92 FOUNDING OF DORCHESTER, MASS. 



Christian kindness, wee shall labour to repay in what dutie wee are or 

 shall he able to performe, promising, so farre as God shall enable us, to 

 give him no rest on your behalfes, wishing our heads and hearts may be 

 as fountaines of teares for your everlasting welfare, when wee shall be in 

 our poore Cottages in the wildernesse, overshadowed with the spirit of 

 supplication through the manifold necessities and tribulations which may 

 not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably befall us. 



Your assured Friends and Brethren 



From Yarmouth Jo. Winthrope, Gov. Rich. Saltonstall 



aboard the Arbella Charles Fines Isaac Johnson 



April 7, 1630 George Philips Tho. Dudley 



&c. William Coddington 



About a month in advance of the Arbella, a company met 

 at Plymouth, where the Mary and John, a vessel of 400 tons, 

 had been chartered for the voyage, the first ship of the fleet of 

 1630 to arrive in Massachusetts Bay. These are the 

 Pilgrims that are termed the " Founders of Dorchester." 

 Among them were, Roger Clap, Henry Wolcott, Thomas 

 Ford, George Dyer, William Gaylord, William Phelps, William 

 Rockwell, Israel Stoughton, George Minot, George Hall, 

 Richard Collicott, Nathaniel Duncan, and Captains Mason 

 and Southcote. 



The 17th June, 1630, (N.S.) may be safely named as the 

 official birthday of our namesake in Massachusetts. It is fixed 

 by two reliable authorities. In the First Parish Church, 

 Dorchester, is a tablet bearing the following inscription : 



u Dorchester, named from the town of Dorchester in Dorset, England. 

 The first settlers sailed from Plymouth, England in the Mary and John, 

 one of the Winthrop fleet, March 20, 1630, arrived at Nantasket, now 

 Hull, May 30, and landed in Dorchester June 6, 1630.* " 



Also, at the great gathering in Dorchester to celebrate the 

 250th aniversary of the planting of the Church, and foundation 

 of the Town, the 17th June (N.S.), was the date observed. 



Thus as the Mayflower stands in history for the founding 

 of the New England States at Provincetown and Plymouth, 

 so does the Mary and John mark the commencement of the 

 colony of Massachusetts Bay, composed for the most part of 



* These dates are Old Style. 



