INTRODUCTION

 (Page 13-19 of the original book)

ittle could even the most sanguine of the early emigrants to America have contemplated the subsequent effect which their action would work upon the world's history. Some of them, it is true, were men of position at home, with wealth and all its concomitant advantages at their disposal, but by far the greater number was composed of comparatively obscure men—men of little means, but possessed of hearts and consciences of too honest a nature to permit them quietly to submit to the intolerance which was forced upon them at home. But those whose names are recorded in the following pages, with many others of whom no such minute particulars have come down to us, were the seed-grains from which the mighty Republic has sprung—the rapid growth of which has no parallel in the world's history. Colonization was but imperfectly developed in those early days, and many attempted settlements proved abortive; but the first settlers in Virginia, and subsequently those in New England, carried with them the elements of success, resulting in permanent establishments.

Of the history of the Colonies, and the eventual establishment of Independence, I have nothing to say. My object is simply and briefly to point out some of the causes which contributed to the early emigration of English families to America; and then to estimate the practical value of the contents of the present volume as a means of assistance in making genealogical researches in the mother country,

One of the earliest acts of Charles the First,—an act which raised a storm of indignation throughout the country,—was the imposition of a forced loan without the grant of Parliament. The manner in which this unconstitutional measure was treated by those called upon to contribute towards the assessment, is well illustrated by the events which took place in Lincoinshire; and a relation of the part taken by the leading men of that locality, some of whom were related to, or intimately associated with, the principal agents in the subsequent emigration to Massachusetts, under JOHN WINTHROP, in 1630, will be of some interest to the descendants of the New England emigrants.

One of the richest men in the county of Lincoln, who strenuously opposed the forced loan, was ISAAC JOHNSON, who, as is well known, married the Lady ARABELLA FYNES, sister to THEOPHILUS, Earl of LINCOLN, who himself married a sister of the Lord SAY and SELE. These two noblemen took a very active part in denouncing the loan as dangerous and unconstitutional. Lord SAY and SELE, who, during the civil war, some years later, commanded a Parliamentarian regiment, openly asserted that he would rather lose half his estate than risk the impoverishment of his posterity by the establishment of so dan­gerous a precedent as a loan without the sanction of Parliament. But Lord LINCOLN'S opposition to the loan was more immediately productive of dissatisfaction. As soon as it was proposed he took upon himself to have an Abridgment of the Statutes prepared for distribution; and it is not unlikely that in the compilation of this document he was aided by his former steward, THOMAS DUDLEY, who subsequently went over to New England, and became Governor of Massachusetts. DUDLEY had received a legal education, under his relative, Sir AUGUSTINE NICIJOL, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas, and was therefore peculiarly fitted for the work. The immediate result of this act on the part of Lord LINCOLN, was to bring down upon himself and his servants the resentment of the King and his party, and the Abridgment was rigorously suppressed. Not only was his lordship proceeded against in the Star Chamber, but more completely to crush out the attempts made to incense the people, a proclamation was issued for the apprehension of JOHN HOLLAND, Steward to the Earl, and ROBERT BLOW, the Clerk of his kitchen; and further, a Groom in the household of his lordship was condemned in the Star Chamber to pay a fine of £3000 for his share in distributing the ob­noxious work. The Earl was soon after committed a close prisoner to the Tower, where he remained in custody for some years. I have not found any evidence of what was the result of the attempts made to apprehend HOLLAND and BLOW, but there are reasons for supposing that both escaped detection. A ROBERT BLOW, in all probability the same person, was subsequently an ensign in the regiment of Lord SAY and SELE, the nobleman before mentioned. The only trace of HOLLAND we have met with brings out some information respecting the residence, at Boston, of THOMAS DUDLEY, and the estimated value of his yearly income.

Letter from Sir EDWARD HERON, addressed to Sir HUMPHREy MAY, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

 "Cressye, 28 July, 1627.

