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Lyford and Oldham

Bradford uses the terms “general” and “particular” to describe two sorts within the colony’s population: those who partook in the common ownership and working of the land, and those who were independent planters or entrepreneurs.

At first, until the time when the common stock was abolished in 1623, nearly all were in the “general.”

But within a short time, the London investors began sending over more and more people who were on their own “particular”.

At least, that was their status on paper: for the general were often expected to support them until they were established, or ended up having to do so because those on their particular proved particularly incompetent.

In either case, these were significant drains on the colony’s resources, which made it more difficult and extended the time it took to pay their debts.

As noted by Bradford, one such “particular” was John Lyford.  Lyford had studied at Oxford.  He had then gone on to be a preacher in the Church of Ireland, which was an ideal position for a Puritan because King James had allowed ministers in Ireland to implement whatever Puritan policies they wanted to.

They didn’t have to do any of the church rituals they disapproved of, like pledging allegiance to the Book of Common Prayer, making the sign of the cross or wearing the surplice.

That meant that Puritans who didn’t want to compromise their ideas could move to Ireland to help convert the locals.  The Church of Ireland had become dominated by Puritans, and Lyford had chosen to settle in one of the most contentious counties.

Then, he had an illegitimate child while in Ireland, and another.  Then he got married, but after his marriage he got caught having raped a woman.  After that, he was expelled from the Church of Ireland, and forced to return to London.

That’s where he connected with the Merchant Adventurers, who had sent him to Plymouth as a new minister.  They’d already sent one minister, but he’d simply stayed a year, and lived quietly, written Latin poems, and left everyone alone.    (Sarah Tanksalvala)

While his stay in the colony began well, Lyford soon collected a faction of discontented people, led by John Oldham. The two of them wrote a number of letters to the investors, which Governor William Bradford described as “full of slanders & false accusations, tending not only to their prejudice, but to their ruin and utter subversion.” (Plimoth Patuxet)

As noted by Bradford, “When this man first came a shore, he saluted them with that reverence & humilitie as is seldome to be seen, and indeed made them ashamed, he so bowed and cringed unto them, and would have kissed their hands if they would have suffered him …”

“… yea, he wept & shed many tears, blessing God that had brought him to see their faces; and admiring ye things they had done in their wants, &c. as if he had been made all of love, and ye humblest person in ye world.”

“Ater some short time he desired to joyne himselfe a member to ye church hear, and was accordingly received.”

“He made a large confession of his faith, and an acknowledgemente of his former disorderly walking, and his being intangled with many corruptions, which had been a burthen to his conscience, and blessed God for this opportunitie of freedom & libertie to injoye ye ordinances of God in puritie among his people, with many more such like expressions.”  (Bradford)

Bradford then speaks about John Oldham, “I must hear speake a word also of Mr. John Oldom [Oldham], who was a copartner with him in his after courses. He had bene a cheefe sticler in ye former faction among ye perticulers, and an intelligencer to those in England.”

“But now, since the coming of this ship and he saw ye supply that came, he tooke occasion to open his minde to some of ye cheefe amongst them heere, and confessed he had done them wrong both by word & deed, & writing into England …”

“…  but he now saw the eminente hand of God to be with them, and his blesing upon them, which made his hart smite him, neither should those in England ever use him as an instrumente any longer against them in any thing …”

“… he also desired former things might be forgotten, and that they would looke upon him as one that desired to close with them in all things, with such like expressions.”

“Now whether this was in hipocrisie, or out of some sudden pange of conviction (which I rather thinke), God only knows.” (Bradford)

The Pilgrims became suspicious that Lyford almost immediately joined with John Oldham (both non-Pilgrims) in sending letters to London criticizing the colony and its leadership to the Merchant Adventurers.

These criticisms had included criticism of everyday life, policy, and even the colony’s religious nature.

When confronted, Lyford denied the accusations. 

