Transcript:Savage, James. Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England/v4p609

28 Mar. but this s. was sev. yrs. bef. lord of the manor of G. as the f.
had been, and patron of the ch. Educat. as he was in the moderate
princip. of the puritans in ch. and state, he naturally felt the sympathy
for the settlem. of this part of America, widely diffus. with their relig.
sentim. in all the E. coast of the mother country, and was engag. at the
meeting for the good cause, at Cambridge, 26 Aug. 1629, when Sir
Richard Saltonstall, Dudley, Johnson, Pyncheon, Vassal, Humfrey, Colbron,
Nowell, and others unit. with him to bind themseles, in the
presence of God, to embark the foll. spring, "to pass the seas to contin.
and inhab. in N. E. provided" that "THE WHOLE GOVERNM. TOGETHER
WITH THE PATENT FOR THE SAID PLANTA. BE FIRST BY AN ORDER OF
CT. LEGALLY TRANSFER. AND ESTABL. TO REMAIN WITH US AND
OTHERS WH. SHALL INHAB. UPON THE SAID PLANTA." In pursuance
of this design, wh. had first been project. by Gov. Cradock, and at the
gen. meet. of the comp. in London, on 28 July preced. submit. "NOT TO
CONTIN. THE GOVERNM. IN SUBORDIN. TO THE COMP. HERE, AS NOW
IT IS," the vote of the whole body of the Corpo. on 29 Aug. aft. at
London was adopt. On 20 Oct. Cradock and the other officers under
the chart. resign. and "upon serious deliberat." in the nominat. of Winthrop,
Saltonstall, Johnson, and Humfrey for Gov. "the said Mr. W.
was, with a gen. vote and full cons. of this Ct. by erect. of hds. chos. to
be Gov. for the ensuing yr. to begin on this present day," and the rec.
goes on to furnish the sentence, "wh. was pleas. to accept thereof, and
thereupon took the o. to that place appertain." At the same time were
chos. dep-.gov. and eighteen Assist. See Mass. Col. Rec. I. 49-60.
On p. 70 is the rec. of the LAST meet. of Assist. in Eng. when, as at all
intermd. ones, Winthrop presid. and this was held on board the Arbella,
23 Mar. 1629-30, at Southhampton; but the same vol. in the very next
sentence shows that the FIRST meet. or "Court of Assist. was holden 23
Aug. 1630 at Charlton," no doubt in the "great house;" and it is
equal. clear that the same man is there act. as Gov. So precisely, in
the next foll. forty sessions of Assist. of Gen. Ct. Winthrop sat, by annual
choice, as Gov. until the elect. in 1634, of Thomas Dudley. He, of
course, was the next Gov. of Mass. Col. aft. Cradock, wh. never came
over; and, therefore, W. was the earliest Charter Gov. here. Very
strange might seem the error of the Hist. of Boston, by Mr. Drake, so
valuab. for its many marks of industry, p.94, in mak. the elect. of W.
as Gov. on board the Arbella, at Charlestown, on Monday, 23 Aug. aft.
arr. tho. Prince, the judic. annalist, had giv. caution to all readers
ninety-eight yrs. bef. of the mistake of capt. Johnson in this very point.
See Hale's ed. of Prince, 314. This error our Hist. of Boston would
sanctify, without consider. first, that the Arbella was this day prob. half