126 



man had gathered a churcli at Cape Ann, "a place of fishing, being 

 peopled with fishermen;" and that "iheir fishing trade would be very 

 beneficial had they men of estates to manage it." We read in Win- 

 throp's Journal, that "this year the men followed fishing so well that 

 there was about three hundred thousand.dry fish sent to the market:" 

 and in Hubbard, that the colonists received letters from England by 

 the English fishing ships that came to the Piscataqua. In 1642, we 

 find in Winthrop tliat the same class of ships brought news of the civil 

 wars between the King and Parliament, "whereupon the churches kept 

 divers days of humihation;" and that "there arrived another ship with 

 salt, which was put off for pipe-staves," so that "by an unexpected 

 providence" there was "a supply of salt to go on with fishing:" and in 

 Holmes, that "the settlement at Cape Ann was established to be a 

 plantation, and called Gloucester." Again, Winthrop records, in 1643, 

 the return of the Trial, "Mr. Thomas Graves, an able and a godly 

 man, master," from a voyage to Bilboa and Malaga. This was the 

 first vessel built at Boston. Her outward cargo consisted of fish, 

 "which she sold at a good rate;" and she brought home "wine, fruit, 

 oil, iron, and wool, which was a great advantage to the country, and 

 gave encouragement to trade." 



In 1644, we have an incident pertinent to our purpose, which is related 

 with some particularity in the chronicles of the time. It appears that 

 a London ship of twenty-four guns, Captain Stagg, arrived at Boston, 

 with a cargo of wine, from Teneriffe ; that a Bristol ship, laden with 

 fish, lay in the harbor at the same time ; that Stagg, authorized by a 

 commission from the Cromwell party in England to capture vessels 

 belonging to Bristol, made prize of this ship; and that a Bristol mer- 

 chant, and others interested in the vessel and cargo seized by Stagg, 

 collected a mob, and raised a tumult. It appears, further, that some of 

 the citizens of Boston, apprehensive of serious consequences, made 

 prisoners of the merchant and other strangers, and carried them before 

 Winthrop, who confined them under guard in a public house; and that 

 the people of the town concerned in the affair were committed to 

 prison. Stagg was next called to an account, but it was found that he 

 had not transcended his authority. A great excitement was produced 

 by the occurrence; and some of the ministers, participating in the com- 

 mon feehng, spoke harshly of Stagg in their sermons, and exhorted the 

 magistrates to maintain the people's liberties, which they considered 

 had been violated by his act. A part of the magistrates WTre of the 

 opinion that the Bristol ship should be restored; but the majority ex- 

 pressed a different view of the case, and Stagg was allowed to retain 

 his prize. But the merchants of Boston, who, it would seem, were 

 owners of the cargo of fish, petitioned to be allowed to test the right of 

 the captor to their property by a suit at law. Their request was granted ; 

 yet, when the governor, six odier magistrates, and the jury assembled, 

 they were induced to refer the decision of the whole matter to the court 

 of admiralty. Thus terminated an affair which, at the moment, wore 

 a very serious aspect, and threatened to involve the government of 

 Massachusetts in a controversy with their Puritan friends in England. 



Concluding our account of the year 1644 with the remark that one 

 ship, built at Cambridge, and anollier, built at Boston, sailed from the 



