USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 13
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148 ; Callender's Hist. Disc. 89, 97 ; Backus, Hist. of the Baptists in N. E., i. 92 ; Hague, Hist. Disc. p. 32 ; Staples, Annals of Providence, pp. 30, 33, 35, 76, 112, 121; Mass. Hist. Col . xix. 170, 182.
2 Robert Moulton was admitted a freeman May 18, 1631. He was chosen constable of Charlestown April 1, 1634, and the same year was a deputy from that town in the General Court. " May 14, 1634, Mr. Beecher, Mr. Pierce, and Ro- bert Moulton are desired to treat with Mr. Stevens and Mr. Mayhew for the building of the sea-fort by the great." After this he removed to Salem ; for in 1637 he was one of the thirteen men, and represented that town the same year in the Gen- eral Court, and was one of those that were ordered to be disarmed for signing the petition or remonstrance in favor of Wheelwright. Morton's Point, in Charlestown, (or Molten's, as it was formerly called, according to Winthrop, i. 154,) was probably named after him. He died in 1655. See page 94 ; Col. Rec. MS. i. 111, 117; Felt's Salem, 105, 527, (ed. 1827) ; Savage's Winthrop, i. 129, 215, 248.
11
162
THE RETURN CARGOES OF THE SHIPS.
1629. April 17.
CHAP. Company, and one third for Mr. Cradock and his V. associates ; praying you to accommodate the said Mr. Cradock's people in all fitting manner, as he doth well deserve.
Such cattle, both horses, mares, cows, bulls and goats, as are shipped by Mr. Cradock, are to be divided in equal halves 'twixt him and the Company ; which was omitted to be done here, for avoiding partiality ; so you must do it equally there.
We pray you to be careful to make us what returns you possibly may, the better to enable us to send out a fresh supply. We hope you have converted the commodities you carried with you for truck, into beaver, otter, or other furs, which we pray you send us by the Talbot ; as also any other commodities you have provided in readiness against the ship's coming thither. But pray do not detain her any long time to cut timber, or any other gross lading ; for she is at £150 a month charges, which will soon eat out more than the goods she should stay for is worth. Wherefore, pray make what expedition you can to unlade her goods, and to put such things aboard her as you have ready, and send her hitherward again as soon as you may.
We have sent five weight of salt in the Whelp, and ten weight in the Talbot. If there be any shallops to be had to fish withal, and the season of the year fit, pray let the fishermen, (of which we send six from Dorchester,) together with some of the ships' company, endeavour to take fish, and let it be well saved with the said salt, and packed up in hogsheads, or otherwise, as shall be thought fittest,
·
163
SATURDAY AFTERNOON TO BE KEPT.
and send it home by the Talbot or Lion's Whelp. CHAP. Now, forasmuch as the Lion's Whelp belongeth to V. the Company, you may, if there be hope to do good 1629. by it, keep her there some time after the Talbot ; April 17. but unless it be to very good purpose, do not detain her, but let her come home in company of the Tal- bot. The George Bonaventure is to land her pas- sengers, and other things belonging to the general Company or to particular men, and so set sail for Newfoundland ; and we pray you let it be your care to despatch her as soon as may be.
William Ryall and Thomas Brude, coopers and cleavers of timber, are entertained by us in halves with Mr. Cradock, our Governor. Pray join others that can assist them unto them, and let them pro- vide us some staves, and other timber of all sorts, to be sent us by the Talbot, Whelp, or the other two ships that come after. But we pray you consider the charge of these ships, and detain them not for small matters. Rather use all diligence to send them away.
