USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 12
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This was already on the sea, having sailed from London during the previous month. It consisted of some sixty "rude fellows," whose " pro- faneness" their own leader surmised might not improbably scandalize the voyage, on board of two small vessels, the " Charity " and the " Swan," the former of one hundred and the latter of thirty tons measurement. They all landed at Plymouth towards the end of June, and there they remained, to the great annoyance of their hosts, until some time in August. The necessary preparations having by that time been made at Wessagusset, the healthy members of the party were then removed thither, and towards the end of September the larger vessel, the "Charity," returned to England, leaving the smaller one for the settlers' use. Weston himself was not of the party, but had placed it in charge of his brother- in-law, one Richard Greene. Greene, however, had died during the summer at Plymouth, and a man named Saunders had succeeded him in control.
The wretched sequel of Weston's abortive attempt belongs rather to the history of Weymouth than to that of Boston. Organized on wholly wrong principles, and managed without judgment; unrestrained by any authority and controlled by no purpose ; at once reckless and cowardly, scantily sup- plied and utterly improvident, - it required but the first touch of a New England winter to develop its whole inherent weakness. Insufficiently clad and starving, the would-be settlers mixed freely with the neighboring Indians, first begging and then stealing from them, and thus incurring anger while they ceased to inspire fear. A number of them died, and by the month of March their affairs had come to such a pass that it seemed more than questionable whether any would survive. Meanwhile, the savages had become so incensed at the depredations committed upon them, that a conspiracy was formed to destroy not only the Wessagusset intruders, but the Plymouth colony also. Rumors of it reached the latter towards the close of March; and, after some anxious deliberation, it was determined to send an armed force to Wessagusset, there to meet the impending danger. Standish, accordingly, was authorized to take as many
1 Chronicles of Muss., P. 305; Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 310.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
men as he deemed sufficient to hold his own against all the Indians in that vicinity, and to proceed thither at onec. Placing no high estimate appar- ently either on the number or the courage of his opponents, he selected but eight companions, and with these set sail on what is now the 4th of April. He reached his destination the next day, in wet and stormy weather, and proceeded energetically to the work he had in hand. Collecting the wretched stragglers from the woods where they were searching for nuts, and from the shore where they were digging clams, he gathered them into the stockade, and issued to them rations of corn taken from the store which the hard-pressed people of Plymouth were reserving for seed. Having thus provided for his allies, he prepared to deal with the savages; and the next day, or the day after, seven of them who had come within the stockade were surprised and massaered. Among those thus summarily dealt with were Pecksuot and Wituwamat,- two warriors who had been special objects of dread to the Plymouth magistrates.
This was the end of Weston's settlement. On the following day it was wholly abandoned, every European leaving Wessagusset, excepting only three stragglers, who, in defiance of orders, had wandered off among the savages. All of these were subsequently put to death by the natives.1 The remainder divided into two parties, one of which cast in their lot with the Plymouth colony, while the other and apparently larger body, supplied by Standish with enough corn for the voyage, went on board the " Swan," and with their leader, Saunders, sailed for the fishing-stations on the coast of Maine. They felt no further desire to remain in New England. Weston himself, meanwhile, had already left London, and was now on the way to his plantation. At the Maine fishing-stations he heard of its abandonment. but nevertheless started in an open boat with one or two men for Wessa- gusset. Less fortunate than his pioneer party of the year before, he was cast away upon the voyage, and barely escaped with his life. Though he recovered the " Swan," and remained some time longer on the coast, trading with the savages and in trouble with the authorities, he made no attempt to revive his plantation, or, if he did, it resulted in nothing.
During the very months that Weston's enterprise was thus dragging to its end, another. and scarcely less ill-conceived undertaking was being matured in England. The design now was to establish a princi- Finde: Gorges pality, rather than a trading-post, on the New England shore. The new enterprise was organized by no less a person than Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; and his younger son, Robert,2 was in immediate charge of it. Robert Gorges had at that time recently returned to England, having seen some service in the Venetian wars; and now, being apparently out of occupation,
I Morton, New English Canaan, bk. iji. ch. v.
