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Chapter IX: Relations with England and
Other Phases of Culture.

THE close and sympathetic interest between the colonists and the government of England, as described in Chapter III, naturally came to an end at the Restoration. In its place a mutual suspicion developed, fostered on the one side by the colonists’ disloyal protection of the Regicides, and on the other by the loss of colonial independence and the fear of possible religious coercion. At the same time a generation was growing up which knew not England; in fact it was almost a second generation from England, since in many cases the parents had left England when mere children. Those who had grown to maturity in England and had personal friends there were passing away; the death of John Winthrop, Jr., in 1676 broke one of the chief links that kept the best of the new world in touch with the best of the old. Social intercourse between New England and Old England seems to have reached, during the last quarter of the century, a lower ebb than at any time before or since.

It would be a mistake, however, to think of the colonies as isolated from the outside world even during this period. As has been shown in Chapter VII, the gifts of friends in England and the establishment of several booksellers made it possible for both the college and the colony to keep in touch with current thought. Settlers continued to come, too, even if in smaller groups than during the first period; and among them were occasionally men of high scholastic attainments, such as Samuel Lee,¹ who settled in Bristol, and Charles Morton², who settled in Charlestown. Occasionally,

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too, young colonists went back to England to try their fortunes there, and not without success as, for example, three sons of the Reverend John Higginson, of Salem. Thomas Higginson became a goldsmith in England; Francis went to live with his uncle Francis in England³ and was educated at the University of Cambridge; and Nathaniel was first steward of Lord Wharton, and later went to the East Indies, where he succeeded Elihu Yale as Governor of Madras, and, like him, grew rich.⁴ His letters, both from India and from England after his return,⁵ show that he was interested in New England and had tentative plans for returning thither, as his father so earnestly urged him to do; but he never came. The Reverend Warham Mather had thoughts of going to England, for he wrote to his uncle, Increase Mather, then in London, as follows:

S^r, we expect not your return before winter. It will be profitable for me to know what advice you think it will be best for me to follow, relating to a remove for England, before that time, for it is not likely I should sell what estate I have here for the worth thereof at short warning.⁶

He did not go, however.

New Englanders continued to visit England for both business and pleasure. Increase Mather went twice as agent of Massachusetts. Of his second trip a modern historian writes:

During Andros’s administration some of the prominent men of the colony, dissatisfied with the curtailment of their former privileges, determined to appeal to England for relief. Increase Mather, the influential pastor of the Old North Church, was selected to bear to the king, James II., the complaints of the colony,

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and to obtain, if possible, a restoration of the charter. He was admirably adapted to the task, having served as agent in England only a few years before, while his pleasing address and familiarity with the men and ways of the court at Whitehall were certain to stand him in good stead in the work to be done⁷

It is worth noting that on this errand he was well received by the courts both of James II and of William and Mary.

In 1688 Samuel Sewall, accompanied by his brother Stephen and two others, went to England on a trip which combined the pleasure of a visit to his birthplace in England with considerable buying of commodities, presumably upon commission.

Joseph Dudley went to England in 1682 as an agent of Massachusetts.⁸ In 1693 he again went to England and there resided for nine years, taking an active part in English affairs, even serving in Parliament.⁹ Another who spent several years in England was Benjamin Colman, who went to London in 1695. He was well received by the Dissenting clergy there, once being sent by a committee of them to preach at Cambridge, and later, after preaching at Ipswich, being chosen by the London Presbytery to take an important church at Bath, where he remained two years. He left only to accept a call to a new church in Boston.¹⁰

Benjamin Lynde, Harvard 1686, went to London to study for the bar at the Middle Temple. His wife accompanied him either at that time or on some later trip, for her portrait was painted in England by Sir Godfrey Kneller.¹¹

During this period there is practically no evidence of any intercourse or friendship between any one in New England and the literary men of England, if such writers of religious literature as Richard Baxter be excluded.¹² Anthony a

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Wood turned to Increase Mather, when the latter was in London, for information in regard to the Oxford graduates who had emigrated to New England;¹³ but the “Athenæ Oxoniensis” can hardly be classed as pure literature.

In spite of all this lessening of intercourse, the colonists continued to feel a keen interest in England and conditions there, as their constant eagerness for gazettes and news-letters shows;¹⁴ and this sometimes found definite expression, as in the following passage from John Higginson’s “Attestation” to the “Magnalia.”

