688 GEOGRAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



all the while without any means of instruction at all. Compassion towards the fishermen and partly some expectation 

 of gain, prevailed so far, that, for the planting of a colony in New England, there was raised a stock of more than 

 3,000, intended to be paid in five years, but afterwards disbursed in a shorter time." 



"As the basis of a colony, this use of the spare men, who were necessary while the fishing lasted, but useless in 

 navigating the ship, must have been a prominent consideration among the inducements to plant in New England. 

 Indeed, the great charge of double-manning and double-victualing the ships for the fishing voyages to Newfoundland 

 is mentioned among the inducements as early as 1620." * 



TROUBLE ABOUT A FISIIING- STAGE. "In one of the fishing voyages about the year 1625," says Hubbard, "uuder 

 the charge and command of one Mr. Hewes, employed by some of the West Country merchants, there arose a sharp 

 contest between the said Hewes and the people of New Plymouth, about a fishing-stage, built the year before about 

 Cape Anne by Plymouth men, but was now, in the absence of the builders, made use of by Mr. Hewes' company, 

 which the other, under the conduct of Captain Standish, very eagerly and peremptorily demanded, for the Company 

 of New Plymouth, having themselves obtained a useless patent for Cape Anne about the year 1623, sent some of the 

 ships, which their adventurers employed to transport passengers, over to them, to make fish there; for which end 

 they had built a stage there, in the year 1624. The dispute grew to be very hot, and high words passed between 

 them, which might have ended in blows, if not in blood and slaughter, had not the prudence and moderation of Mr. 

 Roger Conant, at that time there present, and Mr. Peirse's interposition, that lay just by with his ship, timely 

 prevented. For Mr. Hewes had barricadocd his company with hogsheads on the stage head, while the demandants 

 stood upon the land, and might easily have been cut oft'; but the ship's crew, by advice, promising to help them build 

 another the difference was thereby ended." 



CAPE ANN IN 1639. There are no records to show how soon after the departure of Conant Cape Ann was again 

 visited by settlers, but it is probable that the place was inhabited and that fishing was carried on in the year 1633. 

 One of the next references we find to the Cape Ann fisheries is the following order passed at " the Generall Courte, 

 houlden at Boston, the 22th of the 3th M., 1639," which reads: 



" It IN ordered, that a fishing plantation shalhee begun at Cape Aune, nud that the said M r . Thompson shall have 

 place assigned for building of houses, & stages, & other necessaries for that use, & shall have sufficient land alowed 

 for their occations, both for their fishing & for keeping of cattle, & for come, &c.; and that such other fishermen as will 

 joyne in that way of fishing, & inhabite there, shall have such land, &. other liberties there, as shalbee needful & 

 fit for theire occations; & and for this end this Court doth give power to M r . Endecott, M r . Humfrey, M r . Winthrope, 

 Junior, M r . Will : Peirce, & Joseph Grafton, or any 3 of them, to set out the said plantation, & all lands & other 

 accommodations to such as shalbee planted there, & none to bee setled there but by their allowance." 2 



THE TOWN OF GLOUCESTER, 1642. The settlement at Cape Ann received its name of Gloucester in the year 1642, 

 when a minister came to the place. An early writer says : 



"There was another Town and Church of Christ erected in the Mattachuset Government, upon the Northern- 

 Cape of the Bay, called Cape Ann, a place of fishing, being peopled with Fishermen, till the reverend Mr. Richard 

 Blindman came from a place in Plimouth Pattent, called Green-harbor, with some few people of his acquaintance, and 

 setled down with them, named the Town Glocester, and gathered into a Church, being but a small number, about 

 fifty persons, they called to office this godly reverend man, whose gifts and abilities to handle the word, is not inferiour 

 to many others, labouring much against the errors of the times, of a sweet, humble, heavenly carriage : This Town lying 

 out toward the point of the Cape, the access thereunto by Laud becomes uneasie, which was the chief cause it was 

 no more populated : Their fishing trade would be very beneficial, had they men of estates to manage it ; yet are they 

 not without other means of maintenance, having good timber for shipping, and a very sufficient builder, but that 

 these times of combustion the Seas throughout hath hindered much that work, yet have there been vessels built here 

 at this Town of late :" 3 



THE GROWTH OP THE FISHING INDUSTRY. Babson's History of Gloucester says : "No accounts are preserved to 

 show how long English fishing ships continued to make voyages to the coast of New England; but it is natural to 

 conclude that as the country became settled the number annually decreased, on account of the reduced expense with 

 which the business could be carried on by the colonists. In the first settlement of the Massachusetts colony at Salem, 

 we find preparations for fishing; for, in 1629, salt, lines, hooks, knives, boots, and barrels were sent over; and men- 

 tion is made of fishermen among the settlers. As early as 1634, a merchant of the country was fishing with eight 

 boats at Marblehead; and the next year Portsmouth had belonging to her fishing trade six great shallops, five fishing 

 boats, with sails, anchors, and cables, and thirteen skiffs. About this time, also, our own shore was the abode of a 

 few fishermen ; and several settlements were established on the coast of Maine. Of the total product of this branch of 

 industry in any one year, our only information is derived from Governor Winthrop, who says, that in 1641 it was fol- 

 lowed so well that 300,000 dry fish were sent to market. 



" * * * The first notice connecting our settlers with the fishing business is preserved on a loose scrap of paper, 

 which records the judgment given in a case of litigation between two of them about a piece of a net, and making 

 mention of the 'bote and voyg.' This was in 1651, about which time Robert Dutch had a 'stage' at Stage Neck, in 

 Squam. In 1662 Peter Duncan settled in the town, and carried on a small trade at the Point in the harbor, where it 

 is supposed that Mr. Thompson erected a building or a frame for the purposes of his fishery, in 1639. He is the only 

 one of our early settlers styled a merchant. At this time not more than fifteen men are known to have resided in that 

 part of the town. Some of these probably were fishermen. One of them, in 1663, agreed to pay a debt of fifty pounds 

 in ' good merchantable fish and mackerel.' " 



1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., xxviii, p. 98. s Kecords of Massachusetts, vol. i, pnge 256. 3 Wonder- working Providence. London: 1654, p. 169. 



