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Paving the way
Two years before the plans for the Massachusetts Bay Company were finalized, John Endicott went to Naumkeag – which he renamed Salem – to help relieve the area’s first Puritan settlement, created by John Lyford and some of his associates. He would also help pave the way for the mass migration to come, establishing a church and government, exploring the economic assets of the region, and taking servants who would help build houses and plant fields. The first couple years, like every American colony, were rough, but when the Winthrop Fleet sailed in 1630, it brought a royal charter with unprecedented legal rights and autonomy.
Transcript
John Endicott sailed to Naumkeag before the Massachusetts Bay patent was even finalized. When he arrived in June 1628, the area was far from a blank slate. There’d been some sort of English presence in the area for years. In fact, part of the reason he’d gone ahead was to relieve puritans who had previously tried to set up a colony there. Mostly, though, he’d gone ahead to prepare for a massive influx of settlers who were preparing to colonize New England as soon as they could finalize their patent and royal charter.
Introduction
From 1625 to 1628, there were quite a few people in Massachusetts, mostly just fishing and trading. Most voyages are little more than historical footnotes, and it’s reasonable to assume that many weren’t recorded at all. These people got small patents from the Plymouth Council for New England, and headed west. New England had an English presence, but it was still a wilderness, with the struggles and conflicts which so stereotypically accompany life outside of civilization.
For example, one fishing expedition in 1625 had gotten a patent to colonize Cape Ann. The Pilgrims had already built a fishing pier on the land these people had gotten a patent for, and the conflict between Standish and the settlers grew heated to the point of violence until a completely different group of settlers diffused the situation by offering to help build a second fishing pier. That conflict was ended, but that was a fairly normal example of life in the first three years of Massachusetts history.
In 1624, some of the mainstream Puritans had been pushed out of Plymouth. Of course, most notably this included John Lyford and John Oldham, but there were a few others, including a man named Roger Conant. They decided to separate from the separatists, and form their own fishing colony at Cape Anne. They were from Dorchester, and still had contacts in the city, including a preacher named John White, who was already trying to set up a Puritan colony there. White encouraged them to stay in New England, and encouraged some of the Plymouth investors to put money into this new colony, run by the Dorchester Company. He urged the investors to name Conant the governor, and invited Lyford to be the minister, and Oldham to be in charge of trading with the Indians. Meanwhile, White would gather some people in England to boost their numbers. Conant and Lyford immediately accepted the offer, but Oldham was more reluctant, saying he’d prefer to stay at Nanasket, where they’d been living, so he wouldn’t be liable to other people for his gains and losses. He ultimately changed his mind, but a year later, investors realized they weren’t going to get an appreciable return, so they prepared to shut down the colony, paid the colonists their wages and offered to transport them back to England if they wanted. Conant and White both hoped that New England would become the site of a religion-based plantation. Conant suggested to White that they relocate, saying they’d have better luck at Naumkeag than Cape Ann. They moved, joining a handful of other colonists at their new location. When the other investors bailed, White wrote to the colonists asking them not to desert New England, and saying that if Conant and three others he considered reliable would stay there, he would work to get them a Patent and send them whatever they needed – men, provisions, or trading goods. They agreed to his offer, though a few, including Lyford, headed down to Virginia fearing Indian attacks and starvation. They also sent one of the colonists, named John Woodberry, back to England to gather the necessities for a plantation. Woodberry arrived in England in 1627, and found that the idea of establishing a religious colony in North America was getting pretty popular. Plans were soon underway for a new company, the Massachusetts Bay Company, which would work to create a Puritan utopia on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Company decided to send John Endicott, also a Dorchester native, to Naumkeag to relieve the residents of the colony, and to make preparations for a much bigger wave of people in Massachusetts. He would be their agent, to order the colony’s affairs until its patent was finalized and its official leaders could move to New England. The Plymouth Council for New England patent gave them the right to the land, but no powers of government. For that, a royal charter was necessary. Endicott and five other people got a patent for the area, and the Plymouth Council for New England rendered void all the lesser grants to the area which had previously been granted. The people who had settled under these lesser grants would now fall under the government of the Massachusetts Bay Company. When it became clear that this would be a colony established mainly to promote Puritanism, the names of three of the six patentees disappear from public record. They were clearly unaware of the colony’s religious purpose. As for the investors, they included Plymouth investors like John Pocock, and the individual who granted the land was the Earl of Warwick.
