USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 2
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
wilderness-work, of courage bold, undaunted, yet sociable, and of a cheerful spirit, loving and austere, applying himself to either, as occa- sion served." Edward Johnson's Wonderworking Providence, ch. ix. (London, 1654.)
1 " A fit instrument to begin this furthered by the honored Mr. Rich- ard Bellingham." A previous pa- tent had been obtained from the Council for New England, March 19, 1628. It was under this that Endicott came out, and not under the broad seal of England, as erro- neously stated by Gov. Bradford, Secretary Morton, and Edward John- son. See Prince's Annals, pp. 249, 250, 254 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xii.63; and Morton's New-England's Memo- rial, p. 137, (Davis's edition, Bos- ton, 1826.)
2 "Deputy governor Dudley, Mr. Hubbard, and others, wrongly place Mr. Endicott's voyage after the grant of the royal charter, whereas he came above eight months be- fore." The patent of the Massa- chusetts Company was confirmed by the king, Charles I. March 4, 1629. Edward Johnson says it was " pro- cured by advice of one Mr. White, an honest counsellor-at-law, as also
3 This was the first emigration under the authority of the Massa- chusetts Company.
4 It will be seen from Higginson's Narrative, in a subsequent part of
14
THE EMIGRATION WITH HIGGINSON.
CHAP. I. His prosperous journey, and safe arrival of himself and all his company, and good report which he sent 1628. back of the country, gave such encouragement to the work, that more adventurers joining with the first undertakers, and all engaging themselves more deeply for the prosecution of the design, they sent over the 1629. next year about three hundred persons more,1 most servants, with a convenient proportion of rother- beasts,2 to the number of sixty or seventy, or there- about, and some mares and horses ; of which the kine came safe for the most part, but the greater part of the horses died, so that there remained not above twelve or fourteen alive.
By this time the often agitation of this affair in sundry parts of the kingdom, the good report of Cap- tain Endecott's government, and the increase of the Colony, began to awaken the spirits of some persons of competent estates,3 not formerly engaged. Con- sidering that they lived either without any useful employment at home, and might be more serviceable in assisting the planting of a Colony in New-England, [they] took at last a resolution to unite themselves for the prosecution of that work. And, as it usually falls out, some other of their acquaintance, seeing such men of good estates3 engaged in the voyage,
this volume, that on his arrival at Salem in June, 1629, he found there about a hundred persons with Endi- cott.
1 This was the second emigration, under Higginson. He says, " We brought with us about two hundred passengers and planters more."
2 Cows, oxen. " The old Saxon word hrutan signifies to snort, snore, or rout in sleeping. To rowt or rawt is to low like an ox or cow. Hence also the Saxon hruther, bos, a rother-beast." Ray's North Coun-
try Words, p. 51, and Richardson's Eng. Dict. under Rout.
3 Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, Sal- tonstall, Dudley, Cradock, the Vas- sals, and most of the Massachusetts Company, were men of " good " and " competent estates." Winthrop had an estate of six or seven hun- dred pounds a year, and Johnson's interest in the New-England adven- ture was six hundred pounds, See Hutchinson's History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, i. 14, 16, (London, 1760.)
15
THE EMIGRATION WITH WINTHROP.
some for love to their persons, and others upon other CHAP. respects, united unto them ; which together made up I. a competent number, (perhaps far less than is re- 1630. ported,) and embarked themselves for a voyage to April. New-England, where I hope they are long since safely arrived.1
This is an unpartial though brief relation of the occasion of planting of this Colony. The particulars whereof, if they could be entertained, were clear enough to any indifferent judgment, that the suspi- cious and scandalous reports raised upon these gen- tlemen and their friends, (as if, under the color of planting a Colony, they intended to raise and erect a seminary of faction and separation,) are nothing else but the fruits of jealousy of some distempered mind, or, which is worse, perhaps, savor of a desperate malicious plot of men ill affected to religion, endeav- ouring, by casting the undertakers into the jealousy of State, to shut them out of those advantages which otherwise they do and might expect from the counte- nance of authority. Such men would be intreated to forbear that base and unchristian course of traducing innocent persons under these odious names of Separa- tists2 and enemies to the Church and State, for fear lest their own tongues fall upon themselves by the justice of His hand who will not fail to clear the in- nocency of the just, and to cast back into the bosom of every slanderer the filth that he rakes up to throw in other men's faces. As for men of more indiffe-
1 This was the third or great em- igration, under Winthrop.
2 The first planters of Massachu- setts were Nonconformists, not Se-
paratists. For the difference be- tween the two, consult the Chroni- cles of Plymouth, pp. 398, 414-17.
