Kings, Puritans, and a Rector’s Vision for Business

In ‘This Week in History,’ a rector worked to establish a new business venture in America with the help of the Puritans and the king.

“Landing of the Pilgrims,” circa 1898, by Charles Lucy. The journey was harrowing, but so was every challenge the Puritans were to meet in the New World. New York Public Library’s Digital Library. Public Domain

Three ships unfurled their sails and launched across the Atlantic toward the New World. The three ships were the Discovery, the Godspeed, and the Susan Constant. Sailing from England, it took them approximately four months to reach the shores of Virginia. The three vessels belonged to the Virginia Company of London, which had received a royal charter from King James I “to make habitation, plantation, and to deduce a colony of sundry of our people into that part of America.” Disembarking on May 13, 1607, the Jamestown Colony became “the first permanent English settlement in North America.”

Over the next five years, King James I provided two more charters to the Virginia Company of London. The Third Charter of Virginia of 1612 allowed the Virginia colony to expand its borders to include the Somers Islands (modern-day Bermuda), as well as democratize control of the company among the investors.

While the king was working with private companies to expand the borders of England and compete with the empires of France and Spain, tragedy struck the royal family. Prince Henry, who was heir to the throne, died of typhoid. His death on Nov. 6, 1612 gave way to his younger brother Charles to be the next king. Charles’s reign, however, did not begin for another 13 years, after James I died in 1625.

The Puritan Opportunity

A portrait of James I of England, 1621, portrait by Daniel Mijtens. National Portrait Gallery, London. Public Domain

Born in 1566, James became King of England in 1603, after the death of his cousin Elizabeth I. By this time, he had long been King of Scotland, after his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in 1567. The son of a Roman Catholic and ruler of a Protestant kingdom (and a Protestant himself), religious strife within the realm came standard.

Another sect of Christians, the Puritans, were practicing Protestants but were bent on purifying the Church of England. The Puritans, who yearned for a stricter Calvinist approach to Christianity, were strongly disliked by James I’s predecessor Elizabeth I, which led to the passage of the Conventicle Act in 1593. This act made it illegal to have church services outside of the Church of England.

A decade later, after Elizabeth’s death and the ascendance of James, Puritans recognized an opportunity to place their requests before the throne. The Millenary Petition, supposedly signed by 1,000 Puritan ministers, was presented to the new king in hopes of conducting a “due and godly reformation” of the Church.

The king agreed to hear their concerns and the Hampton Court Conference was held on Jan. 14, 16, and 18 in 1604. The conference included, on the Anglican side, the Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift, eight bishops, several Anglican deans and clergymen, and, on the Puritans, the president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, John Rainolds; master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Laurence Chaderton; rector of Cockfield, Suffolk, John Knewstubs; and rector of Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, Thomas Sparke.

The Puritan representatives were moderates and were personally selected by King James I, who presided over the conference. Although hardly any of the reforms were implemented, one major reform did take place: an authorized version of the Bible for the Church of England. The King James Version was published in 1611.

Strife, the Mayflower, and a New Colony

Nearly two years after the Hampton Court Conference, a moderate Puritan by the name of John White was presented to James I and was appointed rector of the city of Dorchester in Dorset, located southwest of London. A powerful minister, White was also a shrewd businessman.

His business sense was put to great use after a massive fire in 1613 destroyed a large portion of the town. White led the charge in rebuilding the city, garnering financial assistance from some of the wealthiest citizens. Jobs were created; buildings, churches, and houses were rebuilt; and with the surplus of money left over, a new brewery was constructed.

Although Dorchester was composed mostly of Puritans, religious strife between the Church of England and the Puritans continued. About the same time that the Virginia Company of London sent ships to America, Puritans began fleeing England for Holland to find religious freedom.

However, the religious freedom in Holland was short-lived. These Puritans, many of whom were Separatists (and later referred to altogether as Pilgrims), boarded the Speedwell on July 22, 1620, and sailed to Southampton, England, to meet with the Puritans who would be sailing aboard the Mayflower.

As the summer season began to fade, the Puritans boarded the Mayflower (the Speedwell was deemed no longer seaworthy) and sailed for America. The ship arrived at Cape Cod on Nov. 11, and on that day, 41 of the male passengers signed the “Mayflower Compact”—the first self-government contract established in the New World.

“Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620,” 1899, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. Public Domain

After several weeks in Cape Cod, they decided to sail north along the coast and finally landed at Plymouth “to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia.” Eight days before the Mayflower arrived at Cape Cod, King James I provided a charter to create the Council for New England, for “the planting, ruling, and governing of New England, in America.” The Council was granted the lands between the latitudes of 40 degrees and 48 degrees North.

A Struggling Company and King

Despite being a Puritan himself, White did not completely agree with the Separatists’ decision to leave England, believing the Church could be reformed. Nonetheless, he believed that a colony in the New World could be a worthwhile business venture. News of good fishing in New England and the creation of the Council of New England informed his decision to launch a new company. He, along with local merchant and Puritan supporter Richard Bushrod, obtained a license to search for a new location in New England in 1623. They chose Cape Ann, which is the northeastern peninsula in Massachusetts about 30 miles from Boston.

White and Bushrod associated with Sir Walter Earle, a Parliamentarian who had been knighted in 1616, and together they founded the Dorchester Company in 1624. The Company garnered 119 stockholders who paid 25 pounds per share. Their first fishing venture failed, as did the next three. By 1626, the company was deeply in debt. Also by 1626, England had a new king: Charles I.

Considering the religious strife in England and indeed throughout Europe, Charles I began his reign with the contentious decision to marry a Catholic—Henrietta Maria of France. Though married to the king, she was never coronated. Due to her religion, she was forced to view Charles I’s 1626 coronation from a distance.

Charles I was a very unpopular king in constant contention with Parliamentarians, as well as with his subjects. Wars with Spain and France, and  internal conflicts with Scotland (1637), Ireland (1641), and England (1642 to 1646 and 1648), ultimately led to his overthrow and execution in 1649.

White’s New Company

Well before those bloody internal struggles, approximately 50 men were foundering in Cape Ann, due to poor fishing and agricultural prospects. South of their struggling colony, some of the Separatists of Plymouth had found their new colony less than hospitable and chose to venture for more peaceful lands. Several, including Roger Conant and his wife Sarah, arrived at Cape Ann. Conant advised the colonists to move south about 20 miles along the coastline. In 1628, this new location became a new settlement would be later be called Salem (Conant is considered the city’s founder).

In England, White still hoped to establish a profitable colony, and Salem seemed to present an opportunity. White worked to garner interest in a new joint-stock company. With new investors, he established the New England Company, which took over the assets of the failed Dorchester Company. He then obtained patents from the Council for New England to establish a new venture in Salem. The New England Company, established on March 19, 1628, sent several ships to New England.

Statue of Roger Conant, North Washington Square Salem, Mass. Robert Linsdell/CC BY 2.0

The following year, hoping to secure their title to the New England lands, the New England Company requested a royal charter from King Charles I. It was during this week in history, on March 4, 1629, that Charles I issued the New England Company a charter for the area “comonlie called Massachusetts, alias Mattachusetts, alias Massatusetts Bay.” After receiving the royal charter, the New England Company changed its name to the Massachusetts Bay Company, and would ultimately establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony, composed primarily of Puritans. The royal charter empowered the colonists to self-govern and establish their own laws, as long as they coincided with British laws.

White, despite the earlier business failure of the Dorchester Company, had finally succeeded, and would eventually become known as the founder of Massachusetts.

A Twist of Irony

In 1630, with the increase of religious strife, more Puritans poured into New England. John Winthrop, a Puritan lawyer, became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His hopes as a Puritan was to establish the colony as a “city on a hill.” Winthrop established such a city and named it Boston.

An engraving showing John Winthrop's arrival at Salem. Public Domain

In a twist of irony, it was this city that led the charge to overthrow the British government in the colonies during the American Revolution. During the early days of the Revolution, the British conducted an 11-month siege of Boston. To end the siege, the colonists, led by Gen. George Washington, hauled more than 50 cannons atop an overlook of the harbor fittingly called Dorchester Heights. Additionally, the tactical maneuver was conducted on the anniversary of receiving the royal charter, March 4, 1776. Less than two weeks later, the British fled Boston.

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