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

in Hubbard's History, p. 47, which
is conclusive proof that he had seen
Bradford's History. See Note - on
page 5S. — Hubbard says, p. 50,
" that a patent, as is afore said, was
obtained, is published in print, and
affirmed by such as yet survive of
the first planters ; but where it is,
or how it came to be lost, is not
known to any that belong to the
said colony." Hubbard wrote his
History before 1682. See Mass.
Hist. Coll. XV. p. iii. — Grahame, i.
410, errs in asserting that Hub-
bard's History has never been pub-
lished ; and also in stating that
Gov. Bradford's History of Ply-
mouth Colony has been published.

^ Prince, p. 155, quoting from
Gov. Bradford's MS. history, in-
serts after consider, "with several
proposals for their transmigration,
made by Mr. Thomas Weston,
of London, merchant, and other
friends and merchants as should
either," &c.



THE PILGRIMS KEEP A FAST. 77

Upon a receipt of these things by one of their mes- chap.

sengers, they had a solemn meeting and a day of hu ^^^

miliation, to seek the Lord for his direction. And 16 20.
their pastor took this text. " And David's men said \^^/
unto him, See, we be afraid here in Judah. How
much more, if we come to Keilah, against the host of
the PhiHstines. Then David asked counsel of the
Lord again." From which text he taught many
things very aptly, and befitting their present occasion
and condition, to strengthen them against their fears
and perplexities, and encouraging them in their reso-
lutions : [and then conclude how many and who
should prepare to go first ; ' for all that were willing
could not get ready quickly. The greater number
being to stay, require their pastor to tarry with them ;
their elder, Mr. Brewster, to go with the other ; those
who go first to be an absolute church ^ of themselves, "^
as well as those that stay ; with this proviso, that as
any go over or return, they shall be reputed as mem-
bers, without further dismission or testimonial ; and
those who tarry, to follow the rest as soon as they can.

* Winslow, in his Brief Narra- had not been " an absolute church
tive, says," the youngest and strong- of themselves," yet before the for-
est part to go ; and they that went mation of Higginson's church at
should freely offer themselves." Salem, a majority of the Leyden

'^ The Church at Plymouth thus congregation had actually arrived
became the First Independent or at Plymouth, as appears from the
Congregational Church in Ameri- note on page 36. Nor is there any
ca. Of course the statement of ground for Palfrey's intimation, in
Holmes in his accurate Annals of his Centennial Discourse at Barn-
America, i. 160, that " the adven- stable, p. 9, that "the first church
turers and their brethren remaining in Barnstable is the representative
in Holland were to continue to be of the first Congregational Church
one church," is incorrect ; and the established in England," since it
position of Upham, in his eloquent appears from p. 21-24, of this vol-
Century Lecture, at Salem in 1829, ume, that the exception, on the pre-
Ahat the first church in Salem is sumed absence of which he builds
*'the First American Congrega- this opinion, was an actual fact,
tional Church," cannot be main- namely, that " Pvobinson's church,
tained. Even if the first colonists now surviving in that of Plymouth,



78 THE PILGRIMS PREPARE TO LEAVE HOLLAND.

CHAP. Mr. Weston^ coming to Leyden, the people agree
^^v-^ with him on articles both for shipping and money to
16 20. assist in their transportation; then send Mr. Carver
and Cushman to England to receive the money and
provide for the voyage ; Mr. Cushman at London, Mr.
Carver at Southampton. Those who are to go first
prepare with speed, sell their estates, put their money
into the common stock to be disposed by their mana-
gers for making general provisions. There was also
one Mr. Martin^ chosen in England to join with Mr.
Carver and Cushman. He came from Biherica, in
Essex ; from which county came several others, as
also from London and other places, to go with them.]



3



â–  In the foregoing five Chapters the reader may take
a view of some of the many difficulties our blessed pre-
decessors went through in their first achievement of
this weighty enterprise of removal of our Church into
these American parts. The immediate following re-
lations in Mr. Bradford's book, out of which divers of
these matters are recollected, do more especially con-
was organized on Congregational unsuccessful attempt to establish a
principles before he left the mother rival colony at Wessagussett, now
country for Holland." With the Weymouth, will be related here-
Historyof Gov. Bradford to support after. He visited Plymouth twice
her claims, the First Church at in 1623, and again in 1624, and
Plymouth cannot recognise the then sailed for Virginia. He died
pretensions of any other American at Bristol, (Eng.) in the time of the
church to priority of existence. civil war. See Prince, pp. 216,

