USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 12
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2 See note 1 on page 4.
3 All this shows the anxious de- sire and settled determination of the Company to anticipate Oldham, and by preoccupying the ground, to get the exclusive possession of Massa- chusetts Bay ; by which was then
understood only the territory border- ing on Boston harbour, from Nahant to Point Alderton. Naumkeak was not included in it.
4 The planters in Massachusetts Bay at this time were William Blackstone at Shawmut, (Boston), Thomas Walford at Mishawum, (Charlestown), Samuel Maverick at Noddle's Island, (East Boston), and David Thompson, at Thomp- son's Island, near Dorchester. How or when they came there, is not known. See Johnson, Hist. N. E., ch. 17.
151
RALPH SMITH, THE MINISTER.
all fitting and due accommodation as to any of our- CHAP. selves ; yea, if you see cause for it, though it be with more than ordinary privileges in point of trade.
Mr. Ralph Smith,1 a minister, hath desired passage in our ships ; which was granted him before we understood of his difference in judgment in some things from our ministers. But his provisions for his voyage being shipped before notice was taken thereof, through many occasions wherewith those intrusted with this business have been employed, and forasmuch as from hence it is feared there may grow some distraction amongst you if there should be any
1 We learn from Hutchinson, who, as well as Hubbard and Prince, appears to have had the leaf now torn out of the Colony Records, con- taining the proceedings of the courts held April 8, and 30, 1629, that, " of the four ministers provided, Ralph Smith was required to give under his hand, that he would not exercise his ministry within the limits of the patent without the express leave of the Governor upon the spot." He seems to have been a Separatist in England, which occasioned the cau- tion used with him. He remained but a very short time at Salem, for in the end of June, says Gov. Brad- ford, " he goes with his family to some straggling people at Nan- tasket ; where some Plymouth peo- ple, putting in with a boat, find him in a poor house that would not keep him dry. He desires them to carry him to Plymouth ; and seeing him to be a grave man, and understand- ing he had been a minister, they bring him hither ; where we kindly entertain him, send for his goods and servants, and desire him to ex- ercise his gifts among us ; after- wards choose him into the minis- try, wherein he remains for sundry years." Hubbard speaks disparag- ingly of his abilities, saying that the Plymouth people, in calling him to
exercise the office of a pastor among them, " were more induced there- unto, possibly, by his approving the rigid way of Separation principles, than any fitness for the office he un- dertook ; being much overmatched by him that he was joined with in the presbytery, [Elder Brewster,] both in the point of discretion to rule and aptness to teach ; so as, through many infirmities, being found una- ble to discharge the trust committed to him with any competent satisfac- tion, he was forced soon after to lay it down." Gov. Winthrop says, that in Dec. 1635, Smith " gave over his place," that John Norton might have it. This, perhaps, was only temporarily ; for Morton says, that in Dec. 1638, Gorton was sum- moned to the court at Plymouth to answer a complaint made against him by Smith. He was residing there as late as 1641, and Sept. 27, 1642, sold his house and land to the Rev. John Reyner, his successor in the church. In Nov. 1645, he was called to preach at Manchester, on Cape Ann, and he died at Boston March 1, 1662. See Hutchinson's Mass. i. 10; Winthrop, i. 91, 175, ii. 253 ; Hubbard, pp. 97, 121 ; Prince,. pp. 257, 261, 262 ; Morton's Mem. p. 202 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. iv. 110 ; Felt's Salem, i. 80.
V. 1629. April 17.
152
THOMAS GRAVES, THE ENGINEER.
CHAP. siding, though we have a very good opinion of his V. honesty, yet we shall not, [we] hope, offend in charity 1629. to fear the worst that may grow from their different April
17. judgments. We have therefore thought fit to give you this order, that unless he will be conformable to our government, you suffer him not to remain within the limits of our grant.
We take notice that you desire to have Frenchmen sent you that might be experienced in making of salt and planting of vines.1 We have inquired diligently for such, but cannot meet with any of that nation. Nevertheless, God hath not left us altogether unpro- vided of a man able to undertake that work; for that we have entertained Mr. Thomas Graves,2 a man
1 It appears somewhat singular that they should have seriously thought of planting vineyards in this cold region. "Vine-planters " are mentioned on page 42 among what the Company were to " pro- vide to send for New-England."" In 1634, the yearly rent of Governor's Island, in Boston harbour, was a hogshead of wine. That island had been granted to Gov. Winthrop April 3, 1632, on condition that he should plant a vineyard or orchard there. See Col. Rec. i. 85, 141.
