USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Lives of the governors of New Plymouth, and Massachusetts bay; from the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620, to the union of the two colonies in 1692 > Part 20
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Upon the occasion of the last sickness of Governor Winthrop, the whole church fasted as well as prayed for him; and in that fast, the venerable Cotton preached on Psalms xxxv. 13, 14; making this application-" Upon this occasion we are now to attend this duty for a gover- nour, who has been to us as a friend in his counsel for all things, and help for our bodies by physick, for our estates by law, and of whom there was no fear of his be- coming an enemy, like the friends of David: a gover- nour who has been to us as a brother; not usurping au- thority over the church ; often speaking his advice, and often contradicted, even by young men, and some of low
· Journal, ii. 360.
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degree; yet not replying, but offering satisfaction al- when any supposed offences have arisen ; a governour. who has been to us as a mother, parent-like distributing his goods to brethren and neighbors at his first coming : and gently bearing our infirmities without taking notice of them."#
A fine portrait of Governor Winthrop is preserved in the Senate Chamber of Massachusetts, with those of other ancient governors. The house in which he lived re- mained until 1775, when with many other old wooden buildings, it was torn down by the British troops and used for fuel. He lived on the lot at the corner of Milk street, Boston, part of which was afterwards taken for the Old South Church, and in the house subsequently oc- cupied by Prince, the chronologist.
Governor Winthrop kept an exact journal of the occurrences and transactions in the colony, during his residence in it; entitled " The History of New England, from 1630 to 1649." It affords a more exact and cir- cumstantial detail of events within that period than any compilation which has been or can be made from it; the principles and conduct of this truly great and good man therein appear in the light in which he himself viewed them; while his abilities for the arduous station which he held, the difficulties which he had to encounter, and his fidelity in business, are displayed with that truth and justice in which they ought to appear.
The Journal was originally written in three separate books. The two first remained, unpublished and un- copied, in possession of the elder branch of the Winthrop family, until the revolutionary war, when Gov. Trum-
* Mather's Magnalia, b. 2. c. 4.
·
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bull of Connecticut procured the MS., and, with the assistance of his secretary, copied a considerable part of it. After Governor Trumbull's death, Noah Webster, Esq. by consent of the descendants of Governor Win- throp, published the MS. believing it to be the entire work. It was printed at Hartford, in 1790, in an octavo volume of 370 pages: and brought down the Journal to the 26th October, 1644. In 1816, the third book of the original MS. was found among the collections of the Rev. Mr. Prince, in the dormitory of the Old South Church, where for sixty years it had remained unnoticed. It commences where the second volume closed, and con- tinues the Journal to January 11, 1649, which was within about ten weeks of the author's death. The whole work was evidently in the hands of Mr. Prince in 1755,* as it must have been previously in those of Mathier and Hubbard.
The fortunate preservation and recovery of the third volume of the MS. Journal of Winthrop, as above stat- ed, induced the indefatigable New England antiquary, Hon. James Savage, to undertake the preparation of a new edition, by whom the task was accomplished in 1825. Dr. Savage carefully revised the text, and added a large body of illustrative notes, which are unrivalled for historical accuracy, sagacity, and learning.
There is in the Library of the New York Historical Society, a MS. entitled " A Modell of Christian Charity. Written on board the Arbella, on the Atlantic Ocean. By the Hon. John Winthrop, Esqr. in his passage (with a great company of Religious people, of which Christian
* See Prince's Advertisement, prefacing Continuation of his Annals, II Mass. Hist. Coll., vii. 190.
.. .
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tribes he was the Brave leader and famous Governor : ) from the Island of Great Brittaine to New England in the North America. Anno 1630." It is an interesting paper, and has been reprinted in III Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 31-48.
Governor Winthrop was four times married, and had thirteen children.
