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

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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.

About this time a Military Board of Commissioners, with almost unlimited powers, was established by the General Court, and Mr. Endecott was appointed one of its members.

While these events were passing in this country, the Puritans in England were experiencing the most unmitigated persecution, at the hand of Archbishop Laud and his confederates. As their numbers increased, the various modes of punishment were multiplied; exorbitant fines were imposed; the pillory witnessed bloody scenes of human agony and mutilation; the scaffold and dungeon had their victims; the lash, the shears, and the glowing iron were most cruelly applied to individuals of this proscribed sect. But the faith of the Puritans rose superior to oppression, and could not be overcome. The most bloody persecution served only to add new converts to their cause.

In 1636, Mr. Endecott was appointed an Assistant, and was also sent on an expedition against the Indians on Block Island and in the Pequot country, he acting as General of all the forces in the detachment. During this year his views relative to the cross in the King's colors triumphed over all considerations, and the Military Commissioners ordered it to be left out. On the ensigns at Castle Island, in Boston harbor, they substituted the King's arms for the cross.

During the year 1641, Mr. Endecott was chosen Deputy-Governor, and was continued in office for the two succeeding years. He was also appointed one of a committee to dispose of all lands or other property belonging to the company at Cape Ann; and was commissioned by the Court, in conjunction with two others, Mr. Downing, the brother-in-law of Gov. Winthrop, and Mr. Hathorne, to procure the transcription of nineteen copies of the laws, liberties, and forms of oaths, and to subscribe them with their own hands, the Court having decreed that no copies should be considered authentic which were without their signatures.

In 1642, he was chosen one of the Corporation of Harvard College.

Passing over some minor things in the life of Governor Endecott, we arrive at the year 1644, when his increasing influence and popularity ensured his election as Governor, and Mr. Winthrop was chosen Deputy-Governor. The claim of Salem to be made the seat of government, was now again revived, and it would be fair to infer from his well-known attachment to the place, that the project met with his hearty co?peration. But the effort was not successful, and Boston still continued to be the capital. The Governor's salary was one hundred pounds.

During this year of his administration, improvements in the mode of transacting business in the Legislature were introduced. The Magistrates and Deputies, for the first time, now held their sessions apart, and it required the concurrence of both bodies, to make an act valid. The office of a speaker to the Deputies was also this year ordained, and filled by an Essex man, Mr. William Hathorne.

The conflicting claims of D'Aulney and La Tour, two Frenchmen at Acadia, which had produced considerable excitement, were finally settled during this year, by the government of France supporting the claim of D'Aulney. His deputy came to Boston, and concluded a treaty with Gov. Endecott, which was subsequently ratified by the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England.

The year following, Mr. Endecott was succeeded as Governor by Mr. Dudley. Other offices of honor and trust, however, awaited him. He was this year appointed Sergeant Major-General of Massachusetts, the highest military office in the Colony. He had previously held a commission of Colonel in the first regiment formed in Salem, Saugus, Ipswich, and Newbury, in 1636, when John Winthrop, Jr., son of the Governor, was his Lieutenant-Colonel. He was also elected an Assistant, and one of the United Commissioners.

In 1648, he was continued an Assistant, Sergeant Major-General, and Commissioner for the Province.

In the year 1652, under his administration, a mint was established in the Colony, for coining shillings, six-pences, and three-pences. No other of the American Colonies, it is believed, ever presumed to coin metal into money. Though unlawful, it was passed over by Cromwell and the Parliament, and continued after the Restoration, for more than twenty years.

About the year 1655, Gov. Endecott removed from Salem to Boston, upon the request of the General Court that he would do so, "if his own necessary occasions would permit." Although the reasonableness of this request must have been apparent to him, the step could not have been taken without strong feelings of repugnance. It must have been a severe struggle for him to have separated himself from the place of his adoption, towards which he had ever felt and exhibited the most ardent attachment. His residence in Boston was on the beautiful lot lately owned and occupied by Gardner Green, now Pemberton Square.

Governor Endecott had now entered upon his seventieth year, with a shattered constitution, and health seriously impaired, as we learn by the following letter to Mr. John Leverett, the Colonial Agent in England.

SIR,

I cannot write unto you by a more faithful friend than I have done, who is able at large, to relate to you how things in general stand here. And that doth save mee some labour which at this tyme is a favor to mee. For in the extremity of heate and after a long sickness, I am very faint; not fitt to doe any thing, yet I cannot but by these heartilie salute you in the Lord, giving you many thanks for what you sent me. For all good newes is welcome to us as you know full well. Yet I cannot for the present answer your expectations touching Road Island and Clarke and Holmes, but I have acquainted the rest of the Magistrates with your letter, who were already to gather up sufficient testimonie to prove what you spoke to the Protector, and enough to satisfy your opponent, if he be a lover of truth. Only we would have the General Court act with us therein, which will not meet till September next, when I hope I shall procure a full answer to your former and last letters.

