USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > The history of Salem, Massachusetts, vol 1, 1924 > Part 6
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1Oct. 7, 1647, "Upon ye petition of ye sagam" of Agawam, for librty for one of o" smiths to amend his gun, it is ord'ed yt warrant shalbe granted." -- Massachusetts Bay Colony Records, volume II, page 163.
2Massachusetts Bay Colony Records, volume I, page 394.
3 Massachusetts Bay Colony Records, volume I, page 400.
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HISTORY OF SALEM
and dwell with the English and live civilly and orderly, they shall have allotment among the English, according to the custom of the English ; and if there be enough for a township of themselves, upon their request to the general court, they shall have grants of land undisposed of for a plantation as the English have."1
The court of assistants, held at Boston March I, 1630-1, ordered "that if any pson within the lymitts of this pattent doc trade, trucke, or sell any money, eith" silver or golde, to any Indian, or any man that knows of any that shall soe doe, & con- ceale the same, shall forfeit twenty for one."
All trading with the Indians within the colonial territory was forbidden, except to those men to whom the government had appointed the right by an order of the court passed Sept. 8, 1636. Nov. 13, 1644, this right was placed in the hands of commissioners for the period of ten years.1 Because of the sale to the Indians of liquor, guns, powder, shot, etc., trade with them was made more limited, and license to do so was permitted only by an act passed April 29, 1668, upon condition that the colonial treasury receive a share of the profits. This act was repealed July 9, 1675. On account of the war with King Philip, all trade with the Indians was forbidden, May 3, 1676, upon the penalty of the forfeiture of all the estate of the person so trading, and in the absence of any estate he was to suffer banishment upon pain of death.
By an order of the general court passed May 14, 1656, no Indian was allowed to train in the militia; but when the Indian war was in progress it was ordered that the Indians be armed for military service.
May 26, 1647, an act of the general court was passed, estab- lishing a court for the Indians. It was to be presided over by one or more of the magistrates as the latter shall agree, once a quarter at such place or places where the Indians ordinarily assembled for religious worship, to hear and determine all civil and criminal causes (except capital) concerning the Indians, and Indian sachems were given liberty to take order in the nature of summons or attachments to bring into such court any of their own people. The quarterly courts might refer criminal matters to them. The fines paid into these courts were to be used toward building meet- ing houses, educating their poorer children or other public use.
With the passing of the race, laws relating to them dis- appeared, until in less than two generations neither were in cur- rent thought or record.
1Massachusetts Bay Colony Records, volume II, page 86.
1
CHAPTER III.
DISCOVERIES, EXPLORATIONS AND PATENTS.
HE discovery of America by Columbus was followed by many voyages to learn the topography and con- ditions of the new land, to secure portions of it to the sovereign patrons of the adventurers and to further colonization.
The first explorer to see the islands and shores of Salem, probably, was Giovanni Cabota,1 a native of Genoa, who had re- moved to Venice, and subsequently to Bristol, in England, and was afterward known by the anglicised form of his name, John Cabot. He was bold and adventurous, and obtained from King Henry VII a patent to make a voyage of discovery, March 5, 1496.2 With his sons he sailed in the ship Matthew of Bristol, in 1497; and in July passed by the shores of Massachusetts, but probably did not enter Salem Bay nor make a landing in this region.
The next navigator who sailed along the coast was Giovanni de Verrazzano,4 a Florentine, formerly a corsair, preying upon the Spanish. He was sent by France to prosecute discoveries in the northern parts of America ; and in July, 1524, he passed from Cape Cod to Cape Ann, apparently not entering the bay."
The reign of Queen Elizabeth of England was most con- spicuous for its zeal in discovery and adventure. Bartholomew Gosnold, in 1602, visited Cape Cod and the islands to the south. At that time no European had a home in any part of America north of Mexico.
1Or, Zuan Cabot.
2This patent is given in Rymer's Fodera XII, folios 595 and 596.
3The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries made by the English Nation, by Richard Hakluyt, London, 1589, volume I, page 51I. "John Verrazzano.
"The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries made by the English Nation (1600), volume III, page 295.
"See Strachey's Historie of Travaile into Virginie, London, 1850, chap- ters 5 and 6.
