William CHASE
Born
Died wp 13 My 1659
English Origin Wivenhoe, Essex
Came to New England 1630
With Winthrop fleet
Resided, Roxbury; Yarmouth 1638
Freeman of MBC My 1634
Occupation carpenter
First Spouse Mary (d 1659)
Children: William, Mary, Benjamin,

William Chase and his family lived at Roxbury from 1630 to 1638; and the following information about them has been copied from the records of the church at Roxbury kept by Rev. John Eliot:

"William Chase, he came with the first company, 1630; he brought one child his son william a child of ill qualitys, & a sore affliction to his parents: he was much afflicted by the long & tedious affliction of his wife; after his wives recovery she bare him a daughter, wch they named mary borne aboute the modle of the 3d month [May], 1637. he did after yt remove (intending) to Situate, but after went with a company who maide a new plantation at yarmouth." (Roxbury Church Records. pp. 73-74.)

"Mary Chase, the wife of William Chase. she had a paralitik humor wch fell into her backbone, so yt she could not stir her body, but as she was lifted, and filled her wth great torture, & caused her back bone to goe out of joynt, & bunch out from the begining to the end of wch infirmity she lay 4 years & a halfe, & a great pt of the time a sad spectakle of misery: But it pleasd God to raise her againe, & she bore children after it." (Ib, p. 75.)

William Chase was named, 19 Oct. 1630, among those "who desire to be made freeman;" and he was made a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony on 14 May 1634. (REGISTER, vol. 3, pp. 90, 92.) In 1639 he moved to Yarmouth on Cape Cod, was appointed constable for the town of Yarmouth by the General Court of the Plymouth Colony, 5 Mar. 1638/9, and took the oath of office 4 June 1639. (Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 1, pp. 116, 125.)

His life at Yarmouth was not a peaceful one. Trouble with Marduke Mathewes brought him before the Court almost immediately, on 1 Sept. 1640 he was censured for his "miscarriages" against Mr. Mathewes and desturbance of the proceedings of the church, Court, and "contrey," and he gave the General Court bond for L20 for his appearance at the next Court, 2 MAr. 1640/1. (Ib., vol. 1, pp. 135, 162, vol. 2, p. 9.) In 1641 he was again in Court on account of a disagreement with Nicholas Sympkins concerning a fence. (Ib., vol. 2, p. 20.)

A carpenter by trade, he made an agreement in 1639 to build a house for Dr. Thomas Starr, which was sold to Andrew Hallet. (Swift's History of Yarmouth, p. 29.) On 8 June 1642 he mortgaged to Stephen Hopkins, as security for a debt of L5, "his house and lands in Yarmouth containeing Eight acrees of upland and six acres more lying at the Stony cove with all & singular the app'tences therunto belonging." (Plymouth Colony Deeds, vol. 1, p. 83.) In August 1643 he and his son, William Chase, Jr., were among the Yarmouth men "able to beare Armes from XVI Yeares old to 60 Yeares." (Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 8, p. 194.)

On 7 Mar. 1647/8 the Plymouth Colony Court authorized Capt. Myles Standish to go to Yarmouth and put an end to the differences in that town; and Captian Standish went there and settled the troubles, 13 May 1648. The following records relate to William Chase and his lands:

"Also yt Mr. Hawes shall enjoy 8 acres of upland or thereabouts, in the west field [in Yarmouth] which hee bought of Goodman Chase. "Item, it is graunted to John Darby to have six acares of meadow in the Eastern Swan Pond Meadowe, in lewe of 4 acars dew to William Chase, for a debt the town owed him. "It is lickwise granted yt Mr. Howes shall have . . . eight acares of meadow, late William Chases, lyeing next vnto Edward Sturges meadow, between the river and Mr. Simkins necke." (Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 2. pp. 128-130.)

At the General Court held at Plymouth, 6 June 1654, the "Grand Enquest" presented "William Chase, Senr. of Yarmouth for driveing one paire of oxen in the yoke vpon the Lords day, in time of exercise, about five miles." (Ib., vol. 3, p. 52.)

