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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Presented by the Author

THE

Pilgrim Fathers

OF

NEW ENGLAND

AND THEIR

PURITAN SUCCESSORS

JOHN BROWN, B.A., D.D.
AUTHOR OF 'JOHN BUNYAN, HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND WORK'

WITff ILLVSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL SKETCHES
BY CHARLES WHYMPER

LONDON
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
Paternoster Row, and 65, St. Paul's Churchyard
189s

DE MINIMIS MAXIMA.

Great things from small, for God works ever so,
That so behind all causes He may stand
Revealed omnipotent. J. H. B. Masterman.

Well worthy to be magnified are they
Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took
A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook,
And hallowed ground in which their Fathers lay ;
Then to the new-found World explored their way,
That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook
Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook
Her Lord might worship and His Word obey
In Freedom. Wordsworth. — Ecclesiastical Sonnets.

PREFACE.

Placing in the forefront of this work, what an Elizabethan
writer called ' a brief ingresse to the Christian reader,' it
may be well to state that it is now more than forty years
since the latest previous history of the Pilgrim Fathers,
printed on this side of the Atlantic, was given to the
public. Therefore, as might be expected, since the appear
ance of Mr. Bartlett's book in 1853, important contributions
have been made to the literature of the subject, which have
had the effect of placing it in clearer light and giving it
fuller meaning. Notably the discovery in 1855 of the
original manuscript of Governor Bradford's History of
Plymouth Plantation may be regarded as a matter of prime
importance. It was known that such a history had been written,
although never published, for it was freely used by
Nathaniel Morton in his New England's Memorial, pub
lished in 1669 ; Thomas Prince, in the preface to the first
volume of his Annals, printed in 1736, had cited it as one
of his manuscript authorities ; and Governor Hutchinson
had also used it in the preparation of the second volume of
his History of Massachusetts in 1767, he being the last man
who, till the present century, was known to have seen it.
While in the possession of Prince, who died in 1758, the
manuscript was deposited in the New England Library in
the tower of the'Old South Church in Boston, from which.

6 PREFACE.
after the siege of the city, it mysteriously disappeared, and
as time went on, was given up as hopelessly lost.
The next step in the history brings us to the year 1845,
when Samuel Wilberforce, afterwards Bishop of Oxford,
published a History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
America. In the preparation of this work he made
researches for original documents in the library of the
Bishop of London's palace at Fulham, from one of which
he made several extracts, the references for which were
given in the footnotes. The book became fairly well
known, and passed through other editions, but no one
seems to have taken special note of it for about ten years
after its first publication. At length, in the month of
February, 1855, the Rev. John S. Barry happened to con
sult it when engaged upon the first volume of his History
of Massachusetts, when he was struck again and again by
reading in the extracts from the Fulham MS. passages he
remembered to have seen cited as from Bradford's History
by Morton and Prince. He at once took the volume to
his friend, Charles Deane, Esq., of the Massachusetts
Historical Society, to whom he communicated his sus
picion that Wilberforce's extracts were taken from the
manuscript which had been so long missing, and which,
after all, might possibly still be found in the Bishop of
London's library. This turned out to be the case. Here
at last was the History of Plymouth Plantation, written by
William Bradford, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, and after
wards largely used by Morton and Prince. How it came
to be transferred from the library in the tower of the Old
South Church to that in the episcopal palace at Fulham
can only be matter of conjecture, but the probability is
that it was brought over by the English soldiers when the
Revolutionary War was ended.
This invaluable and interesting record being thus,
happily, once more brought to light, I have made use

PREFACE. 7
of it in all those portion s of the history for which it is the
sole authority, supplementing it by such State Papers,
Domestic and Colonial, as throw light on the subject, and
also by such other MSS. as have in recent years become
available for historical purposes.
I have been greatly helped also by many of the
numerous works issued in recent years both in this
country and in Amefica on the history of New England.
To the more important of these I have acknowledged my
obligations in the references given ; but where one has been
making notes extending over a lengthened period it is not
always easy to remember the source from which many
points of detail were taken. If, therefore, I have not
always made due acknowledgment, I can only crave
lenient indulgence beforehand.
In the hope that the re-telling of an old story, under
the new lights of a later time, may not be without interest,
instruction, and stimulus for ourselves, I leave these pages
to the kindly judgment of such readers as love to linger
over the record of brave deeds wrought by brave men in
bygone days.
JOHN BROWN.

The Manse, Bedford,
July 25, 1895.

BOSTOK .
{Frojn a sketch by Charles Whymper.)

CONTENTS.

I.
Precursors of the Pilgrim Fathers
11.
SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD

IS

40

III.
Beginnings of Church Life .

73

CONTENTS.

IV.
The Exiles in Holland . . . no
V.
The Writings of John Robinson . . .136
VI.
Where lies the Land ? .158
VII.
The Sailing of the Mayflower . 184
VIII.
Plymouth Plantation . . 209
IX.
At the End of Seven Years . . . 238
X.
Arrival of New Neighbours. . . 265
XI.
Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut Valley . . 295
XII.
The United Colonies . . . . 327

OLD KITCHEN, GUILDHALL, BOSTON.
{Frofn a sketch by Charles Whymper.]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The old Manor House, Scrooby. From a sketch by
Charles Whymper ... . Frontispiece
Boston. From a sketch by Charles Whymper ... 9
Old Kitchen, Guildhall, Boston. From a sketch by
Charles Whymper ¦ .11
Scrooby — View from the River. Fro?n a sketch by Charles
Whymper . .......
Governor Bradford's Cottage at Austerfield.
, . I. Cottage. 2. Steps to cellar. 3. Cellar. From sketches by
Charles Whymper . ....
Ancient Pews in Scrooby Church ...
Site of the old Stocks, Scrooby Churchyard. From
a sketch by Charles Whytnper 
South Doorway, Austerfield Church

14

414749 67

LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIONS.

PAGE

Scrooby Manor House. From a sketch by Charles Whymper 72
The Bridge, Gainsborough „ „ „ 73
Richard Bernard. From an old print .... 79
The old Hall, Gainsborough. From sketches by Charles
Whymper . . ...... 89
The Guildhall, Boston, i. Cells in which the Pilgrims
were confined. 2. Passage and stairs leading to cells.
3. Guildhall, front view ....... loi
The Stable of Scrooby Manor House. (Probable place
of naeeting in 1607.) From sketches by Charles Whymper . in
Boston Stump and Market-Place. From a sketch by
Charles Whymper . . . . 136

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
I.
PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
The sailing of the Mayflower from Plymouth to New
England, in 1620, was one of those epoch-making events
in history which are at once the fruit of the past and the
seed of the future. The hundred exiles who in simple
heroic fashion crossed the Atlantic in their little barque of
a hundred and eighty tons, while merely aiming at
freedom of worship for themselves and their children,
were really bringing to new and pregnant issue the long
and resolute struggle of centuries. We can see now that
they were almost unconsciously pointing the way to a
broader, freer life for the English-speaking people on both
sides of the sea. For the time in which they lived was,
in a special sense, a time of transition. In the Tudor
days, only recently ended, England had been under the
personal government of monarchs who, though not un
influenced by the opinion of their people, were yet
practically absolute and irresponsible. Other forces, how
ever, were now coming into play, and the nation was to
make its way to a fuller life as a community of free self-
governing men. This transition from mediaeval to modern
life was brought about by the combined action of religious
enthusiasm with the spirit of personal independence.

i6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
The modern movement of government by the people began,
not, as is sometimes supposed, with the eighteenth century
but with the sixteenth, and was religious in its origin.
It was, indeed, the child of the Reformation. For the
two principles by which the power of Rome was assailed
were, free inquiry as opposed to the absolute authority of
the Church, and the universal priesthood of all believing
men as opposed to that of a clerical caste of priests.
When these two principles came to be applied, they
proved to be farther-reaching than even their own advo
cates realised at first. The principle of free inquiry turned
out to mean more than the mere right of the laity to
read the Bible for themselves, it meant the right of free
and independent search in every department of human
thought and life ; and the universal priesthood of believers
carrying with it, as it did, the power of the people in
the government of the Church, carried with it also the
principle of the sovereignty of the people in the govern
ment of the State.
On the Continent, democracy, as springing out of the
Reformation, was arrested by the power of the princes,
and delayed for centuries ; in England also it came into
conflict with the aristocratic forces of the time, and was
defeated for long in its struggle against ancient laws and
institutions ; but carried across the Atlantic by the
Pilgrim Fathers, it there found a virgin soil in which it
spread its roots freely, and grew vigorously. American
self-government was not the sudden birth of the Declara
tion of Independence. For a century and a half the idea
and political habits from which its strength was drawn had
been gradually developed. It really sprang from the
organisation which the Pilgrim Fathers gave to the first
colony, an organisation which determined the shape and
character of the State constitutions which followed.^
^ Rise of Modern Democracy. By Charles Borgeaud, LL.D. 1894.

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FA THERS. 1 7
The modern movement in the direction of freedom and
the sovereignty of the people being, as we have said,
religious in its origin, can best be understood in connection
with the struggle for faith and freedom made from earliest
times. Steady and stifling as had been the pressure of
the priestly system of Rome, it never quite succeeded in
crushing out all aspirations after liberty or all strenuous
endeavour after a purer faith. Again and again there
were those who, weary of superstition and unreality, freed
themselves from ecclesiastical bondage, and set forth in
search of the true fountains of life. It is as a continuation
of this honoured succession that the Pilgrim Fathers of
New England take their rightful place. It may be well,
therefore, to set their story in its true light at the outset
by tracing the roots and beginnings of their movement
in the generations which went before them.
There may have been others, but looking back through
the dim mists of time, the earliest pioneers of independent
thought we come upon on English soil are thirty weavers
in the diocese of Worcester, who were summoned before
the council of Oxford as far back as a.d. 1165. William
of Newburgh, in Yorkshire, in that chronicle of his which
he wrote at the request of Ernald, the abbot of the neigh
bouring monastery of Rievaulx, tells us that when these
people were under examination, they answered that they
were Christians, and reverenced the teachings of the
apostles. Inasmuch, however, as they made light of
sacraments and priestly power, they were condemned,
were scourged and branded as heretics, and then driven
out of the city, to perish in the winter cold ; and thus, says
the chronicler, the pious firmness of this severity not only
cleansed the realm of England from the pestilence which
had how crept in, but also prevented it from creeping in
again. But as at the Assize of Clarendon, held some time
after, Henry II. forbade any one to receive any of the sect
0^ ^

i8 . PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
of the renegades who had been excommunicated at
Oxford, it is not so clear that the realm was cleansed
from this so-called pestilence. And as at the same time
he also caused an oath to be taken of all sheriffs that they
would see to the execution of these commands, and that
'all his officers, dapifers and barons, together with all
knights and freeholders, should be sworn to the same
effect,' ^ it would appear that the opinions of these people
were not confined to the diocese of Worcester, but were
widely sympathised with elsewhere through the kingdom.
These outcasts who declared themselves to be believers in
the Holy Trinity, in the canonical Scriptures, and also 'in
the one true Church,' but who repudiated the catholic
doctrine of sacraments and rejected the ecclesiastical
ceremonies, seem to have been the first to greet the morn,
Or rather, rose the day to antedate,
By striking out a solitary spark,
When all the land with midnight gloom was dark.^
How the seed grew secretly and the leaven worked
silently during the next century and a half it may not be
easy to show. But such secret, silent working there must
have been. Our countryman, William of Occam, born
about 1 270, was excommunicated by the Pope in the early
part of the fourteenth century, for asserting in dialogues
and tractates the freedom of the law of Christ against the
plenitude of papal power. He maintained the authority of
Scripture as the supreme arbiter of all things in the
Church, and sought after that which was eternal as
opposed to that which is merely of human ordinance. In
that same century, also, we have in the Vision of Piers
Plowman, a prophet who, though no Lollard, made nought
of pilgrimages, penances, and oblations, in comparison with
holiness and charity, appealed to the plainest Scriptural
' Camden Society, Assize of Clarendon.
^ Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets, xiv.

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 19
truths, and installed reason and conscience as the guides of
the self-directed soul. Even Chaucer's voice was a voice
of freedom, and of more or less covert hostility to the
priestly system of the Church.
But if to any one man more than another we may trace
the origin of the Free Church influences most potent in our
modern life, that one man was John Wickliff of Lutter
worth. He not only gave to Hus his ruling ideas, and
sowed the seeds of Reformation in Germany, but in his own
land also did much to change the emphasis in religion
from the ceremonial to the ethical and spiritual. He
carried the appeal from the organised authority of the
priesthood to the authority of the Church's Invisible Head.
As a Reformer his inspiration came from returning to the
primitive faith. For religious thought must ever return to
the essential ideas which Jesus created, and every such
return is the beginning of new life, and so the Founder of
Christianity remains the most recreative force in the
religion He founded.
While John Wickliff and his followers may not have
been the first to assail priestly pretensions, they appear to
have been the first to carry out a definitely-organised
movement in the way of ecclesiastical reform. Wickliff
contended that the official clergy alone are not the Church,
for, said he, ' the temple of God is the congregation, living
religiously, of just men for whom Jesus shed His blood.'
He held to the free and immediate access of believers to
the grace of God in Christ ; in other words, to the general
priesthood of believers. In accordance with these prin
ciples, secret assemblies were gathered of those who were
of like mind in the faith of Christ ; and preachers were
sent forth, as in 1382 Archbishop Courtenay complained
in the House of Lords, going through the realm from
county to county, and from town to town, preaching from
day to day, not only in churches and churchyards, but also
C 2

20 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
in market-places and public thoroughfares. They con
tended with great emphasis that for the ministry of the
Church the Divine call and commission are perfectly
sufficient ; that the true installation of the preacher is
that by God Himself. It has been asserted that the
Lollard movement was premature, and came to an
untimely end. On the contrary, it may safely be main
tained that the life then created never died out, and
that without the Lollards of the fourteenth century the
Reformation of the sixteenth would not have been
possible. Wickliff" died in 1384; but seventeen years
later the preamble of the Act of 1401, for the burning of
heretics, states that ' divers false and perverse people of a
certain new sect . . . usurping the office of preaching, do
perversely and maliciously, in divers places within the
realm, preach and teach divers new doctrines and wicked
erroneous opinions ; and of such sect and wicked doctrines
they make unlawful conventicles.' Even this Act, stern
and terrible as it was — the first statute that consigned
Englishmen to the flames for their opinions — was power
less to arrest the convictions of earnest men. From a list
of authenticated trials for heresy, drawn up by Bishop,
then Canon, Stubbs, at the request of the Royal Com
mission on Ecclesiastical Courts (1881-1883), it appears
that, beginning with the trial of Wickliff, and ending with
that of William Balowe, who was burned in 1466, more
than a hundred and twenty persons were tried for heresy —
even this list being far from complete.
Thirty years later we still find the movement at work.
In the registers of the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury
is a series of confessions and abjurations extorted from
various persons by fear of death. While mainly referring
to pilgrimages, transubstantiation, and other Romish prac
tices and doctrines, they indicate at the same time a more
organised separatism in church life than is usually sup-

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 21
posed to have existed before the Reformation. These
extracts belong for the most part to the year 1499, but
twenty years later, as we find from the register of the
Bishop of London, Thomas Man was cited for ' teachings
and practices contrary to the determination of the Holy
Church.' From the report of this case it appears that the
defendant had spread his teachings in East Anglia, and
also in the western counties. As he went westward he
found 'a great company' who had cast off the super
stitions of the time, ' especially at Newbury, where was '
(as he confessed) ' a glorious and sweet society of faithful
favourers, who had continued the space of fifteen years
together,' but who were at last betrayed by an informer,
and some of them burnt. At Amersham, also, he came
upon ' a godly and great company of " known m.en," or
"just fast men," who had continued in that doctrine and
teaching for twenty-three years,' this ' congregation of the
faithful brethren ' being duly organised under the care of
four principal teachers. This was sixteen years before the
Act of Supremacy of 1534, which severed the Church of
England from the See of Rome, and therefore some time
before the Reformation was an accomplished fact. Nor
were these the only pre-Reformation witnesses to a purer
faith and simpler polity, for, as Foxe goes on to tell us,
' there were secret multitudes who tasted and followed the
sweetness of God's Holy Word, and whose fervent zeal
may appear by their sitting up all night in reading and
hearing.' He speaks, also, of their earnest seekings, their
burning zeal, their watchings, their sweet assemblies, their
love and concord, and their godly living.
Even after the Reformation had come in, being but a
halting measure, it did not put an end to separate
gatherings. In the Privy Council Register of Edward VI.
it is recorded that one Upcharde of Booking was examined
touching a certain assembly of some sixty persons, who

22 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
had met at his house on a recent Sunday at midday, in
1551. Sixteen of the sixty were apprehended, who, on
'being examined, confessed the cause of their assembly
to be for talk of Scripture, not denying that they had
refused communion (at the parish church) above two years
upon very superstitious and erroneous purposes.' In the
reactionary days of Queen Mary, which came in with
I553> the Separatists appear to have increased in numbers
and influence. There were secret gatherings by night in
Lancashire and in the adjacent county of York, and more
numerous gatherings still in those eastern counties which
furnished so large a contingent to the roll of the Marian
martyrs. Through nearly the whole period of the perse
cution a congregation met in Colchester ; and at Much
Bentley, near to Colchester, there was a company of
Christian men, who, as an informer tells us, ' assembled
together upon the Sabbath day in the time of divine
service, sometimes in one house and sometimes in another,
and kept their privy conventicles and schools of heresy.'
There was also a congregation at Stoke, in Suffolk, 'so
numerous and held together in such mutual concord of
godliness, that without much ado none well could be
troubled.' But there were two Separatist communities in London
itself, one in Queen Mary's reign and the other in the time
of Elizabeth, if indeed they were not the same church in
continuity, which seem to form a link between the
Protestant martyrs of Mary's time and the Pilgrim Fathers
themselves. Governor Bradford in his Dialogues tells us
that ' in the days of Queen Elizabeth there was a separated
church whereof Mr. Fitz was pastor, and another before
that in the time of Queen Mary, of which Mr. Rough was
pastor or teacher, and Cuthbert Symson a deacon, who
exercised among themselves, as other ordinances, so church
censures, as excommunications, etc' When Bradford, with

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 23
the rest of the exiles from Scrooby, reached Amsterdam in
1608, there was in the church already established there one
who had been connected with this London brotherhood.
This interesting fact, forming a link between the Pilgrim
Fathers and the brethren of the earlier generation, we
gather from Henry Ainsworth's Counterpoyson (1608). He
says that John Bolton was an elder of 'that separated
church whereof Mr. P^itz was pastor in the beginning
of Queen Elizabeth's reign. This is testified to me by
one yet living among us who then was member of that
church.' For all that we know concerning the Marian church to
which Governor Bradford refers, we are indebted to John
Foxe's Acts and Monuments. From this we gather that
the members at first were about forty, that they then rose
to a hundred, and sometimes to two hundred. Roger
Sergeant, an informer, who went to their meetings to
betray them, tells us that they had reading and preaching,
their minister, at the time he was there, being a Scotchman ;
' they have also,' he says, ' two deacons that gather money,
which is distributed to the prisoners, their brethren in the
Marshalsea, the King's Bench, the Lollards' Tower, and
in Newgate, and also to the poor that cometh to the
assembly.' A second informer reports that Cuthbert
Symson was the officer or deacon who made the collection
when the reading was done, who was the paymaster of the
prisoners, and was also the executor of such of the brethren
as happened to die in gaol or at the stake. One Brooks,
of Queenhithe, a salter and a rich man, who went not to the
parish church, was also a collector and keeper of money
for the prisoners. From the testimony of these informers
we learn further that the meetings of the brotherhood were
held in various places on both sides of the river and at
varied times, to avoid detection. They addressed each
other as 'brother,' read together, talked together, and

24 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
elected their own officers. Towards the end of 1557, after
many previous hairbreadth escapes, they were arrested in
Islington when met 'for their godly and customable
exercises of prayer and hearing the Word of God.' John
Rough, the minister mentioned by Roger Sergeant, and
Cuthbert Symson, the deacon, were among those arrested
and sent to Newgate, and ten days later the former was
burnt at Smithfield. Cuthbert Symson was not put to
death till the following March, for it was known that he
had in his possession the official list of the members of the
church, and he was thrice put to the torture of the rack to
compel him to give up the names of his brethren. When
the Constable of the Tower and Sir Roger Cholmley
demanded these names, Cuthbert Symson says, ' I an
swered I would declare nothing. Whereupon I was set in a
rack of iron the space of three hours, as I judge.' Again and
again they tried by force to subdue his fortitude, but tried
in vain ; so on March 28, 1558, this good deacon, standing
in the succession and true to the spirit of Stephen, was
sent by way of the Smithfield fires to the martyr's crown.
Eight months later Mary herself vanished from the
scene, but on into the reign of Elizabeth this persecuted
community continued still to hold its meetings. Thomas
Lever, one of the Protestant exiles who had fled to Zurich,
describes their fellowship as he found it on his return to
England in 1559. Writing in August to his friend Bullinger,
he says : — ' There had been a congregation of faithful
persons concealed in London during the time of Mary,
among whom the Gospel was always preached, with the
pure administration of the sacraments ; but during the
rigour of the persecution of that Queen they carefully
concealed themselves, and on the cessation of it under
Elizabeth they openly continued in the same congregation.
. . . Large numbers flocked to them, not in churches, but
in private houses. A.nd when the Lord's Supper was,

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FA THERS. 25
administered among them no strangers were admitted
except such as were kept free from popery, and even from
the imputation of any evil conduct ; or who, ingenuously
acknowledging their backsliding and public offence, humbly
sought pardon and reconciliation in the presence of the
whole assembly. I have frequently been present on such
occasions, and have seen many returning with tears, and
many too, in like manner, with tears receiving such
persons into communion, so that nothing could be more
delightful.' 1
Of the existence of the church under the pastorate of
Richard Fitz we have intimations in Bradford and Ains-
worth, as we have already seen ; there are also references
to it in a little anonymous volume printed in 161 1 ; but
in recent years three documents have been found together
among the State papers which place its existence beyond
all manner of doubt. The most important of these
documents is a petition to the Queen for ecclesiastical
reform. It bears no date, but a reference to the thirteenth
year of Elizabeth's reign fixes it as belonging to the year
1 57 1. It is described as from Whitechapel Street, and is
signed by twenty-seven persons. After having pleaded
for the removal of all superstitious and unscriptural
practices in the Church, they described themselves as :
' We a poor congregation whom God hath separated from
the Church of England and from the mingled and false
worshipping therein,' and say that, * as God giveth strength
at this day we do serve the Lord every Sabbath day in
houses, and on the fourth day come together weekly to
use prayer and exercise discipline on them that do deserve
it, by the strength and true warrant of the Lord God's
word.' They state also, incidentally, that the maintainers
of the Canon Law have ' by long imprisonment pined and
' Zurich Letters. Second Series, 1558-1602; pp. 29, 30. Parker
Society.

26 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
killed the Lord's servants — as our minister Richard Fitz,
Thomas Bowland, deacon, one Partryche and Gyles
Fouler, and besides them a great multitude.' In addition
to this written petition there is a small printed sheet in
black letter, entitled The trewe Markes of Christ's Church,
etc., and commencing thus : ' The order of the Privye
Churche in London, which by the malice of Satan is falsely
slandered and evil spoken of.' The true marks of Christ's
Church are declared to be these three : (i) The glorious
Word and Evangel are preached freely and purely ;
(2) The sacraments are administered according to the
institution and good word of the Lord Jesus ; and (3)
Discipline is administered agreeably to the same heavenly
and almighty word. The name ' Richard Fytz, Minister,'
is appended. The remaining document, also in black
letter, sets forth reasons for separation from- the Anglican
Church, and prays that ' God may give them strength still
to strive in suffering under the cross, that the blessed
Word of our God alone may rule and have the highest
place.' ^
The days in which these Elizabethan Separatists bore
their testimony on behalf of Scripture truth and a more
earnest spiritual life, were days when such testimony was
sorely needed. In many parts of the country the Reforma
tion was more a name than a reality. Most of the clergy
who had celebrated mass in Mary's time continued to
serve the parishes under Elizabeth. When the Oath of
Supremacy was tendered after the accession of the latter,
out of nine thousand four hundred clergy less than a
hundred and eighty refused it altogether, and of these
more than half were dignitaries. The majority of those
who took the oath had probably done the same under
Henry and Edward, as well as Mary, and quite as probably
' State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Addenda, Vol. xx., No. 107,
1571?

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 27
remained the papists they had always been. Passing from
the clergy to the laity, the effect of priestly influence and
teaching for generations was but too plainly seen in the
Romish ideas and practices prevailing. In the north
especially, large districts had scarcely been even touched
by the Reformation, and many of the great county
families with their retainers still held tenaciously by the
ancient forms of worship. Grindal tells us that when he
first went down to his province as Archbishop of York, the
Church he came to scarcely seemed to be the same with
the one to which he had belonged as Bishop of London.
The people among whom he now found himself in 1570
still observed the old Romish fasts and festivals ; still, under
the influence of the old ideas of purgatory, brought
offerings of money and eggs at the burial of the dead ;
and still counted their beads as they went through their
prayers. As archbishop he found it necessary to issue a
commission to the four archdeacons of the diocese ' for the
pulling down and demolishing those sustentacula, commonly
called rood-lofts, placed at the door of the choir of every
parish church, as footsteps and monuments of the old
idolatry and superstition.' As his register shows,^ he also
had to issue injunctions against crossing, breathing over
the sacramental bread and wine, the elevation of the
elements for adoration, and against the use of oil, or
chrism, tapers, spittle, and other popish ceremonies at
baptism. Hand-bells were still rung at burials to drive
away evil spirits ; the people still observed ' months
minds,' or monthly and yearly commemorations of the
dead, when dirges were sung and prayers offered for the
repose of their souls ; pedlars continued to set forth their
wares in church-porch and church-yard on Sundays as well
as holidays ; superstitious observances were still kept up
in connection with the perambulation of the parish bounds
^ Folio 155. Cited by Strype, Life of Grindal, p. 167.

28 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
in cross-week or gang-days ; lords of misrule or summer
lords and ladies, minstrels and morris dancers came at
Christmas and May-day, or at rush-bearings into church
as well as church-yard, playing unseemly parts with
wanton gesture and ribald scoff; while at the Feast of the
Purification or Candlemas-day, as many as two hundred
candles were lighted in the church in honour of the Virgin,
in addition to from ten to twenty torches.
The truth is that in many parishes there had been little,
if any, religious teaching of Scriptural sort for generations.
The President and Council of the North informed the
Privy Council that in several of the churches there had
literally never been a sermon for years ; that many of the
ministers were utterly unable to teach, and that the back
wardness of the people in religion and their insurrection in
the Northern Rising really rose rather from ignorance and
lack of convenient instructing, than from stubbornness or
wilful disobedience. To remedy this state of things, the
preachers in the cathedral churches were ordered to divide
themselves in the diocese where they dwelt, and travel
from place to place preaching the Word of God to the
people ; letters also were despatched to all justices of the
peace requiring them to receive these preachers, assist
them and accompany them to the places where they were
to preach, remain at their sermons and procure sufficient
and orderly audience to their encouragement.^
During the reign of Edward VI., several of the nobility
had come into possession of monastic lands on the under
standing that they should continue the payment of life-
pensions to the monks who were dispossessed. In order
to rid themselves of this liability and get these men off
their hands, they presented them to the livings they
happened to have in their gift, and so men were thus
' State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. xiv., 32, November,
1568.

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 29
introduced to the sacred office who were ignorant and
altogether unfit for the discharge of its duties. These
monks thus suddenly called upon to fill positions to which
they were not accustomed, did not preach simply because
they could not. In this way it came about that in many
parishes besides those in the northern province, there were
churches where there had not been a sermon for years. It
was a step in advance, therefore, when it was laid down by
authority that a sermon must be preached once every
quarter. To this some of the more godly in the nation
replied with disappointment that four sermons in the year
were as little likely to make r^erfect men in Christ Jesus,
as four strokes of an axe were to fell a mighty oak, or as
four showers an hour long were to moisten the hard dry
earth and make it fruitful the whole year long.^
From a report of the diocese of Chichester made in 1569,
it would appear that some parts even of the province of
Canterbury were not much more enlightened than the
province of York, as Grindal described it. From that
report we find there were churches where there had not
been a sermon once in seven years, or even once in twelve.
Some churches had ' neither parson, vicar nor curate, but
only a sory reder.' In the deanery of Midhurst there were
beneficed men who preached in Queen Mary's days, but
who did not and would not preach now in Elizabeth's time,
and yet had kept their livings all the ten years since Mary
died. When the preacher in the town of Battle spoke
against popery, the people, it is said, ' will not abide, but
get out of the church.' In some other parishes when the
rood was taken away the parishioners retaliated by
drawing a figure of the cross with chalk in its place ; and
when that in return was painted over, crosses were drawn
upon the church walls, within and without, and also upon
1 The lamentable Complaint of the Commonaltie. Parte of a
Register, p. 216.

30 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
pulpit and communion-table ; in other churches where the
rood-lofts were taken down by authority, they were
defiantly set up again.^
It was in days like these, when the land had scarcely
emerged from beneath the power and superstitions of
Rome, that the early Congregationalists raised their
testimony on behalf of what they held to be a more
scriptural faith and polity than prevailed in the National
Church. For our purpose they may be most conveniently
described as falling into three groups, these groups being
determined by the localities in which they carried on their
operations. Thus we have those in Eastern England,
those in London, and finally those in the churches at
Scrooby and Gainsborough, from which the Pilgrim Fathers
took their rise.
The leader of the Congregationalists in East Anglia was
Robert Browne, a man of ability and force of character,
and, so far as social position was concerned, of aristocratic
connections. By a strange irony of fate, he is by one side
persistently described as the founder of Congregationalism,
and as persistently repudiated by the other. From
having advocated Congregational principles at one part of
his career, and withdrawn from them at another, he has
received scant justice from both sides. Ardent and im
pulsive, but too unstable to stand the stress of the storm
which gathered round him year after year — he was, he
says, in the course of his life in no fewer than thirty
prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at
mid-day — he scarcely seems to have deserved all the hard
things that have been said of him. No doubt he had
more capacity for expounding the principles of Congre
gationalism than for working them out in actual life, but
no one can dispassionately read the five books he published
between 1582 and 1584, without feeling that at that time
^ State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. Ix., 71 : 1569.

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 31
at least he was an earnest-minded man, of strong and clear
convictions in favour of popular government in the Church.
But, whatever may be his merits or demerits, he was
certainly not the founder of Congregationalism in England.
For, to say nothing of the community in Queen Mary's
days, under the pastorate of John Rough, there is, as we
have seen, indisputable evidence of the existence of a
Congregational Church in London as early as 1571, which
must have been in existence there for some years, for its
pastor Richard Fitz had already died in prison, probably
died there before Robert Browne had even entered
Cambridge as an undergraduate, for he did not take his
degree till 1572. There is strong probability indeed that
it was from these very people that he first derived the
principles of Congregationalism. For on leaving Cam
bridge he went to London, where he was engaged in
teaching ' schoUers for the space of three years,' as he tells
us himself. It was during these same three years, he says,
' he wholly bent himself to search and find out the matters
of the Church, as to how it was to be guided and ordered,
and what abuses there were in the ecclesiastical government
then used.' ' It was also during this time of mental
conflict we find him speaking on Sundays to scattered
companies of Christian people who were accustomed to
gather in the fields and gravel pits about Islington. It
was here that the Separatists had gathered and continued
to gather. Here John Rough and Cuthbert Symson were
arrested ; here on into Elizabeth's reign they continued
to meet, and here in June 1592 fifty-six persons were
arrested on Sunday, and sent to prison ' for hearing the
Word of God truly taught, praying and praising God.' A
petition presented to Parliament on their behalf says that
'they were taken in the very same place where the
persecuted Church and martyrs were enforced to use like
^ True and Short Declaration.

32 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
exercises in Queen Mary's days.' ^ Finding Robert
Browne ' lecturing ' to Sunday gatherings in the fields and
gravel pits of Islington at a time when his mind was in a
state of ferment on the subject of Church government, it is
not difficult to see where and how he was first initiated into
the principles of Congregationalism.
The plague drove him from London, and we find him
again in Cambridge, where he continued to preach till in
hibited by the bishop. Just then it came to his ears that
some good people in Norfolk were ' verie forward ' in the
matter of religion, and he ' thought it his duetie to take his
voiage to them.' While he was so resolving there came up
from Norfolk, Robert Harrison, an old Cambridge acquain
tance, who had been going through the same kind of mental
conflict as Browne himself. After much intercourse and
free talk on matters ecclesiastical they went to Norwich
together, where they gathered a congregation of believers
into church fellowship. They did not, however, confine
their labours to Norwich, for in 1581 the bishop forwarded
to Lord Burleigh articles of complaint against Browne, who
was his kinsman, to the effect that he had been lately
apprehended at Bury St. Edmunds on the charge of
gathering people to hear him in private houses and
conventicles to the number of a hundred at a time. It
would appear that Harrison also was arrested at the same
time as his friend, for he tells us in a Little Treatise,
published by him in 1583, that he could have escaped in
time, but that he did not think it lawful to withdraw into
any other place for his own liberty's sake till he had borne
open witness for the good cause. After their release they
with their followers left England for Middelburg in
Zealand, where they established a Congregational church,
and from whence they sent over from time to time the
' Petition reprinted in More Work for the Dean. Thomas Wall.
1681.

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FA THERS. 33
books they published, and against which a proclamation
was issued in 1583. It is conjectured that Harrison died
about 1585, and the following year Robert Browne returned
to England, where he again joined the Episcopal Church, in
the communion of which he remained till his death.
In 1 58 1, as we have seen, the Bishop of Norwich informed
Lord Burleigh that Robert Browne had more than once
taught 'strange and dangerous doctrine' at Bury St.
Edmunds. He was not, however, the earliest exponent of
Congregational principles in that ancient East Anglian
town. For at the very time he was gathering people into
conventicles there, John Copping was a prisoner in the old
gaol in the market-place, where he had already lain for five
years for his advocacy of these principles ; and two years
later this man and his friend Elias Thacker were to die on
the scaffold for their fidelity to them. It seemed fitting,
perhaps, that here in the town where for generations the
great Abbey of St. Edmunds had been the centre of all
life and influence, where ecclesiastical authority had been
supreme and paramount, that the first martyrs for Free
Church principles should lay down their lives for their
testimony. In the old time Bury was one of the most powerful
strongholds of the ancient faith. The royal abbey was
the burial-place and shrine of King Edmund ; its con
ventual bell was the largest in England, and its por
phyry altar had privilege of mass when all the rest of the
kingdom was under interdict. Its abbot had liberty of
coinage, sat among the peers in Parliament, and had great
officers under him : prior, sub-prior, sacrist, and the like,
besides eighty monks, fifteen chaplains and one hundred
and eleven attendants within the walls of the monastery.
The great west gate now remaining was only one of
three with their high walls and towers, while within the
precincts were the palace, the monastery, the chapter house,
D

34 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
a hundred feet long, and besides the abbey church three
other churches, one of which, St. Margaret's, is said by
Leland to be equal if not superior in length and stateliness
to old St. Peter's at Rome. But if the townspeople knew
something of the splendours of ecclesia.sticism they knew
something of its superstitions and something of its oppres
sions and tyrannies too. Pilgrims came from far and near
to see wonder-working relics : drops of the blood of the
martyr Stephen ; some of the coals on which St. Lawrence
was broiled ; skulls of ancient saints and martyrs ; the
boots of St. Thomas of Canterbury and the bones of
St. Botolph, which, if carried in procession, would be ^ure
to bring rain when rain was needed ; there were wax
candles too, which, if carried round the cornfields in seed
time, would work in such wondrous way that neither
darnel nor noisome weed of other sort would grow that
year to the discomfort of faithful husbandmen. But if
priestly candles did ever save the labour of the toiler in
the fields, that labour was rigorously exacted in other
ways about which there could be no manner of doubt.
Every serf within the jurisdiction was bound to plough a
rood of the abbot's land, to reap his harvest field, to fold
his sheep, and to help to bring the annual catch of eels to
his table. Within the abbot's wide domain the land and
water were his ; the townspeople had to pay him for the
pasture of their cattle on their own common ; and if the
fullers refused him the loan of their cloth, the use ofthe
stream was refused and their looms were seized. So it
came to pass that in the very town where the first
Congregationalists were brought as martyrs to the scaffold,
plain burgesses, centuries before, rose up and won in detail
the liberties of Englishmen, even before the Great Charter
claimed them for the realm at large. When the exactions
of the abbot grew to be more than English folk could bear
the very women turned out, distaff in hand, and put his

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FA THERS. 35
officers to flight ; and in later times surging masses of
angry men, women and children poured in from all the
villages round to wreck the abbey in their wrath, and break
the yoke of the tyranny under which they had groaned
too long.
The men of Bury in the sixteenth century were no more
willing to submit to ecclesiastical domination than their
ancestors in the centuries before. In 1581 an Act was
passed inflicting a fine of twenty pounds a month upon
those who refused to come to church ; but when the
commissary of the archdeacon proceeded to enforce the
Act he was seriously molested. He complained that when
he swore in six questmen to bring presentments against
such as came not to church ever, some of the justices sent
for him, ' called him Jack and Knave he knew not how
often,' and threatened to send him to gaol. The bishop
drew up twelve articles against the justices, which he laid
before Lord Burleigh, charging them with favouring John
Copping and one Tyler, who were in prison for spreading
Robert Browne's books, and trying to get them liberated.
He further complained that these justices were for nothing
but Geneva psalms and sermons, in reply to which they
said they could not but marvel at the bishop speaking
thus, for the psalms were David's, and as for the sermons,
his lordship knew the necessity there was for them.
Eventually the bishop and other members of the Ecclesi
astical Commission visited the town in person, and
described the two Puritan ministers, Mr. Handscomb and
Mr. Gayton, as ' the men that blew the coals whereof this
fire was kindled.' Further, at the Assizes held June 1583,
before the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Christopher Wray,
Elias Thacker and John Copping were put upon their
trial for dispersing the books written by Robert Browne'
and Robert Harrison, and being convicted were sentenced
to death. That there might be no time for appeal, they
D 2

36 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
were hanged at once, while the Assizes were still being
held, Thacker one day, and Copping the next. They were
both willing to acknowledge the civil authority of Her
Majesty, but no further ; and though Dr. Still, the chaplain,
tried to convince them that the Queen was head of the
Church as well as of the State, ' yet they were at that
very time of their death immovably of the same mind.'
Before their execution ' their books, as many of them as
could be found, were burnt before them.' It is easier,
however, to stretch men by the neck and burn their books
than to suppress their opinions. In his official report the
Lord Chief Justice had to tell the Lord Treasurer that
there were still many remaining of Copping and Thacker's
way of thinking, that, indeed, he had had to send one
minister to prison for saying that if it had been known
when Elias Thacker was to have suffered, there would have
been five hundred good fellows more than there were at
his execution.^
While Robert Browne's books were coming over from
Middelburg by stealth, and men were being hanged for
spreading them, there were great searchings of heart going
on in a certain east country parsonage in the county of
Norfolk. John Greenwood, on leaving Cambridge, where
he had graduated in 1581, had been ordained by the bishop.
He had been greatly influenced, however, by opinions of
freer sort, which were ripe at the university in that seething
time ; he had also met with Robert Browne's Treatise oj
Reformation ivitJiout Tarrying for anie, which came over
the year after he had entered upon his living, and the more
he thought upon these questions the less satisfied he
became, and at length in 1585 he was deprived of his
benefice by the bishop ' for the disliking he had to the
Order of the Book of Common Prayer.' We next find him
acting as chaplain to a Puritan nobleman. Lord Rich, at
' Lansdowne MSS., xxxviii ., 64.

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 37
Rochford Hall, in the county of Essex. The services he
and Robert Wright carried on jointly in the great chamber
of the hall proved so attractive that the people of the
neighbourhood forsook those at the parish church to
attend them. This brought down the displeasure of the
bishop, and Greenwood had to flee, seeking refuge in what
was even then the great wilderness of London life. Here he
found companionship with those who composed the secret
church in London, the successors of those who ever since
the Reformation had striven for a simpler worship and
a more scriptural faith. He joined their gatherings,
until in the month of October 1587 he was arrested along
with twenty others 'for being at private conventicles in
Henry Martin's house in St. Andrew's, in Wardropp.''
After examination before the Bishop of London he was
sent to the Clink prison, there to abide till further order
was taken.
While John Greenwood lay in the Clink he received a
visit from one whose name was to become memorable in
Free Church history. This was Henry Barrowe, the son
of a country squire at Shipdam, in Norfolk. He had been
trained for the law, and during the years of his London
life had lived in wild and wanton way, but passing a
London church and hearing the preacher's voice, he turned
in in freakish fashion and heard that which changed every
thing for him. Lord Bacon, who knew him, says that 'he
made a leap from a vain and libertine youth ' to a life of
earnest purpose, ' the strangeness and suddenness of which
alteration made him very much spoken of The change
was as permanent as it was sudden, and introduced him to
new companionships of godly sort. In this way he came
to be associated with John Greenwood, and hearing of his
friend's arrest he went down to the prison one Sunday
^ State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. cciv., 10, 1587.
Particulars of several Brownists.

38 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
morning to visit him. No sooner was he within the walls
of the Clink than he himself was arrested by the gaoler
and sent up the river the same afternoon to Lambeth
Palace, where he was examined before the archbishop and
other officials. Examined again and again from time to
time, he was at length consigned to the Fleet prison, where
he and his friend Greenwood shared the same chamber.
Here the years passed slowly away, the two prisoners en
gaged in writing books for the assertion and vindication of
their principles. In 1592 there was some relaxation after
five years' imprisonment. Greenwood was released, but not
for long. On December 5 that same year, he along with
Francis Johnson was arrested while worshipping at the
house of Edward Boyes on Ludgate Hill, and between one
and two o'clock in the morning conveyed with bills and
staves to prison once more.
The end was now not far off. On March 23, 1 593, Barrowe
and Greenwood were put upon their trial at the Old Bailey,
and that night the Attorney-General reported to the Lord
Keeper of the Great Seal, that the Court had proceeded
against these men for devising seditious books, that they
were attainted by verdict of judgment, and direction given
for execution to-morrow, as in cases of like quality.^ Next
morning they were brought out of their dungeon, their
irons struck off, and they bound to the cart, at which moment
a reprieve arrived, .'^gain, a week later, as Barrowe says,
' my brother Greenwood and I were very early and
secretly conveyed to the place of execution,' that is, to
Tyburn, 'where being tied by the necks to the tree, we
were permitted to speak a few words.' These few words
ended, they then joined in prayer for the Queen, the
magistrates, and the people, and like their Master before
them, for their enemies also. Their last words, as they
supposed, were almost reached, when at the fateful moment
' Harleian MSS. 6848 ; 7, 9, 11, 14, 191.

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FA THERS. 39
a messenger with a reprieve from her majesty made his
way through the crowd to the scaffold, and again their
lives were spared. Cheers and rejoicing rose from the
multitude, both all round the place of execution and all
the way back, from ways, streets, and houses, as they
returned to their prison chamber. The reprieve, however,
was not for long. They had had ' two near and miraculous
escapes ' ; twice had they gone through the bitterness of
death, and twice been sent back to the hopes of life. But
the end came at last. On April 6, 1593, stripped of their
irons and bound to the cart once more, they went forth to
Tyburn again, two aged widows with them bearing their
winding sheets. This time there came no reprieve ; from
this journey there was no return. The conflict ended, as
it has often ended, before and since :
Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.

40 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

II.
SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD.
Having briefly traced the course of the struggle for
spiritual freedom on English soil to the end of the six
teenth century, we now turn to the church in the north
Midland shire from which the Pilgrim Fathers sprang. We
make our way therefore to the village of Scrooby, nestling
amid quiet meadows and by the side of tranquil streams, >
where the three counties of Nottingham, York and Lincoln
meet. After two centuries of oblivion this village sprang
to fame as the birthplace of the Pilgrim Church. Half
a century ago all that was known of the local beginnings
of that church was gathered from some brief sentences of
Governor Bradford, to the effect that those who formed
this historic community ' were of several towns and
villages, some in Nottinghamshire, some in Liiicolnshire,
and some in Yorkshire, where they bordered nearest to
gether ' ; and next, that ' they ordinarily met at William
Brewster's house on the Lord's day, which was a manor of
the bishop's.' To find out where these conditions applied
was an inviting problem to solve, and in 1842, during a
visit to England, the Hon. James Savage submitted that
problem for solution to the Rev. Joseph Hunter, the author
of a history of South Yorkshire, of which district he was a
native. Mr. Hunter was at that time Assistant Keeper of
Her Majesty's Records, and therefore it was with special
training and with special advantages that he addressed

GOVERNOR BRADFORD'S COTTAGE AT AUSTERFIELD.
I. Cottage. 2. Steps to cellar. 3. Cellar.
{Fiom sketches In/ Charles Whymper.)

SCROOB Y AND A USTERFIELD. 43
himself to the consideration of the question. After careful
investigation he pointed out that the required conditions as
to locality were met in the village of Scrooby, in the
hundred of Basset-Lawe, in the county of Nottingham, that
being the only place comprising an episcopal manor which
was near the three counties mentioned by Bradford. Since
the publication of his Collections Concerning the Early
History of the Founders of New Plymouth, in 1849, the
question as to locality may be considered as finally
settled. Scrooby, one of those places of far less importance now
in railway times than in the old coaching days, is situated
in Nottinghamshire, about a mile and a half south of
Bawtry, a market-town within the Yorkshire border on the
great north road from London to Berwick. The village
has a railway station of its own, but the traveller from the
south who would approach Scrooby aright should go on to
Bawtry, and return by the high road lined with elm-trees,
leading from Bawtry Hall to Scrooby Mill, This is both
more picturesque and is the road along which William
Bradford came from Austerfield to the gatherings of the
brethren in William Brewster's house., Bawtry itself also
has its memories of those olden times as well as Scrooby,
on which it may be pleasant to linger as we saunter
through. The same John de Builli who in the reign of
Henry II. gave to the neighbouring convent of Blyth the
chapel of Austerfield, in which William Bradford was
baptised, gave to that convent the chapel of Bawtry too.
At the southern extremity of the town also is the hospital
of St. Mary Magdalen, founded in 1390 by Robert Morton
of Bawtry, and endowed for a priest there to have residence,
' to keep hospitalitie for poore people, and to pray for the
Founder's Soule and all Christian Soules.' By way of
further acknowledgment ' a free rente of a pound of peper '
was to be paid out of the hospital yearly to the Mortons, as

44 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
descendants of the founder.^ These Mortons continued
long after the Reformation to be strenuous supporters of
the ancient faith. In the days of William Brewster's boy
hood he may have more than once seen along the road the
hasty movements of the disguised priest, Nicholas Morton,
as from time to time he passed between Rome and Bawtry,
' a notable busy factor for the Pope in England.' Strype
tells us that ' his resort was to Bautrie, where he Hved
obscurely at that town of danger, half a mile from the
highway and open along the north road to all parts of
England and Scotland.^ Soon after Elizabeth's coronation
this man fled to Rome, but during the next thirty years he
was often to and fro on secret errands, coming sometimes
by way of Boston and sometimes by Grimsby, and remain
ing months at a time for purposes of intrigue. He was
involved in that Catholic rising when, on November 14,
1569, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland
entered Durham in arms, passed into the cathedral, tore
the Bible and Prayer-book to pieces, set up the old altar,
and had the mass said once more at the altar of St. Cuth
bert, after which they pushed on to Doncaster with an
army which soon swelled to thousands of men. This same
Nicholas Morton was also the man who, at the peril of his
life, brought over in 1 5 70 the papal bull by which Pius V.
declared Queen Elizabeth a heretic, and as such cut off
from the communion of the faithful, and her crown and
kingdom forfeited ; and as he and his nephew Robert
Morton at Bawtry were only some fifteen or sixteen miles
from Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was
prisoner, there they were often the medium of communica
tion between her and her Catholic friends across the sea.
' An Account of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, near Scrooby .
MS. in the possession of Thomas Frewer, Esq. Hearne's Works.
Vol. iv., 1810.
^ Annals, 1575. Vol. II., pp. i., 577-579.

SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 45
With these sixteenth-century memories in our minds we
pass the elm-trees round Bawtry Hall, with their lively
colony of rooks, and half a mile farther on we come to
Gibbet Hill, with its gruesome associations of a dark and
evil deed wrought at the old toll-gate more than a century
ago. At this point we are in sight of Scrooby spire, and
before crossing the bridge we had better leave the present
high road, which is of modern date, and keep to the pic
turesque old road to the left, which goes past the clump
of fir-trees and the slopes of red sandstone bright with
golden furze, and so by the banks of Ryton stream as it
goes its quiet way to the Idle and on to the Trent at Idle
Stop. The old road comes out more and more distinctly
as we go till it reaches the ford below the water-mill, and
across this we pass into the centre of the village, as kings
and nobles and long lines of meaner folk have passed
before us, sometimes with the waters of the ford high up
the wheels of the lumbering coach.
The village of Scrooby, situated 146 miles north ot
London, in the Bassetlawe division of Nottinghamshire,
with its population of some two hundred souls, though
small in extent, is of ancient fame. As far back as
Domesday Book the manor belonged to the Archbishops
of York, who had a palace here as well as at York,
Bishopthorpe, Cawood, Southwell, Beverley, and elsewhere.
It is not known when they first came here, but as early as
1 178 John the Constable of Chester granted the town of
Plumtree to Roger, Archbishop of York, and his successors
for ever; and in 1537 Edward, a successor in the arch
bishopric, ' demised to Geoffrey Lee, Esquire, his brother,
all that his great close, paled about, called Plumtree field,
besides Scrooby Park with the lodge upon the same,
together with all his warren and game of conies in the
parishes of Scrooby and Harworth for forty-one years.' ^
' Raine's History and Antiquities of the Parish of Blyth. i860.

46 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND.
The parish church, which Leland described more than three
centuries ago as ' not big but well builded,' is dedicated to
St. Wilfrid, and is an embattled building in the Early
English and Decorated styles, having a tower surmounted
by four pinnacles and a lofty octagonal spire. It is
somewhat one-sided in appearance, having an aisle on the
south side, but none corresponding to it on the north.
Two of the three bells in the tower go back farther than
William Brewster's time, bearing date upon them 141 1
and 1511 ; the third was not placed till 1647. The spire
has been twice struck by lightning, once in 18 17 and
again in 1831 ; and the interior of the church was restored
in 1862, about which time the old font disappeared, having
found its way, it is said, to the American side of the
Atlantic. Two massive benches, one on each side of the
chancel, and having the backs and ends covered with
carvings of the ancient Christian symbol, the grape vine,
are remnants of the former majesty of the manor pew.
The parish register, unfortunately, does not go back to the
days of the Pilgrim Fathers ; the oldest tombstone that is
decipherable is that of Theophilus Torre, who died in 1620,
and there is a monument to the memory of the daughter
of Archbishop Sandys ; but for the rest, when the church
yard was restored in recent years the gravestones were
grouped together without respect to the bodies which lay
beneath. Near the north-eastern gate are the old vicarage,
the parish pound, and all that remains of the parish stocks.
The quaint cottage known as the vicarage, built of small
bricks, without a staircase except that furnished by an up
lifted ladder, has for generations been the abode ofthe parish
clerks, the vicar, having charge of three churches, residing
in the neighbouring parish of Sutton-cum-Lound.
The primary interest, however, which now draws pilgrims
to Scrooby, is neither the village nor the village church, so
much as what remains of the old manor house and the

ANCIENT PEWS IN SCROOBY CHURCH.

SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD.

49

field where still lie buried the foundations of the ancient
palace. The latter building probably began to fall into
decay about the time the little community of Christian
men came to worship at William Brewster's house.
Thoroton, writing of Scrooby in 1677, says : — ' Here
within memory stood a very fair palace, a far greater house
of receit and a better seat for provision than Southwell,
and had attending to it the North Soke, consisting of very
many towns thereabouts ; it hath a fair park belonging to

SITE OF THE OLD STOCKS, SCROOBY CHURCHYARD,
{From a sketch by Charles Whymper.)
it. Archbishop Sandes caused it to be demised to his son
Sir Samuel Sandes, since which the house hath been
demolished almost to the ground.' The building whose
decay and downfall were thus chronicled by the Notting
hamshire historian was one of the palaces held by the
Archbishops of York in the days when they moved from
one part of their diocese to another, administering various
civil as well as ecclesiastical functions, dispensing hospitality
and taking with them a numerous and splendid retinue.
E

so PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
It was of great antiquity. The letter by which Archbishop
Gray granted to the brethren of the Hospital of St. John,
Nottingham, the power to elect their own warders, was
thus endorsed : ' Given at Scrooby by the hands of
Master Simon of Evesham, the fourth of December, in
the seventeenth year [of our pontificate.' December ii,
1232.]^ Being also near to one of the post stations on the
great north road, it was not infrequently a hospice for
distinguished travellers on their way south or north. It is
recorded that Margaret, Queen of Scotland, daughter of
King Henry VII., slept here on the 12th of June, 1603, on
her way to Scotland.
For the space of several weeks also, towards the
close of his strangely chequered career. Cardinal Wolsey
made the old manor house his abiding-place, planting the
mulberry-tree in the garden which till recent days was
associated with his name. More a statesman than an
ecclesiastic, he has been described as ' probably the greatest
political genius whom England has ever produced ; for at
a great crisis of European history he impressed England
with a sense of her own importance, and secured for her a
leading position in European affairs.'^ Though raised to
the Archbishopric of York in 1514, it was not till 1530
that Wolsey visited the province over which he had been
placed. When the royal favour was gone and his fortunes
were broken, with a desolate heart, at the beginning of
Passion week, he set out on his journey to York. After
spending some time at his other manor house at Southwell,
towards the end ofthe summer he removed from Southwell
to Scrooby, where 'he continued until after Michaelmas,
ministering many good deeds of charity.' In his retinue
at this very time was an ecclesiastic who was to gain a
notoriety of his own in later days. Bonner, afterwards
^ Archbishop Gray's Register. Ed. Raines, p. 35.
^ Twelve English Statesmen : Cardinal Wolsey, p. 2.

SCROOB Y AND A USTERFIELD. 5 1
Bishop of London in Mary's reign, dates a letter to
Thomas Cromwell 'at Scrooby with my Lord's grace,'
in 1530.^
In this quiet interval at Scrooby, before the end
came, Wolsey seems to have turned to simpler and more
guileless pursuits than those so long congenial to him, of
baffling kings and statesmen in the political game. One
writing in 1536, says of him: 'Who was less beloved in
the north than my lord cardinal before he was amongst
them ? Who better beloved after he had been there
a while? He gave bishops a right good example how
they might win men's hearts. There were few holy days
but he would ride five or six miles from his house, now to
this parish church, now to that, and there cause one or
other of his doctors to make a sermon unto the people.
He sat among them, and said mass before all the parish ;
he saw why churches were made, and began to restore
them to their right and proper use. He brought his
dinner with him, and bade divers of the parish to it, when
he enquired whether there were any debate or grudge
between any of them, and if there were he would, after
dinner, send for the parties to the church and make them
all one.' All this would be pleasant to read, were it not
for the fact that behind all these pastoral simplicities there
was a weary aching heart. For it was during these same
Scrooby days Wolsey learnt that all his most cherished
plans had come to nothing ; that the king had dissolved
his college at Ipswich, seizing all its lands and possessions ;
and that at Oxford the name of Christ Church had obliter
ated that of Cardinal College. ' I am put away from my
sleep and meat,' he wrote, ' for such advertisements as I
have had of the dissolution of my colleges.'
After three months spent at Scrooby, towards the end of
September, the fallen minister set out for York, and two
^ Ellis's Original Letters, III., vol. ii.,~ p. 178.
E 2

52 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
months later he had taken that longer journey from which
there is no" return. As the end drew near he sent a
message to the king, requesting ' His grace in God's name
that he have a vigilant eye to depress this new pernicious
sect of Lutherans, that it do not increase within his
dominions through his negligence.' As if either king or
cardinal could keep back the oncoming tide ! Little did
Wolsey dream that from that same manor house at
Scrooby he had so lately left there would, in process of
time, go forth a little band of earnest men who would carry
across to the new world beyond the Atlantic the principles
of freedom and self-government born of that very Re
formation he was trying to crush with his dying hand. He
could not foresee this, nor could he anticipate that even
when, eleven years later — in 1541 — the king himself slept a
night at Scrooby on his way to the north the mighty
change would have come, and that 'this new pernicious
sect of the Lutherans ' would be supreme in the State. Yet
so it was. In that brief space the king had become a
Lutheran himself, the Act of Supremacy had become law
the monasteries were dissolved, the nation had passed over
to the Protestant faith, and England was severed from
the See of Rome.
We happen to be able to reproduce to our own mind's
eye the palace, its appearance and equipment, as it was
seen at the time. Leland, the antiquary, was there the
same year as the king. Speaking of the year 1541, he
says : — ' In the meane townlet of Scrooby I marked two
things — the parish church, not big but very well builded ;
the second was a great manor place, standing within
a moat, and longing to the Archbishop of York ; builded
in two courts, whereof the first is very ample and all
builded of timber, saving the front of the house that is
of brick, to the which ascenditur per gradus lapideos.
The inner court building, as far as I marked, was of

SCROOBY AND A USTERFIELD. 53
timber building, and was not in compass past the fourth
part of the outer court.' ^ So much for the exterior.
The interior arrangement and equipment we gather from
an official source. After their visitation of the province
of York, Doctors Richard Layton and Thomas Legh
presented their report to Cromwell. Describing the
' implements remayning at Scrooby,' they state that in the
Hall there were three screens, six tables, nine forms, one
cupboard, etc. ; ' in the Chapell oone alter Tymber, oone
lectionary and superalles, a payer of Organes, a Clock
without plometts and ropes.' They tell us also what was
in the 'dynyng chambre,' which was 'ceiled and dressed
with waynscot,' what was in the ' winpholler's chambre and
the four oodre chambres above and beneath,' and so on
through all the thirty-nine chambers and apartments, even
to 'the court between the galerie and the kitchen,' and
including all the furniture, even to ' the olde tymbre of a
shed over the well.' William Warener, the receiver, valued
the rents of the archbishop's lordship of Scrooby at
£i6'j lis. 4f^., in purchasing value a far greater sum, of
course, in those days than in these.^
After the Reformation and the visitation of the religious
houses consequent thereon, the place seems to have lost
something of its ancient stateliness, and to have entered
upon its period of decline. In 1557 Archbishop Heath
granted a lease of 'all his manor house or chief manor
place of Scrooby with the park and lands ' for twenty-one
years at about £21 per annum, to James Bryne, the steward
of his household. In 1575 Archbishop Grindal again
leased the said manor for the same length of time and at
the same rent to William Marshall of Much Hadham,
CO. Hertford, an arrangement which, however, seems to
' Itinerary, I. 36.
^ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII. : 27 Henry
VIII., January 12, 153I.

54 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
have fallen through ; for the following year. Archbishop
Sandys, then recently elevated to the see of York, leased
the same manor to his son. Sir Samuel Sandys, of the
Middle Temple, at a yearly rent of £6^, 6s. 8d. By this
time the Brewsters, with whom this narrative will be
intimately concerned, appeared upon the scene ; for in the
month of January, 1575-6, Archbishop Sandys appointed
William Brewster — the father of the Elder Brewster of
later days — his receiver of Scrooby and all its liberties in
Nottinghamshire, and also bailiff of the manor house, to
hold both offices for life. The family were there even
earlier still, for on the 'administration of the estate of
William Brewster of Scrooby' being granted to William
Brewster his son, in 1590, it is noted that the widow
Prudence held the office of Post when he died, and that the
father of the deceased man had held it before him. The
connexion of the family with the office was therefore of long
standing. In 1545, on the death of Sir Brian Tuke, who
had been Master of the Postes, a letter was sent from the
Privy Council to Mr. Mason, his successor, ' for the con-
tynuance of Adam Gascoyne in the office of the Postship of
Scrobye,' and a warrant to him the following year, ' that he
shuld paye to Adam Gascoynes his dailye wages of iiijj.
from the last of his payes.' ^
As William Brewster's grandfather had probably suc
ceeded Gascoyne, and been in turn succeeded by his own
son, we may take it for granted that the future leader of
the Pilgrim Fathers first saw the light in the old manor
house which was the residence of the ' Post ' for the time
being. As he deposed at Leyden, June 25, 1609, that
he was then forty-two years of age, he was born somewhere
in 1566-7. After spending his early life at Scrooby and
receiving education at some neighbouring school, William
Brewster, as Bradford tells us, ' spent some small time
' Privy Council Register, 1545, p. 267 ; 1546, p. 363.

SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 55
at Cambridge,' where he matriculated at Peterhouse,
the oldest of the college foundations, December 3, 1580.^
As he was at this date only about fourteen years of age,
college could have been little more than a grammar school,
and he appears not to have remained there long enough to
take his degree. The next point in his history of which
we have definite knowledge is that he was in the service
of William Davison, Her Majesty's representative in the
Netherlands when the cautionary towns of Brill and
Flushing were delivered up to England in 1585. According
to Bradford's narrative : ' After being first seasoned with
the seeds of grace and virtue he went to the court, and
served that religious and godly gentleman, William
Davison, divers years when he was Secretary of State.'
The connexion between these two men thus referred to
is interesting, as being one of the master facts of Brewster's
life. The acquaintance probably first sprang up as Davison
passed through Scrooby on his way to and from Scotland
on business of State. We know that he was along the
great North Road at the beginning of 1583 on a diplomatic
mission to Scotland, together with Robert Bowes, for there
is a letter of his to Lord Burghley, dated January 3, 1582-3,
in which he describes how he met M. de la Mothe Fenelon,
the French envoy, on the road, and discussed Catholicism
with him. The object of the envoy was to arrange with
James VI. an alliance with France, while Davison's object
was to checkmate him. At that very time William
Brewster would be at home from Cambridge, and as
Davison would certainly have to change horses at the
manor house at Scrooby — may possibly have had to stay
the night there — it is probable the acquaintance then
sprang up between them which led to Brewster entering
^ Mr. Franklin B. Dexter, of Yale University, found the record of
this fact in the general Matriculation lists preserved in the Registry
at the Pitt Press,

56 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Davison's service. This was an important step in the
young man's life, bringing him into contact with some of
the leading men of the time. In August 1585 he accom
panied Davison to the Netherlands, where he went to
negotiate an alliance with the States-General, and when
on their return Davison became assistant to Walsingham,
the Queen's Secretary of State, from the autumn of 1586
till the following February, Brewster was with him in
the court at Richmond, where, as his correspondence
shows, Davison was in daily attendance upon the queen.
As an official of the State, Davison was greatly esteemed
and trusted, doing his work voraciously and resolutely. It
was seldom that his advice to his own country on matters
pertaining to the Netherlands did not prove to be the wisest
that could be offered ; and, on the other hand. Prince
Maurice said of him that he was one of the best and most
certain friends that the House of Nassau possessed in
England. He was not only a capable and honest states
man, he was also a godly man, the esteemed elder of a
Puritan church. In days when the bishops were pressing
the Puritans with increased severity, many of them fled to
Antwerp, which has been described as at that time the
Pella of the Puritan refugees ; and a church was formed in
that city by the English and Scottish Merchant Ad
venturers. The church records of this community are
still in existence, and it is from these we learn that
Davison sustained an official relation to the church.
Under date May 21, 1579, there is an entry to the effect
'that upon Mr. Davison's occasion to depart for England'
it became necessary for the church to choose some
additional elders, The records also mention that ' divers
children borne to Mr. William Davison, Ambassador of
Queen Elizabeth in Antwerp, and christened in the English
church there, were afterwards naturalised in England.'^
' Additional MSS., 6394, pp. 113, 142.

SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 57
On the 2 1st of the following January the grant was made
to him of the office of the Clerk of the King's Bench and
Keeper of the Records in the Treasury House at West
minster.^ Davison's connexion with the Christian men
who had gone to the Low Countries, partly for purpose of
commerce and partly also for larger range of religious
freedom, while it throws light on his character, throws
light also indirectly on that of William Brewster in these
early years. For their personal relations seem to have
been not merely intimate, but even affectionate. Bradford
tells us that the elder man found the younger ' so discreet
and faithful as he trusted him above all that were about
him, and only employed him in all matters of greatest
trust and secrecy. He esteemed him rather as a son than
a servant, and for his wisdom and godliness (in private) he
would converse with him more like a friend and familiar
than a master. He attended his master when he was sent
in ambassage by the queen into the Low Countries (1585)
in the Earl of Leicester's time, as for other weighty affairs
of State, so to receive possession of the cautionary towns ;
and in token and sign thereof the keys of Flushing
being delivered to him in Her Majesty's name, he kept
them some time, and committed them to this his servant,
who kept them under his pillow on which he slept the first
night. And at his return the States honoured him with a
gold chain, and his master comimitted it to him, and com
manded him to wear it when they arrived in England, as
they rode through the country till they came to the
court.' ^
Distinction so flattering coming thus early seemed
to have in it the promise of a brilliant political future.
Certainly it then seemed far from probable that the
young man thus basking in the world's sunshine would
^ State Papers, Domestic. Ehzabeth. Addenda, 1566-1579.
" History of Plymouth Plantation, pp. 409, 410. Boston. 1856.

