USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
16.
The course you have taken in giving our country- men their content in the point of planting tobacco there for the present, (their necessity considered,) is not disallowed ; but we trust in God, other means will be found to employ their time more comfortable and profitable also in the end ; and we cannot but generally approve and commend their good resolu- tion to desist from the planting thereof, whenas they shall discern how to employ their labors otherwise ; which we hope they will be speedily induced unto, by such precepts and examples as we shall give them.
And now minding to conclude this, I may not omit to put you in mind, however you seem to fear no enemies there, yet that you have a watchful eye for your own safety, and the safety of all those of our nation with you, and not to be too confident of the fidelity of the salvages. It is [a proverb trite] as true, " the burnt child dreads the fire." Our coun- trymen have suffered by their too much confidence in Virginia.2 Let us by their harms learn to beware ; and as we are commanded to be innocent as doves, so withal we are enjoined to be wise as serpents. The God of heaven and earth preserve and keep you
1 The General Letter from the Go- vernor and Company to Endicott is printed immediately after this letter of Cradock's.
2 He probably alludes to the mas- sacre in Virginia, on the 22d of March, 1622, when, at mid-day, the
Indians, by a preconcerted signal, fell upon the English settlements there, and killed 347 persons. See Smith's Virginia, ii. 64-79, (Rich- mond ed.) ; Stith's Virginia, pages 208-213; and Grahame's Hist. U. S. i. 74-79, (2d ed.)
137
MATTHEW CRADOCK, OF LONDON.
from all foreign and inland enemies, and bless and CHAP. IV. prosper this Plantation, to the enlarging of the king- ~ dom of Jesus Christ ; to whose merciful protection I 1629. Feb. 16. recommend you and all your associates there, known or unknown ; and so till my next, which shall be, (God willing,) by our ships, who I make account will be ready to set sail from here about the 20th of this next month of March,1 I end ; and rest,
Your assured loving friend and cousin,
MATTHEW CRADOCK.2
From my house in Swithen's Lane,3 near London Stone, this 16th February, 1628, stilo Anglia.4
1 The ships did not actually sail till the middle of April.
2 MATTHEW CRADOCK, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Com- pany, was a wealthy London mer- chant, and, it will be recollected, was usually the highest in all sub- scriptions for the good of the Colo- ny. He owned the Ambrose and the Jewel, two of the ships in Win- throp's fleet, and went to the Isle of Wight to take leave of the emi- grants. On his leaving the Arbella on the 29th of March, " the captain gave him a farewell with four or five shot." He came aboard the same vessel again at Yarmouth, April 6, and on his taking leave, " the cap- tain gave him three shot out of the steerage for a farewell." He never came over to New-England ; but he continued to take an interest in the Colony, and befriended it essentially at home. He had an agent and ser- vants here, and capital engaged in fishing and trading. He had a house at Marblehead and another at Ips- wich, and employed fishermen at both places. His name frequently occurs in the Records of the Colony. At a Court held at Watertown, March 8, 1631, " it was ordered that Thomas Fox, servant to Mr. Crad- ock, shall be whipped." Nov. 7, 1632, "Mr. Matthew Cradock is
fined £4 for his men being absent from training divers times." At a Court held March 4, 1634, " the wear at Mistick is granted to John Winthrop, Esq., present Governor, and to Mr. Matthew Cradock, of London." March 4, 1635, "All the ground, as well upland as mea- dow, lying and being betwixt the lands of Mr. Nowell and Mr. Wil- son on the east, and the partition betwixt Mistick bounds on the west, bounded with Mistick river on the south and the rocks on the north, is granted to Mr. Matthew Cradock, merchant, to enjoy to him and his heirs forever." This farm was within the present town of Malden, opposite Winthrop's farm at Ten- hills. William Wood, who was here in 1633, says in his New-Eng- land's Prospect, chap. x., " On the east side (of Mistick river) is Mr. Cradock's plantation, where he hath impaled a park, where he keeps his cattle till he can store it with deer. Here likewise he is at charges of building ships. The last year one was upon the stocks of 100 tons. That being finished, they are to build one twice her burden." He was a member of Parliament from the city of London in 1640. He left a claim upon the Colony, which in 1648 amounted to £679 6s. 4d.
138
CRADOCK'S LETTER.
