USA > Massachusetts > The landing at Cape Anne; or, The charter of the first permanent colony on the territory of the Massachusetts company > Part 6
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
Two hundred and twenty-five years afterward, by order of their legal successors, - the legislature of Massachusetts, - assembled in Boston, the metropolis of New England, they were published as the earliest extant 2 parliamentary records of the Commonwealth ; a fitting tribute to the memory of her founders. The contrasts at these two periods of time, furnish a theme for the study of her sons, full of instruction.
Mr. Woodbery left England in the next spring, with his son Humphry, a youth of about twenty years of age, and arrived at Naumkeag in the following June, with the cheering intelligence of the new company and prepara- tions in England. During his absence of about six months, the colonists, who still called themselves the " servants of the Dorchester Company," had made im- provements at Naumkeag, and prepared the way for those who might join them.
1 Charlestown.
2 It is equally probable that of both Conant's and Endecott's proceedings some minutes or written records were kept, for the use of the companies in England ; neither are preserved, though the latter are known to have existed. So small a number would require only a few regulations - the rudiments of government. It is certain that Conant and Endecott would use the authority they had ; the com- plaint of ill government at Cape Anne, and the difficulties with the Brownes at Naumkeag prove that they did, and " Endecott's laws " are mentioned. Time ob- literates the foot-prints, yet we know the intermediate steps were taken.
86
ball Wale
ENDECOTT'S ARRIVAL. - THE DORCHESTER COMPANY. 59
The company in England included men of rank and wealth, and its affairs were conducted with an energy, strength and harmony in marked contrast with those of the council of Plymouth, whose leaders were dishearten- ed, and whose authority was weakened by the difficulties already referred to. They commissioned Captain John Endecott " to carry on the plantation of the Dorchester agents at Naumkeag, or Salem, and make way for the settling of another colony in the Massachusetts." On the twentieth of June, 1628, with his wife and a few planters, Captain Endecott sailed from Weymouth, in the ship Abigail, of which Henry Gauden was master, bound for Naumkeag,1 where he arrived on the sixth of September, at about the close of the first lustre of the colonial history, and about two years and a half after the removal from Cape Anne.
More than half a century afterwards, one of Ende- cott's fellow passengers, Richard Brackenbury, related, from memory, many interesting particulars of these early days of the colony, some of which he had from the lips of the old planters themselves, who declared to their new associates that, " they came over upon the account of a company in England, called by us," Brackenbury said, "by the name of the Dorchester Company, or Dorchester merchants," for whom they had built many houses at Naumkeag and Cape Anne. He added, that having waited upon Mr. Endecott, in his attendance upon the company of the Massachusetts patentees, when they kept their court in Cornewell street in London, he understood that this company of
' Neal, upon a careful examination, says they arrived at the place which Mr. Conant and the Dorchester agents had marked out for them ; it was called by the natives Neumkeak, but the new planters called it Salem. Hist, of N. E , i. 126.
E
60
COLONIAL PROSPERITY. - CONANT SUPERSEDED.
London had bought1 out the right of the Dorchester merchants2 in New England, and "that Mr. Endecott had power to take possession of their right in New England, which Mr. Endecott did !" Brackenbury was an eye-witness to this, and, without doubt, he suited the word to the action.
About the same year they took possession of the land on the shore north of Salem, then " commonly called the Cape Anne ferry," or side now Beverly, by dividing it into lots for cultivation, and by cutting thatch for their houses.
Governor Conant was of course superseded 3 by Gover- nor Endecott, who, as the representative of the company, assumed the control of the territory and improvements made by the first planters during the five years they had occupied it. The new official reported to England so favorably, that there was soon no want of volunteers for New England, and in reply he received letters adapted to put new life into the colony.
1 Hubbard's " Present State of New England," London, 1677, p. 4, says " pur- chased." Hubbard's Hist. of N. E. 109; Archælogia Americana, vol. iii. p. 53 ; opinion of S. F. Haven, Esq.
2 Members of the old Dorchester Company were parties to the next enterprise. John Humphries, treasurer of the Dorchester Company, was a member of the second organization. Sir Henry Roswell and his five associates were residents of Dorches- ter or its vicinity.
3 There is no reason to doubt that Conant continued in authority at the head of the colony, until Endecott arrived ; this is generally conceded, nor do I find an ex- ception to this opinion. Felt's Salem, i. 43; N. E. Ilist. Gen. Reg. ii. 238 ; Sav- age's Winthrop, 1853, ii. 200, n. 2.
recomiby you cuteini
CHAPTER VIII.
