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The Common was a part of Mr. Blackstone's farm, and Washington Street and Tremont Street are said to follow " the windings of William Blackstone's cow." We could readily believe this even were it not further stated that the new dwellings were erected upon the paths through the woods made by Blackstone in his journeys about his farm. The cow must have picked out easy paths, without much regard to directness. She did not know what illustrious people would follow her ways.
The six-acre lot that Mr. Blackstone reserved extended from the top of Beacon Hill to the Charles River. Beacon Street and Mt. Vernon Street run through the place now. Upon it what eminent people have lived ! Copley, Phillips (the first mayor), Harrison Gray Otis, Channing, John Han- cock, Prescott, Motley, Parkman, and others of equal or nearly equal eminence.
Mr. Blackstone married late in life. He died at Cumber- land, Rhode Island, in May, 1675, aged about eighty years. He was always a lover of solitude, and this taste led him to Shawmut.
The settlements on the Charles River were Arcadias in comparison with other places. The Indians were friendly, and never stained the peaceful banks with white people's blood. The colonists were generally exempt from sickness, famine, or any great calamities. Thus the settlements grew, stretching away along the banks of the winding river, that led them ever on to fertile fields and happy homes.
" THEY rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with Him face to face. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. The difference between the greatest and meanest of mankind seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from Him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They recognized no title to superiority but His favor; and confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplish- ments and all the dignities of the world." - MACAULAY, -" The Puritans."
CHAPTER IV.
WHEREIN IS CONTAINED THE STORY OF LADY ARBELLA JOHNSON.
THOSE were dark times in England when good George Herbert, the gentle prophet, wrote : -
" Religion stands on tiptoe in our land, Ready to pass to the American strand."
Charles I. was entering upon a course of tyranny that brought him to the block. Illegal taxes were imposed upon the people. Laud ruled the Church with a rod of iron, and thought it heresy for any man to think differently from the king and himself. The king dissolved the Parliament, and announced his intention of ruling without one. The Star Chamber made personal liberty and private rights everywhere unsafe. Injustice prevailed in the Court, in the Church, everywhere. Men even feared to call upon God for help.
The Puritan churches, or Dissenters, as those who differed from the Established Church were called, were persecuted on every hand.
" The Church hath no place left to fly into but the wilder- ness," said good John Winthrop; and into the wilderness John Winthrop, and some of the noblest and most heroic men and women of England, determined to fly, and to dare any danger rather than violate the principles of their faith.
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They engaged a ship to take them to New England. It was called the Eagle.
" Let us name it the Arbella," said one of these Christian pioneers, " for we have with us the daughter of an earl."
The daughter of the earl was Lady Arbella Johnson. Her father was Thomas, the third .Earl of Lincoln. She was a woman of great strength and beauty of character. Mather says, "She took New England on her way to heaven."
She had married Isaac Johnson, a gentleman of wealth, the owner of landed estates in the counties of Rutland, Northampton, and Lincoln.
Lady Arbella's pastor was good John Cotton, of St. Bo- tolph's Church, Boston. Mr. Johnson had been led to the exercise of strong faith in God by the influence of this Dis- senting minister. Just before leaving Eng- land he made a will in which he remem- bered his pastor as one from whom he had received “ much help and comfort in his spiritual state."
SAILING FROM ENGLAND.
This gentleman was indignant at the oppression and injustice that he saw his church suffering, and was one of those resolute men who were willing to sacrifice luxury and ease for religious freedom.
The Lady Arbella joined him in his views and purpose. She went, according to Hubbard, " from a paradise of plenty and pleasure, which she enjoyed in the family of a noble
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John Winthrop.
1630.
earldom, into a wilderness of wants." She left England in April, 1630.
The ship Arbella led the way of a great emigration to New England. Ten other ships followed, among them the Mayflower that had brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth.
And now the Arbella is upon the sea. The storms of spring toss her about like a thing of air .. Storm succeeds storm, and the voyage is slow. But a high purpose inspires the company amid all the perils. The colonists pray, sing, read the word of God, and encourage each other with pious conversation.
