“Hands Across the Sea”
________________________
The
Devonshire Ancestry
and the
Early Homes of the Family
of
John Endecott,
Governor of the Massachusetts
Bay, 1629
With Illustrations
BY
Sir Roper
Lethbridge, K.C.I.E.,
Ex-President of the
Devonshire Association
Exeter:
W. J. SOUTHWOOD & Co., CATHERINE STREET
Transcribed
June 2001
by
Donald L. Endicott, Jr.
San
Diego, California
from
the pamphlet
Hands Across the Sea
Published 1912
GOVERNOR JOHN ENDECOTT
From the Original Painting of 1665 in the
possession of
W.C. Endicott, Esq., Boston, U.S.A.
______________
“Hands Across the
Sea”
______________
Introduction
When in the year 1899, the Devonshire Association elected me to be their President for the year of the Annual “Week” in Exeter of 1901 down to the Annual “Week” in Bideford of 1902, I resolved that my Presidential Address should be entitled “Hands Across the Sea,” and should deal with the history of Devonshire families long settled in America and the Colonies. The American and Colonial Press gave me most generous help in making this intention generally known. The result was an immense mass of correspondence between myself and the living representatives of more than 300 families of Devonshire descent now domiciled beyond the sea. The Mayor and Corporation of Exeter graciously consented to take charge of this correspondence, for the use of future historians and genealogists; and it is now in the safe custody of a most skilled and suitable guardian, Mr. Tapley-Soper, the librarian of the Exeter University College.
That correspondence served to illustrate in the most
remarkable way the well-known fact that Devonshire men ,and Devonshire women,
however far they may wander from the dear old county-they have always been the
pioneers of exploration and Empire, from the days of Walter Ralegh and Francis
Drake to those of Speke in Australia and Scott in the Antarctic-have always
carried with them a warm and even passionate love for the old home. Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare
currunt.
And.now, the happy occasion of the completion of the
“Hundred Years' Peace" between the English-speaking nations, and the
approaching Tercentenary of the voyages of the Pilgrim Fathers, have imparted
fresh interest to recent researches into the family history of the founders of
the great American Republic. The great meeting at the Mansion House of Feb. 4th, in support
of the movement for commemorating the "Hundred Years' Peace," was
presided over by the Lord Mayor, and was addressed by the Duke of Teck, by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, by the Prime Minister, and by Lord Bryce, lately our
Ambassador at Washington; and messages of sympathy were received from the
American Government, from Sir Edward Grey, from Mr. Balfour, from Mr. Bonar
Law, and from many other representative Englishmen and Americans. At this meeting it was announced that the
Duke of Teck's Committee had purchased Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire, the
ancestral home of the family of George Washington, and were about to restore
that interesting old house and to provide for its endowment as the central
museum and home of the sentiment of Anglo-American brotherhood.
A similar interest is attached to the English
ancestry and the English homes of the great leaders of the Pilgrim Fathers, who
colonised New England some thirty years before the landing in Virginia of
George Washington's first American ancestor.
Among these New England settlers were many of the progenitors of those
Devonian families, long settled in America whose history I sketched in my
Presidential Address, "Hands Across the Sea" - and where we possess,
from American sources, any indications of the precise locality in Devon from
which those progenitors came, or where they belonged to a family owning land in
the county, it is often possible to piece together the modern American pedigree
and the earlier English one, as I have shown in my "Hands Across the
Sea." For this purpose the Parish
Registers and the other parochial, municipal and diocesan archives - including
the churchwardens' accounts, accounts of guilds, and the registers of wills and
administrations in the various Probate Registries in Exeter and London - are of
the first importance. And in the case
of families owning land, these sources of information are supplemented by
researches in the archives of the Public Record Office and the British
Museum. In the last-named
category comes the family of John Endecott.
Writing of John Endecott in my “Hands Across the
Sea,” 1901, I observed: “I have
mentioned Governor Endecott as a friend and contemporary of Roger Conant and
the earliest New England pioneers and pilgrims. The first Governor of Massachusetts Bay, John Endecott, impresses
me a perhaps the strongest, morally and intellectually, of that band of
giants. Before leaving England he was a
follower and disciple of a notable pastor of Dorchester, the Rev. John White;
and for this reason he has sometimes been spoken of as a Dorsetshire man, and
the family founded by him in America, that has held a most distinguished position
there both in Colonial and in Republican times, as Dorset folk. As a matter of fact, there can be no doubt
whatever that Governor Endecott came from the well-known tin-mining family,
whose name was variously spelt Endicott, Endecott and Endacott, that owned
tin-mines and other lands in Chagford, Throwleigh and Moretonhampstead, and
belonged to the Stannary of Chagford.”
