USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 25
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1 This story, says Farmer, was probably invented by the pretended knight, to raise him in the estima- tion of his paramour. Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester, was born 147 years before this examination, and had been dead 75 years. See New Hampshire Hist. Coll. iv. 245, and Harington's Nugæ Antiqua, ii. 64.
2 Gov. Winthrop, writing in 1643, says, " The pigeons came in flocks, above 10,000 in one flock." See note 2 on page 253, and Win- throp, ii. 94, 331.
336
SIR RICHARD SALTONSTALL.
CHAP. XVII. because I scarce remember to have seen ten doves since I came into the country. They were all tur- 1631. tles, as appeared by divers of them we killed flying, somewhat bigger than those of Europe, and they flew from the north-east to the south-west ; but what it portends, I know not.
March.
The ship now waits but for wind ;1 which when it blows, there are ready to go aboard therein for Eng- land, Sir Richard Saltonstall,2 Mr. Sharpe, Mr. Cod-
1 The ship, the Lion, was at Sa- was living in 1658. There is a fine lem, whence she sailed April 1. See Winthrop, i. 49, 52.
2 SIR RICHARD SALTONSTALL, one of the principal founders of the Colony, was the son of Samuel Sal- tonstall, and grandson of Gilbert Saltonstall, of Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His uncle, Sir Richard, was Lord Mayor of London in 1597. He married Grace, daughter of Robert Kaye, Esq., who probably died before her hus- band came over to this country, as we find no mention of her, although her daughters came with their fa- ther. He was the founder of Wa- tertown, and the first member of the church there. Edward Johnson says, "This town began by occa- sion of Sir Richard Saltonstall, who at his arrival, having some store of cattle and servants, they wintered in those parts." He remained in the country less than a year, taking home with him his two daughters and one of his younger sons, and leaving behind his two oldest sons, Richard, the elder, being at this time 20 years of age. He still con- tinued, however, to take a deep in- terest in the welfare of the Colony, and befriended it essentially at home against the machinations of its ene- mies. He was also largely inte- rested in the joint stock of the Com- pany, and in June, 1635, sent over a bark of 40 tons, with twenty ser- vants, to plant at Connecticut, of which Colony he was one of the pa- tentees. By his will it appears he
portrait of him in the possession of one of his descendants in New York. His eldest son, Richard, was born at Woodsome, in Yorkshire, in 1610. He was admitted to Emanuel Col- lege, Cambridge, in 1627, but left without taking a degree, in order to accompany his father to New-Eng- land. He went to England in Nov. 1631, and married Mariel, daughter of Brampton Gurdon, Esq., of As- sington, in Suffolk, whence his grandson, the Governor of Connect- icut, got the name of Gurdon Sal- tonstall. Richard settled at Ips- wich, and was chosen an Assistant in 1637. He went to England again in 1672, and returned in 1680. He visited England a third time in 1683, having three daughters mar- ried there, and died at Holme, April 29, 1694, aged 84. A long line of his descendants has illustra- ted the name of Saltonstall down to the present day, among whom not the least eminent and worthy was the late lamented Leverett Salton- stall, of Salem, Mayor of that city, President of the Senate of Massa- chusetts, and a Representative in the Congress of the United States, who died May 8, 1845, in his 62d year. See Winthrop, i. 49, 161 ; Hutchinson's Mass. i. 15, 332; Mass. Hist. Coll. xii. 94, xiv. 154- 168, xviii. 42, xxviii. 249, 314, xxix. 117-125 ; Francis's Hist. of Watertown, pp. 14-17 ; Thoresby's Hist. of Leeds, (ed. Whitaker,) ii. 236.
337
WILLIAM CODDINGTON, OF BOSTON.
dington,1 and many others ; the most whereof pur- CHAP. XVII. pose to return to us again, if God will. In the mean time, we are left a people poor and contemptible, 1631. March. yet such as trust in God, and are contented with our condition, being well assured that he will not fail us nor forsake us.
