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 9
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I Prince, 146, 118.
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over John Lyford, a preacher, much against the wishes of some of their number, who suspected him of being unfit for the office. Mr. Winslow and others reluctantly consented to his coming. His worthless character was soon discovered, and Mr. Winslow now imparted his suspicions to the adventurers in London. A meeting was had, and Mr. Lyford's friends employed counsel to defend him; but upon the examination it appeared, that Lyford had been a minister in Ireland, where his conduct had been so unprincipled and base, that he was compelled to quit the Kingdom, and that the adventurers had been imposed upon by false testimony concerning his character. With this discovery, Mr. Winslow came . back to New Plymouth in the spring of 1625, happening to arrive while the court was sitting on the affair of Old- ham, who had returned after banishment. The true characters of these impostors being thus discovered, they were both expelled from the plantation .*
At the annual election in 1624, Governor Bradford having prevailed on the people of Plymouth, to increase the number of assistants to five, Mr. Winslow was first elected to this office, in which he was continued by successive appointments until 1633, when, by the same influence, he was chosen governor.t
At the close of the year 1624, the number of souls in the colony was one hundred and eighty, who were
* See account of the proceedings in relation to Oldham and Lyford, in pp. 85-87, of this volume.
t Governor Winthrop, in his Journal, under date of Jan. 1, 1633, says, " Mr. Edward Winslow was chosen governor of Plymouth, Mr. Bradford having been governor about ten [twelve] years, and now by importunity got off." Savage's Winthrop, 98. This remark sufficiently invalidates an insinuation of Hutchin- son, that Winslow's "employment abroad prevented a competition between Bradford and him for the governor's place." Hutchinson's History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 457.
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then all dwelling within the town. Thirty two dwelling houses had been erected. The town was impaled for half a mile in circumference. A well built fort was on the hill, surmounted by a watch tower. For the last three years the health of the colony had been remarka- ble, and not one of the first planters had died. At Cape Anne, a plantation had been commenced by people from Dorchester in England, which they held of the Plymouth people, and a fishing stage had been erected there .*
The harvest of 1625, was plenteous, insomuch that the planters were overstocked, and wished to dispose of some portion of it to the Indians. They had no other vessels than two shallops built by the carpenter sent out to them in the preceding year, on one of which they laid a deck, and sent her, laden with corn, to the Kenne- beck. They disposed of the corn to advantage, and re- turned with seven hundred pounds of beaver, beside other furs, having also opened a profitable trade for fu- ture occasions. "This voyage (says Gov. Bradford) was made by Mr. Winslow and some old standards, for seamen we have none."
The plantation at Monhiggon being broken up in 1626, and the commodities belonging to it being offered for sale, Mr. Winslow accompanied Governor Bradford to that place, on behalf of the company, where they unit- ed with Mr. Thompson of Pascataqua in purchasing the goods. They also purchased a quantity of French goods, being part of the cargo of a ship cast away at Sagade- hock.t
Mr. Winslow appears to have had the principal over- sight of the commercial operations of the infant colony ..
* Prince, 151. + Prince, 161.
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He was well qualified to conduct the many difficult and sometimes perilous enterprises, which it became neces- sary to take, for the benefit of the colony. He fre- quently went to the Penobscot, Kennebeck, and Connec- ticut rivers, on trading expeditions, and rendered him- self useful and agreeable to the settlers on those rivers.
Governor Winthrop notices the following narrow es- cape of Governor Winslow while on one of these expe- ditions to the settlement on the Kennebeck, in the year 1642: "The Indians at Kennebeck hearing of the general conspiracy against the English, determined to begin there, and one of them knowing that Mr. Edward Winslow did use to walk within the palisadoes, pre- pared his piece to shoot him, but as he was about it, Mr. Winslow not seeing him nor suspecting anything, but thinking he had walked enough, went suddenly into the house, and so God preserved him."*
Upon coming to the chief magistracy in 1633, Gover- nor Winslow found that disputes had commenced with the Dutch of New Netherlands, respecting the trade upon Connecticut river. A friendly correspondence had been established in 1627, between the Dutch authorities and those of New Plymouth, and during their intercourse, the Dutch had given information of a fine river, extend- ing far into the country, to which they had given the name of Fresh river, but which the natives called Quo- nektacut. They extolled the lands bordering the stream, and the river as convenient for trade, and urgently pressed the people of Plymouth to open a trade with the natives. But their advice was neglected at the time. Soon after, some of the Indians living upon the river,
* Savage's Winthrop, ii., 60.
