William Pynchon (1590-1662)

in search for independence without limits

Engeland, the first quarter of the seventeenth century: Charles I, conducting a rather harsh attitude towards those people who did not accept the dominion of the Anglican Church, made this visible through a number of new regulations. One of those was to impose a special tax to be paid by the non-Anglicans, symbol for a growing distaste towards the newer religions like anabaptism or quakerism. This was the first reason why a small number of religious dissidents made plans to emigrate to the east coast of the New World. A second motive to emigrate were the commercial opportunities. Plans were hastened by an economic crisis around 1629. It is clear that, when crossing the Atlantic, religion and commerce sailed the same ship.

The 1629 Cambridge Agreement provides a fine example for the combination of these two motives: a number of puritans agreed to leave England before March 1st, 1630; every day in delay would cost them 3 £. The King granted the contractants the right to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This happened officially with a diligently written charter, on October 20th, 1629. The one taking the initiative for the establishment of the Company was a certain John Winthrop (1588-1649), who was one of the victims of the recent royal policy ('victim', by the way, is too strong a word, and to be considered very relatively). This lower nobleman, who had a not too important function at the royal court from 1627 to 1629 and whose main revenues came from his estate, was even in his youth a very strict puritan and he occupied himself during many years with biblical studies. He was sincerely convinced that his god had chosen him to lead a life of sanctity, and his mentality is best described in his own words: 'the life which is most exercised with tryalls and temptations is the sweetest, and will prove the safeste.' These emigrants were neither poor nor uneducated.

Among them was a certain William Pynchon (his name is written 'Pinchion' in the Cambridge Agreement), and he was described by his contemporaries as a 'gentleman of learning and religion' for he knew latin, Greek and Hebrew.

This man was born on December 26th, 1590 (other sources mention October 11) in Springfield, Essex, as the son of John Pynchon and Frances Brett. He married Anna Agnes Andrew (or Andrews) and when leaving for Boston he was the father of a son, John (1626-1702), and three daughters, Mary (1622-1657), Margaret (1623, Dorchester (England) - 1653, Bristol, Ma) and Anne (1630-1681/1682, Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire, England). While the women all made the crossing with William, young John was left behind and crossed the ocean later. William Pynchon, not a poor man and a shareholder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was the one to find enough weapons and ammunition (John Winthrop's main task was to gather a number of ships). A first flotilla left England on March 29, 1630. William Pynchon and his family were among its passengers.

There were two flotillas, totalling 11 ships, and the surviving emigrants reached the coast (in Boston and Salem) during June and July.  One third of them had died when making the crossing; the survivors considered these as martyrs of the faith. Half of their cattle did not make it either. A number of the settlers initially chose Dorchester, near Boston. They did not stay there very long: from April till December 1631 a scurvy epidemy raged through the region, causing at least 200 lethal victims. Among them, William's wife. This period proved to be very hard for the newcomers and they decided to leave Dorchester. A few miles to the South, they established the Roxbury plantation. Meanwhile, life was so hard, many lost their courage: about a 100 emigrants returned to England. Those staying were glad to see them leave: there was not enough food.

	One of the settlers wrote that: "bread was so very scarce that sometimes I thought the very crumbs of my father's table would be sweet unto me, and when I could have meal and water and salt boiled together, it was so good —who could wish better?" 'On the old schist of a tombstone in the Congregational churchyard back home in Mingeborough, Massachusetts, the hand of God emerged from a cloud, the edges of the figure here and then eroded by 200 years of seasons' fire and ice chisels at work, and the inscription reading: (. . .) Death is a debt to nature due, Which I have paid, and so must you.' (Th. Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, p. 26)
William Pynchon (1590-1662) — © Springfield Library

From 1633 on, the situation became better: most of the emigrants came from the English country and possessed enough skills to work on fertile ground. This was, by the way, the period during which William Pynchon was the Massachusetts Bay Company treasurer (1632-1634). The number of colonists grew steadily. The first colonists came on their own expense and were given 50 acres. The shareholders of the company, who had to pay 50 £ for their share, were entitled to 200 acres; this was to be augmented with 50 for each servant.

Not agriculture, but fur trading (especially beaver) proved to be a very profitable business for William Pynchon and he very quickly became the most important fur trader of the region. That he was able to speak with the local indian tribe in their own language helped him a lot in improving his contacts with them.When one takes a look at the census lists over the period when he was treasurer, the conclusion can only be that he was a rich man: he nearly payed nearly 10 times as much taxes as the second on the list. It was during this period he had his first conflict with the Boston authorities. It was about money. When bought from the indians the buyer had to pay a 12 pence tax per ounce of fur. William Pynchon is booked for 20 £ (which means 400 ounce of beaver skins); the next one on the list is booked for only 2 £ 4 shilling, being the equivalent for only 44 ounce. . . He did not like paying the taxes, which caused his first minor conflict with the Massachusetts General Court, highest political and religious authority of the region.

On a list made up between 1636 and 1640 of 'Ye Estates and Persons of the Inhabitants of Rocksbury', a certain Thomas Ruggles is already mentioned. The Ruggles family was to marry into the Pynchon family more than a century later.  And here follows a 1634 description of Roxbury:

"Dorchester which is the greatest Towne in New England: well wooded and watered: very good arable grounds, and Hay-ground, faire Corne fields, and pleasant gardens. . . . A mile from this Towne lieth Roxberry, which is a faire and handsome Countrey-towne the inhabitants of it being all very rich. . . Vp westward from the Towne it is something rocky, whence it hath the name of Roxberry: the inhabitants have faire houses, store of Cattle, impaled Corne-fields, and fruitful Gardens. Boston is two miles North-east from Roxberry: its situation is very pleasant. . . Their greatest wants be Wood and Medow-ground, which were never in that place being constrained to fetch their building-timber, and fire-wood from the lands in Boates, and their Hay in Loyters. . . This Towne although it be neither the greatest nor the richest, yet it is the most noted and frequented, being the Center of the Plantations where the monthly Courts are kept. Here likewise dwells the Governour: This place hath very good land, affording rich Corne-fields, and fruitefull Gardens: having likewise sweete and pleasant springs.

The inhabitants of this place for their enlargement, have taken to themselves Farme-houses, in a place called Muddy-river, two miles from the Towne: where is good ground, large timber, and store of Marsh-land and Medow. In this place they keepe their Swine and other cattle in the Summer, whilst the Corne is on the ground at Boston, and bring them to the Towne in Winter. . . . On the North-side of Charles River is Charles Towne. This Towne for all things, may be well paralel'd with her neighbour Boston, being in the same fashion with her bare necke, and constrained to borrow conveniences from the Maine, and to provide for themselves Farmes in the Countrey for their better subsistence. . . . By the side of the River is built Newtowne, which is three miles by land from Charles Towne, and a league and a halfe by water. The in habitants most of them are very rich, and well stored with Cattell of all sorts: having many hundred Acres of ground paled in with one generall fence, which is about a mile and a halfe long, which secures all their weaker Cattle from the wilde beasts. On the other side of the River lieth all their Medow and Marsh-ground for Hay. Halfe a mile Westward of this plantation, is Watertowne: a place nothing inferiour for land, wood, medow, and water to Newtowne. . . . The last towne in the still Bay, is Winnisimet: a very sweet place for situation, and stands very commodiously, being fit to entertaine more planters than are yet seated. The chief Ilands which keepe out the Winde and Sea from disturbing the Harbours, are first Deare Iland and Long Iland. . . . Divers other Ilands be within these: viz. Nodles Ile, Round Ile, the Governours Garden, where is planted an Orchard and a vineyard, with many other conveniences. . . . These Iles abound with Woods, and Water, and Medow-ground, and whatsoever the spacious fertile Maine affords. The inhabitants use to put their Cattle in these for safety, when their Corne is on the ground."

(from: Wood's 'New England's Prospect, 1634).

There was a heavy competition between the fur traders; among them many Dutchmen and Frenchmen. It was very important to stay ahead. This is to be taken literally: a fur trader had to have contacts as far inlandward as possible. And, very important for William Pynchon: the more one was living near the coast —or near Boston and Salem— the easier one's income could be controlled. The conclusion was to settle farther on, in other words: leaving Roxbury.

While looking for new business opportunities, William Pynchon was very careful in choosing a new place for a settlement. One day, three Indians visited Roxbury, and told the settlers about the river Connecticut. They had different kinds of fur with them, mostly beaver. William Pynchon went to scout the place these indians had been talking about. And indeed, north of Enfield Falls he found a very fine place to settle: at a point where the Connecticut river forced to use smaller boats —everybody and everything had to get out— there was a kind of natural crossroad. And it was far enough inland to stay ahead of other fur competitors, as well as to defy the Boston influence. The name of this place (as was the name of the local tribe) was Agawam.

Spring 1636 (or maybe July of the same year; sources contradict), a contract was concluded with 11 Agawam. The Agawam, being a sedentarian tribe and having been in contact intensively with the immigrants, fell prey to the diseases European immigrants had imported. The result was disastrous: only 200 of them survived. Hardly having a choice, they sold the soil at both sides of the river. The price was symbolic: 18 fathoms of 'wampum' (one fathom was nearly 2 meter), 18 axes, 18 coats en 18 knifes. William Pynchon, always keen on a business opportunity, decided to build a warehouse; he not ony did some business with the Agawam (mainly trading iron products for fur), also the local farmers went to buy al their necessities at Pynchon's.

At the beginning, only eight families were interested in Pynchon's settlement. Each of these families was allotted soil on both sides of the Connecticut river: 10 acres at the west bank (under authority of the Massachusetts Bay Colony), and 3 acres at the other bank, which authority was the Connecticut Colony. In order to get to the east bank, the settlers used canoes to cross the river (about 200 meters).

Was William Pynchon aware of the risks he took with the Agawam settlement? Boston had given him the authorisation to settle there, but since the east bank 'belonged' to the Connecticut Colony, soon legal problems were to be encountered. The Connecticut authorities accused him in 1637 of building a monopoly in the beaver trade, and forcing the Indians to conduct business only with him. The conflict escalated and the Massachusetts Bay Colony decided to impose her authority on both sides of the river at the very moment the families decided to defy Connecticut's power. Perhaps William Pynchon gambled; anyway he seized the day. Eventually, on February 14th, 1638, William Pynchon became Agawam's first magistrate. The function was to be exerced by William's son John, up until his death in 1702. He now had economic, political and legal power. The inhabitants of Agawam decided in 1640 (officially to honor, but more likely as the very substantantion of Pynchon's regional authority) to call the settlement Springfield, after William Pynchon's place of birth. When there was a new conflict with the Connecticut Colony, this time about a local tax for passers-by, Boston helped Pynchon to resolve this conflict; once again, he won. It is during this period that Native Americans called the settlers 'Pynchon's men'.

William Pynchon was a powerful man, even in Boston. This explains of course why the authorities were very uneasy in their last and final conflict with him in 1650-1652. This time not about taxes and monopolism, but about a minor theological dispute. A battle William Pynchon would lose.