USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 42
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In July, 1664, there sailed into Boston Harbor an English fleet, intended ostensibly to attack the Dutch settlements on the Hudson. It bore the members of a Royal Commission, against whose power and purpose the Colony at once protested. Massachusetts readily contributed two hundred men for the war against the Dutch, and the fleet went on its way. The Commissioners remained behind, to cope, as well as they might, with the unanimous opposition of an unwilling people. The Colonial authorities first prohibited all complaints to these Commissioners, and then issued their own deliberate remonstrance in words so clear and dignified as to give a fore- taste of the Revolutionary State-papers that were to follow a century later. The document is of deep interest, as showing how early the conscious separation of interests had begun, and how the later Revolution was really the accumulated protest of successive generations : -
" Dread Sovereign, - The first undertakers of this plantation did obtain a patent, wherein is granted full and absolute power of governing all the people of this place, by men chosen from among themselves, and according to such laws as they should see meet to establish. A Royal donation, under the great seal, is the greatest security
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
that may be had in human affairs. To be governed by rulers of our own choosing and lawes of our own, is the fundamental privilege of our patent.
" A commission under the great seal, wherein four persons (one of them our pro- fessed enemy) are impowered to receive and determine all complaints and appeals according to their discretion, subjects us to the arbitrary power of strangers, and will end in the subversion of our all.
"God knows, our greatest ambition is to live a quiet life, in a corner of the world. We came not into this wilderness to seek great things to ourselves ; and, if any come after us to seeke them heere, they will be disappointed. We keep ourselves within our line ; a just dependence upon and subjection to your majestic, according to our
309
FROM DEATH OF WINTHROP TO PHILIP'S WAR.
Charter, it is far from our hearts to disacknowledge. We would gladly do anything within our power to purchase the continuance of your favorable aspect. But it is a great unhappiness to have no testimony of our loyalty offered but this, to yield up our liberties, which are far dearer to us than our lives, and which we have willingly ven- tured our lives and passed through many deaths to obtain." 1
But this was not all. Public meetings were held; Hathorne and Endi- cott 2 publicly protested ; the English friends of America remonstrated in vain, and could not comprehend the objections made to commissioners who had as yet done no harm. Meanwhile, the emissaries went to the other Colonies, whom it was their policy to conciliate; then returning, desired that the whole male population of Massachusetts should assemble in Boston to hear the message from the King. When this was rejected, the Com- missioners announced that they should hold a Court, at which the Colony was cited to appear as defendant. Then followed one of the picturesque scenes so characteristic of the life of those days, - a life which we miscon- strue as tame and colorless only. The Court was to be held at the house of Captain Thomas Breedon, on Hanover Street, at 9 A. M., May 24, 1665. It seems that a brother officer of Captain Breedon's, one Colonel Cart- wright, was then lying lame of the gout in this house; and at eight on the appointed morning, beneath the very window of the unhappy Colonel, a messenger of the General Court stationed himself, blew an alarum on the trumpet, and proclaimed " in his Majesty's name " and by authority of the Royal Charter, that the Court regarded this action of the Commissioners as gross usurpation, and could in no way " countenance any should in so high a manner go cross unto his Majesty's direct charge." This said, the messenger departed with his trumpeter, to make the same proclamation in two other parts of the town ; and when the Commissioners assembled at nine, they found nobody with whom to confer except the gouty Colonel Cart- wright, with all his symptoms doubtless exasperated by this intolerable interruption of his morning nap.
1 [See Mr. Deane's chapter on the struggle for the charter in this volume. Many original papers are in the Mass. Archives, cvi. (Political, 1638-1700.) - ED.]
