page_title: John Endecott
section_title: Early 1630s
hierarchical_section_title: John Endecott / Life / Early 1630s
caption_attribution_description: "Endicott cutting the cross out of the English flag", illustration depicting an event that occurred in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.
context_page_description: John Endecott, regarded as one of the Fathers of New England, was the longest-serving governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He served a total of 16 years, including most of the last 15 years of his life. When not serving as governor, he was involved in other elected and appointed positions from 1628 to 1665 except for the single year of 1634.
  Endecott was a zealous and somewhat hotheaded Puritan, with Separatist attitudes toward the Anglican Church. This sometimes put him at odds with Nonconformist views that were dominant among the colony's early leaders, which became apparent when he gave shelter to the vocally Separatist Roger Williams. Endecott also argued that women should dress modestly and that men should keep their hair short, and issued judicial decisions banishing individuals who held religious views that did not accord well with those of the Puritans. He notoriously defaced the English flag because he saw St George's Cross as a symbol of the papacy, and had four Quakers put to death for returning to the colony after their banishment.
context_section_description: Endecott's first tenure as governor came to an end in 1630, with the arrival of John Winthrop and the colonial charter. The company had reorganised itself, relocating its seat to the colony itself, with Winthrop as its sole governor. After seeing the conditions at Salem, Winthrop decided to relocate the colony's seat at the mouth of the Charles River, where he founded what is now the city of Boston. Endecott, who was chosen as one of the governor's Assistants (a precursor to the later notion of a Governor's Council), chose to remain in Salem, where he was one of its leading citizens for the rest of his life, serving in roles as town councilor and militia leader, in addition to statewide roles as militia leader, magistrate, deputy governor, and governor. He established a plantation called "Orchard" in Salem Village (now known as Danvers), where he cultivated seedlings of fruit trees. One particular pear tree, brought over as a sapling on one of the early settlement convoys, still lives and bears fruit; it is known as the Endicott Pear Tree.
  In the early 1630s the religious conflict between the Nonconformists and the Separatists was the primary source of political disagreement in the colony, and it was embodied by the churches established in Boston and Salem. The Salem church adhered to Separatist teachings, which sought a complete break with the Church of England, while Nonconformist teachings, which were held by Winthrop and most of the colonial leadership in Boston, sought to reform the Anglican church from within. The arrival in Boston in 1631 of Roger Williams, an avowed Separatist, heightened this conflict. Authorities there banished him, and he first went to Salem, where, due to Endecott's intervention, he was offered a position as a teacher in the local church. When word of this reached Boston, Endecott was criticised for supporting Williams, who was banished from the colony. Williams went to Plymouth, but returned to Salem a few years later, becoming the church's unofficial pastor following the death of Samuel Skelton in 1634. Boston authorities called for his arrest after he made what they viewed as treasonous and heretical statements; he fled, eventually establishing Providence, Rhode Island. During this time Endecott argued that women should be veiled in church, and controversially defaced the local militia's flag, because it bore St George's Cross, which Williams claimed was a symbol of the papacy. This action is celebrated in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, "Endicott and the Red Cross", where the writer presents the "tension between Endecott as a symbol of religious intolerance and as [an?] emblem of heroic resistance to foreign domination of New England." Endecott did this at a time when the Privy Council of King Charles I was examining affairs in Massachusetts, and the colonial administration was concerned that a strong response was needed to prevent the loss of the colonial charter. Endecott was censured for the rashness of his action (and not for the act itself), and deprived of holding any offices for one year; 1635 was the only year in which he held no office. The committee managing the colonial militia voted that year to stop using the English flag as its standard. Following the incident, and the refusal of the colonial assembly to grant Salem additional land on the Marblehead Neck because of Williams' presence in Salem, the Salem church circulated a letter to other churches in the colony, calling the legislative act a heinous sin. Although the authorship of the letter is uncertain, Endecott defended the letter when summoned to Boston, and was consequently jailed for a day; after "he came and acknowledged his fault, he was discharged."
caption: Illustration by Howard Pyle showing Endecott defacing the English flag. Pyle has incorrectly depicted the flag as a Union Jack, when the flag at the time only contained St George's Cross.
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