USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume I > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
The Massachusetts Bay Company-The change made was the grant- ing of a royal charter to a newly-organized Massachusetts Bay Company, covering the area from three miles north of the Merrimack River to three miles south of the Charles River. This patent was issued to Sir John Ruswell, Sir John Young, Thomas Southcote, John Humphrey, John
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Endicott and Simon Whitcomb and others. Roswell, Young and South- cote promptly sold their interests in the patent to John Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, Matthew Cradock, Thomas Goffe, and Sir Richard Saltonstall, who, with the other persons concerned formed the company of which Cradock was Governor. The King's sanction of this charter was signed and sealed March 4, 1629. Meanwhile, Endicott, the Acting Governor of the Massachusetts Colony until 1630, without waiting for the end of the formalities attending the grant, had sailed on June 20, 1628, and other emigrations were under way.
The government of the colonies set up by the Massachusetts Com- pany was subordinate to a controlling body in England. On July 28, 1629, at a meeting held at the home of Thomas Goffe in London, Matthew Cradock read certain propositions having to do with the advancement of the "plantation," the principal and most revolutionary of which was that the government of it should be transferred to those who "inhabited it." It was realized what a bold measure this was to take, and time was taken for its secret consideration .. This was going beyond mere coloniza- tion, if secured, for it involved the setting up of self-government, the establishment of virtual independence. On August 26, 1629, the famous "Agreement at Cambridge" was drawn up and signed by Richard Salton- stall, Thomas Dudley, William Vassall, Nicholas West, Isaac Johnson, John Humphrey, Thomas Sharpe, Increase Nowell, John Winthrop, Wil- liam Pinchon, Kellam Browne, and William Colbron. It was a solemn agreement "to pass the seas and inhabit New England," but the impor- tant feature was the proviso: "Provided always, that before the last of September next, the whole government, together with the patent of the said plantation, be first, by an order of Court, legally transferred and established to remain with us and others who shall inhabit upon the said plantation." Two days later in the "General Court" of the company it was voted that the patent should be transferred to New England. On October 20, 1629, at "a Generall court holden in England at Mr. Goffe the Deputye's House," a further step was taken, when Governor Cradock announced to that body that a new Governor, deputy and assistants were to be elected and the "Government" no longer to remain in England. John Winthrop was chosen Governor and John Humphrey deputy; as assistants there were named Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, John Endicott, and fourteen others. The first court of assistants was held on the "Arbella," in Charlestown, August 23, 1630; the next meetings were at the Governor's house on September 7, and a third at the same place on September 28 of the same year. This was the origin of the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, of which Boston very soon became the head.
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The Officials of the Bay Company-The officers sanctioned by the charter, in addition to the governors and eighteen assistants were, a treasurer, a secretary of the court, major-general, admiral at sea, and commissioners of the United Colonies of Massachusetts, to be chosen by freemen (voters in good religious standing) on the last Wednesday in Easter. At first the power of the voters was limited to the election of the assistants, but on May 9, 1632, "It was generally agreed upon that the Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants should be chosen by the whole Court of the Governor, Deputy-Governor, Assistants and freeman." Later the General Court chose and admitted freemen, made laws and appointed officers, claimed the sole power to raise monies, taxes, and to dispose of lands, etc. Probably the principal ruling was one sanctioning the choosing by voters (freemen) of representatives, "who shall have the full power and voices of said freemen .... for the making of laws, granting of lands, etc.," which was really the establishment of a represen- tative system in New England. Gradually two divisions of the court were recognized, Deputies and Assistants both meeting together until 1644; it is after this model that the present court is patterned.
