The Higleys and their Ancestry, an Old Colonial Family, by Mary Coffin Johnson 1896
CHAPTER III.
PURITAN GRANDSIRES.
Roll back the curtains of the years and let your eyes behold
The distant times, the ancient ways, the sturdy men of old;
Across the stormy deep they came, the forest wilds they trod,
To find a home for Liberty, a temple for their God.
And now behold these exiles here, John Wareham and his flock,
Made up of good old English names, and good old English stock;
They come with hearts that trust in God, and hands made strong for toil,
To build their rude and humble homes, and break the waiting soil.
—I. N. Tarbox, D. D.
To the illimitable New England forest, uninhabited save by the wily Indian and grizzly denizens of the thickets, including every species of wild beast native to the country, came the Rev. John Wareham, Deacon John Moore, and John Drake, Sr., with their families.
They were of the large body of Puritans who came with John Winthrop from Plymouth, England, and settled first at Dorchester, Mass. John Winthtop had said, “I shall call that my country where I may most glorify God, and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends,”8-1 and these staunch Puritanic forefathers, echoing his declaration, accompanied him.
The story of the emigration to the American coast of the church to which the Rev. John Wareham was a minister, and John Moore a deacon, and afterward its removal in a body to the wilds of Connecticut, is interesting to our readers, inasmuch as the ship Mary and John brought to this land these families from whom the Higleys are direct lineal descendants, through their honored Puritan grandmothers, ancestors in the maternal line.
“It was during the years of tyranny which followed the close of the third Parliament of Charles that the great Puritan emigration founded the States of New England. The Parliament was hardly dissolved, when ‘conclusions’ for the establishment of a great colony on the other side of the Atlantic were circulating among gentry and traders, and descriptions of the new country of Massachusetts were talked over in every Puritan household. The two hundred who first sailed for Salem were soon followed by Winthrop himself with eight hundred men; and seven hundred more followed ere the first year of royal tyranny had run its course.
“Nor were these emigrants like the earlier colonists, ‘broken men,’ adventurers, bankrupts, criminals, or simply poor men and artisans. They were in great part men of the professional and middle classes; some of them of large landed estate, some zealous clergymen like Hooker and Cotton, some shrewd London lawyers, or young scholars from Oxford. They were driven forth from their fatherland, not by earthly want, or by the greed of gold, or by the lust of adventure, but by the fear of God, and zeal for a godly worship.”9-1
In March, 1630, this strong body of Puritans met in Plymouth, Devonshire. After spending a solemn day of fasting and prayer in the New Hospital, they covenanted in church fellowship.
Two of the grandsires of the Higley ancestry were placed in responsible church relations, the Rev. John Wareham,9-2 who was chosen a minister, and John Moore, who was appointed a deacon.
The ship Mary and John, a vessel of four hundred tons, was chartered for the voyage to America, and fitted out at Plymouth. The large company embarked on the twentieth of the month, and were seventy days in making the passage.
Says Roger Clap, who was one of the number, in an interesting acount of the voyage and landing, given in his “Memoirs”: “What a wondrous work of God it was, to stir up such Worthys to undertake such a difficult Work as to remove themselves, and their Wives and Children, from their Native Country, and to leave their galliant situations there, to come into this Wilderness to set up the pure Worship of God here! So we came, by the good Hand of the Lord, through the Deeps comfortably; having Preaching or Expounding of the Word of God every Day for Ten Weeks together by our Ministers.
“When we came to Nantasket, Captain Squeb, who was Captain of that great ship, would not bring us into Charles River, as he was bound to do, but put us ashore, and our Goods, on Nantasket Point, and left us to shift for ourselves in a forlorn Place in this Wilderness.”
Procuring a boat of some Planters, and “some men well armed,” they proceeded up the Charles and finally landed “with much Labor and Toil, the Bank being steep. Night soon came on and we were informed that there were hard by us three hundred Indians. A man was sent to advise them not to come to the camping pilgrims in the Night. Sentinels were appointed, and we laid ourselves down in the wilderness to sleep. In the morning some of the Indians came and stood at a distance off, looking at us, but came not near us; but when they bad been a while in view, some of them came, and held out a great Bass towards us. So we sent a man with a Biskit, and changed the Cake for the Bass. Afterwards they supplied us with Bass, exchanging a Bass for a Biskit, and were very friendly to us.
“In the beginning many were in great straits for want of Provision for themselves, and their little ones. Oh, the Hunger that many suffered, and saw no hope in the Eye of reason to be supplyed; only clams, and muscles, and Fish. But Bread was with many a very scarce thing; and flesh of all kinds as scarce. And in those Days, in our straits, though I cannot say God sent a Raven to feed us as He did the Prophet Elijah, yet this I can say to the praise of God, that He sent poor ravenous Indians, which came with their Baskits of corn on their Backs to Trade with us, which was a good supply unto many.
. . . In those Days God did cause his People to trust in him, and to be contented with mean things. It was not accounted a strange thing in those Days to drink Water, and to eat Samp, or Homonie without Butter or Milk. Indeed, it would have been a strange thing to see a peice of Roast Beef, Mutton, or Veal, though it was not long before there was Roast Goat.
“After the first Winter, we were very healthy, though some of us had no great store of Corn. The Indiant did sometimes bring Corn and Truck to us for Clothing, and Knives; and once I had a Peck of Corn, or thereabouts, for a little Puppy Dog. Frost-fish, Muscles, and Clams were a relief to many.”
One account relates that “We found out a neck of land joyning to a place called by ye Indians Mattapan, so they settled at Mattapan. They began their settlement here at Mattapan ye beginning of June, A. D. 1630, and changed the name into Dorchester.”
For full three years the pilgrims at Dorchester lived in harmony. We quote again from Roger Clap11-1: “In those days Great was the Tranquility and Peace; And there was great love one to Another; very ready to help each other; not seeking their own, but every one another’s Wealth.” They early made progress toward comfortable living. Wood writes, in 1633, “that they had fair corn fields, pleasant gardens, a great many cattle, goats, and swine, and that the plantation had a reasonable harbor for ships.”
There seems to be some obscurity as to the primary cause of the agitation which resulted in the decision of this ancient church to remove in a body to the Connecticut wilderness. It was probably owing to a variety of reasons. Clap goes on to say: “But the work of God towards his People here was soon maligned by Satan; and he cast into the minds of some corrupt Persons, very erroneous Opinions; which did breed great Disturbance in the Churches. . . The Godly Ministers were accused of preaching false doctrine, and theological points came into discussion. Troublers of the country went about and many were drawn away with their Disseminations.”
Added to this, the Massachusetts Colony had enacted laws which were a yoke to their liberty-loving and determined spirits, and their intense love of freedom was undoubtedly another cause prompting their removal. It is clearly evident that they had a high instinctive consciousness of rights and possibilities in the pursuit of the true principles of religious freedom, and believed that somewhere upon the soil of the New World there was a spot where they could enjoy happiness. The Massachusetts law permitted “none but Church members to even be called freemen or to become voters.” They were interfered with in a thousand little matters which were of a private nature, and which might best have been left to themselves. Sir Richard Saltonstall, who came with the fleet in 1630 and returned to England the following year, wrote to the Boston ministers as follows:
“It doeth not a little grieve my spirit to hear what sadd things are reported daily of your tyranny and persecutions in New England, as that you fyne, whip. and imprison men for their conciences. These rigid ways have layed you very low in the hearts of ye saynts.”12-1
The subject of removal westward was weighed in its different bearings by Mr. Wareham’s entire church. They held days of prayer and fasting, and finally the main body determined to leave Massachusetts for the Connecticut valley. Rev. Mr. Wareham was the minister and leader-in-chief of the new and hazardous undertaking. The decease of his associate, Rev. Mr. Maverick, had previously taken place. They sent a party in advance to view sites for the settlement where is now Windsor, and the main body of sixty men and women set out in the autumn of 1635, carrying with them the original records of the Church. They were fourteen days making the journey.
Their road lay through the unbeaten and almost trackless paths of an unknown forest, with deep muddy soil and across swift, swollen streams, which were without bridges and without ferries. During storms the tall trees of the thick woods were often prostrated in heaps like stubble across the rude Indian paths which sometimes led their way. They had scarcely any provisions during the journey except what they carried with them, procuring by the way such as the forests afforded.
“Their household furniture, bedding, and winter provisions were sent around by water, and it is probable that some families also took this means of conveyance. ‘Never before had the forests of America witnessed such a scene as this.’ Driving the cattle before them, the compass their only guide, commencing and ending each day’s march with songs of praise and heartfelt utterance of prayer, which sounded strangely among these solitudes—they journeyed on.
“Before they reached Connecticut the hues of autumn had faded from the forests; winter set in unusually early. By the fifteenth of November the river was closed with ice, and as yet the vessel containing their household goods and provisions had not arrived, nor were there any tidings of it. The rude shelter and accommodations which had been provided for themselves and their cattle proved to be quite insufficient to protect them against the extreme inclemency of the season. They were able to get only a portion of their cattle across the river, the remainder were left to winter themselves as best they could on the acorns and roots of the forest.”13-1
Disputes and contentions with other. claimants about possession of the choice lands at Matianuck met them upon their arrival, November 1, 1635, which added to their discouragements. In less than a month a small party from their number, “driven by hunger and distress,” retraced their way to the eastern coast amid great vicissitudes and at peril of their lives. A larger number journeyed down the river on foot to within twenty miles of its mouth, where they found a small vessel which had been icebound in the river, and which fortunately had just been loosened by a winter thaw. In this they set sail for Boston. The hardships and sufferings of the families which remained were direful in the extreme. They had not sufficient food or shelter, and it is said their loss in cattle was very heavy.
In the early spring those who had made their way back to Massachusetts during the winter returned, and settled themselves permanently with their Connecticut friends.
These settlers first established themselves under the general government of the Massachusetts Colony, but it was not long before they formed a separate commonwealth—the “COLONIE OF CONNECTICUT.”
Footnotes
8-1. “History of the English People,” by J. R. Green, M. A.
9-1. From “History of the English People,” by J. R. Green, M. A.
9-2. Rev. John Wareham was a clergyman of Exeter, England, ordained by the bishop of that diocese. He was a learned man of celebrity and widespread influence in “his native country. He espoused the Puritan faith, and it is recorded that his example as much as his precept greatly aided the decision of others” to emigrate to America. Roger Clap, In his “Memoirs,” mentions his namewith other ”famous ministers,” as “sound, godly, learned men.”
After remaining more than five years at Dorchester, Mass., he again transplanted his church, the larger proportion of its membership coming with him, to Windsor, Conn., in 1633. Here he was devoted and untiring in his labors during a long pastorate of thirty-four years. It is said that he was more liberal in sentiment than many of his Puritan ministerial brethren of those times, and was a preacher of great attractive power, “having an uncommon influence over his hearers of all ranks and characters.” He is said to have been the first minister in this country who used notes when preaching. His biographers are faithful enough to tell us that be was subject to moods of gloomy fancies, and that there were times when he refused to partake of the sacraments on account of a “sense of unworthiness,” even when he officiated in the presence of his people. It is supposed that he possessed good estates in England. He was twice married, and had a large family. His daughter Sarah married Return Strong, May 11, 1664. His granddaughter Sarah Strong, the eldest child of his daughter Sarah, became the second wife of John Higley, and was the mother of seven of his children. At his death, Rev. Mr. Wareham left a large estate in lands.
His tomb at Winddsor, Conn.,1 which has been carefully preserved for more than two hundred years, in the old cemetery surrounding the church, “now the oldest orthodox church organization in America” (Stiles’ “History of Ancient Windsor,” p. 858), bears the following inscription:
“In Memory of the Rev. John Wareham.
“He was installed Pastor of this Church at its organization in Plymouth, England, in 1630. They arrived in this country the 30oth of May the same year, and remained at Dorchester, Mass., five years when they removed to this town. Here Mr. Wareham continued his pastoral labors to his flock until April 1, 1670, when he slept in the Lord. He was among the most eminent of New England’s early Divines.
“Erected by his Church.”
11-1. “Memoirs of Capt. Roger Clap,” printed in Boston, New England 1731.
12-1. “History of Hartford County,” by J. Hammond Trumbull, vol. 1. p. 26.
13-1. Stiles’ “History of Ancient Windsor,” p. 25.