Sir Ferdinando Gorges

Transcription

PEOPLE MENTIONED IN CAPE COD
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN CAPE COD:
SIR FERDINANDO GORGES
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION,
THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project
The People of Cape Cod: Sir Fernando Gorges
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THE PEOPLE OF CAPE COD:
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CAPE COD: Even as late as 1633 we find Winthrop, the first Governor
of the Massachusetts Colony, who was not the most likely to be
misinformed, who, moreover, has the fame, at least, of having
discovered Wachusett Mountain (discerned it forty miles inland),
talking about the “Great Lake” and the “hideous swamps about it,”
near which the Connecticut and the “Potomack” took their rise;
and among the memorable events of the year 1642 he chronicles
Darby Field, an Irishman’s expedition to the “White hill,” from
whose top he saw eastward what he “judged to be the Gulf of
Canada,” and westward what he “judged to be the great lake which
Canada River comes out of,” and where he found much “Muscovy
glass,” and “could rive out pieces of forty feet long and seven
or eight broad.” While the very inhabitants of New England were
thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was
a terra incognita to them, —or rather many years before the
earliest date referred to,— Champlain, the first Governor of
Canada, not to mention the inland discoveries of Cartier,
Roberval, and others, of the preceding century, and his own
earlier voyage, had already gone to war against the Iroquois in
their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great Lakes and wintered
there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England. In Champlain’s
“Voyages,” printed in 1613, there is a plate representing a fight
in which he aided the Canada Indians against the Iroquois, near
the south end of Lake Champlain, in July, 1609, eleven years
before the settlement of Plymouth. Bancroft says he joined the
Algonquins in an expedition against the Iroquois, or Five
Nations, in the northwest of New York. This is that “Great Lake,”
which the English, hearing some rumor of from the French, long
after, locate in an “Imaginary Province called Laconia, and spent
several years about 1630 in the vain attempt to discover.” (Sir
Ferdinand Gorges, in Maine Hist. Coll., Vol. II. p. 68.) Thomas
Morton has a chapter on this “Great Lake.” In the edition of
Champlain’s map dated 1632, the Falls of Niagara appear; and in
a great lake northwest of Mer Douce (Lake Huron) there is an
island represented, over which is written, “Isle ou il y une mine
de cuivre,” - “Island where there is a mine of copper.” This will
do for an offset to our Governor’s “Muscovy Glass.” Of all these
adventures and discoveries we have a minute and faithful account,
giving facts and dates as well as charts and soundings, all
scientific and Frenchman-like, with scarcely one fable or
traveller’s story.
PEOPLE OF
CAPE COD
CHAMPLAIN
CARTIER
ROBERVAL
ALPHONSE
GORGES
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CAPE COD: It is remarkable that there is not in English any
adequate or correct account of the French exploration of what is
now the coast of New England, between 1604 and 1608, though it is
conceded that they then made the first permanent European
settlement on the continent of North America north of St.
Augustine. If the lions had been the painters it would have been
otherwise. This omission is probably to be accounted for partly
by the fact that the early edition of Champlain’s “Voyages” had
not been consulted for this purpose. This contains by far the most
particular, and, I think, the most interesting chapter of what we
may call the Ante-Pilgrim history of New England, extending to
one hundred and sixty pages quarto; but appears to be unknown
equally to the historian and the orator on Plymouth Rock. Bancroft
does not mention Champlain at all among the authorities for De
Monts’ expedition, nor does he say that he ever visited the coast
of New England. Though he bore the title of pilot to De Monts, he
was, in another sense, the leading spirit, as well as the
historian of the expedition. Holmes, Hildreth, and Barry, and
apparently all our historians who mention Champlain, refer to the
edition of 1632, in which all the separate charts of our harbors,
&c., and about one half the narrative, are omitted; for the author
explored so many lands afterward that he could afford to forget
a part of what he had done. Hildreth, speaking of De Monts’s
expedition, says that “he looked into the Penobscot [in 1605],
which Pring had discovered two years before,” saying nothing
about Champlain’s extensive exploration of it for De Monts in 1604
(Holmes says 1608, and refers to Purchas); also that he followed
in the track of Pring along the coast “to Cape Cod, which he
called Malabarre.” (Haliburton had made the same statement before
him in 1829. He called it Cap Blanc, and Malle Barre (the Bad Bar)
was the name given to a harbor on the east side of the Cape.)
Pring says nothing about a river there. Belknap says that Weymouth
discovered it in 1605. Sir F. Gorges says, in his narration (Maine
Hist. Coll., Vol. II. p. 19), 1658, that Pring in 1606 “made a
perfect discovery of all the rivers and harbors.” This is the most
I can find. Bancroft makes Champlain to have discovered more
western rivers in Maine, not naming the Penobscot; he, however,
must have been the discoverer of distances on this river (see
Belknap, p. 147). Pring was absent from England only about six
months, and sailed by this part of Cape Cod (Malebarre) because
it yielded no sassafras, while the French, who probably had not
heard of Pring, were patiently for years exploring the coast in
search of a place of settlement, sounding and surveying its
harbors.
PEOPLE OF
CAPE COD
ÆSOP
XENOPHANES
CHAMPLAIN
WEBSTER
BANCROFT
BARRY
HILDRETH
HOLMES
HALIBURTON
BELKNAP
GORGES
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1565
In this year Ferdinando Gorges was born in Ashton Phillips, Somerset, England. The heraldry books inform
us (and I suppose this makes sense, for anyone who gives two hoots and a damn) that this infant was descended
from a cadet branch of the Russells of Kingston Russell, Dorset, which had changed its name to the
metronymic1 Gorges — which family had died out in its male or patronymic line of descent with the demise
of Sir Ralph de Gorges of Tothill, a tragedy that had occurred in about the Year of Our Lord 1324.
Bear in mind, as you peruse what follows, that this Gorges guy was a promoter rather than a voyager.
He would not ever place his foot on the soil of a New World. To induce other people to make this adventurous
journey across the pond that he himself would never venture, he would deploy a conceit very similar to
“Gotam” — it would be “Laconia.”2
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
1. Metronymic is the flip side of patronymic (from the Greek metronumikos, from meter mother + onoma
name).
2. That is why there is today a Laconia, New Hampshire. Go there if you’re a biker.
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1586
John Mason was born at King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England (he would be active in settlement schemes for the
territories of Maine and New Hampshire).
From this year into 1588 John Davis (Davys) was making three voyages to the northwest. He charted the strait
between Greenland and Canada and explored the eastern shore of Baffin Island. In 1587 he explored Davis
Strait to Sanderson’s Hope and reached the most northerly point reported by any European to that date:
72°45’N. He passed the entrance to a great, swirling, roaring strait, which he dubbed the “Furious Overfall,”
now called Hudson Strait. The following fantasy of what he saw as he sailed in the Hudson Strait would be
produced by George Back in 1840:
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Davis reported a “great sea, free, large, very salty, blue and of unsearchable depth” when his ship was anchored
off Greenland. He estimated it to be 40 leagues (120 miles) wide and believed the “passage is most probable,
the execution easy.” Henry Hudson may have served as mate with Davis on at least one (1587) of his voyages.
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD?
— NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES.
LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
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1601
February 25, Wednesday (1600, Old Style): Robert Devereux, 2d Earl of Essex, had been one of Queen Elizabeth’s
favorite courtiers. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had become involved in his conspiracy to kidnap the queen,
would save himself by testifying against the earl.
The “Essex Ring” that can now be seen in Westminster Abbey is said to have been given to the earl by
Elizabeth with the understanding if ever he were in trouble he could send it to her and she would intercede.
