III- The Merchant

IV- The Legislator

V- The Lord of the Isles

VI- The Children of the Forest - -

VII- The Colonist - - - - -

VIII- The Patentee's Government

IX- The Forest Paul - - - - - -

X- The Forest Paul-(Part II) - -

XI- The Patriarch - - - - -

XII- The Apostle to the Indians

XIII- The Duke of York - - -

XIV-The Dutch Rebellion

XV- The Nantucket Insurrection

XVI- The Democrats - - - - - -

XVII- The Indian Church - - - - -

XVIII- The War of Extirpation - - -

XIX- The Praying Towns -

XX- The Eighth Decade Index

101

116

125

141

157

167

178

189
203

209

218

- - - - 227

Earliest Map of Martha's Vineyard, Etc. Fort James, New York - - - - - - - - Indian Stone Bowl
A Stone Weir in Gay Head - - - - - - - -	- - -	84
Map of Martha's Vineyard, Showing Indian Names -	- - -	104
Map of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Etc. -		104
Provincial House, New York - -		128
The Fish Bridge, New York		128
The Town of Sherburne		160
Abram Quary - -		192
Old Coffin House -		192
Grave in Gay Head of Silas Paul -		208

PREFACE

HIS life of Thomas Mayhew brings into focus the little known and scarcely ever recounted story of the aristocratic social and political tendencies of the English colonists who settled America's first frontier. The early fathers of our

country lived in a transitional stage between Old World feudalism and New World democracy, and this fact is exemplified in the history of the colony of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands.

The peculiar institution of the town proprietary, its similarity to the English manor, and its conflicting interests with the town as a political unit, the author has endeavored to clarify against the social and the legal backgrounds of the seventeenth century. Attempt has been made to revisualize the oft pictured story of the Nantucket Insur rection, heretofore described as a purely local event rather than a localized phase of a general clash of interests, largely economic.

Historians of New England have given emphasis to political strug gles between the colonists and the mother country and devoted little attention to the relations of the settlers with the Indians. The belief is widespread that the only successful efforts made to civilize the Indians of North America were made by the French in Canada and the Spanish in California. This is not true, and the author hopes that this book will somewhat rectify the tradition of English disregard of Indian welfare.

For source material the author has drawn largely from the Rec ords of Plymouth Colony in New England, the Records of the Gov ernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, and the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Minutes of the Executive Council of New York, Hough's Papers Relating to the island of Nan tucket, New York Colonial Manuscripts, the several histories of Nan tucket Island, the "History of Martha's Vineyard" by Charles Edward

Xii PREFACE

Banks, M. D., and diaries, narrations and histories by colonial writers, have been among sources consulted. The author is indebted to the "History of Martha's Vineyard" for most of his facts concerning Governor Mayhew's English ancestry, and much information con cerning the social and political history of Martha's Vineyard Island.

The author takes this means to express appreciation to Walter F. and George F. Starbuck, sons of Alexander Starbuck, for the use of illustrations used in their father's exhaustive history of Nantucket;

also to L. & J. G. Stickley, Inc., of Fayetteville, New York, repro

ducers of early American furniture, for the illustration of the Mayhew Family Tree; and Mr. Marshall Shepard, president of the Dukes County Historical Society ( of Massachusetts) for numerous plates originally appearing in Bank's "History of Martha's Vineyard."

LLOYD C. M. HARE.

Berkeley, California.

THOMAS MAYHEW

PATRIARCH TO THE INDIANS

Thomas Mayhew, Patriarch to the Indians

THOMAS MAYHEW …. deserves to be ranked with
Bradford, Winthrop, and the other worthies, who estab
lished or governed the first English colonies in North
America. The little band of adventurers, whom he boldly
placed on an island, amidst numerous bodies of savages,

have not become a large and flourishing people; his fame consequently
is less; but his toils, his zeal, his courage were equally great. In pru
dence and benevolence he stands preeminent. Whilst on his part he
abstained from all acts of violence and fraud against the Indians, he
gained such an ascendency over their minds, that they on their part
never did him or his people the least injury, or joined in any of the
wars, which their countrymen on the main land waged against the
English. He seemed to come among them, not like a robber to dis
possess them of their lands, not like a conqueror to reduce them to
slavery, but like a father, to impart to them the comforts of civilized
life, and the blessings of the gospel of peace.-James Freeman, in
"Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1815."

CHAPTER I

THE PRELUDE OF EMPIRE

In 1588 the Spanish Armada was destroyed by the grace of God
and the sea dogs of England. On the bleak coasts of Ireland and Scot
land lay the bones of Philip's ships. Britannia had become mistress of
the seas.

The sun of empire had broken on Elizabethan England. It was
the morning of the seaman, the middle class, and the merchant prince.
Feudal barons no longer ruled supreme in councils of state with visions
proscribed by the bounds of ancient manors. In this day commerce
reached its peak, unconfined to the counting of pennies and the dick
ering of traders.

England sloughed provincialism; turned from broad acres to the
swelling sea and took root beyond the ocean, ambitious to be something
other than a mere island outpost of Europe.

Merchant adventurers and mariners went forth to vex distant seas
in strange corners of the globe. Ships sailed the oceans laden with
cannon and spices and furs.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Great commercial companies were formed to trade in all the parts of
the earth. Under the seals of state a stream of charters passed, grant
ing new domains in savage untrammeled wildernesses. Vast tracts of
land, mighty unexplored territories reaching from the Atlantic to the
fabled South Sea, passed to favorites of the royal hand. Pioneers of
empire dreamt of power.

In home ports all was bustle. Wooden ships creaked at wharves

piled high with merchandise from strange lands. The music of lap
ping waters, the clank of chains, grating blocks, and straining haw
sers lulled the air like gentle zephrys and belied the dangers of foreign
enterprise in barbaric lands. Hulls that had sailed uncharted waters
pounded gently against their mother piers. In the counting houses
merchants and masters planned new voyages.

Royal captains, explorers, and grizzled sea dogs ventured out of
the harbors of England in cockelshell boats to explore the shores of
North America. The prelude to the empire was being brilliantly
dramatized.

To the stern forbidding shores of America were transplanted names
ancient in the United Kingdom. Where the Indian roved in snow and
forest, maps pictured New Scotland, New Dartmouth, New Somerset
shire, the Colony of New Plymouth, and a host of home loved names,
many of which took no root in the barren soil of the New World, but
passed from all but the memory of man and the pages of history.
Others flourished for a time or were merged in greater units.

Governors to strange lands were appointed, admirals of new seas
commissioned, trading posts were settled, forts erected, and the founda
tions of empire laid.

In this hurly-burly of colonization and commerce were established
close to the middle of the seventeenth century the colonies of Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket, the private proprietary of an English mer
chant from the seaport town of old Southampton-the Worshipful
Thomas Mayhew, Esquire, father of a colony, governor of an island,
feudal lord in the nobility of the New World, judge, educator, patri
arch and missionary to the Indians of New England.

CHAPTER II

THE EARLY LIFE

On April 1, 1593, in the ancient church of St. John the Baptist, in the parish of Tisbury on the downs of south Wiltshire, England,
Thomas, infant son of Matthew and Alice (Barter) Mayhew, was
baptized.

The father of Thomas was a yeoman of gentle origin. Perhaps as
his son was carried from the font of the parish church, he prayed that
the infant who was destined to become one of a long line of British
governors of dominions over-seas, would live to revive the fortunes
of his branch of the Mayhew family, to bring again to his line the
social rank from whence he sprang.

The Mayhew family of Tisbury was a cadet branch of the family of Mayhew, spelled Mayow, of Dinton, an armigerous county family of considerable distinction, with its pedigree registered by the heralds in the Visitations of 1565 and 1623. The name is of Norman origin and is most frequently met with in the south and west of England. It is often spelled Mahu and Mayo and not infrequently appears clipped down and reduced to May. There can be little doubt but that it is a softened form of Matthew. The name De Mahieu is found in the sixteenth century in the southern provinces of the Netherlands among the noble Walloon families of French-speaking Belgium.

Thomas Mayhew, of Tisbury, a younger son of Dinton, was father of Matthew and grandfather of the infant Thomas. He is the first of his family to have lived in Tisbury, the home of his mother's people, where he was taxed for goods as of the Tithing of Tisbury in 1540. This Thomas was the third son of Robert Mayow, Gentleman, "eldest sonne and heire of Dynton," who married Joan Bridmore, daughter of John, of Tisbury.

Thomas, of Tisbury, was a yeoman, a member of that free-born class of small landholders, in the social scale of the feudal system rank ing below the gentry.

The line of demarcation between younger sons of the gentry and
prosperous yeoman was not firmly fixed and was apt to fluctuate in
accordance with the wealth of the parent stock and the size of their

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

families. Thomas, as one of five sons and two daughters, and the third
son of his stock, underwent this transition.

     It has been suggested that he inherited his mother's estate at Tis
bury while the eldest son and heir of the family retained possession of
the Mayhew property at Dinton. These were the days when the eldest
son was favored in inheritance to the exclusion of the younger.   The
drop of a step in the social scale in all probability accounts for the fact
that descendants of Thomas are not recorded in the family pedigree
prepared at the Visitations.   The great art of the heralds of England
was the elimination in tabular pedigrees of the names of younger sons
and daughters and those not in the direct line of ascent from the head
of the family at the time of the Visitation.

These were also days when the Puritan movement was growing in
strength. The branch to which Thomas Mayhew belonged, becoming
Protestant, may have lost association and recognition by the parent
stock. The Mayhews of Dinton are said to have been of the Roman
Catholic faith.

Thomas was buried in I 590, in Tisbury, predeceased by his wife,
Alice.

Robert, father of Thomas, although named in the Visitations as
"eldest sonne," is the only son of his generation recorded. He was
doubtless that Robert Mayhew who, with John Todeworth, in a
"Chirograph" dated 7 Henry VI, granted two messuages, three shops,
and ten acres of land in New and Old Sarum to Robert Asshton and
Alice, his wife, for life, remainder to John, son of the said Robert and
the heirs of his body.

Simon Mayhew, Gentleman, father of Robert, and grandfather of
Thomas, of Tisbury, heads the family in the recorded pedigrees, and
bore as arms, "Argent, on a chevron between three birds sable, five
lozenges of the field."

Matthew, son of Thomas, of Tisbury, and father of the infant
Thomas, was born about I 5 50. He was a resident of the parish of
Tisbury, where he was buried 26 February, 1614. In his will he is
described as a yeoman. For his rank he appears to have been a man of
substance. In his will, after minor bequests to the parish church at
Tisbury and "to the poore people" of the parish, he bequeaths two hun
dred and twenty-four pounds of "good and lawfull monie of England"
to his several children, and in addition "all the rest" of his goods,
including his landed holdings, to his eldest son John.
4

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Alice, the wife of Matthew, to whom he was married in 1587, was
a daughter of Edward and Edith Barter, of Haxton, in the parish of
Fydleton, County Wilts, and a granddaughter of James and Margaret
Barter, of Fovent, in the same shire.

A prominent member of the Mayhew family was Edward, born
at Dinton in I 5 70. He became a noted monk of the Benedictine Order. According to the writer in the "Dictionary of National Biography" he
was "descended from an ancient family who had suffered for their
attachment to the catholic faith." It is probable that he was a son of
Henry, of Dinton, and a cousin to the father of Governor Mayhew.
Edward, with a brother or cousin, Henry, not named in the Visitations,
was admitted a student of the English College at Douay, then tem
porarily located at Rheims. Later attending the English College at
Tome he took orders and was sent to England, where he exercised his
functions for twelve years as a secular priest. Desiring to revive the
Benedictine Order in England he took the habit and at the end of his
novitiate was professed by the famous Father Sigebert Buckley, sole
survivor of the order in England, and aggregated to the Abbey of
Westminster. Edward was one of the two monks to keep unbroken the
link in England connecting the old order of St. Benedictine with the
new.

When Governor Thomas Mayhew was born, Elizabeth was Queen,
Shakespeare was still living, and the fame of Raleigh and Drake and
worthy John Hawkins and of a thousand more that by their powers
"made the Devonian shore mock the proud Taugus" resounded still in
the Briton's ear. In the same year was passed the Conventicle Act that
provided the imprisonment without bail of any non-conformist who
should be present at a religious gathering not authorized by the estab
lish church. During the ten years preceding the ascension of James I
to the throne large numbers of Puritan worshippers were sent to jail
by the terms of this act and many others went into voluntary exile.

The formative period of Thomas Mayhew's life, no doubt, was
spent in the parish of his birth. In times of leisure we may picture that
he tramped the hills and downs of the countryside and mirrored his
reflections in the still waters of the Nadder, quietly flowing, by whose
banks ancient Tisbury slept with her past deep in Saxon history and the
days of Ethelred.

The land where he lived was a land of pleasant villages and ancient
churches, trees and parks and manor houses, dusty highways that lead
5

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

up hill and over rolling downs, where one saw thousands upon thou
sand, of sheep cropping grass, the source of England's woolen trade.
It was home. All about him in neighboring parishes, Chilmark, Font
hill, and Dinton, lived a race of Mayhew squires and country gentlemen.
At Dinton, home of his parent stock, was born the Earl of Claren
don, Lord High Chancellor of England, whose daughter was to marry
James, Duke of York, destined to become James II of England. The
church at Tisbury contains a Brass to the Earl's father, Lawrence
Hyde, great-grandfather of two of England's Queens. In later years
Clarendon was to procure a patent of the province of New York from
the King for his son-in-law, the Duke. In the history of that province
it was destined the boy Mayhew should play a role.

But of this the youth foresaw nothing in the peaceful days that
passed all too quickly. On Sundays he sat in the noble church that
stood in the fields of the village and read inscriptions to the great
Arundels, lords of the countryside, whose castle of Wardour stood not
far distant. He did not know that some of England's history lay in the
womb of that little countryside that seemed so peaceful and stable and
far removed from the stirring world. He saw the Lady Arundel, a
noblewoman of rank and influence, a sister to the Earl of Southampton:
that Southampton who was patron of Shakespeare and who sent Cap
tain Gosnold to America to establish the first English colony in New
England upon an island of which Mayhew was later to be lord, and
from which a town was to grow called Gosnold.

Perhaps the boy saw, too, Lord Arundel's daughter, the future
wife of Lord Baltimore, of Maryland. She was to be buried in the
church at Tisbury, where he sat.

On week days he attended the English school and perhaps the
grammar school of the parish. The extent of young Mayhew's educa
tion can be no more than guessed.

In the early sixteen hundreds there were three main types of
schools in England-the Dame School, the English School for instruc
tion in the three R's, and the Grammar School, devoted chiefly to the
study of Latin and Greek with occasionally a bit of Hebrew. The lat
ter was preparatory to the universities. To the Grammar School at
Stratford-on-Avon went William Shakespeare, who had "small Latin
and less Greek." The education of the great majority of English
boys ended at the English School. It shunted pupils able to read the

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

catechism and the Bible, to write a fairly legible hand and to wrestle
with simple problems in addition and subtraction.

Judging from the letters of Thomas Mayhew and his conduct in
life, we are justified in concluding that his education was greater than
that of the average Englishman of his times. Education throughout
the world was at a low ebb. Not to be illiterate was a matter of pride.
The peculiarities of orthography found in Mayhew's writings are
those common to his day. U' s are habitually used in place of v' s and
v' s in place of u's; e's are _placed in words where not now used, as in
doeing and yeares; and the tendency to double letters is found, of
which examples are sitt, donne, and ffive.

Another peculiarity common to the times was the shaping of the
letter i so that the word if when reproduced in modern type appears
yf. The elimination of letters to avoid the laborious use of a quill
pen and poor ink was prevalent. The sign m nual of this practice was
the use of the apostrophe or the elevation of the last letter of a word
above the line to denote the elimination of preceding letters.

Rules of capitalization were not hardened. Early writers gave free
rein to the art of this expression, and astonishing were their results. We
find educated writers and clergymen capitalizing inconsequential words
whenever fancy strikes them and in the same sentence writing god and
christianity in the lower case.

Past school age the picture of Thomas Mayhew may more clearly
be limned. Major-General Daniel Gookin, the New England magis
trate, who knew him personally, says he was "a merchant, bred in Eng
land, as I take it, at Southampton." This is verified by an entry in the
Book of Free Commoners of the corporation of Southampton:

                       Nono die ffebr' 1620 (i.e., 1621)
                Thomas Mayhew late servant and
                    apprntice unto Richard Masey

                     of the Towne and countie of
                     Southampton mrcer havinge well
                                                                                                              and truely served his apprntiship
                                                                                                           with his said mr whoe beinge
                     prsent testified to the same

And he the said Thomas Mayhewe
( desieringe to be admitted a

                      free commoner of the said Towne
                                                                                                               to use his trade of a mrcer in
                     this said Towne and his said mr

7

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

                         likewise desieringe the same)
                         was therefore this present daie
                                                                                                                                admitted and sworren a free
                         commoner accordingly.

The privilege of a Free Commoner at Southampton entitled the
licensee to engage in any "arte, scyence or occupation withyn the
towne."

     By this record a number of years in the life of Thomas Mayhew
may be pieced.   At the age of twenty-one his father had died leaving
him an estate of forty pounds.   A turning point in life had come.   A
few miles distant lay the seaport of Southampton, one of the great mer
cantile centers of south England. No occupation offered so great an
opportunity for adventure, travel, wealth as did the mercantile life.
So the youth determined at this time, if he did not do so sooner, to seek
his fortune in the field of trade, the occupation then popularly pursued
by sons of the gentry and wealthy yeomen.

Behind him he left the quiet fields of Wiltshire and its country
families, its traditions of agriculture and woolen cloths. Opening
before him was a vista of commerce and trade, ships and wharves and
foreign enterprise.

It is thought that Richard Macey, with whom Thomas Mayhew
served his apprenticeship, was a kinsman. Macey was a native of the
adjoining parish of Chilmark, where young Mayhew had relatives,
and it is not unlikely that the two were known to each other, if in no
other way connected.

      At the time of his freedom, Mayhew was close to twenty-eight
years of age. We may infer that he was soon established in business
for himself, plying as a mercer, a trade in silks and woolens.
      The mercers were the great merchants of England. In their
ranks were the most powerful traders of the day.    No simple trades
men they, we are told, but persons who dealt in a large way in a varied
assortment of goods, such as linen cloths, buckrams, fustions, satins,
fine woolen and other English cloths, cotton thread and wool, silk and
other commodities.

In business at Southampton, Thomas Mayhew, Free Commoner
and Merchant, followed the fortunes of the colonizing ventures of the
great mercantile companies. The history of Southampton is replete
with the exploits of merchant adventures concerned in the first settle-

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

ment and maintenance of plantations in the West Indies and on the
mainland of America.

The year prior to Mayhew's freedom the "Mayflower" met the

"Speedwell" from Holland in Southampton waters and rode at anchor.
From the quays of the town the merchant must have seen the begin
nings of that great voyage which was to terminate with the arrival
of the "Mayflower" at Cape Cod in the dead of winter. Already the
Pilgrims were suffering the horrors of those first months and nearly
one-half their number lay beneath the untamed sod of the Western
World.

Mayhew's pursuits brought him close in contact with New World

colonization. He is thought to be the Mr. Maio of whom the Massa
chusetts Bay Company ordered material for beds, bolsters, and ticks
in 1628.

From the harbors of Southampton and the Isle of Wight sailed the

great fleet of eleven vessels with 700 settlers under the leadership of
John Winthrop an& Sir Richard Saltonstall that established the colony
of the Massachusetts Bay.

The abilities of Thomas Mayhew in time reached the ears of Mat
thew Cradock, potent London merchant, one time governor of the com
pany of the Massachusetts Bay. This was accomplished "by the reports
and advize of maney & more especially" of John Winthrop, with whom
Mayhew appears to have been acquainted and with whose son he was
later an intimate friend and business adventurer.

Cradock was one of the great merchants of the kingdom who
traded in all the seas. He is said to have invested in the trade with
Persia and the East Indies and to have sent ships to the Levantine, the
Mediterranean, and the Baltic provinces. He was heavily interested
financially in the Massachusetts Company, under whose auspices John
Endicott was exercising the chief authority over a small colony at
Salem. As early as the spring of I 629 Cradock was instrumental in
sending over shipwrights, gardeners, coopers, cleavers, and a wheel
wright to the new plantation, and there is evidence that in this year
was established his great private estate at Medford on the banks of
the Mystic.

The many interests of Cradock in New England required supervi
sion and this he accomplished from time to time by the appointment of
an agent or factor to have general oversight and charge of his ship
ping, fishing, trading, and plantation interests.

CHAPTER III

THE MERCHANT

Immediately upon his arrival in the "Bay" Thomas Mayhew
became identified prominently with the social and political life of the
country. He was throughout the duration of his residence in Massa
chusetts one of the foremost merchants in the colony that was founded
by members of the wealthy mercantile class of Old England, from
which stratum of society it derived many of its leaders in the early days
of settlement.

Johnson, in his "Wonder Working Providence," published in
165 4, writes with serious profundity:

The richest Jems and gainfull things most Merchants wisely venter:
Deride not then New England men, this Corporation enter:
Christ call for Trade shall never fade, come Cradock factors send:
Let Mayhew go another move, spare not thy coyne to spend.
Such Trades advance and never chance in all their Trading yet:
Though some deride they lose, abide, here's faine beyond mans wit.

Thomas Mayhew's first known New England residence was at
Medford on the environs of Boston. Medford at this time was the
private plantation of Matthew Cradock and did not have the status of
township standing. The plantation, with its green meadows and stately
forests, lay on the north bank of the Mystic, situate upon a grant of
thirty-five hundred acres. Here Cradock impaled a park where cattle
were kept until it could be stocked with deer.

On an early map Medford is delineated as a cluster of six build
ings. That one of these buildings was to a degree pretentious may be
inferred by the fact that it is mentioned in the records as "Madford
house." It was here that Cradock's chief agents lived and Thomas
Mayhew in the course of time.
As Cradock's factor Mayhew became the head of a large corps
of employees, occupied in furthering Cradock's business interests in
numerous and diverse activities.

           In 1634, Mayhew erected a water mill in Watertown, referred to
    by a contemporary as an "excellant" mill. This Mayhew eventually
    purchased for himself, which "brought him great profit." In a letter
    addressed to the "worshipfull John Wynthropp," Mayhew requests the

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

use of Winthrop's team "a day or two, to hellpe carry the timber for
building the mill at Watertown." The mill, which was the first in
Watertown, was built at the head of tide-water on the Charles River
at Mill Creek, which was a canal partly or wholly artificial, leaving the
river at the head of the falls, where a stone dam was built.

Mayhew also requested of Winthrop delivery of certain hemp
for calking "the pynnase," from which it may be gathered that he was
engaged in shipbuilding.

      The construction of ships comes early into the history of the Mys
tic plantation. The town of Medford was at one time noted for ship
building.   Cradock sent over skilled artisans to promote the industry
and as early as 1632 they had a vessel of one hundred tons on the
stocks.   In the year following a ship of three hundred tons and another
of sixty tons were built.   It may not be doubted that smaller vessels,
such as pinnaces, galleys, and snows were launched upon the Mystic
tides that flowed by the banks of the Medford plantation.

The smaller of these vessels were engaged in the coastwise trade,
the larger in a three-cornered trade with the ports of Catholic Europe,
the mother country, and the plantation on the Mystic.

The market for fish was poor in the mother country due to the fact
that English merchants sent out their own fishing fleets. As fish was
the staple article of New England export, trade necessarily sprang up
with the Catholic countries of south Europe. There the New England
ships would take on cargoes of wines and oils for Britain. Arrived in
England these would be exchanged for clothing, food, and supplies
needed in New England.

The fishery was one of the first and most flourishing trades estab
lished in the New World. It was the corner-stone of New England pros
perity. Captain John Smith referred to its possibilities as a trade of
more solid value to the country than the richest mine the King of Spain
possessed in Spanish America. Cradock is said to have maintained
fishing stations at Medford, Marblehead, and Ipswich. At Medford
was a great weir which had come into the possession of Cradock and
Governor Winthrop. Here "land fish" were taken, i. e., fish caught
without the use of boats. The weir was at the outlet of Mystic Lake,
where today High Street, Medford, crosses the Mystic River at what
is known as the Weir Bridge.

Something of Thomas Mayhew's activities as merchant, miller,
plantation steward, and shipbuilder is expressed in a letter to the

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

younger John Winthrop. In this Mayhew tells of a voyage to the
Isles of Shoals "to buy 80 hogsheads of prouission" and reports that
upon his arrival he "fownd noe such thinge as vnto me for trueth was
reported: to procure 8 hogsheads of bread I was fayne to lay out one
hundred pownds in ruggs & coates vnnecessarily: and for pease I got
but I hogshead & ½, whereof I sowed certain bushnells. Had things
beene free at the coming in of this vessel, I woulld haue had a greater
share of what she brought, yett I confesse, as matters hath beene car
ried, I haue not ought against that which hath beene donne."

Continuing, he writes, "I haue made out th accompt betweene vs.
Concerning the Bermuda Voyadge and accompting the potatoes at 2d.
the corne at 9s. per bushell, the pork at 10 li. per hogshead, orrenges
and lemons at 20s. per c, wee two shall gaine twenty od pownds."
     Winthrop, an accomplished scholar, a member of the Royal Society,
and a governor of Connecticut, was the friend most dear to Mayhew
hroughout life. Him he addressed as "Deseruedly Honoured Mr.
John Wynthropp, and my loueing Friend" and "my approued Freind."
Meanwhile, Cradock, in London, had become dissatisfied with the
results of Mayhew's factorage. Like the London merchants who had
financed the "Mayflower" pilgrims, Cradock was imbued with the
belief that his investments in the new hemisphere should produce great
revenue.   But North America was not India, nor did it contain the
wealth of the Caribbeans.       The sterile and forbidding shores of New
England produced timber, and in adjoining waters fish were caught
in abundance, but in the markets of the home country such commodi
ties did not bring the prices of an East Indian cargo.

Dissatisfied, Cradock became thoroughly convinced that the lack of
"great returnes" was attributable to "vyle bad dealinge" on the part of
Mayhew. In lengthy letters to the senior Winthrop, Cradock poured
forth his grievances, real and imaginary, going so far as to intreat Win
throp to take steps to make Thomas Mayhew account for Cradock's
property in New England, which the London merchant valued at
11,500 pounds, besides increase of "Cattell," improvement of grounds,
"& proffitt by the labors of seruants," set off against charges and losses.
Cradock "truely" hoped Mayhew would give him reasonable satisfac
tion, and in so doing, says Cradock, "I ame confydent it will doe him
selffe a great deale of right."

Immediately Cradock sent over a new agent, one Joliffe, who
reported in regard to Mayhew's accounts, "that what is not sett downe

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

is spent.' "Most extremely I ame abused," bewailed Cradock, "My
seruants write they drinke nothing but water & I haue in an account
lateley sent me Red Wyne, Sack & acqua vitae in one yeere aboue 3oo
gallons, besids many other intollerable abuses, 101£ for tobacco etc.
My papers are misselayd, but if you call for the coppyes of the
accounts sent me & examine vppon what ground it is made, you shall
fynd I doubt all but forged stuffe." Cradock complained that bills
came almost daily to him of one kind or another. By these his mind
was much disquieted, as he thanked God never anything did in the
"lyke" manner before.

Continues he, "When it shall appear howe he hath dealt with me,
you & all men shall seey it I ame persuaded will hardely thinke it
would be possible that a man pretending sincerity in his actions could
deale so vilely as he hath & doeth deale by me."

"Yeet," writes Cradock again, "what shall I say, Mr. Mayhew is
approued by all."

Not alone Winthrop, but Sir Henry Vane, the then governor of the
colony, was favored with letters from the London merchant.

Mayhew's version of this controversy cannot be presented with
much wealth of detail. His story is gleaned imperfectly from Cra
dock's letters, from the conduct of compeers, and collateral circum
stances. Cradock himself mentioned the good reputation which the
factor held. Rather testily he had referred to Captain Pearce, the
trusted confidant of the leaders of the Massachusetts Colony in Eng
land and America as one who was a Mayhew "well-willer."

Men in New England who knew Mayhew personally rallied to his
aid, including the "heavenly minded" Haynes, himself a merchant.
Cradock "marvels," as he expressed it, that Mr. Haynes, a former
governor of the colony and the son of a privy councillor in England,
should "drawe" himself "into such a buseynes," but is "perswaded"
that Mr. Haynes is laboring under a misapprehension as to May
hew's dealings and will be enlightened when the factor's methods are
''unmasked.''

      The gist of Cradock's spleen was business losses. He had invested
many thousands of pounds in the new plantation, yet his New England
interests totaled in the debit column. Wounded in his pocketbook, his
soul writhed in a torment of pain.   Upon Mayhew he turned with all
the frenzy of a mind "much disquieted." Mayhew's cardinal sin was a
failure to live up to the expectations of his employer. There can be
                                                           14

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

little doubt but that Mayhew was honest. The entire course of his life
is a demonstration of a rugged integrity.

It may be that Mayhew made business errors and failed to report
with sufficient detail to the satisfaction of Cradock. More than this
the evidence does not sustain.

It must not be forgotten that Cradock's source of information was
Joliffe, a man anxious to secure Mayhew's position, as he did.

Steps taken by Winthrop to make Mayhew "answerable" are not
known.   The judicial records of the colony disclose that court action
was not pursued.   This was a day when no controversy was too small
to solicit the solemn attention of the magistrates. It is probable that
the local governor of the colony paid small heed to the cry of the Eng
lish merchant.   It is not known that Mayhew suffered anything from the controversy other than that his position as the New England repre sentative of the London merchant was not renewed upon the expiration of contract. His social and political prestige suffered nothing in the
eyes of his colleagues who better understood the difficulties of his
tasks and the expenditures necessary to further new and extensive oper
ations in a pioneer country.

The letters of Cradock contain one of the few attacks upon May
hew's private character, remarkable in that he was a man long and
strenuously before the public, whose varied career as merchant, gov
ernor, manorial lord, and Indian missionary extended over a period of
fifty-one years in America.

In later years Cradock had business dealings with Mayhew, an indi
cation that he no longer believed in the charges he had been so hasty in
bringing.

The termination of Mayhew's employment as factor necessitated
his removal from Medford.   He took up residence in the nearby vil
lage of Watertown, where already he had business interests.   Here, a
few miles outside the principal town of Boston, the merchant resided
the following seven or eight years, continuing his identity in colony
affairs and enlarging his business and landed interests.
      He was one of the great landowners of the colony.   He held a
large farm in Watertown of two hundred and fifty acres and three
tracts of "upland," totaling more than one hundred and twenty acres.
In addition he possessed thirty acres of meadow at the "westpine
meaddows" in the township.

The other large landowners at Watertown were Sir Richard Sal-
15

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

tonstall, the Rev. George Phillips, Robert Feake, Gentleman, and John
Loveran.

Mayhew also owned for a time the Oldham farm of five hundred
acres located at the junction of the Charles River and Stony Brook in
the present town of Waltham, and the so-called Bradstreet farm of an
equal number of acres in Cambridge Village, now Newton.

At Watertown the former factor continued his commercial activi
ties and the operation of the mill which by this time had come into his
ownership, as well as the fish weir which had been constructed by the
town a number of years before. The fishery in the Charles River was
one of considerable importance. Wood, the early chronicler, testifies
that at this weir were taken "great store of Shads and Alewives. In
two Tydes they have gotten one hundred thousand of those Fishes."

Not far removed fr'om the mill and weir was the proprietor's home
lot of twelve acres with residence and orchard.

To span the Charles River in this center of commercial activity,
Mayhew constructed a bridge, the first and most important in Water
town. It was usually called the Mill Bridge or the Great Bridge.
Although successful as a structure of use, it proved a failure to its
builder as a means of financial remuneration.

As early as 1641 its sponsor applied to have granted him the right
to charge tolls. The application was referred by the colonial legisla
ture to the governor and two magistrates to settle for seven years. But
after some dickering, the privilege was refused, and by some unknown
process of logic it was determined that the bridge should "belong to the
Country" and that Mayhew should have in return for his investment
and enterprise a tract of three hundred acres of land, which was voted
him without thanks. The transaction was closed to the satisfaction of
all but Mayhew. The colony reaped the fruits of private enterprise
and, as has been aptly stated, "Mayhew got a lot of land in the woods
thirty miles west of Boston" for his pains, in what is now Southboro
and Framingham, on the north bank of Hopkinton River.

It is not known exactly under what arrangements, if any, the
builder undertook the construction of the bridge, but it is apparent that
the paternalistic government of the colony did not favor private enter
prise and monopolies.

The outcome of the bridge episode was of special grief to Thomas
Mayhew for the reason that the years 1640 and 1641 were a time of
financial depression.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Matters reached a state where the General Court of the colony
took a hand and passed an act that no man should be compelled to sat
isfy any debt, legacy, fine, or other payment, in money, but that credi
tors should accept satisfaction in corn, cattle, or other commodities
because of "a great stop in trade & comerce for want of money."

Late in 1640 came the news that the Scots had invaded England in
rebellion against the efforts of Charles I to force Episcopacy upon their
people. The sending to New England of supplies fell off abruptly.
Through the colony spread the news that the calling of a parliament
and the possibility of a thorough reformation was imminent in Eng
land. The convention of the Long Parliament and the uprising of the
Puritans in civil war was soon to come. Many of the settlers in New
England decided to return to England. Others, despairing of supplies
from the home country under the circumstances, and doubtful of the
opportunity to earn a living should they return, moved southward,
where subsistence was more easily secured than in the sterile soil of
Massachusetts.

To effect removal a great many estates were put upon the market at
low prices that the emigrants might raise quick cash. "These things,"
writes Governor Winthrop, "together with the scarcity of money, caused
a sudden and very great abatement of the prices of all our own com
modities." The price of corn and livestock, two staple articles of
exchange, dropped sharply, "whereby it came to pass that men could
not pay their debts, for no money nor beaver were to be had," and he
who the year prior had been worth 1,000 pounds could not now, con
cludes Winthrop, raise 200 pounds.

The times were difficult for a man involved in as many enterprises
as Thomas Mayhew. Bills and debts became pressing. An orgy of
mortgages ensued. Between 1639 and 1643 the mill at Watertown,
the fish weir, the Bradstreet farm, the Watertown farm, and other
miscellaneous tracts of land and properties were either mortgaged or
sold.

Something of the merchant's efforts to raise money he recounts to
Winthrop, a fellow victim, who suffered reverses at the time from
which he never fully recovered. Mayhew was threatened with having
goods distrained by the government for failure to pay a tax. At the
same time the colony owed him more than seventy pounds, which he
had been attempting to collect for a year and a half. Mayhew could
not see equity in it.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Writes he, "I may safely say that if I had had my money as was
then fully intended, being then 100 li., it had donne me more good, in
name & state, then now wilbe made whole with double the money."
Continuing, he writes, "Mony is verry hard to gett vpon any termes.
I know not the man that ca ffurnish me with it .... when I was syck
& in necessitie, I could not gett any of the Tresurer." In conclusion,
he adds briefly, "I delight not to compleyne."

The letter was carried to the governor by the constable, whom,
says Mayhew, "I thinke he comes vnto yow for counsell" in the mat
ter. Developments are not known. Perhaps Winthrop joined in May
hew's view that there was no "equitie" in the matter and legal process
was abandoned.

     In the words of the merchant's friend, Daniel Gookin, the time had
come when it pleased God to frown upon Mayhew "in his outward
estate."
     In a new and undeveloped country still in the pioneer state, where
life was mainly agricultural and piscatorial, and men found it neces
sary to till the soil and build with their hands to eke a livelihood, the
trials of the entrepreneur and capitalist were many and fraught with
peril even under the most favorable circumstances.

Winthrop, Senior, Cradock, Mayhew, Oldham, and others found
New England a source of financial loss. The era of great mercantile
wealth and the growth of rich and powerful families with fortunes
grounded on foundations of exports and imports was not to come for
another quarter of a century.

CHAPTER IV

THE LEGISLATOR

In the early days of the Massachusetts Colony politics were, as in
England, a profession pursued by gentlemen. Citizens of the best
brains and education were called upon to serve the country in its several
branches as a matter of civic duty. An office of trust, whether great
or small, was an office of honor. A wealthy merchant of Boston
expressed the spirit of the day when he questioned in his diary his
worthiness to exercise the office of corporal of militia.

The name of Thomas Mayhew appears on the records of the colony
as early as March 6, 1632, on which day he filed a report as chairman
of a committee appointed to settle the boundaries of Charlestown and
Cambridge. In July of the following year he was appointed by the
General Court to act as administrator of the estate of Ralph Glover.

For reasons unknown the merchant failed to become a freeman for
a number of years. Whether he was unwilling to throw off allegiance
to the Church of England, or whether with that caution which was char
acteristic of him he was not yet ready to cast his fortunes with the new
colony, cannot at this day be said.

In the spring of 1634, however, he applied and was admitted a
Freeman of the company of the Massachusetts, Bay, entitled thereby to
actively participate in the government of the colony as an elector and
to hold offices of public trust. In the list of candidates admitted at this
time hut six are accorded the title "Mr.," a prefix then conferred with
care, and denoting the possessor to be a man of rank. Three of these
men of quality were the celebrated clergymen, Thomas Hooker, John
Cotton, and Samuel Stone. The others were William Brenton, a mem
ber of an ancient and wealthy English family; Captain William Pierce,
the distinguished voyager and shipmaster, author of New England's
first almanac; and Thomas Mayhew.

Says the historian of Watertown, "For the ensuing 13 years, it
appears by the Colonial Records, that few, if any, other persons so
often received important appointments from the General Court" than
Thomas Mayhew.

The status of a Freeman is one of interest. It is commonly known
that the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New
19

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

England was chartered by royal patent as a trading company. In the
establishment of the colony in America the administration of the trad
ing company became the government of the colony. The board of
directors of the company, known as Assistants, became the magistrates,
and the stockholders or Freemen the electors.

Of two thousand inhabitants in the colony in 1630 not more than a
dozen had political competence. Not until the year following was the
first class of Freemen admitted after the transfer of the charter to the
New World. Freedom soon became restricted to colonists who held
fellowship with one of the churches in the jurisdiction.

A small percentage of the population had become voters. These
met in the stockholders' meeting of the company, where the higher
officers of the colony were elected. The Freemen growing unwieldly
in number for mass meetings, it was determined that the several planta
tions should send Deputies instead. In time the stockholders' meeting
became the supreme legislative body of the colony.

On the day of his admission to Freedom, Mayhew, as a welcome,
was fined by the General Court for a breach of its order against
"imployeing Indeans to shoote with peeces." Mayhew had employed
Indian servants for hunting purposes, perhaps to provide provisions for
Cradock's numerous employees under his care, or for animal fur. That
the offense was not heinous is gathered by the further order of the
General Court that the Court of Assistants who had illegally, as they
deemed, given Mayhew permission to do the act complained of, should
pay a part of the fine levied. This is an early example of the control
of the Freemen of the colony assembled in General Court over the jur
isdiction of the magistrates.

On the same day a committee of the court was appointed to bargain
with Mr. Mayhew and Mr. Stevens, or either of them, for the building
of a seafort at Boston for the defense of the colony: the court agreeing
to perform whatever bargain the committee might strike "for manner
& time of payemt." Mayhew's connection with this enterprise is there
after veiled in obscurity. It may be that a "manner & time of paymt"
were not satisfactorily arrived at.

All in all, Thomas Mayhew, honored with the title "Master,"
fined as a miscreant for permitting Indians to shoot with "peeces," and consulted as an engineer, appears to have been busily occupied at his
first attendance at the General Court as a Freeman.

A few weeks later he was intreated by the court to examine what

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

hurt the swine kept by the men of Charlestown had done among Indian
"barnes" of corn on the north side of the Mystic, the inhabitants of
Charlestown promising to give the Indians satisfaction in accordance
with his findings in the matter. Already he was a man of influence with
the Indians, a phase in life for which he was to become famous.

An example of the paternalistic character of the Massachusetts
government and its control of private trade is found in an act of the
General Court passed the succeeding year. This statute provided that
no person should buy commodities of any ship coming within the juris
diction of the colony without license first obtained from the governor,
under penalty of confiscation of goods so purchased or their value. The
act then proceeded to authorize Mayhew and certain other merchants
in the colony, "or any one of them," to board any ship that had lain
twenty-four hours at anchor and discovered to be a friend, to take
note of what commodities it had for sale.

The boarding merchant was then to report the results of his obser
vations to his fellow licensees, the majority of whom were at liberty to
buy such commodities as they should judge to be useful to the country.
It was provided that goods purchased should be landed by the mer
chants and stored in some magazine near the place where the ship lay
at anchor, and that at any time within the space of twenty days after
the landing, and notice given the several towns, sales should be made
from the stock to any inhabitant within the jurisdiction, of such com
modities as might be needful. The act concluded with a maximum
profit specified to the merchant, "& not above."

An incident in the life of the colony at this time in which Mayhew
played a part was that which has been made famous by Hawthorne:
the cutting of the red cross of St. George from the King's colors by
John Endicott for the reason that it savored of papery. This pic
turesque incident, more widely known than any other one event in early
New England history, threw the colony into a furor.

The cross in the flag had early troubled the tender conscience of
the Puritan exile. Whether this flaunting symbol of "Anti-Christ"
should be carried in the flags of the militia had early been referred to
the ministers at Boston for decision, but the clergy being divided in
opinion, the question was deferred to another meeting. Meantime
Roger Williams, who could split a theological hair or create a political
schism better and with more eloquence than his worst persecutor ever
hoped to do, continued to express his opinion that the cross should be

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

discarded. Endicott, inspired by the young cleric's logic, on the green
at Salem, before the assembled train band, with his own sword, had
purged the ensign of Old England of its stigma, and the embattled
militia men had proudly marched away with the amputated remains
unfurled to freedom's breezes. The scruples of the yeomen who had
refused to follow the flag in its former sinful condition were satisfied.
But not so the government. The problem involved a magnitude too
great to be solved by a Caesarian operation. Such means savored of
treason. For a time it was ordered that all ensigns should be laid
aside. The ministers rallied to the harassed administration and prom
ised to write to the most wise and godly of their faith in England for
advice.
Complaint was made to the General Court that the King's colors
had been defaced. "Much matter was made of this," writes Winthrop,
"as fearing it would be taken as an act of rebellion, or of like high
nature, in defacing the king's colors; though the truth were, it was done
upon this opinion, that the red cross was given to the king of England
by the pope, as an ensign of victory, and so a superstitious thing, and a
reluque of antichrist."

Endicott was hailed before the Court of Assistants to answer for
his act, but the court was unable to agree to any conclusion in the
premises. The entire question was deferred to the next meeting of the
General Court, convened at Newton. The question came early to the
attention of that body. A committee of thirteen Freemen, including
Thomas Mayhew, was appointed to consider Endicott's act and "to
reporte to the Court" how far they judge it "sensureable." After one
or two hours' time, the committee returned to the floor of the court
and rendered its report:

The commissionrs chosen to consider of the act of Mr Endicott con
cerneing the colrs att Salem did reporte to the Court that they appre
hend hee had offended therein many wayes, in rashness, vncharitablenes,
indiscrecon, & exceeding the lymitts of his calling, wherevpon the Court
hath sensured him to be sadly admonished for his offence, wch accord
ingly hee was, & also disinabled for beareing an office in the common
wealth, for the space of a yeare nexte ensueing.

This report Winthrop amplifies in his journal saying the committee
found Endicott's offense to be rash and without discretion in that he
took upon himself more authority than he had without advice of court;
uncharitable because, although he considered the cross to be a sin he
22

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

contented himself in reforming it only at Salem, taking no step to
reform it elsewhere; and that he laid a "blemish" upon the rest of the
magistrates in intimating that they would admit of idolatry. A heavier
sentence was not levied, explains Winthrop, because the court was per
suaded the captain had done the act out of tenderness of conscience, and
not of any evil intent.

In the end the military commissioners of the colony ruled that the

cross of St. George as a device upon the national colors should be left
out of the flags carried by the militia, and that the ensign flown at the
King's fort in Boston Harbor should bear the sovereign's arms in
substitution.

Endicott, in later years, in his capacity as a Commissioner of the
United Colonies, was able to exercise considerable influence in connec
tion with the activities of the Indian mission at Martha's Vineyard,
then under Mayhew's supervision. There is nothing to show that Endi
cott harbored any grudge against Mayhew as a consequence of service
on this committee. In fact, considering the enormity of the offense of
mutilating the nation's flag, the sentence of the court was innocuous.
The entire proceeding was a play to the British gallery. The Britons
were watching the Puritans of New England with suspicious eyes and
charging them with sedition.

In September, I 636, Thomas Mayhew was elected for the first time
a Deputy to the General Court. This dignified body of lawmakers and
judges recruited its membership from the wealthy and landed proprie
tors of the colony, its members representing the higher level of society.
At the time of his election the new Deputy was about forty-three
years of age.

For the ensuing eight years Thomas Mayhew was returned to the
General Court at nearly every session, being a member of at least fif
teen courts during that period. Upon occasion he was fined for
absences, it being voted once that "The fines of this weeke are agreed
to bee given to George Munnings who lost his eye in the countryes
servise."

As a Deputy he was appointed to many important committees in
company with the leaders of the colony. His name appears as a mem
ber of committees appointed to lay out land grants ordered by the
General Court, to judge and establish boundaries between the several
towns, to levy tax rates, to audit the books of the colony's treasurer, to
adjust accounts between individuals, and similar duties.

22

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

With the husband of the "heretic," Anne Hutchinson, he was

ordered by the Court of Assistants to gather up the debts and estate of
Captain John Oldham, recently murdered by the Indians at Block
Island. The murder of Oldham, a prominent merchant, was a chief
cause in bringing on the Pequot War, the first of the Indian wars of
New England.

When the judicial system of the colony was revised, Thomas May
hew was one of three gentlemen appointed to hold court for Water
town to hear and determine all causes not exceeding twenty shillings in
amount. Business had grown apace in the colony with the increase of
population, and although lawyers were looked upon as fathers of
strife and were practically nil in the colony as a profession, the calen
dars of the law courts, nevertheless, had become choked with petty
actions, and merchants found themselves at great expense in pursuing
debtors and in adjusting accounts among themselves.

An important committee on which the deputy and judge served
was one appointed by the General Court from its membership to con
sider a letter received by it from the Indian sachems Canonicus and
Pesecus, of the Narragansetts. The members were ordered "to returne
theire thoughts & conclusions" to the "howse" for action.

Canonicus was the ancient sachem of the restless Narragansetts of
Rhode Island. Pesecus was his nephew, who ruled with him as a sort
of sachem-coadjutor on account of the former's great age. Pesecus'
brother, Miantonomo, had been slain by the chief Uncas, outcast leader
of a band of malcontent Indians, and the Narragansetts were prepared
to embark upon the customary war of retaliation and extinction. The
move was frowned upon by the Massachusetts government.

Samuel Gorton, a settler, who for his "damnable errors" had been
banished from the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies, is charged as
the inciting influence behind the activities of the Narragansetts. Writ
ing over the marks of the chiefs Canonicus and Pesecus, Gorton had
addressed a letter to the Massachusetts authorities, pleased at the
opportunity to bait his former persecutors. In the letter surprise is
expressed that the Massachusetts authorities should disapprove of the
war, and with ingenious reasoning the writer suggests, in light of the
fact that the Narragansetts had recently submitted themselves to the
protection of the English crown, that any difference between the Massa
chusetts government and the Narragansetts should be referred to the

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

King for ·settlement on the theory that the settlers and the Narragan
setts were fellow subjects of a common sovereign.

The submission of the Narragansetts was made directly to that
great and mighty prince, Charles, King of England, at the suggestion
of some of Gorton's followers for the reason that both the Gorton
faction and the Narragansetts feared to come under the sway of their
neighbors to the north. The Massachusetts leaders were jockeyed into
the position where they appeared in the light of attempting to control,
with overbearing strength, the conduct of others of his Majesty's loyal
subjects.

The committee of the General Court perceived the delicate hand
of Gorton in the epistle, or thought they did, and two messengers were
hastily dispatched to Canonicus to convey the court's answer, with
instructions to query the Narragansett chiefs if they "did own" the let
ter, by whose advice they had done as they wrote, and why they coun
tenanced counsel from such evil men as Gorton and his followers.
These diplomats were illy received by the Narragansett's chief, who
compelled them to wait two hours before giving them audience in his
wigwam. Entering at length, the envoys found Canonicus stretched
upon a couch from which he failed to arise. He would give them but
few grudging words. After four hours of this treatment, Pesacus
removed the party to an "ordinary" wigwam, not suitable for the recep
tion of English ambassadors, where a conference was held through most
of the night. That it was unsuccessful may be gathered from the fact
that the Narragansetts, with the Mohawks and the Pocomoticks, betook
themselves to the warpath against Uncas in a long drawn war in which
Uncas received support from the English. This assistance he repaid
in later years by siding with the colonists against King Philip. The
merits of the war is a contested bit of history and the exact part played
by Gorton's men cannot now be estimated with impartial accuracy.

During all the time that Thomas Mayhew was playing a role in
the affairs of the colony, he was prominent in the smaller sphere of
town affairs at Watertown. Immediately upon taking up residence in
the town he was elected one of eleven selectmen empowered to "dis
pose of all the Civill Affaires of the Towne for one whole yeare." The
members elected constituted the legislative body of the town, and exer
cised also judicial powers in the enforcement of local ordinances, sitting
as a police court. The office of selectman Mayhew held a number of
years, at times acting as chairman of the board.

CHAPTER V

THE LORD OF THE ISLES

In the September of I 64I appeared at Boston, as General Deputy
to the Right Honorable the Earl of Stirling, one James Forrett, with
authority from his principal to dispose of lands for the colonization of
Long Island and parts adjacent.

William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, had for some time been
endeavoring to colonize the vast domains granted him upon the divi
sion of the territories of the Council for New England. Stirling was
an eminent Scotch poet of ancient family. A favorite of the King, he
held the post of Secretary for the Kingdom of Scotland. He was the
recipient of prodigious gifts of land. He received from the New Eng
land Company the lands of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Stirling
planned the settlement of these territories by the sale of baronies to
gentlemen of rank who would contract to place on the soil of their
grants a certain number of inhabitants. For the furtherance of this
enterprise the King created a new order, the hybrid Knights Baronets
of Nova Scotia, each member of which was to be a little more than a
knight and a little less than a baron. Every purchaser of a barony was
entitled to the orange tawny ribbon of the new order upon payment of
requisite fees.

Although the new titles were conferred upon a number of gentle
men, and the royal pocket reaped a harvest each time the royal sword
dubbed a baronet, the scheme as a means of settlement failed. The
bleak fields of New Scotland bloomed with naught else than knights
and passed into the possession of the French, leaving the landless pro
prietors of Nova Scotia with the orange tawny ribbon of their order
and a title derided by the older nobility.

Of Stirling, an early satirist made the comment that "It did not
satisfie his ambition to have a laurel from the Muses, and be esteemed
a King amongst Poets, but he must be King of some New-found-land;
and like another Alexander indeed, searching after new worlds, have
the sovereignty of Nova Scotia. He was borne a Poet, and aimed to
be a King; therefore he would have his royal title from King James,
who was born a King, and aimed to be a Poet."

After the Seigniory of New Scotland might be said to have ceased

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

to exist, so far as Stirling was concerned, he, or his son, was granted
another gift of land in the New World with which to experiment.
In the charter of this grant the new lordship was delineated as
embracing within its boundaries all that part of the mainland of New
England adjoining the late New Scotland on the south, from the river
St. Croix along the sea coast to Pemaquid, and up that river to the
Kennebec and the river of Canada, to be called the county of Canada,
together with Long Island to the west of Cape Cod, thereafter to be
titled the Isle of Stirling, "with all & singular, havens, harbours, creeks,
and Islands, imbayed and all Islands and Iletts lyinge within ffive
leagues distance of the Maine being opposite and abuttinge vpon the
premises or any part thereof not formerly lawfully graunted to any by
speciall name.''