5I
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HISTORY OF SALEM
The next year Martin Pring sailed along the coast for the fuller discovery of the New England portion of the original grant of Virginia. He had two vessels, the ship Speedwell, of about fifty tons, and the bark Discoverer, of twenty-six tons. The promoters of this voyage were Richard Hakluyt, Sir Walter Raleigh, the mayor and aldermen and some of the large merchants of Bristol, in England, who had raised a fund of one thousand pounds for that purpose. The Speedwell carried thirty men and boys and the Discoverer thirteen men and a boy, and they had supplies for eight months. Captain Pring sailed from Milford Haven, April 10, 1603. Arriving on the coast of Maine, he sailed southwestward and was the first navigator to enter the bay of the Massachusetts.1
Henry IV of France granted to Pierre du Gast, Nov. 3, 1603, the American territory from the forty-first to the forty-sixth de- grees of north latitude, making him lieutenant-general of it with power to colonize and rule it, and to subdue and Christianize the natives.2 But he only took possession of the country north of the present territory of New England.3
Samuel Champlain of Brouage in France, sailed from Acadie south, as far as Cape Cod, in 1604, and immediately retraced his course as the natives appeared numerous and unfriendly and his company was small.4
King James, seeking a northwest passage, sent out for that purpose a ship under the command of George Weymouth, sailing from the Downs, with twenty-eight persons, the last of March, 1605. May 14, they came to land at the southern part of Cape Cod, and sailed northward to the coast of Maine probably follow- ing the shore.4
The accounts carried to England by the several explorers. were commendatory of the numerous safe and spacious harbors and bays of this coast, of its healthy climate, of the peaceable dis- position of the natives, and of the abundant means of subsistence. They also stated that the waters abounded with cod larger than those of Newfoundland, and the hills and valleys of the land were full of animals, furnishing valuable skins and furs, in which a profitable trade had already been commenced. After this time
1Purchas, His Pilgrimage, by Sampel Purchas, London, 1626, volume V, pages 1654-1656.
2Purchas, His Pilgrimage, volume V, pages 1619 and 1620.
3Purchas, His Pilgrimes, by Samuel Purchas, London, 1625, volume I, pages 751 and 752; and Purchas, His Pilgrimage, volume V, pages 1620- 1626.
4Purchas, His Pilgrimage, volume V, page 1622; and Second Voyage of Sieur de Champlain, 1604.
5Purchas, His Pilgrimes, volume I, page 755; and Purchas, His Pil- grimage, volume V, pages 1659-1676.
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DISCOVERIES, EXPLORATIONS AND PATENTS
regular navigation was continued over the watery track between the two countries.
Possessing such right to dispose of the territory as Cabot's discovery and that of subsequent English explorers could give to the English crown, James I, upon the petition of Richard Hakluyt, then prebendary of Westminster, granted to the Virginia Com- pany, by a patent dated April 10, 1606, the lands on the new shore between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude.1 By subsequent grants and occupancy the limits of that colony were fixed two hundred miles to the north, a point just south of Long Island, the Virginians having virtually abandoned the New England portion of their original grant.
Until the year 1614, probably no English foot had pressed our soil. Capt. John Smith, who had won fame in the planting and sustaining of the Virginia colony, turned his attention and devoted his energy and influence to the founding of a settlement farther north. He was sent out from England, with two ships and forty- five men and boys, at the expense of four Englishmen, with in- structions to remain in the country and keep possession. He left the Downs March 3, 1614, and arrived on the Maine coast the last of April. He built seven boats, his crew fished, and he, in one of the boats, with eight men, ranged the coast southward as far as Cape Cod, bartering with the natives for beaver and other furs. From the observations, which he made, while on this voyage, of the shores, islands, harbors, and headlands, he sub- sequently prepared a map2 which he presented to Prince Charles, who confirmed the name of New England.3 Captain Smith did not plant a colony here, but his earnest and well-directed efforts to do so, and the employment of his pen and influence to encourage colonization in this part of the country, merit and will always receive the grateful regard of his nation. In 1616, he published his Description of New England,- a work especially designed to
"This patent is printed in full in The History of the first Discovery and Settlement of Virginia, by William Stith, Williamsburg, Va., 1747, appendix, page 1; and in Historical Collections, consisting of State Papers and other Authentic Documents, intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America, by Rev. Ebenezer Hazard, Philadelphia, Pa., 1792, volume I, page 50.