However, when from the Tower of London he attempted to return it, either it did not reach her or she ignored
it. On this day he was beheaded on the Tower Green.3
LONDON
3. This would turn out to be the final such beheading on the Tower Green, although during 1743 various Scottish deserters would be there executed by firing squad and although, during the world wars, German spies
would be being executed in a shed beneath the walls and in the vicinity that had once been the moat.
HEADCHOPPING
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1605
Sir Ferdinando Gorges helped sponsor an expedition led by George Weymouth into northern Virginia, which
is to say, to the mouth of the Kennebec River along the coast of the present day state of Maine, to find a place
where English Catholics, undesirables in Protestant England, could found a settlement. James Rosier, one of
his companions, wrote TRUE RELATIONS OF WAYMOUTH’S VOYAGE. The book briefly describes a voyage
along the New England coast from Nantucket Island to Maine trading beads and knives for furs and tobacco.
The traders noted an abundance of furs, of trees for timber, and of fish. They took five of the Maine
Narragansett natives for exhibit in England.
Three of these five exhibits would be for a period in the custody of the governor of the fort at Plymouth,
England, Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
I observed in them an inclination to follow the example of the
better sort, and in all their carriages manifest shows of great
civility far from the rudeness of our common people.
(Most likely, these three Maine people would have accompanied the Plymouth Company’s expedition to
Sagadahoc in 1606.)
Henry Hudson may have used Waymouth’s logs and charts for his own 1609 voyage.
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
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1606
April 10, Thursday (Old Style): Charters for two joint stock companies, the “Virginia company of London” (“London
Company”) and the “Virginia Company of Plymouth” (“Plymouth Company”) were issued by King James I,
permitting Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Popham to settle the American coast between Cape Fear and midMaine (this was the area that two years earlier Henry of Navarre, the French king, had claimed). The Reverend
Richard Hakluyt and his young friend Captain Bartholomew Gosnold were involved in these negotiations.
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Between their respective spheres of operation there would be a coastal section of overlap from the 38th parallel
to the 41st parallel in which either company was free to establish a settlement so long as it was at least a
hundred miles distant from the other company’s settlements.
READ THE FULL TEXT
READ ABOUT VIRGINIA
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
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1607
Between this year and 1615 the Plymouth Company would be attempting briefly to establish a “Popham
Colony” on the Kennebec River near present-day Phippsburg, Maine. As a shareholder in the Company, Sir
Ferdinando Gorges helped in the funding of this endeavor.
Dutch and English merchants were selling inexpensive iron tools to the Woodland natives of New York and
Virginia. Among these inexpensive iron tools were small hand-axes, which would come to be referred to by
the Algonquins of Virginia as “tomahawks.”
The Arcadia patent enjoyed by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons was revoked, and then renewed on condition of
forming settlements. The patentees found it, however, more advantageous to carry on trade with the Indians,
and in consequence the Acadian colony would be neglected and a contemplated Canadian one delayed.
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
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1611
Edward Harlow captured five natives in the Cape Cod region. Epenow, a sachem of Capawak (Martha’s
Vineyard), was among those enslaved, and would later be donated to Sir Ferdinando Gorges of Plymouth,
England — he would eventually through a ruse escape and be able to return home.
INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
“...The conflicts of Europeans with American-Indians,
Maoris and other aborigines in temperate regions ...
if we judge by the results we cannot regret that such
wars have taken place ... the process by which the
American continent has been acquired for European
civilization [was entirely justified because] there
is a very great and undeniable difference between
the civilization of the colonizers and that of the
dispossessed natives....”
— Bertrand Russell,
THE ETHICS OF WAR, January 1915
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND
YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
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1614
June:
Argall and Ralph Hamor departed from the Virginia coast for England.
The sachem Epenow of Capawak (Martha’s Vineyard) who had been captured in 1611
by Edward
Harlow, and donated to Sir Ferdinando Gorges of Plymouth, England, at this point escaped from the ship
commanded by Nicholas Hobson. He had tricked them into bringing him back across the ocean by persuading
them that he knew where gold ore was to be found. John Smith was exploring the coast from Monhegan Island
(Maine) as far as the tip of Cape Cod. Thomas Hunt captured 20 men from Patuxet (including Tisquantum or
Squanto) and 7 men from Nauset to sell as slaves in Spain. Tisquantum was taken to England “on a Bristol
ship.” [What is meant here is a ship out of the port of Bristol, England — not a ship pertaining to what would
become the slave-trading port of Bristol, Rhode Island.] The Wampanoag became hostile towards Europeans.
The Dutch mariner Adriaen Block mapped the southern New England coast, from the Hudson River to eastern
Massachusetts.
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1615
Captain John Mason was appointed to succeed John Guy at the Cuper’s Cove colony on the island of
Newfoundland, as Proprietary Governor.
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
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1616
In the area that would become the Boston Harbor, or off Cape Cod, a French trading ship in difficulties was
taken by the native Americans. The ship was burned and all but five of its crewmembers were slaughtered.
These five were made slaves of the local sagamores, of various native towns (including Namasket
and Massachuset), who would use them for sport as well as for menial labor.4 In return for allowing Anglican
SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS
missionaries to spread the Word of God among them, the Woodland Indians of the Powhatan Confederation
begin acquiring snaphaunce muskets from the Virginians (the natives preferred snaphaunces to matchlocks
because snaphaunces did not require either glowing coals or stinky matches, both of which might disclose a
shooter’s position during ambushes, raids, and hunting trips; the Virginians preferred these snaphaunces, too,
although usually they couldn’t afford them).
About this time another French ship was intercepted by the Americans near Peddock’s Island in Massachusetts
Bay, and the entire crew was killed and the ship burned.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY
Captain John Mason, who had been appointed in the previous year as Proprietary Governor of the Cuper’s
Cove colony on the coast of Newfoundland, at this point arrived in the New World. He would prepare the 1st
4. Rhode Island College’s anthropologist, Professor Richard Lobban, has interestingly asserted that slavery began in New England
as an export business — exporting native American prisoners of war at the suggestion of the Reverend Roger Williams after the
Pequot campaign later in the 17th Century. In the light of the above information, that is a strangely ethnocentric stance in which to
be discovering, of all persons, an anthropologist!
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known English map of the locale, and a “Discourse” describing his findings.
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1620
The London and Plymouth companies, which in 1606 had been granted the territory between latitudes 34° and
45° North under the name “Virginia,” were in this year reorganized and the northern part of their grant,
extended to 48º, was granted to a newly formed “Council of New England.” Sir Ferdinando Gorges became
treasurer of this newly formed Council. Governor John Mason of Newfoundland and Sir William Alexander
were able to persuade King James I that the best way to persuade Scots to emigrate would be to provide them
with a “New Scotland” destination comparable to the “New France” and “New England” destinations. King
James conveyed this as a royal wish to the newly formed Council of New England and obtained from it the
surrender of all its claims to territory north of the Sainte-Croix River. He then instructed his Scottish Privy
Council to grant this northern territory to Sir William.
Captain John Mason’s tract A BRIEFE DISCOURSE OF THE NEW-FOUND-LAND WITH THE SITUATION,
TEMPERATURE, AND COMMODITIES THEREOF, INCITING OUR NATION TO GO FORWARD IN THE HOPEFULL
PLANTATION BEGUNNE. The Privy Council issued a commission and provided a ship with which he might
suppress piracy in Newfoundland waters.
Use the sword to poke at the pigeon on your head!
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1621
Captain John Mason, who had been acting as Proprietary Governor of Cuper’s Cove on the coast of
Newfoundland since 1616, returned at this point to England. He would not be replaced and nevertheless the
colony would endure for the remainder of the century. Back in England, he would consult with Sir William
Alexander about the possibility of establishing a new colony, this time on Nova Scotia.
