Chronicles of the Pilgrim fathers of the colony of Plymouth, from 1602-1625

Front matter

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PUBLISHED EVERY iMOS

f EXCEPT ItUNCAV). 1

Preface

was occupied by the British troops, and has long since been given up by our historians as lost. The most important part of this lost History I have had the good fortune to recover. On a visit at Plymouth, a few years since, I found in the records of the First Church a narrative, in the hand-writing of Secretary Morton, which, on comparing it with the large extracts in Hutchinson^ and Prince,^ I recognized as the identical History of Governor Bradford ; a fact put beyond all doubt by a marginal note of Morton at the beginning of it, in which he says, " This was originally penned by Mr. William Bradford, governor of New Plymouth." This fact of the real authorship of the document seems to have escaped the observation of all who had preceded me in examining the records, such as Judge Davis, Mr. Bancroft, and even of Hazard, who attributes it expressly to Nathaniel Morton.^ Hazard copied and printed the larger part of it, as a work of Morton's, in his valuable collection of State Papers, though in a very incomplete and inaccurate form, not being able always to decipher the cramped and abbreviated characters in which it is written, and being frequently obliged to leave blank spaces in his page.

' By comparing the second chapter in this volume with the first article in Hutchinson's Appendix, ii. 449-451, which he quotes from Bradford's MS., it will be found that they agree nearly word for word.

^ The extracts in Prince are too numerous to be referred to ; the principal are on pages 114, 120, 128, 130, 140-145, 147, 155, 160, of the octavo edition, printed in 1826.

' Hazard's State Papers, i. 340.

PREFACE.

Vll

By the favor of the Plymouth Church I was permitted to make a new transcript of this very important paper, the entire accuracy of which has been secured by its careful collation with another copy made by the Rev. WiUiam P. Lunt, of Quincy, who kindly favored me with the loan of it. The value of this document depends upon its authorship, and cannot be over-estimated. It takes precedence of every thing else relating to the Pilgrims, in time, authority, and interest. It will be found to contain a detailed history of their rise in the north of England, their persecutions there, their difficult and perilous escape into Holland, their residence in that hospitable land for twelve years, the causes which led to their emigration, and the means which they adopted to transport themselves to America.

The next document is Bradford's and Winslow's Journal of the first settlement of the Colony, containing a minute diary of events from the arrival of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, November 9, 1620, to the return of the Fortune, December 11, 1621. This document joins on to the former, making a continuous narrative. It was printed in London in 1622, with a Preface signed by G. MouRT, and has since been usually cited as Mourt's Relation. It will be seen from the notes on pages 113 and 115 of this volume, that Mourt was probably George Morton, the father of Nathaniel, the Secretary, then resident in England, that he had no vm

PREFACE.

hand in writing the Journal, but that it was actually written by Bradford and Winslow, a circumstance which gives to it new value and interest, and confers on it the highest authority. In 1625, this Relation was abridged by Purchas, and printed in the fourth volume of his Pilgrims. This abridgment, comprising only about half of the original, and abounding with errors, was reprinted in 1802 in the eighth volume of the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. In 1822, after an interval of twenty years, the portions omitted by Purchas were reprinted in the nineteenth volume of the same Collections, from a manuscript copy of the original edition, made at Philadelphia. The transcriber, however, omitted some important passages, and committed many errors in copying. The parts of the work being thus disjointed, and printed in separate volumes, rendered the reading of it extremely difficult and repulsive. The present is the only correct and legible reprint that has been made since the appearance of the original in 1622.

The third paper is Robert Cushman's Discourse, delivered at Plymouth in November, 1621, reprinted from an old copy in the library of the American Antiquarian Society.

The fourth document is Edward Winslow 's Relation, entitled " Good News from New England," which takes up the narrative where it was left off by the former Journal, and brings it down to September 10,1623,

PREFACE. iX

This book was printed in London in 1624, was abridged by Purchas in the same way as the former Relation, was reprinted in the same fragmentary manner by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1802, and the omissions in a separate volume in 1 822. It is now reprinted for the first time entire, and in a legible form, from the original London edition, for which, as well as for the original of Bradford's and Winslow's Journal, I am indebted to the rich hbrary of Harvard College.

