escape by sea. Thereupon Kellond and Kirk returned by water to Boston, where they made oath before the Magistrates to a report of their proceedings.1 The fugitives had received timely notice of their danger. A week before their pursuers left the sea-board, they removed from Mr. Davenport's house to that of William Jones, son-in-law of Governor Eaton, and afterwards Deputy-Governor of New Haven. On the day when the 1 Their report is in the State-Paper Office, whither it may have been sent by Endicott for his justification. (Comp. Temple's letter to Secretary Morrice, in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 325.) Winthrop also went to England this summer on his important errand, of which more is to be said hereafter; and he would naturally like to be preceded there by representations of his alacrity in this business. Comp. Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 27. In the letter of Temple just referred to (dated August 20, 1661) he expresses great solicitude for the apprehension of the Colonels. He says he is persuaded that they are "still in this country," and adds, that "he had joined himself in a secret design" for their capture "with Mr. Pynchon and Captain Lord, two of the most considerable persons living in those parts" where they were supposed to be. Pynchon, son of the Assistant lately gone to England (see above, p. 396) was the principal man of Springfield, and was thus near Hadley, to which town the Colonels soon after came. I do not think it necessary to suppose that Pynchon was much in earnest as to the arrangement of which Temple writes. Temple probably was so; as his own relations with the Court were critical, and he was just going to England to look after his Nova Scotia property. In the following February he was in London, as appears from his being summoned before the Privy Council on the 26th of that month. (Journal, &c.) 2 Jones came to America about the same time with Whalley and Goffe, probably in the same vessel. (N. H. Rec., II. 451; comp. Mass. Hist. Coll, XXX. 37.) His father had just been executed as a regicide. Dr. Stiles (History of Three of the Judges, &c., 90) supposes that about this time the fugitives were concealed for some days at Guilford, with the knowledge of Governor Leete. Such is the local tradition, and I have been in that cellar of a warehouse of the Governor which is understood to have been their hiding-place. The story, which I take to be unfounded, has been thought to be confirmed by a notice (May 7, 1662) in the Colony Record (II. 437) of a proceeding with Mr. Rossiter of Guilford respecting 'an account of his charges about the · Colonels." But the Colony never would have put upon its Record an allowance for protecting the Colonels. Rossiter, though son of the Massachusetts Assistant (see Vol. I. 636), was a prerogative man, and doubtless the charges were for some service in the search for them. Dr. Stiles, in his book above quoted, has collected various traditions relating to these events. They are not all congruous, or otherwise credible; but they are worth the use of a leisure hour. long debate was going on with Governor Leete at Guilford, Whalley and Goffe were conducted to a mill, two miles from New Haven to the northwest, where they remained hidden two days and nights. Thence they went to a spot called Hatchet Harbor, about three miles further in the same direction, where they lay two nights more. Meantime, for fear of the effect of large rewards, which the messengers had offered for their capture, a more secure hiding-place had been provided for them Valeant quantum. I have placed no reliance upon them. President Stiles was learned for his time, very inquisitive and diligent, and not a little credulous. On the other hand, the brief narrative of Hutchinson, who wrote with the Diary and other papers of Goffe in his hands, is of the highest authenticity. The Diary was begun on the day of the author's departure from London, and continued to May 4, 1667. With a mass of other papers collected by Governor Hutchinson, it was probably destroyed in the assault upon his house in August, 1765. 1 There is a tradition that, while this pursuit was hot, Davenport preached to his congregation from words in the sixteenth chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah (xvi. 3, 4). It is probable that, on the day when Kirk and Kellond were gnashing their teeth in the sabbatical quiet of Guilford, Davenport, having learned from the Indian messenger what had occurred at that place, used these words, but in a little different way. He was at this time preaching a series of sermons, which were soon after published in London, with the title, "Saints' Anchor-Hold." Copies of the volume are in the libraries of Colonel Aspinwall, of the Old South Society in Boston, and of the Connecticut Historical Society. The following is an extract from one of the sermons (p. 194). "Withhold not countenance, entertainment, and protection from such, if they come to us from other countries, as from France or England or any other place. 'Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.' (Heb. xiii. 2, 3.) The Lord required this of Moab, saying, 'Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday;'—that is, provide safe and comfortable shelter and refreshment for my people in the heat of persecution and opposition raised against them; hide the outcasts, bewray not him that wandereth: let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler.' (Isaiah xvi. 3, 4.) Is it objected, But so I may expose myself to be spoiled or troubled? He, therefore, to remove this objection, addeth, For the danger is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth; the treaders down are consumed out of the land.' While we are attending to our duty in owning and harboring Christ's witnesses, God will be providing for their and our safety, by destroying those that would destroy his people." (Comp. Bacon, Thirteen Historical Discourses, 127, 128.) May 15 in a sort of cave, on the east side of West Rock, two or three miles nearer to the town. In this retreat June 11. they remained four weeks, being supplied with food from a lonely farm-house in the neighborhood, to which also they