If, at the arrival of this ship, Mr. Endicott should be departed this life, (which God forbid,) or should happen to die before the other ships arrive, we au- thorize you, Mr. Skelton, and Mr. Samuel Sharpe, to take care of our affairs, and.to govern the people according to order, until further order. And to the . end the Sabbath may be celebrated in a religious manner, we appoint that all that inhabit the Planta- tion, both for the general and particular employ- ments, may surcease their labor every Saturday throughout the year at three of the clock in the afternoon ; and that they spend the rest of that day
164
A MINISTER TO BE SENT TO MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
CHAP. in catechising and preparation for the Sabbath, as the V. ministers shall direct.1
1629. If it shall please God to take away by death any April 17. of the thirteen that shall be chosen and appointed for the Council, (of which yourself or your successor is to be one,) in such case the then being Gov- ernor and the surviving Council shall from time to time make choice of one or more to supply the place of such as shall be wanting ; and that there may no difference arise about the appointing of one to be minister with those you send to inhabit at Mattachu- setts Bay, we will have you, in case the ministers cannot agree amongst themselves who shall under- take that place, to make choice of one of the three by lot ; and on whom the lot shall fall, he to go with his family to perform that work.2
We have advised you of the sending of William Ryall and Thomas Brude, cleavers of timber.3 But
1 This serves to show that the custom, once universal throughout New-England, of "keeping " Sa- turday afternoon and evening, was not of home origin or invention, but was early enjoined and introduced from abroad. The practice no doubt originated from the injunction in Le- viticus, xxiii. 32, " From even unto even shall ye celebrate your sab- bath." The Jewish sabbath (Satur- day,) began at six o'clock of our Friday evening, and the preparation for it at three in the afternoon. There is an allusion to this in Matthew xxvii. 62, and John xix. 42, where " the day of the prepara- tion," and "the Jews' preparation day," are spoken of. Mather says that John Cotton " began the sab- bath the evening before; for which keeping of the sabbath from evening to evening he wrote arguments be- fore his coming to New-England ; and I suppose 'twas from his reason
and practise that the Christians of New-England have generally done so." Hutchinson says it was some time before this custom was settled. Mr. Hooker, in a letter written about the year 1640, says, "The question touching the beginning of the sabbath is now on foot among us, hath once been spoken to, and we are to give in our arguments, each to the other, so that we may ripen our thoughts concerning that truth, and if the Lord will, it may more fully appear ;" and in another letter, March, 1640, " Mr. Huit hath not answered our arguments against the beginning the sabbath at morning." See Mather's Mag- nalia, i. 253, and Hutchinson's Mass. i: 428.
2 Bright went, as appears from the Charlestown records. He had a wife and two children.
3 See page 150.
165
LAMBERT WILSON, THE SURGEON.
indeed the said Thomas his name is Brand, and not CHAP. Norton ;1 but there is one Norton,2 a carpenter, whom we pray you respect as he shall deserve.
V. 1629. April 17.
There is one Richard Ewstead, a wheelwright, who was commended to us by Mr. Davenport for a very able man, though not without his imperfections. We pray you take notice of him, and regard him as he shall well deserve. The benefit of his labor is to be two-thirds for the general Company and one-third for Mr. Cradock, our Governor, being his charges is to be borne according to that proportion ; and withal we pray you take care that their charges who are for partable employments, whether in halves or thirds, may be equally defrayed by such as are to have benefit of their labors, according to each party's pro- portion. Their several agreements, or the copies thereof, shall be (if God permit) sent you by the next ships.
We have entertained Lambert Wilson, chirurgeon, to remain with you in the service of the Plantation ; with whom we are agreed that he shall serve this Company and the other planters that live in the Plantation, for three years, and in that time apply himself to cure not only of such as came from hence for the general and particular accounts, but also for the Indians, as from time to time he shall be directed by yourself or your successor and the rest of the Council. And moreover he is to educate and in- struct in his art one or more youths,3 such as you
1 Probably an error of the pen for Brude.
2 Probably the Mr. Norton with whom the congregation at Salem agreed to build a suitable meeting- house in 1634. See Felt's Salem, p. 72, (ed. 1827.)
3 We have here the embryo of a Medical School, undoubtedly the first contemplated on the continent of America. Whether it ever went into operation, or how it succeeded, we are not informed.
166
JOHN HIGGINSON, OF SALEM.
CHAP. and the said Council shall appoint, that may be help- V. ful to him, and, if occasion serve, succeed him in the 1629. Plantation ; which youth or youths, fit to learn that April
17. profession, let be placed with him ; of which Mr. Hugesson's son,1 if his father approve thereof, may be one, the rather because he hath been trained up in literature ; but if not he, then such other as you shall judge most fittest, &c.
The 21st of April, in Gravesend .?
