The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Endicott, John

ENDICOTT, John, governor of Massachusetts, born in Dorchester, England, in 1589, died in Boston, Mass., March 15, 1665. He was sent out by the “Massachusetts Company” to carry on the plantation at Naumkeag, or Salem, where he arrived Sept. 6, 1628. In April, 1629, he was chosen governor of “London's plantation;” but in August it was determined to transfer the charter and government of the colony to New England, and Winthrop was appointed governor. In 1636, with Capt. Underhill, Endicott conducted the sanguinary but ineffectual expedition against the Block Island and Pequot Indians. He was deputy governor of the Massachusetts colony from 1641 to 1644, in 1650, and 1654; and was governor in 1644 and 1649, from 1651 to 1654, and from 1655 to 1665. He was bold and energetic, a sincere and zealous Puritan, rigid in his principles, and severe in the execution of the laws against those who differed from the religion of the colony. So averse was he to everything savoring of popery, that he cut out the cross from the military standard. He was opposed to long hair, insisted that the women should wear veils in public assemblies, and did all in his power to establish what he deemed a pure church. During his administration four Quakers were put to death in Boston.