USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 1 > Part 7
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SOURCES OF COLONIAL TOWNS (1628-1650)
We will now turn specifically to the early towns of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and start on the north with the towns of Salisbury, Amesbury, Andover, Newbury and Hav- erhill. In these towns the majority of the settlers were men from Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire; especially from the neighborhood of Andover in Hampshire, Salisbury and Marl- borough in Wiltshire, and Newbury in Berkshire. Many of them were persons who had come over under the influence of Rev. Stephen Batchelder, who had been parson at Wherwell in Hampshire.
58
THE FOUNDERS OF MASSACHUSETTS
In Ipswich, in spite of its name, many of the people be- longed to this Wiltshire-Hampshire group; and some of the Yorkshire people from Rowley came into the town early.
At Rowley, as its name indicates, we have a Yorkshire set- tlement, followers of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, who had preached at Rowley in the East Riding before coming to New England. In this group were certain men, who came from a considerable distance from Rowley, men from Bradford vale and else- where in the West Riding.
Gloucester, as the name indicates, was settled by men from that county, the followers of Rev. Richard Blynman, who originally settled in Marshfield and afterwards went to Glouces- ter. Being a seaport town, the latter also had early a large seafaring population from the West of England, from around the Bristol channel and the Devon, Somerset and Dorset coast.
Salem, Manchester and Beverly were settled by people from the West Country, from Dorset, Somerset and Devon; these included not only the "Old Planters," who had been sent out in 1624 to Stage Point in Gloucester by Rev. John White of Dorchester in Dorset; but also the 1628 settlers under Endi- cott, who came from the same region.
In Lynn, at Saugus, there was a group of settlers from Leicestershire, from the vicinity of Lutterworth-famous as the home of John Wycliffe-while Topsfield ( named by Sam- uel Symonds, who had estates at Topsfield in Essex) and Boxford had largely an East Anglian population.
When we come to Middlesex County, Massachusetts, we find the population predominantly East Anglian. Charlestown, which with Boston was one of the chief seaports had, as was logical, a mixed population : East Anglian settlers and also merchants, artisans and sailors from London and from the western seaports. Reading, Malden, Medford and Woburn were East Anglian with an element of Kentish and Worces- tershire settlers.
Cambridge, which was given its present name after the founding of Harvard College presents also a population of diverse elements-there were East Anglians, a few people from Old Cambridge and a number of families from Durham in the extreme North of England, near which is also the town
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TOWNS OF EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS
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AND CORRELATED PLACES IN ENGLAND
59
SOURCES OF COLONIAL TOWNS
of Washington, cradle of the ancestors of George Washington, President of the United States. They were attracted thither by the Rev. Thomas Shepherd, who had been concealed there for some time when he was wanted by Laud.
Watertown, again, was predominantly and almost exclu- sively composed of persons from Suffolk and Essex and as the people of Watertown were very active in founding new settlements, the East Anglians of this parent town spread rapidly into the newer towns. Dedham as its name indicates was also peopled by settlers from Suffolk and Essex.
In Suffolk County we find Boston, with a very mixed popu- lation-East Anglians; West Countrymen, the latter from the seaport towns of the south coast of Devon and Dorset, and from the towns along the Bristol Channel; London mer- chants. Most important of all, the well defined group of Lincolnshire men from Lincoln, Horncastle, Boston and the neighboring towns, who were drawn here by the emigration of the Rev. John Cotton.
Roxbury was settled by people from northwestern Essex, southwestern Suffolk and the neighboring towns of eastern Hertfordshire, who had followed the Rev. John Eliot from his home in Nazing in northwestern Essex.
Dorchester contained two distinct groups-the earlier set- tlers, who came from Dorsetshire with the Rev. John Maverick and who named the town for Dorchester in Dorset and the later group, who came from Lancashire with the Rev. Richard Mather. These Lancashire people came from the neighbor- hood of Preston, Liverpool and Manchester.
Braintree again was predominantly East Anglian but it was by no means as exclusively so as Watertown, for there were settlers in it from Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Somersetshire.
Weymouth again was, as the name indicates, a settlement of Dorsetshire and Somersetshire people and these spread in- land towards Bridgewater and the Somersetshire settlement at Taunton.