"RIGHT HONORABLE,

 "I had rather offende in too much officiousnes, then negligence, especially to the king's matie. I have hearde that Mr. HOLLANDE who attended the earle of Lincolne, hath been in quest by the state; yf it be soe, I doe heare for certeine, that he was scene dyvers tymes, about a month or six weekes past vpon the terras-walkes at Sempringham ; but since that tyme it is privatly whispered that he is now removed to the house of one Mr. THOMAS DUDLYE, in Boston, whoe did allsoe of late tymes wayte vpon the sayde earle; and it is very p'bable, because Mr. HOLLANDS wyfe is observed to make often viages frome Sempriogham vnto Boston, and there to abide sometyme 2 or 3 dayes, sometyme a weeke together * * *                                                                                                     

"EDWARD HERON.

 "Yet maye you please further to vnderstande, that this Mr. DUDLYE beynge reported to have 300li p. an., some saye 400li, refused vpon our earnest request to beare 30s. towards the bane with a neyghbourgh that was deeply charged as we have informed in our certificatts vnto the lords of the councell, whereof I beseech your honor to direct the delyverye.

"Since the writinge hereof; I vnderstande that one ADDAM RESTON' brothcr in law vnto the Mr. HOLLANDE, came ridinge through our streete on fridaye in the nyght, the 20th of this month, with a gentlewoman behinde him, supposed to be the wyfe of Mr. HOLLANDE goeynge towards Boston; and an other gent, seeminge vnwillinge to be knowne.

"You maye alisee please to take into your consideration that one BENIAMINE DICKOSON of Boston adviseth, that the toune of Boston is able and ought to contribute to the charge and expence of theyre late mayor & EDW. T[LLSON, or anye else, that suffer trouble in cause of the bane; and to helpe towards theyre losses. p JOHAN HOBSON, Collector.

"The same DYKCONSON was 3li lands, yet sett vnto 1li by the lords at Lincoln."*

  (*State Papers, Chas. I., Domestic Series, Vol. 72, No. 36, Record Office.)

      A long list of Lincolnshire men who refused to contribute to the loan, has been preserved. Ten of the principal of them were immediately committed to prison :—Sir JOHN WRAY, Sir THOMAS GRANTHAM, and Sir EDWARD ASCOUGH, to the Gate House; Sir WILLIAM ARMYN, Sir THOMAS DARNELL, WILLIAM ANDERSON, Esq., the Mayor of Boston, and Alderman (EDWARD) TILSON of that town, to the Fleet; and WILLIAM TAROLD (THOROLD), Esq., and —. HORWOOD, Esq., to the Marshalsea. The Boston men who refused to lend, or to enter into bond for their appearance before his Majesty's Privy Council, beside the Mayor, and Alderman TILSON, were ATTERTON HOWGHE (ATHERTON HOUGH), EDMOND JACKSON, BENJAMIN DICONSON, THOMAS LEVERETT, THOMAS LOWE, THOMAS TOOLY, JOHN COPPYN, WILLIAM COTTINGTON (CODDINGTON), WILLIAM CONDY, and RICHARD WESTLAND. Of these, LEVERETT, CODDINGTON, and HOUGH subsequently went out to New England, and there attained positions of eminence. The London prisons were soon filled with the more important of the objectors, from various parts of the country, but chiefly from the city of London, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Essex, and Gloucestershire, The gaols being filled to repletion, and moreover the expense of maintaining the prisoners proving a heavy charge upon the State—already impoverished—the great majority were liberated from confinement, but were not allowed, however, to return to their own homes for fear of their stirring up fresh disaffection among their neighbours. Thus a delinquent belonging to Essex would be sent, perhaps, to Wiltshire, or Yorkshire, and under pain of severe punishment, forbidden to leave the town in which he was located, where, by-the-way, under the semblance of being a free man, he was compelled to earn, or at least procure, his own living.