DREWSTON, CHAGFORD
Home of John Endecott
in A.D. 1628
The Early
Endecotts
The ancient Devonshire family of Endecott took its name and origin from the estate of Endicott, parcel of the Manor of Itton, alias South Tawton, in the sub-Dartmoor parish of South Tawton. The present homestead - of which I give a photograph at page 11 [page 5 of transcript], by the kind permission of my friend Mr. Richard Quance, who now lives there - has been partially rebuilt as a modern farmhouse, but includes part of the ancient house. It is situated about a mile south of the North Tawton Station of the London and South Western Railway. The name is spelt by the Post Office and the neighbours, "Endacott”; but it appears on the six-inch Ordnance Survey map as “Hendicott," and on the ancient Tithe-map as "Yendicott." The last spelling is the nearest to the original. In the Court Roll of the Manor of Itton, alias South Tawton, for 1719 (see Devonshire Association Transactions, Vol. Xxxiv, page 616), mention is made of "Endicott's hedge" at Itton Green and from the Court Roll of 1725, it appears that the last of the Endicott family had died in that year, and his estates of Itton and Taw Green had passed to John Eastchurch, his next heir."
In a
charter of the year 1262, granting the Manor of Itton to William de Mohun with
hi-, wife Giliana (see D. A. Transactions, Vol. xxxiv, page 599), the
estate of "Yondecote" is stated to pay an annual chief-rent of 10s.
6d. to the Manor; and this is probably the earliest form of the name. The affix
" cot," " cote," or "cott," meaning homestead, is
found in place-names, and in personal names derived from them, in nearly every
parish in Devonshire - often in correlative pairs like Northcote and Southcott,
Escot and Westcote, Upcott and Nethercott, and so forth.
"Yonder-cote," the "further homestead," may be the
correlative of “Hither-cote" or Heathcote, the "nearer
homestead."
ANCIENT FIREPLACE WITH OAK MANTEL
DREWSTON, CHAGFORD
In the year 1327 (1st Edward III.) the Devon Lay Subsidy Rolls in the Public Record Office show that Johannes de Ynndecote was assessed to the subsidy in that year for his lands in South Tawton at 10d. – the largest assessment being that of the lady of the Manor, Alicia de Moelys, who was assessed at 2s. This Johannes de Ynndecote is the earliest member of the family of whom I have traced individual mention in the Records. But as the family took its name
from the estate it owned and on which it lived – a parcel of the manor of Itton, alias South Tawton, which was a “King’s Manor” in the Domesday Survey of William the Conqueror, and which in Saxon times had formed part of the dowry of Githa, wife of Earl Godwin, sister of King Svend of Denmark, and mother of King Harold – it is probably that further research in the Records would disclose earlier members of the family in possession of “Yondecote.”
ENDICOTT, SOUTH TAWTON
Home of Endecott Family in A.D. 1262
In the year 1448 (27th Henry VI.), by a charter that is now preserved in the Exeter University College Museum (Brooking-Rowe Bequest, Deed No. 16), Ricardus Waterman conveyed to John Yendecote, alias Bittbeare, and Alicia his wife and Henry their son, the copyhold of the estate of Wode Tirell and a parcel of land called Gosselandonne in the Manor of Holecombe Purramor in the parish of Wynkelegh. The parish of Winkleigh is nearly adjacent to that of South Tawton on the north; and in it is the Manor of Holcomb or Hollacombe Paramore – Paramore being a corruption of the Portu Mortuo, the name of the family that owned the manor in the reign of Henry III. In Sir George Carew’s “Scrol of Arms,” 1558 (Devon Notes and Queries, Vol. Il, part 2, page 119), the coat of arms of the family of Waterman is given “or, a buck’s head cabossed gules”; and Carew adds “Wood Tirrell and Hole Tireell were his, temp Henry V.,” 1413-1422.
In this charter of 1448, “John Yendecote, alias Bittbeare” is doubtless a descendant of the Johannes de Ynndecote of 1327. Bittbeare or Bidbere is now a farm in the south of the parish of Winkleigh, and about midway between Endicott in the parish of South Tawton and Wood Tirrell in the north of the parish of Winkleigh. The purchaser of Wood Tirrell is called in the charter “John Yendecote, alias Bittbeare,” because, at the time of the purchase he owned both Yendecote and Bittbeare – and the nomenclature is interesting, as illustrating the fact that at this very period, 1448, was growing up the custom of placenames being adopted as surnames. The view of Wood Terrell, this early purchase of the Endicott family, as it now exists is from a photograph by Mr. E.J. Saunders, of Winkleigh.
