He was the son of
one of the early Puritans, and was himself a famous Puritan divine. At
the Assembly of Divines at Westminster in 1643 he was said to have
prayed before the House of Commons in St. Margaret's for an hour and a
half, in the hope that they might be induced to subscribe to the
"Covenant" to resist the encroachments of Charles I on religious
liberty.
He was a pioneer in the New England movement, and was virtually the
founder of Massachusetts, in America. From the first he took a most
active part in encouraging emigration and in creating what at that time
was known as New England, and he was also the founder of the New England
Company. It was in 1620 that the good ship _Mayflower_ arrived at
Plymouth with Robinson's first batch of pilgrims from Holland on their
way across the Atlantic. It is not certain that White crossed the ocean
himself; but his was the master-mind that organised and directed the
expeditions to that far-distant land, and he was ably seconded by Bishop
Lake, his friend and brother Wykehamist.
[Illustration: JOHN ENDICOTT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS.]
He also influenced John Endicott, "a man well known to divers persons of
note" and a native of Dorchester, where he was born in 1588, to take an
active part in developing the new Colonies, and mainly through the
influence of White a patent was obtained from the Council on March 19th,
1628, by which the Crown "bargained and sold unto some Knights and
Gentlemen about Dorchester, whose names included that of John Endicott,
that part of New England lying between the Merrimac River and the
Charles River on Massachusetts Bay.
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