2 [Of the relationship of the various promi-
nent people of the Gorges name, see N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., January, 1875, pp. 44, 112. - En.]
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THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON HARBOR.
and not devoid of the prevailing spirit of adventure, he was ambitious of planting and ruling over a species of feudality or palatinate of his own in the New World. As a preliminary, a patent had been issued to him by the Council for New England. By its terms it vaguely covered a tract on the northeast side of what was then known as Massachusetts Bay, but which included only the waters inside of Nahant headland and Point Allerton. The territory thus conveyed had a sea-front of ten miles, and stretched thirty miles into the interior,-not much, perhaps, in those times for a royal grant of unclaimed wilderness, but covering, nevertheless, some two hundred thou- sand acres of what are now the most thickly-peopled portions of the counties of Essex and Middlesex. No portion of either Boston proper or Weymouth could, however, be included within its limits, which seemed rather to cover the region lying back of the coast-line between Nahant headland on the north and East Boston on the south. The patent bore date Dec. 30, 1622; and during the next few months Robert Gorges was busy organizing his com- pany. It was part of a great scheme which, through sixteen years, had been maturing in the restless mind of his father, Sir Ferdinando. It looked to nothing less than the organized colonization of New England.
Though somewhat discouraged and greatly reduced in means by the poor results of his earlier attempts of a similar character on the coast of Maine, Gorges was not disposed to abandon for the future what seems to have been with him the dream of a long life. He simply, as he himself expressed it, waited for " better times."1 In 1620 he had obtained from the Crown a patent incorporating forty persons into what was known as the Council for New England, but which in fact was a private colonization and trading company.2 The territory nominally ceded to it covered not only all of what is now New England, but also New York and New Brunswick as well, and extended across the continent from sca to sea. In this com- pany Gorges had associated with himself a number of the most prominent characters in the kingdom. Indeed, no less than thirteen of them were noble- men, among whom were several dukes and quite a number of earls. Taught by experience, Gorges thus proposed to give his next attempt at coloniza- tion a broader basis of means and influence than he alone could command.
The patent of the Council for New England was issued Nov. 3, 1620; and the very next month the Plymouth Colony seated itself within the territory covered by it. This rather facilitated than interfered with Gorges' plans. It was a stroke of good fortune; for what he of all things wanted was something besides savages and wild animals to occupy his new domain. The application of the new settlers for a patent was accordingly at once com- plied with, and a new life seems to have been infused into the projects of the Council. Just at this time, however, when all else seemed at last propitious, the Parliament of 1621 was assembled, and Gorges at once found himself involved in new and serious difficulties. He was sharply called to account
1 [Gorges' Brief Narration is reprinted in 3
2 [ And a reincorporation of an old company. Mass. Hist. Coll., vi. and Maine Hist.Coll., ii .- En.] See Stith's Charters. - ED.] VOL. I. - 10.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
because of the Council for New England, which was attacked as a monopoly, while its orders for the regulation of commerce were denounced as being in restraint of trade. Finally, when Sir Edward Coke, as Chairman of the Committee on Grievances, presented a list of things demanding redress, the patent for New England was first specified. The sudden dissolution of Parliament in January, 1622, relieved Sir Ferdinando from this difficulty ; and the way now seemed to him clear once more. His sanguine spirit, however, again deceived him. Though Parliament was dissolved, the angry opposition of the Commons had, he found, produced an effect upon those he had thought to interest in the enterprise, which his utmost efforts failed to overcome. One by one they fell away from it, or failed to respond. A project for raising the large sum of one hundred thousand pounds among the London merchants had been one feature in his scheme; but this had to be abandoned. A debt had been contracted for building a ship and pinnace for the trade it was proposed to carry on; and there were no funds with which to discharge it. Finally, those who had taken shares in the ven- ture failed to meet their engagements, on the ground that they did not know what their shares were.