CHAP. His widow, Rebecca, married the The Julian year, and the new or IV. Rev. Benjamin Whitchcot, D. D. Gregorian style, were not adopted by law in England and her depend- 1629. encies till 1752. His son or grandson was a dissent- ing minister at Wickambrook in 1690. A descendant, George Cra- dock, was an inhabitant of Boston in the middle of the last century. See Col. Rec. i. 68, 95, 108, 143 ; Win- throp's Hist. i. 2, 4, 60, 124, ii. 25; Hutchinson's Mass. i. 18, 22 ; Felt, Annals of Salem, i. 56.
3 It will be observed that he does
not say, St. Swithin's. On St. Swithin's Lane and London Stone, see Stow's Survey of London, p. 416 and 420, (ed. 1618.) St. Swithin's Lane goes from near the junction of Cornhill and Lombard street to Can- non street. It is the street next east of Walbrook, and parallel to it.
4 That is, old style, by which the year began on the 25th of March.
This letter must have been brought over by some fishing-vessel, for we know of no ship of the Company's sailing from England to Salem till the middle of April, when the George Bonaventure brought the First General Letter of Instructions to Endicott. The ori- ginal letter lies loose in the first volume of the Colony Records, where it has probably lain for more than two hundred years. Like the volume itself, it is in a tattered con- dition ; and it is a marvel that it exists at all. Several words, now torn off, I have restored from a copy made twenty-seven years ago, when the letter was less mutilated.
..
THE COMPANY'S INSTRUCTIONS TO
ENDICOTT AND HIS COUNCIL.
٠
CHAPTER V.
THE COMPANY'S FIRST GENERAL LETTER OF INSTRUC- TIONS TO ENDICOTT AND HIS COUNCIL.
LAUS DEO !1 .
In Gravesend, the 17th of April, 1629.
LOVING FRIENDS,
WE heartily salute you. We have received your CHAP. V. letter2 of the 13th of September, by which we take notice of your safe arrival, blessing God for it. We 1629. have formerly requested Mr. Cradock, our Governor, April 17. to write you of the receipt thereof, and give advice how we purposed to proceed in setting forward our Plantation ; whose letters, if they be come to your hands, (as we hope they are,) will put life into your affairs, and encourage you to provide for the enter- tainment of such as are now coming.
Since your departure we have, for the further strengthening of our grant from the Council at Ply- mouth, obtained a confirmation of it from his Majesty
" A not unusual mode of com- mencing a letter at the time this was written. See Carlyle's Crom- well, i. 132.
2 This letter has not been pre- served.
142
THE COLONY CHARTER.
CHAP. by his letters patents under the broad seal of Eng- V. land ;1 by which said letters patents we are incorpo- 1629. rated into a body politic, with ample power to govern April 17. and rule all his Majesty's subjects that reside within the limits of our Plantation, as by the duplicate? thereof, under the broad seal, which we have deliv- ered to Mr. Sharpe to be delivered to you, doth fully appear.
And for that the propagating of the Gospel is the thing we do profess above all to be our aim in set- tling this Plantation, we have been careful to make plentiful provision of godly ministers; by whose faith- ful preaching, godly conversation, and exemplary life, we trust not only those of our own nation will be built up in the knowledge of God, but also the Indians may, in God's appointed time, be reduced to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ.3 One of them is well known to yourself, viz. Mr. Skelton,4 whom we
1 The original Charter, with the broad seal appendant, which was brought over by Gov. Winthrop, is carefully preserved in a glass case in the office of the Secretary of State, at the State House in Boston. It is distinctly and beautifully engrossed on parchment, and has on it the head of the sovereign by whom it was granted, Charles I. That this is the original, and not a copy, is proved by the fact that on it is the follow- ing certificate of Gov. Cradock hav- ing taken his oath of office before Sir Charles Cæsar, Master in Chan- cery. " Prædictus Matthæus Cra- docke juratus est de fide et obedi- entiâ Regi et successoribus suis, et de debitâ exequutione officii Guber- natoris juxta tenorem præsentium, 18° Martii, 1628, coram me, Carolo Cæsare, Milite, in Cancellariâ Ma- gistro.
CHAR. CÆSAR."
2 This duplicate of the Charter is preserved in the Athenæum at Sa- lem. The party-colored string, by which the royal seal was appended, remains, but the seal itself is gone. 3 Cradock, in his letter to Endi- cott, mentions this as "the main end of the Plantation," and the Charter also avers, that " to win and invite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of man- kind and the Christian faith, in our royal intention, and the adventurers' free profession, is the principal end of this Plantation."
