by
the leaders of the Massachusetts Company. At a general court, July 28,
1629, Cradock, the governor, read "certain propositions conceived by
himself" for transferring the headquarters of the company to
America.[17] The matter was held in abeyance, and the members present
were instructed to consider the question "privately and secretely."
August 26 twelve of the most influential members, among whom were John
Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, and Richard Saltonstall, bound
themselves by a written agreement at Cambridge to emigrate with their
families to New England if a transfer of the government could be
effected.[18]

Three days later the company held another meeting, when the removal
was formally proposed and carried. Accordingly, such of the old
officers as did not wish to take part in the emigration resigned their
places, and for governor the choice fell upon John Winthrop, a wealthy
gentleman of Groton, in Suffolk, and for deputy governor upon Thomas
Dudley, who had been steward of the earl of Lincoln. The ultimate
effect of this brilliant stroke was to convert the company into a
colony.[19]

This change of policy was taken when affairs looked particularly dark
in England, for it was about this time that King Charles, provoked at
the opposition of Parliament, entered upon his policy of ruling
without one. March 10, 1629, Parliament was dissolved, and no other
was called for a space of eleven years. Several of the most eminent
members were languishing in the Tower of London, and the king's
proclamation of March 27 announced that he would "account it as a
presumption for any to prescribe any time unto us for Parliaments, the
calling, continuing, and dissolving of which is always in our
power."[20]

The result was a general stir throughout England, and in a few months
a thousand persons prepared to leave. They went in several parties in
seventeen ships, and there was probably a greater proportion of men of
wealth and solid respectability than ever had left England for America
in any one year before. The colonists, though Puritans, were church of
England men, and the idea of any separation from their old religious
connections was expressly disclaimed in a pamphlet published in 1630,
entitled the "Planters' Plea,"[21] which has been, with good reason,
assigned to Rev. John White. In this paper the writer appeals to the
address of the colonists at their departure, wherein they termed the
church of England "ou