16
THE PLANTERS' PLEA.
CHAP. rent and better tempered minds, they would be seri- I. - ously advised to beware of entertaining and admitting, 1630. much more countenancing and crediting such un- charitable persons as discover themselves by their carriage, and that in this particular, to be men ill affected towards the work itself, if not to religion, at which it aims, and consequently unlikely to report any truth of such as undertake it.1
1 The PLANTERS' PLEA, from which this chapter is extracted, was printed in London in 1630, soon af- ter the sailing of Winthrop's fleet, as appears from page 15. It has generally been ascribed to the Rev. John White, of Dorchester, Eng- land, of whom some account will be given hereafter. The copy which I use, and which formerly belonged to Increase Mather, has on the title- page, in his hand-writing, " Mr. White, of Dorchester, Author." - This may be considered good au- thority, as Increase Mather probably derived his information from his fa- ther, Richard, who came over in 1635, or from some other of the first settlers. The work is an ori- ginal, contemporaneous authority, of the highest value, as it contains facts relating to the earliest attempts at settlement in Massachusetts Bay, which can be found nowhere else, and these facts furnished by the per- sons who were themselves engaged as adventurers in these attempts. See page 3. In his Preface the au- thor says, " The reader is intreated to observe that the particulars of this small pamphlet being all ranged un- der these two heads, matters of fact or of opinion, in the former the author sets down his knowledge, and conse- quently what he resolves to justify."
In the Preface to John Cotton's sermon, entitled " God's Promise to his Plantation," delivered just be- fore the departure of Winthrop's company, I. H. (which I suppose to be the initials of John Humphrey, who, though chosen Deputy Gov- ernor of the Colony, remained be- hind, and did not come over till July 1634,) says, "Ere long, (if God will,) thou shalt see a larger decla- ration of the first rise and ends of this enterprise, and so clear and full a justification of this design, both in respect of that warrant it hath from God's word, and also in respect of any other ground and circumstance of weight that is considerable in the warrant of such a work, as (I hope) there will easily be removed any scruple of moment which hitherto hath been moved about it." The Planters' Plea corresponds to this description, and I have no doubt is the work which the writer intended to announce.
The Planters' Plea appears to have been unknown to our histo- rians. Neither Mather, Prince, Hutchinson, Bancroft, nor Grahame make any use or mention of it. Hub- bard may have had it; but I think he derived his knowledge of the first settlement of the Colony from Co- nant and his companions.
HUBBARD'S NARRATIVE.
2
.
CHAPTER II.
THE DISCOVERY AND FIRST PLANTING OF THE MAS- SACHUSETTS.
SEVERAL mariners and persons skilled in naviga- CHAP. tion, (whether employed by others in a way of fish- II. - ing and trading, or to satisfy their own humors in making further and more exact discoveries of the country, is not material,) had some years before look- ed down into the Massachusetts Bay.1 The inhabit- ants of New Plymouth had heard the fame thereof, 1621. and in the first year after their arrival there took an Sept. occasion to visit it,2 gaining some acquaintance with the natives of the place, in order to future traffic with them. For which purpose something like a habita- tion was set up at Nantasket,3 a place judged then 1
1 Capt. John Smith appears to have been the first navigator, of whom we have any account, that penetrated to the bottom of Massa- chusetts Bay. This was in 1614. He says, " The country of the Mas- sachusetts is the paradise of all those parts ; for here are many isles all planted with corn, groves, mulber- ries, salvage gardens, and good har- bours." Mass. Ilist. Coll. xxvi. 118.
2 Gov. Bradford says, " We re- turned with a considerable quantity of beaver and a good report of the place, wishing we had been scated there." See the original Journal of the expedition in the Chronicles of Plymouth, pp. 224-229.
3 A peninsula at the entrance of Boston harbour, now called Hull, which name it received from the General Court in 1644. See Sav- age's note on Winthrop, ii. 175.
20
ROGER CONANT AT NANTASKET.