The Governmental Organization of the Colony-To sum up the gov- ernmental organization of the Massachusetts Colony while it remained an independent colony (1629-85), we may say that it consisted of: I. A Governor. 2. A deputy governor. 3. The assistants (eighteen). 4. The freemen (members of the company). All four of these classes consti- tuted the General Court or Assembly (1629-34), the functions being executive, legislative and judicial. After 1634 representatives of the freemen made up the General Court, except the annual Court of Elec- tions. The General Court was the highest appellate body ; the quarterly Shire Courts being presided over by assistants. The electorate consisted of duly admitted freemen (church members from 1631-62) and the elec- tion was by the show of hands. The secret ballot was introduced in 1634; proxy voting in 1636, and established in 1637; direct primary elec- tions were begun in 1640 and perfected within a few years. Shires were organized in 1643. Whatever may have been the motives of Charles I in granting a charter which made possible so liberal a government, what- ever his intent in allowing control of a colony to be put into its own hands, it must be acknowledged that this King who lost his head because the Puritans of his country thought him a tyrant, did give his consent. The stated reason, as recorded in the remarkable document was "so that the inhabitants may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed as their good life and orderly conversation may invite and win the natives of the country to knowledge and obedience of the true God and Savior of Mankind."
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The Massachusetts Colony an Autocracy-A hasty perusal of the charter with its liberal provisions for self-government under which the colony of Massachusetts Bay was founded, and an unthoughtful glance at the form of the government which characterized the Puritan settlements, may leave the impression that the colony was a democracy in intent and fact. This is far from the truth; the Massachusetts Colony was an auto- cracy of the most definite sort and intended to be such from its begin- ning. To use a term found often in the early records, the avowed pur- pose of the leaders in the company which organized and financed the Puritan exodus from England was to found a "theocracy" self-ruling and responsible to God. A more modern expression used to cover the situa- tion as it developed on this side of the ocean, a "Puritan Commonwealth" was established, self-contained, one whose officials and citizens claimed, and used, autocratic powers far exceeding that practiced by the King and Parliament of England. To change the metaphor, the Massachusetts Bay Company was a close corporation, whose business it was to settle, own and manage as it pleased, certain lands purchased from another busi- ness concern and confirmed to it by a royal charter. The Governor, depu- ties and assistants, would in the present day be called president, vice- presidents and board of directors. The "General Court" was little more than a stockholders' meeting, where the "freemen" discussed and voted upon the various matters brought before it by the company. It was the fierce autocratic "closeness" of the Puritan Commonwealth which event- ually brought about its undoing.
It is not for the present generation to sit in judgment of the scheme and management of this early company ; we have too many examples in the business world of the success of autocratic monopoly. Before we assail the motives and methods of the Puritan founders of the colony, of which Boston became the center, it might be well to show how such a colony could have been established at the time when it was, in any dif- ferent way or inspired by other motives. Commercialism, no doubt, had something to do with the organization of the movement, but none can deny that a profoundly religious spirit dominated and gave it life and hope. There had been previous attempts to colonize America, the most of which had been failures. With this series of failures before them, it would have been sheer foolishness for the Puritans to have failed to pro- tect their hazardous venture in every way possible from the dangers of interference from without and sedition within. They safeguarded the colony from the start by securing the largest powers possible from King Charles and wisely brought their charter with them, refusing to leave England until assured of complete jurisdiction in the new land over their own affairs. Feeling that God was their guide and ruler, and that they
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were God's "elect" people, there was little fear of any internal difficulties in setting up a theocratic colony. The fact that they depended upon the Old Testament rather than the New explains much of the severity shown in the later management of affairs. The theocratic principles of the Puri- tan leaders, and the legislative, social and religious enforcement of them may have led to injustice and bigotry, but they did make for the security and prosperity of the colony. The whole scheme was visionary and impractical, but it did create a Puritan Commonwealth in the face of all difficulties which endured for more than a half century and which later became the nucleus of the movement which established in America a great republic.
The Homogeneity of the First New Englanders-The solidarity of the first generation of New Englanders was remarkable. As one writer words it: "They were a select and puritanical people in the proper sense of the word. They were not (as to the body of them) a promiscuous and heterogeneous assemblage, but in general of a uniform character, agree- ing in the most excellent qualities, principles, and tempers ; Christians very much of a primitive stamp. . It was as little of a mixed genera- tion, in regard of their moral character and religious profession, that came over first to New England, as perhaps was ever known on earth. They were very much a chosen generation collected from a variety of places, agreeing in the same enterprise, to form a plantation for religion in this distant part of the world."
