Part 1

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.

Superscript letters are denoted by ^, for example y^e and Serv^t. A number following the ^ indicates the generation of the family, for example Joseph,^3 is in the third generation of the (Parsons) family.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

More detail can be found at the end of the book.

=VOL. I. JULY, 1847. NO. 3.=

THE

NEW ENGLAND

=HISTORICAL & GENEALOGICAL REGISTER:=

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY,

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE

NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC, GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY.

REV. WILLIAM COGSWELL, D. D., EDITOR.

BOSTON: SAMUEL G. DRAKE, PUBLISHER, NO. 56 CORNHILL. 1847.

COOLIDGE & WILEY, Printers, 12 Water Street.

CONTENTS.

Page

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.

VOL. I. JULY, 1847. NO. 3.

MEMOIR OF GOVERNOR ENDECOTT.[1]

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,[2] 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.

In the year 1624, the success of this plantation was so favorably represented in the West of England, that the Rev. John White, a distinguished minister in Dorchester, prevailed upon some merchants and others to undertake another settlement in New England. Having provided a common stock, they sent over several persons to begin a plantation at Cape Ann, where they were joined by some disaffected individuals from the Plymouth settlement. This project was soon abandoned as unprofitable, and a portion of the settlers removed westward within the territory of Naumkeag, which then included what is now Manchester. By the intercession and great exertions of Mr. White, the project of a settlement in that quarter was not altogether relinquished, but a new company was soon afterwards formed. One of this company, and the principal one to carry its objects into immediate effect, was the subject of this Memoir. He was in the _strictest_ sense of the word a _Puritan_,--one of a sect composed, as an able foreign writer has said, of the "most remarkable body of men which perhaps the world has ever produced. They were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging in general terms an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the homage of the soul. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language; nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand."

* * * * *

JOHN ENDECOTT, whose name is so intimately associated with the first settlement of this country, and with whose early history his own is so closely interwoven, that, in the language of the late Rev. Dr. Bentley,[3] "above all others he deserved the name of _the_ FATHER OF NEW ENGLAND," was born in Dorchester, Dorsetshire, England, in the year 1588. He was a man of good intellectual endowments and mental culture, and of a fearless and independent spirit, which well fitted him for the various and trying duties he was destined to perform. Of his early life, and private and domestic character, little is known; neither are we much better informed as to his parentage, except that his family was of respectable standing and moderate fortunes. He belonged to that class in England called esquires, or gentlemen, composed mostly at that period of the independent landholders of the realm. With the exception, therefore, of a few leading incidents, we are reluctantly obliged to pass over nearly the whole period of Mr. Endecott's life, previous to his engaging in the enterprise for the settlement of New England. History is almost silent upon the subject, and the tradition of the family has been but imperfectly transmitted and preserved. His letters, the only written productions which are left us, furnish internal evidence that he was a man of liberal education and cultivated mind. There are proofs of his having been, at some period of his life, a surgeon;[4] yet, as he is always alluded to, in the earliest records of the Massachusetts Company, by the title of Captain, there can be no doubt whatever that at some time previous to his emigration to this country, he had held a commission in the army; and his subsequently passing through the several military grades to that of Sergeant Major-General of Massachusetts, justifies this conclusion, while the causes which led to this change in his profession cannot now be ascertained.

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.[5] 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.

Under the guidance and influence of the Rev. Mr. Skelton, he embraced the principles of the Puritans; and in the beginning of the year 1628, associated himself with Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, Simon Whetcomb, John Humphrey, and Thomas Southcoat, in the purchase of a grant, "by a considerable sum of money," for the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay, from the Plymouth Council in England. This grant was subsequently confirmed by Patent from Charles I. Mr. Endecott was one of the original patentees, and among the first of that company who emigrated to this country.

Whatever may have been the objects of the first settlers generally in colonizing New England, there can be no doubt that _his_ was the establishment and enjoyment of the gospel and its ordinances, as he supposed, in primitive purity, unmolested. With him it was wholly a religious enterprise.

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.

"_John Endicat, twice Governur of the English, inhabiting the Mattachusets Bay in N. England._

"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."

To this company, under Endecott, belongs the honor of having formed the first permanent and legally recognized settlement of the Massachusetts Colony. We do not say that they were the _first_ white men who ever trod the soil; for we know when Endecott landed on these shores, he found here a few fishermen and others, the remnant of a planting, trading, and fishing establishment, previously commenced at Cape Ann, under the auspices of some gentlemen belonging to Dorchester, his native place, but soon abandoned for want of success. Their leader, the Rev. John Lyford, had already emigrated to Virginia, and those of that company who removed their effects to Salem, consisted at that time of some five or six persons, most of whom were seceders from the settlement at Plymouth. They were, however, only sojourners, disaffected with the place, and requiring all the interest and entreaties of the Rev. John White, a noted minister in Dorchester, to prevent them from forsaking it altogether, and following Mr. Lyford to Virginia.[6] But higher motives and deeper purposes fired the souls and stimulated the hearts of Mr. Endecott and his friends to commence a settlement, and to form new homes for themselves and their posterity in this wilderness, before which the mere considerations of traffic and gain sink into comparative insignificance. It was the love of religion implanted deep in the heart, that gave impulse and permanency to the settlement at Naumkeag, and the Massachusetts Colony generally; and the commencement of this era was the arrival of Endecott with the first detachment of those holy and devout men who valued earthly pursuits only so far as they were consistent with religion. It was also at this period that a sort of definite reality was imparted to this region. Previously to this it had been viewed as a sort of _terra incognita_, situated somewhere in the wilderness of America. But the arrival of the Pilgrims at this time dispelled the uncertainty in which it had before been wrapped, and at the same time threw around it the warmest sympathies and most earnest solicitude of large numbers who had now become deeply interested in its welfare. We, therefore, consider the landing of Endecott at this place, as emphatically the commencement of its permanent settlement, as an asylum for the persecuted and oppressed of the Mother Country. All previous visitors were comparatively adventurers, with motives and purposes widely different from those of that little band who first rested upon this spot on the 6th of September, 1628. On that day, so to speak, was breathed into the settlement of Naumkeag the breath of life, and it became as it were endued with a living soul, folding within its embrace the dearest interests and most cherished rights of humanity, unrivalled in the interest she will ever excite as the most ancient town in the Massachusetts Patent.

