|
Massachusetts Bay Colony
"In 1628, the foundation was laid
for another colony in New England, by the
name of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay.
Several
enterprising men at that time purchasing from the Council of
Plymouth a tract
of land for the purpose of settling. it. During the same year, the
purchasers sent one Mr.
John Endicott, with one hundred colonists, to begin
a settlement, which they effected at Salem, previously called by the Indians Naumkeak.
The settlement of
Massachusetts Bay, like the colony of Plymouth, was commenced by
non-conformists, for the purpose of enjoying greater religious liberty in
matters of worship. Among the most active in this enterprise were Mr.
Endicott and Mr. White; the latter a pious and active minister of
Dorchester, England.
The tract
purchased extended three miles north of the Merrimack river, and three miles
south of Charles River, and east and west from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1629 the
Massachusetts Company obtained a charter from the king, being incorporated
by the name of The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New
England. Mr. Endicott, being in the country, was appointed the first
governor. In June, two hundred additional settlers arrived, bringing with
them horses, sheep and goats, and large stores of necessaries. A part of
these emigrants, not being pleased with the situation of
Salem commenced the
settlement of Mishawam, or Charlestown.
The following
year, 1630, it being judged reasonable that a colony should be ruled by men
residing in the plantation, the proprietors agreed that the charter and
powers of government, conferred by it, should be transmitted from London to
the colony in America. Accordingly, this was done, the officers of
government being in the first instance chosen by the company in England. The
excellent
John Winthrop was chosen governor,
and Thomas Dudley deputy governor; Isaac Johnson, Sir Richard Saltonstall,
and others, to the number of eighteen, were chosen assistants.
Governor Winthrop
was accompanied to Massachusetts by nearly three hundred families, or
fifteen hundred souls many of whom were distinguished for their quality, as
well as their intelligence and piety. This company designed to settle at
Charlestown; but the prevalence of a fatal sickness previous to their
arrival, imputed to the badness of the water, induced many of the emigrants
to form other settlements, some at Dorchester, others at Roxbury and
Watertown. Governor Winthrop, with some of the most distinguished gentlemen
of the company, hearing of an excellent spring of water at Shawmut,
established themselves there, and erected a few cottages. This was the
commencement of Boston, which for a short time was called by the English as
Tri-Mountain.
On the arrival of
Governor Winthrop, who continued from this time to his death the head and
father of the colony, he found the plantation in a distressed and suffering
state. In the preceding autumn the colony contained about three hundred,
inhabitants; eighty of these had died, and a great part of the survivors
were in a weak and sickly state. Their supply of corn was not sufficient for
more than a fortnight, and their other provisions were nearly exhausted.
In addition to
these evils, they were informed that a combination of various tribes of
Indians was forming for the utter extirpation of the colony. Their strength
was weakness, but confidence was in their God, and they were not
forsaken. Many of the planters who arrived this summer, after long voyages,
were in a sickly state, and disease continued to rage through the season. By
the close of the year, the number of deaths exceeded two hundred. Among
these were several of the principal persons in the colony. Mr.
Higginson, the venerable minister of Salem, spent about a year with that
parent church, and was removed to the church in glory. His excellent
colleague, Mr. Skelton, did not long survive him. Mr. Johnson, one of the
assistants, and his lady, who was a great patroness of the settlement, died
soon after their arrival. Of the latter an early historian observes, "She
left an earthly paradise, in the family of an earldom, to encounter the
sorrows of a wilderness, for the entertainments of a pure worship in, the
house of God; and then immediately left that wilderness for the heavenly
paradise."
The succeeding
winter commenced in December with great severity. Few of the houses which
had been erected were comfortable, and the most of them were miserable
coverings. Unused to such severities of climate, the poor people suffered
severely from the cold. Many were frozen to death. The inconveniences of
their accommodations increased the diseases which continued to prevail among
them. But their constancy had not yet been brought to the last trial. During
the continuance of the severe season, their stock of provisions began to
fail. Those who wanted were supplied by those who possessed, as long as any
remained. A poor man came to the governor to complain, and was informed that
the last bread of his house was in the oven. Many subsisted upon shell fish,
ground-nuts, and acorns, which, at that season, could not have been procured
but with utmost difficulty.