2This was the first map of the New England coast that was at all ac- curate or in detail. Before he made this exploration he collected all the information he could from previous sailors, but it was so imperfect and contradictory that he declared it was "even as a coast unknown and un- discovered." He added soundings, and marked sands, rocks and landmarks as he "passed close aboard the shore in a little boat" (Description of New England, page 205). For several years this was the only guide of voyagers to this coast.
" History of Virginia, by John Smith, volume I, page 205; and History of New England, by Rev. William Hubbard, page 84.
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HISTORY OF SALEM
awaken interest in the settlement of the country.1 He passed the summer after the publication of the book in distributing copies of it among the gentry of the principal towns of Cornwall and Devon- shire, the maritime counties of England, in order to incite coloniza- tion. Of the coast of Massachusetts, he said: "Of all the four parts of the world I have yet seen uninhabited, could I have but means to transport a colony, I would rather live than anywhere else."
There were sea rovers or pirates along this part of the American coast at this early period, and against them Capt. John Mason and William Bushnell were commissioned, May 29, 1620, by the court of admiralty, to suppress them in the neighborhood of Newfoundland.2
The shores of the country were rocky and barren, but inland were attractive rivers and forests and fertile fields; and only enterprise and industry seemed necessary to convert the more favorable spots into flourishing settlements. But the first colon- ization of New England was ultimately to be from far different motives. While the Europeans were planning expeditions for this purpose, the ever-memorable Mayflower sailed, in 1620, from the port of Plymouth, in England, with a company of Pilgrims, who undesignedly made the first settlement in New England. Their objective was southerly of the Hudson River, but the shoals and breakers off Cape Cod made them fearful, and therefore they determined to settle within the bay. Beside this colony at Ply- mouth it is not known that a single European was at that time anywhere in the country between Hudson and Penobscot rivers.
The emigrations of the Pilgrims caused a fresh interest in the colonization of our shores. King James was not unwilling to grant a charter for North Virginia, as the northern portion of original Virginia was called, for, contrary to his expressed wish, the Virginia Company had elected to the office of treasurer Henry, Earl of Southampton, one of the influential patriots of the House of Lords. This brought the Company into disfavor with the monarch, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges turned this dissatisfaction to the benefit of North Virginia.3
A new patent, called the great patent of New England, was granted by King James, Nov. 3, 1620, the day of the incorporation of the company, to the duke of Lenox, the marquises of Bucking- ham and Hamilton, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, with thirty-four associates and their success-
1Capt. John Smith died in London in 1631, aged about fifty-two.
"Admiralty Records, Elizabeth, James I and Charles I, volume 237, folios 30-32.
"See Strafford Papers, 1:21; and Peckard's Life of Nicholas Ferrar, Cambridge, 1791, pages 85, 89-168.
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DISCOVERIES, EXPLORATIONS AND PATENTS
ors, styling them, "The Council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering and governing of New England, in America." The patent conveyed absolutely all that part of the North American territory between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, in breadth, and “in length by all the breadth aforesaid throughout the mainland from sea to sea." The same authority and privileges, which had been given previously to the treasurer and company of Virginia, were now conferred on them and they were equally empowered to exclude all persons from trading within the boundaries of their jurisdiction, and from fishing in the neighboring seas.1 Gorges was governor of the fort and island of Plymouth, and Capt. John Mason,2 who had been in the naval service, was governor of New- foundland from 1615 to 1621.
March 9, 1621-2, Captain Mason secured from this council a grant of all the land from the river Naumkeck around Cape Ann to the river Merrimack and up each of these rivers to its source ; thence to cross over from the head of the one to the head of the other ; with all the islands lying within three miles of the coast.2 This tract of country he called Mariana ; but no use was made of it in the way of settlement, or otherwise, by the grantee or those claiming under him.
March 19, 1627-8, the king gave a deed to Sir Henry Roswell and others; and a charter, confirming the deed, was granted to them by the crown March 4, 1628-9, constituting them a cor- poration with power of government. This charter granted all that part of New England extending three miles north of every part of the river Merrimack and three miles south of every part of the river Charles, etc.
This grant of a portion of the territory already granted to Captain Mason caused confusion and trouble ; and the situation was rendered more complicated by the grant of the council to Captain Mason, April 22, 1635, of all the land "from the middle part of Nahumkege River and from thence to proceed Eastward along the sea Coast to Cape Ann, & round about the same to Pischataqua harbour."" Captain Mason commanded the South
1Hazard, I: 103-118. See Documents of Colonial History of New York, 1853, volume III, pages 2 and 3.
