USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 6
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These important changes being adopted, three delegates from each of the eight plantations were speedily chosen, and taking their seats with the magistrates in the Meeting House at Boston, or- ganized the first house of representatives in the colony.
All this summer, emigrants sailed from Eng.
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. [1633.
land in such great numbers, that during the season as many as fourteen vessels a month arrived at the various New England plantations. In the mean time the Privy Council at London, alarmed by the misrepresentations of Morton of Merry Mount, Sir Christopher Gardiner, also an expelled colonist, and others, had appointed a commission, with Laud at its head, clothed with full power over the American plantations, even to the revocation of their charters. The commission had demanded of Craddock a return of the Massachusetts patent ; but the requisition was evaded by the authorities in New England, on the plea of inability to act until the next meeting of the general court.
The uneasiness of the colonists was greatly in- creased about this time by a letter from Morton to his "very good gossip," one Jefferies, a resi- dent of New England, stating that the king in council had declared the Massachusetts patent void; and, resuming his authority over the ter- ritory, had commissioned a governor-general for New England. A fortification upon Castle Is- land, in Boston harbour, was immediately de- termined upon ; and at the meeting of the general council in September, a sum of money was appro- priated to defray the expense of the work. The fort in the town was ordered to be armed, and authority given to commence the construction of forts at Charlestown and Dorchester.
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1633.] DISPUTE WITH THE MAGISTRATES.
But even at this period of anxiety and sus- pense, the colonists were not free from internal disputes, arising from a difference of opinion in regard to the respective powers of the magis- trates and the deputies.
Charmed by the reports they had received of the fertile low lands bordering the Connecticut River, the people at Cambridge requested per- mission to settle there; but the magistrates de- clined to authorize their removal, although the deputies, who formed a majority of the whole court, were willing to consent to the desires of the petitioners. A division being thus created, the power of the magistrates to enforce their negative was hotly questioned. Angry conten- tions arising, the court was adjourned for a brief season. Upon the reassembling of the members, Mr. Cotton came to the rescue of the magistrates, and in his sermon defended their negative. His arguments were respected; and the petitioners agreeing to accept other lands in the vicinity, in place of those upon which they were settled, the question at issue was for the time being amicably evaded.
Nor was it at Boston only that disputes with the magistracy took place about this time. At Salem the young and enthusiastic Roger Williams had proclaimed, among various other opinions ob- noxious to the authorities, " that to punish a man for any matters of conscience was persecution."
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. [1633.
Alarmed at the vigour with which he maintained his doctrines, the Plymouth magistrates demanded a copy of a manuscript treatise he had written, denying the validity of a royal patent to lands in America; but, moved by the letter he wrote in explanation of the work, they forbore from dealing with him with severity on that score, on condition that he should take an oath of alle- giance to the king. He had scarcely freed him- self from this difficulty, before he far more seri- ously compromised himself with the civil govern- ment, by stimulating Endicott to cut the cross out of the king's colours, as a relic of Anti- christ. Various attempts which were made on subsequent occasions failing to change his opi- nions, he was at length banished from the juris- diction. His church at Salem, which had hitherto clung to him with a half-wavering steadfastness, now became alarmed and turned from him. Still maintaining, among other doctrines less tenable, the noble tenet of liberty of conscience in reli- gious matters, he gathered around him a few faithful adherents, and held religious service in his own house, which he had permission to occupy until the opening of spring.
In the hour of trial the veteran Bradford honoured his sincerity while he regretted his doctrines ; and Morton, the historian, spoke warmly of his many admirable qualities. Many others also began to believe in the " godliness"
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RHODE ISLAND SETTLED.
1636.]
of the fearless young minister; and the magis- trates, apprehensive lest he should draw off a por- tion of the people and found a new settlement outside the bounds to which their authority ex- tended, finally concluded to avert the threatened danger by sending him under arrest to England. Having timely information of their purpose, Wil- liams departed from Salem in mid-winter. After wandering alone for many weeks through the leafless, snow-covered forests, partaking of such scanty fare as the straggling settler or poorer Indian could afford him, he finally passed over to Rhode Island, in the summer of 1636, and, with five companions, laid the foundation of a new colony. Here, as governor and adviser, he resided for forty years. Blameless in his life, and austerely just in his acts, bearing no malice toward those by whom he had been exiled, but desirous only of promoting the common welfare, he devoted himself to this humane purpose with the same ardour as he proclaimed and defended the peculiar tenets he had espoused.