2 [Endicott did not long survive the Commis- sioners' visit, - he died March 23, 1665. There is an account of Endicott in J. B. Moore's Governors of New Plymouth and Mass. Bay, p. 347. He had removed to Boston from Salem before he was chosen Governor in 1644. His will, dated at Bos- ton, May 2, 1659, mentions his house on Cotton (Pemberton) Hill. In 1721 the family of Endi- cott had no nearer representative in Boston than Mr. John Edwards, who that year applied to have possession of the tomb of the Governor in the Granary burying-ground. A genealogy of his family is printed in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., October, 1847, and a memoir of the Governor was given in the July number of the same year, with a steel plate (also in Drake's
Boston) of the portrait, from which our cut is taken. There is a copy of this portrait in the gallery of the Historical Society, taken by Smi- bert in 1737. Mass. Ilist. Soc. Proc., ii. 61. Of the Endicott portrait, Mr. William C. Endicott wrote, in 1873, in relation to a copy then pre- sented to the Amer. Antiq. Society (see their Proceedings, Oct. 21, 1873, p. 113) : " The original, now in the possession of my father, William P. Endicott of Salem, descended to him as the oldest son of the oldest son direct from the gov- ernor, together with the sword with which the cross was cut from the king's colors. It was painted in 1665, the year of the governor's death, and the tradition in the family declares it to have been a most admirable likeness. I do not know when the several copies in the Senate Chamber, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Essex Institute were made, but they are all more or less imperfect and inferior."- ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
What neither Church nor State nor days of fasting could convey to the minds of the Commissioners was apparently made plain by this one herald's proclamation. Sermons and prayers were unavailing, but the sound of a trumpet seemed significant. "Since you misconstrue our labors," said the Commissioners with dignity, "we shall not lose more of our labors upon you." This was precisely what the Colony wished. It proceeded to show its loyalty in its own way: sent provisions to the English fleet in the West Indies, and sent a ship-load of masts to the navy in England, - an act which Pepys describes as " a blessing mighty unexpected, and but for which we should have failed next year." But Massachusetts persisted in her protest against the Commissioners, and nothing ever came of their enterprise. It was not until many years later, after a season of cruel Indian wars and the death of King Philip, that the English Ministry, which had done noth- ing to help the Colony through its struggle, at last fulfilled for a time its purpose "to reassume the government of Massachusetts into its own hands."
Thos. Wentworth Higginson
CHAPTER IX.
BOSTON IN PHILIP'S WAR.
BY THE REV. EDWARD E. HALE, D.D. Minister of the South Congregational Church.
N the twenty-first of June, 1675, an express which had started from Marshfield, in Plymouth County, early that morning, came clattering over the Neck, and delivered to Governor Leverett, at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, a letter from Governor Winslow of the Old Colony. The original letter is still preserved.1 It announced that Philip and his band of Indians had alarmed the our people of Swansea, and that these had
retreated to their block- house. This was on Sun- day, the day
Boxing Night and humil Josiah finstart
ManghFaits Juan 21. before. Winslow's letter says, manfully, that the Plymouth Colony will give a good account of Philip in a few days if the Mas- sachusetts will see that the Narragansetts and the Nipmucks do not act to assist that chieftain. He also says that the Old-Colony people had been taking all precautions not to insult or injure Indians. But the war with Philip had had a long prelude, and in this very month of June the Indian murderers of Sausaman, or Wussausman, one of Eliot's disciples, had been executed. One of them had testified before his death that his father, John wuffaufman! a counsellor and friend of Philip, had a hand in that murder, which was supposed to have a political character.
1 [In the Mass. Archives, Ixvii. 202. A fac-simile of the subscription is given above. - ED.]
312
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Their twenty-first of June corresponds to our first of July, and the reader must imagine hot July days in the mustering of hosts which followed. Leverett's house stood at the corner of Court and Washington Streets, where the Sears building now stands.1 We can well imagine that the Marshfield express, as he passed through the little town with the tidings of war, did not make the least of them. He had made good time on his sad errand. Lev- erett summoned his Council at once. We have the list of those who at- tended, - and, as these Boston members of the Council became in practice the military committee who carried on the war, the names are worth record- ing here. They were Samuel Symonds, Simon Bradstreet, Richard Russell Richard Sussitt. (who was Treasurer), Thomas Danforth, William Hathorne, Edward Tyng, Wil- liam Stoughton, and Thomas Clarke, with Edward Rawson, the Secretary. One
fancies Stoughton picking up the news as the express passed him in Dorchester, and coming in to the Council on that sum- mons. John Hull was soon after added, as treasurer for the war.