"Capt. John Mason, only son of John and Isabella (Steed) Mason, was born in King's Lynn (Lynn Regis), an ancient port on the Great Ouse River, in England, and baptized in St. Margaret's Church Dec. II, 1586. He married Anne, daughter of Edward Greene of London, a goldsmith.
3This grant is recorded in the British Public Record office, Colonial Entry Book, volume LIX, pages 93-100; and printed in Prince Society's John Mason, 1887, page 170.
4The reference to this deed in the charter is all that is known about it.
"This grant is printed in Prince Society's John Mason, page 209. See, also, York Deeds, volume II, pages 14-17.
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HISTORY OF SALEM
Sea Castle, in Portsmouth Harbor, England, the last two years prior to his death, which occurred in November or December, 1635, leaving widow Elizabeth and daughter Jane, wife of Joseph Tufton. Mr. and Mrs. Tufton had sons John and Robert Tufton. To these grandsons, Captain Mason devised all his lands, houses, etc., providing that they took the surname of Mason. John Tufton died in his youth and all the estate of Captain Mason came to Robert Tufton who took the name of Mason.
Robert Tufton Mason was a royalist, and therefore could do nothing toward enforcing any claim he might have until Charles II came to the throne, in 1660. He then applied to the king for assistance, and the attorney-general reported that Mason had a good title to Mariana. The Lords of Trade, before whom the matter was pending, notified Massachusetts to come to court and answer the complaints of Mason. Messrs. Stoughton and Bulkley were accordingly sent over to England, and were heard by two lords,- chief justices,- in 1677. These decided that as the tenants of the soil had not been summoned to prove their titles, no conclusive opinion could be given. Whether or not the Mason claims were in the minds of the legislators when they passed the act of 1657, which held that adverse possession for five years after 1652 gave a good title to land, it was a defence that would have been sustained in the county courts against Mason.
A letter, dated Sept. 30, 1680, came from the king to the Massachusetts authorities, ordering the people to transmit to him, by colonial agents, proofs of their titles. Men were appointed for the embassy, but they declined to act, much to the displeasure of the king ; but petitions were sent from the towns interested, ask- ing for protection and the intercession of the king for them if Mason's claim was brought before him in council. The town of Beverly held a meeting Jan. 7, 1680-1, and in pursuance of its determination to resist the claims of Mason the following com- munication1 was sent to the general court :-
The humble petition of the Inhabitants of Beuerly in the County of Essex in the Massachusetts Collony vnto the honorable generall court of the Massachusetts Colony setting at Boston febr the 22D : 1680-I humbly sheweth: That wee the Loyall subjects of our Dread Soueraign Lord King Charles the second, King of England Scotland, france & Irland defender of ye faith hauing seene his Royall Comand by his Letters bearing date september 30th: 1860 to the Inhabitants between merimack and neumkeag Riuers Requiring them to make Improvement of their Lawfull defence for the lands they possess before his highness in Counsell: And hauing Intimation that wee may possibly be concerned in M' Mason his Claime; doe humbly Declare that wee now not by his Majesties Letters that wee are Comprised vnder that
1Massachusetts Archives, volume III, folio 29.
