USA > Massachusetts > The landing at Cape Anne; or, The charter of the first permanent colony on the territory of the Massachusetts company > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
1 Gorges.
2 Planters' Plea, ch. 7, 8.
3 Hubbard, 106. Hutchinson says that Conant left Cape Anne in the fall of 1626 ; the Planters' Plea says, the Planters " stood us in two years and a halfe in well nigh a thousand pounds," which would make their occupation to have begun early in 1624.
4 Then about 33 years of age ; born 1591, died Nov. 19, 1679. See his Depo- sition published by Rev. J. B. Felt in the New England Ilist. Gen. Reg 1848 p. 333.
٦
L
44
ROGER CONANT CHOSEN GOVERNOR.
previous narative, that he and the rest of the adventur- ers were so well assured of Mr. Conant's qualifications, that they decided to employ him "for the managing and government of all their affairs at Cape Anne; " and Mr. White " was so well satisfied therein, that he engaged Mr. Humphrey, the treasurer of the joint adventurers, to write to him in their names, and to signify that they had chosen him to be their governor in that place,1 and would commit unto him the charge of all their affairs, as well fishing as planting." They also invited Mr. Lyford to be the minister of the new colony, and Oldham to trade for them with the Indians. At that time they dwelt at Nantasket. Lyford accepted, and went to Cape Anne with Governor Conant, but Oldham preferred " to stay where he was, for a while, and trade for himself, and not become liable to give an account of his gain or loss."
Of this, Prince says, "it seems as if the Rev. Mr. White and the Dorchester gentlemen had been imposed upon with respect to Lyford and Oldham, and had sent invitations to them before the discovery" of their wick- edness.
Governor Conant may have allowed Lyford's presence at Cape Anne, from commiseration for his family, or upon his repentance. The only occurrence of note during Governor Conant's administration at Cape Anne was the case of the aggression on the property of the Plymouth planters, wherein he displayed a moderation
' The charter expressly authorizes civil officers, and the maintenance of a minis- ter, and there can be no reasonable doubt that these appointments were under its provisions. In point of prudence and interest, the Dorchester merchants would avail themselves of all the charter privileges, and nothing appearing to the contrary, there can be no reasonable doubt that the appointments of the various officers were made by virtue of the charter. See also the " Declaration," in Mass. Ilist. Coll. xix.
-
45
A SHARP CONTEST AT CAPE ANNE.
and address appropriate to his position. Some of the " adventurers," who had deserted the colonial interests, sent " one Hewes," to make reprisal of the Plymouth possessions at the Cape. This was probably done at the suggestion of those bad men, Lyford and Oldham.
Hubbard represents this incident with much humor, at the expense of the Plymouth people: but Prince's suggestion that he was " sometimes in the dark about the affairs of Plymouth, and especially those which relate to Lyford and Oldham," in connection with the preceding relation, will be a caveat to the reader.
His account contains incidentally some interesting details, and shows that they were inclined to a literal interpretation of that clause of their patent, which authorized them " to forbyd, repell, and repulse by force of armes," all intruders on their territory. The story runs thus: "In one of the fishing voyages about the year 1625, under the charge and command of one Mr. Hewes, employed by some of the west country merchants, there arose a sharp contest between the said Hewes and the people of New Plymouth, about a fishing stage, built the year before about Cape Anne by Plymouth men, but was now, in the absence of the builders, made use of by Mr. Hewes' company, which the other, under the conduct of Captain Standish, very eagerly and peremptorily demanded: for the company of New Plymouth, having themselves obtained a useless patent2 for Cape Anne, about the year 1623, sent some of the ships, which their adventurers employed to trans- port passengers over to them, to make fish there; for which end they had built a stage there, in the year 1624.
1 Prince, p. 153, note 41.
, 2 " Useless," not from want of authority in the patent, but the unfitness of the territory for a colony.
46 CAPTAIN STANDISH. - GOV. CONANT'S PRUDENCE.
The dispute grew to be very hot, and high words passed between them which might have ended in blows, if not in blood and slaughter, had not the prudence and mod- eration of Roger Conant, at that time there present, and Mr. Peirse's 1 interposition, that lay just by with his ship, timely prevented. For Mr. Hewes had barricadocd his company with hogsheads on the stage head, while the demandants stood upon land, and might easily have been cut off; but the ship's crew, by advice, promising to help them to build another, the difference was thereby ended. Captain Standish 2 had been bred a soldier in the Low Countries, and never entered the school of our Saviour Christ, or of John Baptist, his harbinger, or, if he was ever there, had forgot his first lessons, to offer violence to no man, and to part with the cloak rather than needlessly contend for the coat, though taken away without order. A little chimney is soon fired; so was the Plymouth Captain, a man of very little stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper. The fire of his passion soon kindled and blown up into a flame by hot words, might casily have consumed all, had it not been season- ably quenched."
