USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the colonial period. 1492-1692 v. I > Part 18
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1 Not three hundred and eighty, as in Bancroft, 1. 364. The exact num- ber was three hundred and forty-one. See Mass. Rec's., 1. 366-9. The error of Mr. B. probably originated from oversight, in computing from
the statements of Savage, on Win- throp, vol. 2, App. C., where, in the first table, are the names of about forty persons who were proposed, but were not then made freemen.
205
THOMAS DUDLEY CHOSEN GOVERNOR.
Mr. Cotton, recently arrived in the country, and admit- OnTAP. ted to citizenship, entered the lists in defense of one with VIIL. whose views he so fully sympathized ; and in a public dis- course, on the day of the election, maintained that the right of an honest magistrate to his place was like that of a proprietor to his freehold, and that neither should be removed unless convicted of injustice. This was an aristo- cratic position which many disliked; the court discussed the doctrine with no little freedom; and the opinion of the ministers being asked, they prudently deferred it " to further consideration ;" but the people, impatient of control, and more democratic in their views, followed their "own notions," and Thomas Dudley was chosen Governor, and Roger Ludlow, Deputy Governor ; but, with the exception of the election of Mr. Haynes as one of the Assistants, no other change was made, and "all the other Assistants were chosen again." 1
There had been, for some time, a misunderstanding be- tween Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Dudley, growing out of per- sonal matters, as well as those of public concern; and although an outward reconciliation had been effected, the spirit of jealousy seems not to have been wholly laid; and, possibly upon the principle that all is fair in politics, a little manœuvering may have been resorted to by Mr. Dud- ley, to ingratiate himself into the favor of the people. 2 And a step soon taken seems to confirm this view, for in the fall of the same year, Mr. Winthrop was called to an Sept., account for his receipts and disbursements during his 1634. administration. On this memorable occasion, although he might have justifiably " torn his book of accounts as Scipio Africanus did, and given this answer: 'A colony, now in a flourishing estate, has been led out and settled under my
1 Winthrop, 1. 157; Hubbard, ley's version of these matters has 156.
not descended to us.
2 Winthrop's Journal. Mr. Dud-
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206
ADMINISTRATION OF HAYNES.
CHAP. direction ; my own substance is consumed ;- spend no VIII. more time in harangues, but give thanks to God ; '"- yet, for the vindication of his character, his frank reply was: " In all these things I refer myself to the wisdom and jus- tice of the court, with this protestation, that it repenteth . me not of my cost or labor bestowed in the service of this Commonwealth, but do heartily bless the Lord our God, that he hath been pleased to honor me so far as to call for anything he hath bestowed upon me, for the service of his church and people here, the prosperity whereof, and his gracious acceptance, shall be an abundant recompense to me."-" I conclude," he adds, "with this one request, which in justice may not be denied me,-that as it stands upon record, that upon the discharge of my office, I was called to account, so this my declaration may be recorded also, lest hereafter, when I shall be forgotten, some blemish may lie upon my posterity, when there shall be nothing to clear it." 1
Mr. Dudley's term of office was much shorter than that May, of his predecessor ; for the next year another change 1635. took place, and John Haynes was chosen Governor, and Richard Bellingham, Deputy Governor; Mr. Ludlow, the former Deputy, being left out entirely, "partly because the people would exercise their arbitrary power, and partly upon some speeches of the deputy, who protested against the election as void, for that the deputies of the several towns had agreed upon the election before they came." 2
During the magistracy of Mr. Haynes, " godly people in England beginning to apprehend a special hand of God in raising this plantation, their hearts were generally stirred to come over," and Massachusetts Bay was thronged with ·squadrons, three thousand emigrants arriving, notwith-
1 Winthrop, Journal, 1. 476; 2 Winthrop, 1. 188.
Mass. Rec's., 1, 131-2; Hutchin- mon, 1, 43-4,
207
FRESH ARRIVAL OF EMIGRANTS.