Another great adventurer in the New World contemporary with
Alexander was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a hero of the war in France;
like Stirling, a kingly favorite and a prominent member of the Council
for New England. It was Gorges who had been instrumental in pro
curing from that company a charter for the Pilgrim founders of Plym
outh Colony.

In 1622 Gorges and Mason were granted the territory between the
Merrimac and Kennebec rivers, extending inland sixty miles. Upon
a division of this grant in I 629 the northern part between the Pisca
taqua and Kennebec rivers fell to the lot of Gorges, and was named by
him New Somersetshire, after his home county in England. Ten years
later Gorges was able to procure the King's confirmation to this terri
tory. By the terms of the royal patent, vice-regal powers of govern
ment were conferred upon Gorges, who was to act as Lord Palatine of
the Province of Maine, the name under which New Somersetshire
emerged in the royal christening.

Sir Ferdinando, remaining in England, sent over his nephew,
Thomas Gorges, to act as local governor. Richard Vines, a gentleman
sent out for trade and discovery, was already in the country.

At Boston, Stirling's emissary, James Forrett, came into contact
with Thomas Mayhew, and being ready always to further his master's
interests and to encourage the colonization of his lands, negotiations
were opened with the Puritan merchant to accept a grant of one or
more of the unsettled islands of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and
those adjacent, eastward of Long Island; a part of the domain claimed
by Stirling.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Martha's Vineyard, the largest and most fertile of these islands,
had already been described in print by a number of early explorers,
although Nantucket was not so well known. With a purchaser in
sight it may be assumed that Stirling's agent pictured in glowing terms
the forest-clad island of Martha's Vineyard, with its belt of hills to the
north, its rolling plains and wild moors, its salt ponds leading to the
sea, its cliffs at Nashaquitsa two hundred and twenty feet high, and the
vast solitude of beach along the south shore where the waters of the
Atlantic roll eternal. Perhaps with the book written by the historian
of the Gosnold expedition before him as a text, he pictured the
"chieftest trees" of this island which are beeches and cedars, the latter
"tall and straight, in great abundance," and described the luxuriant
flora which crowded the island from the waters of Vineyard Haven to
the great south beach, from the multi-colored cliffs at Gay Head to
the pasture lands of Chappaquiddick, the "Cypress trees, Oakes, …

Elmes, Beech, Hollie, Haslenut . . . . Cotten trees," high timbered
oaks, "their leaves thrice so broad as ours," and walnut trees in abun
dance; cherry trees that "beareth" fruit like a cluster of grapes, "forty
or fifty in a bunch," and sassafras trees in "great plentie all the Island
over."

Further the agent recounted how strawberries grown there were red
and sweet and "bigger than ours in England," and raspberries, goose
berries, and huckleberries, and an "incredible store of Vines" extending
even into the wooded parts of the island so dense that Gosnold's men
could not "goe for treading upon them"; the vines from the presence
of which the island took its name.

In surrounding waters nature, too, was lavish. Here whales, por
poises, cod, mackerel, herring, lobsters, crabs, muscles, and other fishes
habitated in splendor and abundance. Oysters were found, and the
succulent clam in shallow shores and coves.

To this endowment of flora and fauna Stirling's exclusive sales
agent was able to add healthful breezes that swept in from the Atlantic
on all sides. The location was one ideal for the maintenance of life
and the settlement of colonies.

And to clinch the deal, where else in America could a man, not of
the high council with the King, become the feudal proprietary of a
group of islands, to rule like Alexander of Ross, Lord of the Isles,
king of all he surveyed?

The arguments were convincing. As proprietary, Mayhew fore-

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

saw how he could sell or lease the lands of his domains and gain a com
fortable livelihood for himself, the main end of all such grants. Here,
too, he could found a family with hereditary privileges, and restore
the prestige of the Mayhew name. The colonization of these unsettled
islands afforded an opportunity to restore a waning fortune, weakened
by the prevailing business depression. The vastness of the project
intrigued. We are told by Mayhew's grandson that nothing but the
largeness of the grant induced the merchant to essay the settlement of
these distant islands inhabited by unfriendly and murderous Indians,
as current knowledge had it.

After proper deliberation the Watertown merchant concluded to
accept in part the opportunity to become the William Penn and Lord
Baltimore of a New England barony. Choosing to purchase Nan
tucket Island, Forrett executed a patent to the merchant and his son,
authorizing them to "plant and inhabit" that place and other "small
Islands adjacent," designating thereby Muskegat and Tuckernuck isles,
and to set up a government upon the islands similar to that established
in the Massachusetts.

Ten days later a second instrument was drawn up which amplified
Mayhew's territorial jurisdiction and authorized him to plant and
inhabit also Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands.

Meanwhile, in a manner unknown, Richard Vines, the agent of Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, became cognizant of the transactions pending
between Forrett and the Puritan merchant. Vines, who was the trusted
overseer of the Gorges interests in Maine and a councillor of the prov
ince, was at times a visitor to Boston. His opportune arrival in the
metropolis during the negotiations may have been chance, but it is more
probable that Mayhew, unconvinced of Stirling's title, had communi
cated with Vines relative to the Gorges claim. Mayhew refers to
Vines as one he "then had much interest in."

Vines was a cavalier and Episcopalian and, although he had consid
erable trouble with the :Massachusetts authorities in respect to encroach
ments in Maine, appears to have been on friendly terms with a number
of the Puritan leaders. Mayhew and he, doubtless, had become
acquainted through overlapping mercantile interests. It is difficult
otherwise to account how Vines could have so quickly become aware
of what was being done at Watertown and Boston. Vines "inter
rupted," says Mayhew, and presented for consideration the Gorges

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

claim to the islands, showing Mayhew his master's patent--which
would denote that he had come armed for the express business at hand.
The merchant was convinced by Vines "and Thomas Gorges, who
was then Governor of the Province of Maine," that the right to the
islands "was realy Sir Ferdynandoe's Right." From Vines he, accord
ingly, procured a second grant to the islands Capowack and Nautican,
the deed running from "Richard Vines of Saco, Gentleman, Steward
General for Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Knight and Lord Proprietor of the
Province of Maine," to "Thomas Mayhew, Gentleman, his agents and

associates."

Capowack was an Indian name sometimes applied to Martha's
Vineyard, and Nautican is thought to be the name left Nantucket by
the Norsemen during their venturesome voyages in the tenth and elev
enth centuries.

It is not believed that Stirling had legal claim to any of these
islands. His grant from the New England Company, confirmed by the
King, purported to grant, among other tracts, islands lying within five
leagues distance of the mainland, being opposite and abutting upon the
premises of any part thereof. The islands of Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket lay fifty to eighty miles east of Long Island and were not
within the terms of the grant. But the geography of the New World
was not an exact science in the seventeenth century. In accordance with
well established precedence, where doubt existed, Stiriling's agent
claimed in his master's behalf all that a liberal conscience would per
mit, thereby demonstrating himself a true and faithful servant. It was
Mayhew's belief throughout life that his best title was derived from
Gorges.

Writing of these transactions in later years, he says:

It came to pass, that Mr. Forrett went suddenly to England before
he had showed me his Master's Pattent whome afterwards I never saw;
Some Yeares after this came over one Mr. Forrester, furnished with
Power, who was here with me, and told me he would cleare up all
Things, and that I should be one of his Counsel; but he from hence
went to Long Island, and from thence to the Dutch, where the Gou
ernor put him in Prison, and sent him a Prisoner into Holland, as I
heard and I never saw him more.

Then follows the significant statement, "Soe wee remained under
Gorge."

Consideration is not mentioned in the several grants, but it is known

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

that the new proprietor paid forty pounds for his rights from Stirling,
and we have his own words that he paid Gorges "a Some of Money"
for the islands Capowack and Nautican. Gorges appears to have made
no claim to the Elizabeth Islands and Mayhew's title to these "many
faire Islands" was derived from Stirling alone.

It is noticeable that ten days elapsed between the execution of the
two Sterling deeds. In the interim it is thought Thomas Mayhew, or
someone in his behalf, made a hurried trip to Nantucket in an attempt
to secure Indian rights, but that the purpose of the visit was not affected
in so short a time. After the visit the new proprietor concluded to
purchase the entire group with a hope of obtaining from the Indians
gradually what could not at once be procured.

Both Gorges and Stirling reserved annual quit-rents to be paid by
Mayhew in feudal fashion, but effort was made by neither to collect
this tribute. The distant isles of the sea, far flung from the shores of
Maine, were soon forgotten by the Gorges proprietors, who were busy
defending their rights elsewhere, and the several Earls of Stirling,
whose rapid succession of deaths left little time for attention to islands
that constituted but a small fraction of their family's g,reat landed hold
ings. In fact, the first Earl of Stirling was dead at the time of For
rett's grant to Thomas Mayhew.

The proprietary granted Thomas Mayhew comprised sixteen
islands, constituting at the present day two counties and eight townships
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The islands of Martha's
Vineyard, with an area approximating one hundred square miles, and
Nantucket with an area of about forty-seven square miles, made up the
bulk of the grants. Lesser islands were Tuckernuck, nearly two square
miles in area, and Muskegat, three hundred acres, which with Nan-
tucket and two small islets known as the Gravelly Islands, constitute
the present county of Nantucket.

To the westward of Martha's Vineyard lie the Elizabeth Islands,
named in honor of the Virgin Queen by Gosnold the explorer. This
chain of a dozen islands, large and small, are principally: Nunnames
sett, two miles long by one-half mile wide, Monohanset, Uncatena,
Naushon, '\Veepecket, Pasque, Cuttyhunk, Nashawena, Penekese, and
Gull Island, a small islet. Territorially these form the present town of
Gosnold, and together with Martha's Vineyard and the island of No
Man's Land constitute the County of Dukes.

For more than two centuries a number of the Elizabeth Islands
32

PAHISH RECORD OF BAPTISM OF 'THOMAS MAYHEW

STONE FONT USED AT THE BAPTISM OF THOMAS MAYHEW

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

have been maintained as country seats by distinguished masters, includ
ing members of the noted families of Winthrop, Bowdoin, and Forbes.
On Cuttyhunk. the explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, in r 602, estab
lished the first English settlement in this region of North America. A
granite shaft on the island now stands to perpetuate the memory of
this event. Penikese Island was for a time the location of Professor
Louis Agassiz's school of comparative zoology known as the Ander
son School of Natural History, immortalized by Whittier in his poem,
opening with the lines:

On the isle of Penikese,
Ringed about by sapphire seas,
Fanned by breezes salt and cool,
Stood the Master with his school.

One of the earliest medical men in the country to conduct a hospital
for inoculation against the smallpox was Dr. Samuel Gelston, who
opened a hospital for that purpose on one of the Gravelly Islands,
before the Revolution.

The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are lonely isles
of the sea, yet their names have been heard in every port of all the
oceans. At Nantucket in particular was nourished the American whale
fishery, which in the full vigor of its maturity startled the world with
the scope of its activity and the extent of its daring. From Nantucket
nurseries sprang a race of hardy and daring seamen in whose veins
flowed the blood of the sea kings of Saga days. These were the Norse
men of New England. In frozen waters north and south their keels
plowed beyond the known limits of navigation; under the blazing light
of the tropics they pursued the great leviathan of the deep in wide seas
never before traversed by vessels of a civilized country. "Exploring
expeditions followed after to glean where they had reaped."

To the merchants and mariners of Nantucket must be accredited
the brilliant development of the golden days of American whaling, an
epoch of big game hunting on turbulent waters.

So identical was maritime life with the thrift and prosperity of the
island that a Nantucket goodwife asked no better fortune than "a
clean hearth and a husband at sea."

The men who bore the names of Coffin, Folger, Bunker, Starbuck,
inherited names of seamen as great as ever stepped between the stem
and stern of a ship.

33

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Gone are the fleets of the Golden 'Forties, the many hundreds of
sail that explored distant waters and carried "the name and fame of
Nantucket" into unknown seas, where a harvest was gleaned in blubber
and oil. The stern, hardy, brave, workaday race that flew the Ameri
can Flag first in an English port after the Revolution of I 776, that
opened seas into which flowed the commerce of the civilized world, and
discovered islands in the South Pacific before scientists dared to ven
ture, is no more.

In silent graves the captains lie, upon the sea-girt Island of Nan-

tucket, or far away in Pacific waters where aeons of tides surge over
their bones. Their names are given to the world wherever strange
little islands lie on maps like isolated dots. The flow of water on
sandy shores was their lullaby in childhood, its unceasing surge is their
requiem.

Overshadowed by her neighboring island in the commercial aspect

of the fishery, Martha's Vineyard, too, has been the nursery of a hardy
race of seamen, amphibious men able to plow the waters and the land
with equal facility. Grizzled mariners have come home to spend the
twilight of life upon a farm in bucolic safety to reap fields of hay and
shear flocks of sheep.

Martha's Vineyard, unlike Nantucket, is agricultural to a degree
and whaling has not been its sole life. It was not until the first half of
the nineteenth century that a great proportion of its male population
found its way to the sea.

Although the majority of whaling ships in the heyday of the indus
try were owned and registered at Nantucket and New Bedford, a great
number of them were commanded by Vineyard men, who were consid
ered the best navigators and whalemen in the world. Due to the bar
that rendered dangerous access to the harbor of Nantucket, Edgar
town on the Vineyard was for many years the port of Nantucket, and
at Edgartown wharves nearly all the Nantucket whaling ships unloaded
their cargoes and fitted out fresh voyages.

J. Hector St. John, the eighteenth century traveler, observes in
his account of a visit to the Vineyard a lack of drunkenness and debauch
ery on the part of returned seamen. "On the contrary," writes he, "all
was peace here, and a general decency prevailed throughout; the rea
son, I believe is, that almost everybody here is married, for they get
wives very young; and the pleasure of returning to their families
absorbs every other desire. The motives that lead them to the sea are

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

very different from those of most other seafaring men. It is neither
idleness nor profligacy that sends them to that element; it is a settled
plan of life, a well-founded hope of earning a livelihood." "Here I
found without gloom a decorum and reserve, so natural to them, that I
thought myself in Philadelphia," adds the Pennsylvania author.

After the decline of the whale fishery in eastern ports, Vineyard
captains, sailing from San Francisco, pursued the industry in its last
brilliant glow among the icebergs of the Arctic.

Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are now the "Summer Isles" of
the vacationist. They have for many years been popular watering
places. Their hospitable shores know annually thousands of pleasure
loving people who come to boat, swim, fish, and ride, to walk quaint
streets and view dwellings that have housed generations of elders,
judges, merchants, and sea captains, clustered about with the traditions
of the salt water aristocracy. The nobility of its olden days was not
that of the Sacred Cod, but the Royal Whale, the kingly mammal
which, when cast up by the sea upon his shores, the sovereign claimed a
share.

Every year visitors listen to the legend that the islands were once
the property of a lord who, like King Lear, saw fit to apportion them
among his daughters. The story goes that Rhoda took Rhode Island,
Elizabeth took the Elizabeth Islands, Martha took Martha's Vine
yard, and as for the remaining island, Nan-took-it. The credulous
should be warned that this interesting bit of romance cannot be traced
with certainty back of 1870.

Martha's Vineyard has another claim to fame better supported.
It is believed by such eminent authorities as Edward Everett Hale and
the Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge to be the island scene of Shakespeare's
play, "The Tempest." Gosnold's voyage was sent out by the Earl of
Southampton, a patron of the arts, with whom Shakespeare was
friendly. It is said that the trees, plants, fish and animal life of the
island in the play are described in th very words used by John Brere
ton in his "Brefe Relation" of Gosnold's voyage, and that whole
phrases from the tract are reproduced and fitted to Shakespearean
blank verse.

In the years following Gosnold's voyage these almost fabled islands
off the coast of North America fired the imaginations of men. Through
out all England they were a popular subject of conversation. Walter
Raleigh fitted out an expedition under Martin Pring which brought

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

back sassafras; Southampton, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and Captain
John Smith sent out vessels in search of gold. The Plymouth Com-
pany was formed. Then came the "Mayflower" Pilgrims and the great
Puritan migration to the adjoining coasts, "that strange, psalm-singing
race of amphibious fighters, who alike could shatter the Armada and
the squadron of Prince Rupert at Marston Moor."

America was born.

CHAPTER VI

THE CHILDREN OF THE FOREST

A number of early writers have left detailed descriptions of the appearance and habits of the Indians who inhabited the woods and
shores of New England and the islands of the Mayhew proprietary at
the coming of the white settlers.

The habits and customs of the red man and his mode of life were
strange to the eyes of the European fresh from the civilization of the
old hemisphere, and still more strange to the ear of the skeptic at home.
It is not to be marveled at that narrations of the new country early
appeared in print which touched with detail the native inhabitants of
the land.

Among the better known of these accounts mention may be made
of Josselyn's "Account of Two Voyages to New England" and William
Wood's "New England Prospect." Both of these are written in a
lively tone with an ambition to entertain the stay-at-home in England.
Josselyn's reputation as an observer is not highly rated, but fortunately
the New England Indian was described by other than dilettant writers.
Missionaries went among a number of the Indian tribes and in their
writings is found a minute and faithful portrayal of the red man in his
native surroundings.

Daniel Gookin's "Historical Collections of the Indians of Massa
chusetts" is one of the best of the early narratives, presenting as it does
a continuous uninterrupted story of Indian life and character.

Gookin exercised for many years civil supervision over the Indians
of Massachusetts who acknowledged English government. As superin
tendent of Indians and as a magistrate sitting in determination of their
disputes, he was in a position to gain an accurate first hand knowledge
of the Indian psychology. Gookin's history bears the hall mark of
years of conscientious observation and the attitude of a friendly mind.
It is the standard Puritan account of the Indians of New England.

Better authorities cannot be found to picture the seventeenth cen
tury Indian as he actually was than Gookin and the several missionaries,
John Eliot, Thomas Mayhew, Jr., Matthew Mayhew, and others;
some, if not all, of whom went among the Indians, slept in their wig-
37

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

warns, sat in their councils, spoke their language, and won their confi
dence in spiritual and civil affairs.

Unlike Cooper and Longfellow, their observations are photo

graphic likenesses of the New England Indian of pioneer days, not
conclusions drawn from tradition or studies made two hundred years
after the landing of the Pilgrims. The missionaries were sober, observ
ant, unromantically minded men, writing what they knew to be the
truth after intimate association with all ranks of Indian life. In their
writings one finds little to justify the prosy thoughts of the literati of
the nineteenth century.

Although later studies by students among isolated tribes disclose

traits substantially akin to those which characterized the red man of
New England in. the seventeenth century, a difference, nevertheless,
existed. More than two hundred years of contact, occasional or other
wise, with traders, frontiersmen, and missionaries had left their mark,
in some respects good, in others bad.

To deduce by belated observations among distinct tribes living
under different geographic conditions what the Indian of New England
was like before he was "corrupted" by European civilization seems a
ridiculous thing in view of the fact that we have contemporary accounts
accurately penned by qualified observers. A number of missionary
tracts were written while the Indian was still "untouched and unspoiled
by the European," to borrow a sonorous phrase from the philanthropic
literati.

The abstractions of ethnological speculation pursued along modem
lines of philosophic appreciation by certain students would appear vis
sionary to the early settlers and missionaries who came into rugged con
tact with the untutored savage.

Roger Williams, whose knowledge of the Indian nature was so
great that he was able to exercise a tremendous influence in their affairs,
could only speak of them as "a few inconsiderable pagans, and beasts,
wallowing in idleness, stealing, lying, whoring, treacherous witch
crafts, blasphemies, and idolatries."

Gookin, who suffered persecution by his countrymen for his friend
liness to the Christianized Indians in time of Indian war, described the
natives as very brutish and barbarous, "not many degrees above beasts."
The Reverend John Wilson referred to them, we are told with
compassion, as the most sordid and contemptible part of the human
species, while the great Hooker said of them that they were the verist
38

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

ruins of mankind upon the face of the earth. Even the saintly John
Eliot, whose labors and sacrifices among the Indians became a house
hold word, could speak of them only as "the dregs of mankind."

It was Parkman who said, "The benevolent and philanthropic view
of the American savage is for those beyond his reach. It has never yet
been held by any whose wives and children have lived in danger of his
scalping knife."

He is lovingly referred to as a child, but he was a man bloodthirsty
and revengeful to the point of horror, and only a child in his lack of
mental development.

The literati have found it easier to write of the Indian in the con
ventional style than to present him in sober words. It is not the first
time truth has been prostituted for the sake of a well turned sentence
or the repetition of a poetic thought. There is not much about the
Indian that is romantic to one who must associate with him. He is
only romantic to the cloistered student, the detached tourist, or the
novelist.

To gain an accurate picture of the Indian of New England in the
early years of the seventeenth century, one's mind must be purged of
many preconceived notions implanted by the "Leather-Stocking Tales"
and "Hiawatha."

Such works are executed with applications of Turner-like colors by
word artists of vivid imagination. They seize a few of the Indian's
most picturesque qualities, his dignity, his lust for freedom, his con
tempt for manual labor, his vaunted prowess as a hunter, and by the use
of adjectives, establish a literature. Throughout the whole civilized
world the concept of the Indian character promulgated by this school
has taken permanent hold of the imagination of the reading public.
These tales are often read in the earlier years of life. They lend so
indelible an impression on the juvenile mind that, while individuals in
years of discretion may cast out these Cooper-colored lithographs of
brain thought, no amount of denials will ever erase their colorful lines
in the minds of the masses.

James Fenimore Cooper was born more than a century and a half
after the "Mayflower" sought refuge in the harbor at Cape Cod.
Cooper is said to have made a study of the Indians, but his studies were
among the Indians of the Six Nations, who are considered a superior
group, and who had for centuries been in contact with the whites.
In order that he might better study their habits, Cooper is said to

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

have followed numerous Indian delegations that passed his house in
upper New York on their way to interview the Great Father at Wash
ington. He saw the Indian at his best, in councils of oratory. If there
was any one thing in which the Indian excelled, it was oratory, mainly
an oratory that pictured himself in glowing colors and belittled his
enemies. We are told by missionaries that the Indian was so emi
nently satisfied with his own inherent goodness that it was difficult at
times to inculcate in him a fear of damnation. Hell he conceived as a
fitting punishment for his enemies, but something apart from himself.
The Indians of the plains and of upper New York and Canada are
the Indians most studied by the literary authorites as remnants of the
aboriginal inhabitants of America. But the whooping Indian of the
plains pursuing herds of buffalo upon ponies were not the Indians of
New England seen by the missionaries Eliot, the Mayhews, Bournes,
and Tuppers. The Indians of New England appear to have been a
far less romantic race than the Indians of Cooper and Longfellow.

The "Puritan Indians" did their hunting with ineffectual weapons,
arrows pointed with bits of crude stone or eagle's claws. Thus armed
the huntsman was able to wing an occasional unsuspecting bird, more
often by attributes of stealth and cunning than with the full lunged
boldness of open spaces. With the psychological development of a
child, the red man could concoct a jungle of living beasts pursued by
mighty hunters out of a picture copy-book.

Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, who lived in the middle
of the eighteen century, suggests in his history of Massachusetts the
possibility that the Indians of New England were inferior to tribes
residing elsewhere. Tales that came to him of Indians to the north
plentifully endowed with virtue, dignity, courage, and hardihood, did
not coincide with his own personal ·observations. One suspects the
farther away the Indian, the more noble his qualities appeared.

As time diminished the Indian ranks and his menace grew less, the
more he was romanticized in wild west shows, motion pictures, and
poetry by effete descendants of the hardy pioneers, or those whose
ancestors waited until the country had been made safe for the immi
grant. To the city dweller, the author, and the poet, there is some
thing romantic about outdoor life and communion with· nature; and so
long as the individual is surrounded with all the conveniences of civil
ization, nor goes without them for any length of time, the illusion is not
dispelled.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

It is not the purpose here to decide whether the Indian has received
the treatment justly his due in the many years that have passed since
the establishment of the United States government. It may be said in
passing that a recent Indian writer has said that the red man had little
to complain of in his relations with the colonists, but that the cause of
his disgruntlement has arisen largely since the advent of Federal
supervision.

The following description of the American Indian of the seven
teenth century is confined to the Indians of New England, and is
grounded on contemporary sources, in main the writings of Gookin,
Thomas Mayhew, Jr., Matthew Mayhew, and Roger Williams.

The aborigines whom the early settlers found inhabiting the islands
of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket were members of that great race
known as the Algonquin, to which family the numerous New England
tribes mainly belonged. In southern New England these tribes were
united into a number of great confederacies. One of these, the Paw
kunnawkutts, claimed a tract bounded laterally by the Taunton and
Pawtucket rivers for some distance, in the present county of Bristol,
Rhode Island, and held sway along the shores of Buzzard's Bay.

It was this nation that claimed fealty of the Indian's of Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket. There were nine separate cantons or tribes
holding membership in this confederation, each governed by its own
petty sachem, but all subject to the great sachem of the Wamponoags,
the dominant tribe of the confederation.

Of the Pawkunnawkutts it is said they "were a great people here
tofore. They lived to the east and northeast of the Narragansitts;
and their chief sachem held dominion over divers other petty saga
mores; as the sagamores upon the island of Nantuckett, and Nope, or
Martha's Vineyard, of Nawsett, of Mannamoyk, of Sawkuttukett,
Nobsquasitt, Matakees, and several others, and some of the Nipmucks.
Their country, for the most part, falls within the jurisdiction of New
Plymouth Colony. This people were a potent nation in former times;
and could raise, as the most credible and ancient Indians affirm, about
three thousand men. They held war with the Narragansitts; and
often joined with the Massachusetts, as friends and confederates,
against the Narragansitts. This nation, a very great number of them,
were swept away by an epidemical and unwonted sickness, An. 1612
and 1613, about seven or eight years before the English first arrived in
those parts to settle the colony of New Plymouth."

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Wamsutta, chief of this confederacy and elder brother of the famed
King Philip or Metacomet, once attempted to sell his rights to the
island of Martha's Vineyard to a merchant of Rhode Island.

\Vamsutta and Philip were sons of Mattasoit, the great chief of the
Wampanoags. Following the practice of the Indians that if any of
their sachems or neighbors died who were of their name they should lay
down that name as dead, the eldest son of Wamsutta appeared at Plym
outh after his father's death with the request that English names be
given him and his brother.

The request was granted. Wamsutta received the name of Alex
ander, the great conqueror of the world, which doubtless pleased the
vanity of the Indian king. Upon Metacomet was bestowed the name
of Philip.

Wamsutta died within a year after his succession to the office of
chief sachem, and was in turn succeeded by Philip.

An interesting story is told how Philip's home village at Mount
Hope was pictured on European maps as the "seat" of King Philip,
and how English publishers in preparing year books fell into the error
or recounting the "interesting" fact that King Philip of Spain had a
country seat in the wilds of America. The English annalists knew their
Almanac de Gotha, but were weak on the orders of Algonquin nobility.
As early as I 665 Philip appeared at Nantucket in company with a
large band of warriors for the purpose of killing a Nantucket Indian
who had spoken the name of one dead, supposedly Philip's father or
brother, in violation of Indian custom.     In its several publications the
story varies, but substantially it is told that Philip, landing at the west
end of Nantucket, proceeded to travel along the shore under the pro
tection of the bank, in order that his presence might not be divulged.
But his approach and purpose were divined by one of the island Indians
who sped ahead and warned the intended victim, Assassamoogh, known
to the English as John Gibbs, in after years a .noted Christian Indian
and preacher of the gospel to his countrymen.   Assassamoogh fled to
the English settlement, where he sought protection, and where Philip
appeared with his army, vastly superior in numbers to the handful of
English settlers then resident on the island, and made demand for the
delivery of the refuge.          The English parried with Philip and after
considerable persuasion and pow-wowing were able to buy him off,
although the amount they were able to collect in so short a time was
barely sufficient to appease the haughty Philip for his forbearance.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Philip is known to have planned his war of extermination many
years before 1675 and it is probable that he took advantage of the
opportunity afforded him at this time to strengthen his claim of juris
diction over the Nantucket Indians, but without success. At a town
meeting the sachem Attaychat signified himself with all the Tomokom
moth Indians subject to the English government of Nantucket and that
they did own themselves subjects to King Charles II "in the presence of
Molocon, alias Philip Sachem of Mount Hope."

The territory of the Mayhew islands was divided into several gov
ernmental cantons. At Martha's Vineyard these were four in number:
Chappaquiddick at the far eastern end of the island and Aquiniuh or
Gay Head at the far western end, the former an island, or nearly so,
and the latter a promontory connected by a narrow neck. The main
body of the island was divided into two sachemships known as Nunne
pog and Takemmy, embracing roughly the present towns of Edgar
town and Tisbury, respectively. Four chiefs or sagamores ruled these
several divisions, which in turn were subdivided into petty sachemships,
where ruled local magnates within defined limits.

There does not appear to have been any single chieftain on the
island to whom the four great sachems yielded precedence, and it is
probable that these head men were directly responsible to some chief
on the main or to the great chief of the Wampanoags himself "in
capite."

On Nantucket the native population was divided into two tribes.
One tribe occupied the west end and was supposed to have come from
the mainland by way of the island of Martha's Vineyard. The other
lived at the east end and is said to have come directly across the Sound
from the mainland.

Nantucket was divided into three or perhaps four primary sachem
ships. The senior sachem or prince when the English came to the
island was W annochmamock, who was sachem more particularly of the
northwest part of Nantucket, but who, with an Indian named Nicka
noose, exercised general control over all the Indians of the island. He
and Nickanoose are termed "head sachems," but it is believed that
Wannochmamock was senior in rank, and that Nickanoose ruled coad
jutor on account of the farmer's great age.

The home life of the Indian was simple and largely nomadic.
Upon Martha's Vineyard the tribes lived in several villages or towns.
These were of no permanency, composed as they were of loosely con-

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

structed wigwams, which their owners moved about as they willed in accordance with the food supply and the season. Josselyn tells of hav-
ing seen half a hundred wigwams together on a piece of ground, where.
they showed "prettily" yet within a day or two, or a week, were all
dispersed. Each tribe, however, moved freely only within the confines
of its particular sachemship. The Indians of New England were not
nomadic in the degree popularly believed.

The principal village in Nunnepog was on the shores of the Great
Herring Pond, near Maschachket, while that of Takemmy was on the
Great Tisbury Pond. Chappaquiddick and Gay Head each had its
chief village. Within the territorial limits of each petty sachem smaller
communities or abiding places of more or less permanence exisited.

The Indian wigwams, described by the younger Mayhew, were
made of small poles like an arbor covered with mats; "their fire is in
the midst, overwhich they leave a place for the smoak to go out at."
They did not use skins for a covering as the animals of the island were
not numerous enough for that purpose.

To the Indian mind, life on the Vineyard, although it lacked ani
mals necessary to make it a "happy hunting ground," was somewhat
idyllic. Nature had been bountiful in her lavishment of wealth. Its
sandy soil responded favorably to the cultivation of squashes, beans,
and maize. Shellfish lay in profusion on the shores, and fish and eels
abounded in surrounding waters. For this reason the island supported
a larger population for the area than did the mainland.

The fact that the islanders had not been smitten by the plague
which had swept the mainland a few yea·rs before the coming of the
"Mayflower" is attributable, in part, to the fact that the Indians were
better nourished and less susceptible to plagues than their brothers on
the main.

The native population on the several islands at the time of the
first settlement is generally estimated at Martha's Vineyard to have
been not less than 3,000 and at Nantucket 1,500. Accounts have set
the figure at Nantucket as high as 3,000. Matthew Mayhew, grand
son of Thomas., estimates the number of adult persons on both islands
at about 3,000, in reference to which he states, "I have taken the more
particular care to make an exact computation, that I might vindicate
Mr. Cotton Mather from the imputation of over reckoning, when in
the life of Mr. Eliot he reckons the number supposed on Martha's
Vineyard professing the Christian religion, to be sixteen hundred."

THOMAS MAYHE\V, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

It is difficult at this late day to do more than generalize the dis
position of the island Indians. A number of early writers describe the
Algonquins as a courteous and well disposed people, yet warlike and
revengeful. Brereton describes the Vineyard Indian as courteous and
gentle of disposition, yet these Indians are known to have killed a
number of English seamen, and it is of record that at Nantucket a
number of ·sailors and others wrecked upon its shores were murdered
by the natives.

The lawyer Lechford reports that the Indians of Martha's Vine
yard were very savage and Josselyn tells us that while he was in the
country certain Indians at Martha's Vineyard seized a boat that had
put into a cove and killed the men on board and ate them up in short
time. It may be inferred that the island Indian was relatively cour
teous and well disposed, considering his state of savagery, but that his
good nature was more or less subject to barometrical disturbances. He
was not above an occasional massacre, either for the purpose of fulfill
ing the fine exactments of revenge which constituted the aboriginal
code of honor, or as a bit of legitimate warfare to vary the monotony
of life. The lust of battle was as much a part of the Indian's life as the
cry of the chase.

The earliest record of warfare at the Vineyard is a record of the
white man's perfidy, and the brutality that followed may be cited
as an example of the Indian's exactment of revenge. One Captain
Edward Harlow sailing from England in I 6I I touched at the island
where he "tooke" two savages, one of whom was known by the name of
Epenew. In the course of time Epenew came into the possession of
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who it will be remembered, was much inter
ested in the colonization of America. Observing a similarity of lan
guage, Gorges had the native lodged with another Indian servant.
Epenew was a bold, artful, and cunning individual. With the servant
he contrived a plan of escape which hinged on the Englishman's lust for
gold. Ascertaining that this was what the English wanted most, the
natives assured Gorges that it was to be found in abundance at a cer
tain place on Martha's Vineyard.

Gorges was not entirely duped. He suspected Epenew's good
faith. However, he fitted an expedition under command of Captain
Hobson, which set sail within the year, carrying Epenew and two other
savages under strict surveillance. Coming to the harbor at Martha's
Vineyard, where Epenew was to make good his undertaking, the prin-
45

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

cipal inhabitants of the place came aboard, some of them brothers of
Epenew, and others near relatives. These were kindly entertained by
the captain, and before departing in their canoes, the natives assured
the captain that they would return the following morning for the pur
pose of trade. Meantime Epenew had privately plotted with his
friends to effect an escape.

Upon the morrow, at the appointed hour, the natives appeared in
twenty canoes, but laid off the vessel at some distance without closer
approach. Failing to respond to the captain's invitation to board,
Epenew was ordered forward to where the captain was standing, to
speak to his friends. Evading his guards he stepped forward quickly
and calling to the natives in English to come aboard, slipped over the
side of the vessel. Although caught hold of by an Englishman, he
effected a release, being a strong and heavy man.

No sooner was he in the water than the natives in the canoes dis
charged a volley of arrows toward the ship. The attack was returned
by the fire of the English, who also attempted the life of Epenew. In
the exchange of fire, some of Hobson's men were wounded and a num
ber of the Indians killed and wounded. Epenew says Sir Ferdinando,
was carried away by the rescuing party "despight of all the musquet
teers aboard, who were, for the number, as good as our nation did
afford."

A Captain Thomas Dormer, in the employ of Sir Ferdinando, later
touched the Vineyard, where he met with Epenew who "laughed at his
owne escape."

In the words of Gorges, "This savage was so cunning, that, after
he had questioned him [Dormer] about me, and all he knew belonged
unto me, conceived he was come on purpose to betray him; and [so]
conspired with some of his fellows to take the captain; thereupon they
laid hands upon him. But he being a brave, stout gentleman, drew
his sword and freed himself, but not without 14 wounds."

It is probable that Gorges was wrong in his thought that Epenew
feared recapture. It is more feasible to believe that the attack upon
Dormer resulted from a desire by Epenew to be revenged for his late
captivity, and that in accordance with Indian custom he had resolved
that the first white man should atone for his capture. It is believed
that this is the last time that the soil of Martha's Vineyard was stained
with human blood, for from that day to the present no Indian has been
killed by a white man nor white man by an Indian.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Much of the bloodshed at Martha's Vineyard arising out of the
Epenew incident was aggravated by the capture by Captain Thomas
Hunt of twenty-four natives in the vicinity of Cape Cod a number of
years prior. Hunt was a commander in an expedition under Captain
John Smith, the famous explorer, more famed in school books as the
object of the grace of Pocahontas than as the admiral of New Eng
land. Hunt's conduct was contrary to the orders of Smith, who was
greatly incensed over the conduct of his subordinate. The Indians long
remembered the conduct of Hunt, and it was a factor in their early plot
to massacre the settlers of Weston's Colony, to which conspiracy the
Capawock or Martha's Vineyard Indians were party.

The Indians of Nantucket appear to have been more ferocious than
their Vineyard kinsmen if numbers of extant accounts of brutalities and
bloodshed are accepted as a criterion.

Tradition recounts how a feud was engendered by the tribes of
west and east Nantucket arising out of a difference as to a boundary line
dividing the territories of the tribes, and that bloodshed was avoided
only by the love of a maiden princess of one tribe for the son of the
ruler of the opposing tribe.

More serious than this Hollywood drama of native life was the
murder of the crew of a shipwrecked vessel cast on the island during
the government of Thomas Mayhew, and the murder of an Indian
youth in the same manner while returning to Harvard College after a
visit with his father at Martha's Vineyard. Nantucket in early days
was not so healthful a retreat for strangers as it is today.

Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the tractability of
the Indian, there is uniformity in the accounts respecting his personal
appearance. It is agreed that the aborigine was tall in stature and well
formed, that his skin was olive or copper in color, not so much by the
science of nature as by the constant application of oil and grease and
exposure to the elements, and that his hair was black and straight.

A companion of Gosnold has left us the first known description of
the island Indians: "These people as they are exceedingly courteous,
gentle of disposition, and well conditioned, excelling all others that we
have seen; so for shape of bodie and lovely favour I thinke they excell
all the people of America; of stature much higher than we; of com
plexion or colour much like a dark Olive; Their eie browes and haire
blacke, which weare long tied up behinde in knott, whereon they pricke
feathers of fowles, in fashion of a crownet; some of them are black

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

thin beared; they make beards of the haire of beasts; and one of them
offered a beard of their making to one of our sailors, for his that grew
on his face, which because it was of a red colour they judged to be
none of his owne."

"They are quicke eied, and stedfast in their looks, fearelesse of
others harmes, as intending none themselves; some of the meaner sort
given to filching, which the very name of Saluages (not weighing their
ignorance in good or will) may easily excuse: their garments of Deere
skins, and some of them weare furres round and close about their
necks."

Josselyn adds to this, "as the Austreans are known by their great
lips, the Bavarians by their pokes under their chins, the Jews by their
goggle eyes, so the Indians by their flat noses, yet they are not so much
deprest as they are to the Southward."

A number of the early chroniclers were gallant gentlemen and
interested in the Indian woman, whose complete subjection to her
"lazie" husband was to them a matter of amazement and comment.

Witness the admiration of Brereton for the island squaws: "Their
women (such as we saw), which were but three in all, were but lowe
of stature, their eie-browes, haire, apparell, and manner of wearing,
like the men, fat, and very well favoured, and much delighted in our
companie."

And likewise writes jovial "John Josselyn, Gentleman," "The men
are somewhat horse-fac'd, and generally faucious--i. e., without
beards: but the women, many of them, have very good features; sel
dome without come-to-mee, or cos amoris, in their countenance; all
of them black-eyed; having even, short teeth, and very white; their
hair black, thick, and long; broad brested; handsome, straight bodies,
and slender, considering their constant loose habit; their limbs cleanly,
straight, and of a convenient stature,-generally as plump as part
ridges; and, saving here and there one, of a modest deportment."

William Wood approaches the subject of universal interest diplo
matically thus: "To satisfie the curious eye of women-readers; who
otherwise might thinke their sexe forgotten, or not worthy a record,
let them peruse these few lines, wherein they may see their owne happi
nesse, if weighed in the womans balance of these ruder Indians, who
scorne the tuterings of their wives, or to admit them as their equals,
though their qualities and industrious deservings may justly claime the
preheminence, and command better usage and more conjugall esteeme,

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

their persons and features being every way correspondent, their quali
fication were more excellent, being more loving, pittifull, and modest,
milde, provident, and laborious then their lazie husbands."

It is the woman who does the camp work and tends the fields. So
improvident is the male that she must even hide the corn crop from
her master's inquisitive gaze, else he would eat the seed reserved for
future crops, if he but knew where to find it. The Indians would raise
large crops of corn and sell it to the English with an eye so little to the future that ere another crop could be harvested, they would be obliged
to buy it back at much higher rates.

The male was accomplished only in fishing, eating, and sleeping.
When he deigned to fish, in order that it might not smack of labor, but
be classed as a purely athletic pastime, his wife needs must trudge along
and bait his hooks; and be the weather hot or cold, waters calm or
rough, she must dive "sometimes over head and ea res for a Lobster,"
which often shook her hands with a "churlish nippe" and bid her
"adiew." A husband having caught fish at sea, will bring it as far as
he can by water, whereupon the wife must fetch it home by land.

"These womens modesty drives them to weare more cloathes than
their men, having alwayes a coate of cloath or skinnes wrapt like a
blanket about their loynes, reaching downe to their hammes which they
never put off in company. If a husband has a minde to sell his wives
Beaver, petticote, as sometimes he doth, shee will not put it off until
shee have another to put on." It is doubtful if a garment was worn
before the advent of the European. It was customary for both sexes
to wear the beech-clout only, indoors, and in early days it was not
uncommon dress for both sexes out of doors.

The discontent of the Indian women became great after the arrival
of the English for seeing the kind usage of the English to their wives.
The native women much condemned their husbands for their compara
tively hard lot and would "commend the English for their love" for
their women, while the Indian husband, on the other hand, commended
himself for his wit in keeping his wife industrious and did much con
demn "the English for their folly in spoyling good working creatures."
When the Indians see "any of the English women sewing with their
needles, or working coifes, or such things, they will cry out, Lazie
squaes ! but they are much the kinder to their wives, by the example of
the English," we are told.

In domestic life the Indian took many wives and put away wives
49

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

frequently upon occasions other than adultery and wives left husbands
upon grounds of displeasure or dissatisfaction: In the words of an
early bard:

each one is granted leave,

A wife or two, or more, for to receive.

The Rev. Thomas Shepard, described in a foreword to an early
tract as "a minister of Christ in New England, so eminently godly and
faithfull, that what he here reports, as an eye or an eare witnesse is not
to be questioned," recites the instance of an Indian who propounded the
question which of two wives he should put away upon his adoption of
the Englishman's moral code. He informs that his first was "barren
and childlesse, the second fruitfull and bearing him many sweet chil
dren .... if hee puts away the first who hath no children, then hee
puts away her whom God and Religion undoubtedly binds him unto,
there being no other defect but want of children; if he puts away the
other, then he must cast off all his children with her also as illegitimate,
whom he so exceedingly loves." It is not known how the ingenuity of
the Puritan mind met this puzzling query in ethics and religion.

Roger Williams attributes the multiplicity of wives to two causes,

first the desire of riches because of the fact that the women did all the
farm work and second their long "sequestring themselves from their
wives after conception, until the child be weaned, which with some is
long after a yeare old." The same authority adds, however, a knowl
edge of many couples having lived together twenty, thirty, and forty
years.

Revenge was a cardinal attribute of the Indians, they being not
"unmindful of taking vengeance upon such as have injured them or
their kindred, when they have opportunity, though it be a long time
after the offence was committed."

They were much given to lying and "speaking untruths" and steal
ing, especially from the English, who had something to steal.

In personal sanitation, they were lax. "Tame Cattle they have
none," chortles Josselyn, "excepting Lice, and Doggs of a wild breed,"
Hutchinson, the famous governor of Massachusetts, writes, "I have
seen a great half naked Indian sitting at a small distance from the
governors and commissioners of several of the colonies, in the midst of
a conference, picking lice from his body for half an hour together,
and cracking them between his teeth," One of the first laws made by

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

the Christian Indians laid a penalty of one cent upon each louse cracked
by an Indian with his teeth. Le Jeune, the Jesuit, tells us that the
Iroquois ate the fleas and lice with which they were infested, not for
any food value the vermin might contain, hut in a spirit of revenge for
the annoyance the insects had occasioned them.

The Indian did not bathe. Instead he annointed his body with oil.
Says Hutchinson, "More dirty, foul and sordid than swine, being never
so clean and sweet as when they were well greased." But we are
assured by another observer that the use of oil on the body was their best antidote against the "Musketoes" and stopped the pores of their
bodies against the nipping winter's cold.

A naturally improvident people, the Indians were greatly given to
gambling, and were willing to play away all they had, says Gookin with
the restraint of a Puritan speaking of sin. But the livelier Wood ven
tures greater detail. Admiringly write he: "And whereas it is the
custome of many people in their games, if they see the dice runne crosse
or their cards not answere their expectations: what cursing and swear
ing, what imprecations, and raylings, fightings and stabbings oftentimes
proceede from their testy spleene. How doe their blustering passions,
make the place troublesome to themselves and others? But I have
|knowne when foure of these milder spirits have sit downe staking their
treasures, where they have plaied foure and twentie hours, neither
eating drinking or sleeping in the Interim; nay which is most to be
wondered at, not quarreling, but as they came thither in peace so they
depart in peace; when he that had lost all his wampompeage, his house,
his kettle, his beaver, his hatchet, his knife, yea all his little all, having
nothing left but his naked selfe, was as merry as they that won it."

Continues Gookin: "And also they delight much in their dancings
and revellings; at which time he that danceth (for they dance singly,
the men, and not the women, the rest singing, which is their chief
musick) will give away in his frolick, all that ever he hath, gradually,
some to one, and some to another, according to his fancy and affection.
And then, when he hath stripped himself of all he hath, and is weary,
another succeeds and doth the like : so successively one after another,
night after night, resting and sleeping in the days; and so continue
sometimes a week together."

The Indian has been pictured as a mighty warrior and a great hunter. But the attributes of stealth and cunning, rather than physical courage, underlaid both callings. As a soldier the Indian was subject

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

to no particular discipline. In an unorganized manner he stole upon
his enemy when his presence was unsuspected and massacred until the
tide of battle had turned, or his lust for blood was satiated, whereupon
he would melt into the forest as silently as he had come.

His hunting before the advent of the musket constituted attempts
to lure deer and other wild animals into pitfalls. He would build
miles of fencing so arranged as to narrow at one end, where his trapped
prey, caught in a net or pit, was slaughtered by his captor with all the
picturesqueness of a butcher in the slaughter-house. He would kill a
moose by running him nigh to exhaustion in the deep snow, whereupon
he would stab him to death with a short spear.

Stoicism is a popularly believed Indian trait that seems to stand the
test of contemporary research. Ordinarily no braver than the white
man, the Indian was more unflinching in pain. Roger Williams tells us
that the toothache was the only pain that would force their stout
hearts to cry.

The missionary in various parts of the world has been ridiculed for
his attempt to clothe the naked savage, the result not meeting with the
approval of aesthetic eyes on account of combinations affected. It is
not known that any great attempt was made to force European gar
ments upon the Indian. The Indian was attracted by the novel apparel
of the English and in time sought to wear much of it of his own accord.
In the use of European clothes he did not subject himself to the vascil
lating dictates of fashion. So strange were they to him and so happy
was he in his new possessions that in a rain he is known to have stripped
them off in order to keep them dry while he exposed his skin to the
elements.

Before the coming of the settlers the Indian costume was simple
because his limited mentality had conceived nothing better, not because
he had ideas concerning the healthful qualities of a skin exposed to
nature.

The male wore "a paire of Indian Breeches to cover that which
modesty commands to be hid, which is but a peece of cloth a yard and
a halfe long, put between their gronings tied with a snakes skinne about
their middles, one end hanging downe with a flap before, the other like
a taile behind." In the winter time the more aged of them wore
drawers "in forme like Irish trouses" and shoes cut out of hide. In
winter most of them carried a "deepe furr'd Cat skinne, like a long
52

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

large muffe," which they shifted to that arm that lay most exposed to
the wind.

Thus clad the Indian bustled "better through a world of cold in a
frost-paved wildernesse, than the furred Citizen" in a warmer clime.
They like not to be imprisoned in our English fashion, thinks Wood,
"they love their owne dogge-fashion better (of shaking their eares,
and being ready in a moment) than to spend time in dressing them,
though they may as well spare it as any men I know, having little else
to doe."

What the Indian lacked in costume he remedied by painting or tat
tooing his body. The heraldry of the Indian was emblazoned upon his
body. The "better sort" are described as bearing upon their cheeks
portraitures of bears, deer, moose, wolves, and fowls such as the eagle
and hawk. Others have round impressions down the outside of their
arms and breasts in form of mullets or spur-rowels.

One early writer reproves the squaws for use of that "sinful art of
painting their Faces." The women were especially addicted to this
practice and the men also, says Gookin, especially when marching to
their wars, making themselves thereby as they conceived more terrible
to their enemies. The face might be daubed a bright vermillion or
painted a black and white, one part of the face one color and the other
another, "very deformedly."

The young men and soldiers wore their hair long on the one side,
"the other side being cut short like a screw; other cuts they have as
their fancie befooles them, which would torture the wits of a curious
Barber to imitate."

A great sagamore with a humming bird in his ear for a pendant, a
black hawk on his occiput for his plume, "Mowhackees" for his gold
chain, good store of wampum begirthing his loins, his bow in his hands,
his quiver at his back, with six naked Indian "spatterlashes at his heeles
for his guard" thinks himself little inferior to the great khan; "hee is
all one with King Charles. He thinkes hee can blow downe Castles
with his breath, and conquer kingdomes with his conceit." In this
state he can see no equal, till comes the dawn of a night of adverse gam
ing, during which he is robbed of his conceited wealth and left with
nothing till a new taxation of his subjects furnishes him with a fresh
supply.

The Indian diet was not noted for any balance of food values, nor
did its preparation involve any of the finer subtleties of the culinary

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

art, although one authority is informed by his readings that the Indians
to the south "would not eat a Spaniard till they had kept him two or
three dayes tender, because their flesh was bad."

In England, observes a writer, the Indians eat little, whether "it
be to shew their manners, or for shamefastnesse, I know not; but at
home they will eate till their bellies stand forth, ready to split with
fullness." Their table conduct is described "as all are fellows at foot
ball, so they all meete friends at the kettle, saving their wives, that
dance a Spaniell-like attendance at their backes for their bony
fragments."

The peculiarities of a people are often expressed in burial cere
monies. When the life of an Indian had expired, those about the
corpse would break into throbbing sobs and deep fetched sighs, "their
griefe-wrung hands, and teare-bedewed cheekes, their dolefull cries,
would draw teares from Adamantine eyes, that be but spectators of
their mournefull Obsequies." The "glut" of their griefe being past,
they commit the corpse of the deceased to the ground, "over whose
grave is for a long time spent many a briny tea re, deepe groane, and
Irish-like howlings."

The mourners knew nothing of rings and scarves or other niceties
of the seventeenth century civilization, or of the Prince Albert coat of
a later day. Instead, on their faces, they wore a "black stiffe paint."
The missionary Experience Mayhew speaks of black faces, goods
buried, and the howlings over the dead of Indian burials.

Mention has been made of a number of Indian traits and practices,
some of them bad, others ridiculous to the modern reader, just as char
acteristics of our own ancestors in various ages appear preposterous in
the light of evolution, and as our present civilization will appear
tomorrow.

Of good qualities the Algonquin had a share. Yet even these were
oftimes the results of his improvident nature. With equanimity he
gambled away his worldly wealth, for his wealth was little and easily
replenished. Yet it was a virtue that he was ready to communicate his
wealth to the mutual good of another: "he that kills a Deere, sends for
his friends and eates it merrily: So he that receives but a piece of
bread from an English hand, parts its equally betweene himselfe and
his comrades, and eates it lovingly." He was as willing to part with his
mite in poverty as his treasure in plenty. The thrifty Puritan settler

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

must have viewed the improvidence of the Indian and his neglect of the
future as something well-nigh irreligious.