Bradford was determined to find out what he was doing, so he asked the captain of the next boat carrying mail to England to pause after they were beyond the view of the Plymouth colonists.  He followed in a small boat, intercepted the vessel and opened Lyford’s mail.  (Sarah Tanksalvala)

It seemed clear that Lyford and Oldham were partnering with a faction of investors at home and planning to overturn the religious and political leadership of the colony, ending the independence movement within the colony, and turning into a mainstream Puritan colony. (Sarah Tanksalvala)

So, Lyford and Oldham were put on trial. 

Lyford denied writing the letters, but then he was shown the letters he wrote …

“Lyford denyed that he had any thing to doe with them in England, or knew of their courses, and made other things as strange that he was charged with.”

“Then his letters were prodused & some of them read, at which he was struck mute.”

“But Oldam begane to rage furiously, because they had intercepted and opened his letters, threatening them in very high language, and in a most audacious and mutinous maner stood up & caled upon ye people, saying, My maisters, wher is your harts?”

Lyford and Oldham were convicted and exiled.

“In conclusion, he was fully convicted, and burst out into tears, and ‘confest he feared he was a reprobate, his sinns were so great that he doubted God would not pardon them, he was unsavorie salte, &c.; and that he had so wronged them as he could never make them amends, confessing all he had write against them was false & nought, both for matter & maner.’”

“And all this he did with as much fullnes as words & tears could express.”

“After their triall & conviction, the court censured them to be expeld the place; Oldame presently, though his wife & family had liberty to stay all winter, or longer, till he could make provission to remove them comfortably.”

“Lyford had liberty to stay 6. months.”

Lyford and Oldham briefly stayed with a new band of colonists at Naumkeag, which would later become Salem.  From there, they went to Virginia, where Lyford seemed to have been made a minister at either the Wests’ or John Martin’s plantation, but died just a few months later.  Oldham later apologized for his participation in the affair and rejoined Plymouth colony.

The Lyford affair nearly tore the investors apart.  Investors in London split into two groups, but most of the company’s powerful backers supported Lyford.

London investors wrote to Plymouth, accusing the settlers of being “contentious, cruel and hard-hearted among your neighbors, and towards such as in all points both civil and religious, jump not with you.”

Meanwhile, Bradford said that Oldham and Lyford were evil, profane and perverse, a human manifestation of the anti-Christ, and malignants.  (Sarah Tanksalvala)

Click the following link to a general summary about Lyford and Oldham:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Lyford-and-Oldham.pdf

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The First Thanksgiving

The site and date of origin of Thanksgiving are matters of dispute, with regional claims being made by widely disparate locations in North America. The chief claims are: Saint Augustine, Florida – 1565; Baffin Island, Canada – 1578; Jamestown, Virginia – 1619 and Plymouth, Massachusetts – 1621.

Thanksgiving in Plymouth

The Mayflower arrived in Plymouth in December of 1620.  No further ships arrived in Plymouth until immediately after the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth – the Fortune arrived in November of 1621.

According to the Pilgrim Hall Museum, there are two (and only two) primary sources for the events of autumn 1621 in Plymouth that suggest the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth: Edward Winslow writing in Mourt’s Relation and William Bradford writing in Of Plymouth Plantation:

Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Relation: “our harvest being gotten in, our governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labours;”

“they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes …”

“many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted …”

“and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. “

“And although it be not always so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so farre from want,  that we often wish you partakers of our plentie.”

William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation: “They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty …”

“for as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion.”

“All ye somer ther was no want.  And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).”

“And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. …”

“Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained,  but true reports.”

As noted, at the end of the 1621 summer, when harvest was in, Governor John Carver called for a special celebration. The colonists began to gather food for a traditional English “harvest home.”

This festival was held throughout England at harvest’s end to give thanks for the bounty and celebrate the end of the most intense period of work for farmers.

The Native Americans traditionally celebrated a harvest festival similar to the harvest home.

Turner said what most people do not know about the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth is that the Wampanoag and Pilgrims did not sit down for a big turkey dinner and it was not an event that the Wampanoag knew about or were invited to in advance. In September/October 1621, the Pilgrims had just harvested their first crops, and they had a good yield.