His first wife was Mary, daughter of John Forth, Esq. of Great Stanbridge in Essex, to whom he was married on the 16th April, 1605. She was buried on the 26 June, 1615. His second wife was Thomasin, daughter of William Clopton, who appears to have survived but a short time the period of her marriage, as her burial is mentioned as having taken place on the 11 December. 1616. The third wife of Governor Winthrop was Mar- garet, daughter of Sir John Tindal, Knt .* to whom he was married on the 29th April, 1618. She died at Bos- ton, 14 June, 1647, being, says the brief record in Win- throp's Journal, "about fifty-six years of age: a woman of singular virtue, prudence, modesty and piety, and es- pecially beloved and honored of all the country." Gov- ernor Winthrop afterwards, in 1648, married Martha, the widow of Thomas Coytmore, of Charlestown, who died on the coast of Wales, in 1645. She was the sis- ter of Increase Nowell. She survived Governor Win- throp, and on the 10th March, 1651, was married to John Coggan, a successful merchant of Boston, who was her third husband. The children of Governor Win- throp, were-
* This gentleman, who was a Master in Chancery, was assassinated 12 Nov., 1616, for making a report against a suitor in a cause of comparatively small amount. The murderer was examined 16 Nov., and next day hanged himself in prison.
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1
1. John, who was born at Groton, England, 12 Feb. 1606., After completing his education in the University of Cambridge, and in Trinity College, Dublin, he trav- elled into France, Holland, Flanders, Italy, Germany, and Turkey, and united the accomplishments of a gen- tleman with the erudition of a scholar. In 1631, he came with his father's family to New England, and was chosen a magistrate of the colony of which his father was governor. In 1633, he began the plantation of Ipswich. In 1634, he went to England, and in 1635 returned with powers from lords Say and Seal, and Brook, to settle a plantation at the mouth of Connecticut river. He was afterwards chosen governor of the colony of Connecti- cut .- At the restoration of Charles II. he went to Eng- land, and obtained a charter incorporating New Haven and Connecticut into one colony, "with a grant of priv- ileges and powers of government, superior to any plan- tation which had been settled in America." From this time he was elected governor of Connecticut fourteen years successively till his death. He was one of the most distinguished philosophers of his age. His name appears among the founders of the Royal Society of London. Several of his essays are inserted in the Transactions. In the height of the Indian war, while he was attending to his official duty in Boston, as one of the Commission- ers of the United Colonies, he fell sick of a fever, and died April 7, 1676, and was buried in the same tomb with his father .*
2. Ilenry, born in Groton, in Jan. 1607. He was accidentally drowned at Salem, 2 July 1630, the day
* Further particulars respecting the second Governor Winthrop, and his de- scendants, will appear in the Lives of the Governors of Connecticut, in a future volume of this work.
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after his arrival. He had married a lady by the name of Fones, and left issue a daughter.
3. Forth, who died in England a short time after his father sailed.
4. Anna, baptized S August, 1614, and buried the 26th of the same month.
5. Anna, baptized 26 June, 1615, and buried the 29th of that month.
6. Mary, who is mentioned in the will of her father. dated 17 May, 1620. She was married about 1633, to Rev. Samuel Dudley, son of Governor Thomas Dudley, who resided at Cambridge, Boston, and Salisbury, and finally settled at Exeter, N. H., as the minister of that town. She died at Salisbury, 12 April, 1643.
7. Stephen, born .in March, 1619; was representa- tive from Pascataqua, N. H. in 1644; went to England in 1645 or 1646, with Rainsburrow, his brother-in-law. lived in the parish of St. Margaret, in Westminster, com- manded a regiment in Cromwell's time, and became a member of parliament. He was much trusted by the Protector. He succeeded General Harrison, the exqui- site enthusiast, who troubled Cromwell so much with his anticipation of a kingdom of saints .* He died prior to 1659.
8. Adam, born 7 April, 1620, admitted freeman in 1641, and died 24 Aug., 1652. His wife was Elizabeth Glover.t IIis son Adam, graduate at Harvard College, 1668, commanded one of the three militia companies of
* See note in Savage's Winthrop, i. 126.
t Dr. Farmer, in his Genealogy, following earlier authorities, makes Adımı the eldest son of Winthrop by his third wife ; but the Parish Register of Gro- ton, in Suffolk, extracts from which are furnished in Savage's " Gleanings ft New England History," (III Mass. Hist. Coll. viii.) makes Stephen the elder son by this marriage.
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Boston, which assembled on the deposition of Andros, was representative for several years, a counsellor under the charter of 1691, and a judge of the superior court, and died 30th August, 1700, aged 52. His son Adam, graduated at Harvard College, 1694, was representative and counsellor, and commanded the Boston regiment. He died 2d October, 1743. His son John, graduated at Harvard College, 1732, was in 1738, appointed Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, in Harvard College, and was one of the most learned men of the age. He died 3d May, 1779, aged 64."*
9. Deane. He was born March 16, 1623, was mem- ber of the artillery company, 1644, freeman, 1665, was concerned in the settlement of Groton, which was pro- bably so named, in honor of his father's native place. He died at Pulling Point, March 16, 1704, aged 81.
