USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 18
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 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
A second Thanksgiving Day was observed in Boston on the 11th day of November following, on occasion of the next return from England of the same ship,-the "Lion,"-bringing Governor Winthrop's wife, Margaret (Tyndal), with his eldest son, John, the future Governor of Connecticut, accompanied by the Rev. John Eliot, soon to be known, and never to be forgotten, as the Apostle to the Indians, and the translator of the Bible into the Indian language. Massachusetts's Thanksgiving Days seem thus to have originated in the public acknowledgment of some immediate special causes of gratitude to God, and not as mere formal anniversary observances.
On the 18th of May, 1631, the second General Court was holden at Boston, when Winthrop was re-elected Governor, and Dudley Deputy- Governor, and when a memorable order was unanimously passed by the people assembled on the occasion, - an order which was to furnish the subject of no little controversy and contention a few years later. It was recorded as follows: "And to the end (that) the body of the commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it was ordered and agreed that for time to come no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politic, but such as are members of some of the Churches within the limits of the same." Winthrop, in his Journal, adds to this record that "all the freemen of the Commons were sworn to this government."
Among the few incidents of this year which have any historical or local interest, as showing the progress of the Plantation and the condition of things in Boston, it must not be omitted that on the 4th day of July, "the Governor built a bark at Mistick, which was launched this day, and called ' The Blessing of the Bay.'" Nor must the record be passed over, that, on the 25th of October, " the Governour, with Captain Underhill and others of the officers, went on foot to Sagus, and next day to Salem, where they were bountifully entertained by Captain Endecott, etc., and, the 28th, they returned to Boston by the ford at Sagus River, and so over at Mistick." The occupation of three whole days in a visit from Boston to Salem, by fords and on foot, gives an impressive picture of the locomotion of that early period of the colony.
The Records of the third "General Court," holden at Boston, on the 9th of May, 1632, open as follows : -
119
BOSTON FOUNDED.
" It was generally agreed upon, by crection of hands, that the Governor, Deputy- Governor, and Assistants should be chosen by the whole Court of Governor, Deputy- Governor, Assistants, and freemen, and that the Governor shall always be chosen out of the Assistants.
"John Winthrop, Esq., was chosen to the place of Governor (by the general consent of the whole Court, manifested by erection of hands), for this year next ensuing, and till a new be chosen, and did, in presence of the Court, take an oath to his said place belonging."
At the same session of the Court it was ordered, "that there should be two of every plantation appointed to confer with the Court about raising of a public stock." Accordingly, two persons were appointed from Water- town, Roxbury, Boston, Saugus, Newtown, Charlestown, Salem, and Dor- chester.
The recognition of the "freemen " of the colony in the first clause of this Record, and the designation in the last clause of representatives of the several plantations to confer about taxes, indicate the gradual advance of the little colony towards popular institutions; while the naming of the plantations shows that there were now eight separate communities in Massachusetts claiming consideration as towns. Of these towns Boston was namcd in the Records, intentionally or accidentally, third; 1 but at a Court of Assistants, in the following October, the Record runs: "It is thought, by general consent, that Boston is the fittest place for public meetings of any place in the Bay."
Perhaps the most memorable incident of this year was the official visit of the authorities of Massachusetts, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, to the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Winthrop's description of it, in his Journal, gives a vivid idea of the condition of both colonics, and of their cordial relations towards each other. We should not be forgiven for omitting a word of it: -
" 25 (September) - The governour, with Mr. Wilson, pastor of Boston, and the two captains, etc., went aboard the 'Lyon,' and from thence Mr. Pierce carried them in his shallop to Wessaguscus. The next morning Mr. Pierce returned to his ship, and the governour and his company went on foot to Plimouth, and came thither within the evening. The governour of Plimouth, Mr. William Bradford (a very discreet and grave man), with Mr. Brewster, the elder, and some others, came forth and met them without the town, and conducted them to the governour's house, where they were very kindly entertained, and feasted every day at several houses. On the Lord's Day there was a sacrament, which they did partake in; and in the afternoon Mr. Roger Williams (according to their custom) propounded a question, to which the pastor, Mr. Smith, spake briefly; then Mr. Williams prophesied; and after the
1 [Boston seems to have had no special build- ing for public worship until, during the year 1632, was erected the small thatched-roof, one- story building which stood on State Street, where Brazer's Building now stands. A plan of the church lot as existing at this time, but as made
out by Francis Jackson of late years, is in the library of the N. E. Hist. and Genealogical Society. See the Register, April, 1860, p. 152. Wilson, the pastor, lived where the Merchants' Bank is, and Wilson's Lane until recently trans- mitted his name to us. - ED.]
