as he said, he came from England to escape the "Lord
Bishops," and he did not propose in America to be under the "Lord
Brethren."

The colony of Massachusetts Bay began as a fishing venture with profit
as its object. It so happened that the Pilgrims wished to secure a right
to fish off Cape Ann, and through one of their number they applied to
Lord Sheffield, a member of the Council who had shared in the
distribution of 1623. Sheffield caused a patent to be drawn, which the
Plymouth people conveyed to a Dorchester company desiring to establish a
fishing colony in New England. The chief promoter of the Dorchester
venture was the Reverend John White, a conforming Puritan clergyman, in
whose congregation was one John Endecott. The company thus organized
remained in England but sent some fourteen settlers to Cape Ann in the
winter of 1623-1624. Fishing and planting, however, did not go well
together, the venture failed, and the settlers removed southward to
Naumkeag (Salem). Though many of the English company desired to abandon
the undertaking, there were others, among whom were a few Puritans or
Nonconformists, who favored its continuance. These men consulted with
others of like mind in London, and through the help of the Earl of
Warwick, a nobleman friendly to the Puritan cause, a patent was issued
by the Council to Endecott and five associates, for land extending from
above the Merrimac to below the Charles. This patent, it will be
noticed, included the territory already granted to Gorges and his son
Robert, and was obtained apparently with the consent of Gorges, who
thought that his own and his son's rights would be safely protected.
Under this patent, the partners sent over Endecott as governor with
sixty others to begin a colony at Salem, where the "old planters" from
Cape Ann had already established themselves. Salem was thus a plantation
from September, 1628, to the summer of 1630, on land granted to the
associates in England; and the relations of these two were much the same
as those of Jamestown with the London Company.

Endecott and his associates soon made it evident, however, that they
were planning larger things for themselves and had no intention, if they
could help it, of recognizing the claims of Gorges and his son. They
wanted complete control of their territory in New England, and to this
end they applied to the Crown for a confirmation of their land-patent
and for a charter of incorporation as a company