Book: The Beginnings of New England

J >> John Fiske >> The Beginnings of New England




Many of the early Massachusetts documents relate to Maine. Of later
books, especial mention should be made of Folsom's _History of Saco and
Biddeford_, Saco, 1830; Willis's _History of Portland_, 2 vols., 1831-33
(2d ed. 1865); _Memorial Volume of the Popham Celebration_, Portland,
1862; Chamberlain's _Maine, Her Place in History_, Augusta, 1877. On New
Hampshire the best general work is Belknap's _History of New Hampshire_,
3 vols., Phila., 1784-92; the appendix contains many original
documents, and others are to be found in the _New Hampshire Historical
Collections_, 8 vols., 1824-66.

The _Connecticut Colonial Records_ are edited by Dr. J.H. Trumbull,
12 vols., 1850-82. The _Connecticut Historical Society's Collections_,
1860-70, are of much value. The best general work is Trumbull's _History
of Connecticut_, 2 vols., Hartford, 1797. See also Stiles's _Ancient
Windsor_, 2 vols., 1859-63; Cothren's _Ancient Woodbury_, 3 vols.,
1854-79. Of the Pequot War we have accounts by three of the principal
actors. Mason's _History of the Pequod War_ is in the _Mass. Hist.
Coll._, 2d series, vol. viii.; Underhill's _News from America_ is in the
3d series, vol. vi.; and Lyon Gardiner's narrative is in the 3d series,
vol. iii. In the same volume with Underhill is contained _A True
Relation of the late Battle fought in New England between the English
and the Pequod Savages_, by Philip Vincent, London, 1638. The _New Haven
Colony Records_ are edited by C.J. Hoadly, 2 vols., Hartford, 1857-58.
See also the _New Haven Historical Society's Papers_, 3 vols., 1865-80;
Lambert's _History of New Haven_, 1838; Atwater's _History of New
Haven_, 1881; Levermore's _Republic of New Haven_, Baltimore, 1886;
Johnston's _Connecticut_, Boston, 1887. The best account of the Blue
Laws is by J.H. Trumbull, _The True Blue Laws of Connecticut and New
Haven, and the False Blue Laws invented by the Rev. Samuel Peters_,
etc., Hartford, 1876. See also Hinman's _Blue Laws of New Haven Colony_,
Hartford, 1838; Barber's _History and Antiquities of New Haven_, 1831;
Peters's _History of Connecticut_, London, 1781. The story of the
regicides is set forth in Stiles's _History of the Three Judges_ [the
third being Colonel Dixwell], Hartford, 1794; see also the _Mather
Papers_ in _Mass. Hist. Coll._, 4th series, vol. viii.

_The Rhode Island Colonial Records_ are edited by J.R. Bartlett, 7
vols., 1856-62. One of the best state histories ever written is that
of S.G. Arnold, _History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations_, 2 vols., New York, 1859-60. Many valuable documents are
reprinted in the _Rhode Island Historical Society's Collections_. The
_History of New England, with particular reference to the denomination
called Baptists_, by Rev. Isaac Backus, 3 vols., 1777-96, has much
that is valuable relating to Rhode Island. The series of _Rhode Island
Historical Tracts_, issued since 1878 by Mr. S.S. Rider, is of great
merit. Biographies of Roger Williams have been written by J.D. Knowles,
1834; by William Gammell, 1845; and by Romeo Elton, 1852. Williams's
works have been republished by the Narragansett Club in 6 vols., 1866.
The first volume contains the valuable _Key to the Indian Languages of
America_, edited by Dr. Trumbull. Williams's views of religious liberty
are set forth in his _Bloudy Tenent of Persecution_, London, 1644; to
which John Cotton replied in _The Bloudy Tenent washed and made White in
the Blood of the Lamb_, London, 1647; Williams's rejoinder was entitled
_The Bloudy Tenent made yet more Bloudy through Mr. Cotton's attempt
to Wash it White_, London, 1652. The controversy was conducted on both
sides with a candour and courtesy rare in that age. The titles of
Williams's other principal works, _George Fox digged out of his
Burrowes_, Boston, 1676; _Hireling Ministry none of Christ's_, London,
1652; and _Christenings make not Christians_, 1643; sufficiently
indicate their character. The last-named tract was discovered in the
British Museum by Dr. Dexter and edited by him in Rider's _Tracts_,
No. xiv., 1881. The treatment of Roger Williams by the government
of Massachusetts is thoroughly discussed in Dexter's _As to Roger
Williams_, Boston, 1876. See also G.E. Ellis on "The Treatment of
Intruders and Dissentients by the Founders of Massachusetts," in _Lowell
Lectures_, Boston, 1869.

