AND THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS ON THE NORTH SHORE OF MASSACHUSETTS

"Experience hath taught us that as in building houses the first stones are buried under ground and are not seen, so in planting Colonies, the first stockes employed are consumed, al­ though they serve for a foundation to the worke.'' This philo­ sophical view was expressed in the Planters Plea, written in 1630 by the Reverend John White of Dorchester, "under God, one of the chief founders of the Massachusetts Colony in New England." But not only the "stockes" sunk in the foundations were lost to view but the spade work done and the pioneers who laboured, remained to a great extent unrecognized throughout three centuries. Now that the Tercentenary of the settlement of a permanent colony has arrived it is well to set out a description of that enterprise as full as the material now at our disposal allows. The work accomplished by these early settlers has been completely overshadowed by the greater undertaking of those who emigrated in 1630, as well as by the adventures of the Pil­ grim Fathers, and while in no way minimizing the work done by these famous men, a meed of praise, denied to the pioneers largely because their religious views did not coincide with those of members of the '' Great Migration,'' must be given to the Ad­ venturers of the Dorchester Company and to Roger Conant and his colleagues who encountered such difficulties in establishing the settlement at Nahum Keike, afterwards called Salem. These pioneers, unlike the settlers at New Plymouth and Boston who came from the East Coast, were for the most part from Devonshire and the neighbouring counties. Seafaring was in the bones of the Westcountry-men; for a long period the fishing fleets "off the Banks" were sent out by Westcountry mer­ chants and manned by Westcountry men. It must be re­ membered that the wave of religious feeling that swept over that part of England was of a different type from that which affected the East Coast. Broadly speaking, Devonians were Puritans—the East Anglians were more inclined to '' the Separa.- 3 tion;" and this difference in regard to the forms of worship made a distinct line of cleavage between the colonists from the two districts and was a large factor in the dissensions existing in the early days of Massachusetts. At the close of the sixteenth century and in the early years of the seventeenth there were many influences at work to turn the thoughts of Devonians towards the colonization of the New World. Sir Humphrey Gilbert and John Davis had attempted to find the North West Passage. Sir Walter Raleigh's adven­ tures were familiar to all; the glamour of the story of Sir Richard Grenville had fired their imaginations. Soon after the new century began two books dealing with the Western Conti­ nent must have formed favourite reading throughout the country; the first was "A Discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called the He of Divels," written by Silvester Jourdain and pub­ lished in 1610. It was from this volume that Shapespeare drew much material for "The Tempest." The other, "A Discourse and Discovery of New-found-land," by Captain Richard Whit- bourne, was issued in 1620 "for the incouragement of Adven­ turers vnto the plantation there." Jourdain was a native of Lyme Regis, on the borders of Devon, but he was closely con­ nected with Exeter. Whitbourne was an Exmouth man. There can be little doubt that these books were conned by nearly every resident in the district who was able to read. For the moment attention must be concentrated upon this part of the country for at the side of the road leading from Exmouth towards Lyme Regis lies the little village of East Budleigh, which has not only a claim to fame as the birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh, but was also that of Roger Conant, who played an important part in laying the foundations of the Old Bay State. Raleigh bore an exceptional affection for the place of his birth and when the opportunity came for the purchase of Hayes Barton in 1584 he eagerly seized it, '' for the naturall disposition I have to that place being borne in that howse I had rather seat myself there than any wher els.'' It may, therefore, be assumed that courtier and traveller though he was, and afterwards own­ ing the stately and beautiful residence of Sherborne Castle, he frequently sought refuge, with his " 'scallop shell of quiet," in the charming house at East Budleigh, built, according to the fancy of the day, in the shape of the letter E. It was not far from Hayes Barton that Roger Conant was born in 1592; he was baptized in the neighbouring church on 4 19th April of that year, so it is probable that he often saw Sir Walter and frequently heard repeated, at his father's fireside and in the village, tales of that hero's adventures and of his efforts to