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who had been driven from their homes by the Pequots, came to Plymouth, and entreated the English to es- tablish a trading house on the river, in the hope that through their assistance they might ultimately be re- stored to their possessions. Mr. Winslow had himself been to the Connecticut, or Fresh River, and found the representations of the Dutch and Indians to be true. But the people of Plymouth still declined to venture upon the establishment of a trading house. The In- dians renewing their requests both to the governments of Plymouth and Massachusetts, Governor Winslow and Mr. Bradford proceeded to Boston, and proposed to Governor Winthrop and his council to join with Ply- mouth in a trade to Connecticut for hemp and beaver, and in the erection of a house for the purposes of com- merce. It being reported that the Dutch were about to build on Connecticut river, Winslow and Bradford rep- resented it as necessary to prevent them from taking pos- session of that fine country ; but Winthrop objected to the making of a plantation there, because there were 3000 or 4000 warlike Indians on the river; because the bar at the mouth was such, that small pinnaces only could enter it at high water; and because, seven months in the year, no vessel could go in, on account of the ice and the vio- lence of the stream. . This proposal being declined, the people of Plymouth determined to undertake the enter- prise at their own risk. The materials for a house, en- tirely prepared, were put on board a vessel, and commit- ted to a chosen company, which sailed for Connecticut. The Dutch of New Netherlands hearing of the design, had just taken a station on that river, at the place where Hartford now stands; made a light fort, and planted two
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pieces of cannon. On the approach of the Plymouth adventurers, the Dutch forbade them to proceed up the river, ordered them to strike their colours, and threatened to fire on them. But the commander of the enterprise. disregarding the prohibition and the menaces, went reso- lutely forward, and, landing on the west side of the river. set up his house at some distance, above the Dutch fort, and soon after fortified it with palisadoes. This was the first house erected in Connecticut. The place where this house was erected was a little below the mouth of Little River, in Windsor. It was called by the natives Nata- wanute. The sachems, who were the original owners of the soil, having been driven from this part of the country by the Pequots, William Holmes, who con- ducted the enterprise from Plymouth, took them with him to their homes, and restored them to their rights. Of these sachems the Plymouth people purchased the land, where they erected their house. The conquering Indians were offended at the restoration of the original proprietors of the country ; and the proximity of two such neighbors, as the irritated Dutch, and the fero- cious Pequots, rendered it difficult and hazardous for the English to retain their new purchase .*
Mr. Winslow, in 1634, on returning from a trading expedition to the Dutch at New York, left his vessel in Narragansett Bay, and thence went by land to Plymouth. He called on his old friend Massasoit, who promised to accompany him home. Before he set off, the sportive sachem despatched a messenger before them to Ply- mouth, to tell the inhabitants that Winslow was dead.
* Morton, 80; Savage's Winthrop, i. 105; Trumbull, i. 20, 50; I Mass. Hist. Coll., v. 167.
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This report filled the whole colony with grief and lamen- tation. The sorrow and mourning of the people, how- ever, were of but short duration; for the next day Massasoit (or, as he was now called, Ousamequen, ) ap- peared, conducting the lamented Winslow into the town. On being enquired of, why he sent such a message, he answered by saying, that he might be the more welcome when he came home .*
In 1635, Mr. Winslow undertook another agency in England, for the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts, partly on occasion of the intrusions which had been made on the territory of New England, by the French on the east, and by the Dutch on the west, and partly to answer complaints which had been made to the gov- ernment against the Massachusetts colony, by Thomas Morton, who had been twice expelled for his misbeha- viour, and was labouring in England with great zeal against the colonies.