ho: Danforth
The Council immediately engaged Edward Hutchinson (a young captain), Seth Perry, and William Powers, to go to the Narragansetts, bidding them to call on Roger Williams 2 on the way, and avail themselves of all his influence in persuading or ordering the Narragansetts not to come into any alliance with Philip. Horses were impressed for them, and they started on their errand. From day to day, further news was received from Swansea, where the Plymouth forces were gathering around Philip ; and meanwhile two mes- sengers were despatched to Mount Hope, with some expectation of negoti- ation with him. But these messengers found, on the twenty-fourth, that the war was begun. One of the Swansea men had wounded an Indian who was killing his cattle, and the Indians had retaliated by killing some of the Swansea men. Boston was all alive meanwhile; drums beat for volunteers ; in three hours' time one hundred and ten men were mustered. Meanwhile, the regular train-bands were notified that they must be ready for draft; and the whole history shows that their organization was complete, and that they were ready to meet such demands with promptness.
Winslow had not asked for military assistance. But, in the note sent to him in reply to his first despatch, Leverett had assured him that the larger colony would send him any arms or ammunition which he required. As accounts of real war came in, the Council organized an aggressive expedition. To the command of it they appointed Captain John Richards to go " as cap- tain of the foot ; who shamefully refused the employment." 3 Captain Daniel
1 [Drake, Landmarks, p. S3. See Introduc- tion to vol. ii. for the site of Governor Leverett's house. - ED ]
2 [Cf. Williams's letters in the Winthrop Papers, in 4 Mass. list. Coll. vi. - ED.I
3 [The original minutes of this meeting, as taken by Rawson the secretary on a bit of pa- per, are preserved in the Mass. Archives, Ixvii. 204, and this reproach seems to have been inter- lined later, as the fac-simile shows. - ED.|
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BOSTON IN PHILIP'S WAR.
Henchman was then chosen to " go forth as the captain of one hundred men for the service, and Captain Thomas Prentice to be captain of the horse." These
Capt Richard i voted when forthin This Exposition as Capplane of the flock who Shamofully refuted the employment.
titles were given them because they were already captains in the train-bands. Orders were given to the militia of Boston and of all the neighboring towns to furnish such a number of able soldiers as should make one hundred in all for Henchman's command, to be ready at an hour's notice. Each soldier was to have his arms complete and knapsack ready to march, " and not fail, but be at the randyvous." On the twenty-fifth, these men were summoned to appear "at their colors in the market-place at six in the evening, with their arms ready fixed for service." On the next day, Daniel Denison was appointed commander- in-chief of all the forces of the colony.1
Gavin at Boston dugig 1675 Devison may Gon
Henchman and Prentice marched on the twenty-sixth with their men. When they reached Neponset River, at a point about twenty miles 2 from Boston, there happened a great eclipse of the moon, which was totally darkened above an hour. William Hubbard says that some melancholy fancies thought the eclipse ominous, and conceived that in the centre of the moon they discerned an Indian scalp. He adds that they might rather have thought of Crassus's joke when the moon was eclipsed in Capricorn, that he was more afraid of Sagittarius than of Capricornus. Cotton Mather improves on Hubbard enough to say that some of the soldiers did think of Crassus. Henchman had been master in the Latin school, and may have remembered the story.
Janwel Moglay
The next day Samuel Mosley and his company overtook the advance. He had beat up for volunteers in Boston, and with one hundred and ten men, who were called " Privateers," 3 had made a quick march; so that he and Henchman and Prentice all arrived together at Swansea.
It is no part of this Memorial History to trace the details of the history of Philip's war, except so far as Boston took part in it. But as the gov-
1 [Cf. an account of Denison by D. D. Slade in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., July, 1869. Drake, Town of Roxbury, p. 90. - En.]
VOL. 1 -40.
2 [So Hubbard says. - ED.]
3 Probably as a synonym for "volunteers,"
- not because they had served at sea.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
ernor of Massachusetts and the military committee were Boston men, and as the commissioners for the united colonies met in Boston, most of the orders for the war went out from the council chamber in the Boston Town Boston Novemb: 2.1675 House. Boston, Rox- bury, Dorchester, and Charlestown furnished Thomas Danforth Swfist. William Stoughton Josiah Sinslun a considerable propor- tion of the Massachu- setts contingents, who were always ready with a singular promptness, which shows that the people must have lived as in the presence of an enemy. To describe the arrangements thus made for war in the cap- ital, with such thread of its history in the field as may be necessary to explain them, is the object of this chapter.
