Bradford's history of the Plymouth settlement, 1608-1650 E-Book

William Bradford

• Herausgeber: Librorium Editions
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

During the last four hundred years the peoples of the Western world have been busily engaged in converting their governments—often forcibly—to practical Christianity, in regard to their domestic affairs.
The new era, upon which we now enter after the Great War, opens with a crusade for the application of Christianity to international relationships.
If the modern student sets up before his mental vision a moving panorama of the history of Europe through the Middle Ages, the most striking general feature is undoubtedly the irresistible course of the growing stream of Freedom, touching and fructifying every section and institution of human life—the inevitable outcome of the evolution of Christianity made manifest in things temporal, and breaking through the ecclesiastical bounds so long set for it, as exclusively pertaining to things spiritual.
The gospel of Jesus Christ had hitherto been regarded as a religious stream pure and simple, from which might be drawn, by priestly hands alone, refreshment for the spiritual life of man, offered to him in the sacerdotal cup, in such quantity and with such admixture of doctrine as seemed fitted to his spiritual needs, by those ordained to take charge of that department of his existence—the servants of the Mediæval Church.

Leseprobe

BRADFORD’S HISTORYOF THE PLYMOUTH SETTLEMENT

BRADFORD’S HISTORY

OF THE

PLYMOUTH SETTLEMENT

1608-1650

© 2023 Librorium Editions

ISBN : 9782385743840

Some Dates in the History of England, Holland, Spain, and America, which bear upon the Contents of this Book

Discovery of America

1492

Henry VIII of England

1509-1547

Act of Supremacy (Secession of England from Rome)

1534

Edward VI of England

1547-1553

Mary I of England

1553-1558

Philip, son of Charles V of Spain, marries Mary I of England

1554

Charles V of Spain hands over sovereignty of the Netherlands to his son Philip

1555

Charles V of Spain resigns his crowns to his son, Philip II

1556

Elizabeth of England

1558-1603

Philip II returns from Netherlands to Spain

1559

Spanish Oppression of Netherlands reformers

1565

Netherlands rebel against Spain

1566

Netherlands form Republic (Union of Utrecht)

1579

William I of Orange accepts sovereignty of Holland: murdered: his son Maurice elected Captain-General

1584

England joins Holland against Spain

1586

Defeat of Spanish Armada by England

1588

Philip II of Spain dies: Philip III succeeds

1598

James I of England

1603-1625

Pilgrim Fathers fly from England to Holland

1608

Truce of 12 years between Holland and Spain

1609

Landing of Pilgrim Fathers in New England

1620

Philip IV of Spain: truce with Holland expires

1621

Prince Maurice of Orange dies: his half-brother, Frederick Henry, succeeds

1625

Charles I of England

1625-1649

Charter granted to Massachusetts

1629

Puritan Emigration to New England increases

1630

Archbishop Laud attacks English Puritans

1633

Writs for ship-money issued to English maritime towns

1634

Marriage of William, son of Prince of Orange, to Mary, daughter of Charles I of England

1641

William II of Orange succeeds Frederick Henry

1647

Treaty between Holland and Spain

1648

Commonwealth of England

1649-1660

English Navigation Acts lead to war with Holland

1651

Blake defeats Van Tromp

1653

Charles II of England

1660-1687

The Dutch lose New Amsterdam to England: renamed New York

1664

James II of England

1685-1689

William (of Orange) III and Mary II of England

1689-1702

CONTENTS

Book I—1608-1620. Persecution and Flight from England—Settlement in Holland—Passage to England and Voyage to America—Landing at Cape Cod and New Plymouth

CHAPTER

PAGE

I.

Suppression of Religious Liberty in England—First Cause of the Foundation of the New Plymouth Settlement

1

II.

Flight to Holland (Amsterdam and Leyden): 1607-1608

9

III.

Settlement at Leyden: 1609-1620

14

IV.

Reasons which led the Congregation at Leyden to Decide upon Settlement in America

19

V.

Decision to make New England the place of Settlement in preference to Guiana or Virginia—Endeavour to obtain a Patent from the King of England: 1617-1620

24

VI.

Agreement between the Congregation at Leyden and the Merchants and Adventurers in London for the accomplishment of the Settlement in New England: 1620

35

VII.

Departure from Leyden—Arrival and Preparations at Southampton—Letter of Farewell from John Robinson to the whole party of Pilgrims: July and August, 1620

49

VIII.

Departure from Southampton, and Delay of both Ships at Dartmouth and Plymouth: August and September, 1620

57

IX.

The Mayflower sails from Plymouth—Voyage—Arrival at Cape Cod: September-November, 1620

62

X.

The Pilgrims seek a Site for their Settlement, and discover the Harbour of New Plymouth: November-December, 1620

67

Book II—1620-1646. History of the Settlement at New Plymouth

I.

Deed of Government drawn up—Death of half their number—Squanto—Compact with the Indians—Captain Dermer’s description of New Plymouth: 1620

75

II.

The Mayflower returns—Death of John Carver—William Bradford, Governor—Trade with the Massachusetts—The First Marriage—Friendship with Massasoyt confirmed—Hobbamok—Expedition against Corbitant—The First Harvest—Arrival of Robert Cushman with 35 settlers—Fortune returns, laden—The Narragansetts’ challenge—Christmas Day: 1621

84

III.

Weston abandons the Settlement—Dissensions among the Adventurers in England—Weston’s plan for a Colony, and arrival of Sixty Settlers for it—News from Captain Huddleston of massacre in Virginia—Fort built at New Plymouth—Death of Squanto—Weston’s Colony in difficulties: 1622

96

IV.

