In a secret meeting in 1629, puritan investors in the massachusetts bay company decided to

The colony had continued despite the ouster of Thomas Morton and its inhabitants had raked in for winter a plentiful corn crop. Starved, the settlers of Salem had come to grab a part of it and cut down the famous Maypole, that they compared with the "Calf of Horeb" and a heathen idol. Thomas Morton had returned shortly after to Merrymount to discover that there was no one left. He was arrested again and banished from the colonies without legal trial.

January 13, 1629 - the Plymouth colony gets an exclusive called " Warwick Patent" or "Kennebec Patent " for the trading post Cushnoc (now Augusta, ME) founded the previous year on the banks of the Kennebec.

On Edward Winslow's instigation, contacts had been made from 1625 between the emissary of the colony John Howland and the Abenaki Indians who lived in the area. Barter agreements had been concluded which allowed the English to get beaver pelts in exchange for corn. The sale of furs being very profitable on English markets, the government of Plymouth had endeavoured a patent to secure a monopoly on all the skins of the Kennebec. Despite its resources, the colony remained very indebted to its investors and interest payments being outrageous, the fur trade was for it an essential financial contribution.

John Howland had been chosen to head the post of Cushnoc and had with his men built a warehouse along the Kennebec to store corn and goods to barter as clothing, blankets, biscuits, peas, prunes, etc. …

March 1629 - William Bradford is re-elected governor of the Plymouth colony for the 8th term.

March 4, 1629 - With the support of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, the Massachusetts Bay Company sees granted a royal charter allowing it to take over the activities of the Dorchester Company two years after it went bankrupt.

March 5, 1629 - Doctor John Pott is elected governor of Virginia by the council in place of captain Francis West left for England.

John Pott was a very controversial character. It was he who prepared the fatal drink which had poisoned more than two hundred Indians during a meeting with the settlers on May 22, 1623. He was sentenced for this but had also resolved as a doctor many of health problems related to poor living conditions by practicing an innovative medicine which would gain widespread acceptance. 

As governor, he would especially focus on the interests of the colony against the Indian threats. He decided to organize all four months attacks against the nearby tribes and created for that purpose a militia which was soon blamed for the brutality of its methods. He also decided to limit the amount of tobacco to be planted per individual. The poet George Sandys described him as a " pitiful councillor ".

Built in 1628 by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, the Lyon's Whelp was a 120-ton war pinnace armed with 8 cannon. 10 other ships of the same model were launched the in few months in order to create a fleet of privateers intended to increase the already colossal fortune of Buckingham.

The other ships of the fleet were the George, the Bonaventure, the Talbot, the Lyon and the Mayflower (not the Pilgrims' one).

Spring, 1629 - Reverend Ralph Smith arrives at Plymouth where he has been chosen as second Minister of the colony.
Isaac Allerton, the agent in London of the Plymouth Pilgrim Fathersarrives from England. He brings with him Thomas Morton, expelled one year earlier from the colony.

Thomas Morton, whom the Puritans called " Lord of Misrule " had spent a few months on the Isles of Shoals where he had been exiled by the Plymouth government before a ship takes him to England. In April, 1629, he was back in America as secretary of Isaac Allerton. He returned shortly after to Merry Mount but came soon into conflict with John Endecott, governor of Salem, about the rights of independent merchants, the representatives of the Massachusetts Bay Company believing to hold control over all trade in its territory.

May, 1629 - Chief Sagamore John reveals to the English that the Narragansetts plan to attack them. 

They had actually planned a military action against Plymouth.

May 24, 1629 - Virginia adopts the first American law regarding hunting and fishing regulation.

June 7, 1629 - The Dutch West India Company enacts the " Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions " to encourage new volunteers to settle down in the New Netherlands. It offers more lands to all the "patroons" who will make come at least, 50 new colonists.

Patroons (from the Dutch patroon, the owner) were the first landowners to get numerous territorial rights according to the new Charter intended to encourage immigration in America. They obtained privileges similar to those of the feudal period which allowed them in particular to establish civil and criminal courts and to create their own administration. They had in return to ensure the coming of at least 50 families in the four following years. These were exempted from taxes for ten years but had to pay the patroon in cash or services. 

June 29, 1629 - two hundred new colonists arrive at Salem, in addition to the hundred already settled since the previous year.

July 4, 1629 - The Lyon's Whelp reaches New England carrying a hundred colonists sent by the Massachusetts Bay Company, including in particular Thomas Graves, Increase Nowell, Reverend Francis Bright and brothers Ralph, Richard and William Sprague. They settle at Charlestown.

Increase Nowell (1590 - 1655) - Born in Sheldon, Warwickshire, his name appears in the original charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company. He was one of the founders of the Charlestown colony (now a neighborhood of Boston) and the oldest minister of his first church.

William Sprague (October 26, 1609-October 6, 1675) - Native of Upwey, Dorset, he went to New England with his brothers and a group of hundred settlers aboard the Lyon's Whelp. He was one of the founders of Charlestown.

July 8, 1629 - The colony of New England celebrates its first Thanksgiving Day.

August, 1629 - a group of 35 colonists arrives at Plymouth from Leyden in Holland. Several believers belonging to the church of minister John Lothrop are on board.

August 26, 1629 - According to the Cambridge Agreement, 12 shareholders of the Massachusetts Bay Company get the transfer to them of all the powers on the colony of New England. The members of the Company include Thomas Dudley, Isaac Johnson, Sir Richard Saltonstall and the lawyer John Winthrop who is appointed governor.