establish settlements in the New World. When Conant was a lad of eleven years the village must have been stirred to its depths by news of Raleigh's trial for treason and his imprison­ ment in the Tower, whence, after fourteen years, he was released in 1616 in order to undertake that ill-fated venture which proved his last throw against Fate; as is well known, his execution took place on 29th November, 1618. All this was familiar to Roger Conant, who would have watched the career of one from his own village with the most intense interest. It may well be that Conant knew also Whitbourne, his near neighbour, and Jourdain, who would have been often in Exeter where his brother Ignatius took a prominent part in municipal affairs. Brought up amid such influences Roger's mind would have been full of the schemes for colonizing the New World so it is not surprising to find that he was ready to accept an early opportunity to emigrate. But there were other influences at work. Devonians, as has been said, were for the most part Puritans rather than Separa­ tists; the movement as it developed in Exeter was towards the purifying of the Church of England. A great part was taken in this by Ignatius Jourdain, mentioned above. He had been "new borne" in his early years and, we are told, he began his devotions on the coldest mornings between two and three o 'clock and found time, in spite of his business and official occupations, to attend the daily services in the Cathedral church. He talked freely with his fellow citizens about religion, even reproving the market people because they could rise so early to gain the world but not to gain Jesus Christ. His high sense of Christian duty made him remain in Exeter whenever, in the early years of the seventeenth century a visitation of the plague occurred; even when all other magistrates fled he stayed to care for the suf­ fering, to comfort the widows and orphans and provide for their wants. He is represented as standing at the door of his shop distributing food and money. A character such as his had a great influence upon those around him with the result that the Puritans in Exeter and its vicinity, following his example, ac­ cepted the new line of thought but retained their affection for the liturgy of the Church of England. Conant, as events proved, was of the same way of thinking.

5 However, at an early age, Roger Conant left Devonshire for London, perhaps accompanying his brother, Christopher, four years his senior, or following him soon after. Familiar as Roger had been with the "salterns" near his native village, it was quite natural that he should become apprenticed to a Salter and in due course be made a freeman of the Salters' Company at some period prior to 1616. In that year he was residing in the parish of St. Lawrence Jewry in London and was of sufficient standing to be accepted, with Christopher, as a guarantor of the bond his brother John had to give in connection with the church living received at that time. On 1st November, 1618, he married, at St. Ann's, Blackfriars, Sarah Horton; two of their children, Sarah and Caleb, were baptized in St. Lawrence's church in 1619 and 1622, respectively. Towards the end of the year 1623 Roger's thoughts were turned to the consideration of his own emigration to New Eng­ land ; his friend, Thomas Weston, had been actively engaged in the settlement of Plymouth and his brother, Christopher, had joined that colony in that year, and from either he might have heard that there was an opening there for a man in his line of business. Conant, as has been said, joined the exiles, Lyford and Oldham, and with them went to Nantasket, "an uncoth place" occupied by "some stragling people," where were Walter Knight and John and Thomas Gray, probably part of Weston's company, among whom Conant would have found a friendly welcome. But his stay there was brief, as he was offered a better position in the charge of the settlement at , the origin of which deserves a short notice. It had long been the custom for the ships sent out by the Western Merchants to fish in the harbour there and to cure their takings on its shores. In order to have enough for both navi­ gation and fishing these ships were double-manned. It was sug­ gested that the surplus men, not needed for navigation, should be left on shore with sufficient supplies for the winter so that they need not go back and forth to England; they could occupy themselves between seasons in trapping game and raising corn for the use of those who returned in the spring with the fishing fleet. This seemed a reasonable project and it appealed to the Reverend John White, known as the "Patriarch of Dorchester" in Dorset, who saw in it a further advantage—that by sending 6 out to such a settlement a minister the souls of the fishermen might be saved, as they lacked religious instruction during the greater part of the