Endicott, who was commander at Salem, for his mutilation of the colours, and his defence of a letter written by Williams to the magistrates, was sentenced by the court to be " sadly admo- nished," and disabled for a year from holding any office under the commonwealth.
Nor was the mildly aristocratic Winthrop with- out his enemies. He was scarcely removed from
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. [1635.
the office of chief magistrate before a statement of his receipts and disbursements of the public moneys was demanded at his hands. He cheer- fully complied with the ungracious requisition, and triumphantly vindicated the unsullied purity of his conduct.
Early in the spring of 1635 the arrival of vessels freighted with emigrants and stores com- menced. The number of new-comers continued to increase as the summer advanced, and before the close of the year three thousand additional settlers found a welcome and a home upon the shores of New England. Among these, young Mr. Winthrop returned from a visit to England, accompanied by his father-in-law, Hugh Peters, pastor to a congregation of Puritan exiles in Holland, and Henry Vane, a gentleman in the first flush of manhood, but less noticeable as the son of a privy counsellor than for his exalted piety and for a fervent devotion to the cause of liberty which eventually brought his head to the block.
These three gentlemen having been appointed commissioners for Connecticut, by the noble pro- prietors of that province, caused Fort Saybrook to be built at the mouth of Connecticut River, which they supplied with a competent garrison and munitions of war. By this measure the Dutch were effectually precluded from forming any settlements beyond the limits of the trading
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1636.] EMIGRATION TO CONNECTICUT.
house they had already established ; and were soon to be restricted to a few acres surrounding it.
In the mean time, the congregation of Mr. Hooker, though quieted for a season, still yearned to migrate to the banks of the Connecticut. The representations of Oldham, formerly expelled with Roger Conant and Lyford to Nantucket, and now become an Indian trader, being corro- borated by the reports of others, they again
sought permission to remove. Gaining, with some difficulty, leave from the general court, they sold their lands at Cambridge, in the spring of 1636, to a congregation newly arrived from England, under the spiritual charge of Mr. Shepard, and headed by their ministers, Hooker and Stone, departed on foot into the wilderness, bearing with them their wives and children, and driving their cattle before them.
This difficult journey through the rugged and dangerous forest, and over mountain and morass, with no guide but the compass and the slender trail left by the small company from Dorchester, who, under Ludlow, formerly deputy-governor, had migrated the previous fall, being accom- plished in about two weeks, the weary travellers sat themselves down on the west bank of the Connecticut River, fifty miles from its mouth, where they laid the foundation of a town, to which they gave the name of Hartford.
Vane, the youthful commissioner for Con-
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. [1636.
necticut, speedily became a favourite with the people of Massachusetts. Attracted by his deep piety, the grave suavity of his manners, and his devotion to the Puritan cause, in 1636, the year following his arrival, they chose him governor, although he was then not much more than twenty- four years of age. With a spice of that natural vanity excusable in one so young, he gave an added dignity to his office by adopting a certain degree of magisterial state. When he moved to court or church, four sergeants, armed with hal- berds, preceded him. For a few months his administration prospered; but toward the close of the year the people grew discontented, and Vane, receiving letters of recall from England, requested permission to resign his authority. This course produced some degree of agitation in the popular mind; and though the general court reluctantly agreed to submit to the appa- rent necessity for his departure, Mr. Cotton, his close friend, and the congregation at Boston, prevailed upon him to remain among them until the close of his term of office. Religious differ- ences were the cause, in a great degree, of the partial disfavour into which Vane had fallen. Countenanced by Vane, Cotton, and many others, Mrs. Hutchinson, the wife of a gentleman in good repute, for some time a resident of the colony and a representative of Boston in the general court, established private religious
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1637.] RELIGIOUS DISPUTES.