21. The afore-written is, for the most part, the copy 3 of our General Letter, sent you together with our patent under the broad seal, and the Company's seal in silver, by Mr. Samuel Sharpe, passenger in the George, who, we think, is yet riding in the Hope ; 4 but, by means of stormy weather, the Talbot and Lion's Whelp are yet at Blackwall.5 By these ships that are to follow we intend (God willing,) to supply both in our advice and in our provisions what is
1 This was John, the eldest son, 425, ii. 176; Trumbull's Connecti- at this time nearly thirteen years cut, i. 279, 280, 296 ; Kingsley's Hist. Disc. p. 102. old, having been born Aug. 6, 1616. He had been educated at the gram- 2 Gravesend is on the right bank of the Thames, 22 miles below Lon- don, in Kent. All vessels sailing from the port of London were, till recently, obliged to clear out at Gravesend. Gov. Cradock had pro- bably gone down there to take leave and put his letters on board. mar school in Leicester, England. After his father's death in August, 1630, he accompanied his mother to Charlestown, and afterwards to New Haven. For a while he taught a school at Hartford, and having studied divinity, became a preacher in 1637, and officiated three 3 This identical copy, in the hand- writing of Burgess, the Secretary of the Company, is preserved in excel- lent order at the end of the first volume of Deeds in the Registry of Suffolk; and it is from that we print. or four years as a chaplain at Say- brook fort. His mother died in 1640, and in 1641 he removed to Guildford, and in 1660 succeeded his father in the church at Salem, being its sixth minister. He died there Dec. 9, 1708, aged 92, having 4 A reach in the Thames, just below Gravesend. 5 Blackwall is only four miles from St. Paul's, down the Thames. been a preacher more than seventy years. See Mather's Magnalia, i. 10, 330; Hutchinson's Mass. i.
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167
FAMILY DISCIPLINE TO BE MAINTAINED.
wanting now. In the mean-while we pray you ac- CHAP. commodate business with your true endeavours for V. the general good in the best and discreetest manner 1629. that you may.
For the better accommodation of businesses, we have divided the servants belonging to the Company into several families, as we desire and intend they should live together ; a copy whereof we send you here enclosed, that you may accordingly appoint each man his charge and duty. Yet it is not our in- tent to tie you so strictly to this direction, but that in your discretion, as you shall see cause from time to time, you may alter or displace any as you shall think fit.
Our earnest desire is that you take special care, in settling these families, that the chief in the family, at least some of them, be grounded in religion ; whereby morning and evening family duties may be duly performed, and a watchful eye held over all in each family, by one or more in each family to be appointed thereto, that so disorders may be prevent- ed, and ill weeds nipped before they take too great a head. It will be a business worthy your best en- deavours to look unto this in the beginning, and, if need be, to make some exemplary to all the rest ; otherwise your government will be esteemed as a scarecrow. Our desire is to use lenity, all that may be; but, in case of necessity, not to neglect the other, knowing that correction is ordained for the fool's back. And as we intend not to be wanting on our parts to provide all things needful for the main- tenance and sustenance of our servants, so may we justly, by the laws of God and man, require obe-
April 21.
168
JOHN AND SAMUEL BROWNE.
CHAP. dience and honest carriage from them, with fitting V. labor in their several employments ; wherein if they
1629. shall be wanting, and much more if refractory, care April must be taken to punish the obstinate and disobe- 21. dient,1 being as necessary as food and raiment. And we heartily pray you, that all be kept to labor, as the only means to reduce them to civil, yea a godly life, and to keep youth from falling into many enor- mities, which by nature we are all too much inclined unto. God, who alone is able and powerful, enable you to this great work, and grant that our chiefest aim may be his honor and glory. And thus wishing you all happy and prosperous success, we end and rest Your assured loving friends,
The Governor and Deputy Of the New-England Company For a Plantation in Mattachusetts Bay. A
Through many businesses we had almost forgot- ten to recommend unto you two brethren of our Company, Mr. John and Mr. Samuel Browne, who, though they be no adventurers in the general stock, yet are they men we do much respect, being fully persuaded of their sincere affections to the good of our Plantation. The one, Mr. John Browne, is sworn an Assistant here, and by us chosen one of the Council there ; a man experienced in the laws of our kingdom, and such an one as we are persuaded will worthily deserve your favor and furtherance ; which we desire he may have, and that in the first division of lands there may be allotted to either of them two hundred acres.
1 Some word, such as order or discipline, is here accidentally omitted.
169
JOHN OLDHAM'S GRANT.
I find Mr. Oldham's1 grant from Mr. Gorge is to CHAP.
