After this encounter, which happened in 1628, we have no particular account of Cap

66

mouth people since their reconciliation, that the prisoner was delivered to his charge. Mr. Endecott arrived in August, and very soon made his visit to the unruly people at Mount Wollaston. In August, 1629, Morton returned, being employed by Mr. Allerton as his scribe, which gave great offence. Mr. Allerton was required to dismiss him. Upon which," says Governor Bradford, "he goes to his old nest at Merry Mount." In September, 1631, Governor Winthrop having arrived, Morton was adjudged to be "imprisoned till he were sent into England, and his house burned down for his many injuries offered to the Indians, and other misdemeanours."-Winthr. Jour., 20. He was sent to England soon afterward in the ship Whale. [In 1632 he published a "scurrilous book," entitled "New English Canaan, or new Canaan, containing an Abstract of New-England, composed in three bookes." In the titlepage, he styles himself "of Clifford's Inn, Gent.," and says it was written " upon ter yeares knowledge and experiment of the country." This work has been very rare, but has been republished in Force's Historical Tracts, vol. ii.] That part of the book which relates to the Plymouth planters is full of invective and misrepresentation, calculated to gain a degree of indulgence, however, with some readers, from the air of pleasantry he adopts. He abounds in the vulgar wit of nicknames: Standish he calls Captain Shrimp; Endecott is styled Captain Littleworth; Mr. Fuller is Dr. Noddy. His letter to his friend Jeffries in 1634, published in Hazard's Historical Collections, and in Hutchinson's History, i., 35, shows the taste and temper of the man, and his inveterate resentment against the New-England plantations and their leadThe name of the ship [the Whale] in which he was conveyed from Boston to England exercises his punning genius. To this he alludes in his letter to Jeffries: " Now, Jonas being set ashore, may safely cry, Repent, ye cruel shipmates, there are but 110 days." The party which arrested him he calls the Nine

ers.

tain Standish. He is not mentioned in the account of the Pequot war in 1637. He was chosen one of the magistrates or assistants of Plymouth Colony as long as he lived. As he advanced in years, he was much af flicted with the stone and the strangury: he died in 1656, being then very old, at Duxbury, near Plymouth, where he had a tract of land, which to this day is known by the name of Captain's Hill.*

Worthies of New Canaan, and affects to represent the name Merry Mount as a blundering acceptation of Mare Mount.

His last return to New-England was in 1643. Hutchinson says that he was called to account for the letter to Jeffries, as well as for his book [having been kept in prison about a year.Winthrop's Journal, ii., 192]; that he was fined £100, which he was unable to pay, and that nothing but his old age [Winthrop says, "being old and crazy"] saved him from the whip ping-post. [Winthrop, l. c., adds, that, having been set at liberty, he "went to Acomenticus (York), and, living there poor and despised, he died within two years after."]—H.]

* [Judge Davis, to whose researches we are already so largely indebted, has collected probably all that can be ascer tained of this "primitive hero." We copy the greater part of his note on Morton's Memorial, p. 262.

"Captain Standish was one of the first settlers of Duxbury, but resided occasionally at Plymouth, especially in the winter months. Dr. Belknap observes that we have no particular ac count of him after his seizure of Morton at Merry Mount in 1628, and that he is not mentioned in the account of the Pequod war in 1637. Had the Plymouth troops, which were in preparation at that crisis, been employed, there is no doubt Standish would have been at their head; but, as is related [Morton], VOL. III.-N

He had one son, Alexander, who died in Duxbury. The late Dr. Wheelock, founder

p. 188, their march was countermanded. In 1645, when warlike movements were commenced against the Narragansets, Standish commanded the Plymouth troops.-[Ib., p. 203, note.] In 1653, when hostilities with the Dutch at Manhattan were apprehended, a council of war was appointed in Plymouth Colony, of which Standish was one. Warrants were issued for the impressment of sixty men, and Standish was appointed to command them. It thus appears that he continued active in military employments, on every necessary occasion, until within three years of his death. He was uniformly one of the board of As

sistants.

"After the death of his wife [Rose, January 29.-Prince, 184], 1621, he soon married again. In the assignment of lands in 1623, the name of Mrs. Standish is on the list. We know not the previous name of the lady, but it appears she came in the ship Ann. In 1625, when the cattle were divided, he stands at the head of the third lot, with his wife Barbara.-[Morton's Memorial, 382.] Charles, Alexander, and John, his children, are associated with him in that assignment. Alexander married Sarah Alden, daughter of John Alden.

"The Rev. Timothy Alden, Jun., in his Collection of Epitaphs (vol. iii., 265), gives an amusing traditionary anecdote relative to the connubial pursuits of Captain Standish and his friend John Alden. The lady who had gained the captain's affections is said to have been Priscilla Mullins, daughter of William Mullins. John Alden was sent to make proposals in behalf of Standish. The messenger, though a Pilgrim, was then young and comely, and the lady, with perfect naïveté, expressed her preference by the question, Prithee, John, why do you not speak for yourself? The captain's hopes were blasted, and the frank overture soon ended in the marriage of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, from whom, we are informed, are descended 'all of the name Alden in the United States.' The captain, it is added,

of Dartmouth College, and Mr. Kirkland, missionary to the Indians, were descended from him. One of his grandsons was in possession of his coat of mail, which is now supposed to be lost; but his sword is preserv ed in the cabinet of the Historical Society, of which one of his descendants, John Thornton Kirkland, is a member. His name is still venerated, and the merchants of Plymouth and Boston have named their ships after him. His posterity chiefly reside in several towns of the county of Plymouth.

never forgave his friend till the day of his death. As he was so soon afterward united to another lady of his choice, we may hope that the traditionary account of his inveterate resentment has been exaggerated.

"This anecdote has often been repeated in the old colony in fireside chat about the Pilgrims, but with circumstances which would refer the incident to a later period."-H.J

XXIV. JOHN WINTHROP,

FIRST GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS.

THIS worthy gentleman was descended from a family remarkable for its attachment to the reformed religion from the earliest period of the Reformation. His grandfather, Adam Winthrop, was an eminent lawyer and lover of the Gospel in the reign of Henry VIII., and brother to a memorable friend of the Reformation in the reign of Mary I., in whose hands the martyr Philpot left his pa pers, which make a considerable part of the History of the Martyrs. His father, Adam Winthrop, was a gentleman of the same profession and character. Governor Winthrop was born at the family-seat at Groton, in Suffolk, June 12, 1587,* and was bred to the law, though he had a very strong inclination to theological studies. At the age of eighteen he was made a justice of the peace, and his virtues became conspicuous. He was ex

* [This date is given by Mather and others. There was, perhaps, some clerical error.-See Savage's note to Winthrop's Journal, i., 63, and ii., 338, from which it appears that he was born January 12th, 1588.—H.]