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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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Duxbury – Plymouth Colony’s Second Town

Mattakeesett (‘place of many fish’, some also reference it as ‘the place of no high water’) was inhabited by Native Americans as early as 12,000 to 9,000 BC.  At the time European settlers arrived here, the region was inhabited by the Wampanoags .

In 1620, the English settlers known as the Pilgrims established their colony in Plymouth.  Per the terms of their contract with financial backers in London, they were required to live together in a tight community for seven years.

After 1623, there were few other large groups of passengers for Plymouth. In the next five years, only a handful of colonists arrived, generally aboard ships bringing supplies to the area.

By 1629 and 1630, numerous ships came to the Massachusetts Bay bringing approximately 1,000 settlers for that colony. In these two years, Plymouth also got an additional influx, ten or so aboard the Mayflower (not the 1620 ship) and 35 aboard the Talbot in 1629, and about 60 in the Handmaid in 1630.

Many of them were Leiden Separatists. Some people moved from Massachusetts Bay Colony to Plymouth and vice versa, seeking a more congenial home. Small numbers of additional Plymouth colonists trickled in during the next three years.

By 1633, the population of Plymouth Colony was approximately 400 individuals. The colonists expanded beyond the bounds of the town of Plymouth. (Plimoth-org)

Land along the coast was allotted to settlers for farming.  Each man was given twenty acres for himself and an additional twenty for each person in his family.  Thus, the coastline from Plymouth to Marshfield was parceled out and many settlers began moving away from Plymouth.

The first area to grow (and the second town – after Plymouth – in the Plymouth Colony) was Duxbury.  Bradford described what happened,

“[T]he people of the plantation begane to grow in their owtward estates, by rea[son] of the flowing of many people into the cuntrie, espetially into the Bay of the Massachusets; by which means come and catle rose to a great prise, by which many were much inriched, and commodities grue plentifull and yet in other regards this benefite turned to their hurte, and this accession of strength to their weaknes.”

“For now as their stocks increased, and the increse vendible, ther was no longer any holding them togeather, but now they must of necessitie goe to their great lots ; they could not other wise keep their katle; and having oxen growne, they must have land for plowing and tillage.”

“And no man now thought he could live, except he had catle and a great deale of ground to keep them; all striving to increase their stocks. By which means they were scatered all over the bay, quickly, and the towne, in which they lived compactly till now, was left very thine, and in a short time allmost desolate.”

“And if this had been all, it had been less, thoug to much; but the church must also be devided, and those that had lived so long togeather in Christian and comfortable fellowship must now part and suffer many divissions.”

“First, those that lived on their lots on the other side of the bay (called Duxberie) they could not long bring their wives and children to the publick worship and church meetings here, but with shuch burthen, as, growing to some competente number, they sued to be dismissed and become a body of them selves; and so they were dismiste (about this time) , though very unwillingly.”

“But to touch this sadd matter, and handle things together that fell out afterwards. To prevent any further scatering from this place, and weakning of the same, it was thought best to give out some good faroms to spetiall persons, that would promise to live at Plimoth, and lickly to be helpfull to the church or comone-welth, and so tye the lands to Plimoth as farmes for the same; and ther they might keepe their catle and tillage by some servants, and retaine their dwellings here.”

“And so some spetiall lands were granted at a place generall, called Greens Harbor, wher no allotments had been in the former divission, a plase very weell meadowed, and fitt to keep and rear catle, good store.”

“But alass ! this remedy proved worse then the disease; for within a few years those that had thus gott footing ther rente themselves away, partly by force, and partly wearing the rest with importunitie and pleas of necessitie, so as they must either suffer them to goe, or live in continuall opposition and contention.”

“And others still, as they conceived them selves straitened, or to want accommodation, broak away under one pretence or other, thinking their owne conceived necessitie, and the example of others, awarrente sufficente for them.”

“And this, I fear, will be the mine of New-England, at least of the churches of God ther, and will provock the Lords displeasure against them.”  (Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, 151-153)

Mayflower Pilgrims Founded Duxbury

Some of the most influential men in the colony received grants in Duxbury (sometimes spelled Duxborough) and became its first leaders.  Captain Myles Standish, the military leader of the colony, lived in “the Nook,” an area now known as Standish Shore.

Elder William Brewster was for many years the religious leader of the colony.  He probably led services in Duxbury until it received its own minister in 1637.  John Alden was another important settler, Assistant Governor of the colony for fifty years.

At first, those who settled in Duxbury came to work their new farms just in the warmer months and returned to Plymouth during the winter.

Originally, the land farmed by the settlers at Plymouth was held in common to be commonly worked and the profits commonly used to repay the backers in London.

It was not long, however, before they began to build homes on their land, and soon requested permission from the colony to be set off as a separate community with their own church.  Duxbury was incorporated in 1637 (June 7, 1637, old style, or June 17, 1637, new style) and became the second town in the Plymouth colony.

Duxbury was primarily a farming community throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It’s quiet history in the 18th century was interrupted only by the Revolutionary War.  In the years leading up to the war, the community was solidly rebellious and had little tolerance for loyalists.

