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Which was to this purpose, that she feared some great judgment of God would fall upon them, and upon her, for her husbands cause; now that they were to remove, she feared to fall into the Indeans hands, and to be defiled by them, as he had defiled other women; or some shuch like [132] judgmente, as God had threatened David, 2. Sam. 12. 11. I will raise up evill against ye, and will take thy wives and give them, etc. And upon it showed how he had wronged her, as first he had a bastard by another before they were maried, and she having some inkling of some ill cariage that way, when he was a suitor to her, she tould him what she heard, and deneyd him; but she not certainly knowing the thing, other wise then by some darke and secrete mutterings, he not only stifly denied it, but to satisfie her tooke a solemne oath ther was no shuch matter. Upon which she gave consente, and maried with him; but afterwards it was found true, and the bastard brought home to them. She then charged him with his oath, but he prayed pardon, and said he should els not have had her. And yet afterwards she could keep no maids but he would be medling with them, and some time she hath taken him in the maner, as they lay at their beds feete, with shuch other circumstances as I am ashamed to relate. The woman being a grave matron, and of good cariage all the while she was hear, and spoake these things out of the sorrow of her harte, sparingly, and yet with some further intimations. And that which did most seeme to affecte her (as they conceived) was, to see his former cariage in his repentance, not only hear with the church, but formerly about these things; sheding tears, and using great and sade expressions, and yet eftsone fall into the like things.

Another thing of the same nature did strangly concurr herewith. When Mr. Winslow and Mr. Peirce were come over, Mr. Winslow informed them that they had had the like bickering with

1634, to Edmund Hobart (or Hubbard), and soon removed with him to Hingham. She died June 23, 1649. There is in Hingham a small estuary still known as Lyford's Liking or Weir River.

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Lyfords freinds in England, as they had with him selfe and his freinds hear, aboute his letters and accusations in them. And many meetings and much clamour was made by his freinds thereaboute crying out, a minister, a man so godly, to be so esteemed and taxed they held a great skandale, and threated to prosecute law against them for it. But things being referred to a further meeting of most of the adventure[r]s, to heare the case and decide the matters, they agreed to chose 2. eminente men for moderators in the bussines. Lyfords faction chose Mr. White, a councelor at law, the other parte chose Reve[rend] Mr. Hooker, the minister,' and many freinds on both sides were brought in, so as ther was a great assemblie. In the mean time, God in his providence had detected Lyford's evill cariage in Ireland to some freinds amongst the company, who made it knowne to Mr. Winslow; and directed him to 2. godly and grave witnesses, who would testifie the same (if caled therunto) upon their oath. The thing was this; he being gott into Ireland, had wound him selfe into the esteeme of sundry goodly and zelous professours in those parts, who, having been burthened with the ceremonies in England, found ther some more liberty to their consciences; amongst whom were these 2 men, which gave [133] this evidence. Amongst the rest of his hearers, ther was a godly yonge man that intended to marie, and cast his affection on a maide which lived their aboute; but desiring to chose in the Lord, and preferred the fear of God before all other things, before he suffered his affection to rune too farr, he resolved

1 If this was Rev. Thomas Hooker, later of New England, he was at this time rector of the parish of Esher, in Surrey, about sixteen miles from London. Already a nonconformist in opinion Hooker accepted this modest charge, and exerted great influence in the household of one Francis Drake, in whose gift the living lay. Walker, Thomas Hooker, 34-38. It is suggestive that the adherents of Lyford should place his case in the hands of a lawyer, while his opponents rested on a clergyman, and, if the identification suggested be a true one, on a non-conforming clergyman, who would have been most objectionable to the authorities before whom the question might have been carried.

