The New International Encyclopædia/Endecott, John

EN'DECOTT, John (c.1588-1665). A Colonial Governor of Massachusetts, born in Dorchester, England. He was one of the six ‘joint adventurers’ of Dorchester who, in March, 1628, obtained a patent of the Massachusetts Bay Territory, and in the same year led the company of about one hundred which, early in September, settled in Naumkeag (later Salem). He acted for a time as Governor, but in June, 1630, was superseded by Winthrop. Endecott then became a member of Governor Winthrop's Council of Assistants. In August, 1636, Endecott led an expedition against the Pequots on Block Island, but accomplished little. He was Deputy Governor of the Colony in 1642-43; served as Governor in 1664; became Sergeant-Major-General of Massachusetts in 1645, and from 1649 until his death, with the exception of 1650 and 1654, when he was Deputy Governor, was Governor of the Colony. In 1658 he was elected President of the United Colonies of New England. During his term as Governor he served the interests of the Colony with great ability and energy. Consult: C. M. Endicott, Memoir of John Endecott (Salem, 1847), privately printed, but reproduced in part in vol. i. of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, 1847), and a “Memorial of Governor John Endecott,” by Salisbury, in Antiquarian Papers (Worcester, 1879).