John Win- throp is among them, who has sold the estate of his forefathers, and is going forth over the waters to plant a free church "in the wilder- ness." He has the king's char- ter in his keep- ing. He is a person of grave SIR RICHARD SALTONSTALL. but benevolent countenance ; he dresses in black, with a broad ruff around his neck, when on land, and he makes a very handsome picture, which we present to the reader. Sir Richard Saltonstall is also here, one of the first five projectors of the new colony.
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Young Folks' History of Boston.
It was the month of June when the Arbella sailed into the harbor of Salem.
In 1626 Peter Palfrey, Roger Conant, and one or two other gentlemen settled in Salem. In 1628 they were joined by John Endicott and a small company, and thus a planta- tion was begun at the place.
There were six or eight dwellings in the town when the Arbella arrived. The new land must have looked cheerful to the sea-weary colonists, for it was clothed with the verdure of summer time, and the days were the longest and fairest of the year.
Lady Arbella, looking very pale and feeling very much exhausted, becomes the guest of John Endicott. Some of the company go away to form a settlement at Charlestown.
Her husband makes a journey to Boston with Governor Winthrop and others. He thinks the three green hills over- looking the sheltered harbor very lovely, and he decides that he will there make his abode and provide a home for his beautiful wife.
He began to prepare the ground where the Court House stands to-day, near the City Hall. The lot he selected extended to where King's Chapel now lifts its low tower, and reminds all who pass of the generations that are gone. He marked it out, dreamed bright dreams of the future, and returned to Salem to tell Lady Arbella what a lovely spot he had found.
He returned on foot, through the summer forests that stretched away from the blue harbor.
When he arrived at Salem he found Lady Arbella suddenly reduced to the mere shadow of a woman ; he saw that she was not long for this world, and his heart sank within him.
The settlers shook their heads and said, "The Lady Arbella will not be with us long. We will make her life as happy as we can."
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Death of Lady Arbella.
1630.
She looked out upon the new settlement, and saw the men at work on their houses ; she saw at times dusky forms in paint and feathers come to the town. She heard the settlers talk of their plans for the future, but she felt that she would
THE FIRST KING'S CHAPEL.
not long enjoy the sight of the pleasant harbors and green forests, but would soon be at rest.
And so it was. She was after a little time unable to sit up in her chair, and in about one month from the time of the landing she died.
They made her a grave amid the oaks and pines. The
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city of Salem sprang into life around it, and at last, after two hundred years, they have erected a stone church on the spot.
Her husband returned to Boston a broken-hearted man. He, too, began to waste away. He lived but a few weeks after the death of Lady Arbella.
" Bury me," he said, " in the spot I had marked out for our house."
They did so. His was the first grave in the field that is now known as King's Chapel Burying-ground.
In July the Arbella, the admiral of the little fleet, a vessel of three hundred and fifty tons, manned with fifty-two seamen, and furnished with twenty-eight pieces of ordnance, dropped anchor in Boston harbor, accompanied by the Talbot, the vice-admiral, and the Jewell, the captain of the fleet.
These were probably the vessels into which Lieutenant- Governor Dudley says "we unshipped our goods, and with much cost and labour brought them in July to Charles Towne."
WINTHROP'S FLEET IN BOSTON HARBOR.
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" MONTH after month passed away, and in autumn the ships of the merchants Came with kindred and friends, with cattle and corn for the Pilgrims. All in the village was peace ; the men were intent on their labors, Busy with hewing and building, with garden-plot and with merestead, Busy with breaking the glebe, and mowing the grass in the meadows, Searching the sea for its fish, and hunting the deer in the forest."
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CHAPTER V.
WHEREIN ARE RELATED SOME INCIDENTS OF THE LIFE OF GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP, THE FOUNDER OF BOSTON.
THE traveller in England, who goes down to Groton, in the county of Suffolk, in summer, will there see an ancient, fortress-like church, standing serenely in the sun, and over- looking a quiet landscape of matchless verdure. Close to to the church, under the windows as it were, may be seen the old tomb where rest the remains of the Winthrop family. In this dreamy old town Governor John Winthrop was born on the 22d of January, 1588.
