Arrival of the English

Excerpts from Crotchets of Division by Alison Vannah, 1999 doctorate dissertation, Brandeis University.

At the Coming of the Ships

The English who ventured across the Atlantic to Massachusetts came with families and plows to turn the land from a wilderness to a settled community. Within three years of the arrival of the first ships in the fleet to New England, so many immigrants had arrived in Massachusetts Bay that Boston Neck could not hold them all, and they had spread out around Boston Bay. By the third winter of 1632/3, the colonial leadership, as it would do periodically for the next 130 years, perceived a threat from the French “to the eastward.”

As a sort of English and Protestant bulwark against these “papists,” John Winthrop, Jr., the colonel of the colonial militia, led about a dozen men out into the wilderness in the spring of 1633: Mr. John Winthrop Jr., Mr. William Clerk, Robert Coles, Thomas Howlet, John Biggs, John Gage, Thomas Hardy, William Perkins, Mr. John Thorndike and William Sergeant. The names of the three others are uncertain. Whether any of them brought their families that first year is unknown but doubtful. Winthrop’s wife and child remained in Boston that first year, but she died in childbirth after joining him a year later. Of the 13 original settlers, only one would make a permanent home in Ipswich.

By the winter of 1633 and the close of shipping with England, the Winthrops decided that the town should be “supplied” with settlers when shipping resumed in the spring, and men and their families could be recruited straight off the ships. The spring of 1634 brought at least 30 ships to the Massachusetts Bay, all laden with passengers for the new colony, and there soon descended on the outpost at Agawam scores of new arrivals, along with colonists who had already tried out other towns in the Bay Colony. By August of 1634, there were enough inhabitants in the new town to warrant a proper name, and so, in deference to the people of Ipswich, England who had seen several ships on their way this year, the General Court, ever wary of its reputation in the Old World, changed the name of the new town from Agawam to Ipswich.

Immigrants arriving in the new town of Ipswich brought differences with them: They arrived in different years on different ships from different English ports from different English villages, counties, or regions with different relationships, if any, to other immigrants. They brought with them a variety of callings. They were from a range of English social ranks, from a few gentlemen to a substantial group of middling sorts’ to a small group of servants. Some prospective settlers struck out for the new settlement young and single. Some came as families with children in tow as they trod along the dark, frightening path northward out of Boston or hired a boat to carry them beyond the arm of Cape Ann to Ipswich Bay and up the Ipswich River to the sheltered harbour.

The possibility of creating order and community in the wilderness may have seemed bleak at first. Gone were the familiar patterns of life each settler had known in the native country, and so questions would be the largest part of the baggage the settlers brought with them. Where would they live? How would they eat? Who would be their neighbours? Would they be able to follow their callings in the New World in the same way as they had in the Old World, or would they want to? Would they find they had things in common with other new arrivals, or would they have different opinions and experiences? What sort of community would they be able to build out of the wilderness?

Origins

About a third of the men who arrived in Ipswich in 1634 had come on the Mary and John out of Southampton, a port which catered to those who had started their journey to the New World west of that area drained by London. Others who arrived on the same ship would follow these men to Ipswich later. About the time of the arrival of the Mary and John, a miscellaneous group of settlers arrived in Ipswich. By the end of 1634, others had found their way to the new town, or had been lured by the efforts of John Winthrop Jr. The town was filling up, certainly, with at least 110 settlers by the end of 1634, but it was turning into a catch-all of strangers as Winthrop, Jr. recruited for his new enterprise. These early arrivals were the men who would begin to organize the town’s business, who would make the first allotments of land. Over the next seven years, between 1635 and 1641, another 200 male immigrants arrived in Ipswich.

One source of the variety with which the settlers in Ipswich had to contend, from the beginning, was that of their different geographic locations of their English homes. From the first year of its planting until the winter of 1641/2, at least 263 men converged on Ipswich, hailing from at least 24 different English counties, with a few exceptions, those blanketing southern England. Within those counties, at least 80 villages saw emigrants on their way to New England, emigrants which arrived in Ipswich. There were settlers who came to Ipswich from the same English county, particularly from Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Kent, and London, but there were few who decided to settle more or less permanently in Ipswich who had actually come from the same village in England.