him and John Dorrell, for all the lands within Mat- V. tachusetts Bay, between Charles river and Abousett2 16 29. river, containing in length, by a straight line, five April miles up the said Charles river, into the main land 21. northwest from the border of the said Bay, including all creeks and points by the way, and three miles in length from the mouth of the foresaid river of Abou- sett, up into the main land, upon a straight line south- west, including all creeks and points, and all the land in breadth and length between the foresaid rivers, with all prerogatives, royal mines excepted. The rent reserved is twelve pence on every hundred acres of land that shall be used ; William Blaxton,3 clerk,
1 We hear nothing more of Old- ham, after his unsuccessful attempt to negotiate with the Massachusetts Company and to get his claim to territory within their patent allowed, till May 18, 1631, when he was ad- mitted a freeman of the Colony. Of course, before this was done, he must have abandoned his pretensions and made terms with the colonial government. When he came over, for the last time, is uncertain, whether in the vessel he was at this time providing, or in one of the Company's three ships that sailed in June, after Higginson's departure, or in one of Winthrop's fleet. He was one of the early settlers of Wa- tertown, and was evidently trusted and respected in the Colony. We find him in May, 1632, one of the two deputies sent from Watertown to advise with the Governor and As- sistants about raising a public stock ; and he was also one of the three re- presentatives of that town in the first General Court of Delegates, held May 14, 1634. He was a fearless and enterprising trader with the na- tives, and his murder by the Indians of Block Island in July, 1636, was
the immediate cause of the Pequot War. See Winthrop's Hist. i. 76, 80, 129, 189-192, ii. 362. 2 Saugus river, in Lynn. See Lewis's History of Lynn, p. 21.
3 William Blackstone, (or Blax- ton, as it was spelt by his son, and by Ed. Johnson, in his History of New-England,) the first European occupant of the peninsula on which Boston is built, was a clergyman, a Puritan and Nonconformist, and was educated at Emanuel College, Cam- bridge, where he took the degree of A. B. in 1617, and of A. M. in 1621. He was one of the first settlers in Massachusetts Bay, having been as- sessed in June, 1628, for the cam- paign against Morton of Mount Wol- laston. Lechford, who was here in 1637, says that Blackstone lived at Boston nine or ten years. Now, as he left Boston in the spring of 1635, this would determine his residence here as early as 1625 or 1626. He may have been one of the company whom Robert Gorges brought over in Sept. 1623, and one of " the un- dertakers" to whose charge and custody he left his plantation at Wessagusset, when he returned to
170
WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, OF BOSTON.
CHAP. and William Jeffryes,1 gentleman, authorized to put V. John Oldham in possession. Having a sight of his . 1629.
April
21.
England in 1624. It certainly ap- pears from this letter, that he was at this time acting as an agent of John Gorges, (who, after his brother Robert's death, had succeeded to his patent,) and was empowered by him, in conjunction with Jeffries, to put Oldham in possession of the territory which he had leased him. Accord- ing to the united testimony of the Charlestown Records, Edward John- son, and Roger Clap, Blackstone, at the time of Winthrop's arrival, "was dwelling alone at a place called by the Indians Shawmut, where he only had a cottage,-that plain neck called Blackstone's neck, -on a point of land called Black- stone's Point." This was the place afterwards called Barton's Point, near Craigie's bridge, and opposite the State's Prison. He was admit- ted a freeman May 18, 1631. Ma- ther, i. 221, and after him, Hutchin- son, i. 21, says, that Blackstone claimed the whole peninsula, on the ground that he was the first person that had slept upon it. Such a claim could not be allowed by the gov- ernment of Massachusetts, since by their charter the whole territory within the Bay vested in them. Still they seem to have treated him generously ; for at a Court held April 1, 1633, it was "agreed that Mr. Wm. Blackstone shall have fifty acres of ground set out for him near to his house in Boston, to enjoy for- ever;" which must have been at least a fourteenth part of the whole peninsula. The next year, 1634, he sold this land to the other inhab- itants of the town for £30, reserv- ing for himself only about six acres on the Point where he had built his house. To pay this sum, a rate of six shillings to each householder was assessed Nov. 10, 1634 ; and Blackstone probably removed the next spring, 1635, with a stock of cows which he had purchased with the money he had received. Lech-
ford says that Blackstone " went from Boston because he would not join with the church ;" and Cotton Mather says, that " this man was, indeed, of a particular humour, and he would never join himself to any of our churches, giving this reason for it, 'I came from England be- cause I did not like the lord-bish- ops ; but I can't join with you, be- cause I would not be under the lord- brethren.' " There is no ground, however, for the intimation thrown out by certain writers, that he was driven away by intolerance or harsh usage. He seems to have been a contemplative, recluse sort of per- son, and, amidst the growing popu- lation of the peninsula, he doubtless pined for the seclusion and quiet which he had enjoyed when he was its solitary, undisturbed possessor. These he found in his new resi- dence, in the southern part of the present town of Cumberland, in Rhode Island, about thirty-five miles to the southward of Boston, and three miles above the village of Pawtucket, on the eastern bank of the beautiful river that now bears his name. The spot he selected was then within the jurisdiction of New-Plymouth, the government of which, in 1671, granted him the land on which he had settled, being about 200 acres. In the Records of that Colony, under 1661, his place is mentioned as that " where one Blackstone now sojourneth." The antiquarian pilgrim may identify it by inquiring for the Whipple farm, within a few rods of Whipple's bridge, a mile and a half above Valley Falls, on the west side of the stage road from Pawtucket to Worcester. Here Blackstone lived a retired and quiet life, cultivating. his garden and orchard, and study- ing his books, of which he had 186 volumes, among them three bibles and eleven Latin folios and quartos, which he probably brought with him
171
THOMAS JEFFREY, OF IPSWICH.
