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 4
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I Prince says, that Mas-sas-o-it, is a word of four syllables, and was so pro- nounced by the ancient people of Plymouth (p. 101.) This remark is confirmed by the manner in which it is spelled in some parts of Winslow's Narrative, Mu- sas-o-trat. The sachem, in conformity to a custom among the Indians, after- wards changed his name to Owsamequin, or Woosamequen. See Drake's Book of the Indians, b. ii. 25.
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nounce his coming, and bring some skins as a present. In about an hour the sachem, with his brother Qua-de- qui-nah, and his whole force of sixty men, appeared on the hill over against them. Squanto was sent to know his pleasure, and returned with the sachem's request that one of the company should come to him. Edward Winslow immediately went alone, carrying a present in his hand, with the governor's compliments, desiring to see the sachem, and enter on a friendly treaty. Massa- soit left Winslow in the custody of his brother, to whom another present was made, and, taking twenty of his men, unarmed, descended the hill towards the brook, over which lay a log bridge. Captain Miles Standish, at the head of six men, met him at the brook, and escorted him and his train to one of the best houses, where three or four cushions were placed on a green rug spread over the floor. The governor came in, preceded by a drum and trumpet, which greatly delighted the Indians. After mutual salutations," he entered into conversation with the sachem, which issued in a treaty. The articles were, " 1. That neither he nor his should injure any of ours. 2. That if they did, he should send the offender, that we might punish him. 3. That if our tools were taken away, he should restore them. 4. That if any unjustly warred against him, we would aid him : and ifany warred against us, he should aid us. 5. That he should certify his
*"Our governonr kissing his hand, the king kissed him, and so they sat down." Mourt, in I Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 229. On page 230 of the same, Massasoit is thus described : " In his person he is a very lusty man, in his best years, an able body, grave of countenance, and sparing of speech ; in attire little or nothing differing from the rest of his followers, only in a great chain of white bone beads about his neck, and at it behind his neck hangs a little bag of tobacco, which he drank (smoked) and gave us to drink. His face was paint- ed with a sad red-like murrey, and oiled both head and face, that he looked greasily. The king had in his bosom, hanging by a string, a great long knife."
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neighbour confederates of this, that they might not wrong us, but be comprised in the conditions of peace. 6. That when their men came to us, they should leave their bows and arrows behind them, as we should leave our pieces, when we came to them. 7. That in doing thus, KING JAMES would esteem him as his friend and ally."
All which Massasoit cheerfully assented to, and at at the same time "acknowledged himself content to become the subject of our sovereign lord the king aforce- said, his heirs and successors; and gave unto them all the lands adjacent, to them and their heirs forever."*
The conference being ended, and the company hav- ing been entertained with such refreshments as the place afforded, the sachem returned to his camp. This treaty, the work of one day, being honestly intended on both sides, was kept with fidelity as long as Massasoit lived, but was afterwards broken by Philip, his successor.
The next day, Massasoit sent for some of the English to visit him. Captain Standish and Isaac Allerton went, were kindly received, and treated with groundnuts and tobacco.
The sachem then returned to his headquarters, distant about forty miles; but Squantum and Samoset remain- ed at Plymouth, and instructed the people how to plant
. " The New Plymouth associates, by the favor of the Almighty, began the colony in New England, at a place called by the natives Apaum, alias Patuxet ; all the lands being void of inhabitants, we, the said John Carver, Willian B:2d9ed, Edward Winslow, William Brewster, Isaac Allerton, and the rest of ont associates, entering into a league of peace with Massasoit, since called Wienamequen, Prince, or Sachem of those parts, he the said Massasoit freely save them all the land adjacent to them and their heirs forever." See, in the Parface to the Laws of New Plymouth, 1685, " The Warrantable Grounds and Pourrdings of the first Associates of New Plimouth, in their laying the first Foundation of this Government."
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their corn, and dress it with herrings, of which an im- mense quantity came into the brooks. The ground which they planted with corn was twenty acres. They sowed six acres with barley and pease; the former yielded an indifferent crop, but the latter were parched with the heat, and came to nothing.