Credit is accorded the American Indian that the women of the
English had little to fear of sex relations. Perhaps unkindly it was
the explanation of one contemporary that the English women had
nothing to fear on this score as the Indian had his choice among his
own women.

The story is told of the capture of three white women by members
of the Pequot tribe. One of the women, fearing the consequences of
her predicament, bit and scratched her captor so heartily that in retalia
tion he slew her with a blow from his tomahawk. The other two
women were carried into camp, where the Indians offered their persons
no abuse, but questioned them as to whether they could make gun
powder, a commodity greatly desired by them and only illegally pur
chased from the whites. Finding that their captives were not versed
in the art any more than their own squaws, and convinced, says the
narrator, that they would fall abundantly short in industry compared
with the native women, and being of little attraction physically, as the
Indian esteemed "black beyond any color," the English women were
released.

The besetting sin of the Indian was drunkenness. Before drunken
ness was introduced among them, "Nothing unclean or filthy, like the
heathen's feasts of Bacchus and Venus, was ever heard of amongst any
of them."

Prior to the advent of the white man, the Indian drank nothing but
water. This was not because he was a sober individual, but because
of the pertinent fact that he had no drink that would intoxicate. He
had never stumbled upon the receipe of an intoxicating liquor. A peo
ple who did not know how to boil food was not likely to distill spirits.
After the arrival of the Europeans some few of the Indians, who were
ordinarily not enterprising, planted orchards and made cider. Many
of the Indians became lovers of strong drink, aqua vitae, rum, brandy,
and the like, and were greedy to buy it of the English.

The sale of liquor to Indians was strictly prohibited in the Massa
chusetts Colony, but there existed those among the Europeans who
were willing to sell what the Indian greatly demanded. Bootlegging
became a profession early in American life. And the Indian with his
rugged love of freedom, demanded the right to exercise his personal
liberties even unto extinction, which was what nearly happened.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

In

Although whipped for drunkenness, the Indian would seldom report
the source of his supply.

In the words of Gookin, the Europeans, especially the English in
New-England, have cause to be greatly humbled bde!ore God, that they
have been, and are, instrumental to cause the In 1ans to commit this
great evil and beastly sin of drunkenness."

The Indian was a creature of passion and self-indulgence. But these
traits alone do not account for his whole-hearted submission to the evils of
over-indulgence in drink. The Indian nature was tinged with melan
choly. He lived in constant dread of bewitchment. He saw evil spirits
about him in every stick and stone. A prey to mental fears, he suffered
from causes over which he had no control. A drought, a thunder, a
comet, everything in nature typified the wrath of an angry god. The
Indian was afraid. He sought solace in the burning liquor that made
him forget for a time the shadow that hovered in his mind.

The Indian was heavily endowed with arrogance, self-esteem, and
lordly pride. A manifestation of these attributes was the dignity inher
ent in him. His pride was quickly wounded and his suspicions easily
aroused. A trader who chanced to smile in the course ofa barter with
an Indian was sure to lose his deal.

The Indian was a great orator. In unstudied eloquence he has at
times rivaled the lofty flights of the Greeks and Romans. Red Jacket
was declared by Governor Clinton to be the equal of Demosthenes.
Jefferson called the best known speech of Logan, the Mingo chief, the
eight of human utterance, but the full originality of this speech is

rightfully questioned.

The aborigine's poetic eloquence and love of mysticism adapted
him to the white man's religion, and those who became its converts have
filled the pages of missionary lore with speeches surprising to the car
of one not versed in its history. In prayer he is said to have exceeded
the expectations of Eliot. Matthew Mayhew tells of a speech by a
pow-wdow heard by a kinsman who said had it been to the true God, it
excee ed any prayer he had ever heard.

     But with the weakness of orators, the speech of the Indian was
verbose and prolix. His recitations upon occasion became so tediously
miniute that even the long suffering Eliot was obliged to cut him short.
       It is an antithese of character that although an orator, the Indian
was not talkative. Out of the circle of council he spoke seldom and
then with much gravity.
                                                   56

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

The religion of the American Indian was a primitive psychology.
Polytheistic in nature, it was untempered by philosophy. Before the
advent of the European the Indian had not attained the spiritual level
that perceives god as a moral preceptor. His gods were mere dis
pensers of good and evil fortune, more often evil. Not to suffer the
anger of a god, was to be happy. The joy of moral exaltation was to
him unknown.

The various tribes worshipped different gods, the sun, moon, earth,
or fire, "and like vanities." Yet generally, says Gookin, the Indian
acknowledged one supreme doer of good and another that was the
great doer of mischief. The god of evil they dreaded and feared more
than they honored and loved the god of good.

A knowledge of the religion of the Indians on the Vineyard has
been preserved in the writings of the younger Thomas Mayhew. Upon
his coming among them, writes he, "they were mighty zealous and
earnest in the Worship of False gods· and Devils; their False gods were
many, both of things in Heaven, Earth, and Sea: And they had their
Men-gods, Women-gods, and Children-gods, their Companies, and
Fellowships of gods, or Divine Powers, guiding things amongst men,
besides innumerable more feigned gods belonging to many Creatures,
to their Corn and every Colour of it." These lesser gods Roger Wil
liams compares in principle to the St. George, St. Paul, St. Dennis, and
the Virgin Mary and similar "saint protectors" of the Roman Catholic
faith.

"The Devil also with his Angels," continues the younger Mayhew,
"had his Kingdom among them, in them; account him they did the
terror of the Living, the god of the Dead, under whose cruel power
and into whose deformed likeness they conceived themselves to be
translated when they died; for the same word they have for Devil,
they use also for Dead Man, in their Language: by him they were
often hurt in their Bodies, distracted in their Minds, wherefore they
had many meetings with their Pawwaws ( who usually had a hand in
their hurt) to pacifie the Devil by their sacrifice and get deliverance
from their evil." They had, continues the writer, "only an obscure
Notion of a god greater than all, which they call Manit, but they know
not what he was, and therefore had no way to worship him."

Josselyn well expresses the Indian knowledge of immortality with
the statement that they have "some small light" of the soul's immor-

57

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

tality, "for ask them whither they go when they dye, they will tell you
pointing with their finger to Heaven beyond the white mountains."
The concept of the Great Spirit is largely a manifestation of the
white man. Romance and tradition has painted an august conception
of an Indian deity, a great spirit, omniscient and omnipresent, which
has deceived many a reader into believing that the Indian possessed a
high type of religion. We are called upon to admire, says Parkman, in
the untutored intellect of the Indian, a thought too vast for Socrates
and Plato.

Thomas Cooper, a half-blooded Gay Head Indian, born about

1725, once gave a description of the Indian form of worship at Mar
tha's Vineyard. "Whenever the Indians worshipped," said he, "they
always sang and danced, and then begged of the sun and moon, as they
thought most likely to hear them, to send them the desired favor; most
generally rain or fair weather, or freedom from their enemies or sick
ness." The Dancing Field at Christiantown was one of the places of
congregation for such ceremonies.

The Indian priests were called Pow-wows, famed to later genera
tions of Americans as medicine men. These exercised a potent influ
ence in all the phases of life, religion, peace, war, and health. As an
institution the pow-wows were the most picturesque feature of the red
man's life. They maintained a strange and powerful influence over
their superstitious fellow-tribesmen.

Betaking themselves to exorcism and necromatic charms, they were
credited with bringing to pass many strange things. One is reported
to have made water burn, rocks move, and trees dance. Not only were
strange stories of the sorceries of the pow-wows confidently confirmed
by Indians, but examples of their powers are seriously recounted in
print by educated Englishmen whose reputations for veracity stand
unimpeached. It is probable that a number of the pow-wows had stum
bled upon certain elemental truths of chemistry and physics. It was
fear of the pow-wows that the early missionaries were obliged to break
rather than the power of sachems and sagamores.

The pow-wows professed the possession of imps through which
they were able to perform their miracles. Says the younger Thomas
Mayhew, "The Pawwaws counted their Imps their Preservers, had
them treasured up in their bodies, which they brought forth to hurt
their enemies, and heal their friends; who when they had done some
notable Cure, would shew the Imp in the palm of his Hand to the
58

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Indians who with much amazement looking on it, Diefied them, then
at all times seeking to them for cure in all sicknesses, and counsel in all
cases."

The pow-wows exercised their craft both by bodily hurt and by
"inward pain, torture, and distraction of mind." Their greatest influ
ence was psychological. The superstitious Indian so lived in fear of
the pow-wow's power that once told by a pow-wow that he was
bewitched he would begin to suffer the most terrible mental pains and
bodily symptoms. In this way account may be made for paralysis,
lameness, and other impotencies inflicted by the pow-wows.

To effect their purposes the pow-wows were wont to use a bone,
which was sometimes shot into the Indian, so they claimed, by a ser
pent coming directly towards the victimized man in the house or in the
field, looming a shadow about him like a man. Matthew Mayhew adds
that they oft formed a piece of leather like an arrow-head, tying a
hair thereto, or using the bone of a fish, over which they performed
certain ceremonies, to let the bewitched know his fate. The terrified
victim, seeing the sign, would become seized with fears and distrac
tions, convinced that in time the bone and hair would enter his body
and begin its work of bewitchment.

Another method employed by the pow-wows was to pretend to seize
something of the spirit of the one they intended to torment while it
wandered in the victim's sleep, which spirit they would represent to
keep in the form of an imprisoned fly, and accordingly as they dealt
with the fly, so fared the body it belonged to. The power of a pow
wow over a victim whose spirit he kept in such close captivity need be
no more than hinted.

The pow-wows, being able to create harm and disease, were also
able to cure such evils. This they accomplished with "horrible out
cries, hollow bleatings, painful wrestlings," and smitings of their
bodies, and similar antics so extreme that Governor Winslow described
them as combining the attributes of physician, priest, and juggler.
They would make extraordinary motions with their bodies for so long
a time that they would sweat until they foamed, continuing thus for
hours stroking and hovering over the sick until cured or beyond repair.
The pow-wows made use also of herbs and roots which they sometimes
applied externally, combining medicine with psychology and witchcraft.
They were known upon occasion to set bones.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

The ritual of a seance has been described in the following language:

The parties that are sick or lame being brought before them, the
Pow-wow sitting downe, the rest of the Indians giving attentive audi
ence to his imprecations and invocations, and after the violent expres
sion of many a hideous bellowing and groaning, he makes a stop, and
then all the auditors with one voice utter a short Canto; which done,
the Pow-wow still proceeds in his invocations, sometimes roaring like a
Beare, other times groaning like a dying horse, foaming at the mouth
like a chased bore, smitting on his naked breast and thighs with such
violence, as if he were madde. Thus will hee continue sometimes halfe
a day, spending his lungs, sweating out his fat, and tormenting his body
in this diabolical worship; sometimes the Devill for requitall of their
worship, recovers the partie, to nuzzle them up in their divellish
Religion.

Such was the religion of the American Indian. Peter Oliver,
antagonistic to the Puritans and all their works, with a spleen so far
developed as to enable him to attack the missionary activities of John
Eliot, well expresses the popular misconception of the Indian religion.
Writes he of the red man, "His very religion, though incomplete, was
gentle and harmonious. It was the religion of Nature. He saw the
Great Spirit in all his glorious works, and they furnished him with an
adequate ritual. And he, too, could find language in which to express
his adoration of the mysterious God; not invisible, for had he not
expressed himself in flowers, in streams of running water, in the light
ning and the tempest? He could Worship and praise as well as his
white brothers, for the voice of nature sounded fresh in his ears, and
he echoed her truths in strains of glorious eloquence."

In similar outbursts of eloquence is the Indian religion rarified by
the imaginative white man. Only a joyous Cooperite could metamor
phize the terrible howlings of the pow-wow and his uncouth gestures
into paeans of "glorious eloquence," and call the indescribable mental
anguish of bewitched Indians a "gentle and harmonious" religion. The
Indians did not worship nature. They feared nature.

Much has been written of what the white man may learn from the
Indian. But sober investigation renders it doubtful if there are many
attributes found in the better class of redskins that the better class of
Caucasians do not possess. There is too great a tendency to compare
the best of primitive people with the dregs of the white race in picturing
the nobility of the aborigine.

60

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Talk is made of the Indian's good sense in the way of simple living
and mastery of the outdoors. But the truth is the Indian ate to excess
when his larder was full and lived in starvation when it was depleted.
The healthful virtues of wigwam life, apparent at first blush, fade upon
deeper thought. Life in a foul, smoke-laden wigwam, where the
occupants breathed over and again the stench of human bodies
crowded in small areas, coupled with the sudden shock of a body
thrust from such an atmosphere into the chilling winds of a New Eng
land winter, vitiated the constitution of the Indian and made him a
victim of plague and a prey to consumption.

It is said with unction that through the Boy Scout and Camp Fire
Girl movements the young people of today are learning the wisdom of
the first American and emulating his noble qualities. That these great
movements are affording the youth and girlhood of today an immeas
urable benefit no thinking person denies, but it is a sad commentary on
the accuracy of romantic thought that Camp Fire Girls should be
called upon to adopt Indian names in their struggle to make life a
thing of beauty, happiness, and romance, when it is recalled that the
Indian woman was so pitifully the slave and inferior of her lordly
master, good only to bear countless children and to perform menial
tasks. The pioneer mothers in nameless millions from Copps Hill
Cemetery in Boston to obscure mounds in the Rocky Mountains
must turn in their graves.

Longfellow sang the song of Hiawatha, the picture of an "extinct
tribe that never lived." Scholarly, urbane, he penned only the beauti
ful in life for the benefit of the Victorian public. He avoided the
shadows of reality. He lived in a famed old mansion in Cambridge
and taught in the classic halls of Harvard. He was the epitome of all
that made conservative New England culture in the nineteenth century.
Had Longfellow spent a night with Wood in an Indian wigwam or sat
by the side of Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, while a brave
buck sat cracking lice with his teeth, the world would have lost
Hiawatha.

CHAPTER VII

THE COLONIST

The first settlement effected by Thomas Mayhew within the
bounds of this patent was established in r 642 at Great Harbor, now
Edgartown, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, by a small band of
planters under the leadership of Thomas Mayhew, Jr. As the elder
Mayhew did not settle permanently on the island until after the lapse
of a number of years, the son acted as the plantation's governor until
the arrival of the senior patentee.

The beginnings of the history of Great Harbor date back to a
meeting in the parent settlement of Watertown when the two Mayhews
granted unto five of their neighbors a patent for the establishment of a
"large Towne" upon the Vineyard with equal power in town gov
ernment.

The grant effected the formation of a town proprietary. The town
proprietary played a vital part in the colonization of New England and
was its distinctive social and economic feature for many years. The term proprietary is used in American history in two senses. The
one use refers to the great proprietors or lords who held territorial
grants as feudal seigneurs and who were endowed with governmental
powers. The other has reference to town proprietaries; groups of
men who held title to lands in common ownership for the founding of
towns.

In the settlement of a town it was the practice of the proprietors

to first parcel out home lots to the inhabitants of the new settlement
and to set off public tracts, such as a lot for the use and support of the
town's future ministers, a plot for a burying ground, and often a town
commons. After the general plan of the township had been laid out
with home lots, streets, paths, and burying ground, it was customary
for the proprietors to divide up parts of the remaining lands into farms
with convenient allotments of plough lands, meadows, and similar
tracts, useful for various purposes. Usually these several divisions lay
62

TOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

scattered about the township, due to the fact that lands were divided
for their usefulness. A tract best used as meadow land might lay far
removed from a tract adaptable as plough land. Thus it was that the
lands of a settler never lay in one contiguous tract.

As soon as a division of land was laid out in severalty, the proprie
tary as an organization ceased to have control over it. Lands not
assigned in severalty were held in common for the benefit of the pro
prietors as a body, awaiting the time when it should be desirable to set
them off to individual proprietors.

In these lands the proprietors held rights of commonage, that is,
the right to graze cattle, to take thatch for roofing, or to gather wood
for fuel.

Firewood was an indispensable commodity in days when other fuel
was not obtainable. The consumption of the available wood supply was
to the Indian signal for migration to a place where a more plentiful sup
ply could be found. For this reason the Indians enquired of the Euro
peans if they had come to America for reason of a dearth of wood in
the Old Country.

A town proprietary was divided into shares. At Great Harbor
newcomers were admitted into the proprietary from time to time,
either by an increase in the number of shares, at first, or the sale of a
share or fraction of a share by an individual proprietor. The pro
prietary shares early became twenty-five in number and at that figure
remained, although the proprietors, by the purchase of fractional
shares, and by inheritance, steadily increased.

Long after the original settlers had died, subsequent proprietors
transferred their lots under the names of the first owners, as the lot
"commonly known by the name of William Weeks his lot," or "the lot
formerly belonging to Malachi Browning."

The task of the pioneers of Great Harbor who settled this far-flung
outpost of civilization, known to men of the day only as an island
containing harbors where ships en route from New York to Virginia
might find refuge from contrary winds, was a difficult one. The enter
prise necessitated leaving home and friends and the intercourse which
the more or less closely related towns upon the mainland afforded, and
also a renewal of the struggle for economic existence under pioneer
conditions that had been partially overcome in the more established
63

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

communities. The Indian menace was a thing to be feared upon an
island where the aborigine outnumbered the settlers at first perhaps
three hundred to one. In Massachusetts the possibility of Indian attack
followed fishermen even twenty miles at sea in their boats. At Mar
tha's Vineyard the threat was greater.

The settlement planted by the first company was located on a tract
of land known to the English as "The Old Purchase," being the first
tract purchased of the Indian chief Towantquatick. For a decade all
divisions of land in severalty were confined to this section of territory,
which proved sufficient for the needs of the little community.

Here the fathers of Great Harbor spent their days in clearing the
land east of Pease's Point Way, felling timber, building houses, laying
out lots, tilling the soil, and fishing in the adjoining waters.

Economic life was not easy. Roads, paths, and bridges had to be
built where nature had ruled supreme. If a plow existed at all upon
the island in the first decade it was at best a large clumsy affair, con
structed of wood and motivated by oxen, capable of disturbing but a
few scant inches of soil after an expenditure of much effort and com
motion.

Felling trees with rude tools, sawing lumber, building homes and a
mill and public buildings, laying out roads and paths, removing rocks
and stumps from the land, planting crops of corn and vegetables, pas
turing horned cattle and sheep, and fishing were tasks that required
stout hearts, ingenious minds, and unflagging industry. At all times
the settlers were watched by lurking savages, who remained at a dis
creet distance and refused to hold intercourse with the alien race,
adopting the customary aloofness of old families toward immigrants of
a different culture.

In accordance with the practice in New England the home lots of
Great Harbor were grouped together in village style in order to facili
tate military protection against possible Indian forays, and to afford
the inhabitants the advantages of communal life derived from a com
pact settlement. The original home lots bordered on the harbor,
stretching in a contiguous line from Pease's Point Way to Katama.
The lots varied in size, anywhere from eight to forty acres, the greater
number containing about ten acres. Thomas Mayhew and his son
held the only two forty-acre stalls.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Here was located the heart of the new plantation, the homes and
gardens of the settlers, the church, schoolhouse, and the acre for the
dead set aside on Burying Hill.

A church was early gathered in the new plantation and the leader
of the first band of settlers, Thomas Mayhew, Jr., not more than
twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, was ordained its pastor. A
"meeting house" was erected by the males of the town upon a day
appointed; the townsmen assembling at the pastor's house, where each
man was "set" to his work under the leadership of the chief military
officer of the colony. We will not go far wrong in guessing that the
simple edifice which resulted from the united labors of the town's
manpower was set by the cemetery in pattern of other New England
towns and the parish churches of Old England.

Next to church and school the necessary want of every new town
was a mill. Early in the life of the settlement Mayhew is found writ
ing a letter to the younger Winthrop expressing the plantation's "greate
want of a mill" and asking that he might borrow the services of a cer
tain "goodman Elderkin," who was reputed a very "ingenious" man in
the building of mills, whom Mayhew understood to be under contract
to Winthrop.

But the greatest problem confronting the founder of a colony was
the difficulty of adjusting the land problems of native and European.
In this relation Thomas Mayhew showed unceasing diplomacy, sympa
thetic understanding, and unimpeachable honesty.

Contrary to popular belief the American Indian of New England
was not robbed of his lands by the early settlers. The charge that the
Indian was duped and exploited is one of the common statements made
by Puritan detractors, a free and easy charge unsubstantiated by docu
mentary evidence. In view of the cruel practices of the Spanish con-
quistadores, and the treatment received by the Indians in other parts
of the country in later years, it is surprising that popular prejudice con
tinues to confine itself so largely to purported Puritan misconduct.

The relation of the white man with the Indian is one of the unhappy
blots of history. Ethically the European should not have settled where
an Indian population existed. But having settled, there appears no
part of America where Indian rights of land were more faithfully
preserved than in New England. The town records of New England
abound with references to lands purchased from the native proprietors.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Vattel, the great Swiss publicist, in his "Laws of Nations," says:
"We cannot fail to applaud the moderation of the English Puritans
who first established themselves in New England, who bought from
the savages the land which they wished to occupy." Chancellor Kent
states that "the people of all the New England colonies settled their
towns upon the basis of title procured by fair purchase from the
Indians with the consent of government, except in the few instances of
lands acquired by conquest after a war deemed to have been just and
necessary."

The charge is bandied that large tracts of land were purchased of
the Indians in exchange for an inadequate consideration. Just what
would have been an adequate consideration is never stated. The defi
nition is, of course, relative. It is beyond dispute that sums paid for
lands in these early days were far beneath present values. But this
in no way detracts from the honesty of the transactions. Wilderness
lands in the seventeenth century had a small value. That in three hun
dred years the purchase price of business property in Boston would
command a fortune was not within the ken of the early bargainers, nor
would that knowledge have much influenced negotiations. It should be
remembered that while the English proprietors paid the Indians small
sums for land, they in turn received similarly small sums upon resale
to English buyers. William Penn customarily sold lands at forty shill
ings per hundred acres, or five pounds for each one thousand acres.

Criticism is made of beads and other trinkets as tender for lands.
Beads were desired by the Indians as articles of ornament. The prefer
ence of gold to brass or beads is entirely a working of the mind. The
intrinsic value of either is nothing. Today Woolworth stores sell
jewelry to untutored whites at a five, ten and fifteen cent counter, and
buyers are glad to get the trinkets.

Transactions entered into between the settlers themselves were
customarily adjusted in medium other than hard cash. Practically all
transactions were consummated in kind, that is, produce, corn, furs,
even Indian wampum. Students at Harvard College paid their tute
lage in slaughtered cattle and bushels of corn evaluated in pounds
and shillings. So much was this the case that at times the college
corporation would find itself overwhelmed with one kind of com
modity to the exclusion of another. Hard money was scarce in
America.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

It would be difficult to conceive what value coined pounds and shill
ings would have had to the Indian, even had they existed in sufficient
quantities. The Indian had not attained that civilization which pro
duces millionaires hording up silver dollars for the edification of an admiring world.

The Indian wanted axes, firearms, and similar items of hardware,
just as did the white pioneer. Such commodities might not satisfy a
paunchy banker of the twentieth century sitting behind a four-ply
mahogany veneer desk, but they were preeminently satisfactory to the
banker's ancestor and his Indian contemporary. One generation yearns
for an axe, the next for stocks and bonds. Doubtless the axe has con
tributed most to the advancement of civilization.

We should not too greatly criticise the white man for giving the
Indian what he wanted and what was often best for his purposes. Too
many critics find it difficult to view the Indian problem in all its rami
fications with the "then minded" attitude.

But whatever room exists for argument in respect to Indian rela
tions, criticism cannot be directed toward the proprietary of Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket. There, certainly, no effort was made to
crowd the Indian out of his possessions. Even had the settlers been
so disposed, the vast preponderance of Indian inhabitants would have
made such a proceeding exceedingly inadvisable. It is not easy to now
realize that in the early days of America it was the Indian who had
the upper hand and the white man who feared.

Every foot of territory within the bounds of Mayhew's patent, set
tled by a white man, was purchased from its lawful Indian proprietor.
Although Mayhew held an English title that purported to descend
from the crown, he chose to consider that title as granting him merely
the exclusive right among Europeans to purchase lands from the abo
riginal occupants. He professed no control or ownership of any tract
of land remaining in Indian ownership. When Mayhew sold land to a
settler which he himself had not purchased of the natives, he sold
merely a right to the settler to perfect title from the proper Indian
sachem.

It was the general consensus of opinion in New England that a
patent of land derived from the crown conferred on the grantee the
English title subject to the Indian right of occupancy. It was the right
67

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

of occupancy which the English purchased from the Indians, as the
red man had no conception of title in fee.

Some there were among the English who believed that the right of
the King was paramount, but in practice these agreed that it was either
justice or expediency to purchase the Indian rights, whatever might be
their technical nature. The "gentle Roger Williams, who wherever
he lived managed to stir up strife," harangued that no title existed in
the King at all; that all ownership of land was derived from the
Indians alone.

As the Massachusetts authorities were at all times circumspect in
purchasing Indian rights, the perorations of Williams were uselessly
moot, and only served to strengthen the opinion held by English
enemies of Puritanism that the country was a hot bed of traitors. As
much for the protection of the precarious state of Massachusetts as
any other cause, Williams was banished, his disputations on the theory
of land titles being one of the grounds leading to exile. It is typical of
Williams' veering views that, founding a colony of his own upon lands
purchased of the Indians, he journeyed to England to secure a royal
patent.

The relations of Thomas Mayhew with the Indians have received
the approbation of historians. No man in America was fairer to the
aborigines nor more of a father to them, not excepting William Penn,
whose personal contact with the Indian was much less than Mayhew's.
The story of Penn's treaty with the Indians under the great elm
at Shackamaxon on the banks of the Delaware is admittedly based on
nothing more substantial than "reverently cherished tradition." Fortu
nately for the fame of Penn the imaginary conclave was many years
ago perpetuated on canvas by a celebrated artist. In the popular mind
William Penn towers alone in American history as the man who
treated the Indians fairly, but the honor is one that should be spread
over a field of candidates. Penn was in America but twice for periods
of two years each and could not have been personally responsible for
all the good relations that existed between the government of Pennsyl
vania and the Indians.

The statement of a Penn biographer that no one save the proprie
tor of Pennsylvania ever kept faith with the Indians for a stretch of
forty years is made without acknowledgment to the record of Thomas
68

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Mayhew. Centuries have passed, but the peace at Martha's Vineyard
has never been broken, while in Pennsylvania war broke out after the
death of the great Quaker founder.

The government of Pennsylvania was greatly assisted in its pro
gram of peace by the fact that the Indians of that territory were so
thoroughly subdued and broken in spirit by the raids of the Iroquois
that they had been forced to assume the opprobrious name of "women."
Thomas Mayhew had no artist on his staff at Martha's Vineyard,
and had there been one among the settlers he would doubtlessly have
been too busy ploughing or fishing to have devoted time to painting
any one of the many conferences held by the island proprietor with the
Indians during the forty years of his ownership. For something less
than half a century Thomas Mayhew was father, adviser, and mis
sionary to the Indians. He established churches, courts, and civil gov
ernment among them. Yet his fame is known only to a limited few.
Naturally there were settlers among the English at Martha's Vine
yard who attempted to purchase lands of the Indians without due
acknowledgment of the rights of Thomas Mayhew, as holder of the
English title, or those holding under him in the town of Great Harbor.
It early became necessary for the townsmen to order that no man
should "procure from the Indians in any place within the town bounds
any land upon Gift or Purchase upon the Penalty of Ten Pounds for
every acre so purchased without the consent of the town first had."

A conspiracy to purchase lands of the Indians at Takemmy was
fomented. Thomas Mayhew, to protect his rights, called a great
council of the principal Indians of the district and, after a harangue,
the chief, Papamek, and twenty-nine other "gentlemen and common
Indians" agreed with him that there "shall be noe land sold within the
bounds of Takemme without the consent of the two sachims. . . . .
That is Wanamanhut [and] Keteanum." And it was further declared
by the Indians that the sachems making the sale in particular were
never owners of the land sold, and they all agreed "as one man to
withstand and reject that bargain."

Meanwhile Thomas Mayhew had inaugurated the practice of buy
ing lands of the Indians in all the islands, whenever the native pro
prietors were willing to sell, in order to perfect his title. Both he and
his son, and at a later date Peter Folger, schoolmaster at Great Harbor
and maternal grandfather of Benjamin Franklin, acquired a knowledge

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

of the Indian tongue. The purport of native deeds was fully explained
to the grantors, that they might understand the nature of their acts.
Most of the lands in the islands were bought in parcels and a con
siderable number of deeds were executed over a long period of years,
at Nantucket so late as 1774. It cannot, therefore, be said that the
Indians were deceived into an early sale of all their lands in toto.

Payments to the Indians were of various sorts. The purchase
price of one tract was a "cow and a suit of clothes from top to toe"
and seventeen pounds in money. When it is recalled that Mayhew paid
Forrett, as agent for Lord Stirling, but forty pounds for the island
of Nantucket and its dependencies, a comparison of the sums paid the
natives for much smaller tracts demonstrates clearly that the Indians
were fairly treated.

Large purchases of land at the west end of Martha's Vineyard were
made by the patentee, who was already contemplating the establish
ment of a baronial estate for his family and posterity. Portions of this
tract he had fenced by a stone wall apart from the rest of the island.
The Cape Higgon district today is a corrupted form of the Indian name
Keephikkon, meaning an artificial enclosure.

A typical Indian deed follows:

This doth witness that I Cheesechamuck, the Sachim of Holmses
hole doth by these presents sell and set over unto Thomas Mayhew
the Elder of the Vineyard one Quarter part of all that land which is
called Chickemmow for him the said Thomas Mayhew his heires and
assignes to In joy for ever: the said one quarter of the land of Chickem
mow is to begin at Itchpoquaset Brook and so to run by the shore till
it comes to the sea side ward and so the said quarter part of land is
to runne into the Iland from the sea side to the Middle line of the said
land called Chickemmow; the said Thomas Mayhew is to have four
spans round in the middle of every whale that comes upon the shore of
this quarter part and no more: the hunting of Deire is common, but no
trappes to be set:

In witness to this Deed of sale I have set my hand unto it this tenth
Day of August 1658. THE MARKE

OF CHEESCHAMUCK

In purchasing a neck of land called Chappaquiddick, at the eastern
end of the island for the town of Great Harbor, Mayhew agreed that
the town should give the sachem making the sale twenty bushels of corn

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

a year for three years, and that the sachem's sons should have two
lots when divided. Referring to this transaction, Charles E. Banks,
the island historian, says:

This form of quit-rent was doubtless a concession to the dignity of
the chieftain, and was renewed in another form in I 663, when Mayhew
agreed to pay him "one Good Goat Ram yearly or as much in Good pay
as Good Goat Ram should be worth …. and one yarde round
every whale." It is significant of the scrupulous spirit which actuated
Mayhew in his dealings with them, that this agreement was in effect
and presumably observed as late as 1724, when the great grandson of
this chief man, named Seiknout, also a sachem, commuted his quit-rent
for £5 in money to the successor of the old Governor."

Chappaquiddick was of great value to the proprietors of the
town for grazing cattle. It was held intact many years. Elaborate
regulations were drawn up by the townsmen to guard against overload
ing the quotas of each share. From the records the reader is edified
to learn that one settler put over "one steer upon Dorcas Bayley,"
another "a young horse upon his grandfather Bayes," and a third "for
his wife's former rights he put over I 3 head," meaning that the suc
cessors of these people were entitled to rights in pasturage which had
descended to them from predecessors so named.

The history of every colony, no matter how small, has its era of
expansion. By 1667 Great Harbor was an established community with
a population of perhaps more than one hundred souls. On the island
of Nantucket another plantation had been started, and already the
planters of that tight little island were demonstrating the enterprise
and intelligence that was to make the Nantucket stock celebrated in
the world of commerce and learning.

In his grant of the patent of Great Harbor, Thomas Mayhew had
made reference to the establishment of "another Townshipp for Pos
terity," which he had visualized would some day be necessary. For
twenty-five years the boundaries of the "great" town at the eastern end
of Martha's Vineyard had sufficed the needs of the inhabitants of that
island, but in I 668 Thomas Mayhew deemed the time ripe for the
founding of the second town.

This he established in the interior of the island at a place called
Takemmy, the garden spot of the Vineyard, a place of rich meadows
and fine water courses. Already a mill was in operation connected with
Great Harbor by a road called the old Mill Path.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRI RCH TO INDIANS

The first purchasers of the district were three men of Plymouth
Colony. One of these, Josiah Standish, was son of the famous Myles
Standish, of Duxbury, who is said to have claimed the right to the own
ership of Duxbury Hall in England. A few years ago Duxbury Hall
was in the possession of Mr. Walter Mayhew, an English residing
descendant of the Thomas Mayhew who granted land at Martha's
Vineyard to the son of Myles Standish.

In the establishment of the new town Thomas Mayhew reserved
to himself and heirs certain rights and privileges as patentee, including
the right to approve of inhabitants coming to settle in the community,
and participation in local government in cooperation with the majority
part of the freemen. The new township received the name Middle
town, due to its central position between Great Harbor and the Indian
community of Nashawakemmuck at the western end of the island, later
Chilmark.

The inhabitants of Middletown purchased title of the Indians and
from time to time admitted new members into their ranks, including the
patentee's grandson, Thomas Mayhew, III, who early became town
clerk and a justice of the peace.          Another landowner in the town was
Benjamin Church, of Duxbury, the famous Indian fighter of his gen
eration in New England.        He owned a gristmill "on the westermost
brook of Takemmy."      Isaac Robinson, son of the Rev. John Robinson,
pastor of the Pilgrim Church at Leyden, Holland, was also a settler.
The first minister called to the town was the patentee's youngest
grandson, the Rev. John Mayhew, who for the balance of his life per
formed the duties of spiritual adviser to the inhabitants of Tisbury and
Chilmark "united."

The Elizabeth Islands were, likewise, involved in the land specula
tions and colonizing schemes of the day. Mayhew's acquaintance
with many of the leading men of the surrounding colonies facilitated
his efforts to find purchasers for these islands. The first buyers were
merchants trading between the southern colonies of New England and
the northern colony of Massachusetts. The Elizabeth Islands, at the
gateway between Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound, were convenient
ports of refuge for trading vessels. Here warehouses were erected and
in later years a lighthouse.

An early purchaser from Thomas Mayhew of lands on the Eliza
beth Islands was Governor William Brenton, of Rhode Island, who

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

willed his interest to his son-in-law, Peleg Sanford, a later Governor of
the same colony.

Other purchasers were James Bowdoin, Governor of Massachu
setts, whose name has been perpetuated in the foundation of Bowdoin
College; John Haynes, Governor at different times of Massachusetts
and Connecticut; Peter Oliver, the eminent Boston merchant, whose
grandson was Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts; Thomas Ward,
treasurer and father of Governor Richard Ward, of Rhode Island;
and Major-General Wait Winthrop, son of Governor John, of Con
necticut, and grandson of the great Governor of Massachusetts of the
same name.

In each plantation the Indian rights were carefully purchased and

every effort made to propitiate the inhabitants. The Indian system of
land ownership was monarchical. The sachems alone owned land, and
it was from the sachems that the English purchased title. Having sold
his rights for a consideration, the sachem was content, but occasionally
one of his subjects or an underling sachem who had not shared in the
fruits of the deal, finding himself barred from his customary haunts,
would turn to his sachem and demand something concrete in exchange
for tribute paid by him.

At Nantucket, "Mr." Larry Ahkermo, Peterson Obadiah, and
George Nanahuma, petty sachems and "gentlemen in the Indian way,"
complained to the English court that their sachems had sold the lands
they formerly lived on to the English and refused to allow them to live
on land unsold. It was ordered by the English court that the com
plainants should have twenty acres apiece granted elsewhere, without
payment of tribute.

The parties to the action "declared themselves well satisfied and
contented" with the order. Obadiah, however, was ever a thorn in the
side of the island authorities. Upon one occasion he was summoned
before the island court for resisting the authority of the Indian court
in attempting to rescue a prisoner about to be whipped and in using
"Reviling Speeches" and "opprobious words" to its members.

In the practice of the courts of both islands, so far as the records
show, there seems to have been no distinction made between English
and Indian suitors. The law was administered with conscientious
impartiality.

A chief source of irritation between the races was the Indian prac-
73

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

tice of trespassing on the lands of the English. It is the suggestion of
some writers that the niceties of Anglo-Saxon theories of land titles
and their conveyance were never fully understood by the Indian. They
state that the idea that one man could become entitled to real estate so
as to prevent others from using it was not comprehended by the Indian.
Land was to him as free as the water or the air. Nobody could have
an exclusive right to it. So when the white man came and obtained
deeds from the sachems, it was merely the admission of the new settlers
on equal terms with themselves. It was not that the Indian 4ad ceased
to have the right to enjoy the land but that another had become his
cooccupant.

This argument is open to criticism. In the first place research has
developed the fact that the Indian was not so freely nomadic as was at
one time believed. Ruling sachems governed within well defined
limits, beyond whose boundaries his subjects had no rights. Hence the
statement that land to the Indian was as free as the air and that no
one could have an exclusive right to it is not entirely accurate. Roger
Williams tells that the Indians were "very act and punctual in the
bounds of their Lands." He adds that he has known them to "make
bargain and sale among themselves for a small piece or quantity of
ground."

Neither can it be said that the Indians could have been long deluded
with the belief that they were selling a mere right of cooccupancy, if
ever they so believed, as they must have learned the effect of their acts
in the course of a short time.

It is possible that what the Indian did not always clearly under
stand was the legal effect of "consideration."

Moneys or goods paid for lands were received by some as a gift in
the nature of a quit-rent or tribute rather than final payment in full.
So when the beads were scattered, the powder gone, or the hatchets
rusty, the native grantor would come back for more, and if denied
would seek revenge in primitive ways. By this procedure land was
sometimes sold a number of times over. The cupidity of a few of
the shrewder Indians made this practice a means of revenue of no mean
proportions. But an example of this form of petty brigandage is not
of record at the islands. So far as is known the island chieftains per
formed their bargains with an exacting honesty worthy a people in a
higher stage of civilization.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

The sachems kept their faith, and with the exception of Obadiah at
Nantucket, no breath of unfairness on the part of the English was
anywhere raised until long after the death of Thomas Mayhew and
the island fathers.

It was left for the descendants of the original Indians to complain.
Forgetting that their fathers had the right to sell their lands, and
realizing that at one time their ancestors were the sole owners of all
the lands inhabited by both races, the Indians of Nantucket com
menced to murmur and find fault, making the easy charge that the
English had unfairly purchased the lands of their fathers, although the
latter had always been satisfied with the bargains made. The English
endeavored to satisfy the recalcitrants by appealing to the records and
stating to them of whom the purchases were made, that the sachems
had a good right to sell, and their descendants ought to be satisfied
therewith. Says Obed Macy in his early history of Nantucket: "These
reasonings quieted them for a series of years, and always would have
sufficed, had they kept clear of rum; for they seldom called this subject
into view, unless they were in some degree intoxicated."

The last stand of the Indians to repudiate the bargains of their

fathers was made in the middle of the eighteenth century and the con
troversy was decided against them by a committee appointed by the
General Court of the province.

At Martha's Vineyard little of this state of affairs was experienced.
The island was larger and more fertile and a crowded condition did not
develop. The several Indian plantations at Chappaquiddick, Chris
tiantown, and Gay Head have sufficed to support the natives of the
island down to modern day.
75

CHAPTER VIII

THE PATENTEE'S GOVERNMENT

The simple government necessary for the needs of the little band
of settlers placed on Martha's Vineyard island by Thomas Mayhew
was essentially democratic in its nature, and patterned on the town
meeting plan prevalent in New England, controlled to a certain extent
by the junior Mayhew in his capacity of co-patentee. In the meantime
the senior patentee continued his residence at Watertown to adjust and
wind up his business affairs, and perhaps, as a matter of precaution, to
observe first the success of his colony before severing home ties. His
arrival at the island for permanent settlement is believed to have taken
place in the spring or summer of I 645. He immediately assumed the
government of the plantation, weaving his personality so intimately
into the political and social history of Martha's Vineyard as to make it
difficult to disentangle the story of his life from the history of the
community.

The grant from the Earl of Stirling provided for a government to
be set up by Thomas Mayhew, "his son and their associates,." such as
was then established in the Massachusetts Colony. The vagueness of
the powers granted and their lack of definite limitation were to give
rise to contentions between the senior patentee and the freemen of the
Vineyard. The conflict was in no degree to be eased by reference to
the patent of the Massachusetts Colony because the charter of that
colony was itself the subject of innumerable ambiguities, complicated
further by the fact that departures from its letter and spirit were more
common than uncommon. Over and again the Bay charter was
transcended to suit the exigencies of occasion.

The charter of the Massachusetts Company passed the seals as a
document providing for the creation and regulation of a trading cor
poration. It was not a charter for the government of a colony,
although the corporation was authorized to establish and govern
colonies as units dependent on the company. Pursuant to this power
the company sent John Endicott to America with orders to exercise the
chief authority at Naumkeag (Salem). By the company Endicott was
termed the governor of the settlement.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

In the latter part of the year 1629 a number of persons in England
"of figure and estate" proposed to remove to New England upon con
dition that they be permitted to take with them the charter of the com
pany and be allowed to exercise its corporate powers in the New
World. The members of the company, ready to further the establish
ment of a Puritan commonwealth, willingly consented to this proposal.
Arrangements were effected whereby members who remained in Eng
land were to be allowed to share in the trading profits of the settlement
while the control of the company's concerns was committed to those
who emigrated. By this agreement the members in England ceased to
act as a corporation. After the transfer of the charter the corporate
body conducted itself in America, not as a trading corporation, but as
a political unit. Thus in New England a commonwealth was reared
upon so slender a basis as the charter of a trading corporation.

This course of conduct was not the procedure followed by other
trading companies of the day. The Virginia Company retained its
identity distinct from that of the body politic subject to its control, as
did also the Dutch West Indies Company in the maintenance of New
Netherlands, and others.

The transfer of the Massachusetts Company to New England
necessitated the conversion of the machinery provided by the charter
for the management of a trading corporation into a political mechan
ism for the government of a colony; and numerous were the difficul
ties and dissensions which grew out of the metamorphosis. Many of
the solutions worked out in America were not strictly within the terms
of the patent and were of doubtful legality. It is the contention of one
authority that the first meeting of the company in England was the
only one that was held in conformity to the charter or the principles of
English law.

Mayhew, therefore, was early confronted with the question whether
by the terms of his grant he was empowered to establish a government
pursuant to the language of the charter of the Massachusetts Com
pany, of which he doubtlessly had no copy, or one modeled upon the
form of government actually in operation in the Bay Colony; a gov
ernment of exigencies and convenience, which like little Topsy, had
"just growed," and was still in a state of flux.

At the time of the grant from Lord Stirling to Mayhew the gov
ernment of the Massachusetts Bay in New England had been functioning

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

eleven years, and it is fair to assume that it was the intent of Forrett
in authorizing Mayhew to set up a government "such as is now estab
lished in Massachusetts" that the grantee should set up a frame of gov
ernment coincident in general features with that in the Bay; consisting
in framework of a Governor, Deputy Governor, assistants, and free
men; a government that would meet the needs of the inhabitants, sub
ject to growth and any modification as should be meet in the premises.
A wide latitude for discretion was intended to this end.

To illustrate the improbability of any other intent the following
example may be cited: in the early days of the Massachusetts Colony
freemen were entitled to meet in General Court, but as the population
grew and towns developed in number, it was enacted in 1636 that
henceforth towns should elect deputies or representatives to the Gen
eral Court. This was the government "now established in the Massa
chusetts" at the time of Mayhew's patent, yet it would be ridiculous
to suppose that Mayhew was expected by the terms of his grant to hold
a court of delegated freemen in a jurisdiction consisting at first of a
handful of settlers located within the confines of a single town.

By reason of the impracticability of launching a complete civil
establishment on an island peopled with a scant hundred souls, no
immediate attempt appears to have been made by the patentee to
create freemen or to provide a suffrage unless it was done informally,
without record. The patentee kept the reins in his own hands and
that of his family. Naturally, he acted as the chief executive officer
of the colony, and soon came to be regarded as "governor."

He early elaborated a system of military defense and organized a
militia for protection against Indian forays. Laws were passed by
Mayhew and the townsmen concerning training days for the exercise
of the company in arms. Men not "complete in armes" were fined as
were also colonists who wilfully neglected to appear at muster.

The first semblance of popular government is found eleven years
after the foundation of the colony when, in r 653, the townsmen of
Great Harbor elected Thomas Mayhew, Sr., and six others to "stand
for a year." A similar body was elected the following year "to end
all controversies." This form of government may be identified as a
Court of Assistants with Mayhew as Chief Magistrate. In accordance
with the practice in Massachusetts it may be assumed that the court
exercised both legislative and judicial powers.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

The patentee was now following out the provisions of his patent
from Lord Stirling in respect to the conduct of a government based on
the Massachusetts model, if not in all details at least in major substance.
Within a number of years we find a further change in the form of
government. In 1658, Mr. Thomas Mayhew was chosen magistrate
without assistants. It was voted that "all cases are to be Ended this
present year by the magistrate with an original jury." Mayhew was
again the sole executive officer of the island. In effect this had been the
situation from the day of his first coming to the island. His personal
ity, his experience in life, his landed interests, and the fact that he had
impelled the founding and building of the little commonwealth had
been reason sufficient to the settlers to submit to his control over their
mutual affairs.

But as conditions prospered and the inhabitants increased in both
numbers and wealth, a feeling of discontent became manifest among a
number of them who began to voice a desire for greater partici
pation in the administration of government. The earliest settlers had
been admitted into the fellowship of the town by the "approbation" of
the patentees; for a time they felt their obligation to the proprietors
who had granted them their substantial acres and an opportunity to
prosper in a worldly way, but there were others who had paid for their
lands, and all being Englishmen jealous of their "liberties," they began
to chafe under the patriarchal rule of Thomas Mayhew.

Matters reached a crisis late in the year 1661, when the patentee
deemed it wise to prepare a form of "submission to government,"
unusual and unique in scope, for the signatures of those discontented
with his rule.

Mayhew was convinced that he was entitled to the ultimate power
of control over the political affairs of the settlement and that he had
powers equal at least to those exercised by the Governor and Assistants
of Massachusetts.

The submission prepared by him was signed by eighteen of the
freemen. Those not signing are known to have been adherents to his
rule because of family connections or other reasons.

After the signing of the submission which proclaimed a proprietary form of government, laws were enacted in the name of the "pattentees and freeholders" or "by the Single Person and the freeholders." The single person was Thomas Mayhew. The plural form of patentee

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

sometimes used had reference either to the three children of the
younger Thomas Mayhew, now deceased, or to the original patentees
of Great Harbor, who, it will be remembered, were granted equal
power in town government with the two Mayhews. It may be that
laws for the town were passed by the patentees of the town and the
majority of the freemen, while laws for the island as a whole were
passed by Thomas Mayhew ( as sole proprietary) and the majority of
the freemen, thus giving the patentees within the town and Mayhew
over the island a practical power of veto. Town and island affairs
at this time were so closely interwoven that it is difficult to distinguish
between local and general concerns.

Language used in 1663 in the passing of an act "itt is ordered by
myself and the major part of the freeholders," indicates that the rec
ords at that time were being kept by Mayhew in person.

The rule of Thomas Mayhew as patentee and chief magistrate
of an independent colony was now about to end. In high places in
England the fate of the islands of Martha's Vineyard and those adja
cent was being shuttled without the knowledge of their New England
proprietor.

As early as I 663 the Earl of Clarendon had purchased, on behalf
of his son-in-law, the Duke of York, the pretentions of the fourth Earl
of Sterling to his territories in America. The Stirlings had never right
fully had jurisdiction over the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nan
tucket, but their claims were passed along to the Duke, who, although
he failed to pay the Stirlings the full consideration agreed and inserted
in the deed territories not offered for sale, failed not to exact his full
quota of benefits.

In due time the King confirmed the purchase to the Duke by a
royal patent which included in it "all those severall Islands called or
known by the names of Martin's Vineyard and Nantukes otherwise
Nantukett.''

It was .a day of conflicting grants, vague geography, and royal pre
rogatives. The fact that the islands had already been granted
Gorges afforded no embarrassment to the King. Nor was Charles II
in any way disturbed by the fact that the bulk of the territories included
in the grant to his brother was in possession of the Dutch, and always
had been.

Deciding to accomplish two results with one commission, he, in
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

1664, appointed a royal commission composed of Colonel Richard
Nicolls, Sir George Carteret, Sir Robert Carr, and Samuel Maverick,
Esq., to settle disputes with and between the New England colonies and
to "reduce" New Netherlands by arms.

Arriving with a fleet in Gravesend Bay in August of the same year,
Nicolls demanded of Director-General Stuyvesant the surrender of
Dutch New Netherlands. After conferences lasting less than two
weeks, articles of capitulation were agreed upon. On the 8th of Sep
tember the Dutch troops marched out of Fort Amsterdam. The flag
of the High and Mighty States of Holland fluttered to the ground.
The air resounded to a salvo of guns, and Britain's proud ensign
whipped the breezes. A country builded by the energy of a foreign
people became England.'s by the mighty quill of Charles II and the
doubtful virtue of a voyage by Cabot. The city of New Amsterdam
and the province of New Netherlands became the city and province of
New York, and with it the islands of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket,
and those adjacent became a part of the lordly holdings of America's
newest viceroy, James, Duke of York and Albany.

Richard Nicolls became the first Governor-General of the newly
captured province and dependencies. It was sometime before he
opened correspondence with the proprietor of Martha's Vineyard.
Mayhew says he had "noe Newes of either" Gorges or Stirling, after
securing his patents, "till his Ma'ties Commissioners came over," and
then John Archdale, brother-in-law to Ferdinando Gorges, came to see
him, armed with a printed paper, wherein his majesty most strongly
confirmed "Ferdynando Gorges Esquire to be Lord of the Province
of Maine." Further, states Mayhew, Archdale informed him that
Nicolls laid claim to the islands in behalf of the Duke, but that con
flicting claims would be adjusted at the first meeting of the com
missioners.

In the winter of I 664-6 5 Archdale repaired to New York with his
"printed paper," where he demanded Nicolls to deliver the terri
tories of Maine and the islands into his control. The request was
refused.

Here matters hung fire for a number of years. During Nicolls'
administration little was done to enforce the Duke's claim. A desul
tory correspondence was maintained between Nicolls and Mayhew but
without definite results.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

In one letter to the proprietor of Martha's Vineyard, Nicolls set
forth a lengthy order entitled "general heads of directions and
advice," how to proceed in the administration of an Indian matter.
Mayhew was advised that to "threaten and terrify the natives was not
to be spared."

Considering that Nicolls had been in the New World but two
years and a half, this offer of advice to Thomas Mayhew, who had had
twenty years' experience in dealing with the natives and had gained
for himself an enviable reputation as a diplomat and missionary, was
presumptuous even for a British official imbued with the importance
and grandeur of a royal master across the sea.

How Mayhew received this royal bull from Nicolls, who is
described by some of the Dutch officials of New York as "so gentle,
wise and intelligent" that they were confident and assured that under his
wings they would "bloom and grow like the cedar on Lebanon," is not
of record. It may be assumed that Thomas Mayhew acted in the
premises, although perhaps not under the commission sent by Nicolls,
as such a procedure might too easily have been construed as a recog
nition of the ducal authority which Mayhew was not ready to
acknowledge.