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 alteration which now took place in the affairs of the infant colony did not meet with favor from the first planters, and for a while prevented perfect harmony from prevailing in the settlement. "One of the subjects of discord was the propriety of raising tobacco, Mr. Endecott and his council believing such a production, except for medicinal purposes, injurious both to health and morals." Besides this, they probably viewed with no favorable eye the agreement in sentiment between Mr. Endecott and the Plymouth Church as to the propriety of abolishing the ritual forms of worship of the Church of England; for an adherence to which they had already been obliged to leave the Plymouth settlement. Mr. Endecott represented these difficulties to the home government; and in answer to his communication they say, "That it may appear as well to all the worlde as to the old planters themselves, that we seke not to make them slaves, as it seems by your letter some of them think themselves to be become by means of our patent, they are allowed to be partakers with us in all the privileges we have with so much labor and intercession obtained from the King; to be incorporated into the society, and enjoy not only those lands which formerly they have manured, but such a further proportion as the civil authorities think best." They were also allowed the _exclusive_ privilege of raising their favorite weed--tobacco.

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.

The answer to this letter bears the date of April 19, 1629, wherein they inform him, that the Company "are much enlarged since his departure out of England," and for strengthening their grant from the Council at Plymouth, they had obtained a confirmation of it from his Majesty by his Letters Patent, under the broad seal of England; incorporating them into a body politic, with ample powers to govern and rule all his Majesty's subjects that reside within the limits of their plantation; and that, in prosecution of the good opinion they have always entertained of him, they have confirmed him Governor of the Colony. No adventitious circumstances of fortune or birth aided him in his appointment to this, even then responsible office; for although the Colony was at this time few in numbers and feeble in effort, yet in its success were involved the most momentous interests, and every thing depended upon the right impulse and direction being given to its affairs. In the words of the Record, "having taken into due consideration the _meritt_, _worth_, and _good desert_ of Captain John Endecott, and others lately gone over from hence, with purpose to resyde and continue there, wee have with full consent and authoritie of this Court, and ereccon of hands, chosen and elected the said Captain John Endecott to the place of present Governour of said Plantation." They further speak of the confidence they repose in him, in thus committing the affairs of the Colony into his hands. Gov. Cradock also compliments him upon his motives and conduct; and the Company inform him, that they are disappointed of the provisions ordered to be sent for himself and Mrs. Endecott, but (God willing,) they purpose to send them by the next vessel. It is also believed that at this time Mr. Endecott ordered the fruit-trees, which afterwards constituted his orchard upon the farm granted him in 1632, of which one venerable patriarch, the celebrated old pear-tree, yet remains, having withstood the "peltings of pitiless storms" for upwards of two hundred winters, and still dropping down its rich fruit into the bosoms of his distant descendants.

In a second letter, dated the 28th of May following, the Company remark: "Wee have sithence our last, and according as we there advised, at a _full_ and _ample_ Court assembled _elected_ and _established_ you, Captain John Endecott, to the place of present Governour of our Plantation there, as also some others to be of the Council with you, as more particularly you will perceive by an Act of Court herewith sent, confirmed by us at a General Court and sealed with our common seal."

The model of the Government established by this "Act of Court," consisted of a Governor, and twelve persons as a Council, styled "THE GOVERNOUR AND COUNCIL OF LONDON'S PLANTATION IN THE MATTACHUSETTS BAY IN NEW ENGLAND." They were to elect a Deputy-Governor, for the time being, from among their number; were authorized also to choose a Secretary and other needful officers. They were empowered to fill vacancies in their body, occasioned by death or otherwise. The Governor, or in his absence the Deputy, might call Courts at pleasure, and they had power to establish any laws not at variance with those of England; "to administer justice upon malefactors, and inflict condign punishment upon all offenders." To make an act valid, the Governor or his Deputy was always to vote with the majority. A form of oath was sent over at this time to be administered to Mr. Endecott as Governor, and one also for the other officers of the government. He took the oath and was inducted into office. Here, then, we conceive, is direct and incontrovertible testimony that Endecott was appointed the _first_ Governor of Massachusetts under its Colonial Charter from the King. It is so stated by Joselyn, Hutchinson, and Prince. He received the Charter, and the documentary evidence of his constitutional authority as Governor, both at the same time. To Mr. Endecott was given, to act under it, all the powers which his immediate successors ever exercised. They were conferred upon him too, by the same body who subsequently elected Mr. Winthrop to that office. The abolishment of the board of control in England, and the transfer of "the government of the plantation to those that shall inhabit there," and instead of choosing the Colonial Governors in Old England by members of the Company there, to choose them by members of the same Company who were in New England, could not weaken the validity of his claim to be considered the _first_ Governor of the Massachusetts Colony.