WODE TIRELL (now WOOD TERRELL) IN WINKLEIGH
Home of Endecott Family in 1448
The copyhold tenure of Wood Terrell was conveyed to
John Yendicote on the three lives of himself, his wife Alicia, and their son
Henry, as customary in Devon – the heriot on the renewal of a life being “the
best beast,” and the copyholders were to be entitled to “housebote, haybote,
and firebote.” And this branch of the
Endecott family in Winkleigh, thus established by John Yendicote alias
Bittbeare and his wife Alicia and their son Henry, was seated at Wood Tirrell
certainly for over a century as copyholders of the manor; for in 1563, in the
Registry of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, we have the will of Thomasine
Endicott of Wynkleye, widow - shown by her son Robert's will, mentioned below,
to be the daughter-in-law of the above named Henry - mentioning her sons,
Robert and John Endicott. And this will of the said Robert Endicott, alias Byttabear,
of Winkleighe, was proved in the Registry of Barum (or Barnstable), 16 Feb.,
1574 - mentioning his grandfather," the above-named Henry Yendicote, also
his brother John Endacott, alias Byttabear. There is also the Administration of Thomas Endacott, or Endecot,
of Wemworthy (the adjacent parish) in 1579 as an intestate; and the will of
John Endacote, of Wemworthy, in 1579-80, mentioning only wife and daughters -
with whom possibly ended the line of Endecotts of Winkleigh in the male line.
In the Early Chancery Proceedings at the
Public Record Office we find the record of a suit brought by Alice, the widow
of Richard Yendecote, of South Tawton (undated - but clearly belonging to the
time of Edward IV., 1460 to 1483), to recover an estate of 360 acres in South
Tawton from one William Stonman, and Alice his wife. The proceedings show that the land in dispute was parcel of the
manor of Itton, alias South Tawton, which is stated to be "ancient
demesne." So it was doubtless the
estate of Endicott with the annexed estate now called Justment (formerly
"Agistment," the pasturage land of Endicott), and the Richard
Yendecote mentioned was probably the son and heir of the John Yendecote, of
1448.
In the year 1528, nearly 50 Years later - and
exactly 100 years before the sailing of Governor John Endecott from Weymouth in
the Abigail - the Churchwardens' Accounts of Chagford show that John
Endecote had just become the owner of Myddell Parke in that parish, and that he
united with one Henry Verden (the occupier) to give one-eighth share of this
land to the Wardens of St. Katherine's Store in Chagford Parish
Church. In the accounts of the Wardens
of the Hoggeners of the High Cross in Chagford Parish Church for the year 1523,
John Yoldon is shown as the owner of Myddelcott; and in the same
accounts for 1525 (16 Henry VIII.) John Yoldon appears again as the owner of
Middelcote. But in the year 1527 John
Yoldon is entered as owner of Wycke in Chagford – from which it appears that he
had sold Middlecott to John Endecote between the years 1525 and 1527. And this property long remained in the
possession of the Endecott family – in the year 1636 it was left by John
Endecott by his will to his third son Richard, the occupier of Middlecott at
that time being John Endecott’s sister-in-law, Anne Endecott, and his nephew
Henry Endecott.
MIDDLECOTT, CHAGFORD
Formerly Midelcote Manor, Home of Endecott
Family in A.D. 1528
Middlecott was a Saxon Manor and appears in the
Domesday Survey as Midelcote. It was
held, in the time of Edward the Confessor, by a Saxon thane named Alwin; and it
was one of the very few manors – only 27 out of over 1,500 in all Devonshire –
which were retained by their Saxon lords after the Norman Conquest. It is thus described in the Exchequer
Domesday Book:
“Alwinus tenet Midelcote Ipse tenebat tempore Regis Edwardi et geldabat pro dimidio ferling terrae. Terra est i carucae quae ibi est cum i servo. Ibi ij acrae silvae minutae. Valet v solidos.”
Westcote (View of Devonshire in 1630, Page
433) states that this Manor belonged in early times to the families of Rushford
and Crispin successively - from them it appears to have passed to Yolden, and
from Yolden to Endecott in 1525 or 1527.
In the Chagford Churchwardens' Accounts, Myddell
Parke is described as containing a Tynne-worke. At the period when John
Endecott became its owner in 1528 Chagford
was one of the four Stannary towns of Devon, with a Stannary Court held at the
Guildhall, where tin mining causes were heard, and the blocks of smelted tin
were “coined” and stamped by the
officials after payment of dues. The
stannators had great privileges under various royal charters (see the Transactions of the
Devonshire Association, passim, and especially a valuable paper by Mr.
