March 19. Original patent of Connecti

cut.

Feb. 29.

grant.

1631.

ROBERT, earl of Warwick, having the last year received a grant from the council of Plymouth of all that part of New England, which extends from Narraganset river 120 miles on a strait line near the shore toward the southeast, as the coast lies toward Virginia, and within that breadth from the Atlantic ocean to the South sea, now made it over to William, viscount Say and Seal, Robert, lord Brook, and their associates. This is the original patent for CONNECTICUT.1

The president and council for New England made a grant to Pemaquid Robert Aldworth and Giles Elbridge of 100 acres of land for every person, whom they should transport to the Province of Maine within seven years, who should continue there three years; and an absolute grant of 12,000 acres of land, "as their proper inheritance forever," to be laid out near the river, commonly called Pemaquid.2

Virginia.

May. License to W. Clay

borne to

trade.

King Charles gave a special commission to the earl of Dorset and others, "for the better plantation of Virginia." The same king granted a license, under the sign manual, to William Clayborne, "to traffic in those parts of America, for which there was already no patent granted for sole trade." Clayborne, and his associates, with the intention of monopolizing the trade Isle of Kent of Chesapeak, planted a small colony on the Isle of Kent, situated in Maryin the centre of the province, soon after granted to lord Baltimore. That province afterward found cause to regret, that a people had nestled within its limits, who paid unwilling obedience to its laws. Neither the soil, nor the climate, of the inhospitable island of Newfoundland answering the expectations of lord Baltimore; that worthy nobleman, having heard much of the fertility and other advantages of Virginia, now visited that colony. Observing, that, though the Virginians had established trading houses in some of the islands toward the source of the bay of

land plant

ed.

Lord Balti

more visits Virginia.

one year from the organization of his church; but "he lived long enough to secure the foundation of his church, to deserve the esteem of the colony, and to perpetuate his venerated name among those of the worthies of New England.” Mather, Magnal. b. 1. 18, 19. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. i. 117–124. MS. from the Church Records penes me. Eliot and Allen, Biog. Dict. Art. HIGGINSON. Hist. Sketch of First Church in Salem, in Appendix to Dedication Sermon, 1826. 1 Trumbull, Hist. Connecticut, i. b. 1. c. 2. A copy of this Patent is in Hazard, Coll. i. 318; and in Trumbull, Conn. i. Appendix, No. I. The other patentees were Robert, lord Rich, Charles Fiennes, Esq. Sir Nathaniel Rich, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Richard Knightly, John Pym, John Hampden, John Humphreys, and Herbert Pelham, Esquires. The tract now conveyed had been confirmed to the earl of Warwick by Charles I.

2 Hazard, Coll. i. 315-317, where is an abstract of this grant, called "The Pemaquid Grant." It appears that "the people or servants" of Aldworth and Elbridge had been settled on this river three years.

Chesapeak, they had formed no settlements to the northward of 1631. the river Potowmac, he determined to procure a grant of territory in that happier climate. Charles I. readily complied with his solicitations; but before the patent could be finally adjusted, and pass the seals, this eminent statesman died.1

A grant was obtained by the London adventurers, from the Grant of president and counsel of New England, of a part of the patent Pascataqua, of Laconia, situated on both sides of the harbour and river of Pascataqua. Within this grant are comprehended the towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, and Rye, with part of Newington and Greenland. The grantees were Sir Ferdinando Gorges, captain John Mason, John Cotton, Henry Gardner, George Griffith, Edwin Guy, Thomas Wannerton, Thomas Eyre, and Eleazer Eyre. The proprietors, for the defence of their plantations, sent over several cannon, directing their agents to mount them in the most convenient place for a fort. The agents placed them at the north east point of Great Island at the mouth of the harbour, and laid out the ground "about a bow-shot from the water side to a high rock, on which it was intended in time to build the principal fort." Portsmouth began to be settled this year.2

town is be

gun;

The Massachusetts colonists early determined to build a forti- A fortified fied town. The governor, with the assistants and other principal persons, having already agreed on a place for this purpose, on the northwest side of Charles river, about three miles from Charlestown; they, in the spring of this year, commenced the execution of the design. The governor set up the frame of a house on the spot where he first pitched his tent, in the selected place. The deputy governor completed his house, and removed his family. The town was taken under the patronage of the government, and was called Newtown [afterward Cambridge], and is called It soon appearing, however, that Boston would be the principal place of commerce; and Chickatabot, a sagamore of the neighbouring Indians at Naponset, now making voluntary professions of friendship; governor Winthrop, in the autumn, removed the

1 Chalmers, b. 1. 201, 207. The commission to the earl of Dorset is in Hazard, i. 312-314. Lord Baltimore died 15 April 1632.

