USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 3
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The first instructive step begins with the dec- laration of that Rev. John White 1 who has al- 1 In the Planter's Plea, published at London in 1630.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
ready been referred to as instrumental in founding the plantation at Naumkeag. He says that the original motive of the Cape Ann plantation was purely one for advantage in carrying on the fishery and barter in furs already established on the New England coast. Hitherto the ships engaged in this traffic were obliged to carry out a double comple- ment of sailors, who resorted to some convenient place, and after completing their lading returned to Europe. Experience suggested that greater advantage would be had by establishing a small number of permanent settlers at the point usually visited. These settlers would aid in loading the ships, and, it was hoped, be able eventually to maintain themselves, so as not to be a charge to the adventurers. This proposal, says Mr. White, took so well " that it drew on divers others to join with them in this project ; the rather because it was conceived that not only their own fishermen, but the rest of our nation that went thither on the same errand, might be much advantaged, not only by fresh victual, which the colony might spare them in time, but withal and more by the benefit of their ministers' labors, which they might enjoy during the fishing season ; whereas otherwise, being usually upon those voyages nine or ten months in the year, they were left all the while without any means of instruction at all. Compassion to- wards the fishermen, and partly some expectation of gain, prevailed so far that for the planting of a colony in New England there was raised a stock of more than £3,000, intended to be paid in five years, but afterwards disbursed in a shorter timc."
Colonization was not so much the object of certain numbers who engaged in this movement, the embryo of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, as concern for the religious welfare of the fisher- men who might visit it, in the view of the author of the Planter's Plea. Gain, to be sure, is allowed to have had something to do with it. In conjunction with its more practical purposes, Mr. White says, in effect, that the plantation proposed was to be a sort of missionary post to keep the fishermen from forgetting that they were beyond the reach of Christian civilization. This statement, so far as it goes, is in entire harmony with the knowledge we possess of the lawless condition of that class then engaged in the American coast fisheries. It is also in harmony with the idea of the charter granted to the Massachusetts Company.
How the commercial venture failed has already
been related. Its failure necessarily involved any collateral purpose or purposes ; for the adventurers in England who had advanced the money to carry it on abandoned the project when it became a source of loss instead of profit to them. We hardly need go beyond this fact to arrive at their motive. The " divers others " who had joined with them, and among whom we may class Mr. White, pursued their purpose as narrated in our history of the Massachusetts Company. This his- tory of the Dorchester Company shows that al- thongh two ideas might have existed, gain was the dominant one. In closing his relation, which covers the whole period of the settlement in Massachusetts Bay, Mr. White makes the follow- ing highly suggestive declaration : -
" This is a brief relation of the occasion of planting of this colony. The particulars whereof, if they could be entertained, were clear enough to any indifferent judgment that the suspicious and scandalous reports raised upon these gentlemen and their friends 1 (as if, under the color of plant- ing a colony, they intended to raise and erect a seminary of faction and separation) are nothing else but the fruits of jealousy of some distempered mind, or, which is worse, perhaps, savor of a des- perate malicious plot of men ill affected to religion, endeavoring by casting the undertakers into the jealousy of state, to shut them out of those advan- tages which otherwise they do and might expect from the countenance of authority."
We can add nothing to the force and explicit- ness of this declaration, made while Winthrop and his company were pursuing their voyage to New England. But we can reinforce it with the letter of instructions to Endicott, in which he is warned against his attempted innovations in religion, and is at the same time cautioned that his superiors are " tender of the least aspersion which, either directly or obliquely, may be cast upon the state here, to whom we owe so much duty, and from whom we have received so much favor in this Plantation where yon now reside." We may fur- ther reinforce it with the celebrated letter written on board the Arbella, in which the same solicitude is manifested that the intentions of the emigrants may not be misconstrued; and in which they de- clare themselves members of the Church of Eng- land. We believe it only reasonable to conclude that aspersions cast upon the motives of the pro- posing colonists gave rise to the emphatic denial
Winthrop, Dudley, and the rest of their company.
