Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 2Note: you've followed an index reference to a note that, due to changes between the print and digital editions, may no longer be on page 267. Please look at all notes at the end of the document or documents on page 267.
1630-08-27
we of the Congregation kept a fast, and chose mr. wilson our teacher; and mr. nowell an Elder, and mr. Gager and mr. Aspenall decons, we vsed imposition of handes but with this protestation by all that it was onely as a signe of Election and confirmation, not of any intent that mr. wilson should renounce his ministrye he received in Englande.1
The Reverend John Wilson (page note 1); Increase Nowell, assistant of the Massachusetts Bay Company and secretary of the Colony from 1636 to 1650 (
D. N. B.
); William Gager, for whom see above; and William Aspinwall, notary public and author of a tract on the Fifth Monarchy. See introduction to his Notarial Records in 32d Report of the Boston Record Commissioners. Winthrop's remarks in this paragraph about the ordination of Wilson have been the subject of much controversy. They are generally taken to mean that Winthrop was not yet entirely converted to Congregational polity. The congregation then gathered was at Charlestown, but later in the year moved to Boston and became the First Church of that town. See the Church Covenant, infra, and notes. The distinction between the offices of pastor and teacher, especially in regard to persons, is not always easy to discover. As a rule, the pastor was the older man, but, according to Savage, “Cotton,” for instance, “was an older and a greater man than Wilson, yet the latter was pastor” — after Cotton's arrival. For evidence of the decline in importance of the office of elder in the Colony, see 4
Collections
, IV. Joshua Scottow's “A Narrative of the Planting of the Massachusetts Colony,” 329.
For further information on the Reverend John Wilson, see New England Historical and Genealogical Register, LXI. 38–39. Wilson and Phillips lived within six miles of one another in England, Groton lying half way between their homes. Banks, The Winthrop Fleet, 22.
1630-09-20
mr. Gager dyed.1
See page 199,
note 1. Thomas Prince, quoting from some records now lost, gives a good description of the prevalence of the sicknesses described by Dudley (see note to letter of John Winthrop under date of November 29, 1630): “. . . many people arrive sick of the scurvy, which increases for want of houses, and by reason of wet lodging in their cottages having no fresh food to cherish them. And though the people are very pitiful and loving, yet the sickness with other distempers so prevails, that the well are not able to tend them. Upon which many die, and are buried about the Hill [at Charlestown]; yet it was admirable to see with what christian courage many carey it amidst these calamities.” Thomas Prince, A Chronological History of New England (Boston, 1826), 310. For Dudley's account, see Young, Chronicles of Massachusetts, 316–319.
1630-09-30
About 2: in the morninge mr. Isack Johnson dyed, his wife the Lady Arbella of the house of Lincoln being dead about 1: monthe before. he was a holy man and wise and died in sweet peace, leavinge some a good parte of his substance to the Colonye.
The woulues killed 6: Calues at Salem: and they killed one woulfe.1
Tho: morton adiudged to be imprisoned till he were sent into England, and his house burnt downe, for his many iniuries offered to the Indians, and other misdemeanors. Capt Brooke master of the Gifte refused to carrye him.2
Finche of waterton had his wigwam burnt and all his goodes.
Billington executed at Plim
mr. Philips the minister of waterton
4 and others had their haye burnt.
The woulues killed some swine at Saugus.
5
A Cowe dyed at Plimmouthe, and a goate at Boston with eatinge Indian Corne.
On November 9, 1630, the first bounty on wolves was established. This bounty was limited to Englishmen and was assessed on owners of livestock in proportion to their holdings. Records of Massachusetts, I. 81.
Thomas Morton of Merry-Mount, for whom, see Charles Francis Adams, Ed., The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton (Boston, The Prince Society, 1883).
Possibly Daniel Finch, who took the oath as freeman May 18, 1631: Records of Massachusetts, I. 366. For the crime, the trial, and the execution of John Billington, a “knave” of one of the “profanest families,” see Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (1912), II. 110–112. Bradford says that Winthrop was consulted as to the Colony's authority to hang Billington.
At a Court of Assistants held at Charlestown, September 7, 1630, it was “ordered, that Trimountaine shalbe called Boston; Mattapan, Dorchester; and the towne vpon Charles Ryver, Waterton.” Records of Massachusetts, I. 75. For an early description of Watertown, see William Wood, New Englands Prospect (London, 1634), 34: “Hafe a mile Westward of this plantation Water-towne; a place nothing inferiour for land, wood, medow, and water to New-towne.” The main square of the present-day Watertown is about three miles west of the site of the plantation described by Wood.
See Wood, New Englands Prospect, 35–36, for a description of Saugus. Although Winthrop uses the name Lynn as early as November 8, 1636
D.J.W.
Records of Massachusetts, I. 211.