Mr. White, a non-conforming minister at Dorchester, formed an association of several gentlemen, who had imbibed puritanical opinions, for the purpose of conducting a colony to the bay of Massachusetts, and rendering it an asylum for the persecuted of his own persuasion. In prosecution of these views, a treaty was concluded with the council of Plymouth for the purchase of part of New England; Sir Henry Rosewell and others.and that corporation, in March 1627, sold to Sir Henry Rosewell and others, all that part of New England lying three miles to the south of Charles river, and three miles north of Merrimack river, and extending from the Atlantic to the South sea. A small number of planters and servants were, soon afterwards, dispatched under Endicot, who, in September, laid the foundation of Salem, the first permanent town in Massachusetts.[53]

The purchasers perceived their inability to accomplish the settlement of the extensive regions they had acquired, without the aid of more opulent partners. These were soon found in the capital; but they required that a new charter should be obtained from the crown, comprehending their names, which should confirm the grant to the council of Plymouth, and confer on the grantees the powers of government. So seldom is man instructed by the experience of others, that, disregarding the lessons furnished by Virginia, they likewise required that the supreme authority should be vested in persons residing in London. 1628The proprietors having acceded to these requisitions, application was made to Charles for a patent conforming to them, which issued on the 4th day of March, 1628.

This charter incorporated the grantees by the name of "The governor and company of Massachusetts bay in New England."

The whole executive power was vested in a governor, a deputy governor, and eighteen assistants; to be named, in the first instance, by the crown, and afterwards elected by the company. The governor, and seven, or more, of the assistants, were authorised to meet in monthly courts, for the dispatch of such business as concerned the company, or settlement. The legislative power was vested in the body of the proprietors, who were to assemble four times a year in person, under the denomination of the general court; and besides electing freemen, and the necessary officers of the company, were empowered to make ordinances for the good of the community, and the government of the plantation and its inhabitants; provided they should not be repugnant to the laws of England. Their lands were to be holden in free and common soccage; and the same temporary exemption from taxes, and from duties on exports and imports, which had been granted to the colony of Virginia, was accorded to them. As in the charter of Virginia, so in this, the colonists and their descendants were declared to be entitled to all the rights and privileges of natural born subjects.

The patent being obtained, the governor and council engaged with ardour in the duties assigned them. To support the expenses of a fresh embarkation, it was resolved that every person subscribing fifty pounds, should be entitled to two hundred acres of land as the first dividend. Five vessels sailed in May, carrying about two hundred persons, who reached Salem in June. At that place they found Endicot, to whom they brought a confirmation of his commission as governor. The colony consisted of three hundred persons, one hundred of whom removed to Charlestown.

Religion, which had stimulated them to remove from their native land, became the first object of their care in the country they had adopted. Being zealous puritans, they concurred in the institution of a church, establishing that form of policy, which has since been denominated independent. A confession of faith was drawn up to which the majority assented; and an association was formed in which they covenanted with the Lord, and with each other, to walk together in all his ways, as he should be pleased to reveal himself to them. Pastors, and other ecclesiastical officers, were chosen, who were installed into their sacred offices, by the imposition of the hands of the brethren.[54]

A church being thus formed, several were received as members who gave an account of their faith and hope as Christians; and those only were admitted into the communion, whose morals and religious tenets were approved by the elders.[55]

Pleased with the work of their hands, and believing it to be perfect, they could tolerate no difference of opinion. Just escaped from persecution, they became persecutors themselves. Some few of their number, attached to the ritual of the church of England, were dissatisfied with its total abolition; and, withdrawing from communion with the church, met apart, to worship God in the manner they deemed most proper. At the head of this small number were two of the first patentees, who were also of the council. 1629They were called before the governor, who, being of opinion that their non-conformity and conversation tended to sedition, sent them to England. The opposition ceased when deprived of its leaders.[56]

The following winter brought with it the calamities which must be uniformly sustained by the first emigrants into a wilderness, where the cold is severe, and the privations almost universal. In the course of it, nearly half their number perished, "lamenting that they did not live to see the rising glories of the faithful." The fortitude, however, of the survivors, was not shaken; nor were their brethren in England deterred from joining them. Religion supported the colonists under all their difficulties; and the intolerant spirit of the English hierarchy diminished, in the view of the puritans in England, the dangers and the sufferings to be encountered in America; and disposed them to forego every other human enjoyment, for the consoling privilege of worshipping the Supreme Being according to their own opinions. Many persons of fortune determined to seek in the new world that liberty of conscience which was denied them in the old; but, foreseeing the misrule inseparable from the residence of the legislative power in England, they demanded, as preliminary to their emigration, that the powers of government should be transferred to New England, and be exercised in the colony. The company had already incurred expenses for which they saw no prospect of a speedy reimbursement; and although they doubted the legality of the measure, were well disposed by adopting it, to obtain such important aid. Government transferred to Massachusetts bay.A general court was therefore convened, by whom it was unanimously resolved "that the patent should be transferred, and the government of the colony removed from London to Massachusetts bay." It was also agreed that the members of the corporation remaining in England, should retain a share in the trading stock and profits for the term of seven years.[57]

1630