Ormerod in Vol. I., v., page 110) from John, Edward I., Edward Ill., and
Charles I.; and each Stannary Court returned 24 jurors to serve in the Stannary
Parliament held sub Jove frigido on Crockern Tor in Dartmoor. In 1528, and for many years afterwards, the
tin-streaming industry on Dartmoor was a most lucrative one; and its extent is
shown in the fact that in the reign of Henry VIII. great complaints were made
by the people of Teignmouth and Dartmouth that their harbours were being silted up by the soil washed down from
the tin works. The Endecott wills show that the family in this way became very
wealthy. The parishes of Chagford,
Throwleigh, Drewsteignton and Moreton Hampstead on the upper Teign river, where
the Endecott estates were situate, contain some of the most beautiful scenery in the world; and are
also extremely interesting, as possessing a wealth of relics of the prehistoric
ages in Britain - earthworks,
THE DRUID’S WELL, MIDDLECOTT, CHAGFORD
cromlechs,
manhirs, stone avenues, hut circles, and early stone crosses. In the folklore of the country most of these
remains used to be associated with the semi-mythical legends about the Druids. Drewston, the chief seat of the Endecotts,
was supposed to be the town of the Druids, as the neighbouring parish of
Drewsteignton was supposed to be the town of the Druids on the Teign -
but both names were probably derived from Drogo or Dru, who was lord of the
manor in the time of Henry III. The view of Middlecott farmhouse, which
now represents the ancient
Middlecott
Manor, at page 14 [page 7], is from a photograph by Mr. Wilfrid Evans,
of Ashburton. Near Middlecott there used to be a beautiful ancient British
cross, incised on a slab of granite; and there is also the " Druid's
Well," of which a view is given above, from a photograph by Mr. J. Pope,
of Chagford. From this time forward the
headquarters of the Endecott family were in Chagford. But cadet-branches were seated in all the
neighbouring parishes, Throwleigh, South Tawton, Moreton Harnpstead,
Drewsteignton, Bridford, Dunsford, Ilsington, and later in Exeter, St. Thomas,
and Alphington (close to Exeter), and Stoke-in-Teignhead and Marldon, between
Teignmouth and Torquay, and Kenn, Kenton, and Kentisbeare, all near
Exeter. And as the family name is
unknown in the records of any other county than Devon - and in these early
times was also unknown in any other part of Devon than the parishes here named
- we have herein closely indicated the birth and parentage of Governor John
Endecott.
The Immediate Family of the Governor
The sons of John Endecote of Middlecott in Chagford, named above in 1528, were undoubtedly Henry (probably the great-grandfather of the Governor) and John. I take the younger first.
The Churchwardens' Accounts of Chagford for the
years 1558 to 1562 show that "John Endycott" held a leading position
in the parish. In 1558 he was elected
one of the “four men" in succession to John Prows, lord of the manor of
Chagford, and three others, who had held that office in 1556-7. In 1559, in 1560, and again in 1562, the
accounts of the “stores” in the Parish Church show receipts from John Endycott;
and in the last-named year he is described as one of tlie "ale-wardens and
receivers of gifts for the reparation of Chagford Church." His will, proved in Exeter in 1584 (26
Elizabeth), shows that he was a large owner of tin-mines in Throwleigh and the
adjacent parishes, including the great Bradford mine, and that he left to his
wife for her life the mansion-house of Waye, which had been for centuries the
home of the Prows family, lords of the manor of Chagford-see Transactions
of the Devonshire Association, Vol. viii., page 76, for an account of Waye,
which still contains a carved and highly-decorated chamber of this
period. This John Endycott left an elder son John - born before
1563, and therefore an old man at the time of the sailing of the Abigail
in 1628 - and a younger, Henry, who was a minor in 1584, and was assessed
to the Subsidy in 1624. Another son of
John Endecott of Waye - not mentioned in the will, because he had died at
Oxford two years before
its date - was, almost certainly, William Endecotte, born in 1558, who
matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford (see Boase's Register of that College),
on Dec. 20, 1577, at the age of 19.
He was elected a "Devon " Fellow of the College On June
30, 1579, admitted July 8, 1579, and full Fellow, July 17, 1580, in place of
John Batt, and died in 1582. The "Devon" Fellowships of Exeter
College are (like the Stapeldon scholarships, of which the present writer held
one) on the original Foundation of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter, and
can only be held by men born in Devonshire, or of a family bona fide domiciled
in that county. This will is particularly interesting, as illustrating the tin
mining industry that flourished at that time in the parishes - adjacent to
Dartmoor. It is only one of a great
number of Endecott wills preserved in the Exeter Registries, for the family was
a wealthy one, and most of its members seem to have had property to dispose of
at their death.
To return to
John Endecote of Middlecott Manor in Chagford, his eldest son was undoubtedly
Henry Endecott (probably great-grandfather of the Governor), for Middlecott was
one of the many landed estates devised under the will of Henry's son, John, in
1635, and left by the latter to his son Richard (probably uncle of the
Governor).
We have no
means of ascertaining the exact date of Henry Endecott - but as his younger
brother died at a good old age in 1584, it must have been approximately 1515 to
1585. We have, however, numerous
references to incidents in his life. He
was living in 1584, for in that year his younger brother John left him
one-eighth share in a tin-mine called Torredown.
His place in the Endecott pedigree is definitely
fixed in the Chancery Proceedings of
12 Charles 1. (25 Nov., 1636) - see page 26 [page 14] - where he is
shown to be the father of John Endecott, senior, the grandfather of
Thomas, Robert, William, and Richard Endecott, and of Mrs. Wilmote Nosworthy,
and the great-grandfather of John Endecott, who was, I believe, the Governor.