10. Samuel, born in August, 1627. In 1647, he was in the West Indies. In 1647, his father writes to John Winthrop, Jr., that Samuel was married in Holland to a Dutch woman, and was intending to visit Boston on his way to Barbadoes.
11. Anne. This daughter was born in April, 1630, after her father had left England. She died on the pas- sage to this country, when eighteen months old.
12. William, born 14th August, 1632. He proba- bly died young, as the records do not mention his birth.
13. Joshua, born 12th December, 1648, the only child by his last wife. After the death of Governor Win- throp, the General Court gave £200 to his infant Joshua ; and in case he died before attaining the age of twenty-
* See notice of Professor Winthrop, in Quincy's History Harvard Univer- sity, ii. 207-224.
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JOHN WINTHROP.
one years, one-third of the sum was to go to the widow. one-third to Deane Winthrop, and the remaining third to Samuel Winthrop. The paternal regard of the colo- ny was, however, ineffectual, as the Boston records show that "Joshua Winthrop, youngest son of the late Mr. John Winthrop, Esquire, died 11th January, 1651."
Governor Winthrop had five sons living at the time of his decease, all of whom, notwithstanding the reduction of his fortune, acquired and possessed large property. and were persons of eminence. The high reputation of the first Governor of Massachusetts, has been well sus- tained by succeeding generations of his family ; and no name, perhaps, in the history of New England has been more richly. adorned by exalted public and private char- acter, or more generally respected, than that of WIN- THROP .*
* Additional genealogical notes, and sketches of the distinguished descend. ants of Governor Winthrop, will be given in the Memoirs of the Governors of Connecticut.
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II. THOMAS DUDLEY.
THOMAS DUDLEY, one of the most distinguished of the Puritan settlers of New England, and second gover- nor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, was born at Northampton, in the neighborhood of the residence of the Earl of Northampton, in the year 1576. There is a tradition among the descendants of Governor Dudley, in the eldest branch of the family, that he was descended from John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who was beheaded 22 February, 1553, and some of the name have been anxious to trace their descent to that ambitious courtier ; but whoever will take the pains to consult Dug- dale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, will be satisfied that our honest old Puritan could not have descended from the Dudleys, who figure so much in English history. His descent, however, was probably quite as honorable ; as Dugdale produces evidence to show that Edmund Dud- ley, the privy counsellor of Henry VII., was the son, or grandson of John Dudley, a carpenter, and of very hum- ble origin-and not descended from the family of Sutton, Baron of Dudley, in Staffordshire, as was pretended by the Duke. It was the marriage of Edmund Dudley with Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of Sir Edward Grey, Viscount Lisle, that gave to him his family distinc- tion, and his talents gave him his influence and power. He was born in 1462, became a lawyer and privy coun- sellor to Henry VII., and speaker of the House of Com- mons in 1505. He retained the favor of this monarch, who bestowed upon him great wealth. Henry VIII.,
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inherited his father's treasures, but not his friendships : and Dudley was beheaded on Tower Hill, 22 Aug. 1510. John Dudley, the son of Edmund, was born in 1502, and after the accession of Edward VI., was made Earl of Warwick, and in 1551, Duke of Northumberland. He fell in the vain attempt to raise his daughter-in-law, the Lady Jane Grey, wife of Lord Guilford Dudley, to the throne, as successor of Edward, and was beheaded by order of Queen Mary, 22 Feb. 1553. Sir Robert Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland, born 1532, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, by whom, in 1564, he was made Baron of Denbigh and Earl of Leicester. He died 4 Sept. 15SS. Ambrose Dudley, brother to the Earl of Leicester, who died at Bedford House, near Lon- don, 21 Feb. 1589, was "deservedly called the good Earl of Warwick."# The Duke of Northumberland had eight sons and five daughters, and from one of these sons, the Rev. Samuel Dudley, son of Governor Thomas, supposed his family to have been derived.
