USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 39
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
with Shepard, being at that time 27 years old, and settled with his pas- tor at Newtown. He and his bro- ther George, and Samuel Shepard, are registered, in the list of passen- gers, under the disguised character of servants to Roger Harlakenden. He was admitted a freeman of the Colony March 3, 1636, with others of the same company. He was a
person of note in Cambridge, and represented that town in the Gene- ral Court for five years, from 1636 to 1640. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and his children were Jo- seph, Elizabeth, Mary, Grace, and Ruth. See Newell's Cam. Church Gath. pp. 47, 49, 52 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 268 ; Farmer's Geneal. Register.
-
533
HE SAILS FROM HARWICH.
appointed, and an able seaman, hence we resolved CHAP. to adventure that time, though dangerous in regard of the approaching winter.1
XXIV. 1634.
Now here the Lord's wonderful terror and mercy to us did appear. For being come to Ipswich with my family, at the time appointed, the ship was not ready, and we stayed six or eight weeks longer than the time promised for her going ; and so it was very late in the year, and very dangerous to go to sea.2 And, indeed, if we had gone, doubtless we had all perished upon the seas, it being so extreme cold and tempestuous winter. But yet we could not go back, when we had gone so far ; and the Lord saw it good to chastise us for rushing onward too soon, and haz- arding ourselves in that manner ; and I had many fears, and much darkness, I remember, overspread my soul, doubting of our way. Yet, I say, we could not now go back. Only I learnt from that time never to go about a sad business in the dark, unless God's call within as well as that without be very strong, ยท
and clear, and comfortable.
So that in the year 1634, about the beginning of the winter, we set sail from Harwich.3 And having gone some few leagues on to the sea, the wind stop- ped us that night, and so we cast anchor in a danger- ous place, and on the morning the wind grew fierce,
Oct. 16.
1 " Now one cause of our going at this time of winter was, because we were persecuted in Old England for the truth of Christ, which we profess here. We durst not stay to make ourselves known, which would have been at the baptizing of the child. Hence we hastened for New-England." Shepard's Pre- face to this Memoir.
17. 2 Edward Johnson says, that whilst they were waiting for the ship to sail, plots were laid to en- trap and apprehend Shepard and Norton. See the account at length in his Hist. of New-England, ch. 29. 3 Harwich is a seaport in Essex, at the mouth of the Stour, having a spacious and safe harbour. Popula- tion in 1841, 3289.
534
THE SHIP IS DRIVEN BACK TO YARMOUTH.
CHAP. and rough against us full, and drave us toward the
XXIV.
1634. Oct. 17.
sands. But the vessel being laden too heavy at the head, would not stir for all that which the seamen could do, but drave us full upon the sands near Har- wich harbour ; and the ship did grate upon the sands, and was in great danger. But the Lord directed one man to cut some cable or rope in the ship, and so she was turned about, and was beaten quite back- ward toward Yarmouth,1 quite out of our way.
But while the ship was in this great danger, a wonderful miraculous providence did appear to us. For one of the seamen, that he might save the ves- sel, fell in when it was in that danger, and so was carried out a mile or more from the ship, and given for dead and gone. The ship was then in such dan- ger, that none could attend to follow him; and when it was out of the danger, it was a very great hazard to the lives of any that should take the skiff to seek to find him. Yet it pleased the Lord, that being discerned afar off floating upon the waters, three of the seamen adventured out upon the rough waters, and at last, about an hour after he fell into the sea, (as we conjectured,) they came and found him float- ing upon the waters, never able to swim, but sup- ported by a divine hand all this while. When the men came to him, they were glad to find him, but concluded he was dead, and so got him into the skiff, and when he was there, tumbled him down as one dead. Yet one of them said to the rest, "Let us use what means we can, if there be life, to preserve it ;" and thereupon turned his head downward for
1 Yarmouth (Great) is a seaport mouth of the Yare. Population in in the county of Norfolk, at the 1841, 24,086.
535
A TERRIBLE STORM.
the water to run out. And having done so, the fel- CHAP. low began to gasp and breathe. Then they applied XXIV. other means they had ; and so he began at last to 1634. Oct. 17. move, and then to speak, and by that time he came to the ship, he was pretty well, and able to walk. And so the Lord showed us his great power. Where- upon a godly man in the ship then said, " This man's danger and deliverance is a type of ours ; for he did fear dangers were near unto us, and that yet the Lord's power should be shown in saving of us."
