WITH THEIR AGENTS IN ENGLAND. 73 Right dear friend and christian brother, Mr. Car- CHAP. ver, I salute you and yours in the Lord. V. Sept. 4. Sir, as for my own present condition, I doubt not 1618. but you well understand it by our brother Masterson,1 who should have tasted of the same cup, had his place of residence and his person been as well known as myself. Somewhat I have written to Mr. Cushman how the matter still continues. I have petitioned twice to Mr. sheriff, and once to my Lord Cook, and have used such reasons to move them to pity, that if they were not overruled by some others, I suppose I should have soon gained my liberty;-as that I was a man living by my credit, in debt to divers in our city, living in more than ordinary charges in a close and tedious prison; besides great rents abroad, all my business lying still, my own servant lying lame in the country, my wife being also great with child: and yet no answer until the Lords of His Majesty's Council gave consent. Howbeit, Mr. Blackwell, a man as deep in this action as I, was delivered at a cheaper rate with a great deal less ado, yea, with an addition of the Archbishop's blessing. I am sorry for Mr. Blackwell's weakness. I wish it may prove no worse; but yet he and some others of them were not sorry, but thought it was for the best that I was nominated; not because the Lord sanctifies evil to 'Richard Masterson was one of Robinson's church, and his name is subscribed, with others, to a letter written from Leyden to Bradford and Brewster, Nov. 30, 1625, nine months after their pastor's death. On his coming over to Plymouth, he was chosen a deacon of the church. In the church records he is described as "a holy man and an experienced saint, having been good, but that the action 74 4. THE PILGRIMS OBTAIN A PATENT CHAP. was good, yea, for the best. One reason I well V. remember he used was, because this trouble would 1618. increase the Virginia plantation; that now people Sept. began more generally to incline to go; and if he had not nominated some such as I, he had not been free, being it was known that many citizens, besides themselves, were there. I expect an answer shortly what they intend concerning me. I purpose to write to some other of you, by whom you shall know the certainty. Thus not having further at present to acquaint you withal, commending myself to your prayers I cease, and commit you and us all to the Lord. Your friend and brother, in bonds, SABIN STARSMORE.1 From my Chamber in Wood-street Counter, Sept. 4th, 1618. But thus much by the way which may be of good use. I have been the larger in these things, that the rising generation may seriously take notice of the many difficulties their poor leaders underwent in the first enterprises towards coming into New England. 1619. But at last, after all these things, and their long attendance, they had a patent granted them, and confirmed under the Company's seal. But these divisions There was a Mr. Staismore among the associates of Henry Jacob, who, after having conferred with Mr. Robinson, in Leyden, laid the foundation of an Independent or Congregational Church in England in the year 1616. See Neal's Puritans, i. 476. Some further account of Jacob will be given hereafter in a Note to Bradford's Dialogue. The Compter in Wood Street, erected in 1555, was one of the prison-houses pertaining to the sheriffs of London. Stow's Survey of London, p. 394, (folio.) 3 Morton says, in his Memorial, p. 22, that they "obtained letters patent for the northern parts of Virginia, of King James, of famous memory." He confounds the king with the Virginia Company. Dudley makes the same mistake in his Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, in Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 37. Oldmixon, i. 29, errs in saying that X FROM THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. V. 75 and distractions had shaken off many of their pre- CHAP. "Mr. Brewster made an agreement note. The word company I restore from Hubbard, p. 47. 'Nothing is known of John Wincob. Baylies, in his Memoir of Plymouth, i. 17, errs in calling his Christian name Jacob. It was probably to avoid notoriety and escape suspicion, that the patent was taken out in the name of an obscure individual, rather than in the name of the Earl of Lincoln, whose grandfather, Henry, had been one of the Council of the Virginia Company, established by its second charter in 1609. I suppose that in consequence of the Leyden people being out of the realm, the patent would not be granted in any of their names. See Stith, App. p. 16; Collins's Peerago, ii. 162. The Countess of Lincoln here mentioned was Elizabeth, the daugh Y ter of Sir Henry Knevet, and the a lady of great piety and virtue," "She 76 V. THE PATENT IS SENT OVER TO LEYDEN. CHAP. made use of this patent, which had cost them so much labor and charge; as by the sequel will appear.1 16 19. This patent being sent over for them to view and consider, as also the passages about the propositions between them and such merchants and friends as should either go or adventure with them, and espccially with them on whom they did chiefly depend for shipping and means, whose proffers had been large, they were requested to fit and prepare themselves with all speed. A right emblem it may be of the uncertain things of this world, that when men have toiled themselves, they vanish into smoke. mentioned by Peter Martyr, " per- "Ile tried To live without her, liked it not, and died." The "right honorable and approved virtuous lady, Bridget, Countess of Lincoln," to whom Dudley addressed his letter of March 12, 1631, was the wife of Theophilus, the son of the Countess mentioned in the text, and the daughter of Viscount Saye and Sele. See Collins's Peerage, ii. 163; Burke's Peerage, CLINTON and NEWCASTLE; Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, ii. 272; Savage's Winthrop, i. 34; Hutchinson's Mass. i. 15, 17; Mather's Magnalia, i. 71, 126; Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 36, 40; Eden's translation of Peter Martyr's Decades, p. 84, (ed. 1577.) 2 The whole of this paragraph is contained, almost word for word, in Hubbard's History, p. 47, which is conclusive proof that he had seen Bradford's History. See Note on page 58. Hubbard says, p. 50, "that a patent, as is afore said, was obtained, is published in print, and aflirmed by such as yet survive of the first planters; but where it is, or how it came to be lost, is not known to any that belong to the said colony." Hubbard wrote his History before 1682. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. p. iii. — Grahame, i. 410, errs in asserting that Hubbard's History has never been published; and also in stating that Gov. Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony has been published. 2 Prince, p. 155, quoting from Gov. Bradford's MS. history, inserts after consider, "with several proposals for their transmigration, made by Mr. Thomas Weston, of London, merchant, and other friends and merchants as should either," &c. THE PILGRIMS KEEP A FAST. 77 V. xxiii. 3, 4. Upon a receipt of these things by one of their mes- CHAP. sengers, they had a solemn meeting and a day of humiliation, to seek the Lord for his direction. And 1620. their pastor took this text. "And David's men said 1 Sam. unto him, See, we be afraid here in Judah. How much more, if we come to Keilah, against the host of the Philistines. Then David asked counsel of the Lord again." From which text he taught many things very aptly, and befitting their present occasion and condition, to strengthen them against their fears and perplexities, and encouraging them in their resolutions: [and then conclude how many and who should prepare to go first; for all that were willing could not get ready quickly. The greater number being to stay, require their pastor to tarry with them; their elder, Mr. Brewster, to go with the other; those who go first to be an absolute church of themselves, as well as those that stay; with this proviso, that as any go over or return, they shall be reputed as mcmbers, without further dismission or testimonial; and those who tarry, to follow the rest as soon as they can. Winslow, in his Brief Narration "the says, youngest and strongest part to go; and they that went should freely offer themselves." The Church at Plymouth thus became the First Independent or Congregational Church in America. Of course the statement of Holmes in his accurate Annals of America, i. 160, that "the adventurers and their brethren remaining in Holland were to continue to be one church," is incorrect; and the position of Upham, in his eloquent Century Lecture, at Salem in 1829, that the first church in Salem is "the First American Congregational Church,' cannot be maintained. Even if the first colonists 1 2 had not been "an absolute church |