A special commission had been issued in 1634, to Archbishop Laud and eleven others, with the most ex- traordinary powers .; It menaced the complete subver- sion of the colonies, and the most absolute tyranny both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs. The favorite scheme of a general governor for all the colonies was again revived, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges was the person selected. Morton, whose efforts had been unceasing to effect this result, in a letter to one of his friends, dated May 1, 1634, exultingly writes : " When I was first sent to England, to make complaint,-I effected the business but superficially. . I have this time taken deliberation, and brought the matter
* Savage's Winthrop, i. 138.
! Hazard, i. 344-317. See also I Mass. Hist. Coll., iv. 119.
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to a better pass : and it is thus brought about that the King hath taken the matter into his own hands, appointed a Committee of the Board, and given order for a General Governor for the whole territory to be sent over." But this boast of the inveterate enemy of New England was never realised. Owing to the troubles in Scotland and Ireland, and the subsequent decline of the influence of Laud and others of the council, the whole project failed, the apprehensions of the people of New Plymouth and Massachusetts were allayed, and both Winthrop and Morton have recorded the event as a special interposition of Providence.
Governor Winslow found his situation at this time . very critical, and his treatment was severe. He pre- sented a memorial in writing to the commissioners, in which he set forth the encroachments of the French and Dutch, and prayed for " a special warrant to the English colonies to defend themselves against all foreign ene- mies."# Governor Winthrop censured this petition as ill-advised, "for such precedents might endanger our liberty, that they should do nothing hercafter but by commission out of England."}
The petition, however, was favorably received by some of the board .¿ Winslow was heard several times in support of it, and pointed out a way in which the ob- ject might have been attained without any charge to the crown, by furnishing some of the chief men of the colo- nies with authority, which they would exercise at their own expense, and without any public disturbances. This
* See Appendix No. I. Hutchinson's Ilist. Prov. Massachusetts Bay.
t Savage's Winthrop, i. 172.
# Morton, 9.1.
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proposal crossed the design of Gorges and Mason, whose aim was to establish a general government ; and the arch- bishop, who was engaged in their interest, put a check to Winslow's proposals, by questioning him upon Mor- ton's accusations respecting his own personal conduct in America.
The grave offences alledged against him were, that he, not being in holy orders, but a mere layman, had taught publicly in the church, and had officiated in the celebration of marriages. To the former charge, Wins- low answered, " that sometimes, when the church was destitute of a minister, he had exercised his gift for the . edification of the brethren." To the latter he replied, "that, though he had officiated as a magistrate in the solemnizing of marriage, yet he regarded it only as a civil contract ;* that the people of New Plymouth had for a long time been destitute of a minister, and were com- pelled by necessity to have recourse to the magistrate in that solemnity; that this was not to them a novelty, hav- ing been accustomed to it in Holland, where he himself had been married by a Dutch magistrate in the State House." On this honest confession, the archbishop pro- nounced him guilty of the crime of separation from the National Church, and prevailed upon the board to con- sent to his imprisonment. He was thereupon commit- ted to the Fleet prison, where he remained for seventeen weeks in confinement. But after that time, on petitioning the board, he obtained a release.
* Ministers were never licensed to solemnize marriages in New Plymouth ; and in Massachusetts, previous to the union in 1692, the magistrates retained this office in their own hands With peculiar jealousy. " We are not willing (says Winthrop) to bring in the English custom of ministers performing the solemni- ty of marriage."-Sav. Winthrop, ii. 313.
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On his return to New Plymouth, the colony again declared their confidence and respect by choosing him to the office of governor for the succeeding year, (1636.) This was an important period in the history of the colony. The surrender of the Patent by the council of Plymouth, the arbitrary, though fruitless commission to Laud and others, and the treatment which Governor Winslow had himself experienced in England, all served to convince the settlers of the necessity of adopting and declaring 1 the fundamental laws of the colony. Hitherto no laws defining the powers of the government had been adopt- ed, and the governor and assistants maintained their au- thority rather by common consent, than any delegated . · power. The laws of England were considered in force, unless changed by colonial statutes; but there were no lawyers in the colony, and but few persons who had any practical knowledge of the science of law. The clergy only understood its elementary principles, and they were more disposed to follow the laws of Moses, than the laws of England.