year in existing circumstances. He suc­ ceeded in interesting a number of merchants and Puritan clergy­ men of the vicinity in this pious project; eventually, in 1623, the Dorchester Company was formed. The proportion of ministers in this body was large, twenty-one out of one hundred and twenty members; moreover, most of the local merchants, as well as cer­ tain Westcountry merchants in London who joined them, were Puritans, many of them prominent in that movement, so that while the business men were to a large extent influenced by the prospect of financial advantage, there was a strong religious ele­ ment at the back of the enterprise. Some of the members had been interested in the colony at Plymouth, but had dissociated themselves therefrom because of disapproval of the Separatist tendencies existing there; indeed, it was in order to have a colony that might serve for a refuge for the Puritan members of the Church of England in the perilous days they saw approaching, that the effort was made to establish a settlement wholly inde­ pendent of the colony of the Pilgrim Fathers. In 1623 the fishing fleet left fourteen surplus men at Cape Ann and in the following year thirty-two more were added. When John White and his colleagues heard of "some religious and well affected persons that were lately removed out of New Plymouth out of dislike of their principles of rigid separation" they invited them to join the new settlement, pleased to find that a minister, opposed to the Plymouth form of worship, was of their number. News of these useful pioneers would have come through Roger Conant's brother John, at this period a clergy­ man, holding the living of Lymington, Somerset. The Company had appointed for one year John Tilly and to have charge, respectively, of the fishing and planting, but they now asked Roger Conant to be the Governor of the plantation— the word governor being used in the sense of manager or factor. Hubbard describes Conant as "a religious, sober and pru­ dent gentleman yet surviving about Salem till the year 1680 wherein he finished his pilgrimage, having a great hand in all those forementioned transactions about Cape Anne, they pitched upon him, the said Conant, for the managing and government of all their affairs at Cape Anne. ... as well fishing as planting.'' As has been said, Conant, in his capacity of Salter, had set 7 up pans there for the Plymouth settlers. These latter possessed no more than the rights of all fishermen to the user of the coast for curing their fish, etc., for the Westcountry men had already established themselves there and had begun a regular settlement. The Plymouth colonists, finding that the district was becoming popular, sought after by many would-be owners, made a strenuous effort to obtain possession for themselves, at first holding that fishing must be the mainstay of their existence, but afterwards declaring that they could only carry it on at a loss. They succeeded in obtaining what is known as the "Sheffield Patent," which was useless because of its character and limita­ tions. It was cast in the form of an indenture and was not issued by the Council for New England. Under it, Robert Cushman and were authorized by Lord Sheffield, a patentee, to erect a settlement upon a portion of the territory which had been allotted to him, i. e., in a district with a coast line of one and a half miles and consisting of five hundred acres thereto adjoining, with certain additional allotments, but with the pro­ viso that the territory selected was "not now being inhabited or hereafter to be inhabited by any English" and on the con­ dition that certain public buildings were erected within seven years. The fact that the Westcountry men had already estab­ lished a colony of fourteen men and shortly after increased the number to forty-six, barred the claim of the Plymouth men to Cape Ann, even if Sheffield possessed any right to the district in question. It is obvious that, although they had erected fishing stages which were used by their men in the fishing season, they had not made anything that could be called a settlement in­ habited by members of their company. Their indenture is dated 1st January, 1623/4 and was brought out by Winslow at the time Lyf ord and the Salter came with him, but owing to the conduct of the drunken shipmaster Baker, they had no success with the fishing that season but they left'' one trading there.'' In the following year, 1625, by which time Conant was in charge at Cape Ann, the Plymouth people •appeared on the scenes but, as Bradford puts it, found that some of "Lyford's and Oldham's friends and their adherents" had made an early start and from the Plymouth men "took away their stage and other necessary provisions that they had made for fishing at Cape Anne the year before at their great charge, and would not restore the same, except they would fight 8 for