these projections, and of the difficulty of representing a spherical figure on a plane surface, though he could not find the means of correction. The geographical portion of the work is written with great exactness, and contains the first description of the result of Spanish exploration up to 1519. He fixed the latitudes of the islands discovered, and of several points on the main-land. Cape Higuey, in Santo Domingo, is marked 20°, and Cape Cruz 23°, and those positions, although incorrect, are less so than those found in Ruysch, Peter Martyr de Anghierra, and others.
ENDICOTT, Charles Moses, author, b. in
Danvers, Mass., in 1793 ; d. in Northampton, Mass.,
in 1863. He was a descendant in the eighth gen-
eration of Gov. John Endicott. His education was
received mainly at the Phillips Andover academy
and at a school in Salem, Mass. At the age of
fifteen he entered the counting-room of his uncle,
Samuel Endicott, of Salem, where he remained two
or three years, and whence he went by invitation
to the counting-room of William Ropes, of Boston.
Influenced by a desire to see somewhat of the outside world, he went as supercargo to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1812, and afterward made a voyage to the east in the same capacity, visiting Calcutta and Sumatra, and returning to Salem in 1818. After this he became captain of a merchantman, and traded for many years, being engaged extensively in the importation of pepper. Later,
from 1835 till 1858, he was cashier of the Salem bank, Salem, Mass. He was a frequent contributor to the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," and to the Boston "Gazette," under the
pen-name of "Junius Americanus." Some of his papers are to be found in the "Collections of the Salem Institute." He wrote a "Life of John Endicott" (privately printed, 1847); "The Persian Poet: a Tragedy"; "Essay on the Rights and Duties of
Nations"; and "Three Orations."
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ENDICOTT, John, colonial governor of Massachusetts, b. in Dorchester, England, in 1558; d. in Boston, Mass., 15 March, 1665. He was one of the six patentees of the Dorchester company, which succeeded, by purchase in 1627, to the property and all the rights and privileges that had formerly belonged to the Plymouth company. Among those who, almost immediately after the purchase, secured proprietary rights in the company, and who became respectively governor and deputy-governor of the company in London, were Matthew Cradock and Roger Ludlow. Being related to both of these by marriage, Endicott was sent out with full powers to take charge of the plantation at Naumkeag (afterward Salem), where he arrived in September, 1628, accompanied by his family and numerous colonists. He continued to exercise the chief authority till April, 1630, when, the charter and company having been transferred to New England, John Winthrop arrived and took charge. In 1634, when member of the court of assistants, inflamed, it is said, by the fiery eloquence of Roger Williams, he publicly cut out the red cross of St. George from the king's colors, which hung before the governor's gate, for the reason, as he said, that the cross savored of popery. Endicott was reprimanded, removed from his office, and disqualified to hold any other for the space of one year. It was not long before it became manifest that he was not without sympathizers. Some of the militia refused to march under a flag that displayed what they regarded as an idolatrous figure; and, after no little controversy, the military commissioners agreed that, while the cross should be retained on banners of forts and ships, it should be omitted from the colors of the militia. In 1636, Endicott, in conjunction with Capt. John Underhill, conducted a sanguinary but ineffectual expedition against the Block Island and Pequot Indians. His harsh measures on this occasion were instrumental in bringing on the Pequot war. He was deputy-governor in 1641-'4, in 1650, and in 1654, and governor in 1644, 1649, and from 1650 till 1665, with the exception of 1654. In addition to these honors, he was made in 1645 sergeant major-general, the highest military office in the colony, and in 1685 president of the colonial commissioners. Endicott was a fair specimen of the men who made New England. It was characteristic of the man that, to meet the monetary requirements of the time, he established a mint which, contrary to law, continued to coin money for a period of thirty years. With all his many excellences, however, he had his faults. Of strong convictions, and of great decision of character, he was impatient of any resistance to his authority, and hasty of temper. On one occasion, in the early part of his career, he so far forgot himself as to strike a man, for which offence he was fined forty shillings. He was a Puritan of the Puritans, and would allow no divergence from what he conceived to be the straight line of orthodoxy. He had as little respect for episcopacy as he had for popery, as some of the prelatic clergy found to their cost. His hand fell heavily upon the unfortunate Quakers, of whom, under his administration, four were executed at Boston for so-called disobedience of the laws. But he aimed for good, and he sought, as he best knew how, to secure the highest welfare of the colony. He had been sent out, in the first instance, because he was believed to be a “fit instrument to begin the wilderness work.” “A man of dauntless courage,” says Bancroft, “and that cheerfulness which accompanies courage; benevolent, though austere; firm, though choleric; of a rugged nature, which his stern principles of non-conformity had not served to mellow.”
ENDICOTT, William Crowninshield, secretary of war, b. in Salem, Mass., 19 Nov., 1827. He is a direct descendant of Gov. John Endicott, and is a grandson of Jacob Crowninshield, noticed elsewhere. He was graduated at Harvard in 1847, and, after studying in the law-school and with Nathanael J. Lord, was admitted to the bar in 1850. He was elected a member of the Salem common council in 1852, and five years later became city solicitor. He retired from this office in 1864, and resumed practice, but in 1873 he was appointed by Gov. William B. Washburn to the bench of the supreme court of Massachusetts. This office he held for ten years, when he resigned on account of ill health. He was originally a Whig, but joined the Democrats when the Whig party was broken up, and in November, 1884, was the unsuccessful candidate for governor of Massachusetts. In 1885 he became secretary of war.