In the records of the General Court held at Plymouth, 3 Oct. 1654, is the following entry:

"Robert Dennis, in the behalfe of William Chase, of Yarmouth, tendereth to make satisfaction for the debt demanded upon bill by John Hoare, in the behalfe of William Francklin, of Boston. Upon the ballancing of the account betwixt the said Francklin ant the said Chase, the said Robert Dennis is willing to enter bond to answare what soeuer shall bee due to the said Francklin from William Chase aforesaid." (Ib., vol. 7, p. 72.)

The estate of John Derby of Yarmouth was indebted to William Chase, 22 Feb. 1655. (The Mayflower Descendant, vol. 14, p. 112.) William Chase was one of twenty-two Yarmouth men who took the oath of fidelity in the year 1657 (ib., vol. 8, pp. 185, 186), and William Chase, Sr., was one of the surveyors of highways in Yarmouth, 3 June 1657 (ib., vol. 3, p. 116.)


The witnesses to this will deposed before Gov. Thomas Prence of the Plymouth Colony 13 MAy 1659. The inventory of the personal estate of the deceased, taken 14 Sept. 1659, is as follows:

An Inventory of the goods and chattles of William Chase late of Yarmouth deceased, taken and prised by us Robert Dennis, Richard Taylor and Edmond Hawes the 14th of September 1659.

Division of the estate of William Chase, deceased, was ordered at a General Court held at Plymouth, 6 Oct. 1659, as the following entries in the records of the Plymouth Colony show:

These are to signify vnto you, Robert Dennis that the Court requireth you, according to the last will and testament of William Chase deceased, that you make devision of his estate according to the tenure thereof, viz: to Benjamine Chase, son of the said William Chase, two ptes of three thereof, and the other remaining third pte to William Chase, Junier, the eldest sonne of the said William Chase, deceased. The Courts order pr me Nathaneell Morton, Clarke. October, 1659. Mr. Thomas Hinckley is appointed and deputed by the Court to adminnester an oath to the witnesses of the will and inventory of the late deceased William Chase. (Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 3, p. 172.)

Mary Chase, wife of William Chase, who was living when her husband made his will, 4 May 1659, died on or before 6 Oct. 1659, for she is not mentioned in the division of her husband's estate that was ordered on that day, and on the same day the following report of the inquest held to inquire into the cause of her death was made:

6 Oct. 1659. Wee, whose names are vnderwritten, haveing made serch and enquiry, according to our best light and vnderstanding, into the cause of the death of Mary Chase, viz, of our towne of Yarmouth, doe with joynt consent p'sent, the day and yeare above said, that wee can find noe other but that shee died a natural death through inward sickness, as is evident to all men naturally.

Anthony Thacher, Samuel Ryder, Richard Tayler,


Rob: Dennis, Richard Hore, John Crow,
John Joyce, John Miller, William Hedge,
John Hall, Andrew Hallott, Edward Sturgis,


(Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 3, p. 172.)

The witnesses to this will deposed before Gov. Thomas Prence of the Plymouth Colony 13 MAy 1659. The inventory of the personal estate of the deceased, taken 14 Sept. 1659, is as follows:

An Inventory of the goods and chattles of William Chase late of Yarmouth deceased, taken and prised by us Robert Dennis, Richard Taylor and Edmond Hawes the 14th of September 1659.

Division of the estate of William Chase, deceased, was ordered at a General Court held at Plymouth, 6 Oct. 1659, as the following entries in the records of the Plymouth Colony show:

These are to signify vnto you, Robert Dennis that the Court requireth you, according to the last will and testament of William Chase deceased, that you make devision of his estate according to the tenure thereof, viz: to Benjamine Chase, son of the said William Chase, two ptes of three thereof, and the other remaining third pte to William Chase, Junier, the eldest sonne of the said William Chase, deceased. The Courts order pr me Nathaneell Morton, Clarke. October, 1659. Mr. Thomas Hinckley is appointed and deputed by the Court to adminnester an oath to the witnesses of the will and inventory of the late deceased William Chase. (Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 3, p. 172.)

