EDITOR'S PREFACE. SH HORTLY after the completion of the manuscript of this book, its Author laid down his pen forever. Though not full of years, yet honored and esteemed by all who knew him, on the twentyfirst day of September, 1884, he found that which he had ever sought, "More Light,” —in the presence of the immortal Forefathers and their eternal Leader. Mr. Goodwin, though long an enthusiastic student and an acknowledged authority on the subject of Pilgrim History, was better known to the generality of persons as a public speaker and official, a parliamentarian, a journalist, and to some few also as the teacher, mariner, and traveller that he was in early life; all of which varied experiences proved of rare value in later historical researches. Himself a descendant from many of the Pilgrim band, he came by birthright to the desire that a broader justice should be awarded those sufferers for conscience' sake, "without whose lives his had not been;" and bringing to the task no mere scholastic zeal or, as is so common, an enthusiasm warped by partiality and egotism, he quietly wrought-out together this his magnum opus and the declining years of a goodly and gracious life. Few historians have given a more loving zeal to a more worthy subject than this "beloved disciple" of the Fathers; for after decades of careful, conscientious study and recording, the final strength of his very life was expended in a last visit to that green Plymouth mount where sleep so many of his ancestors, and where associations dearest to his heart ever most thickly clustered. While he modestly terms this work "merely an historical review," it is in fact a very complete and inclusive outline-history in popular form of the Pilgrims in their English birthplace and early home, how they fared at their Dutch refuge, and their subsequent development on our Massachusetts shores into a permanent, and, for those times, far-advanced community. The subsequent affairs of that Pilgrim Republic and Mother-Colony of New England are given with considerable fulness down to its enforced merging with the Bay Colony in 1692. There is also a great amount of miscellaneous and concurrent information concerning other New England colonies and settlements, the Witchcraft excitement, Philip's War, and the ideas, manners, and theological divisions of those and later times, much of which is difficult or well-nigh impossible for the general student and reader to search out for himself, digest, and put into a coherent or lucid condensation even for private use. Mr. Goodwin was himself conversant with everything extant (valuable and otherwise) concerning this subject, and was thoroughly competent to sift and collate the varied mass. His necessity of contraction, to cover so large a field in a small space, may at times oblige the extra-critical student to "read between the lines" for delicate distinctions and non-obvious points. In its present form many notes, current facts, and presumptions appear in this work (notably in Chapters X. and XI.) which have been added in the course of preparation for printing; but the clear and well-pondered deductions and explicit statements of the Author have not been interfered with: hence the time of the History's compilation and completion, as well as that of the assemblage of those premises upon which its decisions are based, must be considered as briefly prior to the time of the Author's death. Our desire of fidelity to the original manuscript will account for the non-mention of a few excellent and worthy works of the last three years, and a lack of quotations from the same; as well as an apparent neglect to correct, or at least to challenge, the erroneous statements of a far greater number whose historical unreliability is their most remarkable characteristic. LOWELL, Mass., January, 1888. Um Bradford Goodwin PREFACE. - THIS book is not expected to meet the wants of the exhaustive historical student, who must labor long and patiently upon that fragmentary and widely dispersed literature which bears the stamp of original authority, and should rest content with no second-hand statements and conclusions. The volume is for the mere reader, for him who lacks, opportunity or disposition to collect and collate the disconnected facts and make therefrom his own deductions. For such a person, there is not in print any one volume which tells the story of the Pilgrim Fathers with a near approach to completeness and accuracy. Steele's "Life of Brewster" begins the work admirably; but its special subject soon restricts it, and brings it to an early close. Indeed, it is only within thirty years that any one since those who enjoyed personal intercourse with the Pilgrims or their children, could have written with much fulness or exactness of the Pilgrims' life in England or Holland, or upon the troubles that beset the fitting-out of the "Mayflower." Governor Bradford laid down his pen in 1650. For nearly two hundred years, little or nothing material was added to the annals of his times; his history was lost for almost a century, and his papers mostly destroyed. Such facts as continued extant were soon so interwoven with errors and absurd traditions that the Pilgrim Fathers of popular fame differed widely from the men of the " Mayflower." The chief sources of information on this subject are now as follows: ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES. Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, 1606 to 1646 (published 1856). Mourt's Relation, Winslow's Relation, Winslow's Brief Narration, with other papers, and notes, in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 1606 to 1624 (published 1841). Mourt's Relation, verbatim, edited by Rev. H. M. Dexter, D.D., with notes (published 1865). Bradford's Letter-Book (Mass. Hist. Coll., first series, vol. iii.). Founders of New Plymouth, by Rev. Joseph Hunter, London (published 1849). Many papers in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, and in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. King Philip's War, by Colonel Church, edited by Dr. Dexter. SECONDARY AUTHORITIES. New England's Memorial, by Nathaniel Morton (1669). Prince's Annals, by Rev. Thomas Prince, D.D. (1736). History of Massachusetts, by Governor Hutchinson, vol. ii. (1767). Historical Memoir of New Plymouth, by Hon. F. Baylies (1831). Life of William Brewster, by Rev. A. Steele (1851). Track of the Hidden Church. Rev. Dr. Waddington, of London (Bost. ed., 1863). The English Colonization of America in the Seventeenth Century. Rev. E. D. Neill (London, 1871). History of New England, vol. i., by Hon. John G. Palfrey (1860). History of Massachusetts, by Rev. J. S. Barry (1855). History of Plymouth by Thacher (2d ed., 1835), Bridgewater by Mitchell, Duxbury by Winsor, Scituate by Deane, Hanover by Barry, and many other town-histories, especially those in Freeman's History of Cape Cod and in Baylies' Memoir. Lecture by Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London, delivered at London, 1866. Russell's Guide to Plymouth (1846), and his Pilgrim Memorials, (1851). The Pilgrim Fathers; or, Founders of New England, by W. H. Bartlett, London, 1866. History of Congregationalism, by Rev. H. M. Dexter, D.D., Boston, 1881. Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth, Hon. Wm. T. Davis, Boston, 1883. Several works might be named in a list of tertiary authorities, if such were desirable. It is a singular fact that we have no educational work on the subject, even for academies and colleges, that could claim mention in such a list. Neither is Mather's "Magnalia" worthy to rank as an authority, nor in Pilgrim history is Drake's "Book of the Indians," with its prejudices. Bancroft's United States has much valuable matter bearing on our subject, but it was written before the discoveries of the last thirty years, and therefore cannot have the admirable fulness and the great accuracy of Palfrey. Roger Williams, Major Gookin, Colonel Church, and others, have contributed some few items to Plymouth history; but 1 The historical medley of Cotton Mather... is beneath criticism... Hubbard deserves little credit. - Palfrey, 3d Mass. Hist. Coll., ix. 173. Mather never cultivated precision . . . and his word must seldom be taken as exact truth.-Savage's Bio. Dic., i. 463. Savage terms the "Magnalia poor authority, showing Mather's "voracious appetite and ill-digestion of learning." Appleton's Encyclopædia calls the "Magnalia" a chaotic collection of materials." Until it was printed, it was held in high estimation. on Hubbard's Hist. " Young, Chron. Mass., It is too certain that his (Hubbard's) unsupported statements are not always to be taken without allowance. - Palfrey's N. E., iii. 153. Hubbard's "History of New England," till 1649, when Winthrop's narrative closes, is little else than a copy of that work, and for later years is good for nothing. - Ibid. Pastor Cotton of Plymouth, in 1677, said of Hubbard's then new "Narrative of the Indian Wars," "it might have been filled with marginal notes of erratas. . . . Our governor and magistrates had some cursory perusal of the book; the mistakes are judged to be many more than the truths in it. Hubbard complained of this criticism, but Cotton re-affirmed it." Pastor Shove of Taunton, the same year, said of the book, "things are strangely falsified."- 4th Mass. Hist. Coll viii. 232-9. Hubbard, after 1650, has few facts. |