Arbella or Arabella[1] was the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet on which Governor John Winthrop, other members of the Company (including Dr. William Gager), and Puritan emigrants transported themselves and the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company from England to Salem between April 8 and June 12, 1630, thereby giving legal birth to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During this adventure, the ship is said to have carried three times as much alcohol as water. The charter recorded around 10,000 gallons of wine on board for the personal supply of the crew and its passengers, and they had consumed almost all of it in six weeks time. [2] John Winthrop is reputed to have given the famous "A Model of Christian Charity" sermon aboard the ship. Also on board was Anne Bradstreet, the first European female poet to be published from the New World, and her family.
The ship was originally called Eagle, but her name was changed in honor of Lady Arabella Johnson, a member of Winthrop's company, as was her husband Isaac.[3] Lady Arabella was the daughter of Thomas Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln.[4]
Notable passengers
- Captain John Underhill, militia leader, author of an account of the Pequot War
- Sir Richard Saltonstall, first settler of Watertown, Massachusetts, one of the founders of Connecticut Colony, later English ambassador to Holland
- Thomas Dudley, who served several terms as Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Anne Bradstreet, poet
- John Winthrop the Younger, son of the leader of the fleet, John Winthrop; first Governor of the Saybrook Colony and Connecticut Colony
Notes
- ^ Davida Rubin, Kenneth Garth Huston. Sir Kenelm Digby, F.R.S., 1603-1665: a bibliography ... (1969), p. 2.
- ^ McMichael, Andrew. "North and South: New England and Pilgrims." Lecture, Bowling Green, October 9, 2014.
- ^ Channing, Edward (1907). A History of the United States, Vol. I, p. 330. New York: The Macmillan Company.
- ^ Society, New England Historic Genealogical (1921). "Leaders in the Winthrop Fleet, 1630". The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 25: 236. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
References
- Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940
- Gager, Edmund R. The Gager Family: The Descendants of Dr. William Gager, of Suffolk County, England, and Charlestown, Mass., through His Only Surviving Son, John Gager, Who Later Settled in Norwich, Connecticut. Baltimore: Gateway, 1985. Print.
External links
- The Winthrop Society is a hereditary organization made up of the descendants of those who arrived on the Winthrop Fleet or other Great Migration ships before 1634.
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