The same proceedings show that Henry Endecott, having inherited Middlecott Manor from his father, was also the owner of the fee-simple of the important estate of Drewston in Chagford. The Chagford Churchwardens Accounts show that Drewston-also spelt Dreuiston, Throwstyn, Throuston, Throosun - was owned in 1521 by Symon Tavenor, and in 1525-1529 by William Benett. So it was probably bought by Henry Endecott about the year 1530. It is now owned and occupied by my friend, Mr. S. Lethbridge Dicker.
Between the years 1560-1580 a daughter of Henry
Endecott was married - according to the Heralds' Visitation off Devonshire in
1620 - to Edward Knapman, fourth son of William Knapman by Alicia Hore of
Rushford in Chagford. The connection of
the Knapman family with the tin-mining industry is shown by their coat-of-arms
- "Or on a, cross gules, between four choughs proper five blocks
of tni marked with the letter W."
The eldest brother of Edward Knapman, Alexander, was married to Anna,
daughter of Sir John Widdon of Throwleigh; and Alexander's daughter Alice was
married to Robert Lethbridge of Nymet Tracy.
These four families -Whiddon, Endecott, Knapman and Lethbridge - owned
most of the tin-mining land in the Stannary of Chagford. It may be added that Henry Endecott was an
overseer of the will of his younger brother John (mentioned above), having as
his colleagues Alexander Knapman (his daughter's brother-in- law) and John Hore
of Rushford in Chagford, his Cousin.
From undated Chancery Proceedings at the Public
Record Office of the time when Sir Nicholas Bacon was Lord Keeper, 1558-1579,
it appears that Henry Endecott married Margery, daughter of William Hals or
Halse of Crediton, and that he subsequently brought a Chancery suit against his father-in-law
for the recovery of estates in South Tawton and Spreyton, which he alleged were
the dower of his wife Margery. The
father-in-law pleaded that he had given the young couple the estate of
Nethercott in Spreyton – which, curiously enough, at the present day is
in the possession of Mr. Joseph Endacott - but that he had promised and given
the lands in dispute as the dowry of another daughter, married to William
Oxenham of Oxenham Manor in South Tawton.
The records do not show the result of this suit but after the death of his daughter Margery,
William Halse brought another
suit against his grandson, Henry Endecott the younger, to recover money
lent to Margery on the occasion of the marriage of her daughter Elizabeth
to John Downe of Chagford.
From the above-mentioned Chancery
Proceedings, and from the wills of John Endacott (1636) and of William Endacott
(1630), we find that this Henry Endecott of Middlecott Manor and Drewston in
Chagford had, besides his eldest son John Endecott, who succeeded him (of
whom presently), two younger sons, William and Henry. The latter, mentioned above, probably
pre-deceased him. The former died in 1639, leaving a widow, Anne Endecott (who
was buried at Chagford, Feb. 13, 1637-8), and an only son, Henry, who had six
young children -William, Henry, Edward, Elizabeth, Mary and Johan – and all
these were living at Middlecott Manor at the time of the death of William's
elder brother John in 1635-6, and had to surrender that estate to John's
younger son Richard. There were also
two daughters, Elizabeth Endecott (mentioned above), married to John Downe of
Chagford, and Johane or Joan Endecott, who died as an elderly spinster in 1620,
and left a legacy to her brother John.
We now come to John Endecott (probably the
grandfather of the Governor), who inherited Drewston and Middlecott Manor in
Chagford from his further, Henry Endecott, and who appears to have acquired
other large tin-mining properties in the neighbourhood - including Cranbrook
Farm and Cranbrook Castle in Moreton Hampstead, and Pafford or Parford, partly
in Drewsteignton and partly in Moreton Hampstead. He appears to have been born about the year 1541 and died in
extreme old age in 1635-6 - his will is dated May 9, 1635, and was proved on
April 5, 1636, in the Bishop's Registry at Exeter, and disputed in a Chancery
suit, 1636 to 1638.
His eldest son and heir, Thomas Endecott,
predeceased him, and was buried at Chagford, Dec. 20, 1621, leaving a widow, Alice
Endecott, an elder son John (probably the Governor, of whom hereafter), a
younger son Gregory, and a daughter Margaret.
