USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 24
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But now having some leisure to discourse of the motives for other men's coming to this place, or their
March 4, 1635, it was "ordered, that Mr. Samuel Maverick shall, before the last of December next, remove his habitation for himself and his family to Boston, and in the mean time shall not give entertain- ment to any strangers for longer times than one night, without leave from some Assistant ; and all this to be done under the penalty of £100." This order, however, was repealed in the following September. The island on which he lived had been granted him April 1, 1633, and
also Winnisimet ferry, both to Charlestown and Boston. He died March 10, 1664. See Winthrop, i. 27, 232, ii. 51 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xii. 86, xxiii. 220.
1 Probably the harbour of Chat- ham, called by the Indians Mana- moyk. See Chronicles of Plymouth, pages 217 and 300.
This was no doubt the island of Aquethneck, afterwards called Rhode Island. Prince, p. 323.
See pages 152 and 247
7, t- e- th al- ve le- eld
e of
324
THE ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PLANTERS.
CHAP. abstaining from it, after my brief manner I say this : XVII. that if any come hither to plant for worldly ends, that 1631. can live well at home, he commits an error, of which he will soon repent him ; but if for spiritual, and that no particular obstacle hinder his removal, he may find here what may well content him, viz. materials to build, fuel to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to fish in, a pure air to breathe in, good water to drink, till wine or beer can be made ; which, to- gether with the cows, hogs and goats brought hither already, may suffice for food ; for as for fowl and venison, they are dainties here as well as in England. For clothes and bedding, they must bring them with them, till time and industry produce them here. In a word, we yet enjoy little to be envied, but endure much to be pitied in the sickness and mortality of our people. And I do the more willingly use this open and plain dealing, lest other men should fall short of their expectations when they come hither, as we to our great prejudice did, by means of letters1 sent us from hence into England, wherein honest men, out of a desire to draw over others to them, wrote some- what hyperbolically of many things here. If any godly men, out of religious ends, will come over to help us in the good work we are about, I think they cannot dispose of themselves nor of their estates more to God's glory and the furtherance of their own reckoning. But they must not be of the poorer sort yet, for divers years ; for we have found by experi- ence that they have hindered, not furthered the work. And for profane and debauched persons, their over-
1 These were probably the letters written by Higginson and Graves. See note 5 on page 310.
325
CAUSES OF THE MORTALITY.
sight in coming hither is wondered at, where they CHAP. · shall find nothing to content them. If there be any
1631.
XVII. endued with grace, and furnished with means to feed themselves and theirs for eighteen months, and to build and plant, let them come over into our Macedonia and help us,1 and not spend themselves and their estates in a less profitable employment. For others, I conceive they are not yet fitted for this business.
Touching the discouragement which the sickness and mortality which every first year hath seized upon us and those of Plymouth, as appeareth before, may give to such who have cast any thoughts this way, (of which mortality it may be said of us almost as of the Egyptians, that there is not a house where there is not one dead, and in some houses many,) the natu- ral causes seem to be in the want of warm lodging and good diet, to which Englishmen are habituated at home, and in the sudden increase of heat which they endure that are landed here in summer, the salt meats at sea having prepared their bodies thereto ; for those only these two last years died of fevers who landed in June and July ; as those of Plymouth, who landed in winter, died of the scurvy ;2 as did our poorer sort, whose houses and bedding kept them not sufficiently warm, nor their diet sufficiently in heart. Other causes God may have, as our faithful minister, Mr. Wilson,3 lately handling that point,
Exod. xii. 30.
1 This was the motto of the Col- ony Seal. See note 1 on page 155. See Chronicles of Plymouth, p. 198.
3 John Wilson, the first minister of the first church in Charlestown and Boston, was born at Windsor in 1588 His father, Dr. William Wilson, was a prebendary of Roch-
ester, a canon of Windsor, and rec- tor of Cliffe, in Kent ; and his mo- ther was the niece of Dr. Edmund Grindall, archbishop of Canterbury, after whom he named his eldest son. After studying four years at Eton, Mather says he was admitted into King's College, Cambridge, in 1602, in which he afterwards obtained a
'S.
1 S
t
326
JOHN WILSON, OF BOSTON.
