USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 23
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
314
MORTALITY IN THE COLONY.
CHAP. we named Rocksbury ;1 others upon the river of XVII. Saugus,2 between Salem and Charlestown ; and the 1630. western men3 four miles south from Boston, at a Aug. place we named Dorchester.
This dispersion troubled some of us ; but help it we could not, wanting ability to remove to any place fit to build a town upon, and the time too short to deliberate any longer, lest the winter should sur- prise us before we had builded our houses. The best counsel we could find out was to build a fort to retire to, in some convenient place, if any enemy pressed us thereunto, after we should have fortified ourselves against the injuries of wet and cold. So ceasing to consult further for that time, they who had health to labor fell to building, wherein many were interrupted with sickness, and many died weekly, yea, almost daily.4 Amongst whom were Mrs. Pyn- chon,5 Mrs. Coddington,6 Mrs. Phillips,7. and Mrs. Alcock,8 a sister of Mr. Hooker's.9 Insomuch that
river.' The early spelling of the dead. The Lord in mercy look name, which is Waterton in the upon them ! I can do them no good, earliest records, and throughout this for I want drugs, and things fitting to work with. Mrs. Coddington is dead." See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 76. letter, except in the above single instance, seems to give some sup- port to this conjecture." But I can find no such place as Waterton 5 The wife of William Pynchon, one of the Assistants, an account of whom is given on page 283, note 4. 6 The wife of William Codding- ton, another of the Assistants. on any map of England, or in any Gazetteer. See Francis's Water- town, p. 11, and New Hampshire Hist. Coll. iv. 231.
1 At the head of whom was William Pynchon, mentioned on page 283.
2 Afterwards called Lynn. See note 2 on page 169.
3 These were Ludlow, Rossiter, Warham, Maverick, and their asso- ciates, who came in the Mary & John. 4 Dr. Fuller, writing to Gov. Bradford from Charlestown, August 2, says, " The sad news here is, that many are sick, and many are
7 The wife of the Rev. George Phillips. See note 3 on page 299.
8 The wife of George Alcock, deacon of the church in Dorchester, and afterwards of the church in Roxbury. He was a representative from the latter town at the first Ge- neral Court, May 14,1634, and died December 30, 1640. See Prince's Annals, p. 399.
9 The Rev. Thomas Hooker, who came over with John Cotton in Sept.
315
A HUNDRED RETURN IN THE SHIPS.
the ships being now upon their return, some for CHAP. England, some for Ireland, there was, as I take it,
1630. Aug.
XVII. not much less than a hundred, (some think many more,) partly out of dislike of our government, which restrained and punished their excesses, and partly through fear of famine, not seeing other means than by their labor to feed themselves, which returned back again ;1 and glad were we so to be rid of them. Others also, afterwards hearing of men of their own disposition, which were planted at Pascataway,2 went from us to them; whereby though our numbers were lessened, yet we accounted ourselves nothing weakened by their removal. Before the departure of the ships, we contracted with Mr. Peirce, master of the Lion, of Bristow, to return to us with all speed with fresh supplies of victuals, and gave him direc- tions accordingly. With this ship returned Mr. Re- vell,3 one of the five undertakers here for the joint
1633, and settled at Cambridge, but in 1636 removed to Hartford, on Connecticut river.
1 How different was this from the conduct of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Although of the hundred persons who came in the Mayflower, forty- four, nearly a half, had died before she returned to England, yet not one of the survivors embarked in her. See Chronicles of Plymouth, note 2 on page 199.