As the Plymouth colonists and the Dorchester adven- turers had, under the patent, a unity of interests, touching all intruders,3 and Mr. Peirse was their tried friend, Cap- tain Standish could with propriety listen to their advice. He demanded the possession of the property of his government, withheld without right, or the pretence of
1 The influence of Mr. Wm. Peirse should not be overlooked ; he had been a firm friend to the planters - had aided in detecting the treachery of Lyford and Old- ham, and his advice would have great weight with Standish. Prince, 149, 153; Hubbard, 110, 111.
2 Eliot has a good notice of Standish. Biog. Dict.
3 " To forbyd, repell, repulse and resist by force of armes," was authorized by the charter.
-
00
47
CAPTAIN STANDISH JUSTIFIED.
right, and wrested from them, doubtless, by the machi nations of Lyford. These circumstances, and the charac- ter of the actors, might well disturb milder tempers than that of Standish, and he deserved praise rather than Hubbard's censure, for his Christian endurance, forbear- ing even a blow under such an outrage. He had the approval of Bradford, who says they " refused to restore it without fighting, upon which we let them keep it, and our Governor sends some planters to help the fishermen build another." 1
1 Prince, 154.
mel are
CHAPTER VI.
REVERSES AT CAFE ANNE - LOSSES -THE MERCHANTS ABANDON THE COLONY - THE COLONY PURGED OF ITS WORTHLESS MEMBERS - GOV. CONANT PREVENTS ITS DISSOLUTION - THE COLONY REMOVED TO NAUMKEAG - INDIAN HOSPITALITY - GOV. CONANT'S FIRMNESS SAVES THE COLONY - JOHN WOODBERY SENT AS AGENT TO ENG- LAND.
ONE who had witnessed several unfortunate attempts to establish plantations on this coast, enumerated as one of " three things" which were "the overthrow and bane" of these enterprises, " the carelessness of those' that send over supplies of men unto them, not caring how they be qualified," and he besought " such as had the care of transporting for the supply and furnishing of plantations, to be truly careful in sending such as might further and not hinder so good an action." 1
Lord Bacon, in his essay on "plantations" says that "it is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum to be the people with whom you plant; and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation ; for they will ever live like rogues and not fall to work, but be lazy and do mischief, and spend victuals, and be quickly weary, and then certify over to their country to the discredit of the plantation ;" and this was verified in less than fifty years after it was writ-
1 Winslow's " Good Newes," 1624.
rean
.
49
CAUSES OF DISASTER AT CAPE ANNE.
ten, in the colony at Cape Anne. The " Planters' Plea " itself complains that " the ill carriage of our men at land," in two years and a half had cost " well nigh one thousand pounds charge, and never yielded one hundred pounds profit."
Governor Conant found it difficult to repress insubor- dination among the ill-chosen men sent to Cape Anne. They " fell into many disorders and did the company little service," which, added to the losses by fishing and the great depreciation in the value of their shipping, " so far discouraged the adventurers, that they abandoned the further prosecution of the design, and took order for the dissolving of the company on land, and sold away the shipping and other provisions."
There is no discrepancy in the narratives of Hubbard, on the authority of Conant and some of his associates, and of White in the " Planters' Plea," though each fur- nishes details omitted by the other. White dwells upon the results as affecting the pecuniary, interests of the parties in England, while Hubbard relates the social in- cidents in the colony, so that both are necessary to the completeness of the history. The one knew the history of the causes, whose effects only interest the other.
The former says the " land-men were ill commanded," but the only facts which we have are in Hubbard, and they reflect great credit on Conant's administrative talent and his public spirit.
The adventurers in England honorably paid the wages of the planters whom they had employed at Cape Anne, and offered them a passage home if they desired to re- turn, which was accepted by the ill-behaved, thriftless or weak-minded portion, at once relieving the infant colony of the incubus of misrule and waste, so depressing to all its interests. Thus happily freed from the drones and 7
*
-
:
50
THE COLONY RELIEVED OF ITS BURDEN.
scum of their society, the colony, though greatly lessen- ed in numbers, yet really gained in strength, and now consisted only of the honest and industrious, who were resolved to remain faithful to the great object.
