History of the Town of Plymouth, with a Sketch of the Origin and Growth of Separatism, etc

Preface

. The body of this work was written as a contribution to a voluminous history of the County of Plymouth. The available space was necessarily limited, and consequently much of the material essential to the completeness of a town history was sparingly used, while some of it was omitted altogether. To remedy a defect, which would be more apparent in a distinct and separate work, an appendix has been added, in which some of the subjects referred to in the principal text are more fully treated, and some new subjects are introduced, which the reader may find interesting and instructive. The numbers attached to the notes in the appendix correspond to numbers placed either between the lines of the principal text in connection with the subjects to which the notes relate, or in the spaces, where they might properly be inserted.

The author has long realized the want of a concise, yet comprehensive, sketch of the Pilgrim movement, its origin, its growth, its development, and of the settlement at Plymouth to which it finally led ; a history from which the general reader might obtain, without laborious research, that amount of information which every educated man should possess in the various departments of American history. All readers are not students. The student of Pilgrim history is not deterred from the task of reading Mourt's " Relation," Morton's " New England's Memorial," Thacher's " History," Young's " Chronicles," Benjamin Scott's " Lectures," and the formidable array of other books, ancient and modern, bearing directly or indirectly on the subject. But the general reader looks for a single work, in which he may find an intelligible and connected outline of the whole Pilgrim story.

It has been the aim of the author to meet both the wants of this class of readers and, to a limited extent at least, the more exacting demands of the antiquary and historian. In this aim he hopes that he has not wholly failed. Plymouth, March 20, 1885. CONTENTS.

Appendix

. NO. PAGE XIV. James Otis 164 XV. Plymouth Privateera in the Revolution 164 XVI. Plymouth Artillery Company 164 XVII. List of Ponds in Plymouth 165 XVIII. Seceders from the First Church in 1743 165 XIX. Plymouth Public Library 166 XX. Town Valuation and Appropriations 167 XXI. Whale Fishery 167 XXII. Old Colony Railroad 168 XXIII. Newspapers 169 XXIV. Government Officers in Plymouth 169 XXV. Population at Various Periods 172 XXVI. Description of Illustrations 172 XXVII. Samoset 174 NO. PAGE I. The Landing at Plymouth, Dec. 11, 1620 (Old Style) . 133 II. Martin Pring 134 III. The Northmen 136 IV. The "Mayflower" 137 -,- n-v n . ™, . ,,, v. The Great Charter 137 „T ™. „,.. a. . ,.,. VI. The Old Colony Boundary 146 „ „ VII. History of the Patent of 1629 155 J VIII. Early Schools 157 J IX. Town Treasurers 158 X. Editors of New Plymouth Records 158 XI.

Agawam and Wareham 158 XII. Crown Point Soldiers 159 XIII. Pilgrim Celebrations 160 Index 176 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE PiGE Town Square of Plymouth Frontispiece. Scrooby— England 9 The "Mayflower" 21 The Landing 37 Autographg 70 National Monument 100 Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth Rock and Canopy covering Plymouth Kock

Chapter I

of the Roman Church, was arrested and tried for trea son. In order that the minds of the people might be turned against Rome, the Bible, translated into English by Tyndale a few years before, and smuggled as a prohibited book into England from the continent, was permitted to be printed at home, and thus the popular use and reading of the Scriptures became the corner-stone on which the structure of religious freedom was destined to be built. But Henry remained a Catholic nevertheless. He was fighting a battle in his own camp, having raised the banner of revolt against his spiritual commander, all unconscious of the enemy of Protestantism at the gates taking advantage of the dissensions in the citadel to plant its standards on the walls. SCROOBY— HOLLAND— THE VOYAGE— THE LAND- ING. No history of this ancient town can make any claim to thoroughness without a reference to those movements in the Old World which resulted in its settlement.

Though the fruit which has grown and is ripening on these western shores bears no resemblance to any seen before, the branches through whose channels it draws its life are grafts of the parent tree, for whose roots we must search in foreign soil. The evolution of principles and events, making the history of man a single chain connecting the world of to-day with the remotest past, tempts the historian into more re mote fields than the demands of a mere historical sketch of any town, city, or even nation would justify. No clear statement, however, of the Pilgrim colonization of New England can be made without a record of the birth of those Pilgrim principles, whose conception had long before occurred, but whose gradual development demanded a virgin soil and a free air for their life and growth.

Thus the reign of Henry the Eighth ended in 1547, and that of his son, Edward the Sixth, began. The new king, only ten years of age, under the pro tectorate of Sir Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, and eldest brother of Queen Jane, the mother of Edward, was placed as a pupil in the hands of John Cheeke, a Greek lecturer at the University of Cam bridge, and Richard Cox, who instructed him in the Protestant faith. During his short reign the religious instruction of the people was urged, and the cause of Protestantism advanced. The statute of the six articles, sometimes called the Bloody Statute, enacted under the reign of his father, was repealed, and a new liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer, drawn up. The mass was changed into the communion ; con fession to the priest was made optional ; the English Bible was placed in every church ; marriages by the clergy were permitted ; the removal of all images and pictures from the churches was ordered ; and the ceremonies of bearing palms on Palm Sunday, candles on Candlemas-day, ashes on Ash Wednesday, and some of the rites used on Good Friday and Easter were forbidden.

It could hardly be expected that the reform would be a radical one. A revolution iu spiritual matters was not attempted, for there was danger that it could not be sustained. It was a reformation only that was sought, and thus in framing For the date of their birth we must go back at least as far as the Reformation. Under Henry the Eighth the seeds of the Reformation were sown. The hand which sowed them was guided not so much by Protes tant impulses, as by a desire to revenge itself against the Pope. Owing to the determination of Clement to oppose his divorce from Catherine, Henry shook off his allegiance to Rome and declared himself the head of the Church. Afterwards provoked into new attitudes of hostility, and finally exasperated by a re taliatory excommunication, he initiated a movement which could not fail to draw the sunlight upon the seeds of Protestantism which were ready under favorable conditions to germinate and grow.

Monas teries were suppressed, shrines were demolished, the worship of images was forbidden, and Wolsey , a prince •j reformatory laws of Edward were repealed. The persecutions which characterized her reign perhaps, however, were the means of advancing the Protestant cause more surely than would have been possible un der Edward. The reformers, whose moderate de mands might have been satisfied by a partial aban donment of Romish forms, were forced into exile and subjected in other lands to new and potent influences, which only served to make their demands more ex treme when the time should again arise for them to be pressed. The current of Protestantism, which flowed towards the continent to escape the persecu tions of Mary, flowed back, after her five years' reign, on the accession of Elizabeth, in separate streams, — one to buoy up and sustain the English Church with all the forms with which the new queen invested it, and the other to sweep away, if possible, every ves tige of Romanism in its ritual.

The contumacy of John Hooper was but a single Puritan wave, which met a yielding barrier and disappeared. With the return of the exiles from Geneva a new tide of Puri tanism set in, with an ocean of resolute thought be hind it, which no barrier was firm enough to stay. It began its career, as was the case with Hooper, with a simple protest against forms of worship, a protest which, when conformity was demanded by the bishops, gradually expanded into a denial of the power which demanded it. The more urgent the demand the greater the resistance, until persecution converted objection to a ritual into a conscientious contempt of prelatical power. the new liturgy many popish superstitions were re tained, and the Roman manual was, to a great extent, adopted as its model. But, as in every reform the most speedy and thorough eradication of old errors is in the end the surest and safest method, so the timid or conservative policy pursued under Edward not only failed to appease the opponents of reform, but fell far short of meeting the requirements of the reformers, who were eager to destroy the faintest relics of Romanism.

The result of this policy was Puritanism ; and the first Puritan was John Hooper, an Oxford scholar. Hooper had severely denounced, under Henry, the provisions of the Bloody Statute and fled to Ger many, where he pursued his studies in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and became a learned scholar and divine. Returning to London under the reign of Edward, he received orders from the king and Council to preach before the. court once a week during Lent. In 1550 he was appointed bishop of Gloucester, but declined it on account of the oath of supremacy in the name of God and the saints and the Holy Ghost, and also on account of the habits worn by the bishops. The king respecting his scruples concerning the oath struck it out, and both the king and Cranmer were inclined to yield to his scruples concerning the habits also, but a majority of the Council said, " The thing is indifferent, and therefore the law ought to be obeyed.'' After a contest of nine months, in the course of which Hooper suffered a short imprison ment for his contumacy, a compromise was effected, by which he consented to be robed in his habits at his consecration and when he preached before the king, but at all other times he should be permitted to dispense with them.

Thus Separatism appeared as the full blossom of the bud of Puritanism. Though the great body of Puritans remained within the ranks of episcopacy, desirous only of its reform, here and there were those who claimed the right to set up churches of their own, with their own church government, their own pastors and elders, subject to no control or inter ference either from the bishops or the crown. The first separation from the church worthy of note took place iu 1567. A body of worshipers to the number of one hundred or more occupied a hall in London in Anchor Lane belonging to the company of the Plumbers, and held service in accordance with their own methods. The clergymen present were John Benson, Christopher Coleman, Thomas Roland, and Robert Hawkins, all of whom had been deprived of their livings for non-conformity.

Among the prom inent laymen was William White, who was described as " a sturdy citizen of London and a man of fortune." The inquiry naturally suggests itself whether William White the " Mayflower" Pilgrim may not have be longed to the same family, and been perhaps his sou. Pending the settlement of this question the Ref ormation went on. The doctrines of the church were yet to be remodeled. Under the direction of Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley forty-two articles were framed upon the chief points of Chris tian faith, which, after correction and approval by other bishops and divines, received the royal sanc tion. These articles are, with some alterations, the same as those now in use, having been reduced to thirty-nine at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. The final work of reformation in the reign of Edward was a second revision of the Book of Common Prayer, by which some new features were added, and some of those to which advanced reformers had objected were struck out.

At the age of sixteen, Edward closed his reign, to be succeeded by Bloody Mary, under whose auspices Romanism was again reinstated in England, and the Thirty-one of these worshipers were sent to prison, and, after ten and a half months' confinement, were warned of greater severity on the repetition of their objectionable conduct, and then discharged. As Separatism grew Puritanism grew also, and as naturally as fruit follows the flower, Puritanism was constantly and inevitably swelling into Separatism. While denouncing Separatism as a schism and hating schism as a sin, the Puritan, while thinking himself merely a non-conformist in methods, found himself drifting as uuconscious of motion as the aeronaut into a positive repudiation of doctrine. Francis Johnson, a noted convert to Separatism, illustrated in his career the attitude and experience of a large number of Puri tans.

A bitter enemy of Separatism, though a de termined Puritan, he lent himself with such earnest ness to the suppression of a book published by Bar row and Greenwood that only two copies were pre served, one for himself and one for a friend. When he had done his work, as he said himself, " He went home, and being set down in his study he began to turn over some pages of this book and superficially to read some things here and there as his fancy led him. At length he met with something that began to work upon his spirit, which so wrought with him as drew him to this resolution seriously to read over the whole book, the which he did once and again. In the end he was so taken, and his conscience was troubled so as he could have no rest in himself until he crossed the sea and came to London to confer with the au thors, then in prison."

The result of his conversion was the organization, in 1592, of a Separatist congregation in Southwark, which was the original starting-point of a society still flourishing. In 1616, Henry Jacob became pastor of this church, followed by John Lothrop, who came to America in 1634, and was settled over the church in Scituate. Johnson, soon after the organization of his church, was banished from England and became pastor of a banished church in Amsterdam, where he " caused the same book which he had been the instrument to burn to be new printed and set out at his own charge." In 1576 John Copping, Elias Thacker, and Robert Brown, all clergymen of the established church who had been deprived of their livings by the bishops, became conspicuous in the Separatist movement. Brown was a man of high family, related to Lord Treasurer Burleigh, and chaplain to the Duke of Nor folk.

