In drawing the aforesaid Platform, the hand of Mr. Thomas Hooker, the famous minister of Hartford, was wanting, who had been not a little helpful in the former Synod, 1637, being, July the 7th, 1647, called to his rest and to receive his crown amongst those who have turned many to righteousness, and to shine as the stars forever and ever. Of whose eminent worth the less may be said here, considering what is ascribed to him by a reverend brother of his own order, in this following epitaph, wherein there is enough, if some do not think too much, said, for the setting forth his praise. EPITAPHIUM IN OBITUM R MI FRATRIS MRI. THO: HOOKERI. America, although she doth not boast (For that's repaid her, and much more beside, By one rich jewel, which th' Heavens did thence afford, Yet thinks she may into the catalogue come, Ez. ROGERS.' For piety, prudence, wisdom, zeal, and learning, and what else might make him serviceable in the place and time|| he lived in, he might be compared with those of greatest note. He needs no other praise than the fruits of his own labors in both Englands, which shall preserve an honorable and happy remembrance of him forever. August 25, 1649, put a period to the days of that fervent and powerful preacher of the Gospel, Mr. Thomas Shepard, the worthy pastor of the church of Christ at Cambridge. To him may be in his measure applied the words of David, "The zeal of thine house hath consumed me," for he died in the 44th year of his age. In whom was found the zeal, fervor, piety, and learning of an eminent, worthy preacher of the Gospel. 5. In one rich pearl, which Heaven did thence afford 7. Yet thinks, She in the catalogue may come. ' Rev. Ezekiel Rogers was the first minister of Rowley, where he died Jan. 23, 1661.—H. CHAP. LIX.1 General affairs of the Massachusetts, in New England, from 1651 to 1656. In the beginning of this lustre, viz. May the 7th, 1651, Mr. Endicot was again chosen Governor, and Mr. Dudley Deputy Governor, which order in the election of the chief rulers of that Colony was observed in the years 1652 and 1653. In the General Court of the year 1651, Boston growing populous, and many occasions thereby intervening that required the administration of justice oftener than the stated Courts of the County could well attend unto, the town was allowed the power of keeping a kind of Corporation Court by Commissioners chosen by the inhabitants. And whereas the people, inhabiting upon the south side of Pascataqua River, had resigned up their government to the Massachusetts, those on the other side in the Province of Maine were the same year, 1651, urged with the like necessity as the other were; for having run themselves aground in their government, and not well able to recover the stream again, they were willing to cast themselves upon the General Court of the Massachusetts, who, upon several considerations, past an order and declaration about their right and title thereunto, and ordered Mr. Bradstreet, Major Denison, and Captain Hathorne to treat with the gentlemen of the said Province about the surrender thereof, as in their best judgments and discretions they should think meet. On which account all the towns eastward of Pascataqua were, within the compass of the next two years, taken into the government of the Massachusetts in like manner. In the year 1652, Mr. Bradstreet, Mr. Symonds, Captain Wiggin, and Mr. Pendleton were sent as Commissioners2 to summon the inhabitants of Kittery to come in and own their subjection to the Massachusetts, as of right and proper interest belonging unto them. And being assembled together November 16th, that year, they submitted thereunto, their submission being subscribed by 1 LVIII in the MS.-H. Their Commission from the General Court was dated Oct. 28, 1652.-H. above forty of the inhabitants at the same time. The like was done at Agamenticus the 22d of the same month,' the place being afterward called York. In like manner in the year following, sc. 1653, Commissioners were sent from the Massachusetts to take the town of Wells into their government, as was done in the places last mentioned the year before. And the like also was done at Saco, July 5th of the same year, and their submission subscribed by sixteen of their inhabitants, who were the principal if not the greatest part of their number. Those of Cape Porpoise did the like about the same time, twelve of which place submitted thereunto. To all of these Eastern Plantations were granted, for their encouragement, larger privileges than to the common inhabitants of the Massachusetts, sc. all the privileges of the freemen, upon the taking the oath that belongeth thereunto; and for the clearing of the right and title of the Massachusetts to the said Province, some skilful mathematicians were ordered that year to run the north line of the Massachusetts Patent, according to the late interpretation of the bounds thereof; and the line was accordingly run October 13, 1653.3 And some gentlemen about Pascataqua did, in the year 1669, raise a considerable contribution for the advantage of the College, by way of gratuity for the kindness they received by the patronage of the Massachusetts government, sc. £60 per annum for seven years.