meetings for those of her own sex, at which the sermons preached by the ministers the Sabbath preceding were taken up, examined, and criti- cised. For a while her lectures were popular ; but when she began to separate the ministers and their followers throughout the colony into two distinct but very unequal parties, charging. the larger moiety with being under a covenant of works, while the lesser only was under a covenant of grace, contentions arose, and dis- putatious correspondences were carried on, which at one time seriously threatened to break up the settlement. Being in her turn charged by Win- throp, and those who thought with him, of ad- vocating two capital errors in doctrine, one of which was, " that the Holy Spirit dwells in per- sonal union with a justified person," and the other, that " sanctification was not necessary for justification," her cause, embraced with ardour by Vane, was also partially espeused by Cotton and her brother-in-law, Wheelwright, a minister of some eminence. Protected by these popular men, she continued her lectures until the follow- ing year, when Winthrop was chosen governor, and Vane returned to England. Many persons having in the mean time adopted her opinions, the general court finally concluded to call a council of the churches. The synod was held at Cambridge on the 30th of August, 1637; and, after a discussion which lasted three weeks, con-
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. [1637.
demned as erroneous some eighty obnoxious opinions which had been set afloat in the colony.
The power of the general court being thus strengthened by the voice of the clergy, they proceeded to expel, soon after, two of their own members for justifying seditious practices ; and demanded of Wheelwright a retraction of his course and an acknowledgment of his offence. This being refused, he was condemned as a dis- turber of the peace, disfranchised, and ordered to quit the colony within fourteen days.
Mrs. Hutchinson was next summoned before the court to answer the charge of " traducing the ministers and their ministry in the country." After a protracted trial, she also was condemned to banishment ; and Hutchinson, making sale of his estate, removed with his wife and children to Rhode Island, where he purchased a tract of land from the Indians. The subsequent fate of this gifted and enthusiastic woman was deeply tragical. After living through the winter in a cave upon the island, hostilities broke out be- tween the Dutch of New Netherlands and the natives, and, in the confusion which ensued, she fell a sacrifice to the fury of the savages.
Previous to this, however, and during the heat of those religious disputes to which Mrs. Anne Hutchinson finally became a victim, an expedi- tion was undertaken by Massachusetts against the Pequod tribe of Indians, in retribution for
99
WAR WITH THE PEQUODS.
1637.]
several murders they had latterly committed ; one of the victims being Oldham, the Indian trader. During the autumn of 1636, eighty men, commanded by Endicott, marched against them, but returned to Boston on the approach of winter without accomplishing any thing. The Pequods continuing their hostilities by cutting off settlers, and increasing so much in boldness as to besiege for several weeks the garrison at Fort Saybrook, an alliance was formed by the English colonies with the Narragansets, with whom the Pequods had previously sought to unite. Early in 1637 the combined forces of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, supported by a strong body of Indian auxiliaries, prepared to take the field. A detachment of forty men, commanded by Cap- tain Patrick, an officer who had served in the Low Countries under the Prince of Orange, was thrown forward by Massachusetts in advance of the main body to form a junction with the Con- necticut levies under Captain Mason; but the latter, having under him sixty Connecticut mi- litia, and being further reinforced by twenty Massachusetts men, commanded by Captain Underhill, a resolute enthusiast, and three hun- dred Indian auxiliaries, without waiting for further support, penetrated the Pequod country, and marched at once to invest the two stockade forts within which the enemy had ensconced themselves. On learning that Sassacus, the
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. [1637.
chief sachem, was in command of the principal fort, one-third of the Indians, struck with terror, refused to proceed and returned to their homes. The distance being yet eight miles to the fort where Sassacus was, and the men being wearied with carrying the weight of their arms and pro- visions, it was finally concluded to commence the assault upon the nearer fort, which was at Mistick.