An Inventory of the goods and chattles of Willa Chase late of Yarmouth deceased taken and prised by us Robert Dennis, Richard Taylor and Edmond Hawes the 14th of September 1659.
œ s. d.
Impr 3 Calves 2 0 0
It 4 steers of 4 years old and vantage 18 0 0
It 2 oxen 11 0 0
It 3 yearlings 4 0 0
It two 2 yearlings 4 10 0
It 5 cowes 15 0 0
It 1 bull and a steer of three yeares old
and vantage 5 0 0
It 1 paire of cart wheeles and a chaine
and other thinges belonging thereto 1 10 0
It 1 saw and three wedges 11 0
It old axes 1 hand saw 1 paire of hinges
and old Iron thinges0 11 04
It 1 Iron pot and skillett & hookes 0 10 0
It 1 old brasse kIt tle and spIt t and hangers 0 08 0
It 2 Iron kIt tles 0 14 0
It 7 trayes and other wooden thinges 0 10 0
It 5 peeces of pewter 0 09 0
It in earthen thinges 0 03 06
It in old baggs and basketts 0 02 0
It in barrells and ferkins 0 07 0
It in smoothen Iron 0 01 0
It 1 paire of wooden scales 0 01 0
It 2 paire of sheets1 04 0
It 1 smale Table Cloth 0 02 0
It in New Linnine cloth 0 12 0
It 3 pillow beers 0 16 0
It 6 Changes 0 16 0
It 2 pillow beers 0 03 0
It in several peeces of linnine 0 16 0
It 1 old skarfe 0 4 0 Page 48
It 2 petty coates 2 10 0
It 1 wastcoate 0 08 0
It 1 Green apron and old petty coate
and other old thinges 0 11 0
It 2 hatts 2 pillowes 0 18 0
It 2 bolster teekes 0 06 0
It 1 Indian coate and an old blankett 0 12 0
It 1 old fflocke bed 0 04 0
It in woolen yarne 0 03 0
It 2 chists and old chaires 0 16 0
It 1 paire of tonges 0 01 06
It 3 shootes 01 10 0 FTMPage 4
Edmond Hawes Robert Dennis (Plymouth Colony Probate Records.)

In his will, dated 4 May 1659 and witnessed by Richard Hoar and Mary Dennis, "William Chase of Yarmouth the elder; being aged," made the following bequests and provisions:

To "my son Benjamine . . . one heifer Calfe and two steer Calves of a yeare old and upwards." To "my son William whoe hath had of mee alreddy a good portion; the sume of five shillings . . . if he Demand it. All the rest of my goods, Cattles and Chattles I give . . . unto Mary my wife together with this my Dwelling house the land and all appurtenances thereunto belonging; as alsoe halfe of my lott of land att the Basse pond which I bought of William Palmer a middle line made and that halfe next to Darbeyes I give unto her . . . alsoe my orchyard and land I bought of goodman White . . . all unto her use and Disposing During her natural life; if shee continew a widdow; and when shee Dies to Dispose a third pte of that estate God shall leave her as shee shall thinke goode; the other two ptes to our son Benjamine aforesaid. I Doe appoint my Naighbors Robert Dennis and Richard Tayler overseers of this my last will." [The mark of William Chase.] (Plymouth Colony Probate Records.)

Note from the Chronicles- July 1928
Coming of the 1st Chase to Mass.
** Punctuation and spelling, verbatim, as appeared in the article.



THE TERCENTENARY OF MASSACHUSETTS
AND THE COMING OF THE FIRST CHASE
Address Given by the Rev. Glenn Tilley Morse, B.D.
Chaplain of the Society of the Governor and Company of
Massachusetts Bay in New England

We hear a great deal now about American tercentenaries and it is natural
that we should: for the permanent settlement of our country began in the
seventeenth century.

Virginia settled in 1607, was almost a generation ahead of New England.



Of course there had been explorers in New England from time to time for


several centuries and, from the beginning of the sixteenth century, there
had been a number of attempts at settlement by individuals and small groups.
But no permanent settlement had been made nor government established.

The year 1930 has been set as the tercentenary of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. Of course the Plymouth Colony was settled in 1620. Before
1627, there may have been fifty white, of both sexes and all ages, dwelling
in seven separate settlements on the shores of Boston Bay, according to the
estimate of Charles Francis Adams. The heads of the various plantations
held a counsel for common safety against Indians and outlaws; but there was
no settled government.