In consideration
of their perilous condition, the sixth day of February was appointed a day
of public fasting and prayer, to seek deliverance from God. On the fifth of
February, the day before the appointed fast, the ship Lion, which had been
sent to England for supplies, arrived laden with provisions. She had a
stormy passage, and rode amidst heavy drifts of ice after entering the
harbor. These provisions were distributed among the people according to
their necessities, and their appointed fast was exchanged for a day of
general Thanksgiving.
Early in 1631,
two important rules were adopted at a meeting of the electors in General
Court, namely, (1) That the freemen alone should have the power of electing
the governor, deputy governor and assistants, and (2) that those only should
be made freemen who belonged to some church within the limits of the
colony. This latter rule would not be tolerated at the present day. It
was repealed in 1665.
In 1634, a still
more important change was effected in the mode of legislation. The
settlements had become so numerous and extended, that the freemen could not,
without great inconvenience, meet and transact the public business in
person. It was therefore ordered that the whole body of the freemen should
be convened only for the election of the magistrates; who, with deputies to
be chosen by the several towns, should have the power of enacting the laws.
"Thus," observes an 1800s historian, "did the epidemic of America
break out in Massachusetts, just fifteen years after its first appearance in
Virginia. The trading corporation had become a representative democracy."
For ten years
from this time, a discussion was had as to the relative powers of the
assistants and deputies. Both received office at the hands of the people;
but the former were elected by the freemen of the colony, the latter by the
towns. The two bodies used to meet in convention; but the assistants claimed
and exercised the right of a separate negative vote on all joint
proceedings. At last, in 1644, a remedy was found for this long and
disturbing evil, by dividing the court in their consultations; the
magistrates and the deputies each constituting a separate branch, and each
possessing a negative on the proceedings of the other. Thus commenced the
separate existence of the democratic branch of the Legislature, or House of
Representatives.
In the autumn of
1635, Roger Williams was banished from the colony, for publishing novel
opinions, which were deemed seditions and heretical, both by ministers and
magistrates. He seems to have denied the right to possess the lands of the
Indiana by virtue of any patent from the king, or any deed from a company,
without their consent. He also maintained that an oath should not be
tendered to an unregenerate man; and, that no Christian could lawfully pray
with such, though it were a wife or child. But while on these and other
points Mr. Williams was over scrupulous, and even at fault, the principal
accusation against him, and the chief cause of his banishment, was his
distinguishing doctrine, that the civil power has no control over the
religious opinions of men; a doctrine which at the present day no man would
venture to deny, and which shows that in this respect Mr. Williams was far
in advance of the age.
The banishment of
Mr. Williams was doubtless a great wrong. But it is not necessary to impeach
the motives of the pilgrim fathers. They acted from a sincere but
misdirected desire to uphold the government and the church, both of which
they truly believed in danger. Soon after his banishment, Mr. Williams
removed, and laid the foundation of Rhode Island.
During the same
year, 1635, three thousand new settlers were added to the colony; among whom
were Reverend Hugh Peters, a minister of great energy and popular eloquence,
and Henry Vane, afterwards Sir Henry Vane, a young man distinguished for his
intelligence and integrity. By his correct deportment and winning manners,
the latter so won upon the colonists, that the year following they elected
him governor; an "unwise choice," states an 1800s historian; "for neither
the age nor the distinction of Vane entitled him to the honor."
And the colonists soon had
reason to repent their choice. During his administration, the celebrated
Anne Hutchinson, a woman of
great eloquence and enthusiasm, advanced certain mystical doctrines, one of
which was the monstrous doctrine that the elected saints might be assured of
their salvation, however vicious their lives might be. Many embraced her
views and supported her cause; among whom were Governor Vane, and Messrs.,
Cotton and Wheelright, two
distinguished clergymen. Governor Winthrop, and a majority of the
churches, however, deemed her sentiments heretical and seditious. Great
excitement for a time prevailed among the people; conferences were held,
fasts observed; and, at length, a general synod was called, by which her
opinions were condemned, and she and some of her adherents were banished
from the colony. Failing to be reelected, Governor Vane returned the
following year to England. Mrs. Hutchinson sought an asylum among the Dutch,
near New York, where she and her family, except one daughter, were some time
afterwards massacred by the Indians.