grant, this I found. Though I hold it void in law, CHAP. yet his claim being to this, you may, in your discre- V. tion, prevent him by causing some to take possession 1629. of the chief part thereof.2 April 21.
from Emanuel College. These books were all destroyed with his house, in Philip's War, which broke out only a few weeks after his death. On July 4th, 1659, he was married at Boston, by Gov. Endicott, to Sa- rah Stevenson, widow of John Ste- venson, by whom he had one son, John, who survived him, and was a minor at the time of his father's death. The old man died in May, 1675, and was buried on his own farm on the 28th of the month. He could not have been far from eighty years of age, as he was probably about 21 when he graduated at Cam- bridge in 1617. His well, with the stoning almost entire, is still to be seen, and also the cellar of his house, and his lonely grave by the side of Study Hill. A few years since it was marked by a large round white stone. But this has disappeared, and two rude stones now stand at the head and foot of the grave. How long will it be before some one of the princely merchants of the renowned peninsula which he first tenanted, will erect a worthy monu- ment over his grave, or build a cen- otaph to his memory in the metropo- lis of New-England ? See Savage's Winthrop, i. 44, ii. 362; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 63, xii. 70, 86, xix. 174, xx. 170, xxiii. 97, 399, xxviii. 247; Hazard, i. 391 ; Holmes's An- nals, i. 377; Prince's Annals, pp. 221-224 ; Snow's Boston, pp. 31, 50 ; Frothingham's Charlestown, p. 45; Daggett's Attleborough, pp. 24-34 ; Bliss's Rehoboth, pp. 2-14. 1 William Jeffrey, or Jeffries, was an old planter in New-England be- fore the arrival of Endicott ; for we
find his name among those who, in June, 1628, were assessed for the expenses of arresting Morton and sending him home. He was at this time probably residing at Cape Ann or Ipswich. It is not known when or how he came over. He was among the first admitted to be free- men, May 18, 1631. Jeffrey's Creek, now Manchester, and Jef- frey's Neck, in Ipswich, were un- doubtedly called after him. In 1638, with Nicholas Easton, he removed to the vicinity of the Rhode Island Plantations ; and in 1642 his name appears among the proprietors of Weymouth. He appears to have claimed the neck of land in Ipswich, called by his name, on the ground of a purchase from the natives ; for we find by an act of the General Court, passed in 1666, that 500 acres of land were granted to him " on the south side of our patent, [probably at Weymouth,] to be a final issue of all claims by virtue of any grant heretofore made by any Indians whatsoever." By a letter which Morton, of Merry Mount, wrote to him in May, 1634, it would seem that Jeffrey was formerly one of his friends, for he addresses him with the familiar title, "My very good gossip." See Winthrop's Hist. i. 44, 138, ii. 361 ; Hutchin- son's Mass. i. 31 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 63; Felt's Hist. of Ipswich, p. 9; Leach's Hist. of Manchester, MS. p. 4, in the Archives of the Mass. Hist. Society.
2 This last paragraph, in the sin- gular number, was probably written by Gov. Cradock.
CHAPTER VI.
THE COMPANY'S SECOND GENERAL LETTER OF IN- STRUCTIONS TO ENDICOTT AND HIS COUNCIL.
London, 28th May, 1629.
CHAP. VI. 1629. May 28.
AFTER our hearty commendations-our last unto you was of the 17th and 21st April, sent by the last ships, viz. the George Bonaventure, Thomas Cox, master, who set sail from the Isle of Wight the 4th of this month, and seconded1 by the Talbot, Thomas Beecher, master, and the Lion's Whelp, John Gibbs, master, who set sail also from the Isle of Wight about the 11th of this month ; which letter being large, and consisting of many particulars, hath been confirmed here ; and herewith you shall receive a copy2 thereof, desiring you to take especial care of the performance and putting in execution of all things material therein mentioned, and particularly, amongst others, that point concerning publication to be made that no wrong or injury be offered by any of our peo-
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