375th Anniversary of Malden’s Incorporation as a Town: Explorers and Co-Founders

By Inna Babitskaya

Only three men from those who came with Robert Gorges chose to remain in New England, while the others returned to England. Rev. William Blackstone settled in Shawmut (future Boston), Samuel Maverick settled in Winnisimmet (future Chelsea/Revere), and the blacksmith Thomas Walford settled in Mishawaum (future Charlestown).

Who were these pioneers?

Rev. William Blackstone/Blaxton (1595–1675) was born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England.

Blackstone entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1614, at the age of 18. One of his university contemporaries and friends was Isaac Johnson (1601–1630) of Sempringham, Lincolnshire, who later became one of the prominent Puritan immigrants and the richest man of the Mass Bay colony. In 1617, they completed their bachelors and were ordained at Peterborough; in 1621, they completed their masters. In 1623, Isaac Johnson married Lady Arbella Clinton-Fiennes, the Earl of Lincoln’s younger sister.

The same year, William Blackstone left for America on the ship Katherine as a chaplain of the 120-person expedition of Robert Georges, Governor General of New England, to the Wessagusset colony. He arrived in Weymouth. When the surviving members of the failed expedition left for England, Blackstone moved five miles north and became the first colonist on the western end of the Shawmut Peninsula, where he lived alone for more than five years. He had a farm and an orchard. In 1629, Isaac Johnson, Blackstone’s friend, and the Puritans landed near present-day Charlestown. The rocky land was practically unusable for tapping wells. So, Blackstone wrote a letter to Johnson, informing him about the natural spring on the peninsula and inviting him to settle there. On September 7, 1630, the Puritans left Charlestown and began to settle on the peninsula. Unfortunately, Johnson’s life there lasted less than a month. He died on September 30, 1630, soon after his wife, Arbella, passed away. It was Johnson who named the new settlement across the river “Boston,” after his hometown in Lincolnshire, from which he and his wife had immigrated to New England.

Right after their arrival, the Puritans began to divide land between themselves and the “old planters” (the pioneers who came to New England before them). Thus, Blackstone got a grant of 50 acres of land. But in 1634, due to the huge increase in Boston’s population—up to 4,000 people—and religious differences between him and the newcomers, he had to sell all but six acres for 30 pounds. Being an Anglican, Blackstone did not get along with the Puritans. As he said, “I left England to get from under the power of the lord bishop, but in America, I have fallen under the power of the lord brethren.” Governor John Winthrop bought Blackstone’s land, using for that purchase a one-time tax on Boston residents (6 shillings per person). That land served as a town commons for public grazing (now it is Boston Common).

In 1635, Blackstone moved about 35 miles south of Boston to the Pawtucket River (now the Blackstone River in Cumberland, Rhode Island). He was the first European settler there (it was a part of the Plymouth Colony until 1691, then it became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1741, when it came under the jurisdiction of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations). His house was called “Study Hill” because of the largest library (186 books in various languages) in the colonies at that time. Blackstone had a farm, a garden, and an orchard where he cultivated the first American apple, the Yellow Sweeting. He used to give his apples to the city children during his visits there. He became friends with indigenous people, as well as Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, who came to that area a year later, and others. He often traveled to Providence and Boston to visit and preach while riding a saddle-broken white bull. In 1659, at age 64, Blackstone married the widowed 34-year-old Sarah Fisher Stevenson in Boston. In 1660, their son, John Blackstone, was born. William Blackstone died on May 26, 1675, two years after his wife, and was buried near his home. A month later, his house was burned down by Native Americans during King Philip’s War.

Samuel Maverick (c. 1602–c. 1670) was born to the Rev. John Maverick, an Episcopalian minister, and Mary (Gye) Maverick. Rev. John Maverick was one of the first ministers in Dorchester, Massachusetts, after migrating to the colony in 1630.

