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 22
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Governor Dudley, as has before been mentioned, married his first wife in England. She died 27th Sep- tember, 1643. In the following year, he married Mrs. Catherine Hackburne, widow of Samuel Hackburne. This lady survived Governor Dudley, and was married to Rev. John Allin of Dedham, Sth November, 1653, a little more than three months after the governor's death. The children of Governor Dudley, by both marriages, were,
1. Samuel, born in England, about 1606, came to this country with his father, was educated for the minis- try, married Mary, daughter of Governor Winthrop in 1633, resided at Cambridge, Boston, and Salisbury, and finally settled at Exeter, as the minister of that town, in
* Camden's Remaines of a Greater Worke, p. 18.
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1650, where he died early in 1633, aged 77. He was a representative in 1644, from Salisbury. His wife died at Salisbury, 12th April, 1643; and he afterwards mar- ried a second and third wife. The descendants of Rev. Samuel Dudley are very numerous in New Hampshire .*
2. Anne, born in England, in 1612. At the age of sixteen she married Simon Bradstreet, afterwards gover- nor of Massachusetts, and accompanied him to New England in 1630. She was a woman of rare accomplish- ments, and wrote a volume of poems, probably the ear- liest in America, a second edition of which was published in 167S.f She died 16th September, 1672.
3. Patience, who married major-general Daniel Den- nison, distinguished in the early annals of the colony.}
* See Farmer and Moore's Collections, i. 155, and ii. 237.
t Savage says " it does credit to her education, and is a real curiosity, though no reader, free from partiality of friendship, might coincide in the commenda- tion of the funeral elogy by John Norton :
"Could Maro's Muse but hear her lively strain, He would condemn his works to fire again. * * . .
* * Her breast was a brave palace, a broad street, Where all heroie ample thoughts did meet, Where nature such a lenemeist had fa'en, That other souls, to hers, dwelt in a lane."
# General Dennison was born in England in 1613, was of Cambridge in' 1633, removed to Ipswich before 1635, was a deputy eight years, speaker in. 1649 and 1651, major general in 1653, and an assistant twenty-nine years. He died 20th September, 16:2, aged 70. lle is spoken of by high authority as one' of the few " popular and well principled men in the magistracy." Savage says : " The moderate spirit by which he was usually actuated, had not a general spread, yet the continuance of his election to the same rank for many years, where his sympathy was not, in relation to the controversy with the Crown, in unison with that of the people, is evidence of the strong hold his virtues and public labors had acquired." .The " Ircuicon or Sulre for .Ver England's Sorc," of which he was the author, displays his accomplishments as a scholar. John- son observes, he was a " godly faithful men, which is the fountain of true vali- dity-a good soldier, of a quick capacity, not inferior to any of the chief offi- cers ;- his own company are well instructed in feats of warlike activity." Whitman's Hist. Anc. and Hon. Artill. 170.
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4 Mercy, born 27th September, 1621, who married Rev. John Woodbridge, the first minister of Andover. Massachusetts. She died Ist July, 1691 .*
5. - -, who married Major Benjamin Keayne, of Boston, the only son of Capt. Robert Keayne, founder of the "Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company" oi Boston. The father alludes to this in his will as "alle unhappy and uncomfortable match." He went to Eng- land, where he repudiated his wife, and died about 1665.
6. Deborah, born 27th February, 1645.
7. Joseph, born 23d July, 1647: The second Gor- ernor Dudley; of whom, see memoirs in subsequent pages of this volume.
S. Paul, born at Roxbury, 8th September, 1650. when his father, the venerable Governor Thomas, was 73 years old. He married Mary, a daughter of Gover- nor Leverett, was Register of Probate for several years, and died in 1681.
* Mr. Woodbridge was born at Stanton, in Wiltshire, in 1613, was educated in part at Oxford, came to New England in 1634, and settled at Newbury as a planter, but becoming a preacher, was ordained at Andover in 1645. He went to England in 1647, returned in 1663, and again settled at Newbury ; was chosen an assistant in 1693 and 1634, and died 17 March, 1695. His brother, Benjamin Woodbridge, D. D., was the first graduate of Harvard College.
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III. JOHN HAYNES.
