Weymouth MA Settlers Initiate Town Government
Ferdinando Gorges Fails to Colonize Seaboard North of Virginia
May 9, 2009
A whirl of complexities surrounded attempts by English gentleman Sir Fernando Gorges to acquire and colonize most of the American seaboard. Gorges, a great favorite of Queen Elizabeth, financed the voyages of The Katherine and The Prophet Daniel. They set sail in 1623 with about 120 passengers to plant a colony in Massachusetts Bay. Cross winds forced them about 25 miles south of their destination.
Why Weymouth Site Was Chosen
It was autumn, days were getting shorter and nights chilly. Robert Gorges (son of the sponsor) decided to use the buildings the Thomas Weston colonists deserted after Indians massacred settlers at a place they called Wessagusset. The Gorges’ ships discharged most of the passengers, then went on to Virginia, just as Weston’s had done the spring of 1622.
This fairly large group of colonists included families, as wells as single men. It was composed of clergymen, farmers, mechanics, traders and gentlemen with servants. It is thought the “mechanics” among them added more buildings to the settlement.
Gorges Loses His English Power Base
The next spring Robert Gorges sailed to the Maine fishing stations and may have brought back some settlers from there. Meanwhile, back in England, Sir Ferdinando Gorges had lost most of his political and financial power base. This loss meant the end of his dream of founding a large commercial city where Boston now stands. The son was summoned home; some of the more prestigious settlers returned with him.
Weston and Gorges were gone. The settlers had to look after themselves and construct their own government. They began building and planting. This little growing village is perhaps the real beginning of the town of Weymouth.
Self Government “By the People” Emerges
More settlers arrived, among them a group from Weymouth, England, for which the growing settlement would soon be named, giving up its Indian name of Wessagusset. Other towns were started in the area. Some of the first Weymouth settlers moved to those towns.
Gorges had, by law, the power of a governor over Weymouth, but did not use it. In this vacuum the people of Weymouth formed a town government in the style of “government of the people, for the people and by the people.“ Their position was unique in a time and area in which each community had its governor. Weymouth, instead, had the first “townsmen”. Soon there emerged in surrounding new settlements replica forms of this government. Many believe the New England form of town government originated here.
Weymouth got its permanent name in September of 1635. Its first deputies to General Court were William Reade, John Bursley and John Upham.
Weymouth’s First Permanent Settlers
The Gorges settlers include such surnames as Maverick, Thompson, Graves, Jeffreys, Bursley, Glover and Woolsey. They number such American family founders as Walter Norton, Richard Cornish and Clement Briggs. Other early settlers at Weymouth include Thomas Rawlins, William Newland, George Allen, Thomas Applegate and Richard Collicott.
A large addition to the Weymouth population took place with the 1635 arrival of the Hull Company from Weymouth, England. A list of its 106 members was published in the January, 1871 edition of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. The group consisted of Rev. Joseph Hull and 21 families.
Source:
This is condensed from a portion of this author’s 1988 story, “The Weston Group Settles Weymouth, Mass.," published in The Second Boat (Vol. 9, No. 1)
See also:
Failure of the First Weymouth Settlement
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