2 In the spring of 1623, a settle- ment was commenced at two differ- ent places on the Piscataqua, by David Thompson, and Edward and William Hilton. Thompson plant- ed himself on the southern shore of the river, at its mouth, which he called Little Harbour, and built a house on a peninsula, now called Odiorne's Point. The Hiltons seat- ed themselves eight miles up the river, at Dover. Both parties had
been sent out by Gorges and Mason and certain merchants who styled themselves " The Company of La- conia." In 1628, Piscataqua was assessed £2 10s. for the campaign against Morton, of Mount Wollas- ton, a sum equal to that paid by Plymouth ; and yet, in 1631, there were but three houses on the river. In 1653, when the name of " Straw- berry Bank" was exchanged for Portsmouth, there were but fifty or sixty families there. See Belknap's New Hampshire, (Farmer's edit.) pp. 4-9, 434 ; Adams's Annals of Portsmouth, pp. 10, 11 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 63 ; Prince's Annals, pp. 215, 239, 268 ; Hubbard, 214-219; Chronicles of Plymouth, pp. 251, 351.
3 John Revell never returned to New-England. Mr. Savage sug- gests that "he was probably too rich to adventure life and fortune
.
1
1
1
316
WILLIAM VASSALL AND FRANCIS BRIGHT.
CHAP. stock of the Company,1 and Mr. Vassall,2 one of the XVII. Assistants, and his family, and also Mr. Bright,3 -a 1630. minister sent hither the year before.
Aug. The ships being gone, victuals wasting, and mor- tality increasing, we held divers fasts4 in our several
with us." He had been chosen one of the Assistants Oct. 20, 1629, and he was one of the merchant adven- turers interested in the Plymouth Colony. See pages 106 and 116 ; Savage's Winthrop, i. 20; and Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 48.
1 See page 116.
2 William Vassall, as well as his brother Samuel, mentioned on page 89, were, according to Hutchinson, gentlemen of good circumstances in England. He came back in 1635, and settled at Scituate, in Plymouth Colony. In 1646 he returned to England, and in 1648 removed to Barbadoes, and there died in 1655. Winthrop speaks of him as "a man of a busy and factious spirit, and always opposite to the civil govern- ment of this country and the way of our churches." He left a son John in Scituate, who removed from that town in 1661. The Vassalls of Quincy and Cambridge were de- scendants of Samuel. See Savage's Winthrop, ii. 261, 321; Hutchin- son's Mass. i. 17, 145 ; Deane's Hist. of Scituate, 60-89, 366-370 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xiv. 244 ; Harris's Cambridge Epitaphs, p. 179.
3 Francis Bright was the son of Edward Bright, of London, and was born in 1602. He was matriculated at New College, Oxford, Feb. 18, 1624, but probably left without tak- ing a degree. In the Company's Instructions to Endicott, on page 143, he is said to have been " some time trained up under Mr. Daven- port," and in his Agreement, on p. 207, he is called " of Rayleigh, in Essex," where he probably had a lectureship. Soon after his arri- val at Salem, June 29, 1629, he went to Charlestown, in the records
of which place he is called " minis- ter to the Company's servants." As the Lion sailed in August, he was in the country only about a year. Edward Johnson, who came in Winthrop's fleet, says, " All this while little likelihood there was building the temple for God's wor- ship, there being only two that be- gan to hew stones in the mountains, the one named Mr. Bright, and the other Mr. Blaxton ; and one of them began to build. But when they saw all sorts of stones would not fit in the building, as they supposed, the one betook him to the seas again, and the other to till the land, retain- ing no symbol of his former profes- sion but a canonical coat." On the strength of this, Hubbard calls him a Conformist, and so does Morton. But the Company say in their Let- ter, that "the ministers have de- clared themselves to us to be of one judgment, and to be fully agreed on the manner how to exercise their ministry." See note 1 on p. 160, and note 3 on p. 169 ; Morton's Me- morial, p. 145 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 112, 113, xii. 70, xxviii. 250.
4 Their first fast was kept Friday, July 30, when Winthrop, Dudley, Johnson, and Wilson entered into church covenant, and laid the found- ation of the church of Charlestown, which is now the first church of Boston. The day was also observ- ed by their brethren of Plymouth in their behalf. Another fast was kept Aug. 27, when John Wilson was ordained teacher, Increase Nowell ruling elder, and William Gager and William Aspinwall dea- cons. See Morton's Memorial, p. 159; Savage's Winthrop, i. 31 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 75.