As many of the pilgrims were
persons of liberal education, they were able to appreciate the importance of
learning to the rising commonwealth, as among its surest safeguards. As
early as 1636, therefore, the General Court had laid the foundation of a
public school or college, by the appropriation of four hundred pounds; and
which, the next year, was located at Newtown. In 1638, Reverend John
Harvard, a pious minister of Charlestown, dying, left to the institution
upwards of three thousand dollars. In consideration of this liberal
benefaction, the General Court gave to the institution the name of
"Harvard College;" and, in memory of the place where many of the first New
England settlers had received their education, that part of Newtown in which
the college was located received the name of "Cambridge." As early as 1647,
Massachusetts required by law that every township which had fifty
householders should have a schoolhouse and employ a teacher, and that such
as had one thousand freeholders should have a grammar school.
The next event of importance in
our history is the union of the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth,
Connecticut and New Haven, by the name of The United Colonies of New
England. The articles of this confederation, which had been agitated for
three years, were signed May, 1643. To this union the colonies were strongly
urged by a sense of common danger from the Indians, and by the claims and
encroachments of the Dutch at Manhattan, New York.
By those articles, each colony
retained its distinct and separate government. No two colonies might be
united into one, nor any colony be received into the confederacy, without
the consent of the whole. Each colony was to elect two commissioners, who
should meet annually, and at other times if necessary, and should determine
"all affairs of war and peace, of leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men
for war," etc.Upon notice that any colony was invaded, the rest were
immediately to dispatch assistance.
This union subsisted more than
forty years, until the charters of the colonies were either taken away or
suspended by James II and his commissioners. In 1648, Rhode Island
petitioned to be admitted to this confederacy, but was denied, unless she
would be incorporated with Plymouth, and lose her separate existence. This
she refused, and was consequently excluded. The effects of this union on the
New England colonies were, in a high degree, salutary. On the completion of
it, several Indian sachems, among whom were the chiefs of the Narragansett
and Mohegan tribes, came forward and submitted to the English
government. The colonies, also, became formidable, by means of it, to the
Dutch. This union was also made subservient to the civil and religious
improvement of the Indians.
Prior to this period, Mr.
Mayhew and the devoted John Eliot had made considerable progress towards
modernizing the
Indians, and converting
them to Christianity. They had learned the Indian language, and had preached
to the Indians in their own tongue. Upon a report in England of what these
men had done, a society was formed for propagating the Gospel among the
Indians, which sent over books, money, etc., to be distributed by the
commissioners of the United Colonies. The Indians, at first, made great
opposition to Christianity; and such was their aversion to it, that, had
they not been over-awed by the United Colonies, it is probable they would
have put to death those among them who embraced it. Such, however, were the
ardor, energy and ability, of Messrs. Mayhew and Eliot, aided by the
countenance and support of government, and seemingly blessed by Providence,
that, in 1660, there were ten towns of converted Indians in Massachusetts.
In 1695, there were not less than three thousand adult Indian converts, in
the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
With the history of
Massachusetts, the early history of New Hampshire and of the Province of
Maine, is intimately connected. As early as 1641, the settlements
which existed in the former were incorporated with Massachusetts; and in
1652, the inhabitants in the latter were, at their own request, taken under
her protection. As early as 1626, a few feeble settlements were commenced
along the coast of Maine; but before they had gathered much strength, the "Plymouth Council" granted to several companies portions of the same
territory, from the Piscataqua to the Penobscot. These conflicting patents
gave rise, in after years, to long and angry litigation.
In 1639, Sir Ferdinand Gorges,
who had obtained a royal charter of the province, first established a
government over it, and the following year a General Court was held in Saco
Maine. His death occurring in 1649, the officers whom he had appointed
deserted it, upon which the inhabitants found it necessary td provide for
themselves, and accordingly sought the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.
In 1664 a royal fleet, destined
for the reduction of the Dutch colonies on the Hudson, arrived in Boston, on
board of which were four commissioners--Colonel Nichols, commander of the
fleet, Sir Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Richard Maverick--authorized
and directed to look after the colonies of his majesty, and to proceed to
settle the peace and security of the country. King Charles entertained no
good will towards them, and the measure was considered a hostile one.
The conduct of the
commissioners was exceedingly arbitrary and offensive. Under pretext of
executing their commission, they received complaints against the colonies
from the Indians; required persons, against the consent of the people, to be
admitted to the privileges of freemen, to church membership, and full
communion; heard and decided in causes which had already been determined by
the established courts; and gave protection to criminals. After involving
the colonies in great embarrassment and expense, although little attention
was paid to their acts, they were recalled, and the colonies enjoyed a
season of peace and prosperity, until the break out of
King Philip's War.
Return to History of Massachusetts
Colony
|
|
