With the discussion then going on in Puritan circles as to Endicott's settlement at Salem, and with his neighbors actively interested in the colony at Providence, it was natural that Winthrop should seriously consider the thought of emigrating. Just at this time, a paper consisting of arguments for and against settling a plantation in New England was being circulated among the group of Puritans mentioned earlier in this chapter. The reasons given in favor of it were mainly religious and economic. The first dwelt upon the glory of opposing Anti-Christ, in the form of the French Jesuits in Canada, and of raising “a particular church” in New England, while the second referred to the supposed surplus population at home, and to the standard and cost of living which had “growne to that height of intemperance in all excesse of Riott, as noe mans estate allmost will suffice to keepe saile with his aequalls.”[315] Footnote 315: R. C. Winthrop, _J. Winthrop_, vol. I, pp. 308, 328. The document, which has come down to us in at least four different forms, was possibly drafted by Winthrop himself, though the evidence is only inferential, and it has also been attributed to the Reverend John White and others.[316] It is interesting to note that John Hampden wrote to Sir John Eliot, then in prison, for a copy of it.[317] Whether or not Winthrop was the author, several copies, one of them indorsed “May, 1629,” contain memoranda of “Particular considerations in the case of J. W.,” in which he wrote that the success of the plan had come to depend upon him, for “the chiefe supporters (uppon whom the rest depends) will not stirr wthout him,” and that his wife and children are in favor of it. “His meanes,” moreover, he wrote, “heer are so shortened (now 3 of his sonnes being com to age have drawen awaie the one half of his estate) as he shall not be able to continue in that place and imployment where he now iss, his ordinary charg being still as great almost as when his meanes was double”; and that “if he lett pass this opportunitie, That talent wch God hath bestowed uppon him for publicke service is like to be buried.”[318] “With what comfort can I live,” he added in one version, “wth 7 or 8 servts in that place and condition where for many years I have spent 3: or 400 li yearly and maintained a greater chardge?”[319] The prospects in England, for his wife and children, lay heavily on his mind. “For my care of thee and thine,” he wrote to the former, after the die was cast, “I will say nothing. The Lord knows my heart, that it was one great motive to draw me into this course.”[320] Footnote 316: The editor of this life of Winthrop (vol. I, pp. 308, 318) naturally claims it for his ancestor. Channing thinks it probable (_History_, vol. I, p. 327); but Doyle does not (_Puritan Colonies_, vol. I, p. 85). _Cf._ _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings_, Series I, vols. VIII, pp. 413-30, and XII, pp. 237 _ff._ Footnote 317: