Seeds of the Plough:

The Plough Company and its Settlers in America⁽¹⁾

Peter A. Hutchinson

This is an effort to account for and follow the histories of those with names connected with the Plough Company and holders of the as yet to be found original patent for Lygonia which was granted to the Company. The name Plough seems to have represented the ship the company acquired to transport its first colonists, although the tenure arrangement "in free and common socage" has been interpreted to mean by the plough, and the presumed first colonists have been identified as farmers, or husbandmen (as well as by the religious appellation "familists"given them by Governor John Winthrop. Significantly, a coat of arms awarded to their minister and principal investor Stephen Bachiler includes representation of a ploughshare. The name Lygonia is attributed to an honoring of Cicely Lygon, mother of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and appears both in the early Maine court records and deeds and in the 1686 "Abstract of the Title of Edward Rigby," which refers to the "Province of Ligonia". This abstract, included in The Farnham Papers, Volume VII of the Maine Historical Society's Documentary History of the State of Maine, Second Series (Portland, 1901) is the only extant record of the Plough Company patent.

The Plough Company patent of 1630, comprised of some 1600 square miles between Maine's Kennebec and Saco Rivers, was never consummated by occupancy of what some believe was a mistakenly generous land grant. Once the ship Plough appeared in Massachusetts Bay in 1631, after abortive investigations of the southern Maine coast, its passengers dispersed within the environs of Boston. A second ship, Whale, arriving in May, 1632, and a third, William and Francis, arriving in June, 1632, brought additional settlers, including its principals, for a colony that in fact no longer existed. These included Richard Dummer, on Whale, and the minister Stephen Bachiler on William and Francis. Dummer appears to have been a sometime investor in the Company and representing its owners was involved in the managing of its affairs, including its dissolution; Bachiler was the largest investor in the Company and its assigned minister, and proceeded to unite several of the first immigrants to establish a church at Saugus (now Lynn) even as he sought to recoup some of his material investment.

Over time, from both primary and secondary sources, numerous persons have been identified in association with or in reference to the Plough Company. Arriving in America to settle a colony that never came into being, their destinies were varied. They shared a common link of association with settlement and business failure on the one hand, but also of roots in the shared enterprise of immigration on the other. Their motives may have been, originally, for religious freedom, derided as some of them were as "familists", members of a fringe Protestant sect in England. Some of the Plough colonists were recruited, on the basis of opportunity offered, to provide the minimum necessary numbers- and skills- for successful colonization. To what extent were their futures intertwined, and to what effect? Where did they go, these immigrants who, with the exception of Bachiler's immediate flock, had lost their binding ties? And to what extent were those ties, however tenuous, maintained? To some extent these early colonists may represent a microcosm of early immigrant dispersal within America: many becoming absorbed into the mainstream of Massachusetts Bay; some making their way to the more developed colony of Virginia; others taking their chances in New Hampshire and Maine. Dummer and Bachiler each had roles that were extension of the Plough Company enterprise in both its business and religious sense; were there others, such as Smith, who made (or tried to make) something of that beginning? In the broader sense, to what extent did personal origins and motives affect outcomes and futures- the crop from the seeds, as it were- from the enterprise of the Plough?

London

John Dye [Dy, Dyer?] Plough Company London patentee, merchant living in Philpot Lane, near headquarters of Virginia Company. Noted in the Abstract of 1686. Signed Company letters. Mentioned in will of Nicholas Jupe, 1653 (Sanborn, 368).

Folsom, 27, cites Sullivan, 311 as asserting that "there have ever been persons of the names of Smith and Dyer on the south side of Saco river," taking them to be the descendants of the supposed patentees John Smith and John Dy. Folsom, 178, notes a William Dyer chosen constable in 1686, and, 206, a W. Dyer receiving 40 acres in 1720. Whether these and/or other Dyers noted in Folsom were actually descendants of the Plough Company patentee is unknown.

Thomas Tupe [Jupe?] Noted in the Abstract of 1686. London partner, living in Crooked Lane. Noted in Winthrop. Signed Company letters. Married Grace Keayne, sister of Capt. Robert Keayne of Boston. (Sanborn, 368)

John Roch [Roach?] London partner. (Banks, Rigby, 31.) Signed Company letters. Lived in Crooked Lane. (Sanborn, 369.)

Grace Hardwin [Harding?] London partner, signed Company letters. A wax-chandler, living in Crooked Lane.

Thomas Eyre Ferdinando Gorges letter of 18 March 1631 notes as "one of the grantees, and "clerk and accountant" for Company, business agent in London; also secretary, Council for New England. (Baxter note in Gorges, possibly erroneous and referring to Laconia patent?)

Daniel Binckes Signed the second Company letter (Sanborn, 367).

Roger Binckes Signed the second Company letter (Sanborn, 367).

Henry Ffowkes [Fowkes, Faukes?] Signed second Company letter.

Bryan Kipling Signed second Company letter.

John Robinson Signed Company letters.

Nathaniel Whetham [Witham?] Signed second Company letter.

Peter Wooster Signed second Company letter.