They “sent four men on fowling,” which comes from the one paragraph account by Pilgrim Edward Winslow, one of only two historical sources of this famous harvest feast. Winslow also stated, “we exercised our arms.”

“Most historians believe what happened was Massasoit got word that there was a tremendous amount of gun fire coming from the Pilgrim village,” Turner said. “So he thought they were being attacked and he was going to bear aid.”

When the Wampanoag showed up, they were invited to join the Pilgrims in their feast, but there was not enough food to feed the chief and his 90 warriors.

“He [Massasoit] sends his men out, and they bring back five deer, which they present to the chief of the English town [William Bradford].”

“So, there is this whole ceremonial gift-giving, as well. When you give it as a gift, it is more than just food,” said Kathleen Wall, a Colonial Foodways Culinarian at Plimoth Plantation.

The harvest feast lasted for three days.

No other ships arrived in Plymouth until after the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth.  The Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth are all the Mayflower survivors.

Thanksgiving in Hawai‘i

It’s not clear when the first western Thanksgiving feast was held in Hawaiʻi, but from all apparent possibilities, the first recorded one took place in Honolulu and was held among the families of the American missionaries from New England.

According to the reported entry in Lowell Smith’s journal on December 6, 1838: “This day has been observed by us missionaries and people of Honolulu as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God. Something new for this nation.”

“The people turned out pretty well and they dined in small groups and in a few instances in large groups. We missionaries all dined at Dr. Judd’s and supped at Brother Bingham’s. … An interesting day; seemed like old times – Thanksgiving in the United States.”

Laura Judd, in Sketches of Life in Honolulu noted on January 1, 1841: “There were twenty-five adults and thirty-two children of the station in Honolulu, and a proposition to unite in appropriate religious exercises and a Thanksgiving dinner, met with unanimous approval. …”

“Each lady was to furnish such dishes as suited her taste and convenience, while the table arrangements were the portion of one individual. … At three o’clock we had donned our best apparel, and sat down at the long table to enjoy a double feast.”

The first Thanksgiving Proclamation in Hawaiʻi appears to have been issued on November 23, 1849, and set the 31st day of December as a date of Thanksgiving.

US National Holiday

The celebratory day of Thanksgiving changed over time.

The Continental Congress proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving in 1777. A somber event, it specifically recommended “that servile labor and such recreations (although at other times innocent) may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment [and should] be omitted on so solemn an occasion.”

Presidents Washington, Adams and Monroe proclaimed national Thanksgivings, but the custom fell out of use by 1815, after which the celebration of the holiday was limited to individual state observances. By the 1850s, almost every state and territory celebrated Thanksgiving. (plimoth-org)

In the 19th century, the modern Thanksgiving holiday started to take shape. In 1846, Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of a magazine called Godey’s Lady’s Book, campaigned for an annual national thanksgiving holiday.

But it wasn’t until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared two national Thanksgivings; one in August to commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War, and the other in November to give thanks for “general blessings.” It’s the second one that we celebrate today. (National Geographic)

Neither Lincoln nor his successors, however, made the holiday a fixed annual event.

Finally, on December 26, 1941 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law a bill making the date of Thanksgiving a matter of federal law, fixing the day as the fourth Thursday of November.

Click the following link to a general summary about the First Thanksgiving:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/First-Thanksgiving.pdf

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Meeting House

The origin of the town meeting form of government can be traced to meetinghouses of the colonies.  Early English settlers came to America for religious freedom from the Church of England. They set up a society that was free of the ornate, rigid traditions of the Anglo-Catholic church.

The central focus of every New England town was the meetinghouse.  These structures were usually the largest building in the town. They were used both for religious worship, and for conducting town business.  Taxes supported these structures.

They were always very simple buildings, with no statues, decorations, or stained glass. Not even a cross hung on the wall.

The practice of supporting the church with tax money continued until about 1820, when individual states passed laws separating church and state. Until that time, it was common (except in Rhode Island) to support the dominant church – referred to as the “standing order” – by taxing the citizens.

