Pt. 1: CHILDREN IN THE COLONIZING PROCESS

B. NEW ENGLAND

"Here by their labor may live exceeding well"

John Smith, A Description of New England . . . (London, 1616), p. 40.

Captain John Smith (1579/80-1631), best remembered for the part he played in the settlement and governance of Virginia, explored the New England coast and issued this forecast of opportunity and riches for future colonists in 1616.

My purpose is not to persuade children from their parents, men from their wives, nor servants from their masters; only such as with free consent may be spared. But that each parish or village, in city or country, that will but apparel their fatherless children of thirteen or fourteen years of age, or young married people that have small wealth to live on, here by their labor may live exceeding well; provided always, that first there be a sufficient power to command them, houses to receive them, means to defend them, and meet provisions for them. For any place may be overlain, and it is most necessary to have a fortress (ere this grow to practice) and sufficient masters (as carpenters, masons, fishers, fowlers, gardeners, husbandmen, sawyers, smiths, spinsters, tailors, weavers and such like) to take ten, twelve or twenty, or as there is occasion, for apprentices. The masters by this may quickly grow rich; these may learn their trades themselves to do the like, to a general and an incredible benefit for king and country, master and servant.

1. William Bradford (1589/90-1657), shared the Pilgrims' exile in Holland, gives the reasons for their immigration to America, 1620

William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647 (Boston, 1912), I, 54-55.

As necessity was a taskmaster over them, so they were forced to be such, not only to their servants (but in a sort) to their dearest children; the which as it did not a little wound the tender hearts of many a loving father and mother, so it produced likewise sundry sad and sorrowful effects. For many of their children that were of best dispositions and gracious inclinations (having learned to bear the yoke in their youth) and willing to bear part of their parents burden, were (often times) so oppressed with their heavy labors, that though their minds were free and willing, yet their bodies bowed under the weight of the same, and became decrepit in their early youth, the vigor of nature being consumed in the very bud as it were. But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions, and the great licentiousness of youth in that country, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses, getting the reins off their necks and departing from their parents. Some became soldiers, others took upon them far voyages by sea, and others some worse courses, tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of their parents and dishonor of God. So that they saw their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted.

Lastly, (and which was not least) a great hope, and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, (or at least to make some way thereunto) for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.

2. Approximately one-third of the founders of Plymouth were children and youths

William T. Davis, ed., Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, 1606-1646 (New York, 1908), pp. 407-409.

The names of those which came over first, in the year 1620, and were by the blessing of God the first beginers and (in a sort) the foundation of all the Plantations and Colonies in New-England; and their families.

Mr. John Carver; Kathrine, his wife; Desire Minter; and 2. man-servants, John Howland, Roger Wilder; William Latham, a boy; and a maid servant, and a child that was put to him, called Jasper More.

Mr. William Brewster; Mary, his wife; with 2. sones, whose names were Love and Wrasling; and a boy was put to him called Richard More; and another of his brothers. The rest of his children were left behind, and came over afterwards.

Mr. Edward Winslow; Elizabeth, his wife; and 2. men servants, caled Georg Sowle and Elias Story; also a litle girle was put to him, caled Ellen, the sister of Richard More.

William Bradford, and Dorothy, his wife; having but one child, a sone, left behind, who came afterward.

Mr. Isaack Allerton, and Mary, his wife; with 3. children, Bartholmew, Remember, and Mary; and a servant boy, John Hooke.

Mr. Samuell Fuller, and a servant, caled William Butten. His wife was behind, and a child, which came afterwards.

John Crakston, and his sone, John Crakston. Captain Myles Standish, and Rose, his wife. Mr. Christopher Martin, and his wife, and 2. servants, Salamon Prower and John Langemore.

Mr. William Mullines, and his wife, and 2. children, Joseph and Priscila; and a servant, Robart Carter.

Mr. William White, and Susana, his wife, and one sone, caled Resolyed, and one borne a ship-bord, caled Peregriene; and 2. servants, named William Holbeck and Edward Thomson.

Mr. Steven Hopkins, and Elizabeth, his wife, and 2. children, caled Giles, and Constanta, a doughter, both by a former wife; and 2. more by this wife, caled Damaris and Oceanus; the last was borne at sea; and 2. servants, called Edward Doty and Edward Litster.