As early as r 664, Mayhew had commented to Winthrop on the
coming of the commissioners, saying: "I hope the effecte wilbe good,"
modestly adding, "I see at a greate distaunce, therefore can say litle
to it.'' As Winthrop was well acquainted with Nicolls, the island
patentee took pains to add: "I pray, Sir, take occasion to mynde me to
him, & to the rest of them, that they would be pleased to doe me all the
lawfull favour they can. I have written to Mr. Samuell Maueryck my
sellfe; whome I heare is one of them."

With the aid of Nicolls, and Maverick whose influence in obtain
ing American appointments was considerable, Mayhew hoped to settle
the suzerainty of his islands. He seems to have preferred the claims
of Gorges to those of the Duke, but for the time being he saw no
reason why he should hurry into the fold of either lord. Stirling, he
felt, had small claim to the islands, and the Duke no greater.

The appearance at New York of Archdale with a paper from the
King confirming Maine to Ferdinando Gorges left the commissioners in
a quandary. Nicolls admitted that he could make no intelligence of
Archdale's document, which conflicted with the King's grant to the

CHAPTER IX

THE FOREST PAUL

In past chapters has been recounted the life of Thomas Mayhew as
a colonist and colonial governor. We are now to look upon another
phase of character. Seldom is found a man whose personality can be
so accurately divided into parts as that of the governor of Martha's
Vineyard island. The story of one part of his life is a story of colonial
enterprise, feudalism, and political strife; the other part an idyl of
self-sacrifice and labor as a missionary among a humble people. Yet in
Thomas Mayhew the two personalities were so blended as to render
each the complement of the other, rounding out an individuality that
was dedicated to the improvement of the Indian.

Coming to the island as a feudal lord to found a family of landed
magnates and to better his financial condition, Thomas Mayhew found
himself drawn by a sense of pity to the unfortunate Indian. In the
end, every gesture and action of his life was bended, in politics or reli
gion, to the purpose of bettering the Indian's material and spiritual
welfare.

The story of Thomas Mayhew is the life story of the red-coated
governor of an English colony who daily laid aside his sword of office
to pursue in Indian tepees the humbler avocation of teaching the pre
cepts of the Prince of Peace.

In the role of missionary or governor he carried with him the dig
nity of a great soul. Although he slept in Indian wigwams and walked
miles through the forests to teach his Indian subjects, he never lost his
hold upon their respect and admiration. His dignity was not the pose
that comes with patents from royal dukes, appendant with seals of
state, and resounding with titles of office. It was the dignity of a soul
ennobled by its Maker; a soul above the petty distinctions of mankind.
Upon the basis of his life as an Indian missionary, the fame of
Thomas Mayhew rests best. The great achievement of his life was
not the settlement of islands or the founding of towns and villages, or
the establishment of a government over planters. In these things he
was preeminently successful, but the triumph which endears him to
posterity was his administration of Indian affairs, his generous self-

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

devotion to the noble design of civilizing and Christianizing the Indian
inhabitants within his domains. In his relations with the red man he
achieved a success far beyond that of any other British governor in
North America, unique in that he was the one alone to become a mis
sionary among them. He was a man of remarkable character and con
sequently lived a remarkable career. A manorial lord, a British colo
nial governor, he became one of the great missionaries of his day and
one of the greatest governors in all ages to govern and pacify a savage
race. To the Indian he was father, counselor, and ruler; "sachem,"
as they upon occasion called him.

Missionary work at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket was not
begun by cajolings or force of arms. It was not maintained by peon
age, nor its memory perpetuated in the minds of men by the erection of
cathedrals in the name of the Lord. It was not in the mind of Thomas
1\fayhew to place wealth and labor in edifices dedicated to the lowly
prince born in Bethlehem, who scorned the riches of this world. Pos
terity does not travel to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket to view
awesome monuments of the Englishman's "civilization" built by the
sweat and labor of a subject race.

The religion of Thomas Mayhew was a religion of the heart and
mind, not a religion of pomp and heaps of stone. By his righteous
living and precepts, example and mental persuasions, he brought the
children of the wilderness to the faith of the white man's God and to a
knowledge of the white man's justice. He taught them the religion of
love and salvation and everlasting life; and so the Indian knelt in
prayer to God, awed by no pomp of ceremony, lulled by no strains of
music, bedazzled not by gilt and tinseled trappings. The dwelling of
their church was the open fields, the trees, and the birds; their music
the lapping of quiet waters upon island shores; the rostrum of the mis
sionary a nearby stone; their heaven the common heaven of all righte
ous men, be they white, black, or red.

In later years rude buildings were constructed of wood-no less
houses of the Lord than cathedrals filled with gold and silver vessels.
It was the wise advice of Lord Bacon to colonists that "If you
plant where savages are, do not entertain them with trifles and gin
gles; but use them justly and graciously, with sufficient guard, never
theless; and do not win their favor by helping them to invade their
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

enemies; but for their defence it is not amiss." Save the last phrase,
the words might well have been the counsel of Thomas Mayhew.

The labor of gospelizing the Indians at Martha's Vineyard was
first begun by Mayhew's son, the co-patentee. Following his death
the work was continued by the father, and he in turn was succeeded by
his grandson John, a great-grandson Experience, and a great-great
grandson -Zachariah. Other members of the family preached to the
natives upon occasion, or were empowered in government over them,
for a period of time extending over two hundred years. For centuries
they were rulers, teachers, and civilizers. Their service is said to be
the longest of any one family in the annals of missionary history.

Says Alden Bradford: "The family may justly be said to have
been a remarkable one; both on account of their efforts in Christian
izing the Indians, and for their personal moral worth."

The diligence, fortitude, and moral worth of the early Mayhews,
John Eliot, the Tuppers of Sandwich, and the Bournes of Mashpee,
have saved the English people the shame of neglect with which the
European has been charged in Indian matters.

The problems and vicissitudes of a pioneer people left little time
for evangelism. The struggle for existence was too intense. The
pioneer had first to establish himself in the New World, to hew a
home in the forest, to maintain life. Unlike the modern immigrant, he did
not find the comforts of civilization awaiting him on the shores of the
New World-aid societies, travelers' bureaus, employment agencies,
and the laws of a paternalistic government-striving to make easier
for him life in a strange land.

Often persecuted in the home country, harried from pillar to post,
and deprived of property by many wanderings, the pioneer had little
time in the New World to think of civilizing the race that stood ready
to wipe him into extinction, at the first convenient moment.

The settler left behind him the snug fields of England, where home
meant a garden plot and a few acres of arable land, where forests were
parks and every tree hallowed by the touch of ancestral hands, where
every little fragment of acreage bore its ancient name, bestowed genera
tions before. He found himself in a howling wilderness of great
unlimited stretches where forests were immeasurable tracts peopled by
a race as wild and untamed as the unfamiliar beasts that gave vent to
strange cries in the dark hours of night. With the scant tools for
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

which he had found room in the small boat that had brought him to
America, he attempted the cultivation of rock strewn spaces. In a
strange climate and a sterile soil he attempted the planting of Eng
lish crops, avoiding starvation by a diet of berries and fishes. Life was
not a reflection of Merrie England, where precedent prestiged man's
every move. Life had become something grim, earnest, and real.

Gentlemen did not keep fine horses and ride hounds in America.
Hunting was not a holiday tournament. Game was not kept behind
palisaded parks to be slaughtered in accordance with rules as detailed
as those circumscribing the sports of the card table.

With such changes and hardships to tax his mind and ingenuity,
with privations and anxieties besetting him on every side, the pioneer
father found himself surrounded by a race of suspicious people, at
times and places in open hostility. Indians were they who fired on the
"Mayflower" Pilgrims during one of their first expeditions ashore;
who sent into the peaceful settlement of Plymouth, mustering an army
that was hardly more than a corporal's guard, a snakeskin of arrows as
a challenge of war; who hired a pow-wow to make hideous the night
with his wailings and necromancy in a · effort to bewitch the English
out of the country. Who can blame the pioneer that his breast was
not warmed with the ardor of missionary fervor?

The American Indian is today an unimportant minority, but for a
number of years he was a hard-pressing majority, and few were the
prophets in the new Canaan who would predict with any degree of
assurance that that majority would ever be dispelled. The new-born
Puritan church was not advantageously equipped with an order like the
French Jesuits or Spanish Franciscans, whose unwearied efforts and fear
less energy and self-forgetting devotion to the interests of their orders
and their church have left an impress upon the pages of American his
tory that must win the admiration of all readers of whatever faith.
To claim that the struggling pioneer, before food and clothing had
become secure, should have engaged in missionary work among the
Indians that menaced his existence, is to expect a great deal of human
nature. But such were the lofty standards prescribed by a number of
contemporary writers secure in the warmth of their hearths in Old
England, and such has been the cry of modern critics living in an age
where morals have not kept pace with the tremendous growth of mate
rial progress in the three hundred years that have elapsed.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

It required men with the spirit of total self-sacrifice to preach the
gospel to the Indians. Such men are few in any age. Yet, notwith
standing the newness of America and the relative poverty of the coun
try, the Indian mission at Martha's Vineyard, following close upon the
missionary activities of the Dutch at Java, Formosa, and other islands
in the Indian Archipelago, was one of the first Protestant missions in
the world of more than ephemeral existence and success.

That we may better understand the work of Governor Mayhew as
a missionary, a brief sketch of the life of his son, who ploughed the
first furrow in propagating the gospel in New England, must of neces
sity be here inserted.

The Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Jr., eldest child and only son of Gov
ernor Mayhew, was born in Old England about the year 1620-21. The
name of his mother is not known and few of the details of his early life
are extant. It is supposed that he came to America with his father in
1631 and spent his boyhood days at Medford and Watertown in the
Massachusetts Colony.

He was "tutored up" in New England, states a contemporary
author, by which it may be inferred that he received his education at
the hands of private instructors. Harvard College was not opened
until he was at an age when his education was too far advanced for him
to matriculate at that institution. He was an early, if not the first
student, educated in the higher branches of learning in the New World,
and was known as New England's "young scholar." The Rev. Thomas
Prince, writing in 1727, says of him: "He was a young Gentleman of
liberal Education, and of such Repute for piety as well as natural and
acquired Gifts, having no small Degree of Knowledge in the Latin and
Greek languages, and being not wholly a Stranger to the Hebrew,"
that he was called to the ministry at Martha's Vineyard.

With his father he became, in 1641, joint patentee of Martha's
Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands. As a patentee he
was leader of the planters who made the first settlement at the eastern
end of Martha's Vineyard in 1642. His grandson, the Rev. Experi
ence Mayhew, speaks of this event: "In 1642 he [the elder Thomas
Mayhew J sends Mr. Thomas Mayhew Junior his only Son, being then
a young Scholar, about 21 years of Age, with some other Persons to
the Vineyard, where they settled at the East End."

Soon after the establishment of Great Harbor a church society was
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

organized and the plantation's youthful leader called to its pastoral
office. As pastor of one of the early churches of New England, he is
ranked by modern authorities as one of the founders of the Congrega
tional Church in America.

He married, in I 647, Mistress Jane Paine, daughter of a prosper
ous London merchant, whose widow had become the elder Mayhew's
second wife. The young bride had come into the Mayhew household
as a child and had been raised with her future husband like a sister. In
her mature years she proved a faithful and sacrificing helpmate.

The minister's "English Flock being then but small, the Sphere was
not large enough for so bright a Star to move in. With great Com
passion he beheld the wretched Natives, who then were several thou
sands on those Islands, perishing in utter Ignorance of the true GOD,
and eternal Life, labouring under strange Delusions, Inchantments, and
panick Fears of Devils, whom they most passionately worshipped."
God, who had ordained him an evangelist for the conversion of
these Indians, stirred him up with a holy zeal and resolution to labor
for their illumination and deliverance. But the Indian was not eager
to be served; with one noteworthy exception. Living near the English
settlement was a native, called Hiacoomes. His descent was mean, his
speech slow, and his countenance not very promising. He was looked
on by the Indian sachems and others of their principal men as an object
scarce worthy of their notice or regard.

Occasionally a settler would visit him in his wigwam and discourse
with him concerning the English way of life. "A Man of sober,
thoughtful, and ingenuous Spirit," he attended religious meetings,
where he attracted the attention of the pastor of Great Harbor, who
was even then contriving what he might do to effect the salvation of the
Indian inhabitants. Writes Thomas Mayhew, Jr., "he came to visit
our habitations and publike meetings, thinking that there might be bet
ter wayes and means amongst the English, for the attaining of the
blessings of health and life, then could be found amongst themselves:
Yet not without some thoughts and hopes of a higher good he might
possibly gain thereby." Mayhew's compassion was aroused by the
wistful eagerness of the simple Hiacoomes. He took pains to pay
particular notice of him and to discourse with him as often as possible.
He invited him to his house each Sunday night and instructed him in
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

the principles of the Christian religion, with such success that in 1643
the conversion of Hiacoomes had become an accomplished fact.

Before the conversion of Hiacoomes a few isolated instances are of
record of an occasional Indian professing an interest in the white man's
religion. Report is made of an Indian in Plymouth Colony who as
early as I 622 was induced, by the prompt reply of Heaven to the
white man's prayers for rain, to seek a better knowledge of the new
God, palpably in the interests of better and more frequent rains. The
thirst of this novitiate appears-to have been more scientific and agrarian
than theological.

Shortly after the arrival of the English in the Massachusetts
Colony, a chief known to the settlers as Sagamore John, contracted an
affection for Christianity concurrent with an attack of the smallpox.

A Pequot Indian named Wesquash was so impressed by the destruc

tion of his tribe by the military genius of the English soldier that he
importuned the Christians to make him acquainted with their God,
whom he pictured the militant God of the Jews of old. Having
become, as was supposed, says the chronicler, a sincere convert, this
poor Indian died of poison given him, it is charged, by fellow-savages
incensed by his deflection from the gods of their fathers. This is the
nearest approach to an actual conversion known prior to the unqualified
and well authenticated acceptance of the new faith by Hiacoomes.

In all three cases no real conversion to religion appears; only an
expressed desire to become better acquainted with the force that
endowed the white man with superior knowledge. Baptism was not
administered.

It remained for Hiacoomes to become the first Indian convert to
Christianity in New England, and the first American Indian to be
ordained a clergyman.

At Martha's Vineyard was turned the first furrow in New England
by an Englishman in the missionary field among the Indians. This was
three years before similar labors were begun on the mainland by the
great John Eliot.

Eliot first successfully preached to the Indians on the 28th of Octo
ber, 1646, in a wigwam at a place afterwards called Nonatum. A few
weeks prior he had made an unsuccessful effort at Dorchester Mill. In
the year of these efforts Thomas Mayhew, Jr., addressed his first pub
lic concourse of size, having for a number of years used Hiacoomes as
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

an "Instrument" to spread the seeds of the gospel. As early as 1644
Mayhew had begun to "visit and discourse them himself," going some
times to the houses of those he esteemed most rational and well quali
fied, and at other times treating with particular persons.

In the many letters of John Eliot and those written by persons
interested in his labors, there is no evidence of the conversion of an
Indian before the meeting of I 646.

The great successes that crowned the efforts of Thomas Mayhew,
Jr., as a missionary sprang from his judicious interest in his first con
vert, Hiacoomes, who growing in faith "now earnestly desired to learn
to read," writes the Rev. Experience Mayhew, "and having a primer
given him, he carried it about with him till, by the help of such as were
willing to instruct him, he attained the end for which he desired it."
At first these actions brought down upon Hiacoomes the scorn of his
fellow-countrymen, who "set up a great laughter" at their apostate
neighbor pacing the paths of the forests, book in hand, as a priest paces
a churchyard walk. Upon meeting him they would scoff: "Here comes
the Englishman.''

One detractor, Pohkehpunnassoo, is quoted as having said to Hia
coomes: "I wonder that you, that are a young man, and have a wife
and two children, should love the English and their ways, and forsake
the Pawwaws. What would you do if any of you were sick? Whither
would you go for help? If I were in your case, there should nothing
draw me from our gods and Pawwaws."

Pohkehpunnassoo upon another occasion struck Hiacoomes "a
grievous blow in the face" for saying that he was gladly obedient to
the English in things both civil and religious. Of this incident Hia
coomes said: "I had one hand for injuries and another hand for God;
and while I received wrong with the one, I laid the faster hold on God
with the other." Hiacoomes' attacker, who was a sagamore, later
became a convert. Before his conversion he was smitten with light
ning "and fell down in appearance dead, with one leg in the fire, being
grievously burned before any of the people were aware of it." He
as indeed a brand plucked from the fire.

Another native unfriendly to the new religion, asking Hiacoomes
how many gods the English worshipped and being answered one,
reckoned up thirty-seven principal gods worshipped by the Indians and
said: "Shall I throw away these thirty-seven gods for one?"

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

It was indisputable that the Indian gods were mathematically supe
rior to the divinity worshipped by the English; nevertheless, the labors
of Mayhew continued to bear fruit, largely through the teachings of
Hiacoomes, prompted by the clergyman. The poet Whittier has pic
turesquely, but not the less accurately, spoken of Hiacoomes as the
Forest Paul of his people.

Diligently Hiacoomes continued to spread the lessons taught him
at many Sunday evening conferences in the minister's house at Great
Harbor. The Indians marveled that Hiacoomes, who formerly had
been considered of little consequence among them and had had nothing
to say at their meetings, was now the teacher of them all.

The Indians, having many calamities fallen upon them about this
time, laid the cause of all their wants, sicknesses, and death upon their
departure from their old heathenish ways. In one year a strange dis
ease came amongst them. The Indians ran "up and down till they
could run no longer, they made their faces as black as coale, snatched
up any weapon, spake great words, but did not hurt." Only Hiacoomes
held out against the belief that Christianity was the cause of all the ills
of his race and continued his care about the things of God.

In 1646 a general sickness swept over Martha's Vineyard, but this
time it was observed by the superstitious Indians that those among them
who had harkened to the missionary's "pious Instructions" did not
taste so deeply of the plague, while Hiacoomes, whom they had scoffed
as an "Englishman," entirely escaped its ravages. They were amazed
by the fact that one of their number who had repudiated the powwows
should escape illness, while the orthodox were stricken. Improved sani
tary conditions among the Christianized Indians and a fear of disease
on the part of the pagans, which lowered their powers of resistance,
may account in part for the phenomenon.

Whatever the cause, a deep impression on the Indians was the out
come.    Hiacoomes was sent for by M yoxeo, the chief man of a village
of Indians, and by T owanqua tick, a "sovereign Prince," to disclose to
them all that he knew and did in the ways of God. The great men of
the island, who had scorned Hiacoomes when a pagan, received him
with respect as a Christian teacher. At this meeting many Indians
were "gathered together."     Hiacoomes "shewed unto them all things
he knew concerning God the Father, Sonne and Holy Ghost."    He
told them that he feared not the thirty-seven principal Indian gods, yet

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

was preserved; that he feared the great God only, and worshipped
Him. He reckoned up to them many of their sins, as having many
gods and going to the powwows. For the first time the Indians seemed
sensible of having sin; formerly they had thought of sin as something
not nearly concerning them, but somebody else. The chief result of
the meeting was the conversion of l\1yoxeo, who appears to have been
the first of the chief men of the Island to become a Praying Indian.
Hiacoomes and Myoxeo-the lowly and the high-within three years
of each other had seen the Light.

Soon after this event, Towanquatick, encouraged by other pagan
Indians, invited Mr. Mayhew to give a public meeting in person, to
make known to the Indians the word of God.

Said Towanquatick to the missionary: "You shall be to us as one
that stands by a running river, filling many vessels; even so shall you
fill us with everlasting knowledge."

It is an interesting insight into human nature to know that as long
ago as I 647 the degeneracy of the younger generation was lamented
among the Indians just as it is today in other quarters. In what May
hew identifies as "an Indian Speech worthy of consideration," the old
sachem recounted: "That a long time agon, they had wise men which
in a grave manner taught the people knowledge, but they are dead, and
their wisdome is buried with them: and now men lead a giddy life in
ignorance, till they are white headed, and though ripe in years, yet they
go without wisdome unto their graves." He wondered how the
Indians could be fools.still, when the English had been thirty years in
the country, to give them good example.

The meeting held with Towanquatick and his braves was the first
held in a public forum by the missionary, who theretofore had confined
his preaching to individual Indians or to small groups kindly disposed
to the new way.

The conversion of Towanquatick, a nobleman, was the cause of
much encouragement to the missionary for, on the Vineyard as else
where, the native ruling class was jealous of the influence of the new
religion that threatened to wreck their power over a tribute paying
peasantry. The introduction of Christianity among the Indians had
the tendency to mitigate the arbitrary rule and oppression of the
sachems. The humble Indian learned from the white man something
of the laws of natural right. He was content no longer to live in a
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

generally he spent more time after sermon in reasoning with them than
in sermon; whereby I must tell my reader, it came to pass that their
religion was as well in head as heart."

It had been Mayhew's intent to give the Indians a meeting in per
son once a month, but after the first meeting the Indians, thirsting for
knowledge, desired that he preach to them oftener than he could well
attend, so he determined to give them audience once a fortnight, and
upon other occasions that they should be attended by Hiacoomes.

To these lectures came men, women, and children. The mission
ary would open services with a prayer, then he would preach, catechize,
and close by singing a psalm, all in their own language.

The missionary, continues Matthew Mayhew, "is incessant" in his
labor, "he spares not his body by night nor day; lodges in their houses,
proposes such things to their consideration he thinks firstly requisite,
solves all their scruples and objections, and tells them they might
plainly see, it was in good will for their good, from whom he expected
no reward; that he sustained so much loss of time, and endur'd wet and
cold.''

Says another writer: "His talent lay in a sweet affable way of
conversation" that won the affections of his wild converts.

"He treats them in a condescending and friendly manner. He
denies himself, and does his utmost to oblige and help them. He takes
all occasions to show the sincere and tender love and goodwill he bore
them; and as he grows in their acquaintance and affection, he proceeds
to express his great concern and pity for their im.mortal souls. He
tells them of their deplorable condition under the power of malicious
devils, who not only kept them in ignorance of those earthly good
things which might render their lives in this world much more com
fortable, but also of those which might bring them to eternal happiness
in the world to come-what a kind and mighty god the English serve,
and how the Indians might come into his favor and protection."

Numerous obstacles, however, impeded the progress of the mission.
Many of the Indians objected to the new religion saying that their own
meetings, ways, and customs associated with dance and song, incanta
tions and gymnastics w re to them more advantageous and agreeable
than the sober ritual of the English, who had nothing to offer but "talk
ing and praying." Others feared the sagamores, who generally were
against the new way. There were three things that the Indians gen-

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

erally inquired into. They wanted to know what earthly riches they
would get by becoming Christians; how the sagamores and rulers
would look at it; and what the powwows would do. Greatest of all
was the fear of the anger of the powwows who bewitched enemies and
unbelievers. This was the strongest cord that bound the Indian to
to the old order.

The powwows by their diabolical sorceries kept the Indian in a
slavish state of fear and subjection. In many places and in many
tongues, earthly priests have professed strange powers from above
over the destination of man's soul in its eternal flight.

We are glad to learn that the persecution of heretics is not an
attribute of Christianity alone, for we are told that the sagamore
Towanquatick was exceedingly maligned by the powwows for his devia
tion from the Indian faith and that "in 1647 his Life was villainously
attempted for his favouring the Christian Religion: but his great
Deliverance . . . . inflamed him with the more active Zeal to espouse
and assert it."

This incident was reported by Thomas Mayhew, Jr., in these
words:

We had not long continued the meeting, but the Sagamore Towan
quatick met with a sad tryal, for he being at a Weare where some
Indians were a fishing, where also was an English man, as he lay
along upon a matt on the ground asleep, by a little light fire, the night
being very dark, an Indian came down, as being ready fitted for the
purpose, and being about six or eight paces from him, let flie a broad
headed arrow, purposing by all probability to drench the deadly arrow
in his heart blood, but the Lord prevented it; for notwithstanding all
the advantages he had, instead of the heart he hit the eye-brow, which
like a brow of steele turned the point of the arrow, which, glancing
away, slit the top of his nose to the bottome. A great stirre there was
presently, the Sagamore sate up, and bled much, but was not much
hurt through the mercy of God; the darknesse of the night hid the
murtherer, and he is not discovered to this day. The next morning I
went to see the Sagamore, and I found him praising God for his great
deliverance, both himself and all the Indians, wondering that he was
yet alive. The cause of his being shot, as the Indians said, was for
his walking with the English; and it is also conceived, both by them
and us that his forwardnesse for the meeting was one thing, which
(with the experience I have had of him since) gives me matter of
strong perswasion that he beares in his brow the markes of the Lord
Jesus.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Another Indian had news "often brought to him that his life was
laid in wait for, by those that would surely take it from him, they
desired him therefore with speed to turn back again; The man came to
me [Thomas Mayhew, Jr.] once or twice, and I perceived that he was
troubled, he asked my counsel about removing his Habitation, yet told
me, That if they should stand with a sharp weapon against his breast,
and tell him that they would kill him presently, if he did not turn to
them, but if he would, they would love him, yet he had rather lose his
life than keep it on such terms; for (said he) when I look back on my
life as it was before I did pray to God, I see it to be wholly naught,
and do wholly dislike it, and hate those naughty waies; but when I
look on that way which God doth teach me in his Word, I see it to be
wholly good; and do wholly love it."

"Blessed be God that he is not overcome by these temptations,"
concludes Mayhew.

Christian meetings went on "to the Joy of some Indians, and the
Envy of the rest, who derided and scoffed at those who attended the
Lecture, and blasphemed the God whom they worshipped."

In the year 1648 was held a great convention. At this meet
ing there was in attendance a "Mixed Multitude, both of Infidel and
Christian Indians, and those who were in doubt of Christianity."

In this Assembly the dreadful Power of the Pawaws was publickly
debated, many asserting their Power to hurt and kill, and alledging
numerous instances that were evident and undoubted among them: and
then some asking aloud, Who is there that does not fear them? Others
reply' d, There is not a man that does not.

Now it was that Hiacoomes rose to his feet and facing the great
concourse, defied the Indian gods, challenging, "tho the Pawaws might
hurt those that feared them, yet he believed and trusted in the GREAT
GOD of Heaven and Earth, and therefore all the Pawaws could do him
no Harm, and he feared them not."

The awed multitude gazed upon the speaker, awaiting the wrath of
thirty-seven gods to descend. Minutes passed, but nothing came. At
which the Indians "exceedingly wondered," and observing that Hia
coomes remained unhurt, began to esteem him happy in being delivered
from the terrible power of the powwows.

In casting aside the prejudies of yesterday for the light of a new
day, the lowly Hiacoomes in his speech reached heights attained by few

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

men. The episode of Hiacoomes braving the time honored supersti
tions of his race and defying the beliefs of generations in demons and
spirits that struck anathema to unbelievers is worthy the poet's song.

One wonders, with material of this sort upon which to draw, that
the cherry tree traditions of our country could have so long endured.

The spell of the powwows weakened, several of the assembly took
courage to profess that they too now believed in the white man's God
and would fear the powwows no more. They desired Hiacoomes to
tell them what this great God would have them do, and what were the
things that offended him. Hiacoomes responded promptly with a list
of forty-five or fifty sorts of sins committed by the Indians, "and as
many contrary Duties neglected"-or sins of omission-which so
"amazed" and touched their consciences that by the end of the meeting
twenty-two novitiates were added to the number of converts, among
whom was Momonequem, a son of one of the principal Indians, who in
after time became a preacher.

In this connection it is of interest to note that many of the most
persevering converts were young men of good family whose minds had
not been hardened by precedence.

Momonequem was one such convert. It was he who in r 65 I accom
panied the Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Jr., to Boston, where he was inter
viewed by the celebrated Rev.John Wilson, pastor of the First Church
in that town, by whom he is described as "a grave and solemn Man,
with whom I had serious discourse, Mr .. M ahewe being present as
Interpreter between us, who is a great proficient both in knowledge and
utterance, and love, and practice of the things of Christ, and of Reli
gion, much honoured and reverenced, and attended by the rest of the
Indians there, who are solemnly Covenanted together, I know not how
many, but between thirty or forty at the least."

Mayhew tells us that when Momonequem's wife was suffering
three days in travail, Momonequem refused the "Help of a Pawwaw
who lived within two Bow-shot of his door," but waited "patiently on
God till they obtained a merciful Deliverance by Prayer." It is not
known what Momonequem's wife thought of this exemplification of
faith without works, but probably it did not matter as women were of
no great importance in the seventeenth century, particularly among
the Indians.

When reports of Hiacoomes' defiance of the powwows reached
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

them, the entire island priesthood became greatly enraged. The
gauntlet which had been cast at them was accepted, and they threatened
the utter destruction of Hiacoomes.

A powwow, very angry and loud, broke in upon a meeting one
Sunday, where Hiacoomes was preaching, and challenged the converts
with the taunt: "I know all the meeting Indians are liars; you say
you don't care for the Pawwaws." Then calling two or three of them
by name, he railed at them, and told them they were deceived, for the
powwows could kill all the Praying Indians if they set about it.

Hiacoomes retorted that he put all the powwows under his heel,
pointing to it; that he could stand in the midst of all the powwows on
the island with safety and without fear, and they could do him no harm
for he would remember Jehovah.

For a considerable time Hiacoomes was the especial object of the
sorceries of the powwows. Every trick of their craft was used by them
in their effort to disable him, but to no avail. Hiacoomes was immune
to the psychological bugaboos of the pagan priests, one of whom later
confessed in public of having often employed his god, who appeared
unto him in the form of a snake, to kill, wound, or lame Hiacoomes.
His efforts proving ineffectual, he began to seriously consider Hia
coomes' assertion that the Christian God was greater than the gods he
served, and in time resolved to worship the Englishman's God with
Hiacoomes.

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CHAPTER X

THE FOREST PAUL-- (PART II)

The Rev. Thomas Mayhew was quick to improve the advantage
offered by the downfall of the powwows. He increased his ministra
tions, sparing neither health nor fatigue as he traveled many times
about the island by foot to preach at various Indian villages.

In smoky wigwams at night, by the flickering light of a tent fire,
he would relate to a throng of primitive children the ancient stories of
the Bible; the birth of Christ in a manger in far off Bethlehem, the
ascent to the mount of Calvary, the sacrifice that purged man of his
sins and gave him everlasting life.

And the Indians listened in wonder, and only when the night was
far gone and the fire had burned itself into bright red bits of log and
smoldering timber, and the cold, damp air of morning had pressed in
upon their consciousness, would the assembly break up; the listeners
in little knots stealing forth in the darkness to their hovels, speaking
to each other in lowered voices of the white man's God and the amaz
ing tales they had heard.

The labors of Thomas Mayhew, Jr., on the Vineyard and John
Eliot on the continent now began to attract the attention of persons of
wealth in England, who were encouraged to advance money for the
propagation of the gospel among the Indians. Interest abroad had
been aroused by letters written by the missionaries describing the
nature and progress of their work. The first letter written by May
hew was dated November 18, 1647, and was published in London in
1649, in a tract entitled "Glorious Progress of the Gospel."*

Matthew Mayhew refers to this quickening of English philan
thropy: "Thus Mr. 11,fayhew continu'd his almost inexpressible labour
and viligant care for the good of the Indians, whom he justly esteemed
his joy and crown: and having seen so great a blessing on his faithful
endeavours in the making known the name of his Lord among these
Gentiles, with indefatigable pains, expecting no reward but alone from
him, who said, go teach all nations: lo, I am with you: God moved the

*Other letters appear in "The Light Appearing," etc., pub. 1651;
"Strength Out of Weaknesse," etc., pub.. 1652; and "Tears of Repentance,"
etc., pub. 1653.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

hearts of some godly Christians in England to advance a considerable
sum for encouraging the propagating and preaching the gospel to the
Indians of New England."

At first these contributions were individual in character, but as
reports continued to show satisfactory results, the patrons of the work
decided that it would be wiser to unite their efforts and so there was
passed by the Long Parliament, July 27, 1649, an act establishing a
corporation for the propagation of the gospel in New England, consist
ing of a president, treasurer, and fourteen assistants, called "the Presi
dent and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England."
By direction of Oliver Cromwell a general fund amounting to
thousands of pounds was raised throughout England and Wales for the
benefit of this corporation, and invested in real estate. The corpora
tion had the distinction of being the only Protestant missionary society
in the world.

Supervision of the society's work in New England was intrusted to
the Commissioners of the United Colonies, who agreed to act as local
agents for the corporation in the management of its affairs and in the
distribution of its funds.

The work of Thomas Mayhew, Jr., came under the patronage of
this society some time before 1654, largely through the intervention
of the Rev. Henry Whitfield.

About the end of the summer of 1650 this gentleman, who was
pastor of the church at Guilford, Connecticut, while on a voyage to
Boston in order to take passage to England, was obliged to put in at
the Vineyard, by reason of contrary winds. "There he tells us he
found a small Plantation, and an English Church gathered, whereof
this Mr. 1\1ayhew was Pastor; that he had attained a good Under
standing in the Indian Tongue, could speak it well, and had laid the
first Foundations of the Knowledge of CHRIST among the Natives
there, by preaching, &c.''

Mr. Whitfield spent ten days on the island. His writings preserve
an excellent account of Thomas Mayhew's mission. He spoke with
Hiacoomes, Mr. Mayhew acting as interpreter, unto all of which Hia
coomes gave him "a very good satisfactory and Christian answer." He
attended the young missionary to a private Indian meeting where one
young Indian, he reports, prayed a quarter of an hour, and the next
day to the Indian lecture, where Thomas Mayhew, Jr., preached and
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

then catechized the Indian children, who answered "readily and mod
estly in the Principles of Religion; some of them answered in the
English and some in the Indian tongue."

Says Whitfield:

Thus having seen a short model of his way, and of the paines he
took, I made some inquiry about Mr. Mahu himself, and about his
subsistance, because I saw but small and slender appearance of outward
conveniences of life, in any comfortable way; the man himself was
modest, and I could get but little from him; but after, I understood
from others how short things went with him, and how he was many
times forced to labour with his own hands, having a wife and three
small children which depended upon him, to provide necessaries for
them; having not halfe so much yeerly coming in, in a settled way, as
an ordinary labourer gets there amongst them. Yet he is chearfull
amidst these straits, and none hear him to complain. The truth is, he
will not leave the work, in which his heart is engaged; for upon my
knowledge, if he would have left the work, and imployed himself
otherwhere, he might have had a more competent and comfortable
maintenance.

So labored Thomas Mayhew, Jr., co-proprietary of sixteen islands,
and son of an English governor. He could easily have overcome his
slender subsistence had he directed his talents to the buying and selling
and farming of great tracts of land. But had he done so his name
would not today be reverenced. He would have been only another
large planter or prosperous business an, honored in life and unsung in
death.

He had been in correspondence abroad for a number of years, yet
his modesty forbade his mentioning his own circumstances. Thus it
was that the English merchants who had been so liberal with money
for the Indians had overlooked the missionary who was plowing in the
Vineyard of God and who had established the first English mission to
the Indians of America.†

Thomas Mayhew, Jr., knew not the slogan "it pays to advertise."
He made no effort to "educate" the public in what he was doing. He
did not spend thousands of dollars in advertising before he had con
verted a single Indian. He had no chest, no campaign manager, no
staff of two-minute speakers dignified with military rank-colonels,

† During the stay of the colonists at Roanoke in Virginia, Thomas
Heriot, the scientist and philosopher, propounded the Bible to the Indians.
Manteo in 1587 and later Pocahontas became Christians. A permanent
mission appears not to have been conducted.
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majors, and captains-he held no luncheons, but he did convert Indians,
which was his goal, and for which task he conserved all his talents and
energy.

His methods were not businesslike, they lacked organization, but
they were lovable. They can be appreciated even by gentlemen dedi
cated to the task of picturing Jesus Christ as a salesman "selling"
Christianity, or George Washington as America's great realtor because
he bought and sold land on a large scale.

We shall make no effort to popularize Thomas Mayhew, Jr., as an
American business man, because he was not. He suffered financially as
a consequence, yet in time his merits came to be known. The Apostle
Eliot heard of him and encouraged him to continue his work notwith
standing its many discouragements. He wrote to England mentioning
the Vineyard clergyman as a young beginner who was in extreme want
of books, and begged aid for him. It was books that Eliot thought
the missionary was in need of, for he knew nothing of his financial
straits. It remained for Whitfield to ferret out the facts.

In the year that Whitfield published his book, "The Light Appear
ing," the commissioners of the United Colonies wrote Mayhew as fol
lows, evidently upon orders of the society in England:

NEW-HAVEN Sep: 12: 1651.

SIR:-- We have heard of the blessing God hath bestowed on youer
labours in the Gospel amongst the poore Indians and desire with thank
fulness to take notice of the same, and from the appearance of these
first fruits to bee stirred up to seeke unto and waite upon the lord of
the harvist that hee would send more labourers with the former and
latter showers of his sperit that good corn may abundantly Spring up
and this barren Wildernes become a frutfull feild yea the garden
of God: and that wee might not bee wanting in the trust commit
ted to us for the furtherance and incoragement of this work wee
thought good to let you understand ther is paid by the Corporacon in
London £30 for part of Mr Gennors librarye and as they informe us
a Catalogue of the bookes sent over ( which is for youer encorage
ment) . Wee hope you have Received of els desire you would looke
after them from Mr. Eliott, or any other that may have them: or if
ther bee any eror wee desire to heare itt: there are some houes and
hatchetts sent over for the _Indians encorragement of which youer
Indians may have pt 1f you thmk meet, and bee pleased to give them a
note to Mr Rawson of Boston of what shalbe needful for their use
especially those that may bee most willing to laboure: wee alsoe are

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

informed there is an £100 given by some of Exeter towards this worke
of which some pt to youer selfe, but know not the quantitie: wee
should bee glad to heare how the work of God goes on amongst them
with you that soe wee might enforme the Corporation in England, and
have our harts more inlarged to God for them, soe with our best
Respects wee Rest

As far as can now be ascertained, this was the first remuneration
received by Thomas Mayhew, Jr., in the eight years of his service as
an Indian missionary. It had taken the English philanthropists and
the commissioners of the United Colonies a long time to discover the
unassuming missionary on the lonely island.

Prospects were now brighter for the successful maintenance of the
mission than ever before. In a letter addressed to Whitfield, dated
"Great Harbour, uppon the Vineyard, October 16th, I 65 I," the mis
sionary describes the progress of his work at this time:

And now through the mercy of God [ writes he] there are an hun
dred and ninetie nine men women and children that have professed
themselves to be worshippers of the great and ever living God. There
are now two meetings kept every Lord's day, the one three miles, the
other about eight miles off my house Hiacoomes teacheth twice a day
at the nearest and Mumanequem accordingly at the farthest; the last
day of the week they come unto me to be informed touching the sub
ject they are to handle.

This winter I intend, if the Lord will, to set up a school to teach
the Indians to read, viz. the children, and also any young men that are
willing to learne.

Shortly after the departure of Mr. Whitfield from the island there
happened a thing "which amazed the whole island" and which greatly
accelerated the progress of the new religion. At a public meeting of
converts two powwows came forward and asked the privilege of join
ing in membership with the Praying Indians that they might "travel in
the ways of that God whose name is Jehovah." They revealed and
denounced the "diabolical mysteries" of their craft, and professing
repentance, entreated God to have mercy on them for their sins and to
teach them His way.

One of them confessed that "at first he came to be a Pawwaw by
Diabolical Dreams, wherein he saw the Devill in the likenesse of four
living Creatures; one was like a man which he saw in the Ayre, and
this told him that he did know all things upon the Island, and what was

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

to be done; and this he said had its residence over his whole body.
Another was like a Crow, and did look out sharply to discover mis
chiefs coming towards him, and had its residence in his head. The
third was like to a Pidgeon, and had its place in his breast, and was very
cunning about any businesse. The fourth was like a Serpent, very sub
tile to doe mischiefe, and also to doe great cures, and these he said
were meer Devills, and such as he had trusted to for safety, and did
labour to rise up for the accomplishment of any thing in his diabolicall
craft, but now he saith, that he did desire that the Lord would free
him from them, and that he did repent in his heart, because of his sin.
"The other said his Conscience was much troubled for his sin, and
they both desired the Lord would teach them his wayes, have mercy
upon them, and pardon their sins, for Jesus Christ his sake."

It was "a great occasion of praising the Lord," concludes Mayhew,
"to see these poor naked sons of A dam, and slaves to the Devil from
their birth, to come toward the Lord as they did, with their joynts
shaking, and their bowels trembling, their spirits troubled, and their
voices with much fervency, uttering words of sore displeasure against
sin and Sa tan, which they had imbraced from their Childhood with so
much delight; accounting it also now their sin that they had not the
knowledge of God," and that they had served the devil, the great
enemy of both God and man, and had been so hurtful in their lives;
and yet being very thankful that, through the mercy of God, "they
had an opportunity to be delivered out of that dangerous condition."
We are told that the Praying Indians greatly rejoiced at this turn
of events, which indeed presaged a new era.

A convert about this time was Tequanonim, who was reputed "very
notorious." That he should forsake his old ways, his friends, and his
lucrative employment to follow the Christian faith was no small thing.
He admitted that before his conversion he had been possessed
"from the crowne of the head to the soal of the foot" with Pawwaw
nomas, or imps, not only in the shape of living creatures, as fowls,
fishes,· and creeping things, but brass, iron, and stone. His faith in the
efficacy of these things, living and inanimate, had been shaken by two
things; first, conversations he had held with Thomas Mayhew, Sr.,
who had taken occasion to discourse with him about the way of true
happiness; and second, the fact that when his squaw was ill, the more
he powwowed her, the sicker she became. He agreed that "since the
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Word of God hath been taught unto them in this place, the Pawwaws
have been much foiled in their devillish tasks, and that instead of cur
ing have rather killed many."

Following the conversion of Tequanonim there came pressing in
at one lecture about fifty Indian converts. The missionary observed
that the Indians generally came in families, the parents bringing their
children with them, saying: "I have brought my children, too; I
would have my children serve God with us; I desire that this son and
this daughter may worship Jehovah." And if they were old enough to
speak, their parents would have them say something to show their
willingness to serve the Lord.

The new religion now became so popular that it is reported that a
spy, sent by one of the powerful powwows of the island to the Indian
lecture to report to him what went on among the Praying Indians,
became a convert.

The first death among the "meeting Indians," as Thomas May
hew, Jr., was accustomed to call them, took away a child of Hiacoomes,
about five days old. Hiacoomes, secure in the faith of the new reli
gion, was able "to carry himself well in it, and so was his wife also;
and truly they gave an excellant example in this also, as they have in
other things; here were no black faces for it as the manner of the
Indians is, nor goods buried with it, nor hellish howlings over the dead,
but a patient resigning of it to him that gave it; There were some
English at the burial, and many Indians to whom I spake something of
the Resurrection, and as we were going away, one of the Indians told
me he was much refreshed in being freed from their old customes,
as also to hear of the Resurrection of good men and their children to
be with God."

In the spring of I 65 2 occurred a noteworthy event. In that year

the Christian Indians of their own accord asked the missionary that
they might have some method settled among them for the exercise of
order and discipline. They expressed a willingness to subject them
selves to such punishments as God had appointed for those who broke
His laws; and further requested that they might have men chosen
among them to act with the missionary and his father to encourage
those who "walked in an orderly manner," and to deal with those who
did not, according to the word of God.

A day was designated for fasting and prayer and the Indians were

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assembled by the missionary. A number of converts spoke and ten or
twelve prayed, not with a set form like children, but like men imbued
with a good measure of the knowledge of God, their own wants, and
the wants of others, with much affection, and many spiritual petitions
favoring of a heavenly mind, we are told.

The missionary drew up an "Excellant Covenant" in the Indian
language, which he read and made plain to the Indians, who with free
consent united in it, and promised to keep it faithfully.

The covenant was as follows:

Wee the distressed Indians of the Vineyard ( or Nope the Indian
name of the Island) That beyond all memory have been without the
True God, without a Teacher, and without a Law, the very Servants of
Sin and Satan, and without Peace, for God did justly vex us for our sins;
having lately through his mercy heard of the Name of the True God,
the Name of his Son Jesus Christ, with the holy Ghost the Comforter,
three Persons, but one most Glorious God, whose Name is JEHOVAH:
We do praise His Glorious Greatness, and in the sorrow of our hearts,
and shame of our faces, we do acknowledg and renounce our great and
many sins, that we and our Fathers have lived in, do run unto him for
mercy, and pardon for Christ Jesus sake; and we do this day through
the blessing of God upon us, and trusting to his gracious help, give up
our selves in this Covenant, Wee, our Wives, and Children, to serve
JEHOVAH: And we do this day chose JEHOVAH to be our God in
Christ Jesus, our Teacher, our Law-giver in his Word, our King, our
Judg, our Ruler by his Magistrates and Ministers; to fear God Him
self, and to trust in Him alone for Salvation, both of Soul and Body,
in this present Life, and the Everlasting Life to come, through his
mercy in Christ Jesus our Savior, and Redeemer, and by the might of his
Holy Spirit; to whom with the Father and Son, be all Glory ever
lasting. Amen.

In choosing rulers under this covenant, the Indians made choice
of such among them as were best approved for piety and most likely to
suppress wickedness.

This was the beginning of the Indian church at Martha's Vineyard,
which the senior Mayhew was to fully organize with Indian officers and
pastor eighteen years later. By the end of October there were 282
converts at Martha's Vineyard, not including children. Eight of these
had been powwows who had forsaken "their diabolical Craft, and
profitable Trade, as they held it, to turn into the ways of GOD."

Begun in obscurity, the work of the Vineyard mission was growing

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in attention. The pleas of Eliot, the publication of Mayhew's letter
of 1647 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the
publicity given the work by the Rev. Henry Whitfield, at length
brought recognition of a pecuniary character. When Thomas May
hew, Jr., became a salaried missionary of the English society is not
definitely known, but it would appear that it was not until 1654 that
such a relation was established. Irregular gratuities since the visit of
Whitfield had come from abroad. During the years of inception the
mission had been supported entirely from the private purse of the
Mayhews.

At the annual meeting of the commissioners of the United Colonies
held in September of 1654 it was voted to allow Thomas Mayhew, Jr.,
for his "pains and laboure this yeare the sume of forty pounds," and
for a schoolmaster to the Indians and other employees the sum of ten
pounds apiece per annum.        Added to this was a gift of ten pounds to
the missionary "to dispose to sicke weake and well deserving Indians."
      The commissioners also appropriated money for a meetinghouse
to be built for the Indians in response to a suggestion from Mayhew;
allowing for that purpose "the some of forty pounds, in Iron worke,
Nayles, Glasse and such other pay     expecting the Indians should
Improve theire labours to finish the same." A further allowance of
eight pounds was granted for a boat "for the safe passage of youer
selfe and Indians betwixt the Island and the mayne" land; it to be
"carefully preserved and Imployed onely for the service Intended, and
nott att the pleasure of the Indians Etc: upon other ocations."

Conditions had now radically changed. Instead of laboring upon
private financial resources inadequate to carry on the work and handi
capped by personal wants, Thomas Mayhew, Jr., was the recipient of
an annual salary from the society, quite excellent in the values of that
day and place. The grant of salary came after many years of unre
munerated service, so that in the fourteen years that he labored as a
missionary he received no more than an average yearly salary of eleven
pounds, besides books. From this should be deducted costs paid out of
his own pocket, and profits he could have amassed had he turned his
thoughts to the betterment of his personal fortune and not devoted so
much of his time to the duties of his calling.

In 1656 the commissioners raised his salary to fifty pounds, and
again allotments were made for assistants. At this time the name of

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Peter Folger appears on the pay roll of the society as .one "Imployed
by Mr. Mayhew." The staff included two Indian interpreters,
so-called, one of whom was Hiacoomes, a lay preacher.

In r 65 7, Thomas Mayhew, Sr., was voted ten pounds, the first
appearance of his name on the salary rolls of the society.

The status of the missionary's work at this period is summarized
by his son: "This worthy servant of the Lord continued his painful
labours among them until the year 1657 in which time God was pleas'd
to give such success to his faithful and unweary'd labour that many
hundred men and women were added to the church; such who might
truly be said to be holy in conversation, and for knowledge such who
needed not to be taught the first principles of religion; besides the
many hundred looser professors."

The Vineyard mission had been in existence fourteen years, and its
organization was well perfected. Its superintendent felt he could now
afford the time necessary for a short voyage to England, where matters
connected with the patrimony of his wife and her brother demanded
attention.

The merchant father of Mistress Mayhew and Thomas Paine had
died sometime before r 653, leaving estates at Whittlebury and Greens
Norton in Northamptonshire, one of which produced a revenue of
one hundred forty pounds a year, a rich inheritance. Thomas Paine's
mother, Mrs. Jane Mayhew, second wife of Governor Mayhew, had
gone to England in I 642 "to settle her son's Right" to these estates, at
which time a Sir William Bradshaw "challenged some interest during
his Ladyes life, yett none to the Inheritance." A jury at Greens Nor
ton found the true heirs to the land to be Thomas Paine, then under
age, and Thomas Mayhew, Jr., as husband of Jane Paine.

How much of this estate was ever realized is uncertain. As late
as 1646, and again in the following year, Thomas and Jane Mayhew
executed powers of attorney to Captain Robert Harding, of Boston, to
lease lands in Whittlebury. The distant residence of the Paine heirs
and the unsettled conditions of the time make it problematic whether
the full revenues of these properties ever found their way into the pos
session of their colonial claimants.

Thomas Mayhew, Jr., in 1656, had asked permission of the com
missioners to make the voyage, but they assuring him "that a worke of
higher consideration would suffer much by his soe long absence advised
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

him to send som other man." Permission, however, was granted the
following year, induced by the fact that one of the purposes of the
clergyman in making the trip was that he might give the English peo
ple a better idea of the progress of missionary work in America than he
could do by letter "and to pursue the most proper Measures for the
further Advancement of Religion among them."

In order to strikingly illustrate the progress of the gospel among
the Indians and the effect of education on them, the missionary resolved
to take with him one of his converts, a young native preacher who had
been brought up by him in his own house. Naturally the intended
departure of the missionary with one of their number aroused the
greatest interest and excitement o-f the Indians.

The missionary's own projected absence was mourned in advance
by his native flock, who could not easily bear his absence even so short
a distance as Boston before they longed for his return.

Before his embarkation, Thomas Mayhew, Jr., arranged a fare
well meeting with his native flock, and the legend is that he went to
the place of the most distant assembly, where was held a service of
worship and song, and where he gave his converts a parting precept to
be steadfast in his absence. His faithful followers, loathe to leave
him, followed him in his journey to the east end of the island, their
numbers increasing at each meeting place until they neared the spot on
the "Old Mill Path," since known in song and story as the "Place on
the Way-side," where had gathered hundreds of Indians in anticipa
tion of his return to meet with them. "Here a great combined service
was held, and the simple children of this flock heard their beloved shep
ard give a blessing to them and say the last sad farewells to them indi
vidually and as a congregation. It was a solemn occasion, long held in
memory by all who participated."

It was the last service for the Indians ever held by Thomas May

hew, Jr. Shortly after, he embarked for London. Says Daniel Gookin,
"in the month of November, Mr. Mayhew, the son, took shipping at
Boston, to pass for England, about some special concerns, intending to
return with the first opportunity; for he left his wife and children at
the Vineyard: and in truth his heart was very much in that work, to
my knowledge, I being well acquainted with him. He took his pas
sage for England in the best of two ships then bound for London,
whereof one James Garrett was master. The other ship whereof John

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Pierce was commander, I went passenger therein. . . . . Mr. Gar
rett's ship, which was about four hundred tons, had good accommoda
tions greater far than the other: and she had aboard her a very rich
lading of goods, but most especially of passengers, about fifty in num
ber; whereof divers of them were persons of great worth and virtue,
both men and women; especially Mr. Mayhew, Mr. Davis, Mr. Ince,
and Mr. Pelham, all scholars, and masters of arts, as I take it, most
of them."

The ship cleared from Boston and headed for Old England with
its "precious cargo," including Mr. Mayhew, his brother-in-law, and
Indian convert; never to be heard of again.