2 Of Thomas Graves, the engi- neer, very little is known, except what is contained in the preceding Records of the Company and in this letter. Very soon after his arrival at Salem, at the end of June, he was sent by Gov. Endicott, with the Rev. Francis Bright, Abraham Pal- mer, and others, to take possession of Massachusetts Bay, in conformity with the instructions sent over by the Company. He pitched on Mish- awum, (now Charlestown,) where he found Walford, the smith, and perhaps the Spragues, (unless, as is more probable, they were of the 100 who came with him.) The Charles- town records inform us that he mo-
delled and laid out the plan of that town, with streets about the hill, measured out two acre lots for the inhabitants, and "built the great house for such of the Company as are shortly to come over, which afterwards became the meeting- house." At the end of the third edition of Higginson's New-Eng- land's Plantation, printed in London in 1630, is " a letter sent from New- England by Master Graves, Engi- neer, now there resident." In White Kennett's American Library, or Catalogue of Books and Papers - which he gave in 1713 to the Soci- ety for the Propagation of the Gos- pel in Foreign Parts, page 237, is the following entry : "A copy of a Letter from an Engineer sent out to New-England, written to a friend in England, A. D. 1629, giving an ac- count of his landing with a small company at Salem, and thence going and making a settlement at Massa- chusetts Bay, and laying the found- ation of a town, to which the Gov- ernor gave the name of Charles- town; with a pleasing description of the exceeding pleasantness and fruit- fulness of the country, and of the civility of the natives. In one sheet
153
GRAVES'S QUALIFICATIONS.
commended to us as well for his honesty, as skill in CHAP. V. many things very useful. First, he professeth great skill in the making of salt, both in ponds and pans, 1629. April 17. as also to find out salt springs or mines. Secondly, he is well seen in mines and minerals, especially about iron ore and iron works. Thirdly, he is able to make any sort of fortifications. Fourthly, he is well able to survey and set forth lands. He hath been a traveller in divers foreign parts to gain his experience. Therefore we pray you take his advice touching the premises, and where you intend to sit down in, to fortify and build a town, that it may be qualified for good air and water, according to your first instructions,1 and may have as much natural help as may be ; whereby it may with the less labor and cost be made fit to resist an enemy. So soon as you have made trial of his sufficiency, write us your opinion how long you conceive it will be fit for us to continue him in our service ; for that he is tied2 to
MS. Ex dono Rev. Alexandri Young, S. T. B." There can be no doubt that the author of this let- ter was Graves. This circumstance, to say nothing of the identity of the donor's name with my own, prompt- ed me to apply, four years ago, to Gov. Everett, then our Minister at the Court of Great Britain, to pro- cure for me a copy of it. He very obligingly applied in my behalf to the Secretary of the Society, but no document of the kind was to be found in their archives. Search was then made, at his instance, in the Library at Lambeth, but with like ill success. It is to be feared that the manuscript is irrecoverably lost. - Graves was admitted a freeman May 18, 1631, and Prince, p. 321, appends to his name this remark, " after, a rear-admiral in England." I think he confounds the engineer
with another Thomas Graves, who was mate of the Talbot on her first voyage, and who, according to Winthrop, writing under June 3, 1635, " had come every year for these seven years." Besides, the rear-admiral of that name was born in 1605, and in 1629 was only twen- ty-four years old, whilst the engineer at this time had a family of five children. It is probable that he soon returned to England, as no notice of him occurs in the subsequent history of the Colony. See page 54; Win- throp's Hist. i. 161, and Frothing- ham's excellent History of Charles- town, p. 26.
1 These first instructions to Endi- cott are not preserved. See Hutch- inson's Mass. i. 9.
2 Graves's contract is printed on pp. 56-59.
154
THE ALLOTMENT OF LANDS.
CHAP. serve us one whole year absolutely, and two years V. more if we should give him order to stay there so long.
1629. So we hope to receive your advice time enough to give April him order to stay out full three years, or to come 17. home at the end of one year. His salary costs this Company a great sum of money ; besides which, if he remain with us, the transporting of his wife, and building him a house, will be very chargeable; which we pray you take into your consideration, that so we may continue or surcease this charge, as occasion shall require.
