The Loyalists of America and Their Times Volume I Part 4
(Holmes' Annals, Vol. I., p. 193.)]
[Footnote 24: The zeal of White soon found other powerful a.s.sociates in and out of London--kindred spirits, men of religious fervour, uniting emotions of enthusiasm with unbending perseverance in action--Winthrop, Dudley, Johnson, Pynchon, Eaton, Saltonstall, Bellingham, so famous in colonial annals, besides many others, men of fortune and friends to colonial enterprise. Three of the original purchasers parted with their rights; Humphrey and Endicot retained an equal interest with the original purchasers. (Bancroft's United States, Vol. I., pp. 368, 369.)]
[Footnote 25: Bancroft says: "Endicot, a man of dauntless courage, and that cheerfulness which accompanies courage, benevolent though austere, firm though choleric, of a rugged nature, which the sternest forms of Puritanism had not served to mellow, was selected as a fit instrument for this wilderness work.' (History of the United States, Vol. I., pp.
369, 370.)
"When the news reached London of the safe arrival of the emigrants (under Endicot), the number of the adventurers had already enlarged. The Puritans throughout England began to take an interest in the efforts which invited the imagination to indulge in delightful visions. Interest was also made to obtain a Royal Charter, with the aid of Bellingham and White, an eminent lawyer, who advocated the design. The Earl of Warwick had always been a friend to the Company; and Lord Dorchester, then one of the Secretaries of State, is said to have exerted a powerful influence in behalf of it. At last [March 4th, 1629], after much labour and large expenditures, the patent for the Company of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay pa.s.sed the seals." (_Ib._, p. 379.)]
[Footnote 26: The precursor of this Company was a Joint Stock a.s.sociation, established at Dorchester under the auspices of the Rev.
Mr. White, "patriarch of Dorchester," and called the "Dorchester Adventurers," with a view to fishing, farming, and hunting; but the undertaking was not successful, and an attempt was made to retrieve affairs by putting the colony under a different direction. The Dorchester partners heard of some religious and well-affected persons that were lately removed out of New Plymouth, out of dislike of their principles of rigid separation, of which Mr. Roger Conant was one--a religious, sober, and prudent gentleman. (Hubbard's History of New England, Chap. xviii.) The partners engaged Conant to be their Governor, with the charge of all their affairs, as well fishing as planting. The change did not produce success. The a.s.sociation sold its land, shipping, &c.; and Mr. Endicot was appointed under the new _regime_. (Palfrey's Hist. of New England, Vol. I., pp. 285-8.)]
[Footnote 27: Palfrey, Vol. I., p. 289.]
[Footnote 28: _Ib._, p. 292.]
[Footnote 29: Mr. Bright, one of these ministers, is said by Hubbard to have been a Conformist. He went, soon after his arrival, to Charlestown, and tarried about a year in the country, when he returned to England.
Ralph Smith was required to give a pledge, under his hand, that he would not exercise his ministry within the limits of the patent, without the express leave of the Governor on the spot. Mr. Smith seems to have been of the separation in England, which occasioned the caution to be used with him. He was a little while in Nantasket, and went from thence to Plymouth, where he was their minister for several years. (Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 10, 11.)]
[Footnote 30: Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp.
11, 12.]
[Footnote 31: How much of the Church system thus introduced had already been resolved upon before the colonists of the Ma.s.sachusetts Company left England, and how long a time, if any, previous to their emigration such an agreement was made, are questions which we have probably not sufficient means to determine. Thus much is certain--that when Skelton and Higginson reached Salem, they found Endicot, who was not only their Governor, but one of the six considerable men who had made the first movement for a patent, fully prepared for the ecclesiastical organization which was presently inst.i.tuted. In the month before their arrival, Endicot, in a letter [May 11, 1629] to Bradford thanking him for the visit of Fuller, had said: 'I rejoice much that I am by him satisfied touching your judgments of the outward form of G.o.d's worship.'--Collections of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, First Series, Vol. III., p. 65.]