The widow Alice Endecott seems to have been a lady of considerable
landed property in the parish of Stoke-in-Teignhead, where, after her husband’s
death, she was assessed to the Lay Subsidy of 1624 (see Subsidy Roll for
that year), as well as her younger son Gregory. She administered her husband’s intestate estate in 1621, and in
the letters of administration he was called “Thomas Endecott, of
Stoke-in-Teignhead,” and later on, in the Chancery Proceedings of
1636-1638, her son, John Endecott was described as “of Stokentynhead, Devonshire”
(see below, page 26). [page 14]
CRANBROOK FARM, MORETON HAMPSTEAD
By his will of May 9, 1635, John Endecott left money for the Church of Chagford, and also for the poor of the parish. He left the mansion of Drewston, in Chagford, “where I now dwell,” with all lands, houses, etc., etc., ”to the same belonging, or in any wise appertaining,” to his second son, Robert, to whom also he bequeathed SouthTynnel in Pafford, an estate in Moreton Hampstead lying between the estates of Francys Courtney, Esq., on the south, of John Dunnynge on the west, and of Rowland Whiddon, Esq., on the north and east; also “all my Tynworkes, and partes of Tynworkes lyinge and beinge within the County of Devon, to have and to hold all the aforesaid Tynworkes and parts of Tynworkes unto the said Robert Endacott, his heires and assignes for ever, according to the custom of the Stanyrie of Devon aforesaid.” He left to his third son, William, the estate of Cranbrook, in Moreton Hampstead, “wherein the said William nowe dwelleth.” And to his fourth son, Richard, the estate of Middlecott, in Chagford, "nowe in the tenure or occupation of my sister-in-law, Anne Endacott (she was buried at Chagford in 1637), and Henry Endacott, my kinsman" (i.e., nephew). He left sundry small gifts in money or kind to his wife, Johane, to his daughter, Mrs. Wilmote Nosworthy, and to each one of his numerous grandchildren – including 40s. to John, the eldest son and heir of his deceased eldest son Thomas, who was thus practically disinherited, and who subsequently disputed the will in Chancery.
CRANBROOK CASTLE
Ancient British Earthwork of the Bronze Age,
commanding the
Teign Valley, on Cranbrook Farm
The reason for the disinheriting of the younger John
Endecott by his grandfather, the elder John Endecott, can only be guessed. It was probably due to the religious
differences that, at the period in question, caused so much dissension in main
families in England. For whilst the
family wills and the Curchwardens’ Accounts of Chagford show that the older
John Endecott and the family generally were strong churchmen, it is clear that
the younger John Endecott, the grandson – probably under the influence of the
famous Puritan divine, the Rev. John White, M.A., of Winchester, and Fellow of
New College, Oxford, who was Rector of St. Peter’s and of Holy Trinity,
Dorchester, from 1606-1648 – became imbued with equally strong Puritanical
convictions. The eminent Dorsetshire
antiquary, the Rev. R. Grosvenor Bartelot, M.A., Rector of Fordington St.
George, Dorchester, has shown very good grounds for the belief that much of the
early life of Governor John Endecott was passed in Dorchester or the
neighbourhood. And this view has been
endorsed by no less an authority than Mr. A.M. Broadley, of The Knapp,
Bridport, to whose initiative we are indebted for the Weymouth celebration.
In the inventory of the household effects at
Drewston on the death of the elder John Endecott, there is found, among
numerous quaint belongings, “one Corslett,” and this probably was a relic of
the military service of the younger John Endecott against the Spaniards in the
Low Countries.
During the long life of John Endecott, the
grandfather 1541 to 1635, the family flourished greatly, and spread into all
the adjacent parishes of Devon, as is shown by the following list of wills
bequeathing property in addition to those already mentioned. The spelling of
the name varies greatly, but I here adopt the common spelling, Endecott: -
1547, William Endecott, of Kenton; 1617, Richard Endecott, of Dunsford; 1622, Alexander Endecott, of
Throwleigh; 1623, John Endecott, of Exeter; 1624, James Endecott, of Dunsford;
1624, John Endecott, of Bridford ; 1634, Alice Endecott, of Exeter; 1636, John
Endecott, of Bridford.
Of these wills, the two most important for present
purposes were those of John Endecott, of Exeter, in 1623, and of John Endecott,
of Bridford (between Chagford and Exeter), in 1624. The former was administered by the widow, Alice Endecott, with
John Gower (alias Gore), as one of her sureties, and presumably her
father or brother. The latter was
administered by the widow (unnamed), with George Gower (alias Gour) as a
witness and overseer, and presumably the widow's father or brother.
Of the life of Thomas Endecott, father of the Governor, we know comparatively little, as he died four years before his father. He appears to have been born about 1560, brought up at Drewston, in Chagford, as the heir of the family, and married to a lady of considerable landed possessions in the parish of Stoke-in-Teignhead, a few miles away. Her name was Alice – and presumably Alice Westlake, for when she administered her deceased husband’s estate in 1621, her chief surety was William Westlake, gentleman, of Combe-in-Teignhead, the parish adjoining Stoke-in-Teignhead, presumably her father or brother. The eldest son of this marriage was, as shown both in the will of John Endecott, the grandfather, in 1635, and in the Chncery Proceedings of 1636, John Endecott, doubtless the Governor. In the King’s Subsidy of 1624, both Alice Endecott, the widow, and Gregory Endecott were assessed in considerable sums on land in Stoke-in-Teignhead – Gregory being probably either a younger son of Thomas and Alice Endecott, or perhaps more likely a son of Alice Endecott by an earlier marriage with another member of the Endecott family. In the will of John Endecott, senior (the grandfather), neither Alice (the widow) nor Gregory is mentioned, only John and his sister Margaret, children of “my son Thomas, deceased.”