The largest contingent to arrive in Ipswich from the same village were 15 men and women from Assington, Suffolk, where the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, who would become a minister in Ipswich, had been the minister just prior to his emigration to the New World. This group included Thomas French Jr. and his father, Thomas French. Sr., John Proctor, Mark Quilter, and John Wyatt. The Frenches and Wyatt were kin, since Thomas French, Sr.’s wife and Wyatt’s wife were probably sisters-in-law. The wife of Richard Saltonstall was also from Assington, arriving in Ipswich before Rogers, and may have been instrumental in obtaining him for the town. Luke Heard also came from Assington, but had settled first in Salisbury in New England before coming to Ipswich in 1645, with his wife Sarah nee Riddlesdale, the step-daughter of John Wyatt.

John Shatswell and his brother Theophilus were related to John Webster and Mathias Curwin, and came from Northamptonshire. Thomas Scott and Richard Kimball were brothers-in-law from Rattlesden, Suffolk. John Tuttle and his brothers, Richard and William came to the New World together, but only John came to Ipswich. John was accompanied by his new son-in-law, George Giddings, who had been born in Clapham, Bedfordshire. Giddings had brought his servants Michael Williamson from Oakley, and Thomas Carter. William Fuller’s brother John came to Ipswich later, in 1646, to add to the group of inhabitants from this area of England.

Besides with his brother, Edward, who also came to Ipswich for a brief period before moving on to Long Island, Thomas Tredwell from Epwell, Oxfordshire, had kin relationships formed in England with other settlers in Ipswich: with Henry Bachellor from Dover, Kent: with the Knowlton brothers, Thomas, John and William also from Canterbury, Kent; with Theophilus Wilson; and with Samuel Taylor from London. John Knowlton and Wilson also had kin relationships with Jane and John Kenning. This may have been the largest group of kin to arrive in Ipswich.

Another group of 15 men and women, William Warner, with his sons John and Daniel and his brother-in-law Richard Lumpkin, formed a family group that came from the vicinity of Boxted, Essex, with Warner’s son-in-law Thomas Wells of Colchester. William Bartholomew, of London and Robert Lord from Sudbury, Suffolk, were brothers-in-law, and Edmund Browne from London, also called Bartholomew “my brother.”

Robert Andrews and John, Thomas, and Robert Burnham were kinsmen, although Robert Burnham moved from Boston to settle on the Piscataqua while his brothers settled in Ipswich, where Thomas married another of John Tuttle’s stepdaughters. Robert Kinsman, who came on the Mary and John, called Richard Nichols, a servant, his “cousin,” often the term for a nephew.

Philip Fowler brought with him from Marlborough, Wiltshire, a large number of offspring as well as his son‑in-law, Christopher Osgood, John Dane, Sr., of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, his sons John and Francis, and his son-in-law James Howe from Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, a village four miles east of Bishop’s Stortford. All came to the Bay Colony, but not all at the same time, and John Jr., was the first to head north from Boston Bay to Ipswich. “Old man Muzze” as Robert Muzzey, from South Stoneham, Hampshire, was known, also called John Dane Sr. “my brother,” and the two men built houses side by side in Ipswich.

John and Matthew Whipple were brothers from Bocking, Essex, where Simon Stacie and his family had also lived. Nathaniel, Thomas, and Job Bishop, were brothers who left behind still another brother, Paul, in Kingston, Surrey. Moses and Aaron Pengry were brothers. The brothers Thomas and Daniel Borman, from Claydon, Oxfordshire, came with their cousin, Samuel Borman, from Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Ships

At least thirty-two of the seventy-six passengers on the Mary and John, sailing from Southampton in the spring of 1634 went to the new settlement at Agawam. John Cross and Humphrey Bradstreet and their families came on the Elizabeth of Ipswich, Suffolk, along with William Holdred, Daniel Bradley, Roger Preston, William and John Wildes, William Whitred and his family. John Proctor and his family came on the Susan and Ellen, as did John North, Richard Schofield, Richard Saltonstall  Jr., the family of Henry Pindar, Jeremy Belcher, and Samuel Pod.