[Footnote 32: Cotton Mather relates that, taking the last look at his native sh.o.r.e, Higginson said, 'We will not say, as the Separatists say, "Farewell, Babylon; farewell, Rome;" but we will say, "Farewell, dear England; farewell, Church of G.o.d in England, and all the Christian friends there. We do not go to New England as separatists from the Church of England, though we cannot but separate from the corruptions of it. But we go to practise the positive part of Church reformation, and propagate the gospel in America.'"--Magnalia, Book III., Part II., Chap.
i., quoted by Palfrey, Vol. I., p. 297, in a note.
"They were careful to distinguish themselves from the Brownist and other Separatists. Had they remained in England, and the Church been governed with the wisdom and moderation of the present day, they would have remained, to use their own expression, 'in the bosom of the Church where they had received their hopes of salvation.'"--Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 417.
Note by Mr. Hutchinson: "The son of one of the first ministers, in a preface to a sermon preached soon after the Revolution, remarks that 'if the bishops in the reign of King Charles the First had been of the same spirit as those in the reign of King William, there would have been no New England.'"]
[Footnote 33: History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., Chap, iv., p. 418.]
[Footnote 34: "The Messrs. Brown went out with the second emigration, at the same time as Messrs. Higginson and Skelton, a few months after Endicot, and while he was the local Governor, several months before the arrival of the third emigration of eleven ships with Governor Winthrop.
In the Company's first letter of instructions to Endicot, dated the 17th of April, 1629, they speak of and commend the Messrs. Brown in the following terms:
"'Through many businesses we had almost forgot to recommend to you two brethren of our Company, Mr. John and Mr. Samuel Brown, who though they be no adventurers in the general stock, yet are they men we do much respect, being fully persuaded of their sincere affections to the good of our Plantation. The one, Mr. John Brown, is sworn a.s.sistant here, and by us chosen one of the Council there; a man experienced in the laws of our kingdom, and such an one as we are persuaded will worthily deserve your favour and furthermore, which we desire he may have, and that in the first division of lands there may be allotted to either of them two hundred acres.'" (Young's Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, from 1623 to 1636, p. 168.)]
[Footnote 35: History of New England, Vol. I., p. 298.]
[Footnote 36: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. I., p. 379.]
[Footnote 37: History of the United States, Am. Ed. 8vo, Vol. I., p.
350. These three sentences are not found in the British Museum (English) Edition of Mr. Bancroft's History, but are contained in Routledge's London reprint of the American Edition.]
[Footnote 38: "Ecclesiastical History of Ma.s.sachusetts," in the Collection of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, Vol. IX., pp. 3-5.]
[Footnote 39: It is clear, from these and other corresponding statements, that the Messrs. Brown had had no controversy with Endicot; had not in the least interfered with _his_ proceedings, but had quietly and inoffensively pursued their own course in adhering to the old worship; and only stated their objections to his proceedings by giving the reasons for their own, when arraigned before his tribunal to answer for their not coming to his worship, and continuing in that of their own Church. The reasonings and speeches thus drawn from them were deemed "seditious and mutinous," and for which they were adjudged "criminals'"
and banished. Looking at all the facts of the case--including the want of good faith to the Browns and those who agreed with them--it exceeds in inquisitorial and despotic prescriptive persecution that which drove the Brownists from England to Holland in the first years of James the First.]
[Footnote 40: Collection of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society.
Mr. F.M. Hubbard, in his new edition of Belknap's American Biography, iii. 166, referring to Endicot, says: "He was of a quick temper, which the habit of military command had not softened; of strong religious feelings, moulded on the sternest features of Calvinism; resolute to uphold with the sword what he had received as gospel truth, and fearing no enemy so much as a gainsaying spirit. Cordially disliking the English Church, he banished the Browns and the Prayer Book; and averse to all ceremonies and symbols, the cross on the King's colours was an abomination he could not away with. He cut down the Maypole on Merry Mount, published his detestation of long hair in a formal proclamation, and set in the pillory and on the gallows the returning Quakers."]
