Read Ebook: The New England Historical & Genealogical Register Vol. 1 No. 3 July 1847 by Various Cogswell William Editor

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Ebook has 457 lines and 73305 words, and 10 pages

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Memoir of Governor Endecott, 201

Original Covenant of the First Church in Massachusetts Colony, 224

Heraldry, 225

Heraldic Plate, 231

Ratification of the Federal Constitution by Massachusetts, 232

Letter of Chief-Justice Sargent, 237

Complete List of the Ministers of Boston, 240

Congregational Ministers and Churches in Rockingham County, N. H., 244

Genealogy of the Wolcott Family, 251

Genealogy of the Minot Family, 256

Genealogy of the Parsons Family, 263

Ancient Bible in the Bradford Family, 275

Biographical Notices of Physicians in Rochester, N. H., 276

Sketches of Alumni at the different Colleges in New England, 278

Advice of a Dying Father to his Son, 284

Relationship, 285

Decease of the Fathers of New England, 286

New England, 288

Arrival of Early New England Ministers, 289

Genealogies and their Moral, 290

First Settlers of Rhode Island, 291

Marriages and Deaths, 292

Notices of New Publications, 293

NEW ENGLAND

HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER.

MEMOIR OF GOVERNOR ENDECOTT.

It is now upwards of two centuries and a quarter since the despotic sway of the English Sovereigns over the consciences of their subjects, induced all who entertained different sentiments from those of the established church, to turn their eyes towards the wilderness of America, as an asylum from the unnatural persecutions of the Mother Country.

With this in view, some of the principal men among those who had already sought a refuge in Holland, commenced treating with the Virginia Company, and at the same time took measures to ascertain whether the King would grant them liberty of conscience should they remove thither. They ultimately effected a satisfactory arrangement with the Company, but from James they could obtain no public recognition of religious liberty, but merely a promise, that if they behaved peaceably he would not molest them on account of their religious opinions.

On the 6th of September, 1620, a detachment from the Church at Leyden set sail from Plymouth for the Virginia territory, but owing to the treachery of the master, they were landed at Cape Cod, and ultimately at Plymouth, on the 11th day of December following. Finding themselves without the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, they established a distinct government for themselves.

While a resident in London, he married a lady of an influential family, by the name of Anna Gouer, by whom, it is understood, he had no children. She was cousin to Matthew Cradock, the Governor of the Massachusetts Company in England. If tradition be correct, the circumstances which brought about this connection were similar to those which are related of John Alden and Miles Standish. Some needle-work, wrought by this lady, is still preserved in the Museum of the Salem East India Marine Society. Mr. Endecott was also a brother-in-law of Roger Ludlow, Assistant and Deputy Governor of Massachusetts Colony, in the year 1634, and afterwards famous for the distinguished part he took in the government of Connecticut.

But Mr. Endecott's highest claim to distinction rests upon the fact that he was an intrepid and successful leader of the Pilgrims, and the earliest pioneer of the Massachusetts settlement under the Patent. His name is found enrolled among the very foremost of that noble band, the fathers and founders of New England--those pious and devout men, who, firm in the faith of the gospel, and trusting in God, went fearlessly forward in the daring enterprise, and hewed their homes and their altars out of the wild forest, where they could worship "the God of their fathers agreeably to the dictates of their own consciences." Such was the persecution to which the Non-conformists in England were at this period subjected, that the works of nature were the only safe witnesses of their devotions. Deriving no honor, so far as we know, from illustrious ancestry, Mr. Endecott was the architect of his own fame, and won the laurels which encircle his name amid sacrifices, sufferings, and trials, better suited to adorn an historical romance, than to accompany a plain tale of real life.

He sailed from Weymouth, in the ship Abigail, Henry Gauden, master, on the 20th of June, 1628, and arrived in safety at Naumkeag, the place of his destination, on the 6th of September following. The company consisted of about one hundred planters.

