John Endecott, regarded as one of the Fathers of New England, was the longest-serving governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
46 Facts About John Endecott
2.
John Endecott served a total of 16 years, including most of the last 15 years of his life.
3.
John Endecott argued that women should dress modestly and that men should keep their hair short, and issued judicial decisions banishing individuals who held religious views that did not accord well with those of the Puritans.
4.
John Endecott notoriously defaced the English flag because he saw St George's Cross as a symbol of the papacy, and had four Quakers put to death for returning to the colony after their banishment.
5.
John Endecott used some of his properties to propagate fruit trees; a pear tree he planted still lives in Danvers, Massachusetts.
6.
John Endecott engaged in one of the earliest attempts to develop a mining industry in the colonies when copper ore was found on his land.
7.
John Endecott's name is found on a rock in Lake Winnipesaukee, carved by surveyors sent to identify the Massachusetts colony's northern border in 1652.
8.
Some early colonial documents refer to him as "Captain John Endecott", indicating some military experience, and other records suggest he had some medical training.
9.
John Endecott was not formally named governor of the new colony until it was issued a royal charter in 1629.
10.
John Endecott's responsibility was to establish the colony and to prepare it for the arrival of additional settlers.
11.
John Endecott had reorganised itself, relocating its seat to the colony itself, with Winthrop as its sole governor.
12.
John Endecott, who was chosen as one of the governor's Assistants, chose to remain in Salem, where he was one of its leading citizens for the rest of his life, serving in roles as town councilor and militia leader, in addition to statewide roles as militia leader, magistrate, deputy governor, and governor.
13.
John Endecott established a plantation called "Orchard" in Salem Village, where he cultivated seedlings of fruit trees.
14.
When word of this reached Boston, John Endecott was criticised for supporting Williams, who was banished from the colony.
15.
John Endecott was censured for the rashness of his action, and deprived of holding any offices for one year; 1635 was the only year in which he held no office.
16.
In 1636 the boat of Massachusetts trader John Endecott Oldham was seen anchored off Block Island, swarming with Indians.
17.
John Endecott's instructions were to go to Block Island, where he was to kill all of the Indian men and take captive the women and children.
18.
John Endecott was then to go to the Pequots on the mainland, where he was to make three demands: first, that the killers of Oldham and the other trader be surrendered; second, that a payment of one thousand fathoms of wampum be made; and third, that some Pequot children be delivered to serve as hostages.
19.
John Endecott then sailed for Saybrook, an English settlement at the mouth of the Connecticut River.
20.
The sachem rushed back, claiming the senior tribal leaders were away on Long Island; John Endecott responded that this was a lie, and ordered an attack on the village.
21.
Since the Pequots had previously been relatively peaceful with the English, John Endecott's raid had the effect Gardiner predicted and feared.
22.
John Endecott had no further role in the war, which ended with the destruction of the Pequots as a tribe; their land was divided up by the colonies and their Indian allies in the 1638 Treaty of Hartford, and the surviving tribespeople were distributed among their neighbors.
23.
John Endecott was elected deputy governor in 1641 and in this role was one of the signatories to the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, which enumerated a number of individual rights available to all colonists, and presaged the United States Bill of Rights.
24.
John Endecott pointed out that he should have let the French fight amongst themselves without English involvement, as this would weaken them both.
25.
The 1644 governor's election became a referendum on Winthrop's policy; John Endecott was elected governor, with Winthrop as his deputy.
26.
The ascent of the Salem-based John Endecott prompted an attempt by other Salem residents to have the colonial capital relocated there; the attempt was rejected by the governor's council of assistants.
27.
John Endecott was made a governor's assistant, and was chosen to represent the colony to the confederation in 1646.
28.
The threat of Indian conflicts in neighbouring colonies prompted the colony to raise its defensive profile, in which John Endecott played a leading role.
29.
Winthrop was reelected governor in 1646; after his death in 1649, John Endecott succeeded him as governor.
30.
In 1639 John Endecott had been granted several hundred acres of land north of Salem, in what is Boxford and Topsfield.
31.
The tract was not formally laid out until 1659, but as early as 1651 John Endecott was granted an additional "three hundred acres of land to tend the furtherance of a copper works" that was adjacent to his land.
32.
John Endecott hired Richard Leader, an early settler who had done pioneering work at an iron works in nearby Lynn, but the efforts to develop the site for copper processing failed.
33.
John Endecott met several times with the Quaker Mary Prince, after receiving an "outrageous letter" from her.
34.
Christison was the last Quaker John Endecott sentenced to death for returning to Massachusetts after having been banished.
35.
John Endecott was not executed because the law was changed shortly after his sentencing.
36.
Whalley and Goffe moved freely about the Boston area for some time, and John Endecott refused to order their arrest until word arrived of the passage of the Indemnity Act.
37.
John Endecott dutifully obeyed, but he appointed two recently arrived Royalists to track them down.
38.
The colonial mission, led by future governor Simon Bradstreet and pastor John Endecott Norton, was successful, and King Charles announced that he would renew the colonial charter, provided the colony allowed the Church of England to practice there.
39.
The John Endecott administration dragged its feet on implementation, and after months of inaction, the king sent a commission headed by Samuel Maverick, one of the colony's most vocal critics, to investigate.
40.
John Endecott had advance warning of what the commission was to investigate, and took steps to address in form, if not in substance, some of the expected actions.
41.
Charles insisted that all religious dissenters be freed, which John Endecott had done long before Maverick's arrival, but he did so by deporting them.
42.
John Endecott was consequently obliged to acquire a residence in Boston; although he returned to Salem frequently, Boston became his home for the rest of his life.
43.
John Endecott's last wife, Elizabeth, was a sister-in-law of the colonial financier and magistrate Roger Ludlow.
44.
One unexpected legacy left behind by John Endecott was the uncertain boundaries of the Orchard estate.
45.
John Endecott's descendants include Massachusetts governor Endicott Peabody and United States Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott.
46.
John Endecott's descendants donated family records dating as far back as the colonial era to the Massachusetts Historical Society.