"Plough" Arrived June 26/July 6, 1631.

Thomas Graves Master. "Plough" was owned by James, Earl of Carlisle 1627, sold to

Capt. Thomas Combes and Morrice Thompson, 1628. William Cock, master 1629. [Thomas] Graves master July 6, 1631. (Banks 30, Winthrop 53-54, 54n, 69n.)

Graves was also master of the "Whale", the other ship associated with the Plough Company. (See "Whale", below ) Previous to that event (appointed Rear Admiral by Cromwell) he had been in America and laid plans for his future abode here, by securing, for "some service rendered the colony", a grant of 250 acres of land located in that part of what was then Charlestown.⁽²⁾ What was this service? Utter speculation, but what if he had alerted the Massachusetts Bay Colony to Gorges' grant of Lygonia to the Plough Company? The Colony was already apprehensive about Gorges' royal charter, his appointment as "Governor to New England" and his colonization inroads into Maine. Gorges' colonies would be confirmed through actual settlement. What if Graves, bringing over the Plough colonists, had purposefully shown them only the most barren and rocky parts of the coast to consciously dissuade them from landing and settling? And then brought them into Boston to take their chances there? The following year (1632), Graves was master of the Whale, bringing over Richard Dummer with his patent for Lygonia. Graves would have undoubtedly conversed enough with Dummer to know about the Patent.

Bryan Bincks [Brincks, Brian Binkes?l Noted in Abstract of 1686. Passenger on Plough. Went to Virginia, 1632 (Winthrop, 77).

Bryan Bincks may have been related to London Plough Company investors Daniel or Roger Binckes, to represent their interests.

John Smith Noted in the Abstract of 1686. Passenger on Plough. (Banks, 30). In Genealogical Dictionary #23 as carpenter, with grant of 100 acres from Vines, 1642 south of Saco R., and grant from T. Gorges, 1643, Cape Porpoise; magistrate 1643. More likely (or perhaps same), #25, at Hampton about 1640; a daughter Deborah married Nathaniel Batchelder, grandson of Rev. Stephen. (GDMNH, 81)

In Saco, 1654, John Smith was one of the settlers not signing the "acknowledgment of subjection" to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts; the commissioners reported that he was "necessarily detained from coming to yield subjection to the government, and that it is his desire to subject himself to the government..." but historian Sullivan noted that "John Smith was one of the grantees of the Plough Patent, and did not personally submit; but the Commissioners readily received his excuse of ill health, and took his submission by proxy." Folsom, in 1830, thought that if Smith had really been one of the Plough Company, "it is hardly probable he would have taken a small lease at Winter Harbor, when entitled to at least a township in right of that patent. He did, however, hold the office of marshal under the jurisdiction of Lygonia, as it appears from his deposition given at the late date 23 June, 1685: 'Testimony of John Smith of Saco, aged about 73 years, marshal under Mr. G. Cleaves, who about forty years ago carried on Col. Rigby's authority in this Province, etc.'"⁽³⁾

John Crispe. London. Passenger on Plough. [Samuel] Maverick writing in 1660 says there was a patent granted "to Chrsto. [Crispe?] Batchelder and Company in the year 1632 or thereabouts for the mouth of the [Kennebec] River and some tract of land adjacent." (Banks 28)

Thomas Gorges letters of Sept. 1641 make reference to a Crispe patent and land claime (Letters, 52, 79.) but these mention lands at Piscataqua and may refer to lands deeded from Ferdinando's holdings in that area.

Peter Johnson Passenger on Plough. (Banks, 30). Went to Virginia, 1632. (Winthrop, 77).

John Kerman Passenger on Plough. (Banks, 30) Winthrop notes as a shipmaster in 1643 (463) and trader (599).

Banks, 32, quotes from a Company letter the "untimely brech [breach?] of our brother Cerman". Settled in Roxbury and was deputy to Mass. Court 1635,6. Moved to Hempstead, L.I. ⁽⁴⁾ Was awarded one-eighth of company's goods by Mass. Court.

William Talmage Colonist on Plough. Son of Thomas Talmage of Hants; nephew of John Talmage of Newton Stacy; probable SB parishioner. Settled in Roxbury and Lynn, Mass.⁽⁵⁾

"Whale" Sailed March 8, arrived May 26, 1632.

Thomas Graves Master, July 1631 (Banks 31; Winthrop 69-70.)

John Wilson "and about 30 others" (Winthrop 69).

Richard Dummer (d. 1678). Of Newbury 1632, 1638. An "associate member" in 1632 (Burrage 206).

Folsom cites Hubbard's Narrative, Part 2, pp. 9-10, that the Plough patentees "took in as a partner, Mr. Richard Dummer of Newbury, N. England, in the year 1638, [?] to whom they delivered the patent, with an order from them to take up the land described therein, but he being denied opportunity to effect it, as also a ship formerly sent for that end not accomplishing their desire..."⁽⁶⁾

Dummer held the Patent, delivered to Geo. Cleeve after Rigby's purchase of the Plough patent in April 1643. Son, Shubael b. 1636. Dummer is noted in GDMNH as 1632 with wife, Jane of Hants, England; sister Helen Mason (Stephen Bachiler's 2nd wife). Was an Assistant, representative from Newbury, 1649. Son (?) Jeremiah b. 1645, who in 1714 [?] claimed acreage granted Richard Dummer by Cleeve. Richard Dummer censured in 1637 as Antinomian; moved to Rhode Island.