The following extract from "Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence" will illustrate the estimation in which he was held at this period. "The much honored John Indicat came over with them, to governe; a fit instrument to begin this Wildernesse-worke; of courage bold, undaunted, yet sociable, and of a cheerfull spirit, loving and austere, applying himselfe to either as occasion served. And now let no man be offended at the Author's rude Verse, penned of purpose to keepe in memory the Names of such worthies as Christ made strong for himselfe, in this unwonted worke of his.

"Strong valiant John, wilt thou march on, and take up station first, Christ cal'd hath thee, his Souldier be, and faile not of thy trust; Wilderness wants Christs grace supplants, then plant his Churches pure, With Tongues gifted, and graces led, help thou to his procure; Undaunted thou wilt not allow, Malignant men to wast: Christs Vineyard heere, whose grace should cheer his well-beloved's tast. Then honored be, thy Christ hath thee their General promoted: To shew their love in place above, his people have thee voted. Yet must thou fall, to grave with all the Nobles of the Earth. Thou rotting worme to dust must turn, and worse but for new birth."

On Mr. Endecott's arrival, he made known to the planters who preceded him, that he and his associate patentees had purchased all the property and privileges of the Dorchester partners, both here and at Cape Ann. He shortly after removed from the latter place, for his own private residence, the frame house, which a few years before had been erected there by the Dorchester Company. It was a tasteful edifice, of two stories high, and of the prevailing order of architecture at that period, called the Elisabethean, which was but of slight remove from the Gothic. Some of its hard oak frame may still be found in the building at the corner of Washington and Church streets, Salem, commonly known at this day as the "Endicott House."

The Company's Court in London, actuated by that true sense of justice which ever marked its deliberations, were determined not to trespass on any of the rights of the aborigines; and to this purpose in their first two communications to Mr. Endecott, they desired him to take especial care, "that no wrong or injury be offered by any of our people to the natives there," and to satisfy every just claim which might be made by them to the territory of Naumkeag and the plantation generally. To this record the sons of the Pilgrims have ever turned with peculiar pride and exultation. And, says Felt, "From his well-known promptitude and high sense of equity, there can be no doubt that Mr. Endecott fulfilled every iota of such instructions." In his first letters to the home government, he suggested various things to advance the interests of the Colony; such as the manufacture of salt, cultivation of vineyards, sending over fruit-stones and kernels, grain for seed, wheat, barley, and rye; also certain domesticated animals; all of which were shortly after transported to this country.

It was well for Mr. Endecott that he possessed an ardent and sanguine temperament, which nothing could daunt, otherwise the innumerable discouraging circumstances which met him in this, his new abode, in every form, amid sickness, death, and privations of every kind, well suited to appal the stoutest hearts, would no doubt have wrought their effects upon him, to the prejudice of the whole plantation. But such was the energy and firmness of his character, aided, no doubt, by a religious enthusiasm, which induced the belief that it was the purpose of God to give them the land of the heathen as an inheritance, that neither his faith nor confidence in the ultimate success of the undertaking ever for a moment forsook him. In every crisis, this little band looked to him, as the weather-beaten and tempest-tossed mariner looks to his commander, next to God, for encouragement and support; and they did not look in vain. Such was the great mortality among them, during the first winter after their arrival, arising from exposure to the rigors of an untried climate, and their being badly fed and badly lodged, that there were scarcely found in the settlement well persons enough to nurse and console the sick. To enhance their distress, they were destitute of any regular medical assistance. In this painful dilemma a messenger was despatched by Mr. Endecott to Gov. Bradford, of the Plymouth settlement, to procure the necessary aid; and Doctor Samuel Fuller, the physician, who was a prominent member and deacon of the Plymouth Church, was sent among them. During his visit, Mr. Endecott was called by Divine Providence to suffer one of the heaviest of earthly afflictions, in the death of his wife, the partner of all his sorrows, who had forsaken home, kindred, and the sympathy of friends, and consented to share with him the cares and privations incident to a new settlement. Surrounded by savages, and from the circumstances of the case, placed in a great degree beyond the pale of civilized society, her sympathy and counsel must necessarily have been very dear to him. She must have entwined herself about his affections, as the tender ivy winds itself round the lordly oak. Her slender and delicate frame was not proof against the rigors of a New England climate. Born and nurtured in the midst of luxury and ease, she could not withstand the privations and hardships of her new home, and she fell a victim to her self-sacrificing disposition. Painful indeed must have been the parting, and severe the trial to Mr. Endecott. Under the influence of the feelings which this affliction produced, he wrote the following letter to Gov. Bradford:--

"RIGHT WORSHIPFULLE SIR,--

Your assured loving friend, JO: ENDECOTT.

