125 



which now many affect to believe is fit only for the attention of "the 

 ignorant, the superstition-?, and the improvident." 



About the year 1636 the celebrated Hugh IV-ters,* minister of Salem, 

 moved the people there to raise a capital for the purpose of commencing 

 the business of fishing. With untiring zeal he went from place to place, 

 and labored in public and in private to accomplish this design, and to 

 induce his flock to build ships and to embark in commerce;. He was 

 eminently successful, and personally engaged in the enterprises which 

 he recommended to others. To him belongs, in a very great degree, 

 the merit of founding the fisheries and trade of that city. During his 

 residence and ministry, Salem was without a rival in maritime affairs, 

 and claimed to become the capital. His departure for Phigland gave a 

 check to business; Boston acquired the ascendency, and was selected 

 as the seat of government. That part of it now called Marblehead soon 

 obtained a superiority in the fisheries, and petitioned for an act of 

 incorporation ; while Gloucester, Manchester, and the whole eastern 

 shore of Massachusetts, engaging in the same pursuits, still further les- 

 sened its importance for a considerable period. Of the merchant min- 

 ister, Peters, we may add, that, taking the side of Cromwell in the 

 civil war in England, he was executed there on the restoration of the 

 Stuarts. t It is supposed in a late English pubhcation that Peters was 

 one of the two masked executioners of Charles theFu'st, and that it was 

 he who held up the monarch's head to the view of the multitude. 



In 1639 we have the origin of the system of protection. By an act 

 of that 3'ear, passed for the encouragement of the fisheries, it was pro- 

 vided that all vessels and other property employed in taking, curing, 

 and transporting fish, according to the usual course of fishing voyages, 

 should be exempt from all duties and public taxes for seven years; and 

 that all fishermen during the season for their business, as well as ship- 

 builders, should be excused from the performance of military duty. 

 Such a law, in the infancy of the colony, when contributions from every 

 estate, and the personal service in arms of every citizen, were impera- 

 tively demanded by the exigencies of the times, shows the deep import- 

 ance which was attached to this branch of business by the fiithers of 

 the Commonwealth. 



Of the year 1641, Lechford, in his "Plain Dealing; or. News from 

 New England," (printed in London, 1642,) f says that tlic people were 

 "setting on the manufacture of linen and cotton cloth, and the fishing 

 trade;" that lh(>y were "building of ships, and had a good store of 

 barks, catches, lighters, shallops, and other vessels;" and that "they 

 had l)uiidcd and j)lant('d to admiration fJjr the time." We learn from 

 J(jhnson, in the work already mentioned, that the Kev. Richard Blind- 



• Or Itiich Pctr>r. 



t Tliiti'liiiison prcRPrveH, in Iuh Cnllrrtiov of Pnprr.i, n Irftcr from Mr. .Tolm Kiiu\vlt>s to 

 Govcnior Lcvcrctt, dtitcd at London in lt)77, by which it n|)i)iars tiiat IVters's widow was ia 

 fjn.'at poverty. Knowics Kays: "8ir, there i.s anoilicr fmiilde which I presnnie to pntr npon 

 jou ; whicii i.-<, to speak to tin; reverend Mr. IliiiL'inson, pastour of Saleni, to move that con- 

 Rreijatioii fo floe ftoniethint; for the triaintenancc of Mrs. reterB, who, since her hnshand suf- 

 fered here, hnfli dejiended wholly upon Mr. (:ock<|iiain and that chnrch whereof he is jKistonr. 

 I fear .';lie will be forced to .seke jier livinLT in liie streetH, if some course he not taken for her 

 relief, either I»j Mr. Ilii;i,'iiison or Mr. O.xenljridce. or some other sympafhiziiii; minister." 



t Kt'publishcd iu Colk'Ctious of Massachusetts llisloricul fciofiety, vul. 3d of 3d uerios. 