58 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
yet choose and that for a long lifetime ' to suffer affliction
with the people of God,' Yet so it was. He who shapes
our lives for us had other thoughts for William Brewster
than that he should spend his days in royal courts, where,
as Sir Walter Raleigh, one of his contemporaries, says :
' Strain'd sardonic smiles are glosing still ; where mirth's
but mummery, and sorrows only real be.' The change in
his career came in manner most unexpected. Within two
years of that triumphal return from the Netherlands
Secretary Davison's fortunes came down with a crash,
bringing with them the brilliant prospects of his younger
friend. It seems strange to connect events apparently so
wide apart, yet it is almost certain that but for the execu
tion of Mary, Queen of Scots, there would haye been no
Pilgrim Church at Scrooby or at Leyden, no voyage of the
Mayflower, and no Elder Brewster in Plymouth Church,
with all his far-reaching influence in American life. The
way the death of the Scottish queen came to affect the
whole course of Puritan history may be briefly explained.
Elizabeth had resolved upon the death of Mary, but
hesitated long before taking the final step. For months a
warrant for the execution had been drawn up, waiting for
that signature which the queen's ministers urged her again
and again to give. At length, when the Scotch and French
ambassadors were gone, and with them the last excuse for
delay, she did sign it in the presence of Davison, who had
lately become co-secretary with Walsingham, and having
signed it directed him to have it sealed. It is clear
now that she meant the execution to take place, but meant
at the same time to throw the responsibility on someone
else. Davison says that she ' forbade him to trouble her
any further, or let her hear any more thereof till it was
done, seeing that for her part she had now performed all
that either in law or reason could be required of her.'
But signing the death warrant, as both of them knew, was

SCROOBY AND A USTERFIELD. 59
not enough ; there must also be formal delivery of it to
some person, with direction to carry it out. ^ This the queen
contrived to evade, and when, on February 9, 1 587, news of
the execution arrived, and she found it convenient to throw
the responsibility of the deed upon her subordinates, she
stormed at Davison for exceeding her instructions, and
made him the scapegoat of the transaction. Tried before
a special commission on the charge of divulging State
secrets, he was fined ten thousand marks, deprived of his
secretaryship, and sent as prisoner to the Tower.
With this fall of Davison came, as we have said, the fall
of his friend and favourite, William Brewster, so far at least
as his position at court was concerned. Bradford tells us
that ' afterwards he went and lived in the country, in good
esteem amongst his friends and the gentlemen of those
parts, especially the godly and religious.' In other words,
he went back to Scrooby, towards the end of 1587, at a
time when, as it turned out, his services began to be greatly
needed at home. His father had for several years held the
responsible position of ' Post ' on the great North Road at
Scrooby, but now his health was failing, and he was
unequal to the discharge of its duties, indeed, within a
year and a half, in the summer of 1590, he was taken
away by death. During these later months, the younger
Brewster came back opportunely to fill his father's place.
So completely did he do this, that his name appears to
have been enrolled on the official list of Posts, and for a
year and a half he received the emoluments. Nothing
seemed more natural, therefore, than that he should receive
the appointment when the position became formally vacant
by the death of his father. In this, at first, he was disap
pointed. That same summer, in the month of June, Sir
John Stanhope was made Postmaster-General, and he
appointed one Samuel Bevercotes, a lawyer of Gray's Inn,
to the vacant position. He had two reasons for preferring

6o PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
this man to William Brewster ; first, he was his kinsman,
and next, Brewster had not shown him that deference he
expected — ' All this while, and to this hour,' says he, ' I
never heard one word from young Brewster, he neither
came to me, being in town, nor sent to me being absent,
but as though I were to be overruled by others made his
way according to his liking. I know my interest such as
whether he had the place or no I can displace him, and
thynk him worthily displaced for his contempt of me
in not sekyng me at all.' This was in answer to an earnest
letter from ex-secretary Davison, strongly urging the prior
claim of his friend William Brewster. Sir John Stanhope's
letter is among the State Papers. It is dated Oatlands,
August 22 [1590], and on the back are notes in WiUiam
Davison's handwriting, showing ' Why young Brewster
ought to bee appointed.' He says that he 'was possessed
of the place longe before his father's death, as may appeare
by the enrolment of his name on the rolls among the other
Postes ; by receipt of the fee for a year and a half; by the
testimony of Mr. Mills, who was privie to the grant,
and did both register his name and pay him the wages ;
and his exercise of the place for above a year and a halfe,
which may be testified by the Postes his next neighbours.
Neither is there any just cause to except against him,
either in respect of his honestie, sufficiency for the service,
discharge thereof hitherto, or other wayes whatever.'
Other reasons also are noted at the back of this letter
why Brewster should not be displaced, such as : ' the charge
he hath been at provision this hard year for the service ; the
loss he would sustain, or rather, utter undoing by being
suddenly dispossessed, and the harmes of the example ' to
Her Majesty's Service.^ It may be safely assumed that
these strong reasons written by Davison at the back of
' State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. ccxxxiii., 48. 22 August
[1590]. Sir John Stanhope to Sec. Davison.

SCROOB Y AND A USTERFIELD. 01
Sir John's letter, were rough notes afterwards expanded
into a reply sent to the Postmaster-General ; for Bevercotes'
appointment seems shortly after to have been cancelled,
and William Brewster made Post of Scrooby. Indeed,
Sir John had prepared the way in his own letter for a
retreat, possibly from some misgiving as to the equity of
his procedure : ' If I find cause, and may, without dis
gracing my cousin \i.e. Bevercotes] and touch to myself,
I will revoke my grant, if you shall not rest satisfied that
he have any other that shall fall void with the first. You
shall hear and see ere long what I will do to satisfy you.'
The outcome of it all was that Davison's chivalrous devotion
to his friend, devotion as honourable to one side as to the
other, carried the day against the nepotism of the Post
master-General, and for the next eighteen years of his life
William Brewster filled the office at Scrooby his father and
grandfather had filled before him.
As everything relating to one so eminent among the
Pilgrim Fathers of America as William Brewster came
to be is of interest to us now, it may be worth while
to look at the nature of his occupation as Post of Scrooby,
from the time when he was a young man of twenty-
three, till he reached the age of forty. Until the
reign of Henry VIII., or perhaps even earlier, there
was no regular system of posts in England, and for
long after that the only four that were established were
for the exclusive use of the sovereign, In 1572, Thomas
Randolph, the immediate predecessor of Sir John Stanhope
as Master of the Post to Queen Elizabeth, rendered an
account of the charges to which he had been put in the
execution of his trust during the preceding five years. In
this account, no single post is mentioned without connect
ing it in some way closely with the person of the sovereign.
It was 'a post daily serving Her Majesty,' 'a post for
Her Majesty's Service and affairs,' ' a post during the

62 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
time of Her Majesty's progress,' or 'a post for the
conveyance of Her Majesty's letters and those of Her
Council.' These posts were always spoken of as journeys
of the' court, thus: i. 'The Courte to Barwick,' that is,
the post to Scotland ; 2. ' The Courte to Beaumaris,' that
is, the post to Ireland ; 3. ' The Courte to Dover,' that is,
the post to the Continent; and 4. 'The Courte to
Plymouth,' that is, the post to the Royal Dockyard. But
the conveyance of the sovereign's letters was not the only
purpose these posts were originally designed to serve.
Another purpose of an important kind was that there should
be stationed in constant readiness, and at given distances
along these four main roads of the kingdom, a relay of
horses, by which persons travelling on the affairs of the
State might pass from place to place. So that it was
rather as a means of travelling than as a means of corre
spondence that the post came to be used by others not
employed on affairs of the State.-^ Indeed, the increasing
number of such persons making use of the posts for this
purpose became an embarrassment to the public service.
In the Privy Council Register, under date Feb. 12, 1566-7,
there is the following entry :—
' The Lords this day considering how much trouble daily
groweth unto the realm abrode by continual granting from
their lordships of letters for post-horses to diverse noble
men and gentlemen being not sent for any case of the
Queen's i Majesty's Service, but travelling in their own
private business, have thought good to order that from
henceforth no warrant or passport be signed for any post-
horses, except the same be for the Queen's Majesty's
Service.' The earliest instructions we have for the regulation of
the post were issued about the time the elder Brewster
1 History ofthe Post Office down to 1836; by Herbert Joyce, C.B.,
ofthe Post Office. 1893.

SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 63
officiated at Scrooby. Every ' Post ' was to keep and have
constantly ready two horses at least, with suitable ' furni
ture ' ; he was also to have at least two bags of leather
well lined with baize or cotton, and a horn for the driver
to blow ' as oft as he meets company,' or four times in
every mile. After receiving the packet entrusted to him,
the driver was to start within fifteen minutes, and to run
in the summer at the rate of seven miles an hour, and in
winter five. The address of the packet of State letters and
the day and hour at which it was received were to be
carefully entered in a book to be kept for the purpose.^
The pace prescribed for travelling was not always kept
even in summer, for in' 1589, when the younger Brewster
was acting for his sick father, there was a charge of
negligence as to the transmission of a despatch sent from
Berwick to London by Sir Henry Wodrington on the 25th
of August. It appears from the Articles of Charge that
the one hundred and fifty-five miles between Berwick and
Newark took eighty-three hours to travel, so that the pace
was less than two miles an hour. The despatch in question
left Doncaster ' at ij in the morninge and reached to the
post of Scrobie,' that is, came into young William Brewster's
hand.s, ' the same day at iiij in the morning. Soe in riding
vij miles ij houres,' ^ which came nearer to the regulation
pace.^ ^ Joyce's History of the Post Office.
2 State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Addenda, Vol. xxxi., 40,
1589. ' This was not the first time that complaint had to be made
concerning the dilatoriness of the Northern Post, as the following
extract from the Privy Council Register shows: '29 August, 1558.
A lettre to Sir John Mason signifying unto him the usual slackness
of the Postes layed northwarde in the conveyance of letters hither,
and the opening of them by the way, and therefore requiring of him
to give orders forthwith for their reformation on that behalf, or else
the Queen's Majesty must be enforced to discharge them every one,
and. to seek some new means to be served from time to time with a
through Poste.'

64 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
The office of ' Post ' on the four great roads was one of
more importance and responsibility than that of a country
postmaster of our time. As we have seen, the position at
Scrooby was sought for by Samuel Bevercotes, who is
described as a lawyer of Gray's Inn, In Brewster's days
also, Rowland Whyte, who was a correspondent of many
of the nobility of the time, was the ' Post of the Court'
Nicholas Heyford, and after him Ralph Aslaby, was post
at Doncaster, and Heyford and Aslaby were both names
of respectable families in the south part of the West
Riding of Yorkshire, corresponding in social position, as
we may suppose, with the Brewsters.* The emoluments
of the office were from £2^^, to ;^325 a year in present
value. From Sir John Stanhope's account, declared before
Lord Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and Sir John
Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer, March 31, 1597,
for the three preceding years, we find that from April 1594,
to April 1597, 'William Brewster, Post of Scrooby, for his
ordinary wages, serving Her Majesty all the time aforesaid,
at 2od. per diem, £gi 6s. 8d.' From the ist of July, 1603,
Brewster's wages were advanced from 2od. to 2s. a day,^
as is shown by the following entry : ' William Brewster,
Post of Scrooby, for his wages as well, at 2od. per diem for
640 days, begun the ist of July, 1603, and ended the last
of March, 1605, ;^I02.' The latest account in which
Brewster's name occurs brings us to the very time when, as
we shall see hereafter, the members of the church at
Scrooby had to flee from persecution to Holland. This
entry is interesting, therefore, as telling us precisely when
' Hunter's Collection, p. 70.
^ It has been seen that Adam Gascoyne was to have four shillings
a day in 1546 till further order taken. The varying scale of payment
may be explained by the following extract from the Privy Council
Register: 'At St. James. 19 Oct. 1557. It was the day agreed
by the Boarde that the Postes serving northerwarde shal have from
the xvth of this present moneth, during the warres xxd. a pece by the
daie for theire better reliefe and enterteignement.'

SCROOB Y AND A USTERFIELD. 65
William Brewster went into exile, and who his successor
was at Scrooby. ' William Brewster, Post of Scrooby, for
his wages at 2s. per diem for 183 days, begun the ist of
April, 1607, and ended the last of September, 1607,
£l?>6s.; and then Francis Hall succeeding him at 2s. per
diem for 548 days begun the ist of October, 1607, and
ended the last of March, 1609, ;^ 7 3 2s.' '^ This at a time
when a skilled workman's wages were fixed at eightpence
a day^ would amount to from ;^275 to ;^325 a year.
There would seem also to have been additional income
accruing from other sources besides State payment. In
1605, Sir Timothy Hutton, the son of the Archbishop of
York, journeying to and from London, paid to the ' post '
at Scrooby, who must have been William Brewster, for a
conveyance and guide to Tuxford, ten shillings, and for a
candle, supper, and breakfast, seven shillings and tenpence,
so that he slept under Brewster's roof. On his return he
paid to the post at Scrooby eight shillings for conveying
him to Doncaster, and two shillings for burnt sack, bread,
beer, and sugar to wine, and threepence to the ostler.^
Thus the postmaster, while enlarging his income as hotel-
keeper at the old manor house, was again brought into
frequent contact with some of the most distinguished
persons both of Church and State, who as they travelled
the great North Road came to abide under his roof
Before proceeding to speak of the fortunes of the
Pilgrim Church at Scrooby, there is one other man, the
life-long friend and biographer of William Brewster,
scarcely second in interest to Brewster himself, to whom
we may turn for a moment or two. This was William
Bradford, afterwards Governor Bradford of Plymouth
Colony, and the historian of Plymouth Plantation. He
was born at Austerfield — in Domesday it is called Oustre-
^ Quoted in Hunter's Collections, pp. 66-68 .
* Hatfield MSS., iv., 455.
^ Sur tees' Society Publications. Vol. xvii., pp. 197-204. F

66 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
feld, whether from the Scandinavian word oster, for east, or
whether because the Roman Ostorius was here defeated
by the Romans, it may not be easy to say. This is an
ancient village about three miles from Scrooby on the
Yorkshire side, consisting of a few houses inhabited by a
population of about three hundred and fifty persons, chiefly
engaged in agricultural pursuits. There is still a Roman
camp near the village, and there was a chapel here even
before 1229 which belonged to the canons of Blyth, to
whom it was given by John de Buslis. Probably the
present quaint old church of the place, dedicated to St.
Helen, is substantially the same as that erected by De
Buslis. It is a stone edifice partly Norman in style,
consisting of a chancel and nave under a single roof,
having a porch on the south side, and surmounting the
western gable a bell-cote similar to that of the beautiful
church at Wycliffe, containing two small bells. The
chancel arch is Norman, and the south doorway of the
same period has two nook shafts with cushioned caps,
supporting an arch enriched with zigzag and beak-headed
moulding, in the tympanum being a rude figure of a dragon
with other ornaments. The interior was re-pewed in an ex
cruciating manner about sixty years ago, but the outside
remains probably much as it was when on March 19, 1589
(N.S. 1590), William Bradford was brought to be baptised
by Henry Fletcher, who in his own neat, clear hand entered
the record in the old register, which goes back to 1559.
Bradford, born in the same year that Brewster was
appointed Post at Scrooby, was thus his junior by some
three-and-twenty years, and was only a youth of about
seventeen when he began to consort with the brethren
meeting in Scrooby Manor House. The house in which
he is reputed to have been born is still shown by the side
of the road as we make our way to the church. His
father seems to have been a yeoman of fairly good position ;
but he died when William was little more than a year old,

,\#>#^vi^v-

SOUTH DOORWAY, AUSTERFIELD CHURCH.

F 2

SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 69
leaving him, as Cotton Mather tells us, a comfortable
inheritance. The fatherless child thus left was committed
to the care of his grandfather, who also died some five
years later, after which the boy was brought up by his
uncles William, Thomas, and Robert Bradford, or Brad-
furth, ' who devoted him, like his ancestors, unto the affairs
of husbandry,' Some idea of the social position of the
Bradfords may be gathered from the fact that William's
maternal grandfather, John Hanson, shared with old
William Bradford the honour of being the only subsidy-
men at Austerfield ; and also from the will of his uncle,
' Robert Bradfurth, of Austerfield, yeoman.' In this the
testator, who was of the yeoman class — the class in the
reign of Elizabeth next to the acknowledged gentry, using
coat-armour of right — sets out with declarations of his
Christian faith in more energetic terms than usual, and
then leaves bequests to Austerfield Chapel, and to Thomas
Silvester, clerk. He leaves to one of his servants, Grace
Wade, the free use of a dwelling-house, and to others small
legacies; to his son Robert he gives his best iron-bound
wain, the cupboard in the ' house ' — the apartment corre
sponding to the modern parlour — and one long form, with
his best yoke of oxen, also the ' counter wherein the
evidences are.' He leaves him also the piece of armour
known as the corslet, with all the furniture thereto
belonging. While he divides the residue of his property
equally among all his four children, he directs that his son
Robert shall have the reversion of two leases ; the one of
all the king's lands he has in Austerfield, the other of the
closes which he has of Mr. Morton in Martin lordship.
He consigns the care of his four children, who were all
under age, to ' my good neighbour Mr. Richardson, of
Bawtry,' William Downes, of Scrooby, and Mr. Silvester, of
Alkley. We may fairly infer from this that the Bradfords
were in good repute and association with the more
prosperous of their neighbours, for, next to the Mortons

JO PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Mr. Richardson was the most considerable person then
living at Bawtry ; Mr. Downes was a subsidy-man at
Scrooby, while Mr. Silvester, the third of the guardians of
Robert Bradford's children, was a divine at Alkley,
possessed of a fair estate, and, what perhaps had some
influence on the intellectual growth of the future governor
of Plymouth Colony, was possessed also of a library of
English and Latin books at a time when in the rural parts
of England books were costly and kw As a quaint
illustration of the times, it may be mentioned that this
good divine of Alkley, by his will, made in 1615, gave to
the poor scholars of the grammar school at Rossington his
Cooper's Dictionary, to be chained to a stall in the church,
and used by them as long as it will last*
Such, with their local and social surroundings in early
life, were the two men William Brewster and William
Bradford, who were to impress their own individuality so
powerfully upon the rehgious life of the American people.
The friendship which sprang up between them amid the
tranquil surroundings of the North Midlands of their
native land was to be deepened by common labours and
aspirations, and by common hardships and sufferings
endured side by side both in the Old World and the New.
Through all the discipline of coming years they were to be
trained by Him who leads men in a way they know not,
for service the issues of which they see not. The honour
of helping humanity forward towards its great consumma
tion can only thus be won by those who are willing to bear
the cross to the steep of Calvary, to go through sorrow and
self-sacrifice with meekness and magnanimous patience :
We know the arduous strife, the eternal laws
To which the triumph of all good is given.
High sacrifices, and labour without pause.
Even to the death :— else wherefore should the eye
Of man converse with immortality ?

' Hunter's Collections, pp. 103-109.

O ^
0 <

( 73 )

THE BRIDGE, GAINSBOROUGH.
{Prom a sketch by Charles Whymper.)
III.

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE.
When the Pilgrim Fathers of New England founded
Plymouth Colony, they did so as a federal body
bound together by solemn, social compact, and not as
separate emigrants drawn by mere accident to the same
settlement. This special character of the colony, which
had important political results in after time, may be
explained by the fact that its founders had first been in
fellowship in the same Christian community in the Old
World before they were colonists together in the New.
The Covenant of Citizenship signed on board the May-

74 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
flower, in 1620, really had its origin in that ' Covenant of
the Lord ' which, ' as the Lord's free people,' the members
of the Church, first at Gainsborough, and then at Scrooby,
solemnly made, ' to walk together in all His ways m.ade
known, or to be made known to them, according to their
best endeavours, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord
assisting them,'
The church thus founded by covenant, unlike the other
Separatist churches we have already met with in London,
or in provincial cities like Norwich, took its rise in a
scattered rural district, remote from the great centres of
population. What is also remarkable is that this church
took its rise in a region where, a generation or two before,
the people had risen in revolt against Protestantism and in
favour of retaining Roman Catholicism as the religion of
the National Church. It was only some forty miles from
Scrooby, as the crow flies, and only about thirty years
before William Brewster was born, that the insurrection
known as the ' Pilgrimage of Grace ' took its rise. For it
was on October 2, 1536, that the Ecclesiastical Commis
sioners for the Suppression of Monasteries were to hold
their visitation at Louth, and it was then the people of
Lincolnshire rose in armed rebellion against them. As
one of the commissioners rode into the town the alarm
bell pealed out from Louth Tower, and the inhabitants
swarmed into the streets with bills and staves, ' the stir
and noise arising hideous.' The commissioner, alarmed
for his safety, fled into the church for sanctuary, but was
soon brought out into the market-place, and with a sword
held at his breast was made to swear to be true to the
Commons upon pain of death. There were risings, too, at
Caistor and at Horncastle, where the bishop's chancellor
was murdered in the street ; at Lincoln also, where the
bishop's palace was attacked and plundered. Before the
week was out all the countryside was in movement.

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. TS
beacons blazing, alarm bells ringing, and whole parishes
rising to demand that the suppressed monasteries should
be restored, and the new Protestant bishops deprived and
punished. From the Lincolnshire side of Scrooby the
rising spread to the Yorkshire side also, taking even more
serious shape. It was at Scrooby that on October 2i, the
Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Steward of the King's Household
and Lieutenant-General from the Trent northward, was in
anxious consultation with the Earls of Rutland and
Huntingdon concerning this Catholic rebellion, and it was
from Scrooby that same day they sent Thomas Myller,
Lancaster Herald, as he himself tells us, ' with a proclama
tion to be read amongst the traitors and rebellious persons
assembled at Pomfret, contrary to the King's laws.' ^
The intense feeling of hostility thus manifested against
the Reformation, in the district of which Scrooby may
be roughly regarded as the centre, was doubtless largely
owing to the numerous monasteries the district con
tained. All the more conspicuous monastic orders had
their representatives within a comparatively short distance
of the village where William Brewster was born. There
were Cistercians at Rufford, Gilbertines at Mattersey,
Carthusians in the Isle of Axholm, Benedictine monks
at Blythe, Benedictine nuns at Wallingwells, Augustinians
at Worksop, and Premonstratensians at Welbeck — the
chief house of that order in the country — so that to
gether they seemed to form a circle round that part of
he Basset-Lawe Hundred to which Scrooby belonged.
The influence of these great religious houses remained
after they themselves were suppressed, and goes far to
explain why, long after the Reformation, so many of
the county families of the neighbourhood, the Molineuxes
and Markhams, the Cliftons and Mortons, the Countess
of Shrewsbury at Rufford, and her sister Frances Lady
' State Papers. Henry VIII. Part II., p. 462, sq. 1536.

76 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Pierrepoint at Thoresby, held tenaciously to the Church
of Rome, and in Elizabeth's reign were ready, many of
them, to face dangers and endure hardship in its service.
In the second half of the sixteenth century, however,
other influences had been at work in a contrary direction.
Many of the ministers introduced to the parish churches
of the district were of a strongly marked Puritan type.
Bradford, in his History of Plymouth Plantation, distinctly
traces the rise of the Scrooby church, of which he was
himself one of the foremost members, to the religious
influence exercised by the Puritan clergy. He tells us
that it was ' by the travail and diligence of some godly
and zealous preachers and God's blessing on their labours,
as in some other places of the land, so in the north parts,
many became enlightened by the Word of God, and had
their ignorance and sins discovered unto them, and began
by His grace to reform their lives and make conscience of
their ways.' The movement, therefore, was from the first
distinctly spiritual in its character, proceeding from earnest
men with a deep sense of the infinite, and feeling the
gravity and grandeur of eternal things. The craving for
the new life thus created by the truth and the Spirit of
truth, also kindled in them a spirit of holy indignation
against the abuse of sacred things they saw going on
around them. The free spirit of Englishmen was stirred
within them as they saw what they described as 'base and
beggarly ceremonies ' retained in the Church, and enforced
both upon clergy and laity by 'the lordly and tyrannous
power of the prelates, which ought not to be submitted
unto.' They protested that it was ' contrary to the
freedom of the Gospel so to load and burden men's
consciences, and by their compulsive power to make a
prophane mixture of persons and things in the worship of
God.' They maintained that these ecclesiastical 'offices
and callings, courts and canons were unlawful and un-

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 77
Christian, and had no warrant in the Word of God.' ' So
many, therefore, of these professors as saw the evil of these
things in these parts, and whose hearts the Lord had
touched with heavenly zeal for His truth, shook off this
yoke of anti-Christian bondage, and as the Lord's free
people joined themselves, by a covenant of the Lord,
into a church estate, in the fellowship of the Gospel.'
We are able to recall to our minds some at least of the
godly and zealous preachers whose travail and diligence
in that region produced such enduring results. Between
six and seven miles due south of Scrooby was the village
of Babworth, close to Retford. It had for its rector in
those days Richard Clyfton, described by Bradford as ' a
grave and reverend preacher, who by his pains and
diligence had done much good.' He was instituted to
the rectory of Babworth on July 11, 1586, and was
probably set aside from his cure about the time of Ban
croft's enforcement of the canons of 1603. Long years
afterwards, when he was growing an old man himself in
his New England home, William Bradford recalled the
name and memory of this good man, whom in his youth
he walked some nine miles from Austerfield on Sunday
mornings to hear. There is a touch of filial affection in
the way he speaks of him. He says : ' He was a grave
and fatherly old man when he came first into Holland,
having a great white beard; and pity it is that such a
reverend old man should be forced to leave his country and
at those years to go into exile. But it was his lot, and he
bore it patiently. Much good had he done in the country
where he lived, and converted many to God by his faithful
and painful ministry, both in preaching and catechizing.'
Even Richard Bernard, his clerical neighbour at
Worksop, though in after years they took divers ways,
could not help saying that Richard Clyfton was one
whom he truly and entirely loved as a man devoted to

78 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
God, and every way worthy of love for his irreprovable
life and conversation. This venerable man, who seems to
have been the spiritual father of many of those who formed
the Scrooby church, became their first pastor, and in 1608,
as we shall see, went with them into exile to Amsterdam.'
We have already mentioned Clyfton' s clerical neighbour
Richard Bernard, the vicar of Worksop, who was one of the
notable men of the Basset-Lawe Hundred, and who, as
living only some eight miles south-east of Scrooby, came
to be well known to the brethren there. Judging from a
rather fine portrait of him which has come down to us, he
was a noticeable man to meet in a country road or to
listen to from the pulpit of a country church. After
graduating at Cambridge he was, in 1598, presented to
the living of Epworth in Lincolnshire, the birthplace of
John Wesley and Alexander Kilham, where he began his
literary career by publishing a quaint translation of
Terence, and on June 19, 1601, he was instituted to the
vicarage of Worksop. He is interesting to us as the man
in controversy with whom John Robinson wrote the
greatest work of his life, and interesting for his own sake,
too, as a writer of more than ordinary versatility and
genius. His book, entitled The Isle of Man, or tJie Legall
Proceeding in Man-shire against Sin, shows him to have
been an original allegorist long before John Bunyan took
up his pen. Indeed, it is not possible to compare this
work with Bunyan's Holy War, or the Losing and Taking
again of Mansoul, without coming to the conclusion that
the Great Dreamer had read the book and received many
suggestions from it Bernard, for example, tells us that in
travelling through the Isle of Man he came to the ' county
' He was later the author of A Plea for Infants and Elder People
concerning their Baptism. Printed at Amsterdam, by Giles Thorp,
1610; also oi An Advertisement concerning a Book lately published
by C. Lawne a?id others against the English Exiled Church at
Amsterdatn. 161 2.

RICHARD BERNARD.
(^From an old po-int.')

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 8 1
towne called Soule.' This Soule's-towne is a place of
great resort, a thorowfare never without travellers, and
has four great streets : Sense Street, Thought Street,
Word Street, and Deed Street, along which that pestilent
thief Sin, with his Copemates, may often be found wan
dering. There is also a Common Inne in the place kept
by Mistress Heart, who lives there with one Old Man.
This Inne is a well-accustomed house, for many pests, which
are Satan's suggestions, take up their lodgings there. It
has five doors, the five senses, for the guests to come in at,
and these guests are well-waited upon, for Mistress Heart
hath the eleven passions for her maids, and her man Will
hath at his command the feet, the hands, and the tongue,
who act as hostler, tapster, and chamberlaine. The book is
in two parts ; the first setting forth the search for, the
attacking and imprisoning of Sin, the second narrating the
trial, before the bar of Conscience, and a jury of the Virtues,
of Old Man, Mistress Heart, Covetousness, and Idolatry.
There is considerable resemblance between this second
part and the trial of the Diabolonians, Atheism, Hard-heart,
False-peace, No-truth, and Pitiless, decribed by Bunyan as
taking place in Mansoul ; and Bernard is almost as happy
in hitting off some of his names as Bunyan himself
Curiously enough, in this book he not only anticipated
one Bedfordshire worthy, but also another who did honour
to its county town — John Howard, the prison philan
thropist. In the Epistle to the Reader, Bernard pleads on
behalf of an 'unbegun worke' in the interest of the
prisoners in the gaols of the kingdom. He says that the
state of these prisoners is well known, and how their souls'
safety is neglected ; he urges, therefore, the appointment of
prison chaplains. He pleads also for prison labour against
the then existing system of wasteful and destructive
idleness : ' If there should be means to set them on
worke they might get somewhat for food and raiment.
G

82 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
They might so prevent the miserable fruits of sloth ; their
minds would be imployed, their bodies be preserved in
health, and not pine away.' Enforced labour would, he
thinks, 'terrific loose vagrants, lazie wanderers, and the
idle route from turning theeves.' The prison is now, he
says, ' a very picture of Hell, and (more is the pity), as
the case now stands, is no less than a preparation
thereto ; ' whereas if prisoners were treated as he suggests,
they would, on their release, 'become through God's
mercie more profitable members in the Common-Weale
afterwards ; whereas now they become twice more the
children of Belial than they were before.'
The man who could say this a hundred and fifty years
before John Howard published his Survey of the State of
Prisons, was no commonplace observer, but one who
looked at things with his own eyes and could think his
own thoughts. That he was an earnest preacher of Christ's
Gospel, as well as a social reformer before the days of social
reform, may be gathered from another book of his entitled.
The Faithfull Shepeard, or the Shepeards Faithfulnesse.
It is an appeal for an earnest ministry as the need of the
times, and also serves as a study in Homiletics. He is
severe on those among the gentry who think the ministry
of the Gospel beneath the notice of their sons : ' Some of
our states and gentrie wish their children anything;
worldly lawyers, fraudulent merchants, killing physicians,
bloody captains, idle, loose livers, swearing ruffians,
walkers on Shooter's Hill, and coursers on Salisburie
Plains, to maintain their riot, rather than as they call
them — priests. And yet this state is magnified of God
and man.' In charging young preachers he advises them
not to venture into regions too high for them : ' Con
troversies require sharpness of wit and some cunning to
find out Satan's sophistries. Young cockerills that begin
but to crowe may not set upon the great cocks of the

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 83
game.' Beginners in the work of preaching sometimes
' want seemly gesture ' from two opposite causes : first,
from rash boldness or an inconsiderate zeal, 'they have
moved them to violent motion.s, as casting abroad of their
armes, smiring on the pulpit, lifting themselves up and
againe suddenly stamping downe.' On the other hand,
they fall into undesirable ways through ' too great feare and
bashfulness, which causeth hemmings, spittings, rubbing
the browes, lifting up of the shoulders, nodding of the
head, taking often hold of the cloake or gowne, fidling
with the fingers upon the breast buttons, streaking of the
beard and such-like toies.'
This vivid piece of literature is dated 'Worksop, June 16,
1607,' and therefore saw the light the very year the
Scrooby church was worshipping at the old manor house
before going into exile, and its author must have been a
familiar presence to Brewster and Bradford at the time it
was written. The truth is, that Richard Bernard was at
one time so entirely in sympathy with the views on church
life held by the Scrooby brethren that they expected him
to become a Separatist with them. He went so far as to set
up a Congregational church within the walls of his parish
church, ' did separate from the rest ' of the parishioners
' a hundred voluntary professors into covenant with the
Lord, sealed up with the Lord's Supper, to forsake all
known sin, to hear no wicked or dumb ministers.' This
is what John Robinson ^ tells us of him, and his neigh
bour John Smyth of Gainsborough ' Took notice of his
forwardness in leading to a reformation by public pro
clamation in several pulpits, as if he had meant contrary
to the king's mind to have carried all the people of the
country after him against the ceremonies and subscription.' ^
' Works, II., loi.
^ Paralleles, Censures, Observations, A Letter to Mr. Ric,
Bernard. 1609.
G 2

84 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
After the passing of the canons of 1603, Bernard did
indeed for a while refuse subscription or conformity, but
on being silenced by the Archbishop of York he began to
reconsider his ways. The new light thrown upon his
opinions by this action of the archbishop gave him pause,
and led him to say : ' Time is an instructor to a diligent
searcher ; I see now what then I saw not . . . Through
ignorance, which taketh for light that which is darkness, I
was tossed by the present tempest sometime to a favouring
but otherwhile to a great dislike. ... I confess I was
much moved with fair show of Scripture, but I was not
removed.' When danger threatened he faced about and
kept his place ; and, what is perhaps not unusual with men
of his class, from the time of his own retreat he began to
assail those with whom he had formerly agreed. It was
this which led John Robinson to say to him in solemn
searching way : ' A speech of your own uttered to myself
(ever to be remembered with fear and trembling) cannot
I forget, when after conference between Mr. H[elwisse]
andi me you uttered these words : " Well, I will return
home and preach as I have done, and I must say as
Naaman did, The Lord be merciful to me in this thing." ' '
Besides Richard Clyfton, who went forward even to
exile, and Richard Bernard, who drew back, there were
other Puritan ministers in the neighbourhood, such as
Thomas Toller, of Sheffield, who was presented before the
Ecclesiastical Court at York in 1607, and of whom the
records say : ' Did not appear in the Visitation, is said to
be a Preciscian, if not a Brownist ; he is no observer of the
Book of Common Prayer, nor any way conformable to
order.' Robert Gifford, also of Laughton-en-le-Northen,
though he did not go the length of actual separation, was
one of those ministers who ' seemed weary of the cere
monies,' and whom Bradford describes as being 'hotly
' Works, II., 8.

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 85
pursued by the prelates.' There was yet another clergyman
of the neighbourhood, Hugh Bromhead, who shared these
convictions so strongly as to give up his living and go into
exile. In a letter to his cousin, William Hamerton, who
remonstrated with him on the step he had taken, he
expresses his convictions strongly and clearly. Among
other reasons he gives for his separation from the National
Church, he emphasises two, on which stress was laid by the
early Congregationalists. He left, he says, ' For that the
profane, ungodly multitude, without exception of any one
person, are with them received into and retained in the
bosom of the Church ' ; also, ' for that these churches are
ruled by and remain in subjection unto an antichristian
and ungodly government, clean contrary to the institution
of our Saviour Christ."
Besides these brethren on the Nottinghamshire side of
the Trent, averse to what they regarded as Romish con
cessions in the Church, there were Puritan ministers also
across the river in Lincolnshire, who in 1605 published an
abridgment of the points at issue between themselves and
the conformable clergy. In this pamphlet they state that
they can join with the Church in her doctrines and sacra
ments, but cannot declare their approbation of the cere
monies. These men, as more scrupulous than some of
their brethren, were yet not favourers of the Presbyterian
discipline, and were therefore called ' the brethren of the
Second Separation.' ^
The Puritan feeling thus fostered by many of the clergy
themselves on both sides the Trent finally took actual
shape in the formation of a Separatist community, first of
all in the town of Gainsborough, in the year 1602. This
town, where the northern Separatists first entered into
organised Christian fellowship, was one of the most ancient
1 Hart. MSS. 360, fol, 70.
2 l.dX)\\mry\s History of Episcopacy, y. "J ^ 1836.

86 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
in the kingdom. On the site of the quaint old hall still
standing by the banks of the Trent, once stood the palace
in which King Alfred was married, and where Canute, the
son of Sweyn, was born. It was here also that Canute was
proclaimed King of England by the captains of his navy,
and where, as tradition says, he rebuked his courtiers by
commanding the onward rushing eagre in the stream of the
Trent to stand still. In the old hall itself Henry VIII.
held his court in 1541, after spending the night at Scrooby
manor house on his way to receive their submission and
peace-offerings from the Yorkshire malcontents. A native
of Gainsborough, of Oriel fame, has told us that in his time
it was the most foreign-looking town he knew in England.
It seemed to him that the red-fluted tiles, the yellow-ochre
doorsteps, the green outside shutters, the frequent appear
ance of the jawbones of whales, utilised as garden gate
posts, and, above all, the masts and spars suddenly
appearing high over cornfields, took one quite out of
every-day England. With the enthusiasm of a man re
calling the days of his youth, he tells how he and his
brothers used to climb Pringle Hill, from the top of which
they could see the western towers of the great minster of
Lincoln, eighteen miles away, a glorious vision standing
out in the sky, clear of the horizon. To him, too, in these
boyish days the region across the Trent, looking west
ward towards Scrooby, with its comfortable towns and
villages, its thriving homesteads, its vast fields of wheat, its
mansions great and small, and its tall church-towers,
seemed like a man-made paradise, the first stage into
England and the world for him.'
This town, then, of ancient fame, and with associations
both rural and marine, was the meeting-place of the first
Separatist church in the north of which we have any
' Reminiscences chiefly of Towns, and Villages, and Schools. By
Rev. T. Mozley, M.A., formerly Fellow of Oriel.

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 87
definite account. Two things, in addition to the Puritan
feeling of the district, may have contributed to this. First,
the town was remote from great cities, and from it in times
of persecution flight to the Continent was comparatively
easy ; and next, it is tolerably certain that the lord of the
manor, William Hickman, who had purchased the manor
of Gainsborough from Lord Burgh in 1 596, was in sym
pathy with the Puritans of the time. We know that his
parents, Anthony and Rose Hickman, had suffered for
their strong Protestant sympathy in the previous genera
tion. His venerable mother, in the year 1620, when in
her eighty-fifth year, and probably in the old hall itself
wrote for the benefit of her children the story of her life
during the persecuting days of Queen Mary. She came of
a true Protestant lineage. She remembered hearing her
father. Sir William Locke, say that when he was a young
merchant, and went beyond sea, Ann Boleyn caused him
to get her the Gospels and Epistles written on parchment
in French, together with the Psalms. Then when she
herself became the young wife of Anthony Hickman, her
husband was not unmindful to use and employ his sub
stance to the glory of God and good of His Church, as
he daily manifested by giving entertainment to Bishop
Hooper, John Foxe, the martyrologist, John Knox, the
Scottish Reformer, and divers other godly preachers, of
which some did afterwards suffer martyrdom in Queen
Mary's days. They also held conventicles in their house,
with divers godly and well-disposed Christians, 'and we
and they did table together \i.e., observe the Lord's
Supper] in a chamber, keeping the door close shut for fear
of the promoters, as we read in the Gospel the disciples of
Christ did for fear of the Jews.' For such practices as
these, and for not conforming themselves to Popery accord
ing to the Queen's Injunctions, her husband and her brother
were called before the Court of High Commission and sent

88 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
close prisoners to the Fleet. On her husband's release she
went to Antwerp into exile with him, for, said she, 'I
accounted all nothing in comparison to liberty of conscience
for the profession of Christ' Recalling the rough experi
ences of those bygone times, she piously says : ' For all
our blessings and deliverances sent to me from my good
God, I most humbly beseech His Majesty that I and mine
may never forget to be thankful,' She has written this
narrative, she says, in the hope that her children 'may
stand fast in that faith and service of God into which their
father and mother do stand so firmly, and manifest such
zeal and affection as in this little treatise appeareth.' ^
The lord of the manor of Gainsborough from 1596 to
1625, was one of the children of this venerable lady for
whom this pious wish was expressed. That he had some
devout feeling himself would seem to be indicated by the
motto he placed with his initials on the sundial of the west
wing of the old hall : — Deus mi — ut umbra sic vita. Is it
improbable that a lord of the manor so trained and sO
expressing himself would be favourable and friendly to
such earnest Christian men as those who founded the
church at Gainsborough in 1602? Is it beyond the
bounds of possibility that he in whose father's house
conventicles had been held in Mary's days, shoiild favour
them in or near his own house in the days of Elizabeth
and James ? May it not even be permitted to us to belifeve
that both he and the godly mother who reared him were
sometimes found worshipping with Brewster and Bradford,
perhaps in the old hall itself, 'accounting all nothing,' as
she said, in comparison to liberty of conscience for the
profession of Christ ?
The pastor of this Gainsborough church was John
' ' Certaine Old Stories recorded by an aged Gentlewoman.
Written by her with her owne hand, 1620.' Stark's History, of
Gainsborough, ^^. izd-iy). 1817. ¦ •

THE OLD HALL, GAINSBOROUGH.
{From sketches by Charles Whymper.)

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 91
Smyth, M.A., of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he
graduated 1575-6, and where he had Francis Johnson for
tutor, a man of whom we shall hear more hereafter. In
1585, he preached a sermon at Cambridge on Sabbath-
keeping, for which he was cited before the vice-chancellor.
William Bradford tells us that he was an eminent man in
his time and a good preacher and of other good parts. In
a work of his entitled Paralleles, Censures, Observations, Gfc,
he states that before separating from the National Church
he passed through several months of anxious doubt and
inquiry, and at one time held a conference at Coventry as
to the duty of withdrawing from churches in which the
ministry and the worship have become corrupted. He is
said to have been beneficed at Gainsborough before becom
ing pastor of the separated church in that town. This is
scarcely probable, inasmuch as the following list covers the
period: John Jackson, vicar, 1589; Henry CHfford, 1608;
Francis Spiers, 16 10. Moreover he appears to have been
labouring at Lincoln previous to coming to Gainsborough.
A few years ago. Professor Whitsitt, of Amsterdam,
found in the library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
a little book of his entitled : ' The bright morning starre, or
the resolution and exposition of the 22 Psalme. Preached
publicly in foure sermons at Lincoln by John Smith,
preacher of this Citie. Printed 1603.' The book seems
to have been printed after he left Lincoln, otherwise the
date of the foundation of the Gainsborough church would
be a year later than is usually supposed. He was a
man of fervent soul, following truth wherever it seemed to
lead him, but somewhat extreme and unstable. In some
respects he reminds us of Richard Baxter, and perhaps
most of all in this, that towards the close of his life he
published as ' the last book of John Smyth,' what he called
The retraction of his errors, a copy of which has been
preserved in the library of York Minster, This shows that

92 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
in the nearing prospect of that ' all-reconciling world where
Luther and Zuinglius are well agreed,' he came to lay
more stress on the true essentials of the Christian life and
less upon mere outside questions. His desire, he said, was
to end controversies among Christians rather than ]to make
and maintain them, especially in matters of the outward
Church and ceremonies. It is the grief of his heart that
he has so long cumbered himself and spent his time
therein. Henceforth difference in judgment in matters
of circumstance shall not cause him to refuse the brother
hood of any penitent and faithful Christian whatsoever.
More than in the past he will spend his time in the main
matters wherein consisteth salvation.
When driven from Gainsborough into exile Smyth prac
tised as a physician in Amsterdam, usually, however, taking
nothing of the poorer sort. A kind-hearted man, who gave
away his own gown to make clothes for one slenderly
apparelled, ' he was well-beloved of most men, and hated
of none save a few of our English nation, who had nothing
against him but that he differed from them in some points
of religion.' This was the man who from 1602 to 1606 was
pastor of the Gainsborough Church. The members of that
church gathered to its services for miles from the country
round. All the way from Austerfield and Scrooby, ten or
twelve miles distant, William Bradford came with William
Brewster and the rest of the brethren and sisters from
Scrooby, having Sabbath day converse about the things
of the kingdom as they journeyed past Scaftworthj
Everton and Gringley-on-the-Hill to the ferry-boat on the
Trent. This went on for three or four years, till at
length ' these people became two distinct bodies or
churches, and in regard of distance of place did congregate
severally ; for they were of sundry towns and villages,'
where the three counties border nearest together. From
this time forward therefore the brethren nearest to Scrooby

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 93
met at Scrooby, forming that church in the old manor
house which has become historic and with which henceforth
we are solely concerned.
This second community, Bradford tells us, ' ordinarily
met at William Brewster's house on the Lord's day, and
with great love he entertained them when they came,
making provision for them, to his great charge.' For years
past, ever since he had returned from the court to the
manor house he had taken a foremost part in promoting
the spiritual welfare of the district. That the preachers in
the churches round were the earnest men they were seems
to have been largely owing to him, ' He did much good in
the country where he lived in promoting and furthering
religion, not only by his practice and example and
provoking and encouraging of others, but by procuring
good preachers to the places thereabout, and drawing on
of others to assist and help forward in such a work, he
himself most commonly deepest in the charge, and
sometimes above his ability.'
So things went on from 1590, when he came back to
Scrooby, till the end of the century, ' he doing the best good
he could, and walking according to the light he saw till the
Lord revealed further unto him.' Shrewd Englishman as
he was, with his Bible in his hand and his eyes open, it is
scarcely wonderful that he began to come to conclusions
not favourable to the cruel and intolerant system pursued
so relentlessly by Archbishop Whitgift and those who acted
with him. ' In the end, by the tyranny of the bishops
against godly preachers and people, in silencing the one
and persecuting the other, he and many more in those
times began to look further into things.' The further he
looked the less he liked what he saw, and in the event he
and they who saw with him ' shook off this yoke of anti
christian bondage, and as the Lord's free people joined
themselves,' as we have seen, ' by a covenant of the Lord

94 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
into a church estate.' ' After they were joined together
in communion he was a special stay and help unto them,'
And when again still later the one church at Gainsborough
became two, that at Scrooby found shelter beneath his
roof, and so, as one of the ironies of history, the house
where Archbishops of York had found a home for centuries,
where Wolsey had lodged, and from which Bishop Bonner
had dated his letters, became for the Separatist church the
house of God and the gate of heaven.
Here the good and venerable man Richard Clyfton
became their pastor by free choice of the people, and
joined with him as teacher was another man ofthe strength
and nobleness of whose Christian character, and the
breadth and enlightenment of whose mind, two continents
were to hear more and more as the centuries passed on.
This was John Robinson, a man whose name is fragrant
and memorable in Free Church story. Before he came to
Scrooby he had been a preacher of Christ's Gospel in the
county of Norfolk, and there had won men's hearts to
himself as well as to the truth. Henry Ainsworth, who
knew him well, tells us that 'certain citizens of Norwich
were excommunicated for resorting unto and praying with
Mr. Robinson, a man utterly reverenced of all the city for
the grace of God in him.' None of his contemporaries
have given us a connected story of this good man's life.
Joseph Hall, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, says that
'Lincolnshire was his county,' a statement borne out by
the following entry in the register of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge : 'John Robinson. F. Lincsh. admitted
1592. Fell. 1598.' As to where in Lincolnshire his birth
place was, still remains uncertain. Gainsborough claims
him, and there is this much to be said for that claim, that
among the benefactors who have left money to the town
may be found the names of Nathaniel Robinson and John
Robinson. This, however, in the case of a name so

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 95
common does not count for much in the way of evidence.
So far as dates are concerned, John Robinson, D.D., Arch
deacon of Lincoln and Precentor of Lincoln Cathedral,
may very well have been his father. He was of Pembroke
College, Cambridge. In Bishop Kennett's Collections it is
recorded that May 31, 1574, ' he was installed Archdeacon
of Bedford, in the place, as it seems, of William Rodd, and
about 1576 he succeeded John Aylmer in the Archdeaconry
of Lincoln, of which church he was about that time made
chauntor. Obiit 1597.'^ He would seem to have been
made precentor before he became archdeacon, for in the
Lincoln register there is the following entry : ' Collated to
the Precentory, Aug. 3, 1572, John Robinson, M.A.' If
there is anything in this conjecture, John Robinson of
Scrooby and Leyden was born in the precentory at Lincoln
in 1575, some three years after his father became pre
centor. A mere youth of seventeeen he entered the
University when Cambridge was keenly alive to the
religious movements of the time. That eminent Puritan
William Perkins was public catechist of Robinson's own
college, where it was his duty to read a lecture every
Thursday during term time on some useful subject of
divinity. He was also afternoon lecturer at St. Andrew's
Church, where he attracted great numbers of Cambridge
men by his earnest spirit-stirring addresses ; and as Robin
son states that his ' personal conversion ' was brought
about in the Church of England, it is probable that it was
under this man's influence, all the more probable, inasmuch
as in later years Robinson published a catechism as an
Appendix to Mr. Perkins' Six Principles of the Christian
Religion. On leaving college Robinson began life as a Christian
minister somewhere in the county of Norfolk, but from the
first seems to have been troubled with scruples about the
^ Lansdowne MSS. 982. Kennett's Collections, Vol. xlviii., 24.

96 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
vestments and ceremonies insisted upon in the Church.
Long and anxious were his searchings of heart as to con
formity. He was held back, he tells us, for a long time
by the example of many who did conform, 'blushing in
myself to have a thought of pressing one hairbreadth
before them in this thing, behind whom I knew myself to
come so many miles in all other things ; yea, and even of
late times, when I had entered into a more serious con
sideration of these things, and, according to the measure of
grace received, searched the Scriptures whether they were
so or no . . . had not the truth been in my heart as a
burning fire shut up in my bones, Jer. xx. 9, I had never
broken those bonds of flesh and blood wherein I was so
straitly tied, but had suffered the light of God to have been
put out in mine own unthankful heart by other men's dark
ness.'^ Scruples leading to suspension of clerical functions
and suspension to separation, Robinson became pastor of
a Congregational church in the city of Norwich. This
must have been subsequent to 1600, for in that year the
pastor of this church was a Mr. Hunt, as we learn from
an incidental reference in George Johnson's Account of the
Troubles at A msterdam. As both Robinson and many in
his Norwich congregation were harassed by fines and im
prisonment, he eventually found it necessary to seek
asylum and service elsewhere. This accounts for his
appearance in the north as the colleague of Richard
Clyfton in the church at Scrooby. Though he had left
Norwich and the people of his charge in that city, he often
turned back to them with affectionate regard. In a preface
To my Christian Friends in Norwich and tJiereabouts,
penned a dozen years after he had left them, he says that
' that loving and thankful remembrance in which I always
have you, my Christian friends, provoketh me as continu
ally to commend unto God your welfare.'
^ Works, II., 52.

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 97
It would seem from Bradford's narrative that Robinson
did not return into Lincolnshire rill after the separation of
the Scrooby brethren from the Gainsborough Church, and
their being independently constituted. After speaking of
the separation and referring to the newly organised com
munity at Scrooby, he says, ' In this other church, which
must be the subject of our discourse, besides other worthy
men was Mr. Richard Clifton, a grave and reverend
preacher . . . and also that famous and worthy man
Mr. John Robinson, who afterwards was their pastor for
many years, till the Lord took him away by death.'
Though 'they ordinarily met at William Brewster's
house, on the Lord's day (which was a manor of the
bishops), and with great love he entertained them when
they came,' the stress of persecution sometimes compelled
them to move elsewhere to avoid observation and arrest.
Bradford says that ' they kept their meetings every Sabbath
in one place or other, exercising the worship of God among
themselves.' The manhood of these men was wrought to
truest temper in the fire of the times. 'They could not
long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted
and persecuted on every side. Some were taken and clapt
up in prison, others had their houses beset and watched
night and day, and hardly escaped their hands ; and the
most were fain to fly and leave their houses and habitations
and the means of their livelihood.' These quietly suggestive
words of William Bradford are fully borne out and sus
tained by the records of the Ecclesiastical Court at York,
in which we come upon the following entries : ' Office
against Gervase Nevyle of Scrowbie, dio : Ebon' It is
stated that the said Gervase was one of the sect of Bar-
rowists, or Brownists, holding and maintaining erroneous
opinions and doctrines, and for his schismatical obstinacy
an attachment was awarded to William Blanchard, mes
senger, to apprehend him. On his appearance he refused
H

98 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
to take oath and make answer, or to recognise the authority
of the archbishop ; he, therefore, ' as a very dangerous
schismatical Separatist, Brownist, and irreligious subject,'
was delivered by strait warrant 'to the hands, ward, and
safe custody of the Keeper of His Majesty's Castle of
York ; not permitting him to have any liberty or con
ference with any without special license.'
' Gervase Nevile, of York Castle, Brownist or Separatist
He appeared and made answer March 22, 1607-8.'
On September 15, 1607, an attachment was awarded to
William Blanchard 'to apprehend Richard Jackson and
William Brewster, of Scrooby, gentlemen, for Brownism,
but he certifieth that he cannot find them, nor understand
where they are.' We shall see reason hereafter for sup
posing that if William Blanchard had gone to Boston he
would have found them safely locked up in the dungeons
under the Guildhall. Again, on the first of the following
December, after Jackson and Brewster had been liberated
at the autumn Assize, we find the law once more set in
motion against them at York.
'December i, 1607. Office against Richard Jackson, of
Scrooby, for his disobedience in matters of religion. A
process was served upon him by the pursuivant, and he
gives his word to appear, and is find ;£'20, and a warrant
sent out for his apprehension.'
'December i, 1607. William Brewster, of Scrooby,
gentleman. Information is given that he is a Brownist,
and disobedient in matters of religion.'
In the spring of 1608 the following return was made to
the Exchequer by the Archbishop of York :
' Richard Jackson, William Brewster, and Robert Roches
ter, of Scrooby in the county of Nottingham, Brownists or
Separatists ; for a fine or amercement of ;^20 apiece, set
and imposed upon every one of them by Robert Abbot
and Robert Snowdon, Doctors of Divinity, and Matthew

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 99
Dodworth, Bachelor of Law, commissioners for causes
ecclesiastical within the province of York, for not appearing
before them upon lawful summons at the collegiate church
of Southwell, 22nd day of April'
Thus remorselessly hunted down by the legal represen
tatives of Christ's Gospel of love, and seeing how little
hope there was of peaceable living in their own land, the
brethren at last, by joint consent, resolved to cross the
sea to Holland, where they heard there was freedom of
religion for all men. Others had preceded them. The
persecuted brethren in London and their former neighbours
and fellow-worshippers at Gainsborough had already found
peaceable settlement at Amsterdam, and the number of
exiles for conscience' sake was continually being increased
by arrivals from most of the counties of England. In
the autumn of 1607 they therefore resolved to go over into
the Low Countries as best they could. Bradford tells us
that they felt the decision to be fateful and momentous.
It was much, and thought marvellous by many that they
should leave their native soil and country, their lands and
hvings, and all their friends and familiar acquaintances, to
go into a country they only knew by hearsay, where they
would have to learn a new language and get their living
they knew not how, and that, too, in a land too often deso
lated by the miseries of war ; this was by many thought an
adventure almost desperate, a case intolerable, and a misery
worse than death. The necessity was all the harder, inas
much as they had only been accustomed to a plain country
life and the innocent occupation of husbandry, and were
entirely unacquainted with such trade and traffic as that by
which the land to which they were going did mainly subsist.
But though these things did trouble them they did not
dismay them, for their desires were set on the ways of God
and the enjoyment of His ordinances, they therefore rested
on His providence and knew whom they had believed. H 2

loo PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Their altars they forego, their homes they quit,
Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod.
And cast the future upon Providence,
As men the dictate of whose inward sense
Outweighs the world.
But here was the perplexity of their position. It was as
unlawful to flee from their native land as to remain in
it without conforming. Emigration without license was
prohibited by an ancient statute of 13 Richard II. Ports
and havens would therefore be closed against them, and if
they got away at all it would have to be by stealth, by
secret means of conveyance, by bribing the captains of
vessels, and by paying exorbitant rates of passage. They
made many attempts to get away in separate parties, and
were as often betrayed, and both they and their goods
intercepted and surprised. But there were two occasions
of more memorable sort which Bradford never forgot.
The first of these was in the autumn of 1607, probably
about the month of September, for, as we have seen, on the
15th of that month, William Blanchard certified to the
Ecclesiastical Court at York that he cannot find Richard
Jackson or William Brewster, of Scrooby, nor understand
where they are. On the 30th of the same month also, the
first payment was made to Brewster's successor as post
master of Scrooby. Besides Brewster, his neighbour Thomas
Helwisse was one of the foremost promoters of the move
ment. ' He above all, either guides or others, furthered
this passage into strange countries ; if any brought oars,
he brought sails.' ^ On July 26 his wife Joan was brought
from York Castle to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court,
and sent back thither, along with John Drewe and Thomas
Jessop, for refusing to take an oath according to law.
Persecution thus coming close home to his own door made
him the more anxious to find asylum in a land where
Blanchard's warrants and pursuivants had no power to
' Robinson's Works, III., 159.

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. loi
run. On the occasion referred to these voyagers in search
of freedom resolved to move as a body, and not in detached
companies, and to make Boston, on the Lincolnshire coast,
their point of departure. They therefore hired a vessel
wholly to themselves, making agreement with the captain
to be ready at a certain day to take them and their
goods at a convenient place where they would meet him.
Meantime the deceitful scoundrel had privately arranged
their betrayal, and no sooner had they stepped on board
than the officers and searchers were at hand to arrest them.
Put back into open boats, the minions of the law ' rifled
and ransacked them, searching them to their shirts for
money, yea, even the women further than became modesty,
and then carried them back into the town, and made them
a spectacle and wonder to the multitude who came
flocking on all sides to behold them. Being thus first by
the catchpole* officers rifled and stripped of their money,
books, and much other goods, they were presented to
the magistrates, and messengers were sent to inform the
Lords of the Council of them ; and so they were committed
to ward,'
Boston, in which these unfortunate prisoners found them
selves after their arrest, one of the most curious old towns
in England, had long been declining from the good old
days when in the reign of Edward III, it sent seventeen
ships and three hundred and sixty men for the invasion of
Brittany, Its ancient buildings : the quaint old house in
Wormgate, the old building in Spain Lane, the Grammar
School, the Hussey Tower, the Guildhall in South Street
and most of all the great Church of St. Botolph, with its
magnificent tower, seen as a landmark far off at sea, and
known all the world over as Boston Stump ; these all
•
' Catchpole, from Central Old French chacepol; Med. Latin,
chassipullus (Du Gauge), lit. chasefowl, one who hunts or chases
fowls ; later, a petty officer of justice.

I02 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
bespeak the antiquity and former importance of this eastern
port on the Lincolnshire coast. It was in the old court
room on the first floor of the Guildhall that William
Brewster and his companions were presented to the magis
trates, and it was to the old cells, still to be seen on the
ground floor, they were remitted back ' till order came from
the Council Table.' These cells had been in use at that
time for about sixty years, for 'in 1552 it was ordered that
the kitchen under the town hall and the chambers over
them should be prepared for a prison and a dwelling-house
for one of the sergeants.' * There must have been more
cells formerly, but there are now only two of these grue
some chambers remaining, and these, with the increasing
growth of humane feeling, have ceased to be used. They
are entered by a high step rising some thirty inches, are
some six feet broad by seven feet long, and in lieu of doors
are made secure by a five-barred, whitewashed iron gate.
A quaint winding stair to the right of the cells, terminating
at a trap-door in the old court-room, was the way by which
prisoners ascended to the Palace of Justice till the new
sessions house was built in 1843. In this chamber, with its
wagon roof, its arch beams, and its wainscoted walls, and
with the Boston coat-of-arms and the list of Boston mayors
since the charter of 1545 displayed to view, the would-be
exiles were brought up, charged with the high crime and
misdemeanour of trying to escape from their native
land. The magistrates were not unfavourable to them, for Puri
tanism was too rife in Boston itself for them to think ill of
those who went that way. When, a quarter of a century
later, nine hundred Puritan colonists sailed for Massachu
setts with John Winthrop, many of the leading townsmen
of Boston were amorig the number : Richard Bellingham,
recorder of the town from 1625 to 1633, Atherton Hough,
' Thompson's History of Boston, p. 235.

THE GUILDHALL, BOSTON.
I. Cells in which the Pilgrims were confined.
2. Passage and stairs leading to cells.
3. Guildhall, front view.

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 105
mayor of the borough in 1628, and Thomas Leverett, an
alderman ; Thomas Dudley, Richard Bellingham, and
John Leverett were afterwards governors of Massachusetts,
and William Coddington, father and governor of Rhode
Island ; while John Cotton, the Puritan preacher of
Boston Church for twenty years, became one of the
leading religious forces of New England life. It was
because this Lincolnshire town sent so large a contingent
of Puritan townsmen to America between 1620 and
1630 that at a Court of Assistants held at Charlestown,
September 7, 1630, it was 'ordered that Trimountain shall
be called Boston.' Thus from the Eastern Lincolnshire
town in which Brewster's company were prisoners in 1607,
came the name of the greater Boston of the Far West.^
The seeds of all this movement were therefore in the town
at the time these prisoners were there. This was probably
why that, as Bradford tells us, ' the magistrates used them
courteously and showed them what favour they could,
though they could not deliver them till order came from the
Council Table.' What was done in the matter by the Lords
of the Council we do not know. Unfortunately the Privy
Council Register for that year happened to be one of the
volumes carried over to Whitehall for reference, and con
sumed in the fire which wrought such havoc in the palace
in 161 8. Nor are there any local references in the town
records of Boston itself ; again unfortunately the leaves for
that year, happening to come at the beginning of a volume,
are missing. After detaining them for a month, and
possibly receiving instructions to that effect from the Privy
Council, the magistrates dismissed the main body of the
prisoners, sending them back to their homes at Scrooby
or elsewhere, and keeping seven of the leaders still in
prison. These, after a further period of detention, they
bound over to appear at the Assizes. One of these seven,
' Young's Chronicles, Massachusetts, pp. 48, 49.

io6 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Bradford tells us, was William Brewster, who ' was chief of
those that were taken at Boston, and suffered the greatest
loss,' What happened at the Assizes there are no records to
show, but the failure of this attempt in the autumn of
1608 did not prevent the making of other endeavours to
get away in the course of the following spring. This time
they resolved to try the port of Hull as the point of
departure, and meeting with a Dutchman who had a ship
of his own, belonging to Zealand, they made a bargain
with him to carry them over, hoping to find him more
reliable than they had found their own countryman on the
former occasion. He assured them there was no fear of
him, and that all would go well. The agreement was that
he was to take them on board at a lonely point on the
coast between Grimsby and Hull, where was a large
common, a good way distant from any town. The women
and children, with what goods they were taking with them,
went by boat by way of Gainsborough and the Trent,
while the men travelled across country, a journey of some
forty miles from Scrooby. It so happened that both
parties arrived at the place appointed before the ship
appeared, and had to wait. Meantime, the sea being
rough and the women suffering, they prevailed upon the
men in charge of the boat to run it into a creek, where it
might lie aground at low water. So that next morning,
when the Dutchman came with his ship, they were fast,
and could not stir till high water, which would not be till
about noon. The captain therefore thought the best thing
to do under the circumstances was to take the men into
the ship, whom he saw ready, walking to and fro on the
shore. He had already brought one boat-full on board,
and was starting for a second, when, to his dismay, he saw
in the distance, in full pursuit, 'a great company, both
horse and foot, with bills and guns and other weapons ;

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 107
for the country was raised to take them.' The Dutchman,
feeling that his first duty was to take care of himself,
'swore his country's oath — sacramente' and having the
wind fair, weighed anchor, hoisted sail, and away. Thus
that first boat-load received on board found themselves in
evil case indeed. True, they had escaped the soldiers sent
in pursuit, but they had nothing with them but the clothes
upon their backs ; their wives and children, their money
and their goods, were all in the boat stuck fast in the
creek, and therefore at the mercy of men who had no
mercy for them. The tears, we are told, came to their
eyes, and they wished themselves back on shore again,
that they might share the fortunes of those they were
leaving behind. To make their evil case worse, no sooner
were they out upon the North Sea than a terrific storm
swept down upon them, driving them out of their course,
till they found themselves not far from the coast of
Norway. Fourteen long days they were tossed hither and
thither, during seven of the fourteen seeing neither sun, nor
moon, nor stars. The sailors themselves abandoned all
hope, and once even sent up shrieks and cries, thinking
their ship to be foundering. They did, however, reach land
at last, the captain and crew being welcomed ashore by
eager friends, who at one time never expected to see them
again. Scarcely less pitiful was the plight of those who had
been left behind on the English coast. Some of the men
tarried with the women and children at the boat, for their
assistance, the rest made good their escape before the
troops arrived. As we may well suppose, the women were
broken-hearted ; some of them weeping and crying for
their husbands carried away in the Dutchman's ship ;
others distracted as to what would become of themselves
and their little ones ; and yet others again, looking with
tearful eyes into the faces of helpless children, who were

io8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
clinging about them, crying for fear and quaking with
cold. The arresting party, coming with bills and guns and
other weapons, soon found this defenceless company
entirely at their mercy. But then came the question,
what were they to do with weeping women and children,
now they were in their power ? Hurrying them from one
place to another, and from one justice to another, they
were at length almost as weary of the enterprise as the
prisoners themselves. For no magistrate was eager to
incur the public odium of sending women to prison for no
other crime than that of wanting to go with their husbands,
and they could not be sent back to their homes, for homes
they had none to go to, having either sold or otherwise
disposed of their houses and livings. Their very necessity
was the defence of these hapless prisoners, and at last
those who had seized them were only too glad to be rid of
them. What became of them in the interval between
their arrest and their final departure we are not told.
Probably they took divers ways, and were received to
various homes by kind-hearted country-folk. The poor are
often wonderfully kind to each other in times of trouble.
They would not inquire too curiously into the nature of
the offence committed against the laws of the realm, and
they could not be made to see that the claims of ecclesias
tical uniformity are paramount to the claims of humanity.
The later and detailed story of the wanderings and
travels of these exiles, both by land and sea, has
not been told. We only know that they rallied
together somewhere, that John Robinson and William
Brewster, and other principal members, including, of
course, the venerable pastor, Richard Clyfton, 'were of
the last, and stayed to help the weakest over before them,
that, ' notwithstanding all these storms of opposition they
all got over at length, some at one time and some at

BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 109
another, some in one place and some in another,' and that
on a happier shore they ' met together again according to
their desires with no small rejoicing.'
After all there is a soul of good in things evil. The
historian of this simple seventeenth-century epic has left
it on record that not merely in after generations, but even
then, the sufferings of these resolute people were fruitful of
good. Through their so-public troubles in so many
eminent places their cause became famous. Men began
to inquire into the nature of the principles for which they
were willing to suffer so much. Their very enemies
dragged them into fame, and 'their godly carriage and
Christian behaviour was such as left a deep impression on
the minds of many.' It was the old story repeated of the
blood of the martyrs becoming the seed of the Church.
' Though some few shrank at these first conflicts and sharp
beginnings (as it was no marvel), yet many more came on
with fresh courage, and greatly animated others.' Thus
ever, the generations one after another pass on the torch
of truth, win for themselves and their children the realm
of a larger, nobler freedom, and prove by victorious
suffering how Unbounded is the might
Of martyrdom, and fortitude and right.

PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

IV.
THE EXILES IN HOLLAND.
Through storms o'er land and sea these wanderers in
search of freedom had reached a resting-place at last.
They arrived in Holland at a time of paus'e and expec
tancy. An armistice had just been concluded for the
purpose of negotiating a truce with Spain after a war which
had lasted for five-and-twenty years. A few- months
before their arrival, and in the midst of the severest winter
that had been known for many years. Prince Maurice,
attended by a distinguished retinue, had left the Hague on
the last day of January to meet the Marquis Spinola, who
had travelled from Spain with a long train of carriages,
horses, lackeys, cooks, and secretaries, for the purpose of
negotiating terms of peace. Meantime armed men were
still marching and counter-marching, and all the para
phernalia of war met the view of the English exiles on
their arrival. There was the usual diplomacy, involving
the usual delays, and it was not till April 9, 1609, that the
States General signed that truce with the Spanish king
which was to last for twelve years to come. Thus the
fugitives from Scrooby arrived in Holland just as the Five-
and-Twenty Years' War had spent itself; they departed in
1620, when the Thirty Years' War was bursting into
flame. The city of Amsterdam was the place they made for at
first, and that for obvious reasons. It was the city which

THE STABLE OF SCROOBY MANOR HOUSE (PROBABLE PLACE OF MEETING IN 1607).
CFrom sketches by Charles Whymper.)

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 113
had stood for Protestantism, for liberty of speech and
thought through that long and desperate struggle with
Spain which had ended in the foundation of the Nether
lands Republic in 1579, and in the Declaration of Inde
pendence on July 26, 1 581. On the fifth of that month
the knights, nobles, and cities of Holland and Zealand had
called upon William the Silent to accept entire authority
as sovereign and chief of the land, directing him 'to
maintain the exercise only of the Reformed Evangelical
religion, without, however, permitting that inquiries should
be made into any man's belief or conscience, or that any
injury or hindrance should be offered to any man on
account of his religion.' Thus Amsterdam became the
asylum of liberty, and as such drew to itself, from many
lands, those who valued their freedom, whether civil or
religious. As a consequence, it drew to itself also the
elements of national prosperity. The men driven from
their own land by the narrow-minded bigotry of their
rulers were often the very flower of the nation's life —
earnest-minded, skilled and thrifty, and they helped to
enrich the nation which gave them welcome.
Workers in iron, paper, silk, linen, and lace, the makers
of brocade, tapestry, and satin, as well as of all coarser
fabrics, found their way from oppression to this land of
liberty. Historians tell us that never in the history of
civilisation had there been a more rapid development
of human industry than in Holland during these years of
bloodiest warfare. The towns were filled to overflowing.
Amsterdam grew in wealth and population. 'It is the
epoch to which the greatest expansion of municipal archi
tecture is traced. Warehouses, palaces, docks, arsenals,
fortifications, dykes, splendid streets and suburbs, were
constructed on every side, and still there was not room for
the constantly increasing population.' ^
" Motley's United Netherlands, III., 25.

1 14 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
As far back as 1593 Enghsh Separatists had begun to
come to Amsterdam in search of liberty, and this by the
advice of one of the martyrs whose memory was dear to
them. Shortly after the execution of Barrowe and Green
wood at Tyburn, John Penry, the Welsh martyr, was led
forth to the gibbet a mile or two out of London on the
Old Kent Road. A few days before his death he sent a
farewell address to his brethren of the Separatist Church
in London, advising them, since there was no hope of
religious freedom at home, to prepare themselves to go
into exile abroad, and to keep together. He is sure they
will yet find days of peace and rest, if only they will be
faithful. This stamping and treading of them under feet,
this subverting of their cause in right and judgment, is
permitted to the end that they may search and try their
ways ; but the Lord will yet maintain the cause of their
souls and redeem their lives. He further touchingly
beseeches them that wherever they go into exile, they
would take his poor and desolate widow and his fatherless
and friendless orphans with them. His advice was taken
and his request carried out. As many of the secret Church
as could made their way to Amsterdam. For the present
at least some could not go, Francis Johnson, the pastor,
and his brother George, were in prison, the one in the Clink
and the other in the Fleet ; Settle, another of the members,
was in the Gatehouse, and Daniel Studley in Newgate.
It was not till 1597 that these were able to join their
brethren, but in that year they also made their way to
Amsterdam, Francis Johnson and Daniel Studley hiring a
house in the Reguliers-poort in that city.^ They seem
also to have carried out Penry's wish about his widow and
' ' A Discourse of sojne Troubles in the Banished English' Church
at Amsterdam. Printed at Amsterdam, 1603. The only known
copy of this book is in the Librar)' of Trinity College, Cambridge
[VI., 7, 18].

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 115
fatherless children, for in the list of marriages recorded as
taking place among the English in Amsterdam we find
from the Puiboeken, or city register, that Deliverance Penry,
aged twenty-one years, from Northamptonshire, was mar
ried May 14, 1 6 II, to Samuel Whitaker, bombazine- worker,
from Somersetshire, aged twenty-three.
There were thus two Separatist communities already in
Amsteirdam when the exiles from Scrooby arrived, the one
from London, of which Francis Johnson was pastor, and
that from Gainsborough, under the care of John Smyth.
Francis Johnson was a man of some individuality and force
of character. The son of a former mayor of Richmond in
Yorkshire, he was also a graduate and fellow of Christ's
College, Cambridge, In 1588, when. only twenty-six, he
preached a sermon in the University Church in favour of the
Presbyterian system, the want of which, he said, accounted
for the prevailing ignorance and impiety of the time. It
was a daring thing to do, and for doing it he was committed
to prison, and refusing to make public recantation was
expelled the University. He subsequently became the
minister of the church of the English merchants at Middle-
burgh in Zealand, and while there, in 1591, he discovered
that one of Barrowe and Greenwood's prison books was
being printed by stealth at Dort. The Separatists at that
time being the objects of his strong aversion, he at once
communicated with the English ambassador, and received
authority to intercept the book at the press and see all the
copies burnt. All were burnt but two, which he saved from
the fire for himself and a friend. Having burnt the rest,
he then sat down in his study to read the one he had kept.
Perhaps it would have been more rational to read first, and
then, if needful, burn after ; but he reversed the process, and
that after-reading changed all his after-life. The farther
he read the more the book laid hold of him. He began
hating the Separatists and all their works, he ended
I 2

1 16 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
resolved to join them. Making his way back at once to
London, he sought out Barrowe and Greenwood, the writers
of the books in the Fleet prison, entered into earnest
conference with them, and eventually joined the London
brotherhood with which they were associated. So deeply
did he regret his former animosity and the destruction
of the books he had burnt, that fourteen years later, in
1605, he had another edition printed at his own expense.
Chosen pastor of the brotherhood he had joined, he with
John Greenwood was arrested at the house of Edward
Boyes, on Ludgate Hill, and committed to prison. He in
the Clink and his brother George in the Fleet, they
remained prisoners till the year 1597, when hearing there
was a project on foot for an expedition to Canada, they
craved permission to join it. Under date March 25, 1597,
there is an entry in the Privy Council Register to the
effect that Abraham Van Hardwick and Stephen Van
Hardwick, merchant strangers, and Charles Leigh, mer
chant of London, have undertaken a voyage of fishing and
discovery unto the Bay of Canada, and to plant themselves
in the Island of Rainea or thereabouts. It is further said :
'Forasmuch as they have made humble suit unto Her
Majesty to transport out of this realm divers artificers and
other persons that are noted to be sectaries, whose minds
are continually in an ecclesiastical ferment, whereof four
shall at this present sail thither in those ships that go this
present voyage. You will therefore understand that Her
Majesty is pleased they shall carry with them the aforesaid
persons.' The four thus chosen to go to plant themselves on the
Island of Rainea to be the first Pilgrim Fathers before the
Pilgrim Fathers' time, were Francis and George Johnson,
Daniel Studley, an elder of the Church, and John Clark.
This first voyage of the Separatists across the Atlantic
ended in failure. They met with rough weather and

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 117
disastrous fortune. Off the coast of Newfoundland one of
the vessels went on to the rocks ; they were captured by
Frenchmen and pillaged, and finally, after a variety of
adventures, had to make their way back to Southampton
as best they could. One good thing, however, came out of
this ill-fated enterprise. They were now free of the Fleet
after five years' imprisonment, and were therefore able to
join the rest of their brethren in Amsterdam, where Francis
Johnson was again chosen pastor, with Daniel Studley,
Stanshall Mercer, George Knyveton, and Christopher
Bowman as elders. This story of shipwreck and disaster
at sea the brethren from Scrooby may have heard from the
shipwrecked men's own lips, and remembered it with mis
giving hearts in after days, when thinking of crossing the
Atlantic themselves.
In the Church of Amsterdam there was associated with
Francis Johnson as teacher, Henry Ainsworth, a man
altogether too memorable to be passed without notice.
Bradford says that he originally came ' out of Ireland with
other poor,' was ' a single young man and very studious ' ;
and Roger Williams tells us that he lived on ninepence a
week, and subsisted on boiled roots. We may assume that
as time went on his finances improved, for in the Puiboeken
we read that on March 29, 1607, Henry Ainsworth, who is
described as a teacher, thirty-six years of age, and residing
on the Singel by the Heipoort, was married to Margaret
Haley, of Ipswich, He was, says Bradford, a man of a
thousand, and in the opinion of members of the University
' had not his better for the Hebrew tongue in the University,
nor scarce in Europe.' His Annotations on the Pentateuch,
the Psalms, and other portions of Scripture, were long held
in esteem for the healthy spirit of exegesis by which they
were pervaded, and as setting aside the allegorising system
of interpretation then too prevalent.
This first Church of Amsterdam of which, as we have

ii8 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
seen, Francis Johnson was pastor and Henry Ainsworth
teacher, was composed of exiles who had come from almost
all parts of England in search of freedom of worship.
Dr. Hoop Scheffer, of the Mennonite College in that city,
has given from the Puiboeken, to which reference has
already been made, a list of one hundred and eighteen
marriages celebrated among these English exiles between
1598 and 1 517. The place of their previous domicile is
always given, from which we find that they came from no
fewer than twenty-nine English counties, and in addition
from the Welsh county of Caermarthen. Northumberland
and Yorkshire are represented as well as Sussex and Kent,
Cornwall and Devon along with Norfolk and Suffolk ; the
North and South Midlands as well as Lancashire and
Lincoln,^ The Church seems to have been at the height
of its prosperity about the time the brethren from Scrooby
arrived in the city.
Pleasant were the reminiscences which William Bradford
called up in after days of the Christian fellowship en
joyed in this place of refuge, and quaint the pictures
of church life as it existed among them. 'Truly,' says
he, ' there were many worthy men ; and if you had seen
them in their beauty and order, as we have done, you
would have been much affected thereby. At Amsterdam,
before their division and breach, they were about three
hundred communicants, and they had for their pastor and
teacher those two eminent men before named, and in our
time four grave men for ruling elders, three able and godly
men for deacons, and one ancient widow for a deaconess,
who did them service many years, though she was sixty
years of age when she was chosen.' Quaint and old-
worldlike is the picture of this venerable lady he goes on
to paint for us : ' She honoured her place, and was an orna-
^ Proceedings of the Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen,
1880-1. Bijlage I., pp. 384-392.

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 1 19
ment to the congregation. She usually sat in a convenient
place in the congregation, with a little birchen rod in her
hand, and kept little children in great awe from disturbing
the congregation. She did frequently visit the sick and
weak, especially women, and as there was need, called out
maids and young women to watch and do them other
helps as their necessity did require ; and if they were poor
she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or
acquaint the deacons ; and she was obeyed as a mother in
Israel and an officer of Christ' ^ Many churches have
been, and all churches would be, the better for having such
saintly, Christ-like souls as this 'Mother in Israel and
officer of Christ,' whose memory William Bradford has
preserved for us.
It would seem that the Church which went out from
Gainsborough about 1606 retained under its pastor, John
Smyth, an existence separate from that under Francis
Johnson. This may have been necessitated by the lack
of a building sufficiently large to accommodate the two
communities together, or it may have been occasioned
by the fact that 'the anciente church' under Johnson's
care was more presbyterian than popular in its govern
ment The later comers, again, from Scrooby, also wor
shipped separately, having their own pastor, Richard
Clyfton, and their own teacher, John Robinson. Con
siderations of space and convenience may have determined
this partly, but there were also other considerations.
Smyth's views underwent a change in the matter of
doctrine first and of baptism afterwards, and in Johnson's
church some internal matters of discipline had altered his
views of church government generally. He now came to
the conclusion that it ought to be vested in elders chosen
by the congregation, while Robinson and Ainsworth were
of opinion that it should be vested in the Church of which
' Bradford's Dialogues, p. 455.

120 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
the elders were a part. They contended that bishops or
elders were ordinary govenors, and not lords over God's
heritage, as if ' the Church could not be without them,' It
is given to ministers, they said, to feed, guide, and govern
the Church, but not themselves to be the Church, and to
challenge the power of the same in things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. They pointed out that it was through
yielding in this matter that a priestly hierarchy rose to
power in the Church, with all the evils ensuing, which,
had the people made a stand against at the outset, and
practised the Gospel in the order set by Christ, would
never have prevailed. They could not yield on this point.
'If,' said they, 'we should let the true practice of the
Gospel go, posterity after us, being brought into bondage,
might justly blame and curse us that we did not stand
for the rights of the people in that which we acknowledge
to be their due.'
Seeing storms gathering, after being about a year at
Amsterdam, Robinson and the brethren from Scrooby
resolved peaceably to withdraw and start church life
afresh at Leyden, though, as Bradford says, ' they well knew
that it would be much to the prejudice of their outward
estate both in the present and in the future, as indeed it
proved to be.' Having thus resolved, Robinson and his
people made formal application to the authorities of
Leyden for leave to come and reside in that city. This
application is recorded in the Gerechts dags boeken, or
Court Register of the City, preserved among the archives
in the Stad-huis, and was first printed in 1848 by Professor
Kist^ It runs as follows: —
'To the Honorable the Burgomasters and Court of
the city of Leyden : With due submission and respect,
Jan Robarthse, minister of the Divine Word, and some
of the members of the Christian Reformed Religion, bora
' Nederlandsch Archief voor Kerkelijke Geschiedenis, vol. viii.

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 121
in the kingdom of Great Britain, to the number of one
hundred persons, or thereabouts, men and women, repre
sent that they are desirous of coming to live in this city,
by the first of May next, and to have the freedom thereof
in carrying on their trades, without being a burden in the
least to any one. They therefore address themselves to
your Honors, humbly praying that your Honors will be
pleased to grant them free consent to betake themselves as
aforesaid.' The application itself bears neither date nor signature,
but the reply of the authorities has the date upon the
margin, and is as follows : —
'The Court, in making a disposition of this present
memorial, declare that they refuse no honest persons free
ingress to come and have their residence in this city,
provided that such persons behave themselves, and submit
to the laws and ordinances ; and therefore the coming of
the memorialists will be agreeable and welcome.
'Thus done in their session at the Council House,
12 February, 1609. * Signed, I. van Hout.'
Leyden, now reduced to one-half of its former population,
was then a city of 100,000 inhabitants, and had to a large
extent recovered itself from the disastrous effects of the
memorable siege of thirty years before. Bradford speaks
lovingly of their new home as a fair and beautiful city and
of a sweet situation. And, indeed, with the return of
peace and the development of commerce there had come
back something also of the city's former splendour. For
long the residence of the Counts of Holland, it was and still
remains the seat of the Rynland Syndicate for the control
of the waters in a region specially exposed to their ravages.
The great cathedral church of St, Peter, a vast basilica
with five naves, dating from the early part of the fourteenth
century, had fortunately escaped the destruction which
tiad overtaken so many of the other buildings during the
war. The H6tel de Ville, many tinies burnt with fire,

1 22 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
had been rebuilt as we see it now, after the designs of the
great Flemish architect, Lievin de Key. Great municipal
and military services and important commercial corpora
tions had taken possession of such religious edifices,
cloisters, and chapels as had been left without use by
the Reformation ; the Drapers' Company, for example, the
most influential of the local industries, held their gatherings
in the chapel of the Hospital of St Jacques. On all sides
were signs of growing wealth and prosperity. In the main
streets and upon the quays of the Breedstraat, the Oude
Singel, the Rapenburgh and the Langeburg, rose the
habitations of the burghers, some of them presenting
examples of the ancient national style, and others inspired
by the art of the Renaissance then rising into favour.
But while the Leydenese were proud of the architectural
adornments of their city, they were especially proud of it
as a rising seat of learning, William of Orange, wishing to
recognise the splendid services rendered to the Common
wealth by the citizens during the great siege, granted the
charter of foundation for the University of Leyden.
Created by a decree of February 9, 1575, and largely
endowed, it was first established in the ancient cloister of
St Barbe, from which it was transferred to the Chapel of
the Jacobins, where it still remains. It rapidly rose to
fame, and gathered to itself some of the most distinguished
scholars of the time Though at the period with which we
are dealing it had been in existence little more than a
quarter of a century, students were drawn to it from
all parts of Europe, attracted by the fame of such
men as Francis Junius, who had been its professor of
theology ; Justus Lipsius, who held its chair of history ;
the younger Scaliger, Vossius, Saumaise, Daniel Heinsius,
and Philip Marnix St. Aldegonde, famous both as scholar
and diplomatist The eminent controversialists, Gomar
and Arminius, were joint professors of theology at the time

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 123
the exiles came to Leyden, though the latter died on
October 19, 1609, and therefore shortly after their arrival.
And if one may for a moment leave the University and
stray from great names already achieved in literature
to a name yet unknown, but destined to become great in
art, it may not be uninteresting to note that, during John
Robinson's life at Leyden, young Rembrandt was growing
up from childhood to early manhood in his father's house
on the ramparts at the western extremity of the city.
Here, at the point where the branches of the Rhine reunite,
Rembrandt's father, Harmen Gerritsz, owned the greater
part of a mill on the Pelican Quay, near the White Gate ;
and there is nothing improbable in the thought that
Robinson in his walks may have seen the bright-faced lad
at his games, and in later years passed him as a student on
the University stairs. It sets one musing and looking
wistfully forward, to remember that John Robinson, the
pastor of a church so profoundly concerned in laying the
foundations of democracy across the Atlantic, should for
sixteen years of his life have lived side by side with the
young artist of whom it has been said that he concentrated
in himself the life of many generations of Dutch artisans
and peasants, and felt the full influence of the democratic
movement which had been going on all over Europe for
two centuries past It has been said that if any one wishes
to know what it was the common people in Holland and
Germany did actually believe in the i6th century con
cerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he must not go to
the Synod of Dort, or to the writings of Lutheran and
Calvinistic divines, or even to the biographies of saints, but
to the works of Rembrandt, in which nothing is more
manifest than that to him the Gospel of Jesus Christ was
the Gospel of the poor, his creations being a wonderful
testimony to the truth that that Gospel corresponds exactly
to humanity's needs.^ ' Richard Heath.

1 24 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
On their arrival in the city of Leyden, which was to
be their home for some years to come, the exiles from
Scrooby seem naturally to have lived very much together,
a community within a community dwelling among a people
of strange language. It was not, however, till 1611 that
they acquired a place they could call their own. In that
year John Robinson, in conjunction with William Jepson,
Henry Wood and Randall Thickins, his brother-in-law, pur
chased for 8000 guilders a house and garden in the Klok-
steeg, which may be anglicized as Bell Lane, where thePesyns
Hof now stands. This property stood on the ground nearly
opposite the belfry built in the rear of St. Peter's Church.
It was conveyed ' from John de Lalaing to Jan Robinson,
Minister of God's Word of the English congregation in this
city,' by a transport brief or deed made on the 5th of May,
1 6 II, and is thus described: 'a house and ground with a
garden situated on the west side thereof, standing and
being in this city on the south side of the Pieter Kirckhoff
near the belfry formerly called the Groene poort [Green
Gate], bounded and having situated on one side eastwardly
a certain small room which the comparant [the grantor]
reserves to himself, being over the door of the house hereby
sold ; next thereto is Willem Simonsz van der Wilde, and
next to him the residence of the Commanderije ; and on
the other side westwardly having the widow and heirs of
Huyck van Alckemade, and next to him the comparant
himself, and next to him is the Donckere graft [the Dark
Canal], which is also situated on the west of the aforesaid
garden, and next to it is the Falide Bagynhoff [the Veiled
Nuns' Cloister], extending from the street of the Kirckhoff
aforesaid to the rear of the Falide Bagynhoff." The
garden ran back to the extent of 125 feet, and at the end
of it was the wall enclosing the land on which stood the
old chapel of the Falide Bagynhoff, the upper story of which
' Hon. Henry C. Murphy, U.S. Minister at the Hague, Hist. Mag.
1859, iii., p. 330.

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 125
was used as the university library, one of the lower being
occupied by the English Presbyterian Church, founded in
the year Robinson came to Leyden, and of which Robert
Durie was minister till his death in 161 6.
The Pilgrims probably worshipped in some part of the
buildings connected with this house of Robinson's during
their life in Leyden. There is no record of any other place
of meeting, or anything to indicate that any public building
was granted to them by the authorities for their use, as was
the case with the English Presbyterian congregation just
referred to. Further it appears from Brodhead (i. loi) it
was the custom of the Dutch government to restrict new
and unusual sects to worship in private houses, which were
frequently as spacious as the churches themselves. To
the same effect Cardinal Bentivoglio in his Relazione di
Fiandra says, that in the cities of the Netherlands public
exercises of religion were not permitted to any sect but the
Calvinists, presumably of the Reformed Churches of the
Continent, The exercises of all others, he says, ' are
permitted in private houses, which are in fact as if public,
the places of preaching being spacious and of sufficient
size for any assembly.' John Robinson's house was
apparently of this character, for in after years Edward
Winslow, speaking of the leave-taking of those who were
going to New England, says, ' they that stayed at Leyden
feasted us that were to goe, at our pastor's house, being
large." Further, Dr. Dexter, in the course of his loving and
painstaking researches in Leyden, discovered that in the
great garden of this house William Jessop built twenty-one
small tenements, which were probably intended as dwellings
for the poorer members of the congregation. Upon the
front of the present modern building facing the cathedral
there was placed in recent years by consent of the owners
a marble slab with the inscription : — ' On this spot lived,
taught, and died, John Robinson. 1611-1625.'

1 26 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
His people appear to have found life harder at Leyden
than at Amsterdam, there being less traffic by sea, and
therefore less opportunity of obtaining employment But,
as Bradford says : ' Being now here pitched, they fell to
such trades and employments as they best could, valuing
peace and their spiritual comfort above any other riches
whatever. And at length they came to raise a competent
and comfortable living, but with hard and continued
labour.' Some of them became baize-weavers and serge-
workers, while others were hat-makers, wool-carders, twine-
manufacturers, masons and carpenters. In the Church at
Leyden, as well as in that at Amsterdam, there were
bombazine-workers, cabinet-makers, wool-combers and
stocking-weavers, engravers, trunk-makers, goldsmiths,
bellsmiths and the like. William Bradford, as we find
from his marriage register in the Puiboeken at Amsterdam,
was a vastijnwerker, or fustian-worker. The full entry of
this interesting event in the life of the man who was after
ward Governor Bradford is as follows : ' 1613. Nov. 9.
William Bradford of Austerfield, fustian-worker, 23 years ;
living at Leyden, where the banns of marriage were laid ;
it was declared that he had no elders \i.e., parents] ; and
Dorothea May, 16 years, of Wisbeach. The attesting
witness is Henry Mayr.' We may mention, by the way,
that four years earlier Dorothy May's sister, Jacomyne
May, also of Wisbeach in Cambridgeshire, was married to
Jean de I'Ecluse, a book printer from Rouen, who was an
elder of the ' ancient church,' at Amsterdam, having come
over from the French Church for ' known evils ' existing
among them.
While Bradford and the rest of the exiles were thus
occupied in humbler callings, William Brewster, as a Cam
bridge man, and therefore of scholarly tastes, earned his
living at first by giving lessons in English to students of
the University anxious to acquire the language. We are

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 127
told that he drew up rules for them ' to learn it by, after
the Latin manner,' so that ' many gentlemen, both Danes
and Germans, resorted to him, some of them being great
men's sons,' until ' his outward condition was mended, and
he lived well and plentifully.' By and by he drifted into
other employment more immediately connected with the
furtherance of the principles for which he and his brethren
went into exile. In concert with Thomas Brewer, in the
city famed for the beautiful productions of the Elzevir
press, he set up a printing establishment in the Choor-steeg
{jn vice Chorale), mainly for the purpose of producing books
in defence of their church principles, such as were not
allowed to be printed in England, Other books also of
a less controversial kind were sent forth by him, some
of which, as specimens of his work, are preserved in
Pilgrim Hall, and in the library of the Pilgrim Society at
Plymouth, While thus occupied in their every-day callings, their
Sabbath services and their church gatherings for fellowship
were the solace of their pilgrimage. With the beginning
of their life at Leyden, John Robinson became the sole
pastor of the community, having William Brewster as his
principal elder. For Richard Clyfton, their pastor hitherto,
remained behind at Amsterdam, partly because at his time
of life he was unwilling to change his abode again, and
partly also because he had come to sympathize with
Francis Johnson's views in favour of a less popular form of
church government. So that henceforth, from 1609 till
his death in 1625, we are to think of John Robinson as the
pastor, friend, and guide of the Leyden brotherhood. In
that capacity and to an eminent degree he seems to have
lived in their confidence and love. Bradford gives an ideal
picture of the relations existing between them. He says it
was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having
such a people, or they in having such a pastor. Besides

128 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
his singular ability in Divine things, wherein he excelled,
he was also wise to give directions in civil affairs, so that
he was helpful to their outward estates, and was in every
way a common father to them. The people, on their part,
also had ever a reverent regard unto him, and had him in
precious estimation, and though they esteemed him highly
while he lived and laboured among them, yet much more
after his death they came to realise how much they had
lost, to the grief of their hearts and wounding of their
souls. With an unwavering belief this pastor held to the prin
ciple that a Christian Church should be composed of
Christian men, and that, being Christian men, and there-
tore possessed of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they
were, under that illumination, capable of self-government
No other power, either civil or ecclesiastical, ought to
supersede the exercise of the right on which such sacred
duties were made to depend. Holding such views, Robin
son regarded the call of God to service as coming to him
through the Christian brotherhood. He says : ' I was
ordained publicly upon the solemn call of the Church in
which I serve both in respect of the ordainers and the
ordained.' ^ Even in each separate community he held
that the officers of a Church are not, by themselves, the
Church. They may confer and arrange affairs privately in
their consistory, ' so also (and that specially) publicly and
in the face of the congregation they execute the same.'
While there are many things in the settled and well-
ordered state of the Church which he would willingly leave
to the administration of the officers thereof, he maintained
at the same time 'that they are or can be rightly and
orderly done but with the people's privity and consent.'
Having thus wisely directed self-government, the Church
under his care enjoyed steady and healthy growth until it
' Works, I., 463.

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 129
numbered nearly three hundred communicants, besides
adherents. Governor Bradford cherished grateful remembrances
of those Leyden days, and that true church life. He
says : ' They continued many years in a comfortable
condition, enjoying much sweet and delightful society and
spiritual comfort together in the ways of God. So as they
grew in knowledge and other gifts and graces of the Spirit
of God, and lived together in peace and love and holiness,
many came unto them from divers parts of England, so
that they grew a great congregation. If at any time
differences arose, as differences will arise, they were so met
with and nipt in the head betimes, or otherwise so well
composed that love, peace, and communion were still con
tinued. I know not but it may be spoken to the honour of
God, and without prejudice to any, that such was the true
piety, the humble zeal and fervent love of this people
towards God and His ways, and the single-heartedness and
sincere affection one towards another, that they came as
near the primitive pattern of the first Churches as any other
Church of these later times have done according to their
rank and quality.' ^ In his later Dialogues ^ he returns to
these earlier memories : ' For the Church at Leyden they
were sometimes not much fewer in number [than the Church
at Amsterdam] nor at all inferior in able men, though they
had not so many officers as the others ; for they had but
one ruling elder with their pastor [William Brewster], a
man well approved and of great integrity ; also they had
three able men for deacons. And that which was a crown
unto them, they lived together in love and peace all their
days without any considerable difference or any disturbance
that grew thereby, but such as was easily healed in love ;
and so they continued until with mutual consent they
¦• History of Plymouth Plantation, pp. 17-19.
^ Young's Chronicles, p. 456. K

1 30 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND.
removed into New England  Many worthy and able
men there were among them who lived and died in obscu
rity in respect of the world, as private Christians, yet were
they precious in the eyes of the Lord, and also in the eyes
of such as knew them.'
Robinson himself bears similar testimony. Their former
neighbour, Richard Bernard, of Worksop, had published a
book, just as they were leaving Scrooby in 1608, entitled
Christian Advertisements and Counsels of Peace, in which
he had spoken of popular self-government in the Church by
Christian men very much in the style of Mrs. Oliphant
and other novelists of our time, whereupon in reply John
Robinson solemnly protests against this ' contemptuous
upbraiding of God's people with inconstancy, instability,
pride, contention and the like evils, and specially this
scurrilous and profane spirit, in which you nickname them
Symon the Saddler, Tomkin the Tailor, Billy the Bellows-
maker.' He reminds Bernard that not thus doth God's
Spirit speak of God's people, and that as to what he had
said about Christian men being incapable of self-govern
ment, it must not be forgotten that the leaders of the
Church had more often gone wrong than the people ; that
in the days of Queen Mary, for example, when all went
back to Popery, many prelates and priests were the ring
leaders in the reaction. ' For ourselves,' he adds, speaking
of his own Church at Leyden, ' I tell you that if ever I saw
the beauty of Sion and the glory of the Lord filling His
tabernacle, it hath been in the manifestation of the divers
graces of God in the Church, in that heavenly harmony and
comely order wherein by the grace of God we are set and
walk, wherein if your eyes had but seen the brethren's
sober and modest carriage one towards another, their
humble and willing submission unto their guides in the,
Lord, their tender compassion towards the weak, their
fervent zeal against scandalous offenders and their long-

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 131
suffering towards all, you would, I am persuaded, change
your mind, and be compelled, like Balaam, to take up your
parable, and bless where you purposed to curse.' ^
This testimony was borne out by others who must be
regarded as impartial witnesses. For example, Edward
Winslow, an able and educated young English gentleman
from Droitwich, being on his travels, happened to come to
Leyden in 1617, and was so struck with the Christian life
of this brotherhood that he cast in his lot with them, and
not only became a member of the fellowship, but went with
them afterwards to New England, his name standing third
among those who signed the compact on board the May
flower. Writing a quarter of a century later, he says : ' I
persuade myself never people upon earth lived more
lovingly together and parted more sweetly than we the
Church at Leyden did ; parting not rashly in a distracted
humour, but upon joint and serious deliberation, often
seeking the mind of God by fasting and prayer, whose
gracious presence was not only found with us, but His
blessing upon us from that time until now.' ^
Among other principal men who joined them, as Edward
Winslow did, on beholding their order, were Thomas Brewer,
a wealthy Puritan from Kent, John Carver, an early deacon
of the Church and leader of the first migrating colony, and
Robert Cushman, who was associated with Carver in
effecting the migration. Miles Standish, one of the many
English gentlemen who sought military service in the
Netherlands, was in friendly relations with the Church at
Leyden ; he also went with them in the Mayflower and
became the soldier of the colony ; but whether he was ever
a member of the Church, or whether, like the rest of his
family at Duxbury Hall, in Lancashire, he was a Roman
Catholic, seems not so clear.
' Works, II., 223.
^ Young's Chronicles, p. 380.
K 2

132 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Their Dutch neighbours also seem to have had goc
opinion of these Christian people from England planted j
their midst : ' Though many of them were poor, yet thci
was none so poor but if they were known to be of ths
congregation, the Dutch (either bakers or others) wouL
trust them in any reasonable matter when they wantei
money. Because they had found by experience how care
ful they were to keep their word, and saw them so painfu
and diligent in their callings ; yea, they would strive to ge
their custom, and to employ them above others in theii
work for their honesty and diligence.' ^ The Dutch offi
cials were of the same mind as the Dutch people in their
estimate of the strangers. Bradford mentions also that
' the magistrates of the city, about the time of their coming
away or a little before, in the public place of justice gave
this commendable testimony of them in the reproof ofthe
Walloons who were of the French in that city, "These
English," said they, " have hved among us now these
twelve years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation
come against any of them ; but your strifes and quarrels
are continual." ' ^
The intellectual eminence of John Robinson, the pastor
of these people, was also honourably recognised by the
University authorities, with the consent of the magistrates,
by his being received as an honorary member of the Univer
sity September 5, 161 5. This distinction carried with it
not only literary privileges, but also certain substantial
civil advantages. He thus became free from the liability
to which ordinary citizens were subject of having soldiers
billeted upon them in case of siege or other military emer
gency, also from the requirement of having to take turn in
the night-watch, and having to pay contributions to public
works and fortifications. There v/as also the further privi
lege of being allowed to purchase a certain quantity of
' Bradford, pp. 19, 20. ^ Ibid.

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 133
wine or beer without payment of duty to city or state.
The following is a copy of the record on the University
roll :— 1615
Sept. 5° Joannes Robintsonus. Anglus.
Coss. permissu. Ann. xxxix.
Stud. Theol. alit Familiam.
During those Leyden days the controversy between
Calvinist and Arminian was stirring hot blood on both
sides. Lectures by Polyander and counter-lectures by
Episcopius were being delivered in the University itself,
John Robinson listening and deeply pondering. He was
even prevailed upon — though after much hesitation — by
Polyander, Festus Hommius, and other professors, to enter
the lists himself against Episcopius in public discussion.
This discussion lasted three days ; and Bradford, who pro
bably was present, and perhaps not altogether impartial,
says that the Lord did so help this pastor of his 'to
defend the truth and foil his adversary, as he put him to
an apparent non-plus in this great and public audience.
This so famous victory procured him much honour and
respect from those learned men and others who loved the
truth.' The question at issue between Robinson and Episcopius
was more vital and far-reaching than these quiet words of
Bradford might lead us to suppose, and we shall not feel
to the full the pulsations of life in the midst of which the
exiles were living at Leyden unless we realize what these
deeper issues were. The controversy of that time between
the followers of Arminius and of Gomarus, between Remon
strant and Contra-Remonstrant, was no mere academical
question, no merely intellectual tournament The question
of predestination and free-will had become more than a
doctrinal question among theologians. It had widened out

134 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
into far broader issues, and become the watchword of
political party and national strife. The Remonstrants
were not merely the followers of Arminius and Grotius in
the matter of doctrine ; they were on the side of John of
Barneveld, and therefore in favour of a National Church,
controlled, in Erastian fashion, by the magistracy, and in
favour also of the unpopular truce with Spain, the national
foe. The Contra-Remonstrants, on the other hand, were
not merely the followers of Calvin and Gomarus in the
matter of predestination unto life, politically also they were
on the side of Prince Maurice, the Stadholder, against
Barneveld, the advocate, and therefore in favour of a Free
Church in a Free State, and in favour, also, of still carrying
on the war with Spain, their ancient and implacable foe.
Here, indeed, was burning material enough to set many
cities on fire. This controversy ran through the whole
community, as did the Arian controversy at Constantinople
and Alexandria, centuries before. Speaking of the latter,
Eusebius says that bishop rose against bishop, district
against district, only to be compared to the Symplegades
dashed against each other on a stormy day ; and Gregory
of Nyssa adds to this that every corner, every alley of Con
stantinople was full of these discussions — the streets, the
market-places, the drapers, the money-changers. Scarcely
less absorbing came to be the question between Remon
strant and Contra-Remonstrant during much of the time
the Scrooby brethren found a home in Leyden. In bur
ghers' mansions and peasants' cottages, in shops, counting-
houses, farmyards, and guard-rooms ; in blacksmiths' shops
on land and in fishermen's barques at sea, the controversy
went on its way, men losing themselves in high converse
on fate, free-will, and foreknowledge absolute. Not seldom
the tumult round the churches, even on Sundays, ended
in open fight with knives, bludgeons, or brickbats. The
conflict for supremacy between the civil and military

THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 13;
elements, as embodied in Barneveld on the one hand and
Prince Maurice on the other, was coming to a death-grapple.
In 1617 the prince took military possession of some of the
principal cities, and one morning the people from Scrooby,
along with the rest of the citizens, saw the beautiful town-
hall of Leyden enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks,
strengthened by iron bars with barbed prongs, saw cannon
planted along the work, and companies of Waartgelders,
armed from head to foot, drawn up in line. The conviction
spread through Zealand, Friesland, Groningen, and Guelder-
land, that the Arminian party was dangerous to the State,
that the danger should be met by a common act of the
confederacy, and that to this end a national synod should
be called. This was the origin of the great Synod of
Dort, which held its hundred and eighty sessions between
November, 161 8, and the following May, and which ended
in pronouncing the followers of Arminius to be heretics
and schismatics, and declaring them incapable of holding
either clerical or academical post So for the moment the
storm passed off till a greater storm should come, and
Europe, in a Thirty Years' War, be deluged with blood.

(36

PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

BOSTON STUMP AND MARKET PLACE.
{^From a sketch by Charles Whymper.)

V.
THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON.
The pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers wielded so powerful an
influence over the minds of the men who were the earliest
founders of New England, that it may be worth while to
see what he was, not only as the pastor of the Leyden
Church, but also as a worker in the fields of literature.
There are three volumes of his collected works,^ and a
further little tractate which has come to light in recent
years.^ As we might expect from the circumstances of the
time, his writings are mainly controversial, but defensive
rather than offensive. He was the trusted leader of a little
' The Works of John Robinson : with Memoir and Annotations by
Robert Ashton. Three vols. London, 185 1.
^ A Manumission to a Manuditction. By John Robinson. 1615.

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 137
band of Separatists who were assailed from many sides,
and he felt it to be his duty to go forth again and again
into the field as their champion. They had no occasion
ever to be ashamed of their leader. If his thrusts are
penetrating, his temper is Christian. He seldom speaks
bitterly, only, indeed, when he feels more keenly than usual
the cruel injustice of the time which keeps them in exile
from the land he loves.
The non-controversial writings of John Robinson consist
of sixty- two essays on various religious and moral subjects,
which had occupied mind and pen during different periods
of his life, but which did not see the light till after his
death. He describes them as New Essays ; or. Observa
tions Divine and Moral, and in framing them he says
he had respect first of all to the Scriptures, next to the
memorable sayings of wise and learned men, which he had
carefully stored up as a precious treasure ; and, lastly, to
the great book of human life in its many phases, the volume
of men's manners, which he had diligently observed during
the days of his pilgrimage, having had special opportunity
of conversing with men of divers nations, estates, and dis
positions in great variety. During his stormy and troubled
life this kind of study and meditation had been to him full,
sweet, and delightful, and had often refreshed his spirit
amidst many sad and sorrowful thoughts unto which God
had called him. These essays show the varied range of
his reading as well as the reflective character of his mind.
We find him quoting Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Thales,
Cicero, Terence, Pliny, Plutarch, Seneca, Epictetus, and
Suetonius ; among the Fathers, Ignatius, Tertullian,
Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory Nazianzen, Lac-
tantius, Jerome, Basil, and Eusebius ; while from among
the writers of later times we find quotations from Bernard,
Anselm, Scaliger, Beza, Erasmus, and Melanchthon, as well
as from his own contemporaries.

138 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
The subjects dealt with in these essays are too many
and too varied for anything like orderly analysis, but we
may recall a few of the many sententious and sagacious
sayings scattered through these pages and worthy of
remembrance. For example, to good men we must do
good, he says, because they do deserve it ; to strangers
because they may deserve it and do stand in need of it ;
to all men because God deserves it at our hands for them.
Then, too, we ought to accept kindness as well as give it,
for to refuse a kindness offered is to shame it, as a ball
ill-sent and let fall to the ground. It is dangerous in
religion, he thinks, to fall forward by overmuch zeal, yet
not so dangerous as to fall backward by an unfaithful heart.
The former may injure his face and lose his comfort, but
the latter is in danger utterly to break the neck of his
conscience, as old Eli by falling backward brake his neck
bodily and died. A man hath in truth so much religion as
he hath between the Lord and himself in secret, and no
more. At the same time God is not partial, as men are ;
nor regards that church and chamber religion towards Him
which is not accompanied in the house and streets with
loving-kindness and mercy and all goodness towards men.
He that strives for error strives for Satan against God ; he
that strives for victory strives for himself against other
men ; but he that strives for truth against error helps the
Lord against God's and his own enemy, Satan, the father
of lies. Talking of fickleness, while there is wantonness in
finding and following new fashions of apparel, it were well
if this vanity and newfangledness were to be seen only on
people's backs. He has known divers that have more
lightly and licentiously changed their religion, and that in
no small points, than a sober man would the fashion of his
coat, and who if it might but have gained or saved them
twelve pence would have held their former religion still.
Speaking on other matters, he says that love is the load-

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 139
stone of love, and the most ready and compendious way to
be beloved of others is to love them first While it is an
ancient and received saying that heresy ariseth from want
of faith, and schism from want of love, yet men are often
accounted hererics, with greater sin, through want of charity
in the judges, than through defect of faith in the judged.
'Of old some have been branded for heretics for believing
in the existence of the anripodes ; others for holding the
original of the soul by traducrion ; others for thinking that
Mary the mother of Christ had other children by her
husband Joseph : the first being a certain fact, the second
a philosophical doubt, and the third, even if it were an
error, one neither against foundarion nor post of the Scrip
ture building.' As for schism, the Scriptures note it as
sometimes made from the Church but most commonly in
it In the matter of truth and falsehood, he holds that
nothing true in right reason and sound philosophy is, or
can be, false in divinity. Though the truth be uttered by
the devil himself, yet is it originally of God. Our Lord
Christ called Himself truth, not custom, neither is falsehood,
error, or heresy convinced by novelty, but by truth. ' This
truth is always the same whilst the God of truth is in
heaven, what entertainment soever it find with men upon
earth ; it is always praiseworthy, though no man praise it ;
and hath no just cause to be ashamed, though it often goes
with a scratched face. They that fight against truth are
like the floods beating upon the strong rocks, which are so
much the more miserably dashed in pieces by how much
they are the more violently carried.' He is of opinion that
while want of wisdom makes some men too forward in
speaking, over-much wisdom makes other men too back
ward. ' As the bird often flies away whilst the fowler still
seeks to get nearer and nearer her, so doth golden oppor
tunity many times, whilst we wait too long for better and
fitter passage for our speech.' ' As a woman over-curiously

I40 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
trimmed is to be suspected, so is a speech. And, indeed,
he that goes about by eloquence, without firm ground of
reason, to persuade goes about to deceive. As some are
large in speech out of abundance of matter and upon due
consideration, so the most multiply words either from
weakness or vanity. Some excuse their tediousness, saying
that they cannot speak shorter, which is all one as if they
said that they have unbridled tongues and inordinate
passions setting them a-work. I have been many times
drawn so dry, that I could not well speak any longer for
want of matter : but I could ever speak as short as I
would.' Speaking of society and friendship, he notes that the
woman in the Gospels who lost her piece of money lit
the candle, swept the house, and sought diligently, and
this she did alone, but when she had found it she called in
her friends and neighbours to rejoice with her ; upon which
he observes that it is best mourning alone, and best rejoicing
in company. Some friends, he thinks, are rather to be used
than trusted, others rather to be trusted than used. So the
proverb fitteth — ' Rich men's purses and poor men's hearts.'
Wealth makes many friends, and poverty tries them ; as
the wind shows which clouds have rain in them and which
not. There are in pride, he thinks, many strange touches.
Some men are proud of not being proud, nor lofty in car
riage, apparel, or contempt of inferiors ; and of being called
rather good-man than master, and rather master than Sir
Knight. Then, again, many will go on tiptoes, though bare
foot, being proud of no man knows what, either within or
without them ; and none more than they. Speaking in the
closing essay of death, he points out that natural death
stands in the separation of the soul from the body ; spiritual,
ofthe soul and the whole man from God, in respect of grace ;
eternal in respect both of grace and glory, with the sense
of the contrary evils. The first death is a natural evil, the

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 141
second a spiritual, the third both. We have also such
aphorisms as these : ' Young folk may die shortly, but the
aged cannot live long. The green apple may be plucked
off or shaken down by violence, but the ripe will fall of
itself Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
saints, as the gold melting and dissolving in the furnace is
as much esteemed by the goldsmith as any in his shop or
purse. If he put their tears in his bottle, he will not
neglect their blood, nor easily suffer it to be shed ; neither
doth death, when it comes, part him and them, though it
part man and man, yea man and wife, yea man in himself,
his soul and body.' ' We are not to mourn for the death
of our Christian friends as they who are without hope,
either in regard of them or of ourselves  But we
should take occasion by their deaths to love this world the
less out of which they are taken ; and heaven the more
whither they are gone before us, and where we shall ever
enjoy them.'
Possibly in many of the wise sayings scattered through
these two and sixty essays we have unspent echoes of some
of the sermons to which the Pilgrims listened during their
Leyden days. And as we catch up these echoes again we
feel that Governor Bradford spake truly when he tells us
that this revered pastor of theirs was a man not easily
paralleled for all things ; was learned and of a solid judg
ment, and of a quick and sharp wit, was of a tender
conscience, and very sincere in all his ways ; was never
satisfied in himself until he had searched any cause or
argument he had to deal in thoroughly and to the bottom ;
and that he was very profitable in his ministry and com
fortable to his people.
The rest of his Works were necessarily, from the stress
of the times, as we have said, mainly controversial. The
Separatists had to defend their principles of church govern
ment by the Christian people under the headship of Christ

142 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
from Episcopalians and Presbyterians alike. In this way
it came to pass that it was in the field of controversy that
Robinson made his first appearance as an author. In the
year 1609, the year of migration from Amsterdam to
Leyden, he published a reply to Joseph Hall, the vicar of
Halstead, in Essex, better known as the Bishop of Norwich
of a later time. Hall had sent forth what Robinson called
' a censorious epistle,' which was addressed to John Smyth
and himself, whom the writer described as ' ringleaders of
the late separation at Amsterdam,' and whom he blames
for their separation from the Church of England. She may
have her faults : this were cause enough for them to lament
her, to pray for her, to labour for her redress, not to avoid
her. This unnaturalness is shameful. If they had only
loved peace half so well as truth, this breach had never
been, and they who were yet brethren had been still
companions. Is the Church of England Babylon ? If so,
where are the main buildings of that accursed city —
infallibility, dispensings of sin, deposition of princes and
the like? Where her rotten heaps of corrupt errors —
transubstantiation, image worship, indulgences and pil
grimages ? Where her deep vaults of penances and
purgatories .? Are they not all razed and buried in the
dust? He thinks they may find too late that it would
have been a thousand times better to swallow a ceremony
than to rend a Church ; yea, that even whoredoms and
murders shall abide an easier answer than separation.
To this Robinson makes answer that separation is not
the odious thing his opponent seems to think it, for separa
tion from the world, and so from whatsoever is contrary to
God, is the first step to our communion with God and
angels and good men, as the first step to a ladder is to
leave the earth. As to his being ' a ringleader,' if a thing
be good, it is good and commendable to be forward in it.
Let it be shown that it is wrong, and if he have fled away

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 143
on foot he will return on horseback. Hall charges him
with unnaturalness towards their mother, the Church of
England ; but we must not so cleave to Holy Mother
Church as to neglect our Heavenly Father and His com
mandments. She may be our mother and yet not the
Lord's wife. Were not Luther, Zwinglius, Cranmer, Latimer
and the rest begotten of the Lord in the womb of the
Romish Church, and yet did they not forsake her, and that
justly for her fornications? Though they have forsaken
England for Holland, yet have they not ceased to love and
desire to live in their native land. The commonwealth and
kingdom of England they honour above all states of the
world, and if with a free conscience they might live there,
they would thankfully embrace the meanest corner in the
land, at the extremest conditions of any people in the
kingdom. Robinson's next book, A Justification of Separation from
the Church of England, was a more elaborate production on
the same theme, and was also a reply to a remonstrance
from the other side. In 1608, the year the exiles left
Scrooby for Amsterdam, their former neighbour, Richard
Bernard, of Worksop, sent forth a little book entitled.
Christian Advertisements and Counsels of Peace. Also
Dissuasions from the Separatists' Schism, commonly called
Brownism. To this Robinson makes reply in a justification
of his separation, which is the longest and most elaborate
work we have from his pen.^ He would much rather, he
says, have built up himself and that poor flock over which
the Holy Ghost has set him in holy peace, as becometh the
house of God, than enter the lists of contention ; but feeling
that he must defend the truth, he will endeavour in a good
conscience before God so to bear himself as not to be
' A Justification of Separation from the Church of England,
against Mr. Richard Bernard : his Invective. Entitled the Separa
tists' Schisme. By John Robinson, 1610.

144 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
contentious in contention. He cannot admire the manner
of those who commend peace that they may smother truth
and plead for Caesar's due that they may detain from God
His due. It is an easier thing, he is aware, to tie knots
than to loose them, and a simple man may cast a stone into
a ditch which a wise man cannot get out again, still the
questions at issue between him and the minister of
Worksop are, after all, not so dark and doubtful that a
man needs take so long a journey as the Queen of Sheba
did for resolution. For himself so dearly does he love
preaching the Gospel that he would count himself happy if
with the exchange of half the days of his life he might
freely publish it in his own nation. Still even for so good
a work he dare not by a bait draw his conscience, as a bird
into a snare, into most fearful entanglements. He is aware
that against separation good men have spoken strongly ;
indeed, he has to confess that a long time before he entered
this way himself he took some taste of the truth in it by
some treatises published in justification of it, which the
Lord knoweth were sweet as honey to his mouth, and the
only thing which kept him back then was the over-valuation
which he made of the learning and holiness of these men,
he being afraid to press one hairsbreadth in this thing
before men, behind whom he knew himself to come so
many m.iles in all things. Indeed, since then, having
searched the Scriptures and found much light, had not the
truth been in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his
bones he had never broken those bonds of flesh and
blood wherein he was so straitly tied ; but had suffered the
light of God to have been put out in his own unthankful
heart by other men's darkness.
Bernard had defended the mixed communion of all the
persons in a parish, whatever their spiritual condition, by
having recourse as usual to the parable of the tares and
the wheat, interpreting the field to be the visible Church

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 145
and the tares scandalous offenders. If this be the right
interpretation, Robinson replies, then the power which
Christ gave to His Church to root out obstinate offenders
is not only weakened, but disannulled. Moreover, if offen
ders be not to be cast out, how dare the prelates of
England take this forbidden weed-hook and uproot the
Separatists ? If any tares be to be plucked up, why not
all ? And if all be to be let alone, why meddle they with
any ? If they execute their own canons, perhaps they
would not be so much plucking up the tares from among
the wheat as the wheat from among the tares. But if the
Lord Jesus, who knew His own meaning, calls the field
not the Church but the world, as He does, why should we
admit any other interpretation .? This mixture of all sorts,
godly and ungodly, in a parish is of the very essence of a
National Church ; but what husbandman is either so foolish
or so careless as to sow his field with tares and wheat
together } Yet this fair field of England, of whose beauty
all the Christian world is enamoured, is so sown, this
pleasant orchard so planted, this flourishing Church so
gathered !
Passing to the executive authority in the State Church,
Robinson shows that it is neither in the people nor the
principal members. The truth is that in the parish church
of Worksop, and also in all the other parish churches in the
land, there is only one member that hath power, and that
under the ordinary, namely, the parish priest But for the
exercising of the censures, that belongs not to the whole
body or to any member thereof, principal or less principal,
but to the bishop and his substitute, who are foreigners and
strangers. The minister's only portion in the censure is to
do the executioner's office when the official has played the
judge ; and even if he should be so bold as to refuse, he
would be punished for his contumacy and the church door
would do his office, for the bill of excommunication hanged
L

146 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
up there by the sumner binds the offenders both in heaven
and earth.
Robinson contends that the company of faithful people
even without the officers are the Church. For if not, if
Mr. Bernard, for example, should leave his vicarage for a
better, then the church of Worksop would be dischurched
and remain a church no longer. Thus an assembly might
be churched and unchurched and churched again every
week during a time of persecution or plague, by having and
losing and recovering again her officers. Referring to the
size of a church, he maintains that two or three gathered
in the name of Christ have the same right with two or
three hundred ; neither the smallness of the number nor
the meanness of the persons can prejudice their right He
goes on to show that a true ecclesiastical polity doth com
prehend within itself whatsoever is excellent in all other
bodies political. Thus wise men writing on this subject
have approved as good and lawful three kinds of polities —
monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical — and all these
three forms have their place in the Church of Christ In
respect of Christ the head it is a monarchy, in respect of
its officers it is an aristocracy, and in respect of the body a
popular state. The governors of the Church must be in
and of the Church they govern, but they are not the
Church. In the apostles' time, as we learn from the Acts
of the Apostles, preaching was carried on to and fro,
turning and joining of multitudes to the Lord when neither
apostles nor officers were present ; for this is too gross to
affirm that during all the apostles' days nothing was begun
but by them. And what if the Lord should now raise up
a company of faithful men and women in Barbary or
America by the reading of the Scriptures or by the
writings, conferences, or sufferings of some godly men?
Must they not join themselves to the Lord in the fellow
ship of the Gospel, nor have any communion together for

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 147
their mutual edification and comfort, till some vagrant
priest from Rome or England be sent unto them to begin
their church matters with his service-book ? And yet he,
from his unknown tongue, might be a barbarian to them,
and they barbarians unto him.
Dealing with the well-known passage, Matthew xviii. 17,
J Tell it unto the Church,' he thinks it is as clear as the
sun that the Church there means the assembly whereof the
offender is a member. Whomsoever the Lord Jesus meant
by ' the Church ' He certainly never meant that the Arch
bishop of York, the Archdeacon of Nottingham, and the
official of Southwell were the Church of Worksop. So far
are they from being the Church of Worksop that they are
not so much as members of it, nor of any other particular
church in the kingdom ; they are neither the pastors so
called nor under the pastors of any particular church, but
with their transcendent jurisdiction in their provincial and
diocesan churches take their scope without orb or order.
Robinson contends that to maintain that government
suffers by being in the hands of the people, and to deprive
them of their rights in consequence, is to act in the spirit of
those who enclose the commons of their poorer neighbours
on the plea that common things are commonly neglected,
and that by enclosing one acre of ground they can make it
worth two acres left in common. He further disapproves
of the choice of a minister for a congregation being left to
a patron, and asks, if the patron stand in the room of the
people to choose for them, who set him there ? If some
one man in a parish had entailed to him and his heirs for
ever the power of appointing husbands to all the women in
the parish, it would be an intolerable civil bondage, and it
is an intolerable spiritual bondage for parish assemblies to
be under the imperious presentations of those lord patrons
whose clerks they must submit unto whether they will or
no. Great is the sin of the people who lose this liberty,
L 2

1 48 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
greater that of the patrons who engross it The bond
between the minister and the people he holds to be one ofthe
closest and most sacred kind, and is therefore not one to be
entered upon but with mutual consent This mutual rela
tion has many advantages : it incites the minister himself
to all diligence and faithfulness ; it is a source of comfort
to him under all the trials and temptation incident to the
minister's life, and it much furthers the love of the people
to the person of their minister.
Such is the main drift, briefly summarised, of John
Robinson's main venture into the field of authorship. The
year following its publication letters passed between him
and William Ames, then at the Hague, on the question
of communion among believers. This correspondence led
Robinson to issue in 1614 a treatise of some extent on
Religious Communion, Private and Public. Comparing
the book of 1614 with the letters of 1611, his opinions
seem to have undergone some modification, are certainly
softened in expression. Referring to those in England
who point to the dissensions which sometimes arise in free
Christian communities, he reminds them that they only
who enjoy liberty know how hard it is to enjoy it aright
Two prisoners being chained and manacled together, feet
and hands, may wonder that other men at liberty do not
walk closer together. Passing from this point to his main
purpose he maintains that he with those who are with
him, ' who profess a separation from the English national,
provincial, diocesan, and parochial church and churches in
the whole formal state and order thereof, may, notwith
standing, lawfully communicate in private prayer and other
the like holy exercises (not performed in their Church
communion, nor by their Church power and ministry)
with the godly amongst them, though remaining members
of the Church.' With the large tolerance of mind and
feeling with which his name is associated, Robinson says :

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 149
' For myself thus I believe with my heart before God, and
profess with my tongue, and that before the world, that I
have one and the same faith, hope, spirit, baptism, and
Lord which I had in the Church of England, and none
other; that I esteem so many in that Church, of what state
or order soever, as are truly partakers of that faith, as I
account many thousands to be, for my Christian brethren,
and myself, a fellow-member with them of that one
mystical body of Christ scattered far and wide throughout
the world ; that I have always in spirit and affection all
Christian fellowship and communion with them, and am
most ready in all outward actions and exercises of religion,
lawful and lawfully done, to express the same ; ' saving
only ' that I cannot communicate with or submit unto the
said Church order and ordinances there established, either
in state or act, without being condemned of mine own
heart, and therein provoking God, who is greater than my
heart, to condemn me much more.'
To meet this state of mind William Ames sent forth
A Manudiiction for Mr. Robinson and such as cons^^t with
him in private communion to lead them on to publick}
He tries by certain queries to break down, as he says, the
middle wall of partition between private communion and
public conformity. Moreover, he intimates that to his
knowledge Robinson has often been at services where
Mr. Perkins's service-book appeared, and once also came
to listen to the sermon of Mr. Perkins's successor, and that
since his professed separation. To this Robinson replied
in a little pamphlet entitled, A Manumission to a Manu-
duction? He contends there is an important difference
^ ' Briefly comprised in a letter written to Mr. R. W., at Dort.
Printed by George Waters. And are to be sould at his shop at the
Signe ofthe Snuffers, on the Fishmarket. 1614.'
^ A Manumission to a Manuduction; or answer to a Letter
inferring Publique Communion in the parish assemblies upon private
with godly persons there. By John Robinson. Anno Domini, 1615.

150 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
between private communion with good men and public
conformity to a system which ignores the rights of the
Chrisrian commonalty. ' The Church of England,' he says,
' doth acknowledge no such calling as is chiefly grounded
upon the people's choice, but only that which is grounded
upon the bishop's ordination, and that not to the ministry
of some one church, but to the ministry at large ; and
determinately either upon the bishop's license, or upon the
patron's presentation, the bishop's institution, and arch
deacon's induction, confirmed by the public laws of the
same Church, both ecclesiastical and civil. The mere fact
that the people accept and submit to a ministry when they
have no alternative does not alter the essential character
of the procedure. The parish ministry is a branch of the
prelacy, as receiving power from it by which it doth
administer ; and therefore to be avoided by God's people.'
In reply to what Ames says as to his inconsistency in
being present at certain services, he gives us a piece of
autobiography not without interest It is true, he says,
that during the time he was debating the question of
separation in his mind, and disputing for it with others,
but had not otherwise professed it, he had been present at
the services of the National Church. As to what took
place later, on the occasion referred to by Ames, he will
state the facts, and leave him to gain what advantage he
can out of them : ' Coming to Cambridge (as to other
places where I hoped most to find satisfaction to my
troubled heart), I went the forenoon to Mr. Cha[derton] his
exercise ; who upon the relation which Mary made to the

This reply to Ames is not found in the collected edition of Robinson's
Works, having come to light since 1 851. The first copy known in
recent years came into the possession of Charles Deane, LL.D., Vice-
President ofthe Massachusetts Historical Society, and was reprinted
in the Collections of that Society. 4th Series ; Vol. i. A second copy
of the original edition was obtained by the British Museum, through
Dr. R. W. Dale, of Birmingham, April, 1894.

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 151
disciples of the resurrection of Christ, delivered in effect
this doctrine, that the things which concerned the whole
Church were to be declared publicly to the whole Church,
and not to some part only, bringing for instance and proof
the words of Christ, Matt, xviii. 17, confirming therein one
main ground of our difference from the Church of England,
which is that Christ hath given his power for excommu
nication to the whole Church gathered together in His
name, as i Cor. v., the officers as governors and the people
as governed in the use thereof, unto which Church his
servants are commanded to bring their necessary com
plaints. And I would desire mine opposite either to show
me how and where this Church is having this power in the
parish assemblies, or else by what warrant of God's word,
I (knowing what Christ the Lord commanded herein) may
with good conscience remain a member of a church without
this power, much less where the contrary is advanced, and
so go on in the known transgression of that his command
ment—" Tell it to the Church." '
' In the afternoon I went to hear Mr. B[aynes], the
successor of Mr. Perkins, who from Eph. v. 7 or 11 showed
the unlawfulness of familiar conversation between the
servants of God and the wicked, upon these grounds or
most of them : That the former are light and the other
darkness, between which God hath separated ; the godly
hereby are endangered to be leavened with the others'
wickedness ; that the wicked are hereby hardened in
receiving such approbation from the godly ; and that
others are thereby offended and occasioned to think they
are all alike, and as birds of a feather. Whom afterwards,
privately, I desired, as I do also others, to consider whether
these very reasons make not as effectually and much more
against the spiritual communion of God's people, especially
where there wants the means of reformation, with the
apparently wicked, to whom they are as light to darkness,'

152 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGL A ND.
Ames had remarked on the fact that Robinson did not
refuse public communion with the Reformed Churches of the
Continent, though they, like the English Church, used a
form of prayer ; to which he replied that he should not
refuse all public communion with a true church because of
the use of set forms of prayer ; but there was a difference
in his opinion between their use in the Reformed Churches
and in the unreformed Church of England ; a difference
not only in the matter and sundry orders thereof, but more
especially in the manner of imposing it, which in the
Reformed Churches is not by compulsion, nor as in the
Church of England, where the reading of it is preferred
before and above the preaching of the Gospel. In the
latter Church more ministers (and those of the best sort)
have been deprived of their ministry in a few months for
the not reading and observing it in manner and form, than
have been ever since the Pope was expelled, not only for
not preaching (for which no man is censured), but for all
other wickedness of what kind soever, though abounding in
the ministry there. By which that their set service is
advanced above all that is called God, and made the very
idol to which both great and small are compelled to bow
down and it to honour. •
In 1618 Robinson published The People's Plea for the
exercise of Prophecy, a defence of lay-preaching in reply to
John Yates, B.D., minister of St Andrew's Church, Norwich,
who had written against Persons Propliesying out of Office.
This reply was dedicated by Robinson to his Christian
friends at Norwich and thereabouts, to whom he had
ministered in former years, and of whom, he says, he has
always loving and thankful remembrance. Joseph Hall
had about the same time published his Apology of the
Church of England, and Robinson says, if it be asked why
he did not reply to this rather than to the smaller work by
Yates, he answers that truth requires that not persons but

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 153
things be answered, and things there are none in Hall's
book which have not been already answered in his reply to
Bernard. Moreover, he puts as great a difference between
Hall and Yates as between a word-wise orator better able
to feed his readers with leaves of words and flowers of
rhetoric than with fruits of knowledge, and a man sincerely
zealous for the truth, as Mr. Yates.
Mr. Yates argued that from the commission of Christ,
given John xx. 21-23, ^ prophecy in public is to reinit
and retain sins, and that Christ grants this power to none
but such as He sends and ordains thereunto. Robinson
assents to the position that all prophecy in pubhc is for the
remitting and retaining of sins, but not to the assertion that
Christ grants this power to none but such as He sends and
ordains by the commission given in the passage in question,
for in that case He would have granted to none but
apostles. His answer would have been more effective
had he noticed that when our Lord gave the commission
recorded by John He gave it to all who were present in the
room where the disciples were met with locked doors for
fear of the Jews, and that others besides the apostles were
present. It is evident that the gathering on the first
Easter Sunday evening mentioned by John is the same
as that recorded by Luke (xxiv. 33), If so, there were
certainly other disciples present besides the apostles. For,
as Luke tells us, when the two disciples returned to
Jerusalem from Emmaus, they found the eleven gathered
together, and tliem that were with them. These two dis
ciples themselves, one of whom was named Cleopas, had
joined the company before Jesus appeared, and were
certainly not apostles. The disciples, not merely the
apostles, were glad when they saw. the Lord, and it was
upon the whole body of those in Jerusalem thus gathered
together that Jesus breathed, and to whom He said :
' Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whosoever sins ye forgive.