Next in order is Edward Winslow's " Brief Narration of the true grounds or cause of the first planting of New England," which was printed at London in 1646, at the end of his Answer to Gorton. No copy of this rare book is known to exist in this country. The manuscript from which I print was kindly copied for me by the Rev. George E. Ellis, of Charlestown, from the printed volume in the British Museum. In this paper we have the original of Robinson's celebrated farewell address to the Pilgrims at Leyden, and several facts relating to them not recorded elsewhere.

The sixth paper is a Dialogue, written by Governor Bradford, which has never before appeared in print. A fragment of it, written with his own hand, I found among the manuscripts in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society ; but the entire work I obtained from the records of the First Church in Plymouth, into which it was copied by Secretary Morton. b

X

PREFACE.

The next document is a Memoir of Elder Brewster, written by Governor Bradford as part of his History, and also copied by Morton into the Church records.

The volume closes with some letters of John Robinson, and of the Pilgrims at Leyden and Plymouth, procured from the records of the Plymouth Church and from Governor Bradford's Letter Book.

The value of these contemporaneous documents cannot be overstated. They are the earhest chronicles of New England. We have here the first book of our history, written by the actors themselves. We should esteem it a fortunate circumstance, a peculiar privilege, that we thus have the whole story of the origin of this earliest of our northern colonies in the very words of the first planters.^ In authority and importance nothing can exceed them ; and I feel that I have been engaged in a useful as well as interesting labor in collecting together and illustrating these scattered memorials of the Fathers. The notes will be found to be copious and various, touching upon all points, and in all cases referring to authorities from which the statements may be verified, and fuller information be obtained. Considering myself as engaged in erecting another monument to the memory of the Pilgrims, I have spared neither labor nor expense in endeavouring to render the work accurate and complete. If the

PREFACE. Xi

reader shall derive from its perusal the same satisfaction which I have found in its compilation, I shall feel myself abundantly remunerated for this labor of love.

Regarding these documents as the only authentic chronicles of those times, I have considered all deviations from them in subsequent writers as errors, and when they have fallen under my notice, I have not scrupled to point them out. In this I have no other object in view than historical accuracy ; and accordingly for whatever errors I may have fallen into, I shall hold myself equally obnoxious to criticism.

The portrait of Governor Winslow at the beginning of the volume, so beautifully engraved by House, is an accurate copy of the original picture painted in London in 1651, in his 57th year. This picture, the only portrait that we have of any of the Pilgrims, has been handed down in the family ever since it was painted, one hundred and ninety years ago, and was kept till within a few years at the seat of the Winslows, in Marshfield. It is now the property of Mr. Isaac Winslow, of Boston, the only surviving male descendant of the Governor, bearing his name, by whose kindness I have been permitted to have it engraved, and who has deposited it, with other portraits of his ancestors, in the Hall of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The coat of arms was probably painted at the same time with the picture, and has always been an heirloom in the family. The fac-

Xll

PREFACE.

simile of Winslow's signature was copied from a letter written by him to Governor Winthrop, from his seat at " Careswell, this 17th of the last month, 1639." The original is in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and it was printed by Hutchinson in his Collection of Original Papers, page 110.

The map of Plymouth, on page 160, is copied by permission, on an enlarged scale, from the accurate map of the State, now in preparation under the direction of Simeon Borden, Esq., and the map of Cape Cod, on page 116, is partly reduced from Major Graham's beautiful chart, and partly composed from recent surveys made for the State map. The engraving of the Mayflower on page 108 is copied from one of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships in De Bry, and is a correct representation of the vessels of that day. The chairs of Winslow, Carver, and Brewster, are faithfully drawn from the originals, the first of which is preserved in the Hall of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the last two in the Pilgrim Hall, at Plymouth. The seal of the Colony is taken from the title-page of the Book of the General Laws of New Plymouth, printed in 1685. Judge Davis says, " it originated probably in Mr. Cushman's advice to Governor Bradford in a letter from England, Dec. 18, 1624 : ' Make your corporation as formal as you can, under the name of the Society in Plymouth in New England.' Of this seal the Colony was deprived in

PREFACE.