120
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
governour of Plimouth spake to the question ; after him the elder ; then some two or three more of the congregation. Then the elder desired the governour of Massa- chusetts and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of their duty of contribution ; whereupon the governour and all the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put into the box, and then returned."
What a grand group of New England worthies is presented to us here ! Governor Bradford and Elder Brewster, Roger Williams, John Wilson, and Governor Winthrop,-all gathered at Plymouth Roek ; all partaking together of the Holy Communion ; engaging in religious discussion, and joining in a contribution for the wants of the poor! What a subject it suggests for American art ! But, alas! authentic likenesses of all except Winthrop would be wanting for such a picture.1 The most cordial relations existed between Massachusetts and her elder sister Colony at Plymouth. Bradford and Winthrop exchanged letters often, and visits more than once. The two Colonies were one in spirit, as they were one in destiny; and the repeated interchanges of friendly offices, at that early day, were a pleasant prelude to their becoming members incorporate, a little more than half a century later, of the same noble Commonwealth.
But all was not harmony for the Massachusetts Colony within her own limits. A controversy sprung up early between Governor Winthrop and Deputy-Governor Dudley, about many personal and many public matters, which involved serious discomfort both to themselves and their friends. This controversy has sometimes been absurdly exaggerated and caricatured by descriptions and by pictures. It is only worth alluding to, in these pages, as an evidence that it has not been overlooked, and as furnishing an opportunity to introduce the following brief account of the conclusion of the whole matter, a few years afterwards, as contained in Winthrop's Journal under date of April 24, 1638: -
"The governour and deputy went to Concord to view some land for farms, and, going down the river about four miles, they made choice of a place for one thousand acres for each of them. They offered each other the first choice, but because the deputy's was first granted, and himself had store of land already, the governour yielded him the choice. So, at the place where the deputy's land was to begin, there were two great stones, which they called the Two Brothers, in remembrance that they were brothers by their children's marriage, and did so brotherly agree, and for that a little creek near those stones was to part their lands."
The " two great stones," which were the witnesses to this charming seene of reconciliation, are standing to this day, and are still known as the "Two Brothers." Few more delightful incidents are to be found in history than Winthrop's returning an insulting letter from Dudley with the simple
1 [What was once considered a portrait of Wilson hangs in the Gallery of the Historical Society. Drake, Hist. of Boston, gives a poor
woodcut of it. Dr. Appleton, in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., September, 1867, showed the error of considering it a likeness of Wilson .- ED.]
121
BOSTON FOUNDED.
remark, " I am not willing to keep such an occasion of provocation by me." Nor could a better companion-piece easily be found than the reply of Dudley, when Winthrop offered him a token of his good-will: "Your overcoming yourself hath overcome me." But there were other contro- versies, meantime, of a more public concern, and between other parties, which were less happily and less speedily settled.
Winthrop was again chosen Governor for the fourth time, and Dudley Deputy-Governor, at the General Court held in Boston May 29, 1633. In the following October it was ordered that there shall be four hundred pounds collected out of the several plantations to defray public charges, and eleven plantations are set down in the Records to be assessed accord- ingly, -Winnesimmet, Medford, and Agawam or Ipswich, having been added to the eight which have been previously recognized. Boston is now named at the head of the list, and is one of the five towns assessed at forty- eight pounds. Dorchester is named sixth, but with an assessment of eighty pounds. These sums may give some idea of the expenses of the colony and of the relative wealth of the plantations.