It has been estimated that 1,500 persons were brought by the twelve vessels of the company to Massachusetts Bay during the summer and fall of 1630. These made up the largest group of English colonists that, up to that time, had come to make their homes in the Crown lands of America. They were better organized for economic and political growth, more united in views and aims, richer in the possession of supplies needed to subdue the soil, and arms and munitions for defense. John Endicott an others arrived at Salem in 1628, the first of the Massachusetts Bay Company to settle under its charter, although this precious document still lacked the King's signature. The next year, Thomas Graves, arriv- ing with a second expedition, made Charlestown, where the brothers Sprague from Salem had located, his headquarters. He laid out a town and started to build a "great house" for the reception of the larger group of immigrants who were expected soon to follow. Charlestown is usually considered to have been founded in July of 1629, but it would seem that this first permanent settlement of the Massachusetts Company on the bay should be dated September, 1628, when the Spragues and others whose names are unknown set up their homes there. If one starts to change dates it would be but fair to go back even further and begin
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Charlestown with Thomas Walford, whom the Spragues found there; to Samuel Matherick who had established himself at Winnisimmet (Chel- sea) as early as 1624; to David Thomson, an early agent of Gorges, who owned Thomson's Island; and to William Blackstone, or Blaxon, who lived alone on Beacon Hill before ever it was called such, or the founders of Boston had sailed from England.
The Coming of Winthrop and Other Notables-Charlestown settle- ment had a hundred inhabitants when in 1630 Winthrop, the newly- appointed Governor of the company, arrived with a dozen ships at Salem and within five days came on to Charlestown looking for a "place for our sitting down," as he expressed it. Meanwhile another group of 140 colonists from Dorchester, in the west of England, had arrived in the "Mary and John" and been forced to land by an obdurate captain near Nantasket, but who located at Dorchester, the present South Boston. But the important body of colonists was that with Winthrop, for the notables of the company were in it, the charter was in their possession, and they were intent upon setting up a capital city of the new govern- ment. This now famous group of leaders comprised "with Winthrop," we fancy, "the resolute Thomas Dudley, deputy-governor, to become governor repeatedly during the succeeding years; Isaac Johnson, 'the greatest furtherer of the colony,' next to Winthrop the foremost man, husband of Lady Arabella, the Earl of Lincoln's daughter .... who came out with her husband; Sir Richard Saltonstall; Simon Bradstreet, Dudley's son-in-law, whose wife Anne Bradstreet, was to blossom as 'the first American poet,' and himself to remain in public service for many years, and to become the 'Nestor of New England'; William Coddington, merchant, to become the first governor of Rhode Island ; Increase Nowell, man of family and education, to serve for many years as secretary of the Colony; William Pynchon, merchant, 'gentleman of learning and reli- gion,' early to found Roxbury, and later, Springfield on the Connecticut."
The intention, when leaving England, was to build "a town fortified three leagues up the Charles River." But the Charles River failed to be where they expected to find it, and after exploring it and the Mystic, the majority voted to stay at Charlestown. Other ships of the fleet came sailing into the harbor during the summer, and Charlestown was soon overcrowded by the addition to its numbers of 1,500 or more people weak or ill from the long voyage. Infectious diseases broke out, the scarcity of springs of good water made matters worse; by the end of the summer, two hundred had died. "We were forced," wrote Deputy Governor Dud- ley, "to change counsel and for our present shelter to plant dispersedly, some at Charlestown, some at Boston, some upon Mistick, which we named Meadford, some of us westward on Charles River, four miles from
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Charlestown, which place we named Watertown; others of us two miles from Boston in a place we named Rocksbury; others upon the river of Saugus, between Salem and Charlestown, and the western men, four miles south from Boston, at a place which we named Dorchester." Dud- ley was probably responsible for the selection of the site of the fortified Newtowne (1630), named Cambridge eight years later. Cambridge added to the seven towns mentioned by Dudley make up the so-called eight "Primary Towns" of Massachusetts.