It is not known what disaster befell the youthful clergyman. Only
can it be said that his ship became long overdue, while her companion
ship reached its destination in safety. Weeks passed into months while
the clergy of England and the patrons of the Society for the Propaga
tion of the Gospel waited expectantly for the arrival of the renowned
missionary from the wilds of America with his Indian convert.

Hope in time gave way to fear. Word was returned to the Vine
yard that Master Garrett and his ship was missing.

It became common opinion on both sides of the .Atlantic that the
missionary would never again be seen. But the missionary's father, as
late as August of the following year, wrote: "I cannot yett give my
sonnes over." In his heart lingered hope that they had been captured
by pirates and held for ransom, or had perhaps been cast ashore upon
some strange land to return in after years, to the joy and amazement
of all their kin.

Anxiously the old man scanned the seas from the shore of his island
home for the ship that might bring news of his missing son and step
son. Prayers choked his throat as each succeeding vessel whose white
sails gladdened his weary eyes came to anchor in the harbor off his
house. But none of them brought the news he yearned. The hopes of
the old patriarch died at last. Thomas Mayhew, Jr., "the young
Christian warrior," was the first of hundreds of Vineyard sons to perish
at sea.

Whether he died in some great ocean cataclysm, whether storm or
iceburg struck his ship and foundered it, or whether it was boarded and
captured by the crew of some pirate vessel and its passengers put to the
sword, while its sister ship raced on ahead out of sight and sound, will
never be known.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Contemporary writers refer to the loss of Thomas Mayhew, Jr.,
with sorrowing words. His fellow-worker, John Eliot, in a letter pub
lished in London, penned the touching plaint, saying simply: "The
Lord has given us this amazing blow, to take away my Brother May
hew." The commissioners of the United Colonies referred to his
death as a loss "which att present seemeth to be almost Irrepairable."
Morton, in "New England's Memorial," says: "Amongst many
considerable passengers there went Mr. Thomas Mayhew, jun., of
Martin's Vineyard, who was a very precious man. He was well
skilled, and had attained to a great proficiency in the Indian language,
and had a great propensity upon his spirit to promote God's glory in
their conversion; whose labors God blessed for the doing of much
good amongst them; in which respect he was very much missed
amongst them, as also in reference unto the preaching of God's word
amongst the English there .... the loss of him was very great."

The "Place on the Way-side" became to the Indian a hallowed
spot. In their thoughts it was associated as the place where last they
had seen their lost shepherd, and it is stated that the ground where he
stood "was for all that Generation remembered with sorrow." The
attachment of the converts was genuine, for we are told that "for many
Years after his departure, he was seldom named without Tears."

It is a part of the legendary lore of this spot that as the Indians
saw the form of their beloved teacher vanish into distance, and ere
they themselves turned their heavy hearts homeward, they piled by the
side of the trail a little heap of stones in remembrance of the place
where they had parted with their leader with embraces and prayers,
and many tears, as Paul's converts did with him at Miletus, when they
"all wept sore and fell on his neck and kissed him."

To the Indian the ocean was a vast illimitable expanse whose
mysteries and restless solitudes embosomed indescribable dangers and
terrors. They feared the white man's sails, however wonderful, would
fail to waft back to them their staunch and gentle friend.

When in time these fears became realized, Indians passing the trail
dropped in memory a stone upon the sacred cairn, until in time it grew
into an imposing heap, tribute to the scholar who had deigned to teach
them the ways of the English and their God.

There by the wayside, the rude monument, more eloquent than the
greatest cathedral built on blood and conquest, stood until the storms

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

and winds of after generations and browsing herds gradually disman
tled and overthrew it.

At the place of this historic scene, on July 27, 1901, the Martha's
Vineyard Chapter of Edgartown, Daughters of the American Revolu
tion, dedicated a bronze tablet, set in a large boulder, placed on top of
the stones. "The boulder was brought from Gay Head by descendants
of the 'poor and beloved' natives, who raised the foundations when
passing by in generations since."

The tablet bears the following inscription:

THIS ROCK MARKS THE "PLACE ON THE WAYSIDE"
WHERE THE

REV. THOMAS MAYHEW, JR.,
SON OF GOV. MAYHEW,

FIRST PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD,
AND THE FIRST MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS OF NEW

ENGLAND,

SOLEMNLY AND AFFECTIONATELY TOOK LEAVE OF THE INDIANS,
WHO, IN LARGE NUMBERS, HAD FOLLOWED HIM DOWN

FROM THE WESTERN PART OF THE ISLAND,

BEING HIS LAST WORSHIP AND INTERVIEW WITH THEM
BEFORE EMBARKING FOR ENGLAND IN 1657,

FROM WHENCE HE NEVER RETURNED

NC TIDINGS EVER COMING FROM THE SHIP OR ITS PASSENGERS.
IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF HIM

               THOSE INDIANS RAISED THIS PILE OF STONE, 1657-1901
                      ERECTED BY THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD CHAPTER,
                       DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

THE LAND GIVEN FOR THIS PURPOSE BY
CAPTAIN BENJAMIN COFFIN CROMWELL, OF TISBURY;

THE BOULDER BROUGHT FROM GAY HEAD, A GIFT
FROM THE RESIDENT INDIANS.

TABLET PURCHASED WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MAYHEW'S
DESCENDANTS.

The ceremonies at the unveiling of the memorial were closed by
greetings from an Indian deacon of the church at Gay Head.

Mr. Prince, writing in 1727, states that he himself had seen the
rock on descending ground upon which the missionary sometimes used
to stand and preach to the great numbers crowding to hear him: and
that the place on the wayside where he solemnly and affectionately took
his leave of that poor and beloved people of his was for all that genera
tion remembered with sorrow.

So ended the labors of the Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Jr., America's

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CHAPTER XI

THE PATRIARCH

When the senior Thomas Mayhew made his first visit to the Vine
yard in an attempt to secure an Indian deed to the territory, he is
thought to have brought with him an interpreter from the mainland.
He soon perceived the practical value of a personal knowledge of the
native tongue and the benefits that would flow from an understanding
of the language in harmonizing relations between the races that were
to contend for a livelihood together. He wished for friendly rela
tions unstained by blood. He felt that an understanding of the Indian
tongue would do much to promote this. He knew that prejudice is
fostered by the sound of a strange tongue and the inability to grasp
the psychology of an alien mind.

Both father and son applied themselves to a study of the Indian
speech. The task was tedious and laborious. It was a disheartening
work that had to be mastered at the outset, before much else could be
done; a labor which discouraged many hearts less stout and deter
mined. Wood comments that the Indian language was hard to learn,
few of the English being able to speak any of it, or capable of the right
pronunciation. Jesuits returned to France unable to master its sounds,
and Father Ralle tells of his speech being ridiculed by Indians. The
Franciscans, of California, made no great attempt to learn the lan
gauge, but relied largely on interpreters.

The speech was a language which "delighted greatly" in com
pounding words. A word in its final state often presented a formidable
aspect. Cotton Mather jestingly remarks that the language must have
been growing ever since the confusion of Babel. To demonstrate its
uncivility in a striking way, he tells us that demons of the invisible
world, who could master Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, were utterly
baffled by the Algonquin tongue.

The Indian language was a tongue the learning of which offered
little enrichment to the student who had toilsomely floundered through
its labyrinths of parts of speech. It had no literature worthy of the
name, no books, no great saga to offer as a reward to the philologist
who would master its intricacies; only a few folk stories surpassed by
the Greeks centuries before.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Worst of all there was no aid by which the language could be
learned, no grammar, no written specimens from which word sounds
could be studied, for the language was an unwritten one. The sole
mode of procedure open to one who sought to learn it was to strain
one's ears in an effort to catch its sense in fragmentary bits from Indian
companions, who knew little or no English.

The language was one which had no affinity with any European
tongue from which aid might be brought to bear. One who has mas
tered a foreign language under the most favorable circumstances can
appreciate the enormity of the task which confronted the English mis
sionary setting out upon his study.

Experience Mayhew, one of the great philologists of the Algon
quin dialect, cites a few examples of the compounding length of this
mystifying speech.

The English words, says he, "We did strongly Love one another,
may be but one word in Indian, viz, nummunnukkoowamonittimun
nonup: So, they strongly loved one another, is in Indian munnehk
wamontoopanek. These indeed are Long words, and well they may
considering how much they comprehend in them. However I will give
you an Instance of one considerably longer, viz: Nup-pahk-nuh-to-pe
pe-nau-wut-chut-chuh-quo-ka-neh-cha-nehcha-e-nin-nu-mun-nonok. Here
are 58 letters and 22 Syllables, if I do not miss count ym. The English
of this long word is, Our well skilled Looking Glass makers. But after
the reading of so long a word you had need be refreshed with some
that are shorter, and have a great deal in a litle room, I will therefore
mention some such, as Nookoosh, I have a Father. N oasis, I have a
grandchild. Wamontek, Love ye one another."

The Jesuit Ralle found that to acquire a stock of words and phrases
was of little avail. It was necessary to become acquainted with the
idiomatic turns and arrangements of expression, which could be learned
only by familiar intercourse with the natives day by day. It required
close application to catch from their lips the peculiarities of their
speech, to distinguish the several combinations of sound and to per
ceive the meaning they were intended to convey.

Eliot, in learning the language, hired a "pregnant witted" young
man who "pretty well" understood English and well understood his
own language. He then applied himself with great patience to the
method substantially affected by Ralle, of noting carefully the dif-

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

ference between the Indian and English modes of constructing words.
Having a clue to this, he pursued every noun and verb he could think of
through all possible variations. In this way he arrived at rules which
he was able to apply for himself in a general manner.

The methods of these students were the methods applied to the
task by the Mayhews. Indeed, there was no other way.

Thomas Mayhew early observed that the Indian princes on the
islands, although they maintained their absolute power and jurisdic
tion as kings, were yet bound to do certain homage to higher lords on
the continent. "They were no great people" in number, says Matthew
Mayhew, yet they had been wasted by wars "wherein the great princes
of the continent ( not unlike European princes for like reasons of
state) were not unassisting." In order to win the favor of these
greater kings on the mainland "the balance to decide their controver
sies" and to render them assistance as occasion required, the island
sachems were impelled to do them homage and to make them annual
presents. The island sachems were, therefore, jealous of any effort
on the part of the English that would still further limit their influence.
They feared that the missionary activities of the younger Mayhew
would result in the detachment of their subjects from their authority.
Observing this, the senior Mayhew "judg'd it meet that Moses and
Aaron joyn hands," the legislator and the priest. He, therefore, pru
dently let the sachems know that he was to govern the English which
should inhabit the islands, "that his master was in power far above any
of the / ndian monarchs; but that, as he was powerful, so was he a
great lover of justice: that therefore he would in no measure invade
their jurisdictions; but on the contrary, assist them as need requir's:
that religion and government were distinct things. Thus in no long
time they conceived no ill opinion of the Christian religion," and the
presence of the English.

Thomas Mayhew avoided the error committed elsewhere by offi
cials who, impressed by stories of native splendor in India, at first
treated the American chiefs as kings and princes of European rank.
He was not thereafter obliged to humor occasional affectations of royal
dignity which, coupled with the red man's natural arrogance, made him
difficult to handle. The Indian was best controlled by a display of dig
nity and great solemnity, coupled with a firm resoluteness of innate
(but not ornate) superiority.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

In the work of harmonizing relations between the races and in an
understanding of Indian psychology, Thomas Mayhew is without peer.
Roger Williams is not his equal, nor William Penn. Williams admit
ted his inability to civilize the Indian, and did not even try. Neither
soared to the heights touched by Mayhew in tutoring the undeveloped
mind of the aborigine in the art of self-government.

Mayhew's feat of establishing Indian courts and churches and a
military company among them, presided over by Indian judges and
clergymen and commanded by Indian officers, should be an epoch in
American history. Trial by jury was not the least of his triumphs
among a people long accustomed to arbitrary and autocratic govern
ment. The elder Mayhew was not a translator of the Indian tongue
like Eliot, but in the diplomatic and political aspects of Indian rela-
tions, he out-shone that great and worthy apostle to the Indian.

There can be little doubt but that the eider's work was greatly
facilitated by the appeal of both himself and son to the spiritual side
of the Indian. The white man's religion exercised a strong fascination
upon the Indian's mind. Christianity was a religion better far than
his own. What it lacked in number of gods, it over-balanced with
stories of prophets and warriors who reminded the Indian of his own
men reputedly wise in council and mighty in battle.

Certain it is the early labors of the younger Mayhew had a large
practical value. His teachings proved of immeasurable benefit to the
settlers in the earlier days of the plantation and in later years when
King Philip stirred the Indians of New England into a war of
attempted extirpation.

In his administration as patentee and governor, Thomas Mayhew,
Sr., was ready always to hear and redress native grievances. This he
made pains to do upon first complaint to prevent ill impression from
getting into the Indian mind that the English were favored at law.
Whenever he had occasion to decide a cause between parties of the
opposing races, he not only gave the Indian equal justice with the
English, but took care to convince and satisfy the Indian suppliant that
what he determined was right and equal.

In this way he gave the red men so fair an example of the happi
ness of his administration as to fill them with a strong desire to adopt
the same form for themselves. Far from introducing any form of gov
ernment among them against their will, he first convinced them of the

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

advantage of it, and then brought them to desire him to introduce and
settle it.

Thomas Mayhew had early inculcated in the native the theory that

"religion and government were distinct things," that while some of
the Indians might embrace the white man's god, they still remained
subjects of the local sachems; but as the Indians in increasing numbers
adopted the new religion they sought also submission to the English
government.

By the prestige which he had attained among them, and by his

diplomacy, he was able to persuade the native rules to allow the Pray
ing Indians a limited form of self-government, but wisely he recognized
the authority of the sachems under Indian custom and made no
endeavor to entirely substitute English authority for that so long
established. He suggested that the sachems admit the counsel of
judicious Christian Indians among themselves, and in cases of more
than ordinary consequence to erect a jury for trial, promising his own
assistance to the Indian princes, whose assent was always to be
obtained, though they were not Christians.

To this suggestion he was in time able to secure the accord of
Indian sachems. "The Indians admired and loved him as the most
superior person they had ever seen; and they esteemed themselves so
safe and happy in him that he could command them anything without
giving them uneasiness, they being satisfied that he did it because it
was most fit and proper, and that in due time it would appear to be so."
It did not take the patentee of Martha's Vineyard long to discover
that the project of civilizing the Indians was so closely related to reli
gion that the one could not prosper without the other. From his first
coming he had yearned to help the unfavored natives of the islands,
destitute of nearly all the arts of life, that they might no longer live in
fear of the witchery of powwows and the mental torment of evil spirits.
He wished to give them courage to break away from old superstitions
that harnessed their will power and smothered ambition, that they
might no longer live in "carnal" state in mean and filthy hovels, and
eke a livelihood from sea and soil that did not suffice. The problem
was one of economics, government, and religion, all intertangled so
that the unraveling of each thread was a delicate labor that led the
unraveler from one knot to another and from thread to thread. He
accordingly at an early date gave assistance to his son in missionary

work.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Gookin, who knew both Mayhews personally, writes:

The first instruments, that God pleased to use in this work at this
place, was Mr. Thomas Mayhew, and his eldest son, Mr. Thomas
Mayhew, junior. It pleased God strongly to incline the two good men,
both the father and the son, to learn the Indian tongue of that island:
and the minister especially was very ready in it; and the old man had
a very competent ability in it.

These two, especially the son, began to preach the gospel to the
Indians …. The good father, the governor, being always ready to
encourage and assist his son in that good work, not only upon the Vine
yard, but upon Nantucket isle, which is about twenty miles from it;
God's blessing in the success of their labours was and is very great.

Prior to the death of the younger Mayhew, the activities of the
father were deemed of sufficient importance to warrant the payment to
him of a salary by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In
later years Mayhew himself stated that he had always carried "the
greatest burthen" in the missionary work, even when his son was alive,
"hardly ever free."

In a letter to the commissioners, in 1678, he states that he had been
engaged in missionary work thirty-one years, which would carry the
entry of this work back to the year 1647, not long after Eliot's meeting
with the Indians on the mainland. Doubtless he had spoken of moral
and religious problems to individual natives prior to this date.

His place, both as patentee and chief-ruler, obliged him not only to
a frequent converse with the natives, but also to learn so much of their
language as was needful to understand and discourse with them. And
as he grew in this acquirement, his pious disposition and great pity for
that miserable people lead him to improve it in taking all proper occa
sions to tell them of their deplorable state, and to set them in the way
of deliverance.

His grave and majestic presence and superior station struck an awe
into their minds, and always raised their great attention to what he
spake.

The famous powwow, Tequanonim, a member of the native priest
hood, whose position gave him great power and influence, denounced
his profession and became a Christian as early as 1650, as heretofore
related, declaring that his conversion was chiefly owing to some things
he had heard from the elder Mayhew, who had taken occasion to dis
course with him about true happiness and religion, which he could
never forget.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Thus this pious gentleman concurred with his lovely son in his
endeavors to open the eyes of these wretched heathens, and turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

In Christianizing the Indian the economic element played a promi
nent part. It has been a precept with missionaries of the Christian
faith from the days of the mediaeval monks, who made their monas
teries schools of industry as well as· faith, that new occupations as well
as new doctrines are essential to the civilization of the heathen. The
outward life had to be changed as well as the inward life.

Civilization is builded upon the sustained toil of man. It was
early perceived by the missionaries that if the Indian was to cope on an
equal plane with the European, he must emerge from his lethargic
state of sleep and ease. He must earn by the sweat of his brow the
things that go to make a better material life. The spiritual life is
seldom found in flower where the material life is filled with sloth and
vermin.

So it was that the Christian Indian was taught to live as near as
practical the white man's life. It is said of the Praying Indians of
Massachusetts that they built for themselves better and more substan
tial homes [i. e., wigwams], fenced their grounds with ditches and
stone walls, and cultivated gardens. With equal truth may this be
applied to the Vineyard Indians. Th ir homes and gardens, being of
greater permanence, were naturally superior to those of their more
nomadic countrymen who wandered about with little pride of habi
tation.

It is said of Eliot's Indians that as they became better farmers and
more industrious, they commenced a traffic with their English neigh
bors, finding in winter a market for brooms, staves, eel-pots, baskets,
and turkeys; in summer whortleberries, grapes, and fish, and in the
spring and autumn strawberries, cranberries, and venison.

The Indian women were taught to spin and with the products of
their looms were able to buy, or exchange, conveniences of civilization.
Says one writer with little seriousness, "The hum of the spinning wheel
might have been heard in many a family, which had been familiar only
with the whoop."

Of course, in all things the missionaries were watched by a certain
element of their countrymen with criticising eyes.

Peter Oliver voices in print the popular concepts of those who scorn
the labors of missionaries. He alleges that the efforts of the mis-
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

sionaries were a failure and assigns this not only to the falsity of their
religion, as he contends, but also to that ignorant zeal which would turn
the hunting-paths of the Indian into streets and squares, and convert his
wigwams into houses. "To denationalize the red men at once was to
demoralize them," adds Oliver.

Nothing could more clearly demonstrate Oliver's colossal ignorance
of his subject than these statements. The one thing which Eliot and
the Mayhews did not do was to attempt to at once denationalize the
Indian. The Indian was repeatedly advised to pay his tribute to
Caesar, as the missionaries well knew a lapse upon his part to pay
tribute to his sachems would bring down upon their work the animosity
of the ruling classes. An attempt to compel the Indian to substitute
the English type of house for the native wigwam was not made, for
it was early realized that the English type of habitation would prove
too costly to the overwhelming majority of the Indians. The writings
of the missionaries refer repeatedly to Indian houses, but these were
mere wigwams; a careful distinction is made by them of Indian houses
and the "English house," which was the community center and church
building of English construction customarily found in every Indian
praying town of size.

But Oliver is fond of sweet flowing language and needs must con
tinue to display his sublime, albeit well worded, lack of information
upon a subject which has lured so many writers into ecstasies. Says he:
"To civilize these children of the forest, to teach them to dig and to
wear hats, and their women to spin and make bread, to exchange the
religion of nature for cold abstractions, was only to degrade them."
These are fantastic thoughts. To dig and spin could hardly degrade
one used largely to dog-like baskings in the sun any more than chopping
wood degrades a tramp.

A people who crack lice with their teeth are not degraded by hon

est toil, although the arrogant Indian Brave, proud almost solely in
the fact that he was of the male gender, may have so reasoned.

Thomas Mayhew, Sr., was sixty-four years of age when his son
set sail for England, in 1657, leaving the affairs of the Indian mission
to his care.

Involved with the government and material concerns of the island,
the father found the full responsibility of the missionary task a momen-

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CHAPTER XII

THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS

As late as April, I 65 8, the Society for the Propagation of the Gos
pel at London wrote the commissioners in America that Mr. Garrett's
ship is "yett mising." Its members had hoped for a report in person
from young Mayhew concerning the progress of his work, "but wee
feare that the ship wherin hee was is miscarryed which is noe smale
greife unto us and therfore wee desire if soe sad a Prouidence haue
befallen vs that a fitt and able pson might succeed him in carrying
on the Indian worke which wee leaue vnto youer selues."

In response the commissioners replied that "the losse of Mr Mahew
in relation to this worke is very great; and soe farr as for the present
wee can see irreperable; our thoughts haue bine of some and our
endeauors shalbee Improued to the vttermost to supply that place
which is the most considerable in that pte of the countrey his father
though ancient is, healpfull with an other English man [Folger ] and
two Indians that Instruct the rest vpon the Lords day and att other
times."

During the period of uncertainty and transition the thoughts of the
father turned to the appointment of a successor in the Vineyard mis
sion. As early as the fall of I 65 8 he addressed the commissioners of
the United Colonies with the suggestion that they urge either the Rev.
John Higginson or Rev. Abraham Pierson to take over the superin
tendency of the island mission. Even now, hope more than expectation
lingered that his son might yet return, for he later comments, "If my
sonne be gonne to heaven, I shall press very hard upon Mr. Higgin
son to come here, as I have written the commissioners."

In response to the prayers of the father, the commissioners assured
him that they would use every diligence to "make a supply as the Lord
may direct us," but confessed their inability to move either Mr. Hig
ginson or Mr. Pierson to take up the crook dropped by the Vineyard
shepherd "unless the Lord strongly sett in to pswade them."

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

That the Reverends Higginson and Pierson did not see fit to
bury themselves upon the Vineyard among the lowly Indian at a par
simonious wage was soon evident, and they were not ''pswaded."

Meanwhile the governor continued to carry the burden that should
have passed to the shoulders of a younger man. He was resolved that
the work commenced by his son should not be imperiled for want of
hearts stout enough to assume its burdens with nothing in sight "but
God's promises." Something of this he must have written to the com
missioners, as his old acquaintance, John Endicott, writing as president
of that body, addressed him September, 1658:

Youers of the 2 5 of the sixt month wee receiued and rejoyce that
it hath pleased god in any measure to beare vp youer hart and support
you vnder those sad thoughts and feares conserning youer son; wherin
wee can not but deeply sumpathise with you and Indeed doe mind it
as that which att the present seemeth to be almost Irrepairable; but
hee that is the lord of the haruist will ( wee hope) send forth his
labourers therunto; and you may assure youer selfe that wee will vse
all Diligence to make a supp [l]y as the lord may direct vs.

Duties as a missionary were labors, as we know, not strange to the
ageing chief magistrate. The Indians had found him a protector and
friend. His deportment and fair dealings had won their confidence
and approval. But the magistrate's advanced years and his numerous
administrative duties were drawbacks to a missionary career.

Mayhew came soon to the realization that help was not forthcom
ing. The commissioners, although professing diligence in persuading a
clergyman to settle upon the island, appeared fully satisfied that the
work should continue under his guidance, writing Mayhew that "wee
thinke that god doth call for youer more then ordinery Assistance in
this worke and are very well pleased that youer speritt is soe farr
Inclined thervnto; and desire you may pseuere therein."

The commissioners were potent leaders in the New England
colonies; their body including governors and ex-governors. As fiscal
agents of the English society they had been in correspondence with
Mayhew concerning Indian affairs and well knew his accomplishments.
They were satisfied with his ability to carry on successfully the work
that was so important to the peace and welfare of the colonies.

It was obvious that there was none in New England of the same
spirit as the younger Mayhew, who had spent his strength, yet had

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

rejoiced, in the midst of many "Aches, Pains and Distempers," con
tracted by lodging on hard mats in exposed wigwams. Thomas May
hew, Senior, "sees no Probability of obtaining so sufficient a Salary as
might invite a regular Minister to engage in the Indian Service; he has
little or no Hopes of finding any of the Spirit of his deceased Son, to
bear the Burden."

The sorrowing father concluded that the spirit and sacrifices of his

son had been "all of GOD, and not merely of Man: and when he looked
on the Indians, he could not bear to think that the Work so hopefully
begun, and so far advanced by his Son, should now expire with him
also." This and a compassion for the souls of a perishing people,
raised him above all "Ceremonies and petty Forms and Distinctions
that lay in the Way, and which he accounted as nothing in competition
with their eternal Salvation"; and so, although a governor, he was not
ashamed to become a preacher among them.

He alone of the colonial governors kept in person the covenant the
men of England made unto their King when he granted them New
World charters, that one of the principal ends of their going into
America was to carry the gospel of Christ to the native inhabitants.

The patentee of Martha's Vineyard was one of the founders of the
New World, in him was vested powers of government; owning vast
tracts of land upon numerous islands he was in the light of prevailing
standards a wealthy man. He might have spent the declining years of
his life on the laurels of the past; yet he was not content. The great
est years of his life lay before him, in his sixty-fifth year.

Having lost the comfort and devotion of an only son, he felt that
he could build no better memorial to the memory of the one departed
than to carry on the work which had lain closest to his heart. So the
Worshipful Thomas Mayhew, Esq., the sixth decade of his life half
out, came to a resolution to do what he could himself and entered upon
the arduous duties of the priesthood evangelistic.

He preached to some of the Indian assemblies one day every week s
o long as he lived, a period of twenty-five years, until the sands of
time had run their course in his eighty-ninth year. "And," says Prince,
"his Heart was so exceedingly engaged in the Service, that he spared
no Pains nor Fatigues, at so great an Age therein; sometimes travel
ling on Foot nigh twenty miles thro' the Woods, to preach and visit,

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THOMAS MAYHE\V, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

when there was no English House near to lodge at, in his absence
from home."

At the end of the first year the missionary writes, "I have through

mercye taught them this yeare, and doe still goe on, and the Lord hath
strengthened me much of late, beyond my expectation." The stout
heart still beat. And again, he writes, "I thought good to certifye you
that this ten yeares past I haue constantly stood ready to atend the
work of God here amongst the Indians. Verry much time I haue
spent, & made many journies, and beene at verry much trouble & cost
in my howse."

In his first year Mayhew was assisted by a staff of four workers.
These were Peter Folger, two Indian interpreters and schoolmasters,
and a Mrs. Bland "for healpfulnes in Phiscike and Chirurgery."

To Mayhew the commissioners, with no very great show of liberal
ity, granted a salary of twenty pounds for his "paines in teaching and
instructing the Indians this year." His assistant, Folger, received
twenty-five pounds.

Mayhew was not present at the annual meeting of the commission
ers, and they were not in a position to realize how completely the old
man had entered the work nor the extent of the duties performed by
him, preaching to some of their assemblies one day every week and
sometimes traveling on foot "nigh twenty Miles" in the performance
of his duties. The commisisoners doubtless believed that during this
period of adjustment, subsequent to the death of his son, the work of
the elder Mayhew had been more or less supervisory.

John Eliot, too, at one time had experienced difficulties with the
picayunish conduct of the commissioners. It is recorded that his com
plaints stirred both England and America, so much so that the presi
dent of the society wrote the commissioners that Eliot by his lamenta
tions which "flyeth like lightening" had cost the society some thousands
of pounds in gifts from philanthropic Englishmen who had become
doubtful of the society's integrity. In England the commissioners
were accused of hindering the progress of the Gospel by their failure
to allow competent maintenances to the Lord's "Instruments" employed
in his American vineyards.

The commissioners retorted with figures showing Eliot to be in
receipt of twenty pounds per annum from their funds besides money

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

given him from other sources in England and a salary of sixty pounds
per annum from his church. But the income, good as it was, did not
compensate him for his labors, especially as he was in the practice of
giving away much of his salary to needy Indians. The society defended
itself with the statement that it was far from justifying Mr. Eliot in
his "Turbulent and clamorous proceedings," but intreated the com
missioners to better encourage the work by the allowance of greater
disbursements.

Like Eliot, Thomas Mayhew was not satisfied with the honorarium
which so inadequately recompensed him for many hours of weary
labor, a situation aggravated by the fact that his income compared
unfavorably with that awarded others engaged in the same work.
He took steps to present to the commissioners a picture of what had
been accomplished by the island mission. He addressed a letter to
Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut [ one of the commissioners],
to explain something of conditions at Martha's Vineyard. He writes,
"I am sorry that the Commissioners did not send some trustye & con
siderable person to see how things are carried on here. Mr. Browne
of Seacunck, ere he went for England, wrote me he would com on
purpose to sattisfie himsellfe about these Indians, whoe had, as I per
ceiued, many doubts of these & all the rest."

The progress of the Vineyard mission was so astonishing that
stories of its successes were received at a discount by persons not hav
ing the cognizance of first hand information. Too, the settlement
of Martha's Vineyard at this time was no part of any greater colony,
and was without representation in the meetings of the United Colonies.
It may be supposed that the commissioners were inclined to spend the
money of the English society in accordance with economic principles
not yet dead among merchants and traders. They believed the money
should be spent at home. The commissioners from the rich and power
ful colony of Massachusetts dominated the deliberations of the con
ferences and were inclined to spend money more freely for missions
about Boston, than elsewhere.

Thomas Mayhew, Jr., had originated the work of evangelizing
the Indians. Not detracting one iota from the greatness of Eliot, it
cannot be gainsaid that Eliot had the overwhelming advantage of
laboring near a seat of population, where his activities and triumphs
were easily brought to the attention of wealthy and influential men.
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Great sums were given to his work; in comparison only pennies drib
bled into the coffers of the Vineyard mission. In l 65 8 less than
one-fifth of the entire sum of money spent by the society was appro
priated for Vineyard workers. From 165 5 to l 662, Eliot received
an annual salary of fifty pounds. Thomas Mayhew, Jr., who had
received nothing in the early years of his work, received in 1654 a sal
ary of forty pounds, a like sum in 165 5, and fifty pounds the year suc
ceeding. The elder Mayhew, who had helped commence the work
and who was now ably continuing its existence, was for the year 1657-
1658 paid a salary of twenty pounds compared with Eliot's fifty.

But the commissioners were good men and willing to encourage the
poor old gentleman. With the twenty pounds they conveyed the hope
that God would afford him strength who had given him a "hart" for
the great work.

However, the missionary-governor was not satisfied with divine aid
alone. He recalled the treatment his son had received. He com
pared the progress of the Vineyard natives with those elsewhere, and
the number of converts which was uniformly greater on the islands
than at any mission on the mainland, and determined to win justice for
his cause. As he expressed it, the main end of the society and the
money raised by it was "for the comfort of those that began it," but
these were not the ones liberally provided for. "Methinks," writes
Mayhew, "that which I haue had is verry little. Truely yf were now
to be hired to doe ass much yearely as I haue donne, thirtie pownds per
annum & more to would not doe it."

Not only were the salaries paid the Mayhews discriminatory, but
the moneys appropriated the Vineyard mission for the pay of assistants
and other purposes were less than allotments to the Eliot mission.

The financial administration of the society's funds did not pass
unnoticed. Samuel Maverick, one of the four commissioners appointed
by Charles II in 1664 to settle American problems, in a written descrip
tion of New England referred to the matt_er thus:

Almost South some what Westerly from Billingsgate is Natuckett
Island on which many Indians live and about ten leagues west from it
is Martines Vinyard, whereon many Indians live, and also English. In
this Island by Gods blissing on the Labour, care and paines of the two
Mayhews, father and sonn, the Indians are more civilized then any
where else which is a step to Christianity, and many of them have
attained to a greate measure of knowledge, and is hoped in a short

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

time some of them may with joy & Comfort be received into the Bos
some of the Church. The younger of those Mayhews was drowned
comeing for England three yeares since, and the Father goes on with
the worke, Although (as I understand) they have had a small share of
those vast sumes given for this use and purpose of the Revenues of it.
It were good to enquire how it hath been disposed of I know in some
measure or at least suspect the business hath not been rightly carryed.

The truth of the statement that the Indians of the islands were
"more civilized than anywhere else" is attested by the historian Hub
bard, a contemporary. Says he:

The greatest appearance of any saving work, and serious profes
sion of christianity amongst any of them, was at Martin's Vineyard,
which beginning in the year, I 645 hath gradually proceeded till this
present time, wherein all the i5land is in a manner leavened with the
profession of our religion, and hath taken up the practice of our man
ners in civil behaviour, and our manner of cultivating of the earth.

Elsewhere he refers to "The Cape Indians, upon Cape Cod and some
other islands neere adjoyning, as at Martin's Vineyard, where civility
and Christanity hath taken a deeper roote than in any other plantation
of the Indians."

Hubbard is wrong in setting the year I 645 as the date of the
beginning of missionary activity at Martha's Vineyard, but his state
ments in other respects are amply supported by the facts.

Edward Godfrey, governor of ·the Province of Maine, alludes to
the financial activities of the commissioners in an indictment against
the Massachusetts government. Says he, "I have endeavoured to
screw into the Great Benevolences that have been so publicly knowne
to propagate the Gospell in New England . . . . there is a snake in
the weeds." Justice requires the comment that Godfrey and Maverick
were unfriendly to Puritan Massachusetts. It is not believable that
the commissioners were guilty of anything worse than favoritism, and
sloth in making investigations.

In his letter to commissioner Winthrop, Mayhew concludes with
the hope that if he finds himself unable to attend the next meeting of
the commissioners "that the Commissioners of the Bay may haue some
power granted to consider with me, & determine what they shall see
good grounds for. . ... Yow may be pleased to tell the Commis
sioners that I say, & tis true, that I haue great neede to haue what
may be justly comminge to me for this work, to supply my wants."

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

The work done by Mayhew was a drain not only upon his bodily
strength, but upon his private purse.

It is not to be wondered that as he saw the outlays made to the
Indians of Massachusetts for books and spectacles and salaries of
assistants he was convinced that the work at the Vineyard was being
slighted so far even as to hinder its progress if in fact it did not jeop
ardize what had already been accomplished.

"Y f I had not seene my help had beene necessary & allso muche
desired," writes the missionary, "I woulld neuer haue followed affter
them [ the Indians J as I haue donne, I pray take it for graunted, but yf
such an imployment as myne amongst the Indians be not to be consid
ered, or verry litle, I hope I shall sattisfie my sellffe whether the call of
God by the Indians, which is still contynued by them verry lately
expressing themselves to that purpose."

With these words the old man placed the issue squarely before
the commissioners. If his work was valued so little by them that they
would not even investigate its progress so as to fix the amount proper
for its support, at least he could satisfy himself that the Indians con
tinued to desire his services in the call of God.

By this time he is convinced that there it "litle or no hopes of Mr.
Peirson" accepting the call of the Vineyard Church. But he still
hoped that a clergyman might be obtained to fill the pulpit of the Eng
lish church and perform the duties of a missionary to the natives:
"though he hath litle or noe Indian language, he will soon attaine it,
with the hellpes that are here now." Further, "I desire, yf it may be
a sollid man & a scholler for both works. Yf not, for the present the
Indians are comfortably supplied. Yf I should be taken by death, here
is hellpe that the Schoolemaster, who hath some languadge, and my
sonne Doggett that hath, I think, much more than any English man
vppon the Iland, and is a considerable youn [g] man."

With these words the sixty-five-year-old missionary-magistrate
planned the future of his Indians beyond his grave.

At this time he gives a picture of his methods. "I doe speake to
them sometimes about an howre. I ask sometimes where they vnder
stand; they say yes; and I know they doe, for in the generall I really
know they vnderstand me, but sometimes I doubt mysellfe, & then I
ask." Occasionally he uses the services of an interpreter who can
clearly make known "what I know my sellfe."

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Notwithstanding scanty revenues, the progress of the Vineyard
mission grew apace. At the next meeting of the commissioners, May
hew's salary was increased and the native staff of assistants doubled in
number. The commissioners continued to make amends and in the
following year their accounts show an island staff of ten teachers,
Mayhew, Folger, Hiacoomes ("An Indian Scoo[l]master and Teacher
of them on the Lords day"), and "seaven other Indian Teachers
comended to us by Mr. Mahew that are healpful in Teaching others."
There appears to have been a falling off in the need of "Phiscike and
Chirurgery." In neither year is there a record of any payment for
medical treatment.

The large number of native teachers utilized by Eliot and the
missionary-governor of Martha's Vineyard in their work is notice
able. Both leaders were advocates of a teaching method that made
use to a great extent of the services of Indian instructors. By this
use the missionaries were able to reach the psychology of the native,
so that religion would be to him something more than an outward
observance of rites, the significance of which he would be unacquainted
and which he would in time continue to heed only for profit or love
of his teachers. Profit, in a material way, there was little. Geo
graphic reasons forbade the mission stations from holding large and
fertile tracts of lands that could be farmed by the natives in communal
fashion, and gifts to the natives were few, beyond books, and salaries
to teachers. The Indian was converted by an appeal to the mind and
soul and it was hoped that he could be held in the same manner.

In furtherance of this hope John Eliot had undertaken the stag
gering task of translating the Bible into the Algonquin tongue. It was
thought that the Indian could be easier taught to read his own tongue,
and with better understanding, than English. A Catechism was printed
at Cambridge as early as 1653 or 1654. The New Testament in
Indian followed in 1661 and the Old Testament two years later.

Before the printing of these books the younger Thomas Mayhew
had opened a school for Indian children. We have the authority of
Prince that "quickly there came in about thirty Indian children; he
found them apt to learn; and more and more were coming every day."
A modern writer states that this school was the first Indian school
opened within the present confines of the United States. Eliot is
known to have given some of the funds received by him from England
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

to instructors for the purpose of teaching Indian children around Bos
ton, but there is no evidence that such tutoring was carried on in an
exclusive Indian school or that it was any more than occasional, as
appears the case.

After the death of the son the father continued the education of
the Indian children with the ambition that a number of the more prom
ising pupils might be given an opportunity to study at the grammar
school at Cambridge, and in time attend Harvard College.

The fathers of New England had founded Harvard College while
the country was a wilderness in order to maintain the supply of an edu
cated clergy. At this institution the missionaries hoped to train Indian
scholars to carry the gospel to their countrymen and to fill the pulpits
of Indian churches to be formed when the natives were far enough
advanced on the road to civilization.

As early as 1653 the society suggested that half a dozen "hope
full Indians" should be trained at the college under some fit tutor that,
preserving their own language, they might attain the knowledge of
other tongues and "disperse the Indian tonge in the college."

In half a decade students of the Vineyard schools were ready for
the higher branches of education. When Matthew Mayhew was sent
off-island to Cambridge for schooling, about the year 1657, he was
accompanied, or soon followed, by a number of Vineyard Indians. In
September, r 659, the records of the commissioners disclose payments
to Mr. Thomas Danforth "for dieting fiue Indian Scollars and cloth
ing them; and Mr Mahews son; Att Cambridge," and to Mr. Cor
lett, master of the grammar school, for his "extreordinary paines in
Teaching the Indian Scollars and Mr Mahews son about two yeares."
It was the intent of Thomas Mayhew to send four more converts
the following year, for we find the commissioners cautioning him that
they desired the scholars to be well grounded in their grammar, or fit
for the "accidence" as it was then termed.

A grammar school at this time in New England was an institution
where Greek and Latin grammar were taught and in no wise cor
responded to the grammar school of later years. In accordance with
English practice, it was the purpose of the school to fit students for col
lege. The grammar school at Cambridge was a noted school. Its
building adjoined the college and appears to an uncertain extent to
have been part of it.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Two decades after the settlement of the island of Martha's Vine
yard, inhabited by a savage people known to have murdered English
sailors, four Indian youths sat at the feet of Master Corlett in the
grammar school at Cambridge to enter upon the study of Latin and
Greek. Of the five subjected to the "extreordinary paines" of School
master Corlett, death removed one the following year; the records
disclosing a debit "for Charges of burial!."

In r 659 there were five Indian youths at Cambridge in the gram
mar school whose diligence and proficiency in studies were reported
very encouraging. They were described as being very prudent and
pious, diligent in their studies and civil in their carriage. Examined
openly by the president of Harvard College at commencement, for the
edification of the Godly in the colony, they gave good satisfaction
of their knowledge of the Latin tongue to the examiner and the "honored
and Reuerent ouerseers."

In a couple of years, two had made sufficient progress to matricu
late at Harvard. In this year appears an item for "clothing an Indian
att his first coming" to Cambridge. The year following, the commis
sioners ordered several of the Indian scholars at Mr. Weld's school
in Roxbury to be removed to the grammar school at Cambridge "att
the expiration of this yeare and hee is alowed to take another youth
now sent from Martins Vineyard that came to him about the 9th of this
Instant."

For the encouragement of the students, books, papers, inkhorns,
and even "blanketts and Ruggs for the Indian Scollars of Cambridge
and Roxburry" were supplied by the society, with firewood and candles
in addition.

It may be that two of the "scollars" at the grammar school were
not Vineyard Indians, but certain it is that one was from that place and
that the two in the "colledge" were Mayhew proteges. The latter
were Joel and Caleb, chosen for the honor from among the most apt
and studious of their race; the first Indians in America to matriculate
at an English college. In order to do so they passed an examination
including among other accomplishments "so much Latin as was suffi
cient to understand Tully or any like Classical author, and to make and
speak true Latin, in prose and verse, and so much Greek as was
included in defining perfectly the paradigms of the Greek nouns and
verbs.''

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

The student Caleb was son of Cheschachaamog, sachem of Holmes
Hole, a district now embraced within the beautiful and more euphoni
ously named town of Vineyard Haven. He was destined to be the
only Indian to climb the long road from barbarism to the bachelor's
degree at Harvard. "At the conclusion of two Latin and Greek
elegies which he composed on the death of an eminent minister, he
subscribes himself Cheesecaumuk, Senior Sophista. What an incon
gruous blending of sounds!"

At the close of the collegiate year in which this triumph of learning
was profounded, Caleb took his degree with the class of I 665. His
name appears in the catalogue of New England's oldest institution of
higher learning as Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Indus. Included in the
class of seven members is the son of Governor Thomas Dudley-the
Honorable Joseph Dudley, President of the Council of the Massachu
setts Bay, Chief Justice of the Province of New England, Chief Justice
of the Province of New York, Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of
wight, Member of Parliament, President of New England, Captain
General and Governor of Massachusetts, and a Commissioner of the
United Colonies. Such was Harvard College!

The career of Caleb was unfortunately terminated by his death of
consumption at Charlestown, where he had been placed under the care
of a physician in order to regain his health. "He wanted not for the
best means the country could afford, both of good and physick; but God
denied the blessing, and put a period to his days."

Joel, the other of the two Indians to enter the college at Cam
bridge, was an especially "hopefull" young man and is said to have
made "good proficiency" in his studies. Being ripe in learning he was
about to take his first degree of bachelor of arts when he took voyage
to Martha's Vineyard in a bark to visit his father and kindred. On
his return, the vessel with other passengers and mariners suffered ship
wreck on the shores of Nantucket. The bark was found and it was
believed that its passengers reached shore safely to be murdered "by
some wicked Indians of that place; who, for lucre of the spoil in the
vessel, which was laden with goods, thus cruelly destroyed the people
in it; for which fault some of those Indians was convicted and executed
afterwards," informs Gookin.

"Thus perished our hopeful young prophet Joel. He was a good
scholar and a pious man, as I judge," continues our authority, "I

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

knew him well; for he lived and was taught in the same town where I
dwell. I observed him for several years, after he was grown to years
of discretion, to be not only a diligent student, but an attentive hearer
of God's word; diligently writing the sermons, and frequenting lec
tures; grave and sober in his conversation."

Meantime the friends of Indian education had induced the English
society to erect a brick building at Harvard for the use of the natives,
called the Indian College, of sufficient size to accommodate about
twenty scholars. In a letter to the society the commissioners estimated
the cost of such a structure at a hundred pounds, being desirous that
"the building may bee stronge and durable though plaine." They were
authorized to proceed with the erection of the same; "which Rome
[room] may bee two storyes high and built plaine but strong and dur
able the charge not to exceed one hundred and twenty pounds besides
glasse which may bee allowed out of pcell the Corporation hath lately
sent ouer vpon the Indian account."

According to Gookin the building was constructed of brick, fitted
with convenient lodgings and studies. As is customarily the case, its
ultimate cost exceeded the original estimate and ran between three and
four hundred pounds. The edifice failed of the purpose for which it
was designed. We are told that "There was much cost out of the
Corporation stock expended in this work, for fitting and preparing the
Indian youth to be learned and able preachers unto their countrymen.
Their diet, apparel, books, and schooling, was chargeable. In truth,
the design was prudent, noble, and good; but it proved ineffectual to
the ends proposed. For several of the said youth died, after they had
been sundry years at learning, and made good proficiency therein.
Others were disheartened and left learning, after they were almost
ready for the college. And some returned to live among their country
men; where some of them are improved for schoolmasters and teach
ers, unto which they are advantaged by their education."

It cannot be said of the experiment that it was a total failure.
Although the primitive savage was not qualified by constitution, men
tality or temperament to cope with the arduous and confining labors of
scholastic life, numbers of them trained in the Latin school went back
to their people and performed good work as teachers and preachers.
The scholars attending these schools appear to have been an orderly,
conscientious, and sincere group of young men. They were of reli-

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gious temperament and impelled by good motives, but generations of
simple life had not fitted them for the mental rigors of the student's
lamp. So ended a great experiment in education. Thirty-one years
after the landing of Winthrop and his colonists at Boston with the
charter of the Bay Colony, a college was founded for the Indian
scholar on the frontier of civilization. The charge cannot be made
that effort was not made to give the red man the opportunities of the
white man's civilization.

The halls of the college at Cambridge resounded no more to the

tread of the Indian; his fading footsteps echoed into the stilly silence of
forces that have spent their strength, and in each feebler resonance the
dream of his preceptors for a college-bred ministry of native preachers
flickered into the void of broken hopes.

The missionaries were handicapped now by the tumult raised
among the "vulgar" who were not in sympathy with any effort to
raise the standards of the Indian. Much stress was laid on the impro
priety of herding the Indian youth into four walled rooms, where his
constitution was sapped of its strength. The death of Caleb by con
sumption was cited as an example of a white man's disease upon a
body accustomed to the lusty outdoors.

In these charges there was truth, but the situation was not so
extreme. Contrary to popular information, consumption was a com
mon disease among the Indians, and its ravages, then and since, cannot
be contributed solely to a change of living conditions brought about by
the white man's civilization.

"Of this disease of the consumption," remarks Gookin, "sundry of
those Indian youths died, that were bred up to school among the Eng
lish. The truth is, this disease is frequent among the Indians; and
sundry died of it, that live not with the English. A hectick fever,
issuing in a consumption, is a common and mortal disease among
them."

General Lincoln, in his "Observations on the Indians of North
America" adds, "Their tender lungs are greatly affected by colds, which
bring on consumptive habits; from which disorder, if my information
is right, a large proportion of them die."

The strength of the Indian was a peculiar phenomenon. He was
at home in the water, and on land his dog trot would carry him with
no apparent effort over miles of territory which was the awe of the

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

European. But his physique was a brittle thing. In sustained manual
labor the Indian was found worthless, and this alone saved him from
the fate that was soon to become the negro's.

Three hundred years have not changed him greatly. Lack of
initiative and inability of sustained effort is still the handicap of his
race. Receiving his education, his clothes, and food from the govern
ment, he returns to a life that is neither ours nor that of his fathers.
He fears to strike out to the great cities, but prefers to eke a living on
reservation lands. Although opportunity is as open to him as to any
European immigrant, he lives in obscurity, cursing the government
that aids him, while descendants of immigrants become bankers and
lawyers and merchants. The barbaric negro in less time is self
sustaining. The sin cannot be all the white man's blame.

There are critics who charge the missionaries with all the ills of
Indian life, as well as those of the savages of the South Pacific islands
and elsewhere. The missionaries should stay at home and mind the
sins of their own race, is the well-known cry. The reason for the mis
sionary is simple, notwithstanding the writings of some pseudo psycho
logical-biographers in the field of religious history.

It was, and still is to a certain extent, a concept of Christianity that
the soul of man is forever doomed unless he accepts before death the
teachings of the One who died on the Cross at Calvary. Souls living
in far away corners of the earth who had never heard His name were
doomed to eternal torment. It was a sad and harsh picture that was
held of the great Father of us all, but so man read in the blessed Book
and believed. And how could the heathen be saved who had never
heard the message, good men asked one another, unless Christians
traveled the sands and mountains of far away places and brought salva
tion to souls dying for water in the waste places of earth? It was the
Christian's duty. Noblesse oblige! And so upon the face of the
earth swarmed men and women, carrying the gospel of the faith into
every corner and nook of the known world.

Militant soldiers of the cross, in their souls burned a deep desire to
diet the heathen on Friday, to baptize the infant and to bring all before
that golden throne upon the great day of judgment-saved, even
against their will! Superficially at times their tactics and their rituals
have seemed not far removed from the black paint, the gibberish, and
the howlings of the Indian powwow. But at heart there was a dif-

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ference. A brilliant fire burned in their souls. For their God they
suffered indescribable pains, fatigues, disease, and death. Into the
unforged trails of the wilderness they went, black robed Jesuits, eating
the nauseating food of the Indians and lifting high their robes that
they might not overturn canoes getting in and out, as thoughtfully they
had been instructed; far into China, penetrating the jungles of Africa,
Protestants and Catholics, the banner they carried, with medicine, law,
order, and good government.

And small minded men, for a moment detracted from the material
things of life, have sneered at their efforts and accentuated their errors.
Authors with figments of imagination that might better be devoted to
a nobler cause have pictured the idyllic life lead by any number of
primitive peoples until the missionaries came, reputedly bringing with
them all the horrors of civilization, the Bible, the Constitution, the
army and the navy.

The ancestry of this school may be traced to Rousseau. The fable
of the natural man that so pleased an overly sophisticated world in the
eighteenth century has long ago been exploded.

In America is heard the cry, the white man spoiled the Indian with
his teachings. And in the distance resounds another charge, the white
man has failed to teach the Indian and to do his duty towards him.

The missionary is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
And popular opinion, like the poet's well regulated stream, flows on
forever.

140

CHAPTER XIII

THE DUKE OF YORK

After the return of Governor Nicolls to England, matters drifted
along at the islands of the Mayhew proprietary in bucolic fashion, the
inhabitants undisturbed by great events abroad, until a shipwreck
brought to a focus the undesired attention of the successor of Nicolls
at New York.

The new governor was another ducal favorite, Colonel Francis
Lovelace, a cavalier of the court of Charles II. Intelligence of the
wreck reaching his ear, Lovelace, after a silence of more than a year
and a half since his arrival at New York, addressed a letter to the
patentee of Martha's Vineyard, in which he reiterated the duke's claim
to the islands that lay two hundred miles from the capital.

Respecting the wreck driven on "shoare at Matyns Vyneyard with
out any man left aliue in her" ( although fortunately forty hogsheads of
rum were saved), Lovelace comments that he had hithertofore expected
an account of the wreck and what had been done in the premises,
especially, one gathers, with the liquor, which had a great value.
Adds he, "As my Predecessor Coll Nicolls did often expect you
here, but had his Expectation frustrated by yor age or Indisposition I
haue the same desire, or at least that amongst yor Plantation, you
would depute some pson to me to give me Account of Affaires there,
That being undr the same Governmt belonging to his Royall High
nesse I may be in a bettr Capacity of giving you such Advice & assist
ance as need shall require & send his Royall Highnesse a more Exact
Account of you then as yett I can, you being the greatest Strangrs to
me in the whole Governmt. So expecting a speedy a Retorne from you
in Answr hereunto as can be I comitt you to the heavenly protection &
remayne."