Rescue of Weston’s Settlement—Weston arrives at New Plymouth—His reception and ingratitude—Individual planting of corn substituted for communal—Hardships—John Pierce and the Patent—Sixty new Settlers—Compact between the Colony and private Settlers—Captain Robert Gorges, Governor-General of New England—Weston charged and arrested—Fire at New Plymouth: Storehouse threatened: 1623

111

V.

Changes in form of Government—Pinnace wrecked—Private Settlers make trouble—Winslow returns from England with the first Cattle—Faction among Adventurers in England—Objections of the Colony’s opponents—Letters from John Robinson—Opposition to sending the Leyden people—One acre apportioned for permanent holding to each Settler—Ship-building and Salt-making—Trouble with Lyford and Oldham—Pinnace salvaged and rigged: 1624

133

VI.

Oldham and Lyford expelled—Lyford’s Past—Reply of Settlement to Adventurers’ Charges—Support from friendly group of Adventurers—Loss of two ship-loads of cargo—Captain Standish in England: 1625

158

VII.

Standish returns from England—Death of John Robinson and Robert Cushman—Purchase of trading goods at Monhegan—Isaac Allerton goes to England—Small ship built: 1626

169

VIII.

Allerton brings back Proposed Composition between Adventurers in England and the Settlement—Division of land and live-stock among the Colonists—Hospitality given to Fells-Sibsie Settlers—Pinnace and Depot at Manomet—Allerton returns to England—Greetings between Dutch Colony at New Amsterdam and Plymouth Settlement—Leading Colonists become responsible for purchase of Adventurers’ shares in England and buy rights of the Settlements’ trading from the general body of Colonists for six years: 1627

174

IX.

Allerton in England negotiates partnership between leading New Plymouth colonists and some of the previous London adventurers—Patent for Kennebec River procured—Further Dutch intercourse—Trade in Wampum begun—Troubles with Morton in Massachusetts—John Endicott’s arrival—Morton trades guns and ammunition to the Indians—Morton apprehended—Troubles begin with Isaac Allerton: 1628

188

X.

Arrival of the Leyden people—Allerton in England tries to get the Kennebec Patent enlarged—Morton’s return—Further trouble with Allerton—The partnership with Ashley—The Penobscot trading-house—Purchase of a fishing ship suggested—John Endicott at Salem—The Church at Salem: 1629

201

XI.

Ashley’s beginnings—Arrival of Hatherley on the Friendship and Allerton on the White Angel—Hatherley examines the affairs of the Colony—Failure of Allerton’s fishing voyage on the White Angel—Ashley apprehended and sent to England—Discharge of Allerton from his Agency—The first Execution—Day of Humiliation appointed for Boston, Salem, Charlestown, and New Plymouth: 1630

216

XII.

Mr. Winslow in England about the White Angel and Friendship accounts—The White Angel let out to Allerton—Allerton’s extravagance as agent—Josias Winslow sent from England as accountant—Penobscot robbed by the French—Sir Christopher Gardiner in New England—The Order of the Privy Council about New England: 1631

227

XIII.

Sale of the White Angel to Allerton—The White Angel sold in Spain—Hatherley settles in New England—Rapid increase of the Colonists’ Prosperity—Divisions in the Church of New Plymouth—Wreck of William Pierce in the Lyon: 1632

241

XIV.

Trouble about the accounts of the partnership—Roger Williams—Establishment of a trading-house on the Connecticut River—Trouble with the Dutch there—Fever at New Plymouth—Scourge of Flies: 1633

246

XV.

Hocking Shot at Kennebec—Lord Say and the Settlement at Piscataqua—Mr. Alden imprisoned at Boston—The case of Hocking submitted to a Tribunal of the combined Colonies—Captain Stone and the Dutch Governor—Stone killed by Indians—Smallpox among the Indians: 1634

253

XVI.

Edward Winslow in England—Petition to the Commissioners for the Colonies in America—Winslow imprisoned—The London partners withhold the accounts of the partnership—The French capture the trading-house at Penobscot—Attack on the French fails—Phenomenal Hurricane—Settlement of people from Massachusetts on the Connecticut River—Mr. Norton minister at New Plymouth: 1635

263

XVII.

Consignments of Fur to England—The plague in London—Disorganization of the accounts—Dispute between the London partners—The Pequot Indians get unruly—Oldham killed—John Raynor minister: 1636

275

XVIII.

The war with the Pequot Indians—Co-operation between the Colonies—The Narragansett Indians allies of the English—The Pequot Fort attacked and taken—The Pequots routed and subdued—The Narragansett Indians jealous of the Monhiggs under Uncas—James Sherley discharged from his agency in London: 1637

283

XIX.

Trial of three Murders—Rise in value of Livestock—Earthquake: 1638

293

XX.

Settlement of boundaries between New Plymouth and Massachusetts—First steps towards winding up the partnership by a composition: 1639-1640

298

XXI.

Further steps towards the Composition between the London and New Plymouth partners—Dispute with Rev. Charles Chauncey about Baptism—Fall in value of live-stock—Many leading men of New Plymouth move from town: 1641

305

XXII.

Conclusion of Composition between London and New Plymouth partners: 1642

312

XXIII.

Death of Mr. William Brewster—His Career—Remarkable longevity of the principal men among the Pilgrims—Confederation of the United Colonies of New England—War between the Narragansetts and Monhiggs—Uncas permitted by the English to execute Miantinomo: 1643

314

XXIV.

Suggested removal of the Church of New Plymouth to Nauset—The Narragansetts continue their attack on Uncas and the Monhiggs—Truce arranged by the English: 1644

326

XXV.

The Narragansetts renew their attack on Uncas and threaten the English—Preparation for War by the Colonies—Declaration of War by the English—Peace arranged and General Treaty signed by the United Colonies of New England and the Narragansetts and Byanticks: 1645

330

XXVI.