it. But the Governor sent some of the planters to help the fishermen to build a new one, and so let them keepe it." Here he speaks only of a fishing stage and of no more substantial building and from the fact that others had taken possession of it, it is evident that there could have been no settlement of men to protect the stage. Bradford represents the people who had seized the stage as belligerents to whom the Plymouth men, so meek and mild, had, so to speak, turned the other cheek, but Hubbard gives a dif­ ferent and more racy story of the scene. According to this, Mr. Hewes, probably the ship-master Hewson, had taken possession of the stage and had barricaded his company with hogsheads near at hand. William Peirse, who had frequently been in charge of ships sailing to Plymouth, was present, his ship lying "just by," and Roger Conant, in charge of the Dorchester plantation, was also there, when Captain Miles Standish, with the "demandants," sought to obtain possession of the stage; their position was such that all of the Plymothians could easily have been cut off from their boats. "The dispute grew to be very hot, and high words passed between them which might have ended in blows, if not in blood and slaughter, had not the prudence and moderation of Roger Conant. . . . and Mr. Peirse's interposition. . . . timely pre­ vented." They finally succeeded in persuading the Hewson party to help build another stage for the Plymouth men. Hub­ bard's comments on the chief of the Plymouth contingent: "Captain Standish had been bred a soldier in the Low Coun­ tries, and never entered the school of our Savior Christ, or of John Baptist, his harbinger, or if he ever was there, had forgot his first lessons, to offer violence to no man, and to part with the cloak rather than needlessly to contend for the coat, though taken away without order. A little chimney is soon fired; so was the Plymouth Captain, a man of very little stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper. The fire of his passion soon kindled and blown up into a flame by hot words, might easily have consumed all had it not been quenched.'' And this was the man so highly recommended by as humble and meek "in or- dinarie course. ... if you use him aright!" This version shows that Bradford's men had not been so quiet and peace-loving as to allow the interlopers—as he con­ sidered them—to keep possession without protest. It also proves that Roger Conant and his companions formed at this time a G- JUN 3 1927 C 0 ty x.« Roger Conant '*** and the Early Settlements of the North Shore of Massachusetts by Frances Rose- Troup

c —at w 8 ROGER CONANT

AND THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS

ON THE North Shore of Massachusetts

By o FRANCES ROSE-TROUP Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

DEDICATED TO THE DESCENDANTS OF ROGER CONANT AND OF THE OTHER OLD PLANTERS BY A FELLOW-DESCENDANT

PRINTED BY ROGEK CONANT FAMILY ASSOCIATION INC. 1926

PRICE 25 CENTS

4 J body of settlers strong enough not to be ousted by Standish's bluster. Here was an opportunity when Bradford might well have mentioned by name the head of the Dorchester plantation who had played such an honourable part but his very existence is ignored. By this date the settlers of the plantation at Cape Ann must have numbered at least fifty-one men; it may be true that as many as two hundred men were employed there by the Dor­ chester Company as stated by John Balch, a grandson of one of the first inhabitants there. Before long the Company, discouraged by a long run of ill- luck, decided to relinquish the enterprise and offered full wages and a free passage home to all who desired to return. Many ac­ cepted this offer. Ten of the Adventurers, chiefly residents in Dorchester, under the advice of the undaunted rector of that town, took over what remained of the supplies and servants, intending to carry on the plantation at Cape Ann, but Conant was dissatisfied with the situation on the bleak shore, particularly unsuited for agri­ cultural purposes—for a permanent settlement depended on both agriculture and fishing—so he urged the party in England to let him transplant the remaining colonists to a more favourable site a few leagues distant, at Nahum Keike. White and his fellow- adventurers agreed to this and promised that if certain reliable pioneers would settle at that point they would send out supplies and obtain a grant of that district. The move was made before the winter of 1626 set in, but the success of the new plantation was seriously threatened at the outset; Lyford, their minister, accepted an invitation to remove to Virginia and he tried to induce the chief men to seek their fortunes in a better climate; it was urged also that at Nahum Keike there was danger from the Indians, though the suggestion was repudiated by Humphrey Woodbury in after years. Lyford very