The case of Mrs. Hutchinson is treated, from a hostile and somewhat
truculent point of view, in Thomas Welde's pamphlet entitled _A Short
Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Antinomians, Familists, and
Libertines that infected the Churches of New England_, London, 1644. It
was answered in an anonymous pamphlet entitled _Mercurius Americanus_,
republished for the Prince Society, Boston, 1876, with prefatory notice
by C.H. Bell. Cotton's view of the theocracy may be seen in his _Milk
for Babes, drawn out of the Breasts of both Testaments_, London, 1646;
_Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven_; and _Way of the Congregational
Churches Cleared_, London, 1648. See also Thomas Hooker's _Survey of the
Summe of Church Discipline_, London, 1648. The intolerant spirit of the
time finds quaint and forcible expression in Nathaniel Ward's satirical
book, _The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam_, 1647.

For the Gorton controversy the best original authorities are his own
book entitled _Simplicitie's Defence against Sevenheaded Polity_,
London, 1646; and Winslow's answer entitled _Hypocracie Unmasked_,
London, 1646. See also Mackie's _Life of Samuel Gorton_, Boston, 1845,
and Brayton's _Defence of Samuel Gorton_, in Rider's _Tracts_, No. xvii.

For the early history of the Quakers, see Robert Barclay's _Inner Life
of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth_, London, 1876,--an
admirable book. See also _New England a Degenerate Plant_, 1659;
Bishop's _New England judged by the Spirit of the Lord_, 1661; Sewel's
_History of the Quakers_, 1722; Besse's _Sufferings of the Quakers_,
1753; _The Popish Inquisition newly erected in New England_, London,
1659; _The Secret Works of a Cruel People made Manifest_, 1659; and the
pamphlet of the martyrs Stevenson and Robinson, entitled _A Call from
Death to Life_, 1660. John Norton's view of the case was presented in
his book, _The Heart of New England Rent at the Blasphemies of the
Present Generation_, London, 1660. See also J.S. Pike's _New Puritan_,
New York, 1879; Hallowell's _Pioneer Quakers_, Boston, 1887; and his
_Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts_, Boston, 1883; Brooks Adams, _The
Emancipation of Massachusetts_, Boston, 1887; Ellis, _The Puritan Age
and Rule_, Boston, 1888.

Some additional light upon the theocratic idea may be found in a
treatise by the apostle Eliot, _The Christian Commonwealth; or, the
Civil Polity of the Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ_, London, 1659. An
account of Eliot's missionary work is given in _The Day breaking, if not
the Sun rising, of the Gospel with the Indians in New England_, London,
1647; and _The Glorious Progress of the Gospel amongst the Indians in
New England_, 1649. See also Shepard's _Clear Sunshine of the Gospel
breaking forth upon the Indians_, 1648; and Whitfield's _Light appearing
more and more towards the Perfect Day_, 1651.

The principal authority for Philip's war is Hubbard's _Present State of
New England, being a Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians_, 1677.
Church's _Entertaining Passages relating to Philip's War_, published in
1716, and republished in 1865, with notes by Mr. Dexter, is a charming
book. See also Mrs. Rowlandson's _True History_, Cambridge, Mass.,
1682; Mather's _Brief History of the War_, 1676; Drake's _Old Indian
Chronicle_, Boston, 1836; Gookin's _Historical Collections of the
Indians in New England_, 1674; and _Account of the Doings and Sufferings
of the Christian Indians_, in _Archchaeologia Americana_, vol. ii.
Batten's _Journal_ is the diary of a citizen of Boston, sent to England,
and it now in MS. among the _Colonial Papers_. Mrs. Mary Pray's letter
(Oct. 20, 1675) is in _Mass. Hist. Coll._, 5th series, vol. i. p. 105.

The great storehouse of information for the Andros period is the _Andros
Tracts_, 3 vols., edited for the Prince Society by W.H. Whitmore. See
also Sewall's _Diary, Mass. Hist. Coll._, 5th series, vols. v.--viii.
Sewall has been appropriately called the Puritan Pepys. His book is a
mirror of the state of society in Massachusetts at the time when it was
beginning to be felt that the old theocratic idea had been tried in the
balance and found wanting. There is a wonderful charm in such a book. It
makes one feel as if one had really "been there" and taken part in the
homely scenes, full of human interest, which it so naively portrays.
Anne Bradstreet's works have been edited by J.H. Ellis, Charlestown,
1867.

For further references and elaborate bibliographical discussions, see
Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. iii.; and his
_Memorial History of Boston_, 4 vols., Boston, 1880. There is a good
account of the principal New England writers of the seventeenth century,
with illustrative extracts, in Tyler's _History of American Literature_,
2 vols., New York, 1878. For extracts see also the first two volumes of
Stedman and Hutchinson's _Library of American Literature_, New York,
1888.