Captain Thomas Cromwell settles in Massachusetts—His death—Edward Winslow’s long stay in England: 1646

338

INTRODUCTION

During the last four hundred years the peoples of the Western world have been busily engaged in converting their governments—often forcibly—to practical Christianity, in regard to their domestic affairs.

The new era, upon which we now enter after the Great War, opens with a crusade for the application of Christianity to international relationships.

If the modern student sets up before his mental vision a moving panorama of the history of Europe through the Middle Ages, the most striking general feature is undoubtedly the irresistible course of the growing stream of Freedom, touching and fructifying every section and institution of human life—the inevitable outcome of the evolution of Christianity made manifest in things temporal, and breaking through the ecclesiastical bounds so long set for it, as exclusively pertaining to things spiritual.

The gospel of Jesus Christ had hitherto been regarded as a religious stream pure and simple, from which might be drawn, by priestly hands alone, refreshment for the spiritual life of man, offered to him in the sacerdotal cup, in such quantity and with such admixture of doctrine as seemed fitted to his spiritual needs, by those ordained to take charge of that department of his existence—the servants of the Mediæval Church.

Little by little Christianity discovers itself as no single stream of sacred water, limited by the shores of a prescribed religious territory. Here and there in the wider landscape it is gradually pushing a way out into the unconsecrated ground of the temporal domain, welling up through the ancient crust of Feudalism—bursting through it, submerging it, carrying it away, now gently and almost imperceptibly piecemeal, now in sweeping and irresistible torrents, passionate against its long subjection and suppression. This activity recognizes no national or geographical limits—it reveals itself now here, now there, fertilizing far distant spots of varying soil—some instantly generous to its live-giving influence, some slow to respond.

Now watch its effect upon the inhabitants of the territories through which it newly flows. Some, watching its uprising through the barren soil, stand amazed—doubtful. See them slowly approach it, and gaze upon it, awe-struck; they stoop, timorously—and drink; they pause—and stoop to drink again. Presently their singing eyes declare the secret they have won from it; a moment or two of forgetful, selfish joy—and they turn away and hurry to impart the wonderful discovery to their comrades. So by degrees they come, a straggling, jostling, motley crowd—some doubting, some fearing, some realizing.

Now see their priests hurrying, perturbed, to behold the rumoured wonder. What! The sacred river has burst its banks! Hasten to guard it from the profane thirst of the multitude, and confine it to its sacred keeping!

Impossible! Its upwelling pools and flowing tributaries are already too many—the priestly keepers now too few to preserve the discovered waters. For, as they stand watching, troubled and amazed, behold the streamlets spreading themselves ever further, breaking forth unbidden, in every direction.

They consult together. What shall be done? Counsel must be taken of their superiors, for this is too much for the lesser orders to cope with.

And so, as we watch the scene, we listen to the busy plans of princes of church and state, of Popes and Kings. Some would set about damming up these new unbiddable by-streams at their places of egress; others would divert their courses, turning them back into the parent-current.

Too late! too late!

Proclaim then, broadcast, that the people shall not drink at these waters, on pain of damnation. Meanwhile, hasten to secrete them again by some means—for if the once rare and sacred treasure, jealously guarded, comes, by superabundance, to be common and general, what function is left for the votaries consecrated to its preservation?

But—oh horrible!—here is a dignitary of the state, there even a personage of the church, who will not be led to further the vast scheme of secluding the waters of these newborn rivulets from the vulgar gaze or the profane thirst of the laity. There follow sharp rebukes and rebellious retorts, inquisitions and excommunications; factions breed, and wrangling takes the place of deliberation.

Slowly the scene’s central interest changes for us, and we find we are watching, not the miraculous birth of many waters, but battling crowds of angry partisans, surging this way and that. Now a little band of stalwarts, who strive to keep the stream open to their fellows, is routed and dispersed; now their following increases, and in due time their supporters are rallied again—sometimes to a temporary victory, with short lived reward and quick reverse, sometimes to repeated disaster and defeat. But ever the waters inevitably remain only half-guarded, and by ones and threes the people find their way to them, some stealthily, some defiantly, and drink of them—and are sealed. The little bands of stalwarts grow to great followings, and their trend is as irresistible as the source of their inspiration.

Once again the scene changes. As our eyes wander over it, we see that it is not now a matter of mere civil warfare in isolated spots; it is the nations themselves that rage furiously together; the western world is one great battle-ground for the opposing forces. Treaties and wars, alliances and royal marriages, all are but the flotsam and jetsam on the surface of this ever increasing, ever multiplying river,—sublime in the far-flung grandeur of its streamlets and tributaries, its still deeps and its raging cataracts—not one department of the whole landscape of human life, in all its variety, but reveals its vague new workings or its established deep-set currents.

Ah! At last we realize it: this is indeed the river of Freedom, washing away, bearing away, surely, irresistibly—quietly if it may, turbulently if it must—the worn-out earth-crust of the moribund Feudal world, giving place to the bloom and blossom of a new era in the history of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth and declaring the triumph for all time of Soul-Freedom for His people.

It was He Himself, the arch-heretic, Who first broke from the doctrinal curriculum of the priestly caste of His day, to spread His gospel of Freedom to life’s wayfarers—saint and sinner alike. The sword that He brought to break the head of the deadening, self-sufficient, Pharisaical peace, hung suspended the while over the world, awaiting the moment to strike. The sword has descended, and has severed the bonds of the centuries which roll away to give place to the new dispensation. Ex oriente lux! To-day the East itself is just awakening to the dawning of the new day. Almost we hear a voice from heaven, declaiming over the dust of the mediæval world: “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and is become the first fruits of them that slept.”