I had almost forgotten to add this, that the wheat we received by this last ship stands us in thirteen or fourteen shillings a strike, and the pease about eleven shillings a strike,2 besides the adventure, which is worth three or four shillings a strike ; which is a higher price than I ever tasted bread of before.
Thus, Madam, I have, as I can, told your Honor all our matters, knowing your wisdom can make good use thereof. If I live not to perform the like office of my duty hereafter, likely it is some other will do it better.
Before the departure of the ship, (which yet was wind-bound,) there came unto us sagamore John,3
1 William Coddington, the father
where he built the first brick house. of Rhode Island, was of Boston, in In 1637, in the Wheelwright and Lincolnshire, " a godly man and of Hutchinsonian controversy, he sided with Vane and Cotton against Win- throp and Dudley, and on this ac- count the people left him out of the magistracy. In April of the next year he left his advantageous situa- tion at Boston, and his large proper- ty and improvements at Braintree, and removed to Rhode Island, of which he was several times chosen Governor, dying in that office, Nov. 1, 1678, in his 78th year. Callen- der dedicated his Historical Dis- course on Rhode Island, in 1739, to Coddington. See Winthrop, i. 50, 102, 132, 220, 224, 265, 382; Hutchinson, i. 24 ; Callender, 49- 53, 84, 96 (ed. 1838.) good estate," according to Win- throp. He was chosen an Assistant at Southampton March 18, 1629, just before the sailing of the fleet. In a letter to John Cotton, written after his return to England, and dated June 4, 1632, he says, "I am, I thank God, in bodily health ; yet not enjoying that freedom of spirit, being withheld from that place which my soul desireth, and my heart earnestly worketh after; nei- ther, I think, shall I see it till towards the next spring." He re- his grandson, the Hon. William turned to New-England in May, 1633, bringing his second wife, Mary, with him. The next year he was chosen treasurer of the Col- ony. He was one of the founders 2 See Winthrop, i. 46. and principal merchants of Boston,
3 See note 4 on page 306.
22
338
TWO HOUSES BURNT.
March.
CHAP. and one of his subjects, requiring satisfaction for the XVII. burning of two wigwams by some of the English ; 1631. which wigwams were not inhabited, but stood in a place convenient for their shelter, when upon occa- sion they should travel that way. By examination we found that some English fowlers, having retired into that which belonged to the subject, and leaving a fire therein carelessly, which they had kindled to warm them, were the cause of burning thereof. For that which was the sagamore's, we could find no certain proof how it was fired ; yet, lest he should think us not sedulous enough to find it out, and so 8. should depart discontentedly from us, we gave both him and his subject satisfaction for them both.1
17.
The like accident of fire also befell Mr. Sharpe2 and Mr. Colborne3 upon the 17th of this March ; both whose houses (which were as good and as well furnished as the most in the Plantation,) were in two hours' space burned to the ground, together with much of their household stuff, apparel, and other things ; as also some goods of others who sojourned with them in their houses ; God so pleasing to ex- ercise us with corrections of this kind, as he hath
1 " At a Court at Watertown, March 8, it was ordered that Sir Richard Saltonstall (as the fire had been occasioned by his servant, James Woodward,) satisfy the In- dians for the wrong done to them ; which accordingly he did by giving them seven yards of cloth." See Col. Rec., and Prince, p. 345.
2 Thomas Sharpe' was chosen an Assistant Oct. 29, at the same time Winthrop was chosen Governor. His name stands the sixth on the list of the Boston church members. He may have been a brother of Samuel Sharpe, the master-gunner,
mentioned on page 157. The death of his daughter and the loss of his house probably induced him to re- turn to England. He never came back. See pp. 106, 127, and 327.
3 William Colburn was admitted a freeman May 18, 1631. He was a gentleman of great influence in Boston, and was representative of the town in 1635 and the two suc- ceeding years. He was long a rul- ing-elder of the first church, after ceasing to be deacon, and died Au- gust 1, 1662. See Savage's Win- throp, i. 37, ii. 361; Prince, pp. 321, 322.