While they were engaged in this labour, in which all were alike employed, on the 5th of April, (the day on which the Mayflower sailed for England, ) Governor Car- ver came out of the field at noon, complaining of a pain in his head, caused by the heat of the sun .* It soon deprived him of his senses, and on the 6th of April, 1621, put an end to his life, to the great grief of this infant plantation. f He was buried with all the honors which could be shown to the memory of a good man by a grateful people. The men were under arms, and fired several volleys over his grave. Jasper, a son of Governor Carver, had died on the 6th of December preceding, and his affectionate wife, overcome with grief for the loss of her husband and son, soon followed them to the grave.
Elizabeth, a daughter, married John Howland ;} and
* Baylies observes, " it is not a little remarkable that such an effect should have been produced in this climate in the month of April."
t At a general meeting, March 23d, sundry laws were enacted, and Mr. Carver was " chosen, or rather confirmed," governor for the ensuing year. He sustained the office four months and twenty days only. The whole number of survivors in the colony at the time of his death was fifty-five only.
# John Howland, the thirteenth signer of the compact, is counted as belong- ing to Carver's family, whose daughter he married. The Plymouth colony records speak of him as " an ancient professor of the ways of Christ; one of the first comers, and proved a useful instrument of good, and was [one of ] the last of the male survivors of those who came over in the Mayflower in 1620, and whose place of abode was Plymouth." John Alden of Duxbury, outlived him fifteen years. The last survivor of the Mayflower was Mary Cushman, daughter of Isaac Allerton. Howland died 23d February 1672, at Rocky Nook in Kingston, aged 20. lle had four sons and six daughters, some of whose
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there were other children remaining, but their names are nowhere mentioned ; neither do they appear at any subsequent time in the annals of the colony; they attain- ed no civil honors; they rose to no distinction; but less fortunate than the children of other governors, they remained in obscurity, and were unnoticed by the people. The name of Carver does not appear in the assignment of lands in 1623, nor in the division of cattle in 1627. William, a grandson of Governor Carver, who lived at Marshfield, acquired some notoriety on account of his extreme age, having lived until he was one hundred and two years old. This grandson, when ninety-six years old, was seen labouring in the same field with his son, grand- son, and great-grandson, while an infant of the fifth gener- ation was in his house. He died 2d October, 1760. It has been said that Jonathan Carver, the traveller, who died in London, 31 Jan. 1780, was a descendant of the governor.
Governor Carver is represented as a man of great prudence, integrity, and firmness of mind. He had a good estate in England, which he spent in the emigra- tion to Holland and America. He was one of the fore- most in action, and bore a large share of sufferings in the service of the colony, who confided in him as their friend and father. Piety, humility, and benevolence were emi- nent traits in his character, and it is particularly remarked that in the time of general sickness which befel the colony, and with which he was affected, after he had
descendants are still living in the Old Colony, and in Rhode Island. A gene- alogy of the family, written by one of them, the venerable John Howland, President of the Rhode Island IHistorical Society, is inserted in Thacher's Ply- mouth, p. 12. ١
* Edinb. Encyclopedia, (Amer. edit.) v. 467.
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himself recovered, he was assiduous, in attending the sick, and performing the most humiliating services for them, without any distinction of persons or characters.
In the records of the Church at Plymouth, due men- tion is made of the sad loss sustained by the church and colony in the death of Governor Carver. "This worthy gentleman was one of singular piety, and rare for humil- ity, which appeared, as otherwise, so by his great con- descendency, when as this miserable people were in great sickness, he shunned not to do very mean services for them, yea, the meanest of them. He bare a share like- wise of their labours in his own person, according as their great necessity required. Who being one also of con- siderable estate, spent the main part of it in this enterprise, and from first to last approved himself not only as their agent in the first transaction of things, but also along to the period of his life, to be a pious, faithful, and very beneficial instrument .**
The memory of Governor Carver is still held in esteem ; and a broadsword, and other relics, which be- longed to him, are preserved at Pilgrim Hall in Ply- mouth, or in the cabinet of the Historical Society at Boston, as precious memorials of the first chief magistratq of the Old Colony.
