Pilgrims, Puritans, and Heretics 1620-1700
Pilgrims, Puritans, and Heretics: 1620-1700 recounts one extended family's settlement of several North American colonies, forever rooting Europeans in the American northeast. As a work of narrative nonfiction, Pilgrims develops chronologically through the eyes of our ancestors, beginning with the arrival of the Mayflower and ending with the Salem Witch Hysteria. As time passes, the seemingly unrelated characters intermarry and eventually coalesce under the surname Richardson.
Our settlement story begins with the Mayflower's arrival in 1620. FRANCIS COOKE; WILLIAM, MARY, and LOVE BREWSTER; and MARY CHILTON were Saints (religious Separatists) who sailed on the Mayflower. RICHARD WARREN, a Stranger (not a Separatist), sailed with them. While the 102 passengers survived the difficult 9-week journey, tensions arose when the passengers realized that having failed to reach Virginia, they were stateless, without rules or agreements to govern them. William Brewster drafted the Mayflower Compact to address this problem. During the first winter at Plymouth, Brewster worked selflessly seeing to the spiritual and physical comfort of the passengers who were dying at an alarming rate. Mary Chilton, orphaned when her parents died over the winter, learned to cope with loss and uncertainty. Francis Cooke learned how to be a settler, clearing and planting fields, hunting, fishing, and constructing buildings and homes.
The second ship to arrive in New England, the Fortune, brought JOHN WINSLOW. To his surprise, he discovered his brother had buried one wife and married another within two months' time. The realities of settling an unknown land were becoming clear. In 1622 a group of "lustie" men arrived to establish a separate colony and trade with the Native Americans. They failed miserably and almost started a war. The Pilgrims, choosing to defend their countrymen, attacked friendly Neponsets, killing seven and mounting Wituwamet's head on a spike outside Plymouth's walls. This is considered the beginning of Pilgrim aggression toward American Natives.
In 1623, the Anne and the Little James arrived, carrying more Saints and Strangers, including ROBERT BARTLETT, a wine-cooper, EXPERIENCE MITCHELL, JOSHUA PRATT, and the MORTON family, and reuniting HESTER and JANE COOKE with Francis and ELIZABETH, MARY, and ABIGAIL WARREN with Richard.
As additional ships, goods, and passengers arrived, Plymouth Colony thrived, surviving harsh New England winters and other settlement challenges. The Pilgrims assumed a crushing debt to escape the constant harassment of the Merchant Adventurers who had funded their emigration. Youngsters grew up and married. Mary Chilton married John Winslow; Jane Cooke married Experience Mitchell. The Pilgrims brought over the last of the Leiden congregation in 1629, including THOMAS WILLETT, who would become New York's first English Mayor. Immigration to Plymouth dwindled, and the Colony was eventually absorbed into Massachusetts.
In 1629 and 1630, another wave of settlers immigrated to settle Massachusetts Bay Colony. Predominantly Puritans fleeing religious persecution or seeking better economic opportunities, they benefitted from more money, more time, and more information than the Pilgrims had. Yet, they made the same mistakes and died at the same rate and for the same reasons, a pattern that would repeat itself many times. This "Great Migration" continued until 1640. The first arrivals, including THOMAS GRAVES, WILLIAM SPRAGUE, REVEREND JOHN WARHAM and the HOSKINS family, settled Charlestown in 1629 and Dorchester in 1630.
The main body of Puritans came with the Winthrop Fleet. Under the leadership of John Winthrop, they established Boston as the Massachusetts Bay Colony capital. They then expanded into Native territory, relentlessly disrupting tribal culture and life. RICHARD WRIGHT and THOMAS HOWLETT settled Boston. The STEARNS family settled Watertown.
Winthrop, wishing to found a "City on a Hill" of perfect religious governance, instead fomented an atmosphere of persecution and intolerance. He drove ANNE HUTCHINSON from Massachusetts Bay Colony when her lay preaching undermined orthodox Puritan ministry and government. She and most of her children were massacred by the Sinawoy, but her son EDWARD HUTCHINSON escaped both persecution and massacre only to die in King Philip's War. Anne's disciple MARY DWYER converted to Quakerism and falling victim to Puritan intolerance, was hung on Boston Common.
REVERENDS THOMAS HOOKER and ROGER WILLIAMS expected Puritan life to reach its apogee in New England. Both would judge Massachusetts Bay Colony too stifling for enlightened minds. Hooker ultimately established Connecticut Colony, while Williams, banished, fled Massachusetts to establish Rhode Island. Their success infringed even more on Native Americans.
Meanwhile, ordinary people led ordinary lives. JOHN and HANNAH DWIGHT found Watertown too small for their ambitions and founded the town of Dedham. Tragedy tested their faith when John Jr. wandered off into the woods and was never seen again. Their surviving son, TIMOTHY DWIGHT, fought in King Philip's War, married 6 times and fathered several children, establishing a dynasty of ministers, university presidents, and businessmen.
CORNELIS MELYN, an ambitious Dutchman, fought financial and political battles with authorities in New Netherland. Granted the Patroonship of Staten Island, he lost control of the island when Kieft's War erupted. Cornelis and his family fled to safety in New England, but soon ran afoul of Puritan authorities when Cornelis began selling buttons at prices the Puritans found exorbitant. Compelled to lower his prices, Cornelis never understood why he shouldn't charge what buyers were willing to pay.
Pilgrims, Puritans, and heretics alike struggled to comply with their moral codes yet frequently fell short. Love Brewster came upon his farmhand violating a horse. John Dwight remarried after Hannah died, but the marriage was unhappy. His new wife committed suicide, a mortal sin. Thomas Willett could not resist the sin of ambition. MARY BALL fell in love with her married employer and bore his child. Her life improved when she married WILLIAM MUNROE, a Scottish prisoner of war deported to New England by the English. THOMAS HERRICK, to his father's bewilderment, could not fall in love with a woman. When his father required him to marry or risk losing his inheritance, Thomas did so, but his bride soon accused him of impotence and sued for divorce.
By 1675, Native Americans, tired of English territorial encroachment, banded together to eject the English from the northeast. King Philip's War, fought between several tribes and the colonial militias and their Native allies, was the bloodiest confrontation to date and led to terrible atrocities on both sides. The Natives' defeat marked the end of tribal hegemony in New England.
The establishment of Pennsylvania as a religious haven brought Quakers fleeing persecution elsewhere. SAMUEL RICHARDSON emigrated from Spanish Town, Jamaica to Philadelphia, establishing himself as a businessman and politician, and founding this family's Richardson lineage.
By the end of the 17th century, the Anglo-American identity was firmly established. In New Haven, RICHARD EDWARDS divorced his wife, alleging desertion of his company and bed. The resulting scandal strongly influenced their grandson, the theologian Jonathan Edwards, father of the first Great Awakening in American religious evangelism. Jonathan's wife was the daughter of James and Mary (Hooker) Pierpont. His daughter married Major Timothy Dwight. In Salem, Puritan severity and rural isolation precipitated witch hysteria. The Herrick family, remembering how their brother suffered for being different, defied the accusers and authorities and fought for a return to long-lost Puritan values. John Herrick's 5th great-granddaughter married William H. Richardson, and their son married a Dwight. Their grandson married me.