Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/83

 considerable addition to its numbers."

In 1627, at which date the agreement between the Plymouth colonists and the London merchants came to an end, the latter agreed to sell out their interest for $9,000. The joint-stock principle was abandoned, and some twenty acres of land nearest the town, were donated to each colonist.

Although the number of the colonists at New Plymouth in 1630, did not amount to three hundred, yet they considered themselves permanently established. "It was not with them as with other men," was their language, "whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish themselves at home again." By degrees, too, as distance from the mother country favored the assumption of responsibility, they exercised all the prerogatives of government, even to capital punishment. All laws were enacted in a general assembly of the colonists; and in religious matters the same freedom of speech prevailed. Every one who chose, addressed the congregation on Sundays, and for many years they had no settled pastor or minister among them.

The settlement at New Plymouth was soon after followed by another and more extensive one of the Puritans on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. Their position at home was becoming less and less satisfactory, and it was but natural that their minds should turn to America as a place of refuge from trial and persecution. A grant was obtained from the New England Company of Plymouth, embracing Massachusetts Bay and the country to the westward. John Endicott, a Puritan of the sternest and severest sort, first established himself at Naumkeag, and soon after, a strong body, chiefly from Boston, in Lincolnshire, followed. A patent was obtained, but not without considerable difficulty, from Charles I, incorporating the adventurers as the "Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England," the stockholders to elect annually a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, who were to administer the affairs of the colony in monthly court meetings. Four great and general courts of the whole body of freemen were to be held for the transaction of public affairs. Nothing was to be enacted contrary to the rights of Englishmen, but the supreme power resided with the Company in England. It was regarded as a patent for a trading corporation, and no specific provision was made on the subject of religion. A large number of the proprietors were attached to the Church of England; Endicott, however, having visited Plymouth, desired to establish an Independent church, and to renounce the use of the Liturgy; hence he became involved in a dispute with two brothers of the name of Browne—who were among the original patentees, and who desired to have the services of the Church of England fully carried out in the colony—and he shipped them off to England as "