THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND.
(1620-1643).
47. References.
Bibliographies.--Winsor, III. 244-256, 283-294; Larned, _Literature of
American History_, 72-92; Avery, II. 421-423; Andrews, _Colonial
Self-Government_, ch. xx.; Green, _Provincial America_, ch. xix.; M.
Wilson, _Reading List on Colonial New England_; Channing and Hart, _Guide_,
§§ 109-123.
Historical Maps.--No. 2, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 2); Doyle,
_Colonies_, II.; MacCoun, Winsor, and school histories already cited.
General Accounts.--J. Palfrey, _New England_, I. 47-268; Winsor, III. chs.
vii.-ix.; Doyle, II. chs. i.-vii.; Osgood, _Colonies_; Lodge, _Colonies_,
341-351, 373-375, 385-387, 397, 398; Avery, II. chs. v.-viii.; Andrews and
Greene, as above, _passim_; Channing, _United States_, I. ch. xiv.; B.
James, _New England_; G. Bancroft, I. 177-288; Hildreth, I. chs. vi., vii.,
ix.; Fiske, _Beginnings of New England_, I. chs. i.-iii.; Eggleston,
_Beginners of a Nation_; L. Mathews, _Expansion of New England_, chs.
i.-iii.
Special Histories.--Ellis, _Puritan Age and Rule_; E. Byington, _Puritans
in England and New England_, and _Puritan as Colonist and Reformer_; D.
Campbell, _Puritan in Holland, England, and America_; M. Dexter, _Story of
the Pilgrims_; J. Brown, _Pilgrim Fathers_; W. Cockshott, _Pilgrim
Fathers_; F. Noble, _Pilgrims_; J. Goodwin, _Pilgrim Republic_; D. Howe,
_Puritan Republic_.--Massachusetts: W. Northend, _Bay Colony_; B. Adams,
_Emancipation of Massachusetts_; C. F. Adams, _Three Episodes of
Massachusetts History_; Winsor, _Memorial History of Boston_; H. Lodge,
_Boston_.--Connecticut: C. Levermore, _Republic of New Haven_; E. Atwater,
_New Haven Colony_; Andrews, _River Towns of Connecticut_; C. Orr, _Pequot
War_; state histories by Johnston (Commonwealths), Trumbull, and
Morgan.--Rhode Island: I. Richman, _Rhode Island: its Making and its
Meaning_; Arnold, Field, and Richman (Commonwealths).--New Hampshire:
Belknap and Sanborn (Commonwealths).--Maine: Williamson.
Contemporary Accounts.--Morton, _New England's Memorial_ (1669); Bradford,
_Plymouth Plantation_; Winthrop, _New England_; Johnson, _Wonder-Working
Providence_; Wood, _New England's Prospect_; _New England's First-Fruits_;
Shepard, _Autobiography_.--Reprints: Force, _Tracts_; Arber, _Pilgrim
Colonists_; Young, _Chronicles of Pilgrim Fathers_, and _Chronicles of
Massachusetts_; Jameson, _Original Narratives_; _American History told by
Contemporaries_, I. part v.; and the many publications of colonial and town
record commissions, state and local historical and antiquarian societies,
Prince Society, Gorges Society, etc.
48. The New England Colonists.
Sidenote: The Popham colony.
It will be remembered that the commercial company chartered by King James
I. (1606) to colonize Virginia, as all of English America was then styled,
consisted of two divisions,--the London (or South Virginia) Company, and
the Plymouth (or North Virginia) Company. We have seen how the London
Company planted a settlement at Jamestown, and what came of it. The
Plymouth Company was not at first so successful. In 1607, the same year
that Jamestown was founded, the Plymouth people--urged thereto by two of
their members, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of the port of Plymouth, and
Sir John Popham, chief-justice of England--sent out a party of one hundred
and twenty colonists to the mouth of the Kennebec, headed by George Popham,
brother of Sir John; but the following winter was exceptionally severe,
many died, among them Popham, and the survivors were glad of an opportunity
to get back to England (1608).
Sidenote: Smith's voyage to New England.
In 1614 John Smith, after five years of quiet life in England, made a
voyage to North Virginia as the agent and partner of some London merchants,
and returned with a profitable cargo of fish and furs. The most notable
result of his voyage, however, was the fact that he gave the title of New
England to the northern coast, and upon many of the harbors he discovered,
Prince Charles bestowed names of English seaports. During the next
half-dozen years there were several voyages of exploration to New England,
its fisheries became important, and some detailed knowledge of the coast
was obtained; but its colonization was not advanced.
Sidenote: The new Plymouth charter (1620).
Chief among the patrons of these enterprises was Sir Ferdinando Gorges. In
1620 Gorges and his associates secured a new and independent charter for
the Plymouth Company, usually known as the Council for New England, wherein
that corporation was granted the country between the fortieth and
forty-eighth degrees of latitude,--from about Long Branch, N. J., to the
Bay of Chaleurs. The region received in this charter the name which Smith
had bestowed upon it,--New England. To the company, consisting of forty
patentees, was given the monopoly of trade within the grant, and its income
was to be derived from the letting or selling of its exclusive rights to
individual or corporate adventurers. It had power, also, both to establish
and to govern colonies. But the enterprise lacked capital and popular
support. Virginia, founded as an outlet for victims of economic distress in
England, appeared to absorb all those who cared to devote either money or
energy to the planting of America. The reorganized Plymouth Company would
doubtless have waited many years for settlements upon its lands, had not
aid come from an unexpected source.
Sidenote: Religious groups in England.
The persecution of a religious sect led to the permanent planting of New
England. The English Protestants under Elizabeth may be roughly divided
into several groups: (1) The great majority of the people, including most
of the rich and titled, adhered to the Church of England; as the
"establishment," or State religion, it retained much of the Catholic ritual
and creed, but with many important omissions and modifications. (2) Besides
the Catholics, few and oppressed, there was a distinct class who wished to
stay the progress of the Reformation and more closely to follow Rome. (3)
The Puritans sought to alter the forms of the church in the other
direction, but they were themselves divided into two camps: (_a_) the
conformists, who would go further than the establishment in purifying the
State religion and in rejecting Romish forms, yet were content to remain
and attempt their reforms within the folds of the Church; and (_b_) the
dissenters, who had withdrawn from the Church of England and would have no
communion with it. The dissenters were themselves divided: (1) there were
those who wished to be ruled by elders, on the Presbyterian plan, such as
had been introduced by Calvin and his followers in Switzerland and France,
by Zwingli in Switzerland and Germany, and by John Knox in Scotland; then
there were (2) the Independents, or Separatists, who would have each
congregation self-governing in religious affairs,--a system in vogue in
some parts of Germany. "Seeing they could not have the Word freely
preached, and the sacraments administered without idolatrous gear, they
concluded to break off from public churches, and _separate_ in private
houses." Sometimes the Separatists were called Brownists, after one of
their prominent teachers, Robert Browne. The Presbyterians and Independents
were alike few in number in Elizabeth's time; but as the result of
persecution under James I., and the impossibility of obtaining concessions
to the demand for reform, these sects steadily gained strength. The
Independents in particular were harshly treated, so that many fled to
Holland, where there was religious toleration for all; and from this branch
of the Separatists came the Pilgrims, who first colonized New England.
49. Plymouth colonized (1620-1621).
Sidenotes: The Scrooby congregation.
The Independents in Holland.
Among those who thus departed to a strange land, to dwell among a people
with habits and speech foreign to theirs, were about one hundred yeomen and
artisans, members of the Independent congregation at Scrooby, a village on
the border between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Headed by their wise and
excellent minister, John Robinson, and the ruling elder of the church,
William Brewster, the party first settled at Amsterdam (1608), but early
the following year moved to Leyden. Here, joined by many other refugees,
they lived for ten years, laboring in whatever capacities they could obtain
employment.
