398 



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE 



Pierson (A.) — Continued. 



a servant many years." He also declared that 

 he was ordered to he sent to Nevr England 

 "under the tuition of one Downing, who dealt 

 most perfidiously ' ' with him. Upon his arrival 

 at Boston, with other children under Downing's 

 care, in September, 1643, he was bound as an 

 apprentice to Lawrence Southwick of Salem, 

 whom he served until 1649 or 1650, part of the 

 time being employed in tending cows. From 

 the records of the general court afc Boston in 

 May, 1648, it may be inferred that he was then 

 guilty of some misdemeanor, for his master 

 was obliged to pay certain charges, and Scott 

 was ordered to serve him additional time, 

 "when his time shall be expired," or to make 

 satisfaction in some other way. At the end of 

 his apprenticeship, he was "forced to court 

 any imployment to acquire a livelihood, imploy- 

 ing himselfe in and about an island called Long 

 Island," where he "traded for himselfe and 

 dwelt long with ye natives." In March, 1654, 

 he was arre )ted on Long Island by the Dutch 

 authorities, and examined with other suspected 

 persons before the council at Fort Amsterdam. 

 In April of the same year, an action of defa- 

 mation was entered against him in the court at 

 New Haven, butth > affair was settled privately. 

 In 3657 he was made a freeman at Southamp- 

 ton, and on December 9th, 1658, was granted a 

 home lot there of three acres, and five other 

 acres, provided he remain d three years. His 

 name appears in the records of that town as an 

 attorney at a trial held on the 30th of April, 

 1660 ; and again on the 2d of May following as 

 the seller of a tract of land for iOl. He also 

 claimed that he had purchased from the Indians 

 a large portion of Long Island; and of this 

 land, Brodhead relates, "he executed numer- 

 ous conveyances, which, after much litigation, 

 were found to be fraudulent and void." 



One of his contemporaries wrote of him a 

 few years later as follows: "Hee having a 

 nimble genius, though otherwise illiterate, with 

 the helpe of a little reading, having a good 

 memory to retaine the san:.e and greater confi- 

 dence, hee became somewhat above the common 

 people & being weary of home, upon news of 

 the kings restoration in England, hee found 

 meaus to be transported over to London." It 

 has been ascertained that he sailed from 

 New Amsterdam in the ship Eyckenboom, 

 probably in October, 1660. In May of the fol- 

 lowing year it was falsely reported that the 

 whole of Long Island had been conveyed to 

 him by a new patent from the king. It seems 

 that his petition for that grant Lad met with 

 some favor; but after the arrival in England of 

 John Winthrop in the autumn of 1661 with a 

 report to the king, decision upon his requests 

 had been postponed, and they were finally de- 

 nied in 1662. At that time he was called 

 "Captain" John Scott. In April, 1663, while 

 employed as agent for the Atheiton company, 

 a body of land speculators from Massachusetts 

 who had laid out a plantation on Narragansett 



Pierson (A.) — Continued. 



Bay, he wrote that he had used "a parcel of 

 curiosities" to the value of 60i. to interest "a 

 potent gentleman" in favor of a petition in 

 the company's behalf. About two months later, 

 in June, 1663, he had another petition before 

 the king, in which he claimed that his father 

 had advanced 14,300L to the caase of Charles 

 I., besides losing his life in the service; that 

 on account of his own loyalty, he himself had 

 been banished to New England, where he had 

 afterwards purchased "near one third part " of 

 Long Island; and that he therefore prayed his 

 Majesty "to bestow upon him the government 

 of the said island and islands adjacent, or lib- 

 ertie to the inhabitants to chase a governor 

 and assistants yearly." On the failure of this 

 petition, and the announcement of the king's 

 intention to grant Long Island and the neigh- 

 boring Dutch possessions to his brother the 

 Duke of York, Scott determined to sail for 

 America. 



To this period of his career belong some 

 characteristic acts which have been brought 

 to light by the recent researches of Mr. G. D. 

 Scull. "While in London, Scott had become ac- 

 quainted with a Major Gotherson, and also 

 with his wife, whose name was originally Dor- 

 othea Scott, of Scott's-Hall in Kent. Having 

 ingratiated himself into their confidence, by 

 claiming a relationship to Mrs. Gotherson's 

 family, he sold to Major Gotherson, in 1662 and 

 1663, several large tracts of land on Long Island. 

 He also made them liable for large sums of 

 money which he pretended he had paid out on 

 their account, and by these transactions finally 

 ruined their entire estate. When he left Eng- 

 land, in the autumn of 1663, he took with him 

 2001. Worth of Mrs. Gotherson's jewels which 

 he had fraudulently detained. At the same 

 time he persuaded them to send to New Eng- 

 land in his care their only son, a lad about thir- 

 teen years of age, whom he afterwards sold 

 into service th 3re, with other young men he 

 had "tempted along with him out of England 

 upon promise of preferment." 



His chief object now "was to promote his 

 private interest, in securing the ascendency of 

 the English over Long Island." On the 23d of 

 November, not long after his return to Long 

 Island, "Colonel" Scott, as he was then called, 

 was again baying land from the Indians. In 

 December he was appointed by the government 

 of Connecticut one of three commissioners, with 

 magistratical powers, to settle the difficulties 

 with the Dutch on Long Island. On the 4th of 

 January, 1664, he succeeded in having himself 

 declared "president" of the English towns on 

 the island, to act in that capacity until the 

 Duke of York should take possession. On the 

 11th and 12th of January, having raised a c(»m- 

 pany of over 150 foot and horse, he invaded 

 Breuckelen and the neighboring Dutch towns 

 "with sounding trumpet, beaten drum, flying 

 colors, great noise and uproar," and proclaimed 

 the English ownership of the land, declaring 