* MS. Records Plymouth Church, i. 27.
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II. WILLIAM BRADFORD.
WHEN, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, the little band of English Puritans gathered together, and formed their congregation, near the con- fines of the counties of York, Nottingham and Lincoln,- choosing for their ministers, Richard Clifton and John Robinson,-a sedate youth, then scarcely twelve years of age, of grave countenance and earnest manner, was observed to be a constant attendant upon their meetings. That youth was WILLIAM BRADFORD, an orphan. He was born in the year 1588, at Austerfield, an obscure village in Yorkshire. His parents dying while he was a child, his education was provided for by his grand parents and uncles; but was limited almost exclusively to those branches of knowledge deemed necessary to an agri- cultural life, and such as generally falls to the share of the children of English husbandmen. . Deprived of other sources of information, his love of reading naturally sought gratification in the Bible, and he drank deep of the foun- tain of truth in the sacred volume. He thus acquired those deep impressions of piety, and that inflexible love for, and disposition to maintain what he believed to be the truth, for which he was afterwards distinguished.
Ilis. attendance upon the ministrations of Clifton, deeply offended his relatives. They were hostile to the new sect, and their hostility was not likely to be softened by the reflection, that one of their family, dependent in some degree upon their friendship, had presumed, in opposition to their remonstrances, to embrace the faith of the puritans. Young Bradford was therefore exposed
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to their resentment, as well as to the jeers and scoffs of his juvenile companions. But he had deliberately made up his mind, in the full belief that his course was right --- and no persuasion nor menaces could induce him to abandon the faith which he had thus adopted.
When he was eighteen years old, in the autumn of 1607, Mr. Bradford became one of the company who resolved upon an early removal to Holland, as the only means of escape from persecution. The narrative of their two first attempts, is best recited in the words of Bradford himself, as follows:
"There was a large company of them proposed to get passage at Boston, in Lincolnshire, and for that end had hired a ship wholly to themselves, and made agree- ment with the master to be ready at a certain day, and take them and their goods in at a convenient place, where accordingly they would all attend in readiness. So af- ter long waiting and large expense, though he kept not day with them, yet he came at length and took them in, in the night. But when he had them and their goods aboard, he betrayed them, having beforehand complotted with the searchers and other officers so to do, who took them and put them into open boats, and then rifled and ransacked them, searching them to their shirts for money, yea, even the women, further than became modesty, and then carried them back into the town, and made them a spectacle and wonder to the multitude, which came flocking on all sides to behold them. Being thus, first by the catch-poles, ritled and stript of their money, books, and much other goods, they were presented to the magis- trates, and messengers sent to inform the lords of the council of them, and so they were committed to ward. Indeed, the magistrates used them courteously, and shew-
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cd them what favor they could, but could not deliver them till order came from the council table; but the issue was, that after a month's imprisonment, the greatest part were dismissed and sent to the places from whence they came, but seven of the principal men were still kept in prison, and bound over to the assizes .*
" The next spring after, there was another attempt made, by some of these and others, to get over at another place. And so it fell out that they light of a Dutchman at Hull, having a ship of his own belonging to Zealand. They made agreement with him and acquainted him with their condition, hoping to find more faithfulness in him than in the former of their own nation. He bade them not fear, for he would do well enough. He was by appoint- ment to take them in between Grimsby and Hull, where was a large common a good way distant from any town. Now against the prefixed time, the women and children, with the goods, were sent to the place in a small bark, which they had hired for that end, and the men were to meet them by land ; but it so fell out that they were there a day before the slip came, and the sea being rough, and the women very sick, prevailed with the scamen to put into a creck hard by, where they lay on ground at low water. The next morning the ship came, but they were fast and could not stir till about noon. In the meantime the shipmaster, perceiving how the matter was, sent his boat to get the men aboard whom he saw ready, walking about the shore, but after the first boat- full was got aboard, and she was ready to go for more, the master espied a great company both horse and foot, with bills, and guns, and other weapons, for the country was raised to take them. The Dutchman seeing that,
. Bradford was among the number arrested upon this occasion, and was re- Iceod in consideration of his youth.