It is said that Duxbury was named by Myles Standish and that the name Duxbury, though spelled in various ways, probably came from Duxbury Hall, one of the country seats of the Standish family in England.  The Indian name for the area is Mattakeeset.  Duxbury is located on Cape Cod Bay, 35 miles south of Boston on the South Shore.

Click the following link to a general summary about Duxbury:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Duxbury-–-Plymouth-Colonys-Second-Town.pdf

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Wampum

“As an institution, money is almost infinitely adaptable. This helps to explain the wide variety of origins and the vast multitude of different kinds of objects used as primitive money.”

“These include: amber, beads, cowries, drums, eggs, feathers, gongs, hoes, ivory, jade, kettles, leather, mats, nails, oxen, pigs, quartz, rice, salt, thimbles, umiaks, vodka, wampum, yarns and zappozats, which are decorated axes – to name but a minute proportion of the enormous variety of primitive moneys… “

“… and none of this alphabetical list includes modern examples like gold, silver or copper coinage nor any of the 230 or so units of paper currency.”  (Davies)

When the Pilgrims arrived, the natives had money, but it was very different from the money Europeans were used to.

American Indians had been using money for millenia, and quite useful money it turned out to be for the newly arrived Europeans – despite the prejudice among some that only metal with the faces of their political leaders stamped on it constituted real money.

Worse, the New England natives used neither silver nor gold. Instead, they used the most appropriate money to be found in their environment – durable skeleton parts of their prey. Specifically, they used wampum, shells of the clam (venus mercenaria and its relatives), strung onto pendants. (Szabo)

“‘Peag’ is the Indian word for a string of beads and ‘wampum’ meant ‘white’, the most common colour of their money, hence the full title of their famous currency ‘wampumpeag’ is usually abbreviated to ‘wampum’.”  (Davies)

Clams were found only at the ocean, but wampum traded far inland. Sea-shell money of a variety of types could be found in tribes across the American continent.

Only a handful of tribes, such as the Narragansetts, specialized in manufacturing wampum, while hundreds of other tribes, many of them hunter-gatherers, used it. Wampum pendants came in a variety of lengths, with the number of beads proportional to the length. Pendants could be cut or joined to form a pendant of length equal to the price paid.  (Szabo)

Naturally wampum was most commonly used in what are now the coastal states from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the north to Florida and Louisiana in the south; but wampum spread inland also and was used by certain tribes right across the continent.

The powerful Iroquois amassed large quantities by way of tribute, though they lived far from the original source of wampum. The shells are mostly white but with a smaller deep purple rim. The scarcer ‘black’ or blue-black wampum was usually traded at double the price of the white.

The average individual piece of wampum was thus a cylindrical bead about half an inch or so long and between an eighth and a quarter inch in diameter, with a hole drilled lengthwise for stringing; but other shapes and sizes were not uncommon. Even the genuine highest-quality wampum became depreciated over time in quality as well as through increased quantity.

For normal currency purposes the wampum strings were either about 18 in. or 6ft long and were therefore usually reckoned in cubits and fathoms, but on occasions singly or in feet; they were eminently divisible. (Davies)

As an indication of the essential role wampum played in early colonial days even among the white settlers, it was made legal tender in a number of the original thirteen American colonies.

In 1637 Massachusetts declared white wampum legal tender at six beads a penny and black at three a penny, but only for sums up to one shilling.

Apparently this experiment succeeded, for the legal tender limit was raised to £2 in 1643, a substantial amount for those days and far exceeding the real value of our coinage limits today.

Although wampum ceased to be legal tender in New England in 1661, it still remained a popular currency in parts of North America for nearly 200 years subsequently, although the blanket and the beaverskin were strong competitors among the Indians of Canada.   (Davies)

Click the following link to a general summary about Wampum:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Wampum.pdf

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Old Comers

‘Old Comers’ appears to be a way of referring to those who arrived at Plymouth prior to any given point in time; however, eventually this term came to encompass all who were resident in Plymouth by 1627.  (Stratton)

The Pilgrims (although they did not call themselves that) were also referred to as the Saints, First Comers, Old Planters, the Planters, Ancient Brethren or Ancient Men).

Bradford usually called the Mayflower passengers “Old Comers.” (Stratton) In “the 1626 agreement between the London Adventurers and Allerton called him agent for the ‘rest of the Planters there’; however, these planters, the heads of each family then resident in Plymouth, were thereafter more usually called the ‘Purchasers.’ …”

“Though there might have been some looseness in the terms of the ‘Old Comers’ or ‘Old Planters’ in the beginning, ultimately they came to refer those residents in Plymouth by the 1627 Division of the Cattle, and the terms are virtually synonymous with the ‘Purchasers,’ though Old Comers/Planters might encompass all members of the families, and Purchaser only the head.”  (Stratton)

Bradford differentiates “Old Planters” and “New-Commers” as those who came before the 1623 ships.

“On the other hand  the old planters were affraid that their corne, when it was ripe, should be imparted to the new-commers, whose provissions which they brought with them they feared would fall short before the year wente aboute (as indeed it did).”