317
FRANCIS HIGGINSON DIES.
congregations. But the Lord would not yet be de- CHAP. precated ; for about the beginning of September died XVII. Mr. Gager,1 a right godly man, a skilful chirurgeon, 1630. Sept.
and one of the deacons of our congregation ; and Mr. Higginson,2 one of the ministers of Salem, a zeal- ous and a profitable preacher-this of a consumption, that of a fever ; and on the 30th of September died Mr. JOHNSON,3 another of the five undertakers, (the
30.
1 William Gager died Sept. 20. At the first Court of Assistants, held Aug. 23, it was "ordered that Mr. Gager should have a house builded him against the next spring, is to have a cow given him, and £20 in money for this year, to begin the 20th June, 1630, and after £30 per annum ; and all this to be at the common charge." His son John went with the younger Winthrop to New London, and in 1660 was one of the founders of Norwich, where his descendants still remain. William Gager graduated at Yale College in 1721, and was ordained minister of the second church of Lebanon, May 27, 1725. See Ha- zard's State Papers, ii. 412 ; Trum- bull's Connecticut, ii. 532 ; Caulk- ins's Hist. of Norwich, p. 103.
2 FRANCIS HIGGINSON Was born in 1588, and was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of A. B. in 1609, and received the degree of A. M. from St. John's College in 1613. He was a minister of one of the five parish churches of Leicester, but through his intimacy with Hilder- sham and Hooker, and his study of the Scriptures, he became a Non- conformist. He was accordingly excluded from his pulpit ; but a lec- tureship was established for him, in which he was maintained by the voluntary contribution of the inhab- itants. He was in this situation when invited by the New-England Company to go over to their Plant- ation. Sec p. 65. He was ordain- ed at Salem Aug. 6, 1629, and lived
only a year afterwards. Mather says the last sermon he preached was to Winthrop's company on their arrival at Salem, from Matth. xi. 7, What went ye out into the wil- derness to see ? He left a wife and eight children, who after his death removed to Charlestown, and then to New-Haven. The portrait at the State House in Boston is not his, but his son John's. See note 3 on page 211, and note 1 on page 236 ; Mather's Magnalia, i. 322.
3 ISAAC JOHNSON was of Clips- ham, in the county of Rutland, son of Abraham Johnson, Esq. He was the largest subscriber to the joint stock of the Company, and in April, 1629, he valued his interest in the New-England adventure at £600. His landed estate lay in the counties of Rutland, Northampton, and Lin- coln. He left no children. In his last will, dated March 8, 1630, a month before he sailed, of which will the great John Hampden was one of the executors, he left some part of his personal estate to the Governor and Company. In a previous will, dated April 28, 1629, he gave to the Rev. John Cotton, from whom he acknowledges to have received much help and comfort in his spiritual state, £30 and a gown- cloth, and to him and Mr. Dudley he gave the right of presentation to the parish church of Clipsham. Prince says, that Chief Justice Se- wall informed him that Mr. Johnson was the principal cause of settling the town of Boston, and so of its becoming the metropolis ; that he
1 1, 1;
S
0 1-
f
1
.
1
se
318
ISAAC JOHNSON AND HIS WIFE.
CHAP. lady ARBELLA,1 his wife, being dead a month before.) XVII. This gentleman was a prime man amongst us, having 1630. the best estate of any, zealous for religion, and the Sept. 30. greatest furtherer of this Plantation. He made a most godly end, dying willingly, professing his life better spent in promoting this Plantation than it could have been any other way. He left to us a loss greater than the most conceived. Within a month after, died Mr.