sometimes repaired in stormy weather. They caused the Deputy-Governor to be informed of their hiding-place; and, on hearing that Mr. Davenport was in danger from a suspicion of harboring them, they left it, and for a week or two showed themselves at different times at New Haven and elsewhere. The regicides After two months more of concealment in their retreat on the side of West Rock, they betook themselves to the house of one Tompkins, in or near Milford, where they remained in complete secrecy for two years; after which they indulged themselves in more freedom, and even conducted the devotions of a few neighbors assembled in their chamber. at Milford. June 24- But the arrival at Boston of Commissioners from the King with extraordinary powers was now expected; and it was likely that these would be charged to institute a new search, which might endanger the fugitives, and would certainly be embarrassing to their protectors. It has been mentioned that a feud in the churches of Hartford and Wethersfield2 led to an emigration to a spot of fertile meadow land forty miles further up the river; and that Mr. Russell, hitherto minister of Wethersfield, accompanied the settlers as their pastor. Mas sachusetts gave the new town the name of May 22. Hadley, and ordered that, with Springfield and 1 The Deputy-Governor was now Mr. Gilbert, of New Haven, an election having meanwhile taken place, by which Leete was promoted to the Chief Magistracy. (N. H. Rec., II. 402; comp. Hutch. Coll. 338.) This fact Hutchinson appears to have overlooked, when he made the statement in his History (I. 199, note), that the regicides com off municated with Leete. I do not know Northampton, the latter a plantation estab 1656. 1662. May 7. lished a few years earlier, on the opposite side May 14. of the river,1-it should constitute the County of Hampshire. In this remotest northwestern frontier of New England, a refuge was prepared for the hunted men. On hearing of the arrival of the Commissioners at Boston, they withdrew to their cave; but some Indians, in hunting, observed that it had been occupied; and its secrecy could no longer be counted on. They then directed their steps at Hadley. towards Hadley, travelling only by night, and were received into the house of Mr. Russell. The regicides 1664. Oct. 13. Here except for a remarkable momentary appearance of one of them, to be hereafter related, and except for the visits of a few confidential friends - they remained lost for ever to the view of men. Presents were made to them by leading persons among the colonists; and they received remittances from friends in England. They were for a time encouraged by a belief, founded on their interpretations of the Apocalypse, that the execution of their comrades was "the slaying of the witnesses," and that their own triumph was speedily to follow. Letters passed between Goffe and his wife, purporting to be between a son and a mother, and signed respectively with the names of Walter and Frances Goldsmith. Four of these letters survive; tender, magnanimous, and devout, they are scarcely to be read without tears. In the tenth year of his life at Whalley. Hadley, Whalley was extremely infirm in mind and body, and he probably did not live beyond that year. Goffe outlived his father-in-law nearly five years, at least;5 how much longer is not known. Mr. Russell's 1 Mass. Rec., IV. (i.) 271. * Ibid., (ii.) 52; comp. Holland, History of Western Massachusetts, I. 59, 60; Huntington, Centennial Address. 3 Apoc. xi. 37. Death of 1674. * Hutch., Coll., 433; History, I. 457; Stiles, History of Three of the Judges, &c., I. 114. Mass. Hist. Coll., XXI. 60. 5 "The last account of Goffe is from a letter dated Ebenezer (the name they house was standing till near the end of the last century. At its demolition, the removal of a slab 1795. in the cellar discovered human remains of a large size. They are believed to have belonged to the stout frame which swept through Prince Rupert's line at Naseby. John Dix In the first years of the retirement of the Colonels at Hadley, they enjoyed the society of a former friend, who did not feel obliged to use the same strict precautions against discovery. John Dixwell, a Colonel in the Parliamentary service, was also a member of the High Court of Justice, and a signer of the death-warrant of the King. Little is known of his proceedings after the Restoration, till he came to Hadley, three or four months later than Whalley and Goffe.1 After a residence of some years in their neighborhood, he removed to New Haven, where, bearing the name of James Davids, and affecting no particular privacy, he lived to old age. The home government never traced him to America; and though, among his acquaintance, it was understood that he had a secret well. 1665. Feb. 10. gave their several places of abode), April 2, 1679." (Hutchinson, I. 200, note.) Four years ago, Dr. Hough published at Albany, from the original in the State Office of New York, a paper entitled, "Plan for seizing and carrying to New York Colonel William Goffe, the Regicide, as set forth in the Affidavit of John London, April 20, 1678." London swore" that Joseph Bull, senior, ... of Hartford, had for several years past (and, for aught he knew, still) kept privately Colonel Goffe at his own house there, or his sons, he going by the name of Mr. Cooke;" and that he (London) had laid a plan to seize Goffe and carry him to New York, to Sir Edmund Andros, but that his plan was divulged by a confederate to two magistrates, who had obstructed it, and had subsequently treated him ill in revenge for his loyalty. London's word was of little worth (see Conn. Rec., II. 396); but I do not see that there may not have been a foundation for what he told in this instance. See, however, Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Society, I. 60–63. 1 Ludlow says (Memoirs, 377) that Dixwell went first from England to Germany, where "he was received into protection at Hanau, and made a burgess of the town." Dixwell joined his friends, February 10, 1665. In only one instance (the first in which he is mentioned) Goffe's Diary gave Dixwell his true name; afterwards it always called him "Mr. Davids." (Hutchinson, I. 200, note.) |