The author of the " Planters' Plea " indulges in reflec- tions appropriate to this stage of the history, when the location of the colony was about to be changed, and Cape Anne, the scene of the first act in the history of Mas- sachusetts, was about to be abandoned. " Experience," he saith, " hath taught us that in building houses the first stones of the foundation are buried underground and are not seen, so in planting colonies the first stocks em- ployed that way are consumed, although they serve for a foundation to the work."
The abandonment of the colony by the " adventurers " in England, involved merely a withdrawal of any further pecuniary aid to the planters, and a relinquishment of such interests as they may have had in the charter. Whenever, by non-fulfilment of its conditions, that be- came void, the colonists would still possess all the rights, assured by the common law to every Englishman. "Had they emigrated with the consent of the state, but without a charter, they would have been fully entitled to enjoy their former immunities, as completely as they could ex- ercise them where they freely placed themselves."} The colonists were, from that date, free of any obligation or control of the adventurers. The trials, temptations, and hardships at Cape Anne, had purged the company of all but a brave and resolute few. With these faithful com- panions, Governor Conant, " as one inspired by some su- perior instinct," frustrated the " order for the dissolving of the company on land," and secured to it the honor of
1 Chalmer's Political Annals, i. 141.
1
٦
الحمد وتر السرور
.
سلس لالله المست ثناة
DESIGNED AS A REFUGE FROM RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION. 51
being the first permanent colony on the soil of the Mas- sachusetts Company.
Cape Anne had been chosen as the seat of the colony, for its supposed combination of facilities for both fishing and planting ; but Governor Conant, not finding it adapt- ed to the wants of a plantation, had in the meanwhile 1 inquired respecting, and perhaps visited, a more commo- dious place four or five leagues distant to the south-west, on the other side of a creek called Nahum-keike,2 or Naumkeag, better adapted to the purpose.
Hubbard says that Conant, " secretly conceiving in his mind, that in following times (as hath since fallen out) it might prove a receptacle for such, as upon the account of religion, would be willing to begin a foreign plantation in this part of the world, he gave some intimation of it to his friends in England. Wherefore that Reverend person, Mr. White, (under God, one of the chief founders of the Massachusetts colony in New England,) being grieved in his spirit that so good a work should be suffered to fall to the ground by the adventurers thus abruptly breaking off, did write to Mr. Conant not so to desert the business, faith- fully promising that if himself,3 with three others, (whom he knew to be honest and prudent men, viz. John Wood- bery, John Balch, and Peter Palfreys, employed by the adventurers,) would stay at Naumkeag, and give timely notice thereof, he would provide a patent for them, and likewise send them whatever they should write for, either men or provision, or goods wherewith to trade with the
1 Hubbard, 108.
2 Naumkeag retained its Indian name until about July, 1629, when it was called Salem. As this is the history of events prior to that period, the aboriginal title will be used. Rev. John Higginson's Letter.
3 The whole negotiation contemplates Governor Conant's remaining at the head of the colony.
-
الملاء 202007
جار
52
REMOVAL TO NAUMKEAG. - THE COMPACT.
Indians. Answer was returned that they would all stay on those terms,1 entreating that they might be encouraged accordingly." On the faith of this engagement, Governor Conant and his associates, in the fall of the year 1626, removed to Naumkeag, and there erected houses, cleared the forests, and prepared the ground for the cultivation of maize, tobacco,2 and the products congenial to the soil. In after years, one of the planters in his story of the first days of the colony, said, " when we settled, the Indians never then molested us, * but shewed themselves very glad of our company and came and planted by us, and often times came to us for shelter, saying they were afraid of their enemy Indians up in the country, and we did shelter them when they fled to us, and we had their free leave to build and plant where we have taken up lands."3 "The curious inquirer may be guided to the exact locality, the tongue of land which they first occu- pied at Salem.
" Yet it seems," Hubbard continues, " before they re- ceived any return, according to their desires, the three last mentioned began to recoil, and repenting of their en- gagement to stay at Naumkeag, for fear of the Indians and other inconveniences, resolved rather to go all to Virginia ; especially because Mr. Lyford, their minister, upon a loving invitation, was thither bound. But Mr. Conant, though never so earnestly pressed to go along with them, peremptorily declared his mind to wait the providence of God in that place where now they were,
1 How far these terms were complied with, will appear presently.
2 " Tobacco may there be planted, but not with that profit as in some other places; neither were it profitable there to follow it though the.increase were equal, because fish is a better and richer commodity," to be had in " great abundance." Wing- lowe's " Good Newes." 1624.