They lived peacefully enough in Holland, free from religious restraints,
but remained Englishmen at heart; they saw with dissatisfaction, as the
years went on, that there was no chance for material improvement in Leyden,
and that their children were being made foreigners. After long deliberation
they resolved to emigrate again, this time to America, far removed from
their old persecutors, and there in the wilderness to rear a New England,
where they might live under English laws, speak their native tongue, train
their children in English thought and habits, establish godly ways, and
perchance better their temporal condition. Mingled with these aspirations
was a desire to lay "some good foundation, or at least make some way
thereunto, for ye propagating & advancing ye gospell of ye kingdom of
Christ in those remote parts of ye world; yea, though they should be but
even as stepping-stones unto others for ye performing of so great a work."
Sidenote: Emigration to America.
Obtaining a grant of land from the London (South Virginia) Company, and a
promise from the king that they should not be disturbed in their proposed
colony if they behaved properly, the emigrants sailed from Leyden to
Southampton, where they were to take passage for the New World. These
Pilgrims, as they styled themselves, were about one hundred in number, and
under the excellent guidance of Brewster, Robinson remaining behind with
the majority of the congregation, who had decided to await the result of
the experiment.
Possessing little beyond their capacity to labor, the Pilgrims had found it
necessary to make the best bargain possible with a number of London
capitalists for transportation and supplies. A stock partnership was
formed, with shares at ten pounds each, each emigrant being deemed
equivalent to a certain amount of cash subscription; all over sixteen years
of age were counted as equal to one share, and a sliding scale covered the
cases of children and those who furnished themselves with supplies. All
except those so provided drew necessaries from the common stock. There was
to be a community of trade, property, and labor for seven years, at the end
of which time the corporation was to disband, and the assets were to be
distributed among the shareholders. The entire capital stock at the
beginning was seven thousand pounds, from a quarter to a fifth of this
being represented by the persons of the emigrants. The London partners sent
out several laborers on their account.
Sidenote: The landing.
The voyage of the "Mayflower" is one of the most familiar events in
American history. Its companion vessel, the "Speedwell," was obliged to
return to England because of an accident, and thus several of the original
company remained behind. The adventurers first saw land on the ninth of
November; it was the low, sandy spit of Cape Cod. Their purpose had been to
settle in the domain of the South Virginia Company, somewhere between the
Hudson and the Delaware; but fate happily willed otherwise. The captain,
thought to be in the pay of the Dutch, who were trading on the Hudson,
professed to be unable to proceed farther southward because of contrary
winds. After beating up and down the bay between the cape and the mainland,
and exploring the coast here and there, the Pilgrims landed at a spot "fit
for situation" (Dec. 22, 1620).
Sidenote: The social compact.
With true English instinct for combination against unruly elements, the
Pilgrims had (November 11), while lying off Cape Cod, formed themselves
into a body politic under a social compact. This notable document read as
follows: "We whose names are under-writen, the loyall subjects of our dread
soveraigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God of Great Britaine, Franc, &
Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for ye glorie
of God and advancemente of ye Christian faith, and honour of our king and
countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of
Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy in ye presence of God,
and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves togeather into a civill
body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of
ye ends aforesaid; and _by vertue hearof_ to enacte, constitute, and frame
such just and equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices,
from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for ye
generall good of ye Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and
obedience."
The compact was signed by the adult males of the company, forty-one in
number, only twelve of whom bore the title of "Master," or "Mr.,"--then of
some significance. They elected Deacon John Carver as their first governor,
styled the place where they landed Plymouth, and entered upon the serious
business of building New England.
Sidenote: The first winter.
An exceptionally mild winter had opened, yet it was with difficulty that
they could provide adequate shelter for themselves, much less secure
comfortable quarters. The stock of food they had brought with them soon
failed, and what was left was not wholesome; in consequence of hunger and
exposure, sickness ensued, and about one half of the company died. Among
those who succumbed was Governor Carver; in his place was chosen William
Bradford, who held the office for twelve years, was the historian of the
colony, and until his death (1657) the leading man among his people. Those
who survived this terrible ordeal were so few and feeble that under
ordinary conditions the Indians could readily have massacred them. But
owing to a pestilence which, a few years before, had wasted the New England
coast tribes, it was many years before the aborigines were strong enough
seriously to annoy the Plymouth colonists.
Sidenote: Persistence amid adversity.
Had the Pilgrims been ordinary colonists, they would no doubt have
abandoned their settlement and returned in the vessel that brought them.
But they were of sterner stuff than the men who succumbed to less hardship
at Roanoke and on the Kennebec, and their religious conviction nerved them
to a grim task which they believed to be God-given. It was not for
faint-hearts to found a new Canaan.
In November, 1621, fifty more of the Leyden congregation came out. By this
time the people of Plymouth had, amid many sore trials, erected log-houses
enough for their use, built a rude fort on the hill overlooking the
settlement, made a clearing of twenty-six acres, and had laid by enough
provisions and fuel for the winter. But the addition to the number of
mouths materially decreased the _per capita_ allotment of rations.
Sidenote: Patent from the Plymouth Company.
The Pilgrims having settled upon land for which they had no grant, it had
become necessary for the London adventurers, who backed the enterprise, to
secure a patent from the reorganized Plymouth Company. That company was
working under a charter from the king as the feudal lord, giving it
privileges of settlement, trade, and government; rights to colonize and
trade, it was authorized to parcel out to others, in the form of patents,
and a document of this character was issued to the adventurers in May,
1621.
50. Development of Plymouth (1621-1691).
Sidenote: The industrial system.
The industrial system inaugurated at Plymouth was, like that adopted for
Jamestown, pure communism. The governor and assistants organized the
settlers into a working band, all produce going into a common stock, from
which the wants of the people were first supplied: the surplus to be the
profit of the corporation. As in the case of Jamestown, the London partners
were not pleased with the results of the speculation, and in harshly
expressing their dissatisfaction soon fell into a wordy dispute with the
colonists.
Sidenote: Dissatisfaction of the London partners.
Thirty-five new settlers came out in the autumn of 1622, and thereafter
nearly every year brought increase in the number; but the partners failed
to ship supplies with the new-comers, deeming it proper that the colony
should be self-supporting; and this neglect still further strained existing
relations.
Sidenote: Communal system partially abandoned.
In 1624 the communal system was partially abandoned, each freeman being
allowed one acre as a permanent holding. This land was to be as close to
the town as possible; for the climatic conditions, the necessity for
protection against Indians, and the desire for ease of assemblage at
worship, made it important that the settlement should be compact,--in sharp
distinction to the scattered river-side plantations of the South. In 1627
each household was granted twenty acres as a private allotment; but for
many years there existed as well a system of common tillage and pasturage
similar to that with which the colonists were familiar in the English
villages. About the same time (1627) the colonists purchased the interest
of their London partners for eighteen hundred pounds, and became wholly
independent of dictation from England.
Sidenote: The Pilgrims obtain sole control.
Up to this time many of the new colonists were sent or selected by the
London shareholders, and were not always congenial to the Pilgrims. It now
rested with them to invite whom they might; and as a result many of their
faith from England were brought over. In 1643 there were three thousand
inhabitants in the eight distinct towns comprising Plymouth colony; there
were also several independent trading and fishing stations along the coast
established under the auspices of the Plymouth Company. The colony was
beyond the danger of abandonment.
The early history of Plymouth is a story full of painful details of
suffering. It was a long time before the people became inured to the
rigorous climate; the tedious winters were often seasons of much hardship
and privation. The life they led was toilsome, but they bore up under it
bravely.
Sidenotes: Relations with the Indians.
Relations with white neighbors.
