What Price Freedom?

The "Mary and John", a three masted galleon-sized sailing vessel, departs from Plymouth, England on March 20, 1630. This is not the first time the Mary and John has sailed to America - but it is the first voyage for nearly all of the 140 passengers on board.

Puritans, persecuted by the Church of England for their religious beliefs, they are setting out to settle a new land where they hope to find freedom and liberty. One of the settlers is my great great great great great great great great grandfather, Jonathan Gillett.

Jonathan is just one of 12 bachelors in the company that also had 27 married couples and 72 children. I can't decide whether being single made it easier or harder on that voyage, but I do know that it was a welcome relief when they finally set foot on dry land on the 71st day of the trip. It took several days to unload the 150,000 pounds of provisions and livestock by ship's tender from the anchorage to the sandy beach of Nantasket, 15 miles south of their intended destination near the Charles River. After some days spent scouting the area, they removed to the river, bringing all of their belongings with them.

Their troubles were only beginning. Arriving too late in the season to plant a decent crop, they subsisted on ship's stores, mussels, and fish - fishing around the clock from their small boat. By November supplies were running low. When Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop visited the settlement in mid-November he found the colonists living in "bark wigwams or sail-cloth tents, that almost in every family, lamentation, mourning, and woe were heard".

When the Charles River froze over on December 27th, they found themselves without a supply of water for fighting fires, and many of their crude dwelling were lost. Many people did not survive the winter. Some were taken by fever, some merely froze to death.

By February 1631 there was no food left. Just when the settlers thought they were beaten, a relief ship, the Lyon, arrived with supplies - and the settlement, now named Dorchester, survived.

As for Jonathan, he went back to England to be married, and then returned to Dorchester. By 1635, he was ready to start all over again, as overcrowding (!) drove the whole of Dorchester to move 100 miles west to the wilderness of the Connecticut River Valley. They founded the first permanent settlement in Connecticut, Windsor, spending that first winter in mud huts by the river bank. It was in Windsor, three years later, that Reverend Thomas Hooker preached a sermon later re-titled "Fundamental Orders of 1638" - the first written constitution giving the people the right to govern themselves.

Jonathan fought in the Pequot war of 1637, survived a bear attack that left claw marks on the family bible, lost two of his sons to Indian uprisings in 1675 and 1676, and died in 1677.

Mandatory Hillsborough Content: Just how much did the entertainment and fireworks on June 30th cost?