rchester, and the Stiles party, representing the English lords and
gentlemen. Their relations were not harmonious, for the Dutch tried to
drive out the Plymouth traders, and the latter resented in their turn
the attempt of the Dorchester men to occupy their lands.

The matter was to be settled not by force but by weight of numbers and
soundness of title. In 1635, a new and larger migration was under
consideration in Massachusetts, prompted by various motives: partly
personal, as shown in the rivalries of strong men in a colony already
overstocked with leaders; partly material, as indicated by the desire
for wider fields for cultivation and especially good pasture; and partly
political, as evidenced by the dislike on the part of many for the power
of the elders and magistrates in Massachusetts and by the strong
inclination of masterful men toward a government of their own. Thomas
Hooker, the pastor of the Newtown church, John Haynes, the Governor of
Massachusetts in 1635, and Roger Ludlow, a former magistrate and deputy
governor who had failed of election to the magistracy in the same year,
were the leaders of the movement and, if we may judge from later events,
were believers in certain political ideas that were not finding
application in the Bay Colony. Disappointed because of the rigidity of
the Massachusetts system, they seem to have waited for an opportunity to
put into practice the principles which they believed essential to the
true government of a people.

When the decision was finally reached and certain of the inhabitants of
Newtown, Watertown, and Roxbury were ready to enter on their removal,
the question naturally arose as to the title to the territory. In June,
1635, Massachusetts had asserted her claim by exercising a sort of
supervision over those who had already gone to Connecticut; but in
October John Winthrop, Jr., the Reverend Hugh Peters, and Henry Vane
arrived from England with authority from the lords and gentlemen to push
their claim, and Winthrop actually bore a commission as governor of the
entire territory, which included Connecticut. It is hardly possible that
Hooker and Haynes would have ignored the demands of these agents, and
yet to acknowledge Winthrop as their governor would have been to accept
a head who was not of their own choosing. In all probability some
arrangement was made with Winthrop, according to which the Englishmen's
title to the lands was recognized but at the same time the C