JOHN HAYNES, the third governor of Massachusetts Bay, was a native of the county of Essex, in England, where he possessed an elegant seat, called Copford Hall, with which he inherited an income of a thousand pounds a year. A gentleman of easy fortune, surrounded by all the comforts of life, he had no motive of a pecuniary na- ture urging him to exchange his native land for another. He had, however, attached himself to the puritan inter- est, and watched with eagerness the progress of the emi- gration to America. The hopes of the pilgrims were beginning to be realized. The difficulties and dangers of the original settlements, had been surmounted. New Plymouth had become a prosperous colony, and the foundations of Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Watertown, and Cambridge had been laid. The decrees of the En- glish Star Chamber, and the persecutions of Archbishop Laud, were " sifting the wheat of the three kingdoms," and furnishing abundant seed to plant the deserts of New Eng- land with men of resolute and unbending hearts.
Won by the invitations of Governor Winthrop and others, Mr. Haynes, in 1633, determined to remove to New England. Two long months were occupied in the voyage, during which three sermons a day beguiled the weariness/of the passengers, of whom there were two hundred on board the ship. The vessel, which was cal- led the Griffin, arrived at Boston on the 4th September, bringing, in addition to Mr. Haynes, three of the most eminent fathers of the New England church: Cotton,
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Hooker, and Stone, the first of whom settled at Boston. and the others at Cambridge, then called Newtown.
A man like Mr. Haynes, "possessing a large estate, and larger affections ; of a heavenly mind, and spotless life; of rare sagacity, and accurate but unassuming judg- ment ; by nature tolerant, ever a friend to freedom, and ever conciliating peace"-for such is the modern estimate of his character *- would not long remain unnoticed in any community. We accordingly find that at the next election, in 1634, he was chosen one of the assistants of the colony. In the same year, he was placed on the ex- traordinary commission, consisting of seven persons, to whom was deputed the disposition of "all military affairs whatsoever," with power to levy war offensive and de- fensive, and to imprison, or put to death, any whom they should judge to be enemies to the commonwealth.t
In 1635, Mr. Haynes succeeded Governor Dudley in the chief magistracy of the colony. " The reason was, partly, because the people would exercise their absolute power, and partly upon some speeches of the deputy."} Roger Ludlow was the deputy referred to, and aspired to be governor at this election.§ When the vote was declared in favor of Mr. Haynes, he protested against the election as void, because the deputies of the several towns had agreed upon the election before they came ;
* See Bancroft's Ilist. i. 362. t Sec p. 286, of this volume.
# Savage's Winthrop, i. 158.
§ Ludlow was one of the founders of Dorchester, and one of the first assist- ants of the colony. Immediately after the occurrences in 1635, when he thought his claims neglected, he left the colony, and became an active and influential man in Connecticut, where he was a magistrate, deputy governor, and Commis- sioner of the United Colonies. In 1651, he removed to Virginia, and the time of his death is unknown. Hubbard says he was the brother-in-law of Endecott. Hle compiled the first code of laws in Connecticut.
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whereupon the general court dropped him from the list of magistrates. In the infancy of the plantation, the expenses of government bore somewhat heavily upon the people, and Governor Haynes took occasion to in- form them, in his address upon taking the chair, " that he should spare the usual charge towards his allowance, partly in respect of their love showed towards him, and partly for that he observed how. much the people had been pressed lately with public charges."*
Soon after Governor Haynes was installed in office, information was received that the Dutch authorities at Manhattan, contemplated a settlement on the Connecti- cut river, whereupon he sent a barque round the cape to the Dutch governor, to acquaint him that the King had granted the river and country of Connecticut to English subjects, and desired him to forbear building any where thereabouts. A war of words ensued between the two colonies, but hostilities were averted.
Governor Haynes was superseded in the following year, by Henry Vane. Hutchinson says, that "Mr. Haynes being no longer a rival to Mr. Winthrop, he would have been the most popular man, if Mr. Vane's solemn deportment, although he was not then more than 24 or 25 years of age, had not engaged almost the whole colony in his favor." Savage says of Mr. Haynes, that he was " fortunate in being governor of Massachusetts, and more fortunate in removing after his first year in office, thereby avoiding our bitter contentions, to become the father of the new colony of Connecticut."
As early as 1634, measures had been taken by Mr. Haynes and others, to ascertain the feasibility of com-
* Savage's Winthrop, i. 159.