CHAP. most commodious for such an end. There Mr. Ro- II. ger Conant, with some few others, after Mr. Lyford and Mr. Oldham were, for some offence, real or sup- posed, discharged from having anything more to do 1624. at Plymouth,1 found a place of retirement and recep- tion for themselves and families for the space of a year and some few months, till a door was opened for them at Cape Anne, a place on the other side the Bay, (more convenient for those that belong to the tribe of Zebulon than for those that chose to dwell in the tents of Issachar,) whither they removed 1625. about the year 1625. And after they had made another short trial thereof, for about a year's contin- 1626. uance, they removed a third time down a little lower towards the bottom of the Bay, being invited by the accommodations which they either saw or hoped to find on the other side of a creek near by, called
1 John Lyford came over to Ply-
mouth in the spring of 1624, and John Oldham in August, 1623. Ro- bert Cushman, in a letter dated Lon- don, Jan. 24, 1624, writes, “ We send a preacher, though not the most eminent, for whose going Mr. Winslow and I gave way, to give content to some at London." Gov. Bradford also speaks of " the min- ister, Mr. John Lyford, whom a faction of the adventurers send to hinder Mr. Robinson." Lyford wrote home to the adverse part of the adventurers in 1624, counselling them that " the Leyden company, Mr. Robinson and the rest, must still be kept back, or else all will be spoil- ed." " "Lyford," says Bradford, " soon joins with Oldham, and they fall a plotting both against our church and government, draw a company apart, set up for them- selves, and he would administer the sacrament to them by his Episcopal calling. Upon this the Governor calls
a Court, and charges Lyford and Old- ham with plotting against us. Old- . ham being outrageous, would have raised a mutiny ; but his party leaves him, and the Court expels them the colony.". Edward Wins- low, the agent of the Plymouth Co- lony in England, afterwards made such disclosures there respecting Lyford as confounded the party among the merchant adventurers who adhered to him, and he was judged unfit for the ministry. "By this, (says Prince,) it seems as if the Rev. Mr. White and the Dorchester gentlemen had been imposed upon with respect to Lyford and Oldham, and had sent invitations to them be- fore this discovery." A minute ac- count of this affair, which appears to justify the Plymouth people, may be seen in Morton's Memorial, pp. 111-122. See also Prince's Annals, pp. 226-232, and Chronicles of Ply- mouth, p. 476.
21
PREPARATION FOR THE COLONY.
Naumkeag, which afforded a considerable quantity CHAP. of planting land near adjoining thereto. Here they II. ~ took up their station, upon a pleasant and fruitful neck of land, environed with an arm of the sea on each side, in either of which vessels and ships of good burthen might safely anchor. In this place, (soon after by a minister,1 that came with a company 1629. of honest planters, called Salem, from that in Psalm lxxvi. 2,) was laid the first foundation on which the next colonies were built.
Notwithstanding the many adventures which had hitherto been made, by sundry persons of estate and quality, for the discovery and improvement of this part of America, called New-England, nothing could as yet be settled by way of planting any colony upon the coast, with desirable success, save that of New Plymouth.2 As for the rest of the plantations, they were like the habitations of the foolish, as it is in Job, cursed before they had taken root.
But the vanishing of all the forementioned at- tempts did but make way for the settling the Colony of the Massachusetts ; and this was the occasion thereof.
As some merchants from the west of England had for a long time frequented the parts about Mun-
1 Francis Higginson, who says in his Journal, " When we came first to Naimkecke, now called Salem." Roger Conant, the founder of it, ex- pressly disclaims having had " any hand in naming that town." See Mass. Archives, Towns. i. 217.
2 These abortive attempts to plant colonies in New-England, were, (1.)
The Plymouth Company's in 1607, near the mouth of the Kennebec ; (2.) Weston's at Wessagusset (Weymouth) in 1622 ; (3.) Robert Gorge's at the same place in 1623 ; (4.) David Thomson's at the mouth of the Piscataqua in 1623; and (5.) Captain Wollaston's at Quincy in 1625.
Job, v. 3.
22
FISHING-STAGES AT CAPE ANN.
CHAP. II. higgon,1 for the taking of fish,2 &c., so did others, especially those of Dorchester, make the like attempt upon the northern promontory of the Massachusetts Bay, in probability first discovered by Capt. Smith, 1614. before or in the year 1614, and by him named Tra- gabizanda,3 for the sake of a lady from whom he re- ceived much favor while he was a prisoner among the Turks ; by whom also the three small islands at the head of the Cape were called the Three Turks' Heads. But neither of them glorying in these Ma- hometan titles, the promontory willingly exchanged its name for that of Cape Anne, imposed, as is said, by Capt. Mason,4 and which it retaineth to this day, in honor of our famous Queen Anne, the royal con- sort of King James ; and the three other islands are now known by other names.5
Here did the foresaid merchants first erect stages whereon to make their fish, and yearly sent their ships thither for that end for some considerable time, until the fame of the Plantation at New Plymouth, with the success thereof, was spread abroad through all the western parts of England so far, as that it began to revive the hopes of some of those merchants who had not long before adventured their estates to promote so honorable a design as was the planting
1 See Chronicles of Plymouth Colony, page 182, note 4, and Wil- liamson's History of Maine, i. 61.
2 " It is well known, before our breach with Spain, (1624,) we usually sent out to New-England yearly forty or fifty sail of ships of reasonable good burthen for fishing only." Planters' Plea, p. 23. See also note on p. 5.