154 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
they are forgiven unto them ; whosoever sins ye retain,
they are retained.'
Robinson having said that the woman of Samaria carried
the truth about Christ to her countrymen, Yates exclaims :
' O simplicity which cannot see between preaching of the
Gospel and carrying tidings of a man that told her all
things that ever she did.' Robinson rejoins : ' It is indeed
my simplicity to think that the Gospel, as the word
importeth, is nothing else but glad tidings, and that to
preach the Gospel is nothing else but to carry or bring glad
tidings of Christ, before promised, then come into the
world. Through her many of the Samaritans believed
on Christ, therefore she preached the word as truly and
effectually as ever did minister to his parishioners, though
she went not up into a pulpit to do it' After other arguments
in defence of his position, Robinson concludes by saying
that in Leyden, where he is living, it is not only permitted
as lawful, but required as necessary that men not in office
and not ordained should preach, that such as have bent
their thoughts towards the ministry should beforehand use
their gifts publicly in the church. Intolerable bondage, he
says, it would be thought by them to be, if they had to
have pastors ordained for them, as all there are unto the
places in which they are to minister, of whose ability in
teaching they had had no opportunity of taking former ex
perience. Finally he trusts that the Lord will give courage
unto His people to stand for this liberty of lay -preaching
among the rest of the liberties wherewith Christ hath made
them free.
It was not till 1624, and therefore nearly at the close
of his life, that Robinson published his Jiist and Necessary
Apology of certain Chi'istians no less contumeliously than
commonly called Brownists or Barrowists. In this he says
he agrees with Jerome that the crime of heresy none ought
patiently to endure ; but if he and his people are charged

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 155
with being heretics they have this consolation, that they
have with them their gracious Lord and Saviour, by whose
judgment alone, notwithstanding all men's prejudices, they
shall stand or fall for ever. If any in this world have need
to get this divine comfort deeply printed in their hearts,
he and those with him have, since their profession gives
occasion to many, and their condition liberty to all, to
spare no severity of censure upon them. Four sorts of
heavy friends they have found and felt in sorrowful experi
ence, wherever they have gone : the unhallowed multitude
walking perversely ; those who are enamoured of the
Romish hierarchy as of a stately and potent lady, who are
servilely in bondage, themselves and their consciences,
either to the edicts of certain princes, or to the determina
tion of certain doctors, or both these together, who think
nothing well done in case of religion which either these
teach not or command not, and on the other hand regard
almost anything warranted which is commended by the
one or commanded by the other ; and finally they have
suffered from those who through credulity and lightness of
belief have their minds open to false and feigned sugges
tions of slanderous tongues. He maintains that the
Separatists are not, as is alleged, unduly contentious. So
far from that, he says :
' We account the Reformed Churches true Churches of
Jesus Christ, and here in Holland both profess and practise
communion with them in the holy things of God ; their
sermons such of ours frequent as understand the Dutch
tongue ; the sacraments we do administer unto their
known members, if by occasion any of them be present
with us ; and we do desire from the Lord their holy and
firm peace.' Having declared and defended the principles
and practice of the Leyden Church, he most willingly
admits that in the Church of England lively faith and true
piety are both begotten and nourished in the hearts of

156 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
many by the preaching of the Gospel within her borders.
' God forbid,' he cries, ' that we should not acknowledge
that, and withal that infinite thanks for the same are due
to God's great power and goodness ! '
What, in spite of all his Christian charity, he must and
will affirm is that the parish assemblies, with their motley
gatherings of all sorts of characters at the Lord's table, are
not in any real and scriptural sense Churches of Christ
' That so it stands with the Church of England, no man
to whom England is known can be ignorant, seeing that
all the natives there and subjects of the kingdom, although
never such strangers from the show of true piety and
goodness, and fraught never so full with many most heinous
impieties and vices, are without difference compelled and
enforced by most severe laws, civil and ecclesiastical, into
the body of that Church. And of this confused heap a
few, compared with the rest, godly persons mingled among
is that national church, commonly called the Church of
England, collected and framed. Such is the material
constitution of that church. It is constituted only by their
parish perambulation and the standing of the houses in
which they dwell. Every subject of the kingdom dwelling
in this or that parish, whether in city or country, whether in
his own or other man's house, is thereby, ipso facto, made
legally a member of the same parish in which that house is
situated, and bound, will he nill he, fit or unfit, as with
iron bonds, and all his with him, to participate in all holy
things, and some unholy also, in that same parish church.'
To the Christian reader he makes his final appeal. If
he and his are in error, let them be advertised brotherly.
' Err we may, alas ! too easily ; but heretics by the grace
of God we will not be.' If, however, men be either fore
stalled by prejudice, or by prosperity made secure, 'this
alone remaineth that we turn our faces and mouths unto
Thee, O most powerful Lord and gracious Father, humbly

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 157
imploring help from God towards those who are by men
left desolate. There is with Thee no respect of persons,
neither are men less rcgarders of Thee, if regarders of Thee,
for the world's disregarding them. They who truly fear
Thee and work righteousness, although constrained to live
by leave in a foreign land, exiled from country, spoiled of
goods, destitute of friends, few in number and mean in
condition, are for all that unto Thee (O gracious God)
nothing the less acceptable. Thou numberest all their
wanderings and puttest their tears into Thy bottles. Are
they not written in Thy book ? Towards Thee, O Lord,
are our eyes ; confirm our hearts, and bend Thine ear, and
suffer not our feet to slip or our face to be ashamed, O
Thou just and Merciful God ! '

158 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

VI.
where LIES THE LAND?
Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. — A. H. Clough.
Watching the birds in field and woodland as the time
for migration draws near, you note a strange restlessness
coming over them which they seem unable to resist He
who guides their wondrous flight across the sea also implants
within them the longing to go. Some such longing, also
divinely implanted, came over the hearts of the exiles in
Leyden, after years of sojourn among strangers. Human
reasons there were on the surface sufficient to make them
wish to go, but the real reason lay deeper, in the very
heart of the Divine purpose. That God who is the
beginning and the author of nations was calling them as
surely as He called Abraham from east to west, saying :
Get thee out of thy country into a land which I will show
thee.' Like Abraham, they heard a voice calling them
away from the city where they dwelt ; like him, they went
forth in faith, not knowing whither they went ; and like
him, too, they went to found a great nation and become a
multitude of people. They, even as we, found themselves
in a world in which they were not to rest content, except
in the contentment of advance.
The human reasons for leaving Leyden which lay near
at hand on the surface were many and forcible. For the
conditions of life where they lived were stern and hard, so
that few from the mother country cared to come and join
them, even preferring the prisons in England to liberty in

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 159
Holland under such conditions ; others who did come soon
spent their estate, and were forced to return to England,
shrinking from great labour and hard fare. They loved
the persons of their brethren in Leyden, approved their
cause and honoured their sufferings, yet were forced to
leave them ; regretfully they left, as Orpah left Naomi,
apologetically, as the Romans left Cato, saying they could
not all be Catos. Then, too, what touched the hearts of
the exiles keenly was that some of their own children
began to sink under the hardships of their lot ; their minds
were free and willing enough to share their parents'
burdens, but their bodies bowed under the weight of the
same, so that they became decrepit even in early youth,
and the vigour of nature seemed to be consumed in the
bud. While this was true of the more gracious of their
children, others less amenable were drawn aside by the
temptations of the city, and were led by evil example into
extravagant and dangerous courses. Some of their sons
enlisted into the armies of the Netherlands, others took
service as sailors in the Dutch merchantmen, while others
again fell into dissolute ways, ' to the great grief of their
parents and dishonour of God.' Then, again, there was
the fact that the twelve years' truce with Spain would soon
come to an end by mere lapse of time, and if they still
remained in the country, they might then find themselves
in the stress and straits of another Leyden siege. Even if
it should not come to this, some of them were distressed
by the fact that they could not, in the circumstances in
which they found themselves, give to their children such
education as they had themselves received ; and they were
pained, too, by the open profanation of the Sabbath day
prevalent among the Dutch. So rife was this evil that
even the Dutch ministers themselves deplored their inability
to keep their people away from Sunday sports and labour ;
and the clergy sent over by King James to represent

i6o PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
England at the Synod of Dort felt called upon to move
the Synod to make strong representations to the local
magistracy on the subject Further, these exiles were still
Englishmen in heart and soul. The spirit of nationality
and the love of self-government were too strong within
them to permit them to think with equanimity of the
possibility of their descendants becoming absorbed into
the Dutch nation. Then, to quote Bradford's own words :
' Lastly (and which was not the least) a great hope and
inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at
least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and
advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those
remote parts of the world ; yea, though they should be
but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing
of so great a work.'
Another reason had probably some weight with them,
though not mentioned either by Bradford or Winslow.
Even in Leyden they were not altogether beyond the
reach of harassment from King James. The States of
Holland, anxious to retain him as their ally against Spain,
were afraid to offend him, and permitted him at times still
to disturb those of his subjects who had sought asylum
among them. The correspondence of Sir Dudley Carleton,
at that time English ambassador at the Hague, furnishes
us with a case in point. Among the brethren in the
Leyden Church was a Kentish man of the name of Thomas
Brewer, whom Carleton, writing to Secretary Naunton, in
London, describes as ' a gentleman of a good house, both
of land and living, which none of his profession in these
parts are ; though through the reveries of his religion (he
being, as I advertised your honour, a profest Brownist) he
hath mortgaged and consumed a great part of his estate.' ^
In conjunction with William Brewster, Brewer had, as we
' Letters from and to Sir Dudley Carleton, Knt., during his Embassy
in Holland from 1615-16 to December, 1620, p. 406.

WHERE LIES THE LAND? i6i
have seen, set up a printing-office in the Choorsteeg, for
the purpose of producing such English books explanatory
of their principles as were forbidden to be printed at home.
Carleton, reporting to Naunton, says : ' This Brewer, and
Brewster, whom he hath set to work, having kept no open
.shop nor printed many books fit for public sale in these
provinces, their practice was to print prohibited books, to
be vented underhand in His Majesty's kingdoms.' Two
books printed in the Netherlands, though as it turned out
not by them, had excited the wrath of James, who sent
instructions to Carleton to take action in the matter.
Acting upon these instructions, Carleton writes to Secretary
Naunton under date July 22, 1619, and says, ' I believe I
have discovered the printer of De Regimine Ecclesiae
Scoticanae, which His Majesty was informed to be done in
Middleburgh, and that is one William Brewster, a Brownist,
who hath been for some years an inhabitant and printer
at Leyden, but is now within this three weeks removed from
thence and gone back to dwell in London, where he may
be found out and examined not only of this book but
likewise of the Perth Assembly, of which, if he was not the
printer himself, he assuredly knows both printer and
author ; for, as I am informed, he hath had, whilst he
remained here, his hand in all such books as have been
sent over into England and Scotland, as, particularly, a
book in folio, entitled A Confutation of the Rhemish trans
lation, anno 161 8.' ^
A month later (Aug. 20) Carleton tells Naunton, ' I
have made good inquiry after William Brewster at Leyden,
and am well assured that he is not returned thither, neither
is it likely he will, having removed from thence his family
and his goods.' ^ Meantime, while Sir Dudley was keeping
a sharp look-out for Brewster in Holland, we catch a
glimpse of what was going on in relation to him in Eng-
' Carleton Letters, p. 380, ^ Ibid., p. 386. M

i62 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
land. Among the State papers there has been preserved
a single sheet, consisting of brief extracts of some letters
from Naunton to the Duke of Buckingham [?] in this same
month of August, 1619. Under date, August i, is the fol
lowing abstract : — ' Brewster frighted back into the Low
Countries by the bishop's pursuivants. Sir Rob. Naunton
will follow him with his letters to Sir Dudley Carleton.'
Two days later Naunton writes again to the duke : —
'Brewster's son, of his father's sect, within this half-year
now comes to church. Sir Rob. Naunton hath received a
note from him to his son, and committed the deliverer close
until he discovers where the father is.' ^ From which
broken hints we gather, that on Brewster's coming to
London, not so much, as we know now, to escape the
attentions of Sir Dudley Carleton, as to carry on negotia
tions with shipmasters and others in reference to a voyage
to the West, he finds himself the object of hot pursuit on
the part of the Bishop of London's pursuivants. Further,
we gather that his son, still remaining in England, having
quailed before the storm, has conformed and come to
church, and that the messenger bringing a letter from
father to son has been arrested and locked up close till he
reveals Brewster's hiding-place, which, apparently, he has
persistently refused to do.
Meanwhile the English minister on the other side the
sea was still eagerly in pursuit, and indeed, at one time,
congratulated himself that he had secured the fugitive.
He even sent word to Naunton that he had caught
Brewster at last But he was mistaken ; his stupid official
had laid hold of the wrong man, had seized Brewer instead
of Brewster. Brewer, however, being arrested, was detained,
for it was discovered that he was quite as deeply impli
cated in the printing of the surreptitious books as Brewster
himself. In September, Carleton writes : ' In my last I
' State Papers, Domestic. James I. Vol. ex. : Aug. 1619.

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 163
adverrised your honour that Brewster was taken at Leyden,
which proved an error, in that the schout [the bailiff] who
was employed by the magistrates for his apprehension
being a dull, drunken fellow, took one man for another.
But Brewer, who set him on work, and being a man of
means, bare the charge of his printing, is fast in the
university's prison ; and his printing letters, which were
found in his house, in a garret where he had hid them, and
his books and papers, are all seized and sealed up. I
expect to-morrow to receive his voluntary confession of
such books as he hath caused to be printed by Brewster for
this year and a half or two years past ; and then I intend
to send some one expressly to visit his books and papers,
and to examine him particularly touching Perth Assembly,
the discourse De Regimine, and other Puritan pamphlets
which I have newly recovered.' ^ A few days later Carleton
further informs Naunton that he had sent an advocate of
Leyden, who understands English, to examine Brewer's
books and papers, and, his answers not being satisfactory,
he has used the Prince of Orange's authority, who has
himself spoken to the rector of the university not to give
the prisoner his liberty until the pleasure of the King of
England is known concerning him. The rector has pro
mised this, although the whole company of the Brownists
offer security for Brewer ; and he being a university man,
the students are urged by the Brownists to plead privilege
in the case where security is offered. Carleton requests
that the rector and M. Brookhoven, the deputy of the town
of Leyden in the Council of Holland, may know the king's
pleasure as soon as possible, so as to prevent any disorder,
which otherwise might arise out of this matter in that
tumultuous town. Meantime M. Brookhoven, when he
goes to Leyden next Monday for two or three days, will
give orders to have Brewer further examined.
^ Carleton Letters, p. 389.
M 2

1 64 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
The matter proved not so easy to deal with as was
expected. Brewer stood upon his rights, and showed little
regard for the ambassador's authority. Moreover, it was a
complicated case of combined jurisdiction between Town
and Gown, Brewer having been arrested by the town
escoulete, but detained as a university man in the university
prison. Carleton feels he must move cautiously, and must
work upon the curators and rector of the university before
hand ; and also upon the magistrates of the town, through
their deputy Brookhoven. He will also seek private inter
views with the Prince of Orange. On the 22nd of October
he reports progress. He has seen two of the curators of
the university, the rector and his two assessors, and also
the town deputy, who all came to him in one company.
They were very polite, made large professions of due
respect to the King of England, but could not follow up
their fine words by sending Brewer to England as a
prisoner, which was what Carleton asked them to do ; for,
as a member of the university. Brewer might, they said,
insist on his privilege of being tried without removal to
another jurisdiction. Their university, consisting chiefly,
as it did, of students from other conntries, would be
seriously injured if, in a matter of so much consequence,
their privileges were not preserved ; in fact, the foreign
students might leave in a body. Moreover, there was a
precedent they could not forget Some time ago a member
of the university, one Cluverus, a German, had published a
book against the Emperor Rudolph, and a demand was
made that he should be sent to Prague to be punished.
To this demand the university made absolute refusal, on
the ground that it could not be granted without a breach
of their privileges. In the face of such a precedent what
could they do ? On the other hand, Carleton pleaded that
for as long a period as three years past Brewer had gone
on printing prohibited books and pamphlets, not for the

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 165
university or the Dutch provinces, but to His Majesty's
disservice and the trouble of his kingdom.
In the midst of such complications Brewer himself, in
the most chivalrous manner, came to the rescue of these
belated diplomatists. To save the Leyden authorities from
coming into open conflict with King James, which they
were very unwilling to do. Brewer offered to go to England
of his own accord, and submit to examination on certain
conditions. The conditions were : that he should be assured
in wridng that it was His Majesty's pleasure that he should
come ; that he should go as a free man, and not as a
prisoner ; that he should not be punished during his abode
in England, either in body or goods ; that he should be
allowed to return in competent time ; and, finally, that he
should not be expected to make the journey at his own
charges. His offer was accepted, and he prepared to go,
though much against the will of John Robinson, his pastor,
and his fellow-members in the Leyden Church. Carleton
wrote to England, expressing the hope that Brewer would
be well treated, inasmuch as he had taken his resolution of
presenting himself unto His Majesty against the minds of
some stiffnecked men in Leyden, who did all they could
to dissuade him from going.
On the 3rd November, attended simply by the beadle
and one other officer of the university, Brewer set out for
Rotterdam, and was delivered to Sir William Zouch, who
was travelling to England in a private capacity. The follow
ing day they set forward on their journey by way of Zealand,
and on reaching Middleburgh the people there proved to
be of the same mind as the brethren at Leyden, and were
strongly opposed to Brewer placing himself in the power
of the King of England. Sir William Zouch, writing to
Carleton, says Brewer 'hath many friends in Middleboro,
and those exceeding earnest in his cause, as, the treasurer-
general, his brother the chief of the reckon-chamber, and

i66 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
his other brother, a minister (their name is Teebake) ; and
one Mr. Vosberg, chief reckon-master, who was on the way
towards Holland to speak to his excellency on Mr. Brewer's
behalf, and to have advised him to have challenged the
privileges of the university and of the town, by which he
would have had his trial there. I was, on Monday was
seven-night, invited to dinner by them, when they did
expostulate in the business.'
In spite of remonstrance and expostulation, however,
Thomas Brewer remained faithful to his compact with the
English and Leyden authorities. On reaching Flushing,
where they were to embark, they found the wind against
them, as it remained for weeks, so that they were unable
to cross to England. Fierce storms prevailed : ' No day,'
writes Sir William, ' hath passed without a storm ; the
streets run with salt water that hath scaled the walls, made
pools and lakes, and kept the people within their doors.'
During these weeks of waiting and wild tempests they seem
not to have been without social enjoyment, for Carleton
tells us, with smile and shrug of satisfaction, that Brewer's
fellow-Brownists at Leyden are somewhat scandalised,
because they hear that Sir William Zouch has taught him
to drink healths.
Some time about the beginning of December the two
travellers reached London, where Bmwer's guarantee of
safe-conduct seems to have been duly respected. Whether
his explanation of the work carried on in the printing-
office in the Choorsteeg by Brewster and himself was
satisfactory or not, the English Government were bound
to observe the compact entered into by the English
ambassador on their behalf. On the 29th January Sir
Dudley Carleton acknowledges the receipt of a letter of
the 14th, by way of Antwerp, from Secretary Naunton,
and says he has acquainted the curators of the university
with the good treatment Brewer has received in England —

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 167
far, indeed, beyond his deservings — and with his delivery,
for which they render His Majesty their humble thanks.
When he returns to Leyden, unless he undertakes to do
his utmost to find out where Brewster is, he is not like to
be at liberty long, the suspicion whereof, Carleton thinks,
keeps him away from Holland, for as yet he appears not in
those parts.
We know nothing more of Brewer till the following June,
when we hear of him in a letter from John Robinson to
John Carver, in connection with the negotiations going on
by way of preparation for the voyage to the West. He
appears to have remained with Robinson and the rest of
the Leyden Church after the sailing of the Mayflower for
New England. It is stated that soon after John Robin
son's death — if we may so far anticipate our story — Brewer
sold his property in Leyden and returned to England,
where he came under the ban of the authorities for his
separatist principles, and was cast into prison. All that we
know of him afterwards we learn from the state papers and
the journals of parliament. In 1626 James Martin gave
information respecting Thomas Brewer and other Puritans
and Brownists in Kent, in the course of which he tells the
Government ' that Thomas Brewer, coming not long since
' from Amsterdam, where he became a perfect Brownist, and
being a man of good estate, is a general patron of the
Kentish Brownists, who by his means daily and danger
ously increase ; the said Brewer hath provided a most
pestilent book beyond the seas. One Turner, of Sutton
Valence in Kent, seems to be a chaplain of his, and preaches
in houses, barns, and woods. He hath many followers, and
is maintained principally by the said Thomas Brewer.' ^
The result was that this former colleague of ^ Elder
Brewster in Leyden, this zealous member of the brother-
' State Papers, Domestic. Charles I. Vol. xxxv., no: Sept. 17,
1626.

1 68 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
hood to which the Pilgrim Fathers once belonged, became a
prisoner for conscience' sake for the next fourteen years of
his life. He came forth from durance only when the Long
Parliament had begun its memorable work, and Laud and
Strafford had reached the end of their lease of power. In the
Journal ofthe House of Commons.under date November 28,
1640, there is this entry : ' The humble petition of Thomas
Brewer, gentleman, close prisoner in the King's Bench, was
read and referred to the Committee for Dr. Leighton's
petition ; and he to have the same favour and privilege in
all points as Dr. Leighton has.' The Journal of the House
of Lords of the same day (iv. 100) gives further particulars :
' The Earl of Dover reported to the House, " that the
Lords' Committee appointed by this Honourable House
have considered of the petition of Thomas Brewer, gentle
man, who hath been imprisoned in the King's Bench and
other prisons fourteen years, whereof five years close
prisoner, and do desire that he might be released," where
upon it was ordered : " That the said Thomas Brewer shall
forthwith be discharged of his imprisonment, giving his own
word for his forthcoming and to abide their Lordships'
order." ' To show what a changed world had come about
the same day the Lords discharged Thomas Brewer, ' It
was ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the
High Court of Parliament assembled : " That the Earl of
Strafford should put in his answer unto this Court to the
impeachment made against him by the House of Commons
by Tuesday next come seven-night, viz., December 8, 1640,
and sooner if he can." '
After this digression, which throws light on a matter
which must have much exercised the minds of the Pilgrim
Fathers in their Leyden days, we return to the consulta
tions of the Church as to their own movements. The
thought which was gradually taking shape in their minds
was that of founding a Puritan Colony, where they might

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 169
enjoy liberty of worship and at the same time remain
Englishmen. The idea of founding a colony in the
interests of religious freedom was not altogether new. It
is curious to note a document among the State papers
bearing date as far back as 1572, and endorsed by Lord
Burleigh as 'sent from Thomas Cecil to me, written by
Mr. Carleton,' which, after several military suggestions for
the safety of the kingdom, proposes, as a peaceable way of
settling the Puritan question, ' to suffer the precise sort to
inhabit Ireland.' This contemporary document, which
throws interesting light upon the strength of the Puritan
movement at the time Separatism took its rise, runs as
follows : ' This realm hath a great people daily increasing
which are professors of the Gospel towards sincerity, and
as they hate all heresy and popery, so they cannot be per
suaded to bear liking of the Queen's proceedings in religion
by reason that our Church here is not reformed. This
people consist of all degrees, from the nobility to the
lowest, and so hot is the desire of God's truth in them
that they will not frame themselves to favour any of the
laws or ordinances set forth by the Queen in God's matters
but such as are void of all offence and reformed according
to sincerity. This people, as they do not like the course
of our Church, so they do and will practise assemblies of
brethren in all parts of this realm and have their own
churches in companies, contrary to the proceedings which
will and may offend Her Majesty, and yet not be punished
for the same because they are the Queen's own bowels, her
dearest subjects, servants of God, and such as do tread the
straight path of the Lord's salvation. So that either the
Church of England must be framed to their appetite, or
else they must be suffered without blame to proceed as
they begin.'
There are three courses open, the writer says, whereby
'to satisfy those griefs and relieve this people': (i) to

1 70 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
allow as many of them as choose to depart the realm ; or,
(2) to let them remain to congregate in companies together
and have their own churches ; or, (3) ' to bestow upon them
a portion of the country of Ireland to inherit, and there, as
concerning religion, to live according to the reformation of
the best churches.' The first and second modes of dealing
with this question are not to be thought of, for the first
would weaken the realm, and as for the second, since our
country is best governed by one king or queen, so both
civil and ecclesiastical affairs ought to be directed by one
course of law. But the third course he holds to be feasible.
' English gentlemen of religion and value may be found to
take this enterprise in hand, and in this way deliver this
realm of all the precise ministers and greatest part of the
people that follow them, to the number of three thousand
men, enter Ireland, inhabit the same, and there live under
the Queen's subjection according to the faith of good
subjects and laws of this realm, the Church's constitution
only excepted.' The part of Ireland he would select for
the experiment is the north, ' because the country of Ulster
is the Irish piece of most danger to this State by reason it
borders upon the Scot, the same is the soil in which I would
have this people planted.' ^
This ingenious idea of getting rid of Puritans by shipping
them off" in a body to Ireland seems not to have caught
hold of the imagination either of the Queen or the Lord
Treasurer. Half a century later it was too late in the
world's history to found a new settlement in any part of
Europe. The Leyden Church must therefore go farther
afield, and carry out such a migration as that of the Greeks
to Massilia, or the Syrians to Carthage. Years before it
took practical shape John Robinson, as the pastor of the
Church, seems to have thought of some such migration, and
' State Papers, Domestic. Addenda. Elizabeth. Vol. xxi., 121 :
1572. Discourse on the present state of the realm of England.

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 171
to have spoken of it to his Dutch neighbours. In the
archives of the Presbyterian Church at Amsterdam there is
a document, signed by Antonius Walaeus and Festus Hom
mius, thedlogical professors at Leyden, stating that they had
often' heard Robinson say that finding so many difficulties
where they were, he had resolved his removal with a good
part of his congregation to the West Indies, where he did
not doubt to effectuate his design of founding a free
religious settlement Bradford, in his History, bears this
out when he says that when they began to consult as to
the place to which they should go if they did migrate,
' some (and none of the meanest) had thoughts and were
earnest for Guiana, or some of those fertile places in those
hot climates.' Those in favour of Guiana having heard
that Sir Walter Raleigh had in 1595 described it as the
true Eldorado, and having evidently met with Robert
Harcourt's relation of his voyage thither, published in
1614, alleged that the country was rich, fruitful, and blessed
with perpetual spring ; that vigorous nature brought forth
all things in abundance and plenty without any great
labour or art of man. It might be so, said others of the
brethren, shaking their heads doubtfully, but tropical lands
have dangerous diseases, and t'ne dreadful Spaniard would
be too near a neighbour. Half a century had scarcely
gone by since the wholesale massacre of the Huguenots in
Florida by the French, and the Spaniards might turn upon
them in the same relentless fashion, and they would have
but little strength to resist so potent an enemy.
The project of proceeding to the West Indies being thus
disposed of, Virginia was next thought of as a place of
settlement. As early as 1606 some London merchants had
received from King James a patent constituting them the
Virginia Company. It consisted of two branches, com
monly spoken of as the London and Plymouth Companies.
The former having its headquarters in London, and known

172 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
as the Virginia Company, had jurisdiction from 34° to 38''
north laritude ; the latter, the Northern Company, having
its seat of management in Plymouth, had jurisdiction from
45° down to 41°, the intervening territory between 38° and
41° to go to whichever of the two companies should first
plant a self-supporting colony. The Southern or Virginia
Company was to be governed by a council resident in the
colony, which was, however, to be under the control of a
superior council established in England and nominated by
the king. On this superior council, consisting of twenty-
five persons, was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a name for many
years prominent in American history, and also Sir Edwin
Sandys, a Scrooby friend of William Brewster, and in later
days the ruling spirit of the Virginia Company.
The first emigrants, one hundred and forty-three in
number, sailed from the Downs on New Year's Day, 1607,
but did not fix upon a spot for settlement till the following
May. They were not, however, of the sort likely to prove
successful colonists abroad, for most of them had been idle,
thriftless failures at home. For the first two years of its
history the settlement proved a sore discouragement, and
in the plays of the day Virginia .came to be described as
the Transatlantic Alsatia, the last refuge of the destitute
and dishonest Two, years later a change was made for
the better, and 1609 has been described as the date of the
real beginning of English colonisation. A new charter of
incorporation was granted, doing away with the system of
dual government, defining more accurately the extent
of the plantation, and remodelling the constitution of the
colony, so as to vest all legislative power in the council,
and giving to the company full sovereignty over all British
subjects settling in Virginia ; and that year five hundred
new emigrants were sent out in a fleet of nine vessels.
Unfortunately, these new-comers were no great improve
ment on the older settlers. Captain John Smith described

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 173
them as ' unruly gallants packed thither by their friends
to escape ill destinies ;' and we hear of them in after years
as spending their time in playing bowls in the streets of
Jamestown while their houses were crumbling to pieces
before their eyes. Governor succeeded to governor with
varying fortunes and results until the year 161 7, when
Captain Argall was sent out, an able, resolute, but unscru
pulous man, whose care for the colony has been described
as no better than the charity of the cannibal who feeds up
his prisoner before making a meal of him.
During Argall's administration the brethren in Leyden
first began to think of negotiating with the Virginia Com
pany, and therefore before the more enlightened and public-
spirited pohcy inaugurated by the appointment of Sir
Edwin Sandys to the treasurership of the company. It
was reasonably objected by some of the brethren that if
they simply put themselves as ordinary settlers under the
Virginia Company, they might as well, so far as religious
freedom was concerned, go back to England and take their
chance of hardship and imprisonment there. Under a
charter granted by King James conformity to the Church
of England was insisted on as a matter of course, but even
good churchmen might well wince under a regulation
which required that, even upon working days, every man
and woman duly twice a day, upon the first tolling of the
bell, should repair unto the church to hear divine service,
upon pain of losing his or her day's allowance for the first
omission, for the second to be whipped, and for the third
to be condemned to the galleys for six months. On Sun
days the penalty of neglect was srill more severe : ' Every
man or woman shall repair in the morning to divine service
and sermons, and in the afternoon to divine service and
catechisms upon pain for the first fault to lose their pro
vision and allowance for the whole week following ; for the
second, to lose the said allowance, and also to be whipped ;

174 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
and for the third, to suffer death! The clergy of the
church were hedged round with double sanctity. Any
colonist who should ' unworthily demean himself unto any
preacher or minister of God's Word,' or fail ' to hold them
in all reverent regard or dutiful entreaty ' should be openly
whipped three times, and after each whipping should
publicly acknowledge his crime. All new-comers were to
report themselves on their arrival to the clergyman, to be
instructed and catechised. Any one refusing was to be
brought before the governor, who should cause the offender
for the first time of refusal to be whipped ; for the second
time, to be whipped twice, and to acknowledge his fault
upon the Sabbath day before the congregation ; and for
the third time, to be whipped every day until he made the
same acknowledgment, asked forgiveness, and repaired
unto the minister to be further instructed. Rather than
repair to a colony where church arrangements were carried
out with something like martial law, the brethren in Leyden
might as well go back to England and take their chance of
Newgate, the Gatehouse, or the Fleet.
But was not some other arrangement possible?
They resolved to try and arrange such terms with the
Company as would allow them to live as a distinct body by
themselves, and enjoy religious freedom under the general
government of Virginia ; and they hoped that through the
good offices of friends in England they might sue His
Majesty that he would be pleased to grant them this free
dom they desired. They were encouraged to hope that
they might succeed in this ' by some great persons of good
rank and quality that were made their friends.' With these
expectations, two of the brethren, Robert Cushman and
John Carver, were sent over into England to negotiate with
the Virginia Company. It was a favourable time for their
purpose. For of late things had not been going very well
with the colony, and the company, anxious for emigrants

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 175
of their stamp and quality, were not unwilling to come to
terms, were even ready to grant them a patent with as ample
privileges as it was in their power to give, and to render
them all the assistance they could. Some of the leading
members of the council went so far as to say that they had
no doubt of obtaining their suit with the king for liberty
in religion, and to have it confirmed under the king's broad
seal in accordance with their desire.
To facilitate this arrangement the brethren in Leyden
made a formal statement of their religious opinions and
practices, which might be submitted to the king and
council. This they did in a series of ' seven articles which
the church at Leyden sent to the council of England, to
be considered of in respect of their judgments occasioned
about their going to Virginia.' This document, which is
of considerable interest historically, has been preserved
among the Colonial State Papers, and is endorsed as sent
unto the Council of England by the Brownists of Leyden.^
The Seven Articles are as follows : —
I. To the confession of faith published in the name of
the Church of England, and to every article thereof, we do
with the Reformed Churches where we live, and also else
where, assent wholly.
2. As we do acknowledge the doctrine of faith there
taught, so do we the fruits and effects of the same doctrine
to the begetting of saving faith in thousands in the land
(conformists and reformists, as they are called), with whom
also, as with our brethren, we do desire to keep spiritual
communion in peace, and will practise on our parts all
lawful things.
3. The King's Majesty we acknowledge for supreme
governor in his dominion in all causes and over all persons,
and that none may decline or appeal from his authority or
^ Colonial Papers. America and the West Indies, 1574-1660.
Vol. i., 43.

176 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
judgment in any cause whatsoever, but that in all things
obedience is due unto him, either active, if the thing com
manded be not against God's Word, or passive, if it be,
except pardon can be obtained.
4. We judge it lawful for his Majesty to appoint bishops,
civil overseers, or officers in authority under him, in the
several provinces, dioceses, congregations or parishes, to
oversee the churches and govern them civilly according
to the laws of the land, unto whom they are in all things
to give account, and by them to be ordered according to
godliness. 5. The authority of the present bishops in the land we
do acknowledge, so far forth as the same is indeed derived
from his Majesty unto them and as they proceed in his
name, whom we will also therein honour in all things and
him in them.
6. We believe that no synod, class, convocation, or
assembly of ecclesiastical officers has any power or autho
rity at all, but as the same is by the magistrate given unto
them. 7. Lastly, we desire to give unto all superiors due honour,
to preserve the unity of the Spirit with all that fear God,
to have peace with all men what in us lieth, and wherein
we are to be instructed by any.
These Articles were signed by John Robinson as the
pastor, and William Brewster as elder. They contain
large concessions, but there are also careful qualifications.
They accept the Articles of the Church of England, but in
the sense in which they are accepted by the Reformed
Churches ofthe Continent ; they acknowledge obedience to
the king's authority, but only ' if the thing commanded be
not against God's Word ' ; as for the rest, it has been well
said that we must look on these Seven Articles not so much
as an exposition of faith, but as rather conditions of agree
ment They were well received on the part of the council.

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 177
On the 1 2th of November, 1617, Sir Edwin Sandys writes
to Robinson and Brewster, saying that they had given that
good degree of satisfaction which had carried the council
on with a resolution to set forward their desire in the best
sort. Cushman and Carver having gone back to Leyden
and given a report to the Church of their interview with the
council, the Church acknowledged the courtesy with which
their agents had been treated, and drew up a formal state
ment of their wishes in writing, which was subscribed, as
the council requested, by the hands of the greatest part of
the congregation. This statement was sent on to London by
the hand of John Carver and one other gentleman of their
company, and with it a letter dated December 15, 1617,
and signed by Robinson and Brewster as before, setting
forth certain reasons and inducements for the granting of
their requests. These 'instances of inducement ' were of a
tender and pathetic sort, and are as follows : —
(l) We verily believe and trust the Lord is with us,
unto whom and whose service we have given ourselves in
many trials ; and that He will graciously prosper our
endeavours according to the simplicity of our hearts therein.
(2) We are well weaned from the. delicate milk of our
mother country, and enured to difficulties of a strange and
hard land, which yet in a great part we have by patience
overcome. (3) The people are for the body of them
industrious and frugal, we think we may safely say, as any
company of people in the world. (4) We are knit together
as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant
of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great
conscience, and by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves
straitly tied to all care of each other's good, and of the
whole by every one, and so mutually. (5) Lastly, it is not
with us as with other men whom small things can dis-
courase, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves
at home again.' They add that they are not likely to wish
n

178 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
to return ; most of them are too old for that, and, indeed, if
they did, it would be to be worse off than before. They
are grateful for the godly disposition and loving towards
their despised persons of many in the council, they will
not be further troublesome, but take their leaves committing
the council to the guidance and direction of Almighty God.
It would appear that some members of the council of the
Virginia Company desired further information. Three
points especially were specified by Sir John Wolstenholme,
one of the council, to whom they made reply, under date
Leyden, January 27, 1617 [o.S.], enclosing two notes — a
longer and a shorter, for him to show to the council — the
one or the other as he thought best. In the shorter note
they state that, as to the officers of the Church — pastors,
elders, and deacons, and the sacraments, they do wholly
and in all points agree with the French Reformed Churches,
according to their public confession of faith. They further
state that they are willing to take the Oath of Supremacy
if it be required of them, and convenient satisfaction be not
given by their taking the Oath of Allegiance. The longer
note simply points out some trivial differences existing
between them and the Refoi-med Churches, such as that
they at Leyden prayed with uncovered heads, the French
covered ; they required their elders to teach as well as to
govern, the French did not ; their officers were chosen for
life, those in the Reformed Churches for a term of years ;
they administered discipline and excommunication before
the whole Church, the French privately and in their
consistories. This letter and the enclosures were carried to Sir John
Wolstenholme by Sabin Staresmore, a member of the
Leyden Church, who stood by while they were opened and
read. Sir John asked further about the ministers, as to
who made them ? Staresmore replied that the power of
making was in the Church, to be ordained by the imposi-

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 179
tion of hands, by the fittest persons they had, adding that
that power must either be in the Church or in the Pope,
and that the Pope was Antichrist. But, said Sir John, if
the Pope holds what is true, as for example the doctrine of
the Trinity, we do well to assent also ; but he would not
argue the point. He said he would not show the letters,
lest they should spoil all. He expected they would have
been of the archbishop's mind as to the calling of ministers,
but it seemed they were not. Their messenger further
says that' Sir John wished him to be at the Virginia Court
the following Wednesday, after which he hoped to be able
to report more definitely and certainly.
It. is curious to note that during the months in which
these negotiations were going forward for permission to set
up Congregationalism in one part of the territory of the
Virginia Company, Presbyterianism had actually been
established in another — in the Bermudas or Summer
Islands — the shareholders of the one company being for
the most part shareholders also of the other. Under date
May. 19, 1617, Lewis Hughes writes to Sir Nathaniel Rich,
describing the arrangements made for religious worship.
He says : ' The ceremonies are in no request, nor the Book
of Common Prayer, I use it not at all. I have by the help
of God begun a Church government by ministers and elders.
I made bold to choose four elders for the town publicly
by lifting up of hands and calling upon God, when the
governor was out of the town, in the main. At his return
it pleased God to move his heart to like well and to allow
of that we had done, and doth give to the elders all the
grace and countenance that he can.' He hopes God ' will.
give His blessing to this poor and weak beginning to His
own glory,' and he trusts ' that the service of God in these
islands may be so established no^y as that hereafter there
be no such bitter contention about it as in England.' ^
' MSS. ofthe Duke of Manchester, No. 209.
N 2

i8o PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
A copy of the Directory of Worship for use in the
Summer Islands was also sent over by him, and is preserved
at Kimbolton Castle.^ He also wrote under date Decem
ber 15, 161 8, to Sir Nathaniel Rich, giving his reasons for
not using the Book of Common Prayer, and his opinion of
the elders who had been chosen to serve the Church.^ In
trying to obtain permission for similar freedom of worship
in Virginia the Congregationalists of Leyden secured the
powerful influence of Sir Edwin Sandys, who prevailed
upon Sir Robert Naunton to speak to the king privately,
urging him to grant them this liberty of conscience under
his gracious protection in America. While averse to Non
conformity in England, James seems not to have been
equally averse to it as far away as Virginia. When
Naunton said that these people would endeavour the
advancement of his Majesty's dominions and the enlarge
ment of the Gospel by all due means, he replied that this
was a good and honest motion, and asked what source of
profit they looked for in the part they intended ? Naunton
replied, ' From fishing.' ' So God have my soul,' said the
king, ' 'tis an honest trade ; 'twas the apostles' own calling.'
Thinking over the matter again, and fearing lest he had
committed himself too hastily on what was a somewhat
thorny ecclesiastical subject, the king afterwards told
Naunton that these people had better confer with the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London.'
Winslow, after narrating this interview, adds : ' Whereupon
we were advised to persist on his first approbation, and not
to entangle ourselves with them.' He seems not to have
been aware that the archbishop and other bishops were
approached on the subject Among the Kimbolton MSS.
there is a note (No. 368) which was taken by Sir Nathaniel
' MSS. of the Duke of Manchester, No. 234.
^ Ibid., No. 239.
^ Winslow's Hypoa'isy Unmasked, pp. 89, 90.

WHERE LIES THE LAND? i8i
Rich of a conversation he had with Captain Bargrave about
Sir Edwin Sandys. The purport is that Sir Edwin had
moved the archbishop (unsuccessfully) to give leave to the
Brownists and Separarists to go to Virginia, and designed
to make a free popular state there, and himself and his
assured friends to be the leaders. Bradford also says
(p. 29) that the getting permission for the establishment of
a colony in which they might enjoy religious freedom
proved a harder piece of work than they took it for ; for
though many means were used to bring it about, yet it
could not be effected ; for there were divers of good worth
laboured with the king to obtain it (amongst whom was
one of his chief secretaries), and some other wrought with
the archbishop to give way thereunto ; but it proved all in
vain. WilHam Euring also, writing in 161 9, says: 'Yet
even for Virginia thus much, — when some of ours desired
to have planted ourselves there with his Majesty's leave
. . . the bishops did by all means oppose them and their
friends therein.' ^
It was clear after all these negotiations that no formal
grant of liberty of worship could be obtained from either
king or bishop ; but reading between the lines it was equally
clear that if these brethren went to Virginia as they
proposed and conducted themselves peaceably, the king
would connive at their proceedings and leave them un
molested. The leading men on the Virginia Company
found it impossible to obtain for them public authority
under the king's seal to set up religious freedom ; neverthe
less they advised them to go, feeling assured, they said,
they would not be troubled. The agents having returned
with this answer the Church at Leyden held conference on
the matter. Some of the brethren were discouraged at the
outlook. They did not like to unsettle themselves and
venture their lives and fortunes on what might prove but a
^ H anbury's Memorials, p. 368.

1 82 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
sandy foundation. They even thought it would have been
better to go to Virginia without asking for liberty than to
ask and be thus rejected. The leaders, however, took a
more hopeful view of the situation. They v/ere of opinion
that the king would look through his fingers, though he
had reasons of his own for not confirming his goodwill by
public act Even if he granted permission under the
Great Seal there might be no great security in that ; for if
afterwards there should be a purpose to wrong them,
though they had a seal as broad as a house floor, it would
not serve their turn, for there would be means enough
found to recall or reverse it. They were of opinion that
there was reasonable probability to go upon, and that for
the rest they must trust themselves to God's providence in
this matter, as they had done in other things.
They then laid the whole matter before the Lord afresh,
arranging for a special day of humiliation, thanksgiving
and prayer for the purpose. That day was solemnly
observed, seeking Divine direction in the present position
of affairs. John Robinson preached on the occasion, his
text indicating clearly enough the bent of his mind. The
verses he chose were i Sam. xxiii. 3, 4 : ' And David's
men said unto him. Behold, we be afraid here in Judah;
how much more then if we come to Keilah against the
armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the
Lord yet again. And the Lord answered him and said.
Arise, go down to Keilah ; for I will deliver the Philistines
into thine hand.'
The sermon ended, and many of the brethren, having,
one after another, wrestled with God in prayer, pleading
as men do plead in great crises and hours of fate, they
fell to needful arrangement of business. It was decided
first, that only part of the Church should go, the rest
remaining at Leyden ; that the youngest and strongest
should lead the way, but that only those should go who

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 183
should freely offer themselves for the purpose. If a
majority of the Church should elect to depart, the pastor
should go with them, but if only a minority, then their
tried and trusted friend Elder Brewster should be the
Great Heart of their pilgrimage. It was further agreed
that if the enterprise turned out a failure, those remaining
behind should welcome back the returning voyagers to
heart and home ; but if it were successful, those going forth
should afterwards endeavour to help over such as were
poor and ancient and willing to go. These were the
decisions arrived at. Night had already closed in upon
that short February day ere those prayers and conferences
had reached their end. The stars were shining serenely
over Leyden city as the brethren left their place of meeting
in the Klok-steeg. A new world was opening before them ;
new hopes and new fears were stirring within them. ' And
He brought him forth abroad, and said. Look now toward.
heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them :
and He said unto him. So shall thy seed be. And he
believed in the Lord ; and He counted it to him for
righteousness.'

i84 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

VII.
THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER.
The decision of the Leyden brethren to seek a home in
the Far West was arrived at in the face of a series of
discouragements. To begin with, at the very time they
were debating the matter tidings reached them of the
disastrous ending of a project similar to their own. In
1 6x8 Francis Blackwell, an elder of the Amsterdam Church,
had, with a party under his leadership, set sail for Virginia.
Their means being limited their arrangements were defec
tive. A hundred and eighty were stowed away in a vessel
far too small for their number. Even before they left
Gravesend the streets rang with complaints at the miser
able arrangements made for them. Ill-starred from the
first, nothing but disaster attended the expedition. North
west winds drove them out of their course to the south ;
their fresh water failed ; crowded unhealthily together,
disease broke out among them, carrying off the captain
and six of the crew ; having no one left capable of managing
the vessel, they drifted aimlessly to and fro, so that it was
March, 1619, before they reached Virginia ; when they did
arrive Blackwell was dead as well as the captain, and
altogether, out of one hundred and eighty who set out, one
hundred and thirty perished by the way. Tidings of all
this reached Leyden in the early summer, and were not
inspiriting to intending emigrants.
Then, too, at the same time a serious crisis had arisen
within the Virginia Company itself, which was divided into
two hostile factions. The leaders on the one side, who

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. i8;
supported Sir Thomas Smith, who had been treasurer of
the company for the last twelve years, were the Earl of
Warwick, Sir Nathaniel Rich, and Alderman Johnson ; on
the other side were the Earl of Southampton, Lord
Cavendish, and Sir Edward Sackville, who succeeded in
making Sir Edwin Sandys treasurer, and displacing Sir
Thomas Smith.-' While this intestine war was raging in
the board, nothing, of course, was done to further the
Leyden expedition to the West Meantime, while matters
were thus at a standstill in one direction, negotiations were
commenced in another. The Dutch traders to Manhattan
proposed to Robinson to transport the entire congregation
to this trading-post, afterwards known as New York, pre-
viding cattle and furnishing protection as long as needed,
and leaving the colony to self-government in all its internal
affairs. On February I2, 1620, application was made to
the Stadtholder, stating the conditions on which 'this
English preacher at Leyden ' and his people would consent
to colonise that country. Their main stipulation was that
they should be assured of the protection of the United
Provinces ; the Amsterdam merchants therefore prayed
that such protection should be granted, and that two ships-
of-war should be sent out to secure provisionally the lands
to the Dutch Government. The matter thus referred to
the States-General, after repeated deliberations, was rejected
on April 11.^ But we gather from a letter from Robinson
to Carver (June 14, 1620), that, on the persuasion of one
Thomas Weston, he and his associates had broken off
negotiations with the merchants even before the rejection
of their overtures by the States-General. Who Weston

^ The Colonial Papers (ii., 20, 22, &c.) represent in the main the
case of Sir E. Sandys ; the MSS. in the Duke of Manchester's Collec
tion at Kimbolton Castle represent, but far more in detail, the case of
Sir Thomas Smith.
^ Bi-odhead's History of New York, pp. 123-126.

1 86 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
was we are not told, but it is probable he had sympathy
with the Pilgrims in their religious opinions, for Bradford
says he ' was well acquainted with some of them, and had
been a furtherer of them in their former proceedings.' He
came over to Leyden and offered to find the necessary
funds, along with their own means, if the Manhattan idea
were dismissed. With this view he associated with himself
some seventy English merchants and others, who, as a
mercantile speculation, were prepared to take stock in this
emigration scheme at ;^io a share, on the understanding
that at the end of seven years there should be a division
between the shareholders and the inhabitants of all the
colony's possessions and earnings. On this understanding
articles were signed by both parties, and Carver and
Cushman were at once sent over into England to receive
the money subscribed by the Merchant Adventurers, as
Weston's associates came to be called, and to make provi
sion of shipping and all necessaries for the voyage. On
their part also the brethren in Leyden who had arranged
to emigrate prepared themselves with all speed, selling
their goods and estates, putting their money into a common
stock, and so making ready to depart when the word was
given. In 1620 the Plymouth Company, which, according to
the original charter, had jurisdiction from 45° down to 41°,
was revived. In its original form an ally of the Virginia
Company, it now came to be a rival. The Merchant
Adventurers, associated with the Pilgrims, thinking that
New England with its fisheries might be a better field for
their enterprise than Virginia, resolved to abandon the
patent already obtained, and to get fresh powers from the
Plymouth Company. Therefore, on February 12, 1620,
the Wincob patent was superseded by one granted to
John Pierce, one of the Adventurers, which conferred
powers of self-government, and the right to a tract of land

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 187
to be selected near the mouth of the Hudson by the
planters themselves.
In addition to the emigrants from Leyden the expedition
was to be joined by a contingent from England, and one of
their number, Christopher Martin, an Essex man, was
joined with Carver and Cushman in carrying out the
arrangements as their representative. It was against
Robinson's advice that Cushman was set over this matter,
for, in his opinion, though a good man and of some ability,
he was unfit to deal for other men by reason of his singu
larity, and as a man more facile in talk than fruitful in
service. Events proved Robinson to be right in his judg
ment, for Cushman, on his own responsibility and without
consulting with the rest, consented to a fundamental altera
tion in the terms agreed upon, for the purpose of meeting
the views of the Merchant Adventurers. The original
agreement was for a seven years' partnership, during which
the labour of all the colonists was to be for the common
benefit, except that each colonist might reserve two days
in the week for his own purposes. By his subsequent
private agreement with the Adventurers Cushman sur
rendered this reservation, so that the whole of the labour
of the colonists was to go to the common fund, and he
further consented that at the end of seven years everything,
houses, lands and goods, should be equally divided between
the settlers and the Adventurers. When these terms were
made known at Leyden the brethren complained that
Cushman had made conditions more fit for thieves and
¦bond-slaves than honest men. On the other hand, he de
fended himself against their ' many quirimonies and com
plaints ' by reminding them that it was one thing to settle
matters among themselves at Leyden, and quite another to
make terms with the other side in London. They had
reckoned without their host As to one of the clauses he
had consented to alter. Sir George Farrer and his brother

i88 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
had withdrawn ;!(J500 from the scheme at the first sight of
it, and if it had been insisted upon, the rest of the Adven
turers, except Mr. Weston, would have withdrawn also;
then where would they have been ? As to the effect they
stated the other clause would have in preventing the
building of good houses, there would be, he thought, no
great harm in that. His opinion was that for the present,
and till the colony was further advanced, they had better
only build such kind of houses as, if need be, they might
with little grief set afire and run away by the light ; that it
would be better their riches should be not in pomp but in
strength, for that a commonwealth is readier to ebb than
to flow when once fine houses and gay clothes came up. If
they had come to look upon him as the Jonas of the under
taking, he was quite willing to be cast off and left behind
with nothing but the clothes upon his back. All that he
asked for was that they might have quietness and no more of
these clamours. Thus there was nothing for it but to yield
the point and accept the terms, hard as they felt them
to be.
When all was ready for the start a pilot came over to
conduct the emigrants to England, bringing also a letter
from Cushman, announcing that the Mayflower, a vessel of
one hundred and eighty tons, Thomas Jones master, would
start from London to Southampton in a week or two, bring
ing their English comrades to meet them in that port
Further, a sixty-ton pinnace, the Speedwell, had been bought
for the Adventurers, and fitted out in Holland, which was
to take the Leyden people to Southampton, and afterwards
accompany the Mayflower across the Atlantic, remaining
with the colony for a year.
Thus, after much travail and many debates — recounted
by Bradford, as he says, ' that their children may see with
what difficulties their fathers wrestled in going through
these things in their first beginnings, and how God brought

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 1 85
them along notwithstanding all their weaknesses and in
firmities ' — they were ready to set forth on their fateful
voyage. Sore was the trial of parting between brethren who
for so long had lived and laboured, sorrowed and rejoiced
together. First, they joined in a day of solemn humiliation,
when their pastor, John Robinson, preached the last sermon
the departing Pilgrims were ever to hear from his lips. His
text was the passage from the Book of Ezra (viii. 21) : 'I
proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might
afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way
for us and for our little ones, and for all our substance ; '
upon which, says Bradford, 'he spent a good part of the
day very profitably and suitable to the present occasion.'
How suitable, Edward Winslow, writing twenty-six years
later, gives us the opportunity of judging for ourselves.
' At their departure from him to begin the great work of
plantation in New England,' says Winslow, ' amongst other
wholesome instructions and exhortations, he used these
expressions, or to the same purpose : —
' We are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord
knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces
again ; but whether the Lord had appointed it or not, he
charged us before God and His blessed angels to follow
him no further than he followed Christ. And if God
should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of
His, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive
any truth by his ministry. For he was very confident the
Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of
His holy Word. He took occasion also miserably to
bewail the state and condition of the Reformed Churches,
who were come to a period in religion and would go no
further than the instruments of their Reformation. As for
example the Lutherans, they could not be drawn to go
beyond what Luther saw ; for whatever part of God's will
He had further imparted and revealed to Calvin, they will

igo PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
rather die than embrace it. And so also, saith he, you see
the Calvinists, they srick where he left them, a misery
much to be lamented. For though they were precious
shining lights in their times, yet God hath not revealed
His whole will to them ; and were they now living, saith
he, they would be as ready and willing to embrace further
light as that they had received. Here also he put us in
mind of our Church covenant (at least that part of it)
whereby we promise and covenant with God and one with
another to receive whatsoever light or truth shall be made
known to us from His written Word. But withal exhorted
us to take heed what we received for truth, and well to
examine and compare and weigh it with other scriptures
of truth, before we received it ; for, . saith he, it is not
possible the Christian world should come so lately out of
such thick anti-Christian darkness, and that full perfection
of knowledge should break forth at once.
'Another thing he commended to us was, that we
should use all means to avoid and shake off the name of
" Brownist," being a mere nickname and brand to make
religion odious and the professors of it to the Christian
world. And to that end, said he, I should be glad if some
godly ministers would go over with you, or come to you
before my coming ; for, said he, there will be no difference
between the unconformable ministers and you when they
come to the practice of the ordinances out of the kingdom.
And so advised us by all means to endeavour to close with
the godly party of the kingdom of England, and rather to
study union than division, viz. how near we might possibly
without sin close with them, than in the least measure to
affect division or separation from them. And be not loath
to take another pastor or teacher, saith he, for the flock
that hath two shepherds is not endangered, but secured by
it. Many other things there were of great and weighty
consequence which he commended to us ; but these things

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 191
I thought good to relate, at the request of some well-
willers to the peace and good agreement of the godly (so
distracted at present about the settling of church-govern
ment in the kingdom of England), that so both sides may
truly see what this poor despised Church of Christ now at
New Plymouth in New England, but formerly at Leyden
in Holland, was and is ; how far they were and still are
from separation from the Churches of Christ, especially
those that are Reformed.' ^
Bradford tells us that the rest of the time ' was spent in
pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fervency
mixed with abundance of tears.' Looking back also upon
Winslow's narrative, ^ it would seem that a second day was
spent in farewells before leaving the city.
He says : ' When the ship was ready to carry us away,
the brethren that stayed having again solemnly sought the
Lord with us and for us, and we further engaging ourselves
mutually as before, they, I say, that stayed at Leyden
feasted us that were to go, at our pastor's house, being
large, where we refreshed ourselves after our tears with
singing of psalms, making joyful melody in our hearts as
well as with the voice, there being many of the congregation
very expert in music ; and, indeed, it was the sweetest
melody that ever mine ears heard.'
As the canal journey to Delfshaven would take from six
to eight hours, the Pilgrims must have started early on that
morning after the evening when, like showers and sunshine,
these sorrowful tears and joyful melodies mingled together.
The barges needed for the journey were most likely moored
near the Nuns' Bridge which spans the Rapenburg im
mediately opposite the Klok-steeg, where Robinson's house
was. This being their usual meeting-place would naturally
be the place of rendezvous on the morning of departure.
^ A Brief Narration. By Edward Winslow, 1646, pp. 98, 99.
^ Pages 90, 91.

192 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
From thence it was but a stone's throw to the boats, and
quickly after starting they would enter the Vliet, as the
section of the canal between Leyden and Delft is named,
and which for a little distance runs within the city bounds,
its quays forming the streets. In those days the point
where the canal leaves the city was guarded by a water-
gate, which has long since been removed, as have also the
town walls, the only remaining portions of which are the
Morsch-gate and the Zyl-gate. So gliding along the quiet
waters of the Vliet past the water-gate and looking up at
the frowning turrets of the Cow-gate, ' they left that goodly
and pleasant city which had been their resting-place near
twelve years ; but they knew that they were Pilgrims, and
looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes
to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their
spirits.' It was a July day, and therefore summer was putting
forth her quiet beauty as, accompanied by most of those
who were to remain at Leyden, they sailed through the
midst of the Dutch'pastures and by the country-seats and
gardens which line both sides of the canal from Leyden to
Delft Nine miles from Leyden a branch canal connects
the Vliet with the Hague, and immediately beyond their
junction a sharp turn is made to the left as the canal
passes beneath the Hoorn-bridge ; from this point, for the
remaining five miles, the high road from the Hague to
Delft, lined with noble trees, runs side by side with the
canal. In our time the canal-boats make a circuit of the
town to the right, but in those days the traffic went
by canal through the heart of the city. The street formed
by the banks on either side, and which is the fashionable
quarter of residence, is called the Oud-Delft, and half-way
through the city the travellers would pass the Old Kirk,
with its lancet windows and tall, slender, leaning tower,
and directly opposite to this would note with even painful

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 193
interest the plain two-storied edifice with its red-tiled roof,
which was formerly the mansion of William the Silent, and
where, on another July morning, six-and-thirty years before,
to the grief of all true men, he was assassinated by Balthazar
Gerard. Passing out of the gates of Delft and leaving the
town behind, they had still a good ten miles of canal
journey before them ere they reached their vessel and
came to the final parting. For, as Mr. Van Pelt has clearly
shown, it is a mistake to confound Delft with Delfshaven as
the point of embarkation in the Speedwell.^ Below Delft
the canal, which from Leyden thither is the Vliet, then
becomes the Schie, and at the village of Overschie the
travellers entered the Delfshaven Canal, which between
perfectly straight dykes flows at a considerable height
above the surrounding pastures. Then finally passing
through one set of sluice gates after another the Pilgrims
were lifted from the canal into a broad receptacle for
vessels, then into the outer haven, and so to the side of the
Speedwell as she lay at the quay waiting their arrival.
At Delfshaven the party was joined by other friends
from Leyden who had come by road, and also by some
from Amsterdam who wished to share in the leave-taking,
and there, says Winslow, they feasted us again. That last
night on shore was spent with little sleep by most, but
with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse and
other real expressions of true Christian love. There is
some uncertainty as to the scene of the final farewell,
Bradford making it to take place on the deck of the vessel,
and Winslow on shore — 'we only,' he says, that is the
departing emigrants, ' going aboard.' They each wrote
after an interval of more than a quarter of a century, when
recollection on some points was growing hazy. Winslow
touchingly tells us that 'after prayer performed by our
' The Start from Delfshaven. By the Rev. Daniel Van Pelt.
N. E. Mag., Nov. 1891. O

194 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
pastor, when a flood of tears was poured out, they accom
panied us to the ship, but were not able to speak one to
another for the abundance of sorrow to part' We may
well let Bradford also describe the scene for us in his own
pathetic old-world way. He says : ' The next day the
wind being fair they went aboard, and their friends with
them, when truly doleful was the sight of that sad and
mournful parting : to see what sighs and sobs and prayers
did sound amongst them, what tears did gush from every
eye, and pithy speeches pierced each heart ; that sundry
of the Dutch strangers that stood on the quay as spectators
could not refrain from tears. Yet comfortable and sweet
it was to see such lively and true expressions of dear and
unfeigned love. But the tide (which stays for no man)
calling them away that were thus loath to depart, their
reverend pastor falling down on his knees (and they all
with him), with watery cheeks commended them, with most
fervent prayers, to the Lord and His blessing. And then
with mutual embraces and many tears they took their
leaves one of another ; which proved to be the last leave
to many of them.' Winslow gives the final touch to this
historic scene. As the Speedwell left the quay-side those
on board fired a parting volley with their muskets, which was
followed by the booming sound of shots from three of the
ship's cannons, ' and so lifting up our hands to each other
and our hearts for each other to the Lord our God, we
departed, and found His presence with us, in the midst of
our manifest straits He carried us through.' The memory
of that time, he adds, the Dutch at Delfshaven preserve to
this day.
It was about July 22 that, with a fair wind, they
hoisted sail and had a prosperous run to Southampton.
The Mayflower had already preceded them from London,
carrying the English portion of the emigrants, and was
riding at anchor, if we may trust local tradition, off the

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 195
north end of the West Quay. Those who joined them
at Southampton were partly labourers employed by the
merchants, and partly godly Englishmen who sympathised
with their religious opinions. Here also they found Mr.
Weston, who had come to represent the merchants. He
was angry at the discussion which arose about the change
in the terms of the contract, so much so, that he went off
leaving the contract unsigned and the arrangements so
incomplete that the emigrants were forced to sell some of
their not too-abundant provisions to meet necessary charges.
On August 3 they wrote to the Merchant Adventurers
explaining their position, and stating the reasons why
they could not consent to the alterations made in the
5th and 9th articles of agreement Still, as they had no
wish to act selfishly in the matter, they were willing to
agree that, if large profits were not realised within the
seven years, the compact should continue for a longer
period until further profits were made. They remind the
Adventurers that they are in great straits, have had to sell
some of their provisions to clear the haven, have scarce
any butter, no oil, and not a sole to mend a shoe ; that
they have not sufficient swords, muskets, or armour ; yet
are they willing to expose themselves to such eminent
dangers and trust to God's good providence, rather than
that His name and truth should be evil spoken of through
them. This document was signed by the leading men of
the company.
While the Mayflower still lay at anchor off the West
Quay two letters arrived from Leyden from their pastor,
John Robinson, bearing date July 27, one of which was
addressed to John Carver, the other to the whole company,
expressive of his care and affection for them. In the letter
to Carver, who was his brother-in-law, he repeats the
assurance of his intention to join them on the other side
of the Atlantic the first opportunity that presents itself
O 2

196 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
The other letter was addressed to the whole company, who
were called together to hear it read. It was eminently
characteristic of the man. He is with them, he says, in
best affection and most earnest longing, though constrained
for a while to be bodily absent. Constrained he is, for God
knows how willingly he would have borne his part with
them in this first brunt, were he not held back for the
present by strong necessity. They must think of him as a
man divided in himself with great pain, and as having his
better part with them.
He charges them first of all to seek heavenly peace with
God and their own consciences by separation from sin ; for
'sin being taken away by earnest repentance, and the
pardon thereof from the Lord sealed up unto a man's con
science by Plis Spirit, great shall be his security and peace
in all dangers; sweet his comfort in all distresses, with
happy deliverance from all evil, whether in life or in
death.' Then, being at peace with God and their own
consciences, he charges them to be at peace with all men
as far as in them lieth, and not be too ready to take offence,
for, as far as his experience goes, the people most ready to
give offence are those who most easily take it, and those
who nourish this touchy humoiir have seldom proved sound
and profitable members of the community. He points
out that there may be need of watchfulness, because the
Englishmen joining them at Southampton are comparative
strangers, and their living together, having all things
common, may minister continual occasion of offence, and
be as fuel to the fire, except they diligently quench it with
brotherly forbearance. And if we are to be careful not to
take offence at one another, much more must we not take
offence at God Himself, which we do so often as we murmur
at His providence in our crosses, or bear impatiently such
afflictions as He is pleased to visit us with. He would
have them also cultivate common care for the common

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 197
weal, avoiding as a deadly plague all retiredness of mind
for mere personal advantage. As men are careful not to
have a new house shaken with violence till it be well-settled
and the parts firmly knit, so he would have them be careful
that the house of God, which they are and are to be, be not
shaken with unnecessary novelties or other oppositions at
the first settling thereof. Finally, as they are become a
body politic, setting up civil government, and are not
furnished with any persons of special eminency above the
rest to be chosen as governors, he trusts they will let their
wisdom and godliness appear not only in choosing such
persons as do entirely love and will promote the common
good, but also in yielding unto them all due honour and
obedience when they are chosen, not beholding in them the
ordinariness of their persons, but God's ordinance for good,
not being like the foolish multitude, who more honour the
gay coat than either the virtuous mind of the man or the
glorious ordinance of the Lord.
These and such-like things he commends to their care
and conscience, joining therewith his daily incessant prayers
unto the Lord that He who made the heavens and the
earth, the sea and all rivers of waters, and whose provi
dence is over all His works, especially over all His dear
children for good, may so guard and guide them in all their
ways, inwardly by His Spirit and outwardly by the hand
of His power, as that they all may have cause to praise
Him all the days of their lives. ' Fare you well in Him in
whom you trust and in whom I rest ' — so ends his letter,
and so sends he them forth, well-willing them 'happy
success in their hopeful voyage.'
This apostolic epistle, which ' had good acceptance with
all and after-fruit with many,' having been read aloud, they
then made final arrangements for the long voyage before
them, choosing a governor and assistants for each vessel,
and distributing the company as seemed best, ninety to

igS PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
the Mayflower and thirty to the Speedwell. Thus all
being ready, on August 5, 1620, the two vessels dropped
down Southampton Water, were soon past the cliffs
of the Isle of Wight, and on into the English Channel.
After this their progress was but slow. The delay at
Southampton had lost them a favourable wind, and, what
was worse, after beating about for three or four days,
Reynolds, the captain of the Speedwell, reported that his
vessel had sprung a dangerous leak, and they must put
into Dartmouth for repairs. There she was overhauled
from stem to stern, after which they put to sea again with
good hopes that now all would go well. But these hopes
also were doomed to early disappointment. The voyagers
had only gone some three hundred miles beyond the Land's
End when Reynolds again announced the Speedwell to be
unseaworthy. She was still leaking, he said, and could
only be kept afloat by the constant use of the pumps.
Again there was nothing for it but to put back, and bear
this time for Plymouth. Once there, it was finally deter
mined to send the Speedwell back to London to the
Adventurers, and with her eighteen of the passengers who
had grown faint-hearted, among them being Cushman and
his family. The remaining twelve were added to the
already overcrowded passengers in the Mayflower. Out
of all this came great discouragement and another sad
parting, and thus, as Bradford notes by the way, 'like
Gideon's army this small number was divided, as if the
Lord by this work of His providence thought these few
too many for the great work He had to do.'
At what date the returning ships arrived at Plymouth,
or how long they stayed, is not known. Naturally, they
would be impatient to be gone, for the season was
advancing, and they knew they would soon have winter
upon them. They seem, however, after landing at the Old
Barbican, to have staj-ed long enough to receive hospitable

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 199
kindness at the hands of the Plymouth people, of which
they made grateful mention in after years. It was on the
6th September they once more turned their prow to the
west The wind was prosperous, and continued so for
several days. Till they were half-way over the Atlantic,
indeed, everything seemed in their favour. Then their
good fortune appeared to have left them. The equinoctial
gales came sweeping down upon them with terrific force,
shaking the Mayflower from stem to stern, and so twisting
one of her main beams out of its place that even the
mariners began to be alarmed for her safety. Some of the
leading men among the passengers seeing this, and noticing
that the captain and crew were in close and anxious con
sultation, raised the question as to whether it would not
be better even yet to try to return. But it was as far to go
back as to go forward, and the captain assured them that
he knew the ship to be strong and firm under water, and
if they could only get the wrenched beam back to its place,
all would yet go well. Fortunately it turned out that one
of the passengers had brought a powerful screw with him,
and by means of this the beam was brought back to its
place again, and then supported by a strong post set firm
on the lower deck. After setting this right, and caulking
the opening seams to keep out the water, they once more
committed themselves to the will of God, and resolved to
proceed. But their course was still arduous and trying.
Storm succeeded storm, with winds so fierce and seas so
high that for days together not a sail could be spread, and
the vessel went driving before the gale under bare poles.
Crowded below for safety, their bedding and their clothing
drenched with sea-water, as huge waves chased each other
day and night over the vessel, these poor fugitives in search
of liberty must have longed earnestly for their desired
haven. One of their number, John Howland, venturing
above the gratings, was washed overboard in a moment.

