Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-11

the south wall of Mr. Buddington's building at the corner of Union and Fair streets. It bears the following inscription:
 Isaac A1lerton,
 Mayfaoyer,
 and the Fa her of
 New England Commerce,
 lived on this ground
 from
 -1646to 1859.
 The stone presented by Thomas R. Trow- bridge jr.
 Who was Isaac Allerton?
 This question so many times asked during the past day can be briefly answered as fol lows:
 Isaac Allerton was London merchant and navigator. He was Separatist.
 He was one of the most prominent of the first company who came to Plymouth, and among the names appended to the compact which on Nov. Il, 1920, was signed in the cabin of the MayAower, the name of AL lerton is fifth. He was at one time Deputy Governor of Plymouth Colony. At the period of his settling in New Eng land he was Factor of ''The Create Yer ginia Company under whose auspices the Mayfower and her Pilgrims sailed for | America.
 Miles Standish, who had been agent in London for Plymouth, returned to the Col | ony in 1926, and MT. Allerton was at once appointed Colonial Agent and as such made many passages to England. While agent he did much to advance the interests of the colonists, one of his most important trans ! actions being settlement which he made with the Great Virginia Company. The Colony was bonded to that company to the amount of e1, 800, in nine bonds of e20O each and fearing lest the company | should demand some voice in the jurisdiction of Plymouth, it was thought advisable to ob- tain a release from the merchants, and Mir. .Allerton was empowered to act as best suited him in the premises
 l (Perhaps the colonists, even at that early day, realized the truth of which one wrote more than a century afterwards-
 s'That government of an exclusive com pany of merchants is the aoorst government for any country whatsoever
 Sundry members of the Plymouth Colony, | one of whom was Isaac Allerton, assumed these bonds, and undertook to pay them. l They were styled the 'tNew Plymouth Under takers"
 A settlement was effected by MT. Allerton whereby full release was obtained from the Verginia Company
 | In 1929 he visited London to arrange for the transportation of many members of the Leyden church who till then had been un- successful in the matter and was publicly thanked by the Plymouth Court.
 Soon afterwards he went to London to ob- 1 tain an enlargement to the patent for Ply mouth Colony, and also patent for terri tory at Kennebec. When he returned the Plymouth men were displeased at the 'lavishly casting away of over e5OO'' in procuring the patents, which, notwithstanding the great expenditure, did not embrace (they argued) as many favorable clauses as did the patent which, at about the same period, had been procured for the Mas sachusetts Bay Colony.
 l The rigid economists of Plymouth, knowing so little of the necessities of the av- aricious and impecunious courtiers of King James, could not overlook the ''casting away" of so vast sum as $500.
 Allerton's friend Shirley at that time in London. Writing to his friends in Ply 1 mouth he said in reference to this matter :
 ''Tin our na0jn business of the patent was granted I could not set my mind nor pen to writing, and MT. Allerton was SO turmoiled about it and found so many difficulties, as verify could not. nay would not, have un- dergone it if I had e1, ,OOO."
 The lord keeper, Sir Thomas Coventry, furthered it all he could, and also the solici- tors, but, as Festus said to Paul, "with no small sum obtained I this freedom, for by the way there were many riddles which must be solved, and many locks which must be opened with silver, nay, with golden key. "
 From this it would appear that the custom of ''greasing the wheels,' putting money where it will do the most good" etc, is not purely American.
 Shortly after this visit to London MT. .Aller- ton determined to sever his conn ection with the Colony, assigning as reason for so do ing that his great services in behalf of his fellow colonists were not sufficiently appre- ciated.
 The Plymouth Court to the last assured him that while their agent they had ever found h1m untiring in his endeavour to fur ther the best interests of the colony"
 A few weeks later MT. Allerton quit Ply mouth and sailed for Bristol, England, in tn e land, however, but short time, his adven- turous spirit turing him back to the shores of New England.
 Hiring the s'White Angel" he filled her with commodities of divers descriptions, and procuring patents for trading stations al Penobscot, once Kennebec, he sailed fol these places, at each of which he establishe cd a factory (store), placing an English clerk in charge. He then sailed for ''The Bay.'' Soon after his leaving the French and Indi- ans attacked his factories shot his clerks, burned his buildings and carried away to Canada all of his belongings.
 In 1882 he was largely interested in the fisheries at Salem. The following year Win throp speaks of him employing ''no less than eight vessels in this undertaking. '' Again the same historian wrote the following entry in his diary:
 'sIsaac Allerton, in going to Penobscot in his barque, ran on an island and beat out the keel, and so lay ten days, yet this corr- ageous man gote helpe from Pemaquid, mended her and brought her home" ' From S&l6Lu NT AloEGOA WcuL LO Gne Dutch at the New Netherlands, where he re- mained several years. It was during his res idence there that the missionaries sent by Massachusetts to Virginia were wrecked in l ''Helle Gatte."
 They wrote home ''The Dutch Governor gave us slender entertainment, but Mir. Aller- ton being there, sent his pinnace, rescued us and took of us greate good care, procured us another vessel and started us on our way.'
 From the New Netherlands, he came to the then discouraged and well nigh impoverished Colony of New Haven: It is difficult to say why he should have selected such small field for commercial pursuits as New Haven | offered at the time
 The exact date of his settling here is unre- corded. Winthrop speaks of him 1n Decem- Der, 1644
 "Mr. Allerton coming from New Haven in his vessel with his wife and divers other per sons were taken in great storm at north east with much snow, and cast away at Scitu- ate bar, the persons all saved" | We, howev r, do know that he was 8 resi- dent here in 1646 for at the general seating