CHAPTER VIII.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY COLONY.
Whilst the Pilgrims were taking deep root and extending their borders, various attempts were being made, under grants derived from the Great Patent, to colonise the coast. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose name is already familiar to our readers, a friend of Sir Walter Raleigh and a steadfast advocate of colonisation, obtained a grant of territory on the north-west side of Massachusetts Bay, for his son Robert, who was sent over by the English patentees as lieutenant of New England, accompanied by an episcopalian clergyman as superintendent of ecclesiastical affairs; but no success attended him; and instead of establishing a seat of government, he was shortly compelled to retire to Weymouth, already deserted by the “unruly company” of Weston’s men, which he in an equally short time also abandoned. The same year Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason obtained a grant of the whole extent of country included between the sea, the St. Lawrence, the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers, and great mercantile settlements were projected on the banks of the Piscataqua; but again these attempts failed of success. The soil of New England was evidently not intended for the mere trader or adventurer. In 1628, Mason, alarmed at the progress already made by the Puritan settlers, obtained a new patent for the country between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, which, without reference to any rights of the natives, was ceded at once to him. This was the patent under which New Hampshire was established. The town of Portsmouth was founded, but neither town nor colony flourished greatly; several years afterwards the town consisted but of about sixty families. In 1635 Mason died, and after his death New Hampshire was left to take care of itself.
From the year 1606, when Martin Pring and Weymouth first discovered the northern bays of New England, the ships of fishermen had visited their coasts, and by degrees had settled upon them permanent stations. In 1616, Gorges sent to these northern shores a colonising party under Richard Vines, who arrived in the country at the time when that pestilence was raging among the natives which depopulated so great an extent of territory, and which was regarded by the later pious settlers as an interposition of God, who thus “made way for his people by removing the heathen.” Vines and his company marched to the interior, holding familiar intercourse with the dying natives without themselves taking the infection, and finally settled at the mouth of the Saco river, the place being called by them Winter Harbour. The colonists pursued agriculture and fishing: the husbandmen taking up tracts of one hundred acres on long leases from Thomas Vines. It is said that farms are held to this day under these old leases, written in Latin, the tenure being very light—five shillings a year, perhaps, a few days’ work and a fat goose. Nevertheless colonisation was slow, spite of the attractive and poetical accounts of the beauty and desirableness of the country to emigrants, which were circulated in Old England. In 1636, when the first duly organised court was held within the State of Maine, the total number of inhabitants in the five different provinces, including the islands, amounted to about 1,500.
The first settlement of Nova Scotia was about contemporaneous with that of Maine. Gorges, who was jealous of the French becoming the ultimate possessors of these northern regions, invited over a number of Scottish emigrants, King James being favourable to the design, and these were planted in Nova Scotia.
Having thus slightly reviewed the efforts made to colonise the northern portion of New England, we will return to the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, which, instinct with the element of life, advanced at once into well-organised and flourishing states.
Persecution continuing in England, voluntary exiles for conscience-sake still cast their eyes beyond the great waters for the land of refuge. Among these was Roger Conant, who by the aid and advice of his friend, a puritan minister of Dorchester, named White, left England with a small company, and who, having endeavoured, but in vain, to establish themselves on Cape Ann, after incredible sufferings removed to Salem, on the Bay of Massachusetts. The scheme of this colony was in the meantime still further perfecting itself in the mother-country. Down in the south-west of England, and among the fens of Lincolnshire, the suffering for conscience-sake not only discussed it among themselves, but communicating together on the subject, determined to purchase from the unscrupulous council for New England a grant of territory. This was soon accommodated, and a portion of the land already conveyed to Gorges and Mason was assigned to them; and John Endicott, whose name alone seems to personify the stern spirit of puritanism, was, as “a fit instrument for this wilderness-work,” chosen leader of a company which embraced within its ranks some of the most distinguished men of the colony.
