Lyon Gardiner Tyler - England in America, 1580 to 1652

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ENGLAND IN AMERICA

1580-1652

By

Lyon Gardiner Tyler, LL.D.

J. & J. Harper Editions
Harper & Row, Publishers
New York and Evanston

1904 by Harper & Brothers.

[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1552-1618). From an engraving by
Robinson after a painting by Zucchero.]

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xiii

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xix

I. GENESIS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION (1492-1579) 3

II. GILBERT AND RALEIGH COLONIES (1583-1602) 18

III. FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA (1602-1608) 34

IV. GLOOM IN VIRGINIA (1608-1617) 55

V. TRANSITION OF VIRGINIA (1617-1640) 76

VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF VIRGINIA (1634-1652) 100

VII. FOUNDING OF MARYLAND (1632-1650) 118

VIII. CONTENTIONS IN MARYLAND (1633-1652) 134

IX. FOUNDING OF PLYMOUTH (1608-1630) 149

X. DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PLYMOUTH (1621-1643) 163

XI. GENESIS OF MASSACHUSETTS (1628-1630) 183

XII. FOUNDING OF MASSACHUSETTS (1630-1642) 196

XIII. RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS (1631-1638) 210

XIV. NARRAGANSETT AND CONNECTICUT SETTLEMENTS (1635-1637) 229

XV. FOUNDING OF CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN (1637-1652) 251

XVI. NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE (1653-1658) 266

XVII. COLONIAL NEIGHBORS (1643-1652) 282

XVIII. THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION (1643-1654) 297

XIX. EARLY NEW ENGLAND LIFE 318

XX. CRITICAL ESSAY ON AUTHORITIES 328

INDEX 341

MAPS

ROANOKE ISLAND, JAMESTOWN, AND ST. MARY'S
(1584-1632) _facing_ 34

CHART OF VIRGINIA, SHOWING INDIAN AND
EARLY ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN 1632 76

VIRGINIA IN 1652 99

MARYLAND IN 1652 133

NEW ENGLAND (1652) _facing_ 196

MAINE IN 1652 265

NEW SWEDEN AND NEW NETHERLAND 296

[Transcriber's Note: This text retains original spellings. Also,
superscripted abbreviations or contractions are indicated by the
use of a caret (^), such as w^th (with).]

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Some space has already been given in this series to the English and
their relation to the New World, especially the latter half of
Cheyney's _European Background of American History_, which deals with
the religious, social, and political institutions which the English
colonists brought with them; and chapter v. of Bourne's _Spain in
America_, describing the Cabot voyages. This volume begins a detailed
story of the English settlement, and its title indicates the
conception of the author that during the first half-century the
American colonies were simply outlying portions of the English nation,
but that owing to disturbances culminating in civil war they had the
opportunity to develop on lines not suggested by the home government.

The first two chapters deal with the unsuccessful attempts to plant
English colonies, especially by Gilbert and Raleigh. These beginnings
are important because they proved the difficulty of planting colonies
through individual enterprise. At the same time the author brings out
clearly the various motives for colonization--the spirit of adventure,
the desire to enjoy a new life, and the intent to harm the commerce of
the colonies of Spain.

In chapters iii. to vi. the author describes the final founding of the
first successful colony, Virginia, and emphasizes four notable
characteristics of that movement. The first is the creation of
colonizing companies (a part of the movement described in its more
general features by Cheyney in his chapters vii. and viii.). The
second is the great waste of money and the awful sacrifice of human
life caused by the failure of the colonizers to adapt themselves to
the conditions of life in America. That the people of Virginia should
be fed on grain brought from England, should build their houses in a
swamp, should spend their feeble energies in military executions of
one another is an unhappy story made none the pleasanter by the
knowledge that the founders of the company in England were spending
freely of their substance and their effort on the colony. The third
element in the growth of Virginia is the introduction of the staple
crop, always in demand, and adapted to the soil of Virginia. Tobacco,
after 1616, speedily became the main interest of Virginia, and without
tobacco it must have gone down. A fourth characteristic is the early
evidence of an unconquerable desire for self-government, brought out
in the movements of the first assembly of 1619 and the later colonial
government: here we have the germ of the later American system of
government.