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Comand seeing there bee Sundry Rivers named Neumkeag and wee Know not which the Letter Refers vnto: wee Humbly Conceiue this Answer might suffice vntil m' Mason or some other in his behalfe do shew vs his grant or Some Exemplification thereof whereby wee may Know whither wee be Claimed be him or no: yet that wee may not Seeme vnto such as Suppose us to bee Comprehended to bee defective in our Alleageance, wee Add that we being many haue our seuerall perticular titles to produce Iff Robert Mason Esq' put vs upon it : And hee that hath but one Acre Expects A fair Legall trial for all that hee can Justly produce to plead for it : So that wee can produce quires yea Rheams of paper which wee Conceive it would be presumtion in us to desire or Expect our Dread Soveraigne to bee diverted from the weighty Affairs of three Kingdoms for the hearing of: ffor we haue had Above fifty years possession, and Entered vpon the place with the good liking of the Indians the ancient Inhabitants of this Country, wee haue Adventured our lives and Estates, and worne out Much Time and strength in the subduing a wilderness, for the Increasing his Majesties dominions and Customes, And in the late warrs with the heathen haue Caried our lives in our hands to defend our possessions, with the Loss of about twelve English lives of our town, and ex [p]ended some hundreds of pounds to maintain o" lands: and in All this Tyme of Aboue 50 years, neither m' Mason nor any for him did either take possession, or disburs Estate, or made Demand of our Lands, or Expended one penny to defend them: Wee humbly Conceive his majesties Royall Justice intends not to put vs to the Charges of sending our deedes and Euidences three thousand miles before Any demand of m' Mason upon the place to try; at least, whether wee will own the lands his without puting vs to so much Charge: But that which wee humbly plead for is that who euer layes any Claim to our soyle his title may be tryed vpon the place by his Majesties government here: first becaus yo' Last messengers weer in England, the Lord Chiefe justices and others did judg it equall that whoeuer Laid Claime to any Soyle within the Limits of the patent, his Title Should be Tryed by his Majesties gouerment vpon the place, and seeing his Majesty was graciously pleased to Confirm this determination and Require all par- ties Concerned to acquies therein, wee humbly plead the benifitt of that determination.
Secondly Our Charter giues power to the gouerno" and Company of the Massachusets to make such Laws and ordinances for the good and wellfare "of the said Company and for the gouerment and ordering of the said Lands and Plantations, and People Inhabiting and to Inhabit them Same as to them from time to time shall be thought meete," now acording to the Laws and Ordinances made by this Royall Authority and direction, have wee a title to plead for our Respectiue possessions humbly pleading our titles may be tryed by those laws by which our lands are to bee gouerned acording to our Charter.
thirdly Our gratious Soveraign was pleased by his Letters dated ffeba 15. 1660 Thus to signifie his pleasure viz "As wee Consider New England to be one of the Chiefest hauing enjoyed and grown vp in a long and Orderly Establishment so wee shall not Come behinde any of our Royall predecessors in a Just Encouragement and prtection of all
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our Louing Subjects there," &c Wee by this o' orderly Establishment did then hold our Lands. and by the said orderly Establishment haue since those letters, held Them twenty years more, and doe humbly desire and Expect to bee tryed by those Lawes here made, which are the means of your and our Orderly Establishment as a Branch of that Just Encouragement and Protection, which wee hope for by the gracious promis of our dread Soveraigne.
Wherefore our humble Request to this hono'd Court is thatt Iff Robert Mason Esq' pretends a title to any Lands in o' posession you will bee Instrumentall in o' behalf to present these our righteous please for the lands wee posess, for the just improument of o' Lawfull defence before his Majesty in Councill, Interceding that his Royall care and Tendernes Expressed Towards vs his meanest subjects, may bee still Continued to Confirm our Long Enjoyed priueledges granted by his Royall highness and Royall Predecessours, And wee Resolue through the grace of god with Our persons and Estates to approue ourselues his Loyall Subjects Euen to the death : praying to the throne of grace for the Choisest Blessings of heaven and Earth to bee powred upon his Royall head : And hart, and Remaine yo' hono's humble petitioners.
In the name and P order of the town
PAUL THORNDYKE JOHN DODG JOHN HILL EXERCISE CONANT THOMAS WEST
May 24, 1681, the general court determined that the claim should be defended, the inhabitants to manage their own defence ; and nine days later one hundred pounds was appropriated therefor out of the colonial treasury.
Afterward, Mason asked to be allowed to bring suits in the Massachusetts courts, and prosecute holders of the lands he claimed. The general court consented on certain conditions, which Mason concluded not to accept at that time. When James II came to the throne in 1685, Mason thought he could accomplish his long-deferred purpose, and the people of Beverly feared that he might be successful. Some deeds2 of release from the Indians were obtained to show title ; but he died in September, 1688, with- out reaching the court he sought. His two sons, John Tufton Mason and Robert Tufton Mason, granted to Samuel Allen of London, merchant, the territory of Mariana Oct. 14, 1690; and a second deed is dated April 27, 1691,3 but probably no proceedings for possession were brought by either of the parties, particularly as the general court, as soon as the charter of the province allowed,
1Massachusetts Archives, volume III, folio 31.
"The supreme court of Massachusetts has always construed these early Indian deeds as releases only-not conveying any title, but operating by way of estoppel only.
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