The world was ready for great migrations. It was a time of great national
movement and of change in the life and government of the people. The
century 1528 to 1628 was one of marked transition and advancement. A new
spirit of liberty was abroad and would not be subdued. Great elements of
learning, aspiration, individuality, and independence were at work. The


Bible in English was read and studied everywhere and by people of all
classes. It gave rise to new theories of government, of religion, and of
social duty: it invested man himself with a new dignity and power. It
instructed and directed the condition, government, and personal life of all,
from the king to the humblest peasant, and, while making demands, it also
held out blessed promises.

Knowledge was spread as never before, through the perfecting of the
printing-press, and brought self-confidence, the love of adventure, and


interest in trade and colonization. England was the leading land of
freedom. Common schools spread learning everywhere. The greatest ancient
authors were translated into English and published before 1600. Classical
learning was general. English youths traveled abroad for study and culture.
It was a period of great English literature.. Shakespeare, Bacon, and their
contemporaries, writers in every field flourished.

Bloody Mary's persecutions scattered non-romanists abroad into every
protestant centre and they brought back protestant ideas.

As the literature of the age was the fruit of the time, so were the men,
who, in 1628, determined, in the service of civil and religious freedom, to
reform England beyond the Atlantic. The struggle was to determine whether
the English people should live under an absolute or a liberal monarchy.



English kings still claimed the right to tax without Parliament, to
persecute non-conformity, to force loans, to determine the franchise, and
unlawfully to imprison. But in the third Parliament of Charles I., March
1628, the king was startled by the courageous spirit of the people. He was
obliged to give assent to the famous Bill of Rights, the second greater


charter of English liberty.

And it was at this time that the first grant was given to Massachusetts.

The "Great Patent of New England" had been granted by James I., on Nov. 3,
1620, to the Council established at Plymouth in Devonshire, incorporated for
planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England. Other grants had
been given as well. Several attempts had been made for settlements.

In 1622, Edward Winslow was sent by the Pilgrims at Plymouth to England to
report about the colony and the procure supplies. In London, he conferred
with Robert Cushman, who had been at Plymouth. They aroused interest in
England. Among those interested were Rev. John White of Dorchester,
England, and Edmond, Lord Sheffield, a prominent member of the Council of
New England.

A charter, made Jan. 1, 1623, between Lord Sheffield and Robert Cushman and
Edmond Winslow for themselves and their Associates at Plymouth in New
England gave them a certain "Tract of Ground commonly called Cape Anne" and
free liberty to fish, fowle, &c. and trade thereabout and in all other
places in New England "whereof the said Lord Sheffield is or hath been
possessed", to be allotted for every person that shall come and dwell there
within seven years. After seven years, they are to pay a rental of twelve
pence for every thirty acres.

The Rev. John White saw the advantages of such a settlement and he was a


leader in forming the Dorchester Fishing Company in England. They resolved
to make the experiment of planting a small colony on the coast of New
England; so that fishing vessels might leave there the spare men not
requires to navigate their vessels home, who might employ themselves in


building, planting, &c. and be ready to join the ships on their return next
year. They had felt the need of it in their fishing ventures, as the
slow-going vessels had been late in arriving on the fishing grounds in the
spring and had reached the markets of England and Spain too late in the


season, on their return, to sell their fish to advantage. The colony of
fisherman settled in New England might get the early spring catch and have
it ready.

Cape Anne was selected as the site of this experiment. The company sent
over a band of men in the winter 1623-1624, who settled at Stage Point,


which is now Gloucester. John Smith, in his "General History", written in
1624, says, "by Cape Anne, there is a plantation by the Dorchester men,


which they hold of those at New Plymouth, who have set up a fishing work."
We have undoubted evidence that the Cape Anne planters settled there by


right of the charter granted by Lord Sheffield to Winslow and Cushman.

They immediately organized, with Mr. Thomas Gardner overseer of the
plantation, who was thus the first man in authority on the territory which
later became the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Mr. John Tilley had charge of
the fisheries. Gardner and Tilley had the title of Mr. and were evidently
not used to pioneer work. The lack of fertility of the soil made the
plantation unsuccessful. In 1625, Roger Conant, having been recommended,
was invited to come from Nantucket "for the management and government of all
affairs at Cape Anne." He was engaged by the officers of the company and
informed "that they had chosen him to be their governor in that place."



Roger Conant found out the cause of the failure was poor soil. He explored
and discovered a more commodious place, on the other side of the creek,


called Naumkeag.