The original colonists were kind and considerate to the aborigines, and for
many years were the firm friends and allies of Massasoit, head chief of the
Pokanokets, whose lands they had occupied. Whites were not always as
comfortable neighbors as the savages. Thomas Weston, one of the London
partners, sent out (1622) an independent colony of seventy men to
Wessaugusset, about twenty-five miles north of Plymouth. They were an idle,
riotous set, and after making serious trouble with the Indians, a year or
two later returned to England. In 1623, Robert Gorges, son of Ferdinando,
was appointed governor-general of the country by the Council for New
England, and in person attempted to form a colony upon land patented to him
"on the northeast side of Massachusetts Bay," but soon abandoned his
enterprise and returned home. In 1625, Captain Wollaston appeared with a
number of indented white servants and started a colony on the site of the
Quincy of to-day. But this form of slave labor not being suited to the
democratic conditions of New England life, Wollaston took his servants to
the more congenial climate of Virginia, and his plant was taken possession
of by his partner, Thomas Morton, who styled the settlement Merrymount.
Morton was much disliked by the Puritans, who were scandalized at his
free-and-easy habits, regarded the apparently innocent sports in which he
encouraged his people as "beastly practices," and charged him with the
really serious offence of selling rum and firearms to the natives. The
Plymouth militia dispersed the merrymakers and sent Morton to England
(1628).
Several Church of England men, representatives of Robert Gorges,--who had a
patent for a strip of territory ten miles coastwise and thirty miles
inland,--had come out in 1623, among them William Blackstone, settling on
Shawmut peninsula, now Boston, Thomas Walford at Charlestown, and Samuel
Maverick at Chelsea. Blackstone afterwards vacated his peninsula in favor
of the Puritans of Charlestown. Maverick, in his palisaded fort, was a man
of importance, and afterwards a royal commissioner to the colonies. There
was also a small trading station at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and
another at Nantasket, with here and there an individual plantation. With
most of these the Plymouth people had business relations, but little else
in common.
Sidenote: Form of government.
Plymouth was at first governed in primary assembly with a governor and
assistants elected by popular vote. As the colony grew and new towns were
organized by compact bodies of people detaching themselves from the parent
settlement, it became inconvenient for all of the people frequently to
assemble in Plymouth. The representative system was adopted in 1638, each
township sending two delegates to an administrative body called the General
Court, in which the governor and assistants also sat. It was some years
later before the General Court was given law-making powers, this privilege
being retained by the whole body of freemen. For sixteen years the laws of
England were in vogue, but in 1636 a code of simple regulations was
adopted, more especially suited to the community. The assistants, with the
aid of the jury, tried cases as well as aided the governor in the conduct
of public affairs. Purely local matters were managed by primary assemblies
in the several towns, and petty cases were tried by town magistrates.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Plymouth.
Many features of American government and character may be readily traced to
the influence of Plymouth. It was the first permanent colony in New
England; it had become well established before another was planted, and
therefore served in some sense as a model for its successors. It was a
community of Independents acting without a charter, working out their own
career practically free from royal supervision or veto, and with an
elective governor and council. The Plymouth people were closely knit: their
struggle for existence had been hard, and it had taught them the value of
solidarity; they set the example of a compact religious brotherhood; they
were good traders, cultivated peace with the Indian tribes, and advanced
their towns only so fast as they needed room for growth and could hold and
cultivate the land. In many respects Plymouth may be regarded as a modern
American State in embryo.
Sidenote: Futile effort to obtain a charter.
Three several times (1618, 1676-77, and 1690-91) the colony endeavored, as
a measure of self-defence, to obtain a charter from the Crown; but failed
in each application,--at first through the influence of the prelates, and
afterwards because of the jealousy of its neighbors. Finally, in 1691,
Plymouth was incorporated with Massachusetts and lost its identity.
51. Massachusetts founded (1630).
Sidenote: Boundary disputes.
The Plymouth Company did business in a rather haphazard Way. Land-grants
were freely made to all manner of speculators, many of them members of the
corporation, with little or no regard to the geography of New England.
These grants were dealt out to third parties, often with a lordly
indifference to previous patents. The result was that holdings frequently
overlapped each other, giving rise to boundary quarrels which lasted
through several generations of claimants.
Sidenote: Settlement at Cape Ann.
In 1623, an association of merchants in Dorchester, England, sent out a
party to form a colony near the mouth of the Kennebec, where they had
fishing interests. The master, however, landed his men at Cape Ann, in
Massachusetts Bay, the site of the present Gloucester. Roger Conant, who,
withdrawing from Plymouth "out of dislike of their principles of rigid
separation," had made an independent settlement at Cape Ann, was appointed
local manager for the Dorchester merchants. In 1626 the merchants abandoned
their colony as unprofitable, most of the settlers returning to England;
and Conant led those remaining to Salem, then called Naumkeag.
Sidenote: White's scheme.
John White, a conforming Puritan rector at Dorchester, determined to make
this settlement of Dorchester men a success. To the settlers at Naumkeag he
sent urgent advice to stay, while at home he set on foot a movement which
resulted in a definite scheme of colonization. The arbitrary policy of
Charles I. towards dissenters had greatly alarmed the Puritans, and White's
plan of "raising a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist" in America
had the support of many wealthy and influential men.
Sidenote: The Massachusetts land grant.
In 1628, six persons, heading the movement, obtained from the Plymouth
Company a patent for a strip about sixty miles wide along the coast,--from
three miles south of Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimack,
and westward to the Pacific Ocean, which in those days was thought to be
not much farther away than the river discovered by Hendrik Hudson in 1609.
This patent conflicted with grants already issued (1622 and 1623) to Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, his son Robert, and John Mason, of whom we shall hear
later on.
Sidenote: The first charter (1628).
In September, 1628, John Endicott, gentleman, one of the patentees, arrived
at Salem with sixty persons, to reinforce the colony already there, and
supersede Conant. The following spring, the patentees being organized as a
trading company, the king granted them a charter styling the corporation
the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England; their
only relationship to the Plymouth Company was now that of purchasers of a
tract of the latter's land.
Sidenote: Form of government.
Under this trading charter the whole body of freemen, or members of the
company, was to elect annually a governor, a deputy-governor, and eighteen
assistants, who were to meet monthly to perform such public duties as might
be imposed upon them by the quarterly meeting of the company, or "Quarter
Court." There was also to be an annual meeting, known as "General Court,"
or "Court of Elections." Laws were to be adopted by the general assembly of
"freemen,"--that is, of stockholders,--not contrary to the established laws
of England. Endicott was continued as governor of the colony, which was at
once recruited by three hundred and eighty men and women of the better
grade of colonizing material.
Sidenote: Religious aspirations.
Although the company was chartered as a trading corporation, its principal
object was not gain, but to found a religious commonwealth. It was composed
of men of rare ability and tact, as well as of consummate courage. Among
them were members of parliament, diplomats, state officials, and some of
the brightest and most liberal-minded clergymen in England. The church
which they set up in Salem was not at first avowedly Separatist, like that
of Plymouth; it was simply a purified English church, with a system of
faith and discipline such as they had long insisted upon in the ranks of
the mother-church. But under the circumstances this purified church was as
independent in its character as the professedly Separatist congregations of
Plymouth; and it was not long, as one step led to another, and persecution
hurried them on, before the Massachusetts Puritans were, like their
brethren in England, full-fledged Independents.
Sidenotes: The company moves to America.
Character of the founders.
Soon there was taken the most important step of all. The Massachusetts
company, in the desire for still greater independence, removed its seat of
government to the colony, thus boldly transforming itself, without legal
sanction, from an English trading company into an American colonial
government. In April, 1630, eleven vessels went out to Massachusetts Bay,
with a large company of English reformers; and during the year there
crossed over to America not less than a thousand English men and women who
had found the arbitrary rule of Charles quite unbearable. John Winthrop, a
wealthy Suffolk gentleman forty-two years of age, and one of the strongest
and most lovable characters in American history, was the first governor
under the new arrangement. Thomas Dudley, the deputy, was a stern and
uncompromising Puritan, cold and narrow-minded. Francis Higginson, the
first teacher, who had come over with Endicott, but died in 1630, was a
Cambridge alumnus who had lost his church in Leicestershire because of
nonconformity. Skelton, the pastor, was also a Cambridge man.