The period had now arrived, when all perceived the necessity of defining the limits of the powers and the du- ties of the magistrates, of establishing fundamental and organic laws, civil and criminal, and of placing the gov- ernment on a stable foundation. This was done, by the court of associates, in November, 1636, after which the affairs of the colony appear to have been regularly and faithfully administered upon the basis of a written code of laws.
The Plymouth colonists in religious matters were more tolerant than their neighbours of Massachusetts. When Roger Williams, the apostle of liberty in New
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England, had been driven from Massachusetts for his opinions, and was reduced to circumstances of extreme indigence, Governor Winslow extended to him the hand of charity, and afforded relief by advice and money. "It pleased the Father of Mercies," said Mr. Williams, " to touch many hearts with relentings, among whom that great and pious soul, Mr. Winslow, melted, and he kindly furnished me at Providence, and put a piece of gold into the hands of my wife for our supply."
The year 1643, is memorable in the history of the New England colonies. Since the establishment of New Plymouth, the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, . New Haven and Rhode Island had sprung into existence, and while the concerns of each were well and safely man- aged by their local councils and assemblies, all felt the necessity of some general authority to protect the common interests of the whole. Governor Winslow seems to have looked to the establishment of such a power, when, in 1635, he petitioned the royal commissioners in Lon- don for a special warrant to the colonies to defend them- selves against their enemies. Certain it is, that the sub- ject was discussed, from time to time, until the want of concert on the breaking out of the Pequot war, satis- fied the people of the importance and necessity of some general union for mutual defence against the Indians. In 1643, Governor Winslow went to Boston, as one of the commissioners from Plymouth, where articles of Confederation were drawn up and signed on the 19th of May, by the commissioners of all the colonies present, excepting those from Plymouth, who, for want of power from their general court, deferred signing until the next meeting; and then, (Sept. 7,) they also signed them.
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Governor Winslow continued to act as one of the Com- missioners untilthe left the colony in 1646.
The Commissioners declared, that, as in nation and religion, so in other respects they be and continue as one, and henceforth be called and known by the name of THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND.
The features of this confederacy, the prototype of the American Union, are thus described in Pitkin's Civil and Political History of the United States :
"By the articles of confederation, as they were called, these colonies entered into a firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity, for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both for pre- . serving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety and welfare. Each colony was to retain its own peculiar jurisdiction and government, and no other plantation or colony was to be received as a confederate, nor any two of the confederates to be united into one jurisdiction, without the consent of the rest. The affairs of the united colo- nies were to be managed by a legislature to consist of two persons, styled commissioners, chosen from each colony. These commissioners had power to hear, ex- amine, weigh, and determine all affairs of war or peace, leagues, aids, charges, and number of men for war,-di- vision of spoils, and whatsoever is gotten by conquest- receiving of more confederates for plantations into combi- nation with any of the confederates ; and all things of a like nature, which are the proper concomitants and con- sequences of such a confederation for amity, offence, and defence; not intermeddling with the government of any of the jurisdictions, which, by the third article, is
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reserved entirely to themselves. The commissioners were to meet annually, in each colony, in succession, and when met, to choose a president, and the determination of any six to be binding on all.
"The expenses of all just wars to be borne by each colony, in proportion to its number of male inhabitants, of whatever quality or condition, between the ages of sixteen and sixty.
" In case any colony should be suddenly invaded, on motion and request of three magistrates of such colony, the other confederates were immediately to send aid to the colony invaded in men, Massachusetts one hundred, and the other colonies forty-five each, or for a less num- ber, in the same proportion. The commissioners, how- ever, were very properly directed, afterwards, to take into consideration the cause of such war or invasion, and if it should appear that the fault was in the colony in- vaded, such colony was not only to make satisfaction to the invaders, but to bear all the expenses of the war.
" The commissioners were also authorised to frame and establish agreements and orders in general cases of a civil nature, wherein all the plantations were interested, for preserving peace among themselves, and preventing as much as may be all occasions of war, or difference with others, as about the free and speedy passage of jus- tice, in every jurisdiction, to all the confederates equally as to their own, receiving those that remove from one plantation to another, without due certificates.