Jo En Wmf Ecop Bait Sfinterek
Everything in the history shows that the SIGNATURES OF THE COMMISSIONERS. colony at this time was fairly in the second generation from the settlement. There is nothing of the polish and state of the beginning, but there is in all the despatches and letters the vigor, not to say the rigor, of a generation only too well trained by hardship. John Leverett, the governor, was such a man as republics are apt to put in the front. He was born in the English Boston in 1616, was trained under Cotton's preaching, and seems to have crossed the ocean in the same ship with him and with Governor Haynes. He returned to England in time to serve through the whole Civil War as a Captain of Horse, and he acquired the confidence and friendship of Cromwell.
In 1655 he was sent to England as the colony's agent, and he remained there till Charles II. was well seated on his throne. Very likely the old sol- dier would have been glad to lead this campaign himself. But at sixty years of age he did not take the field, and the immediate direction of affairs fell to younger men. His own letter to the Government of Connecticut, written on the 28th of June, is a good description of the energetic activity of those first days : -
"Upon the 2 1st instant, about three o'clock, came an express to me from the Gov- ernor of Plymouth, signifying that upon the Lord's day before an armed party of Philip's men attacked two houses not far from Swansea, and drove the people out of
315
BOSTON IN PHILIP'S WAR.
them, who fled to the town and gave intelligence thereof ; and accordingly Swansea men sent a post to the Governor of Plymouth to acquaint him of their needs, - with all in- timating that the Indians were marching to Swansea. The Governor thereupon ordered some relief to be sent to Swansea, as he informed us. The armed Indians marched up to the bridge at Swansea, but 40 of the English of Swansea being posted at the bridge the Indians retreated to Mount Hope again ; but since have made several
-
GOVERNOR JOHN LEVERETT.1
excursions in small parties, and have plundered several houses not far from Swansea. And afterwards, about the 24th and 25th and 26th day of this instant, have killed about 5 or 6 persons in all in a skulking way, and barbarously taken the head, scalpe, and hands of two persons, and some within sight of a Court of Guard, - others they have wounded about twenty ; and a house they have fired, and daily we hear of the increase of trouble. The Governor of that colony has frequently solicited us for aid, which as soon as we could possibly raise we have sent to them. It is certified from Plymouth
1 [A portrait of Leverett is preserved in the gallery of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester. He was the Governor from 1673- 78. 1Ie died March 16, 1679, and the order of march at his funeral is given in Snow's Boston, p. 170. Dr. N. B. Shurtleff gives an account of him and his family in the N. E. Hist. and Gencal. Reg., 1850, p. 125; cf. also October, 1858. A communication on the seal and family of the
Governor is in the Heraldic Journal, i. 83. A Memoir of Sir John Leverett and of the Family generally, by Rev. C. E. Leverett, was printed in Boston in 1856. Two of the three preserved portraits of the Governor are engraved in this memoir. Mr. Leverett also prepared the tabu- lar pedigree in Drake's Boston, folio edition. J. B. Moore has a memoir of the Governor in his Governors of Plymouth and Mass. Bay. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
and Swansea that both Narragansetts and Nipmucks have sent aid to Philip ; we sent messengers to Narragansetts and Nipmucks to warn and caution them not to help Philip, and if any were gone to command to return. Our messengers are returned from both these places. The Nipmucks speak fair, and say they are faithful to their engage- ments and will not assist Philip. The Narragansetts say they will not meddle ; but there is more reason to suspect the latter, and we believe they are not unconcerned in this matter. All our intelligence gives us ground to believe that the poor people in these parts are in a very distressed condition in many respects. Their houses burned, their people killed and wounded, and they not able to make any attempt upon the Indians, wanting for victuals, amunition, and arms. We have occasion to send greater force for their relief. We have sent about three hundred foot and about eighty horse, besides several carts laden with munition, provisions, and armes. Moreover we are sending two vessels with provision and munition to supply their forces, the vessels to serve as there shall be cause. We sent Captain Savage and Mr. Brattle four days since to speak with Philip, who are returned, but could not obtain speech with him. The Coun- cil has appointed a fast to-morrow to seek God in this matter for a blessing upon our forces. How far this trouble may speed, it is with the Lord to order. There is reason to conceive that if Philip be not soone suppressed he and his confederates may skulk into the woods and greatly annoy the English, and that the confederacy of the In- dians be larger than yet we see. Major-General Denison was chosen for the general of these forces, but he being taken ill Captain Savage is sent commander-in-chief. Captain Prentice is Commander of the Horse, and Captain Henchman and Captain Mosley Captain of the Foot. Our eyes are unto the Lord for his presence with them, and hope you will not be wanting in your prayers and watchfulness over the Indians, and particularly request you to use your utmost authority to restrain the Mohegans and Pequods."
