A Chronological History of New England in the form of Annals, ... from the discovery by Capt. Gosnold in 1602 ... With an introduction, containing a brief epitome of ... events abroad, etc

Introduction

CONTAINING A brief Epitome of the most considerable Transactions and Events abroad. From the Creation. Including the connected line of Time, the succession of Patriarchs and Sovereigns of the most famous Kingdoms and Empires ; the gradual Discoveries of America, and the Progress of the Reformation, to the Discovery of New-England. By THOMAS PRINCE, M. A. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations Deut. xxxii. 7. For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers.., Job viii. 8. BOSTON, N. E. PRINTED B¥ KNEELAND k GREEN, FOR S. GERRISH. MDCCXXXVI. A NEW EDITION, PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS, H1LLIARD, AND COMPANY 1826.

ADVERTISEMENT.

TO THIS EDITION. The first volume of this work, including the Introduction, and the New-England Chronology to September 1630, was first published in Boston, in 1736. This volume terminated abruptly, in the middle of the second section, of the second part. The work was afterwards continued in 1755, in three pamphlet numbers of thirty-two pages each, bringing down the annals to the 5th of August, 1633. Soon after the publication of these numbers, the learned author died, and to the regret of all who wish to inquire into the early history of the country, the work remained unfinished. It embraces, however, the most obscure and difficult period of our history, namely, the first settlement of the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies ; and for that period it is the most complete, exact and satisfactory history extant.

The work has long been extremely rare, and a new edition of it has been much desired. Of the three pamphlet numbers, a very few copies were known to be in existence, until the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1818, republished them in the seventh volume of the second series of their valuable collections. Of the first volume, no edition since the first, has been published until this time. The present volume contains the original first volume, with the corrections and additions made by the author, together

ADVERTISEMENT.

. with the whole of the supplementary numbers, and is there fore, the first complete and uniform edition of the work that has been published. The Rev. Thomas Prince, the author of the work, was born at Middleborough, and was graduated at Harvard Col lege, 1707. He spent several years in travelling in Europe, and on his return, Oct. 1, 1718, was ordained Pastor of the old South Church in Boston, in which station he remained until his death, Oct. 22, 1758. The author of the New England Biographical Dictionary justly remarks of him, that he " was one of the most learned and useful men of his age. He would deserve this character, if he had never published any thing but this Chronology." Boston, 1826. DEDICATION. To His Excellency, Jonathan Belcher, Esq. ; captain-general and governor-in-chief in and over His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England. &c. To the Honorable Spencer Phipps, Esq., lieutenant-governor ; and to the Honorable His Majesty's Council and House of Representatives of said Province.

The Province under your united care, being the principal of the New-England governments, con taining especially the two first colonies of Ply mouth and the Massachusetts, from whence the others were chiefly derived, and having the greatest share in the following work, to whom could a son of the Province more properly offer this fruit of his labors, than to your excellency and honors ? especially, when he beholds you as mostly, if not wholly, descendants from the worthy fathers of these plan tations ; whom yourselves and posterity cannot but have in everlasting honor, not only for their eminent selfdenial and piety, wherein they set examples for future ages to admire and imitate ; but also for their great concern that the same vital and pure Christianity and liberty both civil and ecclesiastical, might be continued to their successors ; for which VI dedication. they left their own and their fathers houses, in the most pleasant places then on earth, with many of their dearest relatives, and came over the ocean into this then hideous wilderness ; and the peaceful fruits of whose extraordinary cares, labors, hard ships, wisdom, courage, patience, blood and death, we under the divine protection, and the justice of the best of kings enjoy.