200 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
and had it not been that he caught hold of the coil of the
topsail-halyards, which, fortunately for him, had been
washed over and was trailing in the sea, he must have
perished. At some risk to the sailors, he was brought up
into the ship again, and so was saved. Thus day after day
fears came chasing each other over their hearts like the
waves over their ship. Still, through God's good mercy,
and in spite of close crowding and all the hardships of the
voyage, only one of the passengers, a servant of Samuel
Fuller, died by the way. Three days after his burial at
sea, on the 9th of November, and nine weeks after leaving
Plymouth Harbour, to the great joy of all, land was sighted.
It was a flat but well-wooded coast that rose to the view
of the brightening faces of the Pilgrims. The captain said
he thought it was the eastern side of the shore of Cape
Cod. He would probably have been more ingenuous had
he said at once that he knew it to be Cape Cod, and that
in fact he had been steering for it Morton, in his Memorial,
plainly says that as the Dutch intended to have a planta
tion themselves at Manhattan, now known as New York,
they had fraudulently hired the captain of the Mayflower
to keep her away from that part of the coast He says :
' Of this plot between the Dutch and Mr. Jones I have
had late and certain intelligence.' This, however, was not
suspected at the time, and the ship was headed round as if
to make for the Hudson, but after trying for half a day
they found themselves, as probably the captain intended
they should, among the shoals and currents off the elbow
of the cape. It was necessary therefore to make their way
back as best they could into clear water before night came
on. Then followed serious consultation. The southern
passage was evidently dangerous, the season was late, and
what was even worse, disease had begun to show itself
among the passengers ; they therefore came to the conclu
sion that it would be better to abandon the journey to the

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 201
Hudson, and sailing round the crook of the cape put into
Cape Cod Harbour, keeping the ship there until, by means
of the shallop, they found a suitable place of settlement in
the neighbourhood. With a sense of relief they came to
this decision, and finding themselves once more safe in
harbour, Bradford tells us, they fell upon their knees and
blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over
the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all its
perils and miseries.
But now in these altered circumstances another question
arose. The Virginia Company had no rights in New
England, and therefore their patent could confer none, and
there was no other recognised authority there. Under these
circumstances it was found there was danger of disorder
arising. Some of the company, probably the hired labourers,
were putting forth the idea that as there was an end of all
authority, every man might go his own way and do as he
liked. The leaders saw the peril of this, and resolved to
guard against it. If there was no other government over
them, either of king or company, they would make a govern
ment for themselves. They therefore called the adult
males into the cabin of the Mayflower, and there entered
into that memorable compact which became the basis of
the constitution for the infant colony. The original docu
ment is no longer in existence, but the following is a copy
with the list of signatures appended : —
' In y name of God, Amen. We whose names are
underwritten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne
Lord, King James, by y= grace of God, of Great Britaine,
Franc and Ireland King, defender of y= faith, &c., haveing
undertaken, for y^ glorie of God and advancemente of y^
Christian faith, and honour of our King and countrie, a
voyage to plant y« first colonic in y« Northerne parts of
Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy in y=
presence of God, and of one another, covenant and combine

PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our
better ordering and preservation and furtherance of y^ ends
aforesaid ; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute and
frame such just and equall lawes, ordinances, acts, consti
tutions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought
most meete and convenient for y^ generall good of y=
Colonic, unto which we promise all due submission and
obedience. In Witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed
our names at Cap-Codd y^ ii of November, in y= year of
y= raigne of our soveraigne lord. King James of England,
France and Ireland y^ eighteenth, and of Scotland y^ fiftie-
fourth, Ano. Dom. 1620.'

John Carver.
William Bradford.
Edward Winslow.
William Brewster.
Isaac Allerton.
Myles Standish.
John Alden.
Samuel Fuller.
Christopher Martin.
William Mullins.
William White.
Richard Warren.
John Howland.
Stephen Hopkins.
Edward Tilley.
John Tilley.
Francis Cook.
Thomas Rogers.
Thomas Tinker.
John Rigdale.
Edward Fuller.

John Turner.
Francis Eaton.
James Chilton.
John Crackston.
John Billington.
Moses Fletcher.
John Goodman.
Degory Priest.
Thojias Williams.
Gilbert Winslow.
Edmund Margeson.
Peter Brown.
Richard Britteridge.
George Soule.
Richard Clarke.
Richard Gardiner.
John Allerton.
Thomas English.
Edward Dotey.
Edward Lister.

Bradford preserved the text of this compact in his

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 203
History, without giving the names of the signatories ; these
were furnished by Morton in his Memorial, apparently
from some list in Bradford's papers to which he had access.
Looking over these names, it may be noted that, in addition
to captain and crew, 102 passengers in all left Plymouth,
one died by the way, and a child was born, receiving from
his birth-place the name of Oceanus Hopkins, so that they
were still 102 when they reached their destination — seventy-
three males and twenty-nine females. Of these the colony
proper consisted of thirty-four adult males, eighteen of
whom were accompanied by their wives and fourteen by
children under twenty-one years of age, twenty boys and
eight girls. Besides these there were nineteen men-servants
and three maid-servants, sailors and craftsmen hired for
temporary service. Of the thirty-four men who were the
nucleus ofthe colony the great majority were from Leyden,
only four of their number being certainly known to have
joined them at Southampton. It may also be mentioned
in advance that the last surviving signer of the far-famed
compact was John Alden, who died in 1686 at the age of
eighty-seven, and that of the passengers the one who lived
longest was Mary, the daughter of Isaac Allerton, who
died as late as 1699, at the age of ninety.
We shall best take in the whole situation if we remember
that the compact was signed on November 1 1 (o.S.) ; that
by this time the Mayflower had rounded the cape and
found shelter in the quiet harbour within the crook on
which now lies the village of Province Town, and that
probably on the same day they chose John Carver as
governor for the ensuing year. Here the vessel tarried at
anchor while three explorations were made before the
final settlement at Plymouth. They naturally looked
round them with some curiosity at the new world in which
they found themselves. The harbour itself was one in
which a thousand sail of ships might safely ride, and the

204 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
land, down even to the sea margin, was covered with oak
trees, pines, juniper, sassafras, and other aromatic shrubs.
Vast flocks of wild-fowl had come in for the winter, such
numbers they had never seen before, and in various parts
of the bay whales were seen spouting, making the sailors
wish they had their harpoons with them, for then they
could soon have taken three or four thousand pounds'
worth of oil. But the main question was as to the fitness of
the land for permanent settlement ; and for the purpose of
ascertaining this, the same Saturday sixteen well-armed
men went on shore to explore, and others to procure fire
wood. They reported on their return that the land con
sisted of hills of sand, reminding them of the dunes of
Holland, and that the woods were like a grove or park,
being free from underwood. The next day being Sunday
they quietly rested, and had Sabbath worship, joining in
spirit with those they had left behind in what was now a
far-off land, and expressing their thankful praise to Him
who had brought them safely through so many dangers of
the deep.
With the next day came the necessity for decisive action.
Jones, the captain of the Mayflower, was impatient to take
his ship back to England, afraid lest his provisions might
run out. Moreover, he refused to allow his vessel to cruise
about in search of the best abiding-place. They must find
that for themselves, and he would then sail to their chosen
settlement and put them ashore. The thing now to do,
therefore, at once was to explore the coast in the shallop, a
little craft of from twelve to fifteen tons, which they had
brought with them between decks, taking it to pieces for
convenience of stowage. It was expected that the car
penters would be able to make it seaworthy in a very few
days ; but all the parts had been so strained on the voyage
that it took weeks instead of days to put it to rights.
Meantime, several of the men, growing impatient resolved

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 205
to make the first exploration on land without it Their
readiness was admired, but the danger being great, their
expedition was rather permitted than approved. Sixteen
men were then told off, equipped with musket, sword, and
corslet, and placed under the command of Captain Miles
Standish, the one man of the company who had seen
military service in the Netherlands, unto whom was
adjudged for counsel and advice, William Bradford,
Stephen Hopkins and Edward Tilley.
On Wednesday, November 15 [25], they set forth along
the shore, and saw six Indians and a dog coming towards
them, who at their approach fled into the woods. They
followed the trail of these men for ten miles, hoping to
open communication with them, but night coming on, they
built a barricade of logs, kindled a fire, and fixed their
sentries. Next day they continued their exploration,
forcing their way up hill and down through dense thickets
which tore their very armour apart About the middle of
the forenoon they came upon deer, deer-paths, and abun
dant and excellent springs of water. Then, turning to the
inner shore, they reached a point on the great circle of the
harbour only four miles across the water from the anchorage
of the Mayflower. Here, according to previous agreement,
they kindled a fire, to assure those on board of their safety.
Subsequently they came upon a clearing of land where
the Indians had formerly sown corn, found some Indian
graves, and, further on, stubble of this year's corn, the
remains of a house and a great iron kettle, which some
ship's crew had left behind them. What was more to the
purpose, under some heaps of sand they came upon ' divers
fair Indian baskets filled with corn, and some in ears fair
and good, of divers colours, which seemed to them a very
goodly sight' With some of this, burying the rest again,
they made their way back to the ship, ' and so, like the
men from Eshcol, carried with them of the fruits of the

2o6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
land and showed their brethren ; of which and their return
they were marvellously glad and their hearts encouraged.'
The shallop being ready at length, a body of twenty-four
men set out in this and the long boat, accompanied by Jones
and some of the crew, on the second exploration. This
was on Monday, November 27 (O.S.), December 7 (n.s.).
As this was an expedition by water Jones was made leader
instead of Standish. They encountered heavy seas with
head winds, and wading ashore were met with blinding
snow-storms. So extreme was the cold and so severe their
sufferings that of some of those who died later, Bradford
says they ' took the original of their death here.' On the
following Thursday they were back in the Mayflower.
They had found some interesting relics of a French fishing-
ship wrecked on Cape Cod four years ago, some Indian
wigwams and divers articles of more or less value, but no
place of settlement. The Pamet region they had explored
had a good harbour for boats, and corn-land, fish and
whales also abounded along the shore, but there was no
harbour for ships and no supply of fresh water. If they
settled here, they would soon have to change again. This
was not to be their home. While they had been away
Peregrine White, the first English child born in New
England, saw the light on board the Mayflower.
On Wednesday, December 6 [16] ten of their principal
men selected from volunteers set forth in the shallop on the
third and last exploration, taking with them three of the
seamen, together with the mate and pilot, Clarke and Coppin,
their object being a thorough survey of the bay. Some
stayed on board the shallop, while the others explored the
land, as far as possible keeping sight of their comrades in
the boat. After coasting along the inner side of the cape
for about twenty miles they sailed up Wellfleet Bay, but
finding it unsuitable for their purpose turned about to the
south. On the third morning the land party were attacked

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 207
by Indians, a shower of arrows being poured in upon them
as they breakfasted by their bivouac. Happily no one was
seriously injured, and a few musket shots were sufficient to
scatter their assailants. After a prayer of thanksgiving for
their deliverance they named the spot ' the First Encounter.'
Then standing away before an easterly and southerly wind
they intended to reconnoitre the shore farther round the
bay. After some hours they were driven by snow-storms
and rough seas till at nightfall they were fain to find them
selves in a sheltered position between what is now known
as Clark's Island and Saquish Head, then also an island.
Afraid to land in the darkness for fear of the Indians, yet
wet through with the storm, some of the more venturesome
at length went on to Clark's Island, so called ever after
because Clark, the mate, was the first man to step ashore,
and there they kindled a fire in the rain ; the rest of the
party about midnight being driven by the freezing tempera
ture to join them. Such was the first cheerless entry of
the Pilgrims to this part of Plymouth Harbour. The next
day was Saturday, which they spent in repairing the shallop,
which had been roughly used by the storm, and then this
being, as their historian says, ' the last day of the week,
they prepared there to keep the Sabbath.' Morton's journal
quietly say.s, ' On the Sabbath day we rested ; ' spending
much of it in worship, no doubt, as their Sabbaths were
wont to be spent.
Monday, December li [N.S. 21], 'they sounded the
harbour, and found it fit for shipping ; and marched into
the land and found divers corn-fields and little running
brooks, — a place (as they supposed) fit for situation ; at
least it was the best they could find.' This then was the
technical landing of the Pilgrims, and here setting foot
upon Plymouth Rock they had at length reached their
long-sought resting-place.
Meantime the people in the Mayflower, lying at anchor

2o8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
five-and-twenty miles away, looked out anxiously for the
return of the men in the shallop. For one of these thus
returning the welcome back was dashed with tears.
William Bradford learnt to his sorrow that while he had
been away his wife — the Dorothy May, of Wisbech, he had
married at Amsterdam seven years before — had fallen
overboard and was drowned. So chequered with chance
and change at every step was the Pilgrims' course. So had
the strong man to bow himself, and still go forward. Within
a day or two more the Mayflower herself was in the harbour
of Plymouth Bay, battered and beaten by storm and
tempest, but her work gallantly accomplished, and her
people safe in the possession of freedom in their New
England home.

( 209 )

VIII.
PLYMOUTH plantation.
These wanderers from the Old World to the New had
found settlement at last, but under such stern conditions as
to prove that William Brewster was right when he said, ' It
is not with us as with men whom small things can dis
courage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves
at home again.' When they left Leyden, they hoped to
reach their destination in time to be able to erect needful
dwellings before winter set in. But the delays occasioned
by the condition and return of the Speedwell, and by
Atlantic storms, had had the effect of throwing them home
less on the bleak New England coast in the very depth of
winter. Their houses had yet to be built at the very time
that shelter was needed most.
It is not the manner of brave men, however, to waste time
in vain regrets. The first thing to be determined was the
best position for the settlement, a point which they felt
should be decided by the whole body of emigrants. On
Monday, December 28 (N.S.), therefore, the men of the
company proceeded by way of the woods to reconnoitre
the region round Plymouth previously approved by the
exploring party. For further satisfaction they also next
day journeyed some miles to the north, in the direction of
what is now known as Kingston, after which it was agreed
to seek Divine guidance and decide the matter by vote.
' The conclusion by most voices was to set on the mainland
on the first place,' that is, at Plymouth, as first recom
mended by the pioneers. p

210 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
This im.portant point being settled, some twenty of the
party began that same afternoon to build barricades,
resolving to spend the night on shore. The others were to
return to the vessel, coming back next morning with food
for their companions, and to join them in their building
operations. But that night one of the wildest of tempests
burst in fury over sea and land. It needed all the three
anchors of the Mayflower to enable her to stand the strain
of the storm ; and the unfortunate shore party, without a
roof to shelter them, had to spend that long and weary
night in torrents of rain, drenched to the skin. Moreover,
the storm still continuing, it was far on in the next day
before the shallop was able to bring them food from the
ship. But the storm abating at length, the work of building
began in earnest, all who were able going ashore to fell and
carry timber, returning at night to the vessel to sleep, and
leaving a guard of about twenty men on shore. These
remained over the Sunday, in the course of which they
were alarmed by an outcry of unseen Indians, against
whom, therefore, it behoved them to be on their guard.
According to Old Style, Monday was Christmas Day, but,
as their journal reports, 'no man rested all that day.'
Working with a will, they proceeded to erect a common
house some twenty feet square, intended for general use till
all had houses of their own, and to serve as a place of
meeting afterwards. In four days the timber work was
up and the roof half thatched, when the scare of the
Sunday led them to erect a platform on the hill, on which
to plant cannon from the ship, in case of a further surprise
from the Indians. They then divided the whole company
into nineteen families, assigning the single men to the
different households, so as to require for the present as few
houses as possible. It was arranged that each family
should build its own house, having a plot of land three rods

PL YMO UTH PLANT A TION. 2 1 1
long and half a rod broad for each of its members, the
homesteads to be staked out after the choice of position
had been determined by lot. These houses were to be
built so as to form a single street parallel with the stream,
now known as the Townbrook, and with land for each
family on each side. This street, since 1823 called Leyden
Street, still leads up from Plymouth Rock and from the
beach to the hill beyond.
It was well that the building went on apace, for before
many days were pa.st there was sore need of houses in
which to shelter the sick and the dying. The stern severity
and exposure of that winter time, joined to hard toil and
poor fare, after close and unhealthy crowding on ship-board,
began seriously to tell on the condition of the community.
In January and February they died sometimes at the rate
of two or three a day. It seemed as if the whole colony
would be swept away, for at one time there were only
six or seven at all able to attend upon the sick and
discharge the necessary offices of life. Bradford, who was
one of those laid prostrate, speaks especially with grateful
affection of William Brev/ster and Miles Standish, as those
who, in the general calamity, never succumbed, and who
were unceasing in their loving care for the stricken in
their sick and low condition. ' What,' says he, ' I have
said of these, I may say of many others who died in the
general visitation, and others yet living, that, whilst they
had health, yea, or any strength continuing, they were not
wanting to any that had need of them.' The first house
finished had to be used as a hospital for the sick, and
by the end of February thirty-one of these had died, the
mortality still continuing. The eminence above the beach,
now known as Coles Hill, was set apart for the burial-place
of the dead, the graves being levelled and grassed over, lest
the Indians should discover how few and weak the settlers
were becoming. Of the hundred who, less than three
P 2

213 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
months before, had reached the shores of New England,
only about fifty survived. It seemed, indeed, as if this heroic
enterprise of theirs would turn out, after all, to be only one
failure more ; but happily, about the middle of March, the
turning-point was reached, and the mortality began to
abate. There is something pathetic in the entry in their
journal which tells us that at this time the sun began to be
warm about noon, and that the birds sang in the woods
most pleasantly. It is but a gleam, but it shows that with
the return of spring there was a return of life and hope to
weary hearts, now that their long winter was over and gone.
Strangers in a strange land, the diminished settlers were
naturally haunted by vague anxieties as to the sort of
neighbours they might have. Wolves had been heard
howling in the woods at night and had been seen prowHng
by day ; but wolves were not so much to be dreaded as
Indians intent on surprise and massacre. The shower of
arrows from their bows at the place named First Encounter
was not reassuring, and there were not wanting signs of
them here at Plymouth. In a hunting excursion the
captain found a dead deer, from which they had cut off the
horns ; a week later one of the colonists saw twelve Indians
pass by his hiding-place, as if making for the plantation ;
tools left in the wood by Standish and Cooke had been
carried off, and two Indians had been seen on the hill on
the other side of the Townbrook, who suddenly disappeared
when Standish and Hopkins tried to come to parley with
them. It was clear the utmost precaution must be
exercised ; it was agreed therefore that in addition to the
civil government a military organisation should be
established, to be under the command of Miles Standish,
and that the five cannon brought ashore from the May
flower should be so placed on the Fort Hill platform as to
command the approaches to the village on every side.
After-events, however, soon showed that their fears were

PL YMO UTH PL ANT A TION. 2 1 3
groundless. One morning towards the end of March a
solitary Indian walked down the main street and came
towards them. Save for the fringed leathern girdle about
his loins, he was naked, had straight black hair, short in
front and long behind, with no beard, and his only weapons
were a bow and two arrows, one of which was headless.
Of a good presence, he advanced boldly, and to their
surprise, addressing them in English, bade them welcome.
He made as if he would enter the common house, but
fearing he might be a spy, they kept him outside till they
had learnt more about him. In broken English he then
told them that his name was Samoset, that he did not
belong to that neighbourhood, but was the sachem or chief
of Monhegan, an island on the coast between the Kennebec
and Penobscot rivers, where from the men on the fishing
vessels he had learnt what English he knew. A year ago
he had come to Cape Cod with Captain Dermer, and had
simply remained eight months on a visit He further
informed them that the Indian name of the place where
they were was Patuxet, or the ' little bay,' that nearly four
years ago the original inhabitants had all been swept away
by a plague, so that there was no one left to dispute the
possession of the place with the new-comers. Their nearest
neighbours to the west, he said, were Massasoit's people, a
tribe numbering some sixty warriors, while those to the east
were the Nansets, the people who had made the attack upon
them when they were exploring the bay. After volunteering
this interesting inform.ation, their unexpected visitor stayed
the night, and next day left for the Wampanoags, saying
that he would soon return with some of them, bringing
beaver skins, a fur till then unknown to the English.
Samoset was as good as his word. Next day he returned,
bringing with him five tall, powerfully-built Indians. Their
faces were painted, some with a black band five fingers
broad from forehead to chin, others striped and coloured

214 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
in various styles. Each had a deerskin hung on his shoulder,
and long hose of dressed deerskin extending upwards and
meeting at a leathern girdle ; and each had the hair short
in front, but behind reaching down to the shoulders. As a
sign of peace, they left their bows and arrows a quarter of a
mile from the town and brought back the tools taken in the
woods a month before. Being hospitably entertained, they
offered to repay their Puritan hosts with an exhibition of
Indian song and dance, which, as it was the Sabbath day,
would have been a curious contrast to their Sabbath service.
They offered also beaver skins for sale ; but as the Pilgrims
declined all trade as well as Indian war-song and dance on
Sundays, they left what stock they had with them and
promised to bring more some other day. Their main
object, however, was to prepare the way for a visit from the
great sachem Massasoit himself.
The following Thursday Samoset reappeared, bringing
with him another Indian, who proved to be an invaluable
friend to the settlers. This was Tisquantum, or Squanto,
as he came to be called, the only man left of the Patuxet
tribe once living at Plymouth. Fact would indeed seem
stranger than fiction, when the colonists found that this last
of the Patuxets had lived more than three years in London,
and knew London streets better than most of themselves.
The fact was he was one of four-and-twenty Indians whom
Thomas Hunt had kidnapped on board ship in 1614 to sell
as slaves in Spain. Contriving to escape, and making his
way to England, he entered the service of Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, and afterwards that of a London merchant who
was treasurer of the Newfoundland Company. Then, some
six months before the landing of the Pilgrims, Captain
Dermer had brought him back to Plymouth, where he
found himself, as we have seen, the sole survivor of the
tribe to which he belonged. He now, along with Samoset,
came on in advance, to announce that Massasoit, the grand

PL YMOUTH PLANT A TION. 215
sachem of the confederate tribes of Pokanoket, was at hand
with his warriors.
The colonists felt at once that much might depend on
the approaching interview. If friendly relations could be
established with this great chief, peace might be secured
with all the tribes from Narragansett Bay to the end of
Cape Cod ; even the fierce Nansets, with whom they had
already been in conflict, might become their allies.
Expectation was on tiptoe ; within the space of an hour
Massasoit with his sixty braves appeared on the hill south
of the Townbrook, and Tisquantum came on, with a request
that a messenger might be sent over to confer with the
chief. It was perhaps a perilous venture, but Edward
Winslow at once volunteered the service. Wearing armour
and bearing side-arms, he descended to the ford of the
stream, and ascending the slope of what is now known as
Watson's Hill, he disappeared from the sight of his friends
into the midst of the crowd of Indians who formed the
body-guard of the chief
Presenting certain gifts, meant to propitiate, Winslow
found himself the central object of interest, Massasoit
examining his sword and armour with lively curiosity, and
offering to buy them. Winslow, on his part, assured him
that their sovereign. King James, saluted him with peace
and good-will, desiring him for his ally ; and also that their
own governor, whom he had just left, desired to see him,
that he might confirm a peace with him, and open a trade
for their mutual benefit Massasoit expressed himself
gratified with the interview ; therefore leaving Winslow
behind as a hostage, and taking with him a body-guard of
some twenty armed warriors, he started for the village.
To receive him with due honour, Standish and Allerton,
with six musketeers, went down to the stream, and as the
Indian chief crossed the ford gave him a military salute,
escorting him afterwards to the town house, where he was

2 1 6 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND.
received with such modest state of carpets and cushions as
they could muster from their scanty stores. Governor
Carver, attended with body-guard of musketeers, met their
distinguished guest with courtly salutations, after which
they ate and drank together. The chief, a man in the
prime of life, of grave manner and few words, presented
much the same appearance as his attendants, save that he
was distinguished by a great necklace of white bone beads,
and that he carried in his bosom a long knife suspended by
a cord. His face was painted a dull red, while those of his
attendants were painted some black, some red, and others
yellow or white, laid on in crosses or curious figures. Some
were clad in the skins of wild animals, others were naked ;
all were tall and powerfully built.
Courtesies being ended, business began ; a treaty
offensive and defensive being entered into by which each
side bound itself to refrain from injuring the other, in the
event of war to render aid, and in case of conference to
come unarmed to the interview. Thus, in a spirit of
independence, and in the exercise of sovereign power, the
colony made its first foreign treaty and entered into its
first alliance. It was a good beginning, for the treaty thus
made stood firm, and was honourably observed for more
than half a century. Massasoit outlived all the leaders who
took part in that day's proceedings, yet he had been years
in his grave before the alliance entered into was seriously
shaken, and the disastrous war with his son Philip came to
its direful issue.
The treaty being thus concluded, Samoset returned to
his own tribe in the north, in what is now the State of
Maine, while Tisquantum remained with the colonists as
their valued friend. To the colonists themselves this had
been an eventful and memorable week. They had learnt
much of their surroundings and possibilities ; had made
friends where they had expected to meet with foes ; fears

PL YMO UTH PL ANT A TION. 2 1 7
had been dissipated, the sense of dread had given way to a
feeling of security ; and it may well have been that when
the next Sabbath came its round, and the little community
gathered for worship in their simple conventicle, they were
ready to say to each other : ' The Lord hath done great
things for us, whereof we are glad.'
As the spring advanced, the time came on for the
Mayflower to return. From December to April she had
remained at anchor in the bay, a link of connection with
the far-off world from which they had come. Various
circumstances had delayed her departure — a succession of
storms, the necessity of housing the Pilgrims till the
buildings on shore were ready, the sickness of the colonists,
and most of all, the sickness on board, from which the boat
swain died, the gunner, the cook, and three of the quarter
masters, besides several of the ordinary seamen. It was
not till the 5th of April, therefore, that the remainder of
the crew hoisted sail and prepared to depart It was a
testing-time for the Pilgrims on shore. When the
Mayflower was gone, their nearest civilised neighbours
would be the French of Nova Scotia, five hundred miles
to the north, and the English settlement in Virginia, five
hundred miles to the south. Still weakened and reduced
in numbers as they were, like brave Englishmen they held
resolutely to their purpose. They might have had
opportunity to have returned to the dear old land they had
left behind, but did not We can well believe that, with
tearful eyes and fast-beating hearts, men, women and
children stood on the hillside wistfully watching the vessel
as she passed out of the bay and towards the distant
horizon, and till she vanished out of sight.
But the best cure for sorrow is work, and the daily demands
of daily life left but scant room for sentiment For there was
land to be dressed and corn to be sown, and all hands must
needs be busy in preparing for the necessities of the coming

2 1 8 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
time. Here their new Indian acquaintance proved of
eminent service. As strangers to the soil, they knew little
as to what would thrive best, and under what conditions.
Tisquantum therefore gave them the benefit of his know
ledge and experience, telling them that Indian corn, which
was to be their main dependence, should be sown when the
young leaves on the oak tree were as big as the ears of a
mouse. He showed them, also, how to put the fish known
as ale-wives round the roots of the maize, so as to secure
good result when the harvest came, and also when these
ale-wives were most plentifully to be caught. So all went
briskly to work, sometimes planting and sowing, sometimes
felling timber and building, and sometimes, from the
necessity for food, hunting and fishing. Though after the
sickness had done its work there were only twenty-one
men and six growing lads left to do the work of the
colony, yet that season twenty-one acres of corn-land were
tilled, six acres more were sown with wheat, rye, and
barley ; in addition to which the gardens round their
houses were also brought into cultivation.
In the midst of these industrial activities a great sorrow
fell upon the little community, in the sudden death of John
Carver, their governor. Coming one day in April from the
cornfield, complaining of a pain in the head, he lay down
to rest, became insensible, and, though lingering for two or
three days, never spoke again. As their governor, and
esteemed for his Christian worth, his funeral was conducted
with as much of state as they could command, the mus
keteers firing mournful volleys over his grave. There
is a further touch of pathos in the fact that his good wife,
Katharine, of frail and delicate build, and worn out with
hardship, was also laid by his side in the same quiet
resting-place overlooking the sea.
The funeral over, there was a successor to be chosen.
There was only one man who could be thought of for the

PLYMOUTH PLANTATION. 219
vacant place. William Brewster, as elder and practically
sole pastor and preacher, was sufficiently occupied ; his
friend William Bradford therefore was at once chosen by
the suffrages of the brethren as their governor, Isaac
Allerton to be his assistant in the duties of his office.
Regarding the history of this early New England common
wealth as a prelude to that of the great Federal Repubhc,
it has been pointed out that there is a peculiar interest
attaching to this election of Bradford as that of the first
American citizen of the English race who bore rule by the
free choice of his brethren, as standing at the head of the
bead-roll of those governors of the West who, without
having any early training in political life, and lacking
much that the Old World has deemed needful in her
rulers, have yet by inborn strength of mind and lofty
public spirit shown themselves in all things worthy of
the high office to which they were called.^
The government being now settled in the hands of
Bradford and his assistant, and the earlier work of planting
and sowing being all over, it was deemed advisable that
same summer to send out one or two expeditions. And
first, by way of consolidating the friendly aUiance already
established, Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins, with
Tisquantum as guide and interpreter, were commissioned
as an embassy to Massasoit, and charged to make careful
observation of the country on their way. Travelling for
some fifteen miles, they came to Namasket, a village at the
rapids, where they were kindly treated by the Indians, and
by sunset had reached another camp of the same tribe,
four or five miles farther up the river. The next afternoon
they entered the territory of the Wampanoags, the home-
tribe of Massasoit ; his principal seat was at Sowams, now
known as Warren on Narragansett Bay, which the travellers
' Doyle's English in America, vol. i., p. 71.

220 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
reached at nightfall, and where they were received with
cordial welcome. Seated by the side of the chief, and
surrounded by a crowd of Indian spectators, by the aid
of their interpreter they delivered their message. Present
ing him, on behalf of their governor, with a gay trooper's
coat trimmed with lace, and also with an ornamental
copper chain, having a medal attached, they informed him
that the chain was intended to be lent as a token to any
friend of his whom he desired to be hospitably received by
them, and would ensure their kindness. Among other
matters, they referred to the corn they had found buried,
when they landed at Cape Cod the previous winter, asking
that the owner might be known, that they might pay him
for what they had taken. Assenting to their requests, the
chief then arrayed himself in the gay coat they had
brought him, and placing the chain round his neck, sat in
state to his own eminent satisfaction, and to the admiration
of his braves. After making a lengthy harangue, which
his people received with assent and applause, the chief
spent the rest of the evening in smoking with his guests,
and in making inquiries about England and King James.
When it was time for bed the situation became embarrassing,
for Winslow and Hopkins found they were to sleep in the
chief's own bed, he and his wife at one end, and they at
the other. Moreover, as two of the chief men also crowded
upon the royal couch, too strait for so many, and as the
bed consisted of rude planks merely covered with a mat,
Winslow declared that he was more wearied with his bed
than with his journey.
After tarrying two nights and a day, Massasoit urged
them to prolong their stay ; but while his welcome was
cordial, Indian fare was somewhat hard, and they were
disposed to turn homewards. Returning by a different
route, they passed for miles through a country which must
once have been thickly populated, but over which the

PL YMO UTH PL ANT A TION. 221
plague had swept, leaving the bleaching bones of unburied
thousands, a gruesome sight to see. On and on they
travelled in solitude through once cultivated fields lying
along the streams, and through park-like woods of oak,
walnut and beech and exceeding great chestnut trees. After
being absent for five days, they reached home once more,
' wet, weary and surbated ; ' but to their own relief and the
joy of their brethren.
About the same time another expedition was sent out, in
search of a son of one of the settlers who had lost himself
in the woods, and subsisting on berries, had wandered on
for five days, till he found himself at the head of Buzzard's
Bay, twenty miles from home. Hearing from Massasoit
that the lad was in the hands of the Nanset Indians, ten
men, well armed, started in the shallop to recover the
wanderer. Reaching, after varied adventure, the abiding-
place of Aspinet, the sachem of the Nansets, whom they
found surrounded by a hundred of his attendants, the lost
one, profusely decorated with beads, was handed back to
his countrymen. In the month of August a more signifi
cant expedition started for Middleborough. Rumours had
reached Plymouth that Corbitant, the chief of the Pocassets,
had captured Massasoit, and was denouncing the friendly
relations established between the colonists and the sachems
of the Cape. Tisquantum and another Indian named
Hobomok, going to Namasket to ascertain the truth, were
captured by Corbitant, who threatened to take their lives.
While he was holding a knife to the breast of Tisquantum,
saying that with the death of their interpreter the English
would lose their tongue, Hobomok contrived to escape and
make his way through the woods to Plymouth. A council
of war was held at once. It was felt that a timid policy
would be dangerou.s, and that to neglect their ally Massasoit
would be to prevent other Indians making alliance with
them. It was decided at once therefore that Standish, with

222 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
ten armed men, should start next day for Namasket, and
that if Tisquantum were really killed, Corbitant should be
beheaded. The house pointed out by Hobomok was
surrounded at midnight, Corbitant called for, and notice
given that no one should leave the building till search
had been made. It turned out that Corbitant had gone
away, leaving Tisquantum in the village unharmed, he
coming out to welcome his friends. Returning with him,
they left a message for Corbitant to the effect that if he
continued his hostile course, forming conspiracies against
them, rebelling against Massasoit, their friend, or offering
violence to their friends or his, no place should secure him.
The effect of this promptitude was felt at once both far and
near. The story of this faithful defence of an ally secured
other allies. The sachem of Capawack (now Martha's Vine
yard), of whom the colonists knew nothing, sent to make
peace and acknowledge the English king, as also did
Aspinet and Canacum of Manomet. Five other chiefs
followed, even Corbitant sought the good offices of Massasoit
to make his peace with foes so formidable as the men of
Plymouth. That same autumn, and as a sequel to this
expedition, five chiefs set their marks to a document
acknowledging themselves the loyal subjects of King
James. Encouraged by the result of their expeditions thus far,
the settlers resolved to send some of their number to
Massachusetts Bay, to establish, if possible, peace and
commercial relations with the Indians to the north, who,
they were given to understand, were hostile to them. They
succeeded in making friendship with the tribe of the
Shawmuts ; but the expedition was of interest chiefly as
making the English acquainted with what was to be known
hereafter as Boston Harbour, which they greatly admired as
a place for shipping. As in their shallop they glided in and
out among its forty-seven beautiful islands, they began to

PL YMOUTH PLANT A TION. 223
regret that they had not made this their place of settlement.
But, pleased with their reception, and bringing with them
store of beaver skins to lighten their indebtedness to the
Merchant Adventurers at home, they sailed back by the light
of the harvest moon, reaching Plymouth the following day.
As the autumn of their first year in the colony was
veering towards winter, they were now able to look back
with some measure of satisfaction. Heavy sorrows had
befallen them, friends and comrades had fallen by their
side, still, the experiment of founding a new home began
to justify itself Seven dwelling-houses and four public
buildings on the main street were the outcome of their
patient toil. Of the latter, one served for worship and for
town meetings, the others as storehouses for provisions,
clothing, trading stock and general supplies. Though some
of the smaller crops had failed, the corn had repaid them for
their labour ; furs were stored and prepared timber made
ready for the next ship to England. Finally they were at
peace with the Indians round about, with some of them, in^
deed, on terms of intimate friendship. They resolved there
fore with public rejoicings to keep what may be called their
Feast of Tabernacles. In this way and at the end of their
first year in the colony, commenced the New England festival
of Thanksgiving Day. It was observed as a time of
recreation, and also as an opportunity of extending their
hospitality to their Indian ally Massasoit, who came on
their invitation, bringing ninety of his people with him.
These guests of theirs remained for three days, during which
they captured five deer, to add to the colony's stock of
provisions ; they also contributed their share towards the
amusements of the time, while the colonists on their part
entertained their guests with some small show of military
display. This time of rest after toil was observed also as a
time of praise for mercies received. They placed it upon
record that they had ' found the Lord to be with them in

224 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings,
for which,' said they, 'let His holy name have the praise for
ever to all posterity ! '
In the month of November the Nanset Indians passed
on to Plymouth the intelligence that a ship was seen
making her way into the Cape harbour. What could it
be ? No vessel had been seen since the Mayflower left,
nor were they expecting any till the spring came round.
England and France were then at war ; could it be that
these were Frenchmen, with hostile intent ? A cannon was
at once fired from the battery, to call in all who were out
in the fields, and soon every man who could shoulder a
musket fell into his place, and stood on the outlook. The
alarm turned out to be needless. The stranger drawing
nearer proved to be a friend, for the English flag was seen
floating at her masthead. It was the ship Fortune,
bringing thirty-five new colonists, among them being
William Brewster's eldest son, John Winslow a brother
of Edward, and Robert Cushman. ' The plantation,' says
Bradford, ' was glad of this addition to its strength, but
could have wished that many of them had been of better
condition, and all of them better furnished with provisions ;
but that could not be helped.'
In addition to her passengers, the Fortune brought the
colonists a patent of their land from the Council of New
England, drawn up in the name of John Pierce and his
associates, in the same manner as the New York grant
formerly received from the Virginia Company. This
document, bearing date June i, 162 1, is still preserved in
the Pilgrim Hall at Plymouth, and bears the signatures and
seals of the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the
Earl of Warwick, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. It defined no
boundaries, but, under certain conditions, gave to Pierce
and each of his associates a hundred acres of land. It
remained in force, however, only for a year, being super-

PL YMOUTH PLANTA TION. 225
seded by one by means of which Pierce hoped, but in vain,
to get the Plymouth people into his own power.
The Fortune, besides this patent, brought a letter from
Weston, complaining that when the Mayflower returned
she brought back no profitable cargo from the colonists.
That they had sent back no lading in the ship, he said, was
wonderful, and worthily distasted. He had heard of their
weakness and its cause, but for his part he thought it was
weakness of judgment rather than weakness of hands, and
that a quarter of the time they had spent in discoursing,
arguing and consulting, spent in other ways, might have
produced better results. Taunts like these uttered to men
who had had to watch day after day by the sick and the
dying, and many of whom had narrowly escaped death
themselves, were felt to be ungenerous and uncalled-for.
Bradford repelled these unworthy imputations in language
at once pathetic and dignified. Weston's letter had been
addressed to Carver as governor. ' Touching him,' says
Bradford, ' he is departed this life, and now is at rest in the
Lord from all those troubles and encumbrances with which
we are yet to strive. He needs not my apology, he who
for the common good oppressed himself and shortened his
days. If the company had lost their profits, these were
not to be set over against the loss of the lives of honest and
industrious men, which could not be valued at any price.
It had pleased God to visit them with death daily, and
with so general a disease that the living were scarce able to
bury the dead, and the well not in any measure to tend the
sick. And now to be greatly blamed for not freighting
the ship at such a time doth indeed go near us and much
discourage us.' He concluded by telling Weston that the
colonists had conceded the points at issue, had signed
the controverted articles, and were sending back the
ship well-laden. He hoped, therefore, that friendship
would be re-established, and that the promises made by
Q

226 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
the Merchant Adventurers on their side would not be
forgotten. When the Fortune returned, she took back for the
company a cargo of beaver fur, prepared timber, and
profitable sassafras to the value of about ;^500. This
hardly-earned consignment, however, never reached its
destination. When off the English coast the ves.sel was
captured, and her cargo seized by the French, and carried
to Isle Dieu. The cargo was retained, but at the end of
fourteen days the ship and ship's company were released,
and Cushman, who was on board, secured all the papers,
among which was Bradford's and Winslow's Journal,
known as Mourt's Relation. There was also a letter from
Edward Winslow to his ' loving and old friend,' George
Morton, who was about to come out in the next vessel,
advising him as to what he and his companions were to
bring with them — good store of clothes and bedding, and
each man a musket or fowling-piece, the piece to be long
in the barrel, and as the shooting was from stands, they
need not fear the weight of it ; juice of lemons they would
find of use to take fasting, and for hot waters, aniseed was
the best, but should be used sparingly. As glass was then
much too great a luxury for a New England home, he
recommends they should bring paper and linseed oil for their
windows, and much store of powder and shot. Besides
this letter of Winslow's, there was another from WiUiam
Hilton, one of the emigrants who had come to Plymouth in
the Fortune, and who was sending back home his first
impressions of the colony, which were considerably couleur.
de rose. He tells his friends in this letter that he found
the country pleasant and temperate, yielding naturally of
itself great store of fruits, with vines of divers sorts in great
abundance. Timber of varied kind abounds, and there are
great flocks of wild birds — turkeys, quails, pigeons and
partridges ; while lake and sea were well stored with fish.

PL YMO UTH PLANTA TION. 227
Better grain than Indian corn, he thinks, no man need
desire, and best of all, says he, ' we are all freeholders ; the
rent-day doth not trouble us ; and all those good blessings
we have, of which, and what we list in their seasons for
taking. Our company are, for most part, very religious,
honest people ; the word of God sincerely taught us every
Sabbath ; so that I know not anything a contented mind
can here want.' ^
Early in 1662 there were disquieting rumours as to
possible hostilities on the part of the Narragansett Indians.
About the beginning of April, a messenger from that tribe
left a sheaf of arrows tied round with a rattlesnake skin,
which Tisquantum interpreted as a declaration of war. To
show fear would be to invite destruction. Governor
Bradford at once, therefore, sent back the snake-skin
stuffed with bullets and powder and accompanied with a
defiant message. The chief, Canonicus, alarmed at the
look of the missive, refused to receive it ; back, therefore,
it was sent from place to place, till it found its way to
Plymouth again. A feeling of insecurity was occasioned
by this event, and was intensified by the news which
reached them about the same time from Virginia. For the
English settlers there, apprehensive of no danger, had
scattered their dwellings far apart from each other; and
taking advantage of this fact, the Indians had treacherously
risen on the 22nd of March and massacred men, women, and
children to the number of 347.^ Not one would have been
left alive to tell the tale, but for the fact that a settler
named Pace was warned by an Indian convert who lived
in his house. Unfortunately, the scattered state of the
colony made it impossible for the English to combine in
any plan of resistance, or even to send warning to the most
' This letter was first printed in 1622 in Smith's New England's
Trials. ^ Colonial Papers, vol. ii., July 13.
Q 2

2 28 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND.
distant plantations. The news of this massacre reaching
Plymouth at the very time the Narragansetts were showing
signs of hostility created a feeling of alarm, and led these
colonists in the north to take such precautions as had been
neglected by the settlers in the south. In five weeks they
had constructed a strong line of palisade on the north side,
beginning at the shore line, and extending along the upper
part of the hill as far as the Townbrook. In this line of
palisade there were four flanking-bastions, from which
musketry could command the outside, and in three of these
bastions were gates, which were kept locked at night and
guarded by sentinels. Standish further placed all able to
bear arms under a general muster or training, forming with
the new-comers a battalion some fifty strong.
In the midst of these precautions and alarms there
arrived a shallop from a fishing-vessel in the harbour, partly
owned by Weston, and bringing letters from him. In these
he informed the Plymouth people that he was about to form
a settlement of his own near to them, and asking them to
maintain the seven men in the shallop till the main body
should arrive. The quartering of these men upon them
that summer was an unwelcome additional strain on their
scanty resources. For though their crops were sown, they
were not grown, and June found their storehouses almost
empty of provision ; moreover, wild-fowl were out of season,
and though of fish there were bass in the outer harbour and
cod in the bay, they had neither nets nor deep-water tackle
to take them. All through the summer, having neither
bread, meat, nor vegetables, they were reduced to subsist
on what shell-fish they could find. To complicate the
situation still further, two of Weston's emigrant ships
arrived, landing sixty more men, who, while drawing their
food from the vessels, trusted for lodgment to the people on
shore. Some of the new-comers were of doubtful sort, and
finding that green corn roasted in the ear was an agreeable

PL YMOUTH PLANTA TION. 229
food, they robbed the cornfields remorselessly, seriously
reducing the moderate crop of maize on which the colony
had to depend for next year's sustenance. After six weeks
the vessels fortunately returned and took off these men to
the new colony to be started at Wessagusset, since known
as Weymouth ; they went, leaving their sick behind, and but
scanty thanks for the hospitality received. As the result
of frequent depredations, the crop harvested that autumn
proved altogether too light and insufficient to feed their
people, even through the winter ; and all the food they
could purchase from the Indians north and south of them
would go but a little way towards their subsistence till
harvest-time came round.
In the autumn of 1622 their faithful friend Tisquantum
died of fever, leaving his little property to his English
friends, and asking Bradford, who had nursed him like a
woman, to pray for him that his soul might go to the
Englishman's God in heaven. The following March also
news reached Plymouth that their friend and ally Massasoit
lay dangerously ill at Sowams. The Indian custom of
visits of ceremony to their chiefs in time of sickness ren
dered it desirable to send an embassy. Taking Hobomok
as interpreter, Winslow therefore set forth, reaching the
dwelling-place of the chief late at night He found him
still alive, his wigwam crowded with people, and the
powahs in the midst of charms and incantations, making,
as Winslow says, ' .such hellish noise as distempered us that
were well, and therefore unlike to ease him that was sick.'
The patient had not slept for two days, and had gone quite
blind. He was able to understand, however, that Winslow
had come to see him, and desired to have him near.
Winslow expressed on behalf of the governor at Plymouth
the sorrow he felt at hearing of Massasoit's condition, and
saying that he had sent such things as were likely to relieve
him, Winslow then took the case in hand, dismissing

230 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
powahs and all the officious crowd who were hindering
rather than helping the patient's recovery. It was very
simple medical treatment he resorted to, but under it the
complaint, after a time, began to yield ; long sleep came
over the wearied man, and gradually he rose once more
from what was thought would prove the bed of death. On
his recovery he gratefully declared, ' Now I see the English
are my friends and love me, and while I live I will never
forget this kindness they have shown me.'
The opportunity of showing his gratitude was even now
within his reach, and he used it As the messengers were
on the point of returning, the chief called Hobomok aside,
and told him of a plot which was being set on foot by the
Massachusett Indians, which he was to reveal to Winslow on
their way home. To understand the meaning of the secret
thus confided to Hobomok, we must go back a step or two
in the narrative. The colonists whom Weston had planted,
as we have seen, at Wessagusset on Boston Bay, proved to
be not well-disciplined or self-controlled. By the middle of
March they had exhausted their stores and even devoured
their seed-corn. Reduced to extremities, some of them
hired themselves out to the Indians for a cap-full of corn
to fetch wood and water ; others less honestly disposed
took to robbing the Indians, for which their own governor
had them put into the stocks and whipped. Eventually food
was refused to them on any terms. Upon this, the ques
tion of making a raid on the Indian stores was discussed.
Before this extreme step was taken, however, some thought
that advice should first be sought from Governor Bradford
at Plymouth. This was done by letter, their leader stating
that they had used all means both to buy and borrow of the
Indians, who had stores, as he knew, but who, maliciously
as he thought, withheld them. On receipt of this, Bradford
summoned a town's meeting to advise thereon. After due
deliberation, a letter was drawn up in reply, and signed by

PL YMO UTH PLANTA TION. 23 1
many of the townsmen, to the effect that they altogether
disliked this purpose of theirs, as being contrary alike to
the law of God and the law of nature. If they carried out
that purpose, it would be fatal both to the peaceable
enlargement of the king's dominion and to the propagation
of the law and knowledge of God and the glad tidings of
salvation, and would breed a distaste in the savages against
their persons and professions.
In speaking thus, they were not unmindful of the
hardships their neighbours were going through, for they
themselves were in the same case, having but little corn
left, and being compelled to subsist on ground-nuts and
shell-fish. They might do the same, and should remember
that even if they did rob the stores of the Indians, their
ill-gotten gain would last but a little while, and they would
then have to seek food among men whom they had made
their enemies. It would be better to begin in a course
likely to hold out, and on which they might with a good
conscience ask and expect the blessing of God.
Such was the answer received. Meantime things went
from bad to worse at Wessagusset The settlers having
sold nearly all their clothing for food, were half-naked as
well as half-starved. Camping out in the woods in search
of food, or wandering along the beach, squalid and abject
from hunger and disease, they became objects of contempt
to the Indians, who began to look on them as enemies who
might easily be swept out of life. Such was the situation
of affairs when Winslow returned from his visit to Massasoit
The news he brought back to the men of Plymouth was
not reassuring. For the secret confided to Hobomok by
Massasoit, and which he was to reveal to Winslow, was to
the effect that the Neponset Indians had resolved on a
general massacre, both of the settlers at Wessagusset and
those at Plymouth. They had no cause of complaint
against the latter, but they knew that they would never

232 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
submit to see their fellow-countrymen ruthlessly murdered
without rising on their behalf. The safest thing, therefore^
would be to put them out of the way too. With this intent,
they entered into a league with the seven tribes south and
west of Plymouth, and also, even in his sickness, tried to
induce Massasoit to join them. In this way he came to be
aware of their plot, and, out of gratitude to Winslow,
revealed it. His advice was that the Plymouth settlers
should strike the first blow, seizing and executing the
main conspirators among the Neponsets. If, as was their
custom, they waited for the other side to become the
aggressors, they would find that that meant a massacre
of sixty of their countrymen at Wessagusset, whom no
subsequent energy could bring back to life again ; and
immediately after that, a host of Indians let loose upon
themselves, excited and infuriated with bloodshed.
The situation was serious, and as it was now the time for
holding the court or annual town meeting for the election
of officers, Bradford laid the matter before the whole
body of the people in their chief assembly. It was an
anxious debate. They were unwiUipg to shed the blood
of those whose good they sought, and whose conversion
they had hoped for. But the massacre of the previous
year in Virginia and the very decided words of Massasoit
seemed to leave them no alternative. It was agreed
therefore that Standish, taking with him a sufficient force,
should start, as if on a trading expedition, warn their
countrymen at Wessagusset, and then strike home at the
chief conspirators. On arriving, he found to his dismay
that their vessel, the Swan, was in the harbour, without a
soul on board, that the settlers were scattered in different
directions, and the whole plantation in fancied security,
letting the Indians come in and out among their dwellings
as they pleased. By Standish's advice all the men were
called home, and on pain of death ordered to stay there.

PLYMOUTH PLANTATION. 233
The first day being stormy, nothing could be done ; but
an Indian spy coming in under pretence of selling furs, saw
the course affairs were taking, and went back with his
report. From this the conspirators saw their secret was
out, and at once assumed a defiant attitude, surrounding
Standish, and sharpening their knives. He kept his self-
command, wishing to get the chief conspirators together
before commencing action. He so managed matters as to
get them at length into one of the dwellings, with an equal
number of his own men. He then gave the word of
command, on which there was a desperate struggle, and
seven Indians fell in the hand-to-hand encounter. Next
day the matter came to further issue in the open, Standish
securing the strategic advantage of a rising hill, for which
both sides were striving. The Indians from behind the
trees kept up a shower of arrows, till Hobomok came to
the front Somehow he had obtained the reputation of
being a pinese, or one who holds communication with the
evil spirit ; when, therefore, he threw off his coat and ran
towards them, they fled like a flock of sheep.
So in comedy ended the tragedy, after which Standish
urged the settlers to go on with their plantation, or if they
preferred, come to join their neighbours at Plymouth. But
they had had enough of colonisation and its attendant
experiences, and determined to go back. Putting, therefore,
all their movable property on board the Swan, lying out
in the bay, they joined the fishing vessels at Monhegan and
abandoned the country.
On the return of Standish and his party to Plymouth, it
was decided to complete the fort on the hill commenced
some ten months before. The work had been delayed
through differences of opinion, some deeming it unnecessary,
and others regarding it as vainglorious. But recent alarms
put an end to these differences, and the fort was completed.
It was described as large and square, and by Bradford as

234 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
' strong and comely,' and a great work for them. From
that time it became the centre both of their civil and
religious life. The main room in the building was used as
the place of meeting for worship till about 1648, when the
first church edifice was erected at the foot of the hill ; here
also the town meetings were held henceforth, the common
house being used for storage. The fort being thus used as
a place of worship, the land on the hill round it became
God's Acre, the burial-place of their dead. On the flat roof
above the meeting-house artillery was placed behind bat
tlements, and sentinels stationed night and day. The
fort itself has, of course, long since disappeared, but a
marble tablet still marks the spot where once it stood, and
portions of its foundations may still be traced.
Till the spring of 1623, from the necessity of the case, the
colony had gone on the communistic system, for being
under common obligation to pay back to the Adventurers
the money advanced, they were practically trading as one
company. But communism had serious drawbacks, as it
always must have. It had been tried here at Plymouth under
more than ordinarily favourable conditions, for it was tried
in a community of sober, industrious and godly men. Yet
it was far from successful, for it led to confusion and dis
content, discouraged production, and bestowed a premium
upon indifference. The strong and able thought it hard
that they should have to work for the wives and children
of other men, and share no more than those who could not
do half their work. On the other hand, grave and aged
men felt it to be somewhat of an indignity that they should
be reduced to an equality, and made to work in the ranks
with the younger and meaner sort. Husbands, too, rebelled
at the idea of their wives having to dress the meat and
wash the clothes of other men, feeling this to be a kind of
slavery hard to brook. That all should be on an equality
to have alike and do alike, and should, think themselves

PL YMOUTH PLANTA TION. 235
one as good as another, Bradford says, did imuch diminish
and take off that mutual respect which it is good to pre
serve in a community. It would have been worse, he thinks,
with worse men, and it is to no purpose that the failure
lies not with the system, but with the corruption of human
nature, for, seeing that all men have this corruption in
them, God in His wisdom has seen another course fitter
for them.
With this feeling prevalent, before the planting time
of 1623, a modified departure from the communistic system
was determined upon. Without making provision for
inheritance, it was arranged to assign to each family for
one year a parcel of land in the proportion of one acre to
each person, and as the land varied in quality and value,
it should be divided by lot. This arrangement at once
infused new life into the community. All now went to
work with a will, and planted far more corn than under
the old system. Even the women went willingly into the
fields, taking their children with them to help.
Still, though the planting season of 1623 was a time of
busy industry and willing work, this could not alter the
fact that by the time the seed-corn was in the earth their
stores of food were spent. Many a night they went to rest
without knowing whence the next day's food was to come,
and how they were to live till the next harvest came its
round, it was impossible to say. They said one to another
that now above all people in the world they had need to
cast themselves on God's providence, and pray that He
would give them daily bread. Yet, as Bradford tells us,
they bore their hardships with great patience and alacrity
of spirit, though for two or three months together they had
neither bread nor any kind of corn ; and in spite of scanty
fare God in His mercy preserved both health and life. In
this hard time, while they trusted in God, they with their
usual bravery and good sense vigorously helped them-

236 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
selves. Having to trust entirely to the sea for sustenance
till the earth brought forth fruit, they divided themselves
into companies of six or seven each for the purposes of
fishery ; and as they had only one boat and one net,
recently bought, so soon as one company returned tired
and spent, another was ready to start, each company
knowing its turn. There sprang up also a sort of honour
able rivalry as to which company should bring home most
provision for the waiting community on shore, and there
was an unwritten law that no boat should return without
bringing supplies, even though it should have to remain
five or six days at sea for the purpose. If the boating
party were long away, those on shore went to the sands at
low water to dig for shell-fish. Others again were told off
to range the woods in search of deer or other kinds of
game, the produce of the chase being equally divided.
This time of stress and suffering was further darkened
by the setting in of a disastrous drought of seven weeks in
the early days of June. The younger maize plants began
to wither, and the older to mature abortively. Even before
the time of harvest, famine began to play havoc among
them, and Winslow tells us that he saw men staggering
at noon-day for want of food. Wc read, too, of William
Brewster sitting down to table with a meagre wooden
platter of boiled clams and a pot of water before him.
Nevertheless, the grand old spirit was in him still, for over
this lenten fare he gave thanks to God that he and his
were permitted to ' suck of the abundance of the seas, and
of the treasures hid in the sand.'
One memorable scene belonging to this time of trial has
been preserved to us. As day after day the burning sun
of July glared down upon their fields, they thought it good
that not only should every man privately examine his own
estate between God and his conscience, but that also
publicly and solemnly they should together humble them-

PL YMO UTH PLANTA TION. 237
selves before the Lord by fasting and prayer. Weaklings
neither in work nor worship, these religious exercises
continued for eight or nine hours without intermission. In
succession they recalled the promises of God, wrestled in
prayer, and exhorted each other to steadfastness. They
pleaded that the Lord would grant the request of their
troubled souls, if their continuance there might in any way
stand with His glory and their good. They have left it
on grateful record that God was as ready to hear as they
to ask. For though when they met in the morning the
heavens were still cloudless, and the drought as likely as
ever to continue, when they came out of the fort after those
hours of pleading supplication, they began to look at each
other as only men can look who have been nigh to perish
ing, and who now at last see that rescue is near. For as
they wended their way down the hillside the clouds were
steadily gathering along the face of the sky, and before
many hours were past the rain began to fall in softening
showers upon the parched fields. Day after day it con
tinued to fall, till ' it was hard to say whether their withered
corn or their drooping affections were most revived.'
Winslow goes on to say : ' Having these many signs of
God's favour and acceptation, we thought it would be great
ingratitude if secretly we should smother up the same, or
content ourselves with private thanksgiving for that which
by private prayer could not be obtained. And therefore
another solemn day was set apart and appointed for that
end ; wherein we returned glory, honour, and praise, with
all thankfulness, to our good God, who dealt so graciously
with us ; whose name for these and all others His mercies
towards His Church and chosen ones, by them be blessed
and praised, now and evermore ! '

238 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

IX.
AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS.
The thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims at the hill
fort had not gone by many days when a vessel was seen
making its way into the harbour at Plymouth, which proved
to be the ship Anne, bringing additional colonists and stores
from the Adventurers in London. Ten days later she was
followed by the Little James, a pinnace of forty-four tons,
the two vessels together bringing about a hundred new
emigrants for the colony. Some of these were so obviously
unfit for colonial life that the governor shipped them back
at once in the same vessel at his own expense. Many of
the others had come out to pursue an independent course
of their own ; the remainder were old friends and kinsfolk
from the Church at Leyden. Among the latter were George
Morton and his household. Fear and Patience the two
daughters of Elder Brewster, the wife of Samuel Fuller,
Mrs. Southworth, who afterwards became the wife of
Governor Bradford, and Barbara, subsequently married to
Miles Standish. These and the rest of the old friends from
Leyden were welcome arrivals indeed, and the greetings on
both sides naturally of cordial sort. But the greetings over,
the new-comers began to feel disappointed with their new
surroundings. For the reality, as they found it, was widely
different from the rose-coloured pictures of New England
life they had either painted for themselves, or had had
suggested to them by such letters as that which William
Hilton had sent over. They were startled, on meeting
them again, to see the change wrought in those from whom

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 239
they had parted at Delfshaven little more than two years
before. Scanty fare, constant exposure and hard grinding
toil had taken the freshness and brightness out of their
faces ; their clothes were tattered and worn, their log-built
huts rude and unattractive to those who had just left the
cities of the Old Worid behind them ; and the best dish
they could set before their friends when they came to them
was a lobster or a piece of fish, without bread or anything
else but a cup of fair spring water. It was a process of
disillusion, and the disillusion was complete. Some wished
themselves back again, while others even fell a-weeping, as
they saw in their friends what they themselves might have
to come to.
The practical demands of life, however, make short work
of regretful sentiment. There was business to be done, and
at the very outset stood the necessity of making some
amicable adjustment between the claims of the old settlers
and the new. For, on the one hand, as the new-comers had
only brought sufficient supplies of food for themselves to
last till harvest, they were not willing to let these provisions
of theirs come into the common stock. On the other hand,
the established settlers did not consider it fair that the
recent arrivals should have share in the produce of the
harvest to which they were looking forward, and for which
they alone had toiled. It was agreed, therefore, that the stores
in the ship should be the exclusive property of those who
had sailed in her, and that the produce of the coming harvest
should belong to those who had sown the seed. Then there
was a further complication. Besides the sixty emigrants
who had come over in the Anne, who were to be merged in
the general colony, there were about forty more who wished
to form a separate colony within the colony, and who
described themselves as ' particulars,' by way of distinction
from the body of colonists regarded as 'generals.' After
conference held on the matter, it was agreed that these

240 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
should be received with courtesy, and have competent
places assigned them within the town, and that they should
be free from the labour expected from the rest, except such
public service as might be necessary for the safety of the
colony. On the other hand, they were not to be at liberty
to carry on trade in furs and other commodities with the
Indians ; towards the maintenance of the government and
all public officers, each male ' particular ' above the age of
sixteen would be expected to pay into the common- store a
bushel of Indian corn, or the value of it ; and finally they
were to be subject to such laws and ordinances as were
already or should hereafter be enacted for the public good.
The new-comers, ninety-six in all, added to those who came
over in the Mayflower, with the thirty-five brought by the
Fortune, two hundred and thirty-three in all, make up the
company of those known in America as the Pilgrims, or
First Comers or Forefathers. Out of the two hundred and
thirty-three there were about a hundred and eighty survivors
at the end of 1623.
Up to this time the government of the colony had
necessarily been of the simplest and most rudimentary
kind. As Professor Freeman has pointed out, the smallness
of the scale of the settlement led them to reproduce in not
a few points the England of an earlier age than their own ;
that, in fact, a New England town-meeting was essentially
the same thing as the Homeric agore, the Athenian ekklesia,
the Roman comitia, the Swiss Landesgemeinde, and the
English folk-moot The circumstances of the case called
again into being the primitive assembly which had not long
died out in the Frisian sea-lands, which still lived on in the
Swabian mountain-lands, but which, in the older England,
was well-nigh forgotten.^
The town-meeting being thus the central source of
' Introduction to American Institutional History, by E. A. Free
man ; John Hopkins' University Studies, Series I., p. 15. -1S82.

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 241
authority, all arrangements at first were simplicity itself
Fresh laws were added as fresh laws were needed, but no
statute-book was deemed necessary, an entry in the
governor's note-book being all that was thought requisite.
But towards the end of 1623, the Colony Record-book
was started, and the first entry, under date December 17,
marks an important development in criminal procedure.
Hitherto, the few trials there were had been conducted
by the whole body of the townsmen, the governor pre
siding and carrying out their decision. This arrangement,
natural enough at first, became cumbrous at length, as the
townsmen increased, leading to waste of time. The first
entry in the new records marks a great step onward in the
establishment of trial by jury, it being enacted and provided
that 'all criminal facts, and also all matters of trespass and
debt between man and man, shall be tried by the verdict of
twelve honest men, to be empanelled by authority in the
form of a jury upon their oath.' The following New Year's
day also (March 25), a further development in the govern
ment ensued when the colony, for the third time, elected
William Bradford as governor. He demurred to being
chosen again, urging that the very purpose and intent of an
annual election was the constant change from one to
another of all posts of honour or labour. If honour there
were, others should share it ; if burden, others should help
to bear it. He urged also his opinion that the governor,
whoever he was, ought to have associated with him a
council for his assistance. Notwithstanding this protest,
the townsmen re-elected him, but deferred so far to his
wishes as to create a council of five, giving him a double
vote at the board.
About the time of this election there arrived at Plymouth
the ship Charity, bringing the last communications they
were ever to receive from John Robinson, their former
pastor, for whose coming to them they still continued to
R

242 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
hope. One letter, dated Leyden, December 19, was for his
' loving and much beloved friend,' Governor Bradford, in
which he expresses his regret at hearing of the killing of
the Indians at Wessagusset by Standish : ' How happy a
thing it had been,' says he, ' if you had converted some
before you had killed any ! ' He exhorts them to have a
care of the military spirit of Standish. He loves him right
well, and is persuaded that God has given him to them in
mercy and for much good, if he is used aright ; but
he fears there may be wanting in him ' that tenderness
of the life of man (made after God's image) which is
meet' Robinson's other letter to his ' loving and dear friend
and brother,' William Brewster, deals mainly with the
difficulties continually raised by some of the Merchant
Adventurers in the way of the coming over of himself and
the rest of the Leyden brethren. Not by all of them, for
there were five or six on the board who were their warm
friends ; about as many more were opposed to the
• establishment of free worship in the colony ; the remainder,
the main body, he thinks are honestly minded towards
them, but at the same time they ' have others (namely, the
forward preachers) nearer unto them than us, and whose
course, so far as there is any difference, they would rather
advance than ours.' He is persuaded they are unwilling
:that he, above all others, should be sent over, they having
¦ecclesiastical purposes of another sort for the colony. And
.as one restive jade can hinder by hanging back more than
two or three can draw forward, so in this case. He knows
that even while the messenger from Plymouth was present,
the hostile section 'constrained the company to promise
that none of the money now gathered should be expended
or employed to the help of any of us toward you.' He can
only say : ' Your God and ours, and the God of all His,
bring us together if it be His will, and keep us in the mean-

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 243
v?hile, and always to His glory, and make us serviceable to
His Majesty, and faithful to the end.'
Robinson's surmise as to the purpose of the Adventurers
to establish the Episcopal form of Church government in
the colony was not without foundation. In 1623, Robert
Gorges, commissioned by the Council for New England as
governor-general of the whole country, took out another
company of settlers to the deserted village of Weymouth,
formerly known as Wessagusset. He brought with him an
Episcopalian clergyman of the name of William Morrell, to
whom the council had given general powers of regulation
and control over the religious affairs of the country.
Bradford says : ' He had I know not what power and
authority of superintendency over other churches granted
him, and sundry instructions for that end.' A man of good
sense and tolerant temper, he soon found it was easier to
confer large powers in the old country than to exercise
them in the new. He spent a year at Plymouth, studying
anthropology among the Indians, and accumulating obser
vations in natural history, but remaining silent on the
matter of his ecclesiastical commission till he was on the
point of leaving. Only after he had gone away was it
fully realised that all the time he had lived so amiably and
innocently among them he was possessed of full powers
authorising him to compel the Pilgrim Fathers to conform
to that Church of England from which at so great a cost
they had severed themselves. But though this first
endeavour to set up conformity came to nothing, those of
the Adventurers who were opposed to religious freedom
did not abandom their intention. The emigrants who had
come over in the Anne, and who kept themselves separate
from the rest of the colonists as ' particulars,' formed the
centre from which this new movement was to emanate.
They began by sending complaints privately to London to
the effect that there was much religious controversy in the
R 2

244 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
colony, that family exercises on Sunday were neglected,
that both sacraments were disused, and that children were
not catechised, or even taught to read. So that when, in
1624, the ship Charity arrived from England, bringing
cattle and other supplies, she brought also a series of
inquiries on these points from the board in London, and
at the same time brought John Lyford, an Episcopal clergy
man of Puritan sympathies, whom the Adventurers opposed
to Free Church principles had selected for the accomplish
ment of their purpose.
Both Edward Winslow and Robert Cushman were at
the meeting of the company where he was appointed, and
opposed his being sent out, but yielded at length for peace
sake, thinking, as they said, that he was ' a honest and plain
man, though none of the most eminent or rare.' They
gained their point so far, however, that it was agreed that
Lyford should have no official position in the colony until
the Church at Plymouth should see fit to choose him as
their pastor. He was civilly received on his arrival, housed
and provided with a servant till his obsequious manner
began to excite misgiving. ' When this man first came,'
says Bradford, 'he saluted them with that reverence and
humility as is seldom to be seen, and indeed made them
ashamed, he so bowed and cringed unto them ; yea, he
wept and shed many tears, blessing God who had brought
him to see their faces, and admiring the things they had
done.' After a time he sought Church-membership with
them, made a large confession of his faith, and as acknow
ledgment of his formerly disorderly walking, blessing. God
for the liberty he now possessed of enjoying the ordinances
of God in purity among His people. They felt he was
altogether too effusive. These shrewd Englishmen would
have liked him better had he protested less. Their mis
givings were confirmed as they found him often engaged
in secret conference with Oldham and others of the

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 245
' particulars.' They came to know, too, that he was writing
letters home to the Adventurers of defamatory sort, letters
he was seen showing to his confederates, and at which they
chuckled and laughed. Feeling how seriously these letters
might affect the interests of the colony in England, the
governor intercepted them on board the vessel in which
they were to be sent out He found, asjhe expected, that
they contained slanders and false accusations against the
original settlers ; and in one of them Lyford informed the
Adventurers that he and Oldham intended a reformation
in church and commonwealth, and that as soon as the ship
bearing his letters had sailed they would set up Episcopal
worship. Without knowing that the governor was in
possession of these letters, these men began to seek
occasions of quarrel with the Plymouth leaders. Oldham
stormed at Standish when in his capacity as captain he
called upon him to take his place in order as sentinel at
the fort, called him evil names, and even drew his knife.
The governor, hearing the tumult, came out to quiet it, at
which he stamped and raved, calling them traitors and
rebels ; ' but after he was clapt up awhile he came to
himself,' and was let go. Eventually the party associated
with Lyford and Oldham, without communicating with the
rest, withdrew themselves and set up public worship apart.
The governor now felt the time had come to confront
Lyford with the letters which had been intercepted, and
for this purpose summoned a court of the townsmen at the
fort on the hill. In the presence of all he charged Lyford
and Oldham with secretly plotting to destroy the govern
ment They indignantly denied the charge, demanding
proof, upon which Lyford's letters were produced and some
of them read, on which he was struck dumb. The governor
explained that in his capacity as magistrate he had opened
the letters, it being his first duty to prevent mischief and
ruin to the colony by conspiracies and plots.

