THE REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1588
John Endecott was born, probably in this year, probably in Devonshire, England.
Francis Higginson was born, a son of the Reverend John Higginson.
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1609
George Herbert was admitted on scholarship to Trinity College of Cambridge University.
JESUS COLLEGE TRINITY COLLEGE
During this year or the following one, Francis Higginson was receiving his BA degree from Jesus College.
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1613
At the age of 20, George Herbert graduated with the Bachelors degree with distinction, from Trinity College of Cambridge University.
Francis Higginson received his MA degree from Jesus College (though the Reverend Mather would suppose he was of Emanuel College).
Robert Herrick’s apprenticeship in the goldsmith’s shop of his uncle Sir William Herrick ended after only six years when, age 22, he matriculated at St John’s College.
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1615
John Donne was ordained in the Anglican church and later in the year become chaplain to King James I. His beloved Anne died.
At about this point Francis Higginson became minister at the parish church of Claybrooke in Leicester. He would, through acquaintance with Arthur Hildersham and Thomas Hooker, become disenchanted with the conformity required by the Church of England and begin to involve himself with the dissenting Puritan congregations.
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1616
January 8, Monday (1615, Old Style): The Reverend Francis Higginson got married with Anne Herbert at St Peter’s, Nottingham. During this year the bride would give birth to a son, John Higginson. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1618
Francis Higginson was born, another son of the Reverend Francis Higginson with Mistress Anne Herbert Higginson. After journeying to America, he would return to England and become vicar of Kirkby Stephen in Westmoreland, where he would reside until his death in 1673. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1623
In about this year Ann Higginson was born, daughter of the Reverend Francis Higginson with Mistress Anne Herbert Higginson. She would get married with Thomas Chatfield of Guilford, Connecticut.
Edward Winslow went back to England on colonial business, and would return there on business four or five times more, besides the frequent excursions that were required of him to Kennebeck ME, and all the adjoining colony, until 1646. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1628
One of the six “adventurers” of the New England Company for a Plantation in Massachusetts, John Endecott, who had just arrived aboard the Abigail bringing with him the first domestic European apple trees, was chosen to lead some 60 immigrants and settle in the existing white settlement at Naumkeag. Up to this point the white people there, who had split from the Plymouth group, had been led by Roger Conant, and the tradition is that the renaming of the place to Salem indicated the peace which obtained between the previous group and the new group.
The Reverend Francis Higginson had left his parish at Claybrooke in Leicester, although he was continuing to preach occasionally in the pulpits of the Church of England. As a dissenter he had refused offers of many excellent livings, choosing to support himself by preparing young men for the university. At this point he was invited by the Massachusetts Bay Company to accompany its expedition to New England.
In a later timeframe, the Reverend William Hubbard would have his own imitable comments on this “lustre of years” in the history of New England.
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
READ HUBBARD TEXT Chapter XX. Of the civil polity and form of government of the Massachusetts Company of New England, by Patent; with the sending over their first Agent thither, viz. Mr. J. Endicot, Anno 1628. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1629
Charlestown was settled some nine years after the foundation of the Plymouth Colony, by a group of English Puritans incorporated by royal charter as the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Reverend Francis Higginson was leading a group of 300 settlers (including many of his own congregation) aboard a fleet of five ships. The main body of the Massachusetts Bay Colony would come the following year in the John Winthrop Fleet. Their symbol would be an Indian man clad only in a loincloth saying, “Come over and help us.”
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
John Winthrop’s CHRONICLES OF THE FIRST PLANTERS OF THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, IN NEW ENGLAND, FROM 1623 TO 1635 (some historians have supposed incorrectly that this was penned by the Reverend Francis Higginson).
On the Talbot, a vessel of the John Winthrop fleet, the Reverend Francis Higginson recollected, “5 beastly Sodomiticall boys” had confessed to sexual misdeeds. We are entitled to suppose that these were the five whom in 1625 the emigrants had sent back to England, to be hanged there by duly contituted authority — under the law any male over the age of 14 years could be hanged if even suspected of being a Sodomite. HOMOSEXUALITY
“Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.”