Governor John Endecott
In the foregoing notes I have assumed that Governor John Endecott was the eldest son
of Thomas Endecott of Chagford, by his wife Alice, of Stoke-in-Teignhead, and
grandson and rightful heir-male of John Endecott, of Drewston and Middlecott
Manor in Chagford. I now proceed to
show that this is practically certain.
The life of John Endecott, from the date of his
sailing from Weymouth in the good ship Abigail, Henry Gauden, master, on
June 20, 1628, for Naumkeag (afterwards Salem) in New England, down to his
death on March 15, 1665, when he “was with great Honour and solemnity interred
at Boston" on the 23rd of the same month - and the history of the
distinguished family descended from him in New England down to the seventh
generation in Mr. Secretary Endicott, Secretary for War in President
Cleveland's first Administration, and to the eighth generation in Mr. W.C.
Endicott, of Boston, and Mrs. Chamberlain, wife of Great Britain's most eminent
statesman - do not come within the scope of the present paper.
I have already noticed the fact that the family was
always confined, except as occasional sojourners, to one English county,
Devonshire – and in early times to that part of Devonshire that lies within a
radius of about 12 or 15 miles from South Tawton and Chagford. The wills and other records of this family
show that, at the time of the departure of the Governor for new England in
1628, there were at least five members of the family bearing the name of John –
and of course there may have been others whose names happen not to appear in
the wills. But of those that appear,
all, with the exception of the heir of Drewston, were either minors or men over
sixty years of age. Moreover, it is
known that the Governor must have been a man of some fortune before leaving
home, as shown by his purchase of a large share of the Patent of Settlement –
and undoubtedly the Drewston branch of the family, being the senior, was
considerably more wealthy than any of the others.
Governor Endecott, when he died in 1663, left behind
him a vast mass of correspondence and other records, including numerous letters
to Governor Winthrop. Many, possibly
all, of these have been printed in America; but it is a curious fact that, so
far as I know, there is not a single reference in any of these papers to any of
the members of his family in England - a fact that points to some such family
differences as those to which I referred it page 22 [page 12]. There are,
however, two documents referring to affairs in England; and these seem to me to
be alone sufficient to identify Governor Endecott with the disinherited heir of
the Drewston Endecotts.
1. In
Lechford's Note-Book, page 113, we learn that on 3 September, 15th
Charles (1639), "John
Endicott, Esq.,
one of the Councill for Jurisdiconn of Mattschusetts Bay in New England,"
obtained from the then Governor, John Winthrop, Esq., a
life-certificate, obviously for use in Chancery or other law proceedings in
England. The Certificate is as follows:
“John Winthrop, Esq., Governor of the Jurisdiccon of Mattschusetts Bay in New England to all manner of persons whom it may concern Greeting. Know ye the John Endicott, Esq., one of the Councill for the Jurisdiccon aforesaid is Blessed by God at this present in full life and health, wch. at the request of the said John Endicott I have thought good to certifye. In testimony etc., 3 Septr., 15 Charles, 1639.”
Now, all this is perfectly explained by reference to
the records of the Court of Chancery in the Public Record Office. From Chancery Bills and Answers, Charles
I., Ee 30, no. 53, we learn that (as already mentioned at page 18 [page
10]) on November 25, 1636 – shortly after the will of John Endecott
(senior) of Drewston had been admitted to probate – the grandson and heir-male
of the testator (described by himself in his Bill of complaint as “John
Endecott of Stokentynhed,” which simply gives his English domicile) brought a
suit in Chancery against his uncle Robert Endecott, his grandmother Johane
Endecott, and their co-executor Henry Hooper of Chagford. In his Bill – which does not seem to have
been sworn in England at all – he denied the existence of a will, stating that
John Endecott, the grandfather had been too old and too weak to be competent to
make a will, claiming the estates as next heir-male, and praying the Court to
order the alleged executors for the will to come into Court and produce the
documents under which they claimed. By
an order of the Court of Chancery of May 13, 1637, this prayer was
granted. The executors evidently brought
the will into Court and proved their case – for the complainant offered no
replication, and indeed did not appear at all – and on Nov. 20 in Michaelmas
Term, 1638, judgment was given in default of replication. From the Decrees and Orders of that
date, we learn that the final decree was to the effect that “the plaintiff is
adjudged to pay to the defendants 46s. 8d. costs for want of a replication, and
the matter of the plaintiff’s Bill is from henceforth clearly and absolutely
dismissed out of the Court.” It is
worth of note that the “Answers” of the defendants were sworn at Chagford – but
there is no mention of the place where the plaintiff’s Bill had been sworn, or
whether it was sworn at all. And after
that Bill, the plaintiff appears to have done nothing whatever to prosecute the
suit. Whether it was owing to the
lengthy time occupied in communications between England and New England, or
whatever may have been the cause, it appears that the life-certificate obtained
by the Governor on Sept. 3, 1639, came too late to be of any use in the suit –
and indeed the grandfather’s will obviously destroyed this case, which seems
never to have been seriously intended, except to force disclosure of the will.