In fact, in the early years a town was not granted a charter until it had built a meetinghouse and hired a minister. Rhode Island did not support the church with taxes because it was founded by the Baptists who were expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for refusing to pay the church tax.

These structures have evolved over the centuries. Most that are still standing have been renovated several times to meet the needs of their owners and the styles of the times.

In the early 1800s, people wanted ‘modern’ churches that had one entrance on a short end of the building, a long isle to a pulpit on the other short end, and slip pews instead of box pews.  At this time it was also common to build steeples over the entrances, either incorporated into the building, or as part of an entrance porch that was added to the building’s end.

Many a typical white New England church started out as a colonial meetinghouse. An interesting variation to the “make a church” type of renovation took place in several towns when the separation of church and state took place.

In these cases, the thrifty New Englanders complied with the law by building a floor at the balcony level, and using the first floor for town business, and the second floor for church. Many meetinghouses thus have a floor at what used to be the balcony level.  (ColonialMeetingHouses-com)

Plymouth Meeting House

The first structure the Pilgrims built at Plymouth was a fort (it also served as the Pilgrims’ meeting house).  As noted by Bradford,

“On ye 15. of Desemr [1620]: they wayed anchor to goe to ye place they had discovered, & came within 2. Leagues of it, but were faine to bear up againe; but ye 16. day ye winde came faire, and they arrived safe in this harbor.”

“And after wards tooke better view of ye place, and resolved wher to pitch their dwelling; and ye 25. day begane to erecte ye first house for comone use to receive them and their goods.”

According to John Cuckson’s A Brief History of the First Church in Plymouth, the first meetings of the congregation in Plymouth were held in a common house built ca. 1621 and located on the south side of Leyden Street, the first street laid out in Plymouth, which runs between the harbor and what is now known as Town Square. This building consisted of a twenty-foot-square form. (NPS)

Unfortunately, that initial structure was lost to fire, “… ye 14th of January [1621] the house which they had made for a general randevoze [rendezvous/meeting house] by casualty fell afire, and some were fain to retire aboard for shelter.”  (Bradford)

Worship services were then held in a fort, built ca. 1621, on what is now known as Old Burial Hill. The fort was located directly behind the current First Parish Church.

According to Isaak de Rasiers, who visited Plymouth in 1627, the building consisted of “a large square house with a flat roof made of sawn planks set on oak beams, upon the top of which they have six cannon…. . The lower part they use for their church, where they preach on Sundays and the usual holidays.” (NPS)

Later, a separate meetinghouse was built in either 1637 or 1648 – accounts differ.

Since the Mayflower Pilgrims’ first Meetinghouse was built at the top of Leyden Street in Plymouth, MA in 1621, a place of spiritual ministry has continued to this day. Presently, the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Plymouth worships at this centerpiece of the Plymouth, MA cultural district.

The Mayflower Meetinghouse (formerly the National Pilgrim Memorial Meetinghouse) is the fifth spiritual structure built on this location.  The first meetinghouse was built on common land on the north side of Town Square, at a different location from the subsequent four meetinghouses. (GSMD)

When the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD) became aware that the congregation was having trouble with the increasing maintenance and restoration of the building, it approached the congregation about donating the Meetinghouse to GSMD as a place to fulfill its educational mission.

To save the building they love, the First Parish Church congregation has agreed to donate it to GSMD upon the condition that funds be put in place to permanently maintain it, and that they be allowed to continue scheduling their services there.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants and First Parish Church signed a Joint Venture Agreement, which led to the Charitable Trust, during Congress 2017.