CHAP. showed unto us ; which I forbear to mention, leav- XVII. ing this matter to the further dispute of physicians . 1631. and divines.
fellowship. But Mr. Savage, who inspected the registers of the Uni- versity in 1842, found that he took his degrees of A. B. and A. M. at Christ's College in 1605 and 1609. Becoming a Puritan and Noncon- formist, he was forced by the bishop of Lincoln to resign his fellowship and leave the University. Upon this his father sent him to London to stu- dy law at the Inns of Court, where he remained three years ; but find- ing him strongly bent on the minis- try, he permitted him to return to Cambridge, and finish his studies, and take his Master's degree. After preaching at several places, he was settled in the ministry at Sudbury, in Suffolk, where he was a near neighbour to Winthrop, at Groton. After preaching here for a while, he was first suspended and then si- lenced by the bishop of Norwich ; but, through the interposition of the Earl of Warwick, he again obtained permission to exercise his ministry. Tired, however, of being thus ha- rassed, he embarked, at the age of 42, with some of his neighbours, in Winthrop's fleet. At the first Court of Assistants, held at Charlestown, Aug. 23, 1630, it was ordered that a house should be built for Mr. Wilson, and that he should have £20 a year till his wife came over. She was a daughter of Lady Mans- field, widow of Sir John Mansfield, and a near relative of Sir William Bird. He returned from England without her, May 26, 1632 ; and it was not till his second visit that he could prevail upon her to accompany him to New-England, in 1635. She probably had been discouraged by the death of so many prominent fe- males the first year. Gov. Win- throp's wife, who had been neces- sarily prevented from accompanying her husband, writes thus to her son in June, 1631, " Mr. Wilson is now
in London. He cannot yet persuade his wife to go, for all he hath taken this pains to come and fetch her. I marvel what mettle she is made of." Wilson was minister of the first church in Boston 37 years, 3 years before Mr. Cotton, 19 years with him, 7 years with Mr. Norton, and 4 years after him. Winthrop speaks of him as "a very sincere, holy man." He died Aug. 7, 1667, in his 79th year. His Life was written by Cotton Mather, and. Hutchinson says he had it "in manuscript by another hand." His will is preserved in the Probate Re- cords of Suffolk, lib. vi. fol. 1, and his portrait hangs in the hall of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His second son, John, who gradu- ated in the first class at Harvard College, in 1641, was ordained col- league with Richard Mather at Dor- chester, in 1649, and after two years removed to Medfield, where he was pastor forty years, and died Aug. 23, 1691, aged 70. He married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Tho- mas Hooker, of Hartford, and his son John was baptized in his grand- father Wilson's church at Boston, July 8, 1649. It was Dr. Edmund Wilson, a physician, a brother of the minister of Boston, who gave £1000 to the Colony, with which they purchased artillery and ammu- nition. An inventory of these arti- cles, sent over in the Griffin in 1634, may be found in Mass. Hist. Coll. xviii. 228. See also Winthrop, i. 50, 77, 81, 169, 172, 382 ; Morton's Memorial, p. 326 ; Mather, i. 275- 292; Prince, 370 ; Hutchinson's Mass. i. 258 ; Emerson's Hist. of the First Church in Boston, pp. 1- 106 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xii. 59, xvii. 56, xxiii. 378, xxviii. 248, 316; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (edit. Bliss,) part i. 322, 360 ; Ashmole's Anti- quities of Berkshire, iii. 157.
327
A SHALLOP DRIVEN TO SEA.
Wherefore to return, upon the 3d of January died CHAP. the daughter of Mr. Sharpe,1 a godly virgin, making XVII. a comfortable end, after a long sickness. The Plant- 1631. ation here received not the like loss of any woman Jan. 3. since we came hither, and therefore she well de- serves to be remembered in this place.
And to add to our sorrows, upon the 5th day came 5. letters to us from Plymouth, advertising us of this sad accident following.2 About a fortnight before, 1630. there went from us in a shallop to Plymouth six men Dec. 28. and a girl, who, in an hour or two before night, on the same day. they went forth, came near to the mouth of Plymouth bay ; but the wind then coming strongly from the shore, kept them from entering, and drove them to sea-wards; and they having no better means to help themselves, let down their kil- lock,3 that so they might drive the more slowly, and be nearer land when the storm should cease. But the stone slipping out of the killock, and there- by they driving faster than they thought all the night, in the morning, when they looked out, they found themselves out of sight of land ; which so as- tonished them, (the frost being extreme and their hands so benumbed with cold that they could not handle their oars, neither had any compass to steer by,) that they gave themselves for lost, and lay down to die quietly. Only one man, who had more natural heat and courage remaining than the rest, continued so long looking for land, that, the morning waxing clearer, he discovered land, and
1 Thomas Sharpe.
3 A wooden frame enclosing a 2 See Winthrop, i. 39, and stone, used for an anchor. Wood's New-England's Prospect,
part i. ch. 2.