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339
MRS. SKELTON, OF SALEM, DIES.
done with others. For the prevention whereof in CHAP. our new town,1 intended this summer to be builded, XVII. we have ordered that no man there shall build his 1631. chimney with wood, nor cover his house with thatch ; March. which was readily assented unto, for that divers other houses have been burned since our arrival, (the fire always beginning in the wooden chimneys,) and some English wigwams, which have taken fire in the roofs covered with thatch or boughs.
And that this ship might return into Old England with heavy news, upon the 18th day of March came one from Salem, and told us that upon the 15th thereof there died Mrs. Skelton,2 the wife of the other minister there ; who, about eighteen or twenty days before, handling cold things in a sharp morning, put herself into a most violent fit of the wind colic and vomiting ; which continuing, she at length fell into a fever, and so died, as before. She was a godly and a helpful woman, and indeed the main pillar of her family, having left behind her a husband and four children, weak and helpless, who can scarce tell how to live without her. She lived desired, and died lamented, and well deserves to be honorably re- membered.
18.
Upon the 25th of this March, one of Watertown having lost a calf, and about ten of the clock at night
25
1 Called Cambridge in 1638. See Winthrop, i. 265. According to the agreement, mentioned on page 320, Dudley, Bradstreet, and the princi- pal persons in the Colony, proceed- ed the next spring to build their houses at Newtown. Winthrop set up the frame of his house on the spot where he first pitched his tent ; and Dudley finished his house and removed his family there before
winter. Winthrop, however, to fulfil a promise which he had made to the people of Boston, took down his frame and removed it to the pe- ninsula. This was a great disap- pointment to the rest of the compa- ny, and caused a temporary coolness between the Governor and Deputy. See Hubbard, p. 136; Winthrop, i. 82 ; Prince, p. 363.
2 See note 4 on page 142.
340
A FALSE ALARM AT ROXBURY.
CHAP. XVII.
1631.
March 25.
hearing the howling of some wolves not far off, raised many of his neighbours out of their beds, that, by discharging their muskets near about the place where he heard the wolves, he might so put the wolves to flight, and save his calf. The wind serv- ing fit to carry the report of the muskets to Rocks- bury, three miles off, at such a time, the inhabitants there took an alarm, beat up their drum, armed themselves, and sent in post to us to Boston, to raise us also. So in the morning, the calf being found safe, the wolves affrighted, and our danger past, we went merrily to breakfast.1
I thought to have ended before ; but the stay of the ship, and my desire to inform your Honor of all I can, hath caused this addition ; and every one hav- ing warning to prepare for the ship's departure to- 28. morrow, I am now, this 28th of March, 1631, sealing my letters.2
1 See Winthrop, i. 49.
2 This Letter was sent by the Lion, Capt. Peirce, which sailed from Salem April 1, and arrived at London April 29. Wilson probably carried it. See Winthrop, i. 52.
DUDLEY'S LETTER, the most in- teresting as well as authentic docu- ment in our early annals, first ap- peared in print at Boston, in 1696, in a 16mo. volume of 56 pages, en- titled "MASSACHUSETTS, or the First Planters of New-England, the end and manner of their coming thither, and abode there: in several Epis- tles." It contained also The Hum- ble Request, Allin and Shepard's Preface to their Defence of the An- swer to the Nine Questions, and John Cotton's Preface, in Latin, to Norton's Answer to the Questions of Apollonius. It is not' unlikely that it was printed at the suggestion of Joshua Scottow, who seems to
have been the earliest person in the Colony who had an antiquarian turn of mind, and who had already, in 1691 and 1694, published two works of his own, entitled "Old Men's Tears for their own Declensions, mixed with fears of their and posterity's further falling off from New-England's primitive constitu- tion. Published by some of Bos- ton's old Planters and some other," and " A Narrative of the Planting of the Massachusetts Colony, anno 1628; with the Lord's signal pre- sence the first thirty years." Where Dudley's Letter had lain all this time, from 1631 to 1696, sixty-five years, and why it had never been printed before, either in England or this country, it is difficult to ex- plain. In 1834, that indefatigable antiquary, John Farmer, of Con- cord, N. H., printed an enlarged copy of it in the fourth volume of the Collections of the New Hamp-
341
DUDLEY'S LETTER.