John Richards the captain, who is spoken of so cavalierly as having shamefully refused the command, was a person of a good deal of note, and does not seem to have lost in public estimation by this refusal. He was chosen an Assistant from 1680 to 1686; in Andros's time he was a " high friend of liberty," in Mr. Savage's phrase; was a Judge of the Supreme Court, and when he died was buried with all the honors. The " shameful refusal " to take command of the foot may be the testy memorandum of an excited day.
Lauray
The Clash Henchman John Hull. Como In cheofo:
James Colivier Thomas Savage
Cotton Hudfor John Richards :1
317
BOSTON IN PHILIP'S WAR.
The captains of the eight companies in Boston were Thomas Clarke, Thomas Savage, James Oliver, William Hudson, Daniel Henchman, John Richards, John Hull, and [John?] Clarke. Failing Richards, as has been said, the command of the infantry was given to Henchman, and that of the horse to Thomas Prentice of Newton. Daniel Denison, the major-general, was not well, and the general command was transferred to Savage, the father.
Daniel Henchman first appears in our local history as the assistant teacher in the Latin School, then under the charge of Robert Woodmanscy. In 1669 he was appointed on the committee for the survey of a new plantation, and from Punchman. the history of Worcester it appears that he was one of the most important persons in laying out and settling that town. He died there in the year 1685. He was a connection of Judge Sewall, and there was in Sewall's house a room called by his name. Everything in his letters shows that he was a good soldier and a prompt executive man, and he is, perhaps, the most prominent representative of Boston as the war goes on. Like other commanders he is often blamed. Doubtless he made mis- takes like other men. But there is a manliness in his treatment of the Christian Indians which conciliates respect.
Both the Savages, father and son, appcar in these campaigns with dis- tinction. The son, Perez Savage, who was an ensign, was but a young man ; and in one of the very first encounters he was badly wounded in the thigh by a shot from his own party. He was wounded again in the Narragansett fight, but recovered and died twenty years after, a captive in Mequinez in Barbary. He had probably been taken by the Algerines in his trade with Spain. Thomas Savage, the father, was one of the men whom the General Court disarmed in the Wheelwright troubles. He had at one time retired into Rhode Island. He lived to revenge himself on his old persecutors by leading their army with courage, prudence, and skill. He became now the commander of the whole contingent into Plymouth County. He made his will on the 28th of June, the day he marched to the war; and on the 25th of June he was appointed one of the committee for the war, and had all the accounts of the military expenses confided to him. The next May he was appointed treasurer, as successor to Richard Russell.
John Hull, another of the captains, was the mint master. It is clear that his services as treasurer were so essential that it was out of the question that he should march with the troops. No suggestion of other reason appcars in the record.
The various companies did not take the field as such this year, but after October they were ready to do so. They were three times drafted for this war: once for the first expedition, and once for troops to the east- ward; again for the attack on the Narragansetts. The whole number was probably about 850, - of whom the greater part were called into one or another service during the war. For the sinews of war the proper taxes were levied, and a powder-mill was successfully established at Dorchester.
318
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The three companies arrived at Swansea in forty-eight hours from the time when they left Boston. There is an intimation in one despatch that Henchman's forces, though infantry, went as "dragoons," - by which phrase was then meant what we call " mounted infantry." If the first march were effected thus, their horses were sent back, for they certainly served after- wards as foot. They at once drove the Indians back from Swansea to Mount
Vital 73.
CAPTAIN THOMAS SAVAGE.I
1 [This engraving follows an original paint- ing owned by his descendant, Colonel Henry Lee of Boston, who some years ago bought it of another descendant, Mr. William II. Spooner, in whose family it had descended. Beneath the arms in the upper right-hand corner is the in- scription : " .Eta : 73. Anº 1679." He is buried in the King's Chapel yard, and the inscription
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