52. Government of Massachusetts (1630-1634).
Sidenote: Salem divides.
There were now too many people assembled at the port of Salem for the
supply of food, and sickness and hunger prevailed to such an alarming
degree that many died in consequence. It became necessary to divide, and
independent congregations were established, on the Salem model, at
Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Roxbury, and later at Boston, which soon
became the capital of the colony (September, 1630). Morton, who had
returned to Merrymount, was again driven from the country; Sir Christopher
Gardiner, a disturbing element among the settlers, was obliged to withdraw
to the Piscataqua: the Puritans now held Massachusetts Bay, and brooked no
rival claimants. In establishing this commonwealth in America, the Puritan
founders were determined to have things their own way.
Sidenote: The theocracy established.
It was early decided by the General Court (1631) that none but church
members should be admitted as freemen. Four times a year the freemen were
to meet in quarter court, and with them the governor, his deputy, and the
assistants. But, as in Plymouth, it was found after a time that the towns
and the freemen had so multiplied that this primary assemblage became
inconvenient. In 1630 the assistants were given the power to elect the
governor and deputy governor, and also to make laws. Then it came about
that in certain cases the control of the colony was in the hands of only
five of the assistants, which made the government almost oligarchical. The
cap-sheaf was applied when (1631) it was ordered that the assistants were
to hold office so long as the freemen did not remove them.
Sidenote: The Watertown protest.
That same year, however, came a vigorous protest against this autocratic
rule. The Watertown freemen declined to pay a tax of £60, levied by the
assistants for fortifications built at Cambridge. It was argued that a
people who submitted to taxation without representation were in danger of
"bringing themselves and posterity into bondage." The next General Court
accepted this plea as valid, and a House of Representatives was inaugurated
on the plan of the English Commons, each town sending two deputies, and the
governor and assistants sitting as members.
Sidenote: The representative system established.
For a time the freemen resumed the right of election of governor and
deputy-governor, but soon handed this duty over to the representatives.
Voting by ballot was introduced in 1634, and the freemen, who had become
annoyed at threats from England of interference with their charter,
asserted their independence of the official class by rebuking the
assistants, turning Winthrop out of office, electing Dudley as governor,
making new rules for the election of deputies, providing for an oath of
allegiance to the colony, and placing their representative system on an
enduring foundation. Ten years later (1644), as the result of a quarrel
between the assistants and the deputies, growing out of a petty civil suit
over a lost pig, the colonial parliament became bicameral, the assistants
forming one house, and the deputies the other.
Sidenote: Aristocratic propositions rejected.
There had been a healthy renewal of immigration to Massachusetts in 1633
because of increased harshness towards Puritans in England, and a number of
strong men,--such as Sir Henry Vane and Hugh Peter,--destined to play no
inconsiderable part in the history of America and England, were among the
new arrivals. There were other Puritans higher in the social scale who
would have liked to come,--such as Lord Say and Sele, and Lord Brook; but
their proposition (1636) that an hereditary order of nobility be
established in the province, did not meet with popular favor; a desire to
be free from such distinctions was one of the causes which had impelled
thousands to flee to America. A little later (1638) the freemen put down
another attempt at aristocratic rule,--a movement looking to the
establishment of a permanent council, whose members were to hold for life
or until removed for cause.
53. Internal Dissensions in Massachusetts (1634-1637).
Sidenote: Condition of the colony (1634).
In 1634 the colony, now firmly planted with free English institutions in
full force, contained about four thousand inhabitants, resident in sixteen
towns. The old log-houses of the first settlers were gradually giving way
to commodious frame structures with gambrel roofs and generous gables. The
fields were being fenced, roads laid out between the towns, and
watercourses bridged; and the farms were beginning to take on an air of
prosperity. Goats, cattle, and swine abounded. Adventurous trading
skippers, often in home-made boats, had cautiously worked their way through
Long Island Sound as far as the Dutch settlements at New York, and up the
coast to the Piscataqua, doing a small business by barter. Salt fish, furs,
and lumber were exported to England, the vessels bringing back manufactured
articles; for as yet the industries of New England were few and crude.
Sidenote: Harvard College founded.
The Massachusetts colonists were for the most part middle-class Englishmen,
and education was general among them. Many were graduates of Cambridge, and
the clergymen had, as conscientious Reformers seeing no hope of improvement
in the English Church, abandoned comfortable livings at home to take charge
of rude Independent meeting-houses in America. In 1636, an appropriation of
£400--a very large sum, considering the means of the province--was made by
the General Court to found a college at Cambridge, that "the light of
learning might not go out, nor the study of God's Word perish." Two years
later (1638) the Rev. John Harvard, a graduate of Emmanuel College, who had
come out in 1637, dying, left his library and a legacy of £800 to the new
institution of learning, "towards the erecting of a college;" and the Court
decreed that it should bear his name. For two centuries the college
continued to receive grants from the commonwealth.
Sidenote: Malcontents make trouble.
While the colonists were thus bravely making progress in laying the
foundations of liberal institutions in America, there were troubles brewing
both at home and abroad. The uncongenial spirits whom they had driven from
Massachusetts Bay made complaints in England of the ill-treatment they had
received, and carried to Archbishop Laud and other members of the Privy
Council reports that the Puritans were setting up in America a practically
independent state and church. As an immediate consequence, emigrants, early
in 1634, were not permitted to go to New England without taking the royal
oath of allegiance and promising to conform to the Book of Common Prayer.
Sidenote: Attack on the charter.
In April a royal commission of twelve persons was appointed, ostensibly to
take charge of all the American colonies, secure conformity, and even to
revoke charters; but it was well understood that Massachusetts was
especially aimed at. The Massachusetts people were speedily ordered to lay
their charter before the Privy Council. Their answer, however, was
withheld, pending prayerful consideration. Meanwhile Dorchester,
Charlestown, and Castle Island were fortified; a military commission was
set to work to collect and store arms; militiamen were drilled;
arrangements were made on Beacon Hill, in Boston, for signalling the
inhabitants of the interior in case of an attack; the people were ordered
on pain of death, in the event of war, to obey the military authorities,
and no longer to swear allegiance to the Crown, but to the colony of
Massachusetts.
Sidenote: The charter annulled.
But the men of the colony were politic as well as pugnacious, and
despatched Winslow to England to make peace with the authorities. While he
was in London, in February, 1635, the Plymouth Company surrendered its
charter to the king, with the condition that the latter should annul all
existing titles in New England, and partition the country in severalty
among the members of the Plymouth council. In accordance with this
arrangement, a writ of _quo warranto_ was issued against the Massachusetts
charter, it was declared null and void, and Gorges was authorized to be
viceregal governor of New England.
Sidenote: Judgment suspended.
Winslow was imprisoned in England for four months for having broken the
ecclesiastical law in celebrating marriages in the Plymouth colony, but
upon his release did good diplomatic work and neutralized much of the
opposition. Meanwhile, another and stricter order was sent out to the
Massachusetts Company to surrender its charter. This again was met by
silence and renewed military preparations. English Puritans were at this
time attempting to leave for America in great numbers, on account of acts
of royal tyranny. The difficulty with the Scotch Church ensued, and by 1640
the Long Parliament was in session. In the excitement occasioned by the
Puritan rising in the mother-land, the day of punishment for Massachusetts
was postponed.
54. Religious Troubles in Massachusetts (1636-1638).
Sidenote: Roger Williams.