For so, indeed, it was. For the wind did drive us quite backward out of our way, and gave us no place to anchor at until we came unto Yarmouth roads-an open place at sea, yet fit for anchor- age, but otherwise a very dangerous place. And so we came thither through many uncomfortable haz- ards, within thirty hours, and cast anchor in Yar- mouth roads. Which when we had done, upon a Saturday morning, the Lord sent a most dreadful and terrible storm of wind from the west, so dreadful that to this day the seamen call it Windy Saturday ; that it also scattered many ships on divers coasts at that time, and divers ships were cast away. One among the rest, which was the seaman's ship who came with us from Newcastle, was cast away, and he and all his men perished. But when the wind thus arose, the master cast all his anchors ; but the storm was so terrible, that the anchors broke, and the ship drave toward the sands, where we could not but be cast away. Whereupon the master cries out that we were dead men, and thereupon the whole company go to prayer. But the vessel still drave so near to the sands, that the master shot off two pieces of ord-
18.
1
536
THEY CUT DOWN THE MAINMAST.
CHAP. nance to the town, for help to save the passengers.
XXIV.
1634. Oct.
18.
The town perceived it, and thousands came upon the walls of Yarmouth, and looked upon us, hearing we were New-England men, and pitied much, and gave us for gone, because they saw other ships per- ishing near unto us at that time ; but could not send any help unto us, though much money was offered by some to hazard themselves for us.
So the master not knowing what to do, it pleased the Lord that there was one Mr. Cock, a drunken fellow, but no seaman, yet one that had been at sea often, and would come in a humor unto New-Eng- land with us ; whether it was to see the country, or no, I cannot tell. But sure I am, God intended it for good unto us, to make him an instrument to save all our lives ; for he persuaded the master to cut down his mainmast. The master was unwilling to it, and besotted, not sensible of ours and his own loss.1 At last this Cock calls for hatchets, tells the master, " If you be a man, save the lives of your passengers, cut down your mainmast." Hereupon he encour- aged all the company, who were forlorn and hopeless of life ; and the seamen presently cut down the mast aboard, just at that very time wherein we all gave ourselves for gone, to see neither Old nor New Eng- land, nor faces of friends any more, there being near upon two hundred passengers in the ship. And so when the mast was down, the master had one little anchor left, and cast it out. But the ship was driven
1 Edward Johnson, in his Hist. of New-England, chap. 29, says that " the master and other seamen made a strange construction of the sore storm they met withal, saying the
ship was bewitched, and therefore made use of the common charm ig- norant people use, nailing two red- hot horse-shoes to their mainmast.". See Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii. 141.
----
537
THE WIND ABATES.
away toward the sands still ; and the seamen came CHAP. to us, and bid us look, pointing to the place, where XXIV. our graves should shortly be, conceiving also that 1634. the wind had broke off this anchor also. So the Oct. 18. master professed he had done what he could, and therefore now desired us to go to prayer. So Mr. Norton1 in one place, and myself in another part of the ship, he with the passengers, and myself with the mariners above decks, went to prayer, and committed our souls and bodies unto the Lord that gave them.