Along with the Meetinghouse, GSMD will be given all the church records from modern times back to 1620, written by William Bradford, William Brewster, Robert Cushman, and many others.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Meeting House:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Meeting-House.pdf

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New England Confederation

There were seven colonies in New England in the 17th century:

  • Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620, absorbed by the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691
  • Province of Maine, founded in 1622, later absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • New Hampshire Colony, founded in 1623, later became the Province of New Hampshire
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1630, became the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691
  • Rhode Island Colony, founded in 1636
  • Connecticut Colony, founded in 1636
  • New Haven Colony, founded in 1638, absorbed by Connecticut Colony in 1664

“The main principles which underlay the social and political life of each colony were identical. Each was formed of much the same material, each had been established from the same motives and with the same hopes, each started with the same political training and had carried on that training in the same direction.”  (Doyle)

Over time, “Experience had by this time made it clear that some sort of union between the various colonies was a necessity. Union indeed had been distasteful when it was likely to be enforced from without in a manner which would override local liberties and rights.”

“But the state of affairs in England put an end to that danger, and the colonists were left free to enter upon a self-imposed union which should be consistent with local independence, and even helpful to it”. (Doyle)

“[S]ources of dispute, actual or possible, showed the need for some common jurisdiction.  An even stronger motive to union existed in the necessity for mutual support against the Indians, against the Dutch in New Netherlands, and, in a less degree, against the French to the North.”

“The real hindrance to union was the inequality which could not fail to exist between the partners. In population, in wealth, in learning, in the security of her possessions, in the friendship of those who were now rising into power in England, Massachusetts towered over the other colonies.” (Doyle)

In spring of 1638, several Connecticut ministers suggested a confederation but neither side could see eye to eye on the matter.

Connecticut brought up the issue again in 1639, as a result of threats from the New Netherland colony, but nothing came of it.

In 1640, threat of an Indian war prompted Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Haven to offer a joint proposal on the matter but the Massachusetts Bay Colony refused to work with Rhode Island, whom it viewed as too tolerant of other religions.

Finally, in the fall of 1642, Plymouth Colony proposed a confederation in which the General Courts in each colony would ratify all agreements.

The colonies all decided to send delegates to a meeting in the spring to finalize the details.

“In May, 1643, the Commissioners from each of the three colonies, Connecticut, Newhaven, and Plymouth, met at Boston. Fenwick, too, the governor of the fort at Saybrook, appeared on behalf of the Proprietors. Massachusetts was represented by the Governor, two Magistrates, and four Deputies.”  (Doyle)

The representatives “coming to consultation encountered some difficulties, but being all desirous of union and studious of peace, they readily yielded each to other in such things as tended to common utility.”  (Winthrop)

After two or three meetings the Articles of Confederation were agreed upon, and signed by all the Commissioners save those from Plymouth. Their commission obliged them to refer the matter back to the Court of the colony, by whom the agreement was at once ratified.

New England Confederation, also called United Colonies of New England, a federation of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth was established on May 19, 1643 by delegates from those four colonies.

“The Confederation … was looked on as a convenient piece of political machinery and no more.  Yet even in this there were compensating advantages. It was well that the federal constitution was framed deliberately and, so to speak, in cold blood, not under the pressure of any special excitement.”

“It was an advantage too that it should have come into being while the individual colonies still kept the plasticity of youth. A confederation is a frame to which organized and articulated communities have to adapt themselves. The experiment is more likely to succeed if they have not yet acquired the fixity and rigidity of mature life.”

“One aspect of the matter, all the more striking from the fact that it seems to have been almost unnoticed, was the absence of any reference to the home government. There is nothing to show that the framers of the Confederation ever entertained a thought as to the manner in which their policy would be regarded in England.”

“Yet this was undoubtedly the most important political step that any of the colonies had yet taken. The feeling of local independence, the spirit which made men look on themselves as citizens of Massachusetts and not as citizens of England, ebbed and flowed.”

“Beyond a doubt it was stronger in 1640 than it was in 1700. But it never wholly perished, and the formation of the Confederacy was perhaps the most striking manifestation of it.” (Doyle)

“It was adopted by only four colonies, and these four were not long afterwards consolidated into two; but it embodied principles, and recognized rights, and· established precedents, which have entered largely into the composition of all subsequent instruments of union.”  (Winthrop)

The New England Confederation did achieve some of its goals, but the alliance ultimately proved to be weak, since its decisions were only advisory and were often ignored by Massachusetts, its strongest member.