The settlement broke up in 1626 and most of the men returned to England.
The Rev. John White wrote to Conant that. if he would induce John Woodbury,
John Balch, and Peter Palfrey to stay with him and send him whatever he


needed "either men or provisions of goods wherewith to trade with the
Indians."

Conant, with a few men, went to work at Naumkeag (Salem), erected houses,
and tilled the soil, using fish as fertilizer. He conferred with the
Indians and received from them "free leave to build and plant, where we have
taken up their lands." He sent John Woodbury back to England to appeal for
more men and supplies.

In England things were progressing. The Council, established at Plymouth,
England, "for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England,"
sold to Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Humphrey, John Endicott, and Silas
Whitcomb that part of New England, three miles north of the Merrimac and
three miles south of the Charles River, in "the Bottom of Massachusetts


Bay," from the Atlantic Ocean to the "South Sea."

The Council that sold the land had been incorporated the third of November,
1620, under the patent of King James. The men mentioned in the new grant
formed the "Company of Massachusetts Bay." They chose Mr. Matthew Craddock
for Governor in England. The Great Council of Plymouth, on March 19, 1628,
thus granted the land to those five men, in a patent which is not known to
be in existence now, but the substance of which is recited in the charter
obtained the following year. This grant extinguished the claim of the
Council of Plymouth to this territory and enabled the patentees, if their
enterprise proved successful, to procure the Royal Charter of 1629.

The patentees were in earnest and at once organized an expedition. John


Endicott. who was the only one of the patentees to come over to America at
that time, manifested such willingness to embark that he gave great
encouragement to all interested. He was selected to be governor in
Massachusetts. Endicott and about fifty men sailed on the ship Abigail from
Weymouth, June 20, 1628, and landed at Salem, September 18, 1628.

Dr. Palfrey, the Historian, thus describes the landing: "When the vessel
which bore the first Governor of Massachusetts was entering the harbor of
Salem, she was anxiously watched from the beach by four individuals, styled
in the quaint chronicles of the time as 'Roger Conant and three sober men' .
The vessel swung to her moorings and flung the red cross of St. George to
the breeze, a boat put off for the shore, and, that the Governor might land
dry shod, Roger Conant and 'his three sober men' rolled up their pantaloons,
waded into the water, and bore him on their shoulders to the dry land." In
behalf of the patentees, Endicott took possession of the territory described
in the Patent.

Thus the permanent settlement was established legally and effectively. The
Colony of Massachusetts then and there began her career and a firm and
settled authority has ever since existed here. This settlement was made
under the authority of the Company of Massachusetts Bay in London, which had
bought out the right of the Dorchester Company in New England. So Endicott
and his companions had the authority to take all possessions of all the


rights of the old planters under the Dorchester Company.

These former planters were not altogether satisfied with the advent of a new
company in which they had no part. But the new company was careful to give
the old planters equal rights with themselves. They confirmed to the old
planters their cultivated lands and gave them every privilege enjoyed by
themselves, even a place in the government. The old planters were requested
to name from their own number two members of the Governing Council. All


differences were adjusted and, as if to commemorate the happy settlement and
as typical of the peace that followed, the Indian name of Naumkeag was
changed to Salem. They were careful to give the Indians fair dealings and
purchased land from them if there was any question.

The first year was one of hardship and many died. But Endicott and his band
kept up their courage and perseverance, He sent back home reports that


encouraged others to come.

In April, 1629, six vessels sailed from England for Salem. John Smith,


writing that same year, calls those who came in them " a great company of
people of good rank, zeal, means, and quality. He gives the following lists
of the ships' names and armament: "The George Bonaventure, of 20 pieces of
ordnance, the Talbot 19, the Lion's Whelp 8, the Mayflower 14, the Four


Sisters 14, the Pilgrim 4, with 350 men, women, and children; also an
hundred and fifteen head of cattle, as horse, mares, and neat beast, 140
goats, some conies, with all provision for household and apparell; 6 pieces
of great ordnance for a fort, with muskets, pikes, corslets, drums, colours,
with all provisions necessary for a plantation, for the good of men."