3. Felt's Salem, i. 46, 78, 101.
العدد وماك
-----
53
GOVERNOR CONANT'S FIRMNESS AND FAITH.
yea, though all the rest should forsake him: not doubt- ing, as he said, but if they departed, he should soon see more company." The other three, observing his con- fident resolution, at last concurred with him, and soon after sent John Woodbery to England, to procure neces- saries for a plantation. At this period, as Dr. Cotton Mather accurately observes, "the design for awhile al- most fell unto the ground."
Mr. Hubbard's idea that Governor Conant was " as one inspired by some superior instinct," seems to be the only just view of his course at this crisis. " Like Abra- ham when he was called to go out into a place, which he should after receive for an inheritance," so " he sojourned in the land of promise, in a strange country." He seems to have felt that it was God's own plantation.1 With the eye of faith he saw that the " little one should become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation, and that the Lord would hasten it in his time," when he so " peremp- torily declared his mind to wait the providence of God in that place where they now were, yea, though all the rest should forsake him, not doubting but if they departed he should soon have more company." 2
1 " It is the sinfullest thing in the world to forsake or desert a plantation once in forwardness." Bacon.
2 He was worthy of the elegant compliment of Dr. Prideaux, of Exeter College, to Dr. John Conant, while a student at Oxford - his namesake, and kindred in char- acter as well as in blood, - " CONANTI NIHIL DIFFICILE." This eminent Divine was also of Devonshire, of an ancient family ; but probably not the one known to White, as in 1623- 4, he was but a youth of sixteen years, under the care of his uncle, Rev. John Conant, who had a living at Lymington, in Somersetshire. Middleton's Biog. Evan. iv. 64; Biog. Dict. Lond. 1708, iii. 186 ; Noncomforinist's Mem. i. 229.
CHAPTER VII.
THE COLONY IN 1627-GOV. CONANT'S CHARACTER AND SERVICES- WOODBERY'S MISSION TO ENGLAND -FINDS MEMBERS OF THE OLD DORCHESTER COMPANY - A NEW COMPANY ORGANIZED - A PATENT OBTAINED - THOMAS DUDLEY, ESQ. AND HIS FRIENDS BECOME INTER- ESTED - THE COMPANY HAD NO DEFINITE NAME -HUMBLE BEGIN- NING OF THE STATE RECORDS - WOODBERY'S RETURN TO THE COL- ONY - CHARACTER OF THE COMPANY IN ENGLAND - JOHN ENDECOTT ARRIVES AT SALEM AND SUPERSEDES CONANT - NEW IMPULSE TO COLONIZATION.
SUCH was Massachusetts in the year 1627; how hum- ble, of how little moment can be its failure or success ! Yet in the eye of history, beholding the vast results emanating from this mere speck on the stream of time, it is surrounded with a kind of moral grandeur, a sublimity, that never elevated thrones, nor pertained to conquests.
Governor Conant, in his dignity, independence, recti- tude, and trust in God, here shadowed forth the character and future of New England as developed in and to her children ; and it is pleasant to know that he lived to see the hamlet expand into the most important colony 1 on the American coast.
This was a sufficient, yet his only reward. In the
1 The term " colonies " was retained in the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776, and in use until the " people of the United States" established the Con- stitution. Massachusetts was called a " Province " in the charter of 1692.
-
CONANT'S RETROSPECT .- WOODBERY, AGENT TO ENGLAND. 55
pride of strength and prosperity, he who had laid the foundation of the state, and whose Christian faith and courage had saved it in the hour of peril, was left in neglect and obscurity.
Nearly half a century later, the venerable man, in the evening of his life, thinking, perhaps, that posterity might award to him the justice withheld in his life time, drew up a memorial to the legislature, being, as he said, " one of the first, if not the very first, that resolved and made good any settlement, under God, in matter of plan- tation, with my family in this collony of the Massachu- setts bay, and have been instrumental both for founding and carrying on the same, and when in the infancy there- of, it was in great hassard of being deserted, I was a means, through grace assisting me, to stop the flight of those few that were heere with me, and that by my utter deniall to goe away with them, who would have gone either for England, or mostly for Virginia, but thereon stayed to the hassard of our lives."