In our next we intend to send you a particular of such as are to have land allotted and set out unto them, that so you may appoint unto each man an equal proportion by lot, according to what is to be allowed in the first dividend ;1 touching which we shall then give you more large instructions. Mean- while, for such as have sent over servants and cattle in these ships,2 and for such as have more to come in two other ships,3 which we hope will be ready to set sail within ten days, our desire is, they should either be accommodated at Nahumkeeke, or in the Mattachusetts Bay, or in both places, if they desire it, with all the conveniency that may be; and for such grounds as shall be allotted unto them, that the same be conveyed unto them, if they desire it, at any time within one year after their entering upon it, and to be accounted as part of their first dividend. But if they shall dislike it at any time before a gene- ral distribution be made by lot to all the adventurers,
1 See pp. 69, 73-77. 3 They despatched three others, the Mayflower, the Four Sisters, and the Pilgrim.
? The George, the Talbot, and the Lion's Whelp.
155
PRIVATE ADVENTURERS.
then they may have liberty to do it, and take in lieu CHAP. thereof as by lot shall fall out amongst other private adventurers. V. 1629. April 17.
We recommend unto you Sir Richard Saltonstall and Mr. Isaac Johnson, who send over servants and cattle in these ships, desiring you will take care for their present accommodation, as aforesaid ; and as for them, so we may not omit to pray you likewise to give all good accommodation to our present Gov- ernor, Mr. Matthew Cradock, who, with some parti- cular brethren of our Company, have deeply engaged themselves in their private adventures in these ships, and those to come ; and as we hold these men that thus deeply adventure in their private, to be, under God, special instruments for the advancing and strength- ening of our Plantation, which is done by them with- out any charge to the Company's general stock, wherein notwithstanding they are as deep or deeper engaged than any other, so being contented to be debarred from all private trading in furs for three years, we do hold it very requisite in all other their desires to give them all accommodation and further- ance that reasonably may be propounded by them, or any for them ; their good beginnings in the in- fancy of our Plantation worthily deserving of us all favor and furtherance.
We have caused a common seal1 to be made, which we send you by Mr. Sharpe.
1 This seal, mentioned on page 42, is stamped on the back of this vol- ume. In the centre stands an In- dian, raising the Macedonian cry, (Acts, xvi. 9,) "Come over and help us ;" in allusion to the main end of the Plantation, the conversion of the natives to Christianity. The
appropriateness of this device is lost in the present seal of the Common- wealth, where the Indian is retained, but an arm brandishing a sword is placed over his head, and for the old motto is substituted Algernon Sid- ney's well-known line, " Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem."
156
ARTICLES SENT OVER FOR THE COLONY.
CHAP. V.
1629. April 17.
If you want any swine, we have agreed with those of New Plymouth that they deliver you six sows with pig, for which they are to be allowed £9 in ac- count of what they owe unto Mr. Goffe, our Deputy. And for goats, we have bought forty-two for the general and particular men's accounts, which shall be sent you by these and the next ships, or at least- wise so many of them as they can conveniently carry.
We have followed your advice, and sent most of our guns snaphance,1 bastard musket bore ; and we have also sent store of powder and shot, grain for seed, both wheat, barley, and rye, in the chaff, &c.2 As for fruit-stones and kernels, the time of the year fits not to send them now ; so we- purpose to do it per our next. Tame turkeys shall be now sent you, if may be ; if not, per other ships. We are disap- pointed of the provisions ordered to have been sent you for yourself and Mrs. Endicott ; but, God willing, they shall come by the next.
We have made our servants' apparel of cloth and leather ; which leather is not of oil skins,3 for we found them over dear. Yet if this prove not profita- ble, upon your second advice we will send you oil skins.
For such of our nation as sell munition, guns, or other furniture, to arm the Indians against us, or teach them the use of arms, we would have you to apprehend them and send them prisoners for Eng- land,4 where they will not escape severe punishment,
1 See note 3 on page 44.
2 See page 42.
3 See pages 40 and 42.
4 It was on this ground that, be- fore Endicott's arrival, Standish had already arrested Morton, at Mount
Wollaston, and sent him home. See note 1 on page 48, and Mass. ITist. Coll. iii. 62; Morton's Memorial, 136-141; Prince's Annals, pp. 250 to 252.