Endicott, with whom came his wife and family, settled down with his company, as Conant had done, in the dreary wilderness around Salem. Within a short time of their landing, three brothers of the name of Sprague, and four others, penetrated the forest, to a place called by the Indians Mishawum, where they found an Englishman, a smith, living, and here they settled, calling the place Charlestown. Tidings having reached England of the safe arrival of this company, “the men of Boston, and others,” decided on following their example; and the next year, “after much labour and great expense,” the patent of the council of Plymouth was confirmed by the king, Charles I., and the powers of government conveyed to them under the name of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New England. It is a singular circumstance in this charter, that the government, while invested with all necessary powers of legislation, yet required no assent of the monarch to render its acts valid. Charles regarded it merely as a trading company, whose affairs were indifferent to the crown. Legislative and executive authority resided with the corporation in London. The freemen of Massachusetts, like the Virginians, were left without one valuable franchise, at the mercy of a corporation beyond the seas. “The history of Massachusetts,” says Bancroft, “is the counterpart to that of Virginia; the latter obtained its greatest liberty by the abrogation of the charter of its company. The former by a transfer of its charter, and a daring construction of its powers by the successors of the original patentees.”
Another remarkable fact in this patent was the strict injunction given to Endicott, the governor, to treat with the natives for the equitable purchase of their lands. “If any of the savages,” it is said, “pretend right of inheritance, we pray you endeavour to purchase their title; that no wrong or injury be done to the natives.”
This company of emigrants, amounting to about 300 persons, in five ships, with good store of cattle, horses and all necessaries, were accompanied by the excellent Francis Higginson, a nonconformist preacher, whose account of the voyage and the country, immediately sent over to England, excited a still greater enthusiasm for emigration. The seal of the infant colony was an Indian erect, with an arrow in his right hand, and the words, “Come over and help us!”
“Farewell, dear England!” said the minister, with his friends and children standing round him, as they lost sight of their native land; “farewell, the church of God in England, and all Christian friends there! We go not to New England as separatists from the church of England, but from her corruptions; we go to practise church reformation, and to propagate the Gospel in America.”
At the end of June they reached Salem, where they found about eight or ten mud cabins, with a larger one for the governor, and a few cultivated fields. “There are in all,” says Higginson, “of old and new planters about three hundred; two hundred of whom are settled at Salem, and the rest have planted themselves at Charlestown. We at Salem make what haste we can to build houses, so that shortly we shall have a fair town.”
This church of God in the wilderness, which had come hither to practise reformation, soon found members within its bosom who clung to the old forms and ceremonies; and the return of the ships which had brought them out carried back the leaders of this faction—cast out by the church, which would not allow them to remain within her borders, and by Endicott, the governor, that there might not be “spies in the camp.”
The following winter brought with it many hardships. Before the next spring nearly half the emigrants, the enthusiastic Higginson among the rest, were removed by death. But not even these misfortunes, nor yet the evil report of intolerance and persecution, which the expelled friends of episcopacy carried back with them to England, could damp the ardour for colonisation which filled the hearts of the English Puritans; to them the Indian from the wilderness appealed, “Come over and help us;” and the report of Higginson, though now dead, testified to them of a land abundant as that of Canaan.
Emigration on a more comprehensive scale than had before been thought of was decided upon. Men of influence and fortune embarked in it, determining, however, to form “a peculiar government, and to colonise only with the best.” To carry out their views fully, it was necessary to obtain a transfer of the charter from the council in England to the freemen now emigrating, and others inhabiting the colony. Bold as this scheme was, it was accomplished. The patent and the government were legally transferred to the emigrants themselves, and the excellent John Winthrop was chosen governor before leaving England. The calm firmness of Winthrop sustained many timid spirits who were alarmed at the unexampled boldness of their undertaking; others again shrank back at the last moment; there was a winnowing out among them, and literally “the best” only went. Years afterwards it was said of this great and good governor, that he was as a mother to the infant colony, “parent-like, distributing his goods and gladly bearing the infirmities of the weak, yet ever maintaining the figure and honour of his place with the spirit of a true gentleman.” Of him Bancroft says, “his character marks the transition of the Reformation into avowed republicanism; when the sentiment of loyalty, still sacredly cherished, was gradually yielding to the irresistible spirit of civil freedom.”
Eight hundred persons, all Puritans, inclining to the Calvinistic doctrines, accompanied Winthrop. In the course of the year, seventeen vessels brought over 1,500 persons. It was, however, no garden of Eden, no land of Canaan to which they had come. “Arriving here in June and July,” says Dudley, in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, who, with her family, was deeply concerned in this emigration, “we found the colony in a sad and unexpected condition, above eighty of them being dead the winter before, and many of those alive, sick and weak; all the bread and corn among them hardly sufficient to feed them a fortnight, insomuch that nearly 200 servants whom we had sent over at great cost, received their liberty, we being wholly unable to feed them.”