My object in limning the foregoing sketch has been to present to the mind of the reader a setting for the ensuing remarks concerning “The History of the Plymouth Settlement,” as recorded contemporaneously by Governor Bradford, the first cause of which enterprise was one of the most important episodes in the widespread movement whose course we have just been observing,—the episode which, above all others of that epoch, has produced the weightiest consequences in the history of the world.

America was discovered by Columbus in 1492; Spain planted colonies on its shores in the 16th Century; English trading settlements were established in Virginia and elsewhere in the latter half of the same century. It is no mere claim of priority that lends historic importance to the foundation by the Pilgrim Fathers of the English colony at New Plymouth. The materialization of their objects was accomplished by the same means as formed the basis of the earlier colonies: a trading enterprise supported by merchants in the home country.

What, then, gives this particular project a prominence and significance which so utterly dwarfs its predecessors? It was the motive of its Founders. And what was that motive? Freedom of religious thought and practice, in the first place; of civil rights, in the second. It was the sublime ideal of this little band of Englishmen which gave to the New Plymouth colony (the nucleus of the other New England colonies) the honour and glory of setting its characteristic impress upon the greatest of the new nations of the world—the United States of America.

The ideal aimed at we have probably grasped from our preliminary sketch of the general movement of western civilization out of the shackles of feudalism towards religious and civil freedom. But the sacrifice involved in its consummation,—do we realize its significance? Let us try to think what it means.

Picture to yourself a group of citizens and their families, of good standing and of average education. In defiance of established law and order, and of the accepted, orthodox view of it, this little body of people pursues an ideal, vital to the peace of their souls, with a tenacity which implies certain loss of personal freedom and confiscation of property, with risk of death. Rather than be compelled to abandon the pursuit of their ideal, these people voluntarily exile themselves from England, thereby depriving themselves of loved homes and dear friends and worldly possessions. After a few years of severe hardships in Holland, their newly adopted country, the seed they are nurturing is threatened once again. It must be preserved at all costs. They gather it up and bear it across the seas—fearful seas—and plant it once more, forming a little settlement in the savage, distant land of North America. For years they defend their treasure there against every conceivable attack by Nature and by man, encouraged solely by the consciousness that the plant they are tending is God’s Truth—Freedom for each man to honour and worship God as he sees Him.

First picture this to yourself as if it were an incident of modern occurrence, and try to realize what would be its significance. Then turn your eyes upon our Pilgrims, and watch them through their persecution in mediæval England; their flight to Holland; their hard sojourn there; their voyage across the wide seas of those days, and their settlement at New Plymouth—“in a country devoid of all civilized inhabitants, given over only to savage and brutish men, who range up and down, little differing from the wild beasts themselves.... What, then, could now sustain them but the spirit of God, and His grace? Ought not the children of their fathers rightly to say: Our fathers were Englishmen who came over the great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity.... Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever. Yea, let them that have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered forth into the desert-wilderness, out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men.”

As we read this pæan of praise, penned by Bradford some ten or twelve years after their arrival, the reality of a sublime human sacrifice begins to shape itself in the mind, and our wonder rests upon the spiritual grandeur of the offering, rather than upon its world-wide consequences—of which the tale is not yet told.

It was from such a body of Englishmen, with their burning ideals and consuming purpose, that a new national ideal emanated, and a new nation ultimately sprang, since typically identified with their devotion to Freedom. The eyes of liberal Europe were upon this little handful of unconscious heroes and saints, taking courage from them, step by step. The same ideals of Freedom burned so clear and strong in future generations of these English colonists that they outpaced the march of the parent nation towards the same goal—and so, the episode we have just been contemplating resulted in due course in the birth of the United States of America; in the triumph of democracy in England over the vain autocracy of a foreign-born king and his corrupt government; and, above all, in the firm establishment of the humanitarian ideals for which the English-speaking races have been the historic champions, and for which the Pilgrims offered their sacrifice upon the altar of the Sonship of Man.

In the words of Governor Wolcott, at the ceremony of the gift of the manuscript of Bradford’s History, by England to America: “They stablished what they planned. Their feeble plantation became the birthplace of religious liberty, the cradle of a free Commonwealth. To them a mighty nation owns its debt. Nay, they have made the civilized world their debtor. In the varied tapestry which pictures our national life, the richest spots are those where gleam the golden threads of conscience, courage, and faith, set in the web by that little band. May God in his mercy grant that the moral impulse which founded this nation may never cease to control its destiny; that no act of any future generation may put in peril the fundamental principles on which it is based—of equal rights in a free state, equal privileges in a free church, and equal opportunities in a free school.”

For some years many have trembled for the fruits of the Pilgrims’ sacrifice. It seemed that the press of the children’s hurrying feet had raised such a dust as to obscure from them their forefather’s glorious visions and ideals. A striking absence of spiritual aspiration and a dire trend towards gross materialism seemed, for a time, all too characteristic of America. But to such as doubted or feared have come, recently, a wonderful reassurance and a renewed faith in the eternal efficacy of so sublime an offering. It is the sons of those men—their spiritual offspring—who have arisen in their millions,—here in America, there in old England,—to defend the World’s freedom. The Dean of Westminster voiced England’s feeling, and that of the world, when in the Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey for the Officers and Men of the United States Army and Navy who fell in the War, he gave thanks to God in the following words:

Their deaths have sealed the unwritten but inviolable Covenant of our common Brotherhood. Their deaths have laid the enduring foundations of the world’s hope for future peace. For their sakes we raise this day our proud thanksgiving in the great Abbey which enshrines the illustrious dust of the makers of the English-speaking peoples. Let us render our humble and joyful praise to Almighty God that in their response to the clarion call of freedom and of justice the two Commonwealths have not been divided.