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mencing a new settlement on the Connecticut river. Straitened for room at Newtown, they applied to the general court for leave to remove, and the question was for sometime debated, and permission finally refused. But the number of proposed emigrants increasing, the general court afterwards consented. In October, 1635. a company of sixty removed, and settlements were com- menced at Windsor and Wethersfield; and John Win- throp, jr., returning from England with a commission from Lord Say and Seal, commenced a plantation at Say- brook. The succeeding winter proved so severe, that famine began to be apprehended; the settlements were partially abandoned, and many of the emigrants were obliged to return to Massachusetts. Their sufferings were extreme, and the few that remained, had to subsist upon acorns, malt, and grain.
In the spring of 1636, preparations were made for a more effectual settlement upon the Connecticut, and af- ter due deliberation, the whole body of Mr. Hooker's church and congregation, came to the determination to remove. They commenced their journey in the month of June. It was to be through a dreary and trackless wilderness, of more than a hundred miles. They had no guide but their compass ; no covering but the heav- ens. There were about one hundred persons, men, wo- men, and children-at the head of whom, were the Rev. Mr. Hocker, Mr. Samuel Stone, and others, who were active leaders of the colony. They drove along with them, a hundred and sixty head of cattle, and subsisted on their march through the wilderness, upon the wild fruits which they found, and the milk of their cows. Fish and fowl were plenty ; and, as they usually tarried a short
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time on the banks of the little lakes that lay embosomed in the wilderness, their young men, on such occasions, busied themselves in taking game. Occasionally, a huge bear would cross their path in advance, and hurry off affrighted by the formidable array. The deer, which were plenty in those days, would snuff up the breeze which told of the advancing column, and fly far off into the deep forests. Now a wolf or panther, more bold than the other inhabitants of the wild, would loiter by the wayside, as if to dispute the passage of the adven- turers, until the noise of the herd, or the shouts of the herdsmen, or the ominous crack of firearms, admonished them to retire. The females who were ill, or too feeble to endure the journey on foot, which was through a perfect wilderness for more than a hundred miles, were borne in litters upon the shoulders of the young athletic men. In the evening, as they came together, and set their watch to keep off the beasts of prey, or prepare to guard against any incursions of the In- dians, the prayers of that little congregation went up into the arches of heaven to the Almighty's footstool ; and when the first ray of morning light tipped the tall pines, the thanksgivings of humble and contrite hearts were offered to the throne of mercy.
The whole journey occupied nearly a fortnight, and during their march they had no shelter but the broad canopy above, or such as the branches and boughs of the trees afforded. Yet they accomplished their journey with perfect safety, and arrived with joy at their future residence, pleased to behold the beauties of the noble valley which skirted the broad and beautiful Connecticut. The Indian name of the new settlement was Suck-
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iaug. The territory was now purchased of Sunckquas- son, the Indian sachem of the neighborhood, and good understanding kept up with the tribe for several years. The town soon began to prosper ; the settlers multiplied in numbers, and increased in wealth; and many of the existing families of the present opulent city, trace their descent from the little Newtown colony, to whose exodus we have adverted.
In the spring of 1637, Mr. Haynes removed his fam- ily to Connecticut, and settled at Hartford. It was a pe- riod of intense gloom in the little colony. The Pequots, then the most warlike tribe in New England, were jeal- ous of the new settlements, and plotting their ruin. Many persons had been killed, or taken, and cruelly tor- tured. The court of assistants determined on offensive operations, as the only means of conquering the enemy, and the colonies of New Plymouth and Massachusetts agreed to aid them in the struggle. The army com- manded by Captain John Mason,# and consisting of seventy-seven Englishmen, sixty Moheagan and river Indians, and about two hundred Narragansetts, marched on the 24th of May to Nihantick, a frontier to the Pe- quots, and the seat of one of the Narragansett sachems. The next morning a considerable number of Miantoni-
Capt. John Mason, the distinguished Pequot warrior, was born about 1600, and bred to arms in the Netherlands, under Sir Thomas Fairfax. He came to this country about 1632, was admitted freeman in 1635, having been one of the first settlers of Dorchester, which he represented in 1635 and 1636. In the lat- ter year he removed to Windsor, Connecticut, was of Saybrook in 16-17, and of Norwich in 1639. He was a magistrate from 1642 to 1650, deputy governor, 1660, and nine succeeding years, and major general of Connecticut. He died at Norwich, 1672. His son, John, a captain, was wounded in the great batth. with the Narragansetts, 19 Dec. 1675, and died in September following. De- scendants of this energetic warrior are found in New England, one of whom ty the Hon. JEREMIAH MASON, LL. D., of Boston.
