Mistress Bradstreet (43 page)

CHAPTER EIGHT:
The Crossing

1. Winthrop, “Easter Monday, 29 March, 1630,” in
Journal of John Winthrop
(The Winthrop Society) at www.winthropsociety.org/journal.php.
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2. Winthrop left out any account of his own fear when he recorded the Dutch vessel’s story in his shipboard journal (“in passing through the Needles, [the ship] struck upon a rock, and being forced to run ashore to save her men, could never be weighed since, although she lies a great height above the water”), but still it was an ominous bedfellow to share a berth with. “Tuesday, 30 March, 1630,” in ibid.
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3. Cressy,
Crossing Over,
148.
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4. Richard Mather, “Richard Mather’s Journal,” in Young,
Chronicles,
449.
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5. Winthrop, “Thursday, April 1, and 2,” in
Journal of John Winthrop,
at www.winthropsociety.org/journal.php.
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6.
A Humble Request
(The Winthrop Society) at www.winthropsociety.org/doc_humble.php.
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7. This is based on Winthrop’s report that the ladies went ashore. Clearly, Winthrop meant the highly ranked women, and Anne was one of them. But he does not supply us with all of their names. Winthrop, “Tuesday, 6 [April],” in
Journal of John Winthrop,
ed. Dunn and Yeandle, 15.
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8. Winthrop, “Thursday, 8 [April],” in ibid.
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9. Ibid., 16.
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10. Ibid.
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11. Ibid.
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12. Ibid., 17.
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13. Ibid. Of the English ships, three were “bound for the Straits” and three others were headed for Canada and Newfoundland.
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14. Cressy,
Crossing Over,
161.
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15. Winthrop, Saturday, 10 [April],” in
Journal of John Winthrop,
at www.winthropsociety.org/journal.php.
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16. Winthrop, “Monday, 12 [April],” ibid.
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17. Cressy,
Crossing Over,
170.
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18. Winthrop, “Saturday, 17 [April],” in
Journal of John Winthrop,
ed. Dunn and Yeandle, 19.
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19. Cressy,
Crossing Over,
171.
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20. Ibid.,
171-72
.
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21. Ibid., 149. Cressy writes, “It is not far-fetched to imagine a bonding among Atlantic travelers of the kind that is found among veterans of other intensive group experiences. Confined for eight to twelve weeks or more to a tiny wooden world, the travelers were thrust into intimacies that might never have developed on land.” Ibid., 151.
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22. Bradstreet, “Another,” in
Works,
227, line 12.
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23. Cotton Mather,
The Sailours Companion,
39, quoted in Cressy,
Crossing Over,
164.
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24. Quoted in ibid., 172.
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25. Richard Mather, “Richard Mather’s Journal,” in Young,
Chronicles,
460-67
.
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26. John Josselyn,
Account of Two Voyages
(London, 1672),
9, 8
, quoted in Cressy,
Crossing Over,
174. Richard Mather, “Richard Mather’s Journal,” in Young,
Chronicles,
460-67
, quoted in Cressy,
Crossing Over.
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27. Winthrop, “Saturday, 8 May,” in
Journal of John Winthrop,
at www.winthropsociety.org/journal.php.
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28. Psalms 107 and 136. John Cope,
A Religious Inquisition
(London, 1629), 59, quoted in Cressy,
Crossing Over,
172.
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29. Winthrop, “Thursday, 6 May,” in
Journal of John Winthrop,
at www.winthropsociety.org/journal.php.
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30. Winthrop, “Tuesday, 11 May,” ibid.
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31. In his diary Winthrop did not reflect on the possible loss of the
Talbot
but softened the accounts of the deaths on the other two ships by reporting that the man’s demise on the
Jewel
was not much of a loss because he was “a most profane fellow, and one who was very injurious to the passengers.” He comforted himself that the two deaths on the
Ambrose
did not need to alarm anyone, because it turned out that the casualties were “sick when they came to sea; and one of them should have been left at Cowes [in England].” Winthrop, “Thursday, 27 May,” ibid.
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32. Winthrop, “Wednesday, 26 May,” ibid.
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33. Winthrop, “Thursday, 3 June,” “Friday, 4 June,” ibid.
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34. Winthrop, “Lord’s Day, 6 June,” ibid.
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35. Winthrop, “Monday, 7 June,” ibid.
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36. Winthrop, “Tuesday, 8 June,” ibid.
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37. Winthrop, “Saturday, 12 June,” ibid.
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38. Bradstreet, “Autobiography,” 241.
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CHAPTER NINE:
New World, New Manners