Xlll the rapacious days of Andros. On a return to the old paths, the Governor was requested to procure its restoration. If this appHcation were successful, the seal has since been lost."

In regard to the minuteness of some of the particulars recorded in the ensuing pages, no better apology can be offered than that of the Roman annalist : " Pleraque eorum quae referam parva forsitan et levia memoratu videri, non nescius sum. Non tamen sine usu fuerit introspicere ilia, primo adspectu levia, ex quis magnarum ssepe rerum motus oriuntur."^ — " If any tax me for wasting paper with recording these small matters, such may consider that small commonwealths bring forth matters of small moment ; the reading whereof yet is not to be despised by the judicious, because small things in the beginning of natural or politic bodies are as remarkable as greater in bodies full grown." ^

Boston, June 1, 1841.

' Tacitus, Ann. lib, iv. 32.

^ Dudley's Letter to the Countess of Lincoln.

LIST OF THE ENGRAVINGS

Page.

1. Portrait of Governor Winslow . . . , i

2. The Mayflower 108

3. Map of Cape Cod 116

4. Map of Plymouth Bay ..... 160

5. Governor Winslovt's Chair ..... 238

6. Governor Carver's Chair ..... 458

7. Elder Brewster's Chair ..... 470

8. Seal of Plymouth Colony . . . Back Title.

Contents

Chap. Page.

Gov. Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony . 1

I. The first beginnings of this church and people . . 19

Introduction

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AT PLYMOUTH, IN

NEW ENGLAND, AS FOLLOWETH.i

It is well known to the godly and judicious, how intr. that ever since the first breaking out of the light of the Gospel in our honorable nation of England, — which was the first of nations whom the Lord adorned therewith, after that gross darkness of Popery, which had covered and overspread the Christian world, — what wars and oppositions ever since Satan hath raised, maintained, and continued against the saints from time to time, in one sort or other ; sometimes by bloody death and cruel torments, otherwhiles imprisonments, banishments, and other hard usages ; as being loth his kingdom should go down, the truth prevail, and the churches of God revert to their ancient purity, and recover their primitive order, liberty, and beauty. But when he could not prevail by these means against the main truths of the Gospel, but that they began to take footing in many places, being watered with the blood of the martyrs and blessed from heaven with a gracious

* This was originally penned by Mr. William Bradford, Governor of New Plymouth. — Morton's Note.

INTR. increase ; he then began to take him to his ancient stratagems, used of old against the first Christians ; that when by the bloody and barbarousness ^ of the heathen emperor he could not stop and subvert the course of the Gospel, but that it speedily overspread with a wonderful celerity to the then best known parts of the world, he then began to sow errors, heresies, and wonderful desertions amongst the professors themselves, working upon their pride and ambition, with other corrupt passions incident to all mortal men, yea to the saints themselves in some measure ; by which woful effects followed, as not only bitter contentions and heart-burnings, schisms, with other horrible confusions, but Satan took occasion and advantage thereby to foist in a number of vile ceremonies, with many unprofitable canons and decrees, which have since been as snares to many peaceable poor souls even to this day ; so, as in the ancient times the persecution by the heathen and their emperors was not greater than of the Christians, one against another, the Arians' and other their accomplices' against the orthodox and true Christians (as witnesseth Socrates in his second book, saith he) " was no less than that of old practised towards the Christians when they were compelled and drawn to sacrifice to idols ; for many endured sundry kinds of torments, others racking, and dismembering of their joints, confiscating of their goods, some bereaved of their native soil, others departed this life under the hands of the tormentor, and some died in banishment, and never saw their country again." ^ The like method Satan hath seemed to hold in these

'-' So in llie MS. * Eccles. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 27, latter times, since the truth began to spring and spread intr. after the great defection made by Antichrist, the Man of Sin. For to let pass the many examples in sundry nations, in several places of the world, and instances of our own, whenas the old serpent could not prevail by those fiery flames, and other his cruel tragedies, which he by his instruments put in ure every where in the days of Queen Mary and before, he then began another 1553. kind of war, and went more closely to work, not only 1558. to oppugn, but even to ruinate and destroy the kingdom of Christ by more secret and subtle means, by kindling the flames of contention and sowing the seeds of discord and bitter enmity amongst the professors and seeming reformed themselves. For when he could not prevail by the former means against the principal doctrines of faith, he bent his force against the holy discipline and outward regiment of the kingdom of Christ, by which those holy doctrines should be confirmed, and true piety maintained amongst the saints and people of God.

