The Ives, Day. Humiston, and Bishop families converged in Springfield in the early 1800s. This post and a few that follow provide a brief historical context for their home. Like New Haven, Springfield was founded by a Puritan minister who first came to Boston, William Pynchon, seeking relief from the persecutions of Charles I and Archbishop Laud. Pynchon was from Springfield, Essexshire, England. He was not an Ives ancestor but he established the future home of a number of our ancestors, starting with Robert Day around 1660, and then Jeremiah Ives, James Humiston, and Abigail Bishop in the late 1700s. There are also a number of parallels with the founding of New Haven. According to Green (1886), one motivation for Charles I to sign the Massachusetts Bay Charter, in March 1629, was to get many of the Puritans out of England. As a result, there were many Puritans in the membership of the Massachusetts Bay Company, including Pynchon.
Charles I gave to the company the territory of Massachusetts Bay including “all landes and groundes, place and places, soyles, woodes and wood groundes, havens, porrtes, rivers, waters, mynes, minerals, jurisdiecones, rights, royalties, liberties, freedoms, immunities, privledges, franchises, preheminences, hereditament, and commodities whatsoever.” To be held “in free and common Socage and not in Capite nor by knight service.” The king only reserved one fifth of all the gold and silver that might be discovered. The Boston area was the initial point of entry for Turner (1630), Day (1634), Ives (1635), Dickerman (1636/7), Atwater, Cooper, Peck, & Yale (1637) and Dunbar (1650) and probably several others.
The settlement in the Boston area was first called, “London’s Plantation.” Stockholder emigrated at their own cost (see Getting to New England). All who came received fifty acres of land for each family member and indentured servant who came with them (Lossing, 1907). There was a large emigration in 1629 -1630 when Governor Winthrop came over in the Arbella and several other ships. The charter and government was transferred to Massachusetts and the colony assumed a great deal of local authority and some of the those who opposed Puritans practices were sent back to England, like John and Samuel Brown of Salem who used the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican church.
However, the king became concerned that the colony wanted too much independence and requested that they give up their charter, a request they evaded until the fall of Charles I temporarily ended this concern. The colony erected fortifications and began drilling troops, preparing to resist interference from England but the English Civil War temporarily stopped these disputes. It was a preview of the later troubles.
Comments