What the end is of that point of State to make the Protector King, I cannot fathom it; unless their proffering and his deniall thereof ingratiate him the more in the hearts of the people. The Lord in mercie guide all to his glory, and the good of those commonwealths over whom he hath sett him. If there be any opportunitie I pray you write mee a word about it, and other occurrences that may fall out. I cannot be sufficientlie thankefulle for what you wrote me last. Great motions there are in the world which the Lord direct and turn to his glorie, the overthrow of his enemies and the peace and welfare of his own people. Which is the prayer of Sir,

Your verie loveing friend and servant, JO: ENDECOTT.

Boston, the 29th 4th mo., 1657.

During the principal part of Gov. Endecott's administration, and particularly from 1655 to 1660, the Colony, "under his prudent and equal government," made rapid progress in all things necessary to its respectability and importance. Its population and wealth rapidly increased; its trade flourished; and its foreign intercourse became every day more widely extended. Free admission was allowed to vessels of all nations, and the importations of all commodities was subject to no incumbrance or restraint. The Colony took no notice of any act respecting navigation, or other laws made in England for the regulation of trade. They were never recognized as in force here, unless required by their own legislature.

In 1658, the Court granted Gov. Endecott, "for his great service, the fourth part of Block Island." At this time he was also elected President of the body of Colonial Commissioners. He now held the double office of Governor of Massachusetts and President of the United Colonies.

His conduct towards the aborigines, that much abused and injured people, was always marked with forbearance, lenity, and mildness. To his eldest son John, the Indians in 1660 gave a tract of land, which grant he applied to the Court to confirm. The Court declined taking such power on itself; but at the same time, however, it passed the highly complimentary resolve:

The Court, "considering the many kindnesses which were shown the Indians by our honored Governor in the infancy of these Plantations, for pacifying the Indians, tending to the common good of the Planters; and in consideration of which the Indians were moved to such a gratuity unto his son, do judge meet to give the petitioner four hundred acres of land."

Though Governor Endecott removed from Salem to Boston in 1655, yet neither he nor Mrs. Endecott removed their connection with the Salem church, until November, 1664. A large and brilliant comet made its appearance on the 17th of November of this year, and continued to the 4th of February following. It was the general belief of that period, that comets were omens of great evil. One appeared just before the death of that distinguished divine, the Rev. John Cotton; and the death at this time of their aged Governor, and the troubles with which the Colony met the next year from the King's Commissioners, Hutchinson informs us, tended to confirm the people in their opinion.

We are told that "old age and the infirmities thereof coming upon him, he fell asleep in the Lord on the 15th of March, 1665," at the age of 77, "and was with great honour and solemnity interred at Boston," on the 23rd of the same month. His death was easy and tranquil. Tradition has handed down the fact, that the "Chapel Burying-Ground" was the place of his interment. But the exact spot is not now known. No stone marks the resting-place of this intrepid Father of New England. Yet his name alone will ever be a monument to his memory, more enduring than marble, and as imperishable as the granite hills of his adopted country.

Gov. Endecott came to this country in 1628, at the age of 40, and died in 1665, at the age of 77. During these thirty-seven years he was nearly all the time in public life, and for about seventeen years, or nearly half the whole period, he was Governor of the Colony. He was longer at the head of the administration than any other Governor of Massachusetts.

He was a man of highly respectable natural talents, good education, a zealous Puritan, a brave man, a decided patriotic republican, a friend of learning and religion, a lover of God and his country.

Thus lived and thus died, one of the principal founders and firmest pillars of New England.

At his decease he left a widow and two sons. The elder son left no children;--the younger was a physician, and resided in Salem. He was twice married; and a family of five sons and five daughters survived him. His second wife was Elisabeth, daughter of Governor Winthrop, and widow of the Rev. Antipas Newman of Wenham.

There exists a perfect genealogy of the Governor's family, so far as relates to his descendants in New England. We hope to publish it in our next number.