' Thomas Weston was one of 222, 224.
the most active of the merchant ^ This was undoubtedly Mr.
adventurers, and Hubbard says, p. Christopher Martin, who, with his
72, that he had disbursed £500 to wife and two children, came over
advance the interest of Plymouth in the Mayflower. His name
colony. Edward Winslow says, stands the ninth in the subscrip-
in 1622, " he formerly deserved tion to the Compact signed at Cape
well of us," and Bradford, in 1623, Cod, Nov. 11, 1620, and he died
that he "becomes our enemy on Jan. 8, 1621.

all occasions." He employed se- ^ The passage included in brack-
veral vessels in trade and fishing ets is taken from Prince, p. 15G,
on the coast of New England. His who copied it from Bradford's MS.



CONDITIONS AND LETTERS.



79



cern the conditions of their agreement with several chap.

V

merchant adventurers towards the voyage, &c. as also ^.-v^
several letters sent to and fro from friend to friend 16 20.
relating to the premises, which are not so pertinent to
the nature of this small History. Wherefore I shall
here omit to insert them,^ judging them not so suitable
to my present purpose ; and here also cease to follow
the foregoing method by way of Chapters.^



' It is much to be regretted thai
Morton did not see fit to copy these
letters. It will be seen, a few
pages further on, that he again
testifies that " their transactings
with the merchant adventurers
were penned at large in Mr. Brad-
ford's book." Though omitted in
this copy, " the Conditions " were
fortunately preserved from oblivion
by Hubbard, and we are thus ena-
bled to present them in the next
Chapter. They are undoubtedly
the most valuable portion of Hub-



bard's History, and their existence
in it puts it beyond a doubt that he
had both seen and used Bradford's
MS. notwithstanding Prince's as-
sertion to the contrary. See Note ^
on page 58.

^ For the sake of uniformity I
have taken the liberty still " to fol-
low the foregoing method by way
of chapters," and the rather as I
find that Morton has preserved in
his Memorial, pp. 30, 37, and 67,
the original titles of three of Gov.
Bradford's chapters.



CHAPTER VI



THE CONDITIONS OF THEIR AGREEMENT WITH SEVERAL
MERCHANT ADVENTURERS TOWARDS THE VOYAGE.




[About this time thej were informed by Mr. Wes-
ton and others, that sundry honorable lords and worthy
^^20- gentlemen had obtained a large patent from the King
for the more northerly part of America, distinct from
the Virginia patent, and wholly excluded from their
government, and to be called by another name, viz.
New England.' Unto which Mr. Weston and the
chiefest of them began to incline, thinking it was best
for them to go thither ; as for other reasons, so chiefly



» On the 23d of July, 1620, King
James gave a warrant to his soli-
citor. Sir Thomas Coventry, to
prepare a new patent for the incor-
poration of the adventurers to the
northern colony of Virginia, be-
tween 40 and 48 degrees north,
which patent the king signed on
Nov. 3, styling them "The Council
established at Plymouth, in the
county of Devon, for the planting,
ruling, ordering, and governing
of New England, in America,"
which is the great civil basis of all
the future patents and plantations,
that divide this country. Prince,
p. 160. See the patent in Hazard,
i. 104; and the warrant in Mass.
Hist. Coll. xxvi. 64.



The name of New England was
first given, in 1614, by the famous
Capt. John Smith, to North Vir-
ginia, lying between the degrees of
41 and 45. In that year he ranged
along the coast, from the Penobscot
to Cape Cod, in a small boat, with
eight men. "I took the descrip-
tion " he says " of the coast as well
by map as writing, and called it
New England. At my humble
suit, Charles, Prince of Wales, was
pleased to confirm it by that title."
Smith, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxiii.
20. This map was published with
his " Description of New England,"
in 1616. They are both reprinted
in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxiii. 1, and
xxvi. 95 — 140.



THE PILGRIMS MEET WITH DISCOURAGEMENTS. 81

for the hope of present profit, to be made by fishing ' chap.
on that coast. But in all business the active part is -^^^^
most difficult, especially when there are many agents 16 20.
that may be concerned. So it was found in them ;
for some of them who should have gone in England,
fell off, and would not go. Other merchants and
friends, that proffered to adventure their money, with-
drew and pretended many excuses ; some disliking
they went not to Guiana ; others would do nothing
unless they went to Virginia ; and many who were
most relied on refused to adventure if they went thither.
In the midst of these difficulties, they of Leyden were
driven to great straits ; but at the length, the generality
was swayed to the better opinion. Howbeit, the pa-
tent for the northern part of the country not being
fully settled at that time, they resolved to adventure
with that patent they had, intending for some place
more southward than that they fell upon in their voy-
age, at Cape Cod, as may appear afterwards.