* In the same year was liberty granted for several Plantations within the limits of the Massachusetts Colony, as at Northampton and Hadley upon Connecticut River, and at a pleasant place upon Merrimack River, called Chelmsford. Liberty also was granted for a township, at an Indian Plantation in the way towards Hadley, called by the inhabitants Lancaster. Several families had seated themselves there ever since the year 1647,6 but now by the addition of a convenient number of inhabitants they became a township. May 3, 1654, Mr. Bellingham was by the freemen in See the "Retourne of the Commissioners," with the names of those who took the oath of freemen, in Hazard, i. 575.-11. Ibid. 573-4, 576-7.-H. 3 Ibid. 564, 571, 591.-H. See the "Address of the town of Ports mouth," &c., in Farmer's Belknap, pp. 439-40.-H. 1653. Hadley was first settled in 1647.-H. And four years previous, viz. 1643. See Sav. Win. ii. 152, 161.-H. vited to accept of the Governor's place, and Mr. Endicot called by them to be Deputy. This year was the first time that the Laws of the Massachusetts, for the beter direction of the people, were ordered to be printed.1 And at this Court of Election Mr. Wheelwright, having given the Court and country satisfaction as to those things [which] were objected against him in the year 1636, was approved as a minister of the town of Hampton, where he had by permission preached some years before. At this Court, likewise, Mr. John Eliot, minister of Roxbury, that had heretofore by them been encouraged to go on with preaching the Gospel to the Indians, obtained several parcels of land for the Indians, that gave any sincere hopes for their embracing of the Christian religion, as at Hasanameset,* a place up into the woods beyond Medfield and Mendon, and at Puncapoag, beyond Dorchester, as well as §at§ Natick, near Dedham, mentioned before. At this time Mr. Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College, having entertained thoughts with himself for the resignation of his place, upon the account of some difference between him and some of the overseers, as being suspected for too much inclination to antipædobaptism, he had his liberty granted so to do, and the overseers took hold of the opportunity to invite Mr. Chauncey, of Scituate, to accept of the President's place, a man of great learning and worth, with incomparable diligence and labor in his study, which he held to the last, yet of the contrary extreme as to baptism, from his predecessor, it being his judgment not only to admit infants to baptism, but to wash or dip them all over; an opinion not tolerable at all seasons in a cold region, which made the notion less dangerous as to the spreading thereof, being altogether impracticable in so cold a country for the greatest part of the year. Thus are men apt to run into extremes, with Peter, who would either not be washed at all, or else over his whole body. In the last year of this lustre the government of the Massachusetts returned to Mr. Endicot, who missed not thereof to the end of his life, after this year; the *Grafton. ED. This must not be taken literally, for the Laws had been printed in 1649; reference is here made to the custom of publishing, at intervals, those laws which had been passed "since the books were printed." See Mass. Hist. Coll. XXVIII. 212-13.-H. Deputy's place in like manner remaining with Mr. Bellingham, till his turn came to be advanced to the highest place, after the decease of the forementioned gentleman. Two more Plantations or townships were this year1 granted, the one at Shashin, upon a river falling into Merrimack, called Billerica; the other higher above Concord, called Groton. Thus did the inhabitants of New England, that it might not be forgotten whence they had their original, imprint some remembrance of their former habitations in. England upon their new dwellings in America. CHAP. LX.2 A quarrel between the inhabitants of New Haven and the Dutch at Manhatoes; the Massachusetts not willing to engage therein; from 1651 to 1656. EVER since the uniting of the four Colonies of New England, in the year 1643, they always had, as an obligation, so a Christian inclination, mutually to assist and strengthen the hands each of other; yet they all this while enjoyed peace and tranquillity in a way of amicable intercourse with their neighbors on all sides. But in the year 1653 there arose an unhappy difference between the Colony of New Haven and the Dutch at Manhatoes, who had intercepted the trading of the other at Delaware with the Indians. And indeed the principal part of the inhabitants of New Haven had some thoughts of removing thither, if they should meet with encouragement suitable to so great a change. But the Dutch Governor, to prevent any such enterprize, took all opportunities to obstruct the proceeding therein, which occasioned much altercation amongst the Commissioners of the Colonies, so as they were constrained to adjourn their meetings from one place to another, before they could come to a settled conclusion; but at the last, those of New Haven were persuaded by reason and judgment, or else overruled by the vote of the rest of the Commissioners, to surcease their quarrel, and rather put up [with] a lesser injury of that nature, than engage themselves, their friends, 1 1655.-H. LIX in the MS.-H. 21 |