Immediately after prayer, the wind began to abate, and the ship stayed. For the last anchor was not broke, as we conceived, but only rent up with the wind, and so drave, and was drawn along, plough-
1 John Norton was born at Star- ford, in Hertfordshire, May 6, 1606, and was educated at Peter House, Cambridge, where he took the de- gree of A. B. in 1623, and of A. M. in 1627. He was for a time cu- show. He wrote a Life of his pre- rate of the church at Starford, and afterwards chaplain to Sir William Masham, at High Lever, in Essex. But, like the other non-conformists of that day, he was so harassed by the bishops and the pursuivants, that he resolved to emigrate to America. After escaping, with his wife, from the storm mentioned in the text, he returned to his friends in Essex, and the next year embarked again, in the same ship with Edward Wins- low, and arrived at Plymouth in October, 1635. Here he preached through the winter, and the church were very desirous of retaining him. But he preferred to settle in the Massachusetts Colony, and in 1636 was ordained the second minister of Ipswich. On the death of John Cotton he was chosen to succeed him as teacher of the church in Bos- ton, and was installed colleague with Wilson July 23, 1656. In Feb. 1662, he was sent to England, with Simon Bradstreet, as an agent
for the Colony, returned in Septem- ber, and died very suddenly on Sun- day, April 5, 1663, in his 57th year. He was an accomplished scholar and theologian, as his writings decessor, John Cotton ; a treatise against the doctrines of the Quakers, entitled The Heart of New-England Rent ; an Answer to the heretical book of Pynchon, mentioned on page 283, and several other works, both in English and Latin. In reference to one of the latter, Fuller, the English Church historian says, "Of all the authors I have perused con- cerning the opinions of these dis- senting brethren, (the Congrega- tionalists,) none to me was more in- formative than Mr. John Norton, one of no less learning than modes- ty, minister in New-England, in his Answer to Apollonius, pastor in the church of Middleburgh." He left a widow, Mary, but no children. See Winthrop, i. 175 ; Mather, i. 261-275 ; Morton's Memorial, page 298 ; Hutchinson's Mass. i. 219- 223 ; Emerson's Hist. of the First Church in Boston, pp. 88-98 ; Felt's Ipswich, p. 221 ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 248 ; Fuller, iii. 467.
538
THE SHIP RIDES OUT THE STORM.
1634. Oct. 18.
CHAP. XXIV. ing the sands with the violence of the wind ; which abating after prayer, though still very terrible, the ship was stopped just when it was ready to be swal- lowed up of the sands, a very little way off from it. And so we rid it out ; yet not without fear of our lives, though the anchor stopped the ship ; because the cable was let out so far, that a little rope held the cable, and the cable the little anchor, and the little anchor the great ship, in this great storm. But when one of the company perceived that we were so strangely preserved, had these words, " That thread we hang by will save us ;" for so we accounted of the rope fastened to the anchor in comparison of the fierce storm. And so indeed it did, the Lord show- ing his dreadful power towards us, and yet his un- speakable rich mercy to us, who, in depths of mercy, heard, nay helped us, when we could not cry through the disconsolate fears we had, out of these depths of seas, and miseries.
This deliverance was so great, that I then did think, if ever the Lord did bring me to shore again, I should live like one come and risen from the dead. This is one of those living mercies the Lord hath shown me, a mercy to myself, to my wife and child then living, and to my second son, Thomas, who was in this storm, but in the womb of his dear mother, who might then have perished, and been cut off from all hope of means and mercy ; and unto my dear friends then with me, viz. brother Champney,1
1 Richard Champney came to New-England, and was at Cam- bridge in 1635, was admitted a freeman May 25, 1636, and was a ruling-elder of the church in Cam- bridge in February, 1637. He died
Nov. 26, 1669. His wife's name was Jane, and his children were Esther, Samuel, Lydia, and Daniel, See Newell's Cambridge Church- Gathering, pp. 48, 50, 52 ; Farmer's Genealogical Register.
539
SHEPARD LANDS AT YARMOUTH.