In Canada, the Iroquois began their system of extermination, and carried on the most sanguinary and
destructive warfare in the history of the world. A mission was sent to France to represent the defenceless state
of the colony. The patent for the colony was transferred to William and Emeric de Caen.
In France, the normally very robust Jean de Brébeuf experienced some sort of collapse of his bodily health.
It would not be possible for him to continue theological studies.
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1622
Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a couple of guys who knew how to work the system, received
a patent from the Plymouth Council for New England for all the territory lying between the Merrimack River
and the Kennebec River, which territory was to be known as the Province of Maine.
Sir Ferdinando’s A BRIEFE RELATION OF THE DISCOVERY AND PLANTATION OF NEW ENGLAND.
A settlement of Plymouth people at Wessaguscus or Wessagusset (Weymouth MA) was attempted by Sir
Ferdinando, but this would not take hold.
VIEW THE PAGE IMAGES
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(When the settlers would move on in 1625, the Reverend William Blaxton, their Anglican divine, would decide
to relocate about a dozen miles to the northwest, there to attempt in his clerical garments a hermit existence,
on the south bank of the Charles River upon the isolated peninsula known as Shawmut “Place Where You Find
Boats.”
“Of orthodox education at the University of Cambridge
and an ordained priest in the Church of England, the
young William Blaxton was not so much a latter-day St.
Francis of Assisi as an earlier day Henry Thoreau, with
somewhat more demanding tastes. It was no hut or lowly
cabin that Blackstone fashioned there on his hill
overlooking the Charles River. It was a comfortable,
rambling cottage, multi-gabled and with small-paned
windows, woodbine creeping over the walls and up into
the eaves.”
— Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon, THE CHARLES,
NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941, pages 25-26
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He would take seeds and his three Bibles, and multiple other volumes of use to hermits, and for five years
would be living the life of a religious solitary. His grant was at that time presumed to amount to some almost
800 acres, comprising the highest hill and best spring in the area.)
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If you want to see where this first grant was, you can search for the marker:
Here, for what it is worth, is a subsequent deposition by John Odlin and other elders concerning their earlier
purchase of the Reverend Blackstone’s land, which had since come to be known as Boston Common:
In or about
the year of our Lord
One thousand six hundred
thirty and four
the then present inhabiants
of sd Town of Boston of Whom
the Honble John Winthrop Esqr
Govnr of the Colony was chiefe
did treate and agree With
Mr William Blackstone
for the purchase of his
Estate and rights in any
Lands lving within said
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neck of Land called
Boston
after Which purchase the
Town laid out a plan for
a trayning field which ever
since and now is used for
the feeding of cattell
August 10, Saturday (Old Style): Grant of the Province of Maine to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, Esq.
READ THE FULL TEXT
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1623
A signal event in the history of Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Strawberry Banke was founded.
Under the authority of an English land-grant, Captain John Mason and others sent two groups of colonizers to
establish fishing colonies at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. One of these expeditions, under the Scotchman
David Thomson, erected salt-drying fish racks and a stone “factory” near the river’s mouth at a place they
called Little Harbor or “Pannaway,” which has since become the town of Rye. The other expedition, under the
fish-merchant brothers of London Edward Hilton and Thomas Hilton, set up on a neck of land eight miles to
the north which they named Northam, afterwards to become Dover.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges’s son Robert Gorges was made Governor-General of New England (until he would give
up and return to England in 1624).
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1625
Captain John Mason’s map of Newfoundland and “Discourse” about his findings was published in William Vaughan’s
CAMBRENSIUM CAROLEIA.
HERMITS
The folks who had settled at Wessaguscusset (Weymouth MA) under Sir Ferdinando Gorges were ready to
move elsewhere. The Reverend William Blaxton, their Anglican divine, however, was reluctant. He decided
to stick it out, about 20 miles to the north, attempting a hermit existence upon the isolated peninsula known as
Shawmut “Place Where You Find Boats” with its three connected drumlins, the peninsula which initially
would be known to the white people as “Blaxton’s Peninsula” and eventually would become known as
“Trimontaine” or Boston town. He took with him seeds and his three Bibles, and multiple other volumes of
use to hermits, and for five years would be living the life of a religious solitary.
WALDEN: Sometimes, having had a surfeit of human society and
gossip, and worn out all my village friends, I rambled still
farther westward than I habitually dwell, into yet more
unfrequented parts of the town, “to fresh woods and pastures new,”
or, while the sun was setting, made my supper of huckleberries
and blueberries on Fair Haven Hill, and laid up a store for
several days. The fruits do not yield their true flavor to the
purchaser of them, nor to him who raises them for the market.
There is but one way to obtain it, yet few take that way. If you
would know the flavor of huckleberries, ask the cow-boy or the
partridge. It is a vulgar error to suppose that you have tasted
huckleberries who never plucked them. A huckleberry never reaches
Boston; they have not been known there since they grew on her
three hills. The ambrosial and essential part of the fruit is lost
with the bloom which is rubbed off in the market cart, and they
become mere provender. As long as Eternal Justice reigns, not one
innocent huckleberry can be transported thither from the
country’s hills.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
PEOPLE OF
WALDEN
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Solitary? –Rather, of white people, only the Reverend would be present: as to whether there were Native
Americans living anywhere on the Trimontaine peninsula at this time, or perhaps colonies of the harbor seals,
the records simply make no mention. Thoreau, in CAPE COD, would toy with these historical silences,
in recounting his study of a volume of the “Historical Collections” which offered that:
CAPE COD: When the committee from Plymouth had purchased the
territory of Eastham of the Indians, “it was demanded who laid
claim to Billingsgate?” which was understood to be all that part
of the Cape north of what they had purchased. “The answer was,
there was not any who owned it. ‘Then,’ said the committee,
‘that land is ours.’ The Indians answered, that it was.” This was
a remarkable assertion and admission. The Pilgrims appear to have
regarded themselves as Not Any’s representatives. Perhaps this
was the first instance of that quiet way of “speaking for” a place
not yet occupied, or at least not improved as much as it may be,
which their descendants have practiced, and are still practicing
so extensively. Not Any seems to have been the sole proprietor of
all America before the Yankees. But history says, that when the
Pilgrims had held the lands of Billingsgate many years, at length
“appeared an Indian, who styled himself Lieutenant Anthony,”
who laid claim to them, and of him they bought them. Who knows
but a Lieutenant Anthony may be knocking at the door of the
White House some day? At any rate, I know that if you hold a thing
unjustly, there will surely be the devil to pay at last.
PEOPLE OF
CAPE COD
LIEUTENANT ANTHONY
“NOT ANY”
The Reverend settled near a spring on the west slope of what is now termed Beacon Hill but then would have
been becoming known as Sentry Hill, to begin his orchard and home and live in peace with his books.
(This would have been near where Beacon and Spruce streets now intersect in downtown Boston.)
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“Of orthodox education at the University of Cambridge
and an ordained priest in the Church of England, the
young William Blaxton was not so much a latter-day St.
Francis of Assisi as an earlier day Henry Thoreau, with
somewhat more demanding tastes. It was no hut or lowly
cabin that Blackstone fashioned there on his hill
overlooking the Charles River. It was a comfortable,
rambling cottage, multi-gabled and with small-paned
windows, woodbine creeping over the walls and up into
the eaves.”
— Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon, THE CHARLES,
NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941, pages 25-26
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1629
Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had in 1622 received a patent from the Council for New
England for all the territory lying between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers, at this point divided their grant
along the Piscataqua River, with Captain Mason being assigned the southern portion.