4 Samuel Skelton was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he took the degree of A. B. in 1611, and of A. M. in 1615. He is said by Mather to have come from Lin- colnshire ; but as it is here related that Endicott "formerly received much good by his ministry," it is
143
MINISTERS FOR THE COLONY.
have the rather desired to bear a part in this work, CHAP. for that we are informed yourself have formerly re-
V. ceived much good by his ministry ; he cometh in the 1629. George Bonaventure, Master Thomas Cox. Another April 17. is Mr. Higgeson,1 a grave man, and of worthy com- mendations ; he cometh in the Talbot. The third is Mr. Bright,1 some times trained up under Mr. Daven- port, who cometh in the Lion's Whelp. We pray you, accommodate them all with necessaries as well as you may, and in convenient time let there be houses built them, according to the agreement ? we have made with them, copies whereof, as of all others we have entertained, shall be sent you by the next ships, time not permitting it now. We doubt not but these gentlemen, your ministers, will agree lov- ingly together ;3 and for cherishing of love betwixt. them, we pray you carry yourself impartially to all.
more probable that he was of Dor- setshire, from which county Endi- cott came. Nothing is known of his history whilst in England. Arriv- ing at Naumkeak on the 24th of June, he was, on the 20th of July, chosen and ordained pastor of the church there ; and from this circum- stance it has been inferred that he was older than Higginson, who at the same time was chosen and or- dained teacher. He died at Salem August 2, 1634. Edward Johnson, who was one of Winthrop's compa- ny, and may have known him per- sonally, describes him, in his quaint way, as " a man of a gracious speech, full of faith, and furnished by the Lord with gifts from above to begin this great work of His, that makes the whole earth to ring again at the present day." It is a little remarkable that we have no further accounts of him from the writers of that or the succeeding age. "July 3, 1632, there is another neck of land, lying about three miles from
Salem route, about 200 acres, grant- ed to Mr. Samuel Skelton, called by the Indians Wahquack. Also there is granted. to Mr. Skelton one acre of land on which his house standeth, and ten acres more in a neck of land abutting on the south river, and upon Mr. Higgenson's ground on the west. Likewise there is grant- ed to Mr. Skelton two acres more of ground lying in Salem, abutting on Capt. Endicott's ground on the south." See Col. Rec. i. 90, MS .; Winthrop, i. 137; Mather, i. 331; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 67. xii. 71, xxviii. 248.
1 Some account of Higginson and Bright will be given hereafter, under the date when the former died, and the latter returned home.
2 This agreement is preserved, and is printed in a subsequent part of this volume.
3 Bright did not agree very well with his colleagues, and returned to England in little more than a year.
144
THE GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL.
CHAP. For the manner of the exercising their ministry, and V. teaching both our own people and the Indians, we 1629. leave that to themselves, hoping they will make April 17. God's word the rule of their actions, and mutually agree in the discharge of their duties. And because their doctrine will hardly be well esteemed whose persons are not reverenced, we desire that both by your own example, and by commanding all others to do the like, our ministers may receive due honor.
We have, in prosecution of that good opinion we have always had of you, confirmed you Governor of our Plantation, and joined in commission with you the three ministers, namely, Mr. Francis Higgonson, Mr. Samuel Skelton, and Mr. Francis Bright ; also Mr. John and Mr. Samuel Browne, Mr. Thomas Graves, and Mr. Samuel Sharpe ; and for that we have ordered that the body of the government there shall consist of thirteen persons, we are content the old planters 1 that are now there within our Planta- tion and limits thereof, shall choose two of the dis- creetest and judicial men from amongst themselves to be of the government, that they may see we are not wanting to give them fitting respect, in that we would have their consent, (if it may be,) in mak- ing wholesome constitutions for government : always provided, that none shall be chosen, or meddle in their choice, but such as will live amongst us and conform themselves to our government. But if they shall refuse to perform this our direction, then we
1 The old planters were Conant, Palfrey, Woodbury, Balch, and their associates, who had been induced by the Dorchester adventurers to settle
at Cape Ann, and afterwards re- moved to Naumkeag. See pp. 12, 22-28.