328
THE MEN REACH PLYMOUTH.
CHAP. with difficulty hoisted the sail ; and so the wind a XVII. little turning, two days after they were driven from
1630. Plymouth bay, they arrived at a shore unknown unto
Dec.
30 them.1 The stronger helped the weaker out of the boat, and taking their sail on shore, made a shelter thereof, and made a fire. But the frost had so pierced their bodies, that one of them died about 16 31. three days after their landing, and most of the others Jan. grew worse, both in body and courage, no hope of 2 relief being within their view. Well, yet the Lord pitying them, and two of them, who only could use their legs, going abroad rather to seek than to hope to find help, they met first with two Indian women, who sent unto them an Indian man, who informed them that Plymouth was within fifty miles, and offer- ed together to procure relief for them ; which they gladly accepting, he performed, and brought them three men from Plymouth, (the Governor and Coun- cil of Plymouth liberally rewarding the Indian, and took care for the safety of our people,) who brought them all alive in their boat thither, save one man, who, with a guide, chose rather to go over land ; but quickly fell lame by the way, and getting har- bour at a trucking-house the Plymotheans had in those parts,? there he yet abides. At the others' landing at Plymouth, one of them died as he was taken out of the boat. Another, and he the worst in the company, rotted from the feet upwards, where the frost had gotten most hold, and so died within a · few days. The other three,3 after God had blessed
1 On Cape Cod, according to Winthrop and Wood.
2 At Scusset harbour, in Sand-
wich. See Chronicles of Plymouth, page 306.
3 The name of one of them was
329
DEATH OF RICHARD GARRETT.
the chirurgeon's skill used towards them, returned CHAP. safe to us. I set down this the more largely, partly XVII. because the first man that died was a godly man of 1631. our congregation, one Richard Garrad,1 who, at the Jan. time of his death, more feared he should dishonor God than cared for his own life ; as also because divers boats have been in manifest peril this year, yet the Lord preserved them all, this one ex- cepted.
Amongst those who died about the end of this January, there was a girl of eleven years old, the daughter of one John Ruggles,2 of whose family and kindred died so many,3 that for some reason it was matter of observation amongst us ; who, in the time of her sickness, expressed to the minister, and to those about her, so much faith and assurance of sal- vation, as is rarely found in any of that age ; which I thought not unworthy here to commit to memory. And if any tax me for wasting paper with recording these small matters, such may consider that little mothers bring forth little children, small common- wealths matters of small moment, the reading where- of yet is not to be despised by the judicious, because small things in the beginning of natural or politic bodies are as remarkable as greater in bodies full grown.
Henry Harwood, " a godly man of the congregation of Boston." At a Court of Assistants, held the 16th of August following, it was ordered " that the executors of Richard Gar- rett shall pay unto Henry Harwood the sum of twenty nobles," proba- bly for the danger and suffering to which he had involuntarily subjected him. See Savage's Winthrop, i. 40.
1 Garrad, or Garrett, was a shoe- maker, of Boston, and was the 55th member admitted to the church there.
2 John Ruggles was admitted a freeman July 3, 1632.
3 Winthrop mentions Jeffrey Rug- gles, of Sudbury, among those who died. Sec note 3 on page 319.
330
ARRIVAL OF THE LION.
CHAP. XVII.
1631. Feb. 5.
Upon the 5th of February arrived here Mr. Peirce, with the ship Lion, of Bristow, with supplies of vict- uals from England ;1 who had set forth from Bris- tow the 1st of December before. He had a stormy passage hither, and lost one of his sailors 2 not far from our shore, who in a tempest having helped to take in the spritsail, lost his hold as he was coming down, and fell into the sea ; where, after long swim- ming, he was drowned, to the great dolor of those in the ship, who beheld so lamentable a spectacle with- out being able to minister help to him, the sea was so high and the ship drove so fast before the wind, though her sails were taken down. By this ship we understood of the fight of three of our ships and two English men-of-war coming out of the Straits, with fourteen Dunkirkers,3 upon the coast of England, as they returned from us in the end of the last summer ; who, through God's goodness, with the loss of some thirteen or fourteen men out of our three ships, and I know not how many out of the two men-of-war, got at length clear of them ; the Charles, one of our three,4 a stout ship of three hundred tons, being so torn, that she had not much of her left whole above water. By this ship we also understood the death of many of those who went from us the last year to
' She arrived at Nantasket on the 5th, and anchored before Boston on the 9th. The celebrated Roger Williams and his wife came in her. Her cargo consisted of 34 hhds. wheat meal, 15 hhds. pease, 4 hhds. oatmeal, 4 hhds. beef and pork, 15 cwt. of cheese, butter, suet, seed barley and rye, &c. They arrived in good order. See Savage's Win- throp, i. 41, 43, 47.
