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 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.* 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 gener ally; 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 *Perhaps Roger Conant and two or three others, in some respects, might have been exceptions. 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 visiters 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 Govérnour 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. It was well for Mr. Endecott that he possessed an ardent and sanguine temperament, which nothing could daunt, otherwise the innumerable discouraging circumstances which met him in this, his new abode, in every form, amid sickness, death, and privations of every kind, well suited to appal the stoutest hearts, would no doubt have wrought their effects upon him, to the prejudice of the whole plantation. But such was the energy and firmness of his character, aided, no doubt, by a religious enthusiasm, which induced the belief that it was the purpose of God to give them the land of the heathen as an inheritance, that neither his faith nor confidence in the ultimate success of the undertaking ever for a moment forsook him. In every crisis, this little band looked to him, as the weatherbeaten and tempest-tossed mariner looks to his commander, next to God, for encouragement and support; and they did not look in vain. Such was the great mortality among them, during the first winter after their arrival, arising from exposure to the rigors of an untried climate, and their being badly fed and badly lodged, that there were scarcely found in the settlement well persons enough to nurse and console the sick. To enhance their distress, they were destitute of any regular medical assistance. In this painful dilemma a messenger was despatched by Mr. Endecott to Gov. Bradford, of the Plymouth settlement, to procure the necessary aid; and Doctor Samuel Fuller, the physician, who was a prominent member and deacon of the Plymouth Church, was sent among them. During his visit, Mr. Endecott was called by Divine Providence to suffer one of the heaviest of earthly afflictions, in the death of his wife, the partner of all his sorrows, who had forsaken home, kindred, and the sympathy of friends, and consented to share with him the cares and pri |