USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Chatham > History of Chatham, Massachusetts : formerly the Constablewick or Village of Monomoit ; with maps and illustrations and numerous genealogical notes > Part 4
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26. Bradford's Ihstory, 67.
27. Winslow's Relation, (Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 323) .
28. An excellent blography ol Tlsquantum may be found in C. F. Adams, Three
35
EARLY VOYAGERS.
Not long after Governor Bradford's visit, an incident occurred which throws additional light on the habits and life of the Monomoyicks. Like the rest of their race, they one und unstranger
were very fond of gaming, and while we of them were engaged in their favorite pastime, they became greatly enraged and one killed the other. The murderer was a powow or medicine man of the Monomoyick tribe, "one of special note among them and such as they could not well miss :" yet another tribe, to which the murdered man belonged, greater than they, had threatened them with war, if they would not put him to death. In this dilemma the chief of the Monomoyicks referred the matter to Canacum, the sachem of the tribe at Manomet (Sandwich), who was "of good repute and authority among the Indians." He dispatched two of his followers to lay the matter before Canacum. One night in January, 1623, "in bitter weather," they came to Canacum's wigwam, while he was entertaining Governor Bradford and his party, who was then upon a trading expedition in that part of the Cape. Laying aside their bows and quivers, the two agents of the Monomoyiek chief sat down by the fire in silence and, taking a pipe of tobacco, began to smoke. At length they looked towards Cañacum and one of them, after addressing a few words to him, delivered to him a present from his chief, a basket of tobacco and many beads, which Canacum received with thanks. Ile then proceeded to explain at length the pur- pose of their coming. After he had finished, a period of silence followed. Then Canacum asked the opinion of those present. Hobbomack, the Indian interpreter, who attended the Governor, was at length called upon. He
Episodes of Mass. History 1, Chap. III. Mr. Adams well says: "Squanto has not had his due place in New England history given to him; for if hmnan Instruments are ever prepared by special Providence for a given work, he was assuredly so prepared for his. Squanto was, in fact, for a time perhaps the most essential factor in the prolonged existence of the Plymouth colony, for it was he who showed the starving and discouraged settlers how to plant and tend that maize, without their crop of which the famine of the second winter would have finished those few who survived the exposure of the first."
36
HISTORY OF CHATHAM.
replied that he was a stranger to them, but thought "it was better that one should die than many, since he had deserved it and the rest were innocent." Thereupon Canacum passed the sentence of death, and the threatened hostilities were averted. 29
In December, 1626, a distressing shipwreck occurred on some part of the beach which stretches before Pleasant bay near to, if not within, the limits of Monomoit. It seems that the captain of the vessel," a Scotchman named Johnston, was ill at the time, and as the voyagers were out of provisions, they sought to make the nearest land. They ran over the dangerous shoals of Cape Cod in the night and came "right before a small blind harbor that lies about the middle of Monamoyake Bay." At high water they touched the bar and towards night beat over it into the harbor, where they ran upon a flat near the beach and saved their lives and goods. Not knowing where they were, as the savages came towards them in canoes, they stood on their guard, but were reassured when the savages asked if they were the Governor of Plymouth's men and then offered to conduct them to him or carry letters. Accepting the friendly offer, they dis- patched two of their men, under guidance of the Indians, with a letter to the Governor, entreating him to send them pitch, oakum, spikes, etc., to mend their ship, and corn to help them to Virginia. As the men who were suitable to send on such an errand were then away from the Colony on a trading expedition, Governor Bradford himself went to snccor the unfortunate voyagers, taking in his boat the materials they desired and commodities suitable to buy corn of the natives. As it was no season of the year to go out- side of the Cape, he sailed to the bottom of the bay inside, into a "creek called Naumskakett," 31 whence it was not over
29. Winslow's Relation, (Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 307).
30. There Is an uncertain tradition that the name of the ship was the " Sparrow- hawk." N. E. Ist. & Gen. Register XVIII. 37.