In conclusion I would observe that town histories, though seldom written
in a philosophical spirit and apt to be quite amorphous in structure,
are a mine of wealth for the philosophic student of history.




NOTES:


[1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._ vii. 395.

[2] Gardiner, _The Puritan Revolution_, p. 12.

[3] Green, _History of the English People_, iii. 47.

[4] Steele's _Life of Brewster,_ p. 161.

[5] Gardiner, _Puritan Revolution_, p. 50.

[6] It is now 204 years since a battle has been fought in England. The
last was Sedgmoor in 1685. For four centuries, since Bosworth, in 1485,
the English people have lived in peace in their own homes, except for
the brief episode of the Great Rebellion, and Monmouth's slight affair.
This long peace, unparalleled in history, has powerfully influenced the
English and American character for good. Since the Middle Ages most
English warfare has been warfare at a distance, and that does not
nourish the brutal passions in the way that warfare at home does.
An instructive result is to be seen in the mildness of temper which
characterized the conduct of our stupendous Civil War. Nothing like it
was ever seen before.

[7] Picton's _Cromwell_, pp. 61, 67; Gardiner, _Puritan Revolution_, p.
72.

[8] Quincy, History of Harvard University, ii. 654.

[9] C.F. Adams, _Sir Christopher Gardiner, Knight_, p. 31.

[10] The compact drawn up in the Mayflower's cabin was not, in the
strict sense a constitution, which is a document defining and limiting
the functions of government. Magna Charta partook of the nature of
a written constitution, as far as it went, but it did not create a
government.

[11] See Johnston's Connecticut, p. 321, a very brilliant book.

[12] See the passionate exclamation of Endicott, below, p. 190.

[13] Excursions of an Evolutionist: pp. 250, 255.

[14] A glimmer of light upon Gorton may be got from reading the
title-page of one of his books: "AN INCORRUPTIBLE KEY, composed of the
CX PSALME, wherewith you may open the Rest of the Holy Scriptures;
Turning itself only according to the Composure and Art of that Lock, of
the Closure and Secresie of that great Mystery of God manifest in the
Flesh, but justified only by the Spirit, which it evidently openeth
and revealeth, out of Fall and Resurrection, Sin and Righteousness,
Ascension and Descension, Height and Depth, First and Last, Beginning
and Ending, Flesh and Spirit, Wisdome and Foolishnesse, Strength
and Weakness, Mortality and Immortality, Jew and Gentile, Light and
Darknesse, Unity and Multiplication, Fruitfulness and Barrenness, Curse
and Blessing, Man and Woman, Kingdom and Priesthood, Heaven and Earth,
Allsufficiency and Deficiency, God and Man. And out of every Unity made
up of twaine, it openeth that great two-leafed Gate, which is the sole
Entrie into the City of God, of New Jerusalem, _into which none but the
King of glory can enter_; and as that Porter openeth the Doore of the
Sheepfold, _by which whosoever entreth is the Shepheard of the Sheep_;
See Isa. 45. 1. Psal. 24. 7, 8, 9, 10. John 10. 1, 2, 3; Or, (according
to the Signification of the Word translated _Psalme_,) it is a
Pruning-Knife, to lop off from the Church of Christ all superfluous
Twigs _of earthly and carnal Commandments_, Leviticall Services or
Ministery, and fading and vanishing Priests, or Ministers, who are taken
away and cease, and are not established and confirmed by Death, as
holding no Correspondency with the princely Dignity, Office, and
Ministry of our _Melchisedek_, who is the only Minister and Ministry of
the Sanctuary, and of that true Tabernacle which the Lord pitcht, and
not Man. For it supplants the Old Man, and implants the New; abrogates
the Old Testament or Covenant, and confirms the New, unto a thousand
Generations, or in Generations forever. By Samuel Gorton, _Gent._,
and at the time of penning hereof, in the Place of Judicature (upon
Aquethneck, alias Road Island) of Providence Plantations in the
Nanhyganset Bay, New England. Printed in the Yeere 1647."

[15] Father of Benedict Arnold, afterward governor of Rhode Island, and
owner of the stone windmill (apparently copied from one in Chesterton,
Warwickshire) which was formerly supposed by some antiquarians to be a
vestige of the Northmen. Governor Benedict Arnold was great-grandfather
of the traitor.

[16] _Gorton, Simplicitie's Defence against Seven-headed Policy_, p. 88.

[17] De Forest, _History of the Indians of Connecticut_, Hartford, 1850,
p. 198.

[18] Doyle, _Puritan Colonies_, i. 324.

[19] See below, p. 222, note.

[20] See my _Excursions of an Evolutionist,_ pp. 239-242, 250-255,
286-289.

[21] Gorton's life at Warwick, after all these troubles, seems to have
been quiet and happy. He died in 1677 at a great age. In 1771 Dr. Ezra
Stiles visited, in Providence, his last surviving disciple, born in
1691. This old man said that Gorton wrote in heaven, and none can
understand his books except those who live in heaven while on earth.