3 See Hillard's Life of Smith in
Sparks's American Biography, ii. 191-194, 197, and Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvi. 97, 118, 120.
4 This is a mistake. The name was altered by Prince Charles, in honor of his mother, Anne of Den- mark. See Mass. Hist Coll. xxvi. 97, 99, and xxiii. 20.
5 They are now called Straits- mouth island, Thacher's island, and Milk island.
23
A PLANTATION AT CAPE ANN.
and peopling this new world ;1 although, finding CHAP. hitherto but small encouragement that way, they ~ II. were ready to withdraw their hands.
On this consideration it was, that some merchants and other gentlemen about Dorchester did, about the year 1624, at the instigation of Mr. White, the 1624. famous preacher of that town, upon a common stock, together with those that were coming to make fish, send over sundry persons, in order to the carrying on a Plantation at Cape Anne, conceiving that plant- ing on the land might go on equally with fishing on the sea in those parts of America.
Mr. John Tylly2 and Mr. Thomas Gardener3 were employed as overseers of that whole business ; the first with reference to the fishing, the other with respect to the planting on the main land, at least for one year's time ; at the end of which Mr. White, 1625. with the rest of the Adventurers, hearing of some religious and well-affected persons, that were lately removed out of New Plymouth, out of dislike of their principles of rigid Separation, -of which number Mr. ROGER CONANT4 was one, a religious, sober, and
1 In 1623, thirteen of the Compa- ny of Adventurers in England, writ- ing to their brethren at New Ply- mouth, tell them, "Let it not be grievous to you that you have been instruments to break the ice for others who come after you. The honor shall be yours to the world's end." Bradford in Prince, p. 220. 2 John Tylley was admitted a freeman March 4, 1635. See Sav- age's Winthrop, ii. 365.
3 Thomas Gardner removed to Salem with Conant, was admitted a freeman May 17, 1637, and was a member of the General Court the same year. Compare Farmer's Ge- nealogical Register of the first set-
tlers of. New-England, with Sav- age's Winthrop, ii. 367.
4 ROGER. CONANT, to whom be- longs the high honor of being the first planter of the Colony of Massa- chusetts Bay, was born at Budleigh, near Sidmouth, in the county of Devon, in the year 1593, as we in- fer from the record in the parish re- gister of East Budleigh, which states that he was baptized April 9, 1593. He was probably the son of William Conant, who, as appears from the same register, was married Nov. 26, 1588. We have no ac- count of the time or manner in which Roger Conant came over to New- England. Christopher Conant was
24
CONANT APPOINTED AGENT.
CHAP. II. prudent gentleman, yet surviving about Salem till the year 1680, wherein he finished his pilgrimage,
1625. having a great hand in all these forementioned trans- actions about Cape Anne, -they pitched upon him, the said Conant, for the managing and government of all their affairs at Cape Anne. The information he had of him, was from one Mr. Conant, a brother . of his, and well known to Mr. White; and he was so well satisfied therein, that he engaged Mr. Hum- phrey, the treasurer of the joint Adventurers, to write to him in their names, and to signify that they had chosen him to be their governor in that place, and would commit unto him the charge of all their affairs, as well fishing as planting. Together with him, likewise, they invited Mr. Lyford, lately dismissed from Plymouth, to be the minister of the place; and Mr. Oldham, also discharged on the like account
one of the passengers in the Anne, which arrived at Plymouth in 1623. But I find no evidence in Gov. Brad- ford or Morton, or in any of the Ply- mouth records or authorities, to con- firm the statement here made by Hubbard, that Roger Conant was once a resident in that colony, and was expelled from it with Lyford and Oldham. Still it may have been so ; and Hubbard may have got his information from Conant him- self. The same mystery hangs over his arrival and early residence here, as over Walford, Blackstone, and Maverick. They all probably came over in some of the fishing- vessels that were constantly hover- ing on the coast. He was admitted a freeman of the Colony May 18, 1631, and was a representative from Salem in the first Court of Deputies, held in 1634. In 1636, he received from that town a grant of two hun- dred acres of land at the head of
Bass river, in what is now the town of Beverly, on which he settled, and in 1671, the General Court made him a grant of two hundred acres more, on the ground of his being " an ancient planter." He died Nov. 19, 1679, in the 87th year of his age. Hutchinson says, " He is always spoken of as a person of worth. The superior condition of the persons who came over with the char- ter cast a shade upon him, and he lived in obscurity. Governor's Isl- and, in Boston harbour, [on which is now Fort Warren,] was formerly called Conant's island." Conant had four sons. Roger, the second, was the first child born in Salem, and on that account received from the town, in 1640, a grant of twenty acres of land. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvii. 250-255, xxviii. 306 ; Savage's Winthrop, i. 130, ii. 362 ; Stone's Hist. of Beverly, p. 18; and Hutch- inson's Hist. of Mass. i. 7.