31. Namskaket river, the boundary between Orleans and Brewster.
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EARLY VOYAGERS.
two miles across to the bay where they were. The Indians carried his things across the land, and he was received with joy.32 He bought of the natives as much corn as the voyagers wanted and left them thankful. Then, taking his boat, he went into other adjacent harbors, bought and loaded it with corn and returned home. Not long after his return, however, the people at " Monamoyake" sent him word that, their ship being mended, a great storm drove her ashore and so shattered her as to make her wholly unfit for sea. They begged the Governor to send means to transport themselves and their goods to Plymouth, and desired permission to stay with his people until they could find passage to Virginia. The transportation was furnished and the voyagers were sheltered in the homes of Plymouth for several months.33
There is every reason to suppose that after this time the shores of Monomoit were visited by voyagers with increas-
32. The good Governor, with his retinue of Indians laden with goods, emerging from the forest into the presence of the overjoyed voyagers, who must have hailed him as their deliverer. presents a scene worthy the brush of a painter.
33. " The cheefe amongst these people was one Mr. Fells and Mr. Sibsie, which had many servants belonging unto them, many of them being Irish. Some others ther were yt had a servante or 2 a peece; but ye most were servants, and such as were ingaged to the former persons, who allso had ye most goods." Bradford's History, 148. The wreck of this vessel was, after a time, buried in the changing sands and the fact of its ex- istence was doubtless forgotten. In 1782, by some unusual movement of the sands, it was again presented to view, but was soon hidden and forgotten again. After nearly eighty years more had passed, the sands once more disclosed their secret. In the early part of May, 1863, the " Sparrowhawk " again appeared to view, and this time attracted much attention. Amos Otis, Esq., the learned antiquary, published at the time a full account of the wreck. It appears that the vessel " was well built of oak, still wholly undecayed, the corners of her timbers being as sharp as when new. Yet every particle of iron had disappeared, except as rust stains In the surrounding earth. The ancient repairs on the craft were evident, as several of her 'tree-nails' had been split with a chisel and tightened by wedging. The deck and bows were wanting, her upper works having been burned away. In the hold were found beef and nitton bones, some shoe soles, a small metallic box, and a pipe-bowl like a modern oplum smoker's. She was perhaps of seventy tons' burden when completed. Her keel showed but one step for a mast, but there was probably a small mast with a lateen sail mounted at her stern, making the then common rig of a ketch." (Goodwin, The Pilgrim Republic, 314). She was found on the second lot of the Potanumaqunt meadows, which had been always known as the "Old Ship" lot. In the following August the wreck was agaln burled by the changing sands, but this time it was not forgotten. In 1865 it was raised and placed for exhibition on Boston Common, and was viewed with curiosity by thousands. It now rests in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth. See Otis' Account, N. E. Ilist. & Gen. Register XVIII, 37. There is a picture of this ship In Swift's History of Cape Cod.
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HISTORY OF CHATHAM.
ing frequency, although the record of such visits is unfortu- nately lacking. The right to trade with the natives undoubtedly brought the Pilgrims thither occasionally. After the founding of Salem and Boston, trade sprang up between these ports and the coast region west of Cape Cod, 3 and also with the Southern colonies, thereby bringing an increasing number of ships over the "Shoals" of Monomoit. In the autumn of 1633 the bark "Blessing of the Bay," on a trip to and from Long Island, passed and re-passed "over the Shoals of Cape Cod about three or four leagues from Nantucket Isle, where the breaches are very terrible." =5 The following year, the Rebecka, Captain Pierce, master, Ba on a voyage to and from Narragansett, ? "went over the shoals, having, for the most part, tive or six fathom within half a mile and less of the shore, from the north part of Cape Cod to Nantuckett Island, * * and in the shallowest place two and a half
fathom ." 36 Only a few such glimpses of this increasing trade can be found here and there in early writings, and almost nothing can be learned of those voyagers who touched at Monomoit or met with disaster on its shores at this early period. For the history of Monomoit subsequent to the wreck of the "Sparrowhawk," we must turn in another direction ; it can no longer be gathered from the accounts of the explorer or the chance voyager.
34. September 6, 1631. "About this time last year the company here set forth a pinnace to the parts about Cape Cod to trade for corn and it brought bere above eighty bushels." Winthrop, History of New England 1, 72.
35. Winthrop, History of New England 1, 134.
36. Winthrop, Illstory of New England I, 175.
CHAPTER IV.
THE "PURCHASERS OR OLD COMERS" AND THE MONOMOIT
LANDS.