The Planter of London brought John Tuttle and his extended family. On the same ship as this family group, came Francis Peabody, also certified at St. Alban’s, but who had come there from Leicestershire, Allen Perley and William Fellows, both certified at St. Alban’s, Palmer Tingley, certified at Kingston, Surrey, and Richard Haffield from Sudbury, Suffolk.

The James brought Nicholas Goodhue, John Johnson, and Ralph Farnum; the Elizabeth and Anne, Henry Wilkinson, Robert Hayes, and the family of Michael Cartwright.

Settlers from Boston and vicinity

Besides those who came with Winthrop at the first planting of the town, Mathias Button a “Dutchman,” John Hanchet, John Perkins, Thomas French Jr., Giles Firmin, the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, and the Rev. John Norton had all lived in Boston before moving to Ipswich. Thomas Dudley, his son Samuel, and his sons-in-law Daniel Denison and Simon Bradstreet arrived in Ipswich in 1635 from Cambridge, across the Charles River from Boston. They undoubtedly inspired a number of the lesser inhabitants of that town to follow them. Anthony Coleby, Humphrey Vincent, Joseph Reading, and William Adams had all lived in Cambridge before moving to Ipswich. Theophilus Wilson, Thomas Tredwell, and possibly John Whipple had first lived in Dorchester. James Howe and his kin, the Danes, lived first in Roxbury. Richard Kimball had settled first at Watertown, with others from Rattlesden, Suffolk before joining his kinsman, Thomas Scott, in Ipswich. Jonathan Wade had first lived in Charlestown, John Dillingham in Boston and Lynn. William Paine in Watertown, Edmund Bridges in Rowley, Barnabas Horton in Hampton.

It is easier to find the motives for migration for the ministers. Dispossessed of their livings or even, in some cases, threatened by the long arm of Archbishop Laud’s Arminian policies, they would have had to succumb to ecclesiastical practices with which they vehemently disagreed in order to remain ministers in England. Such dissident ministers may have inspired some in their congregation to make the journey to the New World, or conversely, the departure for the New World by some of their congregation may have inspired them to follow. The Rev. Nathaniel Ward, Ipswich’s first minister, had been excommunicated and deprived of his living by Archbishop Laud in 1633. The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers had been “dismissed as a curate from Bocking Essex for refusing to wear the surplice and failing to use the sign of the cross at Baptism.” The Rev. John Norton was “driven out of Hertfordshire” and he too, left for the New World and would serve as teaching elder in Ipswich.

Not all immigrants had chosen for themselves to come to New England. At least 21 young men arrived in Ipswich within the first nine years as servants. While some servants were indentured, others probably hired themselves out to pay their passage to New England. In Ipswich, the settlers took patterns of life that are known to historians of England – agricultural patterns, commercial patterns, mobility patterns, even the physical configuration of the village – and adapted them to the needs of the New World in their efforts to instill order in their new neighbourhood.

The Great Migration brought to Ipswich artisans of all sorts, some of whom would be able to adapt their skills to those required by a new settlement in the wilderness while others would not. It brought farmers, whether husbandmen or yeomen, who would have had expectations about practicing agriculture based on their English experiences. It brought a number of men who were determined to make their fortunes in the New World. Some of those who sought to improve their material lot in life were the ministers, themselves, who were no less shrewd than the merchants when it came to managing financial affairs. Ipswich has been touted as a thriving commercial centre and indeed, from the record of its early years, it certainly seemed destined to become one.