1. Thomas Dudley, “Letter to the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln, 12 and 18 March 1631,” (The Winthrop Society) at www.winthropsociety.org/doc_bridget.php.
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2. Bradstreet, “Autobiography,” in
Works,
241.
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3. Dudley, “Letter to the Lady Bridget.”
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4. Morison,
Builders,
80.
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5. MS transcript of the original records of the First Church in Boston,
1630-87
, collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, quoted in White,
Anne Bradstreet,
114.
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6. Bradstreet, “Autobiography,” in
Works,
241.
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7. Nathaniel Brewster Blackstone, “The Biography of the Reverend William Blackstone and his Ancestors and Descendants,” at www.Dangel.net/AMERICA/Blackstone/REV.WM.BLACKSTONE.html.
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8. It is not clear where Johnson died. Edmund Morgan suggests Boston. See
Puritan Dilemma,
61.
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9. Dudley, “Letter to the Lady Bridget.”
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10. Ibid.
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11. Ibid.
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12. Ibid.; Cressy,
Crossing Over,
195.
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13. John Pond’s letter to his father, March 1631, quoted in Cressy,
Crossing Over,
195.
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14. John Winthrop, quoted in ibid.,
195-96
.
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15. Quoted in Morison,
Builders,
81.
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16. Later in life she would describe her first son as “the son of prayers, of vows, of tears.” Bradstreet, “Upon My Son Samuel, His Going to England,” in
Works,
258, line 3.
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17. Edward Everett Hale et al., eds.,
Note-Book Kept by Thomas Lechford, ESQ,
1638
to
1641 (1884; reprint Camden, Me.: Picton Press, 1988), 177, quoted in Norton,
Founding Mothers and Fathers,
76.
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18. Dudley, “Letter to the Lady Bridget.”
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19. Ibid.
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20. Ibid.
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21. Baym et al.,
Norton Anthology of American Literature,
3rd ed.,
22-23
.
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22. Thomas Morton,
New English Canaan,
The Third Book, chap. 14, in ibid., 25.
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23. Quoted in Morison,
Builders,
16-17
.
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24. Dudley, “Letter to the Lady Bridget.”
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25. Ibid.
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26. Thomas Morton, quoted in Morison.
Builders,
18.
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27. Dudley, “Letter to the Lady Bridget.”
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28. Quoted in Morison,
The Founding of Harvard,
184, 186
.
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29. The founders of Watertown, two Puritan brethren, George Phillips and Sir Richard Saltonstall, had laid the foundations for their ambitious village on a site later known as Gerry’s Landing, and they had also claimed the acreage for half a mile downstream. Ibid.
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30. Dudley, “Letter to the Lady Bridget.”
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31. Ibid.
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32. Ibid.
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33. Johnson,
Wonder-Working Providence of Sion’s Saviour in New England
(London, 1654), quoted in Morison,
The Founding of Harvard,
189.
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CHAPTER TEN:
Upon My Son

1. Bradstreet, “Autobiography,” in
Works,
241.
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2. Ibid.
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3. Bradstreet, “Upon a Fit of Sickness,” in
Works,
222.
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4. Bradstreet, “Autobiography,” in
Works,
241.
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5. Bradstreet, “The Prologue.” See especially the famous line “Who says my hand a needle better fits.” In
Works,
16.
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6. Psalm 23 from
The Bay Psalm Book
in McMichael et al.,
Concise Anthology of American Literature,
50.
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7. See especially “An Elegy upon That Honourable and Renowned Knight Sir Philip Sidney” for her preoccupation with fame. Bradstreet,
Works,
189-91
.
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8. Bradstreet, “Upon a Fit of Sickness,” in
Works,
222, lines
1-2
, 13.
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9. Bradstreet, “Autobiography,”
240-45
, as well as the poems and meditations on illness and death such as “May
11, 1661
,” “September
30, 1657
,” “August
28, 1656
,” “For Deliverance from a Fever,” in Bradstreet,
Works,
259, 257, 254, 247.
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10. Bradstreet, “Upon My Son Samuel,” in
Works,
258, line 7.
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11. Ulrich,
Good Wives,
19-21
. Ulrich provides a careful examination of a woman’s seasonal chores in her description of the lifestyle of an early immigrant woman, Beatrice Plummer.
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12. Ulrich,
A Midwife’s Tale,
50.
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13. Ulrich,
Good Wives,
22.
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14. Ibid., 23. This account of killing a pig is based entirely on Ulrich’s description of this process.
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15. Ibid., 22.
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16. Ibid., 152. Ulrich writes, “The custom of naming a child for a dead sibling was part of a larger pattern of remembrance. Almost all New England children, whether named for grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, or lost brothers or sisters, became carriers of the past.”
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17. Earle,
Child Life in Colonial Days,
18.
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18. Ibid., 23.
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19. Ulrich,
Good Wives,
129; Goodhue, “Valedictory and Monitory Writing,” in Waters,
Ipswich,
519-24
.
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20. Ulrich,
Good Wives,
126-27
.
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21. For a more complete description of bread making in general, see ibid., 21. For the tradition of starting the bread with the first labor pangs, I am indebted to Carol Hong Richon, a practicing midwife. For food eaten by women in labor, see ibid., 127.
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22. Ibid., 131. Ulrich writes, “Momentarily at least, childbirth reversed the positions of the sexes, thrusting women into center stage, casting men in supporting roles.”
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23. Quoted in ibid.
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24. Ibid.
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25. Quoted in ibid.
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26. Ibid., 129.
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27. Earle,
Child Life,
15.
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28. Bradstreet, “Childhood,” in
Works,
53.
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29. Earle,
Child Life,
11.
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