Hingham was preeminently a Norfolk settlement composed of the followers of the Rev. Robert Peck and the Rev. Peter Hobart. They came from the vicinity of Hingham, Nor- wich and Yarmouth and from the little country parishes of
60
THE FOUNDERS OF MASSACHUSETTS
Eastern Norfolk. This town is exceedingly fortunate in hav- ing a list of its earliest settlers, giving their homes in Nor- folk, that was compiled by Daniel Cushing, the son of one of the first comers.
We must notice also the early settlements made at Spring- field on the Connecticut by William Pynchon, a gentleman from Writtle in Essex. This settlement, like the towns far- ther south on the Connecticut, around Hartford, was largely an East Anglian one.
PLYMOUTH TOWNS (1620-1650)
We have now reached the last town in Massachusetts before we cross into the Plymouth Colony, whose frontier town was Scituate. Scituate was the center of a large emigration from the Weald of Kent, from the neighborhood of Cranbrook and Headcorn that came out with Rev. John Lathrop, who had preached in Kent and with them were also some of his fol- lowers from London. Many of these Kentish settlers soon after went with Lathrop and founded Barnstable on the Cape, while a delegation of the Leicestershire men settled nearby at Sandwich on the Cape, which probably was named by the followers of Lathrop. There seem also to have been a few Northampshire men scattered among these old Cape towns.
Marshfield, as its name indicates, was settled by people from Gloucestershire, close to the border of Wales, who came over with Rev. Richard Blynman and Hugh Caulkins. Some of these persons later removed to Gloucester and some went on to New London in Connecticut.
This brings us to the capital of the Old Colony, Plymouth, and to the Mayflower passengers and their associates. It is much more difficult to place the Plymouth people, who did not come in any well defined group, other than that of the May- flower which brought the Leyden exiles. Where the latter came from in England is somewhat difficult to establish and has never been properly investigated and there is here a field for some startling discoveries.
A well known group from the borders of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire near the River Idle, included Brewster and Bradford. During their stay in Holland they had been joined
61
SLACKENING OF IMMIGRATION
by other Dissenters who fled from the persecutions of the Church. These probably came from the Eastern Counties and from Kent. There undoubtedly were a number from London, where the Leyden people had friends, as Bradford tells us, and there were some from the neighboring County of Surrey; there may also have been some from the Southwest.
Taunton, a very old town of the Plymouth Colony, settled in 1639, was a Wessex settlement of Somersetshire and Dor- setshire people, who were led by one Mistress Elizabeth Poole, "a wise and anciently religious maid," from Taunton in Som- ersetshire. They were soon joined by settlers from the same region coming from Weymouth, Massachusetts.
SLACKENING OF IMMIGRATION (1642-1689)
We have now very briefly given a survey of the groups of settlers in the oldest towns of Massachusetts and Plymouth. This survey of necessity is imperfect, as we have by no means as yet completed our knowledge of the ancestral homes of the founders. As more and more is found out in regard to them, we shall gradually perfect our knowledge of the whole movement. It should also be remembered that individuals and small groups settled among the larger ones in the oldest towns, and so lost their identity; and many individual emi- grants settled here and there and did not belong to the group with which they cast in their lot. Buckinghamshire and Bed- fordshire people, and men from Worcestershire, Northamp- tonshire, Berkshire and Derbyshire located throughout the settlements, but not in such numbers as to make up one of these distinct groups.
We have noticed before that the great emigration took place between 1628 and 1642, the years of English history marked by the personal government of King Charles without a Parliament. With the meeting of the Long Parliament in 1642 the emigration stopped, never to be renewed again on the same scale. Men were staying at home to fight for the Parliamentary cause and in fact during the next ten years there was a backward movement and more men went home to England than came out to Massachusetts. Henceforth until the Revolution, while there was a pretty steady stream of per-
62
THE FOUNDERS OF MASSACHUSETTS
sons coming into the Colony, there was no longer any large group emigration, as there had been in the beginning. There- after people came out for economic reasons and to better their condition. No more emigration flowed from East Anglia, and no large influx of yeomen. The later comers were for the most part merchants, (many of them men of distinguished ancestry and ample means) small traders, artisans and sea- faring men-for the most part from London and the seaport towns of the West of England, such as Bristol. These logi- cally settled in the seaports, as Salem, Charlestown and Boston and for the most part left the development of the interior towns to the stock of the first comers.
