John Endecott was the son of Thomas Endecott of Chagford, Devonshire, and Alice (Westlake?) Endecott, a woman of considerable landed possessions in the parish of Stoke-in- Teignhead. His grandfather, John Endecott, held large tin-mining interests in the county, and was a man of some w'ealth. He survived his son Thomas, who died in 1621, and on his own death some fourteen years later practically disinherited the younger John, whose religious convictions had doubtless run counter to his own. This may serve to explain the fact that in his records and correspondence, the Governor made almost no references to his connections in England. Little is known of Endecott’s youth, though it is fairly certain that at an early age he was brought under the influence of the Puritan divine, Rev. John White of Dorchester, and of the Rev. Samuel Skelton, later pastor of the First Church in Salem. He is said also to have seen service against the Spaniards in the Low Countries; certainly he bore the title of “captain” even after he emigrated to Massachusetts.
Career
As a Puritan, Endecott came into close contact with the group interested in colonizing New England.
By 1628 the colony at Plymouth had become well established and there were also scattered settlers about the shores of Massachusetts Bay, including the remnant of a fishing settlement at Cape Ann.
On March 19 of that year, Endecott was one of six “religious persons” who bought a patent for territory on the Bay from the Plymouth Council in England, and in the royal charter, granted March 4, 1629, he was named among the incorporators.
Meanwhile the associators had determined to proceed to the settlement without delay, and on June 20, 1628, Endecott sailed for Massachusetts in the Abigail with a small band of colonists, to prepare the way for the larger numbers to follow.
There has been much discussion by antiquarians as to the exact official role and title which should be accorded to Endecott during the next two years.
It is not a matter of the slightest historical or biographical importance whether we call him “the first governor of Massachusetts, ” and, technically, the problem is practically insoluble.
The pertinent facts are that it was evidently intended that he was to be in charge of the colony until the main company should arrive; that he should do everything needful on the spot to pave the way for them; and that he did so.
At a meeting of the company in England, April 30, 1629, it was recorded that Endecott had been chosen governor of the Plantation in Massachusetts for one year, or until another had been selected in his place.
On October 20 Winthrop was chosen governor under the charter, though he did not reach Massachusetts until the next year.
Endecott landed with his band on September 6, 1628, and settled at Naumkcag, now Salem.
He found he had to clear the ground both literally and metaphorically and proceeded to do both.
The remnant of the fishing company was under the "governorship” of Roger Conant, whose tact mitigated difficulties on that score.
More vigorous measures were called for against Thomas Morton and his riotous gang at Merry Mount, whither Endecott soon marched and dramatically cut down their celebrated May-pole, admonishing them that “ther should be better walking” (Bradford, post, II, 501).
By the end of June 1629, the Rev. Samuel Skelton and Rev. Francis Higginson had arrived.
It is impossible to determine exactly what Endecott’s ideas of church government and Separatism had been when he left England.
Two members of the Massachusetts colony, John and Samuel Browne, declined to accept Separatism and were finally deported to England by Endecott who, with a complete absence of humor, described them as “schismatical. ”
Little else is known of his rule at this period.
It appears to have been eminently successful and to have given the company in England entire satisfaction, though, pro forma, he had to be mildly censured for his handling of the recalcitrant Brownes.
In the early summer of 1630 the great migration set in.
About a thousand colonists arrived, including John Winthrop '[q. v. f. Endecott quietly turned over his authority to the new governor and became an assistant.
The remainder of his life, however, was spent in the service of the colony.
He was assistant in the years 1630-34, 1636-40, 1645-48; deputy-governor 1641-43, 1650, 1654; and governor 1644, 1649, 1651-53, 1655-64.
He also frequently held military office and in 1645 was named sergeant-major-general.
His importance in the eyes of the leaders cannot be better shown than by the fact that he was one of the three men chosen to the unconstitutional Council for Life, initiated in 1636.
The scheme proved abortive, but it is evident that Endecott’s life was interwoven at every point with the public life of the colony.
Although frequently holding military office, he possessed none of the qualifications of a military leader.
Following the murder of Oldham by the Indians in 1636, Endecott was placed at the head of a punitive expedition of a hundred men, which not only proved a complete failure but in its ill-judged operations did much to bring on the Pequot War.
His actions brought well- deserved protests from both Saybrook and Plymouth.
In 1643 he opposed the unfortunate and uncalled-for policy toward the French indulged in by Winthrop, for which Winthrop was condemned by the United Colonies, and the following year, when Endecott was governor, he did what he could to settle matters on a better foundation.
Much has been made of the episode in which Endecott ordered the cross to be cut out of the English ensign as savoring of popery (1634).
He was probably no more narrowminded than many others, however, and aside from the passing criticism in England, the incident is without importance save as it indicates his lack of judgment.
Far more essential for a study of the man’s character is the part he played in the persecution of the Quakers a few years before his death.
He appeared at his worst in this, in many ways, supreme episode of his life.
He appears never to have been a wealthy man, although he received his various official salaries and several grants of land, including one of a thousand acres and one of a quarter of Block Island.
The inventory of his estate shows a value of only slightly over £224.
He was always fond of Salem, which he had hoped might be the capital of the colony, and it was only under official pressure that he was induced to move to Boston about 1655, where he died a decade later.
Pie performed useful service in his first two years, before he was supplanted by the coming of the other leading members of the colony, and his strength was always useful to it, but he never measured up to the stature of several of the colony’s other leading men.
Achievements
Although not of scholarly tastes, he took an interest in education in the colony, and in 1641 agitated the question of establishing a free school at Salem.
By the time of the first Commencement of Harvard he was one of the Overseers.
Religion
After his arrival in America he came into touch with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and when he and the two clergymen organized a church in July it followed the Plymouth model, and was independent of the church in England (Adams, post, p. 130).
He was a thorough-going Puritan in his religious beliefs and in the social legislation which, according to the times, proceeded from them.
Views
Making all allowance both for the political aspects of the problem as it presented itself to the rulers of the colony, and for the harshness of the times, Endecott showed himself blood-thirsty and brutal in his handling of the Quaker cases.
Membership
In 1637, the General Court had appointed a committee to consider the establishment of a college and apparently the following year Endecott took his place on this committee, filling a vacancy caused by the death of one of its members. By the time of the first Commencement of Harvard he was one of the Overseers.
Personality
He was stern and irascible, a man of iron will and of little human sympathy.
Interests
Philosophers & Thinkers
Rev. John White of Dorchester
Rev. Samuel Skelton
Music & Bands
He was capable, honest, and devoted to the public good as he saw it, but was incapable of conceiving of any good other than as he saw it.
Connections
Before he left England, he married Anne Gower, a cousin of Matthew Cradock, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company in England.
Endecott’s first wife died soon after their arrival in Massachusetts, and on August 18, 1630, he married Elizabeth Gibson, by whom he had two sons.
