vessel, crowded with passengers, to share the doubtful fortunes of an unknown wilderness.
The vessels sent from England by the merchant adventurers had for years rendezvoused at Cape Ann to cure and prepare the large quantities of fish taken by them for the European markets, and it was a remunerative trade for the farmers there. It had been a fishing and curing station for years, and with its variety of vegetables and abundance of fish, added to the game and other animal food obtained in trade with the Indians, the thriving community did not lack the means of good and wholesome living. They also had their little chapel where common prayer was offered on the Sabbath by "one Master Rashley, their chaplain," as we are told by Leckford. When the Puritans afterward settled at Boston they received and fellowshipped Chaplain Rashley for eight or ten years, although he was not of them exactly.
For ten years Mr. Avery, with his son James, enjoyed that pleasant community, his greatest privation being that of the disinclination of his wife to come over and join them in their new home. As he could not persuade her to cross the ocean, he was compelled to send her so much of his earnings and savings as he could spare for her support there. She never came to America.
In 1642 the Cape Ann settlement had become so considerable that the General Court of the Colony incorporated it as the Town of Gloucester, and the Rev. Mr. Blinman, a Dissenting minister, who had made an unsuccessful effort to settle with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, was, by the Boston authorities, sent to Gloucester with a small company of Welshmen, who had accompanied him over the sea, to settle. This was not so pleasant for Christopher Avery, who had so long been the leading man of the settlement with Chaplain Rashley, but he was a man of so decided mark that he was nevertheless elected over and over again as selectman of his new town, notwithstanding the persistent and shameful persecution of the newcomers.
In 1643 his son James Avery, then 23 years old, went to Boston and brought to his home in Gloucester his young bride, Joanna Greenslade, who had with her a certificate of good standing in the Boston church, dated January 17, 1644.
Notwithstanding Mr. Blinman's ecclesiastical precedence, he was rather overshadowed by Christopher Avery, the civilian and sometimes first selectman. Insomuch that after he had been there six or seven years he became "dissatisfied with his teaching," (as old Governor Winthrop wrote to his son John, then Governor of Connecticut,) and gladly accepted the call to settle at the mouth of the Thames, (Pequot,) where New London now stands.
He was accompanied by most of the leading members of his church at Gloucester, and among them James Avery with his young wife and three children. James sold all his land at Gloucester to his father Christopher in 1651, for he had settled at New London, October 19, 1650, with what was called the Cape Ann Colony. Mr. Blinman preached at New London about as long as he had at Gloucester, and then left, dissatisfied, for England. Christopher Avery remained in Massachusetts until after Blinman had left for England, and then joined his son James at New London, and in the valley of the Pequonuc.
James Avery and Joanna Greenslade had ten children, three born at Gloucester, before 1650, and seven at New London, afterwards. Their youngest son, Samuel, was born August 14, 1664, who married Susan Palmer, daughter of Major Edward Palmer and granddaughter of Governor John Winthrop, Jr., on the 27th of October, 1686, and with her had ten children, to wit: Samuel, b. August 11, 1687; Jonathan, b. January 18, 1689; William, b. August 25, 1692; Mary, b. January 10, 1695; Christopher,
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