Mr. Richard Warren; but his wife and children were lefte behind, and came afterwards.

John Billinton, and Elen, his wife; and 2. sones, John and Francis.

Edward Tillie, and Ann, his wife; and 2. children that were their cossens, Henery Samson and Humillity Coper.

John Tillie, and his wife; and Eelizabeth, their doughter.

Francis Cooke, and his sone John. But his wife and other children came afterwards.

Thomas Rogers, and Joseph, his sone. His other children came afterwards.

Thomas Tinker, and his wife, and a sone.

John Rigdale, and Alice, his wife.

James Chilton, and his wife, and Mary, their dougter. They had an other doughter, that was maried, came afterward.

Edward Fuller, and his wife, and Samuell, their sonne.

John Turner, and 2. sones. He had a doughter came some years after to Salem, wher she is now living.

Francis Eaton, and Sarah, his wife, and Samuell, their sone, a yong child.

Moyses Fletcher, John Goodman, Thomas Williams, Digerie Preist, Edmond Margeson, Peter Browne, Richard Britterige, Richard Clarke, Richard Gardenar, Gilbart Winslow.

John Alden was hired for a cooper, at South-Hampton, wher the ship victuled; and being a hopfull yong man, was much desired, but left to his owne liking to go or stay when he came here; but he stayed, and maryed here.

John Allerton and Thomas Enlish were both hired, the later to goe mr of a shalop here, and the other was reputed as one of the company, but was to go back (being a seaman) for the help of others behind. But they both dyed here, before the shipe returned.

There were allso other 2. seamen hired to stay a year here in the country, William Trevore, and one Ely. But when their time was out, they both returned.

These, being aboute a hundred sowls, came over in this first ship; and began this worke, which God of his goodnes hath hithertoo blesed; let his holy name have the praise.

1. Children as burdens or blessings

Stewart Mitchell, ed., Winthrop Papers, II (Boston, 1931),114-115.

John Winthrop (1587/88-1649), first governor of the Bay Colony, drew up this list of "General Observations" to justify migration.

1. It will be a service to the Church of great consequence to carry the Gospel into those parts of the world, and to raise a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist which the Jesuits labor to rear up in all places of the world.

2. All other Churches of Europe are brought to desolation, and it cannot be but the like judgment is coming upon us. And who knows, but that God hath provided this place to be a refuge for many, whom he means to save out of the general destruction?

3. This land grows weary of her inhabitants so as man, which is the most precious of all creatures, is here more vile and base than the earth they tread upon; so as children, neighbors, and friends (especially if they be poor) are rated the greatest burdens which, if things were right, would be the chiefest earthly blessings.

4. We are grown to that height of intemperance in all excess of riot as no mans estate almost will suffice to keep sail with his equals; and he that fails in it must live in scorn and contempt. Hence it comes, that all arts and trades are carried in that deceitful and unrighteous course, as it is almost impossible for a good and upright man to maintain his charge and live comfortably in any of them.

5. The fountains of learning and religion are so corrupted as (besides the unsupportable charge of their education) most children, even the best wits and of fairest hopes, are perverted, corrupted, and utterly overthrown by the multitude of evil examples and the licentious government of those seminaries.

6. The whole earth is the Lords garden and he hath given it to the sons of men to be tilled and improved by them. Why then should we stand striving here for places of habitation etc. (many men spending as much labor and cost to recover or keep sometime an acre or two of land, as would procure him many hundred acres as good or better in another place) and in the meantime suffer whole countries as fruitful and convenient for the use of man to lie waste without any improvement?

2. A half-century later, amid fears of a decline in New England piety, Samuel Willard (1639/40-1707), an eminent divine and vice-president of Harvard College, recalls the purpose that moved the founders

Samuel Willard, Covenant-Keeping the Way. to Blessedness (Boston, 1682), pp. 117-118.

The main errand which brought your fathers into this Wilderness was not only that they might themselves enjoy, but that they might settle for their children, and leave them in full possession of the free, pure, and uncorrupted liberties of the Covenant of Grace. They have made this profession openly to the world. Yea, let reason speak and say what else was there which could have tempted them to come into a land which was not sown, leaving the pleasant enjoyments of a good land, and of which many of them had a good share, running through so many hazards, wrestling with so many hardships, not expecting (and it would have seemed vain and presumptuous to have expected) any worldly advantage, or likelihood of any other compensation for such expenses as they were at, and difficulties they broke through, but only this? And if this were the portion they thought worth so much that they might have it to leave them, it concerns you to mind and regard it. It was their love to your souls that embarked them in this design, and it will be horrible ingratitude in you to slight it. You cannot neglect God's Covenant, but you do withal cast reflections upon, and greatly undervalue, yea, and despise that work, which will be New England's glory, and was so signally owned and abetted by God's providence in the day of it; and will be unworthy heirs of your father's estates, if you do not prosecute their begun designs.

A young Irish immigrant to Puritan Massachusetts, 1633

Edward Howes in London to John Winthrop, Jr., in Massachusetts, Aug. 5, 1633, in Winthrop Papers, III (1943),133-134.

You shall also receive in this ship three wolf dogs and a bitch with an Irish boy to tend them. For the dogs my master hath writ sufficiently, but for the boy thus much. You have been in Ireland, know partly the Irish condition. This is a very tractable fellow, and yet of a hardy and stout courage. I am persuaded he is very honest, especially he makes great conscience of his promise and vow. I could wish (for as much as I have seen by him) you would take him to be your servant, although he be bound to your father for five years. At his first coming over he would not go to church nor come to prayers; but first we got him up to prayers and then on the Lords Day to catechize, and afterwards very willingly he hath been at church four or five times. He as yet makes conscience of Fridays fast from flesh; and doth not love to hear the Romish religion spoken against, but I hope with gods grace he will become a good convert. . . . The fellow can read and write reasonable well which is somewhat rare for one of his condition and makes me hope the more of him.

Transportation of poor children to New England, 1639-1643

1. A London merchant's bequest

Will of John Parker, in Henry F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England (Boston, 1901), I, 578-579.

John Parker of London, haberdasher, and of the parish of St. Pancras, Soper Lane, London, 7th and 14th May 1639, proved 27 August 1639.

Item I do give and bequeath three hundred pounds to be employed in the taking up out of the street or out of the Bridewell twelve fatherless and motherless boys and eight girls from seven years old and upwards and for the furnishing them with necessaries and paying for their passage to New England and for their being bound apprentices to some such as will be careful to bring them up in the fear of God and to maintain themselves another day. And my will is that my brother James should take his choice out of these, of three of them if he need so many for his own use.

2. A plea for philanthropic assistance: the Weld-Peter mission to England, 1641-1645

New Englands First Fruits. . .(London, 1643), p. 23, in Samuel E. Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass., 1935), p. 443.

In 1641 three Massachusetts clergymen, Hugh Peter, Thomas Weld, and William Hibben, were sent to England to raise money for Harvard College, for missionaries to the Indians, and for the transportation of poor children. Their solicitation resulted in funds for the Reverend John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, several gifts to Harvard College, notably that of £ 100 for a scholarship from Lady Mowlson, nee Radcliffe, and a large sum for the poor children. A promotional tract of uncertain authorship publicized the enterprise.

[Among other helps, Providence would assist New England] by stirring up some well-minded to clothe and transport over poor children, boys and girls, which may be a great mercy to their bodies and souls and a help to us, they being super abundant [in London], and we wanting hands to carry on our trades, manufacture, and husbandry there.

3. Gifts for transporting poor children

"Thomas Weld's Receipts and Disbursements," CSM Publications, XIV (1913), 124.

Parliament authorized collecting alms in London churches; country parishes with New England affiliations and individuals gave the rest. Mismanagement, as Weld confessed, diminished the effectiveness of the mission. Much of the money was spent for chartering and provisioning the ships. Many children died of disease in camp before leaving England; others ran away; some returned to their parents. Twenty children arrived in Boston in June 1643. What became of them there is unknown. Morison, Founding of Harvard College, pp. 312-313.

What I received for the poor childrens transportation

In the first place, of Master George Walker one of the Re[c]eivers appointed by Parliament £339 8

Master Calamie our other Receiver £338 6

Of the other parishes which were behind that brought it not in to them with very much ade

at last by the Lord Mayor's assistance I got £103 12 8

Sent us from a ladie £ 5

Procured from Dedham in Essex 9; 9; 9; 17 17 6

Of childrens moneys the sum brought from that other side £ 804 4 2

From Yarmouth in Norfolk £ 12

From Sudbury in Suffolk £ 8 5

From Wrentham £ 2

Lady Armine gave to transportation £ 30

…We got such of the poor childrens parents and friends as were able to lay down some thing

toward their transportation which must be considered for them. . . in due time viz:

Mary Audleigh laid down by her father £ 1 10

John Littlefield by his master here £ 2 10

Judith Nichols by her father £ 2

John Stiles £ 2

John Copland and his brother £ 2

Another whose name I know not £ 2

A child that came from Mary Stanning £ 1

John Emry £ 2 10

Edward Morgan £ 2 10

                            £ 874 9 2

Use of Massachusetts as a reformatory, 1647

Colonial Laws of Massachusetts. Reprinted from the Edition of 1672, with the Supplement through 1686

(Boston, 1887), pp. 27-28.

The Bay Colony's reputation for piety prompted some English gentlemen to exile unruly sons there in hope of reform. That the device sometimes failed is indicated by this law.

Whereas sundry gentlemen of quality, and others, oft times send over their chidren into this country to some friends here, hoping (at least) thereby to prevent their extravagant and riotous courses, who notwithstanding (by means of some unadvised or ill affected persons, which give them credit, in expectation their friends either in favor to them or prevention of blemish to themselves, will discharge their debts) they are no less lavish and profuse here, to the great grief of their friends, dishonor of God, reproach of the country:

It is therefore ordered by this Court, that if any person after publication hereof, shall any way give credit to any such youth, or other person under one and twenty years of age, without order from their friends here or elsewhere under their hands in writing, they shall lose their debt whatever it be. And further, if such youth or person incur any penalty by such means and have not wherewith to pay, such person or persons as are occasions thereof, shall pay it as the delinquents in the like case should do.

Massachusetts offers a bounty for importing male servants, 1709

The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. . . , I (Boston, 1869), 634.

From and after the first day of April. . . any master, merchant, or others, that shall import or bring in and dispose in service within this province any male servants of the kingdom of Great Britain, [1]being between the age of eight and twenty-five years, there shall be paid unto such master, merchant, or other person, the sum of forty shillings per head, gratis, for every such male servant, bona fide disposed of in service, out of the impost office, and the commissioner is hereby ordered and impowered to pay the same, any law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

[1.] As in the South Carolina Act of 1698 (see above, sec. A, Colonial legislation to encourage immigration, doc. 3), bounties were not paid for Irish servants.

1. Boston newspaper advertisements

Post Boy, June 22, 1752, in Documents of the Slave Trade, III, 66.

Kittery, Maine.

This day arrived the Betsey, Samuel Lanphier, Commander, from the Coast of Guinea, with a Quantity of very likely Boys and Girls of the blackest Sort: All Persons who incline to be Purchasers may apply to me the Subscriber, where they shall be dealt with on reasonable terms. Alexander Rait.

News Letter, Oct. 18, 1759, in Documents of the Slave Trade, III, 67.

To be Sold, a Very likely Negro boy, has been about twelve months from the Coast of Guinea, speaks good English, straight limbed, handsome featured, good natured, and has had the smallpox. Enquire of the printer.

2. Letters about the trade

William Ellery, a Newport, R.I., merchant, to Capt. Pollipus Hammond, Jan. 7, 1746, in Documents of the Slave Trade, III, 138-139.

You being Master of our Sloop Anstis and ready to Sail, our orders are that you imbrace the first opportunity and make the best of your way for the Coast of Africa when please God you arrive there dispose of our Cargoe to the best advantage, make us returns in Negroes, Gold Dust and whatever you think will answer. If you have a good Trade for Negroes may purchase forty or Fifty Negroes. Get most of them mere Boys and Girl, some Men, let them be Young, No very small Children. Make all possable Dispatch, take care of your Vessells Bottom. If you meet with disapointment in your Trade and cannot get home some time in October next may go to Barbados and Dispose of your Negroes, reserving Eight likely boyes to bring home.

John Watts, a merchant of New York City, tells Gedney Clarke of Barbados of the market for slaves in New York, March 30, 1762, in Documents of the Slave Trade, III, 457.

For this market they must be young, the younger the better if not quite Children; those advanced in years will never do. I should imagine a Cargo of them none exceeding thirty might turn out at fifty pounds a head gross sales. Males are best.