Persecution continuing in England, voluntary exiles for conscience-sake still cast their eyes beyond the great waters for the land of refuge. Among these was Roger Conant, who by the aid and advice of his friend, a puritan minister of Dorchester, named White, left England with a small company, and who, having endeavoured, but in vain, to establish themselves on Cape Ann, after incredible sufferings removed to Salem, on the Bay of Massachusetts. The scheme of this colony was in the meantime still further perfecting itself in the mother-country. Down in the south-west of England, and among the fens of Lincolnshire, the suffering for conscience-sake not only discussed it among themselves, but communicating together on the subject, determined to purchase from the unscrupulous council for New England a grant of territory. This was soon accommodated, and a portion of the land already conveyed to Gorges and Mason was assigned to them; and John Endicott, whose name alone seems to personify the stern spirit of puritanism, was, as “a fit instrument for this wilderness-work,” chosen leader of a company which embraced within its ranks some of the most distinguished men of the colony. Endicott, with whom came his wife and family, settled down with his company, as Conant had done, in the dreary wilderness around Salem. Within a short time of their landing, three brothers of the name of Sprague, and four others, penetrated the forest, to a place called by the Indians Mishawum, where they found an Englishman, a smith, living, and here they settled, calling the place Charlestown. Tidings having reached England of the safe arrival of this company, “the men of Boston, and others,” decided on following their example; and the next year, “after much labour and great expense,” the patent of the council of Plymouth was confirmed by the king, Charles I., and the powers of government conveyed to them under the name of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New England. It is a singular circumstance in this charter, that the government, while invested with all necessary powers of legislation, yet required no assent of the monarch to render its acts valid. Charles regarded it merely as a trading company, whose affairs were indifferent to the crown. Legislative and executive authority resided with the corporation in London. The freemen of Massachusetts, like the Virginians, were left without one valuable franchise, at the mercy of a corporation beyond the seas. “The history of Massachusetts,” says Bancroft, “is the counterpart to that of Virginia; the latter obtained its greatest liberty by the abrogation of the charter of its company. The former by a transfer of its charter, and a daring construction of its powers by the successors of the original patentees.”