Background
John Oldham was born in 1600 in England, probably in Lancashire.
John Oldham was born in 1600 in England, probably in Lancashire.
John Oldham emigrated to America in 1623, arriving at Plymouth in July by the ship Anne. He was one of the few passengers who did not intend to become members of the general body of the Plymouth colonists or join in their communal economic life but came on "their perticuler, " as Bradford described it. Agreements were made with these new-comers, establishing their peculiar status and forbidding them to trade with the Indians until the period of "joint trading" as practised by the colonists should have ended. Oldham had considerable practical ability but was heady and self-willed and had an ungovernable temper. In the spring of 1624 the Rev. John Lyford arrived from England, and he and Oldham soon united with various malcontents in the colony to make trouble. They dispatched complaining letters to the party of the Adventurers at home opposed to the interests of the Pilgrims. Bradford secretly opened these letters and read them before the ship sailed which carried them. Oldham and Lyford next set up a church of their own. They were brought to trial and sentenced to banishment. Oldham left the colony but his wife and family were allowed to remain until he could remove them comfortably. He returned in March and exploded his wrath upon the colony's magistrates. They "committed him until he was tamer" and then beat him out of town with their muskets.
Oldham settled at Nantasket and soon after at Cape Ann where there was a small fishing settlement. He was an enterprising merchant and engaged in trade between Massachusetts and Virginia, and also carried on an extensive trade with the Indians. In time he made his peace with the authorities at Plymouth. In 1628 he returned to England, taking charge of Thomas Morton of Merry Mount. While in England he suggested a commercial scheme to the Massachusetts Bay Company, then planning to settle the colony of that name. He not only failed in his negotiations but the Company forbade him to trade with the Indians. The next year John Gorges, who claimed to be heir to the Gorges grant, conveyed to Oldham a large tract but the Massachusetts Bay Company refused to recognize his title. On February 12, 1629/30 the Council for New England granted to Oldham and Richard Vines a tract of land lying on the south side of the Saco River in Maine. Oldham, however, took no interest in this patent. He returned to New England and settled at Watertown, where he became a substantial citizen. He took the oath as freeman, May 18, 1631, and was elected a representative to the General Court in 1632 and was reelected in 1634. In 1633 he made an expedition to the Connecticut River and the following year was granted 500 acres by the Court lying on the Charles River . The same year he was made one of the overseers of powder and shot for the colony, and in 1635 he was appointed by the Court one of the committee to consider the problem presented by Endecott's having cut the cross out of the flag. In the following July while on a trading expedition to Block Island Oldham was murdered in his shallop by Pequot Indians with the connivance of certain Narragansett sachems. The murder was one of the chief episodes leading to the Pequot War.