The founding of the neighboring colony of Maryland (chapters vii. and
viii.) marks the first of the proprietary colonies; it followed by
twenty-five years and had the advantage of the unhappy experience of
Virginia and of very capable management. The author shows how little
Maryland deserves the name of a Catholic colony, and he develops the
Kent Island episode, the first serious boundary controversy between
two English commonwealths in America.

To the two earliest New England colonies are devoted five chapters
(ix. to xiii.), which are treated not as a separate episode but as
part of the general spirit of colonization. Especial attention is paid
to the development of popular government in Massachusetts, where the
relation between governor, council, and freemen had an opportunity to
work itself out. Through the transfer of the charter to New England,
America had its first experience of a plantation with a written
constitution for internal affairs. The fathers of the Puritan
republics are further relieved of the halo which generations of
venerating descendants have bestowed upon them, and appear as human
characters. Though engaging in a great and difficult task, and while
solving many problems, they nevertheless denied their own fundamental
precept of the right of a man to worship God according to the dictates
of his own conscience.

Chapters xiv. to xvi. describe the foundation of the little
settlements in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Haven, New Hampshire,
and Maine; and here we have an interesting picture of little towns for
a time standing quite independent, and gradually consolidating into
commonwealths, or coalescing with more powerful neighbors. Then follow
(chapters xvii. and xviii.) the international and intercolonial
relations of the colonies, and especially the New England
Confederation, the first form of American federal government.

A brief sketch of the conditions of social life in New England
(chapter xix.) brings out the strong commercial spirit of the people
as well as their intense religious life and the narrowness of their
social and intellectual status. The bibliographical essay is
necessarily a selection from the great literature of early English
colonization, but is a conspectus of the most important secondary
works and collections of sources.

The aim of the volume is to show the reasons for as well as the
progress of English colonization. Hence for the illustration Sir
Walter Raleigh has been chosen, as the most conspicuous colonizer of
his time. The freshness of the story is in its clear exposition of the
terrible difficulties in the way of founding self-sustaining
colonies--the unfamiliar soil and climate, Indian enemies, internal
dissensions, interference by the English government, vague and
conflicting territorial grants. Yet out of these difficulties, in
forty-five years of actual settlement, two southern and six or seven
northern communities were permanently established, in the face of the
opposition and rivalry of Spain, France, and Holland. For this task
the editor has thought that President Tyler is especially qualified,
as an author whose descent and historical interest connect him both
with the northern and the southern groups of settlements.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

This book covers a period of a little more than three-quarters of a
century. It begins with the first attempt at English colonization in
America, in 1576, and ends with the year 1652, when the supremacy of
Parliament was recognized throughout the English colonies. The
original motive of colonization is found in English rivalry with the
Spanish power; and the first chapter of this work tells how this
motive influenced Gilbert and Raleigh in their endeavors to plant
colonies in Newfoundland and North Carolina. Though unfortunate in
permanent result, these expeditions familiarized the people of England
with the country of Virginia--a name given by Queen Elizabeth to all
the region from Canada to Florida--and stimulated the successful
settlement at Jamestown in the early part of the seventeenth century.
With the charter of 1609 Virginia was severed from North Virginia, to
which Captain Smith soon gave the name of "New England"; and the story
thereafter is of two streams of English emigration--one to Virginia
and the other to New England. Thence arose the Southern and Northern
colonies of English America, which, more than a century beyond the
period of this book, united to form the great republic of the United
States.

The most interesting period in the history of any country is the
formative period; and through the mass of recently published original
material on America the opportunity to tell its story well has been of
late years greatly increased. In the preparation of this work I have
endeavored to consult the original sources, and to admit secondary
testimony only in matters of detail. I beg to express my indebtedness
to the authorities of the Harvard College Library and the Virginia
Library for their courtesy in giving me special facilities for the
verification of my authorities.

LYON GARDINER TYLER.

ENGLAND IN AMERICA

CHAPTER I

GENESIS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION

(1492-1579)

Up to the last third of the sixteenth century American history was the
history of Spanish conquest, settlement, and exploration. Except for
the feeble Portuguese settlements in Brazil and at the mouth of the La
Plata, from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, around the eastern and
western coasts of South America, and northward to the Gulf of
California, all was Spanish--main-land and islands alike. The subject
of this volume is the bold assertion of England to a rivalry in
European waters and on American coasts.