Salem, at which they had arrived, not wholly pleasing the new-comers, some time was spent in searching the coast for localities more to their mind, and finally some of them settled at Charlestown, others at a short distance where was an excellent spring, and to which they gave the name of Boston; some on the Mistic at Medford; others at Watertown and Rocksbury; “others again upon the Saugus at Lynn, between Salem and Charlestown, and the western men four miles south of Boston, at a place they called Dorchester; several of these settlements being now suburbs of Boston.”
This dispersion was a great grief to the company, but it was only as the beginning of sorrows. “They who had health,” says Dudley, “fell to building, wherein many were interrupted by sickness and death. Deaths were for some time of almost daily occurrence. Dissatisfaction prevailed in many minds, and when the ships returned to England, about a hundred returned with them; thus was the company again winnowed of the faithless and faint-hearted. The ships being gone,” continues Dudley, “victuals wasting, and mortality increasing, we held divers fasts in our several congregations. But the Lord would not be deprecated; and among many other deaths, on the 30th of September died Mr. Johnson, the Lady Arabella, his wife, being dead a month before. This gentleman was a prince amongst us, zealous for religion, and the greatest furtherer of this plantation.” The deaths of these two excellent people caused, say some of their fellow-sufferers, “not only weeping eyes but fainting hearts, fearing the fall of the present work.” Johnson was buried at the upper end of his lot of land, in the faith of his rising in it. This ground became the first burial-place in Boston, others desiring to be laid round his grave. The Lady Arabella was daughter of the third Earl of Lincoln; “she came,” says Hubbard, “from a paradise of plenty and pleasure into a wilderness of wants;” “and,” adds Cotton Mather, quaintly, “she took New England in her way to heaven.” One of the ships who conveyed over this company of emigrants was called, in honour of her, the Arabella. She was buried at Salem, the place of her interment being still respected; and a girls’ grammar-school in Boston now bears her name. Of those who came from England in April, 200, at least, had died by December. Governor Winthrop, whose son was drowned the very day of his landing, writing to his wife, says, “I have lost twelve of my family; the Lord’s hand hath been heavy upon me;” yet he assures her, “I would not have altered my course though I had foreseen all these afflictions; I never had more content of mind.” They who survived were not discouraged, but bearing God’s corrections with humility, and trusting in his mercies, they bore in mind “how after a lower ebb God had raised up their neighbours at Plymouth.” Through all their afflictions and sufferings, these steadfast men and women, who saw the hand of God in all things, never omitted the sacred duties of the Sabbath, though they had to assemble in the open fields or beneath the forest trees—God was ever present with them; and little children in the hour of death became transfigured, as it were, and testifying of their faith and their assurance of immortality, were a marvel to all.
In the midst of their sorrows and sufferings the purpose of their coming hither to establish a pure church in the wilderness was not forgotten. The first measure of the Court of Assistants was to provide for the administration of the gospel. Within two years of their landing, seven churches were firmly established and provided with devout ministers. Their second object was the settlement of a government which was to secure their beloved popular liberties. Their charter provided that laws were to be enacted in the assembly of all the freemen of the colony, but a fear soon crept in of this being susceptible of too wide an interpretation; already above a hundred old planters and members of no church “were freemen equally with themselves.” The stem, uncompromising spirit of the religionist awoke. “Late in May, after the corn was set,” a general court ordained that while the governor, deputy-governor, and assistants, should be chosen by the freemen, none should be admitted to the freedom of the body-politic but such as were members of some church within the limits of the colony.
Thus was the door opened to bigotry and intolerance! A species of theocratic government was established; God was the head of his people; his people were they who constituted the elect, and whose names were registered in the book of eternal life. “An aristocracy,” adds Bancroft, “was founded, but not of wealth. A servant, a bondman, might be a member of the church and therefore a freeman of the company. The Calvinists of Massachusetts, scrupulously refusing to the clergy the least shadow of political favour, established the reign of a visible church or commonwealth of the chosen people in covenant with God.”
Sincerely religious themselves, this was nevertheless a dangerous principle to introduce into their government, and one totally subversive of the spirit of true religion and democratic liberty.