He fled to Holland, where, while pastor of a Separatist congregation of English exiles, he wrote several books expounding Separatist doctrines, which were surreptitiously distributed in England. At the time of their publication Copping and Thacker were in prison, and in some way managed to aid in their distribution. For this offense they were transferred from the hands of the bishops, whose prisoners they were, to the secular power, and tried on the charge of sedition. In June, 1593, both died on the gallows. Brown returned to England, and after a sentence of excommunication finally recauted, and became the recipient of a living at the hands of those whose power he had so long denied and resisted. He had, however, been identified with the new movement sufficiently long to stamp his followers with the name Brownists, a name which was for a long period applied without regard to minor differences of opinion in matters of doctrine and church government to all who had separated themselves from the established church.

At a later day John Robinson warned his congregation to throw off and reject the name, but it is a reasonable conjecture that he was influenced more by a disgust at the recantation of Brown than by any opposition to the views he had promulgated. But the fate of Copping and Thacker had little effect in checking the onward movement of Separatism. The martyrdom of Barrow and Greenwood and Ap- Henry followed soon after, and added only fuel to the flame, which was burning too fiercely for any prelati cal tyranny to extinguish. Henry Barrow was a graduate of Cambridge, a member of the legal pro fession in London, and a frequenter of the court of Elizabeth. John Greenwood, also a graduate of Cam bridge, had been ordained in the church, and had served as chaplain in the family of Lord Rich, a Puritan nobleman of Rochford in Essex.

John Ap- Henry, or Penry, as he is generally called in history, was a Welshman, who took his first degree in Cam bridge, and the degree of Master of Arts at Oxford. They had all passed rapidly through the mild stage of Puritanism, which they found no fit resting-place, and entered with enthusiasm into the cause of Separatism. But in the onward movement of Separatism it may be asked, What was the attitude of Puritanism ? It must not be supposed because Separatists were Puri tans that Puritans were Separatists, or that there was the slightest sympathy or friendship between the two. The Puritans adhered to the church, protesting only against some of its objectionable forms, and denounc ing Separatism as a schism and a sin, — the Separatists pushed to the extremes of reform, and denounced those who tarried by the way.

Indeed, in the Parliament of 1593, in which the Puritan element predominated in the Commons, a law was passed so qualifying the act of 23 Elizabeth, intended to apply to Papists only, as to impose the punishment of banishment on all who were guilty of writing or speakiug against the that country from the despotism of Catholic Philip of Spain. Brewster attended him as secretary, and when the port of Flushing, with important fortresses in Holland and Zealand were transferred to Elizabeth as security for men and money loaned, the keys of Flushing were placed in the hands of Brewster, and held by him until the arrival of Sir Philip Sidney, who was appointed to its permanent command. On the return of Davison to England he was made a secretary of state and one of the Privy Council, and Brewster continued to act as his secretary.

The un fortunate death of Mary, Queen of Scots, involving a misunderstanding between Elizabeth and her secretary of state concerning the issue of the death war rant, terminated the official career of Davison and threw Brewster out of employment. Queen Mary was executed on the 8th of February, 1586/7, and Davison was committed to the Tower six days after wards. Brewster probably removed to Scrooby about the year 1588, to take charge of the business of his father, who was in poor health. It is known that his father died in the summer of 1590, and that he then claimed in his application for the appointment to fill the vacancy that he had performed the duties of the office for a year and a half. Through some misunder standing Sir John Stanhope, who was appointed post master-general June 20, 1590, and knew little of the circumstances of the case, made another appointment, from which, however, he sooner or later receded at the urgent solicitation of Davison, who, notwithstanding his apparent disgrace, seems to have retained in fluence at court.

