[85]The Leventhorpes were neighbors and close friends of the Althams. Sir Edward Altham married one of Sir John’s daughters. Sir John Fowle had married another daughter. “My brother Thomas” was the son and heir of Sir John Leventhorpe. Mary Leventhorpe was another daughter.
[86]Margaret Wolley at least had him in her will, proved in 1635, eight months before Altham’s death.
[87]Mr. Denn was rector in Latton, a man of Puritanical leanings. Stracy was a tenant of the Althams; Mr. Bland, a minister and family friend; Watson, a London gunsmith; Wells, a tenant of the Althams.
[88]James Sherley, goldsmith and treasurer of the Company of Adventurers.
[89]On this voyage, Altham went as far as the Narragansett Indians; that is, at least to western Rhode Island of today.
[90]Before experience showed the falsity of the idea, promoters of colonies in America thought of the settlements as glorified trading posts. This plan did work in Asia and logically ought to have in America if, as men like Altham or other Adventurers thought, profit was to be gained by trade and farming be only a spare-time adjunct.
[91]Not all went back. Nor was the damage so great; three or four houses burned down. The common store house and its contents were saved by means of good organization and wet cloths, although the fire started in an adjoining shed. Bradford said the blaze was started by some sailors from a ship in the service of the Council for New England. The men, who wanted a cheerful atmosphere for a carousal, built a big fire which may have gone out of control. Evidence also turned up to show that the storehouse was deliberately lit. Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 136-137.
Furthermore, the town was more than restored quite soon. Captain John Smith printed a description of Plymouth in 1624 which, in addition to information about the government and economy of the settlement, reported that “At New Plymouth is about 180 persons, some cattle and goats, but many swine and poultry; thirty-two dwelling houses, whereof seven were burnt the last winter, and the value of five hundred pounds in other goods. The town is impaled about half a mile in compass. In the town upon a high mount they have a fort well built with wood, loam and stone, where is planted their ordnance; also a fair watchtower, partly framed, for the sentinel.” This passage, in original spelling, may be found in “Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles,” edition of 1624, reprinted in Edward Arber and A. G. Bradley (eds.), Travels and Works of Captain John Smith (1910), II, 782.
[92]Plymouth. The ship was anchored outside Plymouth harbor when the storm blew up and almost drove her on the flats called Brown’s Islands.
[93]Englishmen of the seventeenth century thought life barely possible without beer.