The opposition at home, occasioned by differences in religious belief, was
not, however, so easily thrust aside. Roger Williams, an able and learned,
but bigoted young Welshman, a graduate from Pembroke College, Cambridge,
came out to Plymouth in 1631. His tongue was too bold to suit the English
ecclesiastical authorities, and to gain peace he had been obliged to depart
for the colonies. In 1633 he went to Salem, where he became pastor of the
church. Williams was fond of abstruse metaphysical discussion, and he was
an extremist in thought, speech, and action; but while his arguments were
phrased in such manner as often to make it difficult for us to understand
him, the views he held were in the main what we style modern. He opposed
the union of church and state, such as obtained in Massachusetts, where
political power was exercised only by members of the congregation; he was
opposed to enforced attendance on church, and would have done away with all
contributions for religious purposes which were not purely voluntary. Such
doctrines were, however, held to be dangerous to the commonwealth; and
indeed expression of them would not at that time have been permitted in
England nor in many parts of Continental Europe. But this was not all.
Williams in a pamphlet pronounced it as his solemn judgment that the king
was an intruder, and had no right to grant American lands to the colonists;
that honest patents could only be procured from the Indians by purchase;
and that all existing titles were therefore invalid. This was deemed
downright treason, which he was compelled by the magistrates to recant. At
Salem, Endicott, who was one of his disciples, became so heated under his
pastor's teachings that, in token of his hatred of the symbols of Rome, he
cut the cross of St. George from the English ensign. The General Court,
greatly alarmed lest these proceedings should anger the king, reprimanded
Endicott; and, because of his "divers new and dangerous opinions," ordered
Williams (January, 1636) to return to England. The latter escaped, and
passed the winter in missionary service among the Indians. In the spring,
privately aided by the lenient Winthrop, the troublesome agitator passed
south, with five of his followers, to Narragansett Bay, and there
established Providence Plantation.
Sidenote: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomians.
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson arrived in Boston from England in the autumn of 1634.
She was a woman of brilliant parts, but impetuous and indiscreet, and by
instinct an agitator. Her religious views are described by Winthrop as
containing "two dangerous errors,--first, that the person of the Holy Ghost
dwells in a justified person; second, that no sanctification can help to
evidence to us our justification." This is cloudy to a modern layman. The
theory is styled Antinomian by its enemies, and was substantially as
follows: Any person in a "state of grace" or "justification" is at the same
time "sanctified;" since he is both justified and sanctified, the person of
the Holy Ghost dwells in his heart, and his acts cannot in the nature of
things partake of sin: therefore he need have no great concern about the
outward aspect of his works. This doctrine was contrary to that entertained
by the Puritans, who believed that a person must be first justified by
faith, and then sanctified by works. They thought the Antinomian dogma open
to pernicious interpretation, and not conducive to the welfare of society.
Its advocacy threw Boston into a great ferment.
Mrs. Hutchinson soon had a large following, among whom were Wheelwright,
John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker, of the ministers; while among laymen who
were well inclined towards her doctrine was the younger Henry Vane, then
governor of the colony, who was in later years to become prominent as one
of the leaders in the English Commonwealth. In the conditions then existing
in Massachusetts Mrs. Hutchinson's teachings were considered dangerous to
the State; they opposed the authority of the ecclesiastical rulers, and
this tended to breed civil dissension. One of her supporters, Greensmith,
was fined £40 by the General Court (March, 1637) for publicly declaring
that all the preachers except Cotton, Wheelwright, and Thomas Hooker taught
a covenant of works instead of a covenant of grace, the difference between
which, the layman Winthrop said, "no man could tell, except some few who
knew the bottom of the matter." At the same time Wheelwright was found
guilty of sedition because in a sermon he had counselled his hearers to
fight for their liberties, but with weapons spiritual, not carnal. When the
Boston church supported their minister, the Court responded by voting to
hold its next meeting at Newtown (Cambridge), where it might deliberate
amid quieter surroundings than at Boston.
When the Court of Election met at Newtown (May, 1637), Vane and his friends
were, in the course of a tumultuous session, dropped out of the government,
Winthrop was again chosen governor, and the uncompromising heretic-hater
Dudley deputy-governor. Vane departed for England in disgust, never to
return. For a time it seemed as if peace had come under the politic
Winthrop, and the Hutchinsonians gave evidences of a desire to compromise.
In a few months, however, the Court re-opened the whole controversy by
legislating against all new-comers who were tainted with heresy. The old
warfare broke out again. The charges of sedition against Wheelwright were
renewed, he was banished, and fled, with a few adherents, to the
Piscataqua.
Sidenote: Mrs. Hutchinson banished.
Mrs. Hutchinson was placed on trial (November, 1637) and commanded to leave
the colony, which she did in March following, and went to Rhode Island.
Seventy-six of her followers were disarmed, some were disfranchised, others
fined, and still others "desired and obtained license to remove themselves
and their families out of the jurisdiction." Quiet once more prevailed.
Wheelwright recanted after a time, and was permitted to resume his
habitation in Boston; and many others of the disaffected were finally
restored to citizenship.
Sidenote: The policy of repression successful.
The little commonwealth had been shaken to its foundations by a controversy
which to-day---when religion and politics are separated, to the advantage
of both--would be considered of small moment even in one of our rural
villages; but the State and the Church were one in the colony of
Massachusetts, and ecclesiastical contumacy was political contumacy as
well. Under such conditions there could safely be neither liberty of
opinion nor of speech; the welfare of a government thus constituted lay in
stern repression. The suppression and banishment of Roger Williams and Mrs.
Hutchinson were eminently successful in restoring order and public
security, in the train of which came increased immigration and greater
prosperity.
55. Indian Wars (1635-1637).
Sidenote: The Dutch at Hartford.
While these things were going on in Boston and Newtown, warfare of another
sort was in progress to the south. In 1635 residents of Massachusetts made
a settlement on the Connecticut river, on the site of Windsor, above the
Dutch fort at Hartford; and later in the same year another party, under
John Winthrop the younger, built Saybrook, at the mouth of the stream.
These Connecticut settlements formed an outpost in the heart of the Indian
country, and trouble was inevitable.
Sidenote: The Pequod war.
At last the attitude of the Pequods, the tribe occupying the lower portion
of the Connecticut valley, became unbearable; they interfered with
immigrants going overland, and rendered trade by sea dangerous. They
endeavored to enlist the sympathy of the Narragansetts in their forays.
Could these tribes have formed a coalition, it seems likely that the New
England colonists, then few and weak, must have been driven into the sea.
Roger Williams, bearing no malice towards his old enemies in Massachusetts,
averted this calamity. As the result of great exertions on his part, the
Narragansetts were induced to disregard the overtures of their old enemies,
the Pequods, and the Connecticut Indians went alone upon the war-path. They
made life a burden to the settlers in the little towns of Saybrook,
Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. An appeal for aid went up from the
colonists in the Connecticut valley to Massachusetts and Plymouth, and was
promptly answered.
Sidenote: The Pequods crushed.
In the little intercolonial army of some three hundred men, Captains John
Mason of Windsor and John Underhill of Massachusetts were the leading
figures. The Pequods were surprised in their chief town (May 20, 1637), the
walls of which were burned by the whites, while volleys of musketry were
poured into the crowd of savages, who huddled together in great fear. Says
Underhill, "It is reported by themselves that there were about four hundred
souls in this fort, and not above five of them escaped out of our hands;"
others report that seven hundred Pequods fell on that terrible day. Of the
besiegers but two were killed, though a quarter of the force were wounded.
From this scene of slaughter the victorious colonists marched through the
rest of the enemy's territory, burning wigwams and granaries, taking some
of the survivors prisoners, to be sold into slavery, and so thoroughly
scattering the others that the Pequod tribe never reorganized; the
expedition had thoroughly uprooted it.
56. Laws and Characteristics of Massachusetts
(1637-1643).
Sidenote: Laws.