Few of my readers will ever go to Groton, England, to see the old tomb of the Winthrops, but nearly all may go to King's Chapel Burying-ground and there see the tomb where Governor John Winthrop, one of the most noble men and certainly the most useful member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sleeps. The slender trees shade it, the sun pencils it lightly in summer through the green leaves, beyond it busy men are seen going to and coming from the City Hall.
Governor John Winthrop was the founder of Boston.
He was educated at Cambridge, England, in Trinity College.
He was elected governor by the Massachusetts Bay Com- pany of London. He sailed in the Arbella, as we have told you, and he brought the charter of Massachusetts with him. He landed at Salem, removed to Charlestown, and thence to
.
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Boston, and was twelve times re-elected governor of the Colony, and three times chosen deputy-governor.
His residence was on Washington Street, just opposite the foot of School Street ; the Old South Church stands on the ground that was a part of his garden. There was a natural spring of water near by, cool and very healthful. This spring gave the name to a once famous, but now almost neglected street, called Spring Lane.
In his youth he was the subject of a somewhat remarkable religious experience, which formed his views and directed his aims for life. We will give you a glance at this powerful change, as it will show you what kind of men the Puritans were, and how firmly they believed themselves led and inspired by the Spirit of God : -
" I began," he says, " to come under strong exercises of conscience. I could no longer dally with religion. God put my soul to sad tasks sometimes, which yet the flesh would shake off and outwear still. Notwithstanding all my stub- bornness and kind rejections of mercy, He left me not till He had overcome my heart to give itself up to Him and to bid farewell to all the world.
"Now came I to. some peace and comfort in God. I loved a Christian and the very ground he went upon. I honored a faithful minister in my heart, and could have kissed his feet. I could not miss a sermon, though many miles away."
In his journal, passing over a period of many years, he has left an account of his inward struggle with besetting sins. He was one of the most blameless of men, but one would suppose from this account that he was a most dreadful evil- doer. When he was about thirty years of age he was taken very sick. During this sickness he gained that experience of faith which every Puritan believed essential to a Christian life.
-
1
JOHN WINTHROP.
1
1
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Fohn Winthrop's Journal.
1630.
He says : -
"The good Spirit of the Lord breathed upon my soul and said I should live. Now could my soul close with Christ and rest there in sweet content, so ravished with his love, as I desired nothing and feared nothing, but was filled with joy unspeakable and glorious, and with the spirit of adoption."
This language reads like that of an ancient prophet. We might quote pages of similar narrative as simple and sublime. But these pictures will show you the kind of man the father of our city was. You may perhaps look with more venera- tion on the bronze statue in Scollay Square, after getting this view of his inner life.
But it was the stern battles of his public career that history most records. The journal of his life in Boston lies before me ; it reads like a long story ; we hope our young friends may read it.1
Here is an extract of the events of a single week, written soon after his arrival at Salem : -
" Thursday, July 1 (1630). The Mayflower and the Whale arrived safe in Charlton (Charlestown) harbor. Their passengers were all in health, but most of their cattle dead.
" Friday, 2d. The Talbot arrived there. She had lost fourteen passengers.
" My son, Henry Winthrop, was drowned at Salem.
" Saturday, 3d. The Hopewell and William and Francis arrived.
" Monday, 5th. The Trial arrived at Charlton, and the Charles at Salem.
" Tuesday, 6th. The Success arrived.
" Wednesday, 7th. The Lion went back to Salem.
" Thursday, 8th. 6 plantations."
We kept a day of Thanksgiving in all
I " The History of New England from 1630 to 1649," by John Winthrop, Esq., from his original manuscripts. Edited by James Savage.
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What heroic modesty appears in this simple journal : " My son, Henry Winthrop, was drowned at Salem." He would have considered it selfish to have said more of his boy. Were there not stricken hearts all around him? What were his griefs more than another's ! Yet this son was a most interesting and promising young man, and beloved by all the colonists.
This journal of a week shows also how rapidly emigrants began to arrive. These emigrants had intended to settle in one place. But this was not so to be. "We were forced," says Deputy-Governor Dudley, in a letter to the Countess of Lincoln, "to change counsel, and for our present shelter to plant dispersedly ; some at Charlestown, which standeth on the north side of the mouth of Charles River ; some on the south side thereof, which place we named BOSTON, as we intended to have done the place we first resolved on ; some of us upon the Mistick, which we named Medford ; some of us westward on Charles River, which place we called Water- town ; others of us two miles from Boston in a place we named Roxbury, and the western men four miles south from Boston, at a place we called Dorchester."