So, in 1628, John Endicott went with a group of 60 settlers and a group of servants, as well as former Cape Anne residents Woodberry and Traske. At some point, Endicott’s group had a major falling out with the original Cape Ann planters, but Conant helped heal the rift. It was as Endicott prepared to leave that John Cotton gave his famous sermon, “God’s promise in His plantation,” in which he said that like the ancient Israelites, the Godly had a place designated for them which they would own, where they would endure, and where they would have security from their enemies. The Godly should move to this new Canaan for a large number of reasons, and God would bless them, but they should never forget England.
With that farewell, they set sail for the New World.
We don’t know much about John Endicott’s life before he sailed to the New World. He seems to have been the son of a low-ranking gentleman, and was related by marriage to fellow colonists Cradock and Roger Ludlow, who would go on to help found the New Haven colony. He had fathered an illegitimate child in London, and knew Edward Coke and Roger Williams while he was in England. He had also fought for Protestants in the Netherlands, and his military background was part of the reason he was selected to go. Even within New England, and in the context of 17th century Puritanism, Endicott would prove to be one of the harsher and more militant leaders.
Landing in New England, Endicott’s instructions were clear. He was to take control of the existing fishing posts, to prepare for the imminent influx of settlers, to take control of the servants sent by the company, and to lay the foundations of religion and civil government. He was appointed governor, and would rule in the Massachusetts Bay company’s name until a more substantial group of settlers was sent over. He would also help divide the land according to company policy, which gave everyone who had given 50 pounds 200 acres of land, and proportionally more or less depending on what was given. He had a list of how much each person had paid.
Surveying the landscape, Endicott requested that the English investors focus on salt manufacturing, vineyards, fruit orchards, wheat, barley and rye, and domesticated animals. He said these were the things that would help the colony survive, both physically and financially.
The settlers’ first year was plagued by the same problems which had affected every other colony early on. Everything ran relatively smoothly until winter, when harsh cold and malnutrition started to kill people. Apart from the handful who had been part of the Cape Anne settlement, none of the colonists had experienced the type of cold they found in the New World. Scurvy also became a major problem, and as the population weakened, Endicott sent a message to Plymouth asking for help. Specifically, he asked for Plymouth’s doctor, Samuel Fuller, to be allowed to come to Salem to treat people. Bradford agreed, and Fuller – a relative of Bradford and one of the original Leideners – spent much of the rest of the winter treating the Naumkeag settlers and discussing issues of Church and theology with Endicott. Endicott’s own wife would be one of the first to die, but by spring nearly half of the colonists were dead. The servants fared even worse, hit hardest by the scurvy and lack of adequate shelter.
In May, a local sachem named Sagamore John told Endicott of an impending Narragansett attack – which was likely aimed primarily at Plymouth, and not Naumkeag – so the settlers started to worry about an attack, and shot off their cannons to dissuade any would-be attackers.
But with the arrival of spring, the work of building (and rebuilding) began. By the end of June, the colonists and servants had built a handful of houses and a governor’s mansion, planted some corn, peas and a vineyard as well as an assortment of fruits.
And, at the end of June, a fleet of five ships arrived. Interestingly, some sources list one of these ships as being the Mayflower, but considering that years earlier the ship had been deemed “in ruins” and virtually worthless, that’s likely a myth. Another one of the ships, though, was built by none other than the Duke of Buckingham. More importantly, the fleet brought 300 new colonists, as well as four ministers. The first two, Francis Higginson and Samuel Skelton, were Puritans who had been removed from their positions due to their nonconformity. The third, Francis Bright, disagreed somewhat with Puritans on the issue of Church discipline, and the fourth, Ralph Smith, was a dedicated separatist. The first three were fully licensed as preachers, able to take positions as they became necessary, but before the fourth was allowed to go to America, he had to agree that he would get Endicott’s permission before preaching within the settlement’s borders.