For more than ten years after the planting of Massachusetts the magistrates
dispensed justice according to their understanding of right and wrong;
there were no statutes, neither had the English common law been officially
recognized, except so far as it was understood that Englishmen carried the
law of their land with them in emigrating to America. "In the year 1634,"
says Hutchinson, "the plantation was greatly increased, settlements were
extended more than thirty miles from the capital town, and it was thought
high time to have known established laws, that the inhabitants might no
longer be subject to the varying uncertain judgments which otherwise would
be made concerning their actions. The ministers and some of the principal
laymen were consulted with about a body of laws suited to the circumstances
of the colony, civil and religious. Committees of magistrates and elders
were appointed" from year to year by the General Court, but it was not
until 1641 that a body of statutes was finally adopted.
Sidenote: The Body of Liberties.
The influence of the clergy is well illustrated in the fact that the two
codes finally submitted were the work of ministers,--John Cotton of Boston,
and Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich. The latter's plan, in which he received the
aid of Winthrop and others of the elders, was adopted in 1641, under the
title of The Body of Liberties. In England, Ward had at one time been a
barrister, and was well read in the common law, on which his code was
mainly based, although it also contained many features of the law of Moses.
Equal justice was vouchsafed to all, old or young, freeman or foreigner,
master or servant, man or woman; persons and property were to be inviolable
except by law; brutes were to be humanely treated; no one was to be tried
twice for the same offence; barbarous or cruel punishments were forbidden;
public records were to be open for inspection; church regulations were to
be enforced by civil courts, and church officers and members were amenable
to civil law; the Scriptures were to overrule any custom or prescription;
the general rules of judicial proceedings were defined, as were also the
privileges and duties of freemen, and the liberties and prerogatives of the
churches; public money was to be spent only with the consent of the
taxpayers. "There shall be no bond slaverie, villinage or Captivitie
amongst us unles it be lawfull Captives taken in just warres, and such
strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us;" but all such
were to be allowed "all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of
god established in Israell." Notwithstanding this enlightened provision,
persons continued to be born and to live and die as slaves within the
boundaries of the commonwealth down to 1780. Servants fleeing from the
cruelty of their masters were to be protected, and there was to be appeal
from parental tyranny. "Everie marryed woeman shall be free from bodilie
correction or stripes by her husband, unlesse it be in his owne defence
upon her assalt." The capital offences, selected from the Scriptures, were
twelve in number; among them were: "(2) If any man or woman be a witch
(that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit), they shall be put to
death;" and "(12) If any man shall conspire and attempt any invasion,
insurrection, or publique rebellion against our commonwealth, ... or shall
treacherously and perfediouslie attempt the alteration and subversion of
our frame of politie or Government fundamentallie, he shall be put to
death." The essence of this Body of Liberties was afterwards incorporated
into the formal laws of the colony. It was the foundation of the
Massachusetts code.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts was the first large colony in New England. Its people were
educated, and as a rule of a higher social grade than those of Plymouth.
Under a charter which contained many very liberal provisions, a highly
organized government was developed, which served as a model to the other
colonies, and had a wide influence in the building of a nation founded on
the principles of self-government. Plymouth had, after sixteen years,
separated into towns; but when organized town and church governments moved
bodily from Massachusetts to found Connecticut, Massachusetts became the
first mother of colonies. Massachusetts was bolder, more aggressive, and
more tenacious of her liberties than any other of the American colonies;
her people took firm, sometimes obstinate, stand for their rights as
Englishmen, and were often alone in their early contentions for principles
upon which in after years the Revolution was based. In their treatment of
the Indians they were inclined to be more imperious than their neighbors.
57. Connecticut founded (1633-1639).
Sidenote: Plymouth traders at Windsor.
In 1633 Plymouth built a fur-trading house on the site of Windsor, on the
Connecticut River. A party of Dutch traders from New York was already
planted at Hartford, in "a rude earthwork with two guns," and strenuously
objected to this intrusion; but the Plymouth men found trade with the
Indians profitable, and stood their ground.
Sidenote: The Massachusetts hegira.
The same year the overland route to the Connecticut was explored by the
Massachusetts trader, John Oldham, who was afterwards slain by the Pequods
at Block Island. The favorable reports which Oldham carried back induced a
number of people in Newtown (Cambridge), Dorchester, and Watertown, in the
Massachusetts colony, to remove to the Connecticut and set up an
independent State. "Hereing of ye fame of Conightecute river, they had a
hankering mind after it." Ostensibly they sought better pasturage for their
cattle, to prevent the Dutch from gaining a permanent hold on the country,
and to plant an outpost in the Pequod country; but there also appear to
have been some differences of opinion between these people and the
Massachusetts authorities, growing out of the taxation of Watertown in
1631; and no doubt their ministers and elders--among whom were such strong
men as Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Roger Ludlow--were desirous of
greater recognition than they obtained at home. These differences were not
so grave but that Massachusetts, after a spasm of opposition, formally
permitted the migration, gave to the outgoing colonists a commission, and
lent to them a cannon and some ammunition.
Sidenote: Plymouth overawed.
During the summer of 1635 a Dorchester party planted a settlement at
Windsor around the walls of the Plymouth post. Plymouth did not approve of
this cavalier treatment of her prior rights by the Massachusetts pioneers,
but was obliged to submit with what grace she might, as she had in many
controversies with her domineering neighbor to the north.
Sidenote: Winthrop at Saybrook.
That same autumn (1635) John Winthrop, Jr., appeared at the mouth of the
Connecticut with a commission as governor, issued by Lord Brook, Lord Say
and Sele, and their partners, to whom in 1631 Lord Warwick, as president of
the council for New England, had granted all the country between the
Narragansett River and the Pacific Ocean. Winthrop had just thrown up a
breastwork when a Dutch vessel appeared on its way to Hartford with
supplies for the traders, and was ordered back; thus were the New Amsterdam
people cut off from a profitable commerce on the Connecticut, and from
territorial expansion eastward, although their Hartford colony lived for
many years.
Sidenote: Condition of the colony (1636-1637).
The migration from Massachusetts to the Connecticut continued vigorously
during 1636, and by the spring of 1637 the colony had a population of eight
hundred souls, grouped in the three towns of Windsor, Hartford, and
Wethersfield,--Winthrop's establishment at Saybrook being but a military
station, which had no connection with the Massachusetts settlements up the
river until 1644. The Pequod war, in 1637, stirred Connecticut to its
centre. A force of about one hundred and fifteen Massachusetts and
Connecticut men, under the command of Capt. John Mason of Windsor, was
handled with much skill, and soon nearly annihilated the Pequod tribe. The
Indians crushed, immigration was renewed, and prosperity became general
throughout the valley.
58. The Connecticut Government (1639-1643).
Sidenote: Government established.
During the first year the Connecticut towns were still claimed by the
parent colony, and were controlled by a commission from Massachusetts. At
the end of that time (1637) there was held a General Court, in which each
town was represented by two magistrates, this body adopting such local
regulations as were of immediate necessity.
Sidenote: The Connecticut Constitution.
In January, 1639, the three towns adopted a constitution in which
Massachusetts acquiesced, thus practically abandoning her claims of
sovereignty over them. This Connecticut constitution was undoubtedly, as
Fiske says, "the first written constitution known to history that created a
government,"--the "Mayflower" compact being rather an agreement to accept a
constitution, while Magna Charta did not create a government. Bryce
characterizes the Connecticut document as "the oldest truly political
constitution in America." It is noticeable for the fact that it made no
reference to the king or to any charter or patent; it was simply an
agreement between colonists in neighboring towns, independent of any but
royal authority, as to the manner of their local and general
self-government. The governor and six magistrates (another name for
assistants) were to be elected by a majority of the whole body of free men;
but later, with the spread of the colony, voting by proxies was allowed.