Cambridge, which included within its limits the territory where are the present towns of Brighton, Newton, Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, and Billerica, had its beginning in an agreement between Governor Winthrop and his assistants to build a protected town for the seat of government between Roxbury and Boston. The location proved unsuitable, and they finally determined to build " at a place a mile east of Watertown, on the Charles River." Here Cambridge was founded in 1631. Deputy Governor Dudley and his son-in- law, Bradstreet, were the first inhabitants. Governor Win- throp built a house there, but was called by duty to Boston. For this, Dudley, who was a fiery-minded man, accused him of violating his promise, and called him many hard names, which caused Winthrop much sorrow.
WINTHROP AND DUDI.EY.
1632.
The First Meeting-House. 65
Governor Winthrop's settlement in Boston rapidly grew, and drew to it some of the ablest men that came to New England at the beginning of the great emigration. A church was formed, and John Wilson, a saintly man, became the first pastor. It was called the First Church. The simple cove- nant of this church is now inscribed on one of the windows of the First Church on the Back Bay. You may like to go and see it some day.
Mr. Wilson preached at times in private houses and under the boughs of great trees. A meeting-house was at last erected. Here is a pic- ture of it.
Should you go to the Back Bay to see the cove- nant of the First Church, look around you upon the splendid edifices of reli- gion, art, and education that rise on every hand, then think of this picture, and of good Mr. Wilson preaching under the trees.
FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
The new colonists decided that Boston would be the most appropriate place to hold public meetings and the General Court. Of course, Mr. Dudley thought it should be Cambridge, and he became very angry over the de- cision and said more hard things about Governor Win- throp.
We have given you some incidents of Winthrop's religious feelings, let us now give you a few anecdotes of his conduct under severe trial. Dudley once wrote him a hard, insulting letter. He returned it calmly, saying : -
" I am not willing to keep such an occasion of provocation by me."
5
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Afterwards, when Winthrop did Dudley a great kindness, the latter gracefully said : -
" Your overcoming yourself hath overcome me."
The two men were reconciled at last. We will tell you one of the ways by which it was brought about. It reads like a passage from the ancient Scriptures. Says the chronicler : -
"The Governor and Deputy-Governor went down to Concord to view some lands for farms.
"They offered each other the first choice, but because the Deputy's was first granted, and himself had store of land already, the Governor yielded him the choice.
"So at the place where the Deputy's land was to begin there were two great stones which they called Two Brothers.
"They did this in remembrance that they were brothers by their children's marriage and did so brotherly agree.
" A little creek near those stones was to part their lands."
Salem, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Cambridge now began to receive large additions by emigration, and the per- secuted Dissenters in England looked to this promising colony as their place of refuge.
A settlement had been made near Boston some years before the coming of Winthrop. In 1625 Captain Wollaston had led a company to Braintree, and called the place Mount Wollaston.
The settlement was a happy and prosperous one for a time, but Captain Wollaston and a part of the company left it at last to make a voyage to Virginia.
Among the men left behind was one Thomas Morton, a noisy, riotous fellow, who seems to have believed that the object of life was to enjoy one's self, and not to live with definite aims as the Puritans did.
One night after the captain's departure Morton called the people together and gave them plenty of punch, and when they had become merry and excited he said, -
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Revels at Merry-Mount.
1628.
"The captain is gone ; let us turn out the lieutenant, and then we can all do as we please."
This would be freedom, indeed. The men consented, and the poor lieutenant was obliged to relinquish his au- thority.
The company now began to do as they pleased, and a great change passed over the settlement at Mount Wollaston. The men spent their days in idleness, or dancing with the Indians, and their nights in drinking and carousing. They erected a May-pole to mark the place for their dances and carousals. They called the place Merry- Mount.
The Indians liked. Merry-Mount, and the Indian women joined in the merry-makings. Morton began to sell arms to the Indians.
