John Endecott John Endecott ( before 1601 – 15 March 1664 / 5 , also spelled Endicott ) was an English colonial magistrate , soldier and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony . During all of his years in the colony but one , he held some form of civil , judicial , or military high office . He served a total of 16 years as governor , including most of the last 15 years of his life ; this period of service was the longest of any colonial governor . He also held important posts representing the colony as part of the New England Confederation , and was a leading force in expanding the settlement of Salem , Massachusetts and other parts of Essex County . 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 . An expedition he led in 1636 is considered the opening offensive in the Pequot War , which practically destroyed the Pequot tribe as an entity . Endecott used some of his properties to propagate fruit trees ; a pear tree he planted still lives in Danvers , Massachusetts . He also engaged in one of the earliest attempts to develop a mining industry in the colonies when copper ore was found on his land . His name is found on a rock in Lake Winnipesaukee , carved by surveyors sent to identify the Massachusetts colony ' s northern border in 1652 . Places and institutions are named for him , and ( like many early colonists ) he has several notable descendants . Life . Most of what is known about John Endecott ' s origins is at best circumstantial . Biographers of the 19th century believed he was from the Dorset town of Dorchester because of his significant later association with people from that place . In the early 20th century , historian Roper Lethbridge proposed that Endecott was born circa 1588 in or near Chagford in Devon . ( Based on this evidence , Chagford now has a house from the period named in Endecott ' s honour . ) However , more recent research by the New England Historic Genealogical Society has identified problems with Lethbridge ' s claims , which they dispute . According to their research , Endecott may have been born in or near Chagford , but there is no firm evidence for this , nor is there evidence that identifies his parents . They conclude , based on available evidence , that he was probably born no later than 1600 . A John Endecott was active in Devon early in the 17th century , but there is no firm evidence connecting him to this Endecott . Very little is known of Endecott ' s life before his association with colonisation efforts in the 1620s . He was known to Sir Edward Coke , and may have come to know Roger Williams through this connection . He was highly literate , and spoke French . Some early colonial documents refer to him as " Captain Endecott " , indicating some military experience , and other records suggest he had some medical training . Settlement in the New World . In March 1627 / 8 Endecott was one of seven signatories to a land grant given to " The New England Company for a Plantation in Massachusetts " ( or the New England Company ) by the Earl of Warwick on behalf of the Plymouth Council for New England ; the council was at the time the umbrella organisation overseeing English colonisation efforts in North America between 40 and 48 degrees latitude . Endecott was chosen to lead the first expedition , and sailed for the New World aboard the " Abigail " with fifty or so " planters and servants " on 20 June 1628 . The settlement they organized was first called Naumkeag , after the local Indian tribe , but was eventually renamed Salem in 1629 . The area was already occupied by settlers of the failed Dorchester Company , some of whose backers also participated in the New England Company . This group of earlier settlers , led by Roger Conant , had migrated from a settlement on Cape Ann ( near present - day Gloucester , Massachusetts ) after it was abandoned . Endecott was not formally named governor of the new colony until it was issued a royal charter in 1629 . At that time , he was appointed governor by the company ' s council in London , and Matthew Craddock was named the company ' s governor in London . Endecott ' s responsibility was to establish the colony and to prepare it for the arrival of additional settlers . The winters of 1629 and 1630 were difficult compared to those in England , and he called on the Plymouth Colony for medical assistance . His wife , who had been ill on the voyage over , died that winter . Other difficulties he encountered included early signs of religious friction among the colony ' s settlers ( dividing between Nonconformists and Separatists ) , and poor relations with Thomas Morton , whose failed Wessagusset Colony and libertine practices ( which including a May pole and dancing ) were anathema to the conservative Puritanism practiced by most settlers in the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies . Early in his term as governor he visited the abandoned site of Morton ' s colony and had the Maypole taken down . When one group of early settlers wanted to establish a church independent of that established by the colonial leadership , he had their leaders summarily sent back to England . Early 1630s . 