246 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
These letters contained a series of charges as to the
civil management of the colony : unfair distribution and
partiality ; also waste of tools and vessels. But points of
more serious moment related to the advice Lyford sent
home to the Adventurers as to the mode of proceeding in
future. He advised first of all that John Robinson and
the rest of the Church at Leyden should be kept out of the
colony, or all would be spoilt. Care should be exercised
not only that they should not be shipped from Leyden, but
also that they should not be landed privately on any part
of the English coast. To prevent this, it would be well to
change the captain, who was friendly to the colony. He
further urged that a number of new colonists should be
sent over sufficient to outnumber the present settlers ; that
those known as ' particulars,' though by their own arrange
ment having separate interests, should yet have a voice in
all courts and elections, and be free to hold any office in
the town ; and that every ' particular,' though only a
servant, should rank as an Adventurer. If by these means
they cannot be strengthened to carry and overbear things,
it would be best for them, he thinks, to go elsewhere, and
start a plantation for themselves ; he therefore asks for
authority from the board to do this, if it should be found
necessary. Finally he concludes by saying : ' I pray you
conceal me in the discovery of these things.' ^
In the presence of the whole body of townsmen Lyford
was asked what explanation he had to give of these letters,
taking the charges point by point He had little to say
except that he had heard complaints from this man and
that, but possibly he had been misled.
They reminded him that when he sought admission to
the Church, he declared that he no longer regarded himself
as a minister, though episcopally ordained, till he received
' Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, pp. 177-181.

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 247
a call from them ; yet now he contested against them, and
drew a company apart, without even speaking a word to
them, either as magistrates or brethren. Thus confronted,
the man broke down, confessed that he feared he was a
reprobate, and that his sins were so great that he doubted
whether God would ever pardon them ; he admitted that
he had so wronged them that he could never make amends,
and that he was unsavoury salt 'All this he did with as
much fullness as words and tears could express.'
The court decided that the leaders of this movement
should depart the colony, Oldham to go at once, leaving
his family behind, till he could make provision for them ;
Lyford might remain six months longer. They gave him
further space, hoping he might change his course. He
admitted he was leniently dealt with, and afterwards
publicly confessed his sin to the Church, ' with tears more
largely than before.' Upon this they began again to con
ceive good thoughts of him, and admitted him once more
to teach among them.
In the course of a month or two, however, he was again
writing secretly to the Adventurers, justifying his former
letters, and complaining that there was no ordained
minister in the colony. Elder Brewster being still their
preacher. This also coming to the knowledge of the
townsmen, they made reply to the various points urged
against them, as to their having no ordained minister
among them —
' We answer, the more is our wrong, that our pastor is
kept from us by these men's means, and then reproach us
for it when they have done. Yet have we not been wholly
destitute of the means of salvation, as this man would make
the world believe ; for our reverend elder hath laboured
diligently in dispensing the Word of God unto us, before
he came, and since hath taken equal pains with himself in
preaching the same. And be it spoken without ostentation,

248 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
he is not inferior to Mr. Lyford (and some of his betters)
either in gifts or learning, though he would never be per
suaded to take higher office upon him.'
This letter of Lyford's was written towards the end
of August, 1624, after which he remained at Plymouth
through the following winter, living as before from the
public stores, ultimately joining Oldham at Nantasket,
where there were a few straggling settlers. Next year
Oldham sailed into Plymouth Harbour once more ; but as
he came only to assail the colonists ' beyond the limits of all
reason and modesty, calling them a hundred rebels and
traitors, and I know not what,' there was nothing for it but
to commit him till he grew more reasonable, after which,
led out between two lines of musketeers, he was ignomi-
niously expelled the colony ; and so for all the purposes of
this narrative he goes on his way, and we see him no more.
It will probably be said that the ejectment of Episcopa
lians from Plymouth colony was an inconsistent piece of
intolerance on the part of men who had fled from intoler
ance at home. But it may fairly be replied that judgment
must be forbearing towards men who feared, rightly or
wrongly, that the object of the new-comers was not so
much religious equality as ecclesiastical absorption. Brad
ford, speaking on behalf of the colonists, says that — 'all
the world knew they came hither to enjoy the liberty of
their conscience and the free use of God's ordinances, and
for that end had ventured their lives, and passed through
grievous hardships.' Their past experience might well
make them fearful of the introduction of the national
system, at a time when Laud was beginning to be in the
ascendant, and with iron will and heavy hand driving men
into conformity. Was there any reason to suppose they
would long retain that freedom for which they had sacri
ficed so much, if the Episcopal system, with the royal
power to enforce it, were once introduced among them ?

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 249
Using quaint illustration, William Bradford contended that
it would turn out to be a modern instance of an ancient
fable — the fable of the coney, who out of pity received a
hedgehog into his burrow one stormy day. Once fairly
lodged, the hedgehog, not content with merely sharing
quarters with the original owner, by vigorous use of his
prickly spines compelled the coney to vacate her burrow
and leave the whole of it to him.
The breach with Lyford at Plymouth led to a breach
with the Board of Merchant Adventurers at home. Re
turning from England in the early part of 1625, Edward
Winslow brought a communication from them to the effect
that only on certain conditions would they consent to con
tinue their connection with the plantation. One of the
main reasons for their change of attitude was that the
Church at Plymouth had received Lyford to their fellow
ship, who, oni his confession before them, had renounced
national and diocesan churches. It was clear, they said,
from this, that though they had renounced the name,
practically they were Brownists still, and it would be sin
against God, therefore, on their part, were they to support
them. They will, however, still co-operate on these con
ditions, namely : that as they, the Adventurers, were
partners in trade, they should also be partners in the
government of the plantation ; that the French or Presby
terian discipline should be adopted both in substance and
detail, so that both the name of Brownist and differences
resulting therefrom would be done away with ; and finally,
that their former pastor, John Robinson, and the remaining
portion of the Church at Leyden, should not be allowed to
come over and join their brethren at Plymouth, unless they
should first reconcile themselves to the system which the
Adventurers speak of as ' our Church,' that is, the Church
of England, by written recantation signed under their own
hands.

250 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
To these demands the colonists made reply that in effect
they did hold and practise the discipline of the French and
other Reformed Churches, as set forth in the Harmony of
the Confessions of 1586, but that to tie themselves down to
that discipline in every particular would be to give away
the liberty they had in Christ Jesus. Even Paul himself
would have no man follow him except as he followed
Christ ; and that it was too great arrogancy for any man
or any Church to think that he or they have so sounded
the Word of God to all its depths as to be able to set down
precisely the Church's discipline without error in substance
or circumstance ; it would not be difficult, indeed, to show
that the Reformed Churches themselves differ in many
things among themselves. What they had to say as to
Robinson and his friends at Leyden signing a recantation,
Bradford in his History omits 'for brevity's sake,' and
possibly for other reasons.
While that portion of the Adventurers to whom this
reply was addressed disappear now from the history, the
section still favourable to the plantation sent by Winslow
a reply of their own. In this they state that the joint
account has been closed, that ;^I400 remained due, and
that the goods to meet this should be shipped as trade
permitted. They go on to say they are persuaded that the
reason of the withdrawal of the other Adventurers is really
want of money (for need whereof men use to make many
excuses), though other reasons are pretended, as that they
were Brownists and the like. Still, though it might be too
late to stay these things, it was not too late to exercise
patience, wisdom, and conscience in bearing them. The
right thing for them to do was to keep a fair and honest
course, and see what time would bring forth, and how God
in His providence would work for them. We are persuaded,
they say, that you are the people that must make a planta
tion where all others fail and return. Go on, good friends.

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 251
pluck up your spirits and quit yourselves like men in your
difficulties, so that, in spite of all the displeasures and
threats of men, the work to which you have put your hand
may still go forward, a work which is so much for the
glory of God and the welfare of our countrymen that it
were better for a man to spend his days for that than to
live the life of Methuselah in wasting the plenty of tilled
land or eating the fruit of a grown tree.
In the summer of 1625 Miles Standish took a voyage to
England in the interests of the colony, having with him
letters in reply to those they had received. This mission
was undertaken at an unfortunate time. The king had
died at the end of March, his son Charles I. was giving all
the weight of his influence to Laud, who was vigorously en
forcing uniformity ; and London was being ravaged by the
plague, the tale of death rising week by week, and trade being
almost at a standstill. All that Standish could accomplish
during the five months of his stay was to obtain the loan
of £iiiO at fifty per cent interest, wherewith to purchase
goods for the colony. Returning in a fishing vessel bound
for the coast of Maine, his arrival there was notified by
some Indian messenger, and the shallop was sent up the
coast to bring him and his goods on to Plymouth.
He had serious tidings to relate. He brought them the
first news of the death of the king they had received, though
by that time he had been dead more than a year ; Prince
Maurice also was gone, he who had been Stadtholder of
Holland during the time they were at Leyden ; their friend
Robert Cushman, too, whom they looked upon as their
right hand with the Adventurers, had died at the eariy age
of forty-five ; Fletcher, another friend of theirs, had been
ruined by Turkish pirates ; and many who were knit to
them in bonds of Christian brotherhood both in England
and Holland had died of the plague. It was indeed a
changing world. But, most sorrowful of all, Standish had

2 5 2 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND.
to tell them that all hope of their ever seeing John Robinson
once more among them must now be abandoned. He had
letters with him, one from Roger White, Robinson's
brother-in-law, one from Thomas Blossom, a leading
member of the Leyden brotherhood, and also a joint letter
from the Church at Leyden, addressed to Bradford and
Brewster, telling them that their former pastor had been
seized with illness on Saturday, February 22, and that
though he had rallied sufficiently to be able to preach
twice the following day, before another Sabbath came its
round he had entered into rest, departing this life on
March i, 1625. Roger White wrote pathetically that :
' If either prayers, tears, or means would have saved his
life, he had not gone hence.' In like strain of sorrow
Thomas Blossom's letter mourned the departure of their
loved and honoured pastor, ' whom the Lord (as it were)
took away even as fruit falleth before it was ripe ; when
neither length of days nor infirmity of body did seem to
call for his end. The loss of his ministry,' he adds, 'was
very great indeed unto me, for I ever counted myself happy
in the enjoyment of it, notwithstanding all the crosses and
losses otherwise I sustained . . . We may take up that
doleful complaint in the Psalm, that there is no prophet
left among us, nor any that knoweth how long. Alas !
you would fain have had him with you, and he would as
fain have come to you.'
The letter from the Church was signed by four of the
brethren in the name of the rest. In it they say that, though
' it hath pleased the Lord to take to Himself, out of this
miserable world, our dearly beloved pastor, yet for ourselves
we are minded, as formerly, to come unto you when and as
the Lord affordeth means. And now, brethren, what shall
we say further unto you ? Our desire and prayer to God
is (if such were His good-will and pleasure) we might be re
united for the edifying and mutual comfort of both, which

AT THE END OF SEVEN YE/iRS. 253
when He sees fit He will accomplish. In the meantime we
commit you unto Him and to the word of His grace.'
Sorrow over Robinson's death was felt, and respect for
his memory manifested beyond the bounds of their own
community. Winslow tells us that —
¦ ' When God took him away from them and us by death,
the University and ministers of the city accompanied him
to his grave with all their accustomed solemnities ; bewail-
;ing the great loss that not only that particular Church
had whereof he was pastor, but some of the chief of them
sadly affirmed that all the Churches of Christ sustained a loss
by the death of that worthy instrument of the Gospel.' ^
John Robinson was buried under the pavement of St.
Peter's, the church near to his own house. The official
record of the fact has been discovered in recent years, and is
as follows, making, as usual, Dutch mistakes in recording
English names. ' 1624, 4 March. John Roelends, Preacher
of the English Community by the belfry — buried in the
Peter's Church.'
Another officer, giving the receipt for his burial, enters it
thus : 1625 1 Open and hire for John Robens
10 March J English Preacher — 9 florins.
He died in the house already described on the Klok-steeg.
In a census of the city taken October, 1622, he is
registered as Jan Robberson, his wife's name being Bridget ;
their children were Isaac, Mercy, Fear, and James ; and
they have Maria Hardy as their domestic. Isaac joined
the Pilgrims in New England, but Robinson's widow and
the rest of his household appear to have remained at
Leyden. The Church of which he was pastor continued to
exist and apparently to flourish for many years after his
^ The Ground of First Planting of New England, p. 95 ; London,
1646.

254 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
death. In 1644, when the Reformed Churches contributed
17,567 florins to aid their brethren in Ireland, this com
munity sent 558 florins, a sum equal to about ;£'200 of
present value. As time went on, however, those who
originally came over from England died off gradually, so
that the Dutch-speaking element came eventually to be
the only one left ; and in 1658, as Hoornbeck tells us, the
Church united itself with the Reformed Church of Holland.
After a period of more than two centuries, the interest
in Robinson's memory was revived by the discovery of
Scrooby as the starting-point of the Pilgrim Church ; and
on July 24, 1 891, a bronze memorial tablet, fixed in a
recess of the exterior of St Peter's Church at Leyden,
was unveiled under the auspices of the National Council
of Congregational Churches of the United States. The
ceremony took place in the presence of delegates from
England and America, the burgomaster, and the repre
sentatives of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of the city
and of the University of Leyden.
About the time that Brewster received at Plymouth the
tidings of the death of his former friend and pastor, his
own wife was called away from his side, at the age of fifty-
six. Troubles, therefore, still gathered round him, the
clouds returning after the rain. Yet it is often at such times
that God is nearest to His own, and Bradford, in his brave,
godly way, tells us that ' the Lord, whose work they had in
hand, so helped them that now when they were at the
lowest they began to rise again ; and being stripped in a
manner of all human helps and hopes. He brought things
about otherwise in His divine providence as that they were
not only helped and sustained, but their proceedings were
both honoured and imitated by others, as by the sequel
will more appear.'
As these words imply, from this time onward the out
look of life grew wider for the colonists. Their agriculture

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 255
prospered, for the produce of their Indian corn growing
beyond their own requirements, they found they could get
ready sale for the surplus at six shillings the bushel ; they
therefore used great diligence in planting the same. They
felt also that, in order to meet their liabilities in England,
it was necessary to establish in addition a more general
trade with their neighbours. It having been agreed that
no one colonist should trade on his own behalf separately,
this matter was left in the hands of the governor and some
others, to be managed for the general good of the colony.
The difficulty felt at the outset was as to where goods
could be procured for the purpose of this more general
trade. Fortunately, the opportunity presented itself when
it was most needed. A trading post established at Mon
hegan by merchants from the English Plymouth was
about to be broken up, and the remainder of the stock
offered for sale. Hearing of this, Governor Bradford and
Edward Winslow went over, and acquired half the property,
to the value of ;£'400. About that time, also, a French
ship, having a cargo of Biscay rugs and other commodities
on board, was wrecked at Sagadahoc ; these goods also,
through some Bristol merchants, they acquired, paying for
the most part in beaver fur and other barter obtained
during the previous season ; for the rest, their note of hand
was accepted, to fall due the following year.
Having in this way become better furnished for trade,
and with their corn after harvest, they were now able to
meet their various engagements against time, get clothing
for their people, and have some commodities beforehand.
One serious difficulty in the way of their carrying on any
thing like an extensive trade lay in the fact that they
possessed only one small open boat, which was dangerous
for long voyages, especially in the winter season. The
ship-carpenter was dead, but fortunately the house-carpenter
was a man of resource, and at their request resolved to try

256 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
what he could do. Taking one of the largest shallops, he
lengthened her five or six feet, strengthened her with
timbers, built her up, and laid a deck upon her, and so
fitted her with sails and anchors that she did them good
service for seven long years, and so enabled them to build
up a trade on the Kennebec.
Still, while their trade was growing, they felt hampered
by their engagements with the Merchant Adventurers and
by the restrictions placed upon them in the matter of their
friends and brethren at Leyden, who were anxious to come
to them, and whose company they desired to have. The
governor and some of their chief friends, therefore, had
serious consideration, and ' resolved to run a high course,
and of great adventure.' The plan they proposed was to
hire the trade of the company for a certain term of years,
and during that time to pay off the ;^i8oo due from the
plantation to the London Adventurers, and also their
trading debts, amounting to some ;^6oo more. For
purposes of negotiation on this and other matters, Isaac
Allerton was sent over to England in 1626, and returned
the following year ' at the usual season of the coming of
ships.' He had been able to obtain a loan of ;^200 for the
colony at thirty per cent interest, with which he purchased
trading goods, 'which goods they got safely home and
well conditioned, much to the comfort and content of the
plantation.' With regard to the main matters of his commission, he
had, ' with much ado and no small trouble,' and by ' the
help of sundry of their faithful friends there, who also took
much pains thereabout,' come to an arrangement by which
the company in London surrendered all claim to stock,
shares, land, merchandise and chattels, in consideration of
the sum of ;^i8oo of lawful money of England, to be paid
' at the place appointed for the receipt of money on the
west side of the Royal Exchange in London,' ;^200 to be

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 257
paid yearly, and every year, on the Feast of St. Michael, the
first payment to be made in the year 1628. This agree
ment made by Allerton on their behalf was very well liked
and approved of by the plantation, and consented to. As
the colony was not a chartered corporation, the responsibility
must, of course, be personal, and was jointly borne by
Bradford, Brewster, Standish, Allerton, Winslow, Howland,
Alden, and Prince, and a deed duly drawn up, signed and
sealed to that effect, was taken over to England by
Allerton the following season. These brethren, who, as the
bondsmen of the colony, engaged with the Adventurers on
the one side to pay off the public debt, engaged also with
the colonists themselves on the other side to do so within
six years, and further would import every year £^,0 worth
of hose and shoes, to be sold to the colonists in exchange
for corn at six shillings per bushel, on the understanding
that the entire trade of the colony with the outside world
should be carried on by themselves alone ; that each
purchaser among the colonists should pay to them, year by
year for the six years, three bushels of corn or six pounds
of tobacco, as might be preferred ; and that they, having
undertaken these responsibilities, should have and freely
enjoy the boats with their equipment, and also the whole
stock of furs, fells, beads, corn, hatchets, and knives now in
the stores. At the end of the said term of six years the
whole of the trade was to return to the use and benefit of
the colony as before. The men who undertook these re
sponsibilities were afterwards known as the ' Undertakers.'
In this way the property in the colony passed from the
Adventurers to the colonists, and for a period of six years
from the colonists to the Undertakers.
This fundamental change in the direction of independence
brought about other changes of wide-reaching economical
effect. First of all, the responsibility incurred by the eight
securities was divided over the whole community, by the
s

258 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
payments in corn and tobacco to be made year by year, and
also by the arrangement that if the trade profits were not
sufficient to meet the yearly payments in London, the
deficiency should be made up in equal proportions by all
the settlers who were described as purchasers and were to
be enrolled as such. In return for this liability, the land
being divided into shares of twenty acres each, every
purchaser should have one share, in addition to the lahd he
already possessed, the heads of households to have as many
shares, and therefore as many liabilities, as they had persons
in their families. By this arrangement the more recent
comers, such of the ' particulars ' as still remained, and
others in the colony not so described, who yet had arrived
later than those who came in the Mayflower, would- be on
equal footing with the rest. In pursuance of this arrange
ment, strips of land along the river-side, five acres by four,
were marked out for tillage and assigned by lot The
meadow land, however, was not to be divided in perpetuity,
but held in common, except that every season, for the
purpose of hay for his cattle, each purchaser had assigned
to him a certain portion which he was at liberty to mow.
This was the carrying out of a plan to which Bradford
and Brewster had probably been accustomed in the old
Austerfield and Scrooby days. Those who have scientifi
cally investigated the rural economy of Britain seem to
have established the fact that, throughout the whole period
from pre-Roman to modern times, two parallel systems
have obtained undisturbed by all invasions — Roman, English
and Norman — that of the village community, on the eastern
side of Britain, and that of the tribal community, in the
western districts of the island, neither of which seems to
have been introduced later, at any rate, than two thousand
years ago.^ Each system was marked by the two notes of
^ The English Village Community. By Frederick Seebohm, p. 437-
1883.

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 259
community and equality ; but the tribal system, belonging
to an earlier stage, was pastoral rather than agricultural,
whereas in the case of the village community only a small
proportion of the land of the township was in meadow or
pasture, each occupier having certain defined rights of
common thereon. These commons were divided as Green
Commons and Lammas Meadows ; to the former the cows
ofthe township were daily driven, the latter were subject to
temporary occupancy by individuals on a regular .system
for the one purpose of haymaking.^ This ancient system,
going back in Britain farther than the historic period, seems
to have been the plan carried out by the Plymouth colonists
as soon as they were free to act Side by side with this
arrangement as to the land, there was a quaint method of
distributing the few cattle which, as yet, were all they
possessed. These were too few and too precious to be the
sole property of individuals, and were therefore assigned to
small partnerships. For it was not till 1624 that they had
any horned cattle, and the following year the four they
had were only increased to nine. In 1627 there appear to-
have been twelve cows, which were divided at a town
meeting. There being one hundred and fifty-six persons
at this time in the colony, namely, fifty-seven men, thirty-
four boys, twenty-nine matrons and thirty-six girls — ser
vants and indentured persons not being reckoned — there
were therefore thirteen persons to each cow, these to have the-
use of her for ten years, after which she was to be restored
to the common stock, with half her increase, if increase-
there were. In case of abuse or neglect, all the thirteen*
were to be held responsible. The cattle, like the land, were
assigned by lot, and to each of the divisions, except the
fourth, was granted in addition a pair of she-goats. Equality
of possession, however, could not long be maintained |here
' The English Village Community. By Frederick Seebohm, pp. 11,
13. 1883. S 2

26o PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
any more than elsewhere, for the next year we find that
Miles Standish, probably with the view of removing to
Duxbury, had bought out the other partners in his division,
and therefore for the remainder of the ten years had the
cow to himself
The whole of this arrangement is most methodically laid
down in the records, and the names of all the one hundred
and fifty-six shareholders, men, women and children, care
fully given, so that we are able pretty definitely to see how
the colony actually stood at the end of the seven years
dating from the landing ofthe Mayflower in 1620. Taking
all those who had at various times come to the colony,
and adding to their number those who had been born there,
they came altogether to two hundred and sixty-seven. Of
these fifty-eight had died, and fifty-three had removed else
where, leaving, as we have seen, one hundred and fifty-six
still remaining. It is ominously significant of the fearful
hardships of the first year when we find that, while only
six died during the remaining six years, no fewer than
fifty-two died that year.
It so happens that in 1627 we have not only the means
of measuring the growth of the colony from within, but
have also testimony from without as to its general appear
ance at the end of the first seven years of its history. It
will be remembered that in 1620 negotiations were being
carried on between the Dutch merchants and the Pilgrims
then in Leyden with a view to settlement together on the
Hudson River. Three years later a permanent Dutch
colony was established at Manhattan, the modern New
York, but no further communication took place between
this plantation and that at Plymouth for several years. In
March, 1627, however, Bradford, in his capacity as governor,
received a friendly letter from Isaac de Rassi^res, the
secretary of the colony at Manhattan, addressed to the
' noble, worshipful, wise and prudent lords, the Governor

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 261
and Councillors of Nieu Pliemuen, wishing their welfare in
Christ Jesus our Lord.' ' It is their manner,' says Bradford,
' to be full of complementall titles.' In this letter, they had
often wished, they say, to congratulate their friends at
Plymouth on their prosperous undertakings as colonists ;
the more so that they themselves also had made good
beginning to pitch the foundation of a colony where they
were ; and seeing also that, their native countries lying not
far apart from each other, their ancestors centuries ago had
held friendship and alliance both for war and traffic, as
might be read in old chronicles by all the world. And
now they on their part are willing to renew this intercourse,
and to carry on trade with them as neighbours which may
be of mutual service. If they, too, are agreeable to this,
some one shall be deputed to deal with them at such time
and place as they may appoint.
This letter was acknowledged on the part of the
Plymouth people with friendly civility, except that they
modestly demurred to 'the over-high titles more than
belongs to us or is meet for us to receive ' with which the
letter was addressed ; they reciprocate the good feeling
expressed by these neighbours of theirs, and cannot forget,
they say, the hospitable reception given to them at Leyden
in days gone by ; having lived there many years with
freedom and good content, as many of their friends did
still ; for which they and their children will ever be
grateful to the Dutch nation. They further express their
readiness to trade with them in commodities or merchan
dise as desired, and they trust that this offer of theirs may
work out to good and fruitful result in days to come.
This reply of the Plymouth people being written in Dutch,
they pray to be excused for their rude and imperfect
writing in that language, seeing that, for want of use, they
cannot so well express themselves as they would desire.
This correspondence in the spring of 1627 was followed in

262 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
the autumn by a visit from the Dutch secretary, who came
in state, making solemn entry heralded by trumpeters, and
attended by some of the pageantry dear to the hearts
of his countrymen. He remained several days, spent a
Sunday with them, attending their religious services, and
finally departed, having established trading communica
tion between New Plymouth and New Amsterdam which
continued for several years.
Some time after, De Rassieres returned to Holland, where
he wrote to Herr Blommaert, a director of his company,
an account of his visit to the Plymouth plantation. This
letter, as lately as 1 847, found its way to the Royal Library
in Holland, and has since been printed,^ giving an interest
ing description of the colony as seen by a contemporary at
the end of the first seven years of its history.
After describing the bay as lying to the north of Cape
Cod, the point of which can be easily seen in clear weather ;
the sandbank of Plymouth Beach, twenty paces broad, over
which the sea breaks violently with an easterly and north
easterly wind ; the small island of Saguish, and the river of
fresh water, rapid but shallow, on the south side of the
town, flowing down to the sea from inland lakes above, he
then describes the town itself
' New Plymouth,' he tells us, ' lies on the slope of a hill,
stretching east toward the sea-coast, with a 'oroad street
about a cannon-shot of eight hundred feet long leading
down the hill, with a crossing in the middle, northward to
the rivulet and southward to the land.' One may stop by
the way here to point out that the street is nearly twelve
hundred feet long, and that De Rassieres has unwittingly
reversed the bearings of rivulet and land. He goes on to
say that ' the houses are constructed of hewn planks, with
gardens also enclosed behind and at the sides with hewn
' New York Historical Collections, New Series, vol. ii. ; also in the
Appendi.x to Ncic England's Jtlcmorial, p. 495.

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 263
planks, so that their houses and courtyards are arranged
in very good order, with a stockade against a sudden
attack ; and at the ends of the streets there are three
wooden gates. In the centre, on the cross street, stands
the governor's house, before which is a square enclosure
upon which four small cannon are mounted, so as to flank
along the streets.'
He next proceeds to describe the fort on the Burial Hill,
which played so important a part both in their civil and
ecclesiastical life.
' Upon the hill they have a large square house with a
flat roof, made of thick sawn planks stayed with oak beams,
upon the top of which they have six cannon, which shoot
iron balls of four and five pounds and command the sur
rounding country. The lower part they use for their
church, where they preach on Sundays and the usual
holidays. They assemble by beat of drum, each with his
musket or firelock, in front of the captain's door ; they
have their cloaks on, and place themselves in order, three
abreast, and are led by a sergeant without beat of drum.
Behind comes the governor in a long robe ; beside him, on
the right hand, comes the preacher with his cloak on, and
on the left hand the captain with his side-arms and cloak
on, and with a small cane in his hand ; and so they march
in good order, and each sets his arms down near him.
Thus they are constantly on their guard, night and day.'
Possibly, in honour of the visit of the Dutch secretary,
there may have been on that particular Sunday more
formality and state than usual as the Pilgrims went up for
the worship of God to their Mount Zion on Burial Hill.
Be that as it may, that worship of theirs was in spirit and
truth, and was associated, as all worship ought to be, with
righteousness and integrity in daily life. De Rassieres,
speaking of the Indians, is candid enough to say — and to
the honour of the Pilgrim Fathers let it be said — ' The

264 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
tribes in their neighbourhood have all the same customs as
ours, only they are better conducted than ours, because the
English give them the example of better ordinances and a
better life ; and who also, to a certain degree, give them
laws by means of the respect they from the first have
established among them.'

( 265 )

X.
ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS.
In that same year of grace, 1627, in which De Rassieres
paid his visit to the Plymouth plantation, 'some friends
being together in Lincolnshire fell into discourse about New
England and the planting of the Gospel there.' So wrote
Thomas Dudley in 1631 to the Lady Bridget, Countess of
Lincoln, giving the story of the beginnings of that second
Puritan exodus to New England, out of which came the
settlements round Massachusetts Bay. Thus Lincolnshire
has the honour of being connected with the beginning of
both movements, the one which, starting at Gainsborough,
resulted in the formation of Plymouth Colony, and that
which, taking its rise in the friendly discourse referred to,
issued in the creation of the settlements in Massachusetts.
So far as permanent results are concerned this second
movement was even more important than the first In
romance of circumstance and the charm of personal heroism
the story of the Pilgrim Fathers is pre-eminent They
were the pioneers who made it easy for the rest of the host
to follow. But it was not so much what they achieved as
what they suggested that gives them the place of honour
in the history of their country. If the second Puritan
exodus, which lasted over the twelve years between 1628
and 1640, had not followed, that of 1620, at its slow rate of
increase, would not have been sufficient to create a power
strong enough to overcome the combined influence of
Indians, Dutchmen, and Frenchmen, and make the English

266 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
language and the English tradition paramount on North
American soil. The second movement, out of which came
the settlements round Massachusetts Bay and along the
valley of the Connecticut river, has been justly described
as the greatest effort at colonisation which Englishmen
had yet made since the projects of Raleigh and Gilbert
entered the national mind. For the men who made it
were not a mere band of traders bent simply on money-
making, but a worthily representative body of citizens
animated with the desire of reproducing in the New World
what was best in the life of the Old. Some of them came
from stately homes and were possessed of wealth and social
position, while others had occupied influential positions as
ministers of the Church. Before the movement had spent
itself, something like ninety university men, three-fourths of
them from Cambridge, had emigrated to New England.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this fact
in its bearing on the future of American life.^
It has frequently been noted that the eastern side of
England was ever foremost in the matter of Protestant
Reformation. As it was in the sixteenth century under the
Tudors, so was it in the seventeenth century under the
Stuarts. While all the forty counties of England were
more or less represented among the emigrants to Massa
chusetts, the shires on the eastern side contributed far more
than all the rest It is estimated that two-thirds of the
American people came from these, one-sixth from Devon,
Dorset, and Somerset, and the remaining one-sixth from
all other parts of England. It is, therefore, not by accident
that Boston in Lincolnshire gave its name to the chief city
of New England, and that the earliest counties of Massa
chusetts were called Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. An
' Doyle's English in America, i. 135. The Influence ofthe English
Uiiiversities in the Development of New England. By FrankKn B.
Dexter. 18S0.

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 267
American writer has noted the fact that the native of
Connecticut and Massachusetts who wanders in the rural
England of to-day finds no part of it so homelike as the
homesteads, villages, and quaint market towns he passes as
he fares forward in not too straight a line, say from Ipswich
to the Humber or the Trent The farmhouses with their
long sloping roofs and gable end towards the road, their
spacious chimneys and narrow casements, also the names
over the shop-doors or on the tombstones in the neigh
bouring churchyards, all remind him of what he has left
behind in his home across the sea.^
But while Suffolk in the southern portion of eastern
England made an important contribution to the Puritanism
of America when it sent John Winthrop from Groton
Manor-house, Lincolnshire made the most important con
tribution of all when it sent the men of mark who met in
those days for conference in Boston town, or Sempringham
Manor-house, or Tattershall Castle — the last two places
being the seats of Theophilus Clinton, the fourth Earl of
Lincoln. Cotton Mather .speaks of ' the religious family of
the Earl of Lincoln — the best family of any nobleman then
in England.' A staunch Protestant, Lord Lincoln when
only twenty-four received permission from the king to raise
a troop of horse to join Count Mansfeld in the service of
the Elector of Bohemia, and was himself colonel in one of
the six regiments engaged. He was not less strenuous as
an advocate of constitutional right. In 1627 he was sent
to the Tower for refusing to subscribe to the general
forced loan resorted to by Charles I. and for actively
dissuading his neighbours from subscribing ; and later on
we find him trying to gain access to Sir John Eliot when
he too was sent to the Tower for the constitutional part he
took in the struggle of the time. Joined with the earl in
his refusal to subscribe to the king's loan were Atherton
' The Beginnings of New England. By John Fiske. 18S9.

268 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Hough, Thomas Dudley, and Thomas Leverett — three men
prominent among those who afterwards went to New
England. Tattershall Castle, a stately mansion built by the Lord
Treasurer Cromwell in the time of Henry VIII., and the
other family seat of Lord Lincoln at Sempringham,
became identified with the Puritan movement with which
we are now concerned. Roger Williams speaks of riding
with John Cotton 'and one other of precious memory.
Master Hooper, to and from Sempringham,' Williams say
ing, as he rode along, why he could not use the Book
of Common Prayer as Cotton did, and Cotton defending
himself by saying that he ' selected the good and best
prayers in his use of that book, as Sarpi did in his using of
the Masse-book.' To Tattershall Castle, too, John Cotton
used to retire as to a second home when broken down in
health under the heavy strain of his ministerial Hfe at
Boston Church. And though the earl himself did not go
over to New England, two of his sisters did, Susan, who was
married to John Humphrey, and Arbella, the wife of Isaac
Johnson. Thomas Dudley also, Lord Lincoln's steward and
confidential adviser, and Simon Bradstreet, who succeeded
him in that office, were associated with the movement, as
were also Richard Bellingham, the Recorder of Boston,
Thomas Leverett, an alderman of the borough, and Atherton
Hough, the mayor of the town in 1628, all of whom, as we
have seen, followed his lordship's lead in resistance to the
forced loan.
In the matter of religion Lincolnshire had long been
strenuous in its resistance to the ceremonies imposed upon
the Puritan clergy. In the reports of proceedings in the
Ecclesiastical Courts, preserved in the old Alnwick Tower
at Lincoln, we find the father of Simon Bradstreet, the
Puritan minister of Horbling, again and again before the
court for nonconformity, and flatly telling them at last that

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 269
conformed he had not, and conform he would not. And
so left Lincolnshire for Middleburgh and the Puritan com
munity there. Dr. John Burgess also, the rector of another
church in the county, was deprived in 1604 for preaching
against ceremonies, ' which were not worth a man's life or
livelihood ; ' and at the end of that same year the Lincoln
shire ministers presented King James with a long and
elaborate defence of their godly brethren, who were being
suspended and deprived for refusing subscription and
conformity to the rites and ceremonies enjoined by law.
They did not hesitate to tell the king that ' the greatest
number of resident preachers and fruitful ministers do dis
like them and have seldom used them for many years past.'
Many years after this again Sir John Lambe, Dean of
Arches, spoke of 'the Puritan town of Boston,' and in
1 62 1 the Government thought it worth while to send down
a commission to make serious inquiry as to who had cut
off the crosses at the top of the maces ' carried before
the mayor to the church on Sundays and Thursdays and
solemn times.' It was thought to be a piece of Puritan
hostility to what some regarded as a mere Popish symbol,
but the town-clerk said that John Cotton, the vicar, in his
hearing, ' did condemn the doing of the said fact' One
also, who was afterwards among the New England men,
' Atherton Houghe, gentleman, one of the churchwardens
of the town of Boston, being examined, saith that he
neither did cut off the top of the crosses from the maces
nor doth know who did it ... . But he confesseth he
did before .... that year break off the hand and arm
of the picture of a pope (as it seemeth) standing over a
pillar of the outside of the steeple very high, which hand
had the form of a church in it; which he did as he
thought by warrant of the injunctions made primo of
Queen Elizabeth, willing all images to be taken cut of
the walls of churches : and for that he heard that some

270 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
of the town had taken note of such pictures as were in the
outside of the church.' ^
Following these records we thus come into the circle of
those friends who, in the year 1627, 'being together in
Lincolnshire fell into discourse about New England and
the planting of the Gospel there.' The times were growingly
serious. The storm of civil war had not yet burst over the
nation, but ominous signs of its coming were beginning to
darken the face of the sky. Within a few months Parlia
ment placed foremost among the nation's grievances Laud's
oppressive treatment of the Puritan party in the Church.
In an address to the king they speak of the general fear
existing among the people of some secret working and
combination to bring about ' a change of our holy religion
more precious unto us than our lives and whatever this
world can afford.' It is well known, they say, that to side
with Laud is the surest way to preferment in the Church ;
that the books and opinions of that party are suffered to be
printed and published while those in defence of the orthodox
religion are hindered and prohibited under colour of the
king's proclamation. Their fears are increased by the fact
that means have been sought out to depress and discoun
tenance pious, painful and orthodox preachers, how con
formable soever, and peaceable in their disposition and
carriage they may be. These, instead of being encouraged,
are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits, and are
hardly permitted to lecture, even in those places where
there are no constant preaching ministers.
This address of the Commons to the king throws light
on the distinctive character of the men who composed the
Puritan exodus which began in 1628, the year of the Peti
tion of Right, and ended for the most part in 1640 when
the Long Parliament came into power. These were not
Separatists by conviction as were the Pilgrim Fathers who
^ State Papers, Dom.

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 271
went over in 1620 ; but, while Puritans in doctrine, were
conformable Churchmen and loyal in their attachment to
the Church of England. They themselves were anxious
to emphasise this fact The ' Planter's Plea,' published in
1630 by one actively concerned in the movement, disavows
in the strongest terms the suspicion which had gone abroad
that ' under colour of planting a colony they intended to
raise and erect a seminary of faction and separation.' The
writer urges all men ' to forbear that base and unchristian
course of traducing innocent persons under these odious
names of Separatists and enemies to the Church and State.'
There can be no manner of doubt that the spirit of this
' Plea ' was that which from the first animated those settlers
who went out under the auspices of the Massachusetts Bay
Company. Francis Higginson went out in 1629, and, when
the vessel in which he sailed was off the Land's End, he
called his family, with some of the other passengers round
him, to take the last farewell look of the land they were
leaving and which they loved so well. Standing there, and
looking eastward till the coast-line faded out of sight, he
said : ' We will not say, as the Separatists were wont to
say at their leaving of England, " Farewell Babylon, farewell
Rome ; " but we will say, " Farewell dear England, farewell
the Church of God 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 in it ; but we go to practise the posi-^
tive part of Church reformation, and propagate the Gospel
in America.' John Winthrop also, and the company who
sailed with him in 1630, when on board the Arbella, sent
from Yarmouth a ' Humble request to the rest of their
brethren in and of the Church of England for the obtaining
of their prayers,' and desiring to be thought of by them
' as those who esteem it our honour to call the Church of
England from whence we rise, our dear Mother ; and

272 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
cannot part from our native country where she especially
resideth, without much sadness of heart and many tears in
our eyes, ever acknowledging that such hope and part as
we have obtained in the common salvation we have received
in her bosom, and sucked it from her breasts. We leave it
not, therefore, as loathing that milk wherewith we were
nourished there ; but, blessing God for the parentage and
education as members of the same body, shall always
rejoice in her good and unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow
that shall ever betide her.'
The Lincolnshire men who, in 1627, 'fell into discourse
about New England,' did not let the matter end in dis
course, but proceeded to decisive action. As a prehminary
step they entered into correspondence with men whom
they knew to be of like mind with themselves both in
London and the West. Those in the West were chiefly
in the neighbourhood of Dorchester, from which town a
private company of merchants had from 1623 onwards
sent out fishing vessels year by year to the coast near
Kennebec, and had landed fourteen men at Cape Ann
to establish a permanent station for the benefit of their
vessels. After a three years' trial this settlement was
abandoned and the partnership dissolved. John White, the
Puritan rector of Dorchester, saw in the failure of the
one enterprise the opportunity of starting another of a
more important kind. The first project of a Common
wealth of Massachusetts is said to have been started by
him, and it is possible that some letters of his led to that
conversation in Lincolnshire to which reference has been
made. The Dorchester Company being dissolved and their
settlement at Cape Ann broken up, some of the settlers
removed fifteen miles to the south-west to the Indian
village of Naumkeag, now better known under the name of
Salem. Some of the merchants were still of opinion that
something might be done with this place if the men who

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 273
had gone there were reinforced and cattle sent over to
them. The matter taking this new shape came to be discussed
afresh both in London and the West, and there were some
who offered to furnish funds if fitting men could be found
to engage their persons in the voyage. In the course
of inquiry they made the acquaintance of John Endicotty
a man well known to divers persons of good note, who
manifested much willingness to accept of the offer as soon
as it was tendered,' and who was destined to play an im
portant part in the future history of the enterprise. Little
is known of his antecedents except that he was a native of
Dorchester, born there in 1588, was a man of strong Puritan
convictions, and had attended the preaching of Samuel
Skelton, one of the ministers who afterwards went out in
1629. A leader thus being available a patent was obtained
from the Council of New England, March 19, 1628, by
which the Council ' bargained and sold unto some knights
and gentlemen about Dorchester, namely. Sir Henry Ros-
well, Sir John Young, knights, Thomas Southcoat, John
Humphrey, John Endicott and Simon Whetcomb, gentle
men, that part of New England lying between the Merri-
mac river and the Charles river on the Massachusetts Bay.'
The preliminary expedition being ready, on the 20th of
June, thirteen days after Charles I. had assented to the
famous Petition of Right, Endicott sailed from Weymouth
in the Abigail, Henry Gauden master, arriving at Naum
keag on the 6th of September following. He had with him
Charles Gott, Richard Brackenbury, Richard Davenport,
and some others destined for active service in the future,
and was entrusted by the company at home with full
powers to act in their name till they themselves, as they
intended, should follow.
So far as weather was concerned their voyage was
prosperous, but unfortunately their provisions having been
T

274 PILGRIM FATHERS OB NEW ENGLAND.
preserved in unwholesome salt, sickness began to prevail
among the passengers. Reaching land in disabled con
dition, and being but imperfectly housed on their arrival,
these emigrants, like those who went out to Plymouth nine
years before, began to die off one after another. Endicott in
his distress sent over to Plymouth to Governor Bradford for
help, having heard that Samuel Fuller, a deacon of the
Church and a physician, had ' cured divers by letting blood
and other means.' Fuller was at once sent to the rescue, and
his kindly work among the sick brought about a close friend
ship between the people of Plymouth and the new-comers
to Naumkeag — a friendship which resulted in a nearer
agreement on the question of the government of the Church.
Endicott's conversations with Fuller led to the removal
from his mind of certain false impressions as to what sepa
ration really meant. Writing to Governor Bradford on
May II, 1629, he says: 'I acknowledge myself much
bound to you for your kind love and care in sending Mr.
Fuller among us, and rejoice much that I am by him
satisfied touching your judgments of the outward form of
God's worship. It is, as far as I can gather, no other than
is warranted by the evidence of truth, and the same which
I have professed and maintained ever since the Lord in
mercy revealed Himself unto me ; being far from the
common report that hath been spread of you touching that
particular.' Endicott was bent on closer relations still,
..seeking Christian alliance which was to have important
ecclesiastical results in the future of Massachusetts, In
the earlier part of the same letter he says to Bradford : ' It
is a thing not usual, that servants to one Master and of the
same household should be strangers. I assure you I desire
it not, nay, to speak more plainly, I cannot be so to you.
God's people are all marked with one and the same mark,
and sealed with one and the same seal, and have for the
main, one and the same heart, guided by one and the same

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 275
Spirit of truth ; and where this is there can be no discord,
nay, here must needs be sweet harmony. And the same
request (with you) I make unto the Lord that we may, as
Christian brethren, be united by a heavenly and unfeigned
love ; bending all our hearts and forces in furthering a
work beyond our strength, with reverence and fear, fastening
our eyes always on Him that only is able to direct and
prosper all our ways.'
While feelings of brotherhood were thus springing up
between Endicott's advance party at Salem and the
Plymouth Plantation, the movement in favour of further
Puritan emigration to New England was daily growing
stronger at home. Endicott sent back a good account of
his voyage and of his first impressions of the country to
which he had come, and as a consequence more adven
turers were disposed to join in the undertaking. Men of
competent estate, feeling that they had no special employ
ment at honie and might be serviceable in planting a
colony abroad, came forward to help on the movement.
Others of their acquaintance, seeing men such as these of
good estate joining in the enterprise, were induced to join
also. Among the men of social standing thus attracted to
this undertaking were John Winthrop, of Groton, in Suffolk ;
Isaac Johnson, of Clipsham, in the county of Rutland,
who had married Lady Arbella, the sister of the Earl of
Lincoln ; John Humphrey, of the county of Kent, who
had married another sister ; Matthew Cradock, a wealthy
London merchant, who became one of the largest contribu
tors, and in after years a member of the Long Parliament ;
Thomas Goffe, also of London ; and Sir Richard Salton-
stall, of Halifax, nephew of another Sir Richard, who was
Lord Mayor of London in 1597.
These men bought of the first comers all their right and
interest on Massachusetts Bay acquired under the deed of
March 19, 1628, and being desirous to be something more
T 2

276 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
than a mere private trading company, sought for their
venture the authority of the Crown, so as to make good
their title, patents having from time to time been granted
in the most careless and contradictory fashion. An
important step forward was taken when, on March 4,
1629, a royal charter was obtained constituting the com
pany a legal corporation under the title of the ' Governor
and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.'
The corporation thus formed were to elect annually a
governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, who
were to hold monthly meetings, and in addition general
meetings four times a year. Matthew Cradock was elected
as governor, and one of the first things done after his
election was to create a second government to be re
sident in the colony itself, consisting of a governor,
deputy-governor, and twelve councillors, three of these
to be chosen by the planters whom Endicott found
in the colony when he arrived. The government thus
constituted was to be free from control on the part of the
Company at home, both in the matter of legislation and
the appointment of officers, as though its founders had
already in view the coming change when the Company
should no longer exist as a separate corporation, but
should be merged in the legislature of the colony itself
The ordinance by which it was created provided that
' they shall have full power and authority, and are hereby
authorised by power derived from His Majesty's Letters
Patent to make, order, and establish all manner of whole-
isome and reasonable orders, laws, statutes, ordinances,
directions, and instructions not contrary to the laws of the
realm of England ; a copy of which orders from time to
time shall be sent to the Company in England.' Land was
to be allotted, so that each shareholder should have two
hundred acres for every ;^50 he invested. If he himself
went over and settled in the colony, in addition to investing

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 277
his money, he was to have fifty acres more for himself and
fifty for each member of his family. Emigrants who were
not shareholders were to have an allotment of fifty acres,
and fifty additional for each servant exported ; the governor
and council to have power to grant more to such emigrants
' according to their charge and quality.'
Holding the question of the religious life to be of primary
importance, the Company did not overlook provision for the
spiritual needs of the new settlement in their arrangements.
In a letter to Endicott, April 17, 1629, acknowledging one
from him sent over the previous September, they say :
' For that the propagation of the Gospel is a thing we do
profess above all to be our aim in settling this plantation,
we have been careful to make plentiful provision of godly
ministers, by whose faithful preaching, godly conversation,
and exemplary life we trust not only those of our own
nation will be built up in the knowledge of God, but also
the Indians may in God's appointed time be reduced to the
obedience. of the Gospel of Christ' The three ministers
first sent out were Samuel Skelton, a Lincolnshire minister,
who was chosen because the Company had learnt that
John Endicott had formerly received much good from his
ministry; Francis Higginson, of Leicester; and Francis
Bright, of Rayleigh, in Essex. The Company, in sending
out these men, gave charge to Endicott to accommodate
them with necessaries, to build houses for them as soon as
convenient, ' and because their doctrine will hardly be well
esteemed whose persons are not reverenced, we desire that
both by your own example and by commanding all others
to do the like, our ministers may receive due honour.'
All that is known of Skelton, beyond his former con
nection with Endicott, is that he was of Clare Hall,
Cambridge, where he graduated in 161 1. Of Francis
Higginson we first hear at a meeting of the Company,
held March 23, 1629, when letters were read from Isaac

278 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Johnson describing him as an able man, as one ' approved
for a reverend grave minister, fit for our present occasions,'
and as willing to go to the plantation. On this John
Humphrey was requested to ride down to Leicester at
once, and if he found that Higginson could be ready to go
in the vessels about to start, and if his removal should be
consented to by the best affected of the people there, and
with the approbation of Mr. Hildersham, of Ashby-de-la-
Zouch, he was then and there to make arrangements with
him. These conditions being met, Higginson prepared to sail
from Gravesend on the 25 th of April. He was the son
of the vicar of Claybrook, in Leicestershire, where he was
born in 1587, and where after graduating at Jesus College,
Cambridge, in 1610, he was associated with his father as
curate. Eventually, however, he left Claybrook to become
the vicar of one of the five parish churches of Leicester.
Here, about the year 1627, he made a decided stand for
purity of fellowship by refusing to allow immoral persons
to come to the Lord's Table. His Puritan proclivities
soon made him a marked man with the Laudian party, and
being removed from his living for not conforming to the
ecclesiastical requirements imposed, the people of the town
maintained him by one of those lectureships in the Church
which were the special creation of the Puritan feeling of
the time. It was while he was thus engaged that John
Humphrey rode down to Leicester and had that conference
with him which ended in his consent to go to New England
at the request of the Company. His removal was felt to be
a grievous loss by the godly people of the town. In after
years his son John mentioned in a sermon that before
leaving England his father gave 'some account of his
grounds in a great assembly of many thousands at
Leicester ; ' and that when he and his family set out for
London, the streets were filled with people who with

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. VjC)
prayers and tears bade them farewell. The reasons for his
going he gave to the great assembly referred to were that
he approved of the patent of the Company, which granted
to the people the right to choose their own rulers, and to
admit into freedom such as they should think meet, and
further, because religion was the principal end aimed at in
the establishment of the plantation. A pamphlet of the
time, entitled General Considerations for the Plantation of
New England', ^ is said to be from" his pen. If so, it is
evident he thought the prospects of religious freedom at
home to be but dark and gloomy, and that it was the part
of a wise man to seek for shelter before the storm should
burst The Protestants of Bohemia, he thought, might
.serve as a warning, who sat still at home till the Palgrave
was defeated, the fires of persecution kindled, and the
Catholic religion thrust by force into the Palatinate. They
ought not to forget either that only last October the
Huguenots in Rochelle were reduced by famine and siege,
and their local privileges cancelled. Experiences like
these might well teach men to avoid the plague while it
was foreseen, and not wait till it was making havoc among
them. Even if the attempt to escape had miscarried, it
would not have been so disastrous as that backsliding and
abjuring the truth into which the Protestants of Bohemia
and their posterity were plunged. With these views
Francis Higginson decided to leave his fatherland and sail
for the West.
Five vessels were to take out him and the party sailing
with him — the Talbot, a good and strong ship of 300 tons,
carrying above a hundred planters and provisions for a
twelvemonth ; the George, another strong ship of 300 tons,
also carrying fifty-two planters and provisions ; the Lion's
Whelp, a ' neat and nimble ship of 120 tons,' carrying many
mariners and above forty planters specially from the town
' Reprinted in Young's Chronicles (Massachusetts), pp. 271-278.

28o PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
of Dorchester and the neighbourhood ; the Four Sisters,. of
300 tons, carrying more passengers with cattle and provisions ;
and, finally, the world-renowned Mayflower, which had thus
the honour of being concerned in the foundation of the
settlement of Massachusetts Bay as well as of that of
the Plymouth plantation. The Governor and Company, in
sending out this expedition, were much more generous in its
equipment than v/ere the Merchant Adventurers with the
settlers at Plymouth. Large supplies of clothing were
s:nt out, including 200 suits, doublets, and hose of leather ;
100 suits of northern ' dussens ' or Hampshire kerseys lined,
the hose with skins, the doublets with linen of Guildford or
' Gedlyman ' serges ; 300 plain falling bands such as had
taken the place of the great ruffs of Elizabeth's time ; 100
waistcoats of green cotton bound about with red tape ; 100
Monmouth capes and 100 leather girdles, besides hooks
and eyes for ' mandilions,' these being garments large and
full of folds, with which "gainst cold in night did soldiers
use to wrap.' Besides these quaint and picturesque 17th
century garments, there were provisions on board sufficient
for the voyage, and seeds and cereals for use when they
reached the other side, not forgetting rundlets of Spanish
wine, and casks of Malaga and Canary. Then besides
horses and cattle, fishing-nets and fowling-pieces, there
were equipments of military sort in case of need — drums,
ensigns, partisans and halberds, swords and belts, corselets,
pikes and half-pikes, bastard muskets with snaphances
without rests, and full muskets with matchcocks and rests ;
they also provided land ordnance for the five forts, including
culverins, demi-culverins, sakers and iron drakes, with stores
of powder and shot
As men were even of more importance than material,
those who were skilled in the making of pitch and salt,
and in planting vines, were enlisted in the service, William
Sherman having been allowed fourteen days to fetch his

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 281
vines from Northampton ; men also skilled in working iron,
and a surgeon and barber-surgeon were sent out alorig with
Thomas Graves of Gravesend, who appears to have been
a kind of universal genius, professing himself skilled and
experienced in the discovery and finding out of mines of
all sorts, iron, lead, copper, and mineral salt; in making
fortifications ; in surveying buildings, measuring lands and
describing a country by map. No wonder the Company
specially charged Endicott to take advice of this mati,
who had travelled in divers foreign parts, as to where it
would be best to settle down, fortify and build a town.
With these artificers and skilled men of various grades
the Company send over, they say, many religious, discreet,
and well-ordered persons to be set over the rest, dividing
them into families, placing some with the ministers, and
others under such honest men as shall see them well
educated in their general callings as Christians, and accord
ing to their several trades. They prudently remark that
where so many are being sent out, there may be, in spite of
all their care, some libertines among them ; if there are, let
them be corrected, and should they prove incorrigible, let
them be shipped back again in the Lion's Whelp when she
returns, for it is better to do that than to keep them in the
colony as a source of infection and an occasion of scandal.
' Above all,' they add, ' we pray you be careful that there
be none in our precincts permitted to do any injury in the
least kind to the heathen people ; and if any offend in that
way let them receive due correction.' Should any of the
Indians claim right of inheritance in any part of the lands
granted in the patents, ' we pray you endeavour to purchase
their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion.'
Further, ' to the end the Sabbath may be celebrated in a
religious manner, we appoint that all that inhabit the
plantation both for the general and particular employments
may surcease their labour every Saturday throughout the

298 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
and makes us believe and obey. I found great sweetness
therein, it shortened my way and lightened all such troubles
and difficulties as I was wont to meet with.'
As the times grew more and more ominous and men
were sent to the Tower or the Fleet for resisting an uncon
stitutional loan, or were harassed in the High Commission
Court for refusing conformity to what they deemed super
stitious worship, Winthrop began to fear for his country
and to think of leaving it In a letter to his wife in the
spring of 1629 he says : ' The Lord hath admonished,
threatened, corrected and astonished us, yet we grow worse
and worse. He hath smitten all the other churches before
our eyes, and hath made them to drink of the bitter cup of
tribulation even unto death. We saw this and humbled
not ourselves to turn from our evil ways .... I am verily
persuaded God will bring some heavy affliction upon this
land and that speedily. Yet He will not forsake us ;
though He correct us with the rods of men, yet if He take
not His mercy and loving-kindness from us we shall be
safe. He only is all-sufficient ; if we have Him we have all
things.' Further, for economic reasons, he was of opinion
that emigration had become a necessity. Even in those
days men were talking of surplus population in England.
Winthrop writes : ' This land grows weary of her inhabi
tants, so as man who is most precious of all creatures is
here more vile and base than the earth we tread upon, and
of less price among us than a horse or a sheep .... We
use the authority of law to hinder the increase of the people
as by urging a statute against cottages and inmates ; and
thus it is come to pass that children, servants, and neigh
bours, especially if they be poor, are counted the greatest
burdens, which, if things were right, would be the chiefest
earthly blessings. The whole earth is the Lord's garden
and He hath given it to the sons of men .... why then
should we stand striving here for places of habitation and

MASSACHUSETTS BAY&- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 299
in the meantime suffer a whole continent, as fruitful and
convenient for the use of man, to lie waste without any
improvement ? '
It may easily be supposed there were not wanting zealous
friends anxious to retain men like John Winthrop at home.
His neighbour, Robert Ryece, the Suffolk antiquary, pleaded
that ' the Church and Commonwealth here at home hath
more need of your best ability in these dangerous times
than any remote plantation.' He suggested that nothing
was easier than to be misled by fancy-drawn pictures of
foreign lands. ' The pipe goeth sweet till the bird be in the
net,' and his neighbour who is in the forties should remember
that ' plantations are for young men that can endure all
pains and hunger.'^ These pleadings, written August 12,
1629, came too late, for, under date July 28, John Winthrop
has the following entry : ' My brother Downing and myself,
riding into Lincolnshire by Ely, my horse fell under me in
a bog in the fens, so as I was almost to the waist in water ;
but the Lord preserved me from further danger — blessed
be His name.' This ride into Lincolnshire meant that he
had been to Sempringham or Tattershall Castle in earnest
conference with Isaac Johnson, John Humphrey, Thomas
Dudley and others of the Boston men, about the New
England scheme. On the 26th August he was one of the
twelve who signed the solemn agreement entered into at
Cambridge ; and, on the 20th October, he was, as we have
seen, chosen as the first governor to be resident in the
colony. On March 23, 1630, Winthrop and his associates sailed
from Southampton in four vessels ; the Arbella, the Jewel,
the Ambrose and the Talbot ; two others preceded
them in February and March, while ten others, including
the Mayflower among them, followed in May and June.
^ Life and Letters of John Winthrop. By Robert C. Winthrop.
Boston, 1864.

300 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Touching at Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight, on the 7th of
April they issued a document entitled ' The humble request
of his majesty's loyal subjects' to the rest of their Brethren
in and of the Church of England ' for the obtaining of their
prayers,' promising in return, ' so far as God shall enable
us, to give Him no rest on your behalfs, wishing our heads
and hearts may be fountains of tears for your everlasting
welfare when we shall be in our poor cottages in the
wilderness.' Leaving Yarmouth on the 8th of April, and
passing the Scilly Isles on the i ith, they reached land on
the American side on the 12th of June. The following
winter Thomas . Dudley wrote to the Countess of Lincoln
an account of their voyage and of what they saw when they
landed. He can only do it rudely, he says, ' having yet no
table, nor other room to write in, than by the fireside, upon
my knee, in this sharp winter.' Writing in this colonial
fashion he tells her that seventeen vessels had arrived safe
in New England, and that the four in which Winthrop and
his companions had sailed had made a long, troublesome
and costly voyage, being all wind-bound at starting and
hindered by contrary winds after they set sail, being
scattered with mists and tempests so that few of them
arrived together. They had scarcely lost sight of the
English coast when they descried from the mast-head
eight sail astern of them. They had been warned before
leaving Yarmouth that ten French vessels were waiting for
them, these surely Were they ! Preparations were at once
made for action ; Lady Arbella and the other women and
children were removed to the lower deck to be out of
danger, gun-room and gun-deck were cleared, hammocks
taken down, ordnance loaded, powder-chests and fireworks
made ready, every man was armed and written down for
his quarter ; ' and for an experiment our captain shot a
ball of wildfire fastened to an arrow out of a crossbow,
which burnt in the water a good time. All things being

MASSACHUSETTS BAY &- CONNECTICUT VALLEY, 301
thus fitted we went to prayer upon the upper deck. It was
much to see how cheerful and comfortable all the company
appeared ; not a woman or child that showed fear, though
all did apprehend the danger to have been great. Our
trust was in the Lord of Hosts and the courage of our
captain who tacked about and stood to meet them.' It was
a false; alarm ; the suspected enemies turned out to be
friends : ' so when we drew near, every ship (as they rnet)
saluted each other ; and so (God be praised) our fear and
danger was turned into mirth and friendly entertainment' ^
The rest of their adventures were for the most part such
as are usually met with on an Atlantic voyage; on the.
seventieth day out land was seen, on the seventy-second
day ' there came a smell of the shore, like the. smell of a
garden,' and on the seventy-sixth day, by Saturday the 12th
of June, the Arbella came to anchor a little within the
islands. The Pilgrim Fathers landed in the, depth of
winter, these their successors in the height of summer, and
' most of our people went on shore upon the land of Cape ¦
Ann which lay very near us and gathered store of fine
strawberries.' Winthrop, on landing at Salem, at once, assumed, office
as governor of the colony. It was a position of grave
responsibility, for something like a thousand persons were
added to its population about the time of his arrival, and a
second thousand came shortly afterwards, so that before
long there were from two to three thousand people with, 3
governor and legislature of their own, engaged in erepting
towns and villages and preparing the way for the great
republic that was to be. Moreover it was a time of sore
discouragement when the new governor entered upon his
office. ' We found the colony,' says Dudley, ' in a sad arid
unexpected condition, above eighty of them being dead
the winter before, and many of those alive baing weak arid ,
1 Winthrop's History of New England, i. 6, 7.

282 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
year at three of the clock in the afternoon ; and that they
spend the rest of that day in catechism and preparations
for the Sabbath as the ministers shall direct.' Finally, they
inform Endicott that they have agreed with Lambert
Wilson, the chirurgeon, that he is to remain in the service
of the plantation for three years, during which time he is
not only to be at the service of the planters themselves, but
also of the Indians, as from time to time he shall be
directed by the governor. He is also to educate and
instruct in his art one or more youths fit to learn his
profession and succeed him^ — one of these to be the son
of Francis Higginson the minister, if his father approve
thereof, the rather because having been educated at the
Leicester Grammar School he hath been trained in
literature. This general letter of April 17, 1629, was sent over along
with the Company's patent under the broad seal, and also
the Company's own seal in silver, which had engraved upon
it the figure of an Indian with the legend inscribed : ' Come
over and help us.' This letter was further supplemented
by one written at Gravesend four days later, while the
vessels waited there, in which the Company charge the
settlers that special care be taken that family prayer be
observed morning and evening, and a watchful eye be held
over all in each family, and so disorders may be prevented
and ill weeds nipped before they take too great a head. It
is well to begin well and let punishment follow infractions
of law, otherwise government will be looked upon as no
better than a scarecrow. Their desire is for lenity all that
may be ; but if necessity arise then the other thing is not
to be neglected, knowing that correction is ordained for a
fool's back. Finally, ' we heartily pray you that all be kept
to labour as the only means to reduce them to civil, yea,
a godly life, and to keep youth from falling into many
enormities which by nature we are all too much inclined to.

•' ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 283
God, who alone is able and powerful, enable you to this
great work, and grant that our chiefest aim may be His
honour and glory. Thus wishing you all happy and
prosperous success we end and rest.'
Thus equipped and thus instructed those who went out
in 1629 set forth, the George about the middle of April, the
Talbot and Lion's Whelp hoisting sail at Gravesend on the
morning of the 25th; and the Four Sisters and the May
flower following three weeks later. Francis Higginson,
who sailed in the Talbot, kept a journal, in which he
describes the usual experiences, sights and scenes of an
Atlantic voyage. They had, he says, a pious and Christian
like passage, having a company of religious, honest, and
kind seamen. The shipmaster and his men used every
night to set their eight and twelve o'clock watches with
singing a psalm and • prayer that was not read out of a
book.' They constantly served God, too, morning and
evening, by reading and expounding a chapter, singing and
prayer. The Sabbath also was solemnly kept by preaching
twice and catechising ; and in times of great need ' two
solemn fasts were observed with gracious effect.' Instruc
tion as well as delight they received in beholding the
wonders of the Lord in the deep waters, sometimes seeing
the sea round them appearing with a terrible countenance,
as it were full of high hills and deep valleys, and sometimes
as a most plain and even meadow. Gazing on all the ocean
sights and scenes new to a landsman, he exclaims : ' Those
that love their own chimney corner, and dare not go beyond
their own town's end, shall never have the honour to see
these wonderful works of Almighty God ! '
Writing back in September to old friends in Leicester
who were purposing to come out and join the settlement,
he advises them as to what they ought to bring for the
voyage and for use in the colony. It will be wise for them
to look ahead, ' for when you are once parted with England

284 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
you shall meet neither with taverns nor alehouse, nor
butchers', nor grocers', nor apothecaries' shops to help what
things you need in the midst of the great ocean, nor when
you are come to land ; here are yet neither markets nor
fairs to buy what you want.'
On arriving at Salem, the name now given to Naum
keag, the three ministers entered at once into conference
with Endicott and the rest of the godly people as to the
ecclesiastical future of the colony, explaining that for
themselves they desired to see a Reformed Congregation.
They then learnt what had already taken place as the
result of Samuel Fuller's visit and influence, and how the
people had seen their way to the adoption of those church
principles in operation in the Plymouth plantation. Both
Higginson and Skelton seem to have agreed with the
course already taken, while Francis Bright dissented, and,
being unwilling to work with them, removed to Charlestown.
Three weeks after they had landed, a solemn day of fasting
and prayer was set apart for the choice of a pastor and
teacher. Some time having been spent in prayer, certain
questions were then propounded to Higginson and Skelton
as to their views of a minister's calling. They replied that
they held that calling to be twofold — first the inward, or
God's calling, by which the man was endowed with the
necessary gifts and his heart moved to desire the work ;
next the outward call which comes from God's people,
when a company of believers are joined together in cove
nant to walk together in the ways of God, and when the
men thus gathered have a free voice in the choice of their
officers. These views being regarded as satisfactory, the
brethren proceeded to election in the freest possible manner,
except that the voting was confined to the men. Each
duly qualified member wrote on a slip of paper the name
of the man whom the Lord moved him to think to be fit
for a pastor, and in like manner whom he would have for

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 285
teacher. The votes being counted, it was found that
Skelton was chosen as pastor and Higginson as teacher,
the difference between the two being explained when John
Eliot tells us that 'Mr. Skelton being farther advanced
in years was constituted as pastor of Salem Church, Mr.
Higginson the teacher.' The difference in office was thus
mainly a question of seniority. Among the abuses charged
against the Puritans during Bishop Neile's primary visitation
of the diocese of Lincoln in 1614 was that precedence was
given to ministers in preaching and at table according to
age rather than university degree — 'after the German
fashion the elder minister is held more worthy.' The two
ministers having signified their acceptance of the choice
thus made of them, they were then commended to God in
prayer in the following manner : ' first, Mr. Higginson, with
three or four of the gravest members of the church, laid
their hands on Mr. Skelton, using prayer therewith. This
being done, there was imposition of hands on Mr. Higginson
also.' Charles Gott, who came over to Salem with Endicott
in 1628, wrote to Governor Bradford an account of these
proceedings, which took place on the 20th of July, concluding
his letter by saying : ' And now, good sir, I hope that you
and the rest of God's people (who are acquainted with the
ways of God) with you, will say that here was a right
foundation laid, and that these blessed servants of the Lord
came in at the door and not at the window.'
The service thus described seems like a re-ordination of
men already ordained ; but the probability is that it was
not so regarded by the men themselves. The following
year a similar service was held in the case of Mr. Wilson,
who was chosen as the minister of Charlestown, and con
cerning which Winthrop writes : ' We used imposition of
hands, but with this protestation by all, that it was only as
a sign of election and confirmation, not of any intent that
Mf. Wilson should renounce his ministry he received in

286 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
England.' ^ Morton, in his Memorial, speaks as if the
ordination of Higginson and Skelton took place on the 6th
of August, not on the 20th of July, and that Governor
Bradford and some others from Plymouth who intended to
be present, ' coming by sea were hindered by cross winds
that they could not be there at the beginning of the day ;
but they came into the assembly afterward, and gave them
the right hand of fellowship, wishing all prosperity and
all blessedness to such good beginnings.' It is probable,
however, that Gott's account is the more accurate of the
two, and that, as he tells us, the 6th of August was appointed
for another day of humiliation for the choice of elders and
deacons and ordaining of them ; and when the two ministers
gave their assent publicly to the Confession and Covenant
which they themselves had drawn up beforehand.
This 6th of August being observed as a day of fasting
and prayer, there were sermons and prayers by both
ministers, and towards the end of the day the Confession
and Covenant were solemnly read and assented to. It was
clearly stated at the time, however, that these were only
acknowledged as a direction pointing unto that faith and
covenant contained in the Scriptures, and therefore no man
was held to be bound by the mere form of words, but only
to the substance, end, and scope of the matter contained
therein. Mather, in his Magnalia (I., 18), gives us this
covenant made at Salem, in which they covenant with the
Lord and one another to walk together in all His ways so
far as He reveals Himself to them in His Word, and this
through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
avouching the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be
His people in the truth and simplicity of our spirits ; to
give themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ to be governed
by Him, resolving to cleave unto Him alone for life and
' Winthrop's History of New England, 1630-1649. Edited by
James Savage, 2 vols. Boston, 1853.

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 287
glory, and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and con
stitutions of men in His worship ; to walk with their
brethren in all brotherliness, avoiding jealousy, suspicion,
and censure ; to avoid all occasions of dishonouring Christ
in the church ; to study the advancement of the Gospel in
all truth and peace, not slighting sister churches, but taking
counsel of them as need shall be ; to carry themselves in
all lawful obedience to those that are over them in church
and commonwealth ; to approve themselves to the Lord in
their worldly callings, shunning idleness as the bane of any
State, and not to deal hardly or oppressively with any ;
and, finally, promising to the best of their ability to teach
their children and servants the knowledge of God and of
His will that they may serve Him also. This covenant
thus accepted that day, and afterwards renewed on special
occasions from time to time, became the basis of church
fellowship, some being admitted into the church by ex
pressing their assent thereto, others by answering questions
publicly propounded, or by presenting the substance thereof
in writing, or by giving their religious experience and
conviction in their own way.
The step thus taken was however not taken unanimously,
as after events showed. Francis Bright, one of the three
ministers sent out, withdrew, and went to Charlestown ;
and two members of the Council, John and Samuel Browne,
' men of estates and men of parts and port in the place,'
openly expressed their dissatisfaction that the ministers did
not use the Book of Common Prayer, did not administer
the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper with the
ceremonies usually observed in England, and had expressed
their intention of denying admission to the Lord's Table
of scandalous persons. Proceeding from protest to action,
they gathered a company for worship separate from the
public assembly, conducting the service according to the
order of the Book of Common Prayer, Endicott, as

288 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Governor, seeing that disturbance was growing out of this,
summoned the two brothers before him. In the course of
their examination they charged the two ministers with
departing from the orders of the Church of England, and
with being Separatist.s, who would soon become Ana
baptists. Skelton and Higginson made answer that they
were neither Separatists nor Anabaptists, that they were
not separating from the Church of England, or from the
ordinances of God therein, but only from the corruptions
and disorders which had sprung up in that Church in
recent years. They had come away from their native
land, they said, after suffering much on behalf of their
convictions, that they might get away from the Prayer
Book and the ceremonies, and being now in a place where
they could have their liberty, they neither could nor would
use them, judging as they did that the imposition of these
things was a sinful corruption of the worship of God.
Having duly weighed this answer, the governor and
council and the generality of the people did well approve
thereof, and finding John and Samuel Browne very resolute
in a course tending, as they believed, to mutiny and faction,
they plainly told them that New England was no place for
them ; and, acting upon this conviction, shipped them back
to England the same year, the two brothers breathing out
threatenings as they went.
The course thus pursued by Endicott and the council in
this case, and the similar proceedings taken at Plymouth
in reference to Lyford and Oldham, as well as by Governor
Winthrop in later years, have again and again been con
demned as intolerant, and as grossly inconsistent on the
part of men who had themselves fled from intolerance
at home. But as so impartial an historian as Professor
Gardiner has pointed out,^ their own religious liberty would
have been in danger if a population had grown up around
' History of England, vol. vii. 156.

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 289
them ready to offer a helping hand to any repressive
measures adopted against them by the Government at
home. As he truly says, the objection to toleration on the
part of the men of New England was not merely intel
lectual. The question as it presented itself to them at
that particular time was not whether they were to tolerate
others, but whether they were to give to others the oppor
tunity of being intolerant to themselves. The cases,
therefore, are not parallel between a strong government
harrying out of the land a little community of con
scientious men, far too weak to be dangerous, and that
little community fighting as for dear life to guard the
liberty which has cost them so much, and which might
easily be taken from them again.
On the surface of the narrative it seems strangely incon
sistent that the men who went out to New England witL
Endicott in 1628, with Skelton and Higginson in 1629,.
and, if we may anticipate for a moment, with Winthrop^
in 1630, while expressing themselves with such ardent
affection towards the Church of England, and such dislike
of Separatism as they did when they left the old country,
should so soon have made the fundamental changes in
church life we find they did. The explanation is not to
be found altogether from their having come into the near
neighbourhood and under the influence of the Separatists
of Plymouth Plantation. John Cotton, who went out in
1634, speaking of the church at Salem as organised under
Endicott, Skelton, and Higginson, writes thus : ' How far
they of Salem take up any practice from Plymouth I do
not know. Sure I am that Mr. Skelton was studious ot
that way before he left Lincolnshire.' He adds that those
who really knew the spirit of these men 'would easily
discern that they were not such as would be leavened by
vicinity of neighbours, but by the divinity of the truth of
God shining forth from the Word.' The real explanation u

290 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
lies deeper. First, it must be noticed that the men them
selves never admitted or supposed that, in making the
changes they did, they ceased to be Church of England
men. In a brotherly explanation they gave to friends at
home, they granted that on going into exile they began to
search and try their ways, and came to see that some
things which in the beginning of their ministry they had
regarded as matters of indifference, or had practised with
out serious thought, when weighed in the balances of the
sanctuary had not sufficient warrant in the Word of God to
justify them in establishing them under new conditions in
a new country. It must also be remembered that the
whole question of episcopal government had not at that
time taken the definite position in the Church of England
which it has since assumed. The most prominent bishops
and divines of the early part of Elizabeth's reign were in
close sympathy and friendly intercourse with the Swiss
Reformers, and it is well known that under the influence
of Cartwright great numbers of the clergy were in favour
of a Presbyterian form of church government, and even
proceeded to set up that system openly in the parish
churches of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. Even
while practising Presbyterianism, they none the less claimed
to belong to the National Church. Till the time of Laud
himself the doctrine of the divine right of episcopacy was
a comparative novelty, received by a minority only even
among Churchmen themselves. It was first broached
by Bancroft, in his sermon at Paul's Cross in 1588, was
even by him suggested rather than asserted, and that
rather as an anti-Puritan polemic to the claim to divine
right which was being made for Presbyterianism than as
expressing the matured and solid conviction of the main
body of Churchmen. When Lord Burleigh referred Ban
croft's statement to Dr. Hammond, then chancellor of the
diocese of London, for his opinion, in a letter still in

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 291
existence, he replied that the authority of bishops was
derived solely from the statute passed in the twenty-fifth
year ofthe reign of Henry VIII., and recited in the first
year of Elizabeth's reign ; that it was not reasonable on
their part to make any other claim ; and that ' if it haid
pleased Her Majesty with the wisdom of the realm to have
used no bishops at all, we could not have complained
justly of any defect in our Church.' ' Long years after
this when Laud himself, in his exercise for the degree of
B.D. at Oxford, took up the position that ' there could be
no true Church without diocesan bishops,' Heylin tells us
that he was ' shrewdly rattled ' by Dr. Holland, the Regius
Professor of Divinity, ' as one that did cast a bone of
discord betwixt the Church of England and the Reformed
Churches beyond the seas ; ' and his thesis was denounced
as ' a novel Popish position.' Dr. Washburn, an American
episcopal clergyman of our own day, who would naturally
regret the setting aside of episcopacy in the early New \
England churches, yet candidly admits that ' there was !
not one leading divine from Hooper to Hooker who ever '
claimed more than historic and primitive usage as the
ground of episcopal authority, or pretended that it was of ^
the essence of a Church. . . . Not only so, no notion of an p.
exclusive episcopacy, even to later times, when Bancroft
and Laud had naturalised it, gained footing as a Church
principle.' ^
As with the question of episcopal government so with
the use of the Prayer Book, the wearing of the surplice and
the practice of various ceremonies ; they contended that
these were still open questions and that the views they
held on these points were more in accordance with the
principles of the Reformation than were those of their
opponents ; that in fact they were the true representatives
1 Hatfield MSS., Nov. 4, 1588, No. 754-
^ Epochs in Church History. By Dr. E. A. Washburn, p. 120.
U 2

293 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
of the National Church of England. It must be noted
farther that they had adopted two principles in relation to
church life which carried them further in the direction of
Separatism than they themselves were aware of. In reply
to their brethren in England they contended that Chris
tian character was indispensable to church life. Francis
Higginson, as we have seen, even in Leicester days had
made a stand for purity of fellowship, and refused to allow
immoral persons to come to the Lord's Table ; and in New
England they acknowledged that their practice differed
from that ofthe Reformed Churches in that 'we receive to
our churches only visible saints and believers ; in common
with many good men we desire all separation of the
precious from the vile. This day hath discovered what
kind of people are to be found everywhere in the parishes
*• of England. Can light and darkness, Christ and Belial
agree together ? Popish and Episcopal enemies cleave
together in our church of Christ with the saints of God.'
The second principle which carried them further in the
direction of Separatism than they realised grew out of the
first ; it was that of ' giving discipline as well as other
ordinances to particular churches, not subjecting them to
any government out of themselves, but only to take the
brotherly counsel and help of one another.' ' If,' said they,
'the Church be pure and have such officers as the New
Testament requires, we need not fear to betrust the Church
with that power which we conceive Christ hath given
to the same, other churches watching over them and
counselling them in the Lord. The reforming the material
of a church and the recalling of the power of government
to the church tends much to further the work of reforma
tion, and in no way hinders the same.'
Thus while they protested they were not Separatists,,
but heart and soul true Church of England men, they had
adopted the two main foundation principles on which

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 293
Separatism was based, viz. that to be true members of a
Christian Church men must be Christians, and if they are
Christians they are illuminated by the Spirit of God, and
therefore capable of self-government The difference between
the men of Salem and the men of Plymouth lay in this/
that the former retained the State-church principle in spirit,
the latter did not. When Francis Higginson was desired to
draw up a Confession of Faith, seeing that the wilderness
in which they were might be looked upon as a place of
liberty and they might in time be troubled with erroneous
spirits, 'therefore they did put in one article into the
Confession of Faith on purpose about the duty and power
of the magistrate in matters of religion.' This principle
once adopted was in after years extended. John Cotton
contended for a scriptural theocracy. To secure the best
legislation they deemed it right to limit the political
franchise to men of consistent religious character, united
'in church fellowship. Church-membership was made the
essential pre-requisite to citizenship, and the formation of
churches came under the direct supervision of the civic
authority. Discipline was no doubt for the most part
observed in the Christian society without external inter
ference, but when the censures of the Church were dis
regarded, the State stepped in and imposed the penalty of
political disfranchisement, fine or imprisonment. In this
way came about the troubles and intolerance of a later
time. But during the period between 1629 and 1634 this
was not foreseen, and the men who acted with Endicott,
Skelton and Higginson contended that the course they
took was the only course possible to them. It had become
impossible for them to remain at home. ' Was it not a
time when human worship and human inventions were
grown to such an intolerable height that the consciences of
God's saints, enlightened by the truth, could no longer bear

294 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NL W ENGLAND.
them ? Was not the power of the tyrannical prelates so
great that, like a strong current, it carried all down stream
before it ? Did not the hearts of men generally fail them ?
Might we not say, " This is not our resting place ? " We
might, no doubt, have remained at home and found a way
to have filled the prisons, but whether we were called to
that when there was an open door of liberty placed before
us we leave to be considered. The Lord Himself knew
the motives which animated us in going abroad. He that
seeth in secret and rewardeth openly knew what prayers
and tears had been poured out to God, by many alone, and
in days of fasting and prayer, by God's ser\'ants together
for His counsel, direction and blessing in this work. Many
longings and pantings of heart had there been in many
after the Lord Jesus to see His goings in the sanctuary ;
and this liberty of New England we have looked upon
and thankfully received from God as the fruit of these
prayers and desires.'

( =95 )

XI.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND CONNECTICUT VALLEY.
Already two bands of settlers had gone out to Massa
chusetts in 1628 and 1629 ; a still larger expedition was to
follow in 1630. But there was an important preliminary
question to be settled. Those who composed the Massa
chusetts Bay Company were not content that it should be a
mere trading adventure, having its headquarters in London,
and liable at any time to be interfered with by the Crown.
The vision of a Free State across the sea invested with
'the prerogatives of self-government rose before them as a
possibility to be realised. But how to realise it without
arousing the ever-watchful jealousy of Laud and the king
was the difficulty which at once presented itself This
difficulty was met by the adoption of a resolution which, on
the face of it, appeared innocent enough, but which meant
more than appeared. At a general court of the Company,
held July 28, 1629, the governor, Matthew Cradock,
suggested that for the purpose of inducing persons of
worth and quality to transplant themselves and their
families to the new settlement, and for other weighty reasons
not mentioned but perfectly well understood, it was expe
dient to ' transfer the government of the plantation to those
that shall inhabit, and not to continue the same in sub
ordination to the Company here as now it is.' This
important matter was, after due debate, left till the next
meeting to each man's private consideration, the strictest
secrecy to be observed meanwhile. Before that next
meeting, however, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Winthrop,

296 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Thomas Dudley, Isaac Johnson, and eight other governors
met privately at Cambridge and bound themselves by
written agreement, ' on the word of a Christian and in the
presence of God, who is the searcher of all hearts,' that
they would be ready by the 1st of March to embark them
selves and their families for the plantation, provided that
by the end of September the whole government of the
plantation's patent be by order of the court legally trans
ferred and established to remain with those who shall
inhabit the plantation. This was on the 26th of August,
and three days later, at a formal court of governors, the
provision thus laid down was agreed to by general consent •
and an order to that effect drawn up. The practical result
of this order was to place the entire control of affairs in the
hands of the ten members of the Company, who were them
selves going out to the colony, and therefore interested in
its future.
As Cradock was not going out, it was necessary under
this arrangement to choose as governor some one who was.
Therefore, at a court held on the 20th of October, ' having
received extraordinary great commendations of Mr. John
Winthrop both for his integrity and sufficiency,' he was,
*with a general vote and full consent of this court, by
erection of hands, chosen to be governor for the ensuing
year, to begin on the present day.' The election thus made
speedily justified the expectations formed of it, and was
repeated no fewer than eleven times in the after-history of
the colony. Governor Winthrop is one of the great names
in American history, taking its place in their temple of fame
side by side with that of Washington himself. Descended
of an ancient and honourable family in Suffolk, he was
born at Groton Manor-house, near Sudbury, in 1588.
Trained to the law, a member of the Inner Temple, and
subsequently one of the attorneys of the Court of Wards
. and Liveries, he was at the same time a typical example of

MASSACHUSETTS BAY &' CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 297
the grave and earnest country gentleman of Puritan times.
Sorrowful experience of life had in his case chastened to a
deeper seriousness a nature early inclined to serious thought,
for when only twenty-eight he was for the second time left
a widower with six motherless children. His third marriage
with Margaret Tyndal, in 1618, brought into his home the
brightness and charm of sweet Puritan womanhood at a
time when his spirit had become too sombre for so young
a man. Early in life, when only ten years old, he had, he
says, some notions of God, prayed to Him in danger, and
' found manifest answer ; ' at twelve ' began to have some
more savour of religion, and thought he had. more under
standing in divinity than many of his years ;' and at
eighteen, under the ministry of Ezekiel Culverwell, the
Word came home to him with power, he having found
only light before. Now came he 'to some peace and
comfort in God and in His ways ; loved a Christian and
the very ground he trod upon ; honoured a faithful minister
in his heart and could have kissed his feet ; had an insati
able thirst after the Word of God, and could not miss a
good sermon though many miles off, especially of such as
did search deep into the conscience.' As his character
matured his cheerfulness increased : ' Now could my soul
close with Christ and rest there with sweet content, so
ravished with His love as that I desired nothing nor
feared anything, but was filled with joy unspeakable and
glorious, and with a spirit of adoption could now cry " My
Father" with more confidence.' When riding along the
country roads to London ' it pleased God that I now made
great use of my time both in praying, singing, and medi
tating with good intention and much comfort ; my meditation
being often as to how the Spirit of God reveals the love of
God to us and causeth us to love Him again ; how He
unites all the faithful in deed and in affection ; how He
opens our understanding in the mysteries of the Gospel

302 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
sick, all the corn and bread amongst them all hardly suffi
cient to feed them a fortnight.' The-new comers therefore
had from the first to feed the settlers out of their stores as
well as themselves. Winthrop came to be looked upon as
tlie Joseph unto whom the whole of the people repaired
when their corn failed them ; and the story was told in
after years how that, six months after his arrival, as he was
in the act of giving out to a poor man the last handful of
meal in the barrel, a ship with stores arrived at the harbour's
mouth. A hundred and eighty bond-servants also, who had
been brought out by Endicott at a cost of from £\6\.o ;^2o
each, had to be set at liberty for the simple reason that food
could not be found for them.
Like other colonists since their time, Winthrop and his
companions found, on their arrival, that the reports which
had reached them at home had been too highly coloured.
Dudley speaks of the ' too large commendations of the
country and the commodities thereof He says also :
' Salem, when we landed, pleased us not ; ' since this was
the case, further explorations were made about the bay,
with the result that the people planted themselves dis-
persedly, some at Charlestown on the north side of the
Charles river, others at Boston on the south side ; others
again at Medford, Watertown, Roxbury and Dorchester.
Winthrop himself settled first of all at Charlestown, but
presently his new timber-house was transferred across the
river to Boston, which, in a kind of informal way, became
from that time the capital. Within a year of their arrival
there were no fewer than eight separate settlements dotted
along the shores of the bay from Salem to Dorchester,
Watertown, five miles up the river from Charlestown, being
the farthest settlement.
During that year heavy sorrows befell the little com
munity. Winthrop's own son, Henry, was accidentally
drowned at Salem, and under date September 30th the

MASSACHUSETTS BA Y &- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 303
governor has this sorrowful entry : ' About two in the
morning Mr. Isaac Johnson died ; his wife, the Lady Arbella,
of the house of Lincoln, being dead about one month before.
He was a holy man and wise and died in sweet peace,
leaving some part of his substance to the colony.' Of
Lady Arbella, Cotton Mather quaintly says that she left
an earthly paradise to encounter the sorrows of a wilderness
for the entertainments of a pure worship in the house ot
God ; and then left that wilderness for paradise, taking
New England on her way to heaven. Earlier also in the
same month Francis Higginson, to their great grief, was
taken from them, and also William Gager, ' a right godly
man, a skilful chirurgeon, and one of the deacons of the
congregation.' Dudley estimated that of those who came
over no fewer than two hundred passed away between
April and December. Some also returned home, but the
rest remained brave and undaunted. Winthrop, writing to
his wife, piously says : ' The Lord is pleased still to humble
us ; yet He mixes so many mercies with His corrections,
as we are persuaded He will not cast us off, but in His due
time will do us good, according to the measure of our afflic
tions. He stays but till He hath purged our corruptions,
healed the hardness and error of our hearts and stripped us
of our vain confidence in this arm of flesh, that He may
have us rely wholly upon Himself . . . We may not look
at great things here. It is enough that we shall have
heaven, though we should pass through hell to it We
here enjoy God and Jesus Christ. Is not this enough ? I
do riot repent my coming ; and if I were to come again, I
would not have altered my course, though I had foreseen
all these afflictions.'
As the plantation grew to be a state, and various towns
arose, the problem of government for a scattered community
came to be dealt with. The legislature at first was, as we
have seen, that of the general court of the Massachusetts

3P4 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Bay Company transferred to New England. The first
movement was in the direction of an oligarchical govern
ment. For in October, 1630, the legislative rights were
transferred from the court of the freemen to the governor,
deputy-governor and assistants, and at the same time the
election of the governor was handed over from the freemen
to the assistants.^ This tendency to centralisation was .
checked, as it has been again and again in our history by
the pecuniary needs of government In the month of
August, 1630, the authorities learnt from recent vessels
coming from London and Amsterdam, that the French
were making preparations of hostile kind against the coloiiy.
It was resolved, therefore, to erect frontier fortifications at
Newtown, to pay for which a tax of £60 was assessed upon
each of the various settlements by order of the governor
and his assistants. When the levy came to be made at
Watertown, the freemen there objected on the old sub
stantial constitutional ground that Englishmen cannot.be
rightfully taxed, except with their own consent, and they,
maintained that the power to tax and to make laws is
properly vested in the whole body of freemen. These men
of Watertown seem not to have been unreasonably stubborn,
for on being summoned to Boston and admonished, they
withdrew their opposition. Still their protest was the
manifestation of the independent spirit which in the next
century brought about the Revolution, and even at the time
was not without important results. For the following year
the powers of government were more formally defined, and
it was enacted by a general court that the whole body of
freemen should elect the governor, deputy-governor, and
assistants. There was also an extension of self-government .
in the arrangement that every town should send two repre
sentatives to advise the governor and assistants on the ,
question of taxation. These changes following upon the
' Records, i, 79. , /

MASS A CHUSETTS BAYSr' CONNECTICUT VALLE Y. 305
Watertown protest may have been merely a coincidence,
but were more probably a consequence.
During 1633, no further change in the government seems
to have been made ; but in 1634 the freemen in each town
elected three representatives, who, twenty-four in number,
presented themselves at the general court, demanded to see
the patent, and maintained that by that instrument the
power of making laws was vested in the whole body of
freemen. The governor, on the other hand, pleaded that
those who framed the patent had never contemplated so
large a body of freemen, and that the colony did not
possess the necessary materials for a house of deputies.
This conference was not in vain. Before the court broke
up the representatives of the freemen had obtained full
powers of election and legislation ; and henceforth there
were to be four courts a year, at one of which the whole
body of freemen were to elect the officers of their little
commonwealth ; and at the other three the representatives
of the various towns were to legislate, make grants of land,
and transact other necessary public business.
About the same time another question arose, which, in
miniature, was not unlike that which arises as to the
respective powers of the Lords and Commons in the
English Parliament. The relations between the governor
and assistants on the one hand, and the deputies from the
various towns on the other, and also the distribution of
power between them, had remained undefined. At first
they all sat in one chamber and deliberated together ; but
in 1634 the two bodies came into conflict upon a project
voted upon, on which it appeared that of the deputies
twenty to five were in its favour, while it was negatived by
the assistants, of whom only two besides the governor
supported it. Then arose, of necessity, the question as to
the legislative powers of the two bodies, and as to whether
the consent of both was necessary to a valid enactment X

3o6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
The question was, however, set at rest the following year
for a while by the assistants giving way to the views of the
deputies. While freedom was slowly broadening down in one
direction it was being seriously narrowed in another. A
law was enacted disastrous alike both to religion and
politics, the consequences of which were felt for many years
to come. With the view of securing Christian government
in the state, it was decided no man should be a freeman of
the colony unless he were a member of some church. Then
after church-membership was thus made a necessary quali
fication for voting at town meetings, an Act was passed
granting to the towns the right of dividing their lands,
electing constables and surveyors, and of enforcing their
orders by a fine of twenty shillings. So that non-church
members were practically disfranchised, and yet absolute
control of their secular interests was handed over to men
whose one qualification was that they happened to be in
church fellowship. Here was the problem of state and
church in its acutest form — on the one hand offering
unworthy inducements to a religious profession, and on the
other creating an element of bitterness and discontent in
the colony. Non-members of churches were not excluded
from the territory, or relieved of the oath of allegiance
or freed from civic duty, but their citizenship was unjustly
maimed and incomplete. It is not difficult to forecast the
result of such an arrangement.
Still, states as well as men have to learn by their mistakes,
and in spite of mistakes the Massachusetts Company steadily
prospered. By the year 1634 nearly four thousand English
men had come over, and some twenty villages on or near
the shores of the bay had been founded. Permanent houses
and bridges were erected ; roads and fences made ; farms
were beginning to be remunerative, an increasing trade in
timber, furs and salted fish was being carried on with the

MASS A CHUSETTS BAY& CONNECTICUT VALLE Y. 307
mother country, and 4000 goats and 1500 head of cattie
were grazing in the pastures. In other directions also
progress was being made. Political meetings were held,
justice was administered by magistrates after English pre
cedents ; and religious services were conducted by a score
of ministers who were men of education — ^nearly all of them
graduates of Cambridge or Oxford, and most of them
having held livings in the Church of England. It is
estimated that between 1630 and 1639 the number of
university men who went to Massachusetts from the mother
country had increased to between sixty and seventy, three-
fourths of these remaining within that colony, and that by
1647 their number had mounted up to at least ninety.
These men conserved the interests of religion and learning
till the colleges of Harvard and Yale commenced their
great career, and thus in New England life ' the guiding
and directing force was supplied by an element which was
itself moulded on the banks of the Cam and the Isis, under
the influence and refinements of the best culture which the
England of that day could give.' ^
Not only were the leaders of the colony men of university
training but also men of strong individuality of character
and native force. We have already seen the sort of men
Winthrop and Endicott and Johnson were, it will be
instructive and interesting to come into the company of
others of the makers of New England. Foremost among
these stands the name of John Cotton, a native of Derby,
where he was born in 1585, and who at the early age of
thirteen entered Trinity College, Cambridge, from which
he migrated to Emmanuel, of which he became fellow and
tutor. At twenty-three he made a reputation by the funeral
sermon in Latin he preached for Dr. Some, Master of
Peterhouse. Like John Robinson he was one of those
* The Influence of the English Universities in the Development of
New England. By Franklin B. Dexter. X 2

3o8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Cambridge men who came under the powerful spiritual
influence of William Perkins, the Puritan preacher at St
Mary's. This influence for a while he tried to resist,
smothering his convictions from a fear that if he became a
godly man it would spoil him for being a learned man.
God's truth was, however, mightier than he, and through
great storm and struggle of soul, he came forth at length
one of the most spiritual, as well as one of the most intel
lectually able preachers of his time. In 1612 he entered
upon a sphere of service worthy of his powers, for in that
year he became vicar of the noblest parish church in
England, that of St Botolph, whose lofty tower is at once
the landmark and the pride of Boston town. From the first
he impressed men with a sense of power, some evidence of
which comes to us from official sources. Among the
manuscripts in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of
Lincoln Cathedral there has been preserved a description
by a contemporary of the primary visitation of the diocese
by Bishop Neile in 1614, which is interesting as giving life
like sketches of the men and the time, and as setting John
Cotton before us as he was when he had been two years
vicar of Boston.^ The account was probably drawn up by the
bishop's registrar as the bishop went through the different
archdeaconries of the diocese, which at that time extended
from the Humber to the Thames, the visitation being held
at seventeen different centres. At Luton Mr. Rawlinson
preached an eloquent and excellent sermon, but was ' too
curious in assigning the place of the body of Elijah before
the coming of Christ ; ' at Huntingdon Mr. Hearne preached
'a very acute and witty sermon 'on three sorts of slug
gards, but after dinner there was ' no table-talk tending to
divinity ; ' at Leicester there was a plain sermon, apparently
too plain, urging preachers ' to particularise the faults of
' There is an abridged copy of this document in the British Museum.
Addl. MSS. 5853, ff. 249 sq.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY&- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 309
their parishioners in the pulpit,' and ' the day's conference
was to no great purpose ; ' at Melton Mowbray, as has
sometimes been the case elsewhere, 'the text was more
proper to the business than the sermon,' and the 'table-
talk was not of divinity ; ' at Kirton there was ' a nimble
and censorious sermon,' but no conference at dinner ; at
Market Rasen ' a good plain sermon ' but ' a very mean
clergy ; ' at Louth there were ' many grave and learned
ministers,' too grave indeed, for they were ' all silent ; ' at
Horncastle the ' concio prima ' was ' a very sweet and
¦ eloquent sermon, very handsomely applied to the combina
tions of the times against the clergy; the second was 'a
discreet sermon and well approved,' for the preacher, being
led by his text to deal with some neglects of the clergy,
' he very discreetly delivered that point in Latin.'
From Horncastle the bishop proceeded to Boston, where
the preacher was John Cotton, whom the registrar describes
as ' a young man, but by report a man of great gravity and
sanctity of life, a man of rare parts for his learning, elo
quent and well-spoken, ready upon a sudden, and very
apprehensive to conceive of any point in learning though
never so abstruse, insomuch that those his good gifts have
won him so much credit and acceptance, not only with his
parishioners at Boston, but with all the ministry and men
of account in those quarters, that grave and learned men,
out of an admiration of those good graces of God in him,
have been, and upon every occasion still are, willing to
submit their judgments to his in any point of controversy,
as though he were some extraordinary Paraclete that could
not err.' Our informant seems to have had a very con
siderable taste of his quality. He says, ' Mr. Chancellor
and myself heard three of his sermons in two days, which
three were six hours long very near.' The sermons were
well conceived, were delivered modestly and soberly, and
well worthy of all commendation ; but, alas ! nothing in

3 1 o PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGL A ND.
this world is perfect : ' there was mors in alia ' — death in
the pot — ' every sermon to our judgements was poisoned
with some error or other.' In one sermon he maintained
that the Pagan world would not be condemned for want of
belief in Christ, but only for moral transgressions against
the law of nature written in their hearts ; in another he
contended that the office of apostle was extinct in the
Church ; that it was a flat error to think any man a lawful
minister who was not a preacher ; ordination did not make
such a man a minister, though God's terrible providence
might set him over His people in His anger and heavy
displeasure, but not in mercy ; he further taught that
reading was not preaching ; that nori-residence was utterly
unlawful ; that it was not lawful to let the Sabbath pass
without two sermons ; and that by the order of deacons in
the Bible was meant neither more nor less than collectors
for the poor.' Clearly registrar and chancellor thought
that here was a man who needs watching ; he is too
modern and is in doubtful company : ' his authors he is
most beholding to (I understand) are of the newest stamp,
and the place of his dwelling stands better affected to this
way than the other.' In conclusion, this official compas
sionates the people of Boston — as well he may — over their
Sunday afternoon service. For they have prayers with
psalms after the lessons ; after the second lesson a psalm
is sung, which is followed by a sermon two hours long;
then another psalm, after which the parish clerk calls out
the children to be catechised, each one / answering aloud
as they used to do at a sessions with an Here, Sir.' After
this call there is a long prayer by the minister of the town,
and then come the questions * out of a catechism of his own
making,' and, finally, he spends two hours more in expli
cation of questions and answers ; so, says our informant,
' if they keep the same tenour all the year, their afternoon
worship will be five hours long, where, to my observation.

MASS A CHUSETTS BAY &- CONNECTICUT VALLE Y. 311
there were as many sleepers as wakers, scarce any man but
sometime was forced to wink or nod.'
In the course of time complaints were lodged against
Cotton in the Bishop's Court at Lincoln, and he was
silenced for a while, but again restored. Altogether he was
vicar of Boston for twenty years, and during much of the
time seems to have enjoyed more than the usual liberty.
For he openly held and taught that, according to the Scrip
ture, bishops were appointed to rule no larger a diocese
than a particular congregation, and that the keys of eccle
siastical government are given by the Lord to each separate
church. What is more noteworthy still, within the larger
parish community a gathered church was set up, some
scores of pious people in the town forming themselves into
an evangelical church-state by entering into covenant with
God and with one another, ' to follow after the Lord in the
purity of His worship.' This larger liberty was perhaps
due to the fact that from 1621 onwards John Williams was
Bishop of Lincoln, a man who had himself considerable
leaning to Puritan modes of thought, and, like his succes.sor,
Dr. Laney, ' could look through his fingers,' and who, from
162 1 to 1626, being Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, left his
diocese very much to take care of itself But, as jealous
eyes were set on the bishop himself, in 1625 he called John
Cotton's proceedings in question, and a letter, still in exist
ence, in the minute and beautiful handwriting of the vicar,
asks for further time for consideration on the points at
issue, ' inasmuch as his forbearance of the ceremonies was
not from wilful refusal of conformity but from some doubt
in judgement and from some scruple in conscience.' Sign
ing himself, ' Your Lordship's exceedingly much bounden
orator, John Cotton,' he adds to the address on the outside,
' This with speed.' ^
Much exercised in mind, John Cotton took counsel
Addl. MSS. e'ig^,i. 35-

312 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
of various friends as to whether he ought to stand or
flee. Among others he put the case before that quaint
and witty old Puritan, John Dod of Fawsley, who answered,
suo more, ' I am old Peter, and therefore must stand still
and bear the brunt ; but you, being young Peter, may go
whither you will.' His enemies, however, growing more
resolute, and a long and sore sickness laying him low, on
July 8, 1633, he resigned his important charge into the
hands of the bishop, seeing, as he says, that neither his
bodily health nor the peace of the Church will now stand
with his continuance there. As to how he has speiit
his time and course he must ere long give account at
another tribunal, but he takes leave to say to his lord
ship that the bent of his course has been 'to make and
keep a threefold Christian concord among the people —
between God and their consciences, between true-hearted
Christian loyalty and Christian liberty, and between the
fear of God and the love of one another.' He honours the
bishops and esteems many hundreds of the divines of the
Church, but, while prizing other men's judgment and
learning, their wisdom and piety, in things pertaining to
God and God's worship, he feels he must live by his own
faith, not theirs. Therefore, since he cannot yield obedience
of faith, he is willing to yield patience of hope. At an
assembly held in the old Guildhall in Boston on the 22nd
July, before the mayor, aldermen and common council, two
letters were laid before the house — one from John Cotton
yielding up his place of being vicar, which the House
accepted, and one from John, Lord Bishop of Lincoln, by
the hands of Thomas Cony, the town clerk, stating that on
the 8th July the said lord bishop did, at his house in the
College of Westminster, accept of Mr. John Cotton's resig
nation of his vicarage. So ended the most memorable
ministry Boston has ever known. The resignation was
followed by the issue of writs, and if John Cotton meant to

MASS A CHUSE TTS BAY&- CONNECTICUT VALLE Y. 313
leave the country it must be at once. So, travelling in
disguise, he made his way to London where John Daven
port, the vicar of St Stephen's, concealed him till he could
get away to New England, which he reached on the 4th
September, and where, on the loth October, he was
solemnly set apart as the colleague of John Wilson in the
pastorate of that other Boston church across the sea.
This John Wilson, with whom John Cotton was thus
associated, was a son of a prebendary of St. Paul's, and
grand-nephew of Archbishop Grindal, and while at King's
College, Cambridge, had shown the serious bent of his
. mind by visiting with religious intent the prisoners in the
county gaol. At the same time he was strongly prejudiced
against the Puritans, declining their acquaintance as men
of odd notions, whims and crotchets. Happening, however,
one day to see in a bookshop the Seven Treatises of
Richard Rogers, he was so struck with the book as to
take a journey to Wethersfield to hear the author preach.
From that time he changed his mind about the Puritans,
consorted with men of that way of thinking, and held
meetings with them in his own rooms for prayer and
conference. Acting thus he soon came under the censure
of the bishop as visitor of the University, when his father,
to avoid trouble, turned him aside to the Inns of Court for
his future. Though thus diverted from his course his desires
were still towards the Gospel ministry, and eventually he
returned to Cambridge, entering Emmanuel College, the
very centre and seed-plot of Puritanism. On leaving
Emmanuel he became chaplain to Lady Scudamore, but
having rebuked her ladyship's guests one Sunday for
talking about nothing but hawks and hounds after the
morning sermon, he was felt to be undesirable company.
We next find him at Sudbury, the successor of a veteran
Puritan in the ministry there, but being harassed in the
ecclesiastical courts, he made common cause with his

3 1 4 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND.
neighbour John Winthrop of Groton, and sailed for New
England with him in 1630.
While Wilson and Cotton were serving the Church at
Boston, across the river at Charlestown might be found
Zachary Symmes, who, after being harassed by Sir Nathaniel
Brent during his Metropolitical Visitation, had resigned his
charge at the Priory Church of Dunstable in Bedfordshire,
and came over to New England in company with Peter
Bulkely, the founder of Concord and one of Emerson's
ancestors. Bulkely also was from Bedfordshire, where he
had succeeded his father as rector of Odell, on the banks
ofthe Ouse. The brother-in-law of Oliver St. John, after
wards Cromwell's attorney-general, and of good family,
finding himself pressed both at Bedford and Aylesbury by
Sir Nathaniel Brent, he joined the Puritan emigration, taking
with him some £6000 — equal to about ;£'30,ooo of present
value — and making his way ' through unknown woods ' he
purchased from the Indians the land on the banks of the
Merrimac, and so became the founder and first minister of
that town of Concord which has figured so largely in the
intellectual life of New England.
Dorchester, a few miles out of Boston, was favoured with
the able ministry of Richard Mather, who after many
earnest struggles of soul had made his way to the Puritan
standpoint Having for fifteen years served as minister of
Toxteth, near Liverpool, he was in 1633 suspended for
nonconformity to the ceremonies. The remainder of his
life was spent in the ministry of the Church across the sea.
His son. Increase Mather, was one of the presidents of
Harvard College ; and his grandson. Cotton Mather, in his
Magnalia Christi Americana, has preserved for us the
ecclesiastical records of the colony during the first eighty
years of its history.
To the north of the new Boston, in the town of Lynn,
was another native of the Lincolnshire Boston in the

MASSACHUSETTS BAY &= CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 315
person of Samuel Whiting, whose father was once mayor of
the town. After leaving Emmanuel College he acted as
chaplain to Sir Nathaniel Bacon, and then became the
colleague of Mr. Price, of Lynn, where his service was
interrupted through complaints made to the Bishop of
Norwich of his nonconformity to certain rites and cere
monies, which, says Cotton Mather, were never of any use
in the Church of God except to become tools by which the
worst men might thrust out the best from serving it.
Cited before the Court of High Commission, proceedings
were suddenly dropped through the death of King James
before the case came on. By the intercession of the Earl
of Lincoln the matter was allowed to rest there, on the
understanding that Whiting would leave the diocese, which
he did, and for the next seven or eight years exercised his
ministry at Skirbeck, near his native town. Proceedings,
however, were renewed against him, and he too in 1636 left
for New England. The spirit of the man may be discerned
from the sermon he preached shortly after his arrival : ' We
in this country,' says he, ' have left our near and our dear
friends, but if we can get nearer to God here. He will be
instead of all and more than all to us. He hath all the
fulness of all the sweetest relations bound up in Himself,
and we may take out of Him that which we forsook in
friends near and dear to us as our own soul.'
Among the early authors of New England and one
whose ministry was among the most spiritually fruitful, was
Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge. A native of Towcester,
in Northamptonshire, he, like so many other of the Puritans,
was of Emmanuel College. After proceeding Master of
Arts, he was invited by the inhabitants of Earis Colncy in
Essex, to be their lecturer, where he produced such an
impression by the ' majesty and energy in his preaching,
and the holiness of his life,' that when he left the country,
many of those whom he had been the means of turning to

3 1 6 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
a Christian life 'afterwards went a thousand leagues to
enjoy his ministry ,'^n other words, followed him to New
England. While in Essex he was within the jurisdiction
of Laud, then Bishop of London, who, summoning him
into his presence, dealt with him in much the same stormy
fashion as Judge Jeffreys, half a century later, dealt with
the Nonconformists who appeared before him. Shepard
has described the interview, which took place as early as
eight o'clock in the morning, and at which Laud was so
angry that he ' looked as though blood would have gushed
out of his face, and did shake as if he had been haunted
with an ague fit.' When Shepard sought to mollify the
irate bishop, he called him a prating coxcomb, asked him if
he thought that all the learning was in his brain, and finally
prohibited him from exercising any ministerial function
within his diocese. ' If you do, and I hear of it,' said he,
' I will follow you wherever you go, in any part of the
kingdom, and so everlastingly disenable you.' When
Shepard besought him not to deal so in regard of a poor
town. Laud exclaimed — ' A poor town ! You have made
a company of seditious, factious bedlams. Do not prate to
me of a poor town.' Yet once more the Puritan preacher
pleaded that if he might neither preach, read, marry nor
bury, he might at least be suffered to catechise on Sunday
afternoons ; but Laud, telling him he might spare his breath,
for he would have no such fellows prate in his diocese,
bade him begone. ' So away I went,' says Shepard, ' and
blessed be God, I may go to Him.'
Journeying from place to place in other dioceses, and
enduring many hardships, he at length made his way over
to New England, where he became the pastor of a church
organised shortly after his arrival at Newtown, afterwards
known as Cambridge, the congregation consisting largely
of members of his former flock, who had followed him
from Essex. Here he remained exercising a memorable

MASSACHUSETTS BAY&- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 317
spiritual influence till his death in 1649, and Cotton Mather
tells us that one of the reasons for establishing Harvard
College at Cambridge was that the preachers there to be
trained might be brought under the enlightening and
powerful influence of Shepard's ministry.
> Another name of even still greater eminence in New
England Puritan history is that of the saintly pastor of
Roxbury, John Eliot, the apostle of the Indians. Little is
known of his previous history in the old country beyond
the fact that he was a graduate of Cambridge in 1622,
and was for a time assistant in a school kept by Thomas
Hooker at Little Baddow, near Colchester. Threatened
with proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts, he also made
his way over to New England in 1631, and, after serving
the church in Boston, in the absence of John Wilson, he
became the honoured and beloved minister of Roxbury,
near by, till his death in 1690, at the advanced age Of
eighty-six. A man of deep prayerfulness of spirit, he
seemed, as it was said, to live in heaven while he tarried
on earth ; and while he tarried, to ring aloud the curfew
bell wherever the fires of animosity were kindled. His
ministry- to his own countrymen did not prevent him
putting forth his energies, as the words of the Massachusetts
Bay Company's charter expressed it, ' to win and incite the
natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of
the only true God and Saviour of mankind and the Christian
faith.' Miserable, degraded, and unpromising as the Indians
were, he learnt their language, reduced it to grammatical
form, and at the end of his grammar wrote that 'prayers
and pains through faith in Christ Jesus will do anything.'
Able after a time to preach in their language, he gathered
a church of converted Indians in 165 1, and gave them the
Bible in their own tongue, some copies of which still
remain, though no one living now can read them. Increase
Mather, writing to Dr. Leusden, of Utrecht, in 1687, stated

3i8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
that there were then no fewer than six churches of baptised
Indians and eighteen assemblies of catechumens professing
the name of Christ ; that among the Indians themselves
there were no fewer than four-and-twenty native preachers,
in addition to the four English ministers, who could preach
in the native tongue. The people, influenced for good by
this apostle of Roxbury, came to be distinguished as the
' praying Indians,' and such was the reputation for saint-
liness of this good man, that there was a New England
saying to the effect that the country would never perish
while Eliot lived. The story of John Eliot's life-work
revived the spirit of Richard Baxter even when his soul
was in departing. Raising himself once more, he said : ' I
know much of Mr. Eliot from letters I have had from him,
and there is no man on earth I honour more. This evan
gelical work of his is the apostolical succession I plead for ;
his departing words I make my own : "My understanding
faileth, my memory faileth, my tongue faileth, but my
charity faileth not." '
The limit of these pages will not permit more than
passing reference to many other worthies who did much to
mould the new community to which they came — Peter
Hobart, born at Hingham, in Norfolk, and who founded
that other Hingham, where in its own beautiful grounds,
and amid leafy surroundings, still stands the oldest meet
ing-house in New England ; Charles Chauncey, from the
Hertfordshire Ware, who had to face fierce fires in the
Ecclesiastical Courts of his native land before he left it ;
Nathaniel and Ezekiel Rogers, the sons of two memorable
men of Puritan fame ; John Fisk, John Avery, John Norton
and Jonathan Burr ; and last, but not least, John Harvard,
who, dying childless, bequeathed his library and half his
estate to endow the great College which bears his name.
When this College was founded by a General Court in
1636, danger seemed to threaten the colony from the

MASSACHUSETTS BAY&- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 319
Indians, from the Home Government, and from internal
theological dissension. As we find from the Colonial
Papers, Laud, with unresting vigilance, was busily drawing
up minutes on matters of Colonial administration which
boded no good to the cause of freedom. As early as 1635
the colonists were alarmed by a declaration from the king
announcing his intention of placing the New England
colonies under a governor appointed by himself. Two
years later another declaration was issued, and it might
have gone ill with the liberties of Massachusetts but for
the outbreak of that Scotch rebellion, which not only
rejected Laud's Episcopacy and Service-book, but altered
the whole aspect of national affairs on both sides of the sea.
In 1638, when a strict order came to send back the Massa
chusetts charter to England, to be replaced by a new one,
the increasing troubles arising from the attitude of the
Scottish people towards Episcopacy more than anything
else made that order of none effect.
As the colonists received allotments of land more and
more widely, it began to be necessary for the settlement to
look farther afield. The fame of the great Connecticut
river valley had reached the people at the Bay, and began
to excite expectation among the planters. Agents were
sent out to report, and in 1636 there was a considerable
migration a hundred miles to westward. Those who came
from Cambridge formed a church at Hartford, those from
Dorchester at Windsor, those from Watertown at Wethers
field, and those from Roxbury at Springfield. The man
who had most influence in directing this westward move
ment was Thomas Hooker, a native of Leicestershire and
Fellow of Emmanuel, who had been settled at Chelmsford
as lecturer and assistant. While here it is said ' his lecture
was exceedingly frequented and proportionately succeeded,
and the light of his ministry shone through the whole
county of Essex.' Pressed for his nonconformity to cere-

320 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
monies in which he did not believe,- he laid down his
ministry and commenced a school at Little Baddow, where
he had John EUot as his usher. Eliot has told us what the
spiritual atmosphere of Thomas Hooker's house was like :
' Here the Lord said unto my dead soul — Live ! and
through the grace of Christ, I do live, and I shall live for
ever. When I came to this blessed family I then saw and
never before the power of godliness in its lively vigour and
efficacy.' Still further harassed. Hooker went over into
Holland, but hearing that some of his Essex friends were
taking wing to New England, he joined them at their
request, and eventually came to be prominently identified
with the migration to the Connecticut valley.
In June, 1636, when the river had become free from ice
and the woodland meadows offered pasture, the Cambridge
congregation, a hundred or more in number, led by Thomas
Hooker, taking with them 1 60 head of cattle and sending
their furniture and supplies round by water, made their
way to the new settlement. It was a migration not so
much of individuals as of churches, and the first comers
being followed by others from Dorchester, Watertown, and
Roxbury, by the following May 800 people were living at
Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield — ^Springfield being
settled later on. In 1636 the municipal independence of
the three townships was recognised ; the following year
the colony advanced to representative government by a
meeting of deputies or committees for the different town
ships, and in 1638 the three towns together formally
declared themselves a commonwealth. The legislature
was to consist of a governor, six assistants and deputies,
the governor and assistants to be elected annually by the
whole body of freemen met in General Court for that pur
pose. In one important point the constitution of Con
necticut was more liberal than that of Massachusetts,
inasmuch as the governor was the only person from whom

MASS A CHUSE TTS BAY&- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 321
church-membership was required. All freemen who had
been admitted by a majority of their township, and had
taken the oath of fidelity to the commonwealth, had the
right of voting both for deputies and at the General Court
of Election.
At the opening session of the General Court of 1638,
Thomas Hooker preached a forcible sermon, in which he
maintained that the foundation of authority is laid in the
free consent of the people, that the choice of public magis
trates belongs unto the people by God's own allowance,
and that they who have power to appoint officers and
magistrates have the right also to set the bounds and
limitations of the power and place unto which they call
them. This of Connecticut has been described as the
first written Constitution known to history that created a
government, and as having marked the beginning of that
American democracy of which Thomas Hooker more than
any other man deserves to be called the father ; the govern
ment of the United States to-day being in lineal descent
more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to that of
any of the other thirteen colonies.^
The establishment of these settlements in the Connecticut
valley had the sorrowful result of bringing the Enghsh for
the first time into serious conflict with the Indians, For
this new plantation was really an outpost projecting into
the territory of a powerful and warlike tribe. Three years
before Hooker's migration, complications had already arisen
through the murder of a crew of traders by the Pequot
Indians. Sassacus, their chief sachem, promised the govern
ment at Boston to deliver up the murderers, but had
evidently no intention of doing so. Then again in the
summer of 1636 the Indians on Block Island murdered
John Oldham and seized his vessel. By way of teaching
these savages that such conduct was not to be endured,
' Fiske's The Beginning of New England, p. 127. Y

3 2 2 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLA ND.
three vessels were sent out under the command of Endicott,
who ravaged Block Island, burnt their wigwams, and sunk
their canoes, the men themselves having taken to the
woods. Then crossing to the mainland to reckon with the
Pequots, they demanded the surrender of the murderers
about whom so many promises had been made. Unable
to obtain satisfaction, they attacked the Indians, killing
several of them, seizing their ripe corn and burning and
spoiling what they could not carry away. As war breeds
war again, this expedition of Endicott's led to reprisals,
>vhich fell heaviest upon the new-comers into the valley,
who had taken no part in that expedition.
Next winter the Connecticut towns were kept in a per
petual state of alarm. Men going to their work were killed
and horribly mutilated. One Wethersfield man was kid
napped and roasted alive, after which the Pequots attacked
Wethersfield itself, massacring ten of its inhabitants and
carrying off two English girls to the woods. Goaded to
desperation, the settlers sought help from Boston and
Plymouth, and ninety men were sent out under the com
mand of John Mason. One brilliant moonlight night in
May, 1637, they made for the Pequot stronghold. This
was an entrenched fort or walled village containing 700
Pequots, and girdled by an earthen rampart three feet
high, and a palisade twelve feet high made of sturdy
saplings set firm and deep into the ground. At opposite
ends were two openings barely large enough to let a man
pass through, and within this enclosure of two or three
acres were the crowded wigwams. A little before daybreak
both entrances were occupied and the place taken by
complete surprise. Seized with panic, the Indians tried to
escape through first one outlet and then the other, but' were
ruthlessly shot down whichever way they turned. Mean
time firebrands were thrown over the palisade among the
wigwams, and soon the whole place was in flames, the

MASS A CHUSETTS BA Y &- CONNECTICUT VALLE Y. 523
savages perishing in their burning dwellings. Of 700
Pequots only five escaped with their lives, while of the
Enghsh only two were killed and sixteen wounded. The
tribe was all but wiped out of existence. Never had the
Indians heard of so terrible a vengeance, and never again
till the time of King Philip's war, eight-and-thirty years
later, dared the Indian lift his hand against the white man.
The overthrow of the Pequots removed the one obstacle
to the consolidation of New England. The Connecticut
settlements were no longer isolated, separated from their
friends along the coast by the intervention of barbarous
tribes, but were brought into direct communication with
the rest of the English from the mouth of the Connecticut
river to Boston Bay. The rest of the Pequot Indians, to
the number of some 200 warriors with their families,
submitted to the English in 1638, and at a conference
held at Hartford, in September, were divided between the
Mohicans and the Narragansetts. So that the conditions
were now reversed, and the Indian tribes in their turn
detached and hemmed in, and the way prepared for that
last wave of migration which brought to an end the great
Puritan exodus from England to America.
About a month after the storming of the Pequot strong
hold, this last detachment, consisting of a company of
wealthy London merchants with their families, arrived in
Boston. The two most prominent men among them were
Theophilus Eaton, a member of the Massachusetts Bay
Company, and John Davenport, the pastor of this migrating
community. The two men had known each other before
they came together in this enterprise, for Eaton was the
son of the minister and Davenport the son of a former
mayor of Coventry. After graduating at Oxford, Daven
port obtained the living at Coleman Street, London, where
his preaching attracted both public attention and official
surveillance. When charged to Secretary Conway with
Y 2

324 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
being puritanically affected, he denied the charge, saying,
' I have persuaded many to conformity — yea, my own
father and uncle,"who are aldermen of the city of Coventry,
and were otherwise inclined.' ^ In 1628, writing to Lady
Mary Vere, he tells her of the troubles gathering round
him ; the new Bishop of London, Dr. Laud, has a particular
aim at him, and he expects ere long to be deprived of his
pastoral charge in Coleman Street. 'But I am in God's
hands,' says he, ' not in theirs ; to whose good pleasure I
do contentedly and cheerfully submit myself. If it be His
will to have me laid aside as a broken vessel. His will be
done.' ^ In later years we find him explaining his position
to this same lady : ' The truth is, I have not forsaken my
ministry, nor resigned up my place, much less separated
from the Church ; but am only absent awhile to wait upon
God for the settling and quieting of things, for light to
discern my way ; being willing to lie and die in prison, if
the cause may be advantaged by it ; but choosing rather
to preserve the liberty of my person and ministry for the
service of the Church elsewhere. . . . The only cause of
my present suffering is the alteration of my judgment in
matters of conformity to the ceremonies established ;
whereby I cannot practise them as formerly I have done ;
wherein I do not censure those that do conform. I know
that I did conform with as much inward peace as now I do
forbear ; in both my uprightness was the same, but my
light different. In this action I walk by that light which
shineth unto me.'
From 1634 till 1637 we find him in Holland, but in the
latter year one of the informers of the time reports : ' Mr.
Davenport hath lately been in these parts, Braintree, and at
Hackney, not long since. I am told that he goeth in gray
like a country gentleman.' ^ When spies were thus on his
» State Papers, Dom. 2 ^^y^^ MSS., 4275.
' State Papers, Dom.

MASS A CHUSETTS BAY &- CONNECTICUT VALLE Y. 325
track clearly he must go ; we learn, therefore, that he arrived
in Boston by the ship Hector, June, 1637. In concert with
his friend Theophilus Eaton, whom Winthrop describes as a
man ' of fair estate and of great esteem for religion and
wisdom in outward affairs,' he spent some months in seeking
the best site for a new settlement This they found at
length at Quinnipiack, on Long Island Sound, where they
made two successive purchases of land extending eight
miles north-east and five miles south-west of the river and
running ten miles inland. In this way the town of New
Haven came to be founded in the spring of 1638. The
next year two other parties of emigrants, each forty in
number, and each, like New Haven, joined together as an
independent church, settled at Guildford and Milford, both
settlements placed on lands purchased from the Indians.
In 1640 Stamford on the mainland was added to the group,
and in 1643 the four towns were made to constitute the
republic of New Haven, to which Southold, on the western
shore of Long Island, and Branford were afterwards added.
With the advent to power of the Long Parliament in
1640, and the consequent downfall of Archbishop Laud, the
reason for the Puritan exodus ceased, and the exodus itself
came to an end, Since the arrival of the Mayflower in
1620, the population had grown to 26,000 souls, and after
1640 for more than a century there was no considerable
migration to this part of North America. These twenty
years and these 26,000 people constitute the formative
period and the determining element of New England and
American life. Those who believe in a philosophy of
history and seek to trace it in the course of events cannot
fail to see the special significance of the time. The Dutch
had already erected Fort Amsterdam on the island at the
mouth of the Hudson, which was afterwards to bear the
great commercial city of New York. The French had
settled at Port Royal, in Nova Scotia, and had established a

326 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
trading post with the Indians at Quebec. If, therefore, the
power of England and the English spirit of freedom were
to become dominant on the great continent of America, the
beginnings must be made during the years with which we
have been dealing. Not less significant were the men than
the time. Those who came over were almost without
exception deeply religious men. It has been truly said
that it was religious enthusiasm that secured the preponder
ance of the continent for men of the English race. As
England grew in manufacturing skill and in commerce
through the coming of the Huguenots whom religious
persecution drove on to English soil, so the great republic
of the West feels to this day the coming of the moral and
religious influence of the men who, in the seventeenth
century, valued freedom of conscience as their most sacred
possession. The pick and flower of the nation from which
they came, their spirit still lives. Had the emigration not
started when it did, the solid and godly element there is in
American life would not have been what it is. On the
other hand, had that emigration continued longer, had
England been depleted to exhaustion of her noblest blood,
as France was when her Huguenots were banished or slain,
her great struggle for constitutional freedom in the seven
teenth century might have ended other than it did. That
would have been a calamity not for England alone but for
the world. It has been well said that the decisive victory
of Charles I., the triumph of Stuart despotism, would have
been like the Greeks losing Marathon or the Saracens
winning Tours.

( 327 )

XII.
THE UNITED COLONIES.'
Having followed the rise of the colonies round Massa
chusetts Bay and in the Connecticut Valley, we may now
return to see how the people of the Plymouth Plantation
were faring meanwhile. Since the year 1627, when De
Rassieres paid the visit he himself described, the settlers
seem to have been steadily prospering, if we may judge
from the fact that in the autumn of 1632 they held a
thanksgiving festival, at which they rejoiced ' in an especial
manner ; ' this, too, in spite of ' a plague of mosquitoes
and rattlesnakes.' The colony was already beginning to
spread beyond its original boundaries ; for as their cattle
increased the people moved farther and farther in search
of pasturage. At first these visits were mere summer
sojourns, but eventually they led to the erection of
dwellings where the winter could be spent, and to the
grief of Governor Bradford issued in the separation of
many from the parent settlement In 1632 permission
was given for the organisation of a church nearer home for
those who had thus moved some five miles to the north,
of which church Elder Brewster was to have the oversight ;
but the court at Plymouth, which granted this permission,
insisted that settlers so far distant from the protection of
the fort on Burial Hill should be every man of them
armed. As an additional precaution against surprise
their houses were palisaded, and a line of defence was
built across the entrance of the Nook.

328 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Though not incorporated till 1637, Duxbury thus came
to be the first offshoot of the Plymouth stock, and received
its name as a reminiscence of Miles Standish's ancestral
seat in Lancashire, the Duxbury Hall, not far from
Chorley town. To this new settlement, for the sake of
more fertile land, several of the leading men of the colony
migrated from Plymouth, as there are memorials to
remind us. On Captain's Hill, seen for miles both from
sea and land, stands the lofty column of Miles Standish's
monument In a field in North Duxbury, not many
minutes' walk from the high road, we come upon an
inscription which tells us that here stood John Alden's
house — that John Alden who wedded Priscilla Mullins
the maiden who, as the legend goes, when he first went to
plead Miles Standish's suit, witchingly asked : ' Prithee,
why don't you speak for yourself, John ? ' William
Brewster, too, was among those who moved their dwellings
into Duxbury, and natives of the town say that till recent
time there were to be seen traces of the tall clump of
whitewood trees that gave the name of the Eagle's Nest
to the place where his homestead stood. Others, again,
of those who started from London in the Mayflower
have left traces of themselves in Duxbury, in such names
as Blackfriar's Brook, Billingsgate, and Houndsditch,
which- they had brought with them from their former
home. Edward Winslow obtained possession of land even
beyond Duxbury, at Greenharbour, known afterwards as
Marshfield, though as he was governor in 1644 he does
not seem to have altogether severed his connection with
Plymouth. So that of those who had signed the compact
on board the Mayflower, Miles Standish, William Brewster,
John Alden, John Howland, George Soule, and Henry
Sampson had migrated to Duxbury ; as did also, among
those who came later, Brewster's son Jonathan, William

THE UNITED COLONIES, 329
Collier, and Thomas Prince. Governor Bradford mourned
over these changes and losses, inevitable in a changing
world, but at length consent was reluctantly given for
the incorporation of the new settlement as the town of
Duxbury, the court making a grant which ran, after the
manner of the time, ' to be holden of our sovereign lord
the king as of his manor and tenure of East Greenwich
in the county of Kent.' ^ With the incorporation of the
town came the settlement of its first pastor, Ralph Part
ridge. Marshfield was the next church organised, which
was followed by Scituate, Barnstable, Taunton, Yarmouth,
and Sandwich, so that Plymouth Colony at the time it
entered into the New England Confederacy consisted of
eight separate towns.
The relations between the dwellers in this the old
colony and those of the Massachusetts Bay, being all
Englishmen, were naturally of friendly sort. John Cotton,
in his farewell sermon to John Winthrop and his associates
at Southampton, urged them to take advice of those
already at Plymouth, and do nothing to offend them. We
have seen also how Samuel Fuller, the good physician,
went over to the help of the people of Salem in time of
sickness ; and when at a later time John Winthrop's people
also were sorely stricken the colonists at Plymouth, at
their request, observed the same day as a day of fasting
and prayer on their behalf ; and as their neighbours grew
in numbers and strength Governor Bradford rejoiced with
them, pointing out ' how of small beginnings great things
have been produced by His hand that made all things of
nothing and gives being to all things that are ; and as one
small candle may light a thousand, so the light here
kindled hath shone to many, yea, in some sort to our
whole nation. Let the glorious name of Jehovah have all
the praise.' During the years between 1630 and 1643
1 The Mayflower Town. By Justin Winsor.

330 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
letters of friendship were interchanged and visits paid. In
1629, as we remember. Governor Bradford and his friends
went over to the ordination service at Salem ; and the
week after the arrival of Margaret Winthrop, Bradford
paid a visit of congratulation to ' his much-honoured and
beloved friend,' her husband, the Governor of Massa
chusetts. On his part, too, John Winthrop reciprocated
the kindness shown, for we find him lending the people of
Plymouth twenty-eight pounds of powder 'upon their
urgent distress, their own powder proving naught, when
they were to send to the rescue of their men at Sowam-
sett.' ^ In the month of September, 1632, also, as Winthrop
himself tells us, he and his pastor, John Wilson, went
over to Plymouth, walking the twenty-five miles from
Wessagusset ; and as towards evening they were nearing
the town ' the Governor, Mr. William Bradford (a very
discreet and grave man), met them and conducted them to
the Governor's house, where they were very kindly enter
tained and feasted every day at several houses. On the
Lord's Day there was a sacrament which they did partake
in ; and in the afternoon Mr. Roger Williams, according to
their custom, propounded a question, to which the pastor,
Mr. Smith, spake briefly ; then Mr. Williams prophesied
\i.e. preached] ; and after, the Governor of Plymouth spake
to the question ; after him. Elder Brewster ; then some
two or three men of the congregation. Then Elder
Brewster desired the Governor of Massachusetts and Mr.
Wilson to speak to it which they did. When this was
ended the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind
of their duty of contribution ; whereupon the Governor
and all the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put
into the box, and then returned.' There were thus some
memorable men at this old world Sabbath worship — John
Winthrop, William Bradford, William Brewster, and Roger
^ Winthrop's Life and Letters, ii. 97.