[22] Doyle, _Puritan Colonies_,: i. 369.

[23] Doyle, i.: 372.

[24] Milman, _Latin Christianity_, vii. 390.

[25] Doyle, ii. 133, 134; Rhode Island Records, i. 377, 378.

[26] Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, pp. 14-16; Levermore's Republic of
New Haven, p. 153.

[27] See my remarks above, p. 145.

[28] The daring passage in the sermon is thus given in Bacon's
_Historical Discourses_, New Haven, 1838: "Withhold not countenance,
entertainment, and protection from the people of God--whom men may call
fools and fanatics--if any such come to you from other countries,
as from France or England, or any other place. Be not forgetful to
entertain strangers. Remember those that are in bonds, as bound with
them. The Lord required this of Moab, saying, 'Make thy shadow as the
night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him
that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a
covert to them from the face of the spoiler.' Is it objected--'But so I
may expose myself to be spoiled or troubled'? He, therefore, to remove
this objection, addeth, 'For the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler
ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.' While we are
attending to our duty in owning and harbouring Christ's witnesses, God
will be providing for their and our safety, by destroying those that
would destroy his people."

[29] Palfrey, _History of New England,_ in. 138-140.

[30] See Parkman, _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, i. 80-85.

[31] De Forest, _History of the Indians of Connecticut,_ pp. 252, 257.

[32] The story rests chiefly upon the statements of Hutchinson, an
extremely careful and judicious writer, and not in the least what
the French call a _gobemouche_. Goffe kept a diary which came into
Hutchinson's possession, and was one of the priceless manuscripts that
perished in the infamous sacking of his house by the Boston mob of
August 26, 1765. What light that diary might have thrown upon the matter
can never be known. Hutchinson was born in 1711, only thirty-six years
after the event, so that his testimony is not so very far removed from
that of a contemporary. Whalley seems to have died in Hadley shortly
before 1675, and Goffe deemed it prudent to leave that neighbourhood in
1676. His letters to Increase Mather are dated from "Ebenezer," i. e.,
wherever in his roamings he set up his Ebenezer. One of these letters,
dated September 8, 1676, shows that his Ebenezer was then set up in
Hartford, where probably he died about 1679 In 1676 the arrival of
Edward Randolph (see below, p. 256) renewed the peril of the regicide
judge, and his sudden removal from his skilfully contrived hiding-place
at Hadley might possibly have been due to his having exposed himself
to recognition in the Indian fight. Possibly even the supernatural
explanation might have been started, with a touch of Yankee humour, as
a blind. The silence of Mather and Hubbard was no more remarkable than
some of the other ingenious incidents which had so long served to
conceal the existence of this sturdy and crafty man. The reasons for
doubting the story are best stated by Mr. George Sheldon of Deerfield,
in _Hist.-Genealogical Register_, October, 1874.

[33] If Philip was half the diplomatist that he is represented in
tradition, he never would have gone into such a war without assurance of
Narragansett help. Canonchet was a far more powerful sachem than Philip,
and played a more conspicuous part in the war. May we not suppose that
Canonchet's desire to avenge his father's death was one of the principal
incentives to the war; that Philip's attack upon Swanzey was a premature
explosion; and that Canonchet then watched the course of events for a
while before making up his mind whether to abandon Philip or support
him?

[34] A wretched little werewolf who some few years ago, being then a lad
of fourteen or fifteen years, most cruelly murdered two or three
young children, just to amuse himself with their dying agonies. The
misdirected "humanitarianism," which in our country makes every murderer
an object of popular sympathy, prevailed to save this creature from
the gallows. Massachusetts has lately witnessed a similar instance of
misplaced clemency in the case of a vile woman who had poisoned eight or
ten persons, including some of her own children, in order to profit
by their life insurance. Such instances help to explain the prolonged
vitality of "Judge Lynch," and sometimes almost make one regret the days
in old England when William Probert, after escaping in 1824 as "king's
evidence," from the Thurtell affair, got caught and hanged within a
twelvemonth for horse-stealing. Any one who wishes to study the results
of allowing criminality to survive and propagate itself should read
Dugdale's The Jukes; Hereditary Crime, New York, 1877.

[35] Weeden, _Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization_,
Johns Hopkins University Studies, II. viii., ix. p. 30.

[36] Doyle, ii. 253.

[37] Doyle, _Puritan Colonies_, ii. 254.

[38] The quotation is from an unpublished letter of Rev. Robert
Ratcliffe to the Bishop of London, cited in an able article in the
_Boston Herald_, January 4, 1888. I have not seen the letter.

[39] Doyle, _Puritan Colonies_, ii. 379, 380.

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.