shire Historical Society. In his Preface to it he says, " The copy of Gov. Dudley's Letter to the Coun- tess of Lincoln, from which the fol- lowing is printed, has lately been discovered in a manuscript, of the chirography of the beginning of the seventeenth century, and bound up with Johnson's Wonder-working Providence, and Winslow's New- England's Salamander Discovered, works printed more than 180 years since. It is valuable on account of its containing much more than the printed copy which was used by the Annalist, Mr. Prince. It is to be regretted that the first part of the
manuscript is missing ; how much, CHAP. cannot be ascertained, but probably XVII. 1631. only a small part. The description of the bays and rivers is wanting, and a few lines giving some account of the Indians. It has been copied and compared with scrupulous care. There is good reason to believe that the original printed copy was made from this manuscript, just so much of it being marked as was print- ed, and having the printer's mark (thus ] ) for the end of the signa- ture." Farmer's copy has been followed in printing this Letter. - For an account of Scottow, see Mass. Hist. Coll. xiv. 100-104.
ROGER CLAP'S MEMOIRS.
" MEMOIRS of Capt. ROGER CLAP. Relating some of GOD's Remarkable Providences to Him, in bringing him into New- England ; and some of the Straits and Afflictions, the Good People met with here in their Beginnings. And Instructing, Counselling, Directing and Commanding his Children and Children's Children, and Household, to serve the LORD in their Generations to the latest Posterity. - Heb. xi. 4. He being dead, yet speaketh.
" BOSTON in New-England : Printed by B. Green, 1731." 18mo. pp. 34.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CAPTAIN ROGER CLAP'S MEMOIRS.
I THOUGHT good, my dear children, to leave with CHAP. you some account of God's remarkable providences XVIII. to me, in bringing me into this land, and placing me here among his dear servants, and in his house, who am most unworthy of the least of his mercies. The Scripture requireth us to tell God's wondrous works to our children, that they may tell them to their children, that God may have glory throughout all ages. Amen.
I was born in England, in Sallcom,1 in Devonshire, 1609. in the year of our Lord 1609. My father was a man April fearing God, and in good esteem among God's faith- 6. ful servants. His outward estate was not great, I think not above £80 per annum. We were five brethren, (of which I was the youngest,) and two sisters. God was graciously pleased to breathe by his holy spirit (I hope) in all our hearts, if in mine ;
1 Salcombe Regis is near the sea- Prince's Annals, p. 368, and Parl. coast, about 12 miles east of Exe- Gazetteer.
ter. Population in 1831, 448. See
346
CLAP'S EARLY LIFE IN ENGLAND.
CHAP. which I am not altogether without hopes of. Four XVIII. of us brethren lived at home. I did desire my dear father (my dear mother being dead,) that I might live abroad ; which he consented to. So I first went for trial to live with a worthy gentleman, Mr. Wil- liam Southcot, who lived about three miles from the city of Exon.1 He was careful to keep a godly fam- ily. There being but a very mean preacher in that place, we went every Lord's day into the city, where were many famous preachers of the word of God. I then took such a liking unto the Rev. Mr. John War- ham, that I did desire to live near him. So I re- moved (with my father's consent,) into the city, and lived with one Mr. Mossiour, as famous a family for religion as ever I knew. He kept seven or eight men, and divers maid-servants ; and he had a con- ference upon a question propounded once a week in his own family. With him I covenanted.
1629.
