Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 2
1630-06-10
In the morninge the winde S: and by w: till 5: in the morninge a thick fogge. then it clered vp with faire weather, but somewhat Closse. after we had runne some 10: lelost sight of the former lande but made other highe lande on our starre board as farre of as we could descrye. but we lost it again
1 The winde continued all this daye at S: a stiffe steddy gale, yet we bare all our sayles and stood w: s: w: about 4: in the after noone, we made lande on our starbord bowe, called the 3: turks heades, being a ridge of 3 hilles vpon the mayne, wherof the Southmost is the greatest, it lyes neere Aquamenticus. we descryed also an other hill more
northward which lyes by Cape Porpus. we sawe also a head of vs some 4: le dangerous shoal to the east and by S: of it some 2: letrees in all places verye playnly, and a small hill to the Southward of the Turks heades; all the rest of the lande to the S: was plaine lowe lande: heere we had a fine freshe smell from shore. Then least we should not get Cleere of the Ledge of rocks which 262lye vnder water from within a flight shoot of the said rocke (called Boone Ile which we had nowe brought n: E: from vs) towardes Pascataquay: we tacked and stood S: E: with a stiffe gale at S: by w;
The White Mountains.
This marginal note is in paler ink.
1630-06-11
The winde still S: w: close weather, we stood to and again all this daye within sight of Anne. the iles of Sholes1
were now within 2: lewe sawe a shippe lye there at Anchor and 5: or 6: shallopps vnder sayle vp and downe.
we tooke many mackerells: and mett a shallop which stood from Cape Anne towardes the Iles of Shoales.
New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxv. 162–164.
1630-06-12
About 4: in the morning we were neere our porte. we shott of 2: peeces of ordinance, and sent our skiffe to mr. Peirce
1 his shippe (which laye in the harbour and had been here Allerton
2 came aborde vs in a shallop as he was saylinge to Pemaquid. as we stood towardes the harbour, we sawe an other shallop cominge to vs, so we stood in to meet her, and passed throughe the narrowe streight betweene Bakers Ile and Little Ile, and came to an Anchor a litle within the Ilandes.3
After mr. Peirce came aboard vs, and returned to fetche mr. Endicutt
4 who came to vs about 2: of the Clocke, and with him mr. Skelton5 and Capt 263Leavett6 we that were of the Assistantes and some other gent
In the meane tyme most of our people went on shore vpon the lande of Cape Anne9 which laye verye neere vs, and gath
An Indian came abord vs, and laye there all night:
Captain William Peirce or Peirse, a resident of Stepney, whom Winthrop calls “a godly man and most expert mariner,” probably holds the record for the largest number of voyages between England and New England in the first two decades of settlement. He first came out to Plymouth in 1623 as master of the Ann, and at this time was master of the Lion, in which he made four voyages to New England, 1630–1632, “with the regularity and safety of a ferry.” Captain Peirce took up his residence in Boston in 1632, became a church member, freeman, and deputy, compiled an almanac which was printed at the Cambridge press in 1640. He was killed by the Spaniards in 1641, when taking a shipload of emigrants to the colony of Old Providence in the Caribbean, as related in Winthrop's Journal for that year. Banks, The Winthrop Fleet, 106–107.
Isaac Allerton, Pilgrim father and trader, see D. A. B.
The narrow strait between Baker's Island and Little Misery Island is still the main ship channel to Salem. The probable anchorage of the Arbella was off Plum Cove on the Beverly shore, a favorite anchorage to-day.
John Endecott arrived at Salem in the autumn of 1628, as agent for the Company of the Massachusetts Bay, which appointed him governor of London's Plantation the following spring. His actual service as governor of Massachusetts is the longest on record. See William C. Endicott, John Winthrop and John Endecott (Boston, 1930).
Samuel Skelton, pastor of the First Church of Salem. See Young, Chronicles of Massachusetts, 142, note 4. Cradock, in his letter to Endecott dated April 17, 1629, writes of Skelton: “One of them is well knowne to yourselfe, viz. Mr. Skelton, whom wee haue the rather desired to beare a part in this worke, for that wee are informed yourselfe haue formerly received much good by his ministry; hee cometh in the George Bonaventure, Mr. Thomas Cox.” Records of Massachusetts, I. 386. For papers relating to Skelton, see Historical Collections, Essex Institute, XIII. 143–152.
Captain Leavett is Christopher Levett, for whom, see James Phinney Baxter, Christopher Levett, of York, The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay (Gorges Society, 1893) v., especially 1–77. In 1628 there was published Levett's A Voyage into New England [1623–1624].
A small cross before this word corresponds with a similar cross before “Salem,” written in the margin — all in paler ink and Winthrop's hand. For the naming of Salem and the condition of the plantation in 1629, see
Proceedings
, LXII. 379 and 317–318. For Thomas Dudley's description of the discouraging conditions at Salem in June, 1630, see his “Letter to the Countess of Lincoln,” Young, Chronicles, 311–312.
Felt thought that the reason for this return to the ships on Saturday night was probably “because Mr. Skelton supposed that he could not conscientiously admit them to his communion .... Annals of Salem (Salem, 1849), II. 568–569.
The name Cape Ann at that time was applied to the shore from the tip of the Cape to Beverly Harbor. See a contemporary map and notes, infra, page 281.