USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of Boston, the metropolis of Massachusetts, from its origin to the present period; with some account of the environs > Part 3
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* See the charter at length in Hutch. Coll. of papers, p. 1. The following were the patentees, who are named in the order in which they are number-
ed. Those markedt were the six original associates :
20. Thomas Adams 19. Thomas Goffe
9. Samuel Aldersey 12. George Harwood
15. Richard Bellingham
5. John Humphrey t
17. Samuel Vassall
21. John Brown 23. Thomas Hutchins 24. William Vassall
22. Samuel Brown 8. Isaac Johnson
10. John Ven
11. Matthew Craddock 13. Increase Nowell
7. Simon Whetcomb t
18. Theophilus Eaton
14. Richard Perry
16. Nathaniel Wright
26. George Foxcroft
1. Sir Henry Rosewell t
3. Sir Richard Saltonstall
4. Sir Thomas Southcott
6. John Endicottt
25. William Pincheon
2. Sir John Young t
25
1
HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Soon after the first purchase abovementioned, and previous to the procuring of this charter, Mr. John Endicott, who was one of the company, was sent over with a few men (in June, 1628) and uniting his own men with those formerly in the country, they made up in all not much above fifty or sixty persons. Another supply was sent over in the spring of 1629, which consisted of three hundred and eighty-six men, women, maids and children. They arrived in June. The Rev. Francis Higginson was a principal member of this last com -. pany. They found but six houses built, besides that of Mr. Endicott, at which Mr. Higginson was kindly entertained .*
About a hundred of this party, under the conduct of Mr. Thomas Graves, soon removed to Charlestown, where a small settlement was already made. By Mr. Endicott's permission, three brothers, of the name of Ralph, Richard, and William Sprague, had started from Salem, in the preceding summer, with three or four more, to explore the country westward ; and after travelling above twelve miles through the woods, they light on a neck of land, called by the Indians, Mishaw- um. Their old sachem being dead, his eldest son John Saga- more was chief in power. He is described as a man of gen- tle and good disposition, and freely consented to their settling there. Probably he was the more readily induced to this, by the good conduct, and the advantages he derived from the skill of Thomas Walford, a blacksmith, who had previously taken up his residence, and built himself a house, which he had thatched and palisadoed, at the south end of the west hill, not far from the river. Both the town and river receiv- ed their name in honour of the king.
The success, which now attended the plantation, encour- aged the company to persevere : and several of the principal members entered into an agreementt to remove with them- selves and families, provided the whole government, together with the patent, might first be legally transferred and estab- lished, to remain with them and others who should be inhabi- tants therein. The proposal of this measure occasioned con- siderable debate ; and it was finally adopted, both for the sake of avoiding the inconveniences attending the administration of the government, at such a distance, and also for the sake of inducing gentlemen of wealth and quality to embark in the expedition, with their property and families. This was an act of great political importance. Neither the advocates, nor the opposers of it, could have truly estimated its magnitude,
* In 1628, the Plymouth people, having obtained a patent for Kennebeck, where they had traded for two years in conjunction with David Thompson, erected a house up the river in a convenient place for business .- Prince.
# Hutch. Coll. p. 25.
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HISTORY . OF BOSTON.
or have foreseen the great events, which it ultimately produ- ced.
This alteration in the management of the company affairs, was made in August 1629, and on the 20th of October follow- ing, a special court was held for the purpose of electing a new Governour, deputy and assistants, who should be willing to re- move. Mr. John Winthrop was chosen for the Governour, and Mr. Humphrey for the deputy, to hold their places for a year ; but Mr. Humphrey, not being likely to be ready to sail, when the rest expected to be, Mr. Thomas Dudley was afterwards chosen in his stead.
Preparations then began to be made with vigour, for the em- barkation of a great colony. The Company appointed ten persons,* as undertakers, who after much intreaty, accepted the charge of the management of the stock, and were ordered to provide a sufficient number of vessels, for the transportation of passengers and goods. Accordingly, by the end of Feb- ruary, 1630, a fleet of fourteen sail was furnished with men, women, children, all necessaries, men of handicrafts, and oth- ers of good condition, wealth and quality, to make a firm Plantation.t
In this fleet were congregated our fathers, with their wives and their little ones, about to quit forever their native country, kindred, friends and acquaintance. Let us pause a moment, and mingle our sympathy with their sorrows, 'as hand in hand we see them lead each other to the sandy banks of the brinish ocean.'