THE UNITED COLONIES. 331
Williams. And the following Wednesday, 'as early as
five in the morning, the Governor and his company came
out of Plymouth, the Governor of Plymouth, with the
pastor, Ralph Smith, and Elder Brewster, etc., accom
panying them near half-a-mile out of town in the dark.'
Some of the party went with them as far as the great
Pembroke Swamp, ten miles from Plymouth. ' When they
came to the great river they were carried over by Luddam,
their guide (as they had been when they came, the stream
being very strong and up to the crotch), so the Governor
called that passage Luddam's Ford.' ^
The friendship thus subsisting between the two colonies
was destined to take a closer and more definite form.
The time came when there was felt to be urgent need for
union between the New England Colonies for the purpose
of common jurisdiction, and also for common support
against the Indians, the Dutch in New Netherlands, and,
to some extent, the French in the north. There was much
that might form a common basis of union to start with ;
for in all the settlements the colonists were of the same
English race, were impelled by similar motives, cherished
the same hopes, and had been disciplined by the same
kind of training. It needed, therefore, but a suggestion to
put the idea in motion. By whom the suggestion was
first made does not appear, but Winthrop tells us that after
the overthrow of the Pequots, as some of the magistrates
and ministers of Connecticut were at Boston, an apparently
unpremeditated conference was held to discuss a scheme of
confederation, notice of which was given to the govern
ment of Plymouth, but too late for them to take part in the
deliberations. It further appears that in 1638 a scheme
of union was proposed by Massachusetts and rejected by
Connecticut, the point upon which they differed being as
to whether the vote of a majority of Federal commissioners
' Winthrop's Life and Letters, ii. 105, 106.

332 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
should have binding force on the whole Confederation.^
The matter from this time remained in abeyance for about
three years, possibly through some difficulty on the part of
Plymouth, inasmuch as on the revival of the scheme in
1642, Winthrop states that now Plymouth was willing to
come in. Bradford, however, says nothing of any difficulty
arising on their part, merely stating that ever since the
Pequot war the Indians were drawn into a general con
spiracy against the English in all parts, which led to a more
near union and confederation on the part of the plantations
under the government of Massachusetts, New Plymouth,
Connecticut, and New Haven. Be that as it may, in
May, 1643, commissioners from the three latter colonies
met at Boston, and after two or three conferences Articles
of Confederation were agreed upon and signed by all
the commissioners except those from Plymouth, they by
the terms of their commission being obliged to refer the
matter back to the court of the colony before giving final
consent. Bradford, in his history, has given the Articles of Con
federation in full, these being eleven in number. The
preamble states that all the four colonies came to
America with the same end and aim, that is, to advance
the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the
liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace ; and living as
they do encompassed with people of several nations and
strange languages, they conceive it their bounden duty
without delay to enter into a present consociation for
mutual help and strength. The confederacy thus to be
formed was to be called the United Colonies of New
England, and to constitute a league of friendship and
amity for offence and defence, mutual advice and succour
upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propa
gating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for mutual
' Winthrop's History, i. 237, 284.

THE UNITED COLONIES. 333
safety and welfare. Each colony was to preserve its own
jurisdiction ; all public charges to be met by contributions
levied on the colonies in proportion to the number of their
inhabitants ; the affairs of the confederation to be managed
by commissioners, two from each colony, all being of good
standing as church members ; and the annual meetings
to be held in each of the colonies in rotation, Massachusetts
having two turns in succession.
It will be seen that since all power of taxation beyond a
common levy was left to the several colonics, and the
board of commissioners had but little executive power, and
was little more than a consulting body, the confederacy
was rather a league than a federal union ; still, it is
important as being the first American experiment in the
direction of Federal government. There were difficulties,
of course, to be surmounted. One source of friction, as
might be expected, lay in the overwhelming preponderance
of Massachusetts ; for of the 24,000 people included in the
confederacy, no fewer than 15,000 belonged to that colony,
the other three colonies having only about 3000 each.
Massachusetts, therefore, had the greater responsibility,
and naturally sought to exert the greater authority, an
authority which was sometimes resented by the rest.
There was also one other undesirable result of the union
entered into. It has been contended that since Massachu
setts was narrower and hiore intolerant than Plymouth,
restricting its franchise as it did to church members, and
allowing less latitude of speech and opinion, its tendency
was to reduce the more liberally-inchned Plymouth to
something like its own level ; that while the latter gained
in security and industrial progress from association with
its more powerful neighbour, it lost something also in the
way of freedom and self-reliance, and that from this and
other causes, after the important era of 1643, Plymouth
ceases to be of continuous interest, except as the heroes of

33-t PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
the bygone pilgrimage sink one by one to the rest they
had so nobly earned. Still, in spite of all drawbacks, the
league of the four colonies was of great value in the
development of New England. It worked well as a high
court of jurisdiction, and as a means of concentrating the
military strength of the colonies for common ends, and by
its principle of State freedom and State equality, it pre
pared the way for that greater Federal union which, in the
following century, made of the American people a nation.
From 1643 till the memorable 1684, when the British
Government interfered and brought it to an untimely end,
this league of the four colonies did good service, and
prepared the way eventually for greater things.
The commissioners who met at Boston to form this
confederacy seem to have been strangely indifferent as to
what might be thought of this important step of theirs by
the English Government. It has been well said they
sought no permission beforehand ; they did as they pleased
at the time, and defended their conduct afterwards. As
Edward Winslow put the case when sent over to London
to defend the action of the colonies : ' If we in America
should forbear to unite for offence and defence against a
common enemy till we have leave from England, our
throats might all be cut before the messenger would be
half-seas through.' It seemed a daring step to take ; in
reality it was less daring in 1643 than it would have been
some years earlier. For then Laud had been two years in
the Tower awaiting that execution which came two years
later, and Charles I. was engaged in that life and death
struggle with his Parliament which ended so fatally for
him. Both king and archbishop therefore had more urgent
business on their hands than that of keeping jealous watch
on what the New England colonies might do.
It was on May 19, 1643, that the deputies of the four
colonies met at Boston, subscribed the Articles of Con-

THE UNITED COLONIES. 335
federation, and thus created the first Federal Union on
the American continent The greatest man among the
founders of Plymouth Plantation did not live to see that
day, for a month earlier, on April 10, 'to the great sadness
and mourning of them all,' William Brewster passed to
' where beyond these voices there is peace.' With pathos
and sorrow his friend and countryman, Governor Bradford,
recording the fact, describes him as ' my dear and loving
friend ; a man that had done and suffered much for the
Lord Jesus and the Gospel's sake ; and had borne his part
in weal and woe with this poor persecuted church above
thirty-six years in England, Holland, and in this .wilder
ness, and done the Lord and them faithful service in his
place and calling.' In summing up the life-story of his
friend, whose course we have followed from Scrooby
Manor-house to the quiet homestead near the Eagle's Nest,
William Bradford tells us how bravely, through stress and
storm, this venerated elder kept on his way ; how he was
no way unwilling to take his part and bear his burden with
the rest He tells us that more than once he had lived
without bread or corn many months together, having many
times nothing but fish, and often wanting that also. ' Yet
he lived, by the blessing of God, in health until very old
age, and would labour with his hands in the fields as long
as he was able. And when the Church had no other
minister, he taught twice every Sabbath, and that both
powerfully and profitably, to the. great contentment of the
hearers and their comfortable edification. Yea, many were
brought to God by his ministry. He did more in their
behalf in a year than many that have their hundreds a
year do in all their lives.' William Bradford further
describes for us the personal characteristics of this friend
of his whom he had known ever since his own old Auster
field days : ' He -was wise and discreet and well-spoken,
having a grave deliberate utterance; of a very cheerful

J

36 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

spirit, very sociable and pleasant amongst his friends, of an
humble and honest mind ; of a peaceable disposition, under
valuing himself and his own abilities and sometimes
overvaluing others; inoffensive and innocent in his life
and conversation, which gained him the love of those
without as well as those within. Yet he would tell them
plainly of their faults and evils, both publicly and privately,
but in such a manner as usually was well taken from
him ... In teaching he was very stirring and moving the
affections, also very plain and distinct in what he taught,
by which means he became the more profitable to the
hearers. He had a singular good gift in prayer, both
public and private, in ripping up the heart and conscience
before God, in the humble confession of sin and begging
the mercies of God in Christ for the pardon thereof. He
always thought it were better for ministers to pray oftener,
and divide their prayers, than to be long and tedious in
the same, except upon solemn and special occasions, as on
days of humiliation and the like.'
Like a tired child William Brewster fell asleep when his
long day's work was done. ' He was near fourscore years
of age (if not all out) when he died. He had this blessing
added by the Lord to all the rest, to die in his bed in peace
among the midst of his friends, who mourned and wept
over him, and ministered what help and comfort they could
unto him, and he again re-comforted them whilst he could.
His sickness was not long. Until the last day thereof he
did not wholly keep his bed. His speech continued until
somewhat more than half a day before his death, and then
failed him ; and about nine or ten of the clock that evening
he died, without any pang at all. A few hours before he
drew his breath short, and some few minutes before his
last he drew his breath long, as a man fallen into a sound
sleep without any pangs or gaspings, and so sweetly
departed this life into a better.'

THE UNITED COLONIES. 337
Six years after William Brewster went his way, John
Winthrop followed him, and the men of Massachusetts bent
with sorrow as they laid the body of their governor ' with
great solemnity and honour' in the burial-ground of
King's Chapel in Boston city. His sepulchre was there,
but as they said, his ,' epitaph was engraven in the minds
of the people, as a; worthy gentleman who had done good
in Israel, having spent not only his whole estate, but his
bodily strength and life in the service of the country, as a
burning torch spending his health and wealth for the good
of others.' This was in 1649, ^"^ in 1652 John Cotton
too was called away, while three years later, in three
consecutive years, Edward Winslow, Miles Standish and
William Bradford went over to the majority. To William
Bradford as the simple but graphic historian of Plymouth
Plantation we owe a deep debt of gratitude for the records
he preserved and the story he told ; and we are glad to
know that when the parting time came he too was filled
with ' ineffable consolations, the good Spirit of God giving
him a pledge of the firstfruits of his eternal glory.'
To those remaining it must have seemed as if the heroic
age had reached its close. In a new community just
setting out on its career it was not easy to make up for
the loss of men who had been formed under the best
training the Old World could give. Their successors, how
ever, showed their understanding of the needs of the time
by doing all they could to foster that spirit of learning
which had made the older generation what it had been.
An English historian has done them the justice to say that,
' let our sense of the shortcomings of American Puritanism
be ever so strong, it should never lead us to forget this its
great merit. It carried on the best traditions of the
Reformation. It never dealt with learning as the privilege
of a class. It might silence its opponents ; it never sought
to deaden or sophisticate the minds of its disciples. z

338 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Bigoted itself, it so dealt with them as to make like bigotry
impossible in the future.'^ The writer in bearing this
testimony had especial reference to the fact, that in 1636
the General Court of Massachusetts voted four hundred
pounds, a sum equal to the whole taxation of the colony,
towards establishing a college or grammar school. This
grant was the following year supplemented by the munifi
cence of John Harvard, a graduate of Emmanuel, Cambridge,
who bequeathed to the college a sum of seven hundred
pounds and his library of two hundred and sixty volumes.
In 1642 the college was placed under the control of a board
consisting of the governor, deputy-governor, the assist
ants, the ministers of six neighbouring towns and the
president. In 1650 a fuller grant of incorporation was
given, and the college further endowed with all the tolls
taken at the ferry between Charlestown and Boston. The
influence of Harvard College was felt by all the colonies,
and in due time Connecticut followed the example of
Massachusetts by starting the college at Saybrook which
afterwards at New Haven grew to the great University of
Yale. These two institutions were the forerunners of
many more colleges and universities, to which the American
people have recently given noble and generous endowments
for the furtherance of education at a time when our own
ancient seats of learning at home are suffering from
deepening impoverishment and need.
In other ways than by the founding and endowing of
Harvard the New England colonies showed their sense of
the value of education. In 1647 an order of court estab
lished schools of two classes in Massachusetts. Where
there were as many as fifty householders there was to be
an elementary school at which reading and writing should
be taught ; and where there were a hundred householders
they were to have a grammar school. In Plymouth colony
' Doyle, ii. 113.

THE UNITED COLONIES. 339
there appear to have been voluntary schools before the
enactment of 1662, under which the court charged each
municipality to have 'a schoolmaster set up.' In 1670 the
fishing excise from the cape was offered any town which
would keep a free school, classical as well as elementary.
Plymouth was the town that complied with this condition,
and claims to have had the first free school established in
New England by law. In 1677, however, it ceased to be
free, though in 1704 it became so again.
From 1643, the year of their confederation, for the next
one-and-twenty years the New England colonies pursued
their course, undisturbed either by king or common
wealth at home. After the Restoration, however, in 1664, a
commission was sent out to administer and inspect The
commissioners were charged to secure the king's rights ;
to enforce the execution of the Navigation Acts, and the
free exercise of religion according to the laws of England.
They were also to inquire into the administration of justice,
the treatment of the natives, and the state of education ;
and they were entrusted with certain diplomatic powers,
which were conveyed in secret orders.^ This commission
seems to have been fruitless, so far as the purpose of the
Government was concerned. It did little but leave behind
a feeling of irritation in the minds of the people and the
abiding dread of an attack on their liberties. The next
incident of moment is that ten years later there broke out
that disastrous war with the Indians under King Philip, the
horrors of which lived long as a terrible memory in New
England. While for the Indians it meant utter destruction
and the disappearance of the red man from the history of
the country, except for occasional raids on the frontier ; to
the colonists themselves also it brought disastrous conse
quences in the destruction of life and property. Of ninety
towns, twelve were utterly destroyed, while more than forty
' Colonial Papers, April 23, 1664.
Z 2

340 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
others were the scene of fire and slaughter. One out of
every twelve men of military age was killed, together with
great numbers of women and children. Nearly every
household was in mourning, and the money cost of the war
was so great that in 1676 the direct taxation in Massa
chusetts was sixteen times what was imposed in ordinary
years. In Plymouth also it amounted to ;^3700, a sum
which was supposed to exceed the total value of personal
property in the colony.
In 1684 came at last the long-expected blow from the
Government in England. In the month of June a decree
in Chancery annulled the charter of Massachusetts, so
that not only were all rights and immunities based upon it
swept away, but the title to private property was rendered
invalid, and every rood of land claimed for the king.
This was followed by the tyrannical administration of Sir
Edmund Andros, which made the years from 1685 to 1688
the darkest period in the history of New England. The
revolution which brought in William of Orange drove out
Andros, but at the same time it put an end to the old
Colonial Government. In 1692 Governor Phipps, appointed
by the Crown, came over from England with a charter
which united Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth Colony, the
Vineyard archipelago, Maine, and Acadia, recently won
from the French, into the one royal province of Massa
chusetts, which, with a slight interval, reached all the way
from Martha's Vineyard to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From
that eventful year the body politic created by the men of
the Mayflower ceased to have separate existence, and that
new period in American history was entered upon which,
beginning with the erection of a Crown colony under an
English governor, ended with the Declaration of Independ
ence of 1776 and the creation of the great nationality of
the United States.
The Puritan community whose fortunes we have traced.

THE UNITED COLONIES. 341
created at first on English soil and under English influence,
but developed under new conditions, presented, as we
might expect, special characteristics of its own. Living in
the atmosphere of the seventeenth century, it partook of
its narrowness, but inspired by deeply religious forces it
developed at the same time those sterling qualities of
integrity, patient industry, enterprise and quiet self-control
which both in the Old World and the New have ministered
both to individual strength and national growth. In what
may be designated the heroic period of its history there was
a dignified simplicity and an old-world quaintness which
gradually grew less as the generations became more and
more removed from the original stock. At first wealth in
creased but slowly, and the habits of the people were averse
from anything like luxurious display. Pleasures were few
and simple, and men resorted to them only as relaxation from
the more serious duties of life, and there was therefore small
attraction in New England for such thriftless and pleasure-
loving idlers as had made the early attempts at colonisation
in Virginia so conspicuous a failure. A man must be
possessed of substantial worth and show some sort of
capacity if he would make his way in a country so stern
in its conditions and requirements as that of New England
was then.
Some of the settlements created were little more than
mere groups of farmsteads, the people spreading wider as
better land became available. Surrounded as they still
were by Indians, there was an element of danger in this
wider scattering, as the Virginia massacre had only too
painfully proved, and therefore, according to the Plymouth
Records, it was enacted that no colonist should settle on
unoccupied land, unless he had with him ' such a competent
company or number of inhabitants as the court shall
judge meet to begin a society as may carry on things
in a satisfactory way both to civil and religious respects.'

3+2 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Thus grouped together in what were at first rather brother
hoods than towns, the New England yeoman lived on his
own land, and on the produce of his own toil, and the
timber house in which he dwelt was usually the work of
his own hands. Landlords and rent such as were found
in the old country were almost unknown, and none of the
colonial codes so much as contain such words as ' lease '
or 'tenant.' But time brought its changes, and wealth,
and the comforts and refinements which wealth creates,
naturally increased. Early in colonial history Edward
Johnson describes the ' city-like town ' of Boston with its
' comely streets ' and its ' buildings beautiful and large,
some fairly set forth with brick, tile and stone,' and tells us
how New Haven stood forth with its ' complete streets,
and its 'stately and costly houses.' At the same time
there continued to be that wholesome blending of town
and country life which in these later days has become less
possible, as the rural populations crowd more and more
into the congested districts of our large cities and towns.
For the first century at least the centre of interest in a
New England town or village of the olden times was the
meeting-house of the place, as the church was called. It
was usually among the earlier buildings erected ; but to
make sure of this, in 1675 it was enacted that a meeting
house should be erected in every town in the colony ; if
the people failed in this, the magistrates were empowered
to build it and charge the cost of its erection on the town.
At first these buildings were simple enough, but eventually
gave place to those of the second period, which were
square wooden buildings surmounted by a belfry, or a
turret containing a bell. The meeting-house erected at
Hingham in 1681, now the oldest in New England, is a fine
specimen ofthe meeting-houses of this period. These were
followed by those with tower and spire, like that of the Old
South at Boston, a style which was repeated far and near.

THE UNITED COLONIES. 3+3
Many of the earlier church buildings crowned the hill-top,
and so served as landmarks for travellers journeying
through lonely woods or along obscure bridle paths, or as
guides for sailors at sea.
Wherever placed, the meeting-house became the social
centre of town and village life. Social opinion, as well as
church authority, enforced church attendance, but, indeed,
there were attractions to draw when authority failed to
drive. People who were scattered far and wide in lonely
farms were glad to come together on the Sabbath, not only
to hear the sermon, but also to hear the news. A cele
brated petition to the king, as late as 1731, ' most humbly
informs your Majesty that it is very common for the people
in New England to go ten or fifteen miles to church.'
Coming from these and even lesser distances, the noon
interval between the services was spent in friendly con
verse, neighbours and acquaintances gathering in knots
here and there, while the young people would stroll off
together through the woods or along the brookside. In
winter or bad weather, the meeting-house, or some neigh
bouring dwelling, would be the place of refuge, the talk
going on taking its complexion ever and again from the
announcements posted up on the great door of the meeting
house itself. For there, in miscellaneous companionship,
were notices of impending marriages or sales, of stray
cattie lost or found, of bounties to be paid for the heads of
wolves, of whaling sloops about to sail, of taxes to be paid,
and of town meetings to be held. There were also pro
hibitions against selling guns and powder to the Indians,
copies of laws against Sabbath-breaking, and lists of the
newly-elected officers of the town. In eariy times, also,
the meeting-houses bore grim and grotesque decorations in
the shape of a wolf's head nailed here and there under the
window or by the side of the door. For the wolf was a
dire destroyer, for w^hose destruction rewards were offered.

344 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
and in 1664 it was ordered that if the wolf-slayer wished to
obtain his reward he must bring the wolf's head, ' nail it to
the meeting-house, and give notice thereof.'
In the simpler times of colonial history, the people were
called to their Sabbath worship by sound of horn or beat
of drum, or by the blowing of a large conch-shell. In
some places three guns were fired as the signal for ' church-
time.' Like the call to prayer from the minaret towers at
Cairo, the summons to worship was made more distinct by
coming from the temple-roof. At Windsor, in 1638, a
platform was erected on the top of the meeting-house,
'from the lanthorn to the ridge, to walk conveniently to
sound a trumpet or a drum to give warning to meeting ; '
and in 1647 it was the duty of Robert Basset, at New
Haven, to ' drum twice upon the Lord's days and Lecture
days, upon the meeting-house, that so those that live far
off may hear the more distinctly.' In some cases the hour
for worship was notified by the hoisting of a flag in addition
to beat of drum or sound of horn. In process of time the
ringing of a bell succeeded to these more primitive modes
of call, the bell being hung, at first, on some tree, and
afterwards in the bell-turret on the meeting-house roof
The house of prayer being reached, the worshippers
seated themselves in the deep old-fashioned pews with
their not too comfortable benches. While an almost rude
political equality prevailed in the town meeting, very
marked deference was paid in the meeting-house to social
and family distinctions, as well as to age and official
standing. In the earliest times of all, the congregation sat
on mere benches, the men on one side and the women on
the other. Then came the division of the floor-space into
pews, and a formal assignment of seats according to social
rank. In 1694, the town of Braintree authorised the select
men to 'seat the meeting-house,' but as they showed
themselves not over forward in settling the delicate matter

THE UNITED COLONIES. 345
of personal precedence, a special committee was appointed
to see to the business, which they did, but, as may well
be supposed, 'not to general satisfaction.' This New
England custom of ' seating the meeting ' in conformity
with the social position of the congregation was one which
the early Fathers of the colony may have brought with
them from the old country churches in England which
they had known in their youth, and where it used not
infrequently to breed ill-blood. In John Bunyan's native
parish of Elstow, in Bedfordshire, for example, two of the
parishioners were presented to the archdeacon's court, one
of them charged with ' refusing to sit in a seat of the
church where the churchwardens placed him,' the other,
who was Bunyan's grandfather, for taking his neighbour's
part, and telling the churchwardens they were ' forsworne
men.' In like manner, in New England, it required
pressure of fine and authority to put down discontent in
this matter of settling the due order of precedence accord
ing to rank and importance. Whittier tells us how —
' In the goodly house of worship, where in order due and fit.
As by public vote directed, classed and ranked the people sit ;
Mistress first and good wife after, clerkly squire before the clown.
From the brave coat, lace embroidered, to the gray frock shading
down.'
Besides 'seating the meeting,' the officials had also to
' dignify the meeting,' that is, so to arrange as that certain
seats, though in different localities, should still be reckoned
as equal in dignity. For example, the seating committee
at Sutton used their 'best discretion' in deciding that
' the third seat below be equal in dignity with the foreseat
in the front gallery, and the fourth seat below be equal in
dignity with the foreseat in the side gallery.' In some
towns rules amusing for their punctilious minuteness were
found to prevail. Each year of the person's age counted
one degree, military service eight degrees, and the magi-

346 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
strate's office ten degrees ; further, every forty shillings
paid in on the church-rate counted one degree.
Little attention was, in earlier times, paid to the personal
comfort of the congregation when gathered for worship.
There was no attempt to warm the buildings, however
stern the winter. If the weather were unusually bitter, the
women brought footstoves filled with hot coals from the
fire at home, or thrust their feet into fur bags made of
wolfskins, but the men held on their way with Spartan
severity, looking upon all warming arrangements beyond
jack-boots, frieze stockings, and many-caped great-coats,
as mere effeminacy. When the select men in a certain
town on Buzzard's Bay proposed ' to purchase a stove and
pipes, and furnish wood and attendance,' the majority at a
town meeting decided by vote ' not to purchase a stove
and pipes ; not to furnish wood and attendance.' And
Judge Sewall, a typical character of the time, the Pepys
Diarist of New England life, records of a certain Sunday
thus : ' Extraordinary cold storm of wind and snow ; blows
much more as coming home at noon, and holds on. Bread
was frozen at Lord's Table. . . . Yet was very comfortable
at meeting.' On another occasion, again, he tells us the
day was so bitterly cold that ' the Communion bread was
frozen pretty hard, and rattled sadly into the plates.'
Still the worthy judge and his stout-hearted contempo
raries held on their way, and it was not till 1773 that the
first church in Boston took the lead in setting up a stove to
warm the shivering limbs of the worshippers.
The weather might be cold, but the service was not
necessarily shortened on that account It is stated that at
the planting ofthe first church in Woburn, Massachusetts,
good Zachary Symmes showed his godliness and en
durance by preaching between four and five hours. How
his hearers showed theirs, the historian has not told us.
The occasion was special, possibly the patience of the

THE UNITED COLONIES. 317
audience was special also. Even the laymen when they
turned preachers, as they sometimes did, were not much
more merciful than the ministers. Judge Sewall, after
- expounding at a service at Plymouth Meeting, writes
somewhat remorsefully, ' being afraid to look at the glass,'
that is, the hour-glass which measured the time, ' ignorantiy
and unwittingly I stood two hours and a half We can
see from this how needful it might be for the select men of
Salem in 1676 to order 'that the three constables do
attend at the three great doors of the meeting-house every
Lord's Day, at the end of the sermon both forenoon and
afternoon, and to keep the doors fast and suffer none to go
out before the whole exercise be ended.' Under such
lengthy prelections, it is not wonderful that some of the
carnal were seen making stealthily for the door when that
was possible, and that even devout listeners felt a sense of
drowsiness which could only be resisted by standing up, or
by taking off their heavy coats, or by going out to quiet
their horses ; the tithing man, too, must have found his
office no sinecure, as he moved from place to place in
the meeting-house recalling the sleepers in this pew and
that to consciousness with his wand.
A New England service in those days was probably not
very exhilarating from a poetical or musical point of view.
Few services in the seventeenth century were, either on
one side of the Atlantic or the other. Even in the Church
of England, as Thomas Fuller reminds us, the piety of the
hymns was better than the poetry, and nearly a century
later John Wesley went so far as to call it scandalous
doggrel. As for the music, even a Churchman describes it
as that ' shameful mode of psalmody almost confined to
the wretched solo of a parish clerk, or to a few persons
huddled together in one corner of the church, who sang to
the praise and glory of themselves for the entertainment
and often to the wearisomeness of the congregation.' This

348 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
being the state of things in the national church at home,
even on into the eighteenth century, it is scarcely won
derful if the congregations of New England were not
altogether models as to the best form of practising
psalmody in public worship.
The Pilgrim Fathers themselves, while in Holland, like
the English Church at-home, used Sternhold and Hopkins'
Version of the Psalms until, in 1612, Henry Ainsworth,
the teacher of the Separatist Church in Amsterdam,
brought out another version under the title, ' The Book of
Psalms. Englished both in Prose and Metre.' It com
menced with a ' Preface declaring the use and reason of the
Book,' also, ' for the use and edification of saints,' what
were thought to be appropriate tunes were printed above
each psalm in the lozenge-shaped notes of Queen EHza-
beth's time- ' The singing notes,' says the author, ' I have
most taken from our Englished psalms when they will fit
the measure of the verse,' for the other long verses ' the
gravest and easiest tunes of the French and Dutch Psalms.'
This book of Ainsworth's the Pilgrims brought over with
them to New England, and it was used in the church at
Plymouth as late as 1692, although a later version had
been compiled and printed in Boston as early as 1640. In
some churches both the two versions were used side by
side for several years, till at length the style of the more
modern proved too much even for the sacred associations
of the more ancient.
This later version, which little by little superseded that
made by Ainsworth, and was known as The Bay Psalm
Book, was compiled by several divines, revised by President
Dunster, of Harvard College, and printed in his house in
1643. If we except a small almanac which preceded it,
this was the first book printed in New England. By 1709,
after various revisions, it had gone through sixteen editions,
some of these being printed abroad, in England and Scot-

THE UNITED COLONIES. 349
land. Altogether, about seventy editions were issued, but
by the end of the eighteenth century the Bay Psalm Book
had fallen into disuse, and has now become a literary
curiosity. A copy of the first edition, which once belonged
to Bishop Tanner, is preserved in the Bodleian, another
was, in 1855, purchased for the Lenox Library in New
York for eighty pounds, and a third was sold in Boston, in
1876, for over a thousand dollars.
The musical rendering of this Bay Psalm Book in the
worship of the churches was of the simplest sort, for
previous to 1700 there seem only to have been about ten
tunes in use, such as Oxford, Litchfield, York, Windsor,
Cambridge, St David's and Martyrs. The preface to the
edition of the Psalm Book printed in 1698, gave 'some
few directions ' on the concluding pages, so as to secure
that the tune might be sung within the compass of the
people^s voices ' without squeaking above or grumbling
below.' In the earlier time there seems to have been no
separate choir or official precentor, and, therefore, the
'tuning the Psalm,' as it was called, was left to some
member of the congregation who volunteered the per
formance. No less a person than Judge Sewall himself
undertook this function at Boston, and it is both pathetic
and amusing to find from his diary how often he was
baffled in the execution of the simple service he had under
taken. Sometimes he is self-complacent, and flatters
himself he ' set the psalm well,' at other times he is just
as crestfallen. Says he, on one occasion : ' I intended
Windsor, and fell into high Dutch, and then essaying to
set another tune, went into a key much too high. So I
prayed to Mr. White to set it, which he did well. Litch
field Tune. The Lord humble me and instruct me that
I should be the occasion of any interruption in the worship
of God.' Sometimes, when he had the right tune, the
congregation were too strong for him, and carried another

350 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
tune against him. Thus runs his diary on a certain day .-
' In the morning I set York tune, and in the second going
over the gallery carried it irresistibly to St. David's, which
discouraged me very much.' Nor was this the only time ;
later on he writes : ' I set York tune, and the congregation
went out of it into St. David's in the very second going
over. They did the same three weeks before. This is
the second sign. It seems to me an intimation for me
to resign the precentor's place for a better voice. I have
through the Divine long-suffering and favour done it for
twenty-four years, and now God in His providence seems
to call me off, my voice being enfeebled.' Enfeebled with
age the good man's voice might be, but his heart was right.
Referring to the service on a certain Sunday, he says :
' The song of the fifth Revelation was sung. I was ready
to burst into tears at the words, " bought with Thy blood." '
Good music is good indeed, but there may be something
even better still.
If the meeting-house and its services played so large a
part in New England life, we may easily see how important
was the place filled by the minister himself In laying out
a new town settlement some of the best town-lots were set
aside for his use, these being sometimes a gift outright to
the first settled preacher, and sometimes set aside as glebes
or 'ministry land.' At Sippican, in 1680, the first and
second house-lots drawn were appropriated with two
meadows and two lots in the best of the woodland 'for
the minister and the ministry.' At Rochester, in 1697, the
proprietors of the lands gave a ' whole share of upland and
meadow ground to the minister, upon condition that he
continueth in the work of the ministry among them till
prevented by death.' It was the custom also on starting a
new settlement to build a parsonage for the minister, to the
construction of which all the town contributed, some giving
work or money or the use of a horse or ox-team, others

THE UNITED COLONIES. 351
supplying boards, stone, bricks, logs or nails. It was the
custom too to allow free pasturage for the minister's horse ;
and in 1662 the Town Court at Plymouth judged it 'would
be very commendable and beneficial to the towns where
God's providence shall cast any whales if they should agree
to set apart some part of every such fish or oil for the
encouragement of an able and godly minister among them.'
At Newbury the first salmon caught each year went to the
minister ; and in most places the ' minister's wood ' was a
recognised institution, each church member bringing his
portion of wood for the minister's fire to the parsonage
door. At first the minister's stipend was settled by voluntary
agreement, but in 1657, when the first generation had
passed away, an Act was passed in Plymouth ordering a
rate to be levied in each township for the maintenance of a
teaching ministry. In Massachusetts, as early as 1637, an
order of the court imposed a rate for the maintenance of a
minister on all the inhabitants of Newbury, whether church
members or not. But, however maintained, voluntarily, or
by tithes or rates levied upon willing and unwilling alike,
the ministers in the towns of the United Colonies exercised
powerful influence, political as well as religious and
intellectual, were usually treated with respect and regarded
as privileged persons. There were exceptions, of course,
but perhaps even these only proved the rule. We read of
a man at New Haven who was punished by the town for
venturing to say that he ' received no profit from the
minister's sermons,' though possibly the punishment might
more fitly have fallen upon the preacher rather than the
hearer; a man at Plymouth who 'spoke deridingly of the
minister's powers,' and another at Andover who 'cast
uncharitable reflections' on his pastor, were fined and
deprived of the sacrament. Such things as these occurred,
but as a rule friendly relations obtained, and the New

352 PILGRIM FATHERS IN NEW ENGLAND.
England ministers of religion exercised a wide and whole
some influence on the rising communities among whom
their lives were spent. In those infant settlements they
had often to be many men in one : preaching and praying
on Sabbaths and lecture days ; preparing young men for
college; giving medical and ' chyrurgycal ' advice as
doctors ; sought after for legal counsel and adjudication
as lawyers ; and often having to work on their own land as
farmers ; they most of them lived earnest and laborious
lives, and were ' pious and painful preachers,' doing their
best for their flocks, both for this world and the next.
The tithing man in a New England town was an unique
kind of officer, the connecting link between the secular
and the spiritual. For it was his function, as his name
implied, to have ten families under his charge, and 'dili
gently inspect them,' especially on the Sabbath, to see
that they regularly came to meeting, and with foxtail wand
keep them awake when they were there. He had also to
enforce the learning of the catechism by the children of
these ten families, and sometimes to hear them say it He
had, too, to watch licensed houses of entertainment, and
make complaint of all disorders and misdemeanours com
mitted therein ; to report to the justices all idle persons,
profane swearers, Sabbath-breakers, and the like offenders ;
and to warn tavern-keepers not to sell more liquor to men
who in his judgment had had sufficient already. In
addition to these varied duties, the tithing man warned
out of the town undesirable people who might come to
be dependent ; administered the oath of fidelity to new
inhabitants ; watched to see that no young people walked
abroad on the eve of the Sabbath ; and marked and re
ported all those ' who profanely behaved, lingered without
doors at meeting-time on the Lord's Day, sons of Belial
strutting about or sitting on fences, and otherwise dese
crating the day.' In case of any of these malpractices.

THE UNITED COLONIES. 353
the culprit, on conviction, was first admonished, and then,
if incorrigible, set in the parish- stocks or confined in the
cage on the meeting-house green.
The somewhat close surveillance of the life of the com
munity thus set up by what has been called the Puritan
theocracy in New England, has no doubt done much to
associate the ideas of narrowness and intolerance with the
name of Puritanism. While endeavouring to enforce re
ligious observances and the moralities of life by means of
external restraint, it probably meant well, it has been said,
but as a religious system it became repellent and unlovely,
and looked out frowningly upon the innocent pleasures and
winsome graces of life. Matthew Arnold gave voice to a
wide-spread feeling when he said that the voyagers in the
Mayflower would have proved intolerable company for
Shakespeare and Virgil. It may be so, or it may not.
Perhaps in the case of Shakespeare we may be forgiven if
we hesitate to accept this opinion, for the many-sided
dramatist was in sympathy with all sorts and conditions
of men, found something to interest and much to speculate
upon in the most ordinary forms of life around him ; more
over there is not a little which seems to indicate that he
had sincere respect for much of the earnest-minded Puri
tanism of his time. As for Virgil, we may admit the
probability that if he had lived some eighty years later
than he did, and had happened to be sailing for Italy in a
certain ship of Alexandria, he might have found even the
Apostle Paul ' intolerable company ; ' and when he heard
him say, one morning, in the midst of the storm — ' There
stood by me this night an angel of the God whose
I am, whom also I serve,' like his countryman, Festus,
Virgil would probably have said, 'Paul, thou art beside
thyself, thy much learning doth turn thee to madness ! '
Still, all the same, Paul's passionate love to Christ was
a grander, truer thing than Virgil's offering worship
2 A

,354 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND.
ito the genius of the emperor ; his consecration to the
service of humanity more ennobling than Virgil's half-
sceptical devotion to the gods of the Pantheon. When it
is assumed that the men of the Mayflower were narrow-
minded, uninteresting and commonplace, it is forgotten that
•one of them, William Brewster, was in his younger days
the trusted and well-beloved friend of one of Queen
Elizabeth's Secretaries of State ; that in the Netherlands he
•consorted for months with some of the great ambassadors
of the time ; and that as a Cambridge scholar he was found
capable of instructing the students of the Leyden Uni
versity where he dwelt. It is forgotten too that another of
the voyagers in the Mayflower, William Bradford, proved
his capacity and largeness of mind by giving us a History
^of Plymouth Plantation which, by its racy English, its far-
reaching insight and quiet strokes of pathos and humour,
might have beguiled even Shakespeare himself for an hour
or more. Finally, it is forgotten also that even among the
rest in that historic ship there were, Samuel Fuller, a
trained physician and a gentleman, John Carver, deemed
meet to be the first governor of the Colony, Miles Standish,
•a member of an old Lancashire family, who had seen
military service in the Netherlands, and Edward Winslow,
a Worcestershire gentleman of name and repute. With
such companions and many others of the rank and file
marked by strength of character and mother-wit, an
Atlantic voyage may have been stormy, but it need not
have been dull.
Then again if we come to the Puritan successors of the
Pilgrim Fathers, the men who went over to New England
between 1628 and 1643, many of them, it is no exaggera
tion to say, were of the flower of the English nation. John
Winthrop was a country gentleman living on his own estate,
and representing in his profession of the law the culture and
refinement of the time ; Isaac Johnson and John Humphrey

THE UNITED. COLONIES. 355
were the brothers-in-law of the Earl of Lincoln ; Theophilus
Eaton was a prosperous city merchant ; and many others
of the men of Massachusetts and Connecticut may for
social position and culture as well as strength of character
be taken as favourable specimens of the best portions of
the English society of their time. So too with the
ministers of religion who went out to the Colonies. They
must be very distinguished men indeed who would be
entitled to look down patronisingly upon men like John
Cotton of Boston, John Davenport of New Haven, Peter
Bulkely of Concord, Francis Higginson of Salem, Thomas
Hooker of Hartford, Henry Dunster of Cambridge, John
Harvard of Charlestown, John Eliot of Roxbury, and many
more of the nearly ninety Cambridge and Oxford graduates
who helped to build up the intellectual and spiritual life ol
the New England Colonies. Whatever difference there
may be between these men and the best in our own time
arises simply from the difference between the seventeenth
century and the nineteenth. If they seem to us narrow
and intolerant in some of the actions of their lives, they
were yet striking examples of large-mindedness and
tolerance when placed in contrast with men like Whitgift,
Bancroft, or Laud.
Judged by the light of to-day, they may be said to have
made some grave and serious mistakes. They suppressed
the expression of hostile opinion, and they persecuted in
some individual cases men and woinen, who, however wild
and impracticable at the time, might have proved harmless
enough if left to find their own level in their own way.
The most strenuous advocate of the Puritans, too, will
scarcely deny that there was in the New England mind
as formed by them, especially after the first and second
generations had passed away, a certain intellectual hard
ness, a lack of interest in the productions of artistic genius,
a foolish contempt for the minor elegancies of life, letters,
2 A 2

356 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.
and manners. Some of this may doubtless be owing to
the hard conditions of toil under which many of their lives
were lived, and something also to the distance the colonies
were removed from the ancient centres of civilisation. But
this is not the whole explanation. In the eloquent words
of a native of New England of our own time, the Puritan
'has not remembered that to some minds a relish for
what is lovely in fancy and in art is as native as colour to
the violet, fragrance to the rose, or song to the bird ; that
God's own mind must eternally teem with beauty, since He
lines with it the tiny sea-shell, and tints the fish, and tones
the hidden fibres of trees, and flashes it on breast and crest
of flying birds, and breaks the falling avalanche into
myriads of feathery crystals, and builds the skies in a
splendour, to a rhythm, which no thought can match. It
has been a narrowness, though a narrowness that has
had depth in it, and that has not been merely superficial
and noisy. And it has been a narrowness for which the
Puritan has suffered in the diminution of his influence in
the world, and in the darkening of his fame, more than
others for conspicuous crimes.' ^
Still, when all this has been said, and allowance has
been made for all possible drawbacks, there remains about
these men a certain moral grandeur. They had great and
high quahties, the solid virtues on which stable common
wealths are founded, and they created such colonies
as no other men in those days did : colonies that grew
into a great nation, which has not even yet reached the
summit of its greatness. There was in these makers
of New England a grand masterful sincerity, a noble
courage of conviction, an overwhelming sense of the
authority of righteousness in human life, and an ever-
present consciousness of God's personal rule over the
world, in spite of all its confusions. These men felt, as few
' R. S. Storrs. The Puritan Spirit. Boston. 1889.

THE UNITED COLONIES. 357
men have ever felt, the greatness of that human soul for
the redemption of which Christ has died ; which has to
work out its earthly history before the background of
eternity, while passing thither to its mysterious destiny ;
and there was ever before their thought the glorious ideal
of a kingdom of the heavens yet to be realised on the
earth. ' O prophets, martyrs, saviours, ye were great,
AU truth being great to you : ye deemed man more
Than a dull jest, God's ennui to amuse .
The world for you, held purport : Life ye wore
Proudly, as kings their solemn robes of state ;
And humbly, as the mightiest monarchs use.'

LIST OF WORKS
QUOTED OR OTHERWISE REFERRED TO.

PAGE
Account of the Hospital of St.
Mary Magdalen, near Scrooby . 44
Ainsworth (H.), Counterpoyson . 23
Ames (W.), Manuduction for
Mr. Robinson  149
Antwerp Church Records ... S^
Assize of Clarendon .... 18
Barry (J. S.), History of Massa
chusetts  6
Bay Psalm Book, the . . . . 348
Bentivoglio, Relazione di Fiandra 125
Bernard (R.), Christian Adver
tisements and Counsels of Peace 130, 143
 Faithfull Shepeard ... 82
 IsleofMan, the, or, the Legall
Proceeding in Man-shire against
Sin  78
 Plea for Infants . . . con
cerning Baptism  7 8
Birch MSS.  324
Borgeaud, Rise of Modern De
mocracy  16
Bradford (W.), Dialogues . . 22, 119
 History of Plymouth Planta
tion s, 6, 57, 76, 129, 132,
246, 3S4
'S,xoS!asz.&, History of New York. 185
Browne (R.), Treatise of Reforma
tion without tarrying ... 3^
 True and Short Declaration 31
Bunyan (J.), Holy War ... 78
Camden Society  18
Carleton (D.), Letters. 160, 161, 163
Colonial Papers . 175.185,227,339
Confutation of the Rhemish trans
lation  161

PAGE
De Regimine Ecctesice Scoticancc' . 161, 163:
Dexter (F. B.), Ijifluence of Eng
lish Universities in Development
of New England . . . 266, 307
Discourse of some troubles in
the . . . Church at Amsterdam. 115.
Domesday Book  45
Doyle (J. A.), English in America 219,
266, 338.
Ellis, Original Letters ... 5'
Fiske (J.), The Beginnings of
New England .... 267, 321'
Foxe Q.), Acts and Monuments . 23,
Freeman (E. A.), Introd. to
American Institutional History 240-
Gardiner (S. R.), History of
England  288'
Gray's (Archbishop) Register. . yy
GrindaPs Life  27
Ground of the First Planting of
New England, the . . . . 253
Hall (J.), Apology ofthe Church
of England  152-
Hanbury (B.), Historical Me
morials  181
Harleian MSS. .... 38, 85
Harmony ofthe Confessions . . 250
Harrison (R.), Little Treatise . 32
Hatfield MSS  65, 291
Henry VIII. , Letters and Papers . 53
Howard (J.), Survey of the State
of Prisons  82
Hunter's Collections concerning the
Early History of the Founders
of Neio Plymouth . 43. H> 6S. 7°

36o

PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

Hutchinson (T.),
Massachusetts

History

page 5

Joyce (H.), History of the Post
Office to 1836 ... . 62, 63
Lamentable Complaint of the
Commonaltie  29
Lansdowne MSS  3^. 95
Lathbury (T.), History of Episco
pacy  85
Leland's Itinerary  53
Manchester, MSS. of the Duke of 179,
180, 185
Mather (C), Magnalia Christi
Americana  314
Morton (N.), New England's
Memorial . . .5, 200, 203, 262
Motley (J. L.), United Nether
lands  113
Mozley (T.), Reminiscences . . 86
Nederlandsche Archief voor Kerke
lijke Geschiedenis . . . . 120
Newburgh's Chronicle ... 17
New York Historical Collections . 262
Paralleles, Censures, Observa
tions  83, 91
Perth Assembly . . . 161, 163
Planted s Plea, the. . . . 271
Prince's Annuls  5
Privy Council Register . . 54, 64
Proceedings of the Koninklijke
Akademie  1 18

45

95

Raine (J.), History and Anti
quities ofthe Parish of Blyth .
Robinson (J.), Appendix to Mr.
Perkins' Six Principles .
 Just and Necessary Apology
of Brownists  154
 Justification of Separation . 143
 Manumission to a Manu
duction  136, 149
— — Neiv Essays: or. Observa
tions Divine and Moral . . 137
 People's Plea for the exercise
of Prophecy  152

PAGE
Robinson (J.), Religious Com
munion, Private and Public . 148
 Works .... 83, 84, 96,
100, 128, 131, 136
Rogers (R.), Seven Treatises . . 313
Seebohm (F.), English Village
Community  258, 259
Smith (J.), New England Trials. 227
Smyth (John), The Bright Morn
ing Starre  9'
 The Retraction of his errors 91
Stark (A.), History of Gains
borough  .88
State Papers, Domestic 26, 28, 30, 37, 57,
60, 63, 75, 162, 167, 170, 270, 324
Storrs (R. S.), The Puritan Spirit 356
Strype, Attnals  44
 Life of Grindal .... 27
Surtees' Society . . . . 65
Thompson (P.), History of Boston 104
7'? ewe Markes of Christ's Church,
the  26
Vision of Piers Plowman ... 18
Wall (T.), More Work for the
Dean  32
Washburn (E. A.), Epochs in
Church History  291
Wilberforce (S.), History of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in
America  6
Winslow (E.), Brief Narration . 191
 Hypocrisy Unmasked . . 180
Winsor (J. ), The Mayflmaer Town 329
Winthrop (J.), History of New
England. . . . 286, 301,332
 Life and Letters . 299 330,' 331
Wolsey (Cardinal), Twelve Eng
lish Statesmen  5°
Wordsworth (W.), Ecclesiastical
Sonnets  4. '8
Yates (J.), Persons Prophesying
outofOfike  152
Young's Chronicles 105, 129, 131, 279
Zurich Letters  25

INDEX.

Abigail, sailing of the, 273
Act against heretics, 20
 of Supremacy, the, 2 1
Adventurers, the, 242, seq.
Ainsworth, Henry, 117
Alden, John, 203
Allerton, Isaac, assistant governor,
219
America. See also Connecticut, Massa
chusetts, New England, and Ply
mouth. Crown Colony established in, 340
American Democracy, the father of,
321
 Federal Union, the first, 335
 self-government, origin of, 16
Amersham, Separatists at, 21
Ames, William, on Communion,
149, seq.
Amsterdam an asylum of liberty, 113
first Protestant Church in, 117
picture of Church life in, 118
Anne, arrival of the, 238
Argall, Captain, 173
Arminian and Calvinist. controversy,
133
Arminius, followers of, 133
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 353
Articles of the Church at Leyden,
175
Assize of Clarendon, 17
Austerfield, 65, seq.
Babworth, its Rector, 77
Balowe, William, 20
Barneveld, John of, 134

Barrowe, Henry, 37
Barrowists or Brownists, 97
Bawtry, 43, seq.
Bay Psalm Book, the, 348JI
Bellingham, Richard, 104 ,268
Bermudas, Presbyterianism in the, 179
Bernard, a prison reformer, 81
his influence on Bunyan, 78
his transient sympathy with Con
gregationalism, 83
his writings, 78, 82, 130, 143
Blackwell, Francis, 184
Blossom, Thomas, on John Robinson,
252
Bolton, John, 23
Boston, Lincolnshire, 103
John Cotton's Ministry in, 307-
312
Puritanism in, 104
Bowland, Thomas, martyr, 26
Bradford, William, 65, seq.
in Leyden, 126
chosen Governor, 219
third time elected Governor, 241
his writings, 5, 6, 22, 43, 57, 76,
119, 129, 132, 246, 354
death of his wife, 20S
his death, 337
quoted, 22
on John Robinson and Richard
Clifton, 97
Bradfords, social position of the, 69
Bradfurth's (Robert) will, 69
Bradstreet, Simon, 268
Brethren of the Second Separation, the,
85

362

INDEX.

Brewer, Thomas, 131
prints prohibited books, 160, seq.
arrested, 162
surrender to English authorities,
16S
imprisoned, 167
his release, 168
Brewster, William, 54
appointed Post of Scrooby, 6 1
his religious zeal, 93
persecution of, 98, seq, \
in Leyden, 126
prints prohibited books, 160, seq.
his kindness, 211
death of his wife, 254
his death, 336
Bright, Francis, 277, 284
withdraws from Salem Church, 287
Britain, ruraj economy of, 258
Bromhead, Hugh, 85
Brooks of Queenhithe, 23
Browne, John and Samuel, 287
sent back to England, 288
 -, Robert, 30-33
his writings, 31, 36
Brownists, the, 97
Confession of Faith, 175
decision to avoid the name, igo
Robinson, J., in defence of the,
154, seq.
Builli, John de, 43
Bulkely, Peter, 314
Bunyan influenced by Richard Bernand,
78
Burgess, Dr. John, 269
Burial Hill fort, 263
Burleigh, Lord, 32
Bury St. Edmunds, Congregationalism
at, 32
its Abbey, 33
revolt against ecclesiastical' domi
nation in, 35
stronghold of the ancient faith,
33-35
Calvinist and Arminian controversy,
133
Cape Cod, Pilgrims land at, 201
Carleton, Mr., suggests a, settlement
of the Puritan question, 169

Carleton, Sir Dudley, informs against
Brewer and Brewster, 160, seq.
Carver, John, 13 1
his death, 218
Catchpole, the office of, 103
Charity, arrival ofthe, 241
Chaucer hostile to priestly system, 19
Chauncey, Charles, 318
Child born in New England, the first,.
206
Church discipline in Virginia, 173
Church Fellowship, covenant of, 286
qualifications for, 292
Church Government, divergent views.
on, 119
Robinson and others on, 128, 145,
seq.
Church life in Amsterdam, 118
Church in Leyden, 129
Church of England, Robinson on the,.
156
Church Service, see Ritual.
Clough, A. H., quoted, 158
Clyfton, Richard, his character, 77,
97 at Scrooby, 94
remains at Amsterdam, 127
Colchester, Separatists at, 22
Colonists, ill-disciplined, 230
Communion, religious, Robinson and'.
Ames on, 148, seq.
Communistic System at Plymouth,.
234
Compact of the Pilgrim Fathers, 201
Company of Massachusetts Bay, the,-
276
Concord, the founder of, 314
Confederation of New England Colo
nies, 331, seq.
Confession of Faith, Brownist, 175
Congregationalism, by whom founded,.
30
Congregationalists, early, 30
Connecticut, constitution of, 320
 Settlement, trouble with Indians,.
321
Constitution of the Puritan Colony,.
basis of the, 201
Contra-Remonstrants, 133
Copping, John, 33, 35

INDEX.

365

Cotton, John, 105, 268
his ministry at Boston, 307-312
his death 337
Courtenay, Archbishop, 19
Covenant of Church fellowship, 286
" Covenant ofthe Lord," the, 74
Cradock, Matthew, 275
Crown Colony established in America,
340
Cushman, Robert, 131
his death, 251
Davenport, John, 323
Davison, William, 55, seq.
his fall, 58
Delfshaven, the start from, 193
Democracy, rise of, arrested, 16
 transplanted, 16
De Rassieres, Isaac, 260, seq.
Dorchester, emigrants from, 272
Dort, origin ofthe Synod of, 135
Downes, William, of Scrooby, 69
Dudley, Thomas, 268
Dutch opinion ofthe Protestants, 132
 Sabbath breakers, 159
 settlement in New England, 260
Duxbury Settlement, 328
East Anglia, Congregationahsm in,
30
East England's share in the Reforma-
. tion, 266
Eaton, Theophilus, 323
Education in New England, 338
Eliot, John, 317
Elizabethan Free Church described,
25
Endicott, John, 273
Episcopal Government versus Presby
terian, 290, seq.
Episcopalianism in New England, 243
Episcopalians ejected from Plymouth
Colony, 247
Epworth, 78
Exiled Protestants, fellowship of, 24
Federal Union, the first in America,
335
First Comers, number of the, 240
" First Encounter," 207

Fitz, Richard, 22, 31
his Church described, 25
persecuted to death, 26
Forefathers, number of the, 240
Fort on Burial Hill, 263
Fortune, arrival of the Ship, 224
capture of, 226
Fouler, Gyles, 26
Four Sisters, the ship, 280, 283
Foxe, quoted, 2i
Free Church, EUzabethan, described,
25
Free Church Martyrs, the first, 33
Freedom of worship, early asserted,
15-21
Freeman, E. A., quoted, 240
Freewill, strife concerning, 133
Fuller, Samuel, physician, 274
Gainsborough, Separatist Community
in, 85, seq.
Gascoyne, Adam, 54
Gayton, Mr., 35
George, the ship, 279, 283
Giff'ord, Robert, 84'
Goffe, Thomas, 275
Gomarus, followers of, 133
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 172
 , Robert, 243
Government in New England Colonies,
240, 304, seq.
" Governor and Company of the
Massachusetts Bay," the, 276
Graves, Thomas, 281
Greenwood, John, 36-39
Grindal, Archbishop, 53
 , quoted, 27
Hall, Bishop Joseph, on Separation,
142
Handscomb, Mr., 35
Hanson, John, 69
Harrison, Robert, 32
Harvard College founded, 338
Harvard, John, 318
his munificence, 338
Heath, Richard, quoted, 123
Helwisse, Thomas, 100
Heretics, early persecution of, 20
Hickmans, the, 87

364

INDEX.

Higginson, Francis, 271, 278
his death, 303
Hobart, Peter, 318
Holland, development of industry in,
"3 Protestant exiles in, no, seq.
Sabbath profanation in, 159
Holy War, Bunyan's, inspired by
Bernard's Isle of Man, 78
Homiletics, a study in, 82
Hooker, Thomas, 319
Hough, Atherton, 268, 269
Howard, John, anticipated, 81
Humphrey, John, 275
Indian attack on Settlers, 206, 227,
233. 321, 339
 chiefs avow loyalty to James I.,
222.
 welcome to the Settlers, 213, seq.
 treaty with Settlers, 216
 hospitality, 220
 massacre of Virginian Settlers, 227
 plot revealed, 230
Indians, conflict with, 206, 227, 233,
321, 339
Eliot's influence on, 317, 318
war with, 339
Insurrection against Protestantism, 74
Ireland suggested as Puritan Colony,
169
Isle of Man, Bernard's inspires Bunyan's
Holy War, 78
synopsis of, 81
Islington, Congregationalism at, 31
Jackson, Richard, 98
James I. and Nonconformity, iSo
Johnson, Francis, 38, 91, 1 14, seq.
 , Isaac, 275
his death, 303
Kilham's (Alexander) birthplace, 78
Laud and Colonial Administration, 319
and Episcopacy, 291
his treatment of Puritans, 270
Lay-preaching, controversy on, 1^2, seq.
Legislature in New England Colonies,
304, seq.

Leland, quoted, 46, 52
Lever, Thomas, 24
Leverett, Thomas, 268
Leyden, 121, seq,
 , exiles' Meeting-house in, 124
its University, 122
fierce theological controversy in,
133
lay ministry in, 154
reason for leaving, 158, seq.
Leyden Brethren decide for Virginia,
182
Leyden Church, Articles of Religion,
17s life in, 129
flourishing condition of, 253
letter to Plymouth Church, 252
Lincoln, Lord, 267
Lincolnshire and Nonconformity, 268
Lion's 'Whelp, the ship, 279, 283
Little James, arrival of the ship, 228
Lollard movement, the, 20
London, Separatists at, 22
Lyford, John, 244, seq.
Manhattan, Dutch settlement at,
260
Man, Thomas, 21
Marian Church, the, 22
Martyrs for Free Church principles, the
first, 33, 35
Massachusetts Bay visited by Settlers,
222
Massachusetts Bay Company, 295
charter granted, 276
its equipment, 280, seq.
prosperity of, 306
its charter annulled, 340
Massachusetts Settlement, the, 265, seq.
its relations with Plymouth Colony,
329, seq.
Massasoit, Indian chief, 215
his illness and cure, 229
Pilgrim embassy to, 219
Pilgrims ann in defence of, 222
Masterman, J. H. B., quoted, 4
Mather, Cotton, 314
quoted, 267
Mather, Increase, 314
 , Richard, 314

INDEX.

365

Maurice, Prince, 134
his death, 25 1
Mayflower, the, 280, 283
sailing of the, 184-208
size of, 188
arrives at Cape Cod, 201
return to England, 217
Merchant Adventurers, 242, seq.
Middleburg in Zealand, Congregational
Church at, 32
Minister, the, in New England life, 350
Ministers, Bernard's advice to, 82
Minister's calling, views on the, 284
Ministry, a lay, controversy on, 152, seq.
 , Ordination to the, 285
Monastic orders, influence of, 75
Morrell, William, 243
Morton, George, arrives at Plymouth,
238
 , Nicholas, 44
 , Robert, 43
Motley's United Netherlands, quoted,
"3
Mozley, I Rev. T., on G.iinsborough
town, 85
Music in Puritan service, 348
Naunton, Secretary, and Brownist
printing, 160, seq.
Netherlands Republic, foundation of,
113
Nevile, Gervase, 97
Newbury, Separatists at, 21
New England. See also America,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ply
mouth. attempt to establish an Episcopal
Church in, 243, seq.
first child born in, 206
first Puritan exodus to, 184, seq.
importance of the minister in, 350,
legislature in, 304, seq.
Lincolnshire and Dorchester, emi
gration to, 272, seq.
picture of worship in, 344-50
second Puritan exodus to, 265,
seq.
third Puritan exodus to, 29S, seq.
New England Colonies, Confederation
of, 331. ^<^i-

New Haven founded, 325
New Plymouth, 262
Norwich, Congregationalism at, 32
pastors of the church at, 95
Oldham's revolt, 245
expulsion, 247
Ordination service, 285
Partryche, martyr, 26
Patent of land granted to colonists.
224
Penry, John, Welsh martyr, 114
Pequot Indians, overthrow of, 322
Perkins, William, 95
Persecution of heretics or Separatists,
20, 22, 24
 of Scrooby Brethren, 97- 103
Piers Plowman, i8
Pilgrim Fathers. See also Leyden
Brethren, Pilgrim Settlers, Plymouth
Colony, Puritans, and Scrooby
Brethren. character of leaders, 307, 354
four pioneers, 116
departure from Holland, 191, seq.
their voyage, 199
sight Cape Cod, 200
their compact, names of signers,
202
number of, 240
Pilgrim Settlers. See also Pilgrim
Fathers, Plymouth Colony, Puritans.
first expedition in New England,
205 conflict with Indians, 206, 227,
233. 321. 339
land on Plymouth Rock, 207
welcomed by Indians, 213, seq.
troubles and hardships, 211, 217,
223, 23s, 302
treaty with Indians, 216
defend Massasoit, 222
visit Massachusetts Bay, 222
" Pilgrimage of Grace," the, 74
Plymouth Colony. See also Pilgrim
Settlers and Puritans
agreement with Adventurers, 257
attempt to introduce Episcopali
anism, 243, seq.

366

INDEX.

Plymouth Colony — continued.
breach with Board of Merchant
Adventurers, 249
communistic system in, 234
ejection of Episcopalians, 247
fonn of government, 240
growing prosperity, 255
its progress, 327, seq.
mortality, 260
relations with Massachusetts, 329,
seq.
Plymouth Company revived, 186
¦ — — Plantation, 209-237
— — Rock reached, 207
Popish ceremonies in 1507 ... 27
Post system, early English, 61, seq.
Post, the office of, 64
Prayer, remarkable answer to, 237
Preachers, Bernard's advice to, 82_
Preaching, lack of, 28
 , controversy on lay, 152, seq.
Predestination, strife concerning, 133
Presbyterian government versus Epis
copal, 290, seq.
Presbyterianism in the Bermudas, 179
Priestly system, early revolt against the,
17-21, 35
Printing, Brownist, in Holland, 160,
seq.
Prison reformer, an early, 81
Protestant exiles, fellowship of, 24
Protestantism, insurrection against, 74
Psalms in Puritan worship, 348
Puritan Colony (see also Plymouth
Colony), basis of its constitution, 201
Patent of land granted, 224
Puritan clergy, their zeal and influence,
76
 community in New England ; its
characteristics, 341, seq.
 discipline in New England, 351
¦  ¦ exodus to New England, the
second, 265, seq.
 exodus ceases, 325
 leaders ; their greatness, 354
 "narrowness," 353-6
 worship in New England, 344-50
Puritans, see also Scrooby Brethren.
and the Virginia Company, 174, seq.
first idea of founding a colony, 169

Puritans — continued.
decide upon Virginia, 182
Laud's treatment of, 270
not Separatists, 270
Quinnipiack Settlement, 325
Raleigh, Walter, quoted, 58
Randolph, Thomas, Postmaster-Gen
eral, 61
Rassieres, Isaac de, 260, seq.
Reformation, hostility against the, 74
pioneers of the, 1 7
principles, 16
seeds of the, 19
slow spread of the, 26
share of East England in the, 266
Reform Church of Holland, 254
Religious teaching, lack of, 28
Rembrandt's testimony to the Gospel,
123
Remonstrants, 133
Rich, Lord, 36
Richardson, Mr., of Bawtry, 69
Ritual, questions of, in New England
churches, 287, seq.
Robinson, Archdeacon, 95
Robinson, John, 94, seq.
at Norwich, 95
in Leyden, 124-128
his charge to pilgrim band, ig6
his intellectual eminence, 132, 137
his saintly character, 94
his writings, 83, 95, 100, 128, 131,
136, seq.
in defence of the Brownists, 154
on Church Government, 128, 145,
seq.
on the Church of England, 156
on the Church at Leyden, 130
on lay-preaching, 152
on the military spirit, 242
on Separation, 142
Robinson, Isaac, 253
Romish practices prevalent in 1507 , . . 27
Rough, John, 22, 31
Rural economy, early British, 258
Sabbath observance, compulsory, 173
 profanation among the Dutch, 159

INDEX.

367

Salem, 272, 275
arrival of Puritans at, 284
.Salem Church ; its first pastor, 285
troubles in, 287
Salem covenant, the, 286
.Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 275
Samoset the Indian, 213
Sandys, Sir Edwin, 172
.Scrooby, 40, seq.
antiquity of, 45
Church, 46
Palace, 49, 52
centre of anti-protestant rebellion,
75
formation of the church at, 92
Wolsey at, 50
Scrooby Brethren ; arrival in Holland,
no persecution of, 97, 100
resolve to emigrate, 99, 106
captured in the attempt, 103, 108
resolve to move to Leyden, 120
their Meeting House, Leyden, 124
Separatism, early organisation of, 20
Separatists, see also Scrooby Brethren.
in New England Churches, 288, seq.
first voyage across the Atlantic,
116
increase of, 22
in London, 22
Shepard, Thomas, 315-317
Sherman, William, 280
Silvester, Mr., of Alkley, 69
Skelton, Samuel, 277
chosen pastor of Salem Church,
285
Smyth, John, of Gainsborough, 83,
88-92 his last book, 91
Speedwell, the ship ; departure of, 194
springs a leak, 198
size of, 188
Standish, Miles, 131, 205, 211
appointed military commander,
212
Robinson's fears of, 242
visits England, 251
his death, 337
Sianhope, Sir John, Postmaster-
General, 59

Staresmore, Sabin, 178
Statute against heretics, 20
Still, Dr., 36
Stoke, Separatists at, 22
Suffolk's contribution to Puritanism,
267
Summer Islands, Presbyterianism in
the, 179
Superstitions at Bury St. Edmunds, 34
Symmes, Zachary, 314
Symson, Cuthbert, 22, 31
Martyrdom of, 24
Synod of Dort, origin of, 135
Talbot, the ship, 279, 283
Tattershall Castle, 268
Thacker, Elias, 33, 35
Tisquantum, Indian, 214, 219
death of, 229
Tithing man, his office, 352
Toller, Thomas, 84
' Undertakers,' the, 257
Upcharde of Bocking, 21
Virgil and religion, 353
Virginia, Church discipline in, 173
Virginia Company, the, 171, seq.
crisis in, 184, seq.
Virginian settlers massacred, 227
Voyage of the first Pilgrims, 199
Weavers, pioneers ofthe Reformation,
17
Wesley's birthplace, 78
Wessagusset. See also Weymouth, 243
Colony started at, 229
troubles at, 230
Weymouth. See Wessagusset.
White, Roger, on John Robinson, 252
Whiting, Samuel, 315
Whittier quoted, 345
Wickliff, originator of Free Church
influence, 19
date of his death, 20
William of Occam, 18
Will of Robert Bradfurth, 69
Wilson, John, his conversion to
Puritanism, 313
¦  , Lambert, 282

368

INDEX.

Winslow, Edward, 131, 229
receives Indian Chief, 215
his death, 337
Winthrop, John, 104, 275
elected governor of Massachusetts
Bay Co., 296
sketch of his life, 296-299
voyage to New England, 299-301
death of, 337
Wolsey, Cardinal, 50, seq.
Wolstenholme, Sir John, 178
Worcester, rise of independent thought
in, 17
Wordsworth quoted, 4, 18
Worksop, its Vicar, 77

Worship, form of at Salem, 287
freedom of, early asserted, 15-21
in New England, picture of,
' 344-50
Wray, Sir Christopher, 35
Wright, Robert, 37
Yale University, foundation of, 338
Yates, John, on lay-preaching, 152,
seq.
Yeomen, social position of Elizabethan,

Zealand, congregational church at, 32
Zouch, Sir William, 165

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