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THE LEADERS : THEIR RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL AIMS.
embodied in the Planter's Plea and in the letter addressed by Winthrop and others to their breth- ren in and of the Church of England. The idea of separating from the Established Church is equally condemned, equally repulsed, in both documents. We might easily trace both to the imprudence of Endicott in expelling the two Churchmen from Salem and to the reports spread by them on their return to England. In any case it is a disavowal of the policy inaugurated by Endicott, from the highest authority.
Speaking for itself, this authority says by the terms of its charter that, in order to govern the colony to be planted so religiously " as the good life and orderly conversation of the inhabitants might invite the natives to the knowledge of the Christian faith which, in the royal intention and in the adventurers' free profession, was the prinei- pal end of the Plantation," power was conferred as recited. In other words, in the royal under- standing and the royal will the chief end of the colony was the propagation of the gospel among the Indians. It is not to be presumed Charles I. meant the gospel to be propagated in New Eng- land according to Puritan ideas or by agencies he had dissolved the Parliament of England and re- vived the High Commission to punish and suppress, with greater certainty and freedom ; yet this con- struction is often erroneously placed upon the terms of the charter by those who suppose absolute relig- ious freedom was guaranteed by it.
.
It is not in evidence, that the principal persons engaged in organizing the Massachusetts Company at first contemplated a transfer of its powers to New England ; but, on the contrary, it does appear that this later and grander idea was the sudden out- growth of conditions not then existing, and there- fore not influential in moulding the character of the colony as originally planned. The company, no doubt, took advantage of the large disaffection prevailing among the Puritans to carry ont their design. It gave them numbers of emigrants of a superior class who were little likely to return to their native country so long as oppression ruled there unchecked. For these the scheme of colo- nizing in New England offered an escape from that oppression ; for them, it was a religious movement. But was such the intention of its originators ? Was the colony meant to be an asylum for Puritan ref- ugees ?
Neal attributes the rise of Massachusetts Colony to religious causes and to nothing else. He as-
cribes the movement to the active agency of the suspended or deprived Puritan ministers. " I have before me," he says, "a list of seventy-seven divines, who became pastors of sundry little churches and congregations in that country before the year 1640, all of whom were in orders in the Church of England."
In the first embarkation, under Endicott, no minister was sent over to the plantation. At the second embarkation ministers were provided, but when a church was organized, as it immediately was, only thirty out of the three hundred old and new planters joined it. When the church was formed at Charlestown, of the seven or eight hun- dred emigrants there only four persons signed the covenant. We find nothing to prove that either of the three ministers first sent over, Skelton, Hig- ginson, or Bright, exercised any active influence within the councils of the Massachusetts Company. Higginson was first recommended by letter and came up to London while preparations for the sec- ond emigration were in progress. Skelton's cou- nection is referred to a former acquaintance with Endicott. Bright is supposed, on good grounds, to have been a conforming clergyman : he remained only about a year in the colony.
In the first general letter of instructions to Endi- cott and his council, notifying the appointment of these three ministers, the following passage occurs : "And for that the propagating of the gospel is the thing we do profess above all to be our aim in set- tling this plantation we have been careful to make plentiful provision of godly ministers; by whose faithful preaching, godly conversation, and exem- plary life, we trust not only those of our own na- tion will be built up in the knowledge of God, but also the Indians may, in God's appointed time, be reduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ." Here is the idea of the founder, Rev. John White, of the charter, of the king, and of the Governor and Company. Surely Endicott could mistake nei- ther the letter nor the spirit of his instructions, for not only were the two Churchmen so often referred to, John and Samuel Browne, named therein to be members of his council, but he was required by his oath of office to do his best to " draw on the natives of this country called New England to the knowledge of the true God, and to conserve the planters, and others coming hither, in the same knowledge and fear of God."