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 . " Pequot War . In 1636 the boat of Massachusetts trader John Oldham was seen anchored off Block Island , swarming with Indians . The Indians fled at the approach of the investigating colonists , and Oldham ' s body was found below the main deck . The attackers were at the time believed to be from tribes affiliated with the Narragansetts , but Narragansett leaders claimed that those responsible had fled to the protection of the Pequot s . At the time the Pequots were aggressively expansionist in their dealings with the surrounding native tribes ( including the Narragansett ) , but had generally kept the peace with the English colonists of present - day southern New England . The accusation of the Narraganssetts angered Massachusetts authorities ( then under governor Henry Vane ) , who were already upset that the Pequots had earlier failed to turn over men implicated in killing another trader on the Connecticut River . This second perceived affront produced calls in Massachusetts for action against the Pequots . In August 1636 Governor Vane placed Endecott at the head of a 90 - man force to extract justice from the Pequots . Endecott ' s instructions were to go to Block Island , where he was to kill all of the Indian men and take captive the women and children . He was then to go to the Pequots on the mainland , where he was to make three demands : first , that the killers of Oldham and the other trader be surrendered ; second , that a payment of one thousand fathoms of wampum be made ; and third , that some Pequot children be delivered to serve as hostages . Endecott executed these instructions with zeal . Although most of the Indians on Block Island only briefly opposed the English landing there , he spent two days destroying their villages , crops and canoes ; most of the Indians on the island successfully eluded English searches for them . English reports claimed as many as 14 Indians were killed , but the Narragansetts only reported one dead . Endecott then sailed for Saybrook , an English settlement at the mouth of the Connecticut River . Lion Gardiner , the leader there , angrily informed Endecott when he learned of the mission ' s goals , " You come hither to raise these wasps around my ears , and then you will take wing and flee away . " After some discussion and delays due to bad weather , Gardiner and a company of his men agreed to accompany the Massachusetts force to raid the Pequot harvest stores . When they arrived at the Pequot village near the mouth of the Thames River , they returned the friendly greetings of the inhabitants with stony silence . Eventually a Pequot sachem rowed out to meet them ; the English delivered their demands , threatening war if they did not receive satisfaction . When the sachem left to discuss the matter in the village , Endecott gave a promise to await his return ; however , shortly after the sachem left , he began landing his fully armed men on shore . The sachem rushed back , claiming the senior tribal leaders were away on Long Island ; Endecott responded that this was a lie , and ordered an attack on the village . Most of the villagers got away , and once again the expedition ' s activity was reduced to destroying the village and seizing its crop stores ; Gardiner reported that " [ t ] he Bay - men killed not a man " . After completing this work , Endecott and the Massachusetts men boarded their boats to return to Boston , leaving Gardiner and his men to finish the removal of the crops . The Pequots regrouped and launched an attack on Gardiner ' s party whose armor protected them from the arrowfire , but their escape was nevertheless difficult . Historian Alfred Cave describes Endecott ' s actions as a " heavy - handed provocation of an Indian war . " All of the surrounding colonies protested the action , complaining that the lives of their citizens were placed in jeopardy by the raid . Since the Pequots had previously been relatively peaceful with the English , Endecott ' s raid had the effect Gardiner predicted and feared . Communities on the Connecticut River were attacked in April 1637 , and Gardiner was virtually besieged in Saybrook by Pequot forces . Endecott had no further role in the war , which ended with the destruction of the Pequots as a tribe ; their land was divided up by the colonies and their Indian allies in the 1638 Treaty of Hartford , and the surviving tribespeople were distributed among their neighbors . Later terms as governor . Endecott was elected deputy governor in 1641 and in this role was one of the signatories to the Massachusetts Body of Liberties , which enumerated a number of individual rights available to all colonists , and presaged the United States Bill of Rights . The next few years were quiet , although rumors of war with the Indians led to the formation in 1643 of the New England Confederation , designed to facilitate united action by the New England colonies against common external threats as well as internal matters like dealing with escaped slaves and fugitives from justice . In 1643 , Governor Winthrop became embroiled in a controversy over the propriety of taking sides in a power struggle going on in neighbouring French Acadia . Endecott pointed out that he should have let the French fight amongst themselves without English involvement , as this would weaken them both . The 1644 governor ' s election became a referendum on Winthrop ' s policy ; Endecott was elected governor , with Winthrop as his deputy . During his one year term he oversaw the division of the colony into four counties : Suffolk , Essex , Middlesex , and Norfolk . The ascent of the Salem - based Endecott also prompted an attempt by other Salem residents to have the colonial capital relocated there ; the attempt was rejected by the governor ' s council of assistants . Fallout from the English Civil War ( begun in 1642 ) also permeated Boston during Endecott ' s tenure . Two ships , one with a Royalist captain , the other with a Parliamentarian captain , arrived in Boston , and the Parliamentarian sought to seize the Royalist ship . After much deliberation , Endecott ' s councils essentially adopted support of the Parliamentarian position , reserving the right to declare independence if the Parliament " should hereafter be a malignant spirit " . The Parliamentarian was permitted to seize the Royalist vessel , and the colony also began seizing Royalist vessels that came into port . Thomas Dudley was elected governor in 1645 , with Winthrop as his deputy . Endecott , as a consolation , was given command of the colonial militia , reporting to the governor . He was also once again made a governor ' s assistant , and was chosen to represent the colony to the confederation in 1646 . The threat of Indian conflicts in neighbouring colonies prompted the colony to raise its defensive profile , in which Endecott played a leading role . Winthrop was reelected governor in 1646 ; after his death in 1649 , Endecott succeeded him as governor . By annual re - elections Endecott served nearly continuously until his death in 1665 ; for two periods ( 1650 – 1651 and 1654 – 1655 ) he was deputy governor . In 1639 Endecott had been granted several hundred acres of land north of Salem , in what is now Boxford and Topsfield . The tract was not formally laid out until 1659 , but as early as 1651 Endecott was granted an additional " three hundred acres of land to tend the furtherance of a copper works " that was adjacent to his land . Endecott hired Richard Leader , an early settler who had done pioneering work at an iron works in nearby Lynn , but the efforts to develop the site for copper processing failed . A persistent shortage of coinage in all of the colonies prompted Massachusetts to establish a mint in 1652 , and begin production of coins from its silver reserves . This act solved a practical problem , but the colony had no authority to do so from the crown . Although this did not become an issue while Endecott was governor , it eventually became a source of controversy with the crown , and the mint had apparently ceased operations around 1682 . The colony ' s boundaries expanded somewhat during Endecott ' s tenure , mainly in the 1650s . In addition to formally claiming present - day Stonington , Connecticut as spoils from the Pequot War , Endecott sought to establish the colony ' s northern boundary . In 1652 he sent a commission with surveyors to locate the most northerly point on the Merrimack River , since the colonial grant defined its northern border as north of that river . These surveyors were led by Indian guides to the outlet of Lake Winnipesaukee which was claimed by the guides to be the source of the Merrimack . At that location , the party incised an inscription on a rock that survives , and is now located in a small New Hampshire state park . When this survey line was extended eastward , the boundary was determined to fall on the coast at Casco Bay , and the colony thus claimed most of what is now southern Maine and New Hampshire . Religious intolerance . One written statement made early in his tenure in May 1649 showed Endecott ' s dislike of a fashionable trend toward long hair : " Forasmuch as the wearing of long haire after the manner of Ruffians and barbarous Indians , hath begun to invade new England contrary to the rule of gods word . . . Wee the Magistrates who have subscribed [ signed ] this paper . . . doe declare and manifest our dislike and detestation against the wearing of such long haire " . In 1651 he presided over a legal case in which three people were accused of being Baptists , a practice that had been banned in the colony in 1644 . In convicting John Clarke and sentencing him to either pay a fine or be whipped , Endecott , according to Clarke ' s account of the exchange , told Clarke that he " deserved death , and said he would not have such trash brought into his jurisdiction . " Clarke refused to pay the fine ; it was paid by friends against his wishes , and he returned to Rhode Island . Of the three men convicted , only Obadiah Holmes was whipped ; John Crandall , out on bond , returned to Rhode Island with Clarke . When Oliver Cromwell consolidated his control over England in the early 1650s , he began a crackdown on religious communities that dissented from his religious views . This notably included Baptists and Quakers , and these groups began their own migration to the North American colonies to escape persecution . Those that first arrived in Boston in 1656 were promptly deported by Endecott ' s deputy , Richard Bellingham , while Endecott was in Salem . More Quakers arrived while Endecott was resident in Boston , and he had them imprisoned pending trial and deportation . He met several times with the Quaker , Mary Prince , after receiving an " outrageous letter " from her . The meetings were apparently fruitless , and she and the other Quakers were deported . Following these acts , the members of the New England Confederation all adopted measures for the prompt removal of Quakers from their jurisdictions . The measures adopted were insufficient to prevent the influx of these perceived undesirables , so harsher measures were enacted . Repeat offenders were to be punished by having ears cut off , and , on the third offense , to have the tongue " bored through with a hot iron " . By 1658 the punishment for the third offense had been raised to death , " except they do then and there plainly and publicly renounce their said cursed opinions and devilish tenets . " In October 1658 the death penalty was enacted for the second offense in Massachusetts . One year later , three Quakers were arrested and sentenced to death under this law . Two of them , Marmaduke Stephenson and William Robinson , were hanged , while the third , Mary Dyer , received a reprieve at the last minute . Dyer returned to the colony in 1660 , and , under questioning by Endecott and the other magistrates , refused to either recant her beliefs or agree to permanent banishment from the colony . She was hanged on 1 June 1660 ; she , Stephenson , Robinson , and William Leddra ( hanged in 1661 ) are now known as the Boston martyrs . The severity of these acts was recognized by the colonists as problematic , and the laws were changed so that execution was the penalty for the fifth offense . ( The poor treatment of Quakers and other religious dissenters would be cited as one of the reasons for revocation of the colonial charter in 1684 . ) Endecott ' s role in the treatment of the Quakers was immortalized by John Greenleaf Whittier in his poem " Cassandra Southwick " , named for another Quaker who suffered while Endecott was governor . Whittier characterized Endecott as " dark and haughty " , and exhibiting " bitter hate and scorn " for the Quaker . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recreated the trial of Wenlock Christison in " John Endicott " , one of three dramatic poems in a collection called " New England Tragedies " . Christison was the last Quaker Endecott sentenced to death for returning to Massachusetts after having been banished . He was not executed , however , because the law was changed shortly after his sentencing . Author Nathaniel Hawthorne described Endecott in " The Gentle Boy " , whose title character is the six - year - old son of William and Mary Dyer , as " a man of narrow mind and imperfect education , and his uncompromising bigotry was made hot and mischievous by violent and hasty passions ; he exerted his influence indecorously and unjustifiably to compass the death of the enthusiasts [ i . e . , the Quakers ] ; and his whole contact , in respect to them , was marked by brutal cruelty . " Even though the Puritan colonists of New England were supportive of Oliver Cromwell ' s reign in England , they were not always receptive to Cromwell ' s suggestions . In response to a proposal by Cromwell that New Englanders migrate to Ireland to increase its Protestant population , the Massachusetts assembly drafted a polite response , signed by Endecott , indicating that its people were happy where they were . English Restoration . In July 1660 word arrived in Boston that Charles II had been restored to the English throne . This was an immediate cause of concern in all of the colonies that had supported Cromwell , since their charters might be revoked . In Boston it created a more difficult problem for Edward Whalley and William Goffe , two of the " regicide " commissioners who had voted to execute Charles I . Although Charles promised in the 1660 Declaration of Breda that all were pardoned except by act of Parliament , the Indemnity and Oblivion Act of 1660 singled out all of the regicides for punishment . Whalley and Goffe moved freely about the Boston area for some time , and Endecott refused to order their arrest until word arrived of the passage of the Indemnity Act . Endecott then issued a warrant for their arrest on 8 March 1661 . It is unknown whether Whalley and Goffe had advance warning of the warrant , but they fled , apparently to the New Haven area . Endecott ' s warrant was followed by an order issued by King Charles in March and received by Endecott in May 1661 containing a direct order to apprehend the two fugitives and ship them back to England . Endecott dutifully obeyed , but he appointed two recently arrived Royalists to track them down . Somewhat predictably , their search came up empty , and Whalley and Goffe thus escaped . Biographer Lawrence Mayo suggests Endecott would have appointed different men for the search had he been serious about catching them . Opponents to the rule of the Puritans in Massachusetts were vocal in airing their complaints to the new king . Among their complaints was the fact that Charles ' ascension to power had not been formally announced ; this only took place in 1661 after Endecott received a chastising order from the king . This prompted the assembly to draft another of several laudatory letters it addressed to the king , congratulating him on his rise to power . The mint was claimed to be a bald - faced attempt to devalue good English currency , some colonists complained that the expansion of the colony ' s borders in 1652 was little more than a land grab , while others put forward claims of administrative malfeasance with respect to funds provided by the crown for the Christianization of Indians , and the Quakers cataloged a long list of grievances . Believing that it was best to ignore the accusations , Endecott and other members of the old guard opposed sending representatives to London to argue against these charges . Supporters of the idea raised funds in a private subscription , and sent a commission to London . The colonial mission , led by future governor Simon Bradstreet and pastor John Norton , was successful , and King Charles announced that he would renew the colonial charter , provided the colony allowed the Church of England to practice there . The Endecott administration dragged its feet on implementation , and after months of inaction , the king sent a commission headed by Samuel Maverick , one of the colony ' s most vocal critics , to investigate . Endecott had advance warning of what the commission was to investigate , and took steps to address in form , if not in substance , some of the expected actions . Charles insisted that all religious dissenters be freed , which Endecott had done long before Maverick ' s arrival , but he did so by deporting them . Upon the commissioners ' arrival , the assembly took up the matter of allowing Church of England activity in the colony . They passed a law deliberately using the king ' s language , allowing anyone " orthodox in religion " to practice in the colony ; however , they also defined such orthodoxy as consisting of views that were acceptable to local ministers . This effectively negated the law , because there were probably no ministers in the colony who would agree that Anglicans satisfied their idea of orthodoxy . Last years . In 1655 the Massachusetts assembly passed a law requiring its governor to live closer to Boston ; this was probably done in response to Endecott ' s sixth consecutive election as governor . Endecott was consequently obliged to acquire a residence in Boston ; although he returned to Salem frequently , Boston became his home for the rest of his life . Endecott died in Boston on 15 March 1664 / 5 . Although early accounts claim he was buried at Boston ' s King ' s Chapel , later evidence has identified his burial site as tomb 189 in the Granary Burying Ground . Family . Before he came to the colonies in 1628 , Endecott was married to his first wife , Anne Gower , who was a cousin of Governor Matthew Craddock . After her death in New England , he was married in 1630 to a woman whose last name was Gibson , and by 1640 he was married to Elizabeth , the daughter of Philobert Cogan of Somersetshire . It is uncertain whether these represent two different wives , or a single wife whose name was Elizabeth ( Cogan ) Gibson . Because of the uncertainty concerning his wives , it is not known who the mother of his two sons was . There is only firm evidence that he was already married to Elizabeth in 1640 , and the records that survive for the 1630s , when his sons were born , do not otherwise identify his wife by name . Endecott ' s last wife , Elizabeth , was a sister - in - law of the colonial financier and magistrate Roger Ludlow . Endecott ' s two known children were John Endecott and Dr . Zerubabbel Endecott , neither of whom , seemingly to his disappointment , followed him into public service . There is also evidence that Endecott fathered another child in his early years in England ; in about 1635 he arranged funds and instructions for the care of a minor also named John Endecott . Despite his high position , Endecott was never particularly affluent . According to his will , several large tracts of land , including the Orchard estate in Salem and one quarter of Block Island , were distributed to his wife and sons ; however , it was also noted that some of his books were sold to pay debts . One unexpected legacy left behind by Endecott was the uncertain boundaries of the " Orchard " estate . Several generations later , his descendants were involved in litigation concerning disputed occupancy of part of the estate . Endecott ' s descendants include Massachusetts governor Endicott Peabody and United States Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott . His descendants donated family records dating as far back as the colonial era to the Massachusetts Historical Society . In 1930 , the Massachusetts tercentenary was marked by the issuance of a medal bearing Endecott ' s likeness ; it was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser . Endicott College in Beverly , Massachusetts ( once a part of Salem ) is named for him . Namesakes . In 1831 , the brig " Governor Endicott " , of Salem , H . H . Jenks , master , was engaged in the pepper trade on the coast of Sumatra when she had occasion to help free " Friendship " , also of Salem , Charles Endicott , master , from Malay pirates . He and some of his officers had gone ashore to negotiate for pepper in the town of Quallah Battoo when pirates took over the ship , murdered some of her crew and looted the cargo . Captain Endicott obtained aid from " Governor Endicott " and the ship " James Monroe " , of New York , J . Porter , master , to rescue his ship from her captors and return her to Salem , where he arrived 16 July 1831 .