' They were about to leave the land of their fathers' sepul- chres, perhaps forever ; to break asunder those cords of affec- tion, which so powerfully bind a good man to his native soil ; and to dissolve those tender associations which constitute the bliss of civil society. In ordinary cases, the pain of separa- tion is lessened by the promises of hope-the pleasure of an- other interview ; but here adieu, to most of them at least, was to be the last, like the final farewell to a departing spirit.'
* Of whom five were to remain in England, and five to go with the colony. Messrs. Winthrop, Dudley, Johnson, Saltonstall and John Revel were the five that came over .- Eliot. Biog. Dict. Johnson.
Prince.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
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1
CHAPTER V.
" Westward the star of empire rolls its way."
THE fleet above mentioned all sailed before the end of May, and reached America in safety. The first vessel that arrived was the Mary-John, which brought over the Rev. Messrs. John Warham and John Maverick, with many godly families and people, under their care, from Devonshire, Dor- setshire, and Somersetshire, together with Messrs. Edward Rossiter and Roger Ludlow, two of the assistants, and Roger Clap, who was afterwards captain of the castle in Boston harbour. They had some difficulty on the passage, with the master of the vessel, Capt. Squibb, who, like a merciless man, put them and their goods ashore on Nantasket point, notwith- standing his engagement was to bring them up Charles river. They succeeded, however, in obtaining a boat from some of the old planters ; and having laden her with goods, and manned her with some able men well armed, (not more than ten, under Captain Southcot, a brave low country soldier) they went up towards Charlestown. There they found some wigwams, a few English people, and one English house. They continued their course up the river till it became nar- row and shallow, which is at Watertown, where they landed their goods with much labour on a steep bank. At evening they were much alarmed with information, that there was a body of three hundred savages encamped near by them. Fortunately they had been accompanied from Charlestown by an old planter, who knew enough of the Indian tongue and Indian disposition, to succeed in persuading them not to molest the party during the night. In the morning, some of the savages made their appearance, but stood awhile at a dis- tance : at last one of them held out a bass, and the English sent a man with a biscuit, to exchange for it ; and thus com- menced a friendly intercourse. A shelter for their goods was erected at the place, but they did not long remain there, for their companions discovered a neck of land* fit to keep cattle upon, adjoining Mattapan, (Dorchester,), and these were or- dered to join them.
.
This all took place before the fourteenth of June, on which day the admiral of the New England fleet arrived in Salem
* This neck of land included what is now called South Boston.
4
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
harbour. In the vessel which bore that distinction, Gov. Winthrop and Mr. Isaac Johnson came passengers, and the Governour has left us, in his journal, a circumstantial account of the voyage, from which we select the following particulars.
On Monday, March 29, 1630, they were riding at the Cowes, near the Isle of Wight, in the Arabella (for so they called the Eagle, in honour of the Lady Arabella, wife of Mr. Johnson) a ship of three hundred and fifty tons, Capt. Peter Milbourne, manned with fifty-two seamen, and carrying twenty-eight guns. The Ambrose, Jewel, and Talbot were riding by their side. On that day it was agreed, that, foras- much as it was uncertain when the rest of the fleet would be ready, these four ships should consort together, the Arabella to be admiral, Talbot vice admiral, Ambrose rear admiral, and the Jewel a captain.
