[FN] Mass. His. Coll.
One of the Wollaston crew, mentioned by Prince, in 1625, as having been a kind of pettifogger in England, was Thomas Morton. This person became a notable disturber of the peace; cheating the Indians in trade, and spending the profits with his companions in rioting; drinking, as the annalist just cited specifies, "ten pound worth of wine and spirits in the morning," besides setting up a may-pole for the Indian women to drink and dance about, "with worser practices."
But although Thomas changed the name of Wollaston to Merry Mount, [FN] his jollity was not to last forever. Mr. Endecott, of the Massachusetts Company, who landed at Salem in the summer of 1628, visited Master Morton within two months from his arrival, and changing Merry Mount to Mount Dagon, took active measures for correcting that riotous settlement. These were not entirely successful, and even when Morton was at length arrested and sent to England for punishment, he was not only liberated, but sent back again: "upon which," as Prince writes, "he goes to his old nest at Merry Mount." This was in 1629. In the summer of the next year, the Massachusetts colonists came over with Winthrop and Dudley; and as early as September of that season, we find the following order taken upon Master Morton's case by the Court of Assistants:—
[FN] Prince's Annals, 1625.
"Ordered, that Master Thomas Morton of Mount Wollaston shall presently be set in the bilbows, and after sent prisoner to England by the ship called the Gift; that all his goods be seized to defray the charge of his transportation, payments of his debts, and to give satisfaction to the Indians for a canoe he took unjustly from them; and that his house be burnt down to the ground in sight of the Indians, for their satisfaction for many wrongs he has done them."
If this summary course had been taken with Weston and his banditti, there might have been, as we shall see, the saving of the lives of many innocent men. If it could not be taken by the English, who were appealed to, some allowance at least might have been made for those who were finally compelled to assume the administration of justice.
In the case of Chickatabot, though not in all, such allowance was made. It also appears, that no evil consequences arose from this policy, but much the reverse. The sachem was uniformly the more ready to give all the satisfaction in his power, and no doubt partly because it was rather requested of him than required. When the Indians were said to be plotting against the English in 1632, and much apprehension was excited in consequence, "the three next Sagamores were sent for," says Winthrop, "who came presently to the Governor," and this is the last we hear of the matter. Chickatabot must have been one of them, and he explained away the causes of suspicions at once. Pursuing this course, the Massachusetts Government continued upon good terms with him until his death, which was occasioned by the prevalent epidemic, in the latter part of 1633.
His descendants, to the third generation at least, several of whom were persons of note, followed his own peaceful and friendly example. Among the Suffolk records, there is still to be seen, a quitclaim deed from his grandson Josias,—of Boston, the islands in the harbor, &c. "to the proprietated inhabitants of Boston."