157
SAMUEL SHARPE, MASTER-GUNNER.
being expressly against the Proclamation.1 You CHAP. have had former caution given you to take heed of V. being too secure in trusting the Indians,2 which we 1629. again commend to your care ; and that you may be April 17. the better able to resist both foreign enemies and the natives, if either should assail you, we pray you let all such as live under our government, both our servants and other planters and their servants, be exercised in the use of arms, and certain times appointed to muster them; in which business Mr. Sharpe3 and Mr. Graves will be assistant to you. Mr. Sharpe is by us entertained 4 to be master-gunner of our ordnance ; in which service he is to employ so much of his time as the charge of that office doth require, and in the rest he is to follow other employ- ments of our Governor's and others, for whose em- ployment he is particularly sent over.
Enclosed you shall receive a factory5 of such pro- vision of victual and other necessaries as we have sent for the general account, to which we refer you, nothing doubting but you will be a provident stew- ard to husband our provisions to the best advantage. We also send you the particular names of such as are entertained for the Company's service ; amongst which we hope you will find many religious, dis- creet, and well-ordered persons, which you must set
1 See pages 83 and 84.
2 In Cradock's letter. See page 136.
3 Samuel Sharpe was chosen an Assistant of the Company in Eng- land April 30, 1629, and again Oct. 20, 1629. But being out of the country, and not able to take the oath, he was superseded in his place, Feb. 10, 1630, by Roger Lud-
low. He was Cradock's agent in the Colony. He remained at Sa- lem, where he was chosen a ruling elder of the church. He was never afterwards a magistrate; and died in 1658. See pages 50, 59 and 124 ; Prince, p. 271.
4 See the agreement with Sharpe on page 50.
5 Inventory.
158 .
DISCIPLINE TO BE EXERCISED.
CHAP. over the rest, dividing them into families, placing V. some with the ministers, and others under such as
1629. April 17.
being honest men, and of their own calling, as near as may be, may have care to see them well educated in their general callings as Christians, and particular according to their several trades, or fitness in dis- position to learn a trade. And whereas, amongst such a number, notwithstanding our care to purge them, there may still remain some libertines, we de- sire you to be careful that such, if any be, may be forced, by inflicting such punishment as their offences shall deserve, (which is to be, as near as may be, according to the laws of this kingdom,) to conform themselves to good order ; with whom, after admo- nition given, if they amend not, we pray you proceed without partiality to punish them, as the nature of their fault shall deserve; and the like course you are to hold both with planters and their servants; for all must live under government and a like law. And to the end you may not do anything contrary to law, nor the power granted us by his Majesty's letters patents, we have, as aforesaid, sent you the duplicate of the letters patents under the great seal of Eng- land, ordering and requiring you and the rest of the Council there, not to do anything, either in inflicting punishment on malefactors, or otherwise, contrary to or in derogation of the said letters patents ; but, if occasion require, we authorize you and them to proceed according to the power you have. Never- theless, we desire, if it may be, that errors may be reformed with lenity, or mild correction ; and if any prove incorrigible, and will not be reclaimed by gentle correction, ship such persons home by the
159
TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS.
Lion's Whelp,1 rather than keep them there to infect CHAP. V.
or to be an occasion of scandal unto others; we be- - ing fully persuaded that if one or two be so reship- ped back, and certificate sent home of their misde- meanour, it will be a terror to the rest, and a means to reduce them to good conformity. And, above all, we pray you be careful that there be none in our precincts permitted to do any injury, in the least kind, to the heathen people ; and if any offend in that way, let them receive due correction. And we hold it fitting you publish a proclamation to that effect, by leaving it fixed under the Company's seal in some eminent place, for all to take notice at such time as both the heathen themselves, as well as our people, may take notice of it. And for the avoiding of the hurt that may follow through our much famil- iarity with the Indians, we conceive it fit that they be not permitted to come to your Plantation but at certain times and places, to be appointed them. If
any of the salvages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands granted in our patent, we pray you endeavour to purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion.2
1 This was Endicott's authority and apology for sending home the Brownes.
2 These instructions were literally and scrupulously observed by the first settlers of Massachusetts as well as of Plymouth. They made conscience of paying the natives to their satisfaction for all parts of the territory which were not depopula- ted, or deserted, and left without a claimant. The government of the Province, writing home to Lord Shelburne,. the Secretary for the Colonies, in 1767, say, " We are
satisfied there are no complaints against this Province by his Majes- ty's agents for Indian affairs; and that no settlement has been made or attempted by us without proper au- thority. It is with much pleasure we remind your Excellency and in- form the world, that greater care was taken of the Indians by our pious ancestors during the old char- ter, and by this government under the new, even to this day, than was ever required of us by the British government. Nothing has been omitted by the province since 1633
1629. April 17.
160
UNITY TO BE MAINTAINED.