standing the vexatious restrictions imposed by the Council CHAP. and the Crown; and among the distinguished persons of the clergy and of the laity, who became residents of the 1635. colony, temporarily or permanently, were Roger Harla- kenden, of Earl's Colne, Essex, who died a few years after his arrival ; 1 . Anthony Thacher, the thrilling narrative of whose shipwreck, in a storm which is chronicled as the . worst that had been known, forms one of the most exciting chapters in our early history ; 2 Richard Mather, long the minister of Dorchester, and the ancestor of a succession of eminent clergymen ; Thomas Shepherd, the worthy minister of Cambridge ; and Hugh Peter, sometime pastor of the English Church at Rotterdam, who settled at Salem, and who, on leaving America, returned to England, became the Chaplain and Counsellor of Oliver Cromwell, and took a prominent part in the transactions of the Commonwealth. Possessing a spirit of unconquerable energy and perse- verance ; fervid and impressive in his eloquence ; popular as an orator, and a republican of great courage ; he was welcomed to these shores, and both in public and private labored assiduously for the welfare of the colony, partici- pated in its struggles, suggested new schemes of profitable industry, and recommended his counsels by his own success- ful example. 3
The most distinguished personage who arrived at this time, was Henry Vane, afterwards Sir Henry Vane the younger, the heir of one of the most powerful noblemen of England, and a "young gentlemen of excellent parts," whose accession was hailed as an omen of good. He had long been desirous of visiting America, and had only been prevented by the prohibition of his father, who yielded to
1 'Winthrop, 1. 334; Young, in
Winthrop, 1. 202-10; N. E. Chron. Mass., 517; 3 M. H. Coll., Gen. Reg. ; Hubbard, 177. 8. 268, 315, &c.
' Young's Chron. Mass., ch. 23; Hubbard, 199-201.
..
208
HENRY VANE.
CHAP. the commands of King Charles, and suffered him to depart.1 VIII. His attachment to Puritanism, upon whose exercises he 1635. waited with unaffected delight, had already led to the sac- rifice of his collegiate honors in the University of Oxford ; and, valuing "faith and a good conscience" above all things else, he cheerfully relinquished the splendors and entice- ments which the gay and brilliant world holds out to the young, and "forsook the honors and preferments of the Court to enjoy," on these shores, " the ordinances of Christ in their purity."
But twenty-four years of age at this time, his was indeed a remarkable character. We would by no means be under- stood as asserting that he was perfect. He was a man, and had doubtless the failings of a man. Yet the gravity of his deportment, the calm and contemplative composure of his countenance, the complete control which he had gained over his passions, with his deep penetration, and his intui- tive discernment of the characters and purposes of others, by even Clarendon are noted as extraordinary qualities, rendering him, if not the superior, at least the equal of Hampden ; 2 and his profound theological attainments, the purity of his mind, his easy and graceful eloquence, and the brilliance of his genius, won for him the warmest eulo- giums of the gifted Milton, who is lavish of his encomiums upon the young champion of liberty. 3 Dark dissimulation was no attribute of his nature. 4 Whatever of enthusiasm he possessed, it was tinged with no fanaticism, stained with no hypocrisy ; nor did it precipitate him into injudicious measures, or sanguinary excesses ; but added new luster to his acquired abilities, new powers to his natural sagacity ;
1 Neal's N. Eng., 1. 144; Mather,
1; Hutchinson, 1. 65. 2 Foster's Statesmen of the
Commonwealth, 265.
8 (Clarendon, Hist Rebellion, 1. 186-8; 2. 379.
+ Yet Hutchinson, 1. 56, and Hildreth, 1. 235, charge him with such dissimulation.