Nor have our American brothers laid down their lives in vain. They came in their hundreds of thousand from the other side of the Atlantic to vindicate the cause of an outraged humanity and a menaced liberty. The freewill offering of their sacrifice has been accepted. They have been summoned to some other and higher phase in the life of heavenly citizenship.

The mystery of suffering, sorrow and pain awaits its Divine interpretation hereafter. Not yet can we hope to see through the mist that veils the future. But the Cross is our pledge of the fruitfulness of self-sacrifice.

May America and Great Britain go forward charged with the privilege of a common stewardship for the liberties of mankind! May the glorious witness of these brave lives, whom we commemorate to-day, enrich us, whose course on earth is not yet run, with the inspiring vision of the sanctity and self-abnegation of true patriotism! The warfare against the countless forms of violence, injustice, and falsehood will never cease: may the example of our brothers exalt and purify our aims!

A few words as to the vicissitudes of the precious manuscript of this book.

As the author tells us, he began to write down this record of the affairs of the New Plymouth Settlement in the year 1630, ten years after their arrival, continuing the writing of it from time to time up to the year 1650, when he compiled the Register of Passengers on the Mayflower, their marriages, the birth of their descendants, and their deaths. In form, the original manuscript is a parchment-bound folio, measuring about 11 inches high, 8 inches wide, and 1½ inches thick.

Some inscriptions on fly leaves in it, give, tersely, its ownership up to 1728. “This book was writ by Governor William Bradford, and given by him to his son Major William Bradford, and by him to his son Major John Bradford: writ by me, Samuel Bradford, March 20th, 1705.”

An entry by Thomas Prince, dated June 4th, 1728, intimates that Major John Bradford turned over the manuscript to him for the New England Library of Prints and Manuscripts, which he had been collecting since 1703, when he entered Harvard College. Since then it is supposed that sundry authors have drawn upon its material, and that Governor Hutchinson had access to it when he wrote the second volume of his History, published in 1767.

From this time all traces of its presence in New England disappear, and it was not until almost a century later that it was discovered and identified in the Library of the Bishop of London, at Fulham Palace. It is supposed that the manuscript found its way to England some time between the years 1768 and 1785, being deposited under the title of “The Log of the Mayflower,” at Fulham Palace as the Public Registry for Historical and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to the Diocese of London, and to the Colonial and other Possessions of Great Britain beyond the seas—New Plymouth being, ecclesiastically, attached to the Diocese of London.

When compiling his “History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America,” published in 1844, Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and later of Winchester, delved into the archives of Fulham Palace, and brought under contribution a number of unpublished manuscripts, from which he gave extracts. In 1855 this work fell into the hands of John Wingate Thornton, and, through him, came under the eye of Barry, the author of “The History of Massachusetts,” who recognized that the passages quoted in Wilberforce’s work must come from none other than Bradford’s long-lost annals. Charles Deane was consulted and communicated with Joseph Hunter in England, who visited Fulham Palace Library, and established incontestably the identity of “The Log of the Mayflower” with Bradford’s History. It is still unknown exactly how it found its way to London—but in all probability it was brought over during the War of Independence.

From time to time, after its discovery, representations were made to the custodians of the manuscript that it should be restored to America, where its value was inestimable, as one of the earliest records of her National History—in the words of Senator Hoar: “The only authentic history of what we have a right to consider the most important political transaction that has ever taken place on the face of the earth.” Ultimately, the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, the first United States Ambassador to England, instigated by Senator Hoar, put the matter before the Bishop of London—Creighton—at Fulham, with the result that, after due legal sanction by the Constitutional and Episcopal Court of London, the manuscript was conveyed by Mr. Bayard to America, and formally handed over to Governor Roger Wolcott, on July 12th, 1897, for the State Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, subject to the production of a photographic facsimile being deposited at Fulham, and to the original manuscript being reasonably accessible for investigation. Its present resting place is the Massachusetts State Library.

No words could more vividly depict the feelings in the hearts of Bradford’s descendants, on the return to American soil of this precious relic by the free gift of England, than those of Senator Hoar, which I now quote:

“I do not think many Americans will gaze upon it without a little trembling of the lips and a little gathering of mist in the eyes, as they think of the story of suffering, of sorrow, of peril, of exile, of death, and of lofty triumph, which that book tells,—which the hand of the great leader and founder of America has traced on those pages. There is nothing like it in human annals since the story of Bethlehem. These English men and English women going out from their homes in beautiful Lincoln and York, wife separated from husband and mother from child in that hurried embarkation for Holland, pursued to the beach by English horsemen; the thirteen years of exile; the life at Amsterdam ‘in alley foul and lane obscure’; the dwelling at Leyden; the embarkation at Delfthaven; the farewell of Robinson; the terrible voyage across the Atlantic; the compact in the harbour; the landing on the rock; the dreadful first winter; the death roll of more than half the number; the days of suffering and of famine; the wakeful night, listening for the yell of the wild beast and the war-whoop of the savage; the building of the State on those sure foundations which no wave nor tempest has ever shaken; the breaking of the new light; the dawning of the new day; the beginning of the new life; the enjoyment of peace with liberty,—of all these things this is the original record by the hand of our beloved father and founder.”

After its discovery and identification, an edition was published in the year 1856, under the editorship of Charles Deane, by the Massachusetts Historical Society, based on a transcript made from the original document in London. A photographic facsimile of the manuscript was issued in 1896, in both London and Boston; and upon receipt of the original by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1897, a resolution was passed providing for the printing and publication of a carefully collated edition, together with a report of the proceedings connected with its return from England to America. This edition was duly issued in 1901, and it is from that as a basis that I have prepared the present modernization. My purpose is obvious. To many, the reading of the mediæval English of the original, to which all preceding editions have adhered, would be so laborious as to preclude them from becoming acquainted with it. I have endeavoured to preserve, as far as possible, the atmosphere of the time, while accurately rendering the thought in current language.