How came England, with four millions of people, to enter into a
quarter of a century of war with the greatest power in Europe? The
answer is that Spain was already decaying, while England was instinct
with the spirit of progress and development. The contrast grew
principally out of the different attitude of the two nations towards
the wealth introduced into Europe from America, and towards the
hitherto established religion of the Christian world. While the
treasure from Mexico and Peru enabled Charles V. and Philip II. to
carry on great wars and to establish an immense prestige at the
different courts of Europe, it created a speculative spirit which drew
their subjects away from sober employment. For this reason
manufacturing and agriculture, for which Spain was once so
distinguished, were neglected; and the kingdom, thinned of people and
decreasing in industry, grew dependent for supplies upon the
neighboring countries.[1]

On the other hand, the treasures which destroyed the manufactures of
Spain indirectly stimulated those of England. Without manufactures,
Spain had to employ her funds in buying from other countries her
clothing, furniture, and all that was necessary for the comfort of her
citizens at home or in her colonies in America. In 1560 not above a
twentieth part of the commodities exported to America consisted of
Spanish-manufactured fabrics: all the rest came through the foreign
merchants resident in Spain.[2]

Similar differences arose from the attitude of the two kingdoms to
religion. Philip loved to regard himself as the champion of the
Catholic church, and he encouraged it to extend its authority in Spain
in the most absolute manner. Spain became the favored home of the
Inquisition, and through its terrors the church acquired complete
sovereignty over the minds of the people. Since free thought was
impossible, private enterprise gave way to mendicancy and indolence.
It was not long before one-half of the real estate of the realm fell
into the hands of the clergy and monastic orders.[3]

In England, on the other hand, Henry VIII.'s quarrel with the pope in
1534 gave Protestantism a foothold; and the suppression of the
convents and monasteries in 1537-1539 put the possibility of the
re-establishment of papal power out of question. Thus, while the body
of the people remained attached to the Catholic church under Edward
VI. and Queen Mary, the clergy had no great power, and there was
plenty of room for free speech. Under Elizabeth various causes
promoted the growth of Protestantism till it became a permanent ruling
principle. Since its spirit was one of inquiry, private enterprise,
instead of being suppressed as in Spain, spread the wings of
manufacture and commerce.[4]

Thus, collision between the two nations was unavoidable, and their
rivalry enlisted all the forces of religion and interest. Under such
influences thousands of young Englishmen crossed the channel to fight
with William of Orange against the Spaniards or with the Huguenots
against the Guises, the allies of Spain. The same motives led to the
dazzling exploits of Hawkins, Drake, and Cavendish, and sent to the
sea scores of English privateers; and it was the same motives which
stimulated Gilbert in 1576, eighty-four years after the Spaniards had
taken possession, in his grand design of planting a colony in America.
The purpose of Gilbert was to cut into Spanish colonial power, as was
explained by Richard Hakluyt in his _Discourse on Western Planting_,
written in 1584: "If you touche him [the king of Spain] in the Indies,
you touche the apple of his eye; for take away his treasure, which is
_neruus belli_, and which he hath almoste oute of his West Indies, his
olde bandes of souldiers will soone be dissolved, his purposes
defeated, his power and strengthe diminished, his pride abated, and
his tyranie utterly suppressed."[5]

Still, while English colonization at first sprang out of rivalry with
Spain and was late in beginning, England's claims in America were
hardly later than Spain's. Christopher Columbus at first hoped, in his
search for the East Indies, to sail under the auspices of Henry VII.
Only five years later, in 1497, John Cabot, under an English charter,
reached the continent of North America in seeking a shorter route by
the northwest; and in 1498, with his son Sebastian Cabot, he repeated
his visit. But nothing important resulted from these voyages, and
after long neglect their memory was revived by Hakluyt,[6] only to
support a claim for England to priority in discovery.

