The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Endicott, John

ENDICOTT, John, American colonial governor: b. Dorchester, England, 1589; d. Boston, Mass., 15 March 1665. He was sent out to this country by the “Massachusetts Company” to carry on the plantation at Naumkeag, or Salem, where he arrived 6 Sept. 1628. In April 1629 he was chosen governor of “London's plantation”; but in August it was determined to transfer the charter of the colony to New England, and Winthrop was appointed governor. Endicott was deputy-governor of the Massachusetts colony 1641-44, in 1650 and 1654; and was governor in 1644 and 1649, 1651-54 and 1655-65. 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 like 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. In 1659, during his administration, four Quakers were put to death in Boston. Consult Endicott, C. M., ‘Memoir of John Endicott’ (Salem 1847).