470 BREWSTER'S FAMILY. CHAP. his name seldom occurs in the preXXVII. ceding History. The reason why he was not chosen governor after the death of Carver in 1621, is stated in note on page 197. It appears from this Memoir that he had "many children;" but the exact number has not been ascertained. He brought his wife with him, and four other individuals, who were probably his children. The following are known to have been his children-Jonathan, Love, Wrestling, Patience, and Fear. The last two came in the Ann in 1623; Patience married in 1624 Thomas Prince, who was afterwards governor, and Fear married Isaac Allerton in 1626. It appears from page 173 that the venerable elder had a house lot assigned him in 1621, in Plymouth, on the street now called Leyden-street. In the latter part of his life he built a house in Duxbury, near Captain's Hill, and resided there a short time. His sons Jonathan and Love settled in Duxbury. Love died there, and his son William was deacon of the church in that place. Jonathan, with his family, removed to Connecticut after 1648. There are many descendants of the worthy elder in Plymouth, Duxbury, Kingston, Pembroke, and in Connecticut, and elsewhere. A town on Cape Cod was named after him in 1803, and it is believed that the Brewsters, in Boston harbour, were so called in compliment to him. See note on page 27; Belknap's Am. Biog. i. 252-266; Hutchinson's Mass. ii. 460; Mitchell's Bridgewater, p. 361; Mass. Hist. Coll. x. 73, xx. 57-68. 2 "That is the best History, which is collected out of Letters." BARONIUS. "Letters of affairs, from such as manage them, or are privy to them, are of all others the best instructions for history, and to a diligent reader the best histories in themselves." LORD BACON. CHAPTER XXVIII. ROBINSON TO THE CHURCH. To the Church of God at Plymouth, in New England.1 MUCH BELOVED Brethren, XXVIII. NEITHER the distance of place, nor distinction of CHAP body, can at all either dissolve or weaken that bond of true Christian affection in which the Lord by his spirit 1621. hath tied us together. My continual prayers are to the Lord for you; my most earnest desire is unto you;2 from whom I will not longer keep (if God will) than means can be procured to bring with me the wives and children of divers of you and the rest of your brethren, whom I could not leave behind me without great injury both to you and them, and offence to God and all men. The death of so many our dear friends and brethren, oh! how grievous hath it been to you to bear, and to us to take knowledge of; which, if it 1 This and most of the following letters are taken from a fragment of Gov. Bradford's Letter Book, which was rescued about fifty years since from a grocer's shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The earlier and more valuable part was unfortu nately destroyed, having been put See note on page 453. 474 XXVIII. THE DEATIIS AMONG THE COLONISTS. CHAP. Could be mended with lamenting, could not sufficiently be bewailed; but we must go unto them, and they 1621. shall not return unto us. And how many even of us God hath taken away here and in England, since your departure, you may elsewhere take knowledge. But the same God has tempered judgment with mercy, as otherwise, so in sparing the rest, especially those by whose godly and wise government you may be and (1 know) are so much helped. In a battle it is not looked for but that divers should die; it is thought well for a side if it get the victory, though with the loss of divers, if not too many or too great. God, I hope, hath given you the victory, after many difficulties, for yourselves and others; though I doubt not but many do and will remain for you and us all to strive with. Brethren, I hope I need not exhort you to obedience unto those whom God hath set over you in church and commonwealth, and to the Lord in them. It is a Christian's honor to give honor according to men's places; and his liberty to serve God in faith, and his brethren in love, orderly and with a willing and free heart. God forbid I should need to exhort you to peace, which is the bond of perfection, and by which all good is tied together, and without which it is scattered. Have peace with God first, by faith in his promises, good conscience kept in all things, and oft renewed by repentance; and so one with another, for his sake who is, though three, one; and for Christ's sake, who is one, and as you are called by one spirit to one hope. It was certainly a remarkable providence, that out of the 21 men who died the first winter, so few were among the leaders of the expedition. With the exception of Carver, most of the prominent men were spared. How different might have been the fate of the Colony had Bradford, Winslow, Standish and Allerton been cut off. . |