OTHER RACE ELEMENTS (1650-1689)
In 1650 and 1651 some three or four hundred Scots, who had been taken prisoners at Dumbar and Worcester, were sold to Bex & Co., a firm of London merchants, who owned iron works at Saugus and Braintree, and sent their bondmen over to their works. In 1657 the Company failed in Massachusetts and the Scots scattered through the New England Colonies, where they were soon absorbed by the English population. Many of their descendants survive today, often with some- what altered names.
After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1626, many Huguenots arrived in Massachusetts. They came largely from the Southwest of France, from the Gascon Provinces and to a less extent from Normandy. Some of them remained in Bos- ton, where they set up a church. Others made a settlement at Oxford, Massachusetts, under the leadership of Gabriel Ber- non, a gentleman belonging to a very ancient family of La Rochelle.
As early as 1690 we find traces of Irish merchants and sea captains in the seaboard towns. Thus Thaddeus McCarthy was early in the eighteenth century a merchant of Boston and Deacon of the Old South Church. By the time of the Revolu- tion there was quite a group of Irish merchants and sea cap- tains in such towns as Newburyport, Salem and Boston. Al- most all were Protestant in faith, and their numbers were small as compared to the rest of the population. Most of them,
63
NUMBERS OF EMIGRANTS
however, were men of substance, belonging to the better fam- ilies in such places as Waterford, Cork, Tralee and Dublin.
The Scotch-Irish from Ulster came over in large numbers early in the eighteenth century but their settlements were chiefly in New Hampshire where such names as Antrim and Dublin survive.
NUMBERS OF EMIGRANTS (1628-1642)
In closing this brief sketch of the early population of Mas- sachusetts it may be estimated that between 1628 and 1642 nearly twenty thousand Englishmen settled in New England. The population up to 1840 remained predominantly English, and was largely composed of the descendants of those who came within the years above mentioned. It was a strong typ- ical English stock, in which every class of English society was represented; and the history of New England affords the interesting phenomenon of the development of an English society, lopped off as it were from the parent stock, meeting and dealing with new problems and strange conditions. Not- withstanding a steady stream of emigrants from England down to 1689, the total immigration after 1642 was compara- tively small. The population of the colony was chiefly made up of descendants of the first group of Puritans, coming from southern England.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
[See also the bibliographies to the following chapters: i (England) ; iv (Plymouth) ; v (Bay Colony) ; viii (Sister Settlements) ; x (Social Life) ; xiii (Literature) ; xiv (Religious Freedom) ; xv (Economic) ; and the General Bibliography at the end of Volume V.]
ARBER, Edward F. S. A .- The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers (London, Ward & Dauney, 1897) (Boston Houghton, Mifflin, 1897).
ASPINWALL, William .- Aspinwall Notarial Records (Boston 1903, City of Boston) .- A most important source for the English homes of the founders of Massachusetts.
BRADFORD, William .- History of Plimouth Plantations (Boston, Wright & Potter [State printers] 1898) .- Not a perfect edition, but by far the best in print.
CUSHING, Daniel .- Extracts from the minutes of Daniel Cushing of Hingham, edited by H. A. Whitney (Boston, V. Wilson & Sons, 1865) .- Contains information regarding the English homes of the set- tlers of Hingham Mass.
DEXTER, Henry Martin .- The England and Holland of the Pilgrims (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin, 1905).
DRAKE, Samuel Adams .- The Founders of New England (Boston 1860). FARMER, John .- A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England (Lancaster Mass., Carter, Andrews & Co., 1829) .- The earliest work of this kind.
FOSTER, Joseph .- Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (4 vols. London, Par- ker, 1891).
FOTHERGILL, Gerald .- Emigrants from England 1773-1776 (Boston 1913) .- Reprinted from the New England Historical Genealogical Register vols. 62 to 64.
FOTHERGILL, Gerald .- A list of Emigrant Ministers to America 1690- 1811 (London 1904).
FRENCH, Elizabeth .- Lists of Emigrants to America from Liverpool 1697-1707 (Boston 1913) .- Reprinted from the New England His- torical Genealogical Register vols. 64-65.
