Book Description

While researching this book, the author discovered that the Moulton family of Salem, Massachusetts were even more "old Salem" than they thought. Eight of their ancestors were among the first small group of English immigrants to settle in Salem, or Naumkeag as it was known then, in 1626. Within three years another eight Moulton family ancestors had arrived. As he traces the lives of these early immigrants, Graham Cocks weaves a fascinating history of Salem and the Massachusetts colony, from their very beginning to the eve of the witchcraft hysteria that terrorized the community in the 1690s. The original immigrants were the remnants of a small farming and fishing venture on Cape Ann that proved to be unprofitable and was abandoned by its financial backers. Nonconformist Puritans, they hoped to found a plantation where they could live and worship as they wished without being persecuted by the leaders of the Church of England. One of the eight ancestors of the Moulton family was their leader, Roger Conant. Now known as the Founder of Salem, his statue stands opposite Salem Common. The ancestors with him were his wife, Sarah Horton, Thomas Gardner who had overseen the farming on Cape Ann, John Balch, John Woodbury, Richard Norman, his wife Florence and his son Richard. John Woodbury returned to England in 1627 to garner support for the fledgling colony and obtain legal right to the land they had settled. With his mission seemingly accomplished, Woodbury returned to Salem in June 1628, bringing his son Humphrey, another ancestor, with him. The newly formed Massachusetts Bay Company obtained the land rights and acquired all the remaining assets of the company that had initiated the Cape Ann venture. It quickly sent its own man to take charge of the new colony, John Endecott. He arrived in September 1628 with forty-to-fifty new settlers, enough to double to population. With him were three more ancestors: Henry Laskin, his wife Alice and their daughter Edith. The Company then sent a small fleet, now known as the Higginson Fleet, which arrived in June 1629. On it were three or four more Moulton family ancestors: Robert Moulton, his wife Alice and their son Robert; and probably a man named Henry Herrrick. Robert Moulton senior came as the chief of a team of shipbuilders hired jointly by the Company and group of adventurers led by the Company's London-based governor, Matthew Cradock. The Higginson Fleet brought about four hundred new settlers including women and children, roughly quintupling the size of the population. Within a year about eighty had died. All the Moulton family ancestors survived that onslaught. Most of them lived surprisingly long lives. They farmed and fished, built ships and kept inns. They acquired land. They served as deputies to the General Court and as selectmen. They served on juries. They laid out lots of land. They surveyed roads and boundaries with new settlements. They acted as constables and tithingmen. They were involved in several controversies: an initial confrontation between the original settlers led by Roger Conant and the brash new governor John Endecott; the antinomian controversy that threatened both church and state; and the persecution of Quakers. There are tales of brutal punishments, of mutilation, disarmament, excommunication and banishment. Tales of living peacefully side-by-side with Indians, of trading with them, and of warring with them. A tale of a daring raid on French settlements in Arcadia. And tales of everyday life in early Salem. "Moulton Family Ancestors: Immigrants to Salem 1626-1629" is a rich blend of genealogy, biography and history.