But the great event of this year 1633, for Boston and for the whole colony, was the arrival of the Rev. John Cotton; accompanied, too, by the Rev. Thomas Hooker and John Haynes, soon to be Governor of Massa- chusetts, and, not long afterwards, of Connecticut. The arrival of these im- portant characters is thus chronicled by Winthrop in his Journal : -
"SEPT. 4. The 'Griffin,' a ship of three hundred tons, arrived (having been eight weeks from the Downs). . . In this ship came Mr. Cotton, Mr. Hooker, and Mr. Stone, ministers, and Mr. Peirce, Mr. Haynes (a gentleman of great estate), Mr. Hoffe, and many other men of good estates. They got out of England with much difficulty, all places being belaid to have taken Mr. Cotton and Mr. Hooker, who had been long sought for to have been brought into the High Commission ; but the master being bound to touch at the Wight, the pursuivants attended there, and, in the mean- time, the said ministers were taken in at the Downs. Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone went presently to Newtown, where they were to be entertained, and Mr. Cotton stayed at Boston."
This was the year in which the poems of George Herbert were published, and there is some reason for the conjecture that the proposed emigration of Cotton and other eminent English ministers suggested those well-known lines of his, -
" Religion stands a tiptoe in our land, Ready to pass to the American strand." 1
This was the year, too, when an Order was issued by the Privy Council to stay several ships in the Thames, in which some distinguished opponents of the Crown were supposed to be embarked for New England, - as, later, there has been a tradition that even Hampden, Pym, and Cromwell medi- tated such a flight.
1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., January, 1867.
VOL. 1 .- 16.
122
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Coming from Boston in Old England, where he had ministered for more than twenty years in the Church of St. Botolph, whose lofty tower is still the pride of all the regions round about, the great Puritan preacher did not fail to receive the most cordial welcome in the little transatlantic town, which has often been said to have been named out of respect to his character, and in hopeful anticipation of his soon becoming one of its inhabitants.
His welcome was all the more fervent from his having so narrowly escaped the pursuivants and the High Commission Court. He seems, however, to have brought over with him from England some views in regard to civil government which were by no means palatable in Massachusetts. He took occasion to express and enforce these views in the Election Ser- mon which he delivered before the General Court in the following May (1634), when he maintained " that a magistrate ought not to be turned into the condition of a private man without just cause," any more than the magistrates may turn a private man out of his freehold. The subject was thercupon discussed in the Court, and the opinion of the other min- isters asked. Winthrop paid the penalty of the decision. The immediate practical answer was that the General Court elected a new Governor, and a wholesome rebuke was thus given to the suggestion of a vested right on the part of any incumbent in the political office which he may happen to hold. Thomas Dudley 1 was now elected Governor of Massachusetts, and Roger Ludlow Deputy-Governor; while Winthrop was chosen at the head of the Board of Assistants.
Meantime, we have the record of a great advance in the political con- dition of the little Colony, - nothing less than the establishment of a Reprc- sentative System in New England. It was ordered, "That four General Courts should be kept every year; that the whole body of the freemen should be present only at the Court of Election of Magistrates, and that, at the other three, every town should send their deputies, who should assist in making laws, disposing lands, &c." Town governments were thus already in existence, and in this year are found the earliest remaining records of the town of Boston, written by Winthrop himself, and dated " 1634, moncth 7th, Daye 1."2 Relieved from the cares of the chief magis-
1 [Dudley lived where the Universalist Church in Roxbury stands, at the end of Shaw- mut Avenue. His well is said still to exist under the building. Ilere he entertained Mian- tonomoh in 1640. He died July 31, 1654. Drake, Town of Roxbury, pp. 334, 340; Ellis, Roxbury Town, p. 97. The family line is traced in V. E. Hist. and Gencal. Reg. viii. and ix., supplementing Dean Dudley's Dudley Genealogies, Boston, 1848. There is a tabular pedigree in Drake's Boston, folio edition. Cf. Bridgman, Pilgrims of Boston ; Ileraldic Journal, i. 35, 185; Herald and Gene- alogist, part xvi. p. 308 ; Savage, Dictionary ; J. B. Moore, Governors of New Plymouth and Mass. Bay, p. 273; and further references in
Durrie's Index to American Genealogies. The full text of the life of Thomas Dudley, which was abridged by Cotton Mather when he print- ed his MMagnalia, is given in the Mass. Ilist. Soc. Proc., January, 1870, with notes and col- lations with the text of the same given in George Adlard's Sutton-Dudleys of England. Cf. Mass. Ilist. Soc. Proc., April, 1858. The N. E. Hlist. and Geneal. Reg., October, 1856, P. 342, has a paper on the portraits of the Dudleys. - ED.]