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moh's men, and of the Nihanticks, joined the English, who renewed their march, with nearly five hundred In- dians. After marching twelve miles to a ford in Pawca- tuck river, Mason halted, and refreshed his troops, faint- ing through heat and seauty provisions. Here many of the Narragansetts, astonished to find it his intention to attack the Pequots in their forts,* withdrew, and returned home. Under the guidance of Wequash, a revolted Pequot, the army proceeded in its march toward Mistic river, where was one of the Pequot forts, and, when evening approached, pitched their camp by two large rocks.+ Two hours before day, the troops were roused to the eventful action, the issue of which was in fear- ful suspense. After a march of about two miles, they came to the foot of the hill, on the summit of which stood the hostile fort. The day was nearly dawning, and no time was to be lost. Mason, throwing the troops into two divisions, pressed forward with one to the eas- tern, and Underhill with the other, to the western en- trance. When Mason drew nigh the fort, a dog barked, and an Indian instantly called out, Owanux ! Owanux ! [Englishmen ! Englishmen !] The troops pressed on, and, having poured a full discharge of their muskets through the palisades upon the astonished enemy, entered the fort, sword in hand. A severe conflict ensued. Many of the Indians were slain. Some of the English were killed, others wounded ; and the issue of battle was yet dubious. At this critical moment, Mason cried out to
* The Pequots had two forts, one at Mistic river ; another several miles dis- tant, which was the fort of Sassacus, their great sachem, whose very name. filled the Indians with terror. "Sassacus," said the Narragansetts, " is all one. God; no man can kill him." I Mass. Hist. Coll., ix. 81.
* In Groton, Connecticut, now called Porter's rocks. Trumbull, i. 83.
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his men, " We must burn them." Entering a wigwam at the same instant, he seized a fire brand, and put it into the mats with which the wigwams were covered : and the combustible habitations were soon wrapped in flames. The English, retiring without the fort, formed a circle around it; and Uncas with his Indians formed another circle in their rear. The devouring fire, and the English weapons, made rapid and awful devastation. In little more than the space of one hour, seventy wig- wams were burnt; and, either by the sword or the flames. five hundred or six hundred Indians perished. Of the English, two men were killed, and sixteen wounded.
The Governor and council of Massachusetts, on receiving intelligence of the success of the Connecticut troops, judged it needful to send forward but one hundred and twenty men. These troops, under the command of Captain Stoughton, arriving at Pequot harbor in June. and receiving assistance from the Narragansett Indians. surrounded a large body of Pequots in a swamp, and took eighty captives. The men, thirty in number, were killed, but the women and children were saved. Forty men, raised by Connecticut, and put under the command of the heroic Mason, joined Stoughton's company at Pequot.# While the vessels sailed along the shore, these allied troops pursued the fugitive Indians by land, to Quinnipiack, t and found some scattering Pequots on their march. Receiving information at Quinnipiack, that the enemy were at a considerable distance westward, in a great swamp, they marched in that direction, with all
* New London was originally called Pequot; and was occupied by the Pe- quot tribe. See page 148, of this volume.
t The Indian name of New Haven.
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possible despatch, about twenty miles, and came to the swamp, where were eighty or one hundred warriors, and nearly two hundred other Indians: Some of the English rushing eagerly forward, were badly wounded ; and others, sinking into the mire, were rescued by a few of their brave companions, who sprang forward to their relief with drawn swords. Some Indians were slain ; others, finding the whole swamp surrounded, desired a parley ; and, on the offer of life, about two hundred old men, women, and children, among whom was the sachem of the place, gradually came out, and submitted to the English. The Pequot warriors, indignantly spurning submission, renewed the action, which, as far as it was practicable, was kept up through the night: A thick fog, the next morning, favoring the escape of the enemy, ma- ny of them, among whom were sixty or seventy warriors, broke through the surrounding troops. About twenty were killed, and one hundred and eighty taken prisoners. The captives were divided between Connecticut and Massachusetts, which distributed them among the Mo- heagans and Narragansetts. Sassacus, the chief sachem, fled with about twenty of his best men to the Mohawks, who, at the request of the Narragansetts, cut off his head ; and his country now became a province of the English. However just the occasion of this war, (says Holmes, ) humanity demands a tear on the extinction of a valiant tribe, which preferred death to dependence .*
In addition to the embarrassments occasioned by the struggle with the Pequots, the settlers of Connecticut, as the winter approached, were menaced with starvation.