The governor alone need be a church member, and he was not to serve for two
years in succession; but this restriction on re-election was abolished in
favor of the younger Winthrop in 1660. Each town might admit freemen by
popular vote; and it is noticeable that despite the fact that the original
settlers of Connecticut came as organized congregations, with their
ministers and elders, it was ordained there should be no religious
restriction on suffrage, which was thus made almost unrestricted; the towns
were to be represented in the General Court by two deputies each; the
practical administration was in the hands of the governor and his
assistants, who were also members of the General Court. In time the system
became bicameral, the deputies forming the lower, and the council the upper
house; the towns were allowed all powers not expressly granted to the
commonwealth, the affairs of each being executed by a board of "chief
inhabitants," acting as magistrates. The government of Connecticut was on
the whole somewhat more liberal and democratic than that of Massachusetts,
and was the model upon which many American States were afterwards built.
Sidenote: Hooker's influence.
More than to any other man, the credit for this epoch-making constitution
belongs to the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, the leading spirit of the
colony. He argued that "the foundation of authority is laid in the free
consent of the people;" that "the choice of public magistrates belongs unto
the people by God's own allowance;" and that "they who have power to
appoint officers and magistrates have the right also to set the bounds and
limitations of the power and place unto which they call them." These are
truisms to-day, but in 1638 they were the utterances of a political
prophet.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Connecticut.
Under her liberal constitutional government, based upon the voice of the
people, Connecticut was from the first a practically independent republic.
The public officers were plain, honest men, who acceptably administered the
affairs of the colony with small cost. The colonists were shrewd in
political management, frugal in their expenditures, hard-working, and
ingenious. Education flourished, a severe morality obtained, and religious
persecution was unknown. Connecticut was noted among the colonies for its
prosperity, independence, and enlightenment.
59. New Haven founded (1637-1644).
Sidenote: Origin of the colony.
Theophilus Eaton was a London merchant "of fair estate, and of great esteem
for religion and wisdom in outward affairs." He was at one time an
ambassador to the Danish court, and had been one of the original assistants
of the Massachusetts Company, although not active in its affairs. John
Davenport had been an ordained minister in London; he turned Puritan, and
on his resignation in 1633 went to Holland. These two men formed a
congregation, composed for the most part of middle-class Londoners, who
resolved to migrate to America, there to set up a State founded on
scriptural models. The Plymouth and Massachusetts men had started out with
this same idea; but as the result of circumstances, had made compromises
which Eaton and Davenport could not countenance.
Sidenote: The plantation covenant.
In July, 1637, the two leaders arrived in Boston with a small company of
their disciples, among whom were several men of wealth and good social
position, but extremely narrow and bigoted in religious faith. They have
been styled the Brahmins of New England Puritanism. They did not deem it
practicable to settle in Massachusetts, and the following spring (March,
1638) sailed to Long Island Sound and established an independent settlement
on the site of New Haven, thirty miles west of the Connecticut river. For a
year their only bond of union was a "plantation covenant" to obey the
Scriptures in all things.
Sidenote: The Constitution.
In October, 1639, there was adopted a constitution, in the making of which
Davenport had the chief hand. The governor and four magistrates were to be
elected by the freemen, who were, as in Massachusetts, church members;
trial by jury was rejected, because it lacked scriptural authority; and it
was formally declared "that the Word of God shall be the only rule attended
unto in ordering the affairs of government." Eaton was chosen governor, and
held the office by annual election until his death, twenty years later.
Sidenote: Neighboring towns.
The neighborhood of New Haven was soon settled by other immigrants, most of
whom were also strict constructionists of the Scriptures, while a few
others were as liberal in their ideas as the people of the Connecticut
valley. Guilford was established (1639) seventeen miles to the north, and
Milford (1639) eleven miles westward; Stamford (1640), well on towards New
York, followed, while Southold was boldly planted (1640) on Long Island,
opposite Guilford, in territory claimed by the Dutch. As each town was as
well a church, these were for some years little independent communities,
founded on the New Haven model. In 1643, however, they formed a union with
New Haven, and a system of representation was introduced. Each town sent up
deputies to the General Court, in which also sat the governor,
deputy-governor, and assistants, elected by the whole body of freemen; yet
a majority of either the deputies or the magistrates might veto a measure.
Local magistrates--seven to each town, known as "pillars of the
church"--tried petty cases, but important suits were passed upon by the
assistants. The "seven pillars" were the autocrats of their several towns,
and colonial affairs were also practically in the hands of the select few
who controlled the church.
Sidenote: Peter's False Blue Laws.
At the meeting of the General Court in April, 1644, the magistrates in the
confederation were ordered to observe "the judicial laws of God as they
were delivered by Moses." This injunction afterwards gave rise to an absurd
report, circulated in 1781 by Rev. Samuel Peters, a Tory refugee, that the
New Haven statutes were of peculiar quaintness and severity. For nearly one
hundred years Peters's fable of the New Haven Blue Laws was accepted as
historic truth.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New Haven.
At first, New Haven failed to prosper; but after a few years, with the
increase of trade, better times prevailed, and by the close of the century
the town was noted for the wealth of its inhabitants and their fine houses.
Education was greatly encouraged, and there were considerable shipping
interests; but the ecclesiastical system was peculiar, and suffrage greatly
restricted. There were, in consequence, frequent outbursts of
dissatisfaction among the people. The colony thus had conspicuous elements
of weakness, and was finally absorbed by Connecticut.
60. Rhode Island founded (1636-1654).
Sidenote: Roger Williams.
In 1636, with five of his disciples, Roger Williams, driven from
Massachusetts as a reformer of a dangerous type, established the town of
Providence, at the head of Narragansett Bay.
Sidenote: Anne Hutchinson.
The following year (1637) a party of Anne Hutchinson's followers--also
expelled from Massachusetts because of heretical opinions--settled on the
island of Aquedneck (afterwards Rhode Island), eighteen miles to the south.
Mrs. Hutchinson joined them in 1638, and the town was eventually called
Portsmouth.
Sidenote: Newport established.
Both communities at once attracted from Massachusetts people who had either
been expelled from that colony or were not in entire harmony with it, and
by the close of 1638 Providence contained sixty persons, and Portsmouth
nearly as many. The next year fifty-nine of the Portsmouth people, headed
by the chief magistrate, Coddington, dissenting from some of Mrs.
Hutchinson's "new heresies," withdrew to the southern end of the island and
settled Newport; but the two towns reunited in 1640, under the name of
Rhode Island, with Coddington as governor.
Sidenote: The Providence agreement.
Each of these colonies, Providence and Rhode Island, was at first an
independent body politic. It is interesting to note their original
compacts. The Providence agreement (1636), signed by Roger Williams and
twelve of his sympathizers, was as follows: "We whose names are hereunder,
desirous to inhabit in the Town of Providence, do promise to subject
ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agreements
as shall be made for the public good of the body, in an orderly way, by the
major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated
together into a town fellowship, and such others whom they shall admit unto
them, only in civil things." Five freemen, called arbitrators, managed
public affairs, and for some years there appear to have been no fixed rules
for their guidance.
Sidenote: The Portsmouth declaration.
At Portsmouth the people united in the following declaration: "We do here
solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a body
politic, and as He shall help will submit our persons, lives, and estates
unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to all
those perfect and most absolute laws of His, given us in His holy words of
truth, to be guided and judged thereby." The freemen conducted public
affairs in town meeting, with a secretary, a clerk, and a chief magistrate.
Newport was similarly organized; but when Newport and Portsmouth reunited,
a more complex government was instituted. A General Court was then
established, in which sat the governor, the deputy-governor, and four
assistants,--one town choosing the governor and two of the assistants, and
the other the deputy-governor and the remaining assistants; the freemen
composed the body of the court, and settled even the most trivial cases. In
1641 it was declared that "it is in the power of the body of the freemen
orderly assembled, or the part of them, to make and constitute just laws by
which they shall be regulated, and to depute from among themselves such
ministers as shall see them faithfully executed between man and man." At
the same session an order was adopted "that none be accounted a delinquent
for doctrine, provided it be not directly repugnant to the government or
laws established."