Samuel Maverick came to North America in 1623/4 with English explorer Capt. Christopher Levett (1586–1630/31), Governor of Plymouth and Virginia, the first European to establish settlement in present-day Portland, Maine. Maverick first settled in Winnisimmet, modern-day Chelsea. In 1628, he married Amias (Cole) Thomson (1596–1672), widow of colonist David Thompson/Thomson (1588–1628). An early explorer and settler, David Thompson, a direct descendant of Robert II (1316–1390), King of Scots, and a graduate of Edinburg University, was sent to New Hampshire by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. In 1626, Thompson moved to the island of Boston Harbor, which was later named after him. David Thomson died in 1628 under suspicious circumstances. His widow inherited his properties that came to Maverick after their marriage. Samuel Maverick and Amias had three children: Nathaniel, Samuel, and Mary.

Maverick built a fortified house on Noddle’s Island (the first permanent house in Massachusetts) and armed it with four guns. In 1631, the first ferry in the state and possibly the country received permission to run from the Maverick farm to Charlestown and Boston. In April 1633, the General Court granted Maverick property rights to most of the area of modern-day Chelsea, excluding Prattville. In March 1635, Maverick sold his holdings outside his farm in Winnisimmet to Richard Bellingham, the deputy governor of Massachusetts. The same year, he visited Virginia to buy seed corn and remained there for a year. When he returned, he had two pinnaces and had also bought many livestock.

In 1640, Maverick received 600 acres of land from Boston and 400 acres from Braintree. In 1646, he was among the seven merchants and entrepreneurs who signed the Remonstrance, petitioning the Massachusetts General Court for conformity to English law and more moderate civil and church policies.

During his visit to England, on April 23, 1664, Maverick was granted an audience with King Charles II, who appointed him as one of the four commissioners to arbitrate disputes in New England, as an Anglican and a royalist. Maverick was also to reduce Dutch influence in the colonies. But despite obtained military and civil powers, commission was unsuccessful and Maverick had to sell Noddle’s Island and move to New York.

The fate of the third pioneer, Thomas Walford, was affected by the change in land grant ownership. When Walford’s grantor, Governor-General of New England Robert Gorges, died in the late 1620s, the grant was inherited by Gorges’ elder brother, John Gorges (1593–1657). On January 10, 1629, John Gorges sold his grant to Sir William Brereton (1604–1661), Baronet of Handforth, Chester, a staunch Puritan, a future member of the English parliament (in 1628 and 1640). Brereton actively participated in the English Civil War and supported the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658). The Brereton’s grant was really large and included “all the land in breadth lying from the east side of the Charles River to the easterly part of the cape called Nahant, and all the lands lying in length twenty miles northeast into the main-land from the mouth of the said Charles River, lying also in length twenty miles into the main-land northeast from the said cape Nahant.” But when Brereton asked the newly created Massachusetts Bay Company to allot him, his people, and his servants a “proportional quantity” of land the company refused to fulfill his request. So, Brereton decided to convey his rights to captain, merchant, and trader John Oldham (1592–1636), a “man of considerable practical ability but heady, self-willed, and of an ungovernable temper,” who was known under the nickname “Mad Jack.” In July 1623, Oldham immigrated to Plymouth Colony aboard the Anne, together with his sister Lucretia Oldham (1600-1678). Lucretia in 1624 married Jonathan Brewster (1593–1659), son of the elder William Brewster (c. 1566/67–1644), one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact and the “father of New England.”

But despite such connections, Oldham’s life in Plymouth was rather short and difficult. Oldham followed the Rev. John Lyford (c. 1580–1634), the first ordained minister of the Plymouth colony, who wrote and sent to England disparaging and slandering Pilgrims letters. The letters were intercepted by the Colonial leader, William Braford. Lyford, who began to stir up dissension among the colonists, was also known for his immoral behavior in his native Ireland and in the colony. Oldham, in turn, behaved badly, refusing to stand his scheduled watch and being insolent to the Pilgrims’ military advisor, Miles Standish. As a result, Lyford and Oldham were put on trial for “plotting against them and disturbing their peace, both in respects of their civil and church state,” and were banished from Plymouth. Later their ways are divided. Lyford went to Nantasket, then to Cape Ann, and finally to Virginia. Oldham tried to use the Brereton grant, claiming all the lands between the Charles and Saugus Rivers. However, William Blackstone and William Jeffries (1591/1601–1675), who examined the Oldham’s patent, declared it legally void by the Company.