It is to these we firstly owe our pleasant houses, our fruitful fields, our growing towns and churches, our wholesome laws, our precious privileges, our grammar schools and colleges, our pious and learn ed ministers and magistrates, our good government and order, the public restraints of vices, the general knowledge of our common people, the strict observation of the christian sabbath ; with those remains of public modesty, sobriety, social virtues, and reli gion ; for which this country is distinguished among the British colonies, and in which we are as happy as any on earth. In the midst of our great advantages, you will doubtless take a noble and useful pleasure, in re viewing the names and actions of your predeces sors ; that you may imitate their virtues ; as also in surveying the gradual steps that led to our pre sent situation ; together with the train of Provi dences appearing for us, sometimes indeed afflicting and then delivering, but preserving us through all our dangers, disappointing the designs of enemies, maintaining our invaluable liberties, and causing us to grow and prosper ; that the Sovereign Power DEDICATION. who has formed, preserved and blessed this people, may receive his due and grateful adorations.

It is the orderly succession of these transactions and events, as they precisely fell out in time, too much neglected by our historians, that for some years past, I have taken the greatest pains to search and find, even vastly more than in compos ing, and which through a world of difficulty and much expense, I here present you, not in the spe cious form of a proper history, which admits of artificial ornaments and descriptions to raise the imagination and affections of the reader ; but of a closer and more naked register, comprising only facts in a chronological epitome, to enlighten the understanding ; somewhat like the form of Usher's Annals, which a competent historian may easily fill up and beautify. Nor is the design of this dedication, as is usual with others, to implore your patronage of the work in general at all adventures, or to palliate or excuse the faults or mistakes therein ; but rather humbly to appeal to your collective and superior knowledge, that it may more thoroughly be examined, every mistake of fact discovered, and the remainder only justified.

It would be too high a presumption in me, as well as too intruding on your more important cares, to supplicate a public examination or correction of this composure. But if it were as worthy as the reverend and learned Mr. Hubbard's Narrative of the Indian wars ; for the perusing and approving DEDICATION. which, three honorable magistrates were deputed by the governor and council of the Massachusetts colony in 1677, one of whom was a major-general, and the other two were afterwards governors. Upon rectifying every error, such a public appro bation would consign it as a true report of facts, to the regard and credit both of present and of future generations. I should now conclude, were it not for an obser vation of too great and public moment to be here omitted ; which is as follows : That when the founders of these colonies came over, it was a time of general tyranny, both in church and state, through their mother island ; un der which the British kingdoms loudly groaned, as the united voice declared both of their Lords and Commons in several Parliaments both of England and of Scotland, the only national representatives and the most proper witnesses of the national op pressions ; a thousand times more credible than any particular writers.

From which those king doms could never obtain a legal and established deliverance till the glorious revolution in 1688 ; nor could apprehend it to be sufficiently secured till the happy accession of King George I. to the British throne in 1714 ; a prince who was a grand son, by the princess Sophia, of that most excellent king and queen of Bohemia ; whom the puritans admired and loved, whom they grieved to see so much neglected in their bitter sufferings by the court of England, and whom those who came over DEDICATION. IX hither, represented to their posterity in the most amiable character ; of which I can myself bear witness. For, though born in a remoter corner of this land, yet while in the arms of a knowing and careful mother, a grand-daughter of the first race of settlers, next to the Scripture history, she gave me such a view of the reformation, and of the suf ferings and virtues of those renowned princes, as raised my joy with others, when the first hopeful prospect opened of their protestant descendants in the illustrious House of Hanover, being advanced to the British throne, and carried us into unbound ed transports when our eyes beheld it.

Upon this occasion, His Excellency will forgive me, if, for the honor of his country, as well as for his own, we boast of one among us, who inspir ed with zeal for the succession of that illustrious House, even in the joys of youth, twice broke away, namely, in 1704 and 1708, and passed a double ocean ; that he might with rapture see, and in his country's name express the ardor of their vows to that most important family ; in which, under Heaven all the welfare of three mighty nations, and even of all the protestant states and kingdoms in the world, as well as the liberty, religion, and felicity of these colonies and provinces were involved. A celebrated instance peculiar to himself alone, that I presume no other American can pretend to ; and, for the fatigue and pains, I suppose no other subject of the whole British em pire ; which redounds to the glory of the land that r> DEDICATION.