The confederation’s influence declined with the merger of Connecticut and New Haven (1662–1665), though it continued to exist until the Massachusetts charter was forfeited in 1684. The New England Confederation had represented the first significant effort by English colonists to form an intercolonial alliance for mutual benefit.  (Britannica)

Click the following link to a general summary about the New England Confederation:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/New-England-Confederation.pdf

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Preparing for Life in the Colonies in the Early Years

The Higginson Fleet (named after the Reverend Francis Higginson) was bound for Massachusetts to prepare the way to expand the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Portions of a diary Higginson kept of his voyage and the first few months in the colony was published as “New England’s Plantation, or a Short and True Description of the Commodities and Discommodities of that Country”'(1630). A lot of the information here comes from his writing.

Rev. Higginson tried to prepare people before they came, saying,

“Before you come, be careful to be strongly instructed what things are fittest to bring with you for your more comfortable passage at sea, as also for your husbandry occasions when you come to the land.

“For when you are once parted with England you shall meete neither markets nor fayres to buy what you want. Therefore be sure to furnish yourselves with things fitting to be had before you come …”

“… as meale for bread, malt for drinke, woolen and linnen cloath, and leather for shoes, and all manner of carpenters tools, and a great deale of iron and steele to make nails, and locks for houses, and furniture for ploughs and carts, and glasse for windows, and many other things which were better for you to think of there than to want them here.”

Higginson listed a “A Catalog of such needefull things as every Planter doth or ought to provide to go to New-England; as namely for one man; which, being doubled, may serve for as many as you please.”

Also there are divers other things necessary to bee taken over to this Plantation, as Bookes, Nets, Hookes and Lines, Cheese, Bacon, Kine [cattle], Goats, &c. [and spices]  (Higginson)

Winslow also helped prepare future colonists with “Certain Useful Directions for Such as Intend a Voyage into Those Parts,”

“Now because I expect your coming unto us, with other of our friends, whose company we much desire, I thought good to advertise you of a few things needful.”

“Be careful to have a very good bread-room to put your biscuits in. Let your cask for beer and water be iron-bound, for the first tier, if not more.”

“Let not your meat be dry-salted; none can better do it than the sailors. Let your meal be so hard trod in your cask that you shall need an adz or hatchet to work it out with.”

“Trust not too much on us for corn at this time, for by reason of this last company that came, depending wholly upon us, we shall have little enough till harvest. Be careful to come by some of your meal to spend by the way; it will much refresh you.”

“Build your cabins as open as you can, and bring good store of clothes and bedding with you.”

“Bring every man a musket or fowling-piece. Let your piece be long in the barrel, and fear not the weight of it, for most of our shooting is from stands.”

“Bring juice of lemons, and take it fasting; it is of good use.”

“For hot water, aniseed water is the best, but use it sparingly.”

“If you bring anything for comfort in the country, butter or salad oil, or both, is very good.”

“Our Indian corn, even the coarsest, maketh as pleasant meat as rice; therefore spare that, unless to spend by the way.

“Bring paper and linseed oil for your windows, with cotton yarn for your lamps.”

“Let your shot be most for big fowls, and bring store of powder and shot. I forbear further to write for the present, hoping to see you by the next return.”

“So I take my leave, commending you to the Lord for a safe conduct unto us.” (Mourt’s Relation, Edward Winslow, December 11, 1621)

The Earth, Water, Air and Fire of New England

Higginson described the colonies and uses the four elements in his description.  “Letting passe our Voyage by Sea, we will now begin our discourse on the shore of New-England.”

“And because the life and wel-fare of euerie Creature here below, and the commodiousnesse of the Countrey whereas such Creatures liue, doth by the most wise ordering of Gods prouidence, depend next vnto himselfe, vpon the temperature and disposition of the foure Elements, Earth, Water, Aire and Fire.”