REASONS FOR OBTAINING THE KING'S AFFIRMATION OF THE PATENT - DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE COMPANY IN ENGLAND AND THE COLONY - CRADOCK NOT GOVERNOR OF THE COLONY - CHARTER SENT TO ENDECOTT - UNION OF THE OLD AND NEW PLANTERS - NAMES OF THE PIONEERS - DISPUTES BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW COLONISTS - DANGERS OF THE COLONY - OLDHAM'S INTRIGUES - GORGES' CONFLICTING PATENT -GOVERNOR CONANT RESTORES PEACE - INJUSTICE TO CONANT AND HIS ASSOCIATES - ALLEVIATING CON- SIDERATIONS - CHARACTERS OF CONANT AND ENDECOTT - COMPANY'S VINDICATION - HARDSHIPS OF THE OLD PLANTERS.
THE authority of the council for New England had become so questionable, that after Endecott's departure, the company obtained the royal confirmation of the council's grant by letters patent, under the broad seal of England, issued on the fourth of March, in the year 1623, and in that the colony was first legally designated as " of the Massachusetts Bay." Before that time, Ende- cott may or may not have exceeded 1 the authority incident
1 As already shown, the council for New England had ample powers of govern- ment ; it has been generally and confidently asserted that they passed ouly title to land, in the grant of 1627, but this is erroneous, for, as appears by recital of some of its provisions in subsequent charters, it conveyed not only the title, but also the right of " planting, ruling, ordering and governing " in the territory con- veyed, so that the king only confirmed the act of the council. Perhaps the enfeebled condition of the council rendered any special exercise of authority inexpedient until ratified by the king. Hutchinson says that " the patent from the council of l'ly- mouth gave no powers of government," but as that patent is not preserved, Hutch- inson's assertion amounts to only an inference which the above authorities prove
-
62
ENDECOTT 1ª GOVERNOR UNDER 24
CHARTER.
to the ownership of the soil, but he was continued in office, and enjoys the distinction of being the1 first Gov- ernor in the colony under this the second or Massachu- setts charter.
The pecuniary interests were managed by the corpora- tion in England, of which Matthew Cradock was the first Governor. Of him Mr. Savage? says, "he was long honored in our annual registers as first Governor of the colony; yet, as he was in fact only the head of a com- mercial company in England, not ruler of the people, his services are adequately acknowledged without retaining his name in that most respectable list." 3
The terms of the charter provide for a " duplicate or exemplification " of the instrument, both to be of equal authority. One was sent to Endecott and is preserved at Salem, where civil government was first exercised under its warrant, and the other, brought over by Winthrop a year afterwards, is in the Capitol. It was designed to grant the same immunities that had been given originally to the council for New England,4 and which were secured to the Plymouth colonists, and the " Dorchester Com- pany" under them, by the previous Cape Anne charter.
Upon Endecott's arrival, his own men being united " with those which were formerly planted in the country into one body, they made up in all not much above fifty or
to be incorrect. Hist. of Mass. 1795, i. 16, 17; Washburn's Judicial History of Massachusetts, 10.
1 Savage, in Winthrop, 1853, vol. i. p. 30, note 1, says that Endecott's " commis- sion from the Company to act as Governor, was, of course, superseded by the ar- rival of Winthrop with the charter," thus recognizing his precedence; but by the provisions of the charter itself, the one sent to Endecott was of equal authority and dignity with that brought by Winthrop a year afterwards.
2 Winthrop, 1853, vol. i. p. 2, note 2.
3 The Massachusetts Register for 1853, has an accurate table of the Governors, except omitting Roger Conant at its head, prepared by N. B. Shurtleff, M. D. 4 Chalmer's Political Annals, i. 139, 147.
أمامه الوق الحويصلة
63
THE PIONEERS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
sixty persons."1 There soon arose a controversy, exciting great animosity between the old Dorchester planters and their new agent, Mr. Endecott, and his company, and with good reason.
They had acquired possession of the country, and sub- dued it to their wants by years of toil, privation, and hazard of life, under the guidance of their honored and beloved Conant, who was now summoned to surrender the fruits of their labors, that others might .reap where they had sown. Let us do honor to this noble band of pioneers. Verily, they were the Fathers of Massachu- setts, and their names 2 deserve an honorable place in her chronicles.
ROGER CONANT, Governor.
WILLIAM ALLEN,
JOHN BALCH,
THOMAS GRAY, WALTER KNIGHT,
RICHARD NORMAN,
RICHARD NORMAN; Jr.,
PETER PALFRAY,
JOHN TYLLY,
JOHN WOODBERY.