A late writer, speaking of Robert Dudley, son of the Duke, who became the favorite of Queen Elizabeth, and was made Earl of Leicester, says the disputes about his descent, go back to his great grandfather, who is describ- ed by one party as a carpenter, and by the other as a nobleman; while a third, acting as umpire, proposes to reconcile both theories by making him a "noble timber- merchant." However the dispute may be decided, the jest, founded on the first theory, is too good to be lost ; it was said, that "he was the son of a duke, the brother of a king, the grandson of an esquire, and the great
" Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire. Kippis' Biographia Brittanica, vol. v. art. Dudley.
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THOMAS DUDLEY.
grandson of a carpenter; that the carpenter was the only honest man in the family, and the only one who died in his bed."
It does not appear that Governor Dudley ever claim- ed descent either from the family of Warwick or of Northumberland; and there have been those of the name, who would not exchange the title and privileges of an American citizen, for the brightest coronet that glitters in Europe.
Thomas Dudley was the only son of Captain Roger Dudley, who was slain in battle. Being left an orphan, he was taken into the family of the Earl of Northampton, where he remained for several years. He next entered the office of a judge of the name of Nicholls, in the ca- pacity of a clerk, in which situation, the judge being a kinsman of his mother, he was allowed many favorable opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge. These advantages he faithfully improved, and became distin- guished among the young men of his age, for intelligence, courage and conduct. Inheriting from his father, a taste for military adventure, and the most direct path to pub- lic honors during the reign of Elizabeth being the pro- fession of arms, when the Queen ordered levies for the French service, he was appointed to the command of a company, marched into the field, and was at the siege of Amiens, under Henry IV. On the conclusion of a treaty of peace, Captain Dudley returned to England, and set- tled in the neighborhood of Northampton. Here he married "a gentlewoman whose extraction and estate were considerable;" which circumstance introduced him to an acquaintance with several eminent and pious dis- senting clergymen. He attended their ministrations with
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1
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THOMAS DUDLEY.
a devout and prayerful spirit, and became one of the most sincere and inflexible of the persecuted body of the Puritans.
It was not long after this, that Lord Say and Seal. and other persons of quality, recommended Mr. Dudley to Theophilus, the fourth Earl of Lincoln, who came to his title on the death of his father, 15th January, 1619." The young Earl, on coming to his estate, found it incum- bered with heavy debts, and conceiving a good opinion of Dudley, made him steward of the household, and entrusted to him the management of his affairs. Find- ing him to possess more than ordinary discretion, the Earl would rarely, if ever, (says Mather,) do any matter of moment without his advice. He soon extricated the estate from its embarrassments, and increased the income. In his business transactions, he exhibited so much fore- sight, sagacity, and fidelity, as to gain the entire confi- dence of that nobleman and his family. Mr. Dudley remained about ten years steward of the Earl of Lin- coln, when he removed to Boston, in Lincolnshire, where he became a parishioner of the famous John Cotton, and the associate of those noble spirits, who were soon to lay the foundations of religious freedom in the new world. " Nevertheless the Earl of Lincoln found that he could be no more without Mr. Dudley, than Pharaoh without
* Mather calls this " the best family of any nobleman then in England :" and Collins' Peerage informs us, that Thomas, the third Earl of Lincoln, who was descended from a family that came in with William the Conquerer, had by one wife eight sons and nine daughters. One daughter, Frances, married John. son and heir of Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; another, Susan, married John Hum- phrey ; and a third, the Lady Arbella, married Isaac Johnson, and came over in the fleet in 1630, and died soon atter. So that a close relationship to New Eng- land would be acknowledged by the House of Lincoln. Savage's Winthrop, 1. 34, note.
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his Joseph, and prevailed with him to resume his former employment, until the storm of persecution upon the non-conformists caused many men of great worth to trans- port themselves into New England."*
Mr. Dudley was one of the five undertakers of the settlement of the Massachusetts colony,.and came over with the charter in 1630. He was far advanced in life for such an undertaking, being fifty-four years of age. Before the sailing of the fleet, while the Arbella, in which he embarked, was riding at anchor in the harbor of Cowes, Mr. Dudley was chosen deputy governor, in the place of John Humphrey, who remained behind. His own graphic account of the first steps in this great en- terprise, contained in his letter of 12 March, 1631, ad- dressed to the Countess of Lincoln, is the best that can be given. The following are extracts from this letter:
" For the satisfaction of your honor and some friends, and for use of such as shall hereafter intend to increase our plantation in New England, I have in the throng of domestic, and not altogether free from public business, thought fit to commit to memory our present condition, and what hath befallen us since our arrival here ; which I will do shortly, after my usual manner, and must do rudely, having yet no table, nor other room to write in, than by the fireside upon my knee, in this sharp winter ; to which my family must have leave to resort, though they break good manners, and make me many times for- get what I would say, and say what I would not."
