Humphrey Atherton

They are at best circumstantial. Biographers of the 19th century did agree that he originated from Lancashire, England. However evidence as to when and where he was born has been disputed. [3] Robert Charles Anderson, the author of The Great Migration, was of the opinion that this "does not come close to constituting proof of origin." The majority agree with his year of birth being either 1607 or 1608; on the basis of the parish records that an Edmund Atherton of Winstanley, Lancashire, England died in 1612 leaving, as his son and heir, a four-year-old son named Humphrey. However Douglas Hamilton Hurd, in History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts stated that Atherton was 36 years old when he died in 1661.[4] This is likely to be incorrect since Charles Samuel Hall in Hall Ancestry, view was that when Atherton was made a Freeman (Colonial) and was granted property in 1638, "he must at that time reached his majority,"[5], hence the consensus of 1608, being his year of birth. They have also estimated that Atherton was 15 years old when he was married. His wife, Mary, would have been younger.[6]

The Massachusetts Bay Colony had been founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which included investors in the failed Dorchester Company which had established a short-lived settlement on Cape Ann in 1623. The colony began in 1628 and was the company's second attempt at colonization. It was successful, with about 20,000 people migrating to New England in the 1630s. Atherton was part of this first wave of Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640), along with his wife Mary, and their three young children.

Biographers agree that he and his family travelled from Lancashire to Bristol and then sailed on the James, in the company of the Reverend Richard Mather; a minister from his home town and his future father in law. James Atherton, his kinsman and a relative (but not a sibling) also arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts around the same time. [7]

On June 4, 1635, they set sail for the New World aboard the ship James.[8][9] However quotating another source, it sailed days earlier; [10]

“...the James left King's Road in Bristol on 23 May 1635 with her master, John Taylor, along with the Angel Gabriel, the Elizabeth (the Bess), the Mary and the Diligence. The James and the Angel Gabriel stayed together while the three faster and smaller boats went on to Newfoundland. The Angel was wrecked off the coast of Maine, but the James made it into Boston, torn and shredded”.

As the James approached New England, a hurricane struck and it was forced to ride it out just off the coast of modern-day Hampton, New Hampshire. According to the ship's log and the journal of Increase Mather, the following was recorded;

At this moment,... their lives were given up for lost; but then, in an instant of time, God turned the wind about, which carried them from the rocks of death before their eyes. ...her sails rent in sunder, and split in pieces, as if they had been rotten ragges... (ibid, p.29.)

They tried to stand down during the storm just outside the Isles of Shoals, but lost all three anchors, as no canvas or rope would hold, but on August 17, 1635, torn to pieces, and with not one death, all one hundred plus passengers of the James managed to make it to Boston Harbor. (ibid, p.34.)

Atherton arrived in Boston on August 17, 1635 [11], after weathering the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635.

Historians are confident Atherton, his wife and three young children arrived at the colony in the ship James, August 17, 1635,[6] However there is no record of an Atherton, since there is no actual list in existence.[3] There is a record of Nathaniel Wales having voyaged on the James. He referred to Humphrey Atherton as his "brother-in-law" in his will, so it has been assumed that Atherton's wife, Mary, was Wales' sister. However, the term may have been used because Atherton's daughter, Isabel, was married to Nathaniel Wales, Jr.[12] Atherton’s wife was Mary Kennion.

On June 23, 1636 the newly constituted church at Dorchester held its first communion, all present clergy and congregation names were taken and recorded.[13] It is noted that after Humphrey Atherton’s name is quoted, the three letters Esq (Esquire) are written.[14] A term used to denote he was a ‘Gentleman’ at that time. This gives further credence to the belief he could have been a son of Edmund Atherton ‘Gentleman’ of Winstanley, Lancashire who died April 1613.

Atherton’s peers included Richard Callicott (New England colonist), Israel Stoughton, the representative for Dorchester in the Massachusetts General Court in 1634 and 1635. John Underhill (captain), who was tasked to train the militia, Stephen Daye, a printer and John Sassamon, a Massachusett who became a Christian convert, at the time known as a praying Indian, who helped serve as an interpreter to the colonists.

1613 - His father Edmund Atherton dies.