It is known that on the 1st of April, 1594, William Brewster was in full possession of the office, and remained its incumbent until Sept. 30, 1607. bishops, as well as those who published seditious mat ter against the crown. It was this law, sustained as vigorously by the Puritans as by ecclesiastical au thority, which swelled the tide destined to sweep Sepa ratism out of England. The Puritans could not tolerate any opposition to the old idea of ecclesiastical unity, and believed that the national church, though perhaps unscripturally organized, contained within itself the true Church of Christ. They believed, therefore, that Parliament might rightfully enact laws for ecclesiastical government and for the punishment of ecclesiastical offenders. Their approval, therefore, of this law was entirely consistent with their attitude of hostility to the Separatists, and should always be borne in mind as measuring the distinction between two bodies of reformers, which have been persistently and ignorantly mingled and confounded.

The next independent church established in Eng land was that of John Smith, organized at Gains borough in 1602. In early life Smith had been a pupil of Francis Johnson, and was at one time con nected with the Southwark Church. He removed to Amsterdam with his congregation ; afterwards became a Baptist, removing with his followers to Ley, where he embraced the views of Arminius, which he ably defended in a book answered by John Robinson in 1611. The date of the formation of the Pilgrim Church at Scrooby has been stated incorrectly by Na thaniel Morton, in " New England's Memorial," to have been 1602. The discovery of Bradford's history has exposed this among other errors, and fixed the year 1606 as the true date. It is known that the de parture of the congregation for Holland took place in the early part of 1608.

Bradford says, " So after they had continued together about a year they resolved to get over into Holland, as they could, which was in the year 1607-8." He further says that Brewster died in 1643, and " that he had borne his part in weal and woe with this persecuted church above thirty-six years in England, Holland, and this wilderness." To Scrooby then in 1588 William Brewster went, a small village on the borders of Nottinghamshire, about three miles from Austerfleld, in Yorkshire, with the river Idle flowing between. He occupied the old manor-house of the bishops, which as far back as William the Conqueror had been a possession of the archbishops of York. Here he lived, as Bradford says, " doing much good in promoting and furthering religion, not only by his practice and example, but by procuring good preachers to all places thereabouts, and drawing in of others to assist and help forward in such a work, he himself most commonly deeply in the charge, and sometimes above his ability."

Here he remained a mild non-conformist at first, and as Bradford again says, " doing the best good he could, and walking according to the revealed light he saw until the Lord revealed further unto him." Finally the increasing demands of the bishops determined The founder of this church was William Brewster, one who, in the language of an English antiquarian, " was the most eminent person in the Pilgrim movement, and who, if that honor is to be given to any single person, must be regarded as the father of New England." He was the son of William Brewster, of Scrooby, who held the position of postmaster for many years. He was born in 1560, and having spent four years in the University of Cambridge, entered in 1584 the service of Sir William Davison, then starting on an embassy to the Netherlands to prepare the way for such substantial aid from Englaud as might rescue SCROOBY FROM THE SEA.

VIEWS OF SCROOBY, ENGLAND. him to throw off all allegiance to the church, and or ganize an independent congregation. Sabbath after Sabbath they met in the manor-house, at first under the ministrations of Richard Clyfton, and afterwards of John Robinson. Clyfton had been vicar of M.arn ham, aud afterwards rector of Bab worth, and when deprived of his living on account of non-conformity, he took charge of the little congregation at Scrooby. He went with them to Holland in 1608, but remained in Amsterdam when they removed to Leyden, and died in 1616. remonstrances that " to keep a good conscience and walk in such a way as God has prescribed in His word is a thing which I shall prefer above you all, and above life itself." Such was the man who in his youth displayed qualities of mind and heart which, when fully matured, were for many years in later life the staff and support of the Plymouth Colony.

With such men as Brewster, Robinson, and Bradford as a part of its ingredients, it is surely not to be wondered that the colony was led courageously and safely through the perilous paths which it was destined to tread, and finally planted on permanent foundations in the wilderness of the western world. Soon after the pastorate of Clyfton began, John Robinson became associated with tho Scrooby Church. Born in Lincolnshire in 1576, Robinson entered Emanuel College in 1592, took the degree of M.A. in 1600, and B.D. in 1607. He began his minis terial labors in Mundham, where, on account of his Puritan tendencies, he was at length suspended from his functions. He afterwards retired to Norwich, where, after laboring for a short time with a small congregation of Puritans, he at last renounced all communion with the church.