Indeed, England was not yet prepared for the work of colonization. Her
commerce was still in its infancy, and did not compare with that of
either Italy, Spain, or Portugal. Neither Columbus nor the Cabots were
Englishmen, and the advantages of commerce were so little understood
in England about this period that the taking of interest for the use
of money was prohibited.[7] A voyage to some mart "within two days'
distance" was counted a matter of great moment by merchant
adventurers.[8]

During the next half-century, only two noteworthy attempts were made
by the English to accomplish the purposes of the Cabots: De Prado
visited Newfoundland in 1527 and Hore in 1535,[9] but neither of the
voyages was productive of any important result. Notwithstanding,
England's commerce made some advancement during this period. A
substantial connection between England and America was England's
fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland; though used by other European
states, over fifty English ships spent two months in every year in
those distant waters, and gained, in the pursuit, valuable maritime
experience. Probably, however, the development of trade in a different
quarter had a more direct connection with American colonization, for
about 1530 William Hawkins visited the coast of Guinea and engaged in
the slave-trade with Brazil.[10]

Suddenly, about the middle of the century, English commerce struck out
boldly; conscious rivalry with Spain had begun. The new era opens
fitly with the return of Sebastian Cabot to England from Spain, where
since the death of Henry VII. he had served Charles V. In 1549, during
the third year of Edward VI., he was made grand pilot of England with
an annual stipend of L166 13s. 4d.[11] He formed a company for the
discovery of the northeast and the northwest passages, and in 1553 an
expedition under Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor penetrated
the White Sea and made known the wonders of the Russian Empire.[12]
The company obtained, in 1554, a charter of incorporation under the
title of the "Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Lands,
Territories, Isles, Dominions, and Seignories Unknown or Frequented by
Any English." To Russia frequent voyages were thereafter made. A few
days after the departure of Willoughby's expedition Richard Eden
published his _Treatyse of the Newe India_; and two years later
appeared his _Decades of the New World_, a book which was very popular
among all classes of people in England. Cabot died not many years
later, and Eden, translator and compiler, attended at his bedside, and
"beckons us with something of awe to see him die."[13]

During Mary's reign (1553-1558) the Catholic church was restored in
England, and by the influence of the queen, who was married to King
Philip, the expanding commerce of England was directed away from the
Spanish colonial possessions eastward to Russia, Barbary, Turkey, and
Persia. After her death the barriers against free commerce were thrown
down. With the incoming of Elizabeth, the Protestant church was
re-established and the Protestant refugees returned from the
continent; and three years after her succession occurred the first of
those great voyages which exposed the weakness of Spain by showing
that her rich possessions in America were practically unguarded and
unprotected.

In 1562 Sir John Hawkins, following in the track of his father William
Hawkins, visited Guinea, and, having loaded his ship with negroes,
carried them to Hispaniola, where, despite the Spanish law restricting
the trade to the mother-country, he sold his slaves to the planters,
and returned to England with a rich freight of ginger, hides, and
pearls. In 1564 Hawkins repeated the experiment with greater success;
and on his way home, in 1565, he stopped in Florida and relieved the
struggling French colony of Laudonniere, planted there by Admiral
Coligny the year before, and barbarously destroyed by the Spaniards
soon after Hawkins's departure.[14] The difference between our age and
Queen Elizabeth's is illustrated by the fact that Hawkins, instead of
being put to death as a pirate for engaging in the slave-trade, was
rewarded by the queen on his return with a patent for a coat of arms.

In 1567 Hawkins with nine ships revisited the West Indies, but this
time ill-fortune overtook him. Driven by bad weather into the harbor
of San Juan de Ulloa, he was attacked by the Spaniards, several of his
ships were sunk, and some of his men were captured and later put to
torture by the Inquisition. Hawkins escaped with two of his ships, and
after a long and stormy passage arrived safe in England (January 25,
1569).[15] Queen Elizabeth was greatly offended at this conduct of the
Spaniards, and in reprisal detained a squadron of Spanish treasure
ships which had sought safety in the port of London from some Huguenot
cruisers.

In this expedition one of the two ships which escaped was commanded by
a young man named Francis Drake, who came to be regarded as the
greatest seaman of his age. He was the son of a clergyman, and was
born in Devonshire, where centred for two centuries the maritime skill
of England. While a lad he followed the sea, and acquired reputation
for his courage and sagacity. Three years after the affair at San
Juan, Drake fitted out a little squadron, and in 1572 sailed, as he
himself specially states, to inflict vengeance upon the Spaniards. He
had no commission, and on his own private account attacked a power
with which his country was at peace.[16]

