EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVER. 31 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



English sheep were probably brought into the plantations of Massa- 

 chusetts Bay between 1624 and 1629, for we are told that Edward Wins- 

 low brought the first neat cattle into New England in 1624, and it is 

 reasonable to infer that sheep accompanied them. In 1629 royal per- 

 mission was given to ship from Southampton, England, 140 cattle, 

 horses, sheep, and goats to Massachusetts Bay, and early in the spring 

 of 1630 eleven vessels, having on board 1,700 persons, with live stock, 

 left the harbor of Southampton for New England. Most of the emi- 

 grants were farmers, and settled at Lynn, Oharlestown, Eoxbury, Dor- 

 chester, "Watertown, Medford, and Boston, and from the time of their 

 arrival sheep begin to be mentioned in the records. Many went to 

 Lynn, principally farmers, and possessed a large stock of horned cattle, 

 sheep, and goats. The sheep, goats, and swine were kept on Nahant, 

 where they were tended by a shepherd. Wolves were very destructive, 

 and, November, 1630, the court ordered that to any person killing one 

 should be allowed a penny for each cow and horse, and one farthing 

 for each sheep and swine in the plantation. This indicates that sheep 

 were at that time known throughout the colony, and were protected 

 by an assessment upon them for the destruction of their greatest enemy 

 in those early days, and they became objects of solicitous care. 

 How many were landed that were shipped at Southampton does not 

 appear. They were, generally speaking, well-formed sheep, bearing 

 wool of a medium fineness, compared with that of the present day, and 

 of a superior quality for that time. From the place of shipment and 

 their general characteristics, as gleaned from historical records, we 

 judge that the first sheep of Massachusetts were the ancient Wiltshires, 

 a horned sheep, with large head and eyes, Eoman-nosed, long-faced, 

 wide nostrils, horns falhng back behind their ears, chest wide and 

 deep, back straight, legs long, and bones large. They were greedy 

 feeders and slow in fattening, but when fattened they occasionally at- 

 tained great weight. If they were slow in feeding they were excellent 

 folding sheep, and enabled more corn to be grown in Wiltshire, in pro- 

 portion to its size, than in any other county in England, and to this 

 purpose they were used by the early settlers of Massachusetts. More 

 valuable, however, than anything was the wool, and this alone would 

 have caused choice of the Wiltshire for the new settlements. The 

 Wiltshires were the largest breed of flne-wooled sheep, and their wool 

 at that time much prized; it was of a medium length and fine, and the 

 fleece weighed from 2 to 2J pounds. The ewe had no wool beneath the 



belly. 



In July, 1631, there were shipped from Barnstable, in Devonshire, 

 eight heifers, a calf, and five sheep. In 1033 the general court leased 

 Noddles Island to Samuel Maverick for "a fat hog, a fat wether, or .40s. 

 in money each year," and Maverick raised sheep on the island, and the 

 Boston records of the same year make mention of keeping the sheep 



