May 26.

Wilson returned to his parochial charge in Boston. John Eliot, destined to win the name of Apostle, had arrived there in the preceding autumn, since which time he had supplied. Wilson's place. After an earnest struggle on the part of the Boston people to retain him as their teacher, a church was organized in Roxbury under his ministry and that of Thomas Welde, who had come a week after Wilson's return; and the Deputy-Governor removed from Newtown to place himself under their

spiritual charge. A company from Braintree in August.

England sat down at Mount Wollaston, but be

fore long, in conformity to an order of the Magistrates, removed to Newtown.2

tion between

Wilson's return was soon followed by a gratifying incident. By his good offices, and those of Mr. Welde, Mr. Nowell, and the Dorchester ministers, a better un- September. derstanding was established between the Governor Reconciliaand the Deputy-Governor. They had continued Winthrop to meet each other, on occasions of business, with and Dudley. the usual reciprocations of courtesy, and "without any appearance of any breach or discontent." But Dudley, who had a stubborn temper, had been deeply offended by the Governor's course in relation to the settlement at Newtown, and had hitherto received coldly the overtures for an accommodation which the generosity of the other party persevered in making. A conference between them, in the presence of their friends who have been named, was "begun with calling upon the Lord." Dudley opened his private grievances, and added strictures on the public

1 Eliot was now in the twenty-eighth year of his age. His birthplace is not known. He was graduated in 1622 as Bachelor of Arts, at Jesus College, Cambridge, and was afterwards assistant to Thomas Hooker (presently to be mentioned) in a private school near Chelmsford, in Essex. Leaving England from the same motives which impelled

Aug. 3.

other Puritans at the time, he arrived
in Boston, November 3, 1631. His
election to be teacher of its church cre-
ates a presumption against the tradition
that it was in compliment to Cotton,
whom they are said to have been ex-
pecting, that the emigrants gave the
name of Boston to their chief town.
2 Winthrop, I. 87.

Sept. 4.

66

... or

administration; and the Governor partly justified his conduct, and partly acknowledged himself faulty." A discussion took place, in which "they both fell into bitterness"; after which, "the meeting breaking up without any other conclusion but the commending the success of it by prayer to the Lord, the Governor brought the Deputy onward of his way, and every man went to his own home." The censure of the arbiters appears to have been limited to the injury which Dudley had received from the Governor's not fixing his residence at the place which had been understood to be agreed upon. "The ministers afterward, for an end of the difference, dered that the Governor should procure them a minister at Newtown, and contribute somewhat towards his maintenance for a time; or, if he could not, by the spring, effect that, then to give the Deputy, towards his charges in building there, twenty pounds." Dudley immediately returned the money, "with this reason to Mr. Wilson, that he was so well persuaded of the Governor's love to him, and did prize it so much, as, if they had given him one hundred pounds instead of twenty pounds, he would not have taken it." And the good men ever after kept peace and good correspondency together, in love and friendship," their alliance being subsequently cemented by an intermarriage of their children.

Division of the Boston church.

66

A transaction of material interest to the Colony, as well as to Wilson's religious charge, took place a few months. after his return. His church, originally formed at Charlestown, had soon transferred itself for worship to the opposite peninsula, where the greater part of its members gradually settled. The portion left behind, thirty-three in number, finding the passage over the river inconvenient in bad weather, and having opportunity to secure the services of a minister of their own, it was determined that they should con

1 Winthrop, I. 82-86, 88, 89.

Nov. 2.

Nov. 22.

stitute a separate congregation. Mr. James, recently arrived from England, was placed in charge of it, while Mr. Wilson, who had hitherto been teacher of the original church, was now chosen to be its pastor, and a meeting-house was built for him at what was thought a liberal expense.1 Following the manner used at Salem for the induction of Higginson and Skelton to office, Wilson, and Oliver, his ruling elder, assisted by two deacons, prayed for each other mutually with imposition of hands.

4

Boston.

Oct. 2.

Boston was taking the character of the capital town. It was "thought by general consent" to be "the fittest place for public meetings of any place in the Town of Bay." Blaxton's claim from pre-occupancy was quieted by "fifty acres of ground set out for him near to his house in Boston, to enjoy for ever."3 It was "ordered that there should be a market kept at Boston, upon every Thursday, the fifth day of the week." The Assistants directed the building of a house of correction there for the Colony's use, and of a dwelling-house for a beadle. Boston now contains a population of a hundred and seventy thousand souls. The property of its citizens equals two hundred and sixty millions of dollars. Its imports in a recent year amounted to nearly fortyfive millions of dollars, its exports to more than twenty-eight millions, and its shipping to nearly half a million of tons." Its citizens tax themselves annually more than two millions of dollars, of which amount one

1 It is said to have had mud walls and a thatched roof. It stood on the south side of State Street, probably at the easterly corner which it makes with Devonshire Street. (Mass. Hist. Coll., IV. 189 ) "For which [the meetinghouse] and Mr. Wilson's house, they had made a voluntary contribution of about one hundred and twenty pounds." (Winthrop, I. 87.)

2 Mass. Col. Rec., I. 101.

3 Ibid., 104.

4 Ibid., 112.

5 Ibid., 100.

1857.

6 Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the Year ending June 30, 1857, pp. 324, 368, 486, 620. The exact amounts were as follows; namely, imports, $44,840,083; exports, $28,326,918; · shipping, 447,996 tons.

seventh part goes to the support of public schools. A partial collation of the facts belonging to the subject, made at the end of the first forty-five years of the present century, exhibits a result of voluntary contributions of citizens of Boston within that time to purposes of educa tion and charity, and some similar miscellaneous objects of public usefulness, amounting to not less than five millions. of dollars.1 Boston, when its first meeting-house was building, showed only a few cabins, on the eastern declivity, and at the foot, of a hill which sloped towards the sea. At high water, its primitive area, of about two square miles, looked like two islands. A drawbridge was soon thrown across the narrow channel which separated them, and nature had provided for their connection with the mainland by a narrow isthmus, a mile in length. The uneven surface was divided among three hills, since known by the names of Beacon Hill, Fort Hill, and Copp's Hill, with their intervening valleys. Beacon Hill was a conspicuous object from the sea and the surrounding coun try, its highest peak rising to an elevation of a hundred and eighty feet above the water.2

1 American Almanac, XVII. 163. 2 The greatest length of the peninsula of Boston, from Roxbury line to the water, is a little over two miles and three quarters; its greatest width, a little over one mile. It contained about seven hundred acres of land, before it was enlarged by embankments. The following description of it, as it appeared in 1633, is from "New England's Prospect," by William Wood, published at London in 1634. Nothing, I believe, is known of Wood, except that, in August, 1633, (New England's Prospect, 38,) he left this country, where, he says in his Preface, he had "lived these four years." It is probable, therefore, that he came over with Higginson's fleet. "The end of his travel was observation" (Ibid., 47), and he "intended to

return shortly." (Ibid., Pref.) On the opposite page is a fac-simile, on a reduced scale, of a map prefixed to his book.

"Boston," he says (37, 38), "is two miles northeast from Roxberry. His situation is very pleasant, being a peninsula, hemmed in on the south side with the bay of Roxberry, on the north side with Charly River, the marches on the back side being not half a quarter of a mile over; so that a little fencing will secure their cattle from the wolves. Their greatest wants be wood and meadow-ground, which never were in that place, being constrained to fetch their building timber and firewood from the islands in boats and their hay in lighters. It being a neck, and bare of wood, they are not troubled with three great annoy

The South part of New England as it is
Planted this yeare, 1634.