I never so much as heard of New-England until I heard of many godly persons that were going there, and that Mr. Warham was to go also. My master asked me whether I would go. I told him, were I not engaged unto him, I would willingly go. He answered me, that should be no hindrance ; I might go for him, or for myself, which I would. I then wrote to my father, who lived about twelve miles off, to entreat his leave to go to New-England ; who was so much displeased at first that he wrote me no an- swer, but told my brethren that I should not go. Having no answer, I went and made my request to
1 Exeter, the capital of Devon- shire, and the emporium and orna- ment of the west of England, is 173
miles west by south of London. Its population in 1831 was 28,201.
347
HIS DEPARTURE FROM PLYMOUTH.
him ; and God so inclined his heart, that he never CHAP. said me nay. For now God sent the reverend Mr. XVIII. Maverick, who lived forty miles off, a man I never 1630. saw before. He having heard of me, came to my father's house ; and my father agreed that I should be with him and come under his care ; which I did accordingly. So God brought me out of Plymouth the 20th of March, in the year 1629-30, and landed March 20. me in health at Nantasket on the 30th of May, 1630, I being then about the age of twenty-one years. Blessed be God that brought me here !
There came many godly families in that ship. We were of passengers many in number, (besides sea- men,) of good rank. Two of our magistrates came with us, viz. Mr. Rossiter and Mr. Ludlow.1 These godly people resolved to live together ; and there- fore, as they had made choice of those two reverend servants of God, Mr. John Warham and Mr. John Maverick, to be their ministers, so they kept a sol- emn day of fasting in the New Hospital in Plymouth, in England, spending it in preaching and praying ; where that worthy man of God, Mr. John White,2 of Dorchester, in Dorset, was present, and preached unto us the word of God in the fore part of the day ; and in the latter part of the day, as the people did solemn- ly make choice of and call those godly ministers to be their officers, so also the reverend Mr. Warham3
1 See pages 310 and 123.
2 See note 1 on page 26.
3 John Warham remained in the ministry at Dorchester till Septem- ber, 1636, when he removed, with the greater part of his church, to Windsor in Connecticut, and formed the first settlement in that place, where he died April 1, 1670. The
only facts mentioned concerning him are, that he was the first minis- ter in New-England who used a manuscript in the pulpit, and that he was subject to fits of religious me- lancholy, so much so, that at times, when he had administered the com- munion to his people, he shrunk from partaking of it himself. Ful-
ts
. 0
348
ARRIVAL AT NANTASKET AND CHARLESTOWN.
CHAP. and Mr. Maverick1 did accept thereof, and expressed XVIII. the same. So we came, by the good hand of the 1630. Lord, through the deeps comfortably, having preach- ing or expounding of the word of God every day for ten weeks together by our ministers.
May 30.
When we came to Nantasket, Capt. Squeb, who was captain of that great ship of four hundred tons,2 would not bring us into Charles river, as he was bound to do, but put us ashore and our goods on Nantasket Point, and left us to shift for ourselves in a forlorn place in this wilderness. But, as it pleased God, we got a boat of some old planters, and laded her with goods ; and some able men, well armed, went in her unto Charlestown, where we found some
ler, the Plymouth physician, in his letter to Gov. Bradford, dated June 28, 1630, says, " I have been at Mattapan, at the request of Mr. Warham. I had conference with them till I was weary. Mr. War- ham holds that the visible church may consist of a mixed people, god- ly and openly ungodly ; upon which point we had all our conference, to which, I trust, the Lord will give a blessing." He lost his wife in 1634. His daughter Eunice mar- ried Rev. Eleazer Mather, son of Richard Mather, of Dorchester, and first minister of the church at North- ampton ; and her only daughter, Eunice, was the wife of Rev. John Williams, of Deerfield, and was killed by the Indians and French under Hertel de Rouville, when that town was burnt, and her hus- band and children carried into cap- tivity, in March, 1704. See Ma- ther, i. 399; Winthrop, i. 385; Trumbull's Conn. i. 65, 467 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 74 ; Hoyt's Indian Wars, p. 186 ; Williams's Redeem- ed Captive, printed in 1706.
