Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 4
1639
You may bee pleased to remember that at a generall Court, houlden for the new England Company on Munday the last of November 1629 there was an agreement made by severall vndertakers as by their names herevnder written may appeare That they would vndertake to manage the whole stock, and doe and performe all those things which are there fully agreed vpon as by the order may further appeare. Now may it please you; wee whose names are vnder written did according to the desire of the Court lend to the Companie Mr. Cradock being then governor each of vs 25li as per the seale of the Company may further appeare;2 to bee 92repayd at 6 monthes now wee haue demanded our monie of the vndertakers here whoe by that order did vndertake the whole stock of the Company and promised to pay all those debts the Company was ingaged for, and they did act in paying some men their debts. Now wee haue demanded our monie but they answere they haue payd as farre as they received And put vs over to Mr. John Wentrop who was chosen presently after to bee governour whoe oweth 100li to the Companie out of which they say, our mony must be payd: Therefore wee pray you that considering wee did freely lend our mony for the good of the Company wee may not bee forced to doe any act for the recovery of our said monies, which may redownd to the dishonour of the Plantation for wee desire the prosperity of it as your selues but that you would (those of you to whom it belongs) take some order for the discharge of our mony and debt and that wee may by the Returne of the next shiping haue an Answeare of your Resolutions which way wee shalbee payd our mony or else wee shall commence a suite for an account of the Estate according to the order, or some other way for the recovery of our debtes Soe wishing, etc. etc. wee rest.
Wee forbeare to speake of that agreement which was made when it was ordered by the Court, and condiscended vnto by the vndertakers that the Joynt Stock being brought into a 3d parte of what was put in, Should bee Imployed for Seaven yeares and the produce devided, I say or that if any would take out his 1/3d parte of his stocke, hee might haue it but wee can get neither the one nor the other.
W. 4. 165; 5
Collections
, I. 484–485. For Crane and Spenser, investors in the Massachusetts Bay Company, see Frances Rose-Troup, The Massachusetts Bay Company and Its Predecessors (New York, 1930), 140, 154. The letter is placed conjecturally in 1639 because of the fact that Spenser, who came over to Massachusetts in 1634, remained here until sometime in 1638; and this letter was obviously written in England. Matthew Cradock, in his letter of March 15, 1636/37 (Winthrop Papers, in. 377–380), also refers to the issue which is the subject matter of this document, and it may therefore be that this document was written at about the same time and that it passed through Spenser's hands here before it reached Winthrop. Mrs. Rose-Troup discusses this document in The Massachusetts Bay Company and Its Predecessors, 107.
See Records of Massachusetts, I. 63–66.