Among the colonists who came in 1629 were four ministers, Rev. Francis
Higginson and Rev. John Skelton, who became leaders in Salem, and the Rev.
Francis Bright and Rev. Ralph Smith, who soon went to Charlestown. Other
prominent men were Mr. Samuel Sharp, "by us entertained to be master-gunner
of our ordnance"; Mr. Thomas Graves, an engineer; Lambert Wilson, a
surgeon; there were carpenters, shipwrights, wheelwrights, shoemakers,


hunters, and others especially valuable in establishing a permanent
settlement. There were 60 women and 26 children.

The Rev. Francis Higginson wrote an account of the voyage in a daily
journal, which is most interesting: "Previous to this embarkment, a charter
was granted. It was dated March 4, 1629, and granted and confirmed to the
former patentees, named in the patent, and twenty associates the same
territory, to hold by the same tenure and made them 'a body corporate and
politic, in fact and in name', by the name of the Governor and Company of
Massachusetts Bay in New England. That this government was at the time


intended to be permanent, there seems to be no doubt. This large grant of
power to a subordinate government shows the purpose of establishing a state
independent and complete in itself, owing no duty to the crown of England,
except so far as the Charter compelled it to pay one-fifth part of all
precious metals found in the soil to the King and forbade them to make laws
repugnant to England." This was the construction put upon the Charter by
the founders of Massachusetts.

These people were churchmen. They were puritans, but not separatists. In
the year 1628-29, the puritans expected to remain in the Communion of the
Church of England and to reform, within the Church, what they considered
faults.

The Rev. Francis Higginson said, on leaving England, "We will not say, as
the separatists were won't to say at their leaving England, 'Farewell
Babylon, farewell Rome', but we will say, farewell dear England, farewell
the Church of God in England, and all our Christian friends there! We do
not go to New England as separatists from the Church of England; though we
cannot but separate from the corruptions in it; but we go to practice the
positive part of Church reformation and propagate the Gospel in America".
And so he concluded with a fervent prayer for the King and Church and State
in England.

At the meeting of the Company in England on April 30, 1629, John Endicott
was confirmed as Governor, with Mess'rs Higginson, Skelton, Bright, John and
Samuel Brown, Thomas Graves, and Samuel Sharp as members of the Council.
The Governor and Council were to choose three more and the Planters (former
settlers) two in addition. The official name of this governing body of


thirteen men was the "Governor and Council of London's Plantation in the
Massachusetts Bay in New England".

It appears that Endicott's administration held courts, councils, and
elections, decided who were to have the franchise, granted lands, made laws,
and regulated the civil and religious affairs of the Colony, under his
appointment by the Company, until he was superseded by Winthrop in 1630.
His administration, in spite of perplexities and hardships, was successful.

The removal of the Charter of New England was repeatedly advocated. Several
meetings of the Court of Proprietors were held in London and at one on Oct.
16, 1629, it was thought "fit that Captain Endicott continue the government
there, unless just cause to the contrary." Four days later, however, they
decided to erect a new Governor, Deputy, and Assistants, and John Winthrop
was chosen Governor, John Humphrey, Deputy Governor, and Sir Richard
Saltonstall, Matthew Craddock, John Endicott, and fifteen others as a board
of Assistants. The home governor, Matthew Craddock, had given way when the
new governor, who was to take the Charter and the whole government to New
England, was elected. The last meeting of the Great and General Court in
England was held Feb. 10, 1630.

Great preparations were made. Seventeen vessels, bearing Winthrop and more
than a thousand passengers, sailed from England. Winthrop sailed March 29,
in the Arbella, and arrived in Salem, June 12, 1630, with the new government
and Charter.

When Winthrop arrived in Salem harbor, Endicott, with full knowledge that he
was to be superseded, went on board the Arbella to welcome him and offered
the hospitalities of his own house to the new governor and his friends.



The transfer of the Charter and government from London to New England made
the colony of Massachusetts Bay practically independent of English control.
The first meeting on American soil of the Massachusetts Bay Company was that
of the Court of Assistants at Charlestown on Aug. 13, 1630. The next Court
of Assistants, held at Charlestown on Sept. 7, 1630, "ordered that
Trimountain shall be called Boston". Governor Winthrop summoned the meeting
of the Great and General Court at Boston on Oct. 19, 1630.

Now the Tercentenary Committee and many historians consider 1930 the
tercentenary of Massachusetts. But I cannot help feeling that this colony
and government were established when John Endicott came in 1628.