2 [This first page of the Town Records is given herewith in heliotype. Engravings of it have appeared in Shaw's Description of Boston, and in Drake's Boston, p 172. - ED.]
Lh Inge.
0. minut hoy : Collinto
book entuation mange trongto por ties
-
9
ROBE Harting
200
. io
satis Paylifes. mone ful: QU
often ino for
1
-
/
fft a gear mestring byon , was moter orban
moule sich
C
40. -
Of0. Organ: Cho: matton Minived ana go ba de pourune
Att a iwal marting byon puff motion griber i May betime it most ander
Hey thand to a team member of man in sorry formin in Hohn Sourit router amonton
it to me Back hace Ele Phrouge, 24: or -
e
123
BOSTON FOUNDED.
tracy of the colony, he was able to give more attention to town affairs, and in the following December we find him at the head of seven selectmen of Boston, commissioned " to divide and dispose of all such lands belonging to the town (as are not yet in the lawful possession of any particular per- son) to the inhabitants of the town, leaving such portions in common for new comers, and the further benefitte of the town, as in their best discretion they shall think fitt." It was in the exercise of this commission that Win- throp was mainly instrumental in reserving from the distribution of the town lands the forty or fifty acres now known as BOSTON COMMON, and which constitute so much of the beauty and pride of the city.1
Another memorable incident belongs to the history of Boston about this time, of which the town records contain the following account: "Like- wise it was then gen'ally agreed upon, y' o' brother Philemon Pormont shalbe entreated to become schoolmaster for the teaching and nourtering of children wh us." This is one of the very earliest references to that cause of education, and those free schools, which Boston has gloried to advance from that day to this; and the town records of another year (1636) contain a list of the subscriptions of all the principal inhabitants of the town, from four shillings up to ten pounds cach, "towards the main- tenance of free-schoolmaster for Mr. Daniel Maude being now also chosen thereunto." 2
The spirit of legislation, as well as the habits of the people, at this period may be illustrated by such an order of the General Court as the following : " The Court, taking into consideration the great, superfluous, and unneces- sary expenses occasioned by reason of some new and immodest fashions, as also the ordinary wearing of silver, gold, and silk laces, girdles, hatbands, &c., hath therefore ordered that no person, either man or woman, shall hereafter make or buy any apparel, either woollen, silk, or linen, with any lace on it, silver, gold, silk, or thread, under the penalty of forfeiture of such clothes."
And here is another sample: "It is ordered that no person shall take tobacco publicly, under the penalty of 2 shillings and sixpence, nor privately in his own house, or in the house of another, before strangers, and that two or more shall not take it together anywhere, under the aforesaid penalty, for every offence."
One more order will suffice to throw light on the domestic condition of Boston : "There is leave granted to the Deputy-Governor, John Winthrop, Esq., and John Winthrop, Junior, each of them to entertain an Indian a-piece as a household servant." In this year Boston had reached the highest rate of assessment for public uses, being taxed £80, with Dor- chester and Newtown, out of the £600 ordered to be "levied out of the several plantations," which were now twelve in number.