Mayhew, always deliberate in his actions, awaited a number of
months before sending his grandson Matthew to New York with a
reply. John Gardner, of {,antucket, wrote that the letter "was so
far slighted as to take no notice of it," but it is probable Mayhew was
awaiting the end of winter before sending a messenger on the long
journey to ''York.''

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The claims of Thomas Mayhew to the islands of Martha's Vine
yard and Nantucket were presented by young Matthew to the Gov
ernor in Council at New York the May following the receipt of the
Lovelace letter. After the hearing it was ordered by the council that
a letter be sent to the senior Mayhew requesting him to appear in
person before them to adjust the relations of his islands to the gov
ernment of New York, and that he bring with him his patents and
papers.

You may please to take your best time in coming this summer, in

substance writes the amiable Lovelace, as you shall find yourself dis
posed, and shall receive a very hearty welcome and all due encourage
ment as to your concerns.

Copies of a notice addressed to all "pretenders" laying claim to
any interest in lands on Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Eliza
beth Islands were enclosed in the letter.

These were duly distributed to the several landholders, including a
number of residents in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Communication
between the scattered settlements of New England was uncertain and
irregular in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. The absentee
landlords were widely scattered over a number of colonies-Massa
chusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Plymouth, and Rhode Island.
Something like a year elapsed before all were heard from.

Meantime the inhabitants of the town on Nantucket met and
elected Mr. Thomas Macy their agent to present their claims and to
"treat" with the ducal governor. The town also desired Mr. Tris
tram Coffin to assist Mr. Macy in his task. Coffin had previously been
chosen by his family to represent their great interests on Nantucket
and their entire ownership of the island of Tuckernuck. Daniel Wil
cox, of New Plymouth Colony, possessing two small islands in the
Elizabeth group by virtue of a "Patent of Right from Mr Thomas
Mayhew and Matthew Mayhew of Martins Vineyard," had early
appointed Matthew to appear on his behalf and to act therein "as if I
myself e were there."

In the summer of 1671 all was ready for the conference with Love
lace at Manhattan. Armed with his patents and papers and Indian
deeds, Thomas Mayhew, now seventy-eight years of age, set sail from
Great Harbor in the month of June accompanied by his grandson,
Matthew, who was to represent the proprietary interests of the
younger Thomas Mayhew, deceased.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Another crisis had come in the life of the merchant-colonist. At
an age when the average man is content to mark time and gaze back
ward, he was on his way to New York for still greater honors.

From Nantucket went Tristram Coffin and Thomas Macy, the one
representing the House of Coffin, the other "ye inhabitants" of the
town of Nantucket.

At Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket all eyes turned westward

where the embarked agents had gone ''in their Behalfe and Stead"
to "Treat w'th ye Hon'ble Coll. Lovelace concerning ye Affayres of
the several islands."

_As the envoys neared the little fort on the Bowling Green they
must have wondered how the cavalier governor in all the scintillating
splendor of his great office would greet the planters of the islands
claimed by ·his Royal Highness, James, future King of England, after
so many years of waiting.

The fort which they saw at the tip of Manhattan Island in "New
Yorke towne" was quadrangle in shape, and had a bastion at each
corner; its earthen parapets frowned over the waters of the Hudson
River and the Upper Bay. An ancient fort as forts went in America
in that day, it had witnessed and was to see, considerable history of a
bloodless sort. This ideal state of affairs was due to no good fortune
of peace, but instead to the fact that as the fort was chronically in a
state of disrepair, it was always good policy to surrender it whenever
the warships of a belligerent nation hove to in a menacing manner, and
so demanded.

"Forte James" was built under the nomenclature of Fort Amster
dam by the officers of the Dutch West Indies Company and was well
armed with iron cannon and some few small brass pieces, all bearing
the arms of the Netherlands. It was the social and military center of
both the city and the colony under the Dutch and English, as well as the
seat of governmental activity.

Within its walls towered the church of St. Nicholas with its steep
double-pointed roof. The Dutch, with their love of utilization of
space, had further encroached the limited area of the interior with a
windmill, guardhouse, barracks, and a pretentious governor's mansion.
Outside the battlements on the river side were gallows and a whipping
post. A distance off in the other direction stood the ancient Stadt
Huys of the Dutch, which did duty under English administration as

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

the capitol house of the province, where the governor and
council and the royal courts convened in sessions.

As the island envoys neared the scene of their intended conferences

they saw the ensign of England flapping in the breeze from the flag
pole in the fort and noted the long arms of the Dutch windmill turning
lazily before the breeze and viewed with uncertain emotions the
spectacle of gallows and whipping post, eloquently silent testimony of
the law's eternal vigilance.

It is probable that the Mayhews, Coffin and Macy were enter
tained in the governor's house within the fort, and took occasion in
hours not devoted to business to look at the Bowling Green and the
Battery. To see New York took but little time in those days and
necessitated the use of no guide book or personally conducted tour.
There was no Chinatown. The city itself was wedged in between the
waters on three sides and the wall which gave present Wall Street its
name, on the fourth. It was a small village of quaint houses populated
with a heterogeneous collection of Dutch burghers, English merchants,
and officials, all living in peace and harmony and intent on the mutual
object of fattening their fortunes in trade.

The social life of the little city centered around the amiable gov

ernor's elegant mansion and the tavern which he had judiciously
erected next the Province House, with a door that afforded convenient
access ( some say by bridge) to the court room on the second floor, a
door that was a constant gates-ajar invitation to the honorable mayor,
aldermen, and sheriff of the city to step into the taproom beyond,
there to gain inspiration before, and solace after, sessions of court.

The Province House itself was a quaint inheritance from the
Dutch regime in days when New York was New Amsterdam. It stood
some distance from the fort with its back to the East River, the wash
of whose changing tides might plainly be heard within its walls. In
Lovelace's day its face was the west side, its stoop opening onto Dukes
Street, the original Hoogh Straet of the Dutch, known to the present
generation as Stone Street. A lane by one side connected the street
with the open stretch to the rear of the building that bordered on the
water. This was called by the English, State House Lane. The house
itself was a substantial edifice of stone, two stories in height with a
basement underneath and spacious lofts above under its steeply pitched
roof.

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In this house were held the formal sessions of the Governor in
Council with the emissaries from Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

The Mayhews appear to have arrived in New York a fortnight
before the stated meeting of the Governor and Council in the matter
of Martha's Vineyard. The first of the official conferences apper
taining to island affairs was convened the twenty-eighth of June. "The
Matt. under Consideracon was the Business of N antuckett; two Per
sons being sent from thence hither." Tristram Coffin and Thomas
Macy, the "two Persons" designated, produced documents from
Thomas Mayhew and the Indians to make good their claim of title
to Nantucket and adjoining islands and tendered "some Proposalls in
Writing" for the scheme of government to be established thereat.

It may be supposed that the proposals were drawn with the advice
or consent of the Mayhews as their influence upon the island at that
time was considerable. They owned an interest in the proprietary as
well as a tract in severalty.

The plan of government proposed by the emissaries had no doubt
been submitted to the unofficial scrutiny of the governor and province
secretary, if in fact it did not originate largely from that source. It
embraced a comprehensive scheme of government, providing for a court
of magistrates to be presided over by one "to be Chiefe," and the
establishment of an annual General Court for all the islands to be
composed of judges from Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. It was
further proposed that the Indians of Nantucket should be made sub
ject to judicial process in "Mattrs of Trespass, Debt, & other Mis
carriages"; that the laws of England should prevail in all matters "soe
farre as wee know them"; and lastly that a military establishment
for defense against the Indians or "Strangrs invadeing" should be
authorized.

On the day the memorial was submitted, the governor was ready
with a reply "In Answer to ye Proposalls Delivered in by Mr Coffin
and Mr Macy & on ye behalfe of themselves & ye rest of ye Inhabi
tants upon ye Island of Nantuckett."

The reply provided for a frame of government substantially as
requested. A chief magistrate was to be appointed annually by the
governor-general from two nominees recommended by the electors of
Nantucket and Tuckernuck. The inhabitants were to have power by a
majority vote to elect assistant judges, constables, minor town officers

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

and such inferior officers for the military company as should be thought
needful.

The inhabitants were left a liberal discretion in the handling of

Indian affairs, although warned to be "careful! to use such Moderacon
amongst them, That they be not exasperated, but by Degrees may be
brought to conformable to ye Lawes." They were empowered to
nominate and appoint constables among them who were to have staves
with the King's Arms upon them, "the better to keep their People in
Awe, & good Ordr. as is practized wth good Success amongst ye Indyans
at ye East end of Long-Island."

Tristram Coffin was commissioned chief magistrate of Nantucket
and Tuckernuck Islands for a term of office extending something
beyond one year.

A week later came the "Affayre about Martins Vineyard." This
conference was held in the Province House, where once the painted
coat-of-arms of New Amsterdam, together with the orange, blue, and
white colors of the West Indies Company, had hung over the justices'
bench.

In the dim room the ducal governor, Francis Lovelace, was, of

course, the dominating figure on that summer's day when the first meet
ing was scheduled. The second son of an English baron, he is described
as a roystering cavalier of the Restoration, a fitting representative of
the "Merrie Monarch" and his brother James. Notwithstanding his
Stuart partisanism and the fact that before the Restoration he had
languished a term in the Tower by order of Richard Cromwell, he
appears to have been a genial and kindly soul to English Protestant
and Dutch burgher alike.

Unfortunately for the fame of this governor, his character has
been epitomized in a statement attributed to him relative to the rebel
lious Swedish farmers on the Delaware, that "the method of keeping
the people in order is severity and laying such taxes as may give them
liberty for no thought but how to discharge them." In his defense it is
alleged that the remark was a mere quotation on his part of what a
Swede had once said to him of his own people. It can be imagined best
of Lovelace that the remark was uttered with all the amiability with
which he was endowed.

Nevertheless, the cavalier governor was much that in habit and
religion was diametric to the Puritan Mayhew.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Matthias Nicolls was the second man of importance in the room.
Bred a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, he received from the King an
appointment as secretary of the royal commission sent to America and
at the same time a commission as captain in the forces under Colonel
Richard Nicolls. After the peaceful capitulation of New Amsterdam,
in which he participated, Captain Nicolls became the first secretary of
the English province and a member of the Governor's Council.

The first code of English laws in New York was largely the fruit of
his drafting. It was a just and liberal body of laws. Qualified by
legal training, the author held several judicial posts. He was presiding
judge of the Court of Assizes and after the conference was judge of the
Supreme Court. He was also an early mayor of New York City. He
was without doubt the best educated and one of the most capable Brit
ish officials in America.

The third member of the governor's staff present at the confer
ence was Cornelius Steenwyck, a former burgomaster of New Amster
dam. His blood antecedents were as clear of definition as his name,
but his political fealty less certain. He was a prominent officeholder
under both Dutch and English administrations, willing to lend his name
to the Dutch civil list when the colony was New Netherlands and to
the English when it was New York, and back again with alacrity to the
Dutch when the province was recaptured by Calve two years to the
month after the conference. Steenwyck was an enormously wealthy
merchant, and what is popularly termed a "mixer."

On the opposite side of the table sat the Puritan, Thomas Mayhew,
already famed at home and in the mother country as a successful mis
sionary to the Indians of New England. By his side sat Matthew, his
eldest grandson, a promising youth of twenty-three years of age, later
author of "The Conquests and Triumphs of Grace," a tract describing
the Indians of New England and the success of the gospel among
them.

What took place during the stay of the Vineyard delegates at
York and the conference that concluded their labors, Thomas Mayhew
himself describes. He states that he showed the governor his grants,
which the governor approved, "and the printed paper" from his
Majesty, at which Lovelace "stumbled much," also he showed the
ducal representative what General Nicolls had written of his not being
informed what the King had done, to which the governor "stumbled

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

very much likewise"; then he asked if the colonel had Stirling's patent
with him, to which the colonel gave answer in the negative, whereupon
Mayhew went to Captain Nicolls and acquainted him of his "dis
course" with the governor and "prayed him to search in Matters of
Long Island" to see if he could not find the date of Lord Stirling's
patent to the islands. This Nicolls did, finding it more ancient than
the Gorges patent.

But Mayhew questioned whether it were safe for him to "medle"

or declare the Gorges government. The royal weathercock at Wind
sor had spun so many times, there was no telling how it would spin
again. It was, therefore, agreed between His Honor Francis Love
lace and Thomas Mayhew that the latter should be granted a new
"Charter and Liberties" to the islands, grounded on his first grant from
Lord Stirling and the "Resignation of L'd Sterling's Heirs to his
Royall Highness," and that Mayhew should pay an acknowledgment
to the Duke which under the grant from Forrett he was obligated to
pay yearly to Lord Stirling.

Thus the patentee of the islands was confirmed in his title by the

weakest of all claims, the grant from Lord Stirling. It has been aptly
stated that "Loyal subjects were expected to give way and vacate the
'king row.' "

The time which Mayhew took before acknowledging the Duke's
authority is evidence of no supine surrender. Writing in regard to the
search in matters of Long Island conducted by Matthias Nicolls, he
says, had the date of Stirling's patent been not found, then "I could
doe nothing at Yorke." He had not been ready to acknowledge ducal
claims upon terms other than favorable. This stand was made secure
by the King's attitude in both confirming the islands most strongly to
be in Gorges and in granting them to his brother. Whichever way the
conflict was resolved, Thomas Mayhew could find royal support in
extenuation of his conduct.

A number of other important matters were decided at the con
ference. Most noteworthy was the appointment of Thomas Mayhew
to be governor of the island of Martha's Vineyard for life:

Whereas Mr Thomas Mayhew of Martins or Martha's Vineyard
hath been an auncient Inhabitant there, where by Gods Blessing Hee
hath been an lnstrumt. of doeing a greate deale of Good both in set
tling severall Plantacons there, as also in reclayming & Civilizing ye

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Indyans; ffor an Encouragement to him in prosecucon of that Designe,
& in acknowledgmt of his Good Services, It is Ordered & Agreed upon
That ye said Mr Thomas Mayhew shall dureing his naturall Life bee
Governor of ye Island called Martins or Marthas Vineyard. . . . .

A commission to Matthew Mayhew as Collector and Receiver of
his Majesty's customs "as now are or shall bee brought into ye Har
bour at Martins Vineyard, or any other Creek or Place upon ye Island,
or Jurisdiction thereof" was also executed.

The "townes Seated" on the Vineyard were granted new charters
of confirmation. In the baptism Great Harbor emerged as Edgar
town, in honor of the Duke's infant son Edgar, the news of whose death
had not reached America. Great Harbor became another of those
many communities that bear the name of some petty princeling tacked
to the unimaginative and generic term, town, ville, or burg. Distinc
tion lies in the fact that it is the only town so named in the world.

Middletown was more fortunate in choice of names, and received
that of Tisbury in honor of the little Wiltshire village where Thomas
Mayhew was born.

A government for the towns and the island was discussed and
decided. The towns were to have such elected magistrates and officers
as other "corporations" in the province. For the jurisdiction of Mar
tha's Vineyard island a local court was provided, to consist of Thomas
Mayhew and three assistants; the governor to have a double vote as
presiding officer, a power not granted the chief magistrate of the local
court at Nantucket.

Minor changes were made in the framework of the General Court
established during the conference with the Nantucket delegates. It
was determined that the members of this court should be the governor
of Martha's Vineyard and four assistants, two from each island. In
deference to the great experience and reputation of Thomas Mayhew
it was ordered that he should sit as president during his life whenever
the court was in session, whether at Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket,
with the privilege of a double or casting vote.

The plan of government conceived for Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket was part of the ducal scheme for a strong government in
places where the central power was far removed. "No such strong and
yet liberal scheme of vice-regal government was established under the
British flag for many a year."
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The conference closed the history of the colony of Martha's Vine
yard and Nantucket as an independent entity. For thirty years
the islands had been ruled by the proprietor independent of higher
suzerainty. But Mayhew lost little by the change. His powers and
prestige, supported now by a closer alliance with royal authority, were
in fact increased rather than diminished.

The government of the islands was still a government under
Mayhew's supervision, only henceforth to be subject to the oversight
of a governor-general at New York. Laws were now to be made by
Thomas Mayhew as governor, with the aid of assistants, instead of by
the "patentee" or "the single person."

Other matters at the conference were determined which were
not of political import. The influence of Thomas Mayhew directed
the flow of thought into Indian channels. Even in this day while
honors were being thrust upon him, he thought of the humble Indian
and the work of the propagation of the gospel among them, which had
been the lifework of his son who had not lived to share the honors now
freely bestowed.

The pregnant move of the conference in this respect was the
appointment of Thomas Mayhew "too bee Governor. over ye Indians
upon Martin's Vineyard." He was authorized to "follow ye same
way and Course of quiet & peaceable Governmt amongst them as
hitherto hee hath done, web will tend to their mutuall Benefitt and Sat
isfaction, and by Degrees bring them to Submit to, & acknowledge his
Maties Lawes Establisht by his Royall Highness in this Province."
Further Governor Mayhew was ordered: "You are to cause some
of ye Principall Sachems to repaire ( as speedily as They can) to mee,
that soe They may pay their homage to his Matie, & acknowldge his
Royall Hs. to bee their only Lord Proprietor."

It was a well tamed savage that the ducal governor expected to
come to him at York, three hundred miles by water, to pay homage to
a Scotch-French-Italian-Danish King across the sea.

Lovelace was not much interested in the spiritual or material well
being of the untutored savage, but he was an amiable man and willing
to assist the Puritan Mayhew in anything that would cost the Duke
of York and Albany, and etc., no extra penny.

In response to request he even addressed a letter to Governor

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Prince recommending that official to use his influence in obtaining
added financial assistance for Mayhew as a missionary to the Indians.
A unique feature of the conference was the grant to Thomas May
hew and his grandson of a charter creating a manor out of parcels of
territory within the present bounds of Chilmark, Tisbury, and the
Elizabeth Islands.

At the quiet Vineyard reappeared one of the oldest of English
social institutions. The wind-swept moors, the occasional parks of
forests, the green meadows, sheep pastures, and plough lands of the
island, dotted plentifully with great lagoons and smooth flowing
streams, like the famed waterways of old England, lent themselves
geographically to the English manor and countryside.

In the course of time, the island with its quaint mills, two-storied
houses, miles of fencing and herds of sheep, became a transplanted bit
of the home country where lords and squires and landowners ruled
fertile acres and sat as justices of the peace at shire courts.

Thomas Mayhew was of ancient years. He "had risen to a unique
position among his colonial confreres," says the island historian.
Doubtless his thoughts harked back to the place of his birth and the
scenes of his childhood, and the recollections of Tisbury with its manor
aroused in him a desire to become the head of a like social institution,
the first of a line of Lords of the Manor in another Tisbury. He had
recollected the Arundels of Wardour, the hereditary Lords of Tisbury
Manor in Wiltshire, living but a short distance from his boyhood home,
and the grandeur of their position, holding dominion over their broad
acres, with tenants filling the manor barn every harvest, as acknowledg
ments of their fealty, in lieu of knightly service; and having already
had a taste of the headship of a community for many years … he
now wanted the legitimate fruit of his position made distinctive."

Mayhew was ambitious to establish on the Vineyard the good old
customs of Merrie England with its armorial gentry and leading fami
lies of the shire, but too, he saw in the feudal government of the manor
a means whereby he might exercise untrammeled administration over
Indian tenants without the interference of jealous and encroaching
Englishmen.

The Manor of Tisbury was the only fully established manor
erected within the confines of New England, save the Lordship of
Martha's Vineyard created by a later governor of New York in favor
of Matthew Mayhew.

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The manor is an estate in land to which is incident certain rights.
Blackstone tells us that manors were held by lords or great personages
who kept in their own hands so much land as was necessary for the
use of their families, which was called demesne lands, being occupied
by the lord and his servants. The other or tenemental lands were dis
tributed among tenants, which from the different modes of tenure were
called and distinguished by different names.

The proprietor of a manor is a feudal lord, known in the old
feudal system as a minor baron, in contradistinction of the great barons
who possessed a number of manors grouped into a lordship called an
Honor. In the course of time the great barons were patented with
titles by the kings, and out of this practice grew the present peerage or
titled nobility. The lesser barons continued to be members of the
untitled nobility. Although they could and may rightfully follow
their names with the appendage "Lord of the Manor," they are not
privileged to use the title "Lord" as a prefix.

Generally speaking the peerage is today considered the nobility of
England. That nation has always been jealous of the dignity of the
members of her upper class and their ability to maintain their posi
tions in proper style, consequently she is not prone to recognize the
members of the untitled nobility as anything more than gentry. Strictly
speaking, however, any person entitled to coat armour is a member of
the nobility. In many localities on the Continent all the sons of a
feudal lordship retain their membership in the nobility and bear the
title of their ancestor, even unto the ultimate generation. This accounts
for the great number of impecunious Counts to be found in some Latin
countries, and by marriage in American families.

With the growth of the peerage in England and the ennoblement
of the great barons, manors ceased to be called baronies, although they
are still lordships.

The highest privilege appurtenant to manorial lordship was that
of holding private or domestic courts.   At these courts the feudatory
or his steward sat as judge. Customarily the courts were two in classi
fication, called Court Baron and Court Leet.   At Court Baron mat
ters pertaining to the lands of the tenants were heard, disputes as to
ownership of properties and rights of commonage adjusted, alienations
of land recorded, and new tenants and heirs placed in possession, regu
lations and by-laws concerning the upkeep of fences, roads, and other
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matters relating to the farming of the manor lands, passed.   Jurisdic
tion also extended in actions for debt and damages in limited sums.
     The Court Leet was a criminal court exercising the King's jurisdic
tion in the punishment of minor infringements of law not grave enough
to be brought to the attention of the royal courts of the district.   At
the Leets scolds were fined for annoying neighbors, millers for taking
excessive toll of tenants, and brewers for making flat beer. Petty
offenses against the customs of the manor, such as bad ploughing,
improper taking of timber from the lord's woods, and the like, were
heard. This tribunal was the police court of the manor.

At these courts the tenants played an important role. Aside the
presiding officer of the court and the bailiff who represented the lord
as public prosecutor, the generality of the officers of the manor and
court were elected by the tenants from their own ranks. Among these
officials were the reeve, the tithing-man or constable, surveyors of
hedges, ditches, and waterways, the swineherd, and the cowherd.

It has been pointed out that the appellation of many municipal offi

cers in English towns are carried back in their origin to the agricultural
and manorial officers of early days.

Traces of these officials are found in the records of New England
towns, where tithing-men, constables, fence viewers, surveyors of high
ways, surveyors of lumber, hog reeves, field drivers, and poundkeepers
were annually chosen in town meeting, much as their prototypes were
in the manor courts of the mother country.

Manorial lands in the seventeenth century were customarily held
by either copyhold tenure or in fee. The copyhold tenant held land by
grants recorded in the books of the manor, which did not descend to
the heirs by law. Copyhold tenants were not freemen. They consti
tuted the peasantry of the country.

Lands in fee were held by freemen. These constituted a smaller
and more important class in the manor. Unlike the copyhold tenant,
the freeman was not bound to the soil and owed the lord no menial
service upon the lord's lands as rent service, but was quit of all obliga
tions by the payment of a small rent in money, called quit-rent, or some
inexpensive trifle. The freemen of manors were customarily yeomen,
but they might also be gentlemen and maintain seats, whose lands
would be farmed by servants of their own.

Although a number of attempts were made to transplant the feudal
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system to America, in but few provinces did the manor become an
institution. Nowhere in the New World did it function more nor
mally than in New York. Manors were early erected in Maryland,
where prior to 1676 about sixty were in existence, each containing an
average of approximately three thousand acres. In North Carolina
an elaborate feudal system of government was worked out by the
philosopher John Locke, wherein provision was made that tracts
of land of more than three thousand acres might be erected into
manors by special patent. In colonizing Pennsylvania the Proprietary
divided the lands of that colony into manors, but these, held by the
Penn family, were hardly more than manors in name. Wealthy landed
proprietors owned tracts of baronial dimensions in some of the other
colonies, notably Virginia, and rented farms to tenants, but these pos
sessions were not manors in law and only so called by the self-endowed
courtesy of the owners.

The manors of New York were of enormous acreage. Cortlandt
Manor contained eighty-three thousand acres, and Livingston one hun
dred and twenty thousand acres. Tisbury, itself containing many
square miles of land, was one of the earliest established in the province.
The manorial lords of New York were men powerful in the social
and political history of the Colony and State, and have left an impress
in both local and national spheres.

Feudalism in America was destined to be a failure notwithstanding
traces of it lingered in varied form until many years after the Ameri
can Revolution. The anti-rent riots of New York, which broke out in
1839 when the executors of the estate of Stephen Van Rensselaer
attempted to collect back quit-rents, resulted in the last stand of feudal
ism. The great Van Rensselaer manor had to this day remained intact,
but thereafter it was largely sold to the dissatisfied tenants who, with
their fathers, had so many years tilled the soil of a lord.

At Martha's Vineyard feudalism lived a healthy existence for
sixty-nine years until the death of Matthew Mayhew in 1710; there
after it lead a precarious life until with the Revolution it passed into
oblivion. In l 776, Captain Matthew Mayhew, of Edgartown, last of
the Mayhew lords of Tisbury, accepted a commission as commander of
of a company in the Dukes County Regiment of Militia on the side of
the struggling colonists.

The Rev. Experience Mayhew, as late as 1756, is known to have

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laid claim to rights as a Lord Proprietor, perhaps in descent from
Thomas Mayhew as patentee of Martha's Vineyard, and not as an
heir of the family manor. Others of the family made similar claims.
As late as r 838 Judge William Mayhew, of Edgartown, as senior heir
of the first Thomas Mayhew in the eldest male line, conveyed his inter
est in the Gravelly Islands, and in the year following, his interest in
Muskeget Island, to his son Thomas.

During the lifetime of the governor parts of Tisbury Manor were
fenced and a number of tracts of land sold. These were conveyed
subject to a nominal quit-rent to reserve the lords' jurisdiction. The
governor's grandsons, Thomas and John Mayhew, were purchasers in
the Quansoo region, and John Haynes, of Rhode Island, bought land
at the Elizabeth Islands, for which he agreed to pay a quit-rent of "2
good sheep at the Manor House on November 15th yearly and every
year."

After the death of the elder Mayhew, Matthew, as surviving lord
of the manor, kept up the custom of exacting quit-rents in true English
style. One holder of land in the manor was obliged to bring annually
to the lord "a good chees," another "one nutmeg," and Matthew's
"beloved brother John" was under duty to pay one mink skin annually
as tribute "at my mannor house in the mannor of Tisbury" on the fif
teenth of November each year.

The lord's brother-in-law, Major Skiffe, held land under a quit-rent
of "six peckes of good wheat" annually. In 1732, Sarah, widow of
Thomas Mayhew, III, of Chilmark, in a deed conveying land referred
to the "Quitt-rents which shall hereafter become due unto the Lord
of the Manner .... which is one Lamb." The lord at this time
was Micajah Mayhew, of Edgartown, great-great-grandson of the
governor.

Due to the peculiar nature of the manor as a feudal institution, its
early settlement was not effected in the customary manner. Home
lots were not distributed among the planters, and a town proprietary
was not formed until 1695, when Matthew Mayhew, as lord of the
manor, created by document a proprietary of thirty shareholders to
settle a tract in the manor known as the town of Chilmark. In the
corporation, Matthew kept a controlling interest of eighteen shares,
distributing the balance among grantees holding land in the district
and members of his immediately family, including two sons, a brother,
and three brothers-in-law.

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After the transfer of Martha's Vineyard to the Province of Mas
sachusetts Bay the status of Chilmark was for many years anomalous
due to the fact that it was not incorporated by the General Court of
Massachusetts as a town until I 714 when, upon petition of the Rev.
Experience Mayhew, acting as "Agent for the Manour of Tisbury," it
was ordered that the manor "commonly called Chilmark, have all
the Powers of a Town given and granted them, for the better Manage
ment of their publick affairs, Laying and Collecting of Taxes granted to
his Majesty for the Support of the Government, Town charges and
other affairs whatsoever, as other Towns in the Province do by Law
enjoy." Thereafter the town and manor had a dual existence, although
before this a quasi-legal form of town government had been in exist
ence and it had been represented at the General Court as a pocket
borough controlled by the Mayhew family.

At the close of the conference with Lovelace, Thomas Mayhew
and his grandson returned to the Vineyard, armed, in the language of
the elder with "a new Charter and Liberties in it made, grounded upon
my First Graunt and the Resignation of L'd Sterling's Heirs to his
Royall Highness, &c., thankfully by me accepted there and by all at
Home, and also at Nantuckett soe farre as I know."

The conference had heen seven years in partuition, but had proved
well worth the cost to Mayhew of "29 daies from the Island." The
Lord of the Isles was now governor and Chief Magistrate for life,
President of the General Court of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,
Chief Justice of the courts at Martha's Vineyard, and Lord of the
Manor of Tisbury. In addition to these honors he was eligible to sit
as a justice in the General Court of Assizes, the supreme court for all
the territories governed by the Duke of York in America.

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CHAPTER XIV

THE DUTCH REBELLION

After the arrival home of Thomas Mayhew from the conference
with Lovelace he summoned in convenient time a general meeting of
the inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard. Upon this occasion he related
the change of island jurisdiction, and had his commission as governor
publicly read. He acquainted the sachems and chief men of the
Indians of his appointment over them, "which every man accepted of
thankfully."

Seizing the enthusiasm of the moment, the newly acclaimed gov

ernor of the Indians spoke of religion. "After much discourse" he put
"a vote as to the waie of God and there was not one but helld upp his
hand to furthere it to the uttmost. Many of them not p'fessed praying
men diverse allso spake verry well to the thing p'pounded. I remem
ber not such-an unyversall Consent till now."

In his new dignity Thomas Mayhew took care to keep up the state
and authority of a royal governor by means of a constant gravity and a
wise and exact behavior as always raised and preserved the Indians' reverence.

Insistence for respect of station is well illustrated by an incident
which took place during the visit of an Indian prince, ruler of a large
part of the main land, who, coming to Mard1a's Vineyard in royal
manner with an attendance of about eighty persons well armed, called
at the governor's house. The governor upon entering the room where
sat the visiting prince, being acquainted with the Indian custom that
as a point of honor it is incumbent upon the inferior to salute the
superior, took no notice of the other's presence. A silence ensued
which the native chieftain was obliged to break, notwithstanding his
kingly retinue, saying at length, "Sachem, Mr. Mayhew, are you
well?" Whereupon the governor gave a friendly reply.

In the inauguration of the duke's government, Mayhew proceeded
with customary deliberation. Eleven months elapsed before the Gen
eral Court provided for in the new scheme of government was con
vened by him at Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard, the I 8th of June,
1672. The fruits of the first session was a body of just, liberal, and
sensible laws.

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Thus far the transmutation of government had been effected with
out dissension. But at the second sitting of the General Court, holden
at Nantucket the year following, dissatisfaction disclosed itself. The
Nantucket judges refused to follow the rules of procedure provided
for their guidance at the Lovelace conference. "After very much
Debate" the governor and the members of the bench from Martha's
Vineyard "came away resolving speedily" to apply to the governor
general for a ruling. For once Thomas Mayhew moved with alacrity.
He dispatched Matthew to the capital for the purpose, but Matthew,
on his way, was met with the news that New York had been captured
by the Dutch, and returned without completing his journey.

The information that New York had been taken by the Hollanders
was seized upon by malcontents residing on both islands as an oppor
tunity to disavow the authority of the duke's government. A number
of them arose in open rebellion.

The historian of Martha's Vineyard regards this uprising as an
endeavor upon the part of the freemen to "get rid of hereditary rulers
and lords of the manor, of which they supposed their New England to
be quit." Whatever conjecture may be made as to the cause of dis
sension, the facts established from contemporary documents circum
scribe the issue of the rebellion at Martha's Vineyard to one grievance.
According to the tenor of a letter sent by some of "his Majesties sub
jects the free houlders in the two towns setled on Martha's Vineyard"
to the Right Worshipful John Leverett, Esq., governor of the Colony
of the Massachusetts Bay, complaint is made solely that the inhabi
tants no longer had the "Boston form of government." Reference is
not made to manorial privileges, and it may be added that at that time
in no document now extant is criticism directed to this form of social
structure.

There is little likelihood that the relation of the manor at this time
to the rest of the island, due to any possible discrimination in taxation,
could have affected materially the state of mind of the rebellious free
men. At the breaking out of the rebellion, the manor's population,
exclusive of Indians, was limited to one white settler, the Rev. John
Mayhew. The manor is mentioned only once in the course of the
rebellion. In a letter to the governor of New York Simon Athearn
comments on the fact that a large number of the Indians on the island
were Mr. Mayhew's tenants.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Englishmen of the seventeenth century were accustomed to feudal
ism. It was to them no great bogey. The Puritans did not entirely
cast aside social, even political, distinctions. Far from it, they limited
suffrage and office holding to a small select group, and were particu
lar to preserve the hierarchy of rank with special attention to gentlemen
and noblemen. John Haynes, returning to England, was honored
with a salute of guns at the Castle in Boston Harbor, he being the son
of a Privy Councillor. The young Sir Henry Vane, when but twenty
four years of age and without great experience, was elected Governor
of Massachusetts soon after his arrival in the country, on account of
his impressive bearing and title-and ships in the harbor honored the
event with a volley of shot.

The rebellion at Martha's Vineyard may, in part, have been
directed against the rule of the Mayhew family and the nepotism that
thrived under powers granted the ruling family by the ducal govern
ment. It may be that the disaffected inhabitants sought to put to an
end the establishment of the House of Mayhew as an hereditary aris
tocracy, and that they rebelled at the existence of a family bench headed
by a governor holding office under life tenure, assisted by a grandson,
a son-in-law, and a stepson-in-law as associate justices, and the spectre
of manorial lords exacting quit-rents on the fifteenth of each Novem
ber annually, or any other time. But mainly the freemen chafed
because the privilege of representative government in province affairs
was not accorded.

While Mayhew was not a staunch advocate of democratic govern
ment of the unheard of twentieth century type and was not imbued
with the sophistry that any man is qualified to govern so long as he is
elected to office by a majority of equally unqualified citizens, it cannot
be said that under the duke's government Mayhew in any way
attempted to withhold any privilege from the freemen of the island
that was rightfully theirs by law.

But the people of New York, unlike those of New England, had
no voice in the general government of the province. A General Court
of Freemen was not in the scheme of government established by the
Duke of York and was denied by him upon several occasions during
his proprietorship. Laws of the province were enacted by the gov
ernor-general with the advice of a council largely supine. It was an
autocratic government, arbitrary in form, but mild in practice.

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But in local affairs the freemen of the Vineyard had a large share
of self-government. The members of the Court of Assistant of each
island and all the judges of the General Court, save Mayhew, were
elected by the freeholders.

Thomas Mayhew, as governor, had no power of veto, only a
double or casting vote in cases of disagreement. With a representive
General Court for local concerns, an elective bench, and a right to man-
age town affairs, the freemen of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
had a government that was exceedingly democratic for the century.

But it was not the representative government the freemen of the
Vineyard had been accustomed to in Massachusetts. It was not the
government provided for in the Stirling patent, by whose terms many
of them had been induced to emigrate from their old homes to the
new. They had seen Mayhew lay claim to certain vested right supe-
rior to theirs under the Stirling patent. Now they saw a further cur-
tailment of liberties under the duke's government.

Considerable unrest seems to have existed among some of the free-
men on account of the fact that the governor of the island held office
under life tenure, although elected executives were not common in the
seventeenth century. From various complaints it may be gathered that
the malcontents objected to the rule of Thomas Mayhew for the reason
that he too keenly championed the cause of the Indians.

In an effort to show that Mayhew held sway over the Vineyard as
a petty tryant, Simon Athearn, in a letter to the governor- general
launches into an involved account of several incidents, which from his
own recital do not bear the result wished for by him. On one count
Athearn complains that Governor Mayhew and his judges allowed
an Indian servant belonging to Athearn to return to his family because
struck by Athearn after repeated runnings away. Athearn complains
that it was an established rule on the island promulgated by the gov-
ernor for the protection of the Indians that no master should strike
his servant and that if the servant was not willing to abide with the
master, the master should let him go. This humane rule was irritat-
ing at times to masters dealing with refractory servants. These were
not the harsh laws of England to which Englishmen were accustomed,s
but they were the means of preventing the servitude of an inferior race
and the breeding of ill will towards the English.

In another charge Athearn recounts the tale of an illiterate Eng-
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

lishman named Perkins who called an Indian a lying rogue, whereupon
the Indian "laid hold with his hand on Perkins his hair and plucked
him down and swore he would kill him and called to his fellows for a
knife to kill him." Complaining to the governor and Judge Daggett,
the Englishman was "much threatened" for his conduct in the matter
and talk was made that he ought to be fined for calling the Indian a
lying rogue. And, continues, Athearn, the Indian on the other hand
was told "very mildly" that if he carried any stick or weapon in his
hand within a certain period of time he would be fined five pounds.

Athearn claims that bad feeling existed between Judge Daggett
and Perkins, but the ruling of the court appears fair when one bears
in mind the primitive psychology of the Indian and the supposed better
judgment of the Englishman.

It was under laws and rulings such as these that the rebellious free
man of the Vineyard chafed. Even in the heat of controversy they
could think of nothing more disparaging with which to charge Thomas
Mayhew than friendliness towards the Indians.

Mayhew, with painstaking conscientiousness, writes Governor
Prince, "Sir, it is so, that my favour unto Indians hath been thought
to be overmuch; but I say, my error hath been, in all cases, that I am
too favourable to English; and it hath always been very hard for me
to preserve myself from being drawn to deal over-hardly with the
Indians."

Legal cause is a desirable attribute with which to bolster any rebel
lion. The disaffected inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard were not long
in finding one, even if it was not a good one. They professed to doubt
the power of Lovelace to appoint a governor for life for Martha's
Vineyard. That Lovelace had power to appoint a governor is indis
putable, and having that power the tenure of his appointee was in no
way dependent upon his own. The appointment made by Lovelace
was in law the appointment of the Duke of York, and lasted so long as
the Duke was proprietary of New York or any portion of it.

The malcontents refused to follow this reasoning. They argued
that as the ducal authority at the capitol had fallen so had fallen May
hew's life tenure as governor, that as the island had not been formerly
within the jurisdiction of New Netherlands and was not comprehended
in the revived Dutch province established by the Hollanders at New
York, it was no longer under the Duke's government, but was in a

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state of complete independence of any colony, and without authorized
government.

Following this line of thought William Root Bliss in his interest-

ing book, entitled "Quaint Nantucket," falls into the error of assum
ing that the Dutch capture of New York brought the islands of Mar
tha's Vineyard and Nantucket under Dutch control and speaks of the
inhabitants of Nantucket being put to the test as to their loyalty to the
victorious flag in connection with a wreck; and that a jury of six men
of Nantucket did not forget "that they had become Dutchmen," and
so rendered a verdict "loyal" to the Dutch authorities.

Instead of being loyal subjects of the States of Holland, as Mr.
Bliss supposes, the jury of six men of Nantucket acted in a spirit
decidedly to the contrary. The owner of the wrecked vessel claimed
to be an English denizen of New York, of Dutch blood, and although
admittedly on his way to Holland, professed that he had been captured
by the Dutch, along with the province, and been compelled under
duress to load a cargo consigned to Holland.

Bliss' story is naive, but the men of Nantucket were not nearly so
quaint as Mr. Bliss indicates by the title of his book, so they found that
the Dutch-blooded master was not "a subject of the King of England"
and thereby paved the way for the confiscation of the Dutch vessel as
a prize of war. The jury did not find that the master was a Dutch
citizen because they considered themselves Dutchmen, but because
they were convinced that the defendant was in fact a Hollander not
withstanding his English denizenship. It does not require a great
exercise of the imagination to suppose that the inhabitants of the
island profited in the master's misfortune by the confiscation of his
cargo of merchandise belonging to the subject of an enemy nation at
war with their dread sovereign, Charles II, King of England.

The malcontents of neither island considered themselves Dutch
subjects. In the very month the chameleon Dutch-English sea captain
was tried at Nantucket, the malcontents at Martha's Vineyard were
subscribing themselves in a petition to the Governor of Massachusetts
as humble and obedient subjects of the King of England.

As the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket were not
embraced in the new Dutch province, and as the rebels denied the exist
ence of the Duke's government after the fall of New York, a technical
state of anarchy developed. In the language of the insurgents "every
one Doth that which is right in his own eyes."

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Adds Matthew Mayhew, "about half the People in a Mutinous
Manner, arose with many contumelious Words and Threats against
the said Govournour daring him in the Prosecution of his Royall High
ness his Government."

The rebels ignored the logic that might have led them to consider
the Duke's government, by his regularly constituted officers, still exist
ant in those parts of his territories not in possession of the enemy, and
that Mayhew's commission to act as governor of the island, originat
ing by authority of the Duke of York, was not necessarily revoked by
the occupation of a part of the Duke's holdings by the Dutch, especially
as the Duke was much alive in England and had not relinquished his
proprietary claims. Title to the island had not passed and never did
pass to the Dutch; the island itself was never in the possession, actual
or constructive, of the Hollanders, and the Duke's duly constituted offi
cials on the island were at all times present.

The fact that after the surrender of the province by the Dutch to
the Duke, the King as a matter of precaution and upon the advice of
constitutional lawyers who, after profound research and argumentation,
advised that the doctrine of jus postlimini was not applicable, made a
regrant of the province to the Duke, in no way lessens the sins of the
rebels to whom the fine point of law involved was as so much Sanskrit.
Apparently the English jurists were unacquainted with the fact that
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket had never been in the possession of
the Dutch, or thought the territories too insignificant to warrant a pro
cedure different from that prescribed for the entire province. Be that
as it may, the islands were included in the second grant of the province
to the Duke.

Meanwhile the rebel party decided it would better serve its ends
to declare that no lawful government existed on the island, and then to
remedy the situation by establishing an unauthorized government of its
own. This conduct was clearly a subterfuge to gain control of island
affairs. Like their brethren in Massachusetts, the rebels were not
above a bit of chicanery in their struggle for freedom.

Legal disputation appears to have been an attribute natural to the
Puritan mind. By it they were able to meet on equal ground and
checkmate English authority, royal governors, and Parliament, until
the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. British officialdom had to
admit that in the practical art of politics they were no match for the

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freemen of New England trained in open town meeting and service in
all the offices of government from hog reeve to Speaker of the Colonial
Assembly.

Recalling days on the Main, the malcontents at Martha's Vine-

yard met and attempted the formation of a rump government pat
terned on the Massachusetts plan of electing the chief magistrate
annually, as had been the vogue, with limitations, on the island when
Mayhew first set up government at Great Harbor under the Earl of
Stirling's patent.

As loyal subjects of the crown and as a matter of cooperative good

sense in days of peril and war, the conduct of the refractory party can
not be upheld. The incongruity of a part of the inhabitants of the
island urging that the only government lawfully initiated over them
was now without legal efficacy while attempting to set up a government
of their own without a scintilla of legal authority, and representing
only "about half of the people" is obvious, but the attitude of the
island historian is not equally so, who lauds the conduct of the rebels
and depicts them as guardians of liberty and democracy. The good
judgment of a party crying that they are in need of protection against
foreign foe because of weakness in numbers, at the same time conduct
ing a rebellion among themselves that further weakened their powers
of defense, is not open to the adulation of posterity.

Although the rebel party was anxious to depose Thomas Mayhew
as life governor of the island, they made a gesture of compromise by
addressing him a letter wherein they requested him to lay aside volun
tarily his government by commission of the Duke, offering in return to
elect him chief magistrate for one year, the choice thereafter to be
determined yearly by election.

The reply of Governor Mayhew was "no, he would not, he could
not answer it." And, further, he gave them to understand his resolu
tion to hold and defend the island until it should be forcibly taken out
of his hands. These words from the lips of the eighty-year-old gov
ernor have a virile sound compared with the sanctimonious phrases of
the rebels who were continually seeking Divine aid to get them out of
their own difficulties.

Thomas Mayhew was not one to treat with rebels in the guise of
sturd yeoman thirsting for freedom, while seeking to do away with
established government in time of war, bewailing all the while that

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

they were "captured" by the Dutch and without government. The
nearest conquering Dutchman was miles away and apparently uncon
scious of the Vineyard's existence. Perhaps Mayhew felt it was time
enough to surrender when one saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and
not sooner. There was little doubt of his resolution to hold his
position.

Following the governor's answer, the rebel party went into confer
ence. One problem, at least, was solved. It would be unnecessary for
them to further dissipate their energies in any attempt to win over the
governor to their persuasion.

The next move of the democrats was the preparation of a petition
addressed to the governor and assistants of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony in which the Massachusetts authorities were beseeched "for the
Lords sake" to lend an ear unto "Gods Covenanting people in this
wildernesse" and to afford them protection from domestic and foreign
enemies. It is not certain who constituted the domestic enemies, but
the inference is that the petitioners feared the Mayhews as much as
the Dutch. At least the Mayhews were at hand and fear of them had
virtue in fact for the governor had threatened the insurgents with
being made "tratcherous." This was something to fear.

Massachusetts refused to interfere in the plight of the Vineyarders
or to be stampeded by any flattering reference to her governor and his
court as "the most noble in these parts of Amarika."

Answer was returned by the Court of Assistants of that colony
advising the rebels to be "best eased" by their quiet yielding unto their
former government and their wholesome laws under which they had so
long lived.

This was a crushing blow to "God's Covenanting people in the
wildernesse." But the rebuff could not stop the momentum of the
rebellion that had gone so far.

The two factions were openly at war. Warrants posted by the
official government were torn down and constables sent to serve the
governor's writs abused; the rebels "disdaining so much as any inti
mation of Right title of interest from his Royall Highness." When
the wife of one of the supporters of the rump government was indicted
for forcibly taking a warrant out of the marshal's hands, the opposi
tion became so aroused that they threatened the governor, challenged
his family, and shook fists at his retainers. They "managed their pos-
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CHAPTER XV

THE NANTUCKET INSURRECTION

At Nantucket a corresponding eruption broke out, known to local
historians as the Nantucket Insurrection. The rebellion at this island
grew out of causes differing from those at Martha's Vineyard. It was
not essentially a dispute between the Mayhew family and the body of
freemen. It was primarily a contest between the first purchasers of the
island, known as whole-shares men, and subsequent purchasers known
as half-shares men.

Before effecting a plantation at Nantucket, the grantees of Thomas
Mayhew had each chosen a partner, making twenty proprietors in all,
thereafter known as the whole-shares men, from the fact that each
owned a whole share in the island proprietary. Being agriculturists,
they recognized the necessity of obtaining the services of seamen and
tradesmen skilled in the several manual arts. They contracted for the
services of additional proprietors to whom were granted limited or
half-share rights in the island proprietary. It was not the intent of the
original proprietors that the half-shares men should have equal
privileges.

The whole-shares men considered themselves the landed gentry of
the island, endowed under their purchase rights from Thomas May
hew, not only with the ownership of the soil, but with the right of
government.

The resident leader of this faction was Tristram Coffin, a man of
good estate from Devon, England, who had been a judge of small
causes at Salisbury in the Massachusetts Colony. Coffin was one of the
original planters of the island. The Coffin family, father, five sons,
and daughters with their husbands, formed a considerable part of the
landed gentry.

The leader of the half-shares men was John Gardner from Salem,
invited to the island for the purpose of establishing a cod fishery trade.
He was a man endowed with a remarkable faculty for leadership, but
was contentious and rebellious, and as is often the case with petty
political leaders, a man of no great education, but an extremely good
opportunist. His brother Richard, a mariner, was also one of the
half-shares men, but unlike his brother, was a man of some education,

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

and lacked John's love for disputation. The Gardner brothers had
qualities that made them popular, and natural abilities that enabled
them to become persons of prominence. Coffin and the Gardners were
men of strong personalities, and having interests diametrically opposed
were soon locked in a feud that extended over a period of years.

According to Henry Barnard Worth, an early investigator into the
history of Nantucket: "Wealth, tone and influence were with the Cof
fin faction." The others represented the poorer classes composed
mostly of mechanics. The land-owning aristocracy was supported by
Thomas Mayhew.

In a character of the governor, the same author writes, "Thomas
Mayhew lived at Edgartown and was called 'Governor,' for he was
appointed to that office for life. It is said that his motive in buying these
islands was to Christianize the Indians. But this will hardly explain his
actions. The fact probably is that primarily he wanted a place where
he could rule and govern and establish a manor. He was a born aristo
crat and hated anybody who advocated rule by the people. The only
practical aristocracy was that connected with land ownership. Tris
tram Coffin held exactly the same view."

This delineation of the character of Thomas Mayhew is defective
in that there is nothing in his life to warrant the supposition that he
"hated" those who advocated rule by the people. Mr. Worth's presen
tation of the Nantucket Rebellion is imperfect for the reason that he
fails to sense the economic problem involved. It was more a politico
economic struggle, arising out of the peculiar land tenure of the pro
prietary, than a clash of classes.

An attempt has been made to surmount the uprising of the half
shares men with a halo not rightfully theirs. To place their revolt
against the authority and rights of the first settlers on the basis of a
declaration of independence against wrongs and persecutions is absurd.
The half-shares men were neither wronged nor persecuted. They vol
untarily assumed obligations knowing the conditions under which they
were expected to live. They knew that under the terms of their con
tracts, and as society was then constituted, they were not to be of equal
authority with the First Purchasers in regard to control and ownership
of land.

There is no record of any complaint nor, apparently, did the half
shares men question the authority exercised by the whole-shares men

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

until they found themselves in a position to control island politics by
reason of their numbers and the capture of New York by the Dutch.
They then proceeded to overthrow the government, not by and
through the source under which that authority was held, but illegally
and by means unethical. In this movement John Gardner, the young
est in point of residence, bore the conspicuous part.

When the Gardners obtained control of the local government they
went in person to New York to submit to the governor-general for his
choice of chief magistrate the names of the candidates nominated by
the islanders. The governor commissioned Richard to be chief magis
trate and John to be captain of militia.

The Gardners were not satisfied with these favors. They peti
tioned for rulings and changes in the plan of government that were
abusive to the rights of the landowning class who had no representa
tive present to protect its interests. From Lovelace, the Gardners
obtained an instruction which purported to interpret the Lovelace
charter to the town of Nantucket. This instruction construed all prior
deeds to island lands derived from Thomas Mayhew to, be of "noe
fforce or Validity," and that the record of everyone's claim of inter
est on the island should bear date from the granting of the Lovelace
patent.

Further, the governor construed the charter to run only in favor
of freeholders who lived on the island and improved their property, or
such others having "pretences of Interest" who should come and
inhabit there. This was a blow aimed at Thomas Mayhew and the
several non-resident Coffins and others of the original proprietors who
had been instrumental in founding the island settlement and who had
invested their money in its lands. The Gardners hoped to eventually
confiscate the lands of these proprietors, which would thereupon revert
to the undivided and common lands of the proprietary in which the half-
shares men had an interest.

John Gardner was also able to induce the governor to confer upon
him as captain of militia the power "to appoint such Persons for
inferior Officers" as he in his discretion should judge "most fitt and
capable." It was decreed he should hold office at the governor's pleas
ure. In the plan of government promulgated at the first conference
the inhabitants had been conferred the power to elect all inferior mili
tary officers as should be thought needful.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

This had been the arrangement when the "aristocrats," Mayhew
and Coffin, had represented the people of Nantucket, but as soon as the
"democratic" Gardners were able to reach the governor's ear, the
scheme of things was changed and the power of the people in military
affairs reduced.