209
HIS ELECTION AS GOVERNOR.
and to the latest hour of his life, amidst the wreck of his CHAP. fortune and the treachery of his associates, with death pre -~
VIII. sented to him in the appalling form of a bloody execution, never, for a moment, did he swerve from his principles, but prepared himself for his fate with heroic and even smiling intrepidity, and encountered it with tranquil and dignified resignation. 1
Soon after his arrival, he was admitted to the freedom Mar. 3, of the colony ; and at the ensuing election, he was chosen 1635-6. May 1636. Governor. It is not improbable that his rank, as the eldest son of a privy-counsellor, gave him some advantage in the eyes of the people; 2 but his character and powers were the strongest recommendations to their favor ; and it " became the theme of wonder and admiration with them all, that such a man, so fitted by his talents and position, to sway the destinies of men, in courts and palaces, should choose the better part with the remote and unfriended exiles of the obscure wilderness of Massachusetts." 3
Yet his election, welcomed by a salute from the shipping in the harbor, however it may have testified the regard of the people, and their appreciation of his talents, can hardly be considered as equally creditable to their prudence and judgment; for, under the peculiar circumstances of the colony, neither his age nor his experience qualified him for that distinction. It was a period of intense and vio- lent excitement. Popular controversies had preceded his arrival ; and to the pressure of external aggressions, were added internal commotions of by no means a trifling nature. Faction and intrigue were rearing their hydra-heads in direst strife. Extraordinary religious dissensions were on the eve of convulsing society to its centre. With the genius of the people he was little acquainted ; nor was he
1 Hallam, Const. Hist., 419; Grahame, 1. 170-1.
2 Chalmers, Ann., 327-8.
3 Foster's Statement of the Com- monwealth, 268, Harper's cd.
18*
210
OPPOSITION TO HIS ADMINISTRATION.
CHAP. imbued with the prejudices which their situation had engen- VIII. dered. Some of the principal persons, jealous of the enthu- siasm with which he was received, and of his intervention to heal the distractions of the Commonwealth,1 looked upon him with coldness and mistrust. And, "more for things than persons, spirit than forms," and owning and cherishing goodness everywhere, the liberality of his heart, which refused to be tied down to all the formalities of the age, was little in unison with the cynical moroseness of a por- tion of the clergy. Hence the day on which he was in- vested with the purple of magistracy, saw a formidable opposition organized against him, determined to cmbar- rass his government at every step; and so well did his antagonists succeed in involving himself personally in diffi- culties, and his most intimate friends in hopeless and inex- tricable confusion, that his administration was brief and stormy; and, by the trials he encountered, he was painfully convinced of liis mistake in accepting an office, which, under other and more favorable auspices, there can be no doubt he would have filled as acceptably and as successfully as either of his predecessors.2
The first open opposition to his views, was occasioned by an incident in keeping with the times, and illustra- tive of the principles and policy of the colonists. Mr. Nov. 5, Endicott had, some time before, cut the red cross from the 1634. flag at Salem, as a " relic of Popery insufferable in a Puri- tan community ; " 3 and although his conduct was censured as "rash and uncharitable," that censure, we apprehend, was quite as much dictated by his sympathy for Roger Williams, who was abjured as a heretic as by the conviction of his judges of the criminality of the act ; for not long
1 Winthrop, 1. 211-14.
2 Sec the admirable Memoir of Vane, by Rev. C. W. Upham, in Spark's Am. Biog. Hutchinson, fol- lowing Hubbard we presume, rather
severely calls him an " obstinate and self-sufficient governor."
2 Winthrop, 1, 175, 188-9, 462-3; Mass. Rec's., 1. 137, 145-6.
211
CAUSES OF THIS. OPPOSITION.
after the same judges, upon consultation with the ministers, CHAP. "warily " expressed their doubts of the lawfulness of the VIII. use of the cross in an ensign ; 1 and although some of the people "stood stiff" to retain the emblem, it was pro- posed to change it to the "red and white rose;"2 and finally colors were appointed for every company, in which the cross was left out, and the King's arms were inserted Feb. 1, in the flag on Castle Island. 3 1635-6.