By head winds and other causes they were detained a week, during which they improved one day as a fast. On the 8th of April, about six in the morning, the wind being E. and by N. and fair weather, we weighed anchor and set sail. By daylight on the 9th we were come to Portland, but the other ships not being able to hold up with us, we were forced to spare our mainsail, and went on with a merry gale. In the morning we descried, from the top, eight sail astern of us, and supposing they might be Dunkirkers,* our captain caus- ed the gun room and gun deck to be cleared, all the ham- mocks taken down, our ordnance loaded, powder chests and fire works made ready, and our landsmen were quartered among the seamen, twenty-five appointed musketeers, and every man assigned to his post. The wind continued N. with fair weather, and after noon it calmed, and we still saw those. eight ships to stand towards us. Having more wind than we, they came up again, so that our captain and the masters of our consorts were more occasioned to think they might be Dunkirkers ! for we were told at Yarmouth there were ten sail of them waiting for us ! Whereupon we all prepared to fight with them ; took down some cabins which were in the way of our guns, threw out of every ship such bed matters as were subject to fire, hove out our long boat, and put up our waste cloths, and drew forth our men, and armed them with muskets and other weapons, and instruments for fireworks ; and for an experiment, our captain shot a ball of wildfire, fas- tened to an arrow, out of a cross-bow, which burnt in the water a good time. The Lady Arabella, and the other
* Dunkirk was then a part of the Spanish Netherlands, and war existed between Great Britain and Spain.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
:
women and children, were removed into the lower deck, that they might be out of danger.
All things being thus fitted, we went to prayer. It was much to see how cheerful and comfortable all the company appeared ; not a woman or child that showed fear, though all did apprehend the danger to be great ; for there had been eight against four, and the least of the enemy's ships was re- puted to carry thirty brass pieces : but our trust was in the Lord of hosts : and the courage of our captain, and his care and diligence, did much encourage us.
It was now about one of the clock, and the fleet seemed to be within a league of us ; therefore the captain, because he would show he was not afraid of them, and that he might see the issue before night, tacked about and stood to meet them, and when we came within hail, we perceived them to be our friends : and so, God be praised, our fear and danger was turned into mirth and friendly entertainment.
The weather during the remainder of the voyage was va- riable, sometimes mild, and sometimes boisterous. The pas- sengers, as may well be supposed, suffered from sea-sickness, and that contributed to the amusement of the hardy sailors. ' Our children and others that were sick, and lay groaning in the cabins, we fetched out, and having a rope stretched from the steerage to the mainmast, we made them stand, some on one side and some on the other, and swing it up and down till they were weary, and by this means they soon grew well and merry. The captain set our children and grown men to some other harmless exercises, which the seamen were very active in, and which did our people much good, though the sailors would sometimes play the wag with them.'
Very strict attention to religious duties was observed, and the most rigid discipline enforced. On one occasion, two of the landsmen were laid in the bolts all night, for piercing a rundlet of strong water, and stealing some of the same ; and the next morning, the principal was openly whipped, and both were kept on bread and water all day. Two young men falling at odds, and fighting, contrary to orders which were set up in the ship, were sentenced to walk upon deck till night, with their hands tied behind them : and another man, ' for using contemptuous speech in our presence,' was laid in bolts, till he made open confession of his offence. A servant of one of the company had made a bargain with a child, to sell him a trinket box worth three pence, for three biscuits a day all the voyage, and the rogue had received about forty, and sold them to his comrades, before he was found out. 'We caused his hands to be tied up to a bar, and hung a basket full of stones about his neck, and so he stood for two hours.'
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Thus they commenced their state, with the maintenance of dignity, sobriety, good order, and honesty.
No accident of any moment occurred on board the Arabel- la. They saw one or two whales (one with a bunch on his back, about a yard above water !) and all the way were birds flying and swimming, when they had no land near, by two hundred leagues.
On the third of June, they approached near enough to the coast, to get soundings in eighty fathoms, and on the seventh, in thirty fathoms, they were regaling themselves with fresh fish of their own catching. On the eighth, they had sight of land, which they supposed Manhegan, but it proved to be Mount Desert. So pleasant a scene here they had, as did much refresh them, and there came a smell off the shore, like the smell of a garden : and Noah could hardly have been more gratified to behold his dove, with the olive leaf in her mouth, than they must have been delighted, to receive a visit from a wild pigeon, and another small bird from the land.
All day on the eleventh, they stood to and again, within sight of Cape Ann. On Saturday the twelfth, at four in the morning, they gave notice of their approach, from two pieces of ordnance, and sent their skiff ashore. In the course of the day, passing through the narrow strait between Baker's isle and another little island, they came to an anchor, a short dis- tance from Salem harbour.