Several circumstances rendered this a peculiarly critical period, which a mercenary man could have turned to his own advantage. As early as the fall of the year 1622, the Council for New England, " for and in respect of the
1 Mr. Felt, who is good authority, says that in 1626, after Lyford left Salem for Virginia, there "probably remained 30 souls of all ages." Coll. Amer. Stat. Ass. i. 138 ; Hist. Salem, 43, 75 - 80. The names of some of them inny be found in Drake's History of Boston, p. 57. Josselyn found " not above twenty or thirty houses " in Boston, as late as 1638.
2 This list is gathered from vol. i. 167-176, History of Salem by Mr. Felt, whose diligence has rescued from oblivion probably all the names of that company which can be discovered; perhaps one third or one quarter part of the whole. Calvert, Lord Baltimore's Colony in Newfoundland, in August, 1622, numbered only thirty- two persons; the colony at Sagadahock, in 1607, consisted of forty-five persons; the Virginia Colony was reduced to sixty persons in 1610. Plymouth Colony numbered but fifty people in 1621. Sir Richard Grenville left at Roanoke, in 1586, only fifteen men. Bartholomew Gosnold, in his New England expedition of 1602, took out only twelve to " remayne there for population."
.
64 THE CRISIS .- GOV. CONANT'S INTEGRITY AND PRUDENCE.
good and special service done by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Knight, to the plantation from the first attempt thereof" unto that time, and for £160 sterling paid by his son Robert, had issued to the latter a patent of the land " knowne by the name of Messachustack," on the north side of the bay, " knowne by the name of Messachuset," and bounded on the coast by a direct line of ten English miles to the north-east, and extending thirty miles into the main land.1 Gorges had attempted to establish a colony within the bounds of his patent, which he had taken possession of in person, but was unsuccessful. Probably some of the members of that plantation had joined that at Naumkeag. At this juncture, John Old- ham, whose character has been revealed to the reader,2 held the Gorges patent which was included in and con- flicted with the company's title. He could readily gain from among the disaffected, adherents to his own in- terests. The company in England were fearful that he would "be ready to draw a party to himself there," and wrote to Endecott " you may use the best means you can to settle an agreement with the old planters, so as they may not hearken to Mr. Oldham's dangerous, though vain propositions to form a settlement in Massachusetts."
Hubbard says that the troubles were "quietly com- posed by the prudent moderation of Mr. Conant, agent before for the Dorchester merchants; that so meum and tuum, that divide the world, should not disturb the peace of good Christians, that came so far to provide a place where to live together in Christian amity and concord."3
Governor Conant had before given distinguished evi-
* Gorges' Description of N. E. 34, 37 ..
2 Pages 24-27.
3 Hubbard seems to have understood that the new and old company were the same ; this is true, sub modo : the Dorchester interests constituted an important portion of the new organization. Hist. of N. E. 108, 109.
65
GOVERNOR CONANT AND THE NEW COMPANY.
dence of his peculiar qualification for his office, in allay- ing the difficulty at Cape Anne, and in his success in saving the colony from utter ruin in the removal to Salem ; but here he developed his character in a nobler view than ever before; exhibiting a public virtue rarely equalled, solicitous for the welfare of the colony alone, and concealing his own sense of ingratitude and injustice, he subdued the resentment of his associates, and by his personal influence restored peace and safety.1
The conditions on which he had agreed to remain were " a patent for them, likewise whatever they should write for, either men or provisions or goods wherewith to trade with the Indians."
Evidently it was understood between Mr. White and Governor Conant and his associates, that he should con- tinue to superintend the colony, and that the additional planters and facilities from England were to be under his authority ; this opinion is confirmed by the general spirit and tenor of the Company's proceedings with the old planters, and explains their manifest anxiety regarding them. Conant was notified of his summary removal from authority by his successor Endecott, probably with honest characteristic brevity rather than with any unusual degree of suavity and delicacy.
Though the rapid development of the scheme for a re- ligious colony in New England must have far exceeded Mr. White's anticipations, and the sudden accession of
1 The superior condition of the persons who came over with the new charter cast a shade upon Conant, and he afterwards lived and died in comparative obscurity. He retained a conviction of the great injustice done to him, even in his old age, and he could not refrain from reference to the neglect and ingratitude of " those in this soe famous a colony " who had " obtained much without hassard of life, or prefer- ring the public good before their own interest, which " said he. with noble pride, " I praise God I have done." Felt's Memoir of Conant in N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. 1848; Hutchinson's Mass. 1795, i. 14.