In 1683, Jeremiah Dummer, Richard's son, petitioning the Massachusetts General Court, asserted that "Richard Dummer, deceased, was wholly entrusted with the Plough Patent, and the management of sundry concerns relating to the same, by virtue of a power derived from the patentees, therein disbursed sundry sums of money, and afterward the said Patent being ordered home for England, the said Patentees, in consideration of his, the said Richard Dummer's trouble and charge in the management of their concerns about said Patent, granted unto him 800 and odd acres of land, which was laid out at Casco Bay, as by evidences do appear..."⁽⁷⁾

Why did Richard Dummer, with the Lygonia Patent in hand, not make attempt or even plans to occupy the Maine coast land?

Could Captain Graves have convinced him (on behalf of Massachusetts Bay Colony) not to? Dummer was in Boston a month before Bachiler's arrival in July, 1632. Why did he not immediately meet with the Company's minister to consider possibilities of settling the grant?

Nathaniel Harris Sent to New England by his father, "a Sergeant of the Roll and a member of the Company." (Sanford, 368.)

Anthony Jupe Son of Thomas Jupe. Lived in Boston with uncle, Capt. Robert Keayne. Mentioned in will of uncle Nicholas Jupe of London, 1653 and in will of Captain Keayne.⁽⁸⁾

Nathaniel Merriman Son of George Merriman of London, cooper. Moved to

Wallingford, Conn.⁽⁹⁾ (Sanborn, 369.)

Ann Smith Wife of John Smith, above. Came with daughter.

Jon Smith "The younger"; son of Francis Smith, miller. Servant to Rev. J. Wilson, in Watertown.

"William and Francis"

Sailed April 8, arrived June 5, 1632. Winslow, Welde, Bachiler "and about 60 other honest men" (Banks 32, Winthrop 69).

_______Thomas Master?

Edward Winslow Passenger

Thomas Welde Passenger

Stephen Bachiler Plough Company minister.

John Banister "A poor Yorkshire man" (Sanborn, 367). "There is also a very poor Yorkshire man; his name is John Banester. He has made such extraordinary mone [sic] to come over, that Mr. Bachellr and Mr. Dumer have had some compassion, and paid for his passage; if you think you are able to receive him, and do so think good of it, we then do desire you to let him be the company's saruent [servant?], and put him to such employment as you think good, and upon such conditions as you shall see meet." ⁽¹⁰⁾

Thomas Payne Of Sandwich, Kent. A salt-maker. Settled in Lynn. ⁽¹¹⁾

Others Noted

Nathaniel Harresse⁽¹²⁾ [Harris?]

John Asten⁽¹³⁾ [Austen?]

Peter Wooster⁽¹⁴⁾

"Goodman" Tamadge⁽¹⁵⁾

1. The names are those included in V.C. Sanborn, Stephen Bachiler and the Plough Company of 1630 (CMHS, Third Series, Vol. II). Additional material from Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Winthrop's Journal: History of New England; C.E. Banks, Colonel Sir Alexander Rigby. See also, George Folsom, History of Saco and Biddeford, 1630 (Facsimile reprint New Hampshire Publishing Co., 1975) wherein Folsom, 27, cites Hubbard's recording of grantees as "John Dy, Thomas Impe [sic], Grace Harding and John Roach of London" and Sullivan as adding "Bryan Brinks, John Smith and others [who in the year 1630] went into New England and settled themselves in Casco Bay..."

2. From the "Genealogy of Rear Admiral Thomas Graves".

3. George Folsom, History of Saco and Biddeford, 1830 (Facsimile edition published by New Hampshire Publishing Company, Somersworth, 1975.) Page 122.

4. Sanborn, 367, citing Ondedonk's Annals of Hempstead, L.I.

5. Sanborn, 369 citing Howell's History of Southampton, L.I. Banks, in Rigby, notes the "sons" of "Goodman Tamage." (Page 30n.)

6. Folsom, 28. He cites also Winthrop, ii. 363, Cushing's History of Newburyport, 66, and Eliot's Biographical Dictionary as to Dummer's arrival to New England in 1632, when he was admitted freeman, and as one of the first settlers of Newbury, Mass.

7. Folsom, 326 (Additions, in History of Saco and Biddeford)

8. Sanborn, 368, citing "Boston: Rec. Com. Mcl. Papers"[Records of the Commissioners, Misc. Papers]

9. Sanborn, 369, citing History of Wallingford, Conn.

10. Banks, Rigby, 33, from Company Letter of 3 March, 1632.

11. Sanborn, 369, citing Lewis and Newhall, History of Lynn.

12. Banks, 38-9n

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid. See also Banks, 30, referring to his sons.