“They came to the Gov[erno]r and besought him that as it was before agreed that they should set come for their perticuler, and accordingly they had taken extraordinary pains ther aboute, that they might freely injoye the same, and they would not have a bitte of the victails now come, but waite till harvest for their owne, and let the new-commers injoye what they had brought; they would have none of it, excepte they could purchase any of it of them by bargaine or exchainge.” (Bradford, 323)

First Four Ships

The Plymouth colonists ultimately classified all those who arrived on the first four ships alike.  They were the first English settlers who arrived on the first four ships coming to Plymouth, Massachusetts – the Mayflower (November 11, 1620); the Fortune (November 9, 1621); and the Anne and the Little James, (June or July 1623).

Mayflower (November 11, 1620)

When the Mayflower first weighed anchor off Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, of the 102 passengers who had sailed from England one had died, William Butten, apprentice to Samuel Fuller, and one had been born, Oceanus Hopkins, and so there were still 102 as the result of one death and one birth.

While anchored off Cape Cod, four passengers died – Dorothy Bradford, James Chilton, Jasper More and Edward Thompson – and one more was born, Peregrine White. So by the time that the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620, there were 99 “first comers.” From December 21, 1620 through March 1621, William Bradford recorded the deaths of 44 more passengers. After the Mayflower left on its return journey to England on April 5, 1621, five more settlers died, including Governor John Carver and his wife, reducing the number of survivors to 50.  (Deetz)

Fortune (November 1621)

In the fall of 1621 the Fortune was the second English ship destined for Plymouth Colony in the New World, one year after the voyage of the Mayflower.  It was a much smaller ship, compared to the Mayflower, at 55 tons displacement, and about one-third the tonnage of the Mayflower.

It is believed that the majority of the passengers of the Fortune were gathered together in London by Thomas Weston and others of the London-based Merchant Adventurers; Fortune was to transport new settlers to the colony. It reached Cape Cod on November 9, 1621 and the colony itself in late-November.

Their leader was Robert Cushman who, in 1620, had been the Leiden agent in London for the Mayflower and Speedwell.  And although William Bradford stated that there were thirty-five persons on board Fortune, the names of only twenty-eight persons are noted as receiving lots credited to those arriving as noted in the 1623 Division of Land.

Per author Charles Banks, individual records show that sixteen of the passengers can definitely be assigned to London or districts of the city such as Stepney and Southwark. Another three passengers were from Leiden in Holland. Ten more passengers, whose origins cannot be determined, either died early or left the colony as determined by who was listed in the 1627 Division of Cattle.

Eighteen persons are known to have been unmarried, eight married, but emigrating without their families, and as far as can be determined, Mrs. Martha Ford may have been the only woman on the ship. Although it is possible some of the missing seven persons in the passenger count were wives.

The ship was unexpected by those in Plymouth colony and although it brought useful settlers, many of whom were young men, it brought no supplies, further straining the limited food resources of the colony.  The ship only stayed in the colony about three weeks, returning to England in December loaded with valuable furs and other goods.

Anne & the Little James (July 1623)

In the spring of 1623 about 90 passengers embarked in two small ships sailing from London to Plymouth Colony for the purpose of providing settlers and other colony support. These were the 140-ton supply ship Anne and the smaller, new 44-ton pinnace Little James which had been outfitted for military service.

They were financed by Thomas Weston’s investment group, the Merchant Adventurers, who also financed Mayflower in 1620 and Fortune in 1621.  After a three-month voyage, Anne arrived in Plymouth, on July 10, 1623 and Little James a week or ten days later.

Of the 90-odd passengers, there were about 60 men, women and children total in both ships, many being former English Separatist residents of Leiden, Holland, and with about 30 others being part of an independent emigrant group led by John Oldham. This later group had been promised a separate living situation in Plymouth apart from the main settlement.

After this voyage Anne was to return to its regular cargo shipping work and Little James was to remain in the colony for fishing, cargo and military service. Anne’s master was William Peirce and Little James had two young men in charge – Master John Bridges, master mariner, and a novice captain, Emmanuel Altham, a Merchant Adventurer.

Sixty of them were sponsored by the joint stock company, and therefore were obligated to work for the “common good” of the colony. But thirty others were under no such obligation, having paid their own expenses. They were referred to as “the particulars,” having come “on their particular.” The particulars were not sponsored by the core emigrant group and thus not required to work for the communal good of the Colony.

Bradford commented that of the sixty settlers who came to join the general body of settlers as distinct from those who came on their own particular, some were “very useful persons and became good members to the body; and some were the wives and children of such as were here already. And some were so bad as they were fain to be at charge to send them home again the next year”. (Bradford, p. 127).

Eight wives accompanied their husbands on these two ships, along with twelve children most brought over by their parents of at least two of whom were Patience and Fear Brewster, daughters of William and Mary Brewster, who had arrived on the Mayflower.

There are no separate passenger lists for each ship, as those that sailed in these ships were grouped together in records under Anne when the official land division was made in 1623 with assignment of acreage lots by name.

Click the following link to a general summary about Old Comers:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Old-Comers.pdf

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