THE DORSET COLONY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 105 



ments were made by White with the Plymouth Council, which 

 body sold, by deed bearing date March 19th, 1627, unto some 

 knights and gentlemen about Dorchester viz., Sir Henry Roswell, 

 Sir John Young, Thomas Southcott, John Humphrey, John 

 Endicott, and Simon Whetcomb that part of New England which 

 lies between the rivers Merrimac and Charles, at the bottom of 

 Massachusetts Bay. To these were subsequently added, by the 

 influence of Mr. White, a number of persons of quality from the 

 neighbourhood of London, from Lincolnshire, and elsewhere. 

 These were mostly men of strong religious convictions, so that the 

 enterprise, losing its commercial character, entered on another 

 phase, and was announced as a place of retreat for conscientious 

 Nonconformists. The King having confirmed the purchase by 

 charter on March 20th, 1630, a party numbering 140, consisting 

 mainly of severe Puritans recruited from Dorset and neighbouring 

 parts of the country, many of them of good position, set sail from 

 Plymouth, Eng., in the ship Mary and John, Captain Squeb 

 commander. The party was led by their pastors, John Maverick, 

 John Warham, and, according to some accounts, by John White 

 in person (but that is a moot point and need not be insisted upon), 

 and, after an uneventful voyage, landed at Nantasket, whence they 

 proceeded to Mattapan, which place they at once renamed Dor- 

 chester. The following names, having more or less a local ring, 

 are those of some of the party viz., Rossiter, Ludlow, Glover, 

 Johnson, Tory, Smith, Gallop, Hull, Hill, Southcott, Lovell, Pinney, 

 Richards, Way, Williams, Tilley. 



The Rev. Jno. White, called the "Patriarch of Dorchester," 

 became Rector of Holy Trinity in 1606. He was at first a 

 moderate Puritan, and conformed to the Church of England ; but 

 at the beginning of the Long Parliament (November, 1640) he saw 

 fit to change his opinions, and not only himself took the Covenant, 

 but, by his great influence with the townspeople, induced them as 

 a body to follow his example. In 1643 he was chosen one of the 

 Assembly of Divines. When Prince Rupert was in these parts his 

 house was plundered and his library carried away ; whereupon he 