Mr. Endicott and others went on board ; and we that were assistants, and some other gentlemen, and some of the women and our captain, returned with him to Salem, where we sup- ped on a good venison pasty and good beer. Next morning, many of the rest of the people went on shore, upon the other side of the harbour, and feasted themselves with strawberries, which they found in such abundance that they named the place Strawberry bank.
Early in the morning of Monday the fourteenth, ' we weigh- ed anchor, and the wind being against us, and the channel so narrow that we could not well turn, we warped in our ship, and came to an anchor in the inward harbour. In the after- noon, we. went with the most of our company on shore, and our captain gave us a salute of five guns.'
The other ships of the fleet fell in daily, and by the sixth of July, thirteen out of the fourteen had arrived safe in New- England, without the loss of more than fifteen lives by sick- ness or accident. A day of publick thanksgiving was there- fore kept, on the eighth of that month, through all the plan- tations.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
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CHAPTER VI.
Whate'er in life may be my varied lot, Boston, dear Boston, ne'er shall be forgot.
R. T. Paine ..
IT appears to have been the original design, that the prin- cipal part of this colony of fifteen hundred persons should have settled in one place, which they intended to call by the name of Boston. This design was frustrated by such circum- stances as the following .*
They found the colony at Salem in a sad and unexpected condition. Above eighty deaths had occurred the winter be- fore, and of those that remained alive, many were weak and sickly. All the corn and bread, amongst them all, was hardly sufficient to feed them a fortnight ; so that when the remainder of the great company of servants, sent over two years before, applied for sustenance, they found themselves wholly unable to afford it, 'by reason that the provisions shipped for them were taken out of the ship they were put in, and they who were trusted to ship them in another, failed us and left them behind. Whereupon necessity forced us, to our extreme loss, to give them all liberty, who had cost us about sixteen or twenty pound a person, furnishing and send- ing over.'
‘But bearing these things as we might, we began to consult about a place for our sitting down: for Salem, where we land- cd, pleased us not. So some were sent to the bay, to search up the rivers for a convenient place, who upon their return reported to have found a good place upon Mystick : but some } others of us seconding these, to approve or dislike of their judgement, we found a place liked us better, three leagues up Charles river. Thereupon we unshipped our goods into other vessels, with much cost and labour, and brought them in July to Charlestown. But there receiving information (by some of the ships lately arrived) of some French preparations against us, we were forced to change our counsel ; for many of our people were sick of fevers and the scurvy, and we were thereby weakened and unable to carry our baggage and ordnance so far up the river as we proposed. For our pres- ent shelter, therefore, we were obliged to plant dispersedly, (in various directions from Saugus to Dorchester.) This dis-
* From Dudley's letter to the Countess of Lincoln. Mass. H. C. 1. viii. 38.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
persion troubled some of us, but help it we could not, want- ing ability to remove to any place fit to build a town upon, and the time being too short to deliberate any longer, lest the winter should surprize us before we had erected our houses. So ceasing to consult further, for that time, they who had health to labour fell to building.'
Governour Winthrop was among those who stopped at Charlestown. He and other publick officers were accommo- dated in a building, called the great house, on the westerly side of the present market square. The remainder resided in cottages, booths, and tents, where their lodgings were so cold and moist, as to cause a continued prevalence of disease among them, to such an extent as that there were not enough of the well, to take care of the sick. Dr. Samuel Fuller, a deacon of the church of Plymouth, appears to have spent several weeks in the neighbourhood in attendance upon them, but without doing much good (as he complained) for the want of drugs and things fitting to work with. Deaths spread around them, and almost every family was filled with lamentation for the loss of some of its members.
In consequence of this affliction, the Governour proposed to Mr. Johnson, that a day should be set apart for fasting and prayer. Accordingly, Friday, the 30th of July, was agreed upon, and devoted for that purpose. After the services of the day,* it had been proposed, that such godly persons among them, as knew each other, should enter into a church covenant. Conformably to this arrangement, Governour Win- throp, Deputy Governour Dudley, Mr. Johnson, and the Rev. Mr. Wilson, on that day signed the following covenant :
" In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to his holy will and divine ordinance,
" We, whose names are here underwritten, being by his most wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite into one congregation or church, under the Lord Jesus Christ, our head, in such sort, as becometh all those, whom he hath redeemed, and sanctified to himself, do hereby solemnly and religiously, as in his most holy presence, promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to his holy ordi- nances, and in mutual love and respect to each other so near, as God shall give us grace."