Naumkeag, May 11, 1629."

The foregoing epistle is alike honorable to the head and heart of Mr. Endecott. Humble, devout, and chastened feelings pervade it throughout. It speaks a mind sensibly alive to religious impressions. The sentiments here expressed cannot fail to find a response in the hearts of all reflecting men, in this and succeeding generations. The magnitude of the undertaking in which they were engaged, the necessity of union in their efforts, and the impossibility of success without direct divine assistance, are here represented in language appropriate and devout.

Whether Mr. Endecott carried into execution his design intimated in this letter, of making Gov. Bradford a visit "shortly," is uncertain. On the 27th of May, 1629, in a communication to the authorities at home, he complained that some persons in his jurisdiction disregarded the law of 1622, for the regulation of trade with the Indians, and "desiring the Company would take the same into their serious consideration, and to use some speedy means here for reformation thereof." A petition was in consequence presented to the King, who in compliance therewith issued a new proclamation, forbidding such disorderly trading. These steps were no doubt taken in reference to the associates of one Thomas Morton, whose residence at Mount Wollaston, or Merry Mount, now Quincy, he visited shortly after his arrival in this country. This man and his associates had alarmed all the well-disposed settlers, from Piscataqua to Plymouth, by selling arms and ammunition to the Indians, indulging themselves in dissipation, and otherwise endangering the peace and welfare of New England. The object of Mr. Endecott's visit was to rectify abuses among the remaining confederates, Morton himself having been already apprehended, and sent home to England for trial. He went there, we are told, in the "purefying spirit of authority," and caused their May-pole to be cut down, to which they had been in the habit of affixing pieces of satirical composition against those who opposed their wishes and practices, and "rebuked the inhabitants for their profaneness, and admonished them to look to it that they walked better." He also changed the name of the place, and called it Mount Dagon. The precise period of this visit is not known, and it is not improbable that Mr. Endecott extended his journey at the time to Plymouth Colony. However this may be, a warm friendship soon grew up between Gov. Bradford and himself, which continued without interruption for the remainder of their lives.

We now approach an important event in the history of the Colony--the removal of its entire government to New England. Gov. Cradock, with whom the idea appears to have originated, acquainted the Proprietors, at a meeting of the Court, July 28, 1629, that, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Plantation, and inducing and encouraging persons of worth and quality to transport themselves and their families thither, as well as for other weighty reasons, it was proposed to transfer the entire government to this country, and continue it no longer in subjection to the Company in England. Soon after this communication, an agreement to that effect was drawn up at Cambridge, and among those who signed it was their future governor, John Winthrop. It was one of the stipulations that they should settle their affairs so as to be ready for the voyage hither by the first of March. This appears to have been the first connection Mr. Winthrop had with the settlement of this soil. On the 29th of August following, at a meeting of the Court of Proprietors, in London, this change in the government was decided upon. On the 16th of October, at another meeting of the Court, it was conceived "fitt that Capt. Endecott continue the government there, unless just cause to the contrarie." But on the 20th of the same month, Gov. Cradock informed the Proprietors that in accordance with the alteration of the government now about to take place, it was necessary to elect a new Governor, Deputy, and Assistants; when John Winthrop was put in nomination, and unanimously chosen Governor. In like manner, John Humphrey was chosen "Deputy-Governor," and Sir Richard Saltonstall, Matthew Cradock, John Endecott, with fifteen others, were chosen a board of "Assistants."

Soon after the arrival of Gov. Winthrop, the new settlers began to be dissatisfied with Salem, as the capital of the Colony. It did not combine, in their opinion, sufficient advantages of location, soil, and natural means of defence. A party, therefore, was sent to explore the country westward, to discover, if possible, some more suitable situation. It had been the darling object with Endecott to make Salem the seat of government; he, however, bowed in submission, and continued his efforts to advance the common weal.

