owth and character of the
new community were vitally affected by the large influx of
English Puritans who ten years later followed the Pilgrims to
these shores.

Soon after the departure of the Pilgrims from England, in 1620,
King James I incorporated a successor to that Plymouth Company
under whose patent Plymouth colony was founded. This new
company is known as the Council for New England. The territory
granted to the council extended from 40 deg. to 48 deg. north latitude,
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The land was conferred in
absolute property, with unlimited powers of legislation and
government. Emigrants to New England were placed wholly under
the authority of this corporation. The great privileges
conferred upon the monopoly caused indignation among James'
subjects, but nevertheless the council made numerous grants to
settlers in New England.

Meanwhile, dissatisfaction in England increased; in 1625 James
was succeeded by his son, Charles I; at Plymouth the Pilgrim
colony was struggling for existence; at home the Puritans
chafed under the growing despotism of Charles. Out of this
unrest came the movement leading to the larger emigration to
New England which Palfrey, the New England historian,
describes.

The emigration of the Englishmen who settled at Plymouth had been
prompted by religious dissent. In what manner Robinson, who was capable
of speculating on political tendencies, or Brewster, whose early
position had compelled him to observe them, had augured concerning the
prospect of public affairs in their native country, no record tells;
while the rustics of the Scrooby congregation, who fled from a
government which denied them liberty in their devotions, could have had
but little knowledge and no agency in the political sphere. The case
was widely different with the founders of the Colony of Massachusetts
Bay. That settlement had its rise in a state of things in England which
associated religion and politics in an intimate alliance.

Years had passed since the severity of the government had overcome the
Separatists, forcing them either to disband their congregations or flee
from the kingdom. From the time when Bishop Williams was made keeper of
the great seal, four years before the death of King James, the
high-commission court again became active, and the condition of Puritans
in the