* The first meetings of the congregation were held in the open air, under the shade of an oak tree, and probably continued to be so for some time ; for here, says Roger Clap, I have heard Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips preach many a good sermon-they afterwards met in the great house.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
On the Lord's day following, five more were added to the church, namely, Increase Nowell, Thomas Sharp, Simon Bradstreet, assistants, William Gager, a surgeon, and William Colburn.
At this time they had no other intention than that of making Charlestown the place of their permanent abode, and the Governour had ordered timber to be cut, and a house framed for himself there. But the sickness increasing, and the weath- er being hot, the people grew uneasy and discontented for the want of water. Strange as it may seem to those who now know that Charlestown abounds with good water, yet they could then only find one brackish spring, and that upon the beach, on the west side of the northwest field, (near the pres- ent site of the state prison) which was not to be come at, but when the tide was down .* This spring could not supply half the necessities of the multitude, and the death of many was thought to be owing to the want of wholesome drink. Sev- eral persons were therefore induced to make excursions, for the discovery of some more heathful spot.
Besides the English who were located at Charlestown, when the Governour and his colony arrived, there lived on Noddle's island, one Mr. Samuel Maverick, a man of very loving and courteous behaviour, very ready to entertain strangers. The Governour lay a night at his house, while on the first explor- ing party. He had thrown up a small fort on the island, by the aid of Mr. Thompson, and had four cannon mounted in it to protect him from the Indians. Mr. Maverick was a man that made some figure in the history of after times, and had a grant or confirmation of the island from the general court.f
On the south side of the mouth of Charles river there also resided, in a small cottage, one Mr. William Blackstone. The spot upon which he had pitched, was near a point on the western side of a peninsula, which, at high water, appeared in those days like two islands, the north and south parts being connected only by a narrow isthmus. The Indian name of the place was Shawmut, and the English at Charlestown call- ed it TRIMOUNTAIN.
Mr. Blackstone's self interest did not stifle his feelings of humanity, and though he might claim the peninsula for his property, as having been the first Englishman, that slept upon it, he communicated to the Governour the information that he had found an excellent spring on his side of the river, and urged him with pressing invitations to remove thither. This incident, and the fact of their being much pleased with the
* Johnson's W. W. P. ch. 17. and Dr. Bartlett's hist. sketch of Charlestown in M. II. Coll. 2. ii. 88. 165.
t August 20. The Gift, being the fourteenth and last vessel of the N. E. fleet, arrives with the loss of but one passenger, though she had been twelve weeks at sea.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
plain neck (which then bore the name of Blackstone's neck,) at the south end of the peninsula, induced Mr. Johnson, who was a very influential and leading man, to remove with sev- eral others and begin a settlement. This took place in Au- gust.
On Monday the 23d of August, the first Court of Assist- ants, under the authority of the patent, was holden on board the Arabella, at Charlestown. The first question propound- ed, was, How shall the ministers be maintained ?- and it was ordered that houses be built for them at the public charge, and their salaries were established. The minister at Watertown, Rev. George Phillips, was to have thirty pounds a year, and Mr. Wilson twenty pounds a year till his wife came over, be- ginning from the tenth of July preceding. All this was at the common charge, excepting that the people at Dorchester and Salem were not to be taxed for this object. Governour Winthrop undertook to see the above orders carried into ef- fect, at his plantation, which embraced Charlestown and Boston.
On Friday, the 27th of the same month, the congregation kept a fast, and chose Mr. Wilson for their teacher, Mr. In- crease Nowel an elder, and Dr. Gager and Mr. William As- pinwall for deacons. These were all installed by the impo- sition of hands, with a solemn protest, that it was only by way of election and confirmation, and not designed to in- validate, or disparage Mr. Wilson's previous ordination in England.
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