to take Mr. Lyfords advise and judgmente of this maide, (being the minister of the place,) and so broak the matter unto him; and he promised faithfully to informe him, but would first take better knowledg of her, and have private conferance with her; and so had sundry times; and in conclusion commended her highly to the yong man as a very fitte wife for him. So they were maried togeather; but some time after mariage the woman was much troubled in mind, and afflicted in conscience, and did nothing but weepe and mourne, and long it was before her husband could get of her what was the cause. But at length she discovered the thing, and prayed him to forgive her, for Lyford had overcome her, and defiled her body before marriage, after he had comended him unto her for a husband, and she resolved to have him, when he came to her in that private way. The circumstances I forbear, for they would offend chast ears to hear them related, (for though he satisfied his lust on her, yet he indea[v]oured to hinder conception.) These things being thus discovered, the womans husband tooke some godly freinds with him, to deale with Liford for this evill. At length he confest it, with a great deale of seeming sorrow and repentance, but was forct to leave Irland upon it, partly for shame, and partly for fear of further punishmente, for the godly withdrew them selves from him upon it; and so comming into England unhapily he was light upon and sente hither.

But in this great assembly, and before the moderators, in handling the former matters aboute the letters, upon provocation, in some heate of replie to some of Lyfords defenders, Mr. Winslow let fall these words, That he had delte knavishly; upon which on of his freinds tooke hold, and caled for witneses, that he cald a minister of the gospell knave, and would prosecute law upon it, which made a great tumulte, upon which (to be shorte) this matter broke out, and the witnes were prodused, whose persons were so grave, and evidence so plaine, and the facte so foule, yet delivered in shuch modest and chast terms, and with shuch circumstances, as strucke

all his freinds mute, and made them all ashamed; insomuch as the moderators with great gravitie declared that the former matters gave them cause enough to refuse him and to deal with him as they had done, but these made him unmeete for ever to bear ministrie any more, what repentance soever he should pretend; with much more to like effecte, and so wisht his freinds to rest quiete. Thus was this mater ended.

From hence Lyford wente to Natasco, in the Bay of the Massachusets, with some other of his freinds with him, wher Oldom allso lived. From thence he removed to Namkeke, since called

1 It is not known when Roger Conant came to New England, possibly in the Jonathan of Plymouth, in which David Thomson was a passenger. According to his petition of 1671, he was in New Plymouth, in March, 1623, though he is not named in the land allotment of 1624. Deane conjectures that he may have been one of the ten joined to Oldham, whose names do not appear. He is believed to have followed Lyford to Nantasket, and about the year 1625 was invited, with Lyford and Oldham, to join the settlement made in 1623-24 at Cape Ann, by the Dorchester Company. Conant was to be the overseer or governor of the settlement, Lyford the minister, and Oldham, the trader with the Indians. One John Conant, of Lymington, a brother of Roger and an uncle of John Conant rector of Exeter College, Oxford (Dict. Nat. Biog., x1.465), was of the Dorchester Company, and this accounted for the appointment. Roger Conant, described by Hubbard as "a religious, sober and prudent gentleman," was born (as is supposed in 1591) at Budleigh, a market-town of Devonshire, near the sea, and claimed to have been the first to have a house in Salem (Naumkeag), whither he removed in 1626; and “when, in the infancy thereof, it was in great hazard of being deserted, I was the means, through grace assisting me, to stop the flight of those few that then were here with me, and that by my utter denial to go away with them who would have gone either for England, or mostly for Virginia, but, thereupon, stayed to the hazard of our lives." With him the adventurers employed John Balch, John Woodberry, and Peter Palfrey, and White promised Conant and these three men, "whom he knew to be honest and prudent men," that if they would stay at Naumkeag, "he would provide a Patent for them, and likewise send them whatever they would write for, either men, or provision, or goods wherewith to trade with the Indians. Answer was returned that they would all stay, on those terms, entreating that they might be encouraged accordingly. Yet it seems before they received any return according to their desires, the three last mentioned began to recoil, and repenting of their engagement to stay at Naumkeag, for fear of the Indians and other inconveniences, resolved rather to go all to Virginia, especially because Mr. Lyford, their minister, upon a loving invitation, was thither bound." Hubbard means that

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