Under the guidance of a Pequod Indian, named Wequash, they reached the vicinity of the stockade undiscovered, about midnight, and distinctly heard the Indians within feasting and making great rejoicing, under the impression that the English had taken a different route. About daybreak on the 26th of May, they ap- proached the fort while its garrison was buried in profound sleep; and, piloted by Wequash, reached the gate. The barking of a dog within the enclosure was the first intimation the Pe- quods received of the danger with which they were menaced. With a piercing yell, the alarmed savages sprang to their arms ; but were speedily thrown into confusion by the English, who fired upon them through the openings between the palisades. Mason was first to enter the fort with his men; and the remainder joining him soon after, through various openings, a terrific conflict commenced, during which the surprised garrison fought with the energy of despair. But
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1637.] FORT MISTICK DESTROYED.
the superior arms and discipline of the English were soon found to be more than a match for the frailer weapons of their savage antagonists ; and Mason, setting fire to the wigwams, of which there were some sixty or seventy within the en- closure, the terrified Indians endeavoured to escape by scaling the palisades. In this exposed and defenceless situation many were shot down; while those who succeeded in escaping for the moment, met their death soon after by the hands of the Indian auxiliaries who encircled the out- side of the stockade. Scarcely one escaped. The work of slaughter being ended, the English, with the loss of three killed, embarked their numerous wounded on board some vessels which had opportunely ascended the river, the main body returning overland to Fort Saybrook, where the vessels also arrived the following day.
The result of this fearful onslaught effectually broke the power of the Pequods. Sassacus, with the feeble remains of his tribe, abandoned his fort, and, burning his wigwams, made an attempt to escape from the country over which he had so long ruled; but the Massachusetts forces under Stoughton arriving at Saybrook early in June, the pursuit was renewed with increased activity. The Pequod fugitives being at length surrounded in a swamp, where they had sought refuge,-and preferring to die fight-
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
[1637.
ing rather than submit to the terms which were offered,-fell there, one by one, until at the close of the battle, with very few exceptions, the whole tribe was exterminated.
CHAPTER VII.
New Haven founded-Increase of emigration-Harvard College established-Population of the province-Emigration check- ed-Feeling of discouragement in New England-The Baha- ma Islands-Colonists from New England-Fired upon by the Spaniards-Return of the adventurers-Commissioners sent to England-Fate of Hugh Peters-Wheelright-Settles at Exeter-Underhill-His banishment from Massachusetts- Becomes Governor of Exeter-Is forcibly expelled-The jurisdiction of Massachusetts extended-Indian plot-Con- duct of Miantinomo-Gorton-His doctrines-Whipped at Plymouth-At Rhode Island-Removes to Providence-Set- tles at Showamet-Is arrested and carried to Boston-Harsh sentence imposed upon him and his followers-Union of the New England colonies-Indian war-Execution of Mianti- nomo-Submission of the Narragansets-Witchcraft in Mas- sachusetts-Instance of credulity-Death of Winthrop- His character.
DURING the year 1637, the town of New Haven was founded by a company of newly- arrived emigrants, of whom the most influential were Mr. Davenport, a minister eminent for his learning and piety, Mr. Hopkins, and his father-in-law Mr. Eaton, respectable London merchants. New Haven continued a distinct colony until 1665, when it was incorporated with Connecticut.
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EMIGRATION CHECKED.
1640.]
Winthrop was re-elected governor of Massa- chusetts in 1638; and, notwithstanding some movements which were attempted in England to procure the annulment of the charter held by the colony, no less than twenty ships, bearing three thousand emigrants, came over this year.
By a bequest from John Harvard, a minister at Charlestown, an addition of nearly eight hundred pounds sterling was made to the sum already appropriated for a public school at Cambridge, which, in compliment to the testa- tor, was ordered henceforth to take the name of Harvard College.
At the election of 1639, Winthrop was con- tinued in the office he so worthily filled: but the following year Dudley was chosen governor, and Winthrop took his seat as one of the assistants.
From the first landing of the Pilgrims to the year 1640, there had arrived in New England, in two hundred and ninety-eight ships, twenty- one thousand two hundred passengers. But at this period, owing to the success of the Puritan cause in England, the tide of emigration was stayed.
This sudden check to increase of population from abroad, had, for a season, a marked effect upon the fortunes of the New England colonies. Prices of cattle, at that time the main dependence of the New England farmer, fell to about one- sixth of their previous marketable value; and as
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
[1641.