2 His name was Way, probably a 46.
son of Henry Way, one of the first settlers of Dorchester, who died in 1667, aged 84. He had another son killed by the Eastern Indians in June, 1632. See Savage's Win- throp, i. 43, 79 ; Blake's Annals of Dorchester, p. 24; Wood's New- England's Prospect, part ii. ch. 2.
3 See note 3 on page 218.
4 The other two were the Success and the Whale. See Winthrop, i.
331
ILL REPORTS OF THE COLONY AT HOME.
Old England, as likewise of the mortality there ; CHAP. whereby we see there are graves in other places as well as with us.
XVII. 1631. Feb.
Also, to increase the heap of our sorrows, we re- ceived advertisement by letters from our friends in England, and by the reports of those who came hither in this ship to abide with us, (who were about twenty-six,) that they who went discontentedly from us the last year, out of their evil affections towards us, have raised many false and scandalous reports against us, affirming us to be Brownists1 in religion, and ill affected to our State at home, and that these vile reports have won credit with some who formerly wished us well. But we do desire, and cannot but hope, that wise and impartial men will at length con- sider that such malecontents have ever pursued this manner of casting dirt, to make others seem as foul as themselves, and that our godly friends, to whom we have been known, will not easily believe that we are so soon turned from the profession we so long have made in our native country. And for our further clearing, I truly affirm, that I know no one person, who came over with us the last year, to be altered in judgment and affection, either in ecclesi- astical or civil respects, since our coming hither. But we do continue to pray daily for our sovereign lord the King, the Queen, the Prince, the royal blood, the Council and whole State, as duty binds us to do, and reason persuades others to believe. For how ungodly and unthankful should we be, if we should not thus do, who came hither by virtue of his Majesty's letters patent, and under his gracious pro-
1 See Chronicles of Plymouth, pp. 416-444.
332
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING-DAY.
CHAP. tection ; under which shelter we hope to live safely, XVII. and from whose kingdom and subjects we now have 1631. received and hereafter expect relief. Let our friends therefore give no credit to such malicious aspersions, but be more ready to answer for us than we hear they have been. We are not like those which have dispensations to lie ; but as we were free enough in Old England to turn our insides outwards, sometimes to our disadvantage, very unlike is it that now, be- ing procul a fulmine, we should be so unlike ourselves. Let therefore this be sufficient for us to say, and others to hear in this matter.
Amongst others who died about this time was Mr. Robert Welden,1 whom, in the time of his sickness, we had chosen to be captain of a hundred foot ; but before he took possession of his place, he died, the 16th of this February, and was buried as a soldier, with three volleys of shot.
Feb. 16. 22.
Upon the 22d of February we held a general day of Thanksgiving throughout the whole Colony for the safe arrival of the ship which came last with our provisions.
About this time we apprehended one Robert Wright, who had been sometimes a linen draper in Newgate market, and after that a brewer on the Bank side and on Thames street. This man we lately understood had made an escape in London from those who came to his house to apprehend him for clipping the King's coin [one or two words wanting] had stolen after us. Upon his examination he con-
1 Winthrop, i. 45, calls him "a sumption on the 18th. Perhaps his hopeful young gentleman, and an military funeral took place on the experienced soldier," and says that 18th. he died at Charlestown of a con-
333
SIR CHRISTOPHER GARDINER.