Oct. 23. Rossiter,2 another of our Assistants, a godly man, and of a good estate ; which still weakened us more.
had removed hither, and had chosen for his lot the great square, lying between Tremont, Court, Washing- ton and School streets. Tradition places his house about the centre of the north-east side, that is, near the present site of the Court House. He was buried, at his own request, at the upper end of his lot, on Tre- mont-street, which was the origin of the first burial ground in the town, adjoining King's Chapel. Win- throp, i. 34, says " he was a holy man, and wise, and died in sweet peace, leaving some part of his sub- stance to the Colony." Edward Johnson, who came in the fleet with him, says that "the Lord had in- dued him with many precious gifts, insomuch that he was had in high esteem among all the people of God, and as a chief pillar to support this new-erected building. He very much rejoiced, at his death, that the Lord had been pleased to keep his eyes open so long, as to see one church of Christ gathered before his death ; at whose departure there was not only many weeping eyes, but some fainting hearts, fearing the fall of the present work." See Hutchinson's Mass. i. 16 ; Prince's Annals, pp. 316, 318, 333 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xii. 87, xxviii. 244 ; Snow's Boston, p. 36.
1 The Lady ARBELLA was a daughter of Thomas, the third Earl
of Lincoln. Hubbard says that she came " from a paradise of plenty and pleasure, which she enjoyed in the family of a noble Earldom, into a wilderness of wants," and Mather adds, that " she took New-England in her way to heaven." Johnson says that the name of the ship Eagle had been changed to Arbella, in honor of her, and that after the ar- rival of the fleet, she "and some other godly women abode at Salem, but their husbands continued at Charlestown, both for settling the civil government, and gathering an- other church of Christ." Dr. Holmes says, Annals, i. 206, " Dr. Holyoke, of Salem, aged 99, informs me that she was buried about half a mile distant from the body of the town, near Bridge-street, leading to Bev- erly, about ten feet from the street." The Johnson Grammar School, for girls, in Boston, was so called as a mark of respect to her name and memory. See Mather's Magnalia, i. 71, 340 ; Chronicles of Plymouth, p. 75; Mass. Hist. Coll. xii. 79, 86, xv. 132.
Edward Rossiter was of a good family in the west of England, and one of the founders of Dorchester. His son lived afterwards at Combe, in England, and his grandson, Ed- ward, was deacon of the church in Taunton in 1682. See Hutchinson's Mass. i. 17.
319
TWO HUNDRED DIE.
So that now there were left of the five undertakers 1 CHAP. but the Governor, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and my- XVII. self, and seven other of the Assistants.2 And of the 1630. people who came over with us, from the time of their Oct. setting sail from England in April, 1630, until De- cember following, there died by estimation about two hundred at the least : so low hath the Lord brought us ! 3
Well, yet they who survived were not discouraged, but bearing God's corrections with humility, and trusting in his mercies, and considering how, after a lower ebb, he had raised up our neighbours at
I See page 116.
2 Endicott, Ludlow, Nowell, Pyn- chon, Coddington, Bradstreet, and Thomas Sharpe. See pp. 106, 127. 3 Gov. Winthrop, in his Journal writes, " The poorer sort of people, who lay long in tents, were much afflicted with the scurvy, and many died, especially at Boston and Charlestown ;" and writing to his wife under date of Sept. 9 and Nov. 29, he says, "the lady Arbella is dead, and good Mr. Higginson, my servant, old Waters of Neyland, and many others. - I have lost twelve of my family, viz. Waters and his wife, and two of his child- ren, Mr. Gager and his man Smith of Buxall, and his wife and two children, the wife of Taylor of Ha- verhill and their child ; my son H. makes the twelve. And, besides many other of less note, as Jeff. Ruggle of Sudbury, and divers others of that town, (about twenty,) and one of L. Kedby his sons, the Lord hath stripped us of some prin- cipal persons, Mr. Johnson and his lady, Mr. Rossiter, Mrs. Phillips, and others unknown to thee. We conceive that this disease grew from ill diet at sea, and proved infec- tious." Winthrop's History, i. 44, 377, 379.