The CONDITIONS, on which those of Leyden engaged
with the merchants, the adventurers,^ were hard enough

' Edward Winslow says, in his of iheir bringing their wives and

Brief Narrative, that on King children with them is conclusive

James asking the agents of the evidence that they came to estah-

Pilgrims "what profits might arise lish a permanent colony, in which

in the part they intended, it was the several occupations of farming,

answered. Fishing." fishing, and trading, would each

I know not what authority have its proper place.
Hutchinson had for asserting, ii. " Little is known of these mer-
472, that "their views when they chant adventurers. Capt. John
left England were rather to establish Smith, a good authority in such
a/ac/ory than a colony. They had matters, writing in 1624, says that
no notion of cultivating any more "the adventurers which raised the
ground than would afford their own stock to begin and supply this plan-
necessary provisions, but proposed tation, were about seventy, some
that their chief secular employment gentlemen, some merchants, some
should be commerce with the na- handicraftsmen, some adventuring
fives." This seems inconsistent jireat sums, some small, as their
with the views with which they estates and affection served. These
'eft Holland; and the simple fact dwell most about London. They

11



82 THE CONDITIONS OF THE PARTNERSHIP

CHAP, at the first for the poor people, that were to adventure
— v-^ their persons as well as then* estates. Yet were their
16 20. agents forced to change one or two of them, to satisfy
the merchants, who were not willing to be concerned
with them ; although the altering them without their
knowledge or consent was very distasteful to them,
and became the occasion of some contention amongst
them afterwards. They are these that follow.

1. The adventurers and planters do agree, that
every person that goeth, being sixteen years old and
upward, be rated at ten pounds, and that ten pounds
be accounted a single share.

2. That he that goeth in person, and furnisheth him-
self out with ten pounds, either in money or other
provisions, be accounted as having twenty pounds in
stock, and in the division shall receive a double
share.

3. The persons transported and the adventurers
shall continue their joint stock and partnership the
space of seven years, except some unexpected impedi-
ments do cause the whole Company to agree other-
wise ; during which time all profits and benefits that
are gotten by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing,
or any other means, of any other person or persons,
shall remain still in the common stock until the
division.

4. That at their coming there they shall choose out
such a number of fit persons as may furnish their ships

are not a corporation, but knit to- served by Gov. Bradford, were very

gather by a voluntary combination friendly to the Colony, and a few

in a society without constraint or came over and settled in it. Others

penalty, aiming to do good and to were unreasonable, clamorous, and

plant religion." Smith's Gen. Hist, hostile. Their names in 1626 are

of Virginia, ii. 251. Some of these preserved. See Mass. Hist. Coll.

merchants, as appears from the iii. 27 — 34,48.
Correspondence with them pre-



WITH THE MERCHANT ADVENTURERS. 83

and boats for fishing upon the sea ; employing the rest chap.
in their several faculties upon the land, as building -^v-^
houses, tilling and planting the ground, and making 1620.
such commodities as shall be most useful for the
Colony.

5. That at the end of the seven years, the capital
and the profits, viz. the houses, lands, goods, and chat-
tels, be equally divided among the adventurers. If any
debt or detriment concerning this adventure *

6. Whosoever cometh to the Colony hereafter, or
putteth any thing into the stock, shall at the end of
the seven years be allowed proportionally to the time
of his so doing.

7. He that shall carry his wife, or children, or ser-
vants, shall be allowed for every person, now aged
sixteen years and upward, a single share in the divi-
sion ; or if he provide them necessaries, a double share ;
or if they be between ten years old and sixteen, then
two of them to be reckoned for a person, both in
transportation and division.

8. That such children that now go and are under
the age of ten years, have no other share in the divi-
sion than fifty acres of unmanured land.

9. That such persons as die before the seven years
be expired, their executors to have their parts or share
at the division, proportionably to the time of their life
in the Colony.

10. That all such persons as are of the Colony are
to have meat, drink, and apparel, and all provisions,
out of the common stock and goods of the said Colony.

* Here something seems to be might, possibly, be filled up from

wanting, of the nature of a new the MS. copy of Hubbard in Eng-

article or condition, which cannot land. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii.

now be supplied. This hiatus 286 — 290.