1 John Maverick intended to ac- company his church to Windsor, but was prevented by his death, 311.
which occurred Feb. 3, 1636, in his 60th year. Winthrop says that " he was a man of a very humble spirit, and faithful in furthering the work of the Lord here, both in the churches and civil state." The only fact that he mentions about him is, his narrow escape one day from the explosion of a small barrel of gunpowder, some of which he was drying in a fire-pan in the new meeting-house in Dorchester ! See Winthrop, i. 72, 181.
Prince says, that " Mr. Maverick was the elder person ; that they had both been ministers in the Church of England, and had therefore been ordained by some bishop or other ; as none other in those days were allowed to preach in that kingdom, nor any separate congregation al- lowed there till the Civil Wars be- gan in 1642. Nor would Mr. Mav- erick and Warham have been allow- ed to form a Congregational church at Plymouth in England, were it not of those who had taken their passage for New-England, and were just ready to sail hither." See
Prince's Annals, p. 369.
2 The Mary & John. See page
349
THE FIRST LANDING AT WATERTOWN.
wigwams and one house ;1 and in the house there CHAP. was a man which had a boiled bass, but no bread,
1630. May.
XVIII. that we see. But we did eat of his bass, and then went up Charles river, until the river grew narrow and shallow, and there we landed our goods with much labor and toil, the bank being steep ;2 and night coming on, we were informed that there were hard by us three hundred Indians. One English- man, that could speak the Indian language, (an old planter,) went to them, and advised them not to come near us in the night ; and they hearkened to his counsel, and came not. I myself was one of the sentinels that first night. Our captain was a Low June. Country soldier, one Mr. Southcot,3 a brave soldier. In the morning, some of the Indians came and stood at a distance off, looking at us, but came not near us. But when they had been a while in view, some of them came and held out a great bass towards us ; so we sent a man with a biscuit, and changed the cake for the bass. Afterwards, they supplied us with bass, exchanging a bass for a biscuit cake, and were very friendly unto us.
Oh, dear children ! forget not what care God had
1 Probably the " English palisa- doed and thatched house," which the Spragues found on their arrival at Charlestown, "wherein lived Thomas Walford, a smith." See the Charlestown Records, in the next chapter of this volume.
2 The place where they landed is supposed to be near the spot where the United States' Arsenal now stands. This part of Watertown was, till quite a recent period, called Dorchester Fields, and it is so called in the town records. See Francis's Hist. of Watertown, pp. 9, 10, and Holmes's Annals, i. 203.
3 Capt. Richard Southcot was one of the first settlers at Dorchester. At a Court held July 26, 1631, " Capt. Southcot hath liberty to go for England, promising to return with all convenient speed." He probably never came back, as his name does not afterwards occur in our annals. Had he been here, this " brave Low Country soldier" would undoubtedly have been en- gaged in the Pequot War. See Winthrop, i. 57, ii. 361; Prince, p. 358 ; Blake's Annals of Dorches- ter, p. 10; Harris's Memorials of the First Church in Dorchester, p. 64.
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350
REMOVAL TO DORCHESTER.
CHAP. XVIII. over his dear servants, to watch over us and protect us in our weak beginnings. Capt. Squeb turned 1630. June. ashore us and our goods, like a merciless man;1 but God, even our merciful God, took pity on us, so that we were supplied first with a boat, and then caused many Indians (some hundreds) to be ruled by the advice of one man, not to come near us. Alas, had they come upon us, how soon might they have destroyed us! I think we were not above ten in number. But God caused the Indians to help us with fish at very cheap rates. We had not been there many days, (although by our diligence we had got up a kind of shelter to save our goods in,) but we had order to come away from that place, which was about Watertown, unto a place called Mattapan, now Dorchester, because there was a neck2 of land fit to keep our cattle on. So we removed, and came to Mattapan. The Indians there also were kind unto us.
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