— Dwight David Eisenhower
The name Shalom, Hebrew for “peace,” was selected for the little settlement of whites living with the Native American tribe at Naumkeag. This Shalom is the name, of course, that through pronunciation drift and spelling drift would become “Salem.” When the Reverend Francis Higginson arrived in Shalom suffering from TB, he was served lobsters that weighed in at 25 pounds. Each.
[T]he least Boy in the Plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them. For my owne part I was soon cloyed with them, they were so great, and fat, and lussious.
The Reverend further reported from Naumkeag that:1
Although New England has no tallow to make candles of, yet by the abundance of the fish thereof, it can afford oil for lamps. Yea, our pine trees, that are most plentiful of all wood, do allow us plenty of candles, which are useful in a house. And they are such candles as the Indians commonly use, having no other; and they are nothing else but the wood of the pine tree cloven in two little slices, something thin, which are so full of the moisture of turpentine and pitch, that they burn as clear as a torch.
I think, myself, that they had ought to have named that place Lobster. Give themselves something to aim at. Except, heaven knows what a name like “Lobster in the Bay Colony” would’ve become through pronunciation drift and spelling drift, by now. Maybe “Lersder Maaass”?2
1. The reference is to fish liver oil. The large lamp which contained this was made of tin, had a great wick, and commonly hung at the side of the fireplace. The fish oil would of course eventually be replaced by whale oil, which produced less smoke and odor. 2.“Daddy, whassa lersder?” “Shut up, brat, and eat your clam fries before the fat congeals.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
May 1, Friday (Old Style): On the Island of Guernsey in the English Channel, the witch Marguerite Picot (l’Aubaine) was hanged and burnt.
Five ships of the Massachusetts Bay Company set sail, with a group of 300 settlers led by the Reverend Francis Higginson. • The Talbot • The George Bonaventure • The Lyon’s Whelp, carrying only provisions • The Four Sisters • The Mayflower (not the same Mayflower as that of the Pilgrims who had disembarked at Plymouth)
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
May 19, Tuesday (Old Style): A 4-year-old, Mary Higginson, died aboard the Talbot during its passage to the New World.
June 24, Wednesday (Old Style): The five ships of the Massachusetts Bay Company arrived in Salem harbor, with a group of 300 settlers led by the Reverend Francis Higginson. There would be five houses in Salem besides that of the Reverend. They were greeted by a small group of settlers led by John Endecott. • The Talbot • The George Bonaventure • The Lyon’s Whelp, carrying only provisions • The Four Sisters • The Mayflower (not the same Mayflower as that of the Pilgrims who had disembarked at Plymouth)
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1630
August 6, Friday (Old Style): Francis Higginson and Samuel Skelton had begun immediately to minister to their New World flock. The reverend was ordained on this day, and had dreamed up a confession of faith which was immediately assented to by 30 persons. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1631
A portion of the diary of the Reverend Francis Higginson was published under the title NEW-ENGLANDS PLANTATION. OR, A SHORT AND TRVE DESCRIPTION OF THE COMMODITIES AND DISCOMMODITIES OF THAT COUNTREY (he also created an account of his voyage aboard the Talbot, which is preserved in Hutchinson’s collection of papers). NEW--ENGLANDS PLANTATION
Beginning of settlement3 of Maine & New Hampshire areas.
In a later timeframe, the Reverend William Hubbard would have his own imitable comments on this “lustre of years” in the history of New England.
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
READ HUBBARD TEXT Chapter XXXI. The first planting of those parts of New England, on the east and west side of Pascataqua River, called the Province of Maine and New Hampshire, and the parts adjoining. Attempts for a new settlement of those lands by some of the Grand Council of New England, before they surrendered their Charter into the hands of the King.
August: Francis Higginson died at the age of 43 of a fever, leaving Mistress Anne Herbert Higginson as a widow with eight children.
A 7th son, Neophitus Higginson, born at Salem and the only son born after the family had left England, would be brought up by Atherton Hough and would die unmarried either in his 20th year or, according to another source, in his 25th year.
