George Bonham, Samuel King Phebe Finney (widow of the Deacon), Samuel Eddy, Elizabeth Eddy, |
Age 80 81. 83 80 80 80 73 90 97 90 97 86 73 80 90 86 91 84 79 98 90 95 90 91 87 81 |
We find a similar longevity among the first planters in Massachusetts, and of the other New England Colonies; a few instances will be mentioned.
In Massachusetts.
|
Richard Bellingham, Ezekiel Chever, Simon Bradstreet, Rev. John Higginson, Rev. John Elliot, Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Rev. Thomas Parker, President Chauncey, Rev. Nehemiah Walter, Rev. John Ward, Rev. Samuel Whiting, Rev. John Woodbridge, |
82 94 94 93 86 93 82 82 84 88 83 82 |
In Rhode Island.
|
Samuel Gorton, William Coddington |
80 78 |
In Connecticut.
|
Major John Mason, |
78 |
In the succeeding generation, instances of greater longevity have occurred. Elder John Faunce, of the first generation from the first planters, died at Plymouth, in 1745, aged 99. His daughter, Patience Kempton, died at New Bedford, in 1779, aged 105 years and six months. Ephraim Pratt, grandson of Joshua Pratt, one of the first comers at Plymouth, died at Shutesbury, county of Worcester, in 1804, aged 116. Ebenezer Cobb, who was born in Plymouth, and died in Kingston in 1801, aged 107 years and eight months, was of the third generation.
By reason of the plotting of the Narragansets, ever since the Pequot war, the Indians were drawn into a general conspiracy against the English in all parts, as was in part discovered the year before, and now made more plain and evident, by many discoveries and free confessions of sundry Indians upon several occasions, from divers places, concurring in one; with such other concurring circumstances as gave the English sufficiently to understand the truth thereof, and to think of means how to prevent the same. In which respect, together with divers other and more weighty reasons, the four colonies, namely, the Massachusetts, Plimouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, entered into a more near union and confederation, the nineteenth day of May, 1643. And the articles of the said confederation were signed by the commissioners of the said jurisdictions respectively, by which were authorized thereunto, namely :—
John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts, Thomas Dudley, Edward Winslow, William Collier, Edward Hopkins, Thomas Grigson, Theophilus Eaton, George Fenwick.7
These commissioners were made the dispensers of the bounty of the Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians; and the English government countenanced and encouraged both objects. The letters of Charles the Second take notice of this confederacy without any objection to its establishment.—Ibid. It seems to have been a kind of Congress: the representation was two from each colony.—Trumb. Hist. of Conn., i., p. 124; Winth. Jour.
The said articles at large, with sundry other particulars appertaining thereunto, together with the particulars concerning the plotting contrivements, menacings, and insolencies of the Narragansets against the English,
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