nearly succeeded, "but Mr. Conant, as one inspired by some superior instinct, though never so earnestly pressed to go along with them, peremptorily declared his mind to wait the providence of God in that place where they now were; yea, though all the rest should forsake him; not doubting, as he said, but if they departed, he should soon have more company." His faith and his sturdy independence shamed the in- 10 tending delinquents who let Lyford depart without them. Many years afterwards Conant testified that in the infancy of the colony, when it was in great hazard of being deserted, he was the means to stop the flight of his companions "through grace assisting me. ... by my deniall to goe away with them, who would have gon either for England or mostly for Virginia, but hereupon stayed to the hazard of our lives.'' Salem may well revere the one who chose its site and by "his confidence and consistency there to stay with intent to carry on the same notwithstanding many cross providences, that seemed at the first view to thwart that design" became the chief instrument in its continued existence; " it may truly be said in this, if in any other of like nature, the hand of the Lord hath done this which therefore should be the more marvellous in the eyes of men.'' The small body of Adventurers, the residuum of the Dor­ chester Company, kept their promise to send over supplies, having obtained sanction for the transportation out of the kingdom to the plantation in New England of twenty rother cattle, "by the increase whereof tillage might be furthered and the Planters enabled by this meanes, in some reasonable tyme, to subsist of themselves, without transportation of victuals out of this kingdome, for their sustentation." But, on the other hand, White had not been able to fulfill his promise to the colonists to obtain for them a patent, which was the more urgently needed now that a meed of success on their part had rendered it more probable that someone else would endeavour to possess a right to such a promising spot. Therefore, in 1627, John Woodbury and Captain Trask went home in the ship that the Dorchester men had sent over in the charge of John Watts; they were to urge Mr. White and his fellow-adventurers to make further efforts to obtain a patent. It is a strange freak of Pate that an unlucky lawsuit over the misappropriation of a paltry lot of bad salt by John Watts, mentioned above, should have provided the most useful and reliable material we possess for the history of the Dorchester Company. The settlement at Nahum Keike was the legitimate successor of that at Cape Ann, and while almost all the planters went to live at the new plantation, they still occupied the old place as a fishing station and possessed a large house on the Cape that had been erected for the Dorchester Company and was coveted by Endecott at a later period. II The number of settlers at Nahum Keike in the first year or two of the existence of the colony cannot be definitely stated; it has been said that it consisted of twenty persons; perhaps this refers to heads of families and takes no account of women, children and servants. Thirteen names can be given of those who were certainly on the plantation from the start:—Roger Conant, John Woodbury, John Balch, Peter Palfrey, William Trask, John Norman and his son, John Tilly, Thomas Gardner, William Allen, Walter Knight, John Gray and Thomas Gray. It has been suggested, with a considerable show of reason, by Mr. Phippen, that these settlers consisted of two classes and he draws this inference from a deposition made in 1680 by William Brackenbury, who came with Endecott,—i. e., one class of men "who seemed to possess a prime interest in the undertaking," and others who were '' sent over in a subservient capacity.'' In the first class are placed:—Roger Conant, John Woodbury, Peter Palfrey, John Balch "and others;" in the second are:— old Goodman Norman and his son, William Allen, Walter Knight, "and others." Norman and Allen were carpenters; Tilly, a mariner, and Gardner, an agriculturalist. In confirmation of this classification we have the facts that Conant, Woodbury, Palfrey, Balch and Trask were granted farms of two hundred acres each at the head of Bass River, which were known as "the Old Planters' Farms;" and that a tract of land consisting of four hundred acres adjoining, "the Old Planters' Marsh" was granted to eight men, among whom we know were William Allen and John Norman. The five with the large farms, and the eight who divided four hundred acres between them, account for thirteen pioneers—the number named above. To these were added at an early date Francis Johnson, Robert Cole and, perhaps, William Jeffries, recipients of special grants. Conant, John Woodbury and Palfrey at least had their wives with them at an early date. Conant had three sons, Woodbury had two and Gardner four, so with