Mr. Fox recordeth how that, besides those worthy martyrs and confessors which were burned in Queen Mary's days and otherwise tormented, many, both students and others, fled out of the land, to the number 1554. of eight hundred, and became several congregations at Wesel, Frankfort, Basle, Emden, Marburg, Strasburg, and Geneva, &c.^ Amongst whom, especially those at Frankfort, began a bitter war of contention and per- 1555. secution about the ceremonies and service book, and other popish and antichristian stuflf, the plague of England to this day, which are like the high places in

^ Fox, Acts and Monuments, iii. iii. 146, and Fuller's Ch. Hist, of 40. See also Strype's Memorials, Britain, ii. 405, (ed. 1837.)

INTR. Israel which the prophets cried out against, and were their ruin ; which the better part sought, according to the purity of the Gospel, to root out and utterly destroy, and the other part, under veiled pretences, for their own ends and advancement, sought as stiffly to continue, maintain, and defend ; as appeareth by the Discourse thereof pubhshed in print anno 1575, a book that deserves better to be known and considered than it is.^ The one side labored to have the right worship of God and discipline of Christ established in the church according to the simplicity of the Gospel, without the mixture of men's inventions, and to have and to be ruled by the laws of God's word, dispensed in those offices and by those officers of pastors and teachers and elders, according to the Scriptures. The other party, though under many colors and pretences, endeavoured to have the episcopal dignity, after the popish manner, with their large power and jurisdiction, still retained, with all those courts, canons and ceremonies, together with all such livings, revenues, and subordinate officers, with other such means as formerly upheld their antichristian greatness, and enabled them with lordly and tyrannous power to persecute the poor servants of God.

* This work is entitled, " A Brief the view and consideration of the

Discourse of the Troubles begun at most Honorable and High Court of

Frankfort, in Germany, anno Domi- Parliament, and the reverend di-

ni 1554, about the Book of Common vines of the intended ensuing As-

Prayer and Ceremonies, and contin- sembly," Hallam says, in his Con-

ued by the Englishmen there to the stitutional History of England,

end of Queen Mary's reign; in the i. 233, that "this tract is fairly

which Discourse the gentle reader and temperately written, though

shall see the very original and be- with an avowed bias towards the

ginning of all the contention that Puritan party. Whatever we read

hath been, and what was the cause in any historian on the subject, is

of the same. 1575." The place derived from this authority." Both

where it was printed is not men- editions of this rare book are in the

tioned. It was reprinted at London Library of the Massachusetts His-

in 1642, and " humbly presented to torical Society.

INTRODUCTION.

This contention was so great, as neither the honor intr. of God, the common persecution, nor the mediation of Mr. Calvin and other worthies of the Lord in those places, could prevail with those thus episcopally minded ; but they proceeded by all means to disturb the peace of this poor persecuted church, so far as to charge very unjustly and ungodlily (yet prelate like) some of their chief opposers with rebellion and high treason against the Emperor, and other such crimes.^ And this contention died not with Queen Mary, nor was 1558. left beyond the seas. But at her death, these people 7 J' returning into England, under gracious Queen Ehzabeth, many of them preserved aspired to bishoprics and other promotions,^ according to their aims and desires ;

' Calvin, in his letter of Jan. 20, 1555, addressed to John Knox and William Whittingham, at Frankfort, says, " In the liturgy of England I see that there were many tolerable foolish things ; by these words I mean that there was not the jmriiy which was to be desired. These vices, though they could not at the first day be amended, yet, seeing there was no manifest impiety, they were for a season to be tolerated. Therefore it was lawful to begin of such rudiments or abecedaries ; but so that it behooved the learned, grave, and godly ministers of Christ to enterprise farther, and to set forth something more filed from rust, and purer. If godly religion had flourished till this day in England, there ought to have been a thing better corrected, and many things clean taken away. I cannot tell what they mean which so greatly delight in the leavings of popish dregs." Knox was soon after accused of treason before the magistrates of Frankfort by some of the opposite party, on the ground of certain passages in a book of his, entitled An Admonition to Christians, in which he called the emperor of Germany " no less an enemy to Christ than was Nero ; " in consequence of which he was obliged to leave the city. See Discourse of the Troubles of Frankfort, pp. 35 and 44, ed. of 1575, and Fuller's Ch. Hist. ii. 411.