This territory would be recharted as the Province of New Hampshire — it would include most of the
southeastern part of the current state of New Hampshire and the portions of present-day Massachusetts that lie
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to the north of the Merrimack River.
They divided the Isles of Shoals between themselves. Captain Mason taking Londoner Island (Lunging
Island), Star Island, and White Island, Sir Ferdinando taking Appledore Island, Cedar Island,5 Duck Island,6
5. Cedar Island, a small circular island in the Isles of Shoals about one-seventh of a mile in diameter, derived its name, apparently,
from the few and scrappy cedar trees that had been noticed there by Captain John Smith in the early 17th Century. It is populated
today by lobstermen’s families descended from early Shoaler fisherman. It is now connected by a government breakwater to
Smuttynose Island and Star Island. Near it is Cedar Island Ledge.
6. Gorges and Mason most likely named Duck Island in the Isles of Shoals for its migrant waterbirds. It is about one-seventh of a
mile long and one-seventh of a mile wide. It is surrounded by Jimmie’s Ledge, Shag Rock, Eastern Rocks, and Mingo Rock, and is
closest to Old Henry Ledge. After being used by our government as a bombing target within a zone off-limits to the general public,
what is left of the island and its ledges has become the private property of the Star Island Corporation and is maintained as a wildlife
refuge.
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Malaga (Malagoe) Island, and what Thoreau would refer to as “Hog Island” (Smuttynose Island).
In this year Sir Ferdinando and his nephew established Maine’s first court system.
November 17, day (Old Style): Grant of Laconia to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason by the Council
for New England.
READ THE FULL TEXT
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1630
According to Ned Bunker’s MAKING HASTE FROM BABYLON / THE MAYFLOWER PILGRIMS AND THEIR
WORLD: A NEW HISTORY (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), during the 1620s a single beaver pelt from the New World
continent had been selling for a phenomenal amount, roughly the same as what it cost to rent nine acres of
English farmland for a year. The New Comers to Plymouth (or, more precisely, their financial backers in the
Old World) were counting on being able to capitalize on this furry gold — and in fact, during the decade of
the 1630s the new colony on Plymouth bay would be able to send something like 2,000 beaver pelts back to
England.
Captain Christopher Levett, early English explorer of the New England Coast, an agent for Sir Ferdinando
Gorges as well as a member for the crown’s Plymouth Council for New England, was making a desultory
attempt to establish a colony in Maine but died aboard ship after having met with Governor John Winthrop in
the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
At about this point the population of this new colony reached 300 while the population of the Virginia colony
was at 30, but the population of the New England coast would quickly undergo a radical alteration
because conflict in England between the Puritan and the Crown factions would drive many of the Puritans
overseas in an attempt to establish a “Bible Commonwealth.” Within this decade, some 20,000 of the Puritan
persuasion would make the crossing, while the Pilgrims already in the New England colonies moved out into
remote farms, their “Great Lots,” and began to raise livestock to herd toward the coast and sell as food to these
more recent immigrants. According to William Bradford’s OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION, published later,
New England weather was being discovered to be just about as bitchy and contrary as a passel of Cavaliers:
“And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp
and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to … search an unknown coast.”
In Europe, this would be another poor harvest year. Everybody talks about the weather and nobody ever does
anything about it!7
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CAPE COD: Very different is the general and off-hand account given
by Captain John Smith, who was on this coast six years earlier,
and speaks like an old traveller, voyager, and soldier, who had
seen too much of the world to exaggerate, or even to dwell long,
on a part of it. In his “Description of New England,” printed in
1616, after speaking of Accomack, since called Plymouth, he says:
“Cape Cod is the next presents itself, which is only a headland
of high hills of sand, overgrown with shrubby pines, hurts, and
such trash, but an excellent harbor for all weathers. This Cape
is made by the main sea on the one side, and a great bay on the
other, in form of a sickle.” Champlain had already written, “Which
we named Cap Blanc (Cape White), because they were sands and downs
(sables et dunes) which appeared thus.” When the Pilgrims get to
Plymouth their reporter says again, “The land for the crust of
the earth is a spit’s depth,” — that would seem to be their recipe
for an earth’s crust, — “excellent black mould and fat in some
places.” However, according to Bradford himself, whom some
consider the author of part of “Mourt’s Relation,” they who came
over in the Fortune the next year were somewhat daunted when “they
came into the harbor of Cape Cod, and there saw nothing but a
naked and barren place.” They soon found out their mistake with
respect to the goodness of Plymouth soil. Yet when at length, some
years later, when they were fully satisfied of the poorness of
the place which they had chosen, “the greater part,” says
Bradford, “consented to a removal to a place called Nausett,” they
agreed to remove all together to Nauset, now Eastham, which was
jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire; and some of the most
respectable of the inhabitants of Plymouth did actually remove
thither accordingly.
7. This weather report would be picked up and replayed by Nathaniel Hawthorne upon an appropriate occasion,
his adventure to the Brook Farm community of West Roxbury MA in April of 1841:
Here is thy poor husband in a polar Paradise! I know
not how to interpret this aspect of Nature — whether
it be of good or evil omen to our enterprise. But I
reflect that the Plymouth pilgrims arrived in the midst
of storm and stept ashore upon mountain snow-drifts;
and nevertheless they prospered, and became a great
people — and doubtless it will be the same with us. …
Belovedest, I have not yet taken my first lesson in
agriculture, as thou mayest well suppose — except that
I went to see our cows foddered, yesterday afternoon.
We have eight of our own; and the number is now
increased by a transcendental heifer, belonging to
Miss Margaret Fuller. She is very fractious, I believe,
and apt to kick over the milk pail. Thou knowest best,
whether, in these traits of character, she resembles
her mistress.
PEOPLE OF
CAPE COD
JOHN SMITH
CHAMPLAIN
BRADFORD
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CAPE COD: It must be confessed that the Pilgrims possessed but few
of the qualities of the modern pioneer. They were not the
ancestors of the American backwoodsmen. They did not go at once
into the woods with their axes. They were a family and church,
and were more anxious to keep together, though it were on the
sand, than to explore and colonize a New World. When the abovementioned company removed to Eastham, the church at Plymouth was
left, to use Bradford’s expression, “like an ancient mother grown
old, and forsaken of her children.” Though they landed on Clark’s
Island in Plymouth harbor, the 9th of December (O.S.), and the
16th all hands came to Plymouth, and the 18th they rambled about
the mainland, and the 19th decided to settle there, it was the
8th of January before Francis Billington went with one of the
master’s mates to look at the magnificent pond or lake now called
“Billington Sea,” about two miles distant, which he had
discovered from the top of a tree, and mistook for a great sea.
And the 7th of March “Master Carver with five others went to the
great ponds which seem to be excellent fishing,” both which points
are within the compass of an ordinary afternoon’s ramble, —
however wild the country. It is true they were busy at first about
their building, and were hindered in that by much foul weather;
but a party of emigrants to California or Oregon, with no less
work on their hands, — and more hostile Indians — would do as much
exploring the first afternoon, and the Sieur de Champlain would
have sought an interview with the savages, and examined the
country as far as the Connecticut, and made a map of it, before
Billington had climbed his tree. Or contrast them only with the
French searching for copper about the Bay of Fundy in 1603,
tracing up small streams with Indian guides. Nevertheless, the
Pilgrims were pioneers, and the ancestors of pioneers, in a far
grander enterprise.
BRADFORD
CHAMPLAIN
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1631
The cultivation of tobacco destined for European markets began in the Maryland colony.