While at Norwich he was spoken of as " a man worthily reverenced of all the city for the grace of God in him." Robinson himself said " that light broke in upon him by de grees, that he hesitated to outrun those of his Puritan brethren who could still reconcile themselves to re main in the Establishment," but that continual per secution drove him to the extremes of separation. Baillie, in his writings, though an opponent of Sepa ratism, called him "the most learned, polished, and modest spirit that ever the sect enjoyed." Among the members of the Scrooby Church, after wards associated with the settlement of Plymouth, it may be possible to number George Morton, William Butten, and the Southworths and Carpenters. The baptism of a George Morton is recorded in tho registry of the Austerfleld Church, under date of Feb. 12, 1598.

It docs not seem probable that this could have been the George Morton who was the father of the Secretary Nathaniel Morton, and who came to New England in the "Ann" in 1623, for his marriage-record exists in Leyden under date of 1612, in which he is described as George Morton, of York, in England, merchant. It is possible, however, that at the time of his baptism he may have been some what advanced in childhood, and that he may have left his native place to settle in YTork, the place from which he afterwards hailed. The baptism of William Butten, son of Robert Butten, is also recorded in the Austerfleld registry, under date of Sept. 12, 15S9, and that of William, son of William Wright, under date of March 10, 1589. Butten was probably the servant of Samuel Fuller, who started in the " May flower," and was drowned on the passage.

It is not improbable that Wright was the William Wright who came to New England in the " Fortune" in 1621, and that both Butten and Wright were mem bers of the Scrooby Church. The Carpenters and Southworths are so intimately connected by marriage with different members of the Pilgrim Colony that we find it difficult to eliminate them from the band of worshipers at Scrooby. George Morton, William Wright, Samuel Fuller, and Edward Southworth all married daughters of Alexander Carpenter, while Richard Cooper, another early settler of Plymouth, married the widow of William Wright; and Gov ernor Bradford, after tho loss of his first wife, married the widow of Edward Southworth. There is a tradition, too, that Bradford in early manhood had become attached to Alice (Carpenter) Southworth before her first marriage, but was opposed by her William Bradford was another of the Scrooby Church.

His grandfather, William Bradford, was living at Austerfleld in 1575, the father of three sons, — William, Thomas, and Robert, — of whom William, the father of Governor Bradford, married Alice, the daughter of John Hanson. William Brad ford, afterwards the Governor of the Plymouth Col ony, was born in 1589, and was consequently about seventeen years of age at the time of the formation of the Scrooby Church. His father died in his infancy, and he was reared and educated under the direction of his uncle Thomas. Though springing from the ranks of the yeomanry, he became a man of learning, and while in Holland not only became master of the language of the country, but added a knowledge of French, Latin, Greek, and even Hebrew, which he studied, as he said, "that he might see with his own eyes tho ancient oracles of God in all their native beauty."

Though a young man, he resisted the opposition of his uncle and guardian, and joined the outlawed church of the Pilgrims, answering to all friends. The fact that after the loss of his wife, who was drowned in Cape Cod harbor, he proposed to her anew by letter soon after she became a widow, re inforces the tradition, and so mingles the Bradford and Carpenter families as to strengthen the prob ability of their common local origin and residence. believed John Standish, knighted by Richard the Second, was founder. He had served with the troops sent by Elizabeth to assist the Dutch against the armies of Spain, and during the armistice, which be gan the year of the arrival of the Pilgrims in Leyden, he had fallen in with some of their number and cast in with them his lot. The hand of Providence, which seems to have guided every step of the Pilgrims with a clearer design than is apparent in most events in history, in attaching these men to the Pilgrim band, brought to it ingredients which it needed, if it needed anything, to make it a comprehensive, symmetrical organization, like an orchestra complete in all its parts, and wanting nothing to produce harmonious results.