1630. them, at the common charge. At the same session the court ordered, that Morton, of Mount Wollaston, be presently sent for; settled the price of the labour of mechanics; and chose Mr. Bradstreet secretary. 2 It was the general intention of the company to settle at Charlestown; where the governor ordered his house to be framed; but, the prevalence of a mortal sickness, ascribed to the badness of the water, induced several of the people to explore the neighbouring country, for more eligible situations. Some of them travelled up into the main land, until they came to the place recently visited by Mr. Warham and others; and here Sir Watertown Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Phillips, and some others, settled a plantation. settled. On the south side of the mouth of the river Charles, on a peninsula, called by the natives Shawmut, but by the English, Trimountain, there lived at that time, in a solitary cottage, Mr. William Blackstone, an episcopal minister. Coming over to Charlestown at this time, he informed the governor of an excellent spring of water at Shawmut, and invited him over to his side of the river. Mr. Johnson and the principal gentlemen of the company, induced by this invitation, crossed the river; and, Boston set finding the place as eligible as they had been led to expect, they began a settlement there by the erection of small cottages.3 tled. Sept. 7. sistants. Towns named. At the second court of assistants, holden at Charlestown, it was ordered, that no person should plant in any place within the limits of the patent, without leave from the governor and assistants, or the major part of them; that a warrant should presently be sent. to Agawam, to command those who were planted there to come immediately away; and that Trimountain be called Boston; Matapan, Dorchester; and the town on Charles river, Watertown. The governor with most of the assistants, about 1 Sir Richard Saltonstall undertook to see this provision made at his plantation, for Mr. Phillips; and the governor, at the other plantation, for Mr. Wilson. Mr. Phillips was to have £30 a year; Mr. Wilson, until his wife should come over, £20. Matapan and Salem were excepted, in the order of the court. Prince, 313, 314, from Mass. colony Records. 2 Winthrop, N. Eng. i. 30, with the Editor's note. Morton was sent to England, with a messenger and letters of information against him to the New England council, in 1628; but the council did not even rebuke him, and he returned to Massachusetts the next year. Prince, 252. from gov. Bradford. The order, relating to the price of labour, was, that carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawyers, and thatchers, take no more than two shillings a day, on penalty of ten shillings to giver and taker. 3 Prince, 309–312. Pemberton's Description of Boston in Collections of Mass. Hist. Society, iii. 241, 242. Wood [N. Eng. Prospect, 128.] wrote the aboriginal name of Charlestown, Misham, and of Boston, Mishamut; but Mr. Pemberton and others, Mishawum and Shawmut. Mr. Prince supposed the peninsula, "whose Indian name was Shawmut" [now Boston], was called at first by the English Trimountain "on the account of three contiguous Hills appearing in a range to those of Charlestown." See Snow's Hist. of Boston, c. 6. this time, removed their families to Boston; having it in contem- 1630. plation to look for a convenient place for the erection of a fortified town. Mr. Pynchon with some others chose a place for settle- Roxbury ment between Dorchester and Boston, and called it Roxbury.2 settled. ral court of Boston. The first general court of the Massachusetts colony was holden Oct. 19. at Boston. At this court many of the first planters attended, First geneand were made free of the colony. This was the first general Massachucourt which the freemen attended in person. It was now enact- setts at ed, that the freemen should in future have power to choose assistants, when they are to be chosen; and the assistants were empowered to choose out of their own number the governor and deputy governor, who, with the assistants, were to have the power of making laws, and choosing officers for the execution of them. This measure was now fully assented to by the general vote of the people; but when the general court convened, early the next year, it rescinded this rule, and ordained, that the governor, deputy governor, and assistants, should be chosen by the freemen alone. Upwards of 100 persons now expressed their desire to be made freemen.3 healths In consideration of the inconveniences that had arisen in Eng- Custom of land from the custom of drinking healths, governor Winthrop drinking restrained the practice at his own table, and discountenanced it abolished. among the people; whence it became gradually abolished.4 The infant colony sustained a great loss in the death of Isaac Death of I. Johnson; who was the first magistrate that died in Massachu- Johnson. setts. He was distinguished for piety, wisdom, and public spirit; was one of the five undertakers; and a principal founder of the town of Boston. He was buried in his own lot; and the first burying place in Boston was laid out around his grave.5 1 Hubbard, c. 25. Johnson, Hist. N. Eng. or W. Prov. 39. Prince, 315, 316. Deputy governor Dudley, in his Letter to the countess of Lincoln, says, " they had before intended to call the place they first resolved on, BOSTON;" and Hubbard, that it was so called "on the account of Mr. Cotton"-the then famous Puritan minister of Boston in England (adds Mr. Prince), for whom they had the highest reverence, and of whose coming over they were doubtless in some hopeful prospect. See A. D. 1633. 2 Hubbard, c. 25. p. 135. Dudley's Letter to the countess of Lincoln in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. viii. 39. 3 Prince, 320, 321, from Mass. colony MS. Records, where he gives "the first list" of the principal applicants; "but," he subjoins, “many of them seem not be made freemen till May 18, 1631. See that year. Johnson (W. Prov. 39.) says, the number of freemen, this year, was 110; but we rely on the Record. See Chalmers, b. 1. 153. 4 Winthrop, i. 37, with the Editor's note, respecting a MS. paper of gov. Winthrop, containing reasons for a law against this custom. See NOTE XXVI. 5 Winthrop, i. 34. Prince, 318, 319, 333, 334. The five undertakers were governor Winthrop, deputy governor Dudley, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, Esq. and Mr. Revell.