* Morton, 90. Hubbard's Indian Wars, 36-54. Trumbull, i. 60-77.
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The snows, which came frequent, were four feet deep from the 4th of November, 1637, until the 23rd of March following, and the cold was severe. In this emergency, through the agency of a few persons sent among the In- dians, now at peace, supplies of corn were procured, and the danger of famine averted.
Governor Haynes accompanied Uncas, the Moheagan sachem to Boston, in 1638, when the latter, who had given offence to Massachusetts by entertaining some of the hos- tile Pequots, sought a reconciliation. "This heart," said the sachem, laying his hand upon his breast, as he ad- dressed the governor, "is not mine, but yours ; I have no men ; they are all yours ; command me any difficult thing, I will do it ; I will not believe any Indians' words against the English ; if any man shall kill an Englishman. I will put him to death, were he never so dear to me."* The presents and promises of Uncas were accepted, and he was ever afterwards faithful to the whites.
For a period of nearly three years after the settle- ment of Connecticut, all the powers of government were exercised by the magistrates. They had a general su- perintendence of all the affairs of the plantation, without any direct assistance from the body of freemen.
But in 1639, the people determined to establish a constitution · for themselves. All the free planters of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield accordingly assem- bled at Hartford, on the 14th January, and adopted a constitution, based on the broad foundations of liberty and religion, which has been admired as the'model of a republican system, and continued for a century and a
* Savage's Winthrop, i. 266. See also Records of United Colonies, quoted in Hutchinson's Colony Mass. Bay, 1.12.
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half to be the basis of the civil government of Connec- ticut.
This constitution ordained that there should be annu- ally two general courts, or legislative assemblies, one in April, and the other in September ; that in the first, all public officers should be chosen ; that a governor should be annually appointed ; that no one should be chosen to this office unless he had been a magistrate, and also a member of some church; that the choice of officers should be by ballot, and by the whole body of freemen ; and that every man was to be considered a freeman, who had been received as a member by any of the towns, and had taken the oath of fidelity to the commonwealth ; that each of the three towns should send four deputies to the general court; and that when there was an equal division of votes on any question, the governor should have the casting vote .* .
The first election under this constitution was held in the April following, when John Haynes was chosen the first governor of Connecticut. His distinguished character, and the important part he had taken in the early settlement of the colony, naturally pointed him out for this station. One of his earliest acts, was to press upon the assembly the necessity of establishing a code of laws; and that body proceeded as occasion required to discharge that duty. The laws at first were few, and time was taken to consider and digest them. The first statute in the Connecticut code is a kind of declaration, or bill of rights. It ordains, that no man's life shall be taken away ; no man's honor or good name
* Hazard, i. 437-441, where the Constitution is inserted. Trumbull, i. App. No. 3.
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be stained ; no man's person shall be arrested, restrained, · banished, dismembered, nor any wise punished ; that no man shall be deprived of his wife or children; no man's estate or goods shall be taken away from him, nor any wise endamaged, under color of law, or coun- tenance of authority, unless it should be by the virtue of some express law of the colony warranting the same, established by the general court, and sufficiently pub- lished ; or in case of the defect of such law, in any particular case, by some clear and plain rule of the word of God, in which the whole court shall concur. It was also ordained, that all persons in the colony, whether in- habitants or not, should enjoy the same law and justice without partiality or delay .*
Under the constitution of Connecticut, no person could be chosen governor oftener than once in two years. Edward Hopkins was accordingly chosen to that office in 1640. Governor Haynes was again chosen in 1641; but in 1642, from some disagreement among the freemen, both Mr. Haynes and Mr. Hopkins were dropped in the election, and George Wyllys was appointed governor.
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