Henry Winthrop, the Governor's second son, who had accidentally been left behind at the Isle of Wight, was unfortunately drowned in a small creek at Salem, on the 2d of July, the very day he landed. He was in his twenty-third year. He left his wife, Elizabeth, behind in England, and an only daughter, Martha, who was baptized May 9, 1630. His father, in his first letter, dated July 16, to his own wife, who also was obliged to remain behind in England, writes, " We have met with many sad and discomfortable things; as thou shalt hear after ; and the Lord's hand hath been heavy upon myself in some very near to me. My son Henry ! my son Henry ! Ah, poor child ! Yet it grieves me much more for my dear daughter. The Lord strengthen and comfort her heart to bear this cross patiently. I know thou wilt not be wanting to her in this dis- tress. Yet, for all these things, (I praise my God,) I am not discour- aged ; nor do I see cause to repent or despair of those good days here, which will make amends for all." See Savage's Winthrop, i. 7, 29, 372; Hubbard's Hist. p. 131 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 296, 297.
d- in 1's
1
-
d d
*
320
A FORTIFIED TOWN CONTEMPLATED.
CHAP. XVII. Plymouth, we began again in December to consult about a fit place to build a town upon, leaving all 1630. Dec. thoughts of a fort, because upon any invasion we were necessarily to lose our houses, when we should retire thereinto. So after divers meetings at Boston, 28. Roxbury, and Waterton, on the 28th of December we grew to this resolution, to bind all the As- sistants (Mr. Endicott and Mr. Sharpe excepted, which last purposeth to return by the next ship into England,) to build houses at a place a mile east from Waterton, near Charles river,1 the next spring, and to winter there the next year ; that so by our exam- ples, and by removing the ordnance and munition thither, all who were able might be drawn thither, and such as shall come to us hereafter, to their advantage be compelled so to do; and so, if God would, a fortified town might there grow up, the place fitting reasonably well thereto.
I should before have mentioned how both the Eng- lish and Indian corn being at ten shillings a strike,2 and beaver being valued at six shillings a pound, we made laws to restrain the selling of corn to the In- dians, and to leave the price of beaver at liberty,3 which was presently sold for ten and twenty shillings a pound. I should also have remembered, how the half of our cows and almost all our mares and goats, sent us out of England, died at sea in their passage hither, and that those intended to be sent us out of Ireland were not sent at all ; all which, together
1 Winthrop, i. 39, says, " Dec. 21, we met again at Watertown, and there, upon a view of a place a mile beneath the town, all agreed it a fit place for a fortified town, and we took time to consider further
about it." This was at Newtown, afterwards called Cambridge.
2 Strike, a bushel.
3 These orders were passed at the two Courts of Assistants held Sept. 28 and Nov. 9.
321
MORTON, OF MOUNT WOLLASTON.
with the loss of our six months' building, occasioned CHAP. by our intended removal to a town to be fortified,
XVII. weakened our estates, especially the estates of the 1630. undertakers,1 who were 3 or £4000 engaged in the joint stock, which was now not above so many hun- dreds. Yet many of us labored to bear it as com- fortably as we could, remembering the end of our coming hither, and knowing the power of God, who can support and raise us again, and useth to bring his servants low that the meek may be made glorious by deliverance.
In the end of this December departed from us the Dec. ship Handmaid, of London, by which we sent away one Thomas Morton,2 a proud, insolent man, who has lived here divers years, and had been an attorney in the west countries while he lived in England. Mul- titude of complaints were received against him for injuries done by him both to the English and Indians ;
Psalm cxii.
1 See page 116.
2 Thomas Morton, if we may be- lieve his own statement, first came to New-England in 1622 ; and if so, he was probably one of Weston's unfortunate colony, which arrived in June of that year, and settled at Wessaguscus, now Weymouth. In 1625 he was with Wollaston's com- pany at Quincy ; and on Wollaston's departure for Virginia, Morton be- came such a troublesome and dan- gerous neighbour, by selling guns and ammunition to the natives, that in 1628 the scattered plantations in New-England combined, and em- ployed Capt. Standish to apprehend him. He was sent prisoner to Eng- land in the custody of John Oldham, but returned in August, 1629, and took up his abode again at Merry Mount, as he called it. It was dur- ing his absence in England that En- dicott visited the Mount, and cut down the Maypole. After being
sent home a second time, by the Massachusetts government, he did all he could, in conjunction with Sir Christopher Gardiner and its other enemies, to injure the Colony, and in 1637-published a scurrilous book against it, entitled "New-English Canaan." He returned to New- England in Dec. 1643, when he was called to account for his malprac- tices. His book and an abusive letter which he had written, were produced against him, and he was imprisoned about a year, and in Sept. 1644, fined £100. Not being able to pay the fine, he was permit- ted to escape, and went to Agamen- ticus, in Maine, where he died, in 1645 or 1646. See Morton's Memorial, pp. 135-142; Savage's Winthrop, i. 34, 138, ii. 151, 189- 92 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 61-64, Chronicles of Plymouth, pp. 296, 334 ; Morton's New-English Ca- naan, ch. 2.