"Touching the plantation which we here have begun, it fell out thus : about the year 1627, some friends being together in Lincolnshire, fell into some discourse about
* Mather's Magnalia, b. 2. c. 5.
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New England, and the planting of the gospel there ; and after some deliberation, we imparted our reasons by let- ters and messages, to some in London and the west country, where it was likewise deliberately thought upon, and at length with often negotiation so ripened, that in the year 1628, we procured a patent from His Majesty, for our planting between the Massachusetts Bay, and Charles river on the south, and the river of Merrimack on the north, and three miles on either side of those riv- ers and bay, as also for the government of those who did or should inhabit within that compass, and the same year we sent Mr. John Endecott and some with him, to begin a plantation and to strengthen such as he should find there, which we sent thither, from Dorchester and some places adjoining ; from whom, the same year, receiving hopeful news. The next year, 1629, we sent divers ships over, with about three hundred people, and some cows, goats, and horses, many of which, arrived safely. These by theis too large commendations of the country. and the commodities thereof, invited us so strongly to go on, that Mr. Winthrop of Suffolk, (who was well known in his own country and well approved here for his piety, liberality, wisdom, and gravity,) coming into us, we came to such resolution, that in April, 1630, we set sail from old England, with four good ships .* And in May following, eight more followed, two having gone before, in February and March, and two more following in June and August, besides another sent out by a private mer- chant. These seventeen ships arrived all safe in New England, for the increase of the plantation here, this year, 1630, but made a long, troublesome, and a costly
* The Arbella, Jewell, Ambrose, and Talbot.
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voyage, being all wind bound, long in England, and hindered with contrary winds after they set sail, and so scattered with mists and tempests, that few of them ar- rived together. Our four ships which set out in April, arrived here in June and July, where we found the colo- ny in a sad and unexpected condition ; above eighty of them being dead the winter before, and many of those alive, weak and sick; all the corn and bread amongst them all, hardly sufficient to feed them a fortnight, inso- much, that the remainder of one hundred and eighty ser- vants we had the two years before sent over, coming to us for victuals to sustain them, we found ourselves wholly unable to feed them, by reason that the provisions ship- ped 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 enforced us, to our extreme loss, to give them full liberty, who had cost us about sixteen or twenty pounds a per- son, furnishing and sending over. But bearing these things as we might, we began to consult of the place of our sitting down, for Salem, where we landed, pleased us not. And to that purpose, 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 Mistick ; but some other of ns seconding these to approve or dislike of their judgment, we found a place liked us bet- ter, three leagues up Charles river, and thereupon, un- shipped our goods into other vessels, and with much cost and labor, brought them in July, to Charlestown ; but there receiving advertisements by some of the late arrived ships from London and Amsterdam, of some French pre- parations against us, (many of our people brought with
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us, being sick of fevers and scurvy, and we thereby un- able to carry up our ordnance and baggage so far) \ were forced to change counsel, and for our present shel- ter, to plant dispersedly, some at Charlestown, which stands on the north side of the mouth of Charles river : some on the south side thereof, which place we named Boston (as we intended to have done the place we first resolved on;) some of us upon Mistick, which we named Medford ; some of us westward on Charles river, four miles from Charlestown, which place we named Water- town ; others of us, two miles from Boston, in a place we named Rocksbury ; others upon the river of Sawgus. between Salem and Charlestown ; and the western men. four miles south from Boston, at a place we named Dor- chester. This dispersion troubled some of us, but help it, we could not, wanting ability to remove to any place fit to build a town upon, and the time too short to delibe- rate any longer, least the winter should surprise us be- fore we had built our houses. The best counsel we could find out, was to build a fort to retire to, in some conve- nient place, if any enemy pressed thereunto, after we should have fortified ourselves against the injuries of wet and cold. So ceasing to consult further for that time. they who had health to labor, fell to building, wherein many were interrupted with sickness, and many died weekly, yea almost daily."
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