found, May 1st, 1622, " that order is given for patents to be 

 drawn for the Earl of Warwick and his associates, the Lord 

 Georges, Sir Robert Mansell, Sir Ferdinando Georges." This 

 order is regarded as referring to a division of the country from 

 Bay of Fundy to Narragansett Bay, among twenty associates, 

 in which the region about Cape Ann fell to Lord Sheffield, 

 who, on the 1st day of January, 1623, gave by Charter, " to 

 Robert Cushman and Edward Winslow," of the Plymouth 

 Colony, " a certain Tract of Ground in New England in a 

 known place there, commonly called Cape Anne, in which 

 charter provision was made against disturbing any English 

 inhabitant already there; provision was also made for 

 * Scholes, Churches, Hospitalls,' and the maintenance of 

 Ministers, Officers, and Magistrats." 



Previous to any action by the Plymouth Colony towards a 

 settlement of this region, Rev. John White, of Dorchester, 

 England, having interested some merchants and other gentle- 

 men there in forming a company, sent a small ship of fifty 

 tons to plant in New England the foundation of a colony for 

 the more successful prosecution of fishing voyages. Their 

 ship came to the usual fishing grounds, but arriving late in tlie 

 season did not obtain a full fare, and " the Master thought 

 good to pass into Mattachusetts Bay to try whether that would 

 yield him any." Vessels heretofore had not fished so far 

 West. Succeeding better than he expected and finding the 

 beautiful harbor of Cape Ann so handy, he landed his little 

 colony of fourteen men there, with their necessary provision 

 and outfit, to commence a plantation, then with full cargo of 

 fish he sailed away. 



*Mr. White tells the whole story in few words, in the 



♦Babson's History of Gloucester. 