HOTTON, John Camden .- The Original Lists etc. (London 1872, 2d ed., New York, 1874) .- The American edition is very carelessly made and contains many misleading errors. One of the most important sources of information regarding the settlers in England.
LETCHFORD, Thomas .- Note Book kept by Thomas Letchford Esq. (Cambridge, American Antiquarian Society, 1885) .- A most im- portant source of information.
MATHER, Cotton .- Magnalia Christi Americana (2 vols. Hartford 1853) .- Biographical sketches of early New England clergymen. Valu- ble as the work of a late 17th century author, but often inaccurate and full of careless errors.
64
65
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE MAYFLOWER DESCENDANT pub. by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants (27 vols. to date, Boston 1899-1927) .- Contains valuable information regarding the Pilgrims.
MORIARTY, George Andrews .- "The English Background of the New England Settlements," in The Genealogists Magazine vol. 1 no. 4, (London, Society of Genealogists, 1925) .- This contains one or two errors.
MORIARTY, George Andrews .- "The Scotch Prisons at Block Island," in Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, vol. xiii page 28. (Providence 1920) .- Gives a slight account of the Scotch prisoners sent hither after Dunbar and Worcester.
NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL GENEALOGICAL REGISTER (Bos- ton vols. 1-81; still being published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society) .- Contains many articles upon the English ori- gins of New England settlers.
POPE, Charles Henry .- The Pioneers of Massachusetts (Boston 1900) .- Relates only to persons settling in Massachusetts before 1650. A valuable compilation, but contains many errors.
PUTNAM, Eben .- "Two Early Passenger Lists 1635-1637," in New Eng- land Historical Genealogical Register (July, 1921) .- Lists of settlers from Kent.
SAVAGE, James .- Genealogical Dictionary of New England (4 vols. Boston, Little Brown, 1860) .- A monumental work, now somewhat antiquated.
VENN, John, and Venn, J. A .- Alumni Cantabrigienses (4 vols. Cam- bridge, Cambridge University Press, 1922).
WATERS, Henry Fitz Gilbert .- Genealogical Gleanings in England (2 vols. Boston, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1889) .- A monumental and masterly compilation.
WATERS, Henry Fitz Gilbert .- Genealogical Gleanings in England, new series (Salem, Salem Press, 1907).
WATERS, Henry Fitz Gilbert, and EMMERTON, James A .- Gleanings from the English Records (Salem, Salem Press, 1880).
WINTHROP, John .- History of New England 1630-1649 (2 vols., 1853). -An excellent edition.
WINTHROP, Robert C .- Life and Letters of John Winthrop (2 vols. Boston, Little, Brown, 1864) .- Marred by careless and uncritical edit- ing.
CHAPTER IV
PLYMOUTH PLANTATION (1617-1660)
BY THEODORE E. BUSFIELD Minister of Church of the Pilgrimage, Plymouth
PRELIMINARIES (1617-1620)
The planting of Plymouth Colony was a most notable achievement. Previous attempts by the English to settle on the Atlantic coast had been for the most part stark failures. Raleigh's at Roanoke in 1585, Popham's at the mouth of the Kennebec in 1607, Blackwell's in 1618, when out of 180 colo- nizers 130 died on the voyage, all proved futile. Even the Jamestown settlement of 1607 was not an assured success until nearly a score of years had elapsed. With such dis- couraging precedents it required men of heroic mold to at- tempt with their scant resources what the Pilgrims did in 1620. That was the mold they were of ; for long before sail- ing they wrote: "We are well weaned from ye delicate milke of our mother countrie, and enured to the difficulties of a strange and hard land. It is not with us as with other men whom small things can discourage, or small dis- contentments cause to wish themselves at home againe."
The dramatic history of the Puritan groups in England and in Holland has been told in the first chapter of this work. For the westward enterprise three things were deemed essen- tial : a guaranty of liberty in worship from the king, a patent from the Virginia Company, and means for financing the undertaking. The king refused their request, but agreed to connive at them so long as they carried themselves peaceably. A patent dated June 29, 1619, was secured in the name of John Wincob to lands near the northern limits of the Virginia Company. This was never used, but was supplanted by an-
66
67
THE AGREEMENT
other, dated February 12, 1620, to John Pierce in trust, to lands practically in the same place near the Hudson River. While this may have made easier their sailing from England, it was of no other service, since they did not go to that region.
