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CHAPTER erected the patentees and their associates into a corporaVII. tion, by the name of "Governor and Company of Mas1629. sachusetts Bay, in New England," with power to ad

mit new members as they might see fit. Their affairs were to be managed, at least those of executive routine, by a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, by whom monthly courts were to be held for that purpose. The annual election of these and other necessary officers, the enactment of civil and criminal laws for the colony, the raising of money, and other more important affairs, were to be transacted at great and general courts of all the freemen or stockholders, held quarterly. colonists were to enjoy the rights of Englishmen ; but no provision was made for securing to them any share in the local government. That was entirely intrusted to the

corporation in England.

The

No royal negative was reserved on the enactments of the company; but they were not to be repugnant to the laws of England. These enactments stood, indeed, precisely on the same ground with the by-laws of any other trading company. Nothing was said about religion. There was yet no intimation that the proposed settlement was to be exclusively Puritan, or had any special religious object in view. Had such been the case, it might not have been so easy to obtain a charter, for King Charles held the Puritans in no less detestation than his two predecessors, and was not a little. provoked at the part they had just taken in carrying in the House of Commons the Petition of Right.

The company organized itself under the charter by the choice of Matthew Cradock and Thomas Goffe, two wealthy London merchants, as governor and deputy gov ernor. Preparations were at once made for extending the settlement, to which was given the name of “London's Plantation in the Massachusetts Bay." The

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executive administration of the colony was intrusted to CHAPTER Endicott as governor, to be assisted by twelve counselors; seven named by the company, two to be selected 1629. by the old planters, and these nine to add three more to their number. The old planters were to be indulged in

a limited cultivation of tobacco, which was strictly forbidden to the new ones, the Puritans not having yet got over their objections to its use. Every £50, about $240, contributed to the company's stock by any member, entitled him to two hundred acres of land, and in like proportion for sums greater or less. Every stockholder who emigrated at his own expense was to receive fifty acres for each member of his family, and the same quantity for each indented servant carried with him. Persons not stockholders, emigrating at their own expense, were to be allowed fifty acres each, and as much more for each indented servant, with an additional allowance "according to their charge and quality"-a provision construed to extend to the old planters already there.

Six ships were soon dispatched, with a stock of cattle and horses, and some two hundred colonists, most of whom were indented servants of the company or some of its chief members, sent out at an expense of £20, nearly $100, per head. Among these emigrants were wheelwrights, carpenters, coopers, ship-builders, a surgeon, an engineer, and three "godly ministers," Skelton, Higginson, and Bright, all entertained at the company's Besides these three ministers named as memexpense. bers of Endicott's council, a fourth, one Smith, had secured his passage and placed his goods on board before it was known that he was an avowed separatist. This circumstance excited some jealousy and alarm, and Smith was obliged to promise not to exercise his functions within the patent without Endicott's leave. Shortly after

CHAPTER his arrival he proceeded to Plymouth, where he officiated VII. for some time as minister. That colony received also. 1629. by these vessels an accession of thirty-five persons, the

June.

remainder of the Leyden congregation, including Robinson's family, who availed themselves of this opportunity to join their friends in New England.

Arriving at Naumkeag, these new settlers found there a few corn-fields, a hamlet of eight or ten rude houses, with a larger one for the governor, the frame of which had been removed from Cape Anne, where it had been originally set up by White's associates. Endicott received by this arrival ample instructions, with particular directions to occupy the head of Massachusetts Bay; for which purpose about a hundred of the settlers, with Bright, one of the ministers, were sent to Charlestown, where a town was laid out by Graves, the engineer.

Endicott, since his arrival, having been in frequent intercourse with the Plymouth people, had adopted most of their views on the subject of church government. He found ready concurrence on the part of Skelton and Higginson, the two ministers who remained at Naumkeag, to which was now given the name of Salem, indicating a place of peace and refuge. Without any express renunciation of the authority of the Church of England, the settlers proceeded to constitute themselves into a Church of their own, of which Skelton was appointed teacher, and Higginson pastor. Delegates from Plymouth were to have been present at this ceremony, but were prevented by contrary winds; they arrived, however, in season to give the right hand of fellowship. It was significant of the opinions of the new church that the English ceremonials and Liturgy were laid aside.

All were not prepared for this innovation, and John and Samuel Browne, one a lawyer, the other a merchant,

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and both members of Endicott's council, protested against CHAPTER it. They insisted on the use of the Liturgy, and even went so far as to institute separate worship. Availing 1629. himself of a clause in his instructions which authorized him to send home "the incorrigible," Endicott arrested the Brownes, and shipped them to England as " factious and evil conditioned"—a proceeding characteristic enough of the future policy of the colony. The Brownes made loud complaints to the company, and the governor and assistants wrote pressingly on the subject to Endicott Oct. 16. and the ministers, not without some indications of alarm. "Let it therefore seem good unto you," they say in their letter to Endicott, "to be very sparing in introducing any laws or commands which may render yourself or us distasteful to the state here, to which, as we ought, we must and will have an obsequious eye." But the management of the company's affairs was about to pass into the hands of persons less scrupulous or less timid.

Already a plan was formed for a large migration to Massachusetts Bay, and the transfer thither of the charter, and the company itself. New officers were chosen Oct. 26. from among those who proposed to emigrate, Winthrop as governor, and Dudley as deputy, with a new board of assistants. Such of the stockholders as remained in England were to retain for seven years an interest in the company's stock, reduced, however, to cover losses and expenses, to one third its original amount. This stock, chargeable with half the military and ecclesiastical expenses of the colony, was to be placed for management in the hands of ten trustees, five resident in England and five in the colony, who were to have as compensation five per cent. on all net profits. This joint-stock was to be entitled for seven years to half the trade in beavers, the sole making of salt, and the exclusive right of trans

CHAPTER porting passengers and goods at certain fixed rates, and VII. of supplying the colonists from a store or magazine at 1629. an advance of twenty-five per cent. on the cost. At the end of seven years there was to be a division among the stockholders. Nothing, however, is recorded of any such division, and probably the whole stock was soon sunk. There are, indeed, but faint indications of any trade carried on by the company. As a compensation for the diminution of their stock, the holders were to have an additional two hundred acres of land for every £50 originally subscribed.

1630.

Under this new arrangement, fifteen ships, equipped at an expense of £20,000, nearly $100,000, conveyed to Massachusetts Bay a thousand emigrants, among them several persons of wealth and station at home, with four ministers, Wilson, Phillips, Maverick, and Warham. On board was a large stock of cattle, with other necessaries for beginning a settlement. This was by far the most numerous and best-appointed expedition yet dispatched from England to America.

Winthrop and Dudley, with several of the newlychosen assistants, having the charter in their custody, embarked on the Arbella. While still at anchor off the Isle of Wight, where they were long detained by conApril 7. trary winds, they issued, the day before sailing, an address to the rest of their brethren in and of the Church of England," a sort of defense against the "misreport" which, it seems, had begun to spread of their intention to separate from the English Church. That church was spoken of in terms of warm affection. Such "hope and part" as they had obtained "in the common salvation" they freely acknowledged to "have received in her bosom and sucked it in her breast."

A few days out, an alarm was raised of an attack by

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