and acuteness in disputation were acknowledged by his adversaries. His manners were easy, courteous, and obliging. His preaching was instructive and affecting. Though in his younger years he was rigid in his separation from the Episcopal Church, by whose governors he and his friends were treated with unrelenting severity, yet, when convinced of his error, he openly acknowledged it, and by experience and conversation with good men he became moderate and charitable, without abating his zeal for strict and real religion. It is always a sign of a good heart when a man becomes mild and candid as he grows in years. This was eminently true of Mr. Robinson. He learned to esteem all good men of every religious persuasion, and charged his flock to maintain the like candid and benevolent conduct. His sentiments respecting the reformers, as expressed in his valedictory discourse, will entail immortal honour to his memory, evidencing his accurate discernment, his inflexible honesty, and his fervent zeal for truth and a good conscience. He was also possessed, in an eminent degree, of the talent of peace-making, and was happy in composing differences among neighbours and in families, so that

peace and unity were preserved in his congregation. It is said that "such was the reciprocal love and respect between him and his flock, that it might be said of them, as it was said of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the people of Rome, that it was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having such a people, or they in having such a pastor." Besides his singular abilities in moral and theological matters, he was very discerning and prudent in civil affairs, and able to give them good advice in regard to their secular and political conduct. He was highly esteemed, not only by his own flock, but by the magistracy and clergy of Leyden, who gave him the use of one of their churches, in the chancel of which he was buried. Mr. Prince, who visited that city in 1714,† says that the most ancient people then living told him, from their parents, that the whole city and University regarded him as a great and good man, whose death they sincerely lamented, and that they honoured his funeral with their presence.

This event proved the dissolution of the church over which he had presided at Leyden. Some of them removed to Amsterdam, † Annals, p. 160.

* Hazard, i., 355.

some to other parts of the Netherlands, and others came to New-England, among whom were his widow and children. His son Isaac lived to the age of ninety, and left male pasterity in the county of Barnstable.

XVIII. JOHN CARVER.

We have no particulars of the life of Mr. Carver previous to his appointment as one of the agents of the English Congregational Church in Leyden.* At that time he was in high esteem as a grave, pious, prudent, judicious man, and sustained the office of a deacon. In the letters written by Sir Edwin Sandys, of the Virginia Company, to Mr. Robinson, the agents are said to have "carried themselves with good discretion."†

The business of the agency was long delayed by the discontents and factions in the Company of Virginia, by the removal of their former treasurer, Sir Thomas Smith, and the enmity between him and Sir Edwin Sandys, his successor. At length a patent was obtained under the company's seal; but, by

* Hubbard's MS., p. 38 [p. 46 of the printed copy.-H.]. + [Sandys' letter is dated November 13, 1617.-Hubbard's New-England, 46.—H.]

[This patent was granted probably in "the autumn of 1619," at which time it was carried to Leyden to be considered by the proposed emigrants. The precise date is nowhere mentioned, so far as I have been able to examine. The records of the

the advice of some friends, it was taken in the name of John Wincob, a religious gentleman belonging to the family of the Countess of Lincoln,* who intended to accompany the adventurers to America. This patent, and the proposals of Thomas Weston, of London, merchant, and other persons who appeared friendly to the design, were carried to Leyden in the autumn of 1619 for the consideration of the people. At the same time there was a plan forming for a new council in the west of England, to superintend the plantation and fishery of North Virginia, the name of which was changed to New-England. To this expected establishment Weston and the other merchants began to incline, chiefly from the hope of present gain by the fishery. This caused some embarrassment, and a variety of opinions; but, considering that the council for New-England was not yet incorporated, and that, if they should wait for that event, they might be detained another year,

Virginia Company have never been printed, and are now in England. Of Wincob I find nothing farther, except that he never came to America. It was thought prudent, probably, to have the patent made out in the name of some one residing in England.-H.]

* [The family-name of the house of Lincoln was Clinton. -H.]