CHAP. III. Massachussetts. The court agreed to assist 1635. their neighbours with a hundred men, and to bear the expense of the expedition by private subscription among their own body; but provisions were so scarce, that a sufficient supply even for this small corps could not be immediately obtained. In consequence of this circumstance the expedition was abandoned for the present; Girling returned, and the French retained possession of the station until 1654. The apprehensions entertained of their formidable neighbours contributed in no small degree to cement the union between Massachussetts and Plymouth.

Two persons, who afterwards made a distinguished figure in English annals, arrived Hugh Peters. this year in Boston. One was Hugh Peters, the coadjutor and chaplain of Oliver CromHenry Vane. Well; the other mr. Henry Vane, the son of

sir Henry Vane, who was at that time a privy counsellor of great credit with the king. So forcible was the influence of the political and perhaps religious opinions then maintained by the puritans, on the mind of this young gentleman, that he appeared ready to sacrifice for their gratification all the enjoyments which awaited him, and all his high expectations in his native land. His mortified exterior, his grave and solemn deportment, although not more than twenty-five years of age, his reputation for piety and wisdom, his strong profes

1636.

sions of attachment to liberty and to the public CHAP. III. interest, added to his attention to some of the leading members in the church, won rapidly the affections of the people, and the year after his arrival, he was with general approbation chosen their governor.

His administration commenced with more external pomp than had been usual, or would seem to be congenial with the plain and simple manners of the people he governed. When going to court or church, he was always preceded by two sergeants who walked with their halberts. Yet his popularity sustained no diminution, until the part he took in the religious controversies of the country detached from him many of its most judicious and influential inhabitants.

inson and the

Independent of the meetings for public worship on every sunday, of the stated lecture in Boston on every thursday, and of occasional lectures in other towns, there were frequent private meetings of the brethren of the churches, for religious exercises. Mrs. Mrs. Hutch Hutchinson, a woman of deep enthusiasm and antinomians. of considerable eloquence, who had been much flattered by the attentions of the governor and of mr. Cotton, one of the most influential of the clergy, and whose husband was among the most respected men in the country, dissatisfied with the exclusion of her sex from the private meetings of the brethren, instituted a meeting

1636.

CHAP. III. of the sisters also, in which she repeated the sermons of the preceding sunday, accompanied with such remarks and expositions as she deemed pertinent. These meetings were attended by a large number of the most respectable of her sex; her lectures were much spoken of, and for a time very generally approved. At length she drew a marked distinction between the ministers and members of churches through the country. A small number she designated as being under a covenant of grace; the others as being under a covenant of works. Contending for the necessity of the former, she maintained, that sanctity of life is no evidence of justification, or of favour with God; and that the Holy Ghost dwells personally in such as are justified. The whole colony was divided into two parties, equally positive on these abstruse points, whose resentments against each other threatened the most serious calamities. Mr. Vane espoused with zeal the wildest doctrines of mrs. Hutchinson, and mr. Cotton decidedly favoured them. The lieutenant governor, mr. Winthrop, and the majority of the churches, were of the opposite party. Many conferences were held; days of fasting and humiliation were appointed; a general synod was called; and, after the most violent dissensions, mrs. Hutchinson's opinions were condemned as erroneous, and she herself banished. Many of her disciples followed her.

Vane in disgust quitted America, unlamented, CHAP. III. even by those who had lately so much admired 1636. him. He was considered by those sober practical people as being too visionary, and is said to have been too deep an enthusiast even for the enthusiasts of that day in Massachussetts.

In

It has been stated that the council of Plymouth, deprived of the monopoly of the fisheries and fur trade, were unwilling to engage with their own funds, in the expensive enterprise of establishing colonies in the extensive territories they held in America. There remaining no common object to prosecute, the patentees resolved to divide their lands. the presence of James, they cast lots for the shares which each should hold in severalty, under the expectation of receiving from their sovereign a deed of confirmation for the particular portion which fortune should allot to each. They continued, however, to act for some years longer as a body politic, during which time they granted various portions of the country to different persons, many of whom made settlements on their respective purchases. They executed, under the seal of the corporation, deeds of feoffment for the lots drawn by each member of the company; patents of confirmation for which, were solicited from the crown, but seem only to have been granted to Maine` Gorges for the province of Maine. Early in Gorges. 1635 the charter, with every right and demand

VOL. I.

granted to

CHAP. III. of the company, was surrendered to the king; 1636. and in June, the act of surrender passed under the great seal, and was immediately accepted by the prince.

Charles had long resolved to take the government of New England entirely into his own hands. In pursuance of this determination, he had in 1635 issued the commission already mentioned for the regulation and government of the plantations. In 1637 he issued a proclamation, directing that none should be transported thither who had not the special license of the government, and that this should be granted only to those, who had taken the oaths of supremacy and allegiance and had conformed to the discipline of the church of England. This order however, from its real difficulty, could not be completely executed; and the emigrations, which were entirely of non-conformists, still continued. So high in estimation, among those who were disgusted with the ceremonials so rigidly exacted in England, was the simple frame of church policy established in Massachussetts, that crowds surmounted every difficulty to seek an asylum in this new Jerusalem. Among them were found persons of the first political influence and mental attainments of their country. Pymm, Hampden, Hazlerig, and Cromwell, with many others who afterwards performed a conspicuous part in that revolution which brought the head of Charles