Dr. Frank A. Gardner, President of the Old Planters Society, who does not
agree with me in regard to the date of the tercentenary, has written an


excellent essay on the "Founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony". At the
end he gives a summary of conclusions from his study of the beginnings of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1. That this colony in 1630 was made up of
several sets of men who came at various times during the preceding decade.
2. That some of these men of each of the separate parties which came, and
some who came independently, lived many years in the colony and became
powerful in making the laws of the Commonwealth. 3. That of all these men
who shared in the glory of laying this foundation, the individuals who were
first connected with any orderly government in the district which later


became Massachusetts Bay Colony were the Cape Anne men of 1623-24, who had
Thomas Gardner at their head as overseer of the plantation until 1625, with
John Tilley in charge of the fisheries. 4. That the first man in charge
of the entire enterprise there was Roger Conant, who was variously styled
Governor and Superintendent at Cape Anne, 1625-26, and at Salem, 1626-28.
5. That in 1628, Roger Conant was supplanted by John Endicott, who had been
chosen by the "Company of the Massachusetts Bay', to take charge of affairs
on this side of the water, the company sending him having "bought out the
rights of the Dorchester Company" in England. 6. That in 1629, John
Endicott was informed, in a letter from the home company, written April 17,
that a government called "The Council of the Massachusetts Bay' had been
authorized and formed and that he had been confirmed "Governor of the
Plantations". 7. That John Endicott held this office until John Winthrop
came in 1630.

So 1930 will be a great Tercentenary anyway; for the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, which was conceived and developed in England, the mother


country, came forth then a separate and complete, and, we trust, a
creditable offspring.

But there is absolutely no question about 1930 as the tercentenary of the
coming of the Chases to New England. For William Chase, his wife Mary, and
his son William were among those who came with Governor Winthrop in 1630.

John Carroll Chase says he can find no certain authority for William Chase's
ancestry or his relationship to Thomas and Aquila.

All agree, however, that William Chase was the first of the Chases to come
to New England. He was one of that company who came with Governor Winthrop
in 1630 and landed at Salem.

He did not remain in Salem long. He is found at Roxbury in 1634. He
applied for admission as a freeman on Oct. 19, 1630 and took the oath May
14, 1634. On the records of the First Church of Roxbury, in the
hand-writing of the pastor, Rev. John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, we
find: "William Chase, he came with the first Company, 1630, he brought one
child, his son William, a child of ill qualities, and a sore affliction to
his parents: he was much afflicted by the long and tedious affliction of his
wife; after his wife's recovery, she bare him a daughter, which they named
Mary, born about the middle of the third month, 1637, he did after that


remove (intending) to Situate, but after went with a company who made a new
plantation at Yarmouth."

William Chase was one of the Stephen Bachilor's company who spent the winter
of 1637-38 at Mattacheese (Yarmouth) and was the only one who remained


there after that unfortunate incident was abandoned. He was made constable
in Yarmouth in 1639 and resided there until his death in 1659.

The Roxbury Church records give an account of the affliction of William's
wife: "Mary Chase, the wife of William Chase, she had a paralytic humor
which fell into her back-bone, so that she could not stir her body, but as
she was lifted, and filled her with great torture, and caused her back-bone
to go out of joint, and bunch out from the beginning to the end, of which
infirmity she lay four years and a half, and a great part of the time a sad
spectacle of misery. But it pleased God to raise her again and she bore
children after it."

At a meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Association in Boston, June 1881,
the Rev. George E. Ellis read the foregoing extract from the church records,
stating that he had submitted the case professionally to Dr. Oliver Wendall
Holmes and had received the following reply: "My dear Dr. Ellis; A
consultation without seeing the patient is like a murder trial without the
corpus delicti being in evidence..... So I should say, carry us to the
bedside of Mary Chase; but she has been under green bedclothes so long I am
afraid she would be hard to wake up. We must guess as well as we can under
the circumstances. The question is whether she had angular curvature,
lateral curvature, or no curvature at all....I doubt whether Mary Chase had
any real curvature at all. Her case looks to me like one of those mimoses,
as Marshall Hall called certain forms of hysteria which imitate different
diseases, among them rest paralysis. The body of a hysteric patient will
take on the look of all sorts of more serious affections. As for mental and
moral manifestations, a hysteric girl will lie so that Sapphira would blush
for her, and she could give lessons to a professional pickpocket in the art
of stealing. Hysteria might well be described as possession .. possession
by seven devils, except that this number is quite insufficient to account
for all the pranks played by the subjects of this extraordinary malady. I


do not want to say anything against Mary Chase, but I suspect that, getting
nervous and tired and hysteric, she got into bed, which she found rather
agreeable after so much housework and perhaps too much going to meeting,
liked it better and better, curled herself up into a bunch which made her
look as if her back was distorted, found she was cosseted and posseted and
prayed over and made much of, and so lay quiet until a false paralysis
caught hold of her legs and held her there. If someone had "hollered" Fire!
it is not unlikely that she would have jumped out of bed, as many other


paralytics have done under such circumstances. She could have moves,
probably enough, if anyone could have made her believe that she had the


power of doing it. She had played possum so long that at last it become non
possum. Yours very truly, O.W. Holmes, M.D."

The William Line had their trials and the territory where they lived abounds
in the history of hideous warfare. Almost every town has its story of
Indian and outlaw outrages, the most brutal, and of defense, the most
heroic.

In 1645, William Chase enlisted as a drummer in the expedition against the
Narragansett Indians and received five shillings extra pay. Swift's
history of old Yarmouth has some accounts of William Chase. There is one
record of him that parallels the arrest of Aquila for picking pease on the
Lord's Day. "He was presented by the grand jury in 1654 for driving a yoke
of oxen five miles on the Lord's day, during the time of service." He was a
carpenter by trade. He had trouble and was censured by the court for
opposing and criticizing the minister, Mr. Matthews. He seems to have been
too broad-minded to accord with the sentiments of the time.

William and Mary Chase died in Yarmouth in 1659 and are buried there. They
had three children. The oldest, William, was born in England in 1622 and
came to New England with his parents. He lived in Yarmouth and died there
Feb. 27, 1685. He left eight children. The second child, Mary, born in
1637, died in 1652.

The youngest child, Benjamin, was born in Yarmouth in 1639 and was baptized
there April 18, 1652. He became a freeman at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in
1674. He married Phillippa Sherman, daughter of Philip and Sarah (Odding)
Sherman, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He removed to Freetown in 1685, was
selectman that year and, also, in 1698, 1699, and 1705, was constable in
1688, and assessor in 1691. He had six children: Mary, who married Thomas
Makepeace, Sarah, who married a Hathaway, Phillippa, who married Jacob
Hathaway, Benjamin, who married Mercy Simmons, Walter, who married
Deliverance Simmons, and Barthiah, who married Joseph Dunham.

Benjamin Chase's will is dated Sept. 6, 1730, and proved July 20, 1731,


which indicates that he lived to be over ninety. Some of his descendants
are very long-lived. Whenever I feel that I am growing old, I console
myself that I am descended from two of Benjamin Chase's children, Philippa
Chase Hathaway and Walter Chase, and hope to live to the traditional old age
and be able to accomplish some of the tasks before me and to enjoy many more
reunions of the Chase Family.
***By Rev. Glenn Tilley Morse, B.D.

1. William CHASE b: 15 JUN 1621 in Rogate Parish, Sussex, , England
2. Mary Chase b: MAY 1637 in Yarmouth, Barnstable, MA
3. Benjamin CHASE b: 1639 in Yarmouth, Barnstable, MA

1. Abbrev: Price, Barry
   Title: Price Family Tree
2. Abbrev: Chase, William Some Descendants
   Title: John Carroll Chase and Gerorge Walter Chamberlain, Some Descendants of William Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth Mass. (NEHGS 1933/34)illiam Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth Mass.illiam Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth Mass. NEHGS 1933/34.
   Page: pp 44
3. Abbrev: Plymouth Colonial Wills
   Title: 5 N.E. Rg 388; 2 Plym. Col. Wills 63:Barn. Probate Office recopied wills 296, 297s 296, 297s 296, 297.
4. Abbrev: Plymouth Colony Records
   Title: Vol 3 p 172
5. Abbrev: Chase Chronicles
   Title: Rev. Glenn Tilley Morse (1928)