Boston Receives Its Name-The governmental machinery was set up in Charlestown August 23, 1630, if one dates from the first Court of Assistants held on this side of the Atlantic; a church was founded and a solemn covenant entered into on July 30 of the same year. On Septem- ber 17, 1630, by order of the Court of Assistants, it was determined "That Trimountaine shall be called Boston." Dudley is the authority for the statement that this title for the capital town was determined upon before the arrival of the colonists in this country. The name was taken from the Lincolnshire, England, home of many of the settlers, and applied to the proposed principal town because of that fact, or in compliment to Isaac Johnson, one of the most active of the promoters and backers of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and to Lady Arabella, his wife. It is interesting to note how quickly Boston came to the fore in the affairs of the colony. Newtowne (Cambridge) was planned as the capital and Winthrop expected to reside there; Charlestown for a brief period was the seat of government; but on November 29, 1630, the third Court of Assistants was held at Boston and the first General Court had been held there the previous month. The Governor's house, which was being pre- pared in Charlestown for setting up at Newtowne, was erected in Boston, to the displeasure of some, and this determined rather definitely which should be the principal town of the colony. Boston had few accessions to its population until 1633, when the "Griffin" arrived with two hundred passengers, but already it had been voted by the General Court, "It is thought by general consent that Boston is the fittest place for publique business of any place in the Bay," although it was then "neither the greatest nor the richest." The accession of most of the "Griffin's" pas- sengers with the possessions they brought laid the foundations for a growth in population and wealth which by 1637 had given it a ranking in these respects above all the towns in Massachusetts, a position it has never relinquished.
John Winthrop was chosen Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony on October 30, 1629, and for two decades the fortunes of the venture were closely associated with him. Twelve times was he elected to the highest office, three times he was Deputy Governor, and in all the other years he served as the head of the assistants. From the founda-
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tion of Boston he had been at the head of her body of selectmen, or serv- ing it in some other definite way. He died April 5, 1649, when sixty-one years old. Dr. Paltry wrote of him :
The importance which history should ascribe to him must be proportionate to the importance attributed to the subsequent agency of the Commonwealth of which he was the most eminent founder. It would be erroneous to pretend that the principles upon which it was established were the original conception of his mind; but undoubtedly it was his policy, more than any other man's, that organized into shape, animated with practical vigor, and prepared for permanency those primeval sentiments and institutions that have directed the course of thought and action in New England in later times. And equally certain is it that among the millions of living men descended from those whom he ruled, there is not one that does not-through efficient influences, transmitted in society and thought along the intervening generations-owe much of what is best within him, and in the circumstances about him, to the benevolent and courageous wisdom of John Winthrop.
The Puritan Commonwealth-The Puritan Commonwealth reached the height of its complete but not uncontested control over the destinies of the colony during the two decades of Winthrop's leadership. It was another thirty years before it was displaced by another form of govern- ment, but they were years of fading power. The stern, yet noble, scheme of a Commonwealth based on religion, one in which the Church and State were one, had met with difficulties almost from its inception. It is more a subject for a chapter on religion than for one on politics, but it was the successive religious controversies that showed the impracticability of a theocracy. The attempts at the repression of the followers of Mrs. Hut- chinson, of Williams and the Baptists, and of the Quakers, are described in a following chapter. The English government finally interfered, and with the freedom accorded by its measures to other religions and ideas, the foundations of the Commonwealth were undermined. It did not fall, however, before it had impressed the Puritan spirit upon the character of New England's men and institutions. Even the flood of foreign immi- gration has not completely submerged the Puritan heritage.
