CHAPTER XX.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

FRESH EMIGRATION TO MASSACHUSETTS. A NEW CHARTER. - ARRIVAL OF HIGGINSON AND SKELTON. THE FIRST CHURCH AT SALEM. THE CASE OF JOHN AND SAMUEL BROWNE. THEY ARE ORDERED BACK TO ENGLAND BY ENDICOTT. -THE COUNCIL'S REBUKE. - PROPOSED TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY TO NEW ENGLAND. -PROBABLE MOTIVES OF THE COUNCIL IN PROCURING THE PATENT. -THE CAMBRIDGE CONFERENCE. WINTHROP CHOSEN GOVERNOR.DEPARTURE FOR NEW ENGLAND. HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS TO ENGLISH CHURCHMEN.- OLDHAM AND BRERETON'S PATENTS. - SETTLEMENTS IN AND ABOUT BOSTON. - OLD SETTLERS ABOUT THE BAY. THE COMING OF ROGER WILLIAMS.

Arrival of new colo

IN June, 1629, three vessels entered the harbor of Salem, followed a few days later by three others. They carried, besides their crews, four hundred and six men, women, and children, nists at Saone hundred and forty head of cattle, forty goats, a large lem. stock of provisions, of tools, of arms, of all things necessary to plant a a colony. No enterprise so well appointed as this at the start had heretofore been sent to North America.

With the exception of the Plymouth people, all the colonies hitherto had been commercial adventures, managed in an office in London. Indeed, Plymouth even was not without this purely trading purpose,

1 This is Prince's statement in the Chronology- on the authority of the colonial records, and according to the warrant of the lord-treasurer, for the transportation. Dudley, in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln (vol. ii. Force's Historical Tracts and Young's Chronicles), says, "about 300 people; " Francis Higginson, in his New England's Plantation, says, "we brought with us about two hundred passengers," but he refers doubtless to the three first ships only.

which, however necessary to its making a beginning, was not its impelling motive, while the shrewd men who governed there soon saw that it must be rendered subsidiary to the interests of the colonists themselves, who were men and not machinery. In Virginia, already for twenty years, the experiment-presently to be repeated in Maryland- of founding a commonwealth upon the labor of bondsmen and the production of one great staple of trade, had proved to be successful, so far as it was successful at all, only in spite of its inherent viciousness. New Netherland was a great Dutch trading-post, where patroons took the place of tobacco-planters; Dutch boors served instead of servants for a term of years, sometimes taken from the English jails, or scraped together from the most wretched of the English poor. Just so far as this trading spirit was subordinated to some higher purpose; just so far as men were held higher than merchandise and the poor man's chance as of greater value than the rich man's opportunity, there these early colonies struck deepest root, and became the soonest strong and prosperous.

Character and causes of the new Puritan emigration.

Charles I. had been king only about four years, but there were already signs in England, significant enough to those who were wise, of coming trouble. Influences and events were gradually preparing men for a stormy future, and the number of those who sought to escape from it was rapidly increasing. These persons were not like the Pilgrims, bound together as with hooks of steel, by years of exile and poverty, but they, nevertheless were Puritans, earnest Protestants against the corruptions and formalities of the established church; some even Non-conformists; and all turning their faces wistfully toward the new land, where perhaps distance and obscurity might secure to them religious and political freedom at least would take them out of the thick of the evils which they knew could not be escaped much longer at home.

The Massa

The movement, begun at Dorchester by the Rev. Mr. White, with no more ambitious purpose than to plant a colony of fishchusetts Bay ermen at Cape Ann; growing then to the larger project Company. under Endicott with a grant of lands from the Plymouth Company, had assumed other proportions under a royal patent. The new corporation was styled "The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England."1

Of this company Matthew Cradock,2 a London merchant, was the

1 By Massachusetts Bay was understood, at that time, what is now called Boston Harbor, from Nahant to Point Alderton. Winthrop's History of New England, by James Savage, vol. i., p. 27.