W ITH the exception of the establishment of a trading post at Manomet River by the Pilgrims in 1627,' the Cape Cod peninsula remained exclusively in control of the Indians till 1630. The Plymouth settlers had no rights over it, for it did not lie within the meagre limits of the colony, as originally granted to them by the "Council for New England." By the terms of the new patent, however, which they obtained in 1630, known as the Bradford patent, the whole of Cape Cod became a part of the Plymouth Colony. This change did not result in the immediate occu- pation of the region, owing to the slow growth and con- servative policy of the colony.
Early records and writings of the time, however, show that different parts of the Cape were occasionally resorted to about this time by fishermen, traders, and roving adven- turers, and perhaps, in a very few cases, residents may have established themselves in some parts of the county soon after 1630. Those who did so, however, acted without the authority of the Plymouth magistrates and were regarded as intruders and trespassers.
The first authorized settlement on the Cape was made at Sandwich in 1637, when liberty was given to the men of Saugus (now Lynn), viz. : Edmund Freeman, Henry Feake, Thomas Dexter, Edward Dillingham, William Wood,
1. Bradford's History, 149.
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HISTORY OF CHATHAM.
John Carmen, Richard Chadwell, William Almy, Thomas Tupper, and George Knott, "to view a place to sitt downe, and have sufficient lands for three score families." upon con- ditions stated by the Governor and Mr. Winslow.2 These men selected Sandwich for their location and with them came fifty other settlers, most of them bringing their families.
Two years later, when the Sandwich community had been well established, settlements were made at Barnstable and Yarmouth. The majority of those who settled at the former place were from Scituate, being followers of Rev. John Lothrop, while the leaders of the Yarmouth settlement were Anthony Thacher, then of Marblehead, JJohn Crow of Charlestown, and Thomas Howes, at one time of Salem. These people all established themselves near the north shore of the Cape, whence communication with Plymouth or Bos- ton could be most conveniently had.
In all probability, the lands east of the Yarmouth com- munity would have been occupied within a few years after 1639, had they remained opened for settlers for any length of time, but their early development was prevented by the action of the Plymouth authorities, in consequence of which the entire region lying between the Yarmouth settlement and the present limits of Eastham was, in March, 1640-1, reserved for the "purchasers or old comers," so called, of the colony. As this reservation extended across the Cape from sea to sea and included Monomoit, now Chatham, it will be necessary to examine carefully the transaction, especially as the records of it are rather unsatisfactory.
First, it will be necessary to explain at some length who the " purchasers or old comers" were.
When the Pilgrims, in their exile at Leyden, decided to plant a colony in the New World, they first undertook to
2. Plymouth Colony Records 1, 57
41
"PURCHASERS OR OLD COMERS."
interest certain merchants or capitalists of London in their enterprise, for they were not men of large means. As a result of negotiations, an agreement was entered into between the merchants or "adventurers," as they were styled, who put capital into the scheme, on the one side, and the colonists or "planters" on the other side. This agreement,3 dated July 1, 1620, contains, among other pro- visions, the following :
"The persons transported & ye adventurers shall continue their joynt stock & partnership togeather, ye space of 7 years, (excepte some unexpected impedimente doe cause ye whole company to agree otherwise) during which time, all profitts & benifitts that are gott by trade, traflick, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means of any person or per- sons, remaine still in ye comone stock untill ye division.
"That at ye end of ye 7 years, ye capitall & profits, viz. : the houses, lands, goods and chatles, be equally devided betwixte ye adventurers and planters.
"That every person that goeth being aged 16 years & upward, be rated at 10 li, and ten pounds to be accounted a single share.4 Ile that shall carie his wife & children, or servants, shall be alowed for everie person now aged 16 years & upward, a single share in ye devision, or if he provid them necessaries, a duble share, or if they be be- tween 10 year old and 16, then 2 of them to be reconed for a person, both in transportation and devision. That such children as now goe & are under ye age of ten years, have noe other shar in ye devision, but 50 acers of unmanured land."
It will be seen that, according to this agreement, all those colonists or "planters" who came out under it and remained in the colony till the end of the seven years, became, as a
3. Bradford's History, 28.
4. Anyone might contribute ten pounds in money or provisions and should then have a double share.
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HISTORY OF CHATHAM.
body, entitled to one half of all the property, real and per- sonal, in the colony. For the purpose of dividing this one half among them, each head of a family was to have a larger portion than a single man, the amount being proportioned to the size of his family and according as he supported them from his own purse or not.