daughters and servants the number of souls at Nahum Keike before 1628 must have exceeded thirty. The little colony had made some progress in clearing and planting by that year and were looking forward to having their rights as pioneers established and confirmed, as we have said, by a patent obtained on their behalf by John White and his colleagues. But the position of this group of Adventurers in England had undergone a rapid change with startling, and to the pioneers 12 unfortunate, results. The Dorchester men found themselves unable to provide sufficient supplies for the colonists and an appeal had been made on the ground that this settlement would form a refuge for the Non-conformists who were being harried out of England under Archbishop Laud's stern regime. A number of Puritans, merchants and others, in London were persuaded to aid this good cause, with the result, not only that some store of cattle and other supplies were immediately sent out, but a group of men, forty-three at least, associated together and took over the whole business of the Plantation—be it noted that, contrary to Dudley's statement, religion supplied the motive before the East Anglians joined in the enterprise. With these were several West Country magnates, "gentlemen of blood" with "Western Merchants" to qualify the Company to obtain a patent from the Council for New England. From a letter written somewhat later on behalf of the body now estab­ lished, it appears that it styled itself "the New England Com­ pany for a Plantation in Mattachusetts Bay." At the moment when the company was established on this firm basis we cannot say definitely who was at the head of the body of active members carrying on the business, but very soon there came to the fore Matthew Cradock, a wealthy skinner in the city, who had in all probability already developed a taste for adventuring with other merchants in New England. When the question arose of finding a person capable of managing a colony under the new conditions, the name of was mentioned, quite probably by Cradock, as Endecott had married his kinswoman about this time and seems to have had some excellent reason for emigrating. Endecott's place of origin and life in England, in spite of much research, remain involved in obscurity. Though at a later date he styled himself "Chirurgeon," the Plymouth doctor, Samuel Fuller, was required to cure the emigrants of 1628. Subsequent events disclose that at some period he was under the quasi-Separatist influence of the East Anglians, with unfortunate results to the pioneers at Nahum Keike, who re­ mained faithful to the Church of England liturgy until after the new governor's arrival. It cannot be maintained that Endecott was a suitable person to be put in charge of a plantation originally designed as a refuge for Puritans who objected strenuously and actively to the Separatist opinions of the Plymouth settlers; the only 13 possible explanations of his selection must be that the West- country men either knew nothing of his tendencies or were out­ voted by the Londoners. That he was of a domineering temperament, arrogant, quick to take offence and liable to act injudiciously cannot be denied; his fellow magistrates, after the well-known "flag" incident, recorded that "they apprehended he had offended therein many ways, in rashnes, vncharitablenes, indiscrecion and exceeding the lymitts of his calling; whereupon the Court hath sensured him to be sadly admonished for his offences, which accordingly he was and also disenabled from bearing any office in the Com­ mon wealth for the space of one year." Even allowing for the "obsequious eye" that, the Company said, was at this period necessary to turn towards the authorities, this stern judgment upon one of their own body leaves a sufficient residue of objec­ tionable qualities to disqualify Endecott for the delicate task of ruling a colony in which dissensions upon religious questions were soon to arise—a fact that was doubtless taken into account a little later when the "Great Emigration" was placed under the control of a more diplomatic governor. After receiving instructions from the newly established Company, Endecott and his party sailed about 20th June, 1628. On his arrival at Nahum Keike he took supreme command of the whole plantation which had been governed hitherto by Roger Conant. The account of his proceedings recorded by William Brackenbury, one of his fellow-passengers, shows that he troubled not to wear the velvet glove. Having been commis­ sioned by the Massachusetts patentees, who are believed to have bought out the rights of the Dorchester men, Endecott had power to take possession of the plantation and, as he interpreted his commission, everything thereon, "which Mr. Endecott did," as Brackenbury states emphatically; from subsequent proceedings we may infer that while his commission applied to buildings, supplies and servants, it was not considered by the colonists applicable to the possessions of those five men of the superior class who had been independent pioneers and as such had some claim to compensation for their expenditure on improve­ ments arising from their own labours, and who should have re­ ceived some consideration because through their efforts a well- established plantation existed for Endecott to rule. At first he refused their requests and was only brought to reason by the fact that men of their experience, invaluable for the success of