Of the 211 men arriving over the first nine years whose occupations are known, 87 were artisans, or those not solely dependent on agriculture for their living. Even artisans, however, would have cause for concern about how agriculture should be practised, since they would have to supplement their income, particularly in the early years, by growing corn and keeping cattle, at least the obligatory pig or two.

Notable about the early settlers in Ipswich was their youth, a circumstance that could help to either unify or divide the town in the future. More than half of all the men who arrived in Ipswich between 1633 and 1641/2 were aged between 26 and 40 years, most of them married. Outside this large middle group, however, there were two smaller but noticeable groups, older men with daughters of marriageable age and single young men in their twenties.

When the Winthrops embarked on their project of recruiting men off the ships arriving in Boston to ‘supply’ the new outpost in the wilderness, they took what the ships had to offer. How would the settlers approach their differences, find common ground, and come to agreement? The new town of Ipswich not only had to mediate among this mixed group of immigrants, but it had to do so amid conditions that were new to all arrivals, the need to organize and govern themselves in a way that had no precedent.

Further reading

• Early settlers of Ipswich– The Puritan settlers of Ipswich arrived during the “Great Migration. Sources include “Early Inhabitants of Ipswich” by Abraham Hammatt, “Vital Records to 1850,” and “Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony” by Thomas Franklin Waters.
• Burying grounds– Old North Burying Ground, Highland Cemetery, Old South Burying Ground, Leslie Road burying Ground, Old and New Linebrook Cemeteries, Immigrant’s Cemetery, Locust Grove, and the Old Chebacco Burying Ground.

Alphabetical list of settlers with dates of land grants

This alphabetical list of settlers by Thomas Franklin Waters in Vol. 1 of Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony provides additional names and the approximate dates of land grants.