"It was also very wisely provided in the articles, that runaway servants, and fugitives from justice, should be returned to the colonies where they belonged, or from which they had fled.
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" If any of the confederates should violate any of the articles, or, in any way injure any one of the other colo- nies, such breach of agreement or injury, was to be considered and ordered by the commissioners of the other colonies."*
This confederacy, which was declared to be perpet- ual, continued without any essential alteration, until the New England colonies were deprived of their charters by the arbitrary proceedings of James II. In the year 1648, some of the inhabitants of Rhode Island request- ed to be admitted into the confederacy, but they were informed that the Island was within the patent granted to New Plymouth, and therefore their request was de- nied. The plantations at Providence were also denied admission, and those beyond the Pascataqua were not admitted, because "they ran a different course" from the Puritans.
Mr. Winslow was for the last time chosen to the chief magistracy in 1644, having since he last filled that office, been first on the list of magistrates. He was soon after engaged in the public service abroad, and never returned to New England.
In 1646, the colony of Massachusetts Bay prevail- ed upon Governor Winslow to proceed to England in their behalf, to answer complaints which had been pre- ferred by Samuel Gorton and others, charging the Mas- sachusetts authorities with religious intolerance and per- secution.t Governor Winthrop remarks, that Mr. Wins- low was "a fit man to be employed in our affairs in
* Pitkin's History of the U. S., i. 50, 51. The Articles of Union are in Winthrop, Hubbard, Neal, &c. .
t Hutchinson's Ilist. of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 145-149.
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England, both in regard to his abilities of presence, speech, courage and understanding, as also being well known to the commissioners."# He set sail about the middle of October, 1646.
Gorton was an enthusiast of more than common ability, who gave the colonists much trouble. He came to Boston in 1636; went thence to New Plymouth, where he caused some uneasiness; from whence he went to Newport, and there behaved so that they inflicted cor- poral punishment upon him. He very soon got into difficulty with the authorities of Massachusetts, was ar- rested and imprisoned, was afterwards liberated, and in 1644, proceeded to England. On arriving there, he published an account of the proceedings against himself and others in New England, under the title of "Simpli- cities Defence against Seven-Headed Policy. Or, Inno- cency Vindicated, being unjustly accused, and sorely Cen- sured, by that Seven-headed Church-Government united in New England," &c. Printed in London, in 1646, in 111 small quarto pages.t
Governor Winslow, on reaching London, found it incumbent upon him to answer the publication of Gor-
* Winthrop, ii. 283, (Savage's edit.)
t Gorton's book is reprinted entire, from the original edition, in Force's Collection of Tracts, Vol. IV, No. 6; together with the entire Letter of Gorton to Secretary Morton, written in June, 1669, vindieating himself from the charges contained in the Memorial-a portion of which letter was published by Hutchinson in the Appendix to his History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. There is no doubt that the zealot, Gorton, was cruelly persecuted for his singular theological opinions, expressed with a freedom that sometimes de- generated into insolence. He was arrested by order of court, and in 1613, con- denined to be " confined at Charlestown, and there set on work, and to wear such bolts or irons as may hinder his escape," with the further condition, that if he maintain " any of his abominable heresies," he should be, on conviction, put to death. Seven of his associates were also confined in separate towns. Savage's Winthrop, ii. 147.
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ton, and he accordingly published a reply, covering 103 small quarto pages, entitled " Hypocrisie Unmasked : By a true Relation of the Proceedings of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts against Samuel Gor- ton, a notorious disturber of the Peace," &c. Appended to this work, which has never been reprinted in America, and of which Young supposes, that no copy exists in this country, is a chapter entitled, "A Briefe Narration of the true grounds or cause of the first Planting of New England," &c. This portion of the book is reprinted by Young, as " Chap. xxv," of his Chronicles. The same book was afterwards published in London, in 1649, with the following title : "The danger of tolerating Level- , lers, in a Civil State; or a Historical Narration of the dangerous practises and opinions wherewith Samuel Gor- ton and his levelling accomplices so much disturbed and molested the several plantations in New England : By EDWARD WINSLOW, of Plymouth, in New England."
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