fessed the fact, and his escape, but affirmed he had CHAP. XVII. the King's pardon for it under the broad seal; which he yet not being able to prove, and one to whom he 1631. was known charging him with untruth in sowe of his March. answers, we therefore committed him to prison, to be sent by the next ship into England.1
Likewise we were lately informed that one Mr. April. Gardiner, who arrived here a month before us, and who had passed here for a knight, by the name of Sir Christopher Gardiner, all this while was no knight, but instead thereof had two wives now living in a house at London, one of which came about Sep- tember last from Paris in France (where her husband had left her years before) to London, where she had heard her husband had married a second wife, and whom, by inquiring, she found out. And they both condoling each other's estate, wrote both their let- ters to the Governor, (by Mr. Peirce, who had con- ference with both the women in the presence of Mr. Allerton,2 of Plymouth,) his first wife desiring his return and conversion, his second his destruction for his foul abuse, and for robbing her of her estate, of a part whereof she sent an inventory hither, com- prising therein many rich jewels, much plate, and costly linen. This man had in his family (and yet hath) a gentlewoman, whom he called his kinswoman, and whom one of his wives in her letter names Mary
1 At a Court of Assistants held at Boston, March 1, it was " ordered that Mr. Wright shall be sent prisoner into England by the ship Lion, now returning thither."
2 Isaac Allerton was at this time in London, as an agent of the Ply- mouth Colony, from which office,
however, he was discharged the same year for acting contrary to their instructions. See an account of him in the Chronicles of Ply- mouth, note 1 on page 195. See also Prince's Annals, pp. 358 and 361, and Winthrop, i. 57.
-
334
SIR CHRISTOPHER GARDINER.
CHAP. Grove, affirming her to be a known harlot, whose XVII. sending back into Old England she also desired, to- 1631. gether with her husband. Shortly after this intelli- April 21. gence, we sent to the house of the said Gardiner, (which was seven miles from us,) to apprehend him and his woman, with a purpose to send them both to London to his wives there. But the man, who hav- ing heard some rumor from some who came in the ship, that letters were come to the Governor requir- ing justice against him, was readily prepared for flight, so soon as he should see any crossing the river, or likely to apprehend him ; which he accord- ingly performed. For he dwelling alone, easily discerned such who were sent to take him, half a mile before they approached his house; and, with his piece on his neck, went his way, as most men think, northwards, hoping to find some English there like to himself. But likely enough it is, which way soever he went, he will lose himself in the woods, and be stopped with some rivers in his passing, not- withstanding his compass in his pocket, and so with hunger and cold will perish before he find the place he seeks.1 . His woman was brought unto us, and
1 Winthrop says that " he travel- led up and down among the Indians about a month ; but, by means of the Governor of Plymouth, he was taken by the Indians about Namas- ket, (Middleborough,) and brought to Plymouth, and from thence he was brought, by Capt. Underhill and his lieutenant, Dudley, May 4, to Boston." , There seems to be a mystery hanging over Gardiner, as well as Morton of Merry Mount, which it is difficult to clear up. They appear to have had no definite object in view in coming to New-
England, but seem actuated by a spirit of adventure and an unaccount- able love of frolic. Morton says, that Gardiner "came into those parts, intending discovery." It is not unlikely, however, that they were both in the employment of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who claimed a great part of the Bay of Massachu- setts, and had been sent over as his agents or spies. We know that Gorges corresponded with them both, and by his intercepted letters it appears that he had some secret design to recover his pretended
335
FLOCKS OF PIGEONS.
confessed her name, and that her mother dwells CHAP. eight miles from Boirdly, in Salopshire, and that XVII. Gardiner's father dwells in or near Gloucester, and 1631. was (as she said) brother to Stephen Gardiner, Bish- op of Winchester,1 and did disinherit his son for his twenty-six years' absence in his travels in France, Italy, Germany, and Turkey ; that he had (as he told her) married a wife in his travels, from whom he was divorced, and the woman long since dead; that both herself and Gardiner were Catholics till of late, but were now Protestants ; that she takes him to be a knight, but never heard when he was knighted. The woman was impenitent and close, confessing no more than was wrested from her by her own contra- dictions. So we have taken order to send her to the two wives in Old England, to search her further.
Upon the 8th of March, from after it was fair day- March light until about eight of the clock in the forenoon, 8. there flew over all the towns in our plantations so many flocks of doves, each flock containing many thousands, and some so many that they obscured the light, that it passeth credit, if but the truth should be written ;2 and the thing was the more strange,
right, and that he reposed much trust in Gardiner. On his return to England Gardiner was very active in cooperating with Gorges and Mor- ton in their endeavours to injure the colonists, and deprive them of their patent. These attempts, however, were defeated by the friends of the Colony in England, especially Sir Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Humphrey, Mr. Cradock, and Emanuel Down- ing. See Winthrop, i. 54, 57, 100, 102, 106; Morton's Mem. p. 163; Prince, p. 352 ; Morton's New-Eng- lish Canaan, book iii. ch. 30 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 320, 323.
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