After a residence in the country of about three years, Mr. Woodbery, being familiar with their condition and prospects, and possessing their confidence, was, as before- named, deputed as their agent to England, with the im- portant trust of perfecting the arrangements, on condition of which, the colony was removed1 to Naumkeag, as stated in the correspondence between Governor Conant and the Reverend John White.
In the winter of the year 1623, Mr. Woodbery de- parted on his mission, and, it will be inferred, on his
1 I infer from Hubbard's account that Conant, having "made some inquiries " about Naumkeak, proposed, on certain conditions named in the letter, " to his friends in England," to remove thither ; that in anticipation of their acceptance, he did remove, and while there received White's letter, agreeing to the proposal : su that the conditions were precedent to the removal. Hubbard's Hist. of N. E. 107, 103.
£
56
PROCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND. - THOMAS DUDLEY.
arrival in England, at once sought out Mr. White, and disclosed to him the object of his visit.
They exerted themselves diligently in behalf of the colonists to supply their present necessities, and to pro- cure a patent for the territory, additions to their numbers, and whatever pertained to the permanence of a colony on the wild shores of the New World. It was found that some members of the Dorchester Company " still continued their desire to set forward the plantation of a colony there,1 conceiving that if some more cattle were sent over to those few men left behind, they might not only be the means of the comfortable subsisting of such as were already in the country, but of inviting some other of their friends and acquaintances to come over to them, and adventured to send over twelve kine and bulls more ; and conferring casually with some gentle- men of London, moved them to add unto them as many more."
Among these gentlemen, were Sir Henry Roswell and Sir John Young, Thomas Southcoat, John Hum- phrey - whom we knew as treasurer of the old Dorchester company - John Endecott and Simon Whetcomb, " who presenting the names of honest and religious men, easily obtained their first desires " of the council for New Eng- land, who granted them about the end of the parliament of the iiid of Charles First, on the nineteenth of March, 162}, "a patent of some lands in the Massachusetts Bay."
About a year previous, Thomas Dudley, Esquire, and some of his friends " being together,2 in Lincolnshire,
1 Planters' Plea.
2 " About the year 1627." - Dudley's Letter. Hubbard states this " not long after " the Council's grant, which would be in the year 1628. Dudley is the best authority.
,
ساعات
.
-Ц
"THE NEW ENGLAND COMPANY." - A NEW CHARTER. 57
fell into some discourse about New England, and the planting of the gospel there." They corresponded with gentlemen in London, and members of the Dorchester Company ; after some negotiation, these parties combined their interests, and purchased all the Dorchester interests and improvements in New England, including their pa- tent from the council. Whether that instrument desig- nated the grantees by any special name or title is unknown; 1 they styled themselves in official documents, " The New England Company." Cape Anne was includ- ed in this grant which superseded the patent from Lord Sheffeild, that being void and " useless,"2 by non-fulfil- ment of its conditions, and the land abandoned as un- suitable to the design. These gentlemen adopted efficient measures to strengthen the first settlement at Naumkeag, and to establish another at Massachusetts, distant about fifteen miles to the south-west. They purchased large stores of apparel, provisions and arms. In a memoran- dum of what they were "to provide to send for New England," were mentioned, first "ministers," then the " patent under seal, men skillful in making of pitch, of salt, vine planters," culinary utensils, and seeds of a variety of grains, fruits and vegetables.
1 Previous to the fourth of March, 1629, they had no uniform designation. "The Company of Adventurers for New England in America," "The Adventurers for Plantacon intended att Massachusetts Bay in New England," " The Company in New England," " The New England Company," and other appellations were use.l. If regard be had to names rather than facts, it may safely be questioned whether the colonial records, prior to the fourth of March, 1628, should be called the "Mas- sachusetts Records ; " but this would be frivolous. Under all these phases and names, we trace the history of one and the same colony, which in and after the sixth year of its settlement, and by its second charter, was designated " Massa- chusetts." The oath of Gov. Endecott was to maintain " the government and company," etc. ; that of his council to maintain " the Commonwealth and Corpo- racon of the Governor and Company," etc. Felt, i. 511, 515.
2 Hubbard, 110.
8
3
58
MASSACHUSETTS RECORD. - WOODBERY'S RETURN.
Such was the commencement of the records of the State. They were begun by a few " honest and religious men," meeting in an humble dwelling, in an obscure street in London, to devise means of assistance to the colony - the handfull of " planters " on the shore of New England; the next entries on its pages were of the doings in the cabin of an emigrant ship, at anchor in Massachusetts Bay, or in the solitary dwelling on the neighboring shore of Mishawam.1
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.