AND THE REV. JOHN WHITE. 89 



Oxon, being elected Fellow of the College, 1595. A man of 

 conspicuous piety, learning, and power, a moderate but 

 earnest Puritan, he was in touch with the struggle for religious 

 freedom from its earliest days. Living in Dorchester at the 

 time, he would have been specially interested in the emigrations 

 of the 4 ' Pilgrims " from the Southern ports, Southampton, 

 Weymouth and Plymouth, and gave both sympathy and 

 assistance to the original emigration in the Mayflower. In 

 1623 he personally organized the formation of a trading 

 post," or station for fishing vessels, at Cape Ann, under Roger 

 Conant. Near the spot where the first settlers landed there 

 is now a fine bronze tablet set in a rock at State Fort Park, 

 with the words 



On this site in 1623 a Company of Fishermen and Farmers from 

 Dorchester, England, under the direction of the Rev. John White, founded 

 this Massachusets Bay Colony. 



About 20 years later, this Cape Ann settlement was given 

 the name " Gloucester," as at that time a large number of 

 emigrants from the English town of that name had arrived 

 there. 



White next devoted all his energies to the acquisition of a 

 Massachusetts Bay Charter, a most important event in the 

 history of New England; it being mainly due to his skill and 

 perseverance that the Company was ultimately formed. He 

 journeyed frequently to London to create and cement the 

 great alliance between the wealthy London merchants, and 

 the seamen of the West of England. Before the final con- 

 summation of this work, other enterprises closely connected 

 with Dorchester and Dorset were undertaken by Parson 

 White, which prepared the way for future developments. 



The founding of Charlestown, in which the Spragues of 

 Upwey took a leading part, is recorded in a pamphlet written 

 by Mr. Henry Sprague, published in Boston, U.S.A., in 1910. 

 He proves by evidence from early records that the first 

 permanent settlement in Massachusetts Bay was due to three 

 brothers, Ralph, Richard, and William Sprague, sailing from 

 Weymouth in the Abigail in June, 1628, reaching Naumkeag 