1 Palfrey, IFist. of N. E. i. 379. Second Report of the Record Commissioners, p. 160. The history of education is specially treated by Dr. Dillaway in Vol. IV. - ED. ]
2 [See further on this point in Mr. Scudder's chapter. The list in question is printed in the
124
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
At the election of May, 1635, Thomas Dudley, after a single year of service, was left out of the chief magistracy of Massachusetts, and John Haynes was chosen Governor in his place. And now we come to the 2 arrival in Boston of two 40.000LES: most notable persons, who are to play no small part in the history of the colony for the next few years, and who, alas ! werc doomed to a common and sad end at a later day in England, - Hugh Peters (or Peter, as he always signed his name), and Henry Vane. Peters had been the pastor of the English Church in Rotterdam, and had been persecuted fui patur by the English Ambassador, who desired to bring his church under the English discipline. He had long before taken an interest in the colonization of New England, was one of the first members of the Massachusetts Company, and one of the signers of the Company's Instructions to Endicott in 1629. Vanc was son and heir to Sir Henry Vane, Comptroller of the King's household, and had already, though not yet twenty-five years old, been employed by his father, while an ambassador, in foreign affairs. These gentlemen exhibited the most active concern for the condition of the colony, both ecclesiastical and civil, at the carliest possible moment. Vane was ad- mitted a member of the Church of Boston within a month after his arrival, and, before three months had expired, he and Peters had pro- cured a meeting in Boston of all the leading magistrates and ministers of the colony, with a view to healing some distractions in the Com- monwealth and effecting "a more firm and friendly uniting of minds." At this meeting Vane and Peters, with Governor Haynes and the ministers, Cotton, Wilson, and Hooker, declared themselves in favor of a more rigorous administration of government than had thus far been pursucd. Winthrop was charged with having displayed " overmuch lenity." The ministers delivered a formal opinion, "that strict disci- plinc, both in criminal offences and in martial affairs, was more needful in plantations than in settled States, as tending to the honor and safety of the Gospel." Within seven days after this decision Governor Haynes and the Assistants, being informed that Roger Williams, who in the previous October had been sentenced by the General Court of Massachusetts to depart out of their jurisdiction in six weeks, and to whom liberty had been granted " to stay till spring," was using this liberty for preaching and prop- agating the doctrines for which he had been censured, despatched Captain Underhill to apprehend him, with a view to his being shipped off at once to England. But Williams escaped to Narragansett Bay, and became the founder of Rhode Island. He said of this escape, in a letter long after- wards: " It pleased the Most High to direct my steps into this Bay, by the loving private advice of the ever honored soul, Mr. John Winthrop." But
I25
BOSTON FOUNDED.
the controversies about Roger Williams belong to a different chapter of this work and to another writer,1 and they are passed over here accordingly.
On the 7th of April, 1636, it was ordered by the General Court "that a certain number of magistrates should be chosen for life." This council for life was undoubtedly the work of John Cotton, and was designed to encourage the coming over to New England of some of those noblemen of old England to whom life-tenures were dear, and who shrunk from trusting
their distinction to popular favor. It was entirely in keeping, also, with Cotton's Election Sermon in 1634, and it is expressly provided for in the draft of the " Model of Moses his Judicials," which Cotton presented to the General Court in October of this year. At the election in May, accord- ingly, John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley were chosen councillors for life. But the young Henry Vane was at the same time elected Governor of Mas- sachusetts, - a signal proof of the influence and importance he had so
1 [Dr. Ellis's chapter on " The Puritan Commonwealth." - ED.]
126
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
rapidly acquired in the colony.1 Winthrop-who accepted the Deputy Governorship under him-says of him in his Journal on this occasion : " Because he was son and heir to a Privy Councillor in England, the ships congratulated his election with a volley of great shot." But Vane had ability and enterprise enough to have secured an ultimate success and celebrity, as well as salutes of "great shot," without the aid of any mere family prestige. His administration, however, was destined to be disturbed by a violence of religious and civil controversy which has never been ex- ceeded on the same soil, if, indeed, on any soil beneath the sun. But the story of Mrs. Hutchinson and of the Antinomian Controversy belongs to another writer,2 and is gladly left to him. At the General Court in March, 1636-37, contentions ran so high that, although it had been so recently declared that " Boston is the fittest place for publique meetings of any place in the Bay," it was determined that the Court of Elections should not be held there. It was thereupon held in Newtown, soon to be Cambridge, where, after scenes of great controversy and even tumult, Winthrop was again chosen Governor and Dudley Deputy-Governor, while Vanc, after a single year's service, was not even included among the Assistants. It was during this election that the first Stump Speech was made in this part of the world, and made by a clergyman, - no less a person than the Rev. John Wilson, one of the ministers of the first Boston Church ; having " got up on the bough of a tree," and having made a speech which was said to have turned the scale.
Governor Winthrop thus entered on a fifth term of the chief magistracy in May, 1637, and soon after his re-election the General Court passed the order which gave occasion to the memorable controversy between himself and Vane. The order was to the effect " that none should be received to inhabite within this Jurisdiction but such as should be allowed by some of the magistrates." Winthrop defended the order in an elaborate paper. Vane replied in what he termed " A briefe Answer," but which was more than three times longer than Winthrop's defence. Winthrop rejoined in a replication as long as both the other papers together. Many persons have pronounced judgment on these arguments, but few have read them. They may all be found in Governor Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers, who dismisses them with the wise remark: " I leave the reader to judge who had
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.