1625 - Married Mary Kennion (1613-1672) at Winwick Parish

1635 - Departs Bristol seeking opportunities in the New World. Arrived in Boston after the Great Colonial Hurricane [16]

1637 - He appears on the records of Dorchester on March 18

1638 - He is appointed as a freeman.[17] That same year he becomes a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts

1638 - Becomes a representative of the General Court for the first time

1639-1641 - He is chosen again to be a representative of the General Court

1643 - Atherton, now a Lieutenant of the Dorchester Militia [18], is tasked to accompany Captain George Cook of the Cambridge Militia and Lieutenant Edward Johnson of the Woburn Militia, the author of the Wonderworking Providence, to arrest Samuel Gorton and his associates. [19]

1644 - He is sent on an expedition against a Native American tribe. The United Colonies raised an army to protect Uncas, the sachem of the Mohegan’s, against the Narragansett [20]

1650 - He is promoted to captain of ancient and honorable artillery

1653 - He is to the position of Speaker of the House, representing Springfield, Massachusetts in 1653. He becomes Assistant Governor[21]

1654 - As a member of the lower house of the General Court, he would serve as magistrate in the judiciary of the colonial government for the next 8 years[22]

1656 - He is promoted to Major General becoming the Chief Military Officer in New England. Between 1656-1661 he played an active role in the persecution of Quakers[23]

1661 - He is killed instantly after falling from a horse on Boston Common on September 17th [24]

Atherton was active in the court and government of the colony, wielding power and influence, whether it be law making or enforcing and interpreting the daily affairs of the newly formed colony for over 23 years.[26][17]

During this period he was frequently selectman or treasurer,[17] and for several years a member of the Court of Assistants which gave him a say in the appointment of governors, as well as judicial power in criminal and civil matters.[22]

Persecution of individuals accused of witchcraft

Atherton was a strong believer in the evils of witchcraft, and with his position of power, he assisted with the persecution of women of witchcraft. Harlow Elliot Woodword, in Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, said that:

Atherton had believed in witches and felt it to be a duty which he owed to God and to his Country to mete out to the poor creatures, against whom accusations were brought, the punishment, which, in his opinion, they so richly merited.

[3] Woodward said that, in his capacity as assistant, Atherton had been instrumental in bringing about the execution of Mrs. Ann Hibbins,[3] a wealthy widow, who was executed for witchcraft on June 19, 1656.[29] Hibbins was later fictionalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. In that book she was depicted as the sister of Governor Bellingham.[30][31]

Execution of Ann Hibbins on Boston Common, June 19, 1656. Sketch by F.T. Merril, 1886

The Case of Mary Dyer

As a member of the lower house of the General Court, he also served as magistrate in the judiciary of the colonial government,[22]

In his position of authority, Atherton was directly involved in the persecution of Quakers[23] and there were several incidents in particular that the Quakers wrote about his involvement. The case of Mary Dyer [35], a Quaker, who we now know as one of the Boston martyrs. She was executed in 1660 after returning to Boston despite having been banished.

The Quaker “Mary Dyer led to execution on Boston Common, June 1, 1660. Sketch by unknown 19th century artist

The Quaker “Mary Dyer being led to the gallows in Boston, June 1, 1660. Painted in 1905 by Howard Pyle (1853-1911)

Atherton would have been the Assistant Governor at the time, under John Endecott and at the hanging of Mary Dyer he was said to have remarked,

She hangs there like a flag.

[36] The Quakers understood this comment to be an insulting boast.[37] A statue was dedicated to Mary Dyer in June 1959 and is located outside the Massachusetts State House.

The Case of Wenlock Christison

Wenlock Christison, was a Quaker who had also repeatedly returned to Massachusetts despite banishment, whose trial in May, 1661 put an end to the execution of Quakers. He was sentenced to death, but the law was changed soon after, and he was not executed. He was the last Quaker to be sentenced to death in Massachusetts. The Quakers believed that during an altercation between the accused and Atherton at the trial, Christison prophesied the outcome of his trial as well as the circumstances of Atherton's untimely death.

Quaker writer George Bishop wrote,

Yea, Wenlock Christison, though they did not put him to death, yet they sentenced him to die, so that their cruel purposes were nevertheless. I cannot forbear to mention what he spoke, being so prophetical, not only as to the judgment of God coming on Major-general Adderton, but as to their putting any more Quakers to death after they had passed sentence on him.

[38] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recreated the Christison trial in his play John Endicott which included the damnation of Atherton by the accused.[39]

In 1638 Atherton was a founding member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts [17] and organized the first trained band (militia) in Dorchester.[21][17][21]

The Artillery Company was a focal point in the colony for people who disagreed with the orthodoxy of the colony's Puritan leaders. Many of its leading members, Leverett among them, opposed the colonial crackdowns on religious dissenters.[41] Its members also engaged in trade. They frequently partnered in trading ventures.[42]. The mixture of military leadership and commercial enterprise would have led to conflicts of interest.