As for the writer himself, William Bradford, who, on the death of John Carver, the first Governor of the colony, a few months after their arrival, succeeded him in the Governorship, and remained the guiding genius of its destinies for over thirty years—his character, despite his utter self-repression throughout his writings, can be clearly read between the lines; his marvelous breadth of charity and tolerance; his strong, simple piety; his plain, unselfconscious goodness—all the grandest characteristics of the best traditions of puritanism seem concentrated in him.

But little is known of his life in England. He was born at the village of Austerfield, near Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, and the baptismal entry in the registers of the church is dated March 19th, 1590. His family was of yeoman stock. The first Mrs. Bradford (Dorothy May) was drowned in the harbour soon after the arrival of the Mayflower, by falling overboard. The second wife was a Mrs. Alice Southworth, a widow, to whom, it is supposed Bradford had been attached before his and her first marriage. He wrote his proposal of marriage to her in England, and she came out to him, with two Southworth children. William Bradford died, May 9th, 1657, at 69 years of age.

His dealings in the external affairs of the colony were largely with that class of hypocritical charlatan which successfully turns to perverse account the generous religious impulses of those with whom they hold intercourse. Yet his firm hold on faith, hope, and charity never failed him; he always ascribed to them, until clear proof of dishonour was revealed, the best of motives; taking account of the possibility of misunderstanding; or, in the last resort, making allowance for human weakness in the face of temptation, and forgiving unto seventy times seven. His was the spirit given to Newton, who as he watched a murderer being led to the gallows, exclaimed: “There goes John Newton, but for the Grace of God”; or to Cromwell, in his typical exhortation,—“I beseech you, in the name of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”

The reverse side of the picture shows us, indeed, the horrible hypocrisy of the pseudo-puritans of the Weston-Sherley type, who whenever ill-fortune overtook them called upon the name of the Lord in true Pharisaic fashion,—as if to bribe by flattery a frivolous Providence,—playing upon the finest qualities of forbearance and disinterestedness of such men as Bradford and his colleagues, to get advantage of them and rob them usuriously. Such parasites on the true growth of puritanism brought it into disrepute with the undiscriminating of those times,—nor have the results of their evil work (in very truth, the Sin against the Holy Ghost!) yet disappeared; for we find it in the supercilious and suspicious attitude of the orthodox towards dissent in any form, to this day.

The strong grasp of the intellectual and practical side of his and the other Pilgrims’ ideals of religious liberty,—for which, no doubt, they owed a deep debt to that splendid apostolic figure, their old pastor at Leyden, John Robinson,—is evidenced by the clear exposition of their claims, in the answer they gave to charges against them of dissembling in their declaration of conformity to the practices of the French Reformed Churches, and of undue license in differing from those professed forms of worship:

“In attempting to tie us to the French practices in every detail, you derogate from the liberty we have in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul would have none follow him but wherein he followed Christ; much less ought any Christian or Church in the world do so. The French may err, we may err, and other Churches may err, and doubtless do in many circumstances. That honour of infallibility belongs, therefore, only to the word of God and pure testament of Christ, to be followed as the only rule and pattern for direction by all Churches and Christians. It is great arrogance for any man or Church to think that he or they have so sounded the word of God to the bottom as to be able to set down precisely a Church’s practices without error in substance or circumstance, and in such a way that no one thereafter may digress or differ from them with impunity.”

On the other hand, it is interesting to mark Bradford’s disparagement of Utopian schemes of communal, or socialistic, forms of government. Here is his conservative argument, based on the experience of the first few years of their colonization:

“The failure of this experiment of communal service, which was tried for several years, and by good and honest men, proves the emptiness of the theory of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later times,—that the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community by a commonwealth, would make a state happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For in this instance, community of property (so far as it went) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort.... If (it was thought) all were to share alike, and all were to do alike, then all were on an equality throughout, and one was as good as another; and so, if it did not actually abolish those very relations which God himself has set among men, it did at least greatly diminish the mutual respect that is so important should be preserved amongst them. Let none argue that this is due to human failing rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself. I answer, seeing that all men have this failing in them, that God in His wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them.”

Thus in civil as in religious matters, Bradford’s sure instinct led him always to follow the guidance of a wise and benevolent Providence, working for the rational and natural evolution of mankind, which humanity could expedite only by a plain, unsophisticated reliance upon truth and goodness, as incarnate in the divine character and life of Christ.

If we of to-day, whether American or British, fail to appreciate the almost unearthly value of Bradford’s History, it is because we ourselves are still too close to the opening of that era in modern civilization,—yet in its early stages of development,—with which it is concerned. I believe that, among the world’s archives of contemporary chronicles of the human race, future generations will attribute to his annals a value far higher than that which we at present ascribe to any similar historic record except the Gospels themselves.

Certainly it is fitting in the present communion of interests of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, that we should refresh ourselves at the glorious founts of freedom which constitute their common heritage.

Harold Paget.

Silver Mine, Conn. 1920.

BRADFORD’S HISTORY

OF THE

PLYMOUTH SETTLEMENT

BRADFORD’S HISTORY

of the PLYMOUTH SETTLEMENT

BOOK I

1608-1620

PERSECUTION AND FLIGHT FROM ENGLAND—SETTLEMENT IN HOLLAND (AT AMSTERDAM AND LEYDEN)—CROSSING TO ENGLAND AND VOYAGE TO AMERICA—LANDING AT CAPE COD AND NEW PLYMOUTH.