It is fairly presumable from the small number joining the church there that a majority of the set-
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
tlers were altogether unprepared to take so decided a step in departing from the State Church. A certain number, under the lead of the Brownes, gathered together "in a place distinct from the public assembly, and there sundry times the Book of Common Prayer was read unto such as resorted thither."1 These people came over at the same time with Higginsou and Skelton ; they certainly did not suspect a design to prevent the free exer- cise of religion in the colony.
But about this time the aspect of the Company's affairs undergoes decisive change. Whether fearing a revocation of its charter by the crown, or seeing the rapid development of the advanced Puritan idea in the colony, or yielding to pressure which began now to be sensibly felt and which could not longer be resisted, or to all of these causes, com- bined, we do not undertake to determine ; but on the 28th of July, 1629, the highly important pro- posal to transfer the government to New England is made by Governor Cradock to the court ; and those present are desired to consider it " privately and seriously." They are desired "to carry this business secretly that the same may not be di- vulged."
That this injunction of secrecy could not have been directed at proposing settlers is evident, since the removal was in every way advantageous to them. So far as they were concerned it was the step most calculated to secure confidence in the undertaking, in its prospects, its influence, its stability. On this point Dr. Belknap very justly remarks of the Massachusetts Bay Colony : "This proved an effectual settlement, and the reasons which rendered it so were the zeal and ardor which animated their exertions, the wealth which they possessed, and which they converted into materials for a new plantation ; but principally the presence of the adventurers themselves on the spot, where their fortunes were to be expended and their zeal exerted." It is therefore more probable that the king's interference was the thing to be guarded against in consummating this extraordinary pro- ceeding. The critical condition of affairs within the realm, the terrorism pervading the ranks of the Puritans, the king's jealousy of any infringement of his prerogative, justify the opinion that the movers for the transfer of the charter felt they were tak- ing a doubtful, if not a dangerous, step. Still, they were allowed to pursue their purpose without molestation to the end.
1 Morton's Memorial, p. 147, ed. of 1826.
One month after the proposal of Governor Cra- dock, an agreement was entered into, at Cambridge, between twelve of the most influential members of the Company in which they mutually pledged themselves to remove with their families to New England provided the government and patent were legally transferred thither. In this agreement the signers, Saltonstall, Dudley, Vassall, West, John- son, Humphrey, Sharp, Nowell, Winthrop, Pyn- chon, Brown, and Colbron say they have weighed the greatness of the work in regard to the consequence, God's glory and the Church's good. These men were the soul of the enterprise. Two days after- ward the transfer was voted. The reorganization of the company proceeded, and Winthrop now be- came its head. Now if it should be asked what church was to be advanced, in the intent of the signers, the question is answered by a reference to the declaration of these same men, by their chief, or under their own hands, that they were still of the Church of England. We cannot therefore, justly assume what they so constantly deny, that their motive was to establish a Puritan church ; for if this be admitted the charge of systematic duplicity is fully sustained. If the repeated dec- larations of the authors of the enterprise are to be believed, then the claim that it was a religious movement, within the meaning of Hubbard, Prince, Neal, and others, lacks proof. If, under a general and sounding declaration that the chief end of the colony was to propagate the gospel among the sav- ages a different purpose was concealed, the most revered leaders in the colony must descend from the high pedestals on which posterity has elevated them. It is not evidence to say that their subsequent acts determine their motives ; or that their real purpose was understood. So long as they themselves deny each and every such assumption, neither of these things can be proven. It does not appear that they were compelled to mask their real pur- pose in order to insure its success, for they had the royal countenance and a charter under the great seal of England. Not even the old restrictions upon emigrants were enforced in this case. All their preparations were made under the eye of the crown officers, and proceeded at several ports. The whole movement was organized in broad daylight.