* See in Prince's Annals, p. 288, a list of those who were thus promoted. It is a just remark of Hallam, Const. History of England, i. 238, that the objections to the church ceremonies and the clerical vestments " were by no means confined, as is perpetually insinuated, to a few discontented persons. The most eminent churchmen, such as Jewel, Grindal, Sandys, Novvell, were in favor of leaving ofi" the surplice and what were called the popish ceremonies. The current opinion that these scruples were imbibed during the banishment of the reformers, must be received with great allowance. The dislike to some parts of the Anglican ritual had begun at home, it had broken out at Frankfort, it is displayed in all the early documents of Elizabeth's reign by the English divine?,

INTR. SO that inveterate hatred against the holy disciphne of Christ in his church hath continued to this day ; insomuch that, for fear it should prevail, all plots and devices have been used to keep it out, incensing the Queen and State against it as dangerous to her commonwealth ; and that it was most needful for the fundamental points of religion should be preached in those ignorant and superstitious times, and to win the weak and ignorant, they might retain divers harmless ceremonies ; and though it were to be wished that divers things were reformed, yet this was not a season for it ; and many the like, to stop the mouths of the more godly, to bring them on to yield to one ceremony after another and one corruption after another ; by these ways beguiling some and corrupting others, until at length they began to persecute all the zealous professors in the land, (although they knew little what this discipline meant), both by word and deed, if they would not submit to their ceremonies and become slaves to them and their popish trash, which have no ground in the word of God, but are relics of the Man of Sin. And the more the light of the Gospel grew, the more they urged their subscriptions to these corruptions, so as notwithstanding all their former pretences and fair colors, they whose eyes God had not justly blinded might easily see whereto these things tended. And to cast contempt the more upon the sincere servants of God, they opprobriously and most injuriously gave unto and imposed

1564. upon them that name of Puritans,^ which it is said the

far more warmly than by their Swiss concise and accurate account of the

correspondents. The queen alone origin and growth of Puritanism in

was the cause of retaining those England, will be found in Prince's

observances, to which the great Annals, p. 282 — 307.

separation from the Anglican estab- * The era of the English Puri-

lishment is ascribed." The most tans properly begins in 1550, when

INTRODUCTION.

"^Novatians, out of pride, did assume and take unto intr. themselves.^ And lamentable it is to see the effects which have followed. Religion hath been disgraced, the godly grieved, afflicted, persecuted, and many exiled ; sundry have lost their lives in prisons and other ways. On the other hand, sin hath been countenanced, ignorance, profaneness and atheism increased, the Papists encouraged to hope again for a day.

This made that hcdy man Mr. Perkins cry out in his Exhortation unto Repentance, on Zephaniah ii, " Religion," saith he, " hath been amongst us this thirty-

Hooper refused, for a time, to be consecrated in the ecclesiastical habits. But in the year 1564, " the English bishops, "says Fuller, ''conceiving themselves empowered by their canons, began to show their authority in urging the clergy of their respective dioceses to subscribe to the liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline of the Church ; and such as refused the same were branded with the odious name of Puritmin. We need not speak of the ancient Cathari, or primitive Puritans, sufficiently known by their heretical opinions. ' Puritan ' here was taken for the opposers of the hierarchy and church-service, as resenting of superstition. But profane mouths quickly improved this nickname, therewith on every occasion to abuse pious people ; some of them so far from opposing the liturgy, that they endeavoured (according to the instructions thereof in the preparative to the Confession) ' to accompany the minister with a pure heart,' and labored (as it is in the Absolution) ' for a life pure and holy.' " An old writer of the Church of England, quoted by Prince, says, " they are called Puritans who would have the Church thoroughly reformed; that is, purged from all tho.se inventions which have been brought into it since the age of the Apostles, and reduced entirely to the Scripture 'purity.''' See Fuller's Ch. Hist. ii. 331, 474 ; Strype's Annals, i. 459-463 ; Camden's Elizabeth, p. 107 ; Prince, pp. 100, 283 ; Neal's Puritans, i. 46, 72, 91. (4to ed.)