2 Endicott's wife was a cousin of Cradock's. The exposure and hardships of the first winter were a sore affliction to Endicott's people, and among those who died, it is supposed, was Mrs. Endicott. Dr. Fuller, the physician at New Plymouth, was sent by Gov

governor in England. These six ships -one was the Mayflower, which, nine years before, had carried the Pilgrims to Plymouth arriving in June, at Salem, with this well-appointed colony, were sent out by the new company. The grant made by its patent was from the Merrimack to the Charles River. Endicott was confirmed by the directors in London as the governor of the colony already planted at Salem. "The propagating of the Gospel," he was told in the first letter of instructions, "is the thing we do profess above all to be our aim in settling this Plantation." Certainly to no more zealous hands than Endicott's could such a work be entrusted. There was neither weakness nor hesitation in

John Endicott made Governor.

Endicott.

his method of propagandism, and none who stood in his way need expect mercy.

He was to be aided, his instructions told him, by "a plentiful provision of godly ministers." There were four in the fleet, three of whom were appointed to be members of the Council. The fourth, the Reverend Ralph Smith, was rather permitted to go than encouraged, as it was found that there was a "difference in judgment in some things" between him and the other ministers. What that difference was they do not choose to say, but it was only that Smith was a pronounced Separatist in England, and the others were not till they were on the other side of the ocean. "Unless he will be conformable to our government," was the order of the letter of instructions, "suffer him not to remain within the limits of our grant." Mr. Smith was clearly not needed, and, whether sent thither or not, we next hear of him living with his family, in destitution apparently, at Nantasket. Some of the Plymouth people found him there, and moved with pity, took him home with them, and for several years he was their minister. If there was any fault in the Rev. Mr. Smith it was probably an excess of stupidity, for in zeal he seems to have made himself in no way offensive. He is not heard of again for several years, when "partly by his own willingness, as thinking it too heavy a burden, and partly at the desire, and by the persuasion of others," says the truthful Bradford, but with more

ernor Bradford to minister to the Salem people in their distress. The scurrilous Morton of Merry Mount, who spared nobody, calls Fuller "Dr. Noddy," who, he says, "did a great cure for Captain Littleworth [Endicott]. He cured him of a disease called a wife."

1629.]

RELIGION AND POLITICS.

521 of euphemism than he often used, he resigned his place of minister.

Apparently it was not Mr. Smith's doctrines, but his acting up to them by separation, that made the London Council cautious. And caution was no doubt, wise, for Archbishop Laud was watchful, and Charles easily offended. There was no hesitation, however, when once the colonists were in their new home, in showing how they construed the Council's advice to propagate the gospel. The State was to rest on the Church, and the church they chose to establish was not the Church of England. "Touching your judgment of the outward form of God's worship," Endicott wrote to Governor Bradford, a month before the arrival of the ministers, who were to be of his council, and with whom came the instructions from London

"it is, as far as I can yet gather, no other than is war

Signature of Endicott.

ranted by the evidence of truth, and the same which I have professed and maintained ever since the Lord in mercy revealed Himself unto me." When the ministers arrived he and they acted in accordance with this avowal.

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politics in

Two of them, Messrs. Skelton and Higginson, were not Separatists, but, for the distinction was carefully preserved, Non-Conformists. The third, Mr. Bright, was neither, but still a Conformist. Before six weeks had passed the religious character of the colony was determined; a day of fasting and prayer was held; Skelton was chosen pastor and Higginson teacher; the Plymouth Church was invited to send delegates to the installation, and Bradford and some others gave them the right hand of fellowship, wishing all prosperity, and a blessed success to such good beginnings." A Confession of Religion and Faith and Covenant, according to the Holy Scriptures-one the new article of which was upon the Duty and Power of Magistrates colony. in matters of Religion was adopted; the book of Common Prayer was discarded, the rite of baptism and the Lord's Supper were administered without the ceremonies prescribed in the ritual; admission to the church was regulated in accordance with the judgment of the elders, and the life and conversation of men were subjects of discipline. They were neither Separatists nor Anabaptists, they said; it was not the Church of England, nor its ordinances that they abandoned, but its corruptions and disorders; and being now where they had their liberty, 1 Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 265.