This was unlawful. Captain Miles Standish was accordingly sent from Plymouth to arrest Morton, which he did, and the colony at Merry-Mount was thus broken up. Soon after the settlement of Salem, Endicott visited Mount Wollaston, and cut down the May-pole of the roystering pioneer. Morton says that this May-pole was "a goodly pine-tree, eighty feet long, with a pair of buck horns nailed somewhat near the top - of it." The drunken and licen- WINTHROP FORDING A STREAM. tious revels at Merry-Mount proved a calamity to the colonies, in that it put the Indians in possession of the deadly weapons of the whites.
The journal of Governor Winthrop is full of interesting
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stories. One of them relates to his visit to Plymouth when he forded streams by being carried on a stout man's back.
REVELS AT MERRY-MOUNT.
Here is a touching story of a misfortune that happened in the cool October weather of 1630.
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MILES STANDISH DISCOVERS THE REVELLERS AT MERRY-MOUNT.
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The Lost Family.
1630.
THE LOST FAMILY.
On the 28th of October, Richard Garrett, a shoemaker of Boston, and one of his daughters, and four other persons went towards Plymouth in a shallop. Mr. Garrett started against the advice of his friends, as cold weather was at hand.
They were driven out to sea by a high wind, and the boat took in much water, which began to freeze.
They gave themselves up for lost, commended themselves to God, and waited for death.
At last one espied land near Cape Cod. They hoisted a part of their sail and were driven through the rocks to the shore.
A part of the company landed, but some of them found their feet frozen into the ice so that they could not move them until cut out.
They kindled a fire, but having no hatchet they could secure but little wood to feed it, and were forced to lie in the open air all night. The weather was severely cold for the season, and their sufferings were extreme.
The next morning two of them set out on foot for Plymouth, which they supposed to be near, but which was really fifty miles distant.
On their way they met two Indian squaws. These, in going to their wigwam, said to the braves, -
" We have seen Englishmen."
" They are shipwrecked," said the Indians. "Let us go in search of them, and bring them to our wigwam."
The company was soon overtaken by the friendly Indians, and returned with them to their wigwam, where they were provided with warmth and food.
One of the Indians offered to lead the two men to
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Plymouth, and another started to find the members of the company left behind, and to relieve them, if possible.
This faithful Indian found the lost travellers at last in great distress, at a distance of some seven miles.
" I will go back and get a hatchet," he said, "and I will build you a wigwam."
Back, a seven miles' walk, on that cold day plodded the Indian, and returned as soon as he could with the hatchet. He built a shelter for the sufferers, and got them wood to feed the fire.
They were so weak and frozen as to be scarcely able to move.
Garrett, the leader of the adventure, was one of the dis- abled party left behind at this place. In two days he died.
The ground was frozen so hard that they could not dig a grave for him, but the good Indian succeeded in cutting a hole about half a yard deep, and in this he laid the body and covered it with boughs to protect it from the wolves.
What hours of anguish were these, and what a messenger of mercy proved that one faithful Indian !
After a time a party arrived from Plymouth to rescue them. Another of the company died, his legs being " mortified with frost." The two men who went towards Plymouth died, one of them on his journey thither, and the other soon after his arrival. But the Indian guide led the English to the surviving sufferers. The girl escaped with the least injury. The survivors were taken back to Boston in a boat. They were supposed by the colonists there to have been lost.
It was not an uncommon thing for some member of the colony to get lost. The governor himself lost his way at one time, and passed a most uncomfortable night alone.
He had a farm on the west side of Mystic River, which he called Ten Hills. One evening in October, 1631, he
ENDICOTT CUTTING DOWN MORTON'S MAY-POLE.
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Governor Winthrop loses his Way.
1631.
took his gun and walked away from his farmhouse, thinking he might meet a wolf. The wolves were very plenty between the Charles and the Mystic at that time. He was overtaken by darkness, and was unable to tell the direction of his house. He at last came to a deserted Indian wigwam elevated upon posts. He built a fire outside to keep away the animals, and lay down on some mats he found within, but could not sleep.
He arose, and passed the night feeding the fire and singing psalms.
A little before day it began to rain. The governor crept into the wigwam. Presently he heard a noise outside. He looked out, and saw an Indian squaw climbing up.
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