' " Novatus, a presbyter of the church of Rome, being puffed up with pride against those who in the times of persecution had lapsed through infirmity of mind, as if there were no further hope of salvation for them, although they performed all things appertaining to an unfeigned conversion and a sincere confession, constituted himself the ringleader of a peculiar sect, of those who by reason of their haughty minds styled themselves Cathari, that is, the Pure.^' Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 43. His excessive rigor towards the lapsed appears to have been the only heresy of Novatus ; and it is quite as likely that the name of Puritan was fastened upon his followers in derision and reproach as that they assumed it of themselves ; as we know was the case with the modern Quakers and Methodists. For an account of Novatus and his opinions, see Lardner's Credibility, part ii. ch. 47; Mosheim, de Rebus Christianorum ante Const. Magn. Comment. 512-527 ; Jackson's Novatian, Praef.

iNTR. five years. But the more it is published, the more it is contemned and reproached of many, &c. Thus not profaneness nor wickedness, but rehgion itself is a by-word, a mocking-stock, and matter of reproach; so that in England at this day, the man or woman that begins to profess religion and to serve God, must resolve with himself to sustain mocks and injuries, even as though he lived amongst the enemies of religion ; and this common experience hath been too apparent." ^

But before I pass on, I cannot omit an observation worthy to be noted, which was observed by the author, viz. Mr. WilHam Bradford, as followeth.

Saith he : Full little did I think that the downfall of the bishops, with their courts, canons, and ceremonies, had been so near when I first began this writing, which was about the year 1630, and so pieced at leisure times afterwards, or that I should have lived to have seen or heard of the same.^ But it is the Lord's doing. Matt, and ought to be marvellous in our eyes. " Every plant which mine heavenly father hath not planted," saith our Saviour, " shall be rooted up."^ " I have snared

* Works, vol. iii. p. 42I,ed. 1613. his older age he altered his voice, William Perkins lived in the reign and remitted much of his former of Elizabeth, was a fellow of Christ's rigidness, often professing that to College, Cambridge, and a Puritan preach mercy was the proper oiEce Nonconformist. He was a strict of the ministers of the gospel." Calvinist, and had a controversy ^ Charles I. was beheaded and with Arminius. His writings were the church establishment overheld in high esteem by the fathers thrown in 1G49. of New England. Fuller says, in ^ The version of the Bible here his Life of him in the Holy State, quoted, and subsequently, is the that " he would pronounce the word one which was made by the Engdamn with such an emphasis as left lish exiles at Geneva, in the reign a doleful echo in his auditors' ears of Queen Mary. It was first printed a good while after. And when in 1560, and was so highly esteemed, catechist of Christ's College, in ex- particularly on account of its notes, pounding the commandments, ap- that it passed through thirty ediplied them so home, able almost to tions. King James appears to have make his hearers' hearts fall down, had a special dislike of it ; for in and hairs to stand upright. But in the Conference at Hampton Court thee, and thou art taken, O Babel, (bishops) and thou intr. Avast not aware : thou art found and also caught, j^_. , because thou hast striven against the Lord." But will ^^" they needs strive against the truth, against the servants of the Lord, what ! and against the Lord himself? Do they provoke the Lord to anger ? Are they stronger ^ cor- x. than he ? No, no, they have met with their match. Behold, I come against thee, O proud men, saith the ^%[}- Lord God of hosts ; for thy day is coming, even the time that I will visit thee. May not the people of God now say, and these poor people among the rest. The Lord had brought forth our righteousness : come, let ^"{q]'- us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God. Let all flesh be still before the Lord, for he is raised ^^13; "• up out of his holy place. ^