“(For as of the mixture of all these, all sublunarie things are composed; so by the more or lesse injoyment of the wholesome temper and conuenient vse of these, consisteth the onely well being both of Man and Beast in a more or lesse comfortable measure in all Countreys vnder the Heauens.)”

“First therefore of the Earth of New England and all the appurtenances thereof; It is a Land of diuers and sundry sorts all about Masathulets Bay, and at Charles River is as fat blacke Earth as can be seene any where: and in other places you haue a clay soyle, in other grauell, in other sandy, as it is all about our Plantation at Salem , for so our Towne is now named, Psal. 76.2.”

“The forme of the Earth here in the superficies of it is neither too flat in the plainnesse, nor too high in Hils, but partakes of both in a mediocritie, and fit for Pasture, or for Plow or Meddow ground, as Men please to employ it: though all the Countrey be as it were a thicke Wood for the generall … The fertilitie of the Soyle is to be admired at”.

“Of the Waters of New-England with the things belonging to the same.  New-England hath Water enough both salt and fresh, the greatest Sea in the World, the Atlanticke Sea runs all along the Coast thereof. There are aboundance of Ilands along the Shore, some full of Wood and Mast to feed Swine; and others cleere of Wood , and fruitfull to beare Corne.”

“Also we haue store of excellent harbours for Ships, as at Cape Anne, and at Masathulets Bay, and at Salem, and at many other places: and they are the better because for Strangers there is a verie difficult and dangerous passage into them, but vnto such as are well acquainted with them, they are easie and safe enough.”

“The aboundance of Sea Fish are almost beyond beleeuing , and sure I should scarce haue beleeued it except I had seene it with mine owne Eyes.”

“Of the Aire of New-England with the Temper and Creatures in it.  The Temper of the Aire of New-England is one speciall thing that commends this place. Experience doth manifest that there is hardly a more healthfull place to be found in the World that agreeth better with our English Bodyes.”

“Many that haue beene weake and sickly in old England, by comming hither haue beene thoroughly healed and growne healthful and strong.  For here is an extraordinarie cleere and dry Aire that is of a most healing nature to all such as are of a Cold, Melancholy, Flegmatick , Reumaticke temper of Body.”

“Fowles of the Aire are plentifull here , and of all sorts as we haue in England as farre as I can learne, and a great many of strange Fowles which we know not. Whilst I was writing these things, one of our Men brought home an Eagle which he had killed in the Wood: they say they are good meat.”

“Here are likewise aboundance of Turkies often killed in the Woods, farre greater then our English Turkies, and exceeding fat, sweet and fleshy, for here they haue aboundance of feeding all the yeere long, as Strawberries, in Summer all places are full of them , and all manner of Berries and Fruits.”

“Thus you haue heard of the Earth , Water and Aire of New England, now it may be you expect something to be said of the Fire proportionable to the rest of the Elements.”

“Indeed I thinke New-England may boast of this Element more then of all the rest: for though it be here somthing cold in the winter, yet here we haue plentie of Fire to warme vs, and that a great deale cheaper then they sell Billets and Faggots in London: nay all Europe is not able to afford to make so great Fires as New-England.”

“A poore Seruant here that is to possesse but 50 Acres of Land, may afford to giue more wood for Timber and Fire as good as the world yeelds, then many Noble Men in England can afford to doe. Here is good living for those that loue good Fires.”

“And although New-England haue no Tallow to make Candles of, yet by the aboundance of the Fish thereof, it can afford Oyle for Lamps . Yea our Pine-Trees that are the most plentifull of all wood, doth allow vs plentie of Candles, which are verie vsefull in a House …”

“… and they are such Candles as the Indians commonly vse, hauing no other, and they are nothing else but the wood of the Pine Tree clouen in two little slices some thing thin, which are so full of the moysture of Turpentine and Pitch , that they burne as cleere as a Torch. I haue sent you some of them that you may see the experience of them.”  (Higginson)

Click the following link to a general summary about Preparing for Life in the Colonies in the Early Years:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Preparing-for-Life-in-the-Colonies-in-the-Early-Years.pdf

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