The group of settlers that had been organized in Holland by David Pietersz. de Vries disembarked from the
Walvis (“Whale”) to form the whale hunting station and agricultural settlement that they would name
Zwaanendael “Valley of the Swans” in the lower Delaware valley. They found, of course, human beings
already on the scene — members of an Algonquian grouping, the Cinconicins, Sickoneyns, Sikonessink,
Siconesius, Siconese, or Great Siconese — a peaceable folk but not to be trifled with.
Captain John Mason built himself a house at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, naming the spot Portsmouth
(to explain these names: Mason had been governor of Portsmouth in County Hampshire, England).
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1635
Henry Alexander, son of the Earl of Stirling, was granted a patent by the Council for New England for
“Matowack or Paumanok Long Island.” The Council for New England surrendered its charter, thus confirming
the sole proprietorship of Captain John Mason over New Hampshire. He had just been appointed as “1st viceadmiral of New England” and at his home in Portsmouth preparing for an initial visit to this district on the
mainland of the continent — when he died. His widow would struggle to manage this large New Hampshire
estate but would find herself ignored. Over the years the Mason family would make legal attempts to make
good their hereditary title, and this would lead to long litigation with the actual settlers. Finally the settlers
would be compelled to recognize the entitlement of these heirs, and in 1746 one of Mason’s descendants would
be able to get some money from a group of a dozen investors at Portsmouth, who would come to be known as
“the Masonian Proprietors.” This group would go into the business of issuing, for whatever prices they could
command, the sort of “settlement permits” that would quiet land titles in the undeveloped parts of the Mason
land grant (the grant would be redefined by the state of New Hampshire in 1788).
September 17: Grant of His Interest in New Hampshire by Sir Ferdinando Gorges to Captain John Mason.
READ THE FULL TEXT
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1636
Governor John Endecott led troops against the Pequot in the start of a race war.
The war began, actually, when the white soldiers went on a rampage. According to John Underhill, they had
been waiting and waiting and waiting for some “negotiations” to begin, and, tiring of this, “Marching into a
champaign field [open grassland suitable for formal frontal military engagement], we displayed our colors, but
none would come near us, but standing remotely off did laugh at us for our patience.” From the looks on their
faces at a distance, some Pequot were mocking them. Finally the patience of these whites was utterly
exhausted, and they “suddenly set upon our march, and gave fire to as many as we could come near, firing their
wigwams, spoiling their corn, and many other necessaries that they had buried in the ground we raked up,
which the soldiers had for booty. Thus we spent the day burning and spoiling the country. And the next day
too.”
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Henry Jocelyn, brother of John Josselyn, was serving on the council of Sir Ferdinando Gorges’s Province in
what is now Maine. He would become Deputy-Governor of the Province.
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The Pequot of Connecticut refused to be provoked into any encounter and thus the only fatality, initially,
apparently, was one Pequot warrior who was intercepted and killed by a Massachusett warrior allied with the
English.
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The people that inhabited this Countrey are judged to be of the
Tartars called Samonids that border upon Moscovia, and are
divided into Tribes; those to the East and North-east are called
Churchers and Tarentines, and Monhegans. To the South are the
Pequets and Narragansets. Westward Connecticuts and
Mowhacks. To the Northward Aberginians which consist
of Mattachusets, Wippanaps and Tarrentines. The Pocanakets live
to the Westward of Plimouth. Not long before the English came
into the Countrey, happened a great mortality amongst them,
expecially where the English afterwards planted, the East and
Northern parts were sore smitten with the Contagion; first by
the plague, afterwards when the English came by the small pox,
the three Kingdoms or Sagamorships of the Mattachusets were
very populous, having under them seven Dukedoms or pettiSagamorships, but by the plague were brought from 30000 to
300. There are not many now to the Eastward, the Pequots were
destroyed by the English: the Mowhacks are about five hundred:
Their speech a dialect of the Tartars, (as also is the Turkish
tongue).
BY John Josselyn Gent.
CONTAGION
to the year of Christ 1673.
From the year of the World
AN ACCOUNT OF TWO VOYAGES TO NEW-ENGLAND.
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March 25 or 28: Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 60 years of age and robust in mind and body, had been appointed GovernorGeneral over New England and a ship-of-war was prepared to bring him to America, but its hull broke in its
launching and the baronet would never make it across the pond. He had sent a nephew, William Gorges, with
full authority to keep an eye on things for him. This nephew had arrived at Saco, Maine, finding about 150
inhabitants disciplining themselves only by a voluntary social compact, and on this day imposed a government
of Somersetshire, i.e., all the coast between the Kennebec River and the Piscataqua River, the 1st such within
the State of Maine. Soon afterward a royal edict made the elder Gorges the lord proprietor of a large territory
in that region, called the “Province or County of Maine.” The nephew would at some point give up and come
home, but, gratified by this mark of royal favor, the elder Gorges would survive for another eight years in
distant enjoyment of his vice-regal honors, energetically devising laws for his palatinate –such edicts as a
soldier and royalist would be likely to fantasize– while being politely disregarded.
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1637
July 23, Sunday (Old Style): Commission to Sir Ferdinando Gorges as Governor of New England by King Charles I
of England.
READ THE FULL TEXT
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1638
October: John Josselyn, Gent. arrived at his brother Henry’s home in Scarborough,8 where he would abide for some
15 months. While walking in the woods he spied what he presumed to be a kind of fruit:
chanc’t to spye a fruit as I thought like a pine Apple,
plated with scales. It was as big as the crown of a
Woman’s hat.... (I) made bold to step unto it with an
intent to have gathered it ... but no sooner had (I)
touched it but hundreds of Wasps [burst out.]... At
last I cleared myself of them, being stung only on the
lip; and glad I was that I ’scaped so well.
His lip “swelled so extreamly” that by the time he had stumbled home “They hardly knew me but by my
Garments.” When he had recovered, he would give further thought to the strange gray nest: “Of what matter
it’s made no man knows, wax it is not, neither will it melt nor fry, but will take fire suddenly like Tender.” What
he didn’t realize was that the nest was pulp paper made from wood fiber by the paper-making Hornet, and had
he succeeded in mastering this technical process, he could have revolutionized the paper-making industry of
his age, based as it was at the time on the iffy supply of cotton and linen rags, and transformed himself from a
comfortable into an extremely rich man.9
Josselyn was bemused by the story of the “Mere-man” seen by one “Mr. Mitton” out in Casco-Bay ...
“Who laying his hands on the side of the Canow had one of them chopt off with a hatchet, which was in all
respects like the hand of a man, the Triton presently sunk, dying the water with his purple blood, and was not
more seen.” One can almost see him, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, scribbling away before the winking
fishermen. “These with many other tales they told me” he admits, “The credit whereof I will neither impeach
nor impune, but will satisfy myself with — ‘There are many strange things in the world than are to be seen
between London and Maidenstone’.”
SEA SERPENT SIGHTINGS
Jocelyn was the first to mention the famed sea-serpent of Nahant and of Egg Rock, in this year. He wrote that
the serpent had been observed “quoiled up on a rock at Cape Ann.” (This apparition would be repeatedly seen
in Gloucester Bay in August 1817, and occasionally also in Nahant Bay, by hundreds of observers. One skipper
would allege soberly that it was “longer than the main-mast of a seventy-four.” Another would compare its
length to the height of the steeple of the Gloucester meeting-house.)
8. His “Beloved Brother” was agent for the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, the proprietors of old Maine
and New Hampshire and would rise to be the deputy governor of the province. The town is at the mouth of the Nonesuch River in
what is now Maine. A suburb of Portland, it originated as “Black Point,” Thomas Cammock’s settlement, which combined in 1658
with Blue Point and with Stratton’s Islands to form a community modeling itself upon the Scarborough that is a resort on the North
Sea coast of England.
9. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow would make use of this incident in his THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. In the verse play
“John Endicott” the innkeeper Samuel Cole would be made to exclaim:
I feel like Master Josselyn when he found
The hornets’ nest, and thought it some strange fruit,
Until the seeds came out, and then he dropped it.
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1646
Until about this point, Thomas Mayhew had been living in Watertown while working for Matthew Cradock.
Unfortunately, some of the business affairs Mayhew had established for himself and for Cradock had not
proven successful and his English boss had become displeased with him. Nonetheless, Mayhew had been
elected Selectman for Watertown, Representative to the General Court, and Magistrate. He had become also a
miller and a merchant and bridgebuilder, building in 1641 the first bridge across the Charles River in Boston.
Despite all of these activities, Mayhew suffered financial reverses and was looking for new opportunities. At
this time Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island were part of the province of Maine, which belonged to Sir
Ferdinando Gorges who had received it from the King, Charles I. But title was a little unclear because the King
had also given to Lord Stirling the title to Long Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket Island. Neither
Gorges nor Lord Stirling had much interest in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard nor were they concerned
about the conflict in their titles. And so Mayhew, eager to leave his troubles behind, set out to acquire the title.
He sought title from both of these gentlemen, so that there could be no disputing his own control over the two
islands.
These presents doth witness that I, James Forrett, Gentleman,
who was sent over into these Parts of America By the honourable
the Lord Sterling with a commission for the ordering and
Disposing of all the Island that Lyeth Between Cape Cod hudsons
river and hath better unto confirmed his agency without any
consideration, Do hereby Grant unto Thomas Mayhew of Watertown,
merchant, and to Thomas Mayhew his son, free Liberty and full
power to them and their associates to Plant and inhabit upon
Nantuckett and two other small Islands adjacent, and to enjoy
the said Islands to them their heirs & assigns forever, provided
that the said Thomas Mayhew and Thomas Mayhew his son or either
of them or their associates Do Render and Pay yearly unto the
honourable the Lord Sterling, his heirs or assigns such an
acknowledgement as shall be thought tt [?] by John Winthrop,
Esq, the elder or any two magistrates in Massachusetts Bay Being
chosen for that end and purpose by the honourable the Lord
Sterling or his Deputy and By the said Thomas Mayhew his son or
associates: it is agreed that the government that the said
Thomas Mayhew and Thomas Mayhew his son and their associates
shall set up shall Be such as is now established in the
Massachusetts aforesaid, and that the said Thomas Mayhew &
Thomas Mayhew his son and their associates shall have as much
privilege touching their planting Inhabiting and enjoying of all
and evry part of the Premises as By the patent is granted to the
Patent of the Massachusetts aforesaid and their associates.
In witness hereof I the said James Forrett have hereunto sett
my hand and seal this 13th Day of October, 1641.
JAMES FORRETT.
Signed Sealed and Delivered in the presence of
Robert . . . . . . . . . .
Nicholas Davison 2
Richard Stileman 3
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In a second instrument which he drew up, James Forrett added “Martin’s” Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands,
and authorized the grantees to plant upon and inhabit those parts, as follows:
Whereas By virtue of a commission from the Lord Sterling, James
Forrett, Gentleman, hath granted Liberty and full Power unto
Thomas Mayhew of Watertown, merchant, and Thomas Mayhew his son,
and their associates to Plant the Island of Nantucket according
to the article In a deed to that purpose expressed: Now for as
much as the said Island hath not Been yett whole surrendered
whereby it may appear that Comfortable accomodations for
themselves and their associates will be found there, this
therefore shall serve to testifye that I, the said James
Forrett, by virtue of my said commission, Do hereby grant unto
the said Thomas Mayhew and Thomas Mayhew his son and their
associates, as much. to plant upon Martins Vinyard and Elizabeth
Isles as they have by virtue heretofore of the Deed granted unto
them for Nantuckett as therein plainly In all considerations
Both on the Right honourable the Lord Sterling’s part and on the
said Thomas Mayhew & Thomas Mayhew his son and their associates
Doth appear In Witness whereof I, the said James Forrett have
hereunto sett my hand the 3rd Day of October, Annoque Domini
1641.
JAMES FORRETT.
Signed and delivered
In Presence of us
his
John X Vahane.
mark
Garret Church.
However, even this was not entirely satisfactory, since still it ignored Sir Ferdinando Gorges’s claim and so he
concluded to “make assurance doubly sure” by securing the rights as well from the Gorges interests; and two
days later the following instrument, executed by Richard Vines, authorized the elder Mayhew to “plant and
inhabit upon the Island Capawok alias Martins Vineyard,” as set forth in the following copy:
I, Richard Vines of Saco, Gentleman, Steward General for Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, Knight and Lord Proprietor of the Province
of Maine and the Islands of Cappawok and Nautican, Do by these
presents give full power and authority unto Thomas Mayhew,
Gentleman, his agents and associates to plant and Inhabit upon
the Islands Capawok alias Martins Vinyard with all privileges
and Rights thereunto belonging to enjoy the premises to himself
heirs and associates forever, yielding and Paying unto the said
Ferdinando Gorges, his heirs and assigns annually, or two
Gentlemen Independently By each of them chosen Shall Judge to
Be meet by way of acknowledgement.
Given under my hand this 25th Day of October, 1641.
RICHARD VI QES.
Witness: Thomas Payne
Robert Long.”
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This sewed up the deal. Being especially prudent, Mayhew also “endeavored to obtain the Indian right of
them,” going to the islands and negotiating for permission for he and his group to intrude. Mayhew interested
some of his Watertown neighbors to join him and among them, you will recognize the names of Daggett and
Pierce, which are big names in present-day Edgartown. They made their first settlement there in what they
called the East End where the Chief Sachem was Towanquatack. Initially, apparently due to the more violent
contacts of previous decades, there was little contact between the indigenous red islanders and the new white
settlers. Thus the Vineyard was no longer solely the land of the original Alquonquin Wampanoags, but had
become home to Thomas Mayhew of Watertown, Massachusetts and before that Tisbury, Wiltshire. And so
Thomas had become “Governor” Mayhew, the master of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island, his very
own tight little islands. He would appoint a group of assistants to help adjudicate disputes between islanders.
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1647
Major John Child, a realist think-ahead type, sounded the alarum that the American colonies might against the
mother country’s interest be “growing into a nation,” and that England might anticipate at some point in the
future, that there was going to be in these remote overseas colonies an attempt at insurrection.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges’s THE BRIEFE NARRATION OF THE ORIGINAL UNDERTAKINGS OF THE ADVANCEMENT
OF PLANTATIONS INTO PARTS OF AMERICA. He died, destitute (Maine would eventually fall under the control
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that colony would become a federated state of the United States of America,
and eventually, in 1820, Maine also would achieve statehood: not at all what Sir Ferdinando had had in mind).
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1653
The land speculators Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason had been granted royal title to all the key
colonies from Virginia to Maine. When the Piscataqua area failed to yield them any significant gold, copper,
or precious spices, they found they were having to settle for lots of fish. Gorges and Mason divvied up the nine
islands and rocky ledges making up the Isles of Shoals between the two of them, and thus, eventually, between
the provinces of New Hampshire and of Massachusetts (now Maine). A fortress of sorts was erected on Star
Island as protection from the native Americans. Fort Star would be rebuild a number of times. The island was
known originally as Gosport, the village of the famous “Shoaler” fishermen, but now its name indicates its
general outline on the map. Today this is the only island served by ferry service and thus accessible to the
general run of tourists. Its conference center is managed by the Star Island Corporation in association with the
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Unitarian Universalist Church office in Boston. Star Island boasts Captain John Smith’s monument.
