The Cambridge Agreement
26 August, 1629
Redacted and introduced by Marcia Elaine Stewart.
After the Charter and Constitution of the Company
were established, the Governor and Company held Court again at Cambridge,
England, near or within the confines of the celebrated University which
John Winthrop had attended. Here a dozen of the Company committed not
just their energies and capital, but their lives, and resolved to sail
for New England to establish and inhabit the plantation there. Of these
twelve signatories, ten (all except Browne and West) sailed with the
fleet the next Spring.
A notable proviso concludes this document, that
"the whole Government, together with the patent for the said Plantation"
shall go with them to the new settlement. In effect, they are resolved
to establish full independance of the plantation from any authority
in England. The full Court of the Company, within a few days and after
much discussion, agreed to this proviso, no doubt influenced by the
signatories' resolve, and the fact that their willingness to settle
the plantation hinged upon this point. Previous patents had defaulted
due to lack of action, and so the Company's adventurers as a whole aquiesced
to this loss of their authority to those of the Company who were ready
to risk their lives and the lives of their families in an attempted
settlement in New England. A majority of the adventurers, Puritans of
a like mind, supported them.
Their foresight in taking the Charter with them
to the new settlement proved crucial when, in 1635, King Charles and
Archbishop Laud sought to destroy it and force a viceregal dictatorship
upon the settlers. Their efforts were thereby delayed until Parliamentary
victories made the Massachusetts Bay Commonwealth secure in its rights.
At Cambridge, 26 August, 1629
PON
due consideration of the state of the Plantation now in hand for New
England, wherein we, whose names are hereunto subscribed, have engaged
ourselves, and having weighed the greatness of the work in regard of
the consequence, God's glory and the Church's good; as also in regard
of the difficulties and discouragements which in all probabilities must
be forecast upon the prosecution of this business; considering withal
that this whole adventure grows upon the joint confidence we have in
each other's fidelity and resolution herein, so as no man of us would
have adventured it without assurance of the rest; now, for the better
encouragement of ourselves and others that shall join with us in this
action, and to the end that every man may without scruple dispose of
his estate and affairs as may best fit his preparation for this voyage;
it is fully and faithfully AGREED amongst us, and every
one of us doth hereby freely and sincerely promise and bind himself,
in the word of a Christian, and in the presence of God, who is the searcher
of all hearts, that we will so really endeavour the prosecution of this
work, as by God's assistance, we will be ready in our persons, and with
such of our several families as are to go with us, and such provision
as we are able conveniently to furnish ourselves withal, to embark for
the said Plantation by the first of March next, at such port or ports
of this land as shall be agreed upon by the Company, to the end to pass
the Seas (under God's protection) to inhabit and continue in New England
: Provided always, that before the last of September next, the whole
Government, together with the patent for the said Plantation, be first,
by an order of Court, legally transferred and established to remain
with us and others which shall inhabit upon the said Plantation; and
provided also, that if any shall be hindered by such just and inevitable
let or other cause, to be allowed by three parts of four of these whose
names are hereunto subscribed, then such persons, for such times and
during such lets, to be discharged of this bond. And we do further promise,
every one for himself, that shall fail to be ready through his own default
by the day appointed, to pay for every day's default the sum of £3,
to the use of the rest of the Company who shall be ready by the same
day and time.
Richard Saltonstall
Thomas Dudley
William Vassall
Nicholas West
Isaac Johnson
John Humfrey
Thomas Sharpe
Increase Nowell
John Winthrop
William Pinchon
Kellam Browne
William Colbron
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