CHAP. V.
1629. April 17.
We have, in the former part of our letter, certified you of the good hopes we have of the love and unanimous agreement of our ministers, they having declared themselves to us to be of one judgment, and to be fully agreed on the manner how to exercise their ministry ; which we hope will be by them accordingly performed.1 Yet, because it is often found that some busy persons, led more by their will than any good warrant out of God's word, take opportunities by moving needless questions to stir up strife, and by that means to beget a question, and bring men to declare some difference in judgment, most com- monly in things indifferent, from which small begin- nings great mischiefs have followed, we pray you and the rest of the Council, that if any such disputes shall happen amongst you, that you suppress them, and be careful to maintain peace and unity.2
We desire you to take notice of one Lawrence Leech,3 whom we have found a careful and painful
to this day, which justice or human- ity required, within this jurisdiction. We glory in the conduct of our go- vernment, we make our boast of it as unexampled ; and we have been free and spontaneous on our part. We assure you, that being animated by the same principles with our ancestors, we shall do everything which duty to the King, and the maxims of good policy, of justice and equity to the Indians can re- quire." The first President Adams being asked his opinion concerning the treatment of the Indians in New- England, replied, that he believed it to have been just. "In all my practice at the bar," said he, "I never knew a contested title to lands, but what was traced up to the Indian title." See Chronicles of Plymouth, p. 259 ; Hutchinson's Mass. ii. 266 ;
Holmes's Annals, i. 217, ii. 150; Colony Laws, p. 132.
1 " By this," says Prince, p. 258, "it appears Mr. Bright was a Puri- tan ; and Mr. Hubbard seems mista- ken in supposing him a Conformist ; unless he means in the same sense as were many Puritans in those days, who by particular favor omitted the more offensive ceremonies and parts in the Common Prayer, while, for the unity and peace of the Church, and in hopes of a farther reforma- tion, they used the other." See Hubbard, pp. 112, 113, and John- son, Hist. N. E., ch. 9.
2 This would serve to justify En- dicott in his summary proceedings to suppress the schismatical and anarchical conduct of the Brownes. 3 Lawrence Leach was admitted a freeman May 18, 1631. He was
161
SIX SHIPWRIGHTS SENT OVER.
man, and we doubt not but he will continue his dili- CHAP. gence ; let him have deserving respect. The like V. we say of Richard Waterman,1 whose chief employ- 1629. April 17. ment will be to get you good venison.
We have sent six shipwrights, of whom Robert Molton2 is chief. These men's entertainment is very chargeable to us ; and by agreement it is to be borne two-thirds at the charge of the general Com- pany, and the other third is to be borne by Mr. Cra- dock, our Governor, and his associates, interested in a private stock. We hope you will be careful to see them so employed as may countervail the charge, desiring you to agree with Mr. Sharpe that their labor may be employed two thirds for the general
one of the thirteen men (selectmen) of Salem ; and that town, in 1636, made him a grant of 100 acres of land. He died in 1662, aged 83, having been a useful and respectable citizen. See Felt's Annals of Sa- lem, pp. 215, 536, (1st ed. 1827.)
1 Richard Waterman lived at Sa- lem till he was required by the Gen- eral Court, March 12, 1638, with other familists or antinomians, to quit the Colony. He joined Roger Williams at Providence, in October, and became one of the founders of that city and of the Baptist church there, the fir t of the name in Amer- ica. In Jan. 1643, with Randall Holden and Samuel Gorton, he pur- chased of the Indians the tract of land called Shawomet, (now War- wick,) and in September was arrest- ed there, with the rest of Gorton's company, by order of the General Court of Massachusetts, and brought to Boston. After his discharge, he returned to Providence. He was one of the commissioners for that town in the General Assembly of Rhode Island in 1650, and one of the town magistrates in 1655. He was living as late as 1658. See Col. Rec. i. 218 ; Winthrop, ii. 120, 137,
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