84



THE PILGRIMS ACCEPT THE HARD CONDITIONS.



CHAP. The ditference between the conditions thus expressed

VI. , . . .

— v^- and the former, before their alteration, stood in these

162 0. two points ; first, that the houses and lands improved,
especially gardens and home-fields, should remain un-
divided, wholly to the planters, at the seven years'
end ; secondly, that the planters should have two days
in the week for their own private employment, for
the comfort of themselves and their families, especially
such as had them to take care for.*

The altering of those two conditions was very afflic-
tive to the minds of such as were concerned in the
voyage. But Mr. Cushman, their principal agent,
answered the complaints peremptorily, that unless they
had so ordered the conditions, the whole design would
have fallen to the ground ; and necessity, they said.



> Robertson says, in his History
of Ameiica, book x., " Under the
inliuence of this wild notion — that
the Scriptures contain a complete
system not only of spiritual instruc-
tion, but of civil wisdom and polity
— the colonists of New-Plymouth,
in imitation of the primitive Chris-
tians, threw all their property into
a common stock." This misrepre-
sentation, which he professes to
derive from Chalmers, p. 90, and
Douglass, p. 370, (though there is
nothing in either of them to sanc-
tion the statement,) is repeated sub-
stantially by Grahame, i 194, and
verbally by Murray, Hist, of North
America, i. 246. It is to be regret-
ted that credit and countenance
should have been given to such an
imputation on the good sense of
the Pilgrims, by so respectable an
American writer as Chief Justice
Marshall, in his Life of Washing-
ton, i. 93, (first ed.) and in his His-
tory of the American Colonies, p.
SI.

There is no foundation for this
charge. The Plymouth people were
not " misguided by their religious
theories," nor influenced by an



" imitation of the primitive Chris-
tians," in forming their joint stock
company. They entered into this
hard and disadvantageous engage-
ment with the merchant adven-
turers not voluntarily, but of neces-
sity, in order to obtain shipping for
transporting themselves to Amer-
ica ; and they put their own little
property into a common fund in
order to purchase provisions for the
voyage. It was a partnership that
was mstiluted, not a community of
goods, as that phrase is commonly
understood. They dissolved this
partnership, and set up for them-
selves, as soon as they were able ;
as will be seen hereafter.

The charge is destitute of foun-
dation even in regard to the primi-
tive Christians. "Nothing like a
community of goods," says Mil-
man, " ever appears to have pre-
vailed in the Christian community.
Mosheim appears to me to have
proved this point conclusively."
See Milman's History of Christian-
ity, i. 389, and Mosheim 's Disser-
tation " De vera natura commu-
nionis bonorum in ecclesia Hiero-
solymitana." Diss. ii. t — 53.



A VESSEL AND PILOT ARE PROVIDED. 85



havino; no law, they were constrained to be silent. The chaf.

& "^ VI.

poor planters met with much difficulty both before and ^-^
after the expiring of the seven years, and found much 1620.
trouble in making up accounts with the adventurers
about the division ; at which time, though those that
adventured their money were no great gainers, yet
those that adventured their lives in carrying on the
business of the Plantation were by much the greatest
sufferers.] ^

[Mr. Robinson writes to Mr. Carver, and complains ^^^^
of Mr. Weston's neglect in getting shipping in Eng-
land ; for want of which they are in a piteous case at
Leyden. And S. F., E. W., W. B., and J. A.^ write lo.
from lieyden to Mr. Carver and Cushman, that the
coming of Mr. Nash^ and their pilot is a great en-
couragement to them.

Mr. Cushman, in a letter from London to Mr. Carver lo.
at Southampton, says that Mr. Crabe, a minister, had
promised to go, but is much opposed, and like to fail ;
and in a letter to the people at Leyden, that he had
hired another pilot, one Mr. Clark,'* who went last
year to Virginia ; that he is getting a ship, hopes he
shall make all ready at London in fourteen days, and
would liave Mr. Reynolds tarry in Holland, and bring
the ship ^ there to Southampton.] ^

' The passage within brackets is ' The name of Thomas Nash is

taken from Hubbard's History. It subscribed, with others, to a letter

is impossible to say where he ob- written at Leyden Nov. 30, 1625,

tained it, except from Bradford's addressed to Bradford and Brewster.

