W. Au. 41; 5 Collections , I. 195.

Herbert Pelham (1600–73) was eldest son of Herbert Pelham and Penelope, a younger daughter of Thomas West, second Lord De la Warr. One uncle, Thomas Pelham, was a member of the Virginia Company; another, the third Baron De la Warr, was the energetic early governor of Virginia. Herbert appears as a member of the Massachusetts Company in 1629, and seemingly intended to sail with Winthrop in the Arbella, but he did not actually come over until later, possibly in 1635. He took part in the settlement of Sudbury, but his chief residence was in Cambridge, where he and his family narrowly escaped being burned to death in their house “in the dead of the night,” December, 1640. He was chosen the first treasurer of Harvard College, December 27, 1643, and was annually elected an Assistant of the Colony, 1645–1649, notwithstanding the fact that in 1647 he returned to England, residing for some years at Bures in Essex, and later in Suffolk, where he died July 1, 1673, leaving property in Lincolnshire, Ireland, and Massachusetts. His first wife, Jemima, daughter of Thomas Waldegrave, died before his emigration. He married in New England, in 1638, Elizabeth, daughter of Godfrey Basseville or Bosvile of Gunthwaite, co. York, widow of Roger Harlakenden. By each marriage he had five children. His daughter Penelope married Josiah Winslow; his sister Penelope married Governor Richard Bellingham. D. N. B. , Savage, Genealogical Dictionary, III. 385. A number of his letters will be printed later in this series.

Coddington came over in the emigration of 1630. He was treasurer of Massachusetts for some years and afterwards governor of Rhode Island. A number of his letters will be printed later in this series.