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swore his country oath 'sacramente,' and having the wind fair, weighed anchor, hoisted sails, and away. After enduring a fearful storm at sea for fourteen days or more, seven whereof they never saw sun, moon nor stars, and being driven near the coast of Norway, they arrived at their desired haven, where the people came flocking, admiring their deliverance, the storm having been so long and sore, in which much hurt had been done, as the master's friends related to him in their congratulations. The rest of the men that were in greatest danger, made a shift to escape away before the troop could surprise them, those only staying that best might be assisting unto the women. But pitiful it was to see the heavy case of these poor women in distress; what weeping and crying on every side, some for their husbands that were carried away in the ship, others not knowing what should become of them and their little ones, crying for fear, and quaking with cold. Being appre- hended, they were hurried from one place to another till in the end they knew not what to do with them; for, to imprison so many women with their innocent children, for no other cause, many of them, but that they would go with their husbands, seemed to be unreasonable, and all would cry out of them ; and to send them home again was as difficult, for they alleged, as the truth was, they had no homes to go to, for they had either sold or other- wise disposed of their houses and livings. To be short, after they had been thus turmoiled a good while, and conveyed from one constable to another, they were glad to be rid of them in the end upon any terms, though, in the meantime, they, poor souls, endured misery enough."*
* Sce Appendix, No. I, Hutchinson's History of the Province of Massachu- setts Bay, p. 119; or Bradford's Ilist. in Young's Chronicles, 26.
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After some time, Mr. Bradford succeeded in going wer to Zealand, though he encountered many difficul- He had no sooner sat his foot upon the shore, than a malicious person, who had come as passenger in the saime vessel, accused him before the Dutch magistrates, a- a fugitive from England. But the magistrates were not disposed to heed the tale of the slanderer, and when upon inquiry they came to understand the cause and cir- cunstances of Bradford's emigration, instead of putting him to further inconvenience, they gave him their pro- tection, and permission to join his friends at Amsterdam.
Finding it impossible successfully to prosecute agri- culture in Holland, he was obliged to betake himself to some other occupation ; and, being then under age, he put himself as an apprentice to a French Protestant, who taught him the art of silk-dyeing. As soon as he at- tained the years of manhood, he sold his paternal estate in England, and entered on a commercial life, in which it appears that he was not successful.
When the Church of Leyden contemplated a remo- val to America, Bradford zealously engaged in the undertaking, and came with the first company of emi- grants in 1620, to Cape Cod. While the ship lay in that harbour, he was one of the foremost in the several hazardous attempts to find a proper place for the seat of the colony, in one of which he, with others of the principal persons, narrowly escaped the destruction which threatened their shallop .* On his return from . this excursion to the ship, with the joyful news of having found a safe harbour and a place for settlement, he was met by the unwelcome intelligence, that, during his
. Prince, 26. Sce account in Life of Carver, pp. 33-35, of this volume. 1
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absence, his wife had accidentally fallen into the sea and was drowned .*
After the sudden death of Governor Carver, in April, 1621, the eyes of the infant colony were turned to Mr. Bradford, as the proper person to succeed him; but, being so very ill at that time that his life was despaired of, they waited for his recovery, and then invested him with the chief magistracy. He was at this time in the thirty-third year of his age ; his wisdom, piety, fortitude, and goodness of heart, were so conspicuous as to merit the sincere esteem of the people.
