A website from the Massachusetts Historical Society; founded 1791.

Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 2

Decr 6:

6 December 1630

December 21:

21 December 1630
14.
Winthrop, John

1630-12-14

The Comittee mett, at Rocksb: and vpon further Consideration for reasons it was concluded that we could not have a towne in the place aforesaid 1: because men would be forced to keepe 2: families 2: there was no runninge water, and if there were any springes they would not suffice the towne. 3. the most parte of the people had built allreadye and would not be able to build againe: so we agreed to meet at waterton that daye sennight and in the meane tyme other places should be viewed.1

Capt. Neale arrives. Capt Neale and 3: other gentlemen came hether to vs, he came in the Barke Warwicke this summer to Pascataway sent as Gouernor there for Sir Ferdinand Gorge and others. 2

1.

The name Roxbury first appears in the Records of Massachusetts under date of September 28, 1630, in connection with an order for raising money in the Colony. The name is spelled “Rocsbury.”

2.

Captain Walter Neale, a veteran of the wars in the Low Countries, who was sent out by Gorges and Mason in the Warwick to take possession of their Laconia Grant from the Council for New England. They established a “factory” or trading-post at Little Harbor, Portsmouth, N. H., in the stone house built there seven years before by David Thompson, intending to locate their Laconia Grant and trade with the Indians in the interior. Neale was given the shadowy appointment of Governor of New England by the Council for New England in 1631, and returned to England in 1633, after founding what became the nucleus of the Colony of New Hampshire. Tuttle, Captain John Mason, passim. For the Warwick, see Journal, April 10,ߔsupra, page 244.