His name is found on the books as admitted to the Inner Temple in
1624. He appears early to have cherished some matrimonial purposes which
did not work felicitously. Not liking his profession, he turned his
thoughts toward the sea. He obtained a secretaryship in the naval
service, and joined the expedition under the Duke of Buckingham,
designed to relieve the French Protestants at Rochelle, in 1627. He
afterwards made an Oriental tour, of the stages of which we have some
account in his letters, in 1628-9, from Leghorn, Constantinople, etc. He
was thwarted in a purpose to visit Jerusalem, and returned to England,
by Holland. Notwithstanding the industrious fidelity of his father as a
letter-writer, the son received no tidings from home during his whole
absence of nearly fifteen months. What a contrast with our times!

Before undertaking this Oriental tour, the younger John had had
proposals made to him, which seem to have engaged his own inclinations,
to connect himself with Endecott's New-England enterprise. He wrote to
consult the wishes of his father on the subject; but that father, who in
less than two years was to find himself pledged to a more comprehensive
scheme, involving a life-long exile in that far-off wilderness,
dissuaded his son from the premature undertaking. It does not appear
that the father had as yet presented to his mind the possibility of any
such step. Yet, from the readiness which marked his own earnest and
complete sympathy in the enterprise when first we find him concerned in
it, we must infer that he had much previous acquaintance and sympathy
with the early New-England adventurers from the moment that a religious
spirit became prominent in their fellowship. He was a man who undertook
no great work without the most careful deliberation, and a slow maturing
of his decision.

During the absence of John at the East, many interesting and serious
incidents occurred in the personal experience and in the domestic
relations of his father, which doubtless helped the preparation of his
spirit for the critical event of his life. He had that severe and
threatening illness in London already referred to. We have many letters
covering the period, filled with matter over which, as so full of what
is common to the human heart in all time, we linger with consenting
sympathy. A wayward and unconverted son, Henry by name, caused his
father an anxiety which we see struggling painfully with parental
affection and