While negotiations were pending for financial assistance, Dutch capitalists, learning of their ambitions, offered a loca- tion in the island of Zealand, or to transport them to the Hud- son River country, furnish them with cattle and otherwise equip them, a most tempting offer. At this point Thomas Weston came to them with the proposal to organize a company of some seventy merchant capitalists into a voluntary spec- ulative association to finance their enterprise. All the ar- rangements took three years to complete and were far from satisfactory; but they were the best that could be got.
THE AGREEMENT (1620)
The terms of agreement looked more to the duties of the colonists than to the efforts of the capitalists, or adventurers, as they were called. About seven hundred £10 shares were subscribed by these merchants to furnish means to transport and supply the emigrants on their way to the building of a plantation, and to provide them with essentials as need should be. On the part of those going, every one over sixteen was credited with one share of stock, and every such one bringing besides £10 in money or supplies was reckoned as having a second share, while slightly different ratings applied to chil- dren.
The colonists were to engage in building, farming, fishing and trading, each one was to get his meat, drink, raiment, and all other necessities out of a common store, and all profits from all sources were to be put into a common stock. This arrangement was to continue for seven years. At the end of that period all properties were to be equally divided between the capitalists and the colonists. The members of the two groups were to share, each according to his interest in his own group. In the first draft it was provided that the colo- nizers were to have two days a week for their own affairs, and in the final distribution each was to have the house he had built and the land he had improved. At the last minute this
68
PLYMOUTH PLANTATION
part was cancelled, though the Pilgrims were wroth and at first refused their assent to the change. After reaching the new world altered conditions were agreed to. As it turned out, the change made no difference in the eventual common- wealth.
THE VOYAGE AND THE COMPACT (1620)
These things settled, two vessels were contracted for; the Speedwell, a ship of 60 tons was bought and taken to Delfs- haven to be fitted out, and the Mayflower of 180 tons was leased and brought round to Southampton. Meanwhile the English of Leyden who were to go, chiefly the younger and more vigorous of that settlement, disposed of their effects and got ready. John Robinson the pastor elected to abide with the larger portion of the church and remain behind, while Elder Brewster stood to make the voyage. After farewell services in Leyden and Delfshaven, 35 Pilgrims embarked from Holland late in July and four days later reached South- ampton.
Here others, many of them not at all religious or even serious in mind, and some hired laborers, were added to the joint party by the adventurers. On August 15 the two ships set sail in the great undertaking. But the leaking Speedwell compelled two returns to port, the loss of a month's time, and a rearrangement of the passengers. Some, after what had happened, preferred to give up the venture; and the final de- parture from Plymouth did not take place until September 16.
At last the Pilgrims were on the ocean. The little May- flower was most uncomfortably crowded with a passenger list of 102, besides a crew of perhaps 25, and with baggage, sup- plies and a stock of fowls and swine. There was small oppor- tunity for cooking for so many, no bathing facilities to speak of, and the sailors were insolent. Fair weather was succeeded by a terrible storm in which the ship was at the mercy of wind and wave, and in imminent peril because of the buckling of the main beam. Oddly enough one of the Pilgrims had a screw, with which it was forced back into place, and the crisis averted. An exciting episode was the rescue of John Howland, who fell overboard and in falling chanced to grasp a trailing rope.
RELATION OR A. Journall of the beginning and proceedings of the Englith Plantation fetled at Plimoth in NEW ENGLAND, by certaine Englifh Adventurers both Merchants and others.
With their difficult paffage their fafe ariuall, their joyfull building of, and comfortable planting them- felues in the now well defended Towne of NEW PLIMOTH.
AS ALSO A RELATION OF FOVRE feuerall difcoueries fince made by fome of the fame Englifh Planters there refident.
I. Inaiourney to PVCKANOKICK the habitation of the Indians gred teft King Matlafoyt . as alfo their meffage, the aufwer and entertainment they hadof him.
II. Inw voyage made by ter of them to the King dome of Nawlet, to feeke aboy that bad loft bimfelfe in the woods : with fuch accidents.as befel them. in that dayage.
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