CHAPTER I

Suppression of Religious Liberty in England—First Cause of the Foundation of the New Plymouth Settlement.

First I will unfold the causes that led to the foundation of the New Plymouth Settlement, and the motives of those concerned in it. In order that I may give an accurate account of the project, I must begin at the very root and rise of it; and this I shall endeavour to do in a plain style and with singular regard to the truth,—at least as near as my slender judgment can attain to it.

As is well known, ever since the breaking out of the light of the gospel in England, which was the first country to be thus enlightened after the gross darkness of popery had overspread the Christian world, Satan has maintained various wars against the Saints, from time to time, in different ways,—sometimes by bloody death and cruel torment, at other times by imprisonment, banishment, and other wrongs,—as if loth that his kingdom should be overcome, the truth prevail, and the Church of God revert to their ancient purity, and recover their primitive order, liberty, and beauty. But when he could not stifle by these means the main truths of the gospel, which began to take rooting in many places, watered by the blood of martyrs and blessed from heaven with a gracious increase, he reverted to his ancient stratagems, used of old against the first Christians. For when, in those days, the bloody and barbarous persecutions of the heathen Emperors could not stop and subvert the course of the gospel, which speedily overspread the then best known parts of the world, he began to sow errors, heresies, and discord amongst the clergy themselves, working upon the pride and ambition and other frailties to which all mortals, and even the Saints themselves in some measure, are subject. Woful effects followed; not only were there bitter contentions, heartburnings, and schisms, but Satan took advantage of them to foist in a number of vile ceremonies, with many vain canons and decrees, which have been snares to many poor and peaceable souls to this day.

So, in the early days, Christians suffered as much from internal dissension as from persecution by the heathen and their Emperors, true and orthodox Christians being oppressed by the Arians and their heretical accomplices. Socrates bears witness to this in his second book. His words are these: “Indeed, the violence was no less than that practised of old towards the Christians when they were compelled to sacrifice to idols; for many endured various kinds of torment—often racking and dismemberment of their joints, confiscation of their goods, or banishment from their native soil.”

Satan has seemed to follow a like method in these later times, ever since the truth began to spring and spread after the great defection of that man of sin, the Papal Antichrist. Passing by the infinite examples throughout the world as well as in our country, when that old serpent found that he could not prevail by fiery flames and the other cruel torments which he had put in use everywhere in the days of Queen Mary and before, he then went more closely to work, not merely to oppress but to ruin and destroy the kingdom of Christ by more secret and subtle means, and by kindling flames of contention and sowing seeds of strife and bitter enmity amongst the reformed clergy and laity themselves.

Mr. Fox records, that besides those worthy martyrs and confessors who were burned and otherwise tormented in Queen Mary’s days, as many as 800 students and others fled out of England, and formed separate congregations at Wesel, Frankfort, Basel, Emden, Marburg, Strasburg, Geneva, etc.

Amongst these bodies of protestant reformers—especially amongst those at Frankfort,—arose a bitter war of contention and persecution about the ceremonies and the service book and other such popish and anti-Christian stuff, the plague of England to this day. Such practises are like the high places in Israel, which the prophets cried out against; and the better part of the reformers sought to root them out and utterly abandon them, according to the purity of the gospel; while the other part, under veiled pretences, sought as stiffly to maintain and defend them, for their own advancement. This appears in the account of these contentions published in 1575—a book that deserves to be better known.

The one party of reformers endeavoured to establish the right worship of God and the discipline of Christ in the Church according to the simplicity of the gospel and without the mixture of men’s inventions, and to be ruled by the laws of God’s word dispensed by such officers as Pastors, Teachers, Elders, etc., according to the Scriptures.

The other party,—the episcopal,—under many pretences, endeavoured to maintain the episcopal dignity after the popish manner,—with all its courts, canons, and ceremonies; its livings, revenues, subordinate officers, and other means of upholding their anti-Christian greatness, and of enabling them with lordly and tyrannous power to persecute the poor servants of God. The fight was so bitter, that neither the honour of God, the persecution to which both parties were subjected, nor the mediation of Mr. Calvin and other worthies, could prevail with the episcopal party. They proceeded by all means to disturb the peace of this poor persecuted church of dissenters, even so far as to accuse (very unjustly and ungodly, yet prelate-like) some of its chief members with rebellion and high-treason against the Emperor, and other such crimes.

And this contention did not die with Queen Mary, nor was it left beyond the seas. At her death the episcopal party of the Protestants returned to England under gracious Queen Elizabeth, many of them being preferred to bishoprics and other promotions, according to their aims and desires, with the result that their inveterate hatred towards the holy discipline of Christ in his church, represented by the dissenting part, has continued to this day; furthermore, for fear it should ultimately prevail, all kinds of devices were used to keep it out, incensing the Queen and State against it as a danger to the commonwealth; arguing that it was most needful that the fundamental points of religion should be preached in these ignorant and superstitious times, and that in order to win the weak and ignorant it was necessary to retain various harmless ceremonies; and that though reforms were desirable, this was not the time for them. Many such excuses were put forward to silence the more godly, and to induce them to yield to one ceremony after another, and one corruption after another. By these wiles some were beguiled and others corrupted, till at length they began to persecute all the zealous reformers in the land, unless they would submit to their ceremonies and become slaves to them and their popish trash, which has no ground in the word of God, but is a relic of that man of sin. And the more the light of the gospel grew, the more they urged subjection to these corruptions,—so that, notwithstanding all their former pretences, those whose eyes God had not justly blinded easily saw their purpose. In order the more to cast contempt upon the sincere servants of God, they opprobriously gave them the name of “Puritans,” which it is said the novations assumed out of pride. It is lamentable to see the effects which have followed. Religion has been disgraced, the godly grieved, afflicted, persecuted, and many exiled, while others have lost their lives in prisons and other ways; on the other hand, sin has been countenanced, ignorance, profanity, and atheism have increased, and the papists have been encouraged to hope again for a day.