Under these circumstances Sir Ferdinando seems to have determined on a supreme effort. A meeting of the Council was held at Greenwich on Sun- day, June 29, 1623 ; and, in the presence of King James himself, the whole coast of New England from the Bay of Fundy to Narragansett was appor- tioned among twenty patentees.1 Their names included two dukes, - Buek- ingham and Richmond, - four earls, and numerous lords and gentlemen. The King drew for Buckingham. The plan was that each lot represented two shares, so that the person drawing it should introduce one other person into the enterprise, - making the whole number not less than forty.2 The success which attended this meeting seems to have decided both Sir Ferdinando and his son to go on at once; and a few weeks later the latter sailed for America.
He was armed with a commission as Lieutenant of the Council, and was to exercise a jurisdiction, not only civil and criminal but ecclesiastical also, of the widest nature. With his civil and criminal power it was intended that he should correct the abuses incident to the wholly unregulated condition of the trade along the coast. There was certainly room, too, for reform in this respect; for these abuses, as Sir Ferdinando Gorges truly told the Com- mons, tended not only to the dishonor of the government, but to the over- throw of trade, - for besides " beastly demeanors, tending to drunkenness " and debauchery, the reckless traders were freely selling arms and am- munition to the savages. But, in the mind of Sir Ferdinando, "the advancement of religion in those desert parts" was also a matter of high concernment; so the new lieutenant was not only clothed with wide eccle-
1 [See an account of the map showing this division in Mr. Winsor's chapter. - En.]
2 Mr. Deane's paper on the "Records of the
Council for New England," in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1875. [Cf. Dr. Haven's chapter. - ED.]
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THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON HARBOR.
siastical powers, but he brought with him a clergyman of the Church of England, having a commission conferring upon him, as Bradford after see- ing it subsequently wrote, "I know not what power and authority of super- intendencie over other churches . . . and sundrie instructions for that end." As at this time there was but one church -that at Plymouth - in all New England, the significance of the authority thus conferred is apparent.
It was no part of the present scheme to place the seat of the new gov- ernment within the limits of cither New Hampshire or Mainc, though in both Gorges cither then had or was planning settlements. The Plymouth colony was no enterprise of his; but he now clearly proposed to absorb it, civilly and ecclesiastically, in his more ambitious scheme, - making of it a convenient instrument to his end. His son's destination, therefore, was fixed for a point in Massachusetts Bay, in close proximity to Plymouth. Though modesty itself, so far as titles and dignitaries were concerned, when compared with Gorges' previous short-lived settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec fourteen years before, the new government was organized on a scale sufficiently grandiose. At its head was the Lieutenant of the Coun- eil, with powers of life and death. He was further provided with a council of his own, of which the Governor of the Plymouth colony for the time being was ex officio a member; as was also Francis West, who had already been commissioned as " Admiral for that coast during this voyage," and Captain Christopher Levett, -both of the two last-named being then in America or voyaging in American waters.1
The Robert Gorges expedition, when it departed from Plymouth in the midsummer of 1623, represented, therefore, the whole power and dignity of the Council for New England. Specially favored by King James, it num- bered among its patrons and associates the most powerful noblemen in England. It went out also in the full confidence of being the mere fore- runner of a much larger movement of the same character, soon to follow. It was, also, as respects those who composed it, wholly different from Wes- ton's party of the preceding year, for Robert Gorges took with him a number of his relatives and personal friends ; 2 and there is every reason to suppose that the Rev. William Morell, the ecclesiastical head of the new govern- ment, was accompanied by at least one Cambridge graduate, - William Blackstone. Among Gorges' other followers was a Captain Hanson and one Samuel Maverick, then a young man of means and education in his twenty-second year.3 As the design of the expedition was to effect a settle-
I An account of Levett's voyage was issued in London, 1628. Cf. 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., viii., and Maine Ilist. Coll., ii.
2 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., vi. 70.
3 The evidence upon which Blackstone, Maverick, Walford, Jeffrey, and Bursley have been included in the Gorges expedition and settlement of 1623 is set forth in the paper en- titled " The Old I'lanters about Boston Ilarbor," included in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts
Historical Society for June, 1878 (pp. 194-206). Detailed citations of the original authorities are there given.
