Note 656 — Chapter IX · (continued 2)

Trumbull, i. 28, from manuscripts of President Clap. This old Connecticut patent has always been a mystery. Some of the colonists of the Winthrop emigration to Massachusetts in 1630 were unfavorably impressed on their arrival with the place selected for a plantation. The sad mortality of the preceding winter was appalling, and they began to cast their thoughts on a more southerly spot than Massachusetts Bay. In a letter of John Humfrey, written from London, Dec. 9, 1636, in reply to one just received from his brother-in-law, Isaac Johnson, from the colony, he says, in speaking of Mr. Downing: “He is the only man for Council that is heartily ours in the town; and yet, unless you settle upon a good river and in a less snowy and cold place, I can see no great edge on him to come unto us.” Further on he says, “My Lord of Warwick will take a patent of that place you writ of for himself, and so we may be bold to do there as if it were our own.” (4 Mass. Hist. Coll., vi. 3, 4.) No further hint is given as to the location of Warwick’s intended grant, and we have no contemporaneous record of any patent having been taken by him at this time or later. The Earl was a great friend of the Puritans. It was through him that the Massachusetts patent was obtained; and the patent to the people of Plymouth was signed by him alone, but in the name of the Council, and sealed with their seal.