The Entire Northeast, Including the Pelham Region, Was Shaken by a Large Earthquake in 1638

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"It came with a report like continued thunder, or the

rattling of numerous coaches upon a paved street.

The shock was so great that, in many places, the tops

of the chimneys were thrown down, and the pewter

fell from the shelves.  It shook the waters and ships in

the harbours, and all the adjacent islands."

-- Benjamin Trumbull's History of Connecticut, Vol. I, p. 72.  

Some said the duration of the massive earthquake, one of the largest to strike the northeast coast of America in historic times, was about four minutes.  It began between 3 and 4 p.m. on June 1, 1638 (old style Julian Calendar).  In more recent times seismologists using descriptions of the event and its aftermath have estimated that the magnitude of the quake was up to 7.0 and that its epicenter was within today's New Hampshire.  The massive quake shook the entire northeast all the way to southwest Connecticut and today's Pelham region.  There was a monumental aftershock barely thirty minutes after the initial seismic event, followed by several weeks of smaller aftershocks.  This was the first major earthquake to shake Pelham that was recorded in historic times.

The Pelham region, of course, was sparsely populated at the time.  By 1638, smallpox and other European-borne diseases already had decimated Wiechquaeskeck Natives in the region.  There were few Dutch outposts on the mainland north of Manhattan.  That year Willem Kieft was named Director by the Dutch West India Company to oversee New Netherland.  The two-year war between English settlers and Pequot Natives was coming to a bloody and brutal end.  English Puritans planted a new colony at New Haven that year, the same year Harvard College was founded.  

Connecticut historian Benjamin Trumbull described the massive earthquake that hammered the northeast that day as follows:

"On the 1st of June, between the hours of three and four in the afternoon, there was a great and memorable earthquake throughout New-England.  It came with a report like continued thunder, or the rattling of numerous coaches upon a paved street.  The shock was so great that, in many places, the tops of the chimneys were thrown down, and the pewter fell from the shelves.  It shook the waters and ships in the harbours, and all the adjacent islands.  The duration of the sound and tremor was about four minutes.  The earth, at turns, was unquiet for nearly twenty days.  The weather was clear, the wind westerly, and the course of the earthquake from west to east."

Source:  Trumbull, Benjamin, A Complete History of Connecticut Civil and Ecclesiastical From the Emigration of the First Planters, from England, in the Year 1630, to the Year 1764; and to the Close of the Indian Wars In Two Volumes, Vol. I, pp. 72-73 (New London, CT:  H. D. Utley, 1898).   

Though Pelhamites rarely consider the risk of earthquakes, there have been quite a few that have shaken the region in historic times.  Moreover, our region constantly shudders with small earthquakes.  According to the United States Geological Survey, our region has experienced nineteen small earthquakes of magnitude 1.5 or smaller in the last three years (since August 27, 2015).  See United States Geological Survey, Earthquakes: Earthquakes Hazards Program (visited Aug. 27, 2018).  There have been several articles on the topic published in the Historic Pelham Blog.  See., e.g.:

Thu., May 17, 2018:  Did the Westchester County Region Experience Yet More Earthquakes in Early 1885 or Not?

Tue., Sep. 19, 2017:  Another Account of the Earthquake that Shook Pelham in 1872. 

Mon., Feb. 20, 2017:  Brief Account of Damage in Pelham During the Earthquake of August 10, 1884. 

Mon., Aug. 25, 2014:  Earthquake! Is Pelham on Shaky Ground? 

Tue., Sep. 15, 2009:  An Earthquake in Pelham and Surrounding Areas on Sunday, August 10, 1884. 

Mon., Aug. 08, 2005:  The Day the Earth Shook in Pelham: July 11, 1872.

Of course, the earthquake that struck the northeast in 1638 was among the largest in recorded historic times.  The following is another fascinating account of the 1638 earthquake that gives a rather unsettling account of its power closer to the epicenter.  It was written by William Bradford who served as second governor of Plymouth Colony beginning in 1621 and remained in that role, off and on, for the remainder of his life until his death in 1657.  He wrote:

"This year [1638], aboute ye 1. or 2. of June, was a great & fearfull earthquake; it was in this place heard before it was felte.  It came with a rumbling noyse, or low murure, like unto remoate thunder; it came from ye norward, & pased southward.  As ye noyse aproched nerer, they earth begane to shake, and came at length with that violence as caused platters, dishes, & such things as stoode upon shelves, to clatter & fall downe; year, persons were afraid of ye houses them selves.  It so fell oute yt at ye same time diverse of ye cheefe of this towne were mett together at one house, conferring with some of their freinds that were upon their removall from ye place, (as if ye Lord would herby shew ye signes of his displeasure, in their shaking a peeces & removalls one from an other.)  How ever it was very terrible for ye time, and as ye men were set talking in ye house, some women & others were without ye dores, and ye earth shooke with yt violence as they could not stand without catching hould of ye posts & pails yt stood next them; but ye violence lasted not long.  And about halfe an hower, or less, came an other noyse & shaking, but nether so loud nor strong as ye former, but quickly passed over; and so it ceased.  It was not only on ye sea coast, but ye Indeans felt it within land; and some ships that were upon ye coast were shaken by it.  So powerfull is ye mighty hand of ye Lord, as to make both the earth & sea to shake, and the mountaines to tremble before him, when he pleases; and who can stay his hand?  It was observed that ye somers, for divers years togeather after this earthquake, were not so hotte & seasonable for ye ripning of corne & other fruits as formerly; but more could & moyst, & subjecte to erly & untimly frosts, by which, many times, much Indean corne came not to maturitie; but whether this was any cause, I leave it to naturallists to judge."

Source:  Deane, Charles, ed., History of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, The Second Governor of the Colony, Now First Printed From the Original Manuscript, for The Massachusetts Historical Society, pp. 366-67 (Boston, MA:  Little, Brown, and Co., 1856) (footnote omitted).  

As Bradford's account of the earthquake indicates, settlers (and likely local Natives), took the quake as a sign from God.  Indeed, there are records that Anne Hutchinson, who moved to the Pelham region a few years after the earthquake, was in a prayer meeting with her followers in Rhode Island at the time of the earthquake and took the event as a meaningful sign from God.  Indeed, Christy K. Robinson has written:

"The Hutchinsonians (followers of Anne Hutchinson's religious faction) had been in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, for about a month after having been exiled from Massachusetts Bay Colony.  On Tuesday, June 1, 1638. . . an earthquake struck New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. . . .There was a large aftershock about 30 minutes after the main shock, and many more tremors before the earth stilled about three weeks later -- just in time for a full eclipse of the moon, which showed itself a dried-blood color on June 25, 1638 [old style Julian Calendar].  The moon turning to blood is an apocalyptic sign.  Revelation 6:12 describes the end-times that the Puritans believed were upon them, 'and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.'  Another prophecy of the end was in Acts of the Apostles 2:20-21:  'And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' . . . We have a very good idea of what Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer were doing at the time of the earthquake, thanks to Gov. John Winthrop who tells us that they were having a prayer meeting, as they'd done for several years in Boston.  When the quake struck . . . the Hutchinsonians were convinced that just as on the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after after Christ's resurrection, they were being blessed and honored by the descent of the Holy Spirit, giving them spiritual gifts in confirmation that they were firmly set in God's will."

Source:  Robinson, Christy K., The Great New England Quake of 1638, William and Mary Dyer Blog (Sep. 7, 2011) (visited Aug. 18, 2018).

Anne Marbury Hutchinson as Depicted in "Little Journeys to the Homes

of Great Reformers, Memorial Edition, by Elbert Hubbard, Published in

1916.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

For almost four hundred years during its recorded history, the Pelham region, it seems, repeatedly has suffered earthquakes.  Puritans, Hutchinsonians, and early settlers deemed such events signs from God.  If so, God has wrought such havoc many times since in Pelham and likely will continue in the future. . . . . 

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Connecticut Authorized Thomas Pell to Make Another Purchase of Native American Lands in 1663

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It was déjà vu.  Apparently Pelham founder Thomas Pell believed that if it worked once, it likely would work again.

During early 1654, as the First Anglo-Dutch War raged, Thomas Pell used the confusion of the times to acquire from local Native Americans lands that the Dutch claimed they already had acquired -- the very lands that became the Manor of Pelham.  Indeed, in 1653 and early 1654, only months before Pell’s purchase, the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands were at war.  Although they fought the “First Anglo-Dutch War” entirely at sea, English and Dutch settlers feared fighting would spread to the North American colonies at any time.  Only days before Pell’s purchase, Dutch and English colonists were unaware that the Treaty of Westminster had been signed in Europe on April 5, 1654, ending the war. Amidst all this, Pell negotiated his acquisition of Native American lands claimed by the Dutch – a dangerously provocative act clearly designed to support the English cause and to defy the Dutch.  For more about how Pell used the unsettled political circumstances of the First Anglo-Dutch War to further his personal gain and the political objectives of the English settlers by acquiring Pelham, see Bell, Blake A., The New Englanders Who Signed Thomas Pell's 1654 Agreement Acquiring Much of Today's Bronx and Lower Westchester Counties From Native Americans, The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, Vol. XLVI, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 25-49 (Spring / Fall, 2009).