While Carver lived, he was the sole executive officer. No oath of office was required, and he entered upon his official duties without ceremony or parade. The legisla- tive and judicial, power was in the whole body of the people, who had the most entire confidence, that he would not adventure on any matter of moment without their consent, or the advice of the wisest among them. When Mr. Bradford came to be governor, he requested that an assistant or deputy governor should be appointed, and the choice fell upon Isaac Allerton.t This measure
* Mrs. B. was drowned on the 7th of December. Prince, 76. Of this lady, we learn from Prince, that her baptismal name was Dorothy : and from a letter written at Leyden, hy Roger White, addressed to Governor Bradford, it appears that her maiden name was May. I Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 43.
t Isaac Allerton came over in the Mayflower, with his wife and four chil- dren. Ilis wife, Mary, died 25th February, 1621, and a few years afterwards he married Fear Brewster, daughter of Elder William Brewster. In point of property, he ranked first in the colony, and was a man of consideration in other respects. Ile was sent to England in the fall of 1626, to complete a negotiation which Standish had commenced with the adventurers there, but had been obliged to abandon on account of the plague then raging in London. Prince, 156, 162. He returned in the spring of 1027, having conditionally purchased for his asso- ciates the rights of the adventurers for the sum of £1200, to be paid in seven years. He also borrowed £200 at 30 per cent. interest, " to the great content of the plantation." Prince, 165. He took a second voyage as agent in 1627, during which he procured a patent for a trading place on the Kennebeck. He made two voyages to England in 1629, to procure a new and enlarged patent for the
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was deemed advisable from the precarious health of Governor Bradford, and also to avoid any interregnum in the government, in case of his death before his term of office expired, as had happened in the case of Gover- nor Carver .* They appointed but one assistant to the governor, because they were so reduced in number, that to have made a greater disproportion between rulers and people, would have been absurd, and they knew that it would be in their power to increase the number when- ever the circumstances of the colony should require it. Their voluntary combination was probably at this time considered only as a temporary expedient, until they should obtain a charter under the authority of the king.
One of the first acts of Bradford's administration was, by advice of the company, to send Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins to Massasoit, with Squanto, for their guide. The design of this embassy was to explore the country ; to confirm the league with that sachem; to learn the situation and strength of their new friend ; to carry him some presents ; to apologize for some misbe- haviour on the part of the settlers ; to regulate the inter- course between them and the Indians, and to procure seed-corn for the next planting season.
These gentlemen found the sachem at Pokanoket, f
colony. But he met with many difficulties ; " many locks (says Shirley) must be opened with the silver, nay, with the golden key." I Mass. Ilist. Coll. iii. 70. He gave " great and just offence (says Prince) in bringing over Morton," the unruly let der at Merry Mount. But he was in the end successful in his difficult undertaking for the colony, although the expenses and misunderstand- ings growing out of the transaction, appear to have occasioned his final separa- tion from the colonists. He returned to England in 1631, and was " no more employed by the plantation." He became an enterprising trader at Penobscot, and elsewhere, and afterwards removed to New-Haven, where he died in 1639.
. Hubbard's Hist. N. E. G1.
1 This was a general name for the northern shore of the Narragansett Bay, between Providence and Taunton Rivers, and comprehending the present town-
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distance about forty miles from Plymouth. They deliv ered the presents, renewed the friendship, and satisfied themselves respecting the strength, of the natives, which did not appear to be formidable, nor was the entertain ment which they received either liberal or splendid The marks of desolation and death, by reason of the late pestilence, were very conspicuous in all the country through which they passed ; but they were informed that the Narragansetts, who resided on the western shore c the bay of that name, were very numerous, and that the pestilence had not reached them.
After the return of this embassy, another was sen to Nauset,* to recover a boy who had strayed away from New Plymouth, and had been taken up by some of the Indians of that place. They were so fortunate as to re cover the boy, and make peace with Aspinet, the sachem whom they paid for the seed corn which they had taken out of the ground at Paomet, in the preceding autumn. During this expedition, an old woman, who had never before seen any white people, burst into tears of grief and rage at the sight of them. She had lost three sons by the perfidy of Thomas Hunt, who decoyed them, with others, on board his ship, and sold them for slaves.
ships of Bristol, Warren, and Barrington, in the State of Rhode Island, and Swansey in Massachusetts. Its northern extent is unknown. The principal seats of the sachem were at SSorrams and Krekamuit. The former is a neck of land, formed by the confluence of Barrington and Palmer's Rivers ; the latter i Mount Hope. See Callender's Century Discourse, pp. 30, 73.
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