " The ancient discoveries, contracts, and agreements, which our Englishmen have long since made in those parts, together with the acknowledgement of the histories and chronicles of other nations who profess the land of America from the Cape de Florida unto the Bay of Canada (which is south and north three hundred leagues and upwards ; and east and west further than hath yet been discovered) is proper to the King of England." Mourt's Relation, 1622.
3 Quoted in Biddle's Memoir of Sebastian Cabot. London, 1832 ; 2d ed., p. 77, note.
4 The " West Indies" once designated the whole of America. Herrera treats " of the vast Continent and Islands of America, commonly called the West Indies."
الأسرة
3
CABOT. - RALEIGH. - GILBERT.
of this voyage are not preserved. It certainly was un- successful, but is memorable as England's first attempt in the mission of civilization to America.
Thus it seems that Cabot, who ranks second only to Columbus, has the honor of being the first Englishman who projected settlements in America, an historical dignity sometimes assigned to Sir Walter Raleigh, but oftener and nearer the truth, yet erroneously, to Sir Hum- phrey Gilbert,1 who has been styled the " Father of North- ern and North-Western Civilization." This precedence belongs to Cabot, though his projects were unsuccessful.2 Settlements of brief3 duration were effected by Gilbert and Raleigh.
After nearly a century of public apathy, the English mind was again directed to the Western world. The British Constitution vests all vacant lands exclusively in the sovereign, whose sole prerogative4 it is to dispose of them to whom and on such conditions as the monarch thinks best. In the exercise of this prerogative, in the year 1578, on the eleventh of June, Queen Elizabeth gave to the illustrious knight, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, authority5 to discover any territory not occupied by any
India is supposed to be modified from Hindoo, whose land Hindostan, the East, Columbus supposed he had reached when he discovered America.
1 Holmes' Annals, i. 92, 100, 155 ; N. Eng. Ilist. Gen. Reg., July, 1850, 226, 227.
2 Cabot's second patent was first published in Biddle's " Memoir of Sebastian Cabot," to which I am much indebted. I commend it to the student's special attention as a very able critical examination of the authorities on the history of maritime discovery. Holmes' Annals, i, note vi. 96, 97, 104, 105. There is a learned review of the volume in the Appendix to Harper's Family Library, No. 53.
3 Mr. Nicholas Thorne, a Bristol merchant, in 1526, sent an invoice of armor and merchandise to T. Tison, factor of a commercial settlement in the West Indies. Holmes' Annals, i. 57.2
4 Johnson ». M'Intosh ; 8 Wheaton's U. S. Rep.
" The patent is in Stith's History of Virginia, p. 4.
1
4
NEW FOUNDLAND. - THE LONDON COMPANY.
Christian power, and to grant it, according to the laws of England, to such of her majesty's subjects, as he might induce to remove thither. Failing at the outset of his first voyage, which involved him in debt, he sailed from the port of Plymouth in Devonshire, and on the fifth of August took possession of the port of St. John in New Foundland, and the adjacent parts, for the English crown.1 Thus a period of nearly three genera- tions intervened between the first and second attempts of the English to colonize America. Sir Humphrey being lost at sea, his patent was renewed to his brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of Virginia. These illus- trious men, Cabot, Gilbert, and Raleigh were the founders of the naval and commercial grandeur of England.
The titles under the before mentioned grants or patents from the English sovereign, having by forfeiture or the default of the patentees reverted to the crown, the monarch, James I. in the year 1606, created the first corporate association for colonizing America, authorizing two councils 2 of control, of the first of which most of the members resided in London, and of the second, chiefly in Plymouth. Three years after, the former council re- ceived a new charter of incorporation by the name of " The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Plan- ters of the City of London for the first Colony in Virginia," the name then given to nearly the whole coast.3 The first council projected settlements in the southern portion of the territory, and was popularly
1 Holmes' American Annals, i. 05 - 101.
? Two companies are sometimes spoken of, but improperly, as they had but one patent, creating one company, acting under two councils.
3 The Plymouth colonists in their compact, 1620, said they had undertaken "to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia."
الطلهد للتجول لله تحته
5
SIR THOMAS SMITH. - SIR EDWIN SANDYS.
known as the South Virginia Company. Among its members were some of the king's courtiers, and in the illegal and arbitrary exercise of the royal power in their favor, he excited a spirit of mutual hostility between himself and the company,1 the more irritating, as cvery resistance to his despotic interference became politically important.
An incident illustrative of this is here worthy of notice, as one of the difficulties which determined 2 the royal mind in favor of the new organization of the northern colonial interests in 1620.
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