Oldham had to support himself through trade with colonists and the Native Americans. Eventually, he obtained prominent status and became Watertown’s representative to the General Court of Massachusetts (in 1632–34) and the overseer of shot and powder for the colony. Oldham lived on an island in the Charles River, sailing the coast from Maine to New Amsterdam and Virginia. In 1634, Oldham established Wethersfield, Connecticut. On July 20, 1636, during his trade voyage to Block Island, Oldham and a few members of his crew were killed by Narragansetts. His two young nephews were rescued by the fishing vessel. The Oldham’s murder led to the Pequot War in 1636/37.

When the Massachusetts Bay Company tried to confirm its right to the lands, they decided to make a claim on the land. So, 395 years ago, in April 1629, Matthew Cradock, Massachusetts Bay Company’s Governor (in London), sent a letter to John Endicott (1600–1665), the governor of the colony in New England, and his kin by marriage. Cradock warned Endicott against the attempts of Oldham and urged him “to settle an Agreement with the old Planters so as they may not harken to Mr. Oldham’s dangerous though vain propositions. And because we would not omit to do anything which might strengthen our right, we would have you (as soon as these ships, or any of them arrive with you, whereby you may have men to do it, send 40 or 50 persons to Massachusetts Bay to inhabit there, which we pray you not to protract, but to do it with all speed…”

Following Cradock’s instructions, Governor Endicott sent brothers Sprague and a few companions to research the lands. When they arrived at Mishawum, they saw an “English house, thatched and palisaded” where lived the blacksmith Thomas Walford. Thomas Walford (1599–1666) and his wife Jane (Guy) Wlaford (1598–1681) immigrated to New England in 1623 from Waltham, Essex, England. They settled in Mishawaum 400 years ago, in 1624. Thomas and Jane Walford had six children: one son and five daughters.

Naturally, Walford, as an old planter, was wary of the newcomers and “received them coldly.” However, he knew the language of Native Americans and helped the Spragues with translation during the negotiations with the Sachem (chief) Wonohaquaham.

Walford’s fears very quickly became true. Ironically, three years later, the very people whom Walford helped with the settlement banished him from his house: “…On May 3, 1631, the Massachusetts Bay General Court ordered that “Tho: Walford, of Charlton, is fined 40s, and is enjoined, he and his wife, to depart out of the limits of this patent before the 20th day of October next, under pain of confiscation of his goods, for his contempt of authority & confronting officers, &c.” He paid his fine by killing a wolf.

In 1633, Walford moved to Great Island (now New Castle), at the time a part of Strawbery Banke (now Portsmouth), Rockingham County, New Hampshire. However, his persecution by the Puritans continued. After his departure to New Hampshire, on September 3, 1633, “the same court ordered ‘that the goods of Thomas Walford shall be sequestered, & remain in the hands of Anchient Gennison [Ensign William Jennison], to satisfy the debts he owes in the Bay to several persons.” In New Hampshire, Walford was a church warden (in 1640) and a member of the Grand Jury (in 1650/52/54/60), Petit Jury (in 1656), and Portsmouth selectman (in 1655/58). During Walford’s life in New Hampshire, his wife Jane had to withstand numerous accusations of witchcraft—in 1648 and 1656 by Elizabeth and Nicholas Rowe, Susannah Trimmings, and in 1670 by Robert Couch. However, all the accusations were dismissed by the court. Moreover, Jane “sued her detractors for slander and obtained a verdict.”

To be continued…

(Inna Babitskaya is a Malden Historian and Member of Malden Historical Commission and

Author of historical books “From Maldon to Malden” & “Time of Converse”)