From Captain of the Militia to Major

Atherton was promoted to Captain.[44]

In 1644 he [Atherton] was sent, with Captains Johnson and Cook, to Narragansett to arrest and try Samuel Gorton for heresy. It was hoped that Gorton's complaint of his treatment was exaggerated, for he said, in passing through Dorchester. 'A large concourse of persons assembled with several ministers to witness the passage of the troops, and the prisoners were stationed apart and volleys of musketry fired over their heads in token of victory.'[28]

In 1643, Massachusetts Bay Colony sent Atherton as part of a militia force to Shawomett to arrest Samuel Gorton, the founder of Warwick, Rhode Island. Some articles refer to his crime being heresy. However the most likely reason for Gorton’s forced removal was a land dispute. The Indian Sachem Miantonomi had sold Gorton the Shawhomett Purchase for 144 fathoms of wampum, which included the towns of Coventry and West Warwick, Rhode Island. Disputing the purchase were Sachems Sacononoco and Pumham who claimed that Miantonomi had sold their land without asking for their approval. These Sachems took their case to Boston, where they placed their lands under Massachusetts rule.

After a tense standoff, he surrendered to the Massachusetts forces. This event led to the unity of three settlements on Narragansett Bay (Providence Plantations, Portsmouth, and Newport) and seeking a royal charter, thereby allowing them to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Atherton lead the English expedition into Narraganset country in 1644 with the aim of renewing alliances. The English had already defeated the Pequots in the eastern part of Connecticut. Ninigret was the sachem of the Niantic people, a tribe of the Narragansets who fought an English proxy war against the Mohegans lead by Uncas. However Ninigret and his men abandoned their siege.

Captain Humphrey Atherton and his men enter Ninigret’s wigwam using force

Atherton, who held the rank of Captain at the time, marched into the wigwam of Ninigret and threatened his Ninigret’s life. This step had the desired effect and the sachem begged for his life, and promised submission. [45]

Native American tribal territory during colonial period

In 1645, the New England Colonies met by representatives to consult upon the tribal differences and appointed a Council of War; Capt. Miles Standish [46], of Plymouth, was chairman. John Mason (c. 1600–1672) of Connecticut; John Leverett and Atherton of Massachusetts, were the other councilors".[17]

The New England colonies, with the exception of Rhode Island, formed a confederation called "The Four United Colonies of New England". Rhode Island, according to The Proceedings of the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1881–1882, was excluded, not for reasons of religious differences, but because its founder, Roger Williams, had been banished from Massachusetts "for denying the right of the magistrates to take the lands of the Indians with out compensating the owners".[47] The United Colonies obtained Narragansett lands within the boundaries of Rhode Island by putting in motion a series of events that began with their promise of aid to the Mohegan Sachem, Uncas, whom they had supported during the Pequot War, if he declared war against the Narragansett Sachem, Miantinomo. During the ensuing war, Miantinomo was captured and brought to the commissioners of the Four United Colonies at Hartford. "After obtaining him as a captive, they could find no excuse for putting him to death; and, to avoid the responsibility, they referred his case for decision to a convention of ministers in Boston; [sic] Winthrop states, 'Miantinomo was killed near Hartford by a blow on the back of his head with a hatchet.' " [47]

Uncas and Miantinomo

The Connecticut settlers demanded land from Uncas in return for their assistance to him. "Trumbull states, 'Mr. Leffingwell obtained nearly the whole township of Norwich for his services.'"[47] Miantinomo's successor, Pessicus, declared war against Uncas and the colonies fined him 2000 fathoms of wampum for causing the hostilities, which he was unable to pay."[47]

Humphrey Atherton was sent by the commissioners of the Four Colonies, with twenty armed men, to enforce the payment. As stated in Arnold's history of Rhode Island (vol. i., p. 199), 'Atherton forced his way, pistol in hand, into the wigwam, and, seizing the Sachem by the hair, dragged him out, threatening instant death if any resistance was offered.' The debt was settled by Pessicus giving a mortgage of all his lands to the commissioners of the Four Colonies.[47]

He was promoted to Major after the invasion of Warwick.

Atherton was a merchant who traded soap and other items in Dorchester. He was as a wealthy man and had significant influence in the militia as well as in local government and the judiciary.