We gather from the somewhat perplexing and contradictory testimony that the Massachusetts Company originally embarked in its scheme of colonization as a commercial venture ; that they were willing to employ all means that promised to
31
THE LEADERS: THEIR RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL AIMS.
promote that object without much regard for the religions preferences or professions of intending emigrants. To found a successful colony was their object. Puritans or Churchmen were equally wel- comed to join with them. The Puritans eagerly seized the opportunity of escape from the tyranny of the State Church, and by their superior num- bers, wealth, and influence possessed themselves not only of the government of the Company, but the direction of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs in the colony. Those who were dissatisfied were compelled to yield to the logic, the force of events. They constituted a respectable number. A hun- dred or more returned to England as soon as they found the government was to be founded on the most advanced Puritan idea ; others withdrew to the plantations farther north, where more liberal opinions prevailed. We deem it hardly consistent with these results to claim a religious impulse as the controlling motive of the originators of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. Notwithstanding their coup d'état, the Puritans were very far from forecasting the horoscope of the future, which in a few short years produced irreconcilable antago- nisms with the throne; which led so directly and inevitably to the loss of their extraordinary politi- cal privileges.
It is therefore claimed that while the Puritan ele- ment was largely in the ascendant among the colo- nists, its later development was not directed by any well-matured or even half-formed purpose at the beginning of the emigration. The few who, like Francis Higginson, held advanced opinions relative to separating from the Church of England were chiefly concerned lest they might be stopped by
the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. But the king, looking upon the emigration only as a vig- orous and probably successful effort to plant a colony where so many failures had taken place, did not require the enforcement of the statute until the following year ; and, as Sir F. Gorges tells us, then only in consequence of the complaints that came out of New England of the." divers sects and schisms that were amongst them." The restrictions were applied with more and more rigor as the policy, civil and religious, of the colonists became more and more pronounced, until, in 1633, Cotton, Hooker, and Stone with great difficulty escaped from the country. The enforcement of the Act be- came more severe in succeeding years, and was at last strengthened by royal proclamation, in 1637, "To restrain the disorderly transportation of Ilis Majesty's subjects to the colonies without leave." We do not find in these proceedings evidence that the king quietly ignored the transportation of his Puritan subjects by the Massachusetts Company, or any degree of indifference on his part as to the religious government they might establish in New England. The men who had an ulterior purpose were only too strongly impressed with the danger of undergoing the royal suspicion, and, like Higginson, wrote home to their friends : "I would counsel you to come quickly, and that for two reasons ; first, if you linger too long, the passages of Jordan, through the malices of Sathan, may be stopped that you cannot come if you would." Such declarations were doubtless evolved from the consciousness of the writers, but are little in harmony with the assertions of White, Winthrop, Dudley, and the Company's own records.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
III.
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EMIGRATION.
IT is insisted by some writers that a marked difference must be observed between the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonists in respect to their religious views. They insist, too, upon the dis- tinction between Puritan and Separatist as one which ought not to be lost sight of in consider- ing the religious status of the respective colonies. For the purpose of fixing this difference, the Pil- grims, they say, are to be called Separatists, or Independents, and the Bay colonists, Puritans, or simply Non-conformists. If such diversity really existed it should unquestionably be expressed in history : if only a distinction without difference, the purpose of perpetuating it does not appear en- titled to the grave consideration demanded for it.
We have earnestly sought to fix this line of demarcation between the so-called Pilgrim and Puritan colonists, and must regard it as purely imaginary. The name of "Pilgrim " is wholly without special religious significance. A man may be a Hindoo, Mahometan, Catholic, or even Prot- estant pilgrim, if he travels to any holy place. Thus the designation does not in any way defi- nately fix the religious character of the Mayflower's heroes and heroines. We discard it, therefore, in any such connection, using it only to distinguish the Plymouth colonists, for whom it is the received familiar title.
Speaking of the division of the old Virginia pat- ent out of which arose the body known as the Council of Plymouth, Dr. Jeremy Belknap says : " Before this division was made, a number of fam- ilies who were styled Puritans on account of their seeking a further reformation of the Church of England, which they could not obtain, and who had retired into Holland to avoid the severity of the penal laws against Dissenters, meditated a re- moval to America."