X bred him, that parted with him, and received him with applause ; and the happy consequence where of, at the head of his country, he now enjoys. May that blessed family remain upon the throne and prosper as long as the sun endures ; may they spread their branches to every state and kingdom round about, and therewith extend the British happiness. May these plantations, flourish under their benign influence to the end of time. May your Excellency enjoy their smiles to the last hour of life ; and thereby, with the Divine grace and blessing, long lengthen our tranquillity, and advance our welfare. May your Honors, now taking your turn to rise and shine in the exalted places of your wise and pious predecessors, follow their bright exam ples, preserve the dear depposita resigned to your faithful trust, and transmit them safely to your successors ; in all your councils may you look to future as well as present generations ; whom you may see depending on your care and wisdom, as we, unborn depended on the care and wisdom of those before us ; and may you ever keep in view, the principal and noble ends of these religious settlements.

So will you be, with our dear forefathers, an eternal excellence, and the joy and praise of perpetual generations. Your Excellency's and Honors, most Obedient, and Humble Servant, THOMAS PRINCE. Boston, Nov. 2\th, 1736.

Preface

. — Q!©©— RELATING THE RISE, DESIGN, AND PROGRESS OF THIS COMPOSURE. Next to the Sacred History, and that of the Reformation, I was from my early youth instructed in the history of this country. And the first book of this kind put into my hand, was The Nety-Eng land Memorial, composed by Mr. Secretary Motion; being tiie History of Plymouth Colony from the beginning to 1668. G"v. Thomas Dudley's Letter to the countess of Lincoln, informed me of the beginning of the Massachusetts Colony. Mr. William Hub bard and Mr. Increase Mather's Narratives of the Indian Wars in 1637, 1675 and 1676, with Mr. Cotton Mather's History of the Indian Wars from 1688 to l698,gave me a sufficient view of those calamitous times. Mr. Matthew Mayhew's Account of the Vine yard Indians, Mr. Increase Mather's Record of Remarkable Provi dences, Mr. Cotton Mather's Lives of Mr. Cotton, Norton, Wilson, Davenport, Hooker, Mitchel, Eliot, and Sir William Phipps, in creased my knowledge ; and much more was it advanced, upon the coming out of the last mentioned author's Ecclesiastical History of New England, in folio, in 1702.

Yet still I longed to see all these things disposed in the order of time wherein they happened, together with the rise and progress of the several towns, churches, counties, colonies, and provinces throughout this country.

PREFACE.

. XII Upon my entering into the College, I chanced in my leisure hours to read Mr. Chamberlain's account of the Cottonian Library ; which excited in me a zeal of laying hold on every book, pamphlet, and paper, both in print and manuscript, which are either written by persons who lived here, or that have any tendency to enlighten our history. When I went to England, I met with a great variety of books and pamphlets, too many here to name, relating to this country, wrote in ancient times, and which I could not meet with on this side the Atlantic. Among others, in a History of New England, from 1628 to 1651, printed in quarto, London, 1654, 1 found many particulars, of the beginning of our several churches, towns and colonies, which appear in no other writer. The running title of the book is Wonder Working Providence, &c ; and in the genuine title-page, no author is named.

Some of the books were faced with a false title-page ; wherein the work is wrongly assigned to sir F. Georges ; but the true author was Mr. Johnson of Woburn, in New-England, as the late Judge Sewall assured me, as of a thing familiarly known among the Fathers of the Massachusetts Colony. In my foreign travels, I found the want of a regular history of this country every where complained of; and was often moved to undertake it, though I could not think myself equal to a work so noble as the subject merits. The extraordinary talents which Le Moyn and others require in an historian were enough to deter me. And yet I had a secret thought, that upon returning to my native country, in case I should fall into a state of leisure, and no other engaged, I would attempt a brief account of facts at least, in the form of annals.

But returning home in 1717, Providence was pleased soon to settle me in such a public place and circumstance, as I could expect no leisure for such a work, and gave it over. I could propose no other than to go on with my collections, and provide materials for some other hand ; which I have been at no small expense to gather • having amassed above a thousand books, pamphlets, and papers of this kind in print, and a great number of papers in manuscript ; so many indeed, that I have never yet had leisure enough to read them. For 1 should want at least as long a time as Dio ; who

PREFACE.