[Footnote 41: The words of the Company's letter are as follows:
"And for that the propagating of the Gospel is the thing we do profess above all to be our aim in settling this Plantation, we have been careful to make plentiful provision of G.o.dly ministers, by whose faithful preaching, G.o.dly conversation, and exemplary life, we trust not only those of our own nation will be built up in the knowledge of G.o.d, but also the Indians may, in G.o.d's appointed time, be reduced to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ. One of them, viz., Mr. Skelton, whom we have rather desired to bear a part in this work, for that we have been informed yourself formerly received much good by his ministry.
Another is Mr. Higgeson (Higginson), a grave man, and of worthy commendations. The third is Mr. Bright, sometimes trained up under Mr.
Davenport. We pray you, accommodate them all with necessaries as well as you may, and in convenient time let there be houses built for them, according to the agreement we have made with them, copies whereof, as of all others we have entertained, shall be sent you by the next ships, time not permitting now. We doubt not these gentlemen, your ministers, will agree lovingly together; and for cherishing of love betwixt them, we pray you carry yourself impartially to all. For the manner of exercising their ministry, and teaching both our own people and the Indians, we leave that to themselves, hoping they will make G.o.d's Word the rule of their actions, and mutually agree in the discharge of their duties.
"We have, in prosecution of that good opinion we have always had of you, confirmed you Governor of our Plantation, and joined in commission with you the three ministers--namely, Mr. Francis Higginson, Mr. Samuel Skelton, and Mr. Francis Bright; also Mr. John and Samuel Brown, Mr.
Thomas Groves, and Mr. Samuel Sharpe."--The Company's First General Letter of Instructions to Endicot and his Council, the 17th of April, 1629. (Young's Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, pp. 142-144.)
"A form of an oath for a Governor beyond the seas, and of an oath for the Council there, was drawn and delivered to Mr. Humphrey to show to the (Privy) Council." (Company's Records, Young, &c., p. 69.)]
[Footnote 42: The following is an extract of the Company's Second General Letter of Instructions to Endicot and his Council, dated London, 28th May, 1629:
"We have, and according as we then advised, at a full and ample Court a.s.sembled, elected and established you, Captain John Endicot, to the place of Governor in 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, to which Act we refer you, desiring you all punctually to observe the same, and that the _oaths_ we herewith send you (which have been penned by learned counsel, to be administered to each of you in your several places) may be administered in such manner and form as in and by our said order is particularly expressed; and that yourselves do frame such other oaths as in your wisdom you shall think fit to be administered to your secretary or other officers, according to their several places respectively." (Young's Chronicles, &c., p. 173.)]
[Footnote 43: The form of oath, which had been prepared under legal advice, submitted to and approved of by the King's Privy Council, was as follows:
"Oaths of Office for the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Council in New England (ordered May 7th, 1629).
"The Oath of the Governor in New England." (The same to the Deputy Governor.)
"You shall be faithful and loyal unto our Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty, and to his heirs and successors. You shall support and maintain, to the best of your power, the Government and Company of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, in New England, in America, and the privileges of the same, having no singular regard to yourself in derogation or hindrance of the Commonwealth of this Company; and to every person under your authority you shall administer indifferent and equal justice. Statutes and Ordinances shall you none make without the advice and consent of the Council for Government of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay in New England. You shall admit none into the freedom of this Company but such as may claim the same by virtue of the privileges thereof. You shall not bind yourself to enter into any business or process for or in the name of this Company, without the consent and agreement of the Council aforesaid, but shall endeavour faithfully and carefully to carry yourself in this place and office of Governor, as long as you shall continue in it. And likewise you shall do your best endeavour to draw the natives of this country called New England to the knowledge of the true G.o.d, and to conserve the planters, and others coming hither, in the same knowledge and fear of G.o.d. And you shall endeavour, by all good unions, to advance the good of the Plantations of this Company, and you shall endeavour the raising of such commodities for the benefit and encouragement of the adventurers and planters as, through G.o.d's blessing on your endeavours, may be produced for the good and service of the kingdom of England, this Company, and the Plantations. All these premises you shall hold and keep to the uttermost of your power and skill, so long as you shall continue in the place of Governor of this fellowship; so help you G.o.d." (The same oath of allegiance was required of each member of the Council.) (Young's Chronicles of First Planters of the Colony of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, from 1623 to 1636, pp. 201, 202.)]