[The paper thus referred to was a contri- bution by Mr. Adams, and a most searching examination and collation of the accounts of these earliest settlers about the harbor. The previous writers who had glanced with more or less care at the intricacies of the subject were a writer in the Charlestown Records (copied in
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TIIE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
ment in an unbroken wilderness, care seems to have been taken to include in it a certain proportion of mechanics, among whom was probably Thomas Walford, the blacksmith. Otherwise it was composed of the usual traders and tillers of the soil, - respectable and well-to-do persons, some of them accompanied by their families; and among these may have been William Jeffrey and John Bursley, subsequently of Weymouth. They reached their destination about the middle of September. Although the grant covered by his patent lay upon the opposite side of the bay, Gorges, not improbably alarmed by the nearness of the winter and tempted by the shelter ready to his hand offered by Weston's deserted block-house, landed his party at Wessagusset. There they established themselves; and, as the place was never again wholly abandoned, the permanent settlement about Boston Harbor must be dated from this time, - September, 1623.
The residence of the new Governor-General within his jurisdiction docs not seem to have been what he expected. Possibly, for he died not long after his return to England the next year, he was already in declining health. He seems, however, to have made some attempts to exercise his authority, first summoning the Governor of the Plymouth Colony to Wessagusset to consult with him, and then, before that dignitary could answer the sum- mons, departing suddenly for the coast of Maine in search of Weston, whom he proposed to call to account for various trading misdemeanors. On his way thither he encountered a storm and put back, running into Plymouth, where he landed and passed a fortnight. Here he met Weston coming from the eastward, and a heated discussion seems to have followed; which, how- ever, resulted in nothing. Returning then by land to Wessagusset, his anger, after a time, seems to have gotten the better of his judgment, and he sent a warrant to Plymouth for Weston's immediate arrest and the seizure of his vessel. The arrest and seizure were made, and it would seem that Weston must have passed the winter of 1623-24 at Wessagusset,1 for dur- ing it he and Gorges went again to the coast of Maine, this time together. Finally, towards the spring, they reached an understanding. Weston, his vessel having been restored to him with some compensation for its seizure, thereupon departed for Plymouth, whence he shaped his course to Virginia.
This angry quarrel with Weston appears to have been the principal inci- dent in Gorges' New England life. His jurisdiction on paper was wide and complete; practically he had no power to enforce it. The fishermen and traders were stubborn fellows. They had paid no attention to the orders of Francis West,2 though commissioned as Admiral of New England; and they paid none to Robert Gorges, though he was recognized as General Governor and was provided with a Council. Gorges accordingly sickened of his undertaking. Governor Bradford observed that he did not find "the Budington's Hist. of the First Church, and in Felt's Eccles. Hist. of N. E .; Drake's Boston ; Palfrey's New England ; Barry's Massachusetts ; Savage's Winthrop, i. 52. - ED.] Young's Chronicles of Mass., and in part in Froth- ingham's Hist. of Charlestown) ; Mather's Magna- lia, bk. i. ch. iv. ; Prince's Chronology ; Holmes's Annals ; Chalmers's Political Annals, ch. vi .;
1 Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, p. 153. 2 Ibid p. 141.
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THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON HARBOR.
state of things hear to answer his qualitic and condition." His father, Sir Ferdinando, was also in serious trouble. The difficulty was an obvious onc. The enterprise in England was great only in the names and titles of its nominal projectors and patrons. The Council for New England was, after all, but another name for Sir Ferdinando Gorges; and the high dignitaries whom he so strenuously endeavored to bring into prominence and active participation in it, though in no way reluctant to have their names recorded as the proprietors of vast tracts of territory, evinced little disposition to advance the funds necessary to quicken the settlement of their new domains. The meeting of the Council in the King's own presence, at Greenwich, in June, 1623, and the drawing of the lots, was, after all, but a stage effect, skil- fully arranged. The whole burden of carrying forward the undertaking now, therefore, devolved upon Gorges; and he was not equal to it. He seems, nevertheless, during the months which followed the departure of his son, to have made every effort in his power to infuse something of his own z.cal into his friends, even announcing his determination to go to New Eng- land himself with the party of the following year.1 It was, however, of no avail; and before the close of 1623 it seems to have become apparent, even to him, that no second party was to follow.