25
CONANT REMOVES TO CAPE ANN.
from Plymouth, was invited to trade for them with CHAP. the Indians. All these three at that time had their II. dwelling at Nantasket. Mr. Lyford accepted, and 1625. came along with Mr. Conant. Mr. Oldham liked better to stay where he was for a while, and trade for himself, and not become liable to give an account of his gain or loss. But after a year's experience, 1626. the Adventurers, perceiving their design not like to answer their expectation, at least as to any present advantage, threw all up; yet were so civil to those that were employed under them, as to pay them all their wages, and proffered to transport them back whence they came, if so they desired.
It must here be noted, that Mr. Roger Conant, on the foresaid occasion made the superintendent of their affairs, disliked the place as much as the Ad- venturers disliked the business ; and therefore, in the mean while, had made some inquiry into a more commodious place near adjoining, on the other side of a creek, called Naumkeag,1 a little to the west- ward, where was much better encouragement as to the design of a Plantation, than that which they had attempted upon before at Cape Anne ; secretly con- ceiving in his mind, that in following times (as since is fallen out) it might prove a receptacle for such as upon the account of religion would be willing to begin a foreign Plantation in this part of the world ; of which he gave some intimation to his friends in England. Wherefore that reverend person, Mr. WHITE, (under God, one of the chief founders of
1 Capt. John Smith writes this Naemkeck, Naemkecke, and Naim- keck. See note on page 12, and
Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvi. 97, 107, 118 and xxiii. 22, 34.
26
WHITE WRITES TO CONANT.
CHAP. II. the Massachusetts Colony in New-England,)1 being grieved in his spirit that so good a work should be 1626. suffered to fall to the ground by the Adventurers thus abruptly breaking off, did write to Mr. Conant not so to desert the business, faithfully promising that if himself, with three others, (whom he knew to be honest and prudent men, viz. John Woodberry, John Balch,2 and Peter Palfreys,3 employed by the
1 JOHN WHITE, "usually called," says Anthony Wood, " patriarch of Dorchester, or patriarch White," was born at Stanton St. John in Oxfordshire, in 1575, and was edu- cated first at Winchester, and then at New College, Oxford, of which he was fellow. In 1605 he became rector of Trinity parish in Dorches- ter. Wood says, " He was for the most part of his time a moderate Puritan, and conformed to the cere- monies of the Church of England before and when Archbishop Laud sat at the stern." On the breaking out of the civil wars, he sided with the popular party ; and his house and library having been plundered by the royalists under Prince Ru- pert, he came to London, and was made minister of the Savoy parish. In 1643 he was chosen one of the Assembly of Divines at Westmin- ster, and " showed himself one of the most learned and moderate among them, and his judgment was much relied on therein." Soon after he was appointed rector of Lambeth, in Surrey. When the civil wars were over, he returned to Dor -. chester, and in 1647 was chosen warden of New College, but declin- ed the honor. He died suddenly July 24, 1648, in his 74th year, and was buried July 21, in the porch of St. Peter's in Dorchester. Wood says, " He was a person of great gravity and presence, and had al- ways influence on the Puritanical party, near to and remote from him, who bore him more respect than they did to their diocesan." Fuller,
in his Worthies, says that "he had a patriarchal influence both in Old and New England." Callender, in his Historical Discourse on Rhode Island, calls him " the father of the Massachusetts Colony." His name will often occur hereafter in the meetings of the Massachusetts Com- pany in London. See Wood's Athen. Ox. iii. 236, (ed. . Bliss) ; Fuller's Worthies of England, ii. 233; Hutchins's History of Dorset, i. 390; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 306 ; and Rhode Island Hist. Coll. iv. 67.
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.