PART III.
EVASIONS AND DENIALS OF THE ABOLITION OF EPISCOPAL, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF CONGREGATIONAL WORSHIP AT Ma.s.sACHUSETTS BAY; PROOFS OF THE FACTS, THAT THE COMPANY AND FIRST SETTLERS OF Ma.s.sACHUSETTS BAY WERE PROFESSED EPISCOPALIANS WHEN THE LATTER LEFT ENGLAND; LETTERS OF THE LONDON COMPANY AGAINST THE INNOVATIONS WHICH ABOLISHED THE EPISCOPAL, AND ESTABLISHED CONGREGATIONAL WORSHIP BY THE "ADVENTURERS" AFTER CROSSING THE ATLANTIC; THIS THE FIRST SEED OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AND OF CRUEL PERSECUTIONS.
When the Browns arrived in England as banished "criminals" from the Plantation to which they had gone four months before as members of the Council of Government, and with the highest commendation of the London General Court itself, they naturally made their complaints against the conduct of Endicot in superseding the Church of England by the establishment of a new confession of faith and a new form of worship. It is worthy of remark, that in the Records of the Company the specific subjects of complaint by the Browns are carefully kept out of sight--only that a "dispute" or "difference" had arisen between them and "Governor Endicot;" but what that difference was is nowhere mentioned in the Records of the Company. The letters of Endicot and the Browns were put into the hands of Goffe, the Deputy Governor of the Company; were never published; and they are said to have been "missing" unto this day.
Had the real cause and subject of difference been known in England, and been duly represented to the Privy Council, the Royal Charter would undoubtedly have been forthwith forfeited and cancelled; but the Puritan-party feeling of the Browns seems to have been appealed to not to destroy the Company and their enterprise; that in case of not prosecuting their complaints before a legal tribunal, the matter would be referred to a jointly selected Committee of the Council to arbitrate on the affair; and that in the meantime the conduct of Endicot in making Church innovations (if he had made them) would be disclaimed by the Company. To render the Browns powerless to sustain their complaints, their letters were seized[44] and their statements were denied.
Nevertheless, the rumours and reports from the new Plantation of Ma.s.sachusetts produced a strong impression in England, and excited great alarm among the members and friends of the Company, who adopted three methods of securing themselves and their Charter, and of saving the Plantation from the consequences of Endicot's alleged innovations and violent conduct. Firstly--The Governor of the Company, Mr. Cradock, wrote to Endicot, Higginson, and Skelton, professing doubts of the truth of the charges made against them--disclaiming and warning them against the reported innovations--thus protecting themselves in case of charge from all partic.i.p.ation in or responsibility for such proceedings.
Secondly--They positively denied the statements of the Browns as to Endicot's alleged "innovations," and used every means to depreciate the trustworthiness and character of the Browns, notwithstanding their former commendation of them and their acknowledged respectability.
Thirdly--They prepared and published doc.u.ments declaring their adherence to the Church of England, and the calumny of the charges and rumours put forth against them as being disaffected to it.
1. Their Governor, Mr. Cradock, wrote to Endicot in the name of the Company. This letter, dated October 16, 1629, is given at length in a note.[46] It will be seen by this letter how strongly the Company condemned the innovations charged against Endicot by the Browns, and how imperatively they direct him to correct them, while they profess to doubt whether he could have been a party to any such proceedings. In this letter is also the most explicit testimony by the Company of the King's kindness and generosity to them, as well as a statement of the clear understanding between the King and the Company as to the intentions and spirit of the Royal Charter, and which the Company in London expressed their determination to observe in good faith--a good faith which was invariably and even indulgently observed by both Charles the First and Second, but which was as constantly violated by the Government of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, as will appear hereafter from the transfer of the Charter there in 1630, to the cancelling of the Charter under James the Second, in 1687. Endicot, confident in his ability to prevent the transmission of any evidence to England that could sustain the statements of the Browns, paid no heed to the instructions of the Company, and persisted in his course of Church revolution and proscription.