A reluctant intimation of this fact was at last sent to Robert Gorges, reaching him, probably by way of the fishing-stations on the coast of Maine upon the arrival there of the forerunners of the fleet, in the early spring of 1624. He decided at once to return to England. A portion of his followers returned with him. Others, however, among whom was Morell, remained at Wessagusset.
Beyond the fact of their receiving some assistance from Plymouth to enable them to overcome the hardships necessarily incident to cvery new settlement, the records contain no mention of those thus left at Wessagusset during the year which immediately succeeded the departure of Robert Gorges. The following spring-that of 1625-he was followed by the Rev. Mr. Morell, who, having passed the intervening time among his own people, went to Plymouth for the purpose of taking ship from thence. It was then that he first informed the authorities there of the ecclesiastical powers which had been confided to him. He seems, during his residence in Massachu- setts, to have passed his time in a quiet and unobtrusive way, attending to his own duties and giving trouble to no one. As the fruit of his New Eng- land sojourn he has left behind him a Latin poem, showing scholarly acquirements of a good order, in which he, in a genial and somewhat imaginative way, describes the country and gives his impressions of it.2 Notwithstanding his carly departure, also, those impressions were extremely favorable. He was indeed as much charmed by the region about Boston Harbor as he was disgusted with its aboriginal inhabitants. Nevertheless, even before his departure, it had become apparent to the little settlement that a great mistake had been made when they had placed themselves at
1 Sir Wm. Alexander's Map and Description of New England, p. 31. 2 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., i. 125.
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THIE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Wessagusset; and Morell speaks with something like feeling of the hard lot of men who are " landed upon an unknown shore, peradventure weake in number and naturall powers, for want of boats and carriages," being for this reason compelled, with a whole empty continent before them, "to stay where they are first landed, having no means to remove themselves or their goods, be the place never so fruitlesse or inconvenient for planting, building houses, boats, or stages, or the harbors never so unfit for fishing, fowling, or mooring their boats." The settlers at Wessagusset were in fact repeating on a smaller scale the experience of those of Plymouth. The great scheme of colonization having failed, they were there to trade; and for trading pur- poses Wessagusset was in every way unfavorably placed. The only means of communication with the interior, from whence came the furs they coveted, was by the rivers; for the region thereabouts was a wilderness devoid of natural ways and interspersed with swamps. Wessagusset was just below the mouth of the little Monatoquot, it is true; but the Monatoquot was hardly more than a brook, and could scarcely have been navigable for any distance, even by an Indian's canoe. Meanwhile the Charles, the Mystic, and the Neponset each commanded the interior for many miles. Nor was Wessagusset any more favorably situated so far as the ocean was concerned. Even then a fleet of no less than fifty vessels annually traded along the coast, and their appearance in Boston Harbor was a matter of such ordinary occurrence as to have long ceased to excite surprise among the Indians. Wessagusset, however, was accessible to these vessels only by a narrow and devious river channel, so inconvenient for navigation that almost from the outset Hull was regarded as its seaport. There the Wessagusset planters met the coasting traders. Accordingly there is some reason to suppose that, about the time Morell returned to England, the settlers he left behind him divided, - Jeffrey and Bursley, with some few others abiding at Wes- sagusset, while Blackstone, Maverick, and
Samuel Mavericke
Walford removed across the bay; the former establishing himself at Shawmut,1 opposite the mouth of the Charles, while Walford placed himself on the Mystic, and Maverick took up his abode on Noddle's Island,2 at what
1 [Trumbull thinks Shawmut, or rather Mi- shawmut, meant a place to go to by boat. Cf. his letter in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., December, 1866, and his chapter in this volume. - ED.]
2 [The island at this early date seems to have been known by this name, which is conjectur- ably derived from one William Noddle, who had earlier occupied it, and, remaining in the colony, was made a freeman in 1631. The island seems to have been granted by John Gorges (brother of Robert) to Sir William Brereton in January, 1628-29, and was then called by the baronet's name ; but, during 1629, Johnson, Wonder Work- ing Providence, speaks of it as Noddle's Island, as does Winthrop in 1630. Sumner, East Bos-
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