145
THE OLD PLANTERS.
hereby authorize you and those nominated to be of CHAP. the Council aforesaid, to nominate and elect two V. such men as in your opinions you shall hold meet for 1629. that place and office ; and for the other three which April 17. will be wanting to make up the full number of thir- teen, (which we have styled the Council of the Mat- tachusetts Bay,) we hereby authorize [you,] with the aforenamed seven persons, to choose and nominate them out of the whole body of the Company, as well of those that are there, as of those that are to come now, not doubting but, all partiality set apart, you will make choice of such men as may be most useful and careful to advance the general good of our Plan- tation.
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,1) we are content they shall be partakers of such privileges as we, from his Majesty's especial grace, with great cost, favor of personages of note, and much labor, have obtained ; and that they shall be incorporated into this Society, and en- joy not only those lands which formerly they have manured, but such a further proportion as by the ad- vice and judgment of yourself, and the rest of the Council, shall be thought fit for them, or any of them. And besides, it is still our purpose that they should have some benefit by the common stock, as
1 Conant and his associates, as government, and their little planta- was very natural, appear to have tion absorbed by his Colony. The Massachusetts Company seem to have treated the old planters with great consideration and kindness, See page 31. been jealous of the new comers who had arrived with Endicott, and pro- bably did not like it that their au- thority was to be superseded by his
10
146
THE PLANTING OF TOBACCO.
CHAP. was by your first commission1 directed and appoint- V. ed; with this addition, that if it be held too much to 1629. April take thirty per cent. and the freight of the goods for 17. and in consideration of our adventure and disburse- ment of our moneys, to be paid in beaver at six shil- lings per pound, that you moderate the said rate, as you with the rest of the Council shall think to be agreeable to equity and good conscience. And our further orders is, that none be partakers of any the aforesaid privileges and profits, but such as be peace- able men, and of honest life and conversation, and desirous to live amongst us, and conform themselves to good order and government.
And as touching the old planters, their earnest desire for the present to continue the planting of tobacco, (a trade by this whole Company generally disavowed, and utterly disclaimed by some of the greatest adventurers amongst us, who absolutely declared themselves unwilling to have any hand in this Plantation if we intended to cherish or permit the planting thereof, or any other kind, than for a man's private use, for mere necessity,) we are of opinion the old planters will have small encourage- ment to that employment ; for we find here, by late experience, that it doth hardly produce the freight and custom ; neither is there hope of amendment, there being such great quantities made in other places, that ere long it is like to be little worth. Nevertheless, if the old planters, (for we exclude all others,) conceive that they cannot otherwise provide for their livelihood, we leave it to the discretion of
1' Endicott's first instructions were dated London, May 30, 1628. See Hutchinson's Mass. i. 9.
147
JOHN OLDHAM'S PRETENSIONS.
yourself and the Council there, to give way for the CHAP. present to their planting of it in such manner and
V. with such restrictions as you and the said Council 1629. shall think fitting ; having an especial care, with as April 17. much conveniency as may be, utterly to suppress the planting of it, except for mere necessity. But, how- ever, we absolutely forbid the sale of it, or the use of it, by any of our own or particular men's servants, unless upon urgent occasion, for the benefit of health, and taken privately.
Mr. John Oldham1 came from New-England not long before your arrival there, by whom we have had no small distraction in our business, having been cast behind at the least two months' time in our voyage,2 through the variety3 of his vast conceits of extraor- dinary gain of three for one propounded to us, to be made and raised in three years, if he might have the managing of our stock, preferring to be contented for his own employment, so he might have the over- plus of the gains. With whom, after long time spent in sundry treaties,4 finding him a man altogether unfit for us to deal with, we have at last left him to his own way ; and, as we are informed, he with some others are providing a vessel, and is minded, as soon as he can despatch, to come for New-England, pre- tending to settle himself in Mattachusetts Bay, claim-
1 Oldham left New-England in June, 1628, and Endicott left Eng- land June 20, and arrived at Naum- keak Sept. 6. Of course they must have crossed each other on the At- lantic. See pp. 20, 43, and Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 63, and Prince's An- nals, p. 249.
2 This was the voyage of the George, the Talbot, and the Lion's Whelp, the ships that brought out
Higginson, Skelton, Samuel Sharpe, and their company. It appears from page 43, that the Company were preparing for this voyage as early as Feb. 26 ; yet the ships did not sail till after the middle of April.