. XIII says he had been not only ten years in collecting for his history, but also twelve years more in compiling it ; and yet by his book of Dreams and Prodigies, presented to Severus, one would think he had sufficient leisure.* In 1720 came out Mr. Neal's History of New-England, which I was glad to see, and pleased both with his spirit, style, and method. I could wish nothing more than that he had all the helps this country affords. And though he has fallen into many mistakes of facts which are commonly known among us, some of which he seems to derive from Mr. Oldmixon's Account of New England in his British Empire in America ; and which mistakes are no doubt the reason why Mr. Neal's History is not more generally read among us ; yet considering the materials this worthy writer was confined to, and that he was never here, it seems to me scarce possible that any under his disadvantages should form a better.

In comparing him with the authors from whence he draws, I am sur prised to see the pains he has taken to put the materials into such a regular order ; and to me it seems as if many parts of his work cannot be mended. Upon the account of those mistakes as also many deficiencies which our written records only are able to supply ; I have been often urged here to undertake our history, but as often declined for the reasons aforesaid. However, being still solicited, and no other attempting, at length in 1728 I determined to draw up a short account of the most remarkable transactions and events, in the form of a mere Chronology ; which I apprehended would give a summary and regular view of the rise and progress of our affairs, be a certain guide to future historians, make their performance easier to them, or assist Mr. Neal in correcting his second edition ; and which I supposed would not take above six or eight sheets, in tending to write no more than a line or two upon every article.

The design was this ; A summary and exact account of the most material occurrences relating to these parts of the world from their first discovery in the order of time in which they happened ; wherein, besides the most Lib. 72, c. Xiphilino

PREFACE.

. remarkable Providences ; such as appearances of comets and eclipses, earthquakes, tempests, inundations, droughts, scarcities, fires, epidemical sicknesses, memorable accidents and deliverances, deaths of men of figure, with their age and places where they lived and died, as also of the most aged, with the number of their offspring ; there will be brief hints of our historical transactions, as the rise and changes of governments, the elections of chief magistrates, the grants and settlements of towns and precincts, their Indian and English names, the formations of churches and counties, the ordinations and removals of ministers, building houses for public worship, forts and great bridges, erecting grammar schools and colleges, extraordinary public fasts and thanksgivings, propagation of the Gospel, remarkable laws and executions, as also wars, as saults, expeditions, battlrs, peace, &c. The different dates assigned to various occurrences, will be carefully compared and corrected, and the very years, months and days, if possible, ascertained.

Together with an introduction, containing a brief account of the most remarkable persons, transactions and events abroad. 1. From the Creation to the birth of Christ, according to the computation of the best Chronologers. 2. From thence to the discovery of the New World by Christo pher Columbus, 3. From thence to the discovery of New-England by Captain Gosnold. The ministers throughout this country were desired to make their careful inquiries, and send in their accurate accounts as soon as possible ; that such material passages might be preserved from oblivion, and so desirable a collection might be hastened to the public view. Upon my publishing this design, I first engaged in the introduction ; but quickly found, as Chambers in his Cyclopædia observes Chronology to be vastly more difficult than one can imagine, who has not applied himself to the study ; and as Alsted in his Thesæu rus, says, that his other labors were but as play to this.

In my prefaces to the several periods and the following notes, I observe the writers with whom I agree and differ, as also some of trie greatest difficulties. And as I would not take the least iota upon

PREFACE.

. XV trust if possible, I examined the original authors I could meet with ; and some of the articles were so perplexed, as it cost me a fortnight's thought and labor before I could be fully satisfied. The mere tables and calculations I was forced to make would compose a folio. To find out not only the year and month, but even the day of every article, I was obliged to search a great number of writers ; and the knowing reader will see that so many precise points of time, are nowhere to be found, but by such a collection as I have for this intent perused. As to the line of time, it is measured by the continued succession of patriarchs and sovereigns of the most famous kingdoms and empires. For the three first periods, viz. (1) Of the patriarchs, (2) Judges of Israel, and (3) Kings of Judah, to the destruction of the first Temple and of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar ; I leave the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint and Josephus, which several writers both ancient and modern follow ; and I strictly keep to the Hebrew Bible, of which it is said, our old English Bede was the first who made it the rule of ancient Chronology.