1
the soil yielded but an indifferent compensation for the labour bestowed upon it, many persons became greatly discouraged. At this period of uneasiness, Lord Say and Seal, having turned his attention to colonizing the Bahama Islands, sought to increase the number of settlers from the north country by emigration from New Eng- land. In this object, assisted by Humphries, once deputy-governor, and still one of the as- sistants, he was not altogether unsuccessful; though Winthrop clung bravely to the colony which had prospered under his guardianship, and wrote to Lord Say and Seal that God would never have sent his people to New England, «if he had not seen the place sufficient to maintain them, or intended to make it so." Some of the colonists having, however, concluded to make a trial of the new home which had been offered them, a company embarked, during the year 1641, on board a vessel commanded by Captain Pierce, and sailed for Providence, the second in point of size of . the Bahama Islands. When they reached their place of destination, they were sud- denly fired upon by a Spanish garrison, who in the mean time had seized possession of the island. Captain Pierce being shot dead in this unex- pected attack, the vessel was put about, and the proposed scheme of emigration ended abruptly.
The dissatisfaction of a portion of the colonists with the depressed condition of things evinced
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FATE OF PETERS.
1641.]
itself in the defeat of Winthrop for governor, and the choice of Bellingham in his stead, by a small and dubious majority. The general court was at first disposed to contest the legality of the elec- tion ; but, after a long series of angry disputa- tions, Bellingham was admitted to his seat.
To support the interests of the colony, during the quarrel between the king and parliament, Mr. Weld and Hugh Peters were sent as com- missioners to England. Neither of them ever returned to America. Weld finally settled as a minister at Gateshead, but was expelled from his living at the restoration of Charles II. Peters embraced with ardour the cause of the Parlia- ment ; and, like Vane, suffered death for his re- puted treason.
Wheelwright, who had been exiled from the colony for his Antinomian opinions, settled, with some thirty-four followers, "on the south side of the great bay up Piscataqua River," where they opened a plantation to which they gave the name of Exeter. Here, subsequently, he was joined by Underhill, whose tenets were of a familistic character, and who was wont to boast of having obtained his religious assurance "while he was taking a pipe of the good creature to- bacco;" but it appears that the true, character of his "assurance" was of a far different com- plexion, inasmuch as he had been convicted of grossly immoral practices in Massachusetts, and
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HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. [1642.
excommunicated. He, however, managed to in- gratiate himself with the people of Exeter, who chose him for their governor ; but the opposition to him was so great, and religious dissensions, both at Exeter and the neighbouring settlement at Dover, became so violent, that it was found necessary to expel Underhill and his friend Knolles, a licentious Antinomian minister, be- fore the distracted settlements could be restored to any degree of harmony.
An inquiry into the limits of the Massachusetts patent resulting in bringing within the jurisdic- tion of that colony the settlements at Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter, and other small villages on the Piscataqua River, it was resolved to put an end to the distractions which agitated those hitherto independent and ill governed plantations by ex- tending over them the authority of the general court, to which, in return, they were allowed to send two deputies. So soon as commissioners were appointed to carry this order into effect, Wheelwright, and others who had rendered them- selves obnoxious to the government of Massa- chusetts, retired from Exeter, and established themselves in the province of Maine.
In 1642, Winthrop was again chosen governor. Soon after his election tidings was received from various sources, but chiefly from friendly Indians, that the Narragansets were plotting a general massacre of the colonists. This news was the
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INDIAN PLOT.
1643.]
more alarming inasmuch as the savages were beginning to be accustomed to the use of fire- arms, of which they had been enabled to procure a large supply from the Dutch at Manahattan and from reckless English traders. The most vigorous preparations were instantly made to avert the threatened danger. Connecticut was eager to anticipate an attack by commencing hostilities at once ; but the more prudent counsels of Massachusetts prevailed. The Indians within the colony were disarmed, and Miantinomo, the chief sachem of the Narragansets, appeared in person before the court at Boston, and demanded to be confronted with his accusers. Though not actually acquitted of the charge, he was finally dismissed in safety ; and being made fully aware of the suspicions which were aroused against him, he abandoned his sanguinary intentions, if indeed he had ever meditated any.
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