21
at d
f
1
322
SAMUEL MAVERICK, OF NODDLE'S ISLAND.
CHAP. and amongst others, for shooting hail-shot at a troop XVII. of Indians for not bringing a canoe unto him to cross 1630. a river withal ; whereby he hurt one, and shot Dec. through the garments of another. For the satisfac- tion of the Indians wherein, and that it might appear to them and to the English that we meant to do jus- tice impartially, we caused his hands to be bound behind him, and set his feet in the bilboes, and burn- ed his house to the ground, all in the sight of the Indians, and so kept him prisoner till we sent him for England ; whither we sent him, for that my Lord Chief Justice there so required, that he might punish him capitally for fouler misdemeanours there perpe- trated, as we were informed.
I have no leisure to review and insert things for- gotten, but out of due time and order must set them down as they come to memory. About the end of October this year, 1630, I joined with the Governor and Mr. Maverecke1 in sending out our pinnace to
Oct.
1 Samuel Maverick was found here by Gov. Winthrop, on his arrival in June, 1630, living at Nottle's Island, now East Boston. How long he had lived there, is un- known. As he was not assessed for the campaign against Morton, in 1628, it is to be presumed that he did not come over till the following year. Edward Johnson, one of Winthrop's company, says, that " on the north side of Charles river, they landed near a small island, called Noddle's island, where one Mr. Samuel Mavereck was then liv- ing, a man of a very loving and courteous behaviour, very ready to entertain strangers, yet an enemy to the reformation in hand, being strong for the lordly prelatical power. On this island he had built a small fort, with the help of one Mr. David Thompson, placing therein four
murtherers to protect him from the Indians." Gov. Winthrop says, on his first visit to the Bay from Salem, "June 17, we lay at Mr. Mave- rick's." Josselyn, who was here in 1638, says, "July 10, I went ashore upon Noddle's island, to Mr. Samuel Maverick, the only hospita- ble man in all the country, giving entertainment to all comers gratis ;"' and Henry Gardner, in his New- England's Vindication, p. 9, (Lon- don, 1660,) speaks of him as " the most hospitable for entertainment of people of all sorts." Winthrop tells us in his Journal, under July, 1637, that "Mr. Vane went over to Not- tle's island to dine with Mr. Mave- rick, and carried the Lord Ley with him." This characteristic hospital- ity of Mr. Maverick appears to have been at times somewhat trouble- some, for at a General Court held
323
RHODE ISLAND DISCOVERED.
the Narragansetts, to trade for corn to supply our CHAP.
wants ; but after the pinnace had doubled Cape Cod, XVII. she put into the next harbour1 she found, and there 1630. meeting with Indians, who showed their willingness Oct. to truck, she made her voyage there, and brought us a hundred bushels of corn, at about four shillings a bushel, which helped us somewhat. From the coast where they traded, they saw a very large island,2 four leagues to the east, which the Indians commend- ed as a fruitful place, full of good vines, and free from sharp frosts, having one only entrance into it, by a navigable river, inhabited by a few Indians, which for a trifle would leave the island, if the Eng- lish would set them upon the main ; but the pinnace having no direction for discovery, returned without sailing to it, which in two hours they might have done. Upon this coast they found store of vines full of grapes dead ripe, the season being past ; whither we purpose to send the next year sooner, to make some small quantity of wine, if God enable us ; the vines growing thin with us, and we not having yet any leisure to plant vineyards.3 .
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.