9
£
اللى
66
CHARACTERS OF CONANT AND ENDECOTT.
influence and wealth, created new interests, beyond his control, and perhaps not bound by his personal agree- ment with the planters, yet this could not soften the dis- appointment and chagrin of Governor Conant and his associates at the manifest injustice done to them.
Beside strict integrity, there was little common to the characters of Conant and Endecott. Each was peculiarly fitted for the duties and periods assigned to him, and had the order been reversed, the result would have been fatal.
Conant was moderate in his views, tolerant, mild and conciliatory, quiet and unobtrusive, ingenuous and unam- bitious, preferring the public good to his private interests; with the passive virtues he combined great moral courage and an indomitable will; avoiding difficulty at Plymouth, and without losing their esteem, he quietly withdrew to Nantasket ; he was a minister of peace at the time of Hewes' reprisal; he inspired the planters with resolution to remove to Naumkeag, and his integrity of purpose pre- vented the utter dissolution of the colony there ; he was the pacificator in the difficulties between the old and new planters on Endecott's arrival, and then retired with noble, Christian resignation to the privacy and industry of the humblest planter. Governor Conant's true courage and simplicity of heart and strength of principle eminently qualified him for the conflicts of those rude days of peril, deprivation and trial. He was at the head of the forlorn hope ; he died victorious, but neglected, and neither monument nor tradition tells of the place where he rests.1
Endecott was the opposite of Conant ; arbitrary and sometimes violent, he ruled with a determined hand and carried the sword unsheathed ; quick to assert and ready
1 -- " longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro."
Hor. Ad Lollium.
1
67
WRONGS OF THE OLD COLONISTS.
to maintain his rights ; firm and unyielding, he con- fronted all obstacles with a vigorous resistance ; a man of theological asperity and bigoted, he was guarded against every insidious foe ; these were the elements necessary to the prosperity, and even the safety of the colony, from the time of Conant's retiracy, crushing insubordination and excluding every hostile element. He was chief magistrate of the colony for more years than any of his successors.
As before said, the records bear evidence that the " adventurers " were not unconscious of the wrong done to the old colonists, perhaps, unavoidable in their judg- ment, from the necessities of the case. The company for their vindication, " as well to all the world as to the old planters themselves," offered them a share of the privi- leges under the royal charter, an admission to their soci- ety, and the enjoyment of not only those lands which they had cultivated, but such further proportion of land as the council of twelve, in which the old planters had the offer of two votes out of twelve, might think "fit for them or any of them."
If under such conditions and such a fulfilment of the agreement, Conant and his associates are " desirous to live amongst us and conform themselves to good order and government," said those who had taken summary possession of the territory and of the improvements thereon, we will permit them to remain. The legal title was now in the new company, who, strong in wealth and influence, were decidedly aggressive in spirit, and the only alternative for these leaders in the forlorn hope, was dis- persion and an abandonment of the now ripening fruits of their labors. They submitted to the lesser evil ; but historic impartiality, upon a survey of the facts, will yield a verdict of exact justice, unvitiated by superior interests and prejudices.
68
UNION OF THE OLD AND NEW COLONISTS.
There was nothing to conciliate the old colonists, who viewed their new associates as intruders; and though a political union was effected, the distinction of old and new was not soon forgotten. On the thirtieth day of June, 1629, at a general court convened by Governor En- decott, they were by common consent " all combyned to- gether into one body politique under the same governor," - a consummation of the labors of Conant and White, entitling them to our everlasting gratitude, and a loftier fame than New England has yet awarded them.
1
CHAPTER IX.
RECAPITULATION - THE HISTORICAL IDENTITY OF THE COLONY -SERIES OF GOVERNORS AND CHARTERS - CHARACTER OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONISTS -THE FATHERS QUOTED -NEW ENGLAND SETTLED BY FUGITIVES FROM OPPRESSION -PRELACY DRIVEN FROM PLYMOUTH AND FROM SALEM-ITS BANISHMENT NECESSARY TO THEIR SELF- PRESERVATION - VIEWS OF THE FOUNDERS OF NEW ENGLAND- TOLERATION NOT PROFESSED - DANGER FROM POPERY - THE PURI- TANS ESTABLISHED THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
AMONG the late writers, Douglass has assigned to Conant's colony most accurately and distinctly its true relative position in history. He says, " Some adventur- ers proposed to make a settlement on the north side of Massachusetts Bay, Anno 1624; they began a small set- tlement at Cape Anne, the northern promontory of this bay, and are now (1749) become the most considerable British American settlement, and by way of eminence is commonly called New England." 1
Thus it appears that a society from the mother country was established at Cape Anne, in 1624, under a charter derived mediately from the king, through the council for New England, to Sheffeild the grantor, whose title and privileges were soon after ratified directly by the king in council; that this charter, so emanating from the
" Douglass' "Summary," i. 373, 407.