Frost,1 Goff,2 and divers others, most dear saints ; CHAP. and also to all with me. And how would the name XXIV. 1634. Oct. 18. of the Lord [have] suffered, if we had so perished. That the Lord Jesus should have respect to me, so vile, and one at that time full of many temptations and weaknesses, amazed [me] much, and deeply afraid of God's terror, yet supported. I desire this mercy may be remembered of my children, and their children's children, when I am dead, and cannot praise the Lord in the land of the living any more.
And so we continued that night, many sick, many weak and discouraged, many sad hearts. Yet upon the Sabbath morning we departed and went out of 19. the ship; I fear a little too soon, for we should have spent that day in praising of Him. Yet we were afraid of neglecting a season of providence in going out while we had a calm ; and many sick folk were unfit for that work, and had need of refreshing at shore. So, upon the Sabbath-day morning, boats came to our vessel from the town ; and so my dear wife and child went in the first boat. But here the Lord saw that these waters were not sufficient to wash away my filth and sinfulness, and therefore he cast me into the fire, as soon as ever I was upon the sea, in the boat ; for there my first-born child, very precious to my soul, and dearly beloved of me, was
1 Edmund Frost was admitted a freeman with Shepard's company March 3, 1636, and was a ruling- elder of the church in Cambridge. He died in 1672. His wife's name was Thomasine, and his children were John, Samuel, Joseph, James, Mary, Ephraim, Thomas, and Sa- rah. See Newell, pp. 47, 48, 50, 52.
2 Edward Goffe was made a free- man May 25, 1626, was a represent- ative in 1646 and 1650, and died Dec. 26, 1658. His children by his first wife, Joyce, were Samuel and Lydia, and by his second wife, Mar-' garet, were Deborah, Hannah, and Abiah. See Newell, pp. 48, 49, 50, 54 ; Farmer's Gen. Reg.
540
HIS CHILD DIES.
CHAP. smitten with sickness. The Lord sent a vomiting
XXIV.
1634.
Oct. 19.
upon it, whereby it grew faint ; and nothing that we could use could stop its vomiting, although we had many helps at Yarmouth. And this was a very bit- ter affliction to me ; and the Lord now showed me my weak faith, want of fear, pride, carnal content, immoderate love of creatures, and of my child espe- cially, and begat in me some desires and purposes to fear his name. But yet the Lord would not be en- treated for the life of it, and after a fortnight's sick- ness, at last it gave up the ghost, when its mother had given it up to the Lord, and was buried at Yar- mouth ; where I durst not be present, lest the pur- suivants should apprehend me and I should be dis- covered ;1 which was a great affliction, and very bitter to me and my dear wife. And hereby I saw the Lord did come near to me, and I did verily fear the Lord would take away my wife also, if not my- self, not long after.
And these afflictions, together with the Lord's crossing us and being so directly against our voyage, made me secretly willing to stay and suffer in Eng- land ; and my heart was not so much toward New- England. Yet this satisfied me, that seeing there was a door opened of escape, why should I suffer, and I considered how unfit I was to go to such a good land, with such an unmortified, hard, dark, for- mal, hypocritical heart ; and therefore no wonder if
1 Scottow, in his "Narrative of the Planting of the Massachusetts Colony," after describing the above storm, says, page 15, " The next day they all landed safe; and as soon as ashore, two vipers designed not only to leap upon the hands of
them both, (Shepard and Norton,) but to seize their persons. But how strangely preserved, is not unknown to some of us ; though the house was beset by them, whenas they were at a pious meeting, then called a conventicle."
-
541
HE SPENDS THE WINTER IN NORFOLK.
the Lord did thus cross me. And the Lord made CHAP. me fear my affliction came in part for running too far XXIV. in a way of separation from the mixed assemblies in 1634. England ; though I bless God I have ever believed Oct. that there are true churches in many parishes in England, where the Lord sets up able men and min- isters of his Gospel, and I have abhorred to refuse to hear any able minister in England.