NOTE. The Charter posesssed by Gov. Endecott, and which is now in the Salem Athenaeum, and the Charter possessed by Gov. Winthrop, and which is now in the State House, Boston, appear to be duplicate original Charters, provided for in the Charter itself, and neither of them copies. They are precisely alike in all respects--the same in phraseology and chirography, and the same in dates. Each Governor was elected and commissioned by the same Company, and by the same Colony, acted under the same Charter, with the same authority, and each alike entitled to the official designation of Governor, whether he was elected Governor by the Company in London, or by the Colony here, for both were elected Governor by each.

ORIGINAL COVENANT OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN SALEM.

We Covenant with our Lord, and one with another; and we do bind ourselves in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal himself unto us in his blessed word of truth; and do explicitly, in the name and fear of God, profess and protest to walk as followeth, through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We avouch the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, in the truth and simplicity of our spirits.

We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of his grace, for the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying of us in matters of worship and conversation, resolving to cleave unto him alone for life and glory, and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and constitutions of men, in his worship.

We promise to walk with our brethren, with all watchfulness and tenderness, avoiding jealousies and suspicions, back-bitings, censurings, provokings, secret risings of spirit against them; but in all offences to follow the rule of our Lord Jesus, and to bear and forbear, give and forgive, as he hath taught us.

In public or private, we will willingly do nothing to the offence of the church; but will be willing to take advice for ourselves and ours, as occasion shall be presented.

We will not in the congregation be forward, either to show our own gifts and parts in speaking or scrupling, or there discover the weakness or failings of our brethren; but attend an orderly call thereunto, knowing how much the Lord may be dishonored, and his gospel and the profession of it slighted, by our distempers and weaknesses in public.

We bind ourselves to study the advancement of the gospel in all truth and peace, both in regard to those that are within or without; no way slighting our sister churches, but using their counsel as need shall be; not laying a stumbling-block before any, no, not the Indians, whose good we desire to promote; and so to converse as we may avoid the very appearance of evil.

We do hereby promise to carry ourselves in all lawful obedience to those that are over us, in Church or Commonwealth, knowing how well-pleasing it will be to the Lord, that they should have encouragement in their places, by our not grieving their spirits through our irregularities.

We resolve to approve ourselves to the Lord in our particular callings, shunning idleness as the bane of any state; nor will we deal hardly or oppressingly with any, wherein we are the Lord's stewards.

Promising also unto our best ability to teach our children and servants the knowledge of God, and of his will, that they may serve him also; and all this not by any strength of our own, but by the Lord Christ, whose blood we desire may sprinkle this our Covenant made in His Name.

HERALDRY.

In preparing this article we have consulted various writers on the subject of Heraldry, and not only selected our thoughts from theirs, but used their language when it appeared best adapted to our object. For a more full account of Heraldry in all its branches, we refer our readers to Guillim's Banner Displayed, Camden's British Remains, Kent's Grammar of Heraldry, Edmonson's Complete Body of Heraldry, Leigh's Accidence of Armorie, Playfair's British Baronetage, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, Noble's History of the College of Arms, Lower's Curiosities of Heraldry, Dallaway's Inquiries, Newton's Display of Heraldry, Broun's Baronetage, Collins's Peerage of England, Betham's Baronetage of England, and the various Encyclopaedias.

DEFINITION.

HERALDRY is the science of conventional distinctions impressed on shields, banners, and other military accoutrements; or it is the art of armory and blazoning, or the knowledge of what relates to the bearing of arms, and the laws and regulations appertaining thereto. Arms in heraldry are ensigns armorial or marks of honor borne upon shields, banners, and coats of mail, in order to distinction. The science of Heraldry consists particularly in the appropriation of figurative representations, designed, by suitable emblems, to exhibit the achievements of valor, the descent of hereditary honors, and the distinctions appertaining to nobility.

ORIGIN AND HISTORY.

BLAZONING, HISTORIFYING, AND MARSHALLING ARMS.

Blazoning is the methodical description of a bearing. In the first place, the shield is described according to its tinctures, figures, and partitions. The inferior parts of an escutcheon are then blazoned--the helm, with its insignia, which are trumpet, wings, and plumes, men and animals, or their members; then the wreath and its tinctures; after which the coronet cap, &c.; finally the supporters, the mantle, the device, and other secondary things. Such terms for the color must be used as are agreeable to the station and quality of the bearer. All persons below the degree of noble must have their coats blazoned by colors and metals; noble men by precious stones; and kings and princes by planets.

In blazoning arms it is an established rule with heralds, that animals are always to be interpreted in the best sense, that is, according to their most noble and generous qualities, that the most honor may redound to the bearers. Thus the fox, being reputed witty and given to filching for his prey, if this be the charge of an escutcheon, we are to conceive the quality represented to be his wit and cunning, and not his theft.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF ARMS.

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