get adion
70
THE HISTORICAL IDENTITY OF THE COLONY.
throne, authorized the organization of a body politic, having laws, magistrates, and ministers ; that such officers were appointed, and entered upon their duties at Cape Anne, Roger Conant being Governor; 1 that in the fall of the year 1626, the colony removed to the site of the present city of Salem ; that in the year 1628, John En- decott, under authority of a new organization in England, whose name is not preserved, but which had obtained from the council of New England a charter superseding that of Cape Anne, from Lord Sheffeild, arrived at Salem, and abruptly assumed the government of the whole. The mutations of the companies in England do not affect the identity of the colony, nor the chronological order of the incidents in its civil history, which may be considered in- dependently of the authority under which they tran- spired, and merely with reference to its internal 2 history. In this view the reader will readily trace the series of Governors, or Rulers of the people, from Roger Conant to Endecott and Winthrop, down to the present day ; or referring to the charters, that Roger Conant was not only first in order of time, but the only Governor under the
1 Very different were the colonists of New England from those described in Dr. Donne's sermon before the Virginia Company, in 1622, already quoted. " It shall redeeme many a wretch from the jawes of death, from the hands of the ex- ecutioner." " It shall sweepe your streetes, and wash your doores from idle persons and the children of idle persons, and employ them ; and truly if the whole countrye were but such a Bridewell, to force idle persons to worke, it had a good use." " It is alreadie a spleene, to drayne the ill humors of the body ; " and August 18, 1627, the Rev. Joseph Meade wrote to Sir Martin Stuteville, " there are many ships now going to Virginia, and with them some fourteen or fifteen hundred children, which they have gathered up in divers places." " The Court and Times of Charles the First." London, 1848, i. 262. The royal charter of 1612 speaks of " divers and sundry persons " that " have been sent thither as misdoers and offenders." Stith's Virginia, 166 - 197.
2 On this sound principle it is that Mr. Savage excluded Matthew Cradock from the list of Governors, he being "in fact only the head of a commercial com- pany in England, not ruler of the people," (Winthrop, 1853, i. 2;) thereby re- ducing the inquiry to one of simple fact, as stated in the text,
OT
ENDECOTT DIRECTED TO STRENGTHEN THE OLD COLONY. 71
first, or Cape Anne charter ; that under the second, or Massachusetts charter, John Endecott was first appointed, and then succeeded by John Winthrop, the third in order of time ; and that Sir Wm. Phips was the first Governor under the third, or Province charter, of 1692.
The design of the second company, formed in the year 1629 is stated by the fathers themselves. Governor Thomas Dudley in his letter to "the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln,"1 one of the most precious docu- ments in New England history,2 says: "We sent Mr. John Endecott and some with him to beginne a planta- tion [in Massachusetts] and to strengthen such as hee should find there [at Naumkeag,] which we [were ?] 3 sent hither from Dorchester, and some places adjoyning," and this appears also in the letter of instructions to Endecott,4 dated the seventeenth of April, 1629, wherein he is directed to " send forty or fifty persons to Massa- chusetts Bay, to inhabit there, and not to protract but to do it with all speed." $ This explains, and is corroborated by, the concise statement in the " Planters' Plea," that it was "to erect a new colony upon the old foundation." Hubbard says it was " to carry on the plantation of the
1 Daughter of Sir William Fenys, Viscount Say and Seale, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Temple of Stow: she married Theophilus, Baron Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln.
2 Edited by John Farmer, Esq., in New Hamp. Hist. Coll. iv. 220 ; also in Force's Ilist. Tracts.
3 I think that we is an error for were, because Dudley's letter shows that he was not connected with the enterprise till 1627, three years or more after the Dorchester people were sent out ; next he lived in Lincolnshire remote from Dorchester ; and lastly it avoids the evident anachronism, as it now stands. A parallel to this occurs in the Boston edition of Hugh Peter's "Last Legacy," 1717; by a misprint of he for we, Bishop Lake is represented to have had " the late king's gracious Patent, License and Encouragement " to plant in New England.
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.