Neal, in his elaborate History of the Puritans, does not emphasize the difference between Puritan and Separatist as if the terms were inherently an- tagonistic, but calls the whole body of Dissenters Puritans ; and this we believe to have been the
practice not only of his time, but the earlier period of which we are writing. In citing the organiza- tion of a Separatist congregation in 1592, at Lon- don, he says, " But the bishops' violent measures, instead of reconciling the Puritans to the Estab- lished Church, drove them farther off, and carried many into a total separation from her." Again, when discussing the arguments used for and against separation, he remarks, "This difference among the Puritans engaged them in a warm con- troversy among themselves about the lawfulness and necessity of separating from the Church of England, while the conforming clergy stood by as spectators of the combat. Most of the Puritans were for keeping within the pale of the Church, apprehending it to be a true church in its doctrines and sacraments, though defective in discipline and corrupt in ceremonies, yet being a true church they thought it unlawful to separate though they could hardly continue in it with a good conscience. They submitted to suspensions and deprivations ; and when they were driven out of one diocese took sanctuary in another, being afraid of incurring the guilt of schism by forming themselves into separate communions. Whereas the Brownists maintained that the Church of England, in its present constitu- tion, was no true church of Christ, but a limb of antichrist, or at best a mere creature of the state : that their ministers were not rightly called and ordained, nor the sacraments duly administered ; or supposing it to be a true church, yet as it was owned by their adversaries [the conforming Puri- tans] to be a very corrupt one, it must be as lawful to separate from it as for the Church of England to separate from Rome."
This extract from Neal also gives us the true points of difference existing among the Puritans. Nothing seems clearer than that time and oppor- tunity only were wanting to convert the whole body of Puritans into Separatists. We shall presently see what they did for the colonists who emigrated under the patronage of the Massachusetts Con- pany.
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RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EMIGRATION.
It seems necessary and expedient first to estab- lish the character of the Plymouth congregation, in order that we may see wherein it differed in relig- ious seutiment, form of worship, or discipline from the Salem and Boston churches. Neal calls the Rev. John Robinson the father of the Independ- ents, and says his adoption of more moderate views than were entertained by the rigid Separatists, also called in his day Brownists, gained for him at Leyden and elsewhere "the character of a Semi- Separatist." Robinson was the pastor of the con- gregation which removed from Holland to New England. In his parting exhortation he advised them to " abandon, avoid, and shake off the name of Brownists," as " a mere nickname and a brand for the making religion and the possessors of it odious to the Christian world." We do not hear of the name being afterward applied to the Pil- grims.
This Leyden congregation admitted the Re- formed Dutch (Calvinistic) churches among which they lived to be true churches. They agreed with their articles of faith ; they also mningled with them in worship as far as the knowledge of language permitted ; and they administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to members of those churches. The extreme Separatists refused the Communion to members of other churches.
It appears, too, that the custom of prophesying, which originated with the old Puritans in the reign of Elizabeth, and which she sternly forbade, was practised by Robinson's congregation before and after their removal to New Plymouth, but was not observed in the other New England churches. Its non-observance was not, however, so much a matter of difference as of expediency; and being opposed upon this ground by such men as John Cotton, it failed to be adopted as part of the exer- cises of the early New England churches ontside of Plymouth Colony. In other respects the sim- ple form of worship practised by the Pilgrims did not essentially differ from that subsequently adopted by the primitive churches of the Bay Col- ony, and, with the exception of some innovations, with that now in use in the congregational churches. Extempore prayer was substituted for the prayer- book. Selections from scripture were read and expounded. Ordinarily there was a sermon, preceded or followed by a hymn sung by the congregation. Having abandoned the ceremonies of the Church of England, the early New England congregations seem to have made the primitive Christian churches
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