300th Anniversary Celebration of New England’s ‘Winthrop Fleet’

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about Salem’s 300^th anniversary celebration of the arrival of the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, in the early stages of the Puritan’s Great Migration to New England. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

In 1930 Salem, Massachusetts, celebrated the 300^th anniversary of the coming of the Great Migration of Puritans to New England.

The “Winthrop Fleet,” a group of 11 ships sailing under the leadership of John Winthrop and funded by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailed from England’s Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to Massachusetts Bay, departing in April 1630 and arriving in Salem Harbor June 12. The Arbella was the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet.

The Boston Herald covered the events of the tercentenary celebration, which extended into the whole week offering bright pageantry.

A reproduction of the Winthrop Fleet’s flagship Arbella (aka Arabella) – named for passenger Lady Arbella Johnson, one of the first to arrive in 1630 – would once again sail into Salem Harbor with a triumphal reenactment.

The Boston Herald covered the Salem tercentenary celebration.

This photo caption read:

First view of completed reproduction of the Arbella, ready to sail into Salem and Boston harbors. The vessel is the old Maine schooner Lavolta, transformed for the Salem celebration, June 12.

The Arbella was crewed by a group of descendants, all from the original passengers, to represent their ancestors – with their leader, Governor John Winthrop, played by his lineal descendant Frederic Bayard Winthrop.

Besides Gov. Winthrop, other notables represented onboard (with family members) were: Captain John Underhill, Sir Richard Saltonstall, William Vassal, Rev. George Philips, William Pynchon, Simon Bradstreet, Thomas Dudley, and his daughter the poetess Anne Dudley Bradstreet.

The article accompanying the above newspaper photo of the Arbella detailed some of the events in the week-long Salem celebration.

To summarize the Herald’s report:

The start of the events opened with Judge Alden Perley White, who delivered an address at the Second Church. His topic was “the life of one of the notable early leaders of Salem,” the acclaimed Rev. Dr. William Bentley, born to Joshua Bentley and Elizabeth Paine.

Rev. Bentley was one of Salem’s prominent ministers whose diary is a treasure trove of information including births, marriages, and deaths.

Salem Mayor George Joseph Bates announced that banks and town offices would close early, and some establishments would not open at all, on Thursday, June 12 – “the gala day of the celebration.” Two U.S. Navy destroyers, the Kane and the Brooks, were in Salem from Wednesday through early Friday.

The featured locale of the ceremonies was at Forest River Park, where a colonial site “Pioneer Village” was erected earlier that year in conjunction with the replica of the Arbella.

Pioneer Village had it all and was considered the first living museum: wigwams, a sawmill, a blacksmith mill, dugouts, a well, and all the necessary shaming contraptions (stocks, a pillory, and a ducking stool) to keep the Puritan flock in step with the “pure” ideals of their “City on the hill.”

The Salem Cadet Band performed, and a finale of fireworks was featured at the Salem Willows Thursday night.

The gala day was a huge success attended by 50,000 people, as reported in the Boston Herald the next day.

And a story is not solid without the scandal! In one instance, a woman was placed in the pillory as punishment for sporting too bright a scarlet dress, a gesture found criminal and unseemly for such a display of brilliance. Several fashion laws were enacted early on by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Read more: Our Puritan Ancestors: Mass Bay Residents Waged a Fashion War in the Colony.

The Herald reported:

One woman in the pageant, it is true, who chose too bright a scarlet [dress], was put in the stocks [pillory] and jeered at by the populace. Extremes of brilliance were unseemly.

A common scold, much to the delight of small boys in the audience, is punished on the ducking stool. Brave actress; several times, she was actually dipped into the muddy pond.

Along with the Herald, the Boston Globe also covered the Salem celebration and the activities in the Pioneer Village, and published this photo to document another scandal that sometimes disturbed the Massachusetts Bay Colony: drunkenness. At Pioneer Village, a drunkard Puritan man played by W. Russell Burns stands in the pillory for his loutish transgression as Thomas Cobbett, minister of the colony (played by George W. Hooper) offers hm consolation. Courtesy of the Research Services Department, Boston Public Library Archives.

The 13 June 1930 edition of the Boston Herald included a list of the actors who played some of the passengers onboard the Arbella during the reenactment of its arrival in Salem Harbor. Here are a few listed:

• John Winthrop: Frederic Winthrop
• Adam Winthrop: Frederic Winthrop Jr.
• Stephen Winthrop: Richard Fellows
• Simon Bradstreet and wife: Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Bradstreet
• George Phillips and wife: Mr. and Mrs. James Duncan Phillips
• Sir Richard Saltonstall: John L. Saltonstall
• Rosamond Saltonstall: Miss Lucy Saltonstall Rantoul
• Richard Saltonstall: Neal Boyd
• James Downing: J. Vester Downing
• Samuel Dudley: Donald B. Jelly
• Patience Dudley: Miss Constance Fuller
• Isaac Johnson: Barrie M. White
• Lady Arbella Johnson: Miss Sylvia Benson. Note: Arbella was the daughter of Thomas Clinton, 3^rd Earl of Lincoln and his wife Elizabeth. She married Rev. Isaac Johnson before they sailed to America.
• Ezekiel Richardson and wife: Mr. and Mrs. J. Asbury Pitman
• Charles Fiennes: William O. Safford
• Major William Hawthorne: Walter H. Trumbull. Note: William’s daughter Elizabeth Hawthorne, also a passenger, married Capt. Richard Davenport (see The Story behind an Ancestor’s Unusual Name: Truecross Davenport).
• Increase Nowell: William C. Waters
• Increase Nowell: Miss Mary D. Waters
• Elizabeth Cogan Gibson: Miss Dorothy Jenkins
• William Vasall and wife: Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Williams Jr.
• William Coddington and wife: Mr. and Mrs. Hulings C. Brown
• Peter Milburne: Capt. Edward B. Trumbull

You can read more about the Salem celebration and the Winthrop Fleet at American-Archives.

I am just getting started so stay tuned!

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Note on the header image: this replica of Arbella was built in 1930 for the 300^th anniversary of the Winthrop Fleet’s arrival at Salem on 12 June 1630, in conjunction with Pioneer Village, where it is now located. Credit: the Tichnor Brothers Collection, Boston Public Library, Print Department.