Three months later the St. Patrick, a vessel belonging May 15, to Sir Thomas Wentworth, lord-deputy of Ireland, and 160G. afterwards Earl of Strafford, arrived ; and on approaching the Castle was boarded by the Lieutenant of the fort, and compelled to strike her flag. Of this act her commander complained as "a great injury," and an apology was offered. 4 Two weeks later one Miller, or Millerd, the May 31, master's mate of the Hector, because the King's colors 1636. were not displayed at the fort, denounced the colonists as " traitors and rebels ; " and being arrested and convicted, he was committed to prison ; but a tumult arising among his crew, he was released the next day on the recognizance of the Captain, and the day after, in the presence of the masters of the fifteen vessels then in port, he acknowledged his offense, and was discharged.5 Suspicious, however, that this submission was dictated by policy rather than by principle, and that his complaints might be renewed in England, and the affair become troublesome, Governor Vane desired the advice of the Captains respecting the omission of the flag; and in a friendly spirit they replied, that it might be best to have the colors displayed, so that,
* Winthrop, 1. 179, 183, 186. 5 Mass. Rec's., 1. 178; Winthrop, 1. 225; IIubbard, 241; Coffin's Newbury, 21-2. This acknowledg- ment bears date June 9, 1636, and seems to have been recorded in Sept., several months after the of- fense was committed.
2 Winthrop, 1. 490. Mather, 2. 433, very justly condemns this over scrupulousness.
3 Winthrop, 1. 215 ; Hubbard, 164-5. " Winthrop, 1. 222; Hubbard, 240-1.
212
SCRUPLES OF. THE PURITANS.
CHAP. if they were questioned on their return what colors they VIII.
saw in the colony, they might answer, " the king's."
This, to the scrupulous Puritans, was a dilemma as un- foreseen as it was mortifying and distressing; for not a suit of unmutilated colors could be found in the colony ! Two of the captains, however, offered the loan of their suits ; and though "fully persuaded that the use of the cross in an ensign was idolatrous," a portion of the magis- trates inclined to accept this offer ; and taking the colors, the Governor promised that they should be immediately set up. But a consultation being held over night with " the ministers," of whom Mr. Cotton alone seems to have agreed with Mr. Vane, the next day Mr. Winthrop protested against placing the colors on the fort; but, seconded by Mr. Dudley and Mr. Cotton, the Governor adhered to his original determination, and the colors were displayed.1
The controversy with Mrs. Hutchinson will be noticed hereafter. The part taken in this controversy by Mr. Vane, joined to other causes of dissatisfaction, so far excit- ed the opposition of his associates, that before the expira- tion of the year he was inclined to throw up his office and return home; but by the persuasion of his friends he was dissuaded from taking that step, and remained at his post.2
May,
1637.
The annual election in the following year took place in the midst of difficulties. The controversy with Mrs. Hutch- inson was at its height; and those who condemned her as a heretic, were determined upon the suppression of her " errors," or her expulsion from the colony with all her adherents. It was, therefore, a time of the intensest excite- ment; a tumult was feared ; fierce speeches were bandied about ; Mr. Wilson himself, the pastor of the Boston
1 Winthrop, 1. 225; Hubbard, Hutchinson, 1. 142, suggests that 241-2. 2 Winthrop, 1. 247-8 ; Mass. Rec's., 1. 185; Hubbard, 256-7 .-
Mr. Winthrop " might have some political views mixed with this in- stance of his zeal."