CHAGFORD PARISH CHURCH
Burial Place of Endecott Family
2. On the 27th
of August, 1651, fourteen years before his death, Governor John Endecott
addressed a long letter to the “President of the Corporation for Propagating
the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England.” In it he thanked the Corporation for the liberal help they had
afforded in money, gave some most interesting accounts of the methods and
progress of the proselytizing work among the indigenous tribes of New England,
and invoked further pecuniary assistance.
It is a most striking fact that the response to this appeal from
Chagford Parish was instantaneous.
Among the Churchwardens’ Accounts and parochial archives of Chagford,
which I have been permitted to peruse by the courtesy of the Rector, the Rev.
Hubert Studdy, M.A., I find the original list of all the subscribers, 65 in
number, with the amount of their subscriptions, to a Fund stated to be for the
“Propagatoin of the Gospel in New England,” in the handwriting of “John
Coplestone, Clarke,” the Rector of Chagford – the date was January 25, 1652,
only five moths after the date of governor John Endecott’s letter written in
Boston! And among the subscribers I
find the name of his cousin Henry Endecott (who had doubtless promoted this
collection) and of other cousins, including John Nosworthy, Mary Nosworthy,
Thomas Nosworty, and John Dunning – also the executor of his grandfather’s
will, Henry Hooper, and his son, Henry Hooper the younger – and such well-known
freeholders of Chagford as John Northcott, Gilbert Northcott, Oliver Cullcott,
William Woollacott, John Whyddon, John Prouz, and John Hore. This seems clearly to indicate that Governor
Endecott, so late as 1652, was still in direct communication with the Parish of
Chagford – and that he and his cousin Henry Endecott of Chagford were at that
time on terms of personal friendship.
The Records
of the “Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England” contain
this entry on Feb. 23, 1628:
“This day a Warrant, etc., in part of the
freight of the … Henry Gawden, Master, from Waimouth to Nahumkeke … besides ye
chardge of Capten John Endecott, his wife … and persons his company, their
passage and dyett.”
And in a paper in the “New England Historical and
Genealogical Register,” vol. I., page 335 (1847), it is stated that
according to family tradition, the Governor had married Anne Gouer before
leaving England, and that she died in 1629, sine prole. Also that the Governor married again, on
August 18, 1630, a lady named Elizabeth Gibson, who had probably come over from
England with Governor Winthrop – the marriage ceremony being celebrated by the
latter, aided by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, afterwards pastor of the first church in
Boston. This lady was probably a widow,
the daughter of Philibert Cogan, Esq., of Chard in Somerset, whose other
daughter was married to Roger Ludlow.
It is also stated that Governor John Endecott – who is always styled
“Captain” in the early American records – had probably held the rank of Captain
when fighting against the Spaniards in the Low Countries, and his corslet had
evidently been preserved at Drewston, for it was appraised at L1 in the
inventory of the household effects of John Endecott, senior.
CHAGFORD MARKET HALL
Former Stannary Court House, now re-built
The marriage of young John Endecott to Anne or Anna
Gower or Gouer must, of course, have been celebrated in the parish church of
the lady – so no register of it has yet been found, for lack of any information
as to her domicile. But we have seen
above, page 23 [page 13], that at least two members of the family of the
Drewston Endecotts had married, or been associated with, members of the Gower
or Gore family – a fact that strongly corroborates the family tradition.
It may, therefore, from all these considerations be fairly assumed that Governor John Endecott was born either at Drewston, in Chagford, or at Stoke-in-Teignhead, not far away, about the year 1589, the eldest son and heir of Thomas Endecott, of Drewston and Stoke-in-Teignhead, by his wife Alice, the said Thomas, who was buried at Chagford in 1621 (seven years before the sailing of the Abigail), having been the eldest son and heir of John Endecott, of Drewston, in Chagford, by his wife Johane. That the young John in early life came under the influence of the great Puritan divine, the Rev. John White, of Dorchester, and that ultimately he became, probably on this account, alienated from his grandfather, and was disinherited by him. Perhaps for the same reason he fought for theProtestant religion against the Spaniards in the Low Countries, and after his return to England very probably married Anna Gower. Early in the year 1628 he joined with five other wealthy Puritans – Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, Simon Whetcomb, John Humphrey, and Thomas Southcote – in the purchase of a grant for the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay from the Plymouth Council, a grant afterwards confirmed by the Charter of Charles I. To carry out this grant, he embarked at Weymouth on June 20, 1628, with his wife and a considerable band of planters, and arrived at Naumkeag (Salem) in New England, on September 6 in the same year. His strong, righteous rule in New England has been well described in the lines of Whittier:
“In his Council chamber and oaken chair
Sat the worshipful Governor Endecott;
A grave strong man, who knew no fear
In the Pilgrim-land – where he ruled in fear
Of God, not man – and for good or ill,
Held his trust with an iron will.”