2 Hubbard, c. 31. Belknap, N. Hamp. i. c. 1. Humphrey Chadbourne built a house at Strawberry-bank which was called the great house. Walter Gibbons had the care of a saw inill, and lived in a palisaded house at Newichwannock, where he carried on a trade with the Indians. Newichwannock is Salmon Fall river. [Farmer and Moore, Gazetteer of N. Hampshire, Art. PasCATAQUA and COCHECO.] Gibbons was succeeded at Newichwannoch by Chadbourne, whose posterity have been distinguished there [Berwick] to our day. Great Island is now called Newcastle. "It was formerly the seat of business when the ancient Strawberry Bank was but the germ of Portsmouth.” Farmer, MS. Letter. "Ambrose Gibbons" writes " from Newichwanicke " 24 June 1633.

Newtown.

1631. frame of his house into Boston; and the scheme of a fortified town was gradually relinquished.'

May 18.
Qualifica

tions of
freemen.

Winesemet

lished.

July 5.

At the first court of election in Massachusetts, "that the body of the commons might be preserved of good and honest men," it was ordered, that, from that time, no persons be admitted to the freedom of the body politic, but such as were members of some of the churches within its limits.2 At this election, 116 took the oath of freemen.3

Thomas Williams having undertaken to set up a ferry between ferry estab- Winesemet and Charlestown, the general court established the rate of the ferry between those two places, and between Winesemet and Boston. An order of the court of assistants at Public tax. Boston, for levying £30 on the several plantations, for clearing a creek, and opening a passage from Charles river to the new town, shows that this town was yet designed for the benefit of the colony at large; and marks the progress of the several towns in the colony.5 The court of assistants ordered, that corn should for pass of all debts at the usual rate for which it was payment sold, unless money or beaver were expressly named.

Oct. 18. Corn made a legal tender.

1 Winthrop's Hist. 39. Prince, 325, 326. Hist. of Cambridge, in Mass. Hist. Soc. vii. 6-8 ; & viii. 41. They first agreed (6 December 1630) "to build a town fortified upon the Neck" between Roxbury and Boston; but that place was soon after given up; 1. Because men would be forced to keep two families. 2. There was no running water; and if there were any springs, they would not suffice the town. 3. Most of the people had built already, and would not be able to build again. After many consultations, the place, described in the text, having been agreed on by all to be "a fit place for a fortified town," was determinately fixed. On this spot a town was laid out in squares, the streets intersecting each other at right angles. All the streets were named; and a square, reserved for a Market Place, though not used for that purpose, remains open to this day.

2 Hubbard, c. 26. Johnson, N. Eng. 39. Mass. Colony Laws. This law was repealed in 1665.

3 Prince, 1631. Johnson says, "about 83," and Hubbard, 107; but I follow Prince, who cites an original and the best authority, Mass. Colony Records. Hubbard says truly, "there were enough for a foundation." Mr. Prince gives a list of the names of many of the 116 who now took the oath of freemen, 19 of whom were of those who had desired freedom 19 Oct. 1630.

4 Prince, 324, 354. The court enacted, that he should have 3d. a person from Winnisimmet to Charlestown, and 4d. from Winnisimmet to Boston. 5 Ibid. 357. The order was, that there be levied from

6 Prince, 362, from Mass. Colony Records. Chalmers, b. 1. 154. In 1630, corn was 10 shillings "a strike;" and beaver, 6 shillings a pound. we made laws," says Dudley," to restrain selling corn to the Indians; and to leave the price of beaver at liberty, which was presently sold for 10s. and 20s. a pound." Prince. A milch cow, in 1631, was valued from £25 to £30 sterl. Hutchinson, i. 27.