That the little daughter of New-England in America, may bow down herself to her mother England, in Europe, presenting this memorial unto her; assuring her, that though by some of her angry brethren she was forced to make a local secession, yet not a separation, but hath always retained a dutiful respect to the Church of God in England; and giving some account to her, how graciously the Lord has dealt with herself in a remote wilderness, and what she has been doing all this while; giving her thanks for all the supplies she has received from her; and because she is yet in her minority, she craves her farther blessing and favour as the case may require; being glad if what is now presented to her, may be of any use, to help forward the union and agreement of her brethren, which would be some satisfaction to her for her undesired local distance from her dear England; and finally promising all that reverence and obedience which is due to her good mother, by virtue of the fifth commandment.¹⁵

If the colonists did not go to England as much as at an earlier period, certain elements of English life, formerly absent, were introduced, especially under Governor Andros. A dancing-master set up in Boston,¹⁶ and a fencing master

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as well.¹⁷ Public fencing bouts were held, and a maypole was erected.¹⁸ Just previous to this John Dunton and other booksellers had brought over plays and romances and playing cards.¹⁹ In connection with the latter the following passage in Sewall’s “Diary” is of interest.

Wednesday, June 21 [1699]. A Pack of Cards are found strawed over my fore-yard, which, tis sup¯osed, some might throw there to mock me, in spite of [for] what I did at the Exchange Tavern last Satterday night.²⁰

Boston was losing its former character of a city devoted to religion, and was becoming a worldly commercial seaport. This was felt strongly by the critical Dutch traveler, Jasper Danckaerts, who wrote of Boston in 1680:

Nevertheless you discover little difference between this and other places. Drinking and fighting occur there not less than elsewhere; and as to truth and true godliness, you must not expect more of them than of others. When we were there, four ministers’ sons were learning the silversmith’s trade.²¹

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In connection with Danckaerts’ last remark it must be remembered that there were nearly a score of silversmiths working at their craft in Boston before the end of the century. Many of the things which they wrought were necessary articles; but the rapid growth in their numbers toward the end of this period, as well as examples of their work which have been preserved, indicates that Boston afforded a good market for luxuries.²² That four ministers’ sons at once were turning to this lucrative work instead of preparing to follow in the footsteps of their fathers shows the tendency of the time.

The wealthy men of the first period had been those who brought fortunes with them. In the second period we find men who had made their own fortunes in the new land, such men as John Hull, silversmith and mint-master, whose wealth is a tradition with us.²³ Hezekiah Usher, bookseller, dying in 1676, left a fortune of over £15,000 for his two sons to quarrel over.²⁴ John Dunton speaks of the wealth acquired by John Usher²⁵ who succeeded his father. Wait Winthrop in Boston and Fitz-John Winthrop at New London were living in a style resembling that of the landed gentry of England, whom they were planning to imitate in the establishing of an estate practically in entail.²⁶ Even in Plymouth there was an increase in wealth, according to

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Governor Josiah Winslow’s statement that “most men there are freeholders, few tenants; incomes of 2000l. are rare among them.”²⁷ They may have been few, but the interesting thing is that there were any. Twenty-five years earlier estates totaling one-quarter of that sum were unknown.²⁸ Comprehensive lists of men of wealth and their estates seem unnecessary here, for the very fact that so many booksellers and silversmiths set up shop in Boston²⁹ is in itself evidence that there was a considerable public which could afford the luxuries of books and silver plate. Even portrait painters were beginning to cater to the vanity of the colonists. Before 1667 the Reverend John Wilson refused to have his portrait painted for his friends, although Edward Rawson brought to him a “limner, with all things ready.”³⁰ Portraits of Henry and Margaret Gibbs bearing the date of 1670 are still in existence.³¹ In 1679 or 1680 Increase Mather sat for a portrait which he sent to his brother Nathaniel, of Dublin.³² In 1684 Joseph Allen came from Dublin bearing letters from Nathaniel to Increase Mather in which he was described as skilled in “graving” and “limning.”³³ Wait Winthrop wrote in 1691 of a man who could copy miniatures.³⁴ Evidently as far as Boston and the older settlements were concerned, the pioneer days of hardship were over.

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