John Winthrop (January 12, 1588 - March 26, 1649) - Born in Suffolk, he attended Trinity College in Cambridge before becoming lawyer in London. He was extremely religious and had acceded to Puritanism considering that the Church of England should escape any catholic ritual. Winthrop was convinced that God would punish England for its heresy and believed that the Puritans needed a land where they would be safe when would come the time of His wrath. Other Puritans who thought like him got from the king a charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company. Charles 1 did not apparently imagine that the colony could be something else than a business establishment.

Thomas Dudley (October 12, 1576 - July, 1653) - born in Northampton, he lost his father killed at the Battle of Ivry when he was 14 years old. He subscribed to Puritanism during the 1590s and entered the service of rich men as the Earl of Lincolnof whom he was an effective financial adviser. As the tensions were high between Puritans and the English government, Dudley was chosen as one of the five officers leaving for America.

Isaac Johnson - Born in Clipham, Rutlandshire, he was a major shareholder of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

Late September, 1629 - Lord Baltimore arrives at Jamestown. Known to be violently opposed to catholicism, the Virginia settlers suspect him to want to dwell on their territory and reserve him a cold welcome before ordering him to leave the colony.

Baltimore sailed back to England a few weeks later, well decided to get a new charter from the king.

George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1580- April 15, 1632) He achieved a brilliant career as Member of the Parliament and Secretary of State of king James 1 although he lost much of his political power after the failure of his wedding project between prince Charles and the Spanish royal family. He kept however his place in the King Privy Council until he publicly declared Catholic. Having to give up his duties, he received the title of 1st Baron Baltimore in the Irish peerage.

Calvert never hid his interest for the colonization of the New World, first for commercial reasons, but also in order to create a haven for English Catholics. He thus became the owner of Avalon, the first English settllement in Newfoundland. Discouraged however by the harsh climate, he sought a place further south and worked at getting a charter allowing him to settle in the area which was going to become Maryland. He died a few weeks only before he is granted.

Born in North Yorkshire Calvert belonged to the landed gentry remained faithful to the catholic tradition despite the new rules imposed by queen Elizabeth's government. He agreed in his youth to conform to the Allegiance Act required by the Church of England and could, in this way, study in Trinity College, Oxford. His knowledge of foreign languages allowed him then to enter the service of Sir Robert Cecil and to accompany his ascent under James 1. He achieved various missions on the continent before being in the service of Robert Carr and becoming himself Secretary of State in 1619. He was then involved in the marriage of Prince Charles with the Hapsburgs but he began to be regarded with suspicion due to his close relations with the Spanish ambassador and found in minority at the Parliament.

Calvert was nevertheless rewarded by king James who granted him the County of Longford. Increasingly isolated, he had to aknowledge that his proposed union with Spain resulted in a disaster. In 1624, he admitted his failure and only kept his place at the Privy Council. This was the moment he chose to announce to everyone's surprise that he had converted to Catholicism. Some felt afterwards that he had always been catholic but had conveniently hidden it.

In 1625, repression befell again the Catholics and Calvert had to resign the Privy Council. He decided then to leave for Avalon and sent out late May Sir Arthur Aston, promoted governor of the colony. He personally went only two years later to Newfoundland where he landed on July 23, 1627. He stayed there two months, the time to prove that the country had nothing common with the announced paradise. He returned the following year with his family and the title of Proprietary Governor but spent most of his time to fight against the French ships. He tried vainly to hold togeteher Catholics and Protestants whereas the rigors of winter brought their fate of despair, combining cold and hunger. Baltimore petitioned the king a new charter to found a colony in a less hostile place and considered a settlement in Virginia where he could grow tobacco. King Charles asked him to return to England with the honors but when his mail reached Newfoundland, Baltimore had already left to Virginia with his wife and servants.

The patent also contained the so-called " Bishop of Durham Clause" which granted to Heath wide feudal powers similar to those held by the prelate of the County Palatine of Durham, on the border with Scotland, and who had the right in particular to raise an army to protect the frontier in case of invasion. He could also, in his new territory, grant favors, pardons and honors.

Without never going there, Sir Robert Heath already knew somewhat the area to have been a member of the council of the Virginia Company and owned lands in the colony which he maintained farmers. During summer, 1624, at the time of the dissolution of the charter granted to the company, Heath had helped in particular king James in his efforts to impose a royal monopoly on tobacco trade, a project which had not succeeded.

November 7, 1629 - Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges obtain confirmation of the concession of territory between the Kennebec and Piscataqua rivers first granted to them in 1622. They form the Lyconia Company to found an farming community on the Piscataqua. 
John Mason is assigned the area between the Piscataqua and the Merrymack to which he gives the name of New Hampshire and Sir Ferdinando Gorges the territory lying North of the Piscataqua which will become Maine.
The Merrimac valley was a part of the Pennacook territory whose Chief Passaconnaway (died in 1669) had just concluded a treaty of good neighborhood with the Plymouth colony.

Pennacooks - this Indian nation allied to the Sokoki and the Mahicans lived on the banks of the Merrimac and had its capital at Naumkeag (today Manchester, NH). It had particularly suffered from the Tarratine War which had bloodied the area between 1607 and 1615 and of which the Micmacs would emerge victorious, until epidemics came to decimate about 75 % of the local populations. The Pennacooks began to maintain regular contacts with the English from 1621 and accepted their protection to get over the fear to see the Micmacs operate again their murderous raids. Their leader Passaconnaway agreed from 1629 to let them portions of territories become deserted due to the steady population decline suffered by Indians, struck repeatedly by diseases carried by the Europeans against which they had no immunity.

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Gerard Tondu - January 19, 2014

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