Among the early records, we will mention, that “the governor, in consideration of the inconveniences which had grown in England by drinking one to another, restrained it at his table, and wished others to do the like.” And that the first baptisms registered in Boston Church are those of “Joy and Recompense, daughters of brother John Miles; and Pity, daughter of our brother William Balstone.”
Whilst a satisfactory form of government was being established, the colony received friendly visits from the principal surrounding Indian chiefs. The sagamore of the Mohegans from the banks of the Connecticut, invited the English to settle in his country; the Nipmucks besought aid against their enemies the Mohawks; the son of the old Canonicus sent presents; Miantonomoh, the grand warrior of the Narragansetts, the associate sachem with Canonicus, visited the governor, and attended with him divine service; and lastly from the river of the Pequods came the wily Uncas, who declared to the authorities that “his heart was not his own but theirs.”
In the second year of the colony, Governor Winthrop and Wilson, the minister of Boston, made a journey on foot to visit the brethren of the older colony at New Plymouth. There is something apostolic in the narrative of this visit. They arrived at Plymouth in the evening. “Mr. William Bradford, the governor, a grave and discreet man, with Mr. Brewster, the ruling elder, went forth to meet them outside the town, and conducted them to the governor’s house, where they were well entertained for several days. On Lord’s-day they partook of the sacrament, and in the afternoon a question was propounded by Roger Williams, which was spoken to by the pastor; then the preacher prophesied, and after that the governor of Plymouth, who was skilled in Hebrew and antiquities, spoke to the question, and after him the elder, a learned man, and others. Then Governor Winthrop and Mr. Wilson were asked to speak, which they did, and so the service of the Sabbath ended to the edification of all. On the following Wednesday, before daybreak, Governor Winthrop and his company left Plymouth, being accompanied by the governor of Plymouth, the minister and divers others, near half a mile out of the town in the dark.”
About the same time the colony of Virginia, now flourishing, sent a rich cargo of corn to Boston, and trade was commenced with the Dutch on the Hudson. The news of this increasing prosperity reached England, where persecution remained unabated, and renewed emigration was the consequence. The Griffin, after a long voyage, brought hither “a noble freight, of two hundred, amongst whom were the fathers of Connecticut, Hooker and Haynes, the latter a man of a heavenly mind, and the pious and learned Cotton.” The congregation to whom Hooker had ministered in England had already preceded him, and now thronged to meet and welcome him. “Now I live,” exclaimed he, embracing them, “if ye stand fast in the Lord.”
Spite of the growing prosperity of the colony, serious apprehensions were caused regarding its safety in consequence of reports made to the English government, by persons who at various times, for discordant sentiments or misconduct, had been expelled. The colonists were threatened by the privy council, strengthened by Laud, with the revocation of their charter. They resolved to defend themselves by force of arms if necessary, and fortifications were at once commenced in Boston harbour, at Charlestown, and Dorchester. Thus early were they prepared to assert their own independence.
In 1634, the settlement of Massachusetts having become much more numerous, extending thirty miles from Boston, it was found inconvenient for all the freemen to attend the general court; hence a change was made which altered their form of government from simple democratic to representative. The electors of each town chose two or three deputies to confer on public business and attend the court, vested with the full power of the freemen whom they represented. The mode of voting was also changed from show of hands to ballot. The whole body of freemen were, however, to elect the magistrates, and to these, and the deputies sent by each town, the legislative power was confided. A law against arbitrary taxation followed. “With the exception of the principle of universal suffrage,” says Bancroft, “the representative democracy was as perfect two centuries ago as at the present day.” The criminal code was based on the Mosaic laws. The meeting-house at Boston was at this time its house of representatives. Religion and government were kindred.
In 1635, no less than 3,000 persons suffering under the despotism of Charles emigrated to Massachusetts. “Godly people in England,” we are told, “beginning to apprehend a special hand of Providence in raising up this plantation, their hearts were stirred to go over.” The wilderness was planted with Christian churches; the forest rang with the sound of their psalms; “the poorest of the children of God in the whole world were resolved to excel in holiness.”
Among the new-comers of 1635 was Henry Vane the younger, a man of a pure and noble mind, and an ardent friend of religious liberty. The year after his arrival, so much had the youthful suavity and grace of his manner, his religious attainments and his political sagacity, wrought upon the people of Massachusetts, that he was elected governor in place of the excellent and long-tried Winthrop, a preference which they afterwards found cause to regret.