As the company worked in England to finalize the colony’s charter and plan what would become known as the Winthrop fleet, the new influx of people to America meant that the work of building and planning could proceed. Endicott renamed Naumkeag Salem, after the Hebrew word for peace, and while 200 settlers remained in Salem, another 100 moved south to found Charlestown. These people left Salem after seeing the effects of disease and starvation, but soon suffered even more in their own settlement – which was little more than a camp of cloth tents and huts near the water’s edge. Endicott continued to correspond with the Plymouth settlers and assessing whether their worship met his standards, and possibly thanks to his long discussions with the doctor the previous winter, he approved of them, saying their form of worship was very similar to that of the Huguenots.
It was time to set up Salem’s church, too. Endicott and other leaders met to formulate a system of church government and discipline, based on their own ideas instead of Church of England norms, and planned to ordain its first ministers on August 6, after a day of “humiliation” on July 20th. They only needed two ministers – one pastor and one teacher, according to Puritan tradition – and they had four to choose from. Higginson and Skelton were the natural choices, with religious views nearly identical to those of the Puritan colonists. The more Brownist Smith lived on the outskirts of the colony, and at Nanasket, for a few years, and ultimately went to Plymouth where he and Bright settled for several years.
As for the church government, there would be absolutely no use of the Book of Common Prayer, and the service of the Church of England would be completely abandoned. They’d essentially severed Salem’s ties with the Church of England. This was a somewhat combative move which directly contradicted the Massachusetts Bay Company’s insistence in England that New England would remain loyal to the Church of England. It was a bit too extreme for some of the settlers, in particular brothers John and Samuel Brown. The Browne brothers were some of the council’s first patentees, and vocally criticized the direction the colony was taking. When their complaints weren’t addressed, they took a small group of people who agreed with them to set up a separate colony. Endicott tried the two Browne brothers, sentenced them to sedition, and sent them back to England, charging them for the cost of the voyage and underestimating the amount the two should be reimbursed for their investment. When they returned to England, they were vocal about their disapproval of the way the colony was run, and the way they’d been treated, and they were reimbursed the full amount.
At the same time as Salem was finalizing its church and government structure, back in England the Massachusetts Bay Company was finalizing the structure of the colony. As part of this process, they got a grant from the Earl of Warwick allowing them to take over the bankrupt Dorchester Company, finalizing their control over Salem. They also got the royal charter in June, allowing them the power to determine the government of the colony, and the terms of the charter were better than most colonists could have hoped for. Whether by happy accident or more probable design, the charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company didn’t require the company to be run from England. Every other colonization company mandated this in its charter, but the charter and company of Massachusetts Bay could be brought to the New World. This colony could be governed entirely from America.
In August, the Massachusetts Bay Company held a series of meetings to decide whether or not to take advantage of this opportunity. A number of stockholders said they would only go to Massachusetts if they could take the company charter with them, but not all stockholders wanted to go. They decided that those who wished to stay behind would keep a share of stock and profits for seven years. At the end of that time, the stock would be divided in proportion to the amount invested, but in reality, there’s no record that any money was ever paid to them. All power of government, though, would move to New England. The new governor would be chosen in England, selected from the group of people who had decided to go over with the patent, and John Winthrop was elected. John Humfrey would be his deputy, and Endicott would be one of 18 advisors. As the expedition was planned, a few people changed their minds and decided not to go, including John Humfrey. Their positions were filled by others, and Thomas Dudley became the new deputy. The Charter was clearly intended to mimic that of the East India Company, with the same rights and privileges, but the settlers had ended up with something that would give them an unprecedented amount of autonomy and now they were prepared to take advantage of it. All charter issues settled, they would sail the next Spring, landing first at Salem.
When they arrived, they found a colony ravaged yet-again by starvation, exposure and disease. 80 of 300 had died, and many of the survivors were weak and sickly. They didn’t have much corn left, or much of anything else, and they’d been obliged to give the servants their freedom so they could figure out how to provide for themselves.