This made that holy man, Mr. Perkins, cry out in his exhortation to repentance, upon Zeph. ii. “Religion,” said he, “has been amongst us these thirty-five years; but the more it is disseminated, the more it is condemned by many. Thus, not profanity or wickedness, but Religion itself is a byword, a mocking stock, and a matter of reproach; so that in England at this day the man or woman who begins to profess religion and to serve God, must resolve within himself to sustain mocks and injuries as though he lived among the enemies of religion.” Common experience has confirmed this and made it only too apparent.[1]

But to come to the subject of this narrative. When by the zeal of some godly preachers, and God’s blessing on their labours, many in the North of England and other parts become enlightened by the word of God and had their ignorance and sins discovered to them, and began by His grace to reform their lives and pay heed to their ways, the work of God was no sooner manifest in them than they were scorned by the profane multitude, and their ministers were compelled to subscribe or be silent, and the poor people were persecuted with apparators and pursuants and the commissary courts. Nevertheless, they bore it all for several years in patience, until by the increase of their troubles they began to see further into things by the light of the word of God. They realized not only that these base ceremonies were unlawful, but also that the tyrannous power of the prelates ought not to be submitted to, since it was contrary to the freedom of the gospel and would burden men’s consciences and thus profane the worship of God.

On this subject a famous author thus writes in his Dutch commentaries: “At the coming of King James into England, the new King found established there the reformed religion of Edward VI., but retaining the spiritual office of the bishops,—differing in this from the reformed churches in Scotland, France, the Netherlands, Emden, Geneva, etc., whose reformation is shaped much nearer to the first Christian churches of the Apostles’ times.”

Those reformers who saw the evil of these things, and whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for his truth, shook off this yoke of anti-Christian bondage and as the Lord’s free people joined themselves together by covenant as a church, in the fellowship of the gospel to walk in all His ways, made known, or to be made known to them, according to their best endeavours, whatever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them. And that it cost them something, the ensuing history will declare.

These people became two distinct bodies or churches and congregated separately; for they came from various towns and villages about the borders of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire. One of these churches was led by Mr. John Smith, a man of able gifts, and a good preacher, who was afterwards made pastor; but later, falling into some errors in the Low Countries, most of its adherents buried themselves,—and their names! To the other church, which is the subject of this discourse, belonged besides other worthy men, Mr. Richard Clifton, a grave and reverend preacher, who by his pains and diligence had done much good, and under God had been the means of the conversion of many; also that famous and worthy man, Mr. John Robinson, who was afterwards their pastor for many years, till the Lord took him away; also Mr. William Brewster, a reverend man, who was afterwards chosen an Elder of the church, and lived with them till old age. But after the events referred to above, they were not long permitted to remain in peace. They were hunted and persecuted on every side, until their former afflictions were but as fleabitings in comparison. Some were clapped into prison; others had their houses watched night and day, and escaped with difficulty; and most were obliged to fly, and leave their homes and means of livelihood. Yet these and many other even severer trials which afterwards befell them, being only what they expected, they were able to bear by the assistance of God’s grace and spirit. However, being thus molested, and seeing that there was no hope of their remaining there, they resolved by consent to go into the Low Countries, where they heard there was freedom of religion for all; and it was said that many from London and other parts of the country, who had been exiled and persecuted for the same cause, had gone to live at Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands. So after about a year, having kept their meeting for the worship of God every Sabbath in one place or another, notwithstanding the diligence and malice of their adversaries, seeing that they could no longer continue under such circumstances, they resolved to get over to Holland as soon as they could—which was in the years 1607 and 1608. But of this, more will be told in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II

Flight to Holland (Amsterdam and Leyden): 1607-1608

For these reformers to be thus constrained to leave their native soil, their lands and livings, and all their friends, was a great sacrifice, and was wondered at by many. But to go into a country unknown to them, where they must learn a new language, and get their livings they knew not how, seemed an almost desperate adventure, and a misery worse than death. Further, they were unacquainted with trade, which was the chief industry of their adopted country, having been used only to a plain country life and the innocent pursuit of farming. But these things did not dismay them, though they sometimes troubled them; for their desires were set on the ways of God, to enjoy His ordinances; they rested on His providence, and knew Whom they had believed.

But this was not all; for though it was made intolerable for them to stay, they were not allowed to go; the ports were shut against them, so that they had to seek secret means of conveyance, to bribe the captains of ships, and give extraordinary rates for their passages. Often they were betrayed, their goods intercepted, and thereby were put to great trouble and expense. I will give an instance or two of these experiences.

A large number of them had decided to take passage from Boston in Lincolnshire, and for that purpose had hired a ship wholly to themselves, and made agreement with the captain to be ready at a convenient place on a certain day to take them and their belongings. After long waiting and great expense—he had not kept day with them—he came at last and took them aboard at night. But when he had secured them and their goods he betrayed them, having arranged beforehand with the searchers and other officers to do so. They then put them in open boats, and there rifled and ransacked them, searching them to their shirts for money,—and even the women, further than became modesty,—and took them back to the town and made a spectacle of them to the multitude that came flocking on all sides to see them. Being thus rifled and stripped of their money, books, and other property, they were brought before the magistrates, and messengers were sent to inform the Lords of the Council about them. The magistrates treated them courteously, and showed them what favour they could; but dare not free them until order came from the council-table. The result was, however, that after a month’s imprisonment, the majority were dismissed, and sent back to the places whence they came; but seven of the leaders were kept in prison, and bound over to the Assizes.