One salutary ruling Lovelace passed at this session of errors. This
was a decree that "in regard of the Distance of the Place and ye uncer
tainty of Conveyance betwixt" New York and Nantucket, "ye Chiefe
Magistrate and all the Civil Officers" should continue in their employ
ment until the return of the governor's choice of a new chief magis
trate was received. Irony lies in the fact that when this ruling was
put into force by a political opponent, the Gardners immediately repu
diated its effect.

The gorge of the Gardners has been pictured as rising each time
they thought of Thomas Mayhew and his family endowed with heredi
tary and other privileges. Yet these men who had not participated
in the early struggle of colonization, and who had invested no money
in the enterprise, were ready and willing to receive to themselves a sur
prising number of privileges. They had entrenched themselves in
power and had hamstrung the liberties of the original planters and
chief owners of the soil of Nantucket.

Upon their return to Nantucket the newly Worshipful Richard
Gardner, Esq., and Captain John Gardner deemed it expedient to
bring with them a letter from the governor addressed to the inhabi
tants. In the letter Lovelace extended his thanks to the people of the
island for the "Token" of "fifty weight of Heathers"; at that time
legal tender. The "token," which was paid in advance, appears to
have been efficacious in winning the governor's good graces. In flow
ing words, the genial Lovelace, governor and tavern keeper extraordi
nary, pays his compliments to the Gardners "who have prudently
Managed the Trust Reposed in them," and adds the promise that at
any time the inhabitants had other proposals to make for the good of
the island, they might rest assured of his honor's ready compliance
therein (probably upon payment of another fifty pounds of feathers,
although this is not mentioned) .

With their return to the island the Gardners brought with them "a
Book of Lawes of the Government." This was a copy of the "Dukes
Laws." By the language of the code it is evident that its laws were

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

not intended to extend to the province as a whole. The territories
ruled by the Duke were not uniformly governed. The city of New
York had one form of government, the three Ridings another, Perna
quid and Maine were embraced in neither framework of government,
while, as we have seen, the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nan
tucket had a separate form of government with an independent Gen
eral Court. The Duke's laws are said by modern legal authorities to
have applied originally only to the three Ridings. It was not until the administration of Edmund Andros that the Duke authorized the gov
ernor to proclaim them over the entire province.

The justices at Nantucket in their local courts were entitled to use
the Duke's laws as a guide for internal affairs if they chose, but they
went further and endeavored to force the code upon the entire island
jurisdiction, in violation   of   procedure   established   at the conference
of I 67 I,   which had not been repealed.    It was this book that disrupted
the second session of the General Court referred to in the preceding
chapter, and which led to Matthew Mayhew's attempted   journey to
the capitol. It is not known whether Matthew carried a "token of
ffeathers," but had he done so it would have been useless. The island
envoy did not reach New York.

The news brought back by Matthew that New York had been cap
tured by the Dutch was received by the half-shares men with the same
joy it had brought the malcontents at Martha's Vineyard. The oppor
tunity was ripe for the half-shares men to throw off their contractual
obligations to the first proprietors and to assert equal rights in the
lands of the proprietary under the rulings obtained by the Gardners.
It was a law of New York that any grantee of land, not living
thereon, failed to perfect his title thereto, and that said land should
revert to the proprietary. The purpose of this law was to discourage
land speculation by absentee owners. The application of the law
to grants of land at Nantucket made by Thomas Mayhew prior to the
time that island came within the jurisdiction of New York, was highly immoral. The Gardners, by leading Lovelace to say that the ducal
charter to Nantucket had cut off prior rights from Thomas Mayhew
and hence that the charter was not one of confirmation, had shrewdly
made it possible for them to now go forward in an apparent scheme
to dispossess some of the whole-shares men of their rights.

Fate having ordained a paralysis of the parent government, the

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Gardner faction was in a position, as expressed by one of their number
to administer affairs on the island so that every card they played was
an ace and every ace a trump. They proceeded to establish the
hypothesis that the Lovelace charter to the freeholders of Nantucket
proportioned to each person their inhabiting a like and equal interest
in the lands of the proprietary. In this manner they purported to do
away with the original distinction of whole and half-shares.

The crux of the situation lay in the fact that if all landholders were
in equal ownership, each half-shares man in future divisions of land
would receive a whole share instead of a half share, i. e., twice as much
land as had been agreed upon in exchange for his services, and would
be entitled to pasture cattle and sheep in equal numbers with the
whole-shares men. So far as is known the half-shares men paid nothing
for their original rights, nor did they offer to pay for the added inter
ests which they now claimed.

The Gardners stood for the confiscation of property without com
pensation.

The Lovelace charter had been one of confirmation, purporting to
settle upon each man the interest held by him at the time of its execu
tion. It was a confirmation by the Duke of York, as the new Lord
Proprietor, of estates acquired upon the island by grants running back
through Thomas Mayhew to the Earl of Stirling, whose rights had
been purchased by the Duke from the Earl's heir. The charter did not
purport to make void earlier deeds, nor did it make the novel attempt
to proportion to each person holding a freehold a like and equal inter
est, each with the other.

In some respects the battle at Nantucket was like that waged in
many New England settlements between proprietors of the common
lands and the townsmen, but accentuated with the added problem of
whole and half shares. Difficulty arose out of the fact that a distinc
tion between proprietary and town as separate legal entities was not
clearly perceived.

The proprietors of Nantucket attempted to control their property
by permitting non-resident proprietors to vote, and perhaps also by
proportionate voting, that is, by allowing each landowner to vote in
proportion to the amount of land owned by him. If he owned a half
share he had a half-vote, if he owned a whole share he had a whole vote,
and so on.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

These rules were fair and equitable in meetings devoted to pro
prietary purposes, but they were naturally undemocratic when applied
to suffrage.

The early proprietors had regulated and divided lands in town

meetings because the town meeting at first had been the meeting of the
proprietary attending to business customarily handled in the manor
courts of England. But in time came inhabitants who were small land
holders. These claimed the right of suffrage, and claiming an equal
vote in town affairs with the large landowners, were soon able to con
trol and distribute the lands of the proprietary to suit themselves, in
the guise that these things were town matters.

Writers who praise the conduct of the Nantucket insurgents as democrats fail to perceive the distinction between proprietary and
town. They see only a struggle for equality in government and over
look the plundering of the proprietary. The struggle was not a strug
gle for the ballot, but a fight for land. At no time did the Gardnerites
think of conferring suffrage on inhabitants of the town who were not
landholders. Landless inhabitants had few rights in the seventeenth
century, and the ballot was not one of them; this the Gardners in
no wise thought undemocratic. Neither party was ahead of its day.

The arrival of Andros at New York acted as a temporary check
to the conduct of the half-shares men. In the summer following the
resumption of English government in the province, a group of whole
shares men met and appointed Mr. Matthew Mayhew and Mr. Tris
tram Coffin to go to the capitol to place the island situation before
Andros.

With these envoys went Thomas Daggett, of Martha's Vineyard,
son-in-law of Governor Mayhew. The emissaries appeared before
the governor and council on the 4th of November, I 674. A statement
of the late uprising at Martha's Vineyard was presented by Daggett
and Mayhew who, in their address, referred to his Majesty's good sub
jects who had been awaiting the Duke's restoration of authority "as in
Time of great Drouth for the latter Rain."

Acting for Nantucket, Mayhew and Coffin presented a letter rela
tive to the land troubles of the island, and also, for the governor's
perusal, a complete abstract of land titles at Nantucket, including a
record of every sale and purchase made by the proprietors since the
grant from Thomas Mayhew. They also informed the governor that

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

there appeared several grounds of suspicion of an endeavor by some
lately admitted to the island and several that formerly had been admit
ted to supplant the first proprietors of their rights by defective record
ings and uncertain keeping of records, "and also by passing two several
sorts of laws, the one against the other, and both overthrowing and
taking away the former right" of the first proprietors. The address
closed with a request for a ruling as to whether the Lovelace charter
had been one of confirmation or whether it cut off the prior rights of
the whole-shares men, and likewise whether any person having land
on the island might not inhabit it by substitute.

The delegates propounded the question whether under the terms
of their patent they had not the power "to Erect a Court or Meeting,
as a Mannour Court," that lands granted by them might accordingly
be held and enjoyed without interference by the town. They brought
out the fact that the Nantucket judges of the Gardner party refused
to sit and hence no legal court could be had on the island to adjudge
problems. Several times had the judges been appealed to by the whole-
shares men "but all in vain."

In soliciting the right to erect a manor court at Nantucket, May
hew and Coffin were endeavoring to enforce the principle upon which
the American proprietary was founded. They saw no reason why the
distribution and control of proprietary lands should not be determined
by the landowners in proportion to their landed holdings, as stockhold
ers act in the modern corporation.

In the early days the government of the proprietary had in many
respects resembled that of the manor. Disputes criminal and civil
had been settled by the inhabitants, but mainly the proprietary had
concerned itself with the control and distribution of lands, the rights
of the inhabitants to firewood, pasturage, and other interests of like
nature. Recordations of title and the names of those occupying and
owning lands were kept in local records much as they were entered
upon manor rolls.

The New England proprietary might broadly have been defined
as a transplanted English manor without a lord.

The suggestion of a Manor Court was apparently rejected by
Andros, but the governor did not entirely fail to heed the prayers of
the island supplicants.

He ordered that the government "and Magistracy of ye Islands

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Martin's Vineyard and Nantucket" should be settled in the same man
ner and in the same persons as were legally invested therein at the
time of the coming of the Dutch, or who had since been legally elected
by virtue of his "Royall Highness Authority."

This the governor supplemented with a commission to the judges
to call "Offenders to Account in Martin's Vineyard, &c.," for partici
pation in the rebellion against the government in the days of the Dutch
occupation of New York.

Pursuant to this power Thomas Mayhew proceeded to quash the

rebellion at Martha's Vineyard, although he was able to do nothing at
Nantucket for the reason that the Gardners still refused to convene
in General Court.

The ringleaders at Martha's Vineyard were Simon Athearn and
Thomas Burchard, the latter an ancestor of President Rutherford
Burchard Hayes. In the early days of Great Harbor, Burchard had
been a man of prominence, holding for a number of years the office of
town clerk and the more important office of assistant to Mayhew.
Declining for some reason in the favor of the Freemen of the town or
the Patentee, he failed to again hold office after his election as assistant
in 1656. At the same time he lost social caste in the eyes of the ruling
family, as his name appears thereafter in the records without the title
"Mr." earlier accorded him.

It is remarkable that Burchard was not prosecuted for his partici
pation in the insurrection; perhaps due to his advanced years.

The first to feel the wrath of Governor Mayhew after the return
home of the delegates from New York, armed with authority from
Andros to punish transgressors, was Simon Athearn.

The dissatisfaction of Athearn with all things emanating from the
Mayhew family was of chronic duration. Rebellious by nature, he led
a strenuous and fruitful life among the early settlers of the Vineyard.
At the time of his death he was reputed one of the wealthiest men in
the community, not of the Mayhew family. A bitter opponent of the
Mayhew rule, he was never a potent officeholder, but if there is merit
in the belief that politics can be kept pure only by the maintenance of
more than one party, he afforded his fellowmen immeasurable service
by constantly keeping an opposition party in life.

He began his long career of breaking lances with the governing
family by the purchase of land of the Indians without the consent of

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Thomas Mayhew. This brought him also in conflict with his fellow
townsmen and resulted in litigation which seems to have brought him
spiritual comfort as well as material profit. Henceforth he was an
intractable enemy of both the governor and the governor's grandson,
Matthew. His battle cry was "lesser taxes" for the "poore" of Tis
bury. As one of the largest landed proprietors of that town the slogan
had to him a deep significance.

Summoned before the court of Martha's Vineyard, Athearn was
found guilty of "high crime" and was accordingly bound over to the
Supreme Court of the province where, upon conviction he might expect
punishment extending to "life Limbe or Banishment."

The sentence of the court took the fight out of Athearn, as well
it might. He threw himself upon the mercy of the tribunal, and
although a young man aged about thirty-one years, swore upon oath
that his fellow-citizen, Thomas Burchard, near four score in years, had
been the cause which had seduced him to act in opposition to authority.
Perhaps he reasoned that Burchard had not long to live and might
well accept the punishment.

The court commuted sentence by levying a fine of twenty-five shill
ings in money and seven pounds in cattle or corn, and revoked its
sentence binding Athearn over to the court at New York; but ordered
that his "freedom" or right of citizenship be deprived him at its
pleasure. For speaking against the sentence of the court in another
case, Athearn was fined an additional ten pounds, one-half in money
forthwith and the balance in produce.

The punishments were heavy, but the spirit of Athearn was not
long downcast, and before the year is out he is found addressing a long
letter to Governor Andros concerning the difficulties experienced by
subjects at Martha's Vineyard not in the favor of the official circle.
This was one of the first of a long series of letters concerning affairs
at Martha's Vineyard with which Athearn was to bombard each suc
ceeding governor.

In these letters Athearn recommended candidates for civil, judi
cial, and military offices, criticized laws, attacked the characters of the
officeholders, and in general made himself an unsolicited nuisance.
When he died the islanders were uniform in their opinion that a great
civic leader had passed away.

When the conduct of the rebels, in defying Mayhew's authority in

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

time of war, in boasting "that the longest sword would bear rule," and
in challenging "the family of him" to physical combat, is considered,
the governor of Martha's Vineyard island is to be commended that he
did not originate a greater number of prosecutions after the restora
tion of peace. Only four cases are definitely known to have been insti
gated. It is quite possible that the remaining malcontents hastened to
make their peace, and were forgiven. The conduct of Mayhew was
gentle in comparison with punishments that would in modern days be
inflicted for similar offenses.

Yet it is the opinion of the historian of Martha's Vineyard that the
rebels "were simply being punished for seeking political freedom, and
naturally had the sympathy of those in other colonies where the ballot
was the poor man's weapon against oppression and arbitrary rulers."
The statement overlooks the fact that the poor man in America did
not have the ballot until the days of Andrew Jackson, long after. It
further ignores the fact that the freemen of the Vineyard had the
ballot in all town matters and for the election of all magistrates and
judges, with the exception of the chief magistrate. Five out of six of
the judges of the General Court were elected by the people. It is the
opinion of many qualified legal authorities that the appointive method
in the selection of a judiciary is preferable to the elective system; and
that system has always been the vogue in the Federal Government.

The history of colonial America is replete with warfare between
governors attempting to exercise prerogatives and freemen striving for
a greater degree of recognition. This controversy constitutes the
greater part of the political history of many of the American colonies
prior to the Revolution. It is not surprising that Thomas Mayhew,
whose administration as a proprietor and governor extended over a
period of forty-one years, should have been drawn into this maelstrom
of political thought and the war between proprietary and town.

Victory at Martha's Vineyard lodged with the governor and for
the balance of his life he ruled unruffled over the island which he had
colonized with so much genius.

Said he: "I have doune my best in settling these Isles: have
passed through many Difficulties and Daungers in it, been at verry
much Cost touching English and Indians."

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CHAPTER XVI

THE DEMOCRATS

At Nantucket the Gardners continued to control the local courts,
preventing Governor Mayhew from putting into force the authority
from Governor Andros to call the rebels of that island to account.
Unlike the rebellion at Martha's Vineyard, the insurrection at
Nantucket did not collapse on receipt of the news of the resurrender
of New Amsterdam. Between the rebellious factions of the two islands
a common cause was not effected.

The receipt of the Andros instructions stirred new activity in the
ranks of the insurrectionists. Capt. John Gardner and Peter Folger
were appointed by the half-shares men to go to New York to present
Andros with a report of "the true state of affairs" on the island, as
they saw it.

After some delay Gardner and. Folger repaired to the capitol
armed with a petition in which the half-shares men professed to wel
come the arrival of the new governor-general as they would "the ris
ing Sun after a dark and stormy Night." In the document the signa
tories advanced the hope that Andros would grant their "friends"
Gardner and Folger, a favorable audience and a candid hearing of the
situation, which they alleged to believe had not been accurately reported
by Matthew Mayhew, Tristram Coffin, and Thomas Daggett. Much
that did not appear in the petition would be told the governor by the
envoys; "There being many Things and that of Consequence which
by writeing we cannot so well do, which we have committed to our
Friends, to attend yo'r Hon's Direction in." In the mouth of these
friends, continue the petitioners, "we are confident will not be found
a false Tongue.''

Before the promulgation of the Andros orders, the half-shares men
had laid great stress on the Lovelace charter and had maintained that
their conduct was wholly in submission to the Duke's government. But
the opinion of the governor-general, that the charter did not void May-

*This is the last of four installments of Mr. Hare's story of Thomas Mayhew.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

hew's patent, cut the ground from under them. Although they pro
fessed to Andros their "true and hearty Obedience to his Royall High
nesse Lawes," their conduct belied their words. On the island they
were now openly in opposition to the Duke's government, maintaining
that the orders of the governor-general "were nothing" because, in their
opinion, they had been promulgated under a mistaken knowledge of
the facts.

When Gardner and Folger arrived at the capitol they found there
Matthew Mayhew and Tristram Coffin on behalf of the whole-shares
party. A four-day session with the governor ensued. The silvery
tongued "friends" harangued the governor and were answered by
Mayhew and Coffin. ·

On the last day of the hearing a "Draught of what was graunted,
allowed of, and consented unto by all Partyes" was ordered engrossed.
It provided a number of radical changes in the scheme of government,
not the least important of which was a provis,ion that all matters triable
in the local island courts, involving property or damages over five
pounds in amount, and all cases and proceedings in the General Court
should be tried in accordance with the Duke's laws. This changed the
framework of government established by Lovelace which had permit
ted the island legislators to make laws based on selections from the
Boston, Plymouth, and English law books.

The change sheared the island jurisdiction of a large share of its

autonomy in local government. However, each island and the several
town corporations were authorized to continue the making of local
ordinances in matters not exceeding five pounds. By the confirmation
of this power, Governor Mayhew and those associated with him in
government were still empowered to make laws at Martha's Vineyard
that would meet with Mayhew's high standards of morality in Indian
affairs.

Other changes were made in government which were of no particu
lar benefit to either side. The vital question of land titles was left in
statu quo. A ruling that the Lovelace charter was one of confirmation
was a victory for the landed party, but the ruling that the lands of the
non-resident owners should not be forfeited, providing they should
thereafter improve their properties, was a partial victory, not entirely
fair to the proprietors who had originally acquired their lands without

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qualifications. The absentee owners were entitled to a confirmation of
their rights in accordance with the terms of their purchase from Thomas Mayhew.

History paints Governor Andros in no pretty attitude as a gov
ernor of northern colonies in America, but his conduct of island affairs
while in charge at New York was on the whole conciliatory.

Hardly had matters been temporarily adjusted at Nantucket when
Simon Athearn lifted the lance of his pen and dipped into the ink pot
to enlighten Andros of the "true" state of affairs at Martha's Vine
yard. Like his prototypes at Nantucket he was not restrained in the
use of personalities and criticism. He was particularly laborious in
detailing the shortcomings of the ruling family at Martha's Vineyard
as seen from his own angle, and made mention of "rible rable and
notions of men" in reference to laws not meeting his approval.

Athearn's spleen was aroused by the fact that he had just purchased
lands of the Indians, in disregard of Mayhew's title, on the principle
that he was entitled to do so under the terms of the Lovelace charter
to the town of Tisbury, which was similar in language to that granted
the town of Nantucket. In this respect Athearn borrowed some of
Capt. John Gardner's thunder. Because Mayhew refused to record
the lands purchased of the Indians, Athearn was in favor of a change
of administration in government. He disapproved bitterly the power
granted the local court which enabled it to make laws more stringent
for Martha's Vineyard than those in force in other parts of the
province.

Meantime the complexion of politics at Nantucket was changing.
Thomas Macy, one of the few whole-shares men to be affiliated with
the Gardner faction, had been appointed chief magistrate of Nan
tucket. For a reason not now known, at the end of his term of office
a successor was not appointed. Macy called a meeting of the town
to consider the matter and the town decided that he should hold over
in office until a new magistrate should be commissioned by Andros.

Peter Folger writes of the meeting. Says he, "Som of vs said it
was not the Town's Business to speake of his Commission, but we did
conceiue that your Hon. had left a safe and plain Way for the carying
on of Gouernment til further Order. Others sayd that his Commis
sion was in Force til further Order, though not exprest and argued it
out from former Instructions, and began to be very fierce."

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Continues Folger, "We thought their End to be bad and, there
fore sayd littel or nothing more, they being the greater Part, but were
resoulued to be quiet, looking upon it as an evil Time."

Island control had swung again to the side of the whole-shares men.
A number of inhabitants of the mainland had removed to the island to
escape the depredations of the Indians stirred by King Philip. Among
these were Peter and James Coffin, sons of Tristram. Peter, later a
chief justice of New Hampshire and for a time acting governor of that
province, was a proprietor of Nantucket and had been one of the first
Ten Purchasers. His brother James, a prominent merchant, was also
a proprietor. Both were members of the absentee landlord class that
the Gardners had been so assiduously attacking. Their appearance
was embarrassing to the half-shares men.

"Then another Meeting was called to chuse new Assistants to Mr.
Macy," recites our informant of still more "evil Times," and "We
knowing that we should be out voted, sat still and voted not. The
first Man that was chosen was Peter Coffin."

Whereupon rose the gore of Peter Folger. He had been one of
the "friends" elected by the town who had given Andros "full Sat
tisffaction and Information" concerning island affairs. As a reward
for his efforts he had been appointed Recorder and Clerk of the Writs
of the local court. In his possession were its records.

The new clerk questioned whether the court now constituted by the
majority party at Nantucket was "a Legal Court." His quandary
grew out of the holding over of Macy ( which was in accordance with
the rules of the Duke's government for which Folger expressed much
solicitude) and the fact that Peter Coffin was an officer in the Massa
chusetts Colony at the time of his coming to Nantucket, and more par
ticularly "A Man that brought hither an evil Report of your Hon.
from the Bay" which "if your Hon. [Andros J did know the Man as
well as God know him, or but half e so well as some of us know him,
I do verily belieue that your Hon. would dislike his Ruling here as
much as any of vs."

In December the Quarter Court of Nantucket convened, and Fol
ger as clerk was in a "Strait what to do," but he "Resolued to be quiet"
and to that end appeared at Court with the court book "thinking
thereby to while away Time" as peacefully as possible until some fur-

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ther order might be received from New York that would meet with the
approval of the Gardner faction. At the session Folger refused to
make any entry of the court's actions or to give up possession of the
records.

According to Folger's admission the books and records of the court
were demanded of him several times, before his arrest. At length a
constable was dispatched with a warrant, whereupon Folger departed
for the house of Captain John Gardner for solace and advice. Here
he was found, in bad company as the constable thought, and "haled and
draged" out of the house and carried to court.

"I cam before them," says Folger, "and carried myselfe every
way as ciuilly as I could, only I spake neuer a Word, for I was fully
persuaded that if I spake anything at al, they would turn it against me.
I remembered also the old Saying that of nothing comes nothing."

The outcome of the adage was the return of Folger to jail, "where
neuer any English-man was put, and where the Neighbors Hogs had
layed but the Night before." Court records show that Peter Folger
was "Inditted for Contempt of his Majis Athority, in not appearing
before the Court according to sumons serued on him" and for refusing
to speak when presented to the Bar "Tho the Court waited on hem a
While and urged him to speak."

The case was remitted to the Court of Assizes at New York for
trial, and Folger kept in prison, although upon occasion his kind
hearted keeper allowed him to visit home.

Every effort was made by the authorities to secure the book of
records, but without success. Valuable records of the early courts of
Nantucket are consequently lost to the historian.

It is quite certain that Folger could have secured ample bail had he
been so minded, for his family and friends were in a position to give
him all the needed assistance. But although his adherents failed to
raise bail, they were outspoken in their expressions of indignation at
the imprisonment of the "Recorder and Clark of the Writs," "a poore
old Man, aged 60 Yeares." Sarah, wife of Mr. Richard Gardner,
being legally convicted of speaking very "opprobriously and uttering
many slanderous words concerning the imprisonment of Peter Folger,"
was summoned to appear before the Court, where she was admonished
at the Bar to have a care in the use of evil words tending to defame His

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Majesty's Court. Fines provided for by law in such cases were remit
ted upon her good behavior. Others convicted of speaking evil of
authority, or in defamation of Court, were Tobias Coleman and Elea
zur Folger, the latter a son of the martyred clerk.

Folger's stubborn conduct at this time was particularly unfortunate
as it stimulated a feeling of unrest among the Indians. King Philip's
War was waging on the mainland. The times were dangerous and
troublesome. It is understood that the book withheld by Folger con
tained matters of Indian importance which could not be solved without
the presence of the record.

Folger in a letter to Andros hints an Indian uprising if he is not
released, and if laws passed by the new magistrates are not revoked.
It must be inferred that one of these was the law against the liquor
traffic. It is clear that Capt. Gardner paid little attention to this law
and there is no direct evidence that either he or Mr. Folger was par
ticularly active in quieting the resentment shown by the Indians.

Complaint was made by the Indians, reports Folger's letter, that
the new magistrates were "Young Men," and that Peter Coffin, a
"Boston Man," judged their cases. It is doubtful if the Indians would
have questioned the right of Coffin to act as judge, without English
instigation, which must have come from members of the half-shares
faction.

On the other hand it cannot be denied that the Indians were accus
tomed to select the aged among them as the wisest. Experience alone
brings education to men who do not learn by the printed word. In
primitive communities experience is the result of age. The Indian
listened in councils of state most flattering to men of the tribe on the
sunny side of senility as oracles of profound wisdom.

The young men of the tribe were impressed more by the number
of gray hairs on the speaker's head, the furrows across his withered
cheek, and the moons that had passed over his venerable pate, than by
any profundity of thought that poured from his lips. The progress of
education was slow among the Indians, but for the needs of matrimony
and war it was sufficient. Each generation in turn listened with
depressing seriousness to the errors of the former and continued to
perpetuate them.

This sad picture is not entirely unknown to civilized peoples, who
are pleased to call the theory "conservatism" and to coin for it such a

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

neat slogan as "getting back to normalcy." It is the soul of statesman
ship. Lawyers call it precedence. Socialists call it other names.

It should be noted that of the men whom Folger complains were
so youthful, Thomas Macy was aged sixty-nine years, Peter Coffin
was forty-six, William Worth probably about thirty-nine, and Nathan
iel Barnard thirty-four. Folger was about fifty-nine. As Governor
Andros was but forty years of age, the argument was not a good one.
The troubles of Folger and Capt. Gardner were not ended by the
sentences of the local court. The deflection of chief magistrate Macy
to the whole-shares party enabled Thomas Mayhew to convene a Gen
eral Court.

The first matter which the justices of the court took into consider
ation was "how they might best maintain his Majestie's Authortie in
this Court, espetially with relation to the Heathen among whom it was
vulgarly Rumored that there was no Gournment on N antuckett and
haueing good Cause to suspect, the same to proceed originally from
some English instigating them, or by their practice incourageing them
in the same, to the great Danger of causing Insurrection," the court
saw fit to send for Captain Gardner.

The Captain of the local Foot Company, failing to respond to
summons, was brought forcibly before the court, where he "demeaned
himself most irreverently, sitting down with his Hat on, taking no
Notice of the Court, behaveing himself so both in Words and Ges
tures" as to declare his great contempt of the court's authority, to the
great dishonor of his "Majesties Authoritie."

Tristram Coffin, observing the Captain's conduct, spoke to him,
saying that he was very sorry that he did behave himself with such
contemptuous carriage in regard to the King's authority, whereupon
the Captain retorted, "I know my business and it may be that some of
those that have meddled with me had better eaten fier."

The sitting of the court was a busy one.   In modern day it would
have been covered by a corps of feature writers, pen and ink artists,
and a staff of photographers. The records of posterity would have
been enriched by court room photographs of the judge, pen in hand,
poised over a ledger, a group of blase court attaches, a battery of law
yers-chief,   assistants,   and   "attorneys of   counsel"-the   malcontents,
and certainly all their female relatives on the   witness stand adorned
in their best hosiery displayed in the most approved fashion in an

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attempt to save their loved ones from incarceration in His Majesty's
Gaol, where hogs had rooted the night before.

The session closed with the levying of numerous fines, and the dis
franchisement of Capt. John Gardner.

With the close of court an epidemic of letters descended on the
governor at New York like locusts of old in the land of Egypt. Gard
ner addressed Andros the 15th of March and again the 31st of May,
1677. Peter Folger contributed to the deluge with a lengthy epistle
dated the 27th of March, in which he not only presented the story of
his imprisonment, but took pains to round out any details that Gardner
might inadvertently have slighted.

Shortly before this, the pent up emotions of Peter Folger had over
flowed, and he took solace in the muses, writing a lengthy poem in
which he pointed out the evil of magistrates. Upon their bowed
shoulders he placed nearly all the ills of humanity including Indian
wars and the persecutions of Anabaptists "for the witness that they
bore against babes sprinkling."

The rulers in the country I do own them in the Lord:
And such as are for government, with them I do accord.
But that which I intend hereby, is that they would keep bounds,
And meddle not with God's worship, for which they have no ground.

Of course, it must be understood that there are good and bad
magistrates. It only happened that at Nantucket the good magistrates
were out of office and the enemy, composed always of bad magistrates,
in office. Godly men, like the uncrowned poet laureate of Nantucket
and the literarily inclined Gardner of letter writing fame, were without
employment.

It is not known that Andros ever saw Folger's poem or would have
read it had his attention been drawn to it, but he suspected by this time
that all was not well at Nantucket. It was evident that some of His
Majesty's well beloved subjects were not living in the bonds of peace
and brotherly love. There was a great deal more politics than gov
ernment at Nantucket.

From the sentence of disfranchisement, Captain Gardner entered
his appeal to the Court of Assizes, addressing himself to "Mr. Thomas
Mayhew and Gentlemen all such as are his Majesties Lawfull and
Rightfully Established Officers," thereby reserving any recognition of
the legality of the justices on the bench elected by the whole-shares
party at Nantucket.

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Thereafter, not awaiting the action of the Court of Assizes on
the merits of the appeal, Gardner brought his case directly to the atten
tion of the governor at New York. This extra-judicial procedure
resulted in an order by Andros that the proceedings against Gardner
be suspended until further order, "during which Time all Persons
[were] to forbear Intermedling Speeches or Actions or any Aggrava
tions whatsoever, at their Perills." The action on the complaint against
Peter Folger was likewise ordered suspended for the time being.

Thomas Macy, however, was ordered to continue in office as chief
magistrate, notwithstanding the contention of the half-shares men.
A few months later Governor Andros issued a further order in
the premises addressed to "the Magistrates of the Particular and Gen
erall Court att Nantucket" in which he declared the sentence of dis
franchisement to be illegal and beyond the authority of the court ren
dering the same.

The news that Capt. John Gardner had personally journeyed to
New York and brought his case before the governor, and the report of
the findings of Andros, was not happily received by the landed party.
Feeling ran high. Gardner gives his version of what occurred when
the order was received by Governor Mayhew. He writes: "Three
Days after hee came to my lodging in as great passion as I judg a man
could wel be Accu [s]ing me hyly whering I was wholly Innocent, and
not proued though endeauoured, Mr. Mayhew taking this opportunity
to vent himselfe as followeth, Telling me I hav bin at York but should
loose my Labour, that if the Gouernour did unwind he would wind,
that he would make my fine and disfranchizement too abide on me do
the Gouernour what he could; that he had nothing against me neither
was angry but that I had spocken against his Interest and I should
doune, with maney more Words of like Nature, but to loung hear to
ensert; and when I came Home to Nantucket, I found the same Mind
and Resolution there also."

After the pleasure of breaking the news to Governor Mayhew,
Gardner took satisfaction in delivering Tristram Coffin a letter from
Andros relative to the same matter. But restoration to citizenship did
not follow. The local leader of the gentry expressed doubt as to the
power of the governor-general to take Gardner's case away from the
Court of Assizes. He informed Gardner of the purpose of the whole
shares men to test the governor's power in the matter. Meantime the

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

governor's order "was nothing at all but two or three darke words." Gardner's disfranchisement and fine were to stand.

In time reaction expressed itself. Early in 1679 the men of the
town of Nantucket decided to elect Gardner an Assistant in the gov
ernment, notwithstanding the attitude of the General Court. Perhaps
they thought that Gardner had been sufficiently punished. But Tris
tram Coffin was not willing to give in and at the next meeting of the
General Court he took pains to direct the attention of that body to the
fact that the town of Nantucket had illegally elected John Gardner to
public office, whereupon the court ordered that a warrant should issue
to call the town to answer for its contempt of the order disfranchising
Gardner.

When it is considered that Gardner had long been under political
disability, that the townsmen of Nantucket were willing to restore him
to his former place in their good graces, ·and that rightly or wrongly
he had the support of Governor Andros, the conduct of the General
Court was obdurate. It may be thought that Thomas Mayhew, its
president, now nearing his eighty-seventh year, was more and more com
ing under the influence of his grandson Matthew, but any one who has
studied the old governor's career cannot but know that every act of his
life to his dying day was the result of his own volition.

In the political history of Nantucket there is little to choose between
the stubbornness of Thomas Mayhew, Tristram Coffin, Peter Folger,
and John Gardner. Each was "firm" to the point of eccentricity.

In the end, the General Court was obliged to retract its sentence.
Gardner's citizenship was restored by Governor Andros after years of
dilatory tactics on the part of the central government, and he was com
missioned Chief Magistrate of Nantucket. The breach between the
doughty warrior and Tristram Coffin was healed and a substantial
friendship established, befitting the spirit of Nantucket, destined to
become a Quaker community.

Following the death of Tristram Coffin, a grandson married a
daughter of Capt. Gardner. Thus were united the houses of Capet
and Montague in the bonds of matrimony. Political feuds faded in
the raising of five sons and three daughters.

A few rods east of the homestead of Richard Gardner, the bride's
uncle, was built a mansion house, in its day pretentious and elegant,
still to be seen. Here the united couple made their home. Tradition

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

states that the site of the house was donated by Captain Gardner and
the lumber in its construction sawed in New Hampshire in the mill of
the groom's father, the Peter Coffin whom Gardner had once accused
of having his "mouth full of vile reports."

Doubtless the stalwart old Captain quaffed a great glass of "Rom"
at the marriage festivities and recalled the days when he had said that
it were better to eat "fier" than to oppose his interest.

Tradition indicates that the Coffin-Gardner feud had not entirely
subsided at the time of the marriage ceremony. Just prior to the
event Peter took it upon himself to enquire if a deed had been executed
to the land upon which the happy couple's home had been built.
Informed that that little formality had been neglected, he forbade the
performance of the ceremony until the agreement of the families had
been consummated in full. The story goes that the Captain had to
hustle in order to sign, execute, and deliver the deed to the intended
couple before the time set for the wedding. Peter Coffin took a grim
delight in the Captain's predicament. The fire-eaters were not all on
one side.

Gardner in the office of chief magistrate later had trouble with the
"mouthings" of "sum hote brains" on the island, as he picturesquely
stated it. Satisfied with his abilities he wrote Andros that if the inhabi
tants of the island were left to themselves, it would soon be their ruin.
Gardner had made the discovery that there is always a fractious party
out of power to contend with. He had once been a rebel, he was now
one of the "ins" seeking the support of the governor-general at York
to whom he had so many times appealed as an "out."

With the ascension of William and Mary to the throne of England
a new charter was granted the Massachusetts colony, by the terms of
which Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and their dependencies were
transferred from New York to Massachusetts.

Under the Massachusetts government the land question of Nan
tucket, as well as that of other towns in the province, was settled for all
time by the passage of an act which authorized the proprietors of lands
to meet as a body in respect to the handling of land, apart of the town
as a political unit. Pursuant to the terms of the act the proprietors of
Nantucket in 1716 formed themselves into a body corporate known as
"The Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Lands of Nantucket."

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CHAPTER XVII

THE INDIAN CHURCH

The greatest missionary triumph of Thomas Mayhew was the
conversion of the Gay Head tribe of Indians, a race which for twenty
years had resisted the influence of the white man, being animated in its
obstinacy by pagan sachems on the continent near by. On the soil of
Aquiniuh, as the Indians called this land, close by the multi-colored
cliffs that are one of New England's marvels, heathen rights were per
formed and powwows exercised witchcraft and curative powers as in
the days of their fathers.

Through the activities of native preachers Thomas Mayhew was
able to reach the ear of the sachem Mittark, "Lord of Gay Head."
An account of Mittark's conversion is penned by a contemporary, the
Rev. John Mayhew: "Mittark, sachem of Gay Head, deceased Janu
ary 20, 1693. He and his people were in heathenism till about the
year 1663, at which time it pleased Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, to call him out of darkness into his mar
vellous light; and his people being on that account disaffected to him,
he left them and removed to the east end of the Island, where after he
had continued about three years, he returned home again and set up a
meeting at Gayhead, he himself dispensing the word of God unto as
many as would come to hear him; by which means it pleased God to
bring over all that people to a profession of Christianity."

Since that time Gay Head has been one of the Christian Indian
towns of the island. The stronghold of paganism is today the last
refuge of the Christian Indian.
About the time of the conversion of Mittark there came to fill the
pastorate at Edgartown the Rev. John Cotton, Jr., son of the cele
brated Boston preacher of that name and uncle of the still greater
Cotton Mather. He accepted what the Reverends Pierson and Hig
ginson had disdained, and with the enthusiasm of a youth of twenty
four years of age entered upon the duties of his first regular church
office. It was understood that he was to lend himself to the work of
the Indian mission, now without the services of Peter Folger, who had
removed from the island.

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Cotton Mather informs us that the new clergyman hired an Indian
at the rate of twelve pence per day for fifty days to teach him the
Indian tongue, "but his Knavish Tutor having received his Whole Pay
too soon, ran away before Twenty Days were out."

In addition to his salary as pastor of the church at Edgartown, Cot
ton received an honorarium from the Society for his missionary labors.
The family purse was further filled, in one year, by a payment of ten
pounds to the cleric's wife for her more or less professional services
among the natives in the art and mystery of "Physicke and Surgery."
The Puritan mind conceived the profession of medicine, like law, a
democratic pursuit for the well meaning soul rather than the trained
mind. Perhaps he was not far wrong in reposing his faith in God
rather than in the sciences of the seventeenth century.

The services of John Cotton were not of long duration. A rupture
with the governor ensued.   Cotton was inexperienced in years, a scion
of a famous family, and doubtless headstrong in opinion, disinclined to
submit to minute supervision. Mayhew was old in the arts of his
labor, and settled in his ways, a man who brooked little interference
and rebellion: that a clash of wills ensued is not surprising. The dif
ferences of the two were laid before the commissioners of the United
Colonies, and the following is a record of what happened in the matter:
         Mr John Cotton appeared before the Commissioners and was
seriously spoken too To Compose those allianations between him and
Mr Mahew; otherwise it was signifyed to him that the Commissioners
could not expect good by theire labours wheras by theire mutuall Con
tensions and Invictiues one against another they vndid what they taught
the Natiues and sundry calles ( as hee said) being made him by the
English to other places      hee was left to his libertie to dispose of
himself e as the Lord should Guid him.

Severing his connection with the Vineyard, the young pastor
removed to Plymouth, one of the "sundry calles," where he served a
useful pastorate many years and continued his missionary labors by
preaching to the Indians of that locality.

Three years after his removal from the island an Indian church
was formed at Martha's Vineyard. The two Mayhews and Eliot had
been slow to grant the natives full fellowship in a church body organ
ized on the English pattern. John Eliot in 1660 had organized a church
of Indians at Natick, but without native officers or pastor, due, informs

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Eliot, to the desire of the members that he alone should serve as its
head.

As early as 165 2 the junior Mayhew had drawn up "an excellent

Covenant" in the native language, which was entered into by a number
of Indians, who elected rulers from among themselves "to suppress all
Wickedness" and to encourage goodness. It was the duty of these
men "to see that the Indians walked in an orderly manner; encourag
ing those who did so, and dealing with those who did not, according to
the word of Goo."

Shortly after the death of Thomas Mayhew, Jr., the father organ
ized a few of the converts into a tentative church body. Ceremonies
were arranged by him and invitations sent to Gov. Thomas Prince, of
Plymouth, and others, "but they came not," says Mayhew. However,
"the English on the island, and several strangers of divers places,
present, did well approve of them." Like the church gathered at
Natick, it had no officers.

Satisfied in time that the Vineyard converts had proven staunch in
the new faith and were ready and qualified for the full status of church
membership in accordance with the Congregational order, Thomas
Mayhew made arrangements for the organization of a church which
should be the first in both Americas to be regularly organized with
native officers and presided over by an ordained native pastor.

Again he sent invitations throughout the New England colonies,
inviting dignitaries interested in the Indian work to attend the cere
monies of installation. In response came John Eliot, "the leading light
in the missionary firmament," and the Rev. John Cotton who had
quarreled with Mayhew enough years before to have forgiven and
forgotten.

The presence of Eliot was, in one respect, the return of a compli
ment. Years prior to this event, Eliot had dispatched invitations to
scholars who were acquainted with the Indian language, inviting them
to assist him at an assembly of converts for the purpose of investigating
the fitness of Indians resident about Boston for church membership.
Of those invited, Thomas Mayhew, Jr., alone responded to lend aid.
Writing of the foundation of the Vineyard church, Prince tells us
that "The Day appointed being come, which was August 22, 1670, an
Indian Church was completely formed and organized, to the Satisfac
tion of the English Church, and other religious People on the Island,

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

who had Advantage of many Years Acquaintance, and sufficient Expe
rience of their Qualifications.''

The rites of the Congregational order were administered by the
three missionaries. Hands were imposed in ordination by John Eliot,
Mr. Cotton, and Thomas Mayhew. "We did at the first receive them,"
writes Mayhew, "they renouncing heathenism and confessing their
sins."

Dr. Increase Mather in a Latin letter to Professor Leusden, of
Utrecht, acquaints us that when the people had fasted and prayed, Mr.
Eliot, of Roxbury, and Mr. John Cotton, of Plymouth, laid their
hands on the ministers elect and they were solemnly ordained.

The Rev. John Eliot in a letter published at London writes of his
attendance saying, "Many were added to the Church…both
Men and Women, and were all of them baptised, and their Children
also with them" and that "the church was desirous to have chosen Mr.
Mayhew for their pastor; but he waived it; conceiving, he has greater
advantageous to stand their friend, and do them good; to save them
from the hands of such as would bereave them of their lands, &c. But
they should always have his counsel, instruction, and management in
their Ecclesiastical affairs, as they hitherto had; that he would die in
the service of Christ; and that the praying Indians, both of the Vine
yard and Nantucket depend on him, as the great instrument of God
for their good."

The officers of the church ordained by the missionaries were Hia

coomes, pastor; John Tackanash, teacher; John Nahnoso and Joshua
Momatchegin, ruling elders.

The ordination of a pastor and a teacher was in accordance with
the practice of the ancient churches of New England when each church
was supplied with two ministers who were supposed to be in some
respects distinct officers in the church.

The church at Martha's Vineyard first gathered its membership
from all parts of the island and Nantucket, but within two years was
divided into two churches, one at Edgartown and the other at Chappa
quiddick, both on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The Indian offi
cers of these churches solemnly and successfully carried on the work
with which they were charged, proving themselves worthy of the trust
imposed on them by their missionary father.

The story of Hiacoomes has already been related.

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Tackanash, teacher of the first church and after its division pastor
of the church at Edgartown, was the most distinguished of the Indian
preachers and was deemed the superior of Hiacoomes in both natural
and acquired abilities. He possessed considerable talents and was
exemplary in his life. Allowing himself few diversions he studied
much and seemed to advance in piety as he became more acquainted
with the truths of the gospel. In prayer he was devout and fervent.
He was faithful in his instructions and reproofs, strict in the discipline
of his church, excluding the immoral from the ordinances until they
repented. So much was he respected that the English at Edgartown,
when deprived of their own minister, received the Lord's supper from
his hand.

Says the Rev. Experience Mayhew:

The last time Tackanash administered the holy ordinance, I was
present, and saw with what gravity and seriousness he performed the
duty, which, though then a youth, I could not but specially notice, as
did many other English persons present. He was then indeed so weak
in body as not to be able himself to preach, but desired my father [Rev.
John Mayhew] to preach for him, which he did [in the Indian lan
guage], and immediately repeated to the English then present the
heads of his discourse. After this our Tackanash was never able
further to exercise his ministry in public.

This good man, and one of the great converts of the Mayhews
, died in his faith and was interred January 23, 1683, two years after
the death of the governor; mourned on the islands and the continent
by those who knew him. Like a true Puritan on his death-bed he
"gave good instructions and exhortations to his own family and such
as came to visit him." He was a splendid example of the accomplish
ment of English influence, but unfortunately the greater numbers of
his race were lacking in the qualities that placed him their superior.
A great concourse of people attended his funeral. Instead of the
howlings of the multitude, the gibberish of powwows, and pagan rites,
a funeral oration grave and serious was preached over his body by the
ancient Hiacoomes who, although too feeble to perform regularly the
duties of a pastor, returned from retirement to do honor to his departed
colleague.

Japheth Hannit made also a "grave speech," some of the heads of

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which were preserved. These present a picture of the Indian mind in
respect to Christianity:

We ought [ said he] to be very thankful to God for sending the
gospel to us, who were in utter blindness and ignorance, both we and
our fathers. Our fathers' fathers, and their fathers, and we were at
that time utterly without any means whereby we might attain the
knowledge of the only true God.

Before we knew God, when any man died we said the man is dead,
neither thought we anything further, but said he is dead, and mourned
for him, and buried him; but now it is far otherwise, for now this
good man being dead, we have hope towards God concerning him,
believing that God hath received him into everlasting rest.

Japheth, favored by the author of "Indian Converts," with the title
"Mr.," succeeded to the office of Tackanash and Hiacoomes, becoming
the third pastor of the Indian church at Martha's Vineyard. At the
ordination of Japheth, the superannuated Hiacoomes again appeared
publicly. "He laid hands on Mr. Japhet, prayed and gave the Charge
to him; which Service he performed with great Solemnity."

We are told that Japheth's father becoming a serious and Godly
man by conversion, the son had the advantage of a Christian education
while he was a child, living in a family "where God was daily wor
shipped." He married the daughter of a very Godly Indian. She
proved a very pious person "and did him good and not evil all the days
of her life." With these advantages. Japheth, after the gathering of
the Indian Church in I 670 "made a public profession of repentance
towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, and joined
as a member in full communion." He was for a considerable time
employed in offices civil and military, being captain of a military com
pany and later a magistrate. In both offices he acted to the accept
ance of English and Indians. His death in 1712 removed one of the
great Indian preachers of the church founded by Thomas Mayhew.

The ruling elders of the church were men well approved among
both English and Indians. John Nahnoso was known as Aiusko
muaeninoug, the Man of Reproofs, for the carefulness with which he
admonished sinners and offenders against the discipline of the church.
He died "universally esteemed a good Man." Joshua Momatchegin,
the second elder, was a resident of Chappaquiddick. He lived to sur
vive all his colleagues of the first church.

Religion falling into great decay among the English of Chappa-

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quiddick, so it was among the Indians, insomuch that in a short time
there were very few "godly persons" left there. "The Candlestick
which had been there being removed out of its Place," and the Indians
unchurched, the place was "filled with Drunkards instead of the Good
People who had before inhabited it," and these were continually sup
plied, with the hot liquors by which they were debauched, from the
very place whence the people of that district had formerly received the
good instructions and exhortations which had been a medium of their
happiness.

Momatchegin, nevertheless, held fast and "tho there was such a
Flood of strong Drink, as drowned most of the People in the Place
where he lived, yet he kept wholly free from any Excess in the Use of
those Liquors by which his Neighbors were destroyed."

At the ceremonies that established the Vineyard church were pres
ent a number of Nantucket Indians, among them the teacher of the
praying Indians of that island. There were at this time ninety families
on Nantucket that prayed to God. A number of these joined in full
worship at Martha's Vineyard, who later became a church of them
selves at Nantucket. Mayhew speaks of this church as one which
"relates to me," being as he meant an off-shoot of the Vineyard church,
and under his missionary supervision.

The first light of the Gospel came to Nantucket by means of the
Mayhews and Hiacoomes. Governor Mayhew, in 1674, writes that
he had "very often, these thirty-two years, been at Nantucket," which
takes us back to the year of his purchase of the island, and before its
settlement by the English.

No great missionary progress was made at Nantucket during the
lifetime of the younger Mayhew. From early accounts the native
inhabitants appear to have been a murderous and less tractable people
than their neighbors at Martha's Vineyard, but this may have been due
to the fact that they were far removed from the seat of English influ
ence and subject only to occasional visits from the Mayhews. They
failed to adopt the white man's religion to any great extent until the
settlement of the island by Tristram Coffin and the company of first
proprietors. The Indians then so marvelled at the white man's supe
rior knowledge and mode of living that they sought a teacher to come
among them to teach them the new life.

In 1664 the Apostle Eliot wrote that "sundry places in the country

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are ripe for labourers," whose Indian inhabitants intreat that some of
their countrymen be sent unto them to teach them, whereof "one of the
brethren of the Church at Martins Vinyard is called by the Nantuket
Indians to teach them." And because no soldier goes to war at his own
expense, Eliot promised several of these militant bearers of the Cross
that they should be completely outfitted with new clothes-shoes,
stockings, a coat and neckcloth-a costume sadly missing in a necessary
garment to any but the Indian eye.

The Indian ordered from Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket, in
response to the request for apostles, was Samuel, a schoolmaster
employed at the Vineyard as an assistant to Thomas Mayhew. The
Commissioners at their annual meeting voted ten pounds "More to Mr
Mahew to dispose to Samuell sent to Natuckett and other deserueing
Indians there."

It is known that Mayhew at one time sent what he termed ''4

vnderstanding Indians thither purposely, whose goeing was very use
full in severall respects too longe to recite." Whether these four
emissaries were sent before or after Samuel, and whether they preached
their doctrine openly, or quietly diffused the new religion in the Indian
ranks, cannot be said.

The work at Nantucket progressed with success. Says Gookin,
"The Indians upon this island sow English as well as Indian corn, spin
and knit stockings, and are more industrious t4an many other Indians.
The truth is," he adds, with a show of philosophy, "the Indians, both
upon the Vineyard and Nantucket are poor; and, according as the
scripture saith, do more readily receive the gospel and become reli
gious. The rules of religion teach them to be diligent and industrious;
and the diligent hand maketh rich, and adds no sorrow with it."

The pastor of the first church at Nantucket was Assassamoogh,
known to the English by the less difficult name of John Gibbs. He was
Thomas Mayhew's prime convert on this island. By 1674 the church
had admitted thirty members to full communion; the men in fellow
ship being twenty and the women ten-a ratio of sexes in reverse of
that customarily the rule in church societies. Forty children and youths
had been baptised and three hundred Indians, young and old, prayed
to God and kept holy the Sabbath day.

Oggawome was the meeting place of the Indian church, a location
nearly abreast of the fifth milestone on the Siasconset Road. It is in
the neighborhood of modern Plainfield, and was one of the largest

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Indian villages on the island. Here John Gibbs for twenty-five years
preached to his countrymen by the waters of the pond that still bears
his name, Gibbs Pond.

Elsewhere meetings were held, presided over by Indian teachers-

Joseph, Samuel, and Caleb; the latter master of the Indian school. The
school was conducted in the Indian tongue, but Caleb confided to
Gookin an earnest desire to read and understand English and entreated
that dignitary to procure him an English Bible, which was accordingly
done by order of the commissioners. Like numerous others of May
hew's best converts, Caleb was the son of an Indian prince.

Shortly after the governor's death there were two Indian churches
of the Congregational persuasion and one Baptist church at Nantucket.
All three traced their origin to the first Indian church of Martha's
Vineyard.