Three ships, the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621 and the Anne, with her consort the pinnace, Little James, in 1623, brought out passengers for the colony under this agreement, and none others came out under it during the seven years.5 In fact, not all of those on the Anne and Little James came out under the agreement. A few, notably John Oldham and his followers, came, as Governor Bradford says, "on their perticular," that is, on their own account, having no interest in the partnership," but they remained only a short time in the colony.
Those who came in these first ships and remained in the colony, became known afterwards as the "old comers" of the colony. It will be seen that, by virtue of the above agreement, they were entitled to one half of the colony property in 1627.
In the natural course of things there would have been a division of the whole property in 1627 between the "old comers" and the London merchants, but shortly before that date, the former took measures to prevent such a disposition of the colony." They sent out to England Mr. Isaac Aller- ton with instructions to make the best terms he could for the purchase of the half interest of the merchants. At that
5. The names of those who came In the Mayflower are given by Governor Bradford at the end of his History. The names of those who came In the other ships and who Iden- tilied themselves with the colony, may be found in Plymouth Colony Records XII, 6 and 10.
6. Bradford's History, 100.
7. There had, of course, been vartons allotments of property in severalty by the colo- nists during the seven years, as of cattle, farms, etc., but these acts were all subject to the agreement with the merchants, and did not affect the rights of the latter to claim one half of the colony in 1627.
43
"PURCHASERS OR OLD COMERS."
time, by reason of various misfortunes, there were debts of about £1,400 hanging over the partnership, chiefly incurred by the merchants in fitting out trading vessels and in other enterprises for the benefit of the colony, which proved disastrous. The prospects were not encouraging, and the merchants were found willing to sell at a price but little above the amount of the debts, which, it seems, they were to take care of. The sum of £1,800 was agreed upon for their interest.8 Upon the return of Mr. Allerton in 1627, his acts were duly ratified by the colonists, and the question then arose respecting the persons who should be allowed to share in the purchase. It was finally decided to admit all the freemen of the colony to the purchase, although there were a few among them who were not agreeable to the elders of the colony, and whom they would gladly have excluded. But the colony was weak and had need of the hearty co- operation of all. Trouble would arise if discriminations were made, and, moreover, those who would, in this way, secure the benefit of the purchase, had endured the early hardships of the colony and might well claim a right to share in any benefits arising from the purchase." So all the freemen of the colony in good standing were admitted to the purchase. The share of each one, just as in case of the "old comers'" half, was proportioned to the size of his family, but servants were not to be regarded as a part of the family. Those who were thus admitted to the purchase became known as the " purchasers" of the colony. It will be seen that they must have included the "old comers," who were already entitled to one-half interest in the colony. In fact, they included but few others except the "old comers," (for very few outsiders had joined the colony permanently dur-
8. Bradford's History, 143. This snm was paid by letting the trade with the Indians for a term of years to certain leading men of the colony, who were willing to pay £1,800 for the right.
9. Bradford's IlIstory, 145.
HISTORY OF CHATHAM.
ing the seven years), and, therefore, they are often referred to as " purchasers " or "old comers," as if the terms were synonymous. Strictly, the "purchasers" included a few others besides the "old comers." They included Phineas Pratt, who came from Thomas Weston's colony at Wessa- gussett, John Shaw, who reached the colony in some un- known way, and six of the London merchants, added in 1628, who had been more zealous in behalf of the colony than their associatos. The names of the " purchasers " are preserved in the Plymouth Colony Records. The list is as follows: Mr. Wm. Bradford, Mr. Thomas Prence, Mr. Win. Brewster, Mr. Edward Winslow, Mr. John Alden, Mr. John Jenney, Mr. Isaack Allerton, Capt. Miles Standish, Mr. Wm. Collyer, Mr. JJohn Howland, Manasseth Kemp- ton, Francis Cooke, Jonathan Brewster, Edward Bangs, Nicholas Snow, Steven Hopkins, Thomas Clarke, Ralph Wallen, William Wright, Elizabeth Warren, widow," Ed- ward Dotey, Cutbert Cutbertson, John Winslow, John Shaw, Josuah Pratt, John Adams, - Billington, Phineas Pratt, Samuell Fuller, Clement Briggs, Abraham Pearse, Steeven Tracy, Joseph Rogers, John Faunce, Steeven Deane, Thomas Cushman, Robert Hicks, Thomas Morton, Anthony Annable, Samuell Fuller, Francis Eaton, William Basset, Francis Sprague, the Heirs of John Crack- stone," Edward Bumpas, William Palmer, Peter Browne, Henry Sampson, Experience Michel, Phillip Delanoy, Moyses Simonson, George Soule, Edward Holman, Mr. James Shirley, Mr. Beauchampe, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Hatherly, Mr. Wm. Thomas. The last five and Mr. Collyer were the English merchants above referred to.