14 the plantation, as well as for the immediate comfort and welfare of the new-comers, were invited, and probably prepared, to join Oldham at the bottom of the Bay. Endecott was, therefore, forced to make some concessions to these leaders until he could receive express orders from the patentees in England. But be­ fore these reached him a delicate and critical situation had arisen which he handled in such a ruthless manner that the prosperity of the plantation, and even the safety of the patentees, was endangered. As has been said, Endecott had been influenced—how far cannot now be proved—before his departure from England by persons of Separatist tendencies; he had sat under the Reverend Samuel Skelton, who had been "looking that way." Not long after his arrival at Nahum Keike the Governor developed a decided inclination towards the form of worship adopted at Plymouth. The year after Endecott's arrival three ministers had been sent out who were carefully selected because it was believed that they held opinions opposed to a very great extent to those pre­ vailing at Plymouth, for several of those engaged in the new venture had withdrawn their support from that plantation be­ cause of the Separatist sentiments entertained there; a fourth minister had also come out concerning whose opinions the ad­ venturers had grounds for suspicion. Two of the ministers, Hig- ginson and Skelton, settled at Salem and established a church where the form of worship and of government could scarcely be distinguished from that adopted on the other side of the Bay. The third minister, Francis Bright, was sent to Charlestown where he came in contact with a kindred spirit, out of sympathy with the Separatist movement, William Blackstone, but he, un­ like Blackstone, took an early opportunity to return to England. The fourth, Ralph Smith, of whose opinions those at home were doubtful, soon showed that he was of the opposite extreme to Bright, and eventually found a more congenial refuge with the Pilgrim Fathers. We need not enter here upon the very heated discussions of after years on the exact degree of Separation existing at Ply­ mouth and Boston, nor how far the influence of the first colony made itself felt in the others—suffice it to say that in none of the plantations was the liturgy of the Church of England allowed to be used, indeed, it is a delicate question to decide in which of them all that liturgy incurred the greatest anathema. IS On the establishment of a form of worship and government at Salem by Higginson and Skelton, Endecott, in his position as governor, considered it essential to impose it upon all and sundry within the limits of his commission, and when it came to his knowledge that the Book of Common Prayer was being used by certain of the colonists, he took the injudicious course of expelling two of the ring-leaders, John and Samuel Browne; the former of these had been appointed by the patentees one of Endecott's Council, and both were "associates" of the original grantees and are named in the subsequent patent. Endecott's action was not approved by the Adventurers at home, who recognized the danger of attracting the attention of the ruling powers there by a dispute over religious matters, so, assuming that there must be some truth in the charges made by the Brownes, they reprimanded Endecott and the ministers for their precipitate action. The claims made by the Brownes for damages received were passed to a special committee for in­ vestigation; these brothers had gone out at their own expense, and on that account had been granted the full rights of ad­ venturers on the payment of only five pounds; they had relin­ quished lucrative practices for the purpose, had taken Out supplies of their own and had begun to cultivate the land to which they were entitled; they had even been charged for their homeward voyage when they were sent to England practically under arrest, so their claim for monetary loss, apart from the moral injury, was considerable; the Company was clearly liable, for no warning had been given that the use of the Church services was a criminal offence; this liability was recognized by the ap­ pointment of arbitrators to decide what was due and by the ar­ rangement that if Governor Winthrop found that their goods had been undervalued the Company would recoup