Its obelisk to the Reverend Tucke who “civilized” the Shoalers during the 18th Century is the state’s tallest
tombstone. The island is a nesting sanctuary for Herring and Green Black-backed gulls.
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1658
Sir Ferdinando Gorges’s A BRIEFE NARRATION OF THE ORIGINALL UNDERTAKINGS OF THE ADVANCEMENT
OF PLANTATIONS INTO THE PARTS OF AMERICA, ESPECIALLY SHEWING THE BEGINNINGS, PROGRESS, AND
CONTINUANCE OF THAT OF NEW ENGLAND. WRITTEN BY THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL, SIR FERDINANDO
GORGES, KNIGHT AND GOVERNOUR OF THE FORT AND ISLAND OF PLYMOUTH, IN DEVONSHIRE (London:
Printed by E. Brudenell, for Nath. Brook, at the Angell in Corn-Hill)
THE PLANTATION OF MAINE
Also, his grandson’s AMERICA PAINTED TO THE LIFE, THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE SPANIARDS PROCEEDINGS
CONQUEſTS OF THE INDIANS, AND OF THEIR CIVIL WARS AMONG THEMſELVES, FROM COLUMBUS HIS
FIRſT DIſCOVERY, TO THEſE LATER TIMES. AS ALSO, OF THE ORIGINAL UNDERTAKINGS OF THE
ADVANCEMENT OF PLANTATIONS INTO THOſE PARTS; WITH A PERFECT RELATION OF OUR ENGLIſH
DIſCOVERIES, ſHEWING THEIR BEGINNING, PROGREſS AND CONTINUANCE, FROM THE YEAR 1628. TO 1658.
DECLARING THE FORMS OF THEIR GOVERNMENT, POLICIES, RELIGIONS, MANERS, CUſTOMS, MILITARY
DIſCIPLINE, WARS WITH THE INDIANS, THE COMMODITIES OF THEIR COUNTRIES, A DEſCRIPTION OF THEIR
TOWNS AND HAVENS, THE INCREAſE OF THEIR TRADING, WITH THE NAMES OF THEIR GOVERNORS AND
MAGIſTRATES. MORE EſPECIALLY, AN ABſOLUTE NARRATIVE OF THE NORTH PARTS OF AMERICA, AND OF THE
DIſCOVERIES AND PLANTATIONS OF OUR ENGLIſH IN VIRGINIA, NEW-ENGLAND, AND BERBADOES (LONDON,
PRINTED FOR NATH. BROOK AT THE ANGEL IN CORNHIL), including his own “A Brief Description of Laconia,
a Province in New England.”
IN THE
THE LACONIA PROVINCE
Governor Thomas Mayhew of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island, perhaps frustrated with the opinions
of other islanders as to his governing of things, abolished his various assistant positions and declared himself
Magistrate. This dismissal, along with his increasing rejection of Puritanism in favor of Baptism (or
Anabaptism as it was then called) would lead his former assistant Peter Folger to leave the Vineyard in 1662
and settle in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. From this point forward, Magistrate Mayhew’s undiluted authority
would be a source of island tension he would need to quell. The source for Mayhew’s authority, which had
originally been Sir Ferdinando Gorges but had then become Stirling, had by this point become the Duke of
York, courtesy of Charles II. This royal authority which had heretofore been unasserted over Mayhew now
became something of a thorn in Mayhew’s side as the Duke, through his agent in New-York, Colonel Francis
Lovelace, interceded in various island affairs. Mayhew would frequently ignore instructions received from the
Colonel, or let them lay dormant on his desk before replying many months later.
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1660
The selectmen of Concord sent a petition to the County Court that “sargeant Buss” be authorized to keep an
“ordinary,” which is to say, a tavern. The petition stated that they had “found much difficulty in procuring such
an one as we could rest well satisfied in.”
The court criticized the town for its failure to have created “a common house of entertainment” and warned
that unless one were created before the sitting of the following Court, the town would be fined 2s 6d.
Because he had termed him a “Lying rascal,” John Gobble [Goble] had to pay 20s to Richard Temple.
Peter Bulkeley (2), namesake son of the Reverend Peter Bulkeley (1) in Concord, graduated from Harvard
College. He would become an attorney.
Peter Bulkeley, the youngest son of the Rev. Peter Bulkeley of
Concord, was born August 12, 1643 and graduated in 1660. He
settled in Concord and in 1673, and the four subsequent years
represented the town in the General Court. In February, 1676,
he was chosen Speaker of the House of Deputies; and in August
of the same year was appointed with the Hon. william Stoughton,
agent to England on the complaints of Gorges and Mason10 and
reappointed in 1682.
They sailed on the first mission October 30, 1676. On the 27th
of February 1679, he was reappointed by King Charles the 2nd
with Stoughton as agent to England respecting the Narragansett
country. They returned December 23, 1679. In 1677 he was chosen
one of the Judges or Court of Assistants and re-elected eight
years. He was also one of the Commissioners of the United
Colonies the greater part of the time. On the 8th of October,
1685 he was appointed by King James II, one of the Council, of
which Joseph Dudley, Esq., was President, which constituted the
government of the colonies after the charter was forfeited. In
1680 the militia in the county was divided into two regiments,
and Major Peter Bulkeley appointed to command one of them. This
was an office in those days of great distinction. In all these
and other important offices he acquitted himself with honor and
general acceptance. He was one of 20 who in 1683, made the
“million purchase” in New Hampshire and had several special
grants of land for public services. He died May 24, 1688, aged
44, and “was buried” says Judge Sewall “the 27th because he could
not be kept, word of which was sent to Boston the same day to
prevent any going in vain to his funeral.” He married Rebecca,
the only daughter of Lieut. Joseph Wheeler, on April 16, 1667
and had, Edward, Joseph, John and Rebecca - the first and third
children died young. His widow married Jonathan Prescott and his
daughter married Jonathan Prescott, Jr. Joseph Bulkeley b. Sept
7, 1760 held a captain’s commission and was engaged in the public
service. He married the widow Rebecca Minott, dau. of John
Jones, in 1696. She died July 17, 1712, leaving by him Rebecca
10. That was Capt. John Mason of the New Hampshire Grants.
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who married Joseph Hubbard, granfather to Deacon Thomas Hubbard;
Dorothy who married Samuel Hunt; John who held a Colonel’s
commission and died in Groton, Dec. 1772 aged 69, father to John
who was graduated at Harvard Coll in 1769 who was a lawyer and
died in Groton Dec 16, 1774 aged 26. Captain Joseph Bulkeley m.
for a 2nd wife Silence Jeffrey in 1713 and had Joseph, Peter,
Charles (whose descendants live in Littleton) and perhaps other
children.11
11.
Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company;
Concord MA: John Stacy
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1663
June 25, Thursday (Old Style): The first movement toward a purchase of the province of Maine by Massachusetts was
in a letter written by Daniel Gookin to Ferdinando Gorges (printed in the NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND
GENEALOGICAL REGISTER).
Mary Barnes of Farmington, Connecticut, found guilty of witchcraft, was likely hanged in Hartford on this day.