It will be seen from the foregoing statement that the " pur- chasers or old comers " became in 1627 the owners of the entire colony. They owned both the real and personal
10. Representing Richard Warren who died In 1628.
11. Who died In 1621, " in the first mortality."
45
"PURCHASERS OR OLD COMERS."
property, everything in fact.12 It was all held in common, except such parts as had already been divided from time to time by agreement for the general convenience. These people had suffered and struggled and founded the colony and now, as a reward, they found themselves its owners.
As already intimated, the lands then included in the colony were comparatively limited in extent. The patent granted to John Pierce and associates in 1621 was still in force. It fixed no definite boundaries to the colony, but was a grant of as many times one hundred acres as there should be persons already gone and thereafter going to the colony within seven years, who should remain there three years or die after taking ship thence. It also granted 1,500 acres for public purposes. At the most liberal estimate it guaranteed to Pierce and his associates only about 25,000 acres. There was, also, a provision that rent should be paid yearly after seven years at the rate of two shillings for each one hundred acres.13
It was not, in fact, a patent suited to the needs of the colony. The necessity of a larger grant was felt, and soon after the purchase from the merchants had been completed, steps were taken to secure additional territory. As a result of these efforts, the so-called Bradford patent was obtained from the "Council for New England " in January 1629-30. It ran to Governor Bradford and "associates," for the reason that the expense of securing it had been borne by a few of the leading men of the colony, who held the title until the "purchasers or old comers," for whose benefit it was clearly obtained, should be able to reimburse them. It granted the lands free of rent.11
12. The "purchasers "' bought from the merchants "all & every ye stock, shares, lands, merchandise and chatles whatsoever " to the merchants or "ye generalitie" of them belonging. Bradford's History, 143. See also the extract from the agreement of 1620 already quoted.
13. For this patent, known as the Pierce patent, see Davis, Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth pag+ 40; also Mass. Hist. Coll .. (4th Ser.), II, pag+ 158.
14. This patent may be found in substance In Plym. Col. Rec. XI, 21. -(5)-
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HISTORY OF CHATHAM.
With more ample territory and rights secured, the colony now entered upon a period of accelerated growth and pros- perity. New settlements were established near the parent town, as at Duxbury, Scituate and Marshfield, and these were soon followed by the settlements upon the Cape already mentioned. Affairs proceeded harmoniously for a time, but as the new settlers increased in numbers, com- plaints began to be heard because the lands in the colony were held and controlled by a few of the old inhabitants. To be sure, the Colony Court had assumed to grant lands to numerous individuals and to towns, but it had no author- ity in law to continue the practice, if objection was made by the "purchasers or old comers," and, indeed, when the question of its authority began to be discussed, it ceased its grants altogether. The new settlers insisted that the lands ought to be owned by the colony as a whole, the holders of the Bradford patent, of course, expected reimbursement for their outlay in securing it, before they would consent to surrender it, and the "purchasers or old comers," as owners of the Pierce patent and as founders of the colony, who had labored and suffered for its success in its earliest years, thought themselves entitled to special consideration. The whole matter was thoroughly discussed and finally an agree- ment was reached in 1640, by which the colony as a whole was to reimburse those who had paid out money for the new patent, the "purchasers or old comers" were to select two or three tracts or "plantations" for their own use and benefit, and the remaining lands included in the patent were to be surrendered to the Colony and thereafter to be dis- posed of by the General Court." Under this agreement
15. Plym. Col. Rec. IT, 4, 10; XI, 17. "Whereas upfon] a pposicion made by the Grand Inquest at the genrall Court held the fift day of March 1638 by what vertne & power the Govnr and assistants do give & dispose of lands elther to pticular psons or Towneshipps and Plantacons, wherenpon ever since there hath beene a Cessacon of the graunt of lands to any psons by the Govnr: And now upon hearing and debateing the controversies, matters and differences about and concerning the same In the Publick court, and whereas
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