them; they agreed to pay in part at least if the Brownes would accept the arbitrator's decision as final. In this dispute over the Book of Common Prayer the Old Planters found themselves '' up against'' a majority whose form of religious worship was uncongenial to them, but for the sake of peace and in order to retain the benefit of their personal labours in the early days of the settlement, they accepted the situation and, led by the peace-loving Conant, did much to aid the new-comers and did even more for the firm establishment of the colony they had begun at Nahum Keike; indeed, Conant himself held a prominent position in the plantation and ex- 16 ercised a considerable influence for a long time, but throughout his life, and he lived to the advanced age of eighty-eight, he retained a memory of the ill-treatment received because of his opinions on the form of worship, both at Plymouth and at Salem; from a deposition made in his old age we learn he felt his pioneer work had not been recognized, had even been slighted, and yet he had been largely responsible for the avoidance of that "jarre" which caused the Indian name of the settlement to be changed to Salem. Endecott, who had shown no appre­ ciation of the toils and dangers through which these Old Planters had passed, resulting in the establishment of a settlement ready to his hand, continued to rule with an iron hand, and the charac­ teristics displayed convinced the Adventurers that he was not a fit person to have command of the large contingent who emi­ grated not long afterwards. The management of the affairs of the New England Com­ pany passed into the hands of persons of a different status from that of the earlier Adventurers and, having taken over the con­ trol of a going concern and obtained a patent for a large district, which incidentally may be said to have been based upon a somewhat insecure foundation, they proceeded to carry out the project on a larger scale than that attempted by the earlier com­ pany. It is not within the scope of this account of the settle­ ments on the North Shore to deal with the many complications and the extraordinary methods which ended in the establishment of an important colony at the bottom of the Bay—it is a long story, with certain shady tracts which require to be considered; both in the face of the fresh evidence available and in proper prospective—we need only mention that Endecott had been in­ structed to send a contingent to occupy territory claimed by others and by such occupation, whether by fair means or other­ wise, as Cradock said, to preempt the site by the actual presence of servants of the Massachusetts Bay Company: and that the control of the affairs of that Company was divided with the re­ sult that the emigrants of 1630 took over with them the Charter and had the complete management of the plantation, while the few Adventurers remaining in England devoted themselves to the matter of trade and supplies for a brief period agreed upon, until the colony was firmly enough established to do without their aid and the Adventurers at home had in some measure made good their financial losses. The history of the Bay Colony has been set out by an able »7 hand and that version, tinged naturally enough by the views of the recorder, has held the field for nearly three hundred years, but the students of to-day are bringing to light evidence that contradicts the statements and opinions of the early historians, and places in a better perspective the virtues of the pioneers who provided a plantation for later-comers to govern. It is a strange fact that prejudice, largely arising from religious opinions, not only distorted the views of members of the "Great Migration,'' as well as those of the Pilgrim Fathers, to such an extent that they ignored the good deeds, even the very existence, of the Pioneers of the North Shore, but even led them to state many things to their disadvantage now proved to have been utterly untrue. The excuse usually offered for the men responsible for the extraordinary events that dimmed the lustre of the early days of the colony at Boston, is that they acted according to the customs and opinions of their day, but a considerable amount of disapproval was voiced by those in England who were largely responsible for the first settlements on the North Shore, and this disapprobation found expression in letters and papers only now brought to light; these show that the emigrants of 1628-1630 were less enlightened and broad-minded than the Adventurers who, amid many adversities, established a settlement first at Cape Ann and afterwards at Nahum Keike, which formed the nucleus of the famous colony which developed into the State of Massachusetts. FRANCES ROSE-TROUP, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Member of the Royal Archeological Society.

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