children, and with a financial "Depression" at hand it was felt that the outlook at home was a poor one; and heeding the glowing accounts of America, they determined to risk the future in the New World across the sea.

By early March in that part of England the Lady smock and Blackthorn blossoms were beginning to show, and along the lanes, the hedgehogs could be seen stealing beside the fences that skirted the orchards of apple trees then just beginning to flower. Impressive is Marlborough Downs, with its "purple shadows", Hackpen Hill, and the "grey wethers". The pipeing of the snipe and the warble of the lark, announced that spring was close at hand. But despite these invitations to remain, Anthony with his brother William, and some twenty odd others of the neighborhood, began the many tedious duties necessary for one embarking for America -- a destination further in fact than the North Pole, and an adventure considerably more hazardous than would be a journey, today, to Kamchatka, or Borneo. Passage was arranged and purchased on the ship "James", out of London, but scheduled to pick up passengers at Southampton but forty miles below Marlborough. Multitudinous affairs had to be arranged; provision made for the support of his family, which for the time were to remain at home; necessary equipment for himself selected; and appropriate clothing for the cold American winters to be gotten together. Each man bound for The Massachusetts Bay Colony carried with him four pairs of shoes, Norwich gaiters, two suits of doublets-and-hose of leatherlined with oilskin, a musquet, bandolier, a corsolet and pike. There was little opportunity in the new colonies for anything but the simplest of purchases.

It was almost April of that year of 1635 before Anthony's last farewells had been made to his numerous kin and kith whose dwellings dotted a beautiful landscape from Marlborough north as far as Hayden-Wick and Chisleton. If the venture was a success, his family were to follow.

The time of departure at last arrived. The small company took their final glimpse at ancient Marlborough, crossed the bridge which spans the River Kennet -- 'for silver eels renowned' -- and journeyed on, southward through the 'Downs' to the coast. In passing the cathedral at Salisbury, made richer by bequests of relatives, Anthony paused, and sent up a prayer for the safety and success of the perilous adventure about to be undertaken. He knew he would greatly miss olde England. No longer would he be a participant in the beloved festivities of his native land, and the revels, wrestling matches, back-sword fighting, and pig racing, held annually in the fields near the parish church, would henceforth to him be but a memory.

Through the old stone portal, that lead to the quay at Southhampton, the ship "James", as it swung at anchor amid a cordon of smaller craft, was readily recognized by its bulk. This, Home for the next several weeks, was a large vessel -- three hundred tons -and the skipper, Captain William Cooper, was a rugged old sea-dog and more than once he, or Capt. Graves, had steered this vessel across the upper part of the North Atlantic sea to his Majesty's Dominions in America. The smell of tar and brine, and the peculiar odor everpresent on ships, bespoke of the vessel's fitness.

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At last on April fifth, 1635, at least three years before there was any indication of open strife in England, with the English flag the red cross of Saint George flying at her mast; with sails set; seamen on the alert; hawser ropes cast aboard; the vessel took the outgoing tide. The fifty-three passengers some with their families, and a half dozen or so "servants" aboard, bid farewell to England. Below deck, neatly stanchioned, were some dozen or more cattle and sheep, sharing the hold with the baggage and provisions of the voyage, and as the purple shores of England faded into the horizon, there was many a heart-tug; for all knew that this was perhaps the last occasion which most of them would ever again see their native shores.

In general, the breezes helped them tack readily westward, but at times the wind went against them, causing the crew to deviate frequently from their normal course. At other times "there was but a little breeze, or none at all, and during the calms the seamen fished for cod or mackerel or halibut, and brought up many a welcome dinner to break the monotony of cheese and beer. As the casks of

fresh water and beer got low, all hands aboard turned to, to fill the empty casks with salt water to maintain the balance of the vessel. Numbers of whales were to be seen, as well as huge grampusses rolling about the sides of the boat." And finally after weeks at sea -fifty-eight days in all -- the new shore was dimly seen through the morning mist.

On the third of June, 1635 the staunch vessel anchored off the then wharfless settlement of Boston, a location which but five years before had been but a wilderness. And decades before, this "wilderness" had been a part of North Virginia; for the old Virginia of earlier days had comprised this entire English overseas possession. The newcomers from the "James" were duly welcomed, and immediately offered a propietary share in a former Indian settlement called

See Appendix 9