PASSENGERS OF THE MARY AND JOHN IN 1630
PASSENGERS OF THE MARY AND JOHN IN 1630
|
p.100 Contemporaneously with the sailing of the Winthrop Fleet a party of emigrants embarked at Plymouth, Devon, in the ship Mary and John, on March 20, bound for the same destination in Massachusetts Bay within the bounds of the territory of the Company headed by Winthrop. While not having any defined connection with the Winthrop Fleet, yet their destination pre- supposes a cooperative agreement and a common purpose. In his last letter to his wife, before leaving Southampton, Winthrop notes the departure of this vessel and her passengers, indicating his knowledge of their destination in the limits of the Massachusetts Bay Patent and by inference an approval of them as fellow emi- grants under his jurisdiction. The Mary and John was owned by Roger Ludlow, one of the Assistants of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who sailed in her, as did Edward Rossiter, another Assistant, as leaders of this Company, and thus further confirmation is given to it as an integral, though separated part of the Great Emigration. It seems, therefore, desirable to relate briefly the story of this group which on arrival settled on Dorchester Neck and soon became politically merged in the fortunes of the various groups which reached our shores in that year. The Reverand John White, Vicar of Dorchester, England, who has been generally and rightfully acclaimed as the sponsor of the earliest Massachusetts settlement (Plymouth excepted), was the inspiration of a movement which culminated in the gathering of neary one hundred and fifty persons in the counties of Dorset, Somerset and Devon and their agreement to emigrate in a body to Massachusetts whither he had sent other groups in the previous six years. White was a Conforming Puritan who believed that the religious unrest of the period could be better composed by a liberal attitude of all factions within the Established Church. He was strongly against separation and the creation of independent religious bodies and severely condemned the subsequent action of Winthrop and Cotton who were promoting religious intoler- ance in Massachusetts. His influence in the West Country was widespread and in this, his latest effort to encourage colonization in New England, he not only secured recruits in his own city and county but in the adjoining counties of Devon and p.101 the remote parts of Somerset. In describing this Company he said that scarce a half-dozen of them were personally known to each other prior to their assembling at the place of em- barkation in Plymouth. (Planter's Plea, 37.) There they first came to a personal acquaint- ance with those who were to be their companions on the voyage and neighbors in the New World during the rest of their days. It may be assumed that these people, from many parishes scattered over three counties, were moved by the same urge to emigrate which animated those of the Winthrop Fleet, but it is safe to say that the tales of 'religious persecution' of these people was not a factor in their pilgrimage. The West Country was free from it. With them were two clergymen of the Established Church, one the Reverend John Maverick, at that time, Vicar of Beaworthy, Devon, son of a clergyman and then in his fifty-eighth year. Already his son, Samuel Maverick had been a resident of Massachusetts for seven years and was living in what is now Chelsea. This probably explains his emigration with the Mary and John Company, bringing with him his large family to be near his eldest son. There is nothing in any existing record to indicate that Maverick was unfaithful to his oath at ordination to conduct himself conformably and follow the prescribed ritual of the Church service. Like White he was a conformist, though liberal in his attitude on controverted subjects. [Note Samuel Maverick married Amais COLE the widow of my ancestor David THOMPSON and mother of my John THOMPSON. RF] The other clergyman, the Reverend John Warham, was fourteen years the junior of Maverick, and of a different quality. He was a native, probably, of Crewkerne, Somerset, born about 1592; had taken holy orders and came under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Laud, then Bishop of Bath and Wells. It is not necessary to state that this famous church official, later to be Archbishop of Canterbury, was a strict disciplinarian in matters of conformity to canon law, and Warham soon fell under his displeasure for some contumacy and was sus- pended. He removed to Exeter, where under the more liberal Bishop Hall he was given the parish of Saint Sidwell, a living which he held until his emigration. He was an agressive theologian. The intending emigrants having assembled at Plymouth were met by White and by courtesy of the Reverend Matthias Nicolls, Master of the New Hospital, an old friend of the 'Patriarch of Dorchester,' they gathered in the chapel where services were conducted and a farewell sermon was preached by him as sponsor of the movement. This was on Saturday, p.102 March 20, and at its conclusion they embarked to set sail for the distant shores of an un- known country. The Mary and John made a good passage and arrived at Nantasket May 30, 1630 without casualty. These one hundred and forty passengers are generally known as the Dorchester Company, from the place chosen for their settlement, and as they remained a dist- inct body of colonists, and there are contemporary records to identify most of them, it has been possible to compile a tentative list of those who came on this pioneer ship. Five years later a great majority of them removed to Windsor, Connecticut, under the leadership of Warham. The following list shows the names of heads of families and the number in each family sail- ing in this ship. It gives the county of origin and the place of settlement after arrival, with other notes of identification. The list shows that fifteen came from Somerset, fifteen from Dorset, six from Devon and three are of undetermined origin. The total number thus listed makes one hundred and thirty-four out of the one hundred and forty who came over. The figures after each name indicated the number of persons in the emigrant's family. KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS Stiles History of Windsor, Conn.
Blake History of Dorchester, Mass.
Pope Pioneers of Massachusetts
M.C.R. Massachusetts Colonial Records
Clapp Memoirs of Roger Clapp
which is at
http://www.winthropsociety.org/home.htm
BASKOM, Thomas (1) Dorset. Removed to Windsor (Stiles).
COOKE, Aaron (1) Dorset. A minor, stepson of Thomas Ford
(see below). Removed to Windsor (Stiles).
CLAPP, Roger (1) Devon. Settled at Dorchester.
Freeman 14 May 1634. (M.C.R., I, 368);
Died 2 Feb 1690/1 (Clapp).
DENSLOW, Nicholas (3) Dorset. Removed to Windsor (Stiles).
DYER, George (4) Somerset. Settled at Dorchester;
constable 1630.
Freeman 18 May 1631 (M.C.R., I, 366).
Died 1672 (Blake).
Note: From the above tabulation it appears that of the 40 heads of families who came in this ship 13 remained permanently in Dorchester; 23 removed to Windsor, Connecticut with Warham, in the migration of 1635/36, and four settled elsewhere in Massachusetts. [end Appendix B] Next: Appendix C p.106-107
The Ship Lyon, 1630
Also Appendix D p. 108 Capt Peter Milburne
Also Appendix E p. 109 Mrs. Anne Pollard
[which will complete the book)]
(for more
on the Mary and John. Also see the book Up Dated 2 October 2008 |
All data on this
website is © Copyright 2009 by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for
original submitters.
