Excerpt from The Bay Colony: A Civil, Religious and Social History of the Massachusetts Colony and Its Settlements From the Landing at Cape Ann in 1624 to the Death of Governor Winthrop in 1650 Of intense interest to its people, and to the many scattered throughout the United States who are of Massachusetts lineage. The causes which led to its settlement; the char acter of the men who laid the foundation stones; the governments they instituted; the provisions they made for religious worship and for the educa tion of the people cannot be too often adverted to or studied. As there are many facts of this period which have not been fully developed, and as writers upon it have differed in some important particulars, it has seemed to me that a history of the period, pre pared from the records and other accepted author ities, would be of value. I have, accordingly, writ ten this work with special reference to the subjects stated on the title-page. Yet the subjects named are so interwoven with the general history of the time, that it has been necessary to incorporate much of it in the work, as illustrating and explain ing the main topics of investigation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.