5
213
MR. WINTHROP RE-ELECTED.
church, harangued the electors from a tree into which he CHAP. climbed ; and there was rash laying on of hands among some of the disputants.1 Voting by proxy being allowed, the election was warmly contested ; but the result, after a close siege, was the choice of John Winthrop, for Governor, and Thomas Dudley, for Deputy ; and Messrs. Stoughton and Saltonstall, were " called to be Assistants,"- Mr. Vane, Mr. Coddington, and Mr. Dummer being " left quite out." Pilate and Herod became friends that day. Ortho- doxy of religious opinion took the precedence of political orthodoxy; and Messrs. Endicott and Stoughton were relieved of the disabilities in which their heresy on the latter point had involved them, and restored because of their soundness and zeal on the former. 2
Once more in the chair, Mr. Winthrop continued in office, 1610 to with the exception of four years, until his death. These 1649. exceptions were in 1640, and 1645, when Thomas Dudley was Governor ; in 1641, when Richard Bellingham held the office ; and in 1644, when it was held by John Endi- cott. In the many important events which transpired dur- ing this period, Mr. Winthrop bore his part with fidelity and discretion. In his participation in the controversies of the day, it is but just to remark that he seems to have been actuated not so much by bigotry, or a love of persecution, as by a conviction of duty. He regretted the harshness with which Roger Williams was treated; and though a zealous opponent of Mrs. Hutchinson, and the enthusiastic Gorton, as he advanced in life his spirit became more cath- olic, and he lamented the errors of the past; so that when urged by Mr. Dudley to sign an order for the banishment of
1 Savage, on Winthrop, 1. 262; Mass. Rec's., 1. 183; Hubbird, 258-9. This custom was established Mar. 9. 1636-7, and not the previous De- cember, as Mr. Savage states.
2 Mass. Rec's., 1. 135, 136, 175, 195 ; Winthrop, 186, 190.
--
214
PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT.
CHAP. one deemed heterodox, he replied: " I have done enough of VIII. that work already."1
Of the numerous emigrations to the colony in the carlier years of its existence, we have spoken in the preceding chapter. Over twenty thousand persons are estimated to have arrived in New England in the fifteen years before the assembling of the Long Parliament ; one hundred and ninety-eight ships bore them over the Atlantic; and the whole cost of their transportation, and of the establishment of the plantation, is computed at about £200,000, or nearly a million of dollars.2 The progress of settlement had been 1634. proportionally rapid. Wood, in his New England's Pros- pect, names " Wessaguscus, Mount Wollaston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Boston, Muddy-river, Charles Towne, Medford, Newtown, Watertowne, Misticke, Winnisimet, Saugus, Sa- lem, Marvill Head, Agowamme, and Merrimacke," as " all the towns which were begun when he came for England," and of each he gives a brief description.3 But when Josse- lyn states that, in 1638, Boston was but " a village rather than a town, there being not above twenty or thirty houses," 4 although his account has been since unsuspi- ciously copied by almost every writer on the early history of the state, we incline to the opinion that the vision of the renowned voyager was afflicted with such obliquity, that he could see only the statelier edifices, inhabited by the magis- trates, while the humbler dwellings, rudely constructed of
1 Savage, on Winthrop, 1. 213 ; Bishop's N. E. Judged, 226; Hutch- inson, 1. 142 .- Bishop says this was Marmaduke Matthews, of whom see 3 M. H. Coll., 1. 29-32.
2 Johnson, in 2 M. II. Coll., 2. 77, 81 ; Josselyn, in 3 M. II. Coll., 3. 381; Dummer's Def. Charter ; Hutchinson, 1. 91. Some authori- ties say two hundred and ninety- eight vessels; others one hundred and ninety-eight; Jolinson gives both, and the smaller is probably the
correct number .- Vincent, in 3 M. H. Coll., 6. 42, computes the popu- lation of Mass. and Ct. in 1637, at 30,000. The " Brief Relation," p. 4, in Force, vol. 4. Tract 11, speaks of but 4,000 persons embarking for America in the first twelve years. Probably it should be families.
$ Chron. Mass., chap. xx; Win- throp, 1. 34, 43, 44, 15, 49, 51, 69, 83, 85, 86, 105, 109, 111, 141, 147, 157, &c. ; Hubbard, 158.
* In 3 M. H. Coll., 3. 325.
215
TOWN ORGANIZATIONS.
the rough logs of the forest, and tenanted by as warm hearts CHAP. and as clear heads as dwelt beneath costlier roofs, were~
VIII. wholly overlooked by one who saw little in such modest abodes worthy the notice of so distinguished a personage !
1634 to 1613.
Hingham was settled in 1634.1 .Newbury, Concord, and Dedham were incorporated in 1635.2 And from that date to 1643, acts were passed incorporating Lynn, North Chel- sea, Salisbury, Rowley, Sudbury, Braintree, Woburn, Glou- cester, Haverhill, Wenham, and Hull.3 West of Worces- ter, the only town incorporated within the present limits of the State was Springfield, for which an act was passed in 1636.4 These little municipalities were, in a measure, pecu- liar to New England; cach was sovereign within itself; each sustained a relation to the whole, analogous to that which the States of our Union hold respectively to the cen- tral power, or the constitution of the United States; and the idea of the formation of such communities was probably derived from the parishes of England, for each town was a parish, and each, as it was incorporated, was required to contribute to the maintenance of the ministry, as the basis of its grant of municipal rights.5 Four counties were erected at this time : Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Old Norfolk, all which were incorporated in 1643. Each of the first three contained eight towns, and Old Norfolk six. 6
Strange as it may now seem, before 1635 complaints were heard in some towns that " the people were straitened for want of room." Particularly were these complaints heard at Dorchester and Newtown; and the result was the
1 Winthrop, 1. 171; Lincoln's Hist. I'm., and Bi-Cent. Address.
2 Winthrop, 1. 191, 200; Cof- fin's Newbury, Shattuck's Concord, Worthington's Dedham, &c.
3 Winthrop, and the Col. Rec's. Only a portion of these towns have local histories : all should have.
Winthrop, and the Col. Rec's .;
Hubbard, 308; Hutchinson, 1. 95 ; Trumbull, 1. 57.
5 Baylies, 1. 241; Frothingham's Chas'n., 49, 50; and the Petitions and Acts for incorporating different towns.
6 Mass. Rec's., 2. 38; Hutchin- son, 1. 112; N. E. Gen. Reg.
216
SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT.
CHAP. settlement of Connecticut. The Plymouth people, in their VIII. trade with the Dutch, had learned of the existence of the beautiful Connecticut, known as the Fresh River, and it had been commended to them as a " fine place for habita- tion and trade;" but their hands being then full, no use April, was made of this knowledge until some time after, when a 1631. company of Indians, driven out by the Pequots, visited Plymouth, and solicited a party to be sent to " set up a trading house ;" and their circumstances permitting, they " began to send that way," to discover the country, and to " trade with the natives." The same Indians visited Bos- ton to ask help from the Massachusetts Colony ; but, suspi- cious of their intentions, their proposals were declined.
June, 1633. Nearly two years later, a trading pinnace from Plymouth put in at Manhattan, and learning that the Dutch purposed erecting a fort " twenty leagues up the " Connecticut, Mr. Winslow and Governor Bradford journeyed to Boston to obtain aid to defeat this project ; but the people of the Bay, through jealousy or some other cause, refused to interfere.1 July 12, The messengers, on receiving this answer, intimated their 1633. intention to proceed on their own responsibility ; and return- July 18. ing to Plymouth, a party was sent, under William Holmes, Oct. to take possession of the country, and erect suitable build- ings. Here they were met by the Dutch, who had already purchased land of the natives and thrown up a slight entrenchment at Hartford, and commanded to withdraw ; but taking no notice of this command, they pushed on, and at the mouth of Little's river laid the foundation of Wind- sor, fortifying their house with a strong palisade. The Dutch, little pleased with this movement, and claiming the country as as appanage of New Netherland, sent to Man- hattan, and seventy men, well armed, with colors displayed,
1 Winthrop, 1. 125; Morton's. 29; Davis's Morton, App., 395 ; Mem., 89, 90; Hubbard, 170; Brodheads's New York, 237-8, 240, Hutchinson, 1. 148; Trumbull, 1.
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