On the 18th of August, 1630, Gov. Endecott entered into a new matrimonial alliance with Elisabeth Gibson of Cambridge, England. This lady probably came over in the ship with Gov. Winthrop, and the marriage ceremony was performed by him and the Rev. Mr. Wilson, afterwards pastor of the first church in Boston. This connection appears to have been a happy one, although there was a much greater disparity in their ages than prudence and judgment would seem to allow--the difference being about twenty-six years.

Such was his ardent and growing attachment to the place of his adoption, that when it was decided in December, 1630, to fortify Newton, now Cambridge, for the seat of government, and to build houses, and move their military stores to that place next spring, he could not be prevailed upon to quit his accustomed residence. All the members, except himself and Mr. Sharp, who was about returning to England, agreed to do so; but Mr. Endecott excused himself upon the ground that he had so formed his connections in Salem, that it would be attended with great inconvenience.

On the 3rd of July, 1632, the Court of Assistants granted Mr. Endecott three hundred acres of land, called by the Indians in English, "Birchwood," afterwards known as his "Orchard Farm." It was situated between two and three miles in a northerly direction from the main settlement at Salem, upon a tongue of land bounded on the north, south, and east by rivers, or more properly inlets of the sea, and on the west by the main land. Even at that early period, it was one of the most desirable situations in that vicinity. Though at some distance from the place which was afterwards selected for the seat of the government, and where the Court House was erected, yet he was in the centre of the population, being by land nearer to the shores than he was to the cultivated farms around him. It was many years after he established himself at this beautiful place, so near all the streams which passed through the adjacent country, before any incorporation separated Salem from the Merrimack. For twenty years Salem bounded on Andover. The spot then was the best he could have chosen. On a commanding eminence, which overlooked the country for some distance around, and about one eighth of a mile from one of the inlets, he built his house, and commenced in earnest the cultivation of his farm. Although the ploughshare has frequently passed over it, yet part of the cellar of this house is plainly discernible at the present day. It is a romantic situation, and denotes him to have been a man of much discrimination and taste in matters of this kind. On his farm he lived in a sort of feudal style, surrounded by his servants.

In front of his mansion house, and immediately upon the southern slope of a gentle declivity, he planted his far-famed orchard, which gave the name to his farm. The tradition that the Governor always pointed out his dial, which bears the date of 1630, as denoting the age of his orchard, seems to indicate that the trees were removed hither from his town residence. Here, too, it is said, he introduced, for medicinal purposes, as well as ornament to his garden, the "white-weed," which has since become so detrimental to the hay-fields of our farmers.

His usual mode of transporting himself and family to and from this place, was at first by water, and he was as often visited by his friends in this way, as in any other. The inlet before the mansion house had nothing to interrupt it--the passage was open to the bay, and at that early period must have been delightfully romantic. The shores on either side thickly clothed with wood, whose dark images were reflected in the still waters beneath them, were picturesque in the extreme. The bold jutting headlands, on some parts of the passage, lent a sublimity to the prospect, which was continually varying by the winding and circuitous course of the stream. There was nothing to break the stillness, or disturb the quiet which reigned around, save the dashings of their own little boat amid the waters, or the heavy plunge of some lordly sea-bird, in his gyratory wanderings in pursuit of prey. The smoke from the humble and solitary wigwams of the Indians, thinly scattered along the margin of the waters, with an occasional glimpse at their tawny inhabitants, as they stealthily watched the passing boat from their leafy hiding-places, or listlessly reclined under the shadow of some wide-spreading oak, heightened the effect, and diversified the scene. Within the last half-century, the ruins of some of these wigwams might have been seen, and could not have failed to excite most melancholy reflections respecting the wretched fate of these natural lords of the soil, throughout our vast country.

August 2, 1634, Mr. Endecott was called to mourn the death of his early and particular friend, the Rev. Mr. Skelton, who had become endeared to him as his spiritual guide, in first opening to his view the way of truth while in England, and who had followed him to this country to counsel and direct him in paths of piety and happiness. This event must have been to him a severe affliction.

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