Adams, William 1641
Adams, William Jr 1648
Andrews, John Jr. 1648
Andrews, John Sr. 1634
Andrews, Robert 1635
Annyball, John 1641
Appleton, John 1648
Appleton, Samuel 1637
Archer, Henry 1638
Avery, William 1637
Ayers, John 1643
Bacheler, Mr. Henry 1639
Baker, Mr. John 1638 (now of Newbury)
Bartholomew, Mr. William 1635
Beacham, Robert 1641
Belcher, Jeremy 1639
Berry, Thomas 1641
Betgood, Richard 1641
Betts, Richard 1646
Biggs, John 1633
Bigsby, Joseph 1648
Bird, Jathnie 1641
Bird, Thomas 1639
Bisgood, Richard 1641
Bishop, Job 1648
Bishop, Nathaniel 1637
Bishop, Thomas 1637
Boreman, Samuel 1639
Boreman, Thomas 1635
Boswell, Nathaniel 1643
Bosworth, Haniel 1648
Brabrook, Richard 1643
Bradley, Daniel 1643
Bradstreet, Humphrey 1635
Bradstreet, Mr. Simon 1636
Bragg, Edward 1642
Brecy, Mr. Thomas 1635
Brewer, Thomas 1639
Bridges, Edmund 1641
Brown, John 1640
Brown, Richard 1638
Browne, Edward 1637
Bucklye, William 1648
Burley, Giles 1648
Burnham, John 1639
Burnham, Thomas 1643
Button, Matthias 1639
Cacham, Edward 1638
Cacham, John 1647
Carr, George before 1634
Carrin, Matthias
Carthane, Edward 1637
Cartwright Michael 1637
Castell, Robert 1639
Chains, Philip 1637
Chapman, Edward 1643
Chesson, Roger 1641
Chote, John 1648
Chute, James
Chute, Lionel
Clark, Daniel
Clark, John
Clark, Thomas
Clark, Thomas Jr.
Clarke, Matthew
Clerk, Mr. William
Coggswell, Mr. John
Cogswell, William
Colborne, Robert
Coleby, Anthony
Coles, Robert
Comings, Isaac
Cookes, Richard
Cooley, John
Covington, John
Crane, Robert
Cross, John
Cross, Robert
Dane, Francis
Dane, John
Dane, John Jr.
Davis, John
Day, Robert
Denison, John
Denison, Mr. Daniel
Dillingham, Mr. John
Dix, Ralph
Dix, widow
Dorman, Douglass William
Dudley, Mr. Samuel
Dudley Thomas Esq.
Dutch, Robert
Easton, Mr. Nicholas
Eliot, Emerson John
Emerson, Joseph
Emerson, Thomas
English, William
Epp,s Mr. Daniel
Farrar, or Farrow, George 1646
Fawn, Mr. John 1634
Fellows, William 1639
Filbrick, Robert 1639
Firman, Mr. Giles 1638
Firman, Mr. Thomas 1635
Foster Abraham 1643
Foster, Mr. William 1635
Foster, Reginald 1635
Fowler, Joseph 1647
Fowler, Pliilip 1634
Franklin, William 1634
French, Edward 1637
French, Thomas 1635
Fuller, John 1648
Fuller, William 1635
Gage, John 1633
Gardiner, Edmund 1636
Giddings, George 1635
Gihnan, Edward 1648
Gilbert, Humphrey 1643
Gilven, Thomas 1639
Goodhue, William 1635
Granger, Lanslot 1648
Graves, Robert 1637
Gray, Robert 1646
Green, Henry 1642
Green, Thomas 1648
Greenfield, Samuel 1638
Griffin, Humphrey 1641
Gutterson, William 1647
Hadley, George 1639
Hafiieid, Richard 1635
Hall, Sanmel 1636
Hanchett, John 1638
Hardy, Thomas 1633
Harris, Antony 1648
Harris, Thomas 1643
Harte, Thomas 1639
Hassell, John 1635
Hayes, Robert 1635
Heard, Luke – inventory 1647
Heifer, Samuel 1648
Hodges, Andrew 1639
Holdred, William 1637
Horton, Barnabas 1641
Hovey, Daniel 1637
Howe, Abram 1648
Howe, James 1646
Howlett, John 1644
Howlett, Thomas 1633
Hoyt, John 1641
Hubbard, Mr. William 1635
Hucklyes, Richard 1639
Huttley, Richard 1641
Ingalls, John 1648
Jackson, John 1635
Jacob, Richard 1635
Jeffrey, Wlliam 1633
Johnson, John 1637
Jordaine, Stephen 1636
Jordan, Francis 1634
Kent, Richard 1634
Ketcham, Edward 1639
Kimball, Henry 1649
Kimball, Richard 1636
Kimball, Richard Jr. 1647
Kingsbery, Henry 1638
Kinsman, Robert 1635
Kinsman, Robert Jr. 1648
Knight, Alexander 1635
Knight, Mr. WiUiam 1638
Knowlton, John 1639
Knowlton, Thomas 1642
Knowlton, WiUiam 1641
Ladd, Daniel 1637
Lamson, WiUiam 1637