It is a startling fact that for nearly half a century after the settle
ment of the island of Nantucket the only Christian churches in the
community were those gathered among the Indians. Unlike the rulers
of Massachusetts, Thomas Mayhew made no effort to compel the set
tlements to establish churches. An aristocracy of saints was not set
up and church membership was not a prerequisite to the ballot. Thomas
Mayhew was a man of deep religious instincts, but he also believed in
freedom of thought in matters touching man's relation to God.

The early settlers of Nantucket are known to have been men of
definite religious convictions, but differing widely in doctrinal beliefs,
they determined to let each go his own ecclesiastical way. A diversity
of beliefs prevented the formation of an early church. In after years
the island became a Quaker stronghold-the natural outcome of an
independent spiritual attitude.

A number of the early settlers, including Peter Folger, were Ana
baptists. The members of this sect tried at first to hinder the Indians
from administering baptismal rites to infants, but were soon prevailed
on to be "quiet and meddle not" with missionary activities. The Bap
tist churches at Gay Head and Nantucket are said to be the fruition of
Folger's teachings.

A picture of an Indian church in r 792 portrayed by a Quaker may
suffice to give a glimpse of the native mode of worship:

I will say something more in recommendation of some of our old
Indian natives. They were very solid and sober at their meetings of

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worship, and carried on in the form of Presbyterians, but in one thing
they imitated the Friends or Quakers, so called; which was to hold
meetings on the first day of the week and on the fifth day of the week,
and attended their meetings very precisely. I have been at their
meetings many times and seen their devotion; and it was remarkably
solid; and I could understand the most of what was said: and they
always placed us in a suitable seat to sit; and they were not put out by
our coming in, but rather appeared glad to see us. A minister is called
cooutaumuchary. And when the meeting was done, they would take
their tinder-box and strike fire and light their pipes, and, may be,
would draw three or four whifs and swallow the smoke, and then blow
it out of their noses, and so hand their pipes to their next neighbor.
And one pipe of tobacco would serve ten or a dozen of them. And
they would say "tawpoot," which is, "I thank you." It seemed to be
done in a way of kindness to each other.

It has been said of the Puritan missionaries of New England that
had they been satisfied with the "coining" of Christians by baptism
they could have greatly increased the number of nominal converts.

Notwithstanding the high standards of conduct set by the mission
aries, the progress and numbers of converted Indians in the New Eng
land missions compare favorably with those elsewhere. Comparison
may be made with the famous California missions, the first of which
was established in I 769, one hundred and twenty-six years after the
conversion of Hiacoomes.

Although the Indian population of California was large, the
growth of the missions was not fast. By the end of the fifth year the
five Spanish missions had a total of 49 I baptismal converts, and of
these it is believed only sixty-two in the territory were adults. "These
slender results in such a populous field seem even more significant
when analysed," says Professor Charles E. Chapman, the well-known
historian of Spanish-California. An average of five or six adults a
year at a mission was all that had been obtained, and three missions
in fact had few or no adult neophytes.

The one Vineyard mission in I 65 I, with only the private support

of the Mayhews, had in that year 199 men, women, and children who
professed themselves worshippers of the Christian God, and among
these were included Indian chieftains and powwows.

In ref erring to the methods and successes of the several mission
ary projects in America, differences of culture, religious practices and

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beliefs, geographical conditions, and Indian attitude have each their
place. True and valuable comparisons are difficult.

However, admitted differences in the methods of the Spanish and
English missions existed in several respects. The Spaniards in Cali
fornia brought the Indian to the mission, where he lived and labored
upon rich farms for the communal benefit of those of his race who
accepted the faith. No pretense of purchase of these farms was made,
and Indians who refused to accept the faith were not allowed to share
in the fruits of their own lands. In New England the mission was of
necessity brought to the Indian and not the Indian to the mission. Ter
ritory did not exist in areas of sufficient fertility to warrant the estab
lishment of mission plantations. Indian towns were established, but in
the main the Indians of Martha's Vineyard were taught in their own
villages.

The instruction of the Indian in the science of self-government did
not receive the approbation of the Spanish missionaries, but it was
attempted by them in a limited degree because of the insistence of the
civil authorities. The Spaniard was monarchical in his ideas of gov
ernment and hierarchical in religion. He cared little for the princi
ples of Magna Charta and the "liberties" which every Englishman con
sidered a part of his personal rights, and for which he would spend a
lifetime in politics or war to protect. This was, of course, due to a
difference in cultural background and viewpoint.

According to Fr. Engelhardt, author of an elaborate history of the
California missions, the Spanish missionaries believed in teaching very
little book knowledge to the California Indian, who was mentally of
an inferior type. Stress instead was laid on manual labor and skilled
craftsmanship. The education of the Indian was warranted to prove
practical and useful to him in his life at the mission.

The methods of the mission system in California have not escaped
criticism. A less severe critic than many, Dr. Chapman, writes: "Dis
cipline was strict and severe. Native officials inflicted whippings or
other penalties upon the recalcitrant, by order of the missionaries, but
the more serious offences were turned over for punishment to the cor
poral of the guard. Unaccustomed either to working or to submission
to discipline the Indians often endeavored to run away, but were pur
sued and brought back. To lessen the opportunity of escape, walls
were constructed around the mission, and the Indians were locked up

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at night. All in all, the institution of the Spanish mission was one of
the most interesting examples of 'benevolent depotism' that human his
tory records."

If a convert chose to attempt an escape, writes Fr. Engelhardt, he

was followed and brought back to the mission, not being free to resume
his wild and immoral life as he "bore the indelible mark of a Christian
upon the soul" which he was not allowed to desecrate. Once he had
submitted himself to the mission and been baptised he was considered,
explains Engelhardt, "on a level with the soldiers who had taken an
oath to stand by the flag of their country which they could not be per
mitted to desert."

Whipping was a form of punishment common to civilized nations.
At Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Indians in Governor Mayhew's
time were whipped by each other for drunkenness, and in later years
were ordered whipped by their own and English judges for infractions
of the civil law. The attitude of the English towards the power of the
church and its control of civil and religious conduct prevented the
restraint of the Indian under lock and key or military guard, as was
the practice in California.

Some of the criticism of the California missions has had its origin
in the attitude of Spanish and Mexican civilians who were not in sym
pathy with the work of the Franciscans and who aspired to share in the
ownership of the great tracts of land under mission control.

Notwithstanding the attitude of the earlier California historians
who are critical of mission methods or of Fr. Engelhardt who rails
at these students as "bigots" and "infidels" and "closet historians," the
fact remains there. is room in the heart of posterity to accord glory to
all the missionaries. Certain it is there was not enough profit in the
work to call to its banner any but men of the highest Christian type and
good will, of whatever faith or blood. However one may disagree
with some of the methods practiced, the labors and sacrifices of the missionaries are indisputable. Their glory belongs to mankind and to
no one religion or race.

The missionary history of California is one of the state's best tra
ditions. But it has not escaped glorification. It is unfortunate that
writers and publicists have found it necessary to over-emphasize the
missionary activities of any one race and to belittle those of another in
an effort to aggrandize a particular nation or creed.

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Little has been written of the missionary labors of the English and
much about the Spaniard. An unhappy balance has been the result in
the public mind. This is increased by Mr. Charles F. Lummis who,
in an effort to present the Spaniard in a favorable light, finds it neces
sary to speak slightingly of John Eliot and to ignore the existence of
other English missionaries. Mr. Lummis has made the astounding state
ment that Eliot had no "imitators," implying that missionary work by
the English was carried on by Eliot alone, and that it came to an end
with his death.

The same author suggests that his readers fancy Massachusetts
with twenty-one industrial schools for Indians, each with five hundred
to three thousand pupils (such being the number and population of the
Spanish missions in California at one time), but he fails to call atten
tion to the fact that statistics place the number of Indians in California
from 50,000 to 150,000. In all southeastern New England, that is,
the colonies of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and the present
states of Rhode Island and Connecticut, there were in the first days of
settlement no more than a few thousand Indians. Naturally the Eng
lish could not obtain great numbers of converts, but they did obtain a
high percentage of the population, probably greater in proportion than
did the Franciscans in California.

The territory embraced in the present state of Massachusetts not
only was sparsely populated with Indians, but its geographic area is
roughly one-twentieth that of present California. An effort to detract
from the earnestness and ability of the Puritan missionaries by a
numerical comparison of converts without regard to areas and popula
tion is not short of ridiculous.

The several missions of Mayhew, Eliot, Tupper, Bourne, and
Cotton, compare favorably with any five of the twenty-one Spanish
California missions. Laperouse is authority for the statement that in
1789, seventeen years after the foundation of the first California mis
sion, the number of converted or domesticated Indians was 5,143. This
gives an average of between five and six hundred converts per mission.
In 1802 eighteen Spanish missions had 15,562 converts ranging from
437 to 1,559 Indians each. Statistics of the New England missions
are scant, but it is known that in 1674 Eliot had 1,100 praying Indians
under his care, the Revs. Bourne and Cotton 700 in Plymouth Colony,
and Mayhew, 1,800 converts. Making allowances for differences of

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CHAPTER XVIII
THE WAR OF EXTIRPATION

On the 24th of June, 1675, King Philip opened his long cherished
war for the extermination of the English by the sack of Swansea.
Whatever is the ill repute of Governor Andros in New England his
tory he was an officer of administrative ability, and upon Philip's threat
responded with a promptness and efficiency to a degree laudable when
compared with the military helplessness of many of the governors of
colonial America. Andros was an untactful but well meaning cavalry
officer. An aristocratic servant of the Stuarts, he was only popular in
America while governor of Virginia, but as a man he was honest,
faithful to his masters, and endowed with an administrative ability that
deserves better of historians than has been his fortune.

There was stir and bustle in the early morning scene at Fort James
on the day when the fate of New England hung by a thread. News
that the Indians were in arms in Plymouth Colony reached Andros by
letter from Governor Winthrop at "About 3 o'clock" on the morning
of July 4.

At that hour the messenger on the King's service drew rein before

the massive gates of the fort. He was met with the sharp challenge of
a sentry, there was an exchange of voices, a hurriedly opened gate, the
muffied tread of footsteps across parade ground and court yard, an
uncanny knock on the governor's chamber, voices, whispers, orders,
cries, the sound of feet, the sharp staccato of a trumpet in the stilly
night--unreal, chilling--excited inquiries, running feet, soldiers falling
into line, rumors, a word hurriedly whispered from file to file, an elec
tric current through the lines, INDIANS. It was a scene not uncommon
in colonial days.

Andros awaited no massacre of inhabitants in outlying towns, but
proceeded to set his province in order. He immediately dispatched a
letter in reply to Winthrop to be carried "in Post Hast" from con
stable to constable until its destination should be reached. In the let
ter the New York governor conveyed his intent to march that night
with a force of men to the Connecticut River, "his Royall Highnesse
Bounds there."

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It is typical of the colonial governors that although servants of the
same king, in an hour of peril they would continue to press their several
claims to territory. Both Andros and Winthrop claimed the territory
west of the Connecticut River as part of their respective colonies. In
repairing to the river Andros was furthering the jurisdictional claims
of his master as well as affording military protection to the king's
subjects.

Governor Andros and his troops were at Saybrook on the eighth,
where they found nothing to fear on the Indian account. The gov
ernor accordingly ordered one of his transport sloops eastward on a
cruise for intelligence, and dispatched letters to Winthrop and the gov
ernor of Massachusetts. He then crossed over the sound to the towns
on the eastward of Long Island, where he conducted a tour of military
inspection on his return down the island to New York. At Southold
he ordered a sloop to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket with two
barrels of powder, twenty-five muskets, and seven skeins of matches.
The fear of Andros for the safety of his eastward territories was
needless. The situation at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket was the
pastel shade in the crimson picture of Philip's War.

At the outbreak of the war the question uppermost in the minds of
the settlers was whether the converted Indians would remain true to
the English government which they professed. Never was an oppor
tunity so favorably presented a people to throw off a yoke had their
allegiance to the new religion and government been anything but a
voluntary and happy submission. To one who asks, was the mission
ary work of the Mayhews a success? Was the conversion of the
Indians a heartfelt acceptance of the white man's civilization or was
it a superficial conversion accomplished by force, bribery, or cajolery?
The answer lies in the conduct of the island Indians during King
Philip's War.

Elsewhere in New England attempt was made, wherever feasible,
to disarm the Indians, but at Martha's Vineyard an unheard of step
was taken. Instead of disarming the native inhabitants, Governor
Mayhew was emboldened to arm those among the Indians whom he
especially trusted as faithful adherents of the English.

The feasibility of an Indian militia Mayhew had broached many
years before to the commissioners of the United Colonies, who in reply
warned him that "for the training of the Indians and furnishing them

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with guns, powder and shott; wee are not free but wish rather it might
bee wholly restrained."

The governor of Martha's Vineyard knew the temperament of his
converts and when Philip's War broke out felt justified, as a means of
defense, in raising the military establishment proposed by him nearly
two decades before. He accordingly enlisted a company of Foot among
the red men, armed with powder and ball, and under the command of
Indian officers. The Indians being "improv'd" as a guard, "he gave
them instruction how to manag,e for the common safety." It was the
first Indian company of troops under British colors commanded by a
native captain.

On the island of Martha's Vineyard, as elsewhere, there were
many English who suffered themselves to be unreasonably exasperated
against all Indians to such an extent that they could hardly be
restrained by the governor and those associated in government with
him from attempting to disarm the natives, who greatly outnumbered
the whites in a ratio of about twenty to one.

To allay the fears of the timid and to satisfy the doubtful, the
governor ordered "captain Richard Sarson, Esq.," with a small com
pany of English, to march to the west end of the island, where resided
the Indians whose loyalty was most to be doubted, to treat with them
concerning their attitude toward the war. Captain Sarson accordingly
marched his command to Gay Head, the last stronghold of the pow
wows, where lived many of the Vineyard Indians.

Although the tribes of the island had at one time been tribute to
princes on the continent and subject to King Philip, the chief men of
the place met the military embassy with a protestation of friendship.
They answered the enquiries of the captain by saying that the Indians
engaged in the war against the English were not less the enemies of
the English than theirs. They expressed sorrow that their English neighbors had seen fit to suspect their fidelity, stating that they had
never given occasion to arouse the distrust intimated. But for deliver
ing up their arms, this they did not think wise to do as disarmament
would leave them exposed to the will of the warring Indians on the
neighboring continent. They stated that "if in any thing not hazard
ing their safety, they could give any satisfaction for the proof of their
fidelity, they would willingly attend what should reasonably be
demanded of them; but they were unwilling to deliver their arms,

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unless the English would propose some mean for their safety and live
lihood."

With this they drew up a writing in their own language, the sub
stance of which was "that as they had submitted to the crown of Eng
land, so they resolved to assist the English on these islands against their
enemies, which they esteem'd in the same respect equally their own, as
subjects of the same king which was subscrib' d by the persons of the
greatest note among them."

It was then that the governor proceeded with his plan to establish
an Algonquin military guard.

The news of Mayhew's comportment was received by the people
of Nantucket with disapproval. On that island the personal influence
of the missionary-governor among the Indians was less potent. The
men of Nantucket town recalled stories of war, fire, and rapine that
came from the mainland, of sleeping villages which had been ravaged
at night, and women and children fiendishly tortured, slain, or carried
into captivity. These tales recalled memories of murders perpetrated
by the Indians of Nantucket upon English sailors and shipwrecked
travelers; the inhabitants counted their weak numbers and were con
vinced that a general uprising of the island Indians would indubitably
wipe out their settlement.

At Nantucket the situation was intensified by the conduct of the
English inhabitants themselves. As has been related in prior chapters,
political feuds and jealousies had the island in their throes. Rumor
was rampant among the Indians that there was no longer government
among the English. The respect of the native for the function of law
and order and his belief in the ability of the whites to rule was badly
shaken.

For the safety of the island a number of inhabitants composed a let
ter to Governor Andros in which they recited the defenseless condition
of Nantucket and their fear of ill consequences "upon the Indyans
Trayning in Armes on Martins Vineyard." The writers commented
on the great strength of the Indians on both Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket and expressed a desire that Andros should send the inhabi
tants a "Couple of great guns, & halfe a dousen Souldrs."

About this time Andros received also a letter from Simon Athearn,
of Martha's Vineyard, who was always capable of giving advice, solicit
ing an order that "no person or persons be suffered to let any Indian

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or Indians have any powder in these perilous times." If Athearn had
been governor of Martha's Vineyard, there is little doubt but that his
request would have been necessary.

As it was, the letters had a logical sound, and Andros ordered a
cannon each to be delivered to the islands of Nantucket and Martha's
Vineyard and that copies of "ye Proclamation concerning ye Indyans,
of keeping Watches, erecting Block-houses &c" should be sent to the
inhabitants.

Throughout the war the English officials of Nantucket affected a
carriage towards the Indians of confidence, pretending no distrust,
although, reports chief magistrate Thomas Macy, "we haue heard
now and then a Word . . .. which we haue not liked but haue over
looked the same." The cool head of Thomas Macy was of great bene
fit to the inhabitants at this time.

One of Macy's early moves was the confiscation of liquor on the
island that the natives might not be kept "like wild Beares and Wolves
in the Wildernese." It was this move that aroused the antagonism
of John Gardner and others temporarily out of governmental power.
Gardner had a half barrel of "Rom" taken from him which he could
well have used. Suppression of the liquor traffic was difficult. Some
of the inhabitants would purchase liquor from traders coming to the
island, ostensibly for their own consumption, but actually for resale to
the Indians. It was Macy's suggestion that the governor of New
York issue an order prohibiting the sale of liquor by masters of visiting
vessels and that the island justices be empowered to regulate the sale
of strong drink in small quantities "for the moderate use of the Eng
lish here, or for Indians in case of distresse."

Dangerous and troublesome times passed without bloodshed. It
is traditional that a number of Indians brought guns and a cow to the
Nantucket court, as testimony of their fidelity to the English. Control
of the liquor traffic was effectuated and although the right of some of
the planters to keep and sell liquor was temporarily infringed, their
lives and the lives of their neighbors were thereby made safe.

The efforts of King Philip to arouse his countrymen on the islands
failed. The region of Gay Head was frequently visited during the
war by Indians from the continent coming to the islands to solicit mem
bers of their race, in many instances related by marriage or blood, to
rise against the English. Again and again these envoys were captured

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

and brought before Governor Mayhew by his native militia men to
attend his pleasure. So faithful were the members of the Indian com
pany to the local English government that the European inhabitants
of the island took little heed of their own defense, but left it mainly to
these Christian Indians to warn them of approaching danger, not
doubting to be advised by them of any danger from the enemy.

"Thus while the war was raging on the neighboring continent,
these islands enjoyed a perfect calm of peace, and the people dwelt
secure and quiet. This was the genuine and happy effect of Mr. May
hew the governor's excellent conduct, and of the introduction of the
Christian religion among them."

208

CHAPTER XIX

THE PRAYING TOWNS

No phase in the story of the struggle of the Indian to attain the
white man's civilization is more picturesque than that which relates to
the foundation of Indian towns at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,
where self-government was exercised by the inhabitants under princi
ples that reached far into the antiquity of English history.

To the outward eye the Praying Indian differed little from the
savage, but in philosophy of life a wide variation placed him a thing
apart from those of his race who clung to the old beliefs. The Chris
tian Indian spoke things not understood by his unconverted country
men. Naturally he sought to live in congregations.

In the winter of 1659 the sachem Josias of Takemmy granted the
praying Indians of his sachemship a tract of land one mile square for
their exclusive use, on payment of twenty shillings yearly to himself.
This was the beginning of the Indian town of Christiantown, which for
228 years was the home of praying Indians. In 1910 its last inhabi
tants were Mr. Joseph Mingo, his wife, and widowed son, Samuel.
Mr. Mingo is described at the time as being over eighty years of age
"and as straight as an arrow."

The verbal grant of Christiantown, or Manitouwattootan, stood
for a decade upon common report. In time a number of English
planters commenced the purchase of lands in Takemmy for the settle
ment of Middletown. The sale by Josias of the rich fields of Takemmy
aroused the anger of his pagan subjects, who realized that they would
not profit in the bargains made by him, but would only lose their lands
Between Josias and his braves constant quarrelings became the
order of the day. Conditions reached such proportions that Thomas
Mayhew concluded to call a great conclave of the natives to thresh out
their difficulties. A day was set when all factions met in the presence
of the patentee. We are told by an English eye-witness that the argu
ment between the sachem and his subjects at the powwow became so
heated "that mr Thomas Mayhew Esqr" had "very much adoe to
quiet the Indians." An understanding was effectuated through the
good graces of the patentee, and it was agreed by the sachem that no
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

further land should be sold the English without the consent and appro
bation of trustees appointed to act for the tribe as a whole. These
trustees were six in number; five of them being Indians and the other
Mr. Thomas Mayhew.

In part the agreement provided that "It is absolutely agreed by us
Thomas Mayhew, Kiteanumin [i. e., Josias], Tichpit, Teequinomin,
Papamick and Joseph, and wee doe hereby promise for our heirs and
successors that all the lands in Takemmy that is not sold unto the Eng
lish shall remain unsold for the use of the Indians of Takemmy and
their heirs forever; except the said Thomas Mayhew, Kiteanumin,
Tichpit, Teequinomin, Papamick and Joseph their heirs successors doe
all and everie one of them consent to the sale thereof of any part of
the same."

At the conclave, the sachem Josias also confirmed his verbal grant
of Christiantown to the praying Indians, "and ever since the sd Meet
ing," concludes our informant, "it hath generaly been esteemed to be
the Indians and called by the name of the Indian Town."

Thomas Mayhew drew up the following statement for permanent
record:

Josias and Wannamanhutt Did in my Presence give the Praying
Indians a Tract of Land for a Town and Did Committ the Govern
ment Thereof into my hand and Posteritie forever: the Bounds of the
said Land is on the North sid of Island bounded by the land called
Ichpoquassett and so to the Pond called Mattapaquattonooke and into
the island so far as Papamaks fields where he planted and now Plants
or soes: it is as broad in the woods as by the Seaside.

The form of government instituted by Thomas Mayhew at Chris
tiantown was probably one suited to the monarchical customs of the
Indians, and was democratized as the inhabitants grew in capability
for self-government. It may be supposed that petty courts were
erected for the trial of trivial matters, presided over by Indian magis
trates, with power of appeal to English justices, as this was the practice
of the governor in other Indian plantations where "a happy govern
ment" was settled among the Indians and records kept of all actions
and acts passed "in their several courts, by such who having learn'd to
write fairly, were appointed thereto."

Scant are the records of Christiantown, and the history of its judi
cial and administrative affairs is gleaned from occasional documents

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

and papers. As early as 1690 mention is made of an Indian magis
trate in the town and in 1703 Stephen Nashokow was "Justice of peace
for the Indians of Takymmy." In 1696, Isaac Ompanit, Stephen
Nashokow, and Obadiah Paul, trustees, refer to the rights "of them
selves and body politick as a town." Stephen was a preacher as well
as a justice of the peace. Experience Mayhew writes of Isaac Ompanit,
he "was a Magistrate as well as a Minister among his own Country
men, and faithfully discharged the Duties of that Office, according to
the best of his Skill and Judgment, not being a Terror to good W arks,
but to those that were Evil."

For a number of years the Indians of Christiantown remained
under the general supervision of successive members of the Mayhew
family. After the governor's death, his grandsons, Thomas and Mat
thew, were prominent in their civil affairs. In time the Indians of the
island as a tribe came under the guardianship of the English Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in material as well as spiritual mat
ters. Occasionally agents were appointed by the provincial, and later
the state government, of Massachusetts to act for the Indians in certain
capacities relating to their legal rights. Many of these agents or
"guardians" as they were called were members of the Mayhew family
in name or blood, carrying on the traditions of their family.

Early among these was Major Paine Mayhew, a great-grandson of
the governor, who in 1727 was one of the attorneys "To the Honor
able the Company for Propagating the Gospel & etc." He was Com
missioner of Indians at Chappaquiddick appointed to prosecute claims
on their behalf, and was also Guardian of Indians for Dukes County.
Other guardians were Colonel Zaccheus Mayhew, Dr. Matthew May
hew, Deacon Timothy Mayhew, Dr. Thomas Mayhew, and after the
Revolution, William Mayhew, librarian of Harvard College, Nathan
iel Mayhew, Simon Mayhew, Esq., and another William Mayhew, in
1813.

NOTE--Paine Mayhew, born 1677, died 1761.   Within one hundred
years of his death was born an unusual number of nationally known descendants,
a number of whom gained world-wide recognition.    Descendants include Major-
General William   Jenkins Worth, the Mexican War hero; Lucretia Mott, founder of
the woman's movement; Mde. Lillian Nordica, prima donna; "Camp Meeting" John
Allen, a most popular clergyman of his day in America; Rev. Charles F. Allen,
D. D., first president of the University of Maine; Jarr.es Athearn Jones, one of the
leading minor authors of the early nineteenth century; Cyrus Butler, founder of the
Butler Hospital for the humane treatment of the insane at Providence, Rhode
Island; Hon. Henry L. Dawes, United States Senator from Massachusetts, author of
Indian bills; Dr. Walter Hillman, college president, in whose honor was named
Hillman College, Mississippi; and Hon. Walter Folger Brown, postmaster-general
of the United States under President Hoover.

THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

In 1731 Experience Mayhew as agent for the Indians of Christian
town procured a grant from the provincial General Court granting the
praying Indians of Christiantown the right to elect officers for the con
duct of Indian affairs, making legal under the Massachusetts govern
ment the practice that had been in vogue under the Mayhews.

. . .

Thereafter "Legall Town Meetings" are of record presided over
by moderators and their business recorded by town clerks. The inhabi
tants, however, continued under the supervision of guardians and
missionaries.

Christiantown was essentially a religious community. Accordingly
a meeting house was erected for the Indians during the governor's life
time. Prior to this event the Mayhews, in making the circuit of
Indian plantation , had preached to the natives in their wigwams or
in the open fields when weather permitted. In the woods adjoining
the simple church, the Indians in later years placed a great square
stone, known as the Mayhew horse-block, to assist the missionaries in
mounting their horses.

After Governor Mayhew's death the original church structure was
replaced by another. In 1732 two flagons of silver were presented
the native congregation by the society of the Old South Church of
Boston, through the influence of Experience Mayhew.

Experience has left an account of a number of the Indian converts
of Christiantown. Contemporary with the governor was John Aman
hut, son of W annamanhut, the sachem. John was a preacher in the
town and in turn was the father of a still more illustrious preacher,
Hosea Manhut, ordained pastor of "the Indian Church at the West
End" of the island. Other native preachers at Christiantown in the
governor's day were Joel Sims who died about the year 1680 "much
lamented" and James Sepinnu, a brother of Tackanash.

The first to exercise the office of a minister to the people of Chris
tiantown was Wunnanauhkomun. He was well connected by marriage
"in the Indian way." His wife was a daughter of Cheshchaamog, the s
achem of Homes Hole and a sister of Caleb Cheshchaamog, the grad
uate of Harvard College. Her Indian name was Ammapoo, but
among the English she was called Abigail. "She used, while her hus
band lived, to pray in the family in his absence, and frequently gave
good counsel to her children." Of death she would sometimes speak
"as the hand of God, by which his people were removed into a better
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

place than this; and would also call it a ferryman, by which we have
our passage out of this life into the next."

The most remarkable family in Christiantown was that of Shoh
kow. The progenitor of this family was a praying Indian of Takemmy
called N ashokow. He had five sons, all of whom became Indian
preachers on the island. His son Micah was in early life "a lover of
strong Drink," but reforming in after years, "frequently preached to
the Indians on the island," especially those in the town in which he
lived and died. Stephen, heretofore mentioned, was brought up "in
a pious English family," where he received an education. The other
sons were preachers and esteemed for "piety."

A noted Indian was Old Paul, who was "generally esteemed a
godly Man" and "without any Stain in his Life and Conversation."
An Indian classified as one of the "Good Men" of the island was Job
Somannan, of mixed antecedents, his father being a praying Indian and
his mother a heathen. He was taught to read in his native tongue and
later learned to read and write in English. He became a schoolmaster
and "a great Lover of good Books," yet he had "such Apprehensions
of the Holiness that was necessary to qualify Persons for the Enjoy
ment of Church Privileges, that he thought it not safe for him to
venture to lay claims unto them."

It must not be thought that all native preachers on the island were
ordained clergymen. Experience Mayhew classifies ruling elders and
deacons in the same category as "will appear the more natural when I
have said that in the Indian churches both ruling elders and deacons
have generally been preachers of the word of God, though they have
been only chosen and set apart to the offices by which they are denom
inated." The majority of those who preached in the several towns of
the island were lay ministers and teachers. Ordination was an honor
bestowed upon only a chosen few.

Preachers, lay and ordained, taught at several centers of popula
tion on the islands. Christiantown was the. oldest, but not the sole
organized Indian town. A sister community was Gay Head, with a
history even longer in years than Christiantown. Although Gay Head
had no town government for many years, it is of interest as the sole
surviving Indian town on the islands. Its church is one of the ancient
in North America.

Mittark, the first preacher at this place, was succeeded by Japheth

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

Hannit, of Chilmark, who was assisted by Abel Wauwompuhque and
Elisha Ohhumuh. The two latter were preaching to 260 souls in 1698
and had a meetinghouse framed. This may have been the edifice which
was standing on the Old South Road over a hundred years later. In
it were heard the voices of the Mayhews, at least Experience preach
ing 1694-1758, and Zachariah, 1767-1806, and their successor, the
Rev. Frederick Baylies, in years beginning 1810.

The Congregational Church at Gay Head founded by the May
hews is commonly remembered as "The Old Presbyterian Church" and
as "The Church of the Standing Order"; the first having reference
to its form of organization and the second to the fact that the Congre
gational Church in Massachusetts was the State Church, supported by
taxation. Churches not Congregational, were dissenting bodies, and
not of the "standing order."

The last preacher of "the Standing Order" was Zachary Howwos
wee, "still a name to conjure with, a dim figure looming out of the
past--but looming mightily." He was the last to preach in the Indian
tongue, although there were few left in his congregation that were
capable of understanding the language of their fathers. He clung,
however, to this last tie of the entity of his race. So fervidly could
he preach in the unknown language that he could make his listeners
cry, although they knew not a word he spoke. He was a "large farmer"
and prosperous, but declined into drink. He made a brave but vain
struggle to maintain his people as a race; but with dwindling attend
ance and his own unfortunate struggle with intemperance, the light he
sought to keep burning, went out. He used to tell his congregation
"you must not do as I do, but as I say."

A Baptist schism at Gay Head appeared in the eighteenth century.
Little effort was made to combat it as the Mayhew missionaries were
willing that any Christian faith should be worshipped in preference to
paganism. At one time the sole Baptist minister on the island was an
ordained Indian preache1:4.

In 1849 it was said of the Gay Headers that they were "in the
main, a frugal, industrious, temperate and moral people; but not with
out exception." Twelve years later it was said, "They are generally
kind and considerate toward each other, and perform their social and
relative duties as well as do other people in whose vicinity they reside."
In 1869, at a hearing held by the legislative committee, three clergy-

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

men testified that covering a period of seven years neither of them had
seen a case of drunkenness nor heard profanity among them in that
time. In 1862 the reservation was incorporated by the State Legisla
ture into the "District of Gay Head" and, in I 870, it was conferred
the full status of a township.

Under the rotation plan of electing a representative for the island
to the General Court of the State then in vogue, Mr. Edwin DeVries
Vanderhoop, a native Gay Header, with a large admixture of Dutch
blood in his veins, was elected to the session of r 8 8 8 to legislate for
the white people who had lately enfranchised him.

Says the island historian, "The town is now in its fortieth year of
existence [ r 9 IO J, a self-respecting community of people, obedient to
the laws, managing its affairs economically, fulfilling all the require
ments of an incorporated part of the Commonwealth, and justifying
fully the faith of the men who gave it this opportunity for independent
development. But it is still an 'Indian' town, for the white man has
made no invasion here."

The long "apprenticeship in civilization" has been served. Lack
ing initiative by inheritance, the Indians seemed for a time like the
children of Israel, lost in the wilderness, with no incentive to raise them
from their sloth. The journey was long and tedious, but not without
reward.

The type of local government that Thomas Mayhew instituted
among the island Indians was the most highly developed of its kind,
and was singularly free of the casuistic notions of the day. The
Apostle Eliot in founding Na tick took occasion to put into force a
theory of his that all civil government and all laws should be derived
from Scripture alone. Said he of the Indians, "They shall be wholly
governed by the Scriptures in all things, both in church and State; the
Lord shall be their lawgiver, the Lord shall be their judge, the Lord
shall be their king, and unto the frame the Lord will bring all the
world ere he hath done."

The virtue of this form of government Eliot loved to argue and
promulgate. He refers frequently to the point in his correspondence
claiming that the time would come when all other civil institutions in
the world would be compelled to yield to those derived from the Bible.
Pursuant to the eighteenth chapter of Exodus the Indians of Natick
divided their community into hundreds and tithings and appointed

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. This was only
a municipal government. In general affairs they acknowledged their
subjection to the English magistrates of the colony, and appeals were
made from their courts to these authorities in all necessary cases.

Laws for the regulation of Indian affairs were passed in the sev
eral colonies. In I 670 the selectmen of the towns in Plymouth Colony
were empowered by the General Court to judge disputes arising
between English and Indians, except in capital cases and matters per
taining to the title of lands. Three years later Magistrate Thomas
Hinckley* was appointed to call and keep courts among the Indians,
and was authorized to make orders respecting. their government in
conjunction with the Indian chiefs of the several locations. After
wards the Court of Assistants appointed an "able and discreet" man in
each town to hear cases "betwixt Indian and Indian" in association with
tithingmen appointed one for every ten Indians. Constables among
the Indians were appointed yearly.

At Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket a more complete form of
government was provided, and greater liberty given the Indians in self
government than elsewhere. In general the laws were those in vogue
among the English. The Indian was brought forward in the science
of government and not turned back to the days of Moses.

The antiquarian Macy says of the Nantucket Indians, "they had
justices, constables, grandjurymen, and carried on for a great many
years, many of them very well and precisely, and lived in a very good
fashion."

Macy tells the story of a picturesque Indian judge whose adminis
tration was of a date later than Governor Mayhew, but of interest as a
first hand picture of Indian justice. "There was one Indian man,"
recites Macy, "his name was James Skouel, but was mostly called Cor
duda. He was justice of the peace, and very sharp with them if they
did not behave well. He would fetch them up, when they did not tend
their corn well, and order them to have ten stripes on their backs, and
for any rogue tricks and getting drunk. And if his own children

*Thomas Hinckley, b. cir. 1618 in England; d. in Barnstable, Mass., 25 April, 1706.
He was the last governor of Plymouth Colony. His daughter Thankful became the first
wife of Rev. Experience Mayhew. After her death, Experience Mayhew remarried
Remember Bourne, daughter of Shearjashub Bourne, Esq. (who had civil oversight of
the Mashpee Indians), and granddaughter of Rev. Richard Bourne, missionary to the
Indians. The missionary families of Bourne, Tupper, and Mayhew are intermarried.

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

played any rogue tricks, he would serve them the same sauce. There
happened some Englishmen at his court, when a man was brought up
for some rogue tricks, and one of these men was named Na than Cole
man, a pretty crank sort of man, and the Indian pleaded for an appeal
to Esquire Bunker, and the old judge turned around to said Nathan
and spoke in the Indian language thus, 'chaquor keador taddator
witche conichau mussoy chauquor,' then said Nathan answered thus,
'martau couetchawidde neconne sassamyste nehotie moche Squire
Bunker'; which in the English tongue is thus, 'What do you think about
this great business?' then Nathan answered, 'may be you had better
whip him first, then let him go to Squire Bunker'; and the old judge
took Nathan's advice. And so Nathan answered two purposes, the
one was to see the Indian whipped, the other was, he was sure the
Indian would not want to go to Esquire Bunker for fear of another
whipping."

The fundamental principle of English law that an accused shall be
tried by a jury of his peers was never better exemplified than at a ses
sion of the English court at Nantucket when the trial of an Indian tried
for "striking mortal blowes" upon the body of one Wappomoage was
heard by an Indian jury.

Committees of Indians were occasionally appointed by the English
judges to assist as committeemen in the adjustment of legal disputes,
especially in matters relating to the traditional boundaries of lands.

Descendants of the Vineyard Indians, mixed largely with negro
blood, still live, but the Indians of Nantucket dwindled gradually in
number as the years rolled by. The census at Nantucket discloses that
twenty-four died after I 800, including the well-known half-breed
Abram Quarry. Dorcas Honorable, the last pure blooded member of
her race, died Friday night, January 12, 1855, aged seventy-nine
years, and was buried from the Baptist Church. With the death of
these peaceful, law abiding remnants of a once populous and savage
race, the Nantucket Indian passed into the realm of people who are no
more.

217

CHAPTER XX

THE EIGHTH DECADE

Thomas Mayhew entered the last decade of his life in 1673. He
was still active in missionary work, ready even to go to Plymouth to
see the commissioners about missionary matters; letters being "little"
to a man's presence.

The missionary had a remarkable physique and mentality. The
state of his health in his declining years he recapitulates in a letter to
his physician:

Sir I haue not yett made vse of the cordiall powder which you sent
me. I haue beene verry well synce, I blesse the Lord, beyond expecta
tion. That paine I had seized one me in the morning betyme, vppon
the right syde; the paine was not so broade as the palme of my hand.
It was like to take me off the stage, but it went away in my sleepe that
night. When I awoke, I was altogether free of that paine and of other
sore paine which came vppon me in vseing menes by a glyster to free
my sellfe of that. This God can doe. I am 71 and 5 monthes at present.
My sight is better then many yeares synce. I can write well without
spectacles. I wash my head ordinaryly with spring water, yf the
weather be neuer soe colld, euery morning. Heate trobules me most,
ells I would haue com by land vnto Hartford. Heate doth hurt me. I
wash my head vppon the waye sometimes, though I sweate much, I
confesse I find much good in it. I was 6 years synce verry weake, yett
not syck, but a swymming in my heade, and a noise allso, which hath
neare quite left me, and I am strong for my yeares, rarely a man so
strong.

The last he mentioned with pride. It was true of his last and
eighty-ninth year, "rarely a man so strong."

No mention is made in the writings of Thomas Mayhew at this
time of any solicitation for help in his missionary enterprises. He had
long ago given up hope of interesting outside clergymen, either "solid"
men or otherwise. Yet assistance was forthcoming in the person of a
grandson.

The son destined to follow in the footsteps of the Vineyard's
"Christian Warrior" was John, the youngest of the three sons of the
Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. More than any of his kindred he is said
to have resembled his gifted father, inheriting his scholarly inclinations

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

and missionary spirit. He was not originally trained for the work, but
as time went on and it became apparent that Matthew, who had been
trained as a missionary, was interested in temporal affairs and the other
brother in executive and judicial duties, the way was cleared for John,
co-heir of the proprietary, to devote himself to the work of his choice.
John "was early inclined to the Ministerial Work," says an early
account, "and having the Benefit of the Grandfather's wise Instruc
tions, and of his Father's Library; and being a Person of more than
ordinary natural Parts, great Industry and sincere Piety, he made
such a large Proficiency in the Study and Knowledge of divine Things,
that about 1673, when he was twenty one Years of Age, he was first
called to the Ministry among the English in a new and small Settle
ment, at a Place named Tisbury, near the middle of the Island; where
he preached to great Acceptance, not only the People under his Care,
but of very able Judges that occasionally heard him." His charge

included the church societies of Chilmark and Tisbury united.

The newly ordained clergyman settled in Chilmark, where he built
a house on a neck of land called Quanaimes, an Indian word meaning
"the long fish" or eel. The house is referred to in a deed wherein
Governor Mayhew "of the town of Chilmark in the Manor of Tys
bery" conveys a parcel of land "opposite against the point of a neck
of Quanaimes, which John Mayhew's house standeth upon." In this
house at Quanaimes, writes Charles E. Banks, "was born in the year
1673 the famous Experience, author of 'Indian Converts,' and after
the property had descended to him, as the 'first born son,' it disclosed
the light of day in I 720 to his no less famous scion, the Rev. Jonathan
Mayhew, the great pulpit orator. This spot, therefore, may well be
regarded as the cradle of Chilmark's most distinguished sons."

One is not surprised that John Mayhew should have entertained
an urge to enter the Indian service in which his grandfather rich in
years was laboring. But we are informed that heredity and environ
ment alone did not sway the destinies of the youthful preacher. He
was so beloved and respected among the Indians that they would not
be content until he became a preacher to them as he was to the English.
It is said of John that while a young man he was often resorted to by
the chief Indians of the island for advice, and that he knew their lan
guage well. He was referred to by the commissioners in 1672 as a
potential "useful instrument" to be encouraged in missionary work-

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"One whereof is the son of that Reuerend and Good man Mr Mahew
deceased whoe being borne on the Iland called Marthas Viniyard and
now growne to mans estate and there settled; is a hopeful younge man
and hath theire Language prfectly."

Sometime after his ordination John Mayhew regularly entered the
missionary service as an assistant to his grandfather. Among his many
duties was that of preaching to the natives once every week. He vis
ited the several praying towns within the jurisdiction and mapped out
programs of instruction for the guidance of the native teachers, taught,
preached, and catechized the Indians and their children; journeying by
canoe or sloop in visitations to Nantucket and the several Elizabeth
Islands. In long and arduous journeyings over land and by water he
was of immeasurable service to the grandfather burdened by age and
civil duties'.

A number of years after the entry of John into the work of his
fathers, Thomas Mayhew reports to the commissioners that "the work
of God amongst the Indians . . . . seemes to me to prosper." The
two churches at Martha's Vineyard had forty members who "walked in
of ensyvely." The chief men of every place were now allied with
the new religion and put forth their efforts to uphold the worship of
God. Sachems and powwows alike were converted. Witchcraft was
"out of vse."

The evil of the Indian still was drunkenness. The missionary
reports one hundred and forty men not so tainted. It is severely pun
ished in every place, reports he. He hopes the Lord will give endeavors
to the efforts being made to stamp out that great offense, "there are
some that are already of the worst that hates it."

It is strange to see how readily offenders strip themselves to receive
punishment for this sin "of wch or nation is much guylty." He com
plains that vessels passing through the sound, largely owned at Rhode
Island, kept natives supplied with liquor. This had been the complaint
of Thomas Macy a number of years before. Rhode Island was early
a rum selling and slave catching state, where merchants waxed rich on
blood and rum.

At Nantucket things are "in a very comfortable way," and at the
Elizabeth Islands there are forty families and a teacher in the worship
of God. "Thus matters stand heer at present. I conceiue no man can
contradict it."

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

The career of Thomas Mayhew as a missionary and governor was
drawing to a close. In his letter one perceives signs of fatigue. The
flow of language is not easy. He writes significantly, "It hath pleased
God to keepe me alyue and verry well, to write thus much in my 87th
yeare hallf out."* He closes with a plea for the prayers of the com
missioners, "that I may fynnish my dayes in a holy manner." Retire
ment before death was something he had no wish for.

Three years and a half later, in the eighty-ninth years of his age
and the thirty-fifth of his ministry to the Indians, Thomas Mayhew
died.    Shortly before his death he had an illness which was thought by
his relatives to be his last, but he told them that the time was not yet
come and that he should not die with that fit of sickness.    Accordingly
he recovered and preached again several times. Realizing, however,
that the time of his departure was near, he so expressed himself to a
grandson, adding that he earnestly hoped   that God would give him
one opportunity more to preach in public to the English at Edgartown,
where he had been for some time obliged to supply the pulpit through
the want of a regular minister.

His wish being gratified he appeared before his flock the following
Sunday for the last time, preached a final sermon and took an affec
tionate farewell of his people. In the rude little meetinghouse at
Edgartown the broken, crumbling patriarch of the island clasped
hands for the last time with the people he loved so well, nearly all of
them late comers or children of the first settlers. Thomas Mayhew
was among the last of the little band of pioneers that had founded
Great Harbor two generations before. He had seen his people go to
the grave, one by one, and new faces with old names take their places.
Returning home from the sombre scene in the church, that evening
he fell ill. He assured his friends and relatives that his sickness would
now be death, adding that he was well contented, being full of days
and satisfied with life. "He gave many excellent Counsels and Exhor
tations to all about him; his Reason and Memory not being at all
impaired." He continued full of faith and comfort to the end.

His great-grandson, Experience, being then about eight years of
age, accompanied his father to the governor's house, and well remem
bered the patriarch calling him to his beside and laying his hands on his
head and blessing him in the name of the Lord.

*Mayhew appears to have been in error as to his age at this time, an error into which he occasionally fell, making himself older than he actually was.

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The governor's family on the island at the time of his death con
sisted of his daughter Hannah Daggett, step-daughter Jane Sarson,
and their husbands, numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
His wife is believed to have been dead.

Full details are lacking of Mayhew's marital life. He is known to
have been twice married. According to a genealogical memorandum
prepared before I 840 by Judge William Mayhew, of Edgartown, the
governor's first wife, the mother of his only son, was named Abigail
Parkus.    No record of this marriage has been discovered and the fur
ther tradition that she was a member of the Parkhurst family, of Ips
wich, England, of which George Parkhurst, of Watertown, Massachu
setts, was a member, is unconfirmed. The   Parkhursts were clothiers,
an occupation not unconnected with Mayhew's own trade.    Daughters
of the Parkhurst family and their husbands were among the early set
tlers of Martha's Vineyard, which gives credence to the tradition.

It is not thought that the first wife lived to accompany her husband
to the New World as Thomas Mayhew contracted a second marriage
about the year 1633. Jane, the second wife, was widow of Mr. Thomas
Paine, merchant, of London, where it is said, the marriage took place.
To this union were born four daughters: Hannah; Bethia; Mary,
who died young, and Martha. Hannah became the wife of Captain
Thomas Daggett, an official many years prominent in the civil, judicial,
and military life of the islands. She was a favorite daughter and was
known to the inhabitants as the "deputy-governor." After her hus
band's death she married, second, Captain Samuel Smith, of Edgar
town, by whom she left no issue.

Bethia, the second daughter, married Thomas Harlock, of Edgar
town, and after his death, Lieutenant Richard Way, of Dorchester,
Receiver General of the Imposts and an officer of the Castle at Boston.
She died in I 678 and lies buried in Copp's Hill Cemetery, where her
gravestone may still be seen.

Martha married Captain Thomas Tupper, of Sandwich, on Cape
Cod, where both resided. Captain Tupper was a prominent figure in
the life of Plymouth Colony and like his father-in-law became a mis
sionary to the Indians. Captain Tupper's father founded an Indian
Church near Herring River, which was supplied by a succession of
ministers by the name of Tupper until the decease of the Rev. Elisha
Tupper in 1787, aged four score years. Captain and Martha (May-

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

hew) Tupper were progenitors of Sir Charles Tupper, one of the
fathers of united Canada and prime minister of the Dominion.

Thomas Mayhew's step-daughter, Jane (Paine) Mayhew, after
the death of the younger Mayhew, married Captain Richard Sarson,
Esq., thirty years an officeholder under the Duke's government.

Eligible material for husbands of the daughters of a proprietary
house was limited on the island. Hannah married as her second hus
band a man twenty-six years her junior; Bethia married a man believed
to have been forty years her senior; and Jane Paine was some twelve
years older than her second husband.

To a number of these union came children, grandsons and grand
daughters of the island patriarch.    In their welfare the old governor
took an active interest. His letters to Winthrop, the family physician,
contain references to the childhood ailments of these little ones.   In
one letter the grandfather writes to "testyfie" his thankfulness for
Winthrop's readiness "in sending that powder" for a grandchild
"together with the advice" and intreats for more of the powder "for
now shee is willinge to take it, and wee are of the mind that shee is
now much likely to recouer: but yf shee should not shortly vissibly
mend, my daughter doth desire your worshipp to know whether yow
are willing shee should com to Conectacute, where shee may be neare
yow."   To this Mayhew adds the pregnant suggestion that "the sight
of hir may much more informe your judgment touching hir disease."

Upon another occasion he writes that his "daughter Doggetts elld
est daughter hath vsed your phissick with very good successe. The lit
tle ones haue not yett taken any. I hope they will haue the like
benefitt."

Surrounded by these loved ones, Thomas Mayhew died Saturday
evening, March 25, 1682.

A letter by his grandson Matthew addressed to Governor Thomas
Hinckley, of Plymouth Colony, gives the following particulars of the
last hours of the old missionary-governor:

It pleased god of his great goodness, as to continue My honoured
Grandfather's life to a great age, wanting but six dayes of ninety
yeares : so to give the comfort of his life : and to ours as well as his
comfort, in his sickness which was six dayes, to give him an increase of
faith, and comfort, manifested by many expressions, one of which I
may not omitt, being seasonable, as in all, so espetially in these times;
viz: I have lived by faith, and have found god in his son; and there
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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

I finde him now, therefore if you would finde god looke for him in his
son, there he is to be found, and no where else &c: he manifested great
assurance of salvation; he was of low price in his own esteem, saying
that he had been both unworthy and unprofitable, not deserving the
esteem many had of him; and that he was only accepted in, and through
the lord Jesus: &c.

To this the grandson adds, "I think without detraction I may say
no man ever in this land approved himself so absolute a father to the
Indians as my honoured grandfather: I got no great hope that there
will ever be the like in this selfish age.''

In the Mayhew family private burying ground on South Water
Streets in Edgartown lie the mortal remains of this venerable patri
arch, the Puritan merchant, the missionary-governor, the manorial
lord, the "Grave and majestic" father of a distinguished posterity. His
son preceded him; three grandsons, a great-grandson, and a great
great-grandson of the name followed his hallowed footsteps in the mis
sionary field and made their name famous in England and America.

The town of Mayhew Station, Lowndes County, Mississippi, was
founded I 820 as a missionary station among the Choctaw Indians by
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and
named "in memory of the excellent and devoted men who so success
fully preached the Gospel to the Indians on Martha's Vineyard, and
consecrated their lives to this self-denying service at an early period
in the settlement of our country."

The establishment of this town for the education of Indians was
a fitting memorial to the patriarch whose grave at Martha's Vineyard
was unmarked by a tombstone. An inornate sepulcher may have been
the governor's last request, a fitting testimony to his modest nature,
"not deserving the esteem many had of him" as he said in his dying
sickness.

The wise, benevolent, and judicious labors of Thomas Mayhew
among the Indians stamp him a great colonial governor and adminis
trator. He ranks as one of the successful colonizers of America.
Under his supervision islands were settled, and towns and villages
founded, courts established, and churches gathered, and a militia
formed.

Reference is found in the records to General and Quarterly courts,
of magistrates, assistants, recorders, marshalls, waterbailiffs, criers,

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THOMAS MAYHEW, PATRIARCH TO INDIANS

clerks, and all the various officers necessary to perfect government
among civilized men. But the great triumph of the missionary
governor was the conquest of a savage race by peaceful means, the
bringing of the Indian to a recognition of English supremacy and to
the adoption of the white man's religion and code of laws.

In all history from the conquest of the Romans in pagan lands to
the founding of America, no greater romance can be conceived than the
establishment, upon these little far-flung islands, of Indian churches
taught by Indian clergymen, Indian courts presided over by Algonquin
judges, and a military company of forest children officered by an
Indian Joshua. The diplomatic skill, the untiring fortitude, the Chris
tian spirit necessary for this triumph cannot be too greatly stressed.

The nobler deeds of men are judged by the spirit that actuates their
labors. The name of Thomas Mayhew is worthy of perpetuation as
a Father of the New World, but it is of greater worth as the name of a
patriarch to the Indians.

In the words of the Prince of Peace, in whom Thomas Mayhew
found God, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

THE END.

225

ERRATA

"Madford house," p. II, should be "Meadford house."
Line 20, p. 110, read 1635 instead of 1653.

Line 12, p. 224, read Street instead of Streets.