Drake attacked Nombre de Dios and Cartagena, and, as the historian
relates, got together "a pretty store of money," an evidence that his
purpose was not wholly revenge. He marched across the Isthmus of
Panama and obtained his first view of the Pacific Ocean. "Vehemently
transported with desire to navigate that sea," he fell upon his knees,
and "implored the Divine Assistance, that he might at some time or
other sail thither and make a perfect discovery of the same."[17]
Drake reached Plymouth on his return Sunday, August 9, 1573, in sermon
time; and his arrival created so much excitement that the people left
the preacher alone in church so as to catch a glimpse of the famous
sailor.[18]

Drake contemplated greater deeds. He had now plenty of friends who
wished to engage with him, and he soon equipped a squadron of five
ships. That he had saved something from the profits of his former
voyage is shown by his equipment. The _Pelican_, in which he sailed,
had "expert musicians and rich furniture," and "all the vessels for
the table, yea, many even of the cook-room, were of pure silver."[19]
Drake's object now was to harry the coast of the ocean which he had
seen in 1573. Accordingly, he sailed from Plymouth (December 13,
1577), coasted along the shore of South America, and, passing through
the Straits of Magellan, entered the Pacific in September, 1578.

The _Pelican_ was now the only one of his vessels left, as all the
rest had either returned home or been lost. Renaming the ship the
_Golden Hind_, Drake swept up the western side of South America and
took the ports of Chili and Peru by surprise. He captured galleons
carrying quantities of gold, silver, and jewelry, and acquired plunder
worth millions of dollars.[20] Drake did not think it prudent to go
home by the way he had come, but struck boldly northward in search of
a northeast passage into the Atlantic. He coasted along California as
far as Oregon, repaired his ship in a harbor near San Francisco, took
possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth and called it
Nova Albion. Finding no northeast passage, he turned his prow to the
west, and circumnavigated the globe by the Cape of Good Hope, arriving
at Plymouth in November, 1580.[21]

The queen received him with undisguised favor, and met a request from
Philip II. for Drake's surrender by knighting the freebooter and
wearing in her crown the jewel he offered her as a present. When the
Spanish ambassador threatened that matters should come to the cannon,
she replied "quietly, in her most natural voice," writes Mendoza,
"that if I used threats of that kind she would throw me into a
dungeon." The revenge that Drake had taken for the affair at San Juan
de Ulloa was so complete that for more than a hundred years he was
spoken of in Spanish annals as "the Dragon."

His example stimulated adventure in all directions, and in 1586 Thomas
Cavendish, of Ipswich, sailed to South America and made a rich plunder
at Spanish expense. He returned home by the Cape of Good Hope, and was
thus the second Englishman to circumnavigate the globe.[22]

In the mean time, another actor, hardly less adventurous but of a far
grander purpose, had stepped upon the stage of this tremendous
historic drama. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was born in Devonshire, schooled
at Eton, and educated at Oxford. Between 1563 and 1576 he served in
the wars of France, Ireland, and the Netherlands, and was therefore
thoroughly steeped in the military training of the age.[23] The first
evidence of Gilbert's great purpose was the charter by Parliament, in
the autumn of 1566, of a corporation for the discovery of new trades.
Gilbert was a member, and in 1567 he presented an unsuccessful
petition to the queen for the use of two ships for the discovery of a
northwest passage to China and the establishment of a traffic with
that country.[24]

Before long Gilbert wrote a pamphlet, entitled "A Discourse to Prove a
Passage by the Northwest to Cathaia and the East Indies," which was
shown by Gascoigne, a friend of Gilbert, to the celebrated mariner
Martin Frobisher, and stimulated him to his glorious voyages to the
northeast coast of North America.[25] Before Frobisher's departure on
his first voyage Queen Elizabeth sent for him and commended him for
his enterprise, and when he sailed, July 1, 1576, she waved her hand
to him from her palace window.[26] He explored Frobisher's Strait and
took possession of the land called Meta Incognita in the name of the
queen. He brought back with him a black stone, which a gold-finder in
London pronounced rich in gold, and the vain hope of a gold-mine
inspired two other voyages (1577, 1578). On his third voyage Frobisher
entered the strait known as Hudson Strait, but the ore with which he
loaded his ships proved of little value. John Davis, like Frobisher,
made three voyages in three successive years (1585, 1586, 1587), and
the chief result of his labors was the discovery of the great strait
which bears his name.[27]

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