-Isaac Johnson died 30 September. "He was a holy man, and wise," says gov. Winthrop, "and died in sweet peace, leaving some part of his substance to the colony." Dudley says of him: "This gentleman was a prime man among us, having the best estate of any; zealous for 1630. Hilton's patent. Execution. Nova Scotia The west country adventurers were not less attentive to their interest, than those who had just obtained a patent for New Hampshire. In the spring of this year, they obtained from the council of Plymouth a patent for Edward Hilton, for all that part of the river Pascataqua known by the name of Hilton's Point, with the south side of the river up to the falls of Squamscot, and three miles in breadth into the main land. The patent sets forth, that Hilton and his associates had, at their own proper cost and charges, transported servants, built houses, and planted corn at Hilton's Point, and intended the farther increase and advancement of the plantation.1 John Billington, indicted for murder, was found guilty, and executed. This was the first execution in Plymouth colony.2 Sir William Alexander sold all his right in Nova Scotia, exsold to La cepting Port Royal, to St. Etienne, lord of La Tour, a French Huguenot; on condition, that the inhabitants of the territory should continue subjects of the Scottish crown. The French still retained possession.3 Tour. religion, and the greatest furtherer of this plantation. He made a most godly Hilton's Point is now called Dover. See A. D. 2 Hubbard, c. 17. Prince, 319, from gov. Bradford, who says: "He was one of the profanest among us. He was from London, and I know not by what friends shuffled into our company. We used all due means about his trial; he was found guilty both by grand and petty jury; and we took the advice of Mr. Winthrop, and others, the ablest gentlemen in the Massachusetts Bay, who all concurred with us, that he ought to die, and the land be purged from blood." He was guilty of the first offence in the colony in 1621, when he suffered an ignominious punishment. Gov. Bradford, writing to Mr. Cushman in 1625, says, Billington still rails against you, and threatens to arrest you, I know not wherefore; he is a knave, and so will live and die." Letter Book in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 37. Savage's Winthrop, i. 36, Note. It was a son of this man, who in 1621 discovered the lake that from him has the name of the Billington sea. 3 Chalmers, b. 1. 93. Conduite de Françoise, 103. Brit. Emp. i. 170. This Grant is in Hazard, i. 307-309, and the style of it is, " My lord William Alexander, knight, lord of Menstrie, and chief Secretary of State for the Kingdome of Scotland, for his said Majesty of Great Bretany, Privy Counseller of State, and The Dutch continuing their pretensions to the land lately set- 1630. tled by the Swedes, one of the Swedes built a fort within the capes of Delaware, at a place called Hoarkill.1 Staten Island was purchased of the Indians by Michael Paw, Staten a Dutch subject.2 island. Sir Robert Heath, attorney general of Charles I, obtained a Grant of grant of the region, which stretches southward of the Virginia Carolana. coast from the 36th degree of north latitude, comprehending the Louisiana territory on the Mississippi, by the name of Carolana. He appears to have made no settlement, and at a future day his patent was declared to have become void because the conditions, on which it had been granted, had never been fulfilled.3 Charles I. issued a proclamation, forbidding the disorderly Nov. 24. trading with the savages in New England, especially the fur- Proclamanishing of them with weapons and habiliments of war.4 Francis Higginson, minister of Salem, died, aged 46 years.5 Lieutenant unto his said Majestie in New Scotland in America, on the one part," 1 Smith, N. Jersey, 22. The place has since been called Lewis Town. 2 Coll. N. York Hist. Soc. iii. 323. It was purchased by Lovelace in 1670. 3 Coxe, Carolana. Univ. Hist. xl. 274-278. Chalmers, b. 1. 515–517. See A. D. 1663. Historians say, that Sir Robert Heath conveyed his right to the earl of Arundel; that this earl was at the expense of planting several parts of the country, but that the civil wars, breaking out, put a stop to the design; that, by different conveyances, the property of the whole country devolved at length on Dr. Cox, who, at great expense, discovered part of it, and, in a memorial to king William, incontestibly proved his claim to it; and that his son, Daniel Cox Esq. who resided fourteen years in the country, continued his father's claim, and published a very full account of it. The province of Carolana extended north and south from the river St. Matheo, lying, according to the patent, between 31° and 36° n. lat. and in longitude from the Atlantic ocean to New Mexico," now in possession of the Spaniards, which is in a direct line above 1000 miles, and were not inhabited by them, unto the South Sea." It was distinct from Carolina, though they were "bordering provinces, the east of Carolana joyning to the west of Carolina. It comprehends within its bounds the greatest part of the province of Carolina, whose proprietors derive their claim and pretensions by charters from king Charles II. about 30 years after the grant to Sir Robert Heath." Coxe, c. 1. See A. D. 1663. 4 Chalmers, b. 1. 168. This proclamation is in Hazard, Coll. i. 311, 312. 5 Mr. Higginson was educated at Emanuel college in Cambridge, and was the first minister of a church in Leicester in England. Becoming afterward a nonconformist, he was excluded from the parish pulpit; but he was held in such high esteem by several conformist ministers, that his services were often requested by them; and he also obtained leave to preach a lecture in Leicester. He was a zealous and useful preacher; mild in his doctrine, but strict in his discipline. He was grave in his deportment, cautious in his decisions, firm to his purposes, and exemplary in his life. He died on the 6th of August, exactly tion. cut. 1631. March 19. ROBERT, earl of Warwick, having the last year received a Original grant from the council of Plymouth of all that part of New patent of Connecti- 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 Feb. 29. grant. 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. borne to trade. Isle of Kent 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 W. Clay 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 of Chesapeak, planted a small colony on the Isle of Kent, situated in Maryin the centre of the province, soon after granted to lord Baltiland plantmore. 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 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. |