Lancton, Roger 1635
Langton, Joseph 1648
Layton, John 1643
Leach, Ambrose 1642
Lee, John 1640
Long, Philip 1648
Long, Samuel 1648
Lord, Robert 1636
Lord, widow Katherine 1641
Lovell, Thomas 1647
Low, Thomas 1641
Lumas, Edward 1641
Lumkin, Richard 1637
Manning, John 16.34
Manning, Susan 1638
Manning, Thomas 1638
Medcalfe, Joseph 1634
Meriall, John 1636
Miller, William 1643
Moody, William 1634
Morse, John 1645
Morse, Joseph 1637
Mussey, John 1634
Mussey, Robert 1634
Ned the Indian 1646
Newlande, Jeremy 1643
Newman, John 1647
Newman, Thomas 1638
Newmarsh, John 1648
Nichols, Richard 1648
North, John 1637
Norton, Mr. Wlliam 1648
Norton, Rev. John 1637
Osgood, Christopher 1634
Parker, Rev. Thomas 1634
Payne,Mr. Robert 1649
Payne, Mr. William 1638
Pearpoint, James 1646
Pebody, Francis 1636
Pendar, John 1648
Pengry, Aaron 1641
Pengry, Moses 1641
Perkins, Isaac 1637
Perkins, Jacob 1648
Perkins, John Jr. before 1634
Perkins, John the elder 1634
Perkins, Thomas 1643
Perkins, William 1633
Perley, Allen 1637
Perry, Thomas 1642
Pettis, John 1641
Pitney, James 1639
Potter, Antony 1648
Preston, Roger 1639
Pritchett, William 1641
Proctor, John 1635
Purrier, William 1638
Pyke, Mr. 1637
Pyndar, Henry 1641
Quilter, Mark 1637
Reading, Joseph 1639
Ringe, Daniel 1648
Roberds, Robert 1643
Robinson, John 1635
Rogers, Rev. Nathaniel 1637
Rolison, Thomas 1637
Rolison, Thomas Jr. 1648
Rosse, Daniel 1648
Rosse, Ezrah 1648
Sachwell, Theophilus 1639
Safford, Thomas 1641
Saltonstall, Mr. Richard 1635
Saltor, Theophilus 1648
Samuel, 1641
Satchwell, John 1633
Saunders, John 1635
Sawyer, Edmund 1636
Sayward, Edmund 1635
Schofield, Richard 1641
Scott, Robert 1636
Scott, Thomas 1635
Scott, Thomas Jr 1648
Seaborn, John 1636
Sellan, Thomas 1633
Sergeant, William 1633
Severance John 1636
Sewall Mr. Henry 1634
Sherratt Hugh 1635
Shorman Samuel 1636
Short Henry 1634
Shorte Anthony 1634
Silsby Henry 1647
Silver Thomas 1637
Simons 1636 Podd
Sinnnes William 1647
Smith, George 1648
Smith, Richard 1645
Smith, Robert 1648
Smith, Thomas 1638
Snelling, Jafery 1645
Spence,r Mr. John 1634
Stace, 1637
Stace, Thomas 1646
Stone, Nathaniel 1648
Story, Andrew 1635
Story, William 1642
Swinden, William 1637
Symmons, William 1635
Symonds, Mark before 1634
Symonds, Mr. Samuel 1638
Taylor, Samuel 1648
Thorndike, Mr. John 1633
Thornton, John 1639
Tingley, Palmer 1639
Tompson, Symon 1636
Tredwell, Edward 1637
Tredwell, Thomas 1638
Tuttle, Mr. John 1637
Tuttle, Simon 1648
Varneham, Ralph 1639
Varnham, George 1635
Vincent, Humphrey 1637
Wade, Mr. Jonathan 1635
Wainwrigh,t Francis 1639
Walderne, Edward 1648
Walker, Henry 1642
Wallis, Robert 1638
Waltz, Robert 1639
Ward, John, chirurgeon 1648
Ward, Rev. Nathaniel 1634
Wardall, Thomas 1648
Warner, John 1637
Warner, William 1637
Warr, Abraham 1648
Wattles, Richard 1637
Webster, John 1634
Wedgwood, John 1637
Wells, Thomas 1635
West, John 1649
Whipple, John Jr. 1648
Whipple, Mr. John 1638
Whipple, Mr. Matthew 1638
White, William 1634
Whitman, Robert 1648
Whitred, William 1638
Whittingham, Mr. John 1637
Whityear, John 1635
Wildes, John 1643
Wildes, William 1635
Wilkinson, Henry 1635
Williamson, Michael 1637
Williamson, Paul 1635
Willson, Mr. William 1649
Wilson, Theophilus 1636
Winthrop, Mr. John Jr. 1633
Wood, Daniel 1643
Wood, Obadiah 1649
Woodam, John 1647
Woodmansy, Mr. Robert 1635
Wyatt, John 1635
Wyeth, Mr. Humphrey 1635
Younglove, Samuel 1635

Source: Excerpts from Crotchets of Division by Alison Vannah, 1999 doctorate dissertation, Brandeis University.