In the fourth period, viz. from thence through the reigns of the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian and Egyptian monarchs, to the Roman emperors; I keep to Ptolemy's famous Astronomical Canon, and give it ex actly through the period. In the fifth and sixth periods from thence to the monarchs of England, I make use of Tacitus, Sue tonius, Dio, Herodian, Eusebius, Evagrius, Socrates, Scholasticus, Calvisius, Helvicus, Petavius,.&c. And in the seventh and last, from thence to the beginning of the reign of king James I. in England, when he became the first monarch of Great Britain, I keep to the ancient authors in Latin to the reign of Edward II. ; of all which I am sorry that I could not find the Saxon Chronicle in this country. But whereas in the times before the Christian era, I cite several authors ; such as Calvisius, Helvicus, Alsted, Petavius, Usher, &c. as agreeing in the same year affixed to an article, though they called that year a different year of the world : I need not tell the learned, that in those articles those authors do not differ, as to the same real years, or years of the Julian period, or celestial characters assigned to them, or in their distance from the christian era. Thus for in-

PREFACE.

. stance, as to the time when Augustus took Alexandria, and put an end to the Egyptian kingdom ; Calvisius calls it August 1, in the year of the world 3920 ; Usher calls it 3974, beginning 3975 in the following month ; but we, beginning this year with January, as the Julian year begins, place this article on August 1 , in 3975 ; and yet this is the very same real year, month and day, viz. August 1, in the year of the Julian period 4684, Cycle of the sun 8, of the moon 10, and the 30th year before the christian era ; the first of which is the year of the Julian period 4714 ; as all chronologers agree. In our use of those authors therefore, we turn their years of the Julian period into those years of the world which answer them in our chronology. In the Introduction I also observed this rule, that the nearer I drew to the later ages, wherein we grow more concerned, the larger I made my periods ; and in the process of this work, was gra dually led on and persuaded to exceed my first design, which was to have made the five later periods near as short as the two former.

By that time I finished the introduction, I found so great a num ber of historical manuscripts, both old and new ; containing all sorts of records both public and private, religious, civil and miltary ; that our printed histories are but a small part in comparison with them, and made me still more ready to yield to the solicitations of others, to enlarge my design and give the public an abridgement of them. For I considered that as several ancient records of towns and churches have been unhappily burnt, and some lost otherwise ; if I did not now in this way preserve the substance of these histori cal memoirs, it would be daily in danger of perishing beyond recovery. The manuscripts I have had opportunity to search are these. In folio — 1. Governor Bradford's History of Plymouth people and colony, from 1602 to the end of 1646, in 270 pages ; with some account, at the end, of the increase of those who came over with him, from 1620 to 1650, and all in his own hand-writing. 2. The ancient Church of Plymouth Records ; begun by Mr. Secretary Morton.

PREFACE.

. XVII 3. A copy of the Grand Charter of New-England, granted by king James I. on November 3, 1620, in 86 pages. 4. The ancient Records of the Massachusetts Colony. 5. The ancient Records of the County of Suffolk ; in the first volume whereof are several letters from the Massachusetts Com pany at London to Mr. Endicot, before they came over. 6. The ancient Records of the town of Charlestown ; in the first volume whereof is a particular history of the first coming and set tling of the English there, and in the neighboring pi ices. 7- The ancient Records of the town of Boston ; as also of the first, second, third, and several other later Churches there. 8. The ancient Records of the first Church of Roxburv, written by the famous and Rev. Mr. Eliot, and his successive colleagues the Rev. Mr. Danforth and Walter.