Nearly a decade later, Thomas Pell saw another such opportunity as the winds of war swirled yet again.  The English and Dutch were on the brink of war again as the Second Anglo-Dutch War loomed.  Moreover, Thomas Pell was still smarting from the Dutch wresting control of the settlement he planted on his new Pelham lands known as "West Chester."  See Tues., Apr. 24, 2018:  Important New Scholarship on the Men to Whom Thomas Pell Sold Part of the Manor of Pelham in 1654; Wed., Apr. 25, 2018:  More on the Settlement of Westchester Planted by Thomas Pell in 1654.

As the drums of war sounded, in March of 1663, more than a year before Petrus Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to a small English fleet on September 8, 1664, Thomas Pell obtained a license from the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut to acquire lands to expand his Pelham purchase.  

At a session of the General Assembly held at Hartford on March 10, 1663, Governor John Winthrop Jr. and the members of his Assembly entered the following into the records of the Assembly:

"AT A SESSION OF THE GEN ll ASSEMBLY AT HARTFORD, MARCH 10th 1663.

John Winthrop Esq r, Gou r.

Assis ts.

Mr. Allyn,          Mr. Woolcot,
Mr. Willys,        Mr. Clark,
Mr. Treat,          Mr. Allyn, et Sec'y.

Deputies:

Mr. Wadsworth,       Tho:  Judd,               John Nott,
Mr. Fitch,                 Mr. Jehu Burre         Wm. Cheny,
Capt. Newbery,        John Bnkes,             Tho: Tracy,
Ln t Fyler,                Nath:  White,            Tho:  Leppingwell,
Anth:  Hawkins,       Sam ll Boreman,       Mr. Rob:  Chapman. . . .

This Court doth grant liberty to Mr. Thomas Pell to buy all that land of the Indian proprietors between West Chester and Hudsons Riuer, (that makes Manhatoes an Island,) and lay it to West Chester, prouided that it be not purchased by any before, nor in their possession. . . ."

Source:  The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Prior to the Union with New Haven Colony, May, 1655; Transcribed and Published, (In Accordance with a Resolution of the General Assembly,) Under the Supervision of the Secretary of State, With Occasional Notes, and an Appendix:  By J. Hammond Trumbull, Vol. I, pp. 417, 418 (Hartford, CT:  Brown & Parsons, 1850).

Though there are no further records of efforts by Pell to secure the lands to the southwest of his Pelham purchase all the way to the Hudson River, had he done so, today's Pelham likely would be a very different place.  For reasons now lost to history, however, Thomas Pell never succeeded (and, perhaps, never attempted) to acquire such additional lands adjacent to those he purchased on June 27, 1654 that subsequently became the Manor of Pelham.

John Winthrop, Known as "John Winthrop Junior" or "The Younger,"

Was the Eldest Son of John Winthrop, the First Governor of the Massachusetts

Bay Colony, and Mary Forth.  He Was Governor of the Colony of Connecticut

and Head of the General Assembly at the Time a License Was Issued to Thomas

Pell on March 10, 1663 to Purchase Additional Lands from Native Americans

Adjacent to the Lands that Became the Manor of Pelham.  NOTE:  Click on

Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *         *          *

Below is a brief excerpt of material from a wonderful article by L. H. Roper entitled in a recent issue of The New England Quarterly entitled "The Fall of New Netherland and Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Imperial Formation, 1654-1676."  It provides an excellent background of the tumultuous events leading up to the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English on September 8, 1663. 

"The Connecticut leadership did not await the conclusion of London's laborious process.  News that it had received its charter, which was proclaimed in the colony on 9 October 1662, was taken as a license to intensify its pressure to detach Long Island and 'West Chester' from Dutch authority and to extend its 'protection' to the New Haven towns of Southold (on Long Island) and Guilford.  By 8 January 1663, Stuyvesant learned that Connecticut was aserting that its patent included all of Long Island.  Accordingly, the colony had issued a 'peremptory order' to the inhabitants of Oostdorp (Westchester) informing them that henceforth they were subject to Connecticut's control; in addition, over the course of 1663, Connecticut operatives incited riots against Dutch authority at Rustdorp (Jamaica), Middleburgh (Elmhurst), Vlissengen (Flushing), Hempstead, and Gravesend.  In December, Stuyvesant was compelled to arms to prevent an English group from acquiring the lands of the Neversink Indians between the Barnegat and Raritan Rivers in modern New Jersey.  By the spring of 1664, Dutch authority in these places hung in the balance as Hartford, acting expressly in accordance with its new powers, directed Winthrop and three other leading colonists -- Wyllys, Matthew Allyn, and John Young -- 'to go over to Long Island, and to settle the English plantations on the Island under this Government,' while Thomas Pell received 'liberty' to buy the Indian lands between 'West Chester' and the Hudson River.  Five days later, Stuyvesant received a report that 'the English of Westchester' had been intriguing with the Esopus and Wappinger Indians, who between June and December 1663 had fought a nasty war with the Dutch in the Hudson River Valley, 'to kill all the Dutch and drive them away' after the English had seized Long Island and Manhattan.  A presumed English spy arrived at Wiltwijck (Kingston) the following month proclaiming that the English would take over New Netherland 'within 6 or 8 weeks.' 33

[Footnote 33:  "33  Report made by P. W. van Couwenhoven of Information Respecting Intrigues of the English with the Wappins and Esopus Indians, [March 1664], and Letter from Ensign Nyssen to Director-General Stuyvesant, Reporting the Visit of an Englishman at Wildwyck, 21 April 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 13:363-64, 368.  For English activity in the Neversink country, see Instructions Given to Martin Cregier and Covert Loockermans for the Purchase of the Nevesing Country, from Barnegatt to the Raritan, 6 December 1663 (n.s.), Journal of a Voyage to the Newesinghs by Captain Cregier, and Agreement Made by the Newesingh Indians to sell to the Dutch their Lands, not already sold, 6-11 December 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 13:311-12, 314-16, 316-17; Edward Rous and and Others to John Scott, 2 December 1663, MHS Collections, 5th ser., 1:397-99.  For Connecticut's activities, see Connecticut Records, 1:384-87, 392-98 at 398; Letters Relating to the Annexation of Long Island to Connecticut, DRCHNY, 14:516-18; Meeting of the General Assembly, 10 March 1664, Connecticut Records, 1:416-24 at 418.  For the attachment of 'West Chester' and Long Island to Connecticut, see Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, 8 January 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:520; Meeting of the Council, 10 July 1663, Meeting of the General Assembly, 8 October 1663, At a Generall Assembly Held at Hartford, 12 May 1664, and At a General Session of the Generall Assembly at Hartford, 8 [October] 1663, Connecticut Records, 1:406-7, 425-31 at 426-27, 409-16 at 411-12; extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors [Westchester], 14 May 1663 (n.s.), To his Honor, Secretary Cornelis van Ruyven, at Fort Amsterdam, 15 November 1663, and Letters from Director Stuyvesant to the Governor and Council of Connecticut about the Claims of the Latter, 5 November 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:526-27, 531-40."]

Stuyvesant's protests to Connecticut and to his superiors in the West India Company brought him no satisfaction on either front.  34  

[Footnote 34:  "34  Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, 26 April 1664 (n.s.), and Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, 4 August 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:546-48 at 547-48, 551-55."]

When Winthrop returned to America, Stuyvesant  asked him for a 'categorical answer'; meanwhile, a delegation to Hartford in October 1663 requested that the neighbors honor their 1650 treaty until further directions were received from Europe.  Connecticut officials insisted on the colony's right to all of the disputed territory and, further, its duty to perfect the king's grant.  Continuing to dissemble, Winthrop, supposed friend of the Dutch colony, advised the visitors that the Connecticut patent did not include New Netherland; nonetheless, he mostly absented himself from the negotiations on the grounds of illness and declined to put his opinion in writing since, as he insisted, the language of the patent was clear on its face.  His councilors, though, when presented with this view, observed that 'the Governor is but one man.'  The confused and irritated emissaries returned to New Amsterdam empty handed.  35

[Footnote 35:  "35  Journal kept by Cornelis van Ruyven, Burgomaster Cortlandt and John Laurence, Delegates from New Netherland to the General Assembly at Hartford, in New England, in the month of October, 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 2:385-93; Peter Stuyvesant to John Winthrop Jr., 20 July 1663 (n.s.), and Thomas Willett to John Winthrop Jr., 23 July 1663 (n.s.), MHS Collections, 5th ser., 1:395-96, 396-97."]

By August, Stuyvesant, now fully disabused of Winthrop's motives, had prepared as best he could for an English attack.  He informed the West India Company of Connecticut's predations on Long Island, which reflected his neighbor's contempt for the boundary negotiated in 1650.  He also heaped skepticism on the report relayed by his superiors.  The assembling commissioners and military expedition, the report had concluded, were intended for New England with the brief to 'install' bishops there and to unite those colonies 'under one form of government in political, as well as ecclesiastical matters.'  Dismissing the report's hopeful inference that the initiative would provoke resistance and manifest New English affinity for the Dutch colony, Stuyvesant insisted that New Netherland was the real target, and his intelligence was supported by news that Rhode Island had received a charter, which included a grant of liberty of conscience, and that York had been granted his patent.  36

[Footnote 36:  "36  Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, [4 August 1664 (n.s.)]; [responding to] Chamber of Amsterdam to the Director and Council of New Netherland, 21 April 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:551-55 at 552-54, 2:235-37 at 235-36."]

Four frigates bearing Nicolls, Maverick, Carr, Cartwright, and between three and four hundred soldiers reached Nantasket toward the end of July.  The commissioners sought the assistance of the Massachusetts government, which agreed to recruit and pay for two hundred volunteers and to send Clarke and Pynchon (Wylly's son-in-law and close friend of Winthrop, the physician of his wife, Amy) as the colony's representatives to the mission.  Notifying Winthrop of their arrival, the other commissioners planned to rendezvous with him at Gravesend, at the western end of Long Island.  37

[Footnote 37:  "37  John Pynchon and Thomas Clarke to Secretary Edward Rawson, [15 August 1664], Pynchon Papers, 1:32; Colonial Records:  General Entries, vol. 1, 1664-65, University of the State of New York, State Library Bulletin, History, no. 2 (May 1899):  55; Massachusetts Records, vol. 4, pt. 2, pp. 120-24.  For Pynchon's relationships with Winthrop (with whose family Amy Wyllys Pynchon lived in 1654-55, while he treated her) and Wyllys, see, e.g., letters between Pynchon and Winthrop of 22 May, 20 June, 26 July, [30 November], and [17 December] 1654.  Pynchon Papers, 1:5-13, 131.  The social connections between these New England imperialists also appear from Amy Pynchon's requests for treatment on her knee from Thomas Pell (John Pynchon to John Winthrop Jr., 1 and 7 May 1660, Pynchon Papers, 1:32-34)."]

At the end of August, the fleet arrived at New Amsterdam and ordered the town to surrender or be sacked; meanwhile, Nicolls proceeded to recruit additional colonial troops to swell the occupying force.  38  

[Footnote 38:  "38  License to Recruit Soldiers on Long Island against the Dutch, 24 August 1664, and Letter from Col. Nicolls to Capt. Young about such Long Island People as have taken up arms against the Dutch, 29 August 1664, DRCHNY, 14:555-56."]

Stuyvesant's attempts to delay the inevitable came to nothing; with a shortage of powder and his defenses in disarray, he was compelled to accept terms.  Yet, despite the Crown's involvement, Connecticut's hand remained firmly on the tiller.  According to the Reverend Samuel Drisius, 'about 600' New Englanders had joined the expedition.  Stuyvesant, in his report to the States General, noted that defeat came at the hands of 'the Hartford Colony, our too powerful enemies,' who had been 'reinforced by four Royal ships.'  We may wonder what went through the director-general's mind when Winthrop personally delivered the articles of capitulation to him.  39"

[Footnote 39:  "39  The West India Company and its operatives on the South River had reports of 300 soldiers; see West India Company to the Burgomasters of Amsterdam, [July 1664], and Commissioners of the Colonie on the Delaware River to the Burgomasters of Amserdam, [June 1664], DRCHNY, 2:243, 244.  The New Amsterdam government later reported that one of the frigates carried almost 450 soldiers 'and the others in proportion,' but this seems an exaggeration given the other accounts and the size of the ships; see Translation of a letter from the Schout, Burgomasters, and Schepens of the City of New Amsterdam, to the West India Company, 16 September 1664, in John Romeyn Brodhead, Commemoration of the Conquest of New Netherland on the Two Hundredth Anniversary, by the New York Historical Society (New York:  By the Society, 1864), pp. 70-71; Letter from Rev. Samuel Drisius to the Classis of Amsterdam, 15 September 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 13:393-94 at 393.  E. B. O'Callaghan, the nineteenth-century translator and editor of DRCHNY, translated 'gesecondeert' as 'reinforced' in Stuyvesant's Report of the Surrender of New Netherland, 1665 (DRCHNY, 2:365-70 at 366), but 'seconded' or 'supported' seems aa superior translation of the original Report of the Honorable Peter Stuyvesant, late Director-General of New Netherland, on the causes which led to the surrender of that country to the English (Archive States General, 1.01.07 in.nr.12546.57, Nationaal Archief, The Hague).  My thanks to Jaap Jacobs for the original reference and for his wisdom on this and many other points.  For Winthrop's delivery of the terms, see Answer of Ex-Director Stuyvesant, 1666, DRCHNY, 2:429-47 at 444."]

Source:  Roper, L. H., The Fall of New Netherland and Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Imperial Formation, 1654-1676, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 4, pp. 686-89 (Dec. 2014).


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Letters Carried by John Pell, Second Lord of the Manor of Pelham, When He Arrived in America in 1670

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Thomas Pell is often referenced as the "First Lord of the Manor of Pelham". He died in late September, 1669. He died without issue of his own. His principal legatee was his nephew, John Pell, of England.

John Pell arrived in America in 1670 to take control of the estate left to him by his Uncle. He carried with him letters from a number of references. Those letters are in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Today's Historic Pelham Blog transcribes the letters carried by John Pell when he arrived in America.

"SIR, - I have lately, viz. March 26, 70, written so large, that I shall doe little else by this opportunity of Dr. Pells son than to referr you to yt letter, and to the Books I sent you together with the same. Only I shall here mention, that, since yt. time, here is come abroad a new Hypothesis of the Fluxe and Refluxe of the Sea, devised by one Mr. Hyrne, supposing yt ye Earth, besides ye Diurnal and Annual motion, hath another, directly from North to South, for ye space of 6 hours and some odd minuts, and then again from South to North for ye same time; and yt in this motion ye Earth does not always move to the same points, but farther, when we have Spring-tides, yn at other times; and yt ye motion of ye Earth in each vibration from the Spring-tide to ye neap-tide decreaseth, as that of a Pendulum will doe; and from thence again increases in ye same proportion it decreased, till the Tydes be at ye highest. [P. 245 / P. 246]

From this Hypothesis he pretends to solve all the phaenom of ye diurnal and menstrual Tydes, adscribing the Annual to meer casualties. Hence he will give a reason, why ye Spring tides are all the world ouer at ye same time, on the same side of the AEquator; and why a place hath the greater tydes, ye farther it is distant from the AEquator, etc.

It would be worth knowing, whether, according to this supposition, it be high water on yr American shore all ouer, at ye same time it is high water all over the European Shore. He affirms particularly, yt in the Bay of Mexico there is but a very litle or no rise and fall of ye water, and pretends to solve this phaenomenon also by his Theory.

Sir, you will doe us and Philosophy a good piece of service to acquaint us w th what particulars you know of the matter of fact in America, and of what you can learne from observing and credible navigators all ouer that part of the world. This gentleman is very confident of the truth of this Hypothesis, taking the liberty to say in writing, yt he hath been for many years as fully satisfyed in his judgement concerning the Cause of this Phaenomenon, as of any in Nature.

This must be examined by good Observations, and a general and faithfull History of ye Tydes: to w ch that you would contribute your and yr friends symbols, is the errant of this letter from, Sir,

Y.r very afft and faithfull servant,

H. OLDENBURG.

The Books sent March 26, were; 1. Mr. Boyles Continuacion of Expts concerning ye Spring and Weight of the Air. 2. Dr. Holders Philosophy of Speech. 3. Dr. Thurstons Diatriba de respirationis usu primario. [4.] All the Transactions of A. 1669.

(Addressed) To his honored Friend JOHN WINTHROP, Esquire. Gouernor of Connecticutt in New England.

To be inquired for at Boston. By a friend.

(Indorsed) Mr. Hen: Oldenburge.

-----

WHITEHALL, 22 Jun. '70.

MY VERY WORTHY FRIEND, - The unfrequency of our Correspondence must not in the least detract from our kindness. I usually answer your letters with the first conueniency after I receiue them. I doubt not of your continuing your industrious enquiries, though of a long while wee haue had no account of them from you. The bearer will acquaint you with occurences here & so giues me ground of excuse for the breuity of my letter, but you do not measure my friendship by the number of my lines. I will be glad of any oppertunity to make it appear by the highest kinde of demonstration you can put me to. And to shew you I have a firm confidence of yours, I do most earnestly recommend to your fauor the bearer Mr. John Pell, whose worthy father Dr. Pell you know we value highly. The Gentleman is a Server in ordinary to the King; & I do firmly expect & certainly promise my self you will use him as you might expect I would a [P. 246 / P. 247] friend of yours vpon your serious recommendation, and indeed I will account your kindness to him as a singular testimony of your friendship to,

My worthy friend, your reall servant,

R. MORAY.

(Indorsed) Sr. Robert Moray to Govr. W. 1670.

HONOURED SR, - You might justly blame my backwardnesse of answering your kind & large letter to me last year, but yt I trust your goodnesse will be ready still to make ye best construction of what admits anie. I have my self undergone a sicknesse which was like to have proov'd ye last, & since the recovery found my self on a sudden plunged in & distracted with a most troublesome tedious controversie & Lawsute, whiles my dear wife fell ill, & after much weaknesse, growing upon her byond recoverie, departed this life, which accidt was followed with a sad traine of many other troubles to me; besides ye losse of many ver speciall ffrends in severall parts, & especially of that dear & worthy frend of ours Mr Morlaen, whom I had so great a Desire to have seen once more. He & his wife soon deceased one after another, & I am informed that all his goods & those many excell t curiosities & rarities he was master of were suddenly sold, distracted, scattered. After all this, when I recollect what is past, I cannot but admire & adore Gods mercifull & wonderfull dispensation, deliverance, & sustentation, whereby he hath & doth uphold me in all my streights, that I have cause to complain of nothing but my own unthankfullnesse to him for all his goodnesse. Sr, from all this I doubt not but you will easily inferre, that it was rather an increase of trouble to me than otherwise that I could not enjoy ye benefit of so acceptable an entercourse as your singular Love & kindnesse invited & engaged me to; & that I was right glad of this good opportunity by ye meanes of Dr. Pell (so worthy & dear a ffrend) his own & onely son, to expectorate my case into yor Bosome, & to deleiver into your own hands this Testimonie of my constant & due Respects to your person & ye high & worthie esteem of yor vertues & Merits, sorrie onely that for ye present I have not other & better matter to entertain you withall; & to requite the paines you took & ye content you gave me by ye rehearsall of so many signall acts of the Divine Providence, vulgarly call'd casualties. Truly, Sr, I esteemed them so much ye more because I am sure you doe not report such matters by common hearsey; & indeed, Sr, if we would but be attentive observers of our own personall concerns of this kinde, in thankfull acknowledgemt to God & usefull Providence for our selves, what Treasures would it afforde us, & what incitements, encouragemts, & engagemts, to fear, love, & serve our great & good God, & to be on all occasions helpfull, comfortable, & beneficiall to ourselves & others, causing us often to remembr, sing, & practice the 107th Psalm. I could instance passages of my own Experience & Experimts of this nature, as of ye greatest part of my Life, so especially of ye latter troublesom yeares, but yt ye circumstances [P. 247 / P. 248] are too many & diffuse for Letters. However, we do well to observe all occurences, & to imprrove all experiments without & within us to the End of our Creation, Redemtion, & Preservation. I hope, Sr, if God vouchsafes me longer Life and health I shall be at better leasure hereafter to entertain your epistolar visits, & glad of any opportunity to shew, that, how undeserving soever of so meritorious & thrice worthy a friendship as yours, none is more willing and desirous to endeavour all acknowledgemt thereof than,

Most honoured Sr, Your very humble & much obliged Servant,

THEODORE HAAK."

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. - 1878 -, pp. 245-48 (Boston, MA: Massachusetts Historical Society 1879) (Part of June, 1878 Meeting, Section on "Correspondence of the Founders of the Royal Society with Governor Winthrop of Connecticut").

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1670 Letter from John Winthrop, Jr. to William Lord Brereton, Describing the Arrival of John Pell in America to Receive Thomas Pell's Estate

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A privately printed book published in 1858 transcribed records in the English archives relating to the history of Maine. Among the papers transcribed in that book was a letter from John Winthrop, Jr. sent to William Lord Brereton, on October 11, 1670.

The letter is fascinating. In it the author describes a wondrous and inexplicable event that occurred in June or July of 1670 near the Kennebunk River in Maine. Though I profess no expertise in the analysis, it seems apparent that the letter describes the aftermath of a meteorite that crashed into the top of a hill blowing the hilltop over the tops of nearby trees and into the river, blocking the river's waters for a time. The clay of the hill was hardened into many small "bullets" and fossilized shellfish shells were exposed though -- as the letter noted in a puzzled fashion -- the sea "floweth" nowhere near the hill.

Though fascinating in its own right, the letter is all the more interesting to students of Pelham history because it describes the arrival of John Pell, nephew of Thomas Pell, in America to receive the estate of his deceased uncle, Thomas Pell. The letter is transcribed in its entirety below.

"JOHN WINTHROP, JR., TO LORD BRERETON.

Right Honble, - I was at Boston in the Massachusetts Colony when Mr John Pell arrived there, by whom I had the great favour of your Lordships letter. He came into that Harbour very opportunely for the expedition of his business. For one Mr John Bankes, a neighbour of Mr Thomas Pell, deceased and one of those whom he had intrusted with the estate, was in a vessel of Fairfield [the place where Mr Pell had lived] returning thither and met the ship coming in and came back with Mr John Pell to Boston. Where I spake with them both and upon the reading of your Lordships letter informed Mr Bankes that I had full assurance from your Lordship and divers others that the person there present was Mr John Pell and he to whom Mr Thomas Pell deceased had given his Estate. And that very day, Mr John Pell imbarqued with Mr Bankes, and sailed towards Fairfield carrying also with him my letters to the magistrate and others there, certifying the same to them concerning him with desires of all good loving respects to him and their helpfulnesse as his occasions should require, and that order might be taken forthwith for his quiet possession of that estate. I have heard since of [Page 94 / Page 95] his safe arrival and welcome there and that he hath accordingly the possession of the lands and houses and goods to which he had right both at Fairfield and Westchester, which is a place neere New York, where his uncle had also a considerable plantation, with good accommodations belonging to it.

My Lord, the relation which I am now presenting to your Lordship is of a very strange and prodigious wonder this last summer in this part of the world, that the like hath been knowen for the whole manner of it I doe not remember that I have read or heard.

There was an hill neere Kenebunke River in the province of Maine (the eastern part of New England) which is removed out of its place and the bottom turned upward. The time is not certaine when it was done, but that it is so is very certaine. And it is concluded by those who live neerest to it, that it was removed eyther the later end of June or the beginning of July last. The relation which I have from credible persons concerning the manner of it is this, viz. that the hill being about eyght rodds from Kenebunke River side on the west side of the River, about foure miles from the sea, was removed over the drye land about eyght rods or perches, and over the tops of the trees also which grew between the hill and that river, leaping as it were over them into the River, where it was placed (the upper part being downward) and dammed up the river till the water did work itself a passage thorow it. The length of the hill was about two hundred and fifty foote, the breadth of it about fourscore foot, the depty of it about twenty foot. The situation of the hill as to the length of it was norwest and south east. The earth of it is a blue clay without stones. Many round bullets were within it which seem to be of the same clay hardened. I have not yet seene the place my selfe, but sent purposely to inquire into the truth of what had beene reported concerning it. And had this relation from Major William Phillips who dwelleth not farr from the place and Mr. Herlakenden Symons, who went to the place and took very good notice and brought me the same report of the truth and manner of it, which I had before received by a letter from Major Philips in answer to my letter of enquiry and told me that the earth of the hill did not lie between the former place of the hill and river, but was caried together over the tops of the trees into the river, which seemes to be as if it were blowne up by such a force as caried the whole body of it so farr together. I had fro' them some few of those rounds bullets, I think there were but two or three, and some pieces of the earh in other formes which were found upon that now-upper part, which was before the [Page 95 / Page 96] lower or the inward bowells of that hill. As also a small shell or two of a kinde of shell fish, like some shell fishe commonly founde where the sea floweth, but how they should be within that hill is strange to consider. I have sent all that I had thence with other things to the Royall society for their repository. I understand also from some of those parts, that there was no notice taken of any earthquake about that time, nor did I hear of any in other parts of the country. I give your Lordship the relation only of this prodigie as I had it upon the best inquiry I could make, leaving the discussion of the natural causes which might concurre a matter too hard for man to comprehend, but the power of his Almighty arm is herein manifest to all who weigheth the hills in a balance and at whose presence the heavens drop, the hills are melted like wax. Sinai it selfe is moved. I hope to have opportunity to see the place and if any other matter considerable upon my observation or further inquiry shall appeare, I shall be obliged to give your Lordship further account thereof and for present am bold humbly to subscribe my selfe.

Right Hon ble Your Lordships most obliged humble servant

Boston, Oct. 11. 1670. JOHN WINTHROP."

Source: Massachusetts Historical Society, Letters of John Winthrop, Jr. in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII, 5th Series, pp. 138-40 (Boston, MA: Published by Massachusetts Historical Society, 1882) (transcribing text of letter from John Winthrop, Jr. to William Lord Brereton dated October 10, 1670). See also A Catalogue of Original Documents in The English Archives Relating to the Early History of the State of Maine, pp. 94-96 (NY, NY: Privately Printed 1858) (transcribing same letter but misattributing it as a "Letter to JOHN WINTHROP, Governor of Connecticut").

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