3. A note as to standard nomenclature: whenever you see the term “settle,” you may be sure we are talking about white people. People of color are never said to settle (although sometimes, it may be admitted, they are considered by white people as unsettling). HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1639
April 14, Sunday (Old Style): The Reverend Francis Higginson’s 2d son Francis Higginson was admitted of the church at Salem. He would sail back to England, study at Leyden and other places on the continent, and be established in the church of Kirby Steven, in Westmoreland, where he would conform, and die in 1672 in his 55th year (per Reverend Cotton Mather’s MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA; OR THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW-ENGLAND). HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1640
At the beginning of this year, or earlier, having lived some years before and after 1636 at Charlestown, Massachusetts, and a year or two at New Haven, Connecticut, the widow Anne Herbert Higginson died.
Samuel Higginson, her 5th son, had gone with her to New Haven, and upon her death would be apprenticed to Thomas Fulgill there. In the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell’s day, he would be the captain of a vessel of war, and die at the age of 44. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1859
January 11, Tuesday: Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, perhaps in the initial volume of COLLECTIONS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Boston: Munroe & Francis, 1806), the Reverend Francis Higginson’s NEW-ENGLANDS PLANTATION. OR, A SHORT AND TRVE DESCRIPTION OF THE COMMODITIES AND DISCOMMODITIES OF THAT COUNTREY (1631), a volume from which he would copy into his Indian Notebook #12: A sup of New England’s air is better than a whole draft of old England’s ale. NEW--ENGLANDS PLANTATION
Thoreau also checked out Captain Samuel de Champlain’s DES SAVVAGES OV VOYAGE DE SAMVEL CHAMPLAIN, DE BROVAGE, FAIT EN LA FRANCE NOUVELLE, L’AN MIL SIX CENTS TROIS: CONTENANT LES MOEURS, FAÇON DE VIVRE, GUERRES ET HABITATIONS DES SAUVAGES DU CANADA. DE LA DÉCOUVERTE DE PLUS DE 450 LIEUES DANS LE PAYS DES SAUVAGES. QUELS PEUPLES Y HABITENT; DES ANIMAUX QUI S’Y TROUVENT: DES RIVIÈRES, LACS, ISLES ET TERRES, ET QUELS ARBRES ET FRUITS ELLES PRODUISENT. DE LA CÔTE D’ACADIE, DES TERRES QUE L’ON Y A DÉCOUVERTES, ET DE PLUSIEURS MINES QUI Y SONT, SELON LE RAPPORT DES SAUVAGES (1603, 1604).
SAMVEL CHAMPLAIN
(He would place his notes on this reading in his Indian Notebook #12.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
“There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away” — Emily Dickinson
January 11: At 6 A.M. –22 and how much more I know not, ours having gone into the bulb; but that is said to be the lowest. Going to Boston to-day, I find that the cracking of the ground last night is the subject of conversation in the cars, and that it was quite general. I see many cracks in Cambridge and Concord. It would appear then that the ground cracks on the advent of very severe cold weather. I had not heard it before, this winter. It was so when I went to Amherst a winter or two ago. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
1891
Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s LIFE OF FRANCIS HIGGINSON, FIRST MINISTER IN THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY, AND AUTHOR OF “NEW ENGLAND’S PLANTATION” (1630) (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company).
His essay “Emily Dickinson” appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. The first Thoreau Society was formed. Lawrence Buell’s comment on this is: The first fictional recreation of Thoreau was by a woman, Louisa May Alcott (MOODS). The first book, to my knowledge, published by an outsider to the transcendentalist circle that celebrates nature as a refuge from hypercivilization with explicit invocation of Thoreau as model and precursor was written by a woman: Elizabeth Wright’s LICHEN TUFTS, FROM THE ALLEGHANIES (1860). The first Thoreau Society was founded by a group of young women (1891).... HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
According to the professor, [A]ll of Thoreau’s books except his JOURNAL entered the public domain between 1891 and 1905.
so that anyone who believed they could turn a dollar could reissue any of it which they desired to publish.
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
Reverend Francis Higginson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: January 25, 2015 HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON REVEREND FRANCIS HIGGINSON
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with