MS. It is to be found nowhere See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 44.
else, and is essential to the com- '' Clark, as will be seen hereafter,

pleteness of the History. I have was master's mate on board the

taken care to collate Hubbard's MS. Mayflower.

which is in the archives of the Mas- * The small ship, called the

^achuselts Historical Society. Speedwell, of which Reynolds was

* These doubtless are the initials captain,
of Samuel Fuller, Edward Wins- * These last two paragraphs are

low, William Bradford, and Isaac taken from Prince, p. 158, who

Allerton. copied them from Bradford's MS.



CHAPTER VII.

OF THEIR DEPARTURE FROM LEYDEN, AND EMBARKATION

FROM DELFT-HAVEN.



CHAP
VII.



After such travail and turmoils ^ and debates which
they went through, things were gotten ready for their
1620. departure from Leyden. A small ship was provided in
Holland, of about sixty tons, which was intended, as
to serve to transport some of them over the seas, so to
stay in the country and to tend upon fishing and such
other affairs as might be for the good and benefit of the
whole, when they should come to the place intended.^



* "Much of their troubles re-
specting this matter is not express-
ed in this book." — Morton's Note.

* This vessel was less than the
average size of the fishing-smacks
that go to the Grand Bank. This
seems a frail bark in which to cross
a stormy ocean of three thousand
miles in extent. Yet it should be
remembered, that two of the ships
of Columbus on his first daring and
perilous voyage of discovery were
light vessels, without decks, little
superior to the small craft that ply
on our rivers and along our coasts.
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, the con-
temporary of Columbus, and the
first writer who mentions the dis-
covery of America, says " Ex regio
fisco destinata sunt tria navigia ;
UDum onerarium cavatura.alia duo



levia mercatoria, sine caveis, quee
ab Hispanis caravela; vocantur."
De Orbe Novo, dec. i. cap. i. (p. 2,
ed. 1587.) "At the length three
ships were appointed him at the
king's charges; of the which one
was a great carrack with decks,
and the other two light merchant
ships without decks, which the
Spaniards call caravels." (Eden's
trans, p. 8, ed. 1577.) Frobisher's
fleet consisted of two barks of
twenty-five tons each, and a pin-
nace of ten tons, when he sailed in

1576, to discover a north-west pas-
sage to the Indies. Sir Francis
Drake, too, embarked on his voyage
for circumnavigating the globe, in

1577, with five vessels, of which
the largest was of one hundred,
and the smallest of fifteen tons.




THE PILGRIMS LEAVE LEYDEN. 87

Another was hired at London, of burden about nine-
score, and all other things got in a readiness.

So being ready to depart, thej had a day of solemn 1620.
humiliation, their pastor taking his text from Ezra the
viiith. 21. " And there, at the river, by Ahava, I pro-
claimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before
our God, and seek of him a right way for us, and for
our children, and for all our substance." Upon which
he spent a good part of the day very profitably, and
suitably to their present occasion.^ The rest of the
time was spent in pouring out prayers to the Lord with
great fervency, mixed with abundance of tears. And
the time being come that they must depart, they were
accompanied with the most of their brethren out of the Ju'y

. , 21.

city unto a town sundry miles off, called Delft-Haven,^
where the ship lay ready to receive them. So they
left that goodly and pleasant city, which had been their J^e^,
resting-place near twelve years. But they knew they
were Pilgrims,^ and looked not much on those things.

The bark in which Sir Humphrey ' Edward Winslow, who was

Gilbert perished was of ten tons present, has preserved a portion of

only. The Little James, which Robinson's farewell discourse. It

the Company sent over to Ply- will be found in his Brief Narra-

mouth in July 1623, was a pinnace tive, in a subsequent part of this

of only forty-four tons. See Na- volume; but it ought to be read in

varrete, Coleccion de Viages, ii. p. this connexion.

11, Doc. Diplom. 7; Irving's Life of * Delft-Haven is a commodious

Columbus, i. 113, iii. 303 — 306; port on the north side of the Maas,

Kippis's Biog. Britann. v. 345 ; two miles south-west from Rotter-

â–  Aikin's Gen. Biog. iii. 449, iv. 249; dam, eight miles from Delft, and

Bancroft, i. 91 ; Prince, p. 220. — about 24 miles south of Leyden.

Bancroft, i. 306, is inaccurate in ^ "I think I may with singular

saying that " the Speedwell was propriety call their lives a piJgrim-

purchased in Z,o?it?on;" and Mather, age. Most of them left England

i. 47, in stating that she was hii-ed, about the year 1609, after the truce

in which error he is followed by with the Spaniards, young men be-

the authors of the Mod. Univ. Hist, tween twenty and thirty years of