The letter addressed to Higginson and Skelton was signed not only by the Governor, but by the chief members of the Company, and among others by John Winthrop, who took the Royal Charter to Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, and there, as Governor, administered it by maintaining all that Endicot was alleged to have done, continued to proscribe the worship of the Church of England, allowed its members no elective franchise as well as no eligibility for office, and persecuted all who attempted to worship in any other form than that of the Church of Endicot, Higginson and Skelton--a course in which he persevered until his energies began to fail; for Mr. Bancroft says: "The elder Winthrop had, I believe, relented before his death, and, it is said, had become weary of banishing heretics; the soul of the younger Winthrop [who withdrew from the intolerance of the Ma.s.sachusetts Puritans, and was elected Governor of Connecticut] was incapable of harbouring a thought of intolerant cruelty; but the rugged Dudley was not mellowed by old age."[49]
The letter addressed to Higginson and Skelton expressed a hope that the report made, in England as to their language and proceedings were "but shadows," but at the same time apprised them of their duty to vindicate their innocency or acknowledge and reform their misdeeds, declaring the favour of the Government to their Plantation, and their duty and determination not to abuse the confidence which the State had reposed in them. This letter is given entire in a note.[50]
Nothing can be more clear, from the letters addressed by the Company both to Endicot and the ministers Higginson and Skelton, that renunciation of the worship of the Church of England was at variance with the intentions and profession of all parties in granting and receiving the Royal Charter, and that the only defence set up in England of Endicot, Higginson, and Skelton was a positive denial that they had done so. Dudley himself, Deputy Governor, who went to Ma.s.sachusetts Bay in the same fleet of eleven ships with Governor Winthrop, wrote to his patroness, the Countess of Lincoln, several months after his arrival, and in his letter, dated March 12, 1630, explicitly denies the existence of any such changes in their worship as had been alleged; that they had become "Brownists [that is, Congregationalists] in religion," etc., and declaring all such allegations to be "false and scandalous reports;"
appealing to their friends in England to "not easily believe that we are so soon turned from the profession we so long have made at home in our native land;" declaring that he knew "no one person who came over with us last year to be altered in judgment or affection, either in ecclesiastical or civil respects, since our coming here;" acknowledging the obligations of himself and friends to the King for the royal kindness to them, and praying his friends in England to "give no credit to such malicious aspersions, but be more ready to answer for us than we hear they have been." Dudley's own words are given in note.[51] The only escape from the admission of Dudley's statements being utterly untrue is resort to a quibble which is inconsistent with candour and honesty--namely, that the Brownist or Congregational worship had been adopted by Endicot and his party before the arrival of Dudley; but the scope and evident design of his letter was to a.s.sure the Countess of Lincoln and his friends in England that no new Church worship had been established at Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, when the reverse must have been known to Dudley, and when he, in support of the new Brownist or Congregational worship, became a fierce persecutor, even to old age, of all who would not conform to it; for, as Mr. Bancroft says, "the rugged soul of Dudley was not mellowed by old age."
But while Dudley, in Ma.s.sachusetts, was denying to his English friends the existence of ecclesiastical changes there which all history now declares to have taken place, the "Patriarch of Dorchester," the father of the whole enterprise--the Rev. John White, a conformist clergyman of the Church of England, even under Archbishop Laud--wrote and published a pamphlet called "The Planters' Plea,"[52] in which he denied also that any ecclesiastical changes, as alleged, had taken place in the Ma.s.sachusetts Plantation, and denounces the authors of such allegations in no measured terms. This pamphlet contains a "Brief Relation of the Occasion of the Planting of this Colony." After referring to the third, or "great emigration under Winthrop,"[53] the author proceeds: