Deposed 7 December 1665 “aged sixty-three years or thereabouts.”468

In a letter dated 30 May 1669 he stated that “It is forty-five years since I came to New England”11, Vol. 96, pg. 236 and at another time he commented on “my observations which for several years I have spent in America, even from the year 1624”11, Vol. 39, pg. 46

“Contrast the Boston of today, with its hundreds of thousands of people, its teeming industries, and its commercial activities, with the picture of almost utter solitude suggsted in “Wonder-working Providence,” by Edward Johnson, who came over with Gov. Winthrops colony: “The planters in Massachusetts bay at this time [1629] were William Blackstone at Shawmut, Thomas Walford at Mishawum, Samuel Maverick at Noddles Island, and David Thompson at Thompson’s Island, near Dorchester. How or when they came there is not known.” Until recently the exact year of Maverick’s advent upon our shores has not been known. Various dates ranging from 1625 to 1629 have been given. Whether he came in one of the fishing shallops which cruised along the coast soon after the settlement of Plymouth, or how, is not known, but the actual year of his settlement has been now authoritatively fixed.” [1 Whence these people came, what brought them to the shores of Boston Bay, and when they set themselves down there, have been enigmas which the antiquaries, after exhausting conjecture, have generally dismissed with the remark that they will probably never be solved.” Charles Francis Adams Jr., in “Old Plants About Boston Harbor.” Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soc. for June, 1878.]

“That delver in American antiquities, Mr. Henry Fitz-Giulbert Waters, of Salem, now resident in London, has proven that this “one of the first white men who ever settled on the shores of Massachusetts Bay,” this one of the “old planters when Gov. Winthrop found here,” came as early as 1624. Plymouth had been founded; Wessagusset had commenced its career; Weston’s colony had come and gone. Mr. Waters has found among other important things, notably the Winthrop map, Maverick’s “A Briefe Discription of New England, and the Several Townes therein, together with the present Government thereof,” wherein he says: “Now before I come to speak of Hudson’s River, I shall most humbly desire the Hon’ble Councill to take it in consideration the great benefits and profitts, which may redound in the English by these Westerne Colonies if well managed. Of their present condition I have given a briefe accompl in my foregoing Relation, being my observations which for severall years I have spent in America, even from the year 1622 till within these two years last past.” This “Discription” was written, probably, in the year 1660, to Sir Edward Hyde, then King Charles the Second’s Lord High Chancellor and shows that Maverick had travelled over New England, and the adjacent territory, extensively, and was well acquainted with the locality and products of the various places in New England of which he speaks,—some fifty or more of them. Some of his observations are curious and instructive: “In the yeare 1626 or thereabouts there was not a New Beast Horse or sheepe in the Countrey and a very few Goats or hoggs, and now it is a wonder to see the great herds of Cattle belonging to every Towne I have mentioned: The brave Flockes of Sheepe. The great number of Horses besides those many sent to Barbados and the other Carribe islands. And withall to consiner how many thousand Neate Beasts and Hoggs are yearly killed, and soe have been for many years past for provision In Countrey and sent abroad to supply Newfoundland, Barbados, Jamaica, and other places, As also to victuall in whle or in part most shipes which comes there.” And of Boston: “And the place in which Boston (the Metropolis) is seated, I knew then for some yeares to be a Swamp and Pound, now a great towne, two Churches, a Gallant Statehouse & more to make it compleate than can be expected in a place so late a wilderness.”

It has generally been considered that when Winthrop’s colony arrived in Boston Harbor, in July, 1630, Maverick’s residence was on Noddle’s Island, now East Boston. The sole authority for this statement, says Hon. Mellen Chamberlain in his “Samuel Maverick’s Palisade House of 1630,” and the one which all historians have followed, is Edward Johnson, in his “Wonder-working Providence,” published in 1654, who says, “On the north side of Charles River, they landed neear a small Island, called Noddel’s Island, where one Mr. Samuel Maverick was then living, a man of a very loving and courteous behavior, very ready to entertain strangers, yet an enemy to the Refprmation in hand, being strong for the lordly prelatical power. [Like blackstone, Walford, Thompson, and others, Maverick was an Episcopalian.] On this Island he had built a small Fort with the help of one Mr. David Thompson, placing therein four murderers to protect them from the Indians.” [1 Phillips’ “New World of Wonder Universal Dictionary.” printed in 1705 defines “Murderers or Murdering Pieces” as “small cannon, either of brass or iron, having a Chamber or Charge consisting of Nails, old Iron, & etc. put in at their Breech. They are chiefly used in the forecastle, Half Deck, or Steerage of a ship to clear the Decks, when boarded by an Enemy and su__ that is called a murdering Sl__.”

Untrustworthy as Mr. Chamberlain proves many of Johbnson’s statements to be, it is to be noticed that although he says “on this island he had built him a small fort,” he previously says they landed near a small island, called “Noddels Island;” and that he did land near that island, at Winnisimmet, and that he there built a house, “the first permanent house in the Bay Colony,”—which stood as late as 1650—is now satisfactorily proved by Maverick’s own “Discription,” which says: “Winnisime.—Two miles South from Rumney Marsh on the North side of Mistick River is Winnisime which though but a few houses on it yet deserves to be mentioond. One house yet standing there which is the Antientest house in the Massachusetts Goverment a house which in the yeare 1625 [fortified with a Palisado and fflansers and gunnes both belowe and above in them which awed the Indians who at that time had a mind to Cutt off the English. They once faced it but receiving a repulse never attepted it more although (as now they confesse) they repented it when about 2 yeares after they saw so many English come over.” And that he was living in Winnisimmet (Chelsea) as late as 1633, is confirmed by Winthrop, who says, under date of Dec. 5th of that year, while speaking of the ravages of the smallpox among the Indians: “above thirty buried by Mr. Maverick of Winesemett in one day;” “only two Families took any infection by it. Among others, Mr. Maverick of Winesemett is worthy of a perpetual remembrance. Himself, his wife, and servants, went deaily to them, ministered to their necessities, and buried their dead, and took home many of their children. So did others of their neighbors.” This was none other than Samuel Maverick, as Mr. Chamberlain says: “Uniformly and without exception, both in the Colony Records and in Winthrop’s Journal Samuel Maverick is called ‘Mr. Maverick.’

This “Manor of Winnesimett, as it came to be called, and the land belonging, in which a John Blackleach seems to have been a part owner, and like “fferry att Wynysemet granted to Mr. Sam’ll Mauacke” by the General Court, were sold to Richard Bellingham, Feb. 27, 1634, soon after he arrived from England. [1 In the “Boston Town Records,” vol. 2, p. 27, on “The last day of the 9th moneth, 1640,” this property is thyus described: “The lands of Mr. Rich. Bellingham’s, lieing at Winnissimett, belonging to the towne of Boston, are bounded with the land of William Steedsonne, of Charlestowne, and with Charlestowne lands, limitted by fences and marsh towards the norewest, with a winter fresh water runnell and pouder horne Creeke, parting betweene the land of Mr. Bellinghame and Mr. Nicholas Parker, of Boston, towards the north East, with the salt water on all other parts towards the east, and south and west; all the lands within the said Limitts and bounds belong to the said Mr. Richard Bellingham.” Mr. Bellingham at once took a prominent position in our Colonial affairs, dying in 1672, while governor, and still owning this Chelsea property. Here are some receipts for rental given during the last years of his life copied from the manuscript in possession of Artemas Barrett, Esq., of Melrose, Mass.

Rec. of Jeremiah Belcher and Sarah his wife ten pounds in fifty bushells of Barley & it is for rent of the Farme wh nowe they live in 19.1.1667 — 10-0-0
Ri. Bellingham.

Recd. of Jeremian Belcher and Sarah his wife ten pounds by 30 bush of mault — by ferrige — 60 rodd wh a stone wall — by a fatt Hogge. 17.1.68 — 10-0-0

Rec of Jeremiah Belcher and Sarah his wife ten pounds for the yeare 1671 now past. This account made 1672 Mar. 25. — 10-0-0
Ri. Bellingham]

“Another mention of Mr. Maverick’s property is as follows: “Mystic Side” was granted to Charlestown, July 2, 1633, when it was ordered that the “ground lyeing betwixt the North [Malden] Ryv’r & the creeke on the north side of Mr. Mauacks & soe vpp into the country, shall belong to the inhabitants of Charlton.” The year before Oct. 2, 1632, he had been admited a freeman. Noddle’s Island having been granted to Maverick April 1, 1633, by the General Court, [2 1633, 1 April. Noddles Ileland is graunted to Mr. Samll. Mauocke, to enjoy to him & his heires for ever, yeilding & payeing yearely att the Genall Court, to the Gobnr for the time being either a fatt weather, a fatt hogg, or x ls in money, & shall give leave to Boston & Charles Towne to fetch word contynually, as their neede requires from the Southerne pte of the sd ileland.] and he having sold his Winnisimmet house, he built him a house on his new island home, probably during the year 1634, or spring of 1635, for although he was absent in Virginia from May 1635 ro May 1636, his wife wrote a letter dated “Nottell’s Iland in Massachusetts Bay, the 20th November, 1635;” and it is clearly indicated also by the Court records. Here he lived for many years, dispensing his hospitality on many and divers occasions as is witnessed by Josselyn, [3 “The only hospitable man in all the countrey, giving entertainment to all Comers gratis.” Josselyn’s Account, p. 12, ] who made a voyage to this country in 1638, and other early travellers. Other grants of land were made to Maverick; one of 600 acres and one of 400 acres; the later being located in “the upper parts of Monotocot River, neere Taunton Path,” which he assigned to Edward Bendall in 1643. He was one of the patentees of lands in Maine, owning land on the banks of the “Agamenticus” in Maine, as early as 1631, as is witnessed by a deed found in the York county records.

If not the earliest, Maverick was one of the earliest slaveholders in Massachusetts, having purchased one or more slaves of Capt. William Pierce, who brought some from Tortugas in 1638. Slavery was always repugnant to the feelings of our Puritan fathers, and from this fact, and the Episcopacy of Maverick, there was gradually engendered an ill-feeling between him and the government, which began to show itself as early as March, 1635, when the Court ordered Maverick to leave Noddle’s Island by the following December, and take up his abode in Boston, and, in the “meantyme” not give “entertainment to any strangers for a longer tyme than one night without leave from some Assistant, and all this to be done under the penalty of L100.” [1 Massachusetts Archives, vol. 1, p. 140.] This, for fear that he might aid in some way, an anticipated and threatened change in New England affairs, to uproot Puritanism and establish episcopacy; a plan concerted in England, but which came to naught. This unjunction upon Mavereick was repealed before December arrived. This was but one of many similar controversies which sprang up between Maverick and the government. Sumner, in his “History of East Boston,” says: “His hospitable disposition subjected him to numerous fines, which, however, were frequently remitted; indeed, he seems generally to have been at war with the government.”469

... Samuel, the eldest son of the Rev. John Maverick, born about 1602, had settled in New England as early as 1624, near the confluence of the Charles and Mystic Rivers, where with the help of his neighbor David Tomson, he had built a small fort. He was an Episcopalian and loyalist and frequently embroiled with the colonial government. Finally, after one of his several voyages to the old country, he was, in April 1664, appointed one of the four Royal commissioners to visit the colonies and inquire into grievances. For his services he received, from the Duke of York, through a grant from Gov. Lovelance, a certain house and lot in New York city, on the Broadway. This gift he acknowledges in a letter of Oct. 15, 1669, to Col. Rich. Nicolls, his associate in the Commission, and we hear not of him again till a deed of Mar. 15, 1676 (recorded Albany, L.1, p. 133), his trustees, John Laurence and Matthias Nicolls, of New York, confirm to william Vander Scheuren this same property on Broadway, which the latter had bought from the Deacons of the City, by whom it had been purchased at a public sale made for the benefit of Maverick’s daughter, Mary, wife of Rev. Francis Hooke of Kittery. Neither the time nor place of Maverick’s death, nor the depository of his will have, as yet, been ascertained. No records of so early a date are preserved by the Dutch Church, who evidently held the lot for a short period. But, after a careful examination of conveyances in the City Register’s office, the writer has satisfactorily located the position of the Maverick Lot. May 30, 1667, Gov. Nicolls granted a lot on Broadway to Adam Onckelbach, which is described in later deeds as bounded south by house and lot of William Vander Scheuren, and which finally in October 184, when known as No. 52 Broadway, was sold to John Jay, Esq., the future governor, who here erected a fine stone mansion. At this time the lot adjoining to the south was in the tenure and occupation of John Sliddell, save some 64 feet on the easterly of New Street and which had been sold in 1683 by Vander Scheuren to William Post (L. 13, p. 8; L. 35, p. 170). Slidell’s sons, in 1819, sold the greater portion of the lot facing on Broadway with a frontage of 21 1/3 feet and a depth of 110 feet, to Robert Lenox, while the remaining few inches, with a lot adjoining to the south, known as No. 48, was sold by them on the same date to David Gelston. From the foregoing facts we gather that the original Maverick Lot was 26 1/4 feet wide, located on the easterly side of Broadway, running through to New Street, and beginning 125 feet south from the Church Street (aferwards Garden Street, and now Exchange Place); and that it corresponded with the present No. 50 Broadway.470