So that now, I having buried my first-born, and being in great sadness, and not knowing where to go nor what to do, the Lord sent Mr. Roger Harla- kenden and my brother, Samuel Shepard,1 to visit me after they had heard of our escape at sea ; who much refreshed us, and clave to me in my sorrows. And being casting about where to go and live, Mr. Bridge, then minister in Norwich, sent for me to come and live with him ; and being come, one Mrs. Corbet, who lived five miles off Norwich, an aged, eminent, godly gentlewoman, hearing of my coming, and that by being with Mr. Bridge might hazard his liberty by countenancing of me, she did therefore freely offer to me a great house of hers, standing empty, at a town called Bastwick ;2 and there the Lord stirred up her heart to show all love to me, which did much lighten and sweeten my sorrows. And I saw the Lord Jesus' care herein to me, and saw cause of trusting him in times of straits, who set me in such a
1 Samuel Shepard came over with his brother, being at that time 22 years old, and settled at Cambridge. In 1639 he was one of the superin- tendents for erecting the first col- lege-building at Cambridge. He returned to England after 1645, and in 1658 was a major, and living in
Ireland. His wife's name was Hannah, and his daughter Jane re- mained here. See Newell, pp. 47, 50, 54 ; Farmer's Genealog. Reg. ; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 268.
2 Bastwick, a hamlet in the parish of Repps, in the county of Norfolk.
542
HIS SECOND SON IS BORN.
CHAP. XXIV. place ; where I lived for half a year, all the winter long, among and with my friends, (Mr. Harlakenden 1634. dwelling with me, and bearing all the charge of housekeeping,) and far from the notice of my ene- mies ; where we enjoyed sweet fellowship one with another, and also with God, in a house which was fit to entertain any prince for fairness, greatness and pleasantness.
Here the Lord hid us all the winter long ; and 1635. when it was fit to travel in the spring, we went up to London, Mr. Harlakenden not forsaking me all this while ; for he was a father and mother to me. And. when we came to London, to Mrs. Sherborne, not knowing what to do nor where to live privately, the Lord provided a very private place for us ; where my wife was brought to bed and delivered of my second son, Thomas, and none but our friends did know of it. And so, by this means, my son was not baptized until we came to New-England, the winter April following, being born in London, April 5, 1635.
5. One remarkable deliverance my wife had when we were coming up to London. Mr. Burrowes, the minister, kindly entertained us about a fortnight in the way ; and when my wife was there, being great with child, she fell down from the top of a pair of stairs to the bottom. Yet the Lord kept her, and the child also, safe from that deadly danger.
When we had been also at London for a time, and began to be known in the place, my wife was brought to bed. The Lord put it into our hearts to remove to another place in Mr. Eldred's1 house, in London,
' Alured, called also Alred or Aldred. See page 526, and Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 57.
543
HE SAILS FOR NEW-ENGLAND.
which stood empty ; and the very night we were all CHAP. come away, then came the pursuivants and others to XXIV. search after us. But the Lord delivered us out of 1635. their hands. And so, when the Lord had recovered my wife, we began to prepare for a removal once again to New-England. And the Lord seemed to make our way plain. 1. Because I had no other call to any place in England. 2. Many more of God's people resolved to go with me, as Mr. Roger Harlakenden and Mr. Champney, &c. 3. The Lord saw our unfitness and the unfitness of our going the year before. And therefore giving us good friends to accompany us, and good company in the ship, we set forward about the 10th of August, 1635, with Aug. 10. myself, wife, and my little son Thomas, and other precious friends, having tasted much of God's mercy in England, and lamenting the loss of our native country, when we took our last view of it.1
In our voyage upon the sea, the Lord was very tender of me, and kept me from the violence of sea- sickness. In our coming we were refreshed with the society of Mr. Wilson,2 [and] Mr. Jones,3 by their faith, and prayers, and preaching. The ship4 we came in was very rotten, and unfit for such a voyage;
1 He embarked in disguise, under he died about 1664, being over 70 the assumed name of his brother " John Shepard, husbandman."- See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 268, 276.