3 So in the manuscript ; but no doubt an error of the Secretary, in copying, for vanity.
4 See pp. 48, 51, 61, 69.
148
THE TRADE IN BEAVER.
CHAP. ing a title and right by a grant from Sir Ferdinando V. Gorge's son,1 which we are well satisfied by good 1629. counsel is void in law. He will admit of no terms of
April 17. agreement, unless we will leave him at liberty to trade for beaver with the natives ; which we deny to the best of our own planters. Neither is he satisfied to trade himself, with his own stock and means, which we conceive is so small that it would not much hinder us, but he doth interest other men, who, for aught we know, are never likely to be beneficial to the planting of the country ; their own particular profits, (though to the overthrow of the general Plan- tation,) being their chief aim and intent.
Now, as we shall unwillingly do any act in debar- ring such as were inhabitants before us of that trade, as in conscience they ought to enjoy, so shall we as unwillingly permit any to appropriate that to their own private lucre which we, in our religious inten- tions, have dedicated to the common charge of build- ing houses for God's worship, and forts to defend such as shall come thither to inhabit .? We fear that as he hath been obstinate and violent in his opinions here, so he will persist and be ready to draw a party to himself there, to the great hindrance of the com- mon quiet. We have therefore thought fit to give you notice of his disposition, to the end you may be- ware how you meddle with him ; as also that you may use the best means you can to settle an agreement with the old planters, so as they may not hearken to Mr. Oldham's dangerous though vain propositions. We find him a man so affected to his own opinion,
1 See note 2 on page 51.
$ See page 96.
149
CAUTION ABOUT OLDHAM.
as not to be removed from it, neither by reason nor CHAP. any persuasion ; and, unless he may bear sway, and V. - have all things carried to his good liking, we have 1629. little hope of quiet or comfortable subsistence where April 17. he shall make his abode. And therefore, if you shall see just cause, we hereby require you and the Coun- cil there to exercise that power we have, (and our privileges will bear us out in it,1) to suppress a mis- chief before it take too great a head. Not that we would wrong him, or any man that will live peacea- bly within the limits of our Plantation ; but as the preservation of our privileges will chiefly depend, under God, upon the first foundation of our govern- ment, so if we suffer so great an affront as we find is intended towards us, by the proceedings of Mr. Old- ham and his adherents, in our first beginnings, we may be sure they will take heart and be emboldened to do us a far greater injury hereafter. And there- fore we pray you and the Council there to advise seriously together for the maintenance of our privi- leges and peaceable government ; which if it may be done by a temperate course, we much desire it, though with some inconvenience, so as our govern- ment and privileges be not brought in contempt, wishing rather there might be such a union as might draw the heathen by our good example to the em- bracing of Christ and his Gospel, than that offence should be given to the heathen, and a scandal to our
1 By the Charter it was provided, that " all officers employed by the Company in the government of the Plantation, shall have full and abso- lute power and authority to correct, punish, govern and rule all persons as shall at any time hereafter inhabit
within the precincts and parts of New-England aforesaid, according to the orders and instructions of the Company, not being repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm of England." See the Charter in Haz- ard, i. 239 ; Hutchinson's Coll. p. 1. .
.
150
MASSACHUSETTS BAY TO BE OCCUPIED.
CHAP. religion, through our disagreement amongst our- V. selves.
1629.
April
17.
But if necessity require a more severe course, when fair means will not prevail, we pray you to deal as in your discretions you shall think fittest for the general good and safety of the Plantation, and preservation of our privileges.1 And because we would not omit to do anything which might strengthen our right, we would have you (as soon as these ships, or any of them, arrive with you, whereby you may have men to do it,) send forty or fifty persons to Mattachusetts Bay,2 to inhabit there ; which we pray you not to protract, but to do it with all speed ; and if any of our Company in particular shall desire to settle themselves there, or to send servants thither, we desire all accommodation and encouragement may be given them thereunto, whereby the better to strengthen our possession there against all or any that shall intrude upon us, which we would not have you by any means to give way unto ;3 with this caution, notwithstanding, that for such of our countrymen as you find there planted,4 so as they be willing to live under [our] government, you endeavour to give them
1 These instructions seem to ap- prove and justify Endicott's attack upon Morton's riotous company at Mount Wollaston, soon after his arrival in the preceding year. See Hubbard's N. E., p. 104 ; Morton's Memorial, pp. 138, 141, note, where the chronology is set right.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.