In a separate part of the book are recorded hints of various ancient transactions and events, in other towns and colonies. 9. An ancient Record of the first New-England Synod, viz. at Cambridge, 1637- 10. Plynmuth Colony Laws, from 1626 to 1660, inclusively. 11. The ancient Records of the honorable Artillery Company. 12. The Rev. Mr. William Hubbard's General History of New- England from the discovery to 1680, in 338 pages ; and though not in his own hand-writing, yet having several corrections made thereby. In quarto — , 1. A book of Patents of several parts of New-England. 2. An original Record of the Rev. Mr. Peter Hobart of Hing ham, relating hints of matters, both in his own and some neighboring churches also. 3. Major Mason's ancient account of the Pequot War in 1634, 5, 6, 7. 4. Major-General Gookin's history of the New-England Indians, to 1674, inclusively. 5. An original Journal in Latin, composed by the late Rev. Mr. Brimsmead of Marlborough, and in his hand-writing, from 1665 to 1695, inclusively.

PREFACE.

. 6. An account of Memorable Things in New-England, from 1674 to 1687 inclusively, written by the late Rev. Dr. Increase Mather, in his own hand. 7. An original Journal of the late Captain Lawrence Hammond of Charlestown and Boston, from 1677 to 1694, inclusively. 8. An original Journal of a very intelligent person deceased, who desired not to be named ; relating remarkable matters from 1689 to 1711, inclusively. In octavo — 1. A register of Governor Bradford's, in his own hand, recording some of the first deaths, marriages and punishments, at Plymouth ; with three other miscellaneous volumes of his. 2. A little ancient Table Book of his son, major William Brad ford, afterward deputy governor of Plymouth Colony, written with his own hand, from 1649 to 1670. 3. Captain Roger Clap's account of the ancient affairs of the Massachusetts Colony. 4.

An original Register wrote by the Rev. Mr. John Lathrop, recording the first affairs both of Scituate and Barnstable : of which towns he was successively the first minister. Two original books of Deputy Governor Willoughby and Cap tain Hammond ; giving historical hints, from 1651 to 1678 inclusively. 6. Interleaved Almanacs of the late honorable John Hull and Judge Sewall of Boston, Esqrs. ; of the Rev. Mr. Sbepard the last of Charlestown, of the late Rev. Mr. Joseph Gerrish of Wenham, and several others from 1646 to 1720; wherein the facts were wrote at the time they happened ; though the notes in several being wrote in divers sorts of short-hand, to which I was an utter stran ger, put me to no small pains to find out their alphabets and other characters. In lose papers — 1. Extracts from the Public Records of the Colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut and Rhode Island. 2.

A great number of ancient Letters and other papers which I have collected from several libraries and particular persons. 3. Near two hundred Chronological Letters sent me, collected

PREFACE.

. XIX from the Records of several towns and churches throughout this country, as also from private registers, gravestones, and the information of aged and intelligent persons. The reader will easily conceive how large and difficult a field now lay before me ; when all these manuscripts were to be perused, examined, and compared both with themselves and with those accounts already published; their varieties and contradictions solved, their mistakes discovered ; the chronological order of all their pas sages found out ; one regular abridgement taken from them ; what several wanted, to be supplied from others ; and the most material and proper passages, words and phrases selected from them all, and placed together in a natural order, and so as to enlighten each other. For in my tracing several authors on this occasion, I soon saw cause to come into the same sentiment and resolution with the Rev. Mr. Strype in his preface to the first volume of his Annals of the Reformation : which I shall mention in his own words. ' I have chosen commonly to set down things in the very words of the re cords, and originals, and of the authors themselves, rather than in my own, without framing and dressing them into more modern language ; whereby the sense is sure to remain entire as the writers meant it ; whereas by affecting too curiously to change and model words and sentences, I have observed the sense itself to be often marred and disguised.' Yea, more scrupulous than Mr. Strype on this account, for instead of commonly, I have so universally ob served this rule, that where I have inserted sentences or words of my own, for illustration, I have either enclosed them in crotchets " ], or added them at the end of paragraphs, without any author cited after them.