He owned land in Dorchester, which included a large portion of South Boston. He also owned a share of land in what later would become Milton, Massachusetts. The General Court awarded 500 acres (2.0 km²) to him for his public service, but because some of it impeded the town on Hadley, Massachusetts, he was given a new grant that had an additional 200 acres (0.81 km²). Since he had represented Springfield, Massachusetts in the General Court, he probably owned land in Springfield as well. When he died, his estate was worth 900 pounds, not including much of this land.[50]

Atherton married Mary Kennion on March 29, 1625 at Winwick Parish[59] [3] [60]

Joshua Atherton wrote about the origins of his family in the 18th century and said that Humphrey Atherton and his wife were each about 15 years old when they were married. [61][6]

The last name of his wife is often disputed, with her being referred to as Mary Wales, due to Atherton being named as a brother-in-law to Nathaniel Wales. Confusion arose because of this and the most Plausible reason for him being referred to as a brother in law is because his daughter Isabel married Nathaniel Wales Jnr.

He and his wife, Mary, had 12 children and several New England families have traced their ancestry to them. He is interred at Dorchester North Burying Ground, one of the oldest cemeteries in New England.[62]

Children of Humphrey and Mary Atherton:

• Jonathan Atherton (1627-1673) [], was born on Dec 26, 1628 and baptized two days later in Winwick, Lancashire, England. Jonathan was a mariner and became the commander of the “Merchant Adventurer” of London 300 tons and was licensed to carry 180 passengers to New England. [63] This vessel also sailed the Atlantic and traded with Barbados. Jonathan married the niece of Sir Henry Firebrace (1619-1691) on Sep 19, 1663 in Cornhill, Aldgate, London, three years after the restoration of the monarchy. Jonathan and Sarah (Firebrace) Atherton had two daughters. Jonathan was mentioned in Firebrace’s biography, titled 'Honest Harry' [64]He died on August 15, 1673, aged 45.
• Elizabeth Atherton (1628-1678) (some researchers refer to her as Catherine) married Timothy Mather, the brother of Increase Mather and son of the Reverend Richard Mather, in 1650. She died on May 5, 1678, aged 50.
• Isabel Atherton (1630-1661) was baptised 23 Jan 1630. She married Nathaniel Wales, Jr.
• Mary Atherton (1636-1692) was married to William Billings on Dec 12, 1657 and Joseph Weeks on Apr 9, 1669.
• Margaret Atherton (1638-1672) was married to James Trowbridge.
• Rest Atherton (1638-1660) was married to Obadiah Swift.
• Increase Atherton (1641-1672) was baptized February, 1641. He left Massachusetts for England and lived in the Parish of St Paul’s, Shadwell. He died at sea on the Friezland, whilst in the service of the Guiney Company.
• Thankful Atherton was born in 1644. She married Thomas Bird of Dorchester.
• Rev. Hope Atherton (1646-1677) [65]was baptized on August 20, 1646. [66] He was minister of Hadley, Massachusetts. He married Sarah Hollister. [67] He served as a Chaplain in the King Philips War and got separated from troops during the Battle of Turner's Falls.[68][69]

• Consider Atherton married Ann Annably on December 14, 1671 [70]
• Watching Atherton , was born in 1651. He married Elizabeth Rigbee.
• Patience Atherton, was born in 1654. She married Issac Humphrey.[12]

His property passed onto his grandson and namesake Humphrey Atherton, the son of Consider Atherton, his second son.[71]

Many U.S. and Canadian families have traced their ancestry to this early settler who is interred at Dorchester North Burying Ground, one of the oldest cemeteries in New England.

• The Trowbridge Genealogy: History of the Trowbridge Family in America, New Haven, Connecticut[72] by Francis Bacon Trowbridge.
• The History of the Dorchester Pope Family: 1634–1888,[17] by Charles Henry Pope and Hall Ancestry,[5]by Charles Samuel Hall.
• George Caster Martin traced his ancestry to Atherton in his article Humphrey Atherton: Founder of the Atherton Family of New England in National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Volume 1, Issue 4.[28]
• In the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Volume 60, some of Humphrey Atherton's descendants are included in the Belcher Genealogy.[73]
• William B. Task claimed descent from Atherton in the 1899 New England Historical Genealogical Register.[74]

Atherton’s descendants number in the thousands today. Some of his notable descendants include;

• Susan B. Anthony, woman-suffrage advocate and lecturer [] 5 generations down via Humphrey’s daughter Margaret.
• Benjamin C. Bradlee, Editor-in-chief of the Washington Post
• Scott Foley, U.S. Actor [75]
• Robert Hutchings Goddard, rocket scientist and space pioneer, inventor of liquid-fueled rocket
• King Leka I, King of the Albanians
• Alfred Lee Loomis, physicist and financier
• Henry Lewis Stimson , U.S. Secretary of War
• Raquel Welch ( AKA: Jo Raquel Tejada), entertainer
• T. V. John Langworthy, songwriter singer

Those sharing the same last name include:

• Charles Gordon Atherton (1804-1853) was an American Politician and lawyer from New Hampshire. Elected to the United States House of Representatives from 1837 to 1843. Elected to the United States Senate from 1843 to 1849 and then again in 1853. He was a Democrat.

• Charles Humphrey Atherton, (1773-1853), was an American Federalist politician, banker and a distinguished attorney from New Hampshire.

• Joshua Atherton (1737–1809), son of Col. Peter Atherton and Experience Wright, was a lawyer and early anti-slavery campaigner in Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Direct descent:

• Percy Lee Atherton 1871–1944), was an Harvard educated American Composer and a music teacher from Boston, Massachusetts.

• Ray Atherton (1883-1960), was a United States diplomat who served as the first United States Ambassador to Canada (1943–48).

• Samuel Atherton (January was a Massachusetts businessman who served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.[76]

• Samuel Edward Atherton's ancestry was traced to Humphrey Atherton.[77]

On September 16, 1661, Atherton was riding his horse through Boston Common, on his way home after drilling his troops when his mount collided with a cow. He died from head injuries sustained in a fall from his horse.[21][17][6] [78]

The death of Atherton, by accident, in 1661, deprived the colony of one of its principal men.

The diary of John Hull (merchant) [79] described the event

.... he was taken up speechless and senseless, and so continued from six o’clock till one o’clock in the morning, and died. Sept 20. His corpse attended to the grave with ten foot-companies, and the country troop from Boston to Dorchester.

Atherton’s accidental death was seen by the Quakers as a punishment from God for his persecution of them,[38] an idea repeated in a play by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Woodward, aforementioned author of Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, said that because of Atherton's persecution of the Quakers:

they believed his horrible death to be God's visitation of wrath

[3] Woodword credits Joseph Besse, a Quaker author, with the following account of Atherton's death:

Humfray Adderton, who at the trial of Wenlock Christison, did, as it were, bid defiance to Heaven, by saying to Wenlock, 'You pronounce Woes and Judgements, and those that are gone before you pronounced Woes and Judgements; but the Judgements of the Lord God are not upon us yet,' was suddenly surprised: having been, on a certain day, exercising his men with much pomp and ostentation, he was returning home in the evening, near the place where they usually loosed the Quakers from the cart, after they had whipped them, his horse, suddenly affrighted, threw him with such violence, that he instantly died; his eyes being dashed out of his head, and his brains coming out of his nose, his tongue hanging out at his mouth, and the blood running out at his ears: Being taken up and brought into the Courthouse, the place where he had been active in sentencing the innocent to death, his blood ran through the floor, exhibiting to the spectators a shocking instance of the Divine vengeance against a daring and hardened persecutor; that made a fearful example of that divine judgment, which, when forewarned of, he had openly despised, and treated with disdain.[3][80]

Longfellow repeated this sentiment in his account of Atherton's death in the final scene of John Endicott. In the scene Governor Endicott, while speaking to Richard Bellingham, asks if it is true that Humphrey Atherton is dead. Bellingham confirms that he is and adds:

His horse took fright, and threw him to the ground, so that his brains were dashed about the street.

[81] Endicott responds:

I am not superstitious, Bellingham, and yet I tremble lest it may have been a judgment on him.

[81]

Atherton, whose wife, Mary died in 1672.[12] is interred at the Dorchester North Burying Place in Boston. Engraved upon his tombstone are the following words [82]:

Here lies our Captain & Major of Suffolk was withall;
A godly magistrate was he, and Major General;
Two troop horse with him here comes, such worth his love did crave
Two companies of foot also mourning march to his grave,
Let all that read be sure to keep the faith as he has done
With Christ he lives now crowned, his name was Humphrey Atherton.[21]

Winthrop’s journal incorrectly states that Atherton died in 1665. All other records and his gravestone indicate that he died in 1661.[83]

The Tomb of Major General Humphrey Atherton.

Dorchester North Burying Place, where Major-General Humphrey Atherton is interred

• Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts - chartered March 1638

• Peep at the Pigrims: A tale from 1636 - published in 1826

• New England Historical Society

• Rhode Island -Early History

• Dorchester Historical Society

• Dorchester North Burying Ground
• Humphrey Atherton at Find a Grave
• Rhode Island Historical Society
• Memoirs concerning the French settlements and French settlers in the colony of Rhode Island
• Mohegan Tribe
• Nipmuc Nation
• Narragansett Tribe