Sidenote: An asylum for sectaries.
By the other colonies Providence and Rhode Island were deemed hot-beds of
anarchy. Persons holding all manner of Protestant theological notions
flocked thither in considerable numbers, and it is true that for many years
there were hot contentions between them, often to the disturbance of public
order. Despite these years of bickerings, Providence and Rhode Island
prospered.
Sidenote: Establishment of Providence Plantations.
Through the exertions of Roger Williams, Providence, Portsmouth, and
Newport, with a new town called Warwick were united under one charter
(1644), as the colony of Providence Plantations. This liberal document,
issued by the Parliamentary Committee on the Colonies, gave to the
inhabitants along Narragansett Bay authority to rule themselves "by such
form of civil government as by the voluntary consent of all or the greatest
part of them shall be found most serviceable to their estate and
condition." Larger power could not have been wished for. By a curious
provision, adopted in 1647, a law had to be proposed at the General Court;
it was then sent round to the towns for the freemen to pass upon it, thus
giving the voters a voice in the conduct of affairs, without the necessity
of attending court. A majority of freemen in any one town could defeat the
measure. A code of laws resembling the common laws of England, and with few
references to biblical precedents, passed safely through the ordeal in
1647; one important section provided that "all men may walk as their
conscience persuades them."
Sidenote: The Coddington faction.
The following year Coddington, as the head of a faction, obtained a
separate charter for Newport and Portsmouth,--much to the disgust of many
of the inhabitants of those as well as of the other towns. A bitter feud
lasted until 1654, when Williams once more appeared as peacemaker and
secured the reunion of all the towns under the general charter of 1644,
with himself as president. The old law code was restored.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island was founded by a religious outcast, and always remained as an
asylum for those sectaries who could find no home elsewhere. The purpose
was noble, and Williams persisted in his policy, despite the fact that life
was often made uncomfortable for him by his ill-assorted fellow-colonists,
who were continually bickering with each other. Throughout the seventeenth
century Rhode Island was a hot-bed of disorder. Fanaticism not only
expressed itself in religion, but in politics and society; and no scheme
was so wild as to find no adherents in this confused medley. The condition
of the colony served as a warning to its neighbors, seeming to confirm the
wisdom of their theocratic methods.
61. Maine founded (1622-1658).
Sidenote: Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of Plymouth in England, became interested
in New England, we have seen, as early as 1605. Ten years later he assisted
John Smith in organizing an unsuccessful voyage to the northern coast; in
1620 we find him a member of the council of the Plymouth Company; in 1622
he and John Mason (not the hero of the Pequod war), both of them Churchmen
and strong friends of the king, obtained a grant of the country lying
between the Merrimack and Kennebec Rivers; and it was Gorges who sent out
Maverick to settle on Noddle's Island, and Blackstone to hold the Boston
peninsula. Later (1629), Mason obtained an individual grant from the
Plymouth Council of the territory between the Merrimack and the Piscataqua
(New Hampshire), and Gorges that from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec
(Maine); these grants were similar in character to the charter of the
Massachusetts Bay Company. When the Plymouth Company threw up its charter
in 1634, and New England was parcelled out (1635) among the members of the
council, Gorges and Mason secured a confirmation of their former personal
grants. Mason died a few months later, leaving the settlements in his tract
to be annexed to Massachusetts in 1641.
Sidenote: Becomes Lord Proprietor of Maine.
In April, 1639, Gorges obtained a provincial charter from the king,
conferring upon him the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province or County
of Maine, his domain to extend, as before, from the Kennebec to the
Piscataqua, and backward one hundred and twenty miles from the coast. He
received almost absolute authority over the people of his province, who
were then but three hundred in number. Saco, established by him about the
year 1623, was the principal settlement, and contained one half of the
population; while a half-dozen smaller hamlets, chiefly of his creation,
were scattered along the neighboring shore, inhabited by fishermen,
hunters, and traders. The greater part of these people were adherents of
the king and the Established Church. Notwithstanding Gorges's
long-sustained effort to attract men of wealth to his plantations, the
province was not as flourishing as its neighbors to the south.
Sidenote: His cumbrous constitution.
Gorges amused his old age by drafting a cumbrous Constitution for his
people. He was to make laws in conjunction with the freemen; the laws of
England were to prevail in cases not covered by the statutes; the Church of
England was to be the State religion; all Englishmen were to be allowed
fishing privileges; the proprietor was to establish manorial courts; and he
was also empowered, of his own motion, to levy taxes, raise troops, and
declare war. In examining the official machinery which Gorges sought to
erect in Maine, we are reminded of Locke's constitution for the Carolinas;
the proprietor was to be represented by a deputy-governor, under whom was
to be a long line of officers with high-sounding titles, these to form the
council; with them were to meet the deputies selected by the freeholders.
The provinces were to be cut up into bailiwicks or counties, hundreds,
parishes, and tithings; justice in each bailiwick was to be administered by
a lieutenant and eight magistrates, the nominees of the proprietor or his
deputy, and under each was a staff of minor functionaries. There were
almost enough officers provided for in Gorges's plan to give every one of
his subjects a public position.
Sidenote: The colony neglected.
The proprietor himself never visited America; he was represented by his son
Thomas as deputy-governor. It was impossible for the latter, however, to
carry all of his father's plans into effect, and gradually the province
sank into disorder and neglect. Its towns were finally absorbed by
Massachusetts (1652-1658).
Sidenote: Characteristics of Maine.
The settlers brought out to people Maine were the servants of individuals
or companies having a tract of land to be occupied and cultivated,
fisheries to conduct, and fur-trade to prosecute. They did not come to
found a church or build a state, and such institutions as they developed
were the immediate outcome of their necessities. They had little sympathy
or communication with their neighbors of Massachusetts and Plymouth.
62. New Hampshire founded (1620-1685).
Sidenote: Origin of the first settlements.
We have seen that John Mason was given a grant in 1629 of the country
between the Merrimack and the Piscataqua. In his scheme for colonizing the
tract, Gorges was associated with him. But David Thomson and three Plymouth
fur-traders had already gained a footing at Rye in 1622, under a grant from
the Plymouth Council. Dover had been founded before 1628 by the brothers
Hilton, Puritan fish-dealers in London; and some of Mrs. Hutchinson's
adherents, exiles from Massachusetts, founded Exeter and Hampton. In 1630
Neal, as colonizing agent of Mason and Gorges, settled at Portsmouth, on
the Piscataqua, with a large party of farmers and fishermen, all of them
Church of England men; and it is probable that this colony absorbed the
neighboring settlement at Rye. By the time the proprietors dissolved
partnership in 1635 (page 150, § 61), considerable property had been
accumulated by them here, as in the inventory of their possessions at
Portsmouth we find twenty-two cannons, two hundred and fifty small-arms,
forty-eight fishing-boats, forty horses, fifty-four goats, nearly two
hundred sheep, and over a hundred cattle. This argues a large
establishment. Upon the death of Mason, later in the year, the Piscataqua
colony was left to its own guidance. All of the New Hampshire towns were
from the first independent communities, governed much after the fashion of
the other English towns to the south of them.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New Hampshire.
The beginnings of New Hampshire were the results of commercial enterprise
in England and theological dissensions in Massachusetts. The inhabitants of
the several towns had little in common, and held different political and
religious views. Planted under various auspices, when they grew to
importance they were the subject of long struggles for jurisdiction. It
would be tiresome to trace the history of these disputes; suffice it to say
that after many changes the settlements on or near the Piscataqua were
(1641-1643) incorporated with Massachusetts, which ruled them with marked
discretion, and refrained from meddling with their religious views. In
1679, as the result of disputes growing out of the revival of the Mason
claim in England, New Hampshire was turned into a royal province, but in
1685 was reunited to Massachusetts. As to the character of the people of
New Hampshire, what has been said in regard to those of Maine may in a
great measure also be applied to them.