Major American Witchcraft Cases
1647
Elizabeth Kendall, Alse Young
1663
Mary Barnes
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Major American Witchcraft Cases
1648
Margaret Jones, Mary Johnson
1666
Elizabeth Seager
1651
Alice Lake, Mrs. (Lizzy) Kendal, Goody
Bassett, Mary Parsons
1669
Katherine (Kateran) Harrison
1652
John Carrington, Joan Carrington
1683
Nicholas Disborough, Margaret Mattson
1653
Elizabeth “Goody” Knapp, Elizabeth
Godman
1688
Annie “Goody” Glover
1654
Lydia Gilbert, Kath Grady, Mary Lee
1692
Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Towne Nurse,
Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth
Howe, Sarah Wildes, Mary Staplies,
Mercy Disborough, Elizabeth Clawson,
Mary Harvey, Hannah Harvey, Goody
Miller, Giles Cory, Mary Towne Estey,
Reverend George Burrough, George
Jacobs, Sr., John Proctor, John Willard,
Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Martha
Corey, Margaret Scott, Alice Parker, Ann
Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel
Wardwell, Mary Parker, Tituba
1655
Elizabeth Godman, Nicholas Bayley,
Goodwife Bayley, Ann Hibbins
1693
Hugh Crotia, Mercy Disborough
1657
William Meaker
1697
Winifred Benham, Senr., Winifred Benham, Junr.
1658
Elizabeth Garlick, Elizabeth Richardson,
Katherine Grade
1724
Sarah Spencer
1661
Nicholas Jennings, Margaret Jennings
1768
—— Norton
1662
Nathaniel Greensmith, Rebecca Greensmith, Mary Sanford, Andrew Sanford,
Goody Ayres, Katherine Palmer, Judith
Varlett, James Walkley
1801
Sagoyewatha “Red Jacket”
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1718
June 14, Saturday: Judge Samuel Sewall recorded in his diary that “Mr. [Elisha] Cooke is sent for into Council to
explain his Memorial, and he asserts his Meaning to be, that the Province of Main[e] being Granted by the
King to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and the Title and Right of the said Gorges being derived to the Massachusetts
Colony, the Timber therein belongs to them; and King George may not take it away.”
DIARY OF SAMUEL SEWALL
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1847
David Greene Haskins was preaching “as supply” (that is, on occasion by special arrangement) in Christ
Church, Gardiner, Maine (he would be, in addition, 1st rector of Grace Church in Medford, Massachusetts until
sometime in 1852).
In this year the Maine Historical Society put out Volume II of its COLLECTIONS. This would be accessed by
Henry Thoreau and show up in CAPE COD.
COLLECTIONS OF THE MHS
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CAPE COD: Even as late as 1633 we find Winthrop, the first Governor
of the Massachusetts Colony, who was not the most likely to be
misinformed, who, moreover, has the fame, at least, of having
discovered Wachusett Mountain (discerned it forty miles inland),
talking about the “Great Lake” and the “hideous swamps about it,”
near which the Connecticut and the “Potomack” took their rise;
and among the memorable events of the year 1642 he chronicles
Darby Field, an Irishman’s expedition to the “White hill,” from
whose top he saw eastward what he “judged to be the Gulf of
Canada,” and westward what he “judged to be the great lake which
Canada River comes out of,” and where he found much “Muscovy
glass,” and “could rive out pieces of forty feet long and seven
or eight broad.” While the very inhabitants of New England were
thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was
a terra incognita to them, —or rather many years before the
earliest date referred to,— Champlain, the first Governor of
Canada, not to mention the inland discoveries of Cartier,
Roberval, and others, of the preceding century, and his own
earlier voyage, had already gone to war against the Iroquois in
their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great Lakes and wintered
there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England. In Champlain’s
“Voyages,” printed in 1613, there is a plate representing a fight
in which he aided the Canada Indians against the Iroquois, near
the south end of Lake Champlain, in July, 1609, eleven years
before the settlement of Plymouth. Bancroft says he joined the
Algonquins in an expedition against the Iroquois, or Five
Nations, in the northwest of New York. This is that “Great Lake,”
which the English, hearing some rumor of from the French, long
after, locate in an “Imaginary Province called Laconia, and spent
several years about 1630 in the vain attempt to discover.” (Sir
Ferdinand Gorges, in Maine Hist. Coll., Vol. II. p. 68.) Thomas
Morton has a chapter on this “Great Lake.” In the edition of
Champlain’s map dated 1632, the Falls of Niagara appear; and in
a great lake northwest of Mer Douce (Lake Huron) there is an
island represented, over which is written, “Isle ou il y une mine
de cuivre,” - “Island where there is a mine of copper.” This will
do for an offset to our Governor’s “Muscovy Glass.” Of all these
adventures and discoveries we have a minute and faithful account,
giving facts and dates as well as charts and soundings, all
scientific and Frenchman-like, with scarcely one fable or
traveller’s story.
CHAMPLAIN
GORGES
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CAPE COD: It is remarkable that there is not in English any
adequate or correct account of the French exploration of what is
now the coast of New England, between 1604 and 1608, though it is
conceded that they then made the first permanent European
settlement on the continent of North America north of St.
Augustine. If the lions had been the painters it would have been
otherwise. This omission is probably to be accounted for partly
by the fact that the early edition of Champlain’s “Voyages” had
not been consulted for this purpose. This contains by far the most
particular, and, I think, the most interesting chapter of what we
may call the Ante-Pilgrim history of New England, extending to
one hundred and sixty pages quarto; but appears to be unknown
equally to the historian and the orator on Plymouth Rock. Bancroft
does not mention Champlain at all among the authorities for De
Monts’ expedition, nor does he say that he ever visited the coast
of New England. Though he bore the title of pilot to De Monts, he
was, in another sense, the leading spirit, as well as the
historian of the expedition. Holmes, Hildreth, and Barry, and
apparently all our historians who mention Champlain, refer to the
edition of 1632, in which all the separate charts of our harbors,
&c., and about one half the narrative, are omitted; for the author
explored so many lands afterward that he could afford to forget
a part of what he had done. Hildreth, speaking of De Monts’s
expedition, says that “he looked into the Penobscot [in 1605],
which Pring had discovered two years before,” saying nothing
about Champlain’s extensive exploration of it for De Monts in 1604
(Holmes says 1608, and refers to Purchas); also that he followed
in the track of Pring along the coast “to Cape Cod, which he
called Malabarre.” (Haliburton had made the same statement before
him in 1829. He called it Cap Blanc, and Malle Barre (the Bad Bar)
was the name given to a harbor on the east side of the Cape.)
Pring says nothing about a river there. Belknap says that Weymouth
discovered it in 1605. Sir F. Gorges says, in his narration (Maine
Hist. Coll., Vol. II. p. 19), 1658, that Pring in 1606 “made a
perfect discovery of all the rivers and harbors.” This is the most
I can find. Bancroft makes Champlain to have discovered more
western rivers in Maine, not naming the Penobscot; he, however,
must have been the discoverer of distances on this river (see
Belknap, p. 147). Pring was absent from England only about six
months, and sailed by this part of Cape Cod (Malebarre) because
it yielded no sassafras, while the French, who probably had not
heard of Pring, were patiently for years exploring the coast in
search of a place of settlement, sounding and surveying its
harbors.
PEOPLE OF
CAPE COD
ÆSOP
XENOPHANES
CHAMPLAIN
WEBSTER
BANCROFT
BARRY
HILDRETH
HOLMES
HALIBURTON
BELKNAP
GORGES
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“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,
such as extensive quotations and reproductions of
images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great
deal of special work product of Austin Meredith,
copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will
eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some
of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button
invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap
through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems—
allows for an utter alteration of the context within
which one is experiencing a specific content already
being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin
Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by
all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any
material from such files, must be obtained in advance
in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”
Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please
contact the project at <[email protected]>.
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until
tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”
– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”
in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: November 9, 2014
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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a
human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that
we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the
shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these
chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by
ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the
Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a
request for information we merely push a button.
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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious
deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in
the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we
need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —
but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary
“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this
originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,
and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever
has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire
operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished
need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect
to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic
research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge.
Place requests with <[email protected]>. Arrgh.
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Sir Ferdinando Gorges

Transcription

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