John Smith, father of the Virginia colony, died in London, in 1631. the 52d year of his age.1

The small pox, breaking out among the natives at Saugus, swept away the aboriginal inhabitants of whole towns.2

The Swedes built a fort on the west of the Delaware, and called Swedes setit Christiana. Peter Lindstrom, their engineer, having at this the at Delaplace laid out a small town, they here made their first settlement.3

ware.

Discoveries

After a long relaxation of the spirit of enterprise, Lucas Fox Voyage of L. Fox. made a voyage to the northern parts of America, in search of a northwest passage to India. Toward this enterprise Charles I. furnished one ship, completely fitted, and victualled for 18 months; and, when Fox was presented to him, gave him a map, containing all the discoveries made by his predecessors, with instructions, and a letter to the Japanese emperor, if he should reach Japan. Near the main land on the west side of Hudson's about HudBay, Fox discovered an island, which he named Sir Thomas son's Bay. Roe's Welcome; and afterward discovered and named Brook Cobham Island (now called Marble Island), Dun Fox Island, and a cluster of islands, which he called Briggs's Mathematics. He also discovered king Charles's Promontory, Cape Maria, Trinity Islands, Cook's Isle, lord Weston's Portland, and the land stretching to the southeast of this last promontory, which he called Fox's Farthest. On his return, he gave names to every point of land on that coast, and to every inlet, and adjacent island.4

About the same time, Thomas James was sent out by some of Voyage of the company of merchant adventurers in Bristol for discovering T. James. a northwest passage to the South Sea, and to India. Furnished with a ship, called the Henrietta Maria, of 70 tons, victualled for 18 months, and 21 men, he sailed from Bristol on the 3d of May. On the 4th of June, he made Greenland. After extreme danger from the ice, he went ashore on the 22d at the

1 Josselyn's Voyage. For the life and character of this great man, see "The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of captain John Smith, into Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, from A. D. 1593 to 1629" in Churchill's Voyages, and lately reprinted in Virginia; Belknap's Biog. i. 319; Allen's Biog. Art. SMITH.

2 I. Mather, N. Eng. 23. When Dr. I. Mather wrote, there were living some old planters, who, on that occasion, helped to bury whole families of the natives at once. In one of the wigwams they found an infant sucking at the breast of its dead mother; every Indian of the place being dead. Many, when seized with the disease, were deserted by their relations, and "died helpless," unless relieved by the English, who visited their wigwams, and contributed all in their power to their assistance. Johnson, N. Eng. 52.

3 Holm, Provincien Nya Swerige, uti America. Extracts from a Translation, in Coll. N. York Hist. Soc. ii. 354, 355. "Hopokahacking, that is, Christiana fort. This was the first that was built," by "the Sweeds, when they came in the country in the year 1631." See Smith, N. Jersey, 22.

4 Forster, Voy. 359-367. Anderson, A. D. 1631.

James' Voyage. Dobbs' Hudson's Bay, 79

1631. island of Resolution; built a great beacon with stones upon the highest place of the island; set up a cross upon it; and named the harbour, The Harbour of God's Providence. In latitude 57° he named the land, The New Principality of South Wales. On the 29th of August, he spoke with his majesty's ship, under command of captain Fox, lying at anchor, from which he separated the next day. In very nearly the latitude of 55° he named a cape land Cape Henrietta Maria, but which Forster says, "is no other than Wolstenholme's Ultimum Vale." In latitude 53° 5' he saw an island, which he named Weston's Island; and, soon after, another, which he named Earl of Bristol's Island; and afterwards another, in latitude 52°, which he named Earl of Danby's Island. On another island, in latitude 52° 3', which he named Charleston Island, he landed, and here remained with his crew through the winter. Upon this island, just before his departure for England, he raised a cross, made of a very high tree, upon which he fastened pictures of the king and queen; doubly wrapt in lead, with the royal title: "Charles the first king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland; as also of New-foundland, and of these territories, and to the westward, as farre as Nova Albion, and to the northward to the latitude of 80 degrees,..." Captain James made more considerable discoveries in Hudson's Bay than either Hudson, Button, or Baffin had previously made; yet both he and his contemporary voyager, captain Fox, returned home, unsuccessful.1

March 17:
Nova Scotia

1632.

CHARLES I, by the treaty of St. Germain, resigned the right and Canada which he had claimed to New France, Acadie, and Canada, restored to as the property of England, to Lewis XIII. king of France.

France.