      This was a very ill-advised proceeding on the part of the Government, for each man thus removed to a distant town soon formed a focus of discontent. One of the most energetic of these prisoners, in free custody, as it was termed, was RICHARD KNIGHTLEY, a gentleman belonging to Northamptonshire, an intimate friend of the leaders of the Massachusetts Colony, and connected by marriage with JOHN HAMPDEN, in conjunction with whom he was named as executor to the will of ISAAC JOHNSON.

       Most of the proceedings against the remonstrants were taken in the Star Chamber, the decree books of which are unfortunately lost, or we might readily have traced many, if not all the suits, citations, fines and censures instituted in, or imposed by, the Court. The Star Chamber was a tribunal taking cognizance of all kind of delinquencies, and there still remains in the Record Office an immense mass of documents appertaining to suits before the Court, in which, when they can be sorted, arranged, and made available to the public, we may hope to find some important information respecting the personal histories of some of the original settlers in New England.

The proceedings, which were taken chiefly against the Nonconformists, caused many English families to leave their homes. Unfortunately, the records of the High Court of Commission, which has been not inaptly called "The English Inquisition," are very imperfect, but enough remains to show that proceedings were taken in it against many of the ministers and public men who afterwards became eminent in the New England States. It was not until the Rev. JOHN COTTON, RICHARD BELLINGHAM, recorder, and WILLIAM CODDINGTON, a member of the corpo ration of the town of Boston (Co. Lincoln), had been fined for nonconformity, that they gave up their English preferments and places to join their friends in Massachusetts. Other instances might be adduced of the same result attending prosecutions in that Court.

      The imposition of Ship Money was the culminating measure that drove hundreds from England to find homes in America, and among other causes, was that which most of all contributed to bring about the war between the King and the Parliament. Though, after a long and tedious struggle, the levy of ship money was declared to be illegal, enough had been effected to make far-sighted men tremble for impending troubles, and no doubt the stand made by men of great influence and high position, such as HAMPDEN (who was intimately associated with the leaders of the Massachusetts settlement), had an immense weight with persons of an inferior standing in worldly wealth. By the Act of Parliament, which declared the illegality of the tax, it was ordered that all proceedings which had been taken should be cancelled, and in consequence a wholesale destruction of documents must have taken place, which, had they been preserved, would have been of great value to the topographer and genealogist, as the rolls of assessments were very minute. One volume of assessments only appears to have escaped the general fate, and this contains the names of all the persons assessed in the county of Essex (with the exception of four towns), numbering about 8,ooo, and, without doubt, includes many of the subsequent emigrants who went out from that county to New England, in the years 1637 and 1638. A copy of this very interesting document has been prepared for publication.

      In 1860, Mr. SAMUEL GARDNER DRAKE, of Boston (Mass.), pub­lished his "Result of some Researches among the British Archives, for information relative to the Founders of New England."

That work first suggested the desirability of making a systematic collection of authentic documents relating to the early settlers in America, not only to those who removed to the New England States but to those also who settled in Virginia, the Summer Islands, Barbadoes, Carolina, Jamaica, and other places. It is impossible to over­estimate the value of these records, and it is a matter of the deepest regret that comparatively so few have survived to the present time. Those that we have, therefore, of undoubted authenticity, are all the more to be prized. It is a transcript of some of these documents which is here submitted. The aim of the transcriber has been to present an absolute copy of the originals. He has not even ventured to correct palpable mistakes in the spelling of names, or other clerical errors. Where such occur, and they are by no means infrequent, he has called attention to the fact, either by inserting the correct word in brackets, or by adding a foot-note, but the text is a faithful reproduction of the originals.

There are some papers included in Mr. DRAKE'S volume, which have not been deemed admissible in the body of this work, inasmuch as they are not in themselves official documents, but they may not inaptly be quoted here. The first to be noticed are the following lists, taken from the History of Sandwich, being transcripts of records belonging to the corporations of that port.