''Arbella'' or ''Arabella'' was the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of the

Winthrop Fleet The Winthrop Fleet was a group of 11 ships led by John Winthrop out of a total of 16 funded by the Massachusetts Bay Company which together carried between 700 and 1,000 Puritans plus livestock and provisions from England to New England over the ...

on which Governor

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

, other members of the Company (including

William Gager William Gager (1555–1622) was an English jurist, now known for his Latin dramas. William Gager was the son of Gilbert Gager and Thomasina Cordell Gager. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. His works were produced at ...

), and

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

emigrants transported themselves and the Charter of the

Massachusetts Bay Company Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to Salem between April 8 and June 12, 1630, thereby giving legal birth to the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. John Winthrop is reputed to have given the famous "

A Model of Christian Charity "A Model of Christian Charity" is a sermon by Puritan leader John Winthrop, preached at the Holyrood Church in Southampton before the colonists embarked in the Winthrop Fleet. It is also known as " City upon a Hill" and denotes the notion of Ameri ...

" sermon aboard the ship. Also on board was

Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet (née Dudley; March 8, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in Am ...

, the first European female

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

to be published from the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, and her family. The ship was originally called ''Eagle'', but her name was changed in honor of

Lady Arbella Johnson Lady Arbella Johnson (née Clinton; 3 August 1597 – 30 August 1630) was one of the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She was the daughter of Thomas Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln and his wife Elizabeth. William Allen suggests that s ...

, a member of Winthrop's company, as was her husband

Isaac Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was the ...

. Lady Arbella was the daughter of

Thomas Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

Notable passengers

Captain John Underhill John Underhill (7 October 1597 – 21 July 1672) was an early English settler and soldier in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Province of New Hampshire, where he also served as governor; the New Haven Colony, New Netherland, and later the Pