That Both Were Goffe's Is Rendered Probable
By The Fact That Governor Winthrop - Writing Of The Vessels As If
Associated
And a single interest - states that "most of their cattle [on
these ships] were dead, whereof a mare and horse
Of mine." This
probability is increased, too, by the facts that the ships evidently kept
close company across the Atlantic (as if under orders of a common owner,
and as was the custom, for mutual defence and assistance, if occasion
required), and that Winthrop who, as we above noted, had large dealings
with Goffe, seems to have practically freighted both these ships for
himself and friends, as his freight bills attest. They would hence, so
far as possible, naturally keep together and would discharge their
cargoes and have their accountings to a single consignee, taken as nearly
together as practicable. Both these ships came to Charlestown, - as only
one other did, - and both were freighted, as noted, by one party.
Sadly enough, the young man, Henry Winthrop, was drowned at Salem the
very day after his arrival, and before that of either of the other
vessels: the HOPEWELL, or WILLIAM AND FRANCIS (which arrived at Salem the
3d); or the TRIAL or CHARLES (which arrived - the first at Charlestown, of
the last at Salem - the 5th); or the SUCCESS (which arrived the 6th);
making it certain that he must have come in either the MAY-FLOWER or the
WHALE. If, as appears, Goffe owned them both, then his ownership of the
MAY-FLOWER in 1630 is assured, while all authorities agree without cavil
that the MAY-FLOWER of Winthrop's fleet in that year (1630) and the
MAY-FLOWER of the Pilgrims were the same. In the second "General Letter
of Instructions" from the Massachusetts Company in England - dated London,
May 28, 1629 - to Governor Endicott and his Council, a duplicate of which
is preserved in the First Book of the Suffolk Registry of Deeds at
Boston, the historic vessel is described as "The MAY-FLOWER, of Yarmouth
- William Pierse, Master," and Higginson, in his "Journal of a Voyage to
New England," says, "The fifth ship is called the MAY-FLOWER carrying
passengers and provisions." Yarmouth was hence undoubtedly the place of
register, and the hailing port of the MAY-FLOWER, - she was very likely
built there, - and this would remain the same, except by legal change of
register, wherever she was owned, or from what ever port she might sail.
Weston and Cushman, according to Bradford, found and hired her at London,
and her probable owner, Thomas Goffe, Esq., was a merchant of that city.
Dr. Young remarks: "The MAYFLOWER Of Higginson's fleet is the renowned
vessel that brought the Pilgrim Fathers to Plymouth in 1620." Hon.
James Savage says "The MAYFLOWER had been a name of renown without
forming part of this fleet [Winthrop's, 1630], because in her came the
devoted planters of Plimouth [1620] and she had also brought in the year
preceding [1629] some of Higginson's company to Salem." Goodwin' says:
"In 1629 she [the Pilgrim MAY-FLOWER] came to Salem with a company of the
Leyden people for Plymouth, and in 1630 was one of the large fleet that
attended John Winthrop, discharging her passengers at Charlestown." Dr.
Young remarks in a footnote: "Thirty-five of the Leyden congregation with
their families came over to Plymouth via Salem, in the MAY-FLOWER and
TALBOT."
In view of such positive statements as these, from such eminent
authorities and others, and of the collateral facts as to the probable
ownership of the MAY-FLOWER in 1630, and on her earlier voyages herein
presented, the doubt expressed by the Rev. Mr. Blaxland in his "Mayflower
Essays," whether the ship bearing her name was the same, on these three
several voyages, certainly does not seem justified.
Captain William Pierce, who commanded the MAY-FLOWER in 1629, when she
brought over part of the Leyden company, was the very early and intimate
friend of the Pilgrims - having brought over the ANNE with Leyden
passengers in 1623 - and sailed exclusively in the employ of the Merchant
Adventurers, or some of their number, for many years, which is of itself
suggestive.
To accept, as beyond serious doubt, Mr. Goffe's ownership of the
MAY-FLOWER, when she made her memorable voyage to New Plimoth, one need
only to compare, and to interpret logically, the significant facts;
- that he was a ship-owner of London and one of the body of Merchant
Adventurers who set her forth on her Pilgrim voyage in 1620; and that he
stood, as her evident owner, in similar relation to the Puritan company
which chartered her for New England, similarly carrying colonists,
self-exiled for religion's sake, in 1629 and again in 1630. This
conviction is greatly strengthened by the fact that Mr. Goffe continued
one of the Pilgrim Merchant Adventurers, until their interests were
transferred to the colonists by the "Composition" of 1626, and three
years later (1629) sent by the MAY-FLOWER, on her second New England
voyage, although under a Puritan charter, another company from the
Leyden congregation. The (cipher) letter of the "Governor and deputies
of the New-England Company for a plantation in Massachusetts Bay" to
Captain John Endicott, written at Gravesend, England, the 17th of April,
1629, says: "If you want any Swyne wee have agreed with those of Ne[w]
Plimouth that they deliver you six Sowes with pigg for which they a[re]
to bee allowed 9 lb. in accompt of what they the Plymouth people owe
unto Mr. Goffe [our] deputie [Governor]." It appears from the foregoing
that the Pilgrims at New Plymouth were in debt to Mr. Goffe in 1629,
presumably for advances and passage money on account of the contingent
of the Leyden congregation, brought over with Higginson's company to
Salem, on the second trip of the MAY-FLOWER. Mr. Goffe's intimate
connection with the Pilgrims was certainly unbroken from the
organization of their Merchant Adventurers in 1619/20, through the
entire period of ten years, to 1630.
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