Religion was not the only disintegrating force within the Common- wealth. The rise of regularly organized town governments about the time of Winthrop's death tolled the knell of centralized religious govern- ment. Whatever may be said of the narrowness of Puritan legislators, there is little evidence of anything but a broad policy practiced by them in the recognition of the right of each little community to organize their settlement. In the early years of the colony the general and other courts, which might be expected to take a hand in stimulating or influencing the affairs of the eight primary towns founded during this period, seem to have had little or nothing to do with them. About all that the authorities did was to select the site of Newtowne (Cambridge) and confirm the choice of names given to Boston, Dorchester and Watertown. All these towns were self-planted and self-organized, taking land without grant,
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laying out plots for individuals, and building homes and planting the soil without permission or interference. The very independence of the method of town settlement foretold of an independence of higher civil authority which should have been a warning to the leaders and backers of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Imagine a close business corpora- tion at the beginning of its career exercising no control over its main source of income, in this case, land !
Rise of the "Town System"-One of the greatest contributions to the science of government made by Massachusetts is the New England town system. Drake wrote of the town governments as being "so simple and yet so perfect, that this model of the American village has often served as the germ of states and empires." He was, of course, writing of the town of a much later day, which was a distinct entity, managing its own affairs which might range from religion, land titles, internal improve- ments, to education, care of the poor and insane, and even to the waging of war, issuing of currency and the establishment of foreign relations. At first the Massachusetts town was a social-religious organization grow- ing out of a desire of colonists who wanted to live together as a commu- nity and have a common church, some common land, and safety through proximity to others in the development of acreages chosen by or by mutual consent allotted to them. When Boston was settled it was by a concerted movement of a group of people who liked the peninsula, with its natural safety from Indian depredation, its compactness and ease of approach from the river and sea, and if we are to accept the records, principally because there was good drinking water there. Blackstone, a "squatter" on Tri-Montaine, invited them; the founders came and set- tled down just as unconcernedly.
If the student desires to study the formation of towns, their early history and development, no better one could be chosen than Charles- town, the first settlement in Massachusetts to be organized as a town and whose early records are the most complete. The first entry in the Charlestown records reads as follows :
"The inhabitants yt first settled in this place & brought it into the denomination of An English Towne was in Anno 1628 (July, 1629, new style) as follos : vizt,
Ralph Sprague Abra -. Palmer
Rich Sprague William Sprague John Meech Simon Hoyte
Walter Palmer
Nicholas Stowers
John Stickline Tho. Walford Smith, yt lived heere alone before
Mr. Graves who had charge of the Company of Patentees with whom hee built the great house this yeare for such of the sd Company as are shortly to come over wch aftrwards be- came the Meeteing house."
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And Mr. Bright, Minister to the Companies Servants :
"By whome it was Jointly agreed & concluded yt this place on the North side of the Charles River by Natives called Mishawum shall hence- forth from the name of the River bee called Charlestowne wch was also confirmed by Mr. John Endicutt Governour."
"It is Jointly agreed & concluded by the Inhabitants of this Towne yt Mr. Graves doe moddle & lay out the forme of the Towne with Streets about the Hill wch was accordingly done and aprooved by the Governor."
"It is Jointly agreed & concluded yt each Inhabitant have A two-Acre Lott to plant upon, & all to fence in Common wch was accordingly by Mr. Graves measured unto them."
"Upon which-Ralph Sprague & others began to build theire houses, & to prepare ffencing for theire Lotts wch was aftrwds sett up almost in a Semi-Circular forme on the South and South East side of yt field laid out to them, wch lies scituate on ye Northwest side of the Towne Hill."
These are typical of first recorded acts of most towns. There were no regular town meetings; the "It is jointly agreed and concluded" was the formula of the vote; and the townsfolk attended as a whole to the town's affairs. In general, the admission of new townsmen or inhabi- tants, the division and allotments of lands, the choice of officials and com- mittees and the passage of orders for the regulation of fields, fences and commons expressed the will of a general meeting or assembly of the townsmen, or those who had the right to plant in the common fields or pasture their cattle on the common pastures. The towns, in other words, were organized as plain farming communities on a thoroughly simple and democratic basis. The development of the three essential organs peculiar to town polity, viz., the town meeting, town orders or by-laws, and select- men, appeared almost contemporaneously in the Primary Towns before 1635. The General Court on March 3, 1635, passed an order which sanc- tioned the measures and methods already developed by the towns.
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