2 Rev. John Wilson, of Boston. See note 3 on page 325.
3 Rev. John Jones, who was col- league with Peter Bulkley at Con- cord about eight years, having been ordained pastor April 6, 1637, and then removed with part of his church to Fairfield, in Connecticut, where
years of age. His son John gradu- ated at Harvard College in 1643, and a daughter married Thomas, son of Rev. Peter Bulkley, went with her father to Fairfield, and died about 1652. See Winthrop, i. 169, 189, 217; Shattuck's History of Concord, pp. 153, 160 ; Trumbull's Conn. i. 280.
4 Her name was the Defence, of London, Capt. Thomas Bostock .- See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 268.
544
HE ARRIVES AT BOSTON.
CHAP. and therefore the first storm we had, we had a very XXIV. great leak, which did much appall and affect us. Yet 1635. the Lord discovered it unto us when we were think- ing of returning back again, and much comforted our hearts. We had many storms ; in one of which my dear wife took such a cold, and got such weakness, as that she fell into a consumption, of which she afterward died. And also the Lord preserved her, with the child in her arms, from imminent and ap- parent death. For by the shaking of the ship in a violent storm, her head was pitched against an iron bolt, and the Lord miraculously preserved the child and recovered my wife. This was a great affliction to me, and was a cause of many sad thoughts in the ship, how to behave myself when I came to New- England. My resolutions I have written down in my little book.
Oct. 3.
And so the Lord, after many sad storms and wea- risome days, and many longings to see the shore, the Lord brought us to the sight of it upon October 2, anno 1635 ; and upon October the 3d, we arriv- ed, with my wife, child, brother Samuel,1 Mr. Har- lakenden, Mr. Cookes,2 &c. at Boston, with rejoicing in our God after a longsome voyage;3 my dear wife's great desire being now fulfilled, which was to leave me in safety from the hand of my enemies, and
1 His younger brother, mentioned on page 500, who was at this time 22 years of age, and who, as well as the Cookes, came in the assumed character of servants to Roger Har- lakenden. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 268, 273.
2 Joseph Cooke, mentioned in note 5 on page 531, had a brother George, who accompanied him, and who set- tled in Cambridge. He was a cap-
tain, and commanded the troops sent to arrest Gorton and his company in 1643, was speaker of the House of Deputies in 1645, and was after- wards a colonel under Cromwell, in Ireland. See Newell's Cam. Ch. Gath. pp. 47, 50; Winthrop, ii. 53, 137, 142; Mass. Hist. Coll. xvii. 55, xxviii. 268.
3 Their passage was fifty-four days, from Aug. 10.
2
0
de
545
HE SETTLES AT CAMBRIDGE.
among God's people, and also the child under God's CHAP. precious ordinances.1
XXIV.
1635. Oct.
Now when we came upon shore, we were kindly saluted and entertained by many friends, and were the first three days in the house of Mr. Cottington,2 being Treasurer at that time, and that with much love.
When we had been here two days, upon the Mon- day, October 5, we came, (being sent for by friends 5. at Newtown,) to them, to my brother Mr. Stone's house. And that congregation being upon their re- moval to Hartford, at Connecticut, myself and those that came with me, found many houses empty, and many persons willing to sell ; and hence our compa- ny bought off their houses to dwell in, until we should see another place fit to remove unto. But having been here some time, divers of our brethren did desire to sit still, and not to remove farther ; partly, because of the fellowship of the churches ; partly, because they thought their lives were short, and removals to new plantations full of troubles ; partly, because they found sufficient for themselves and their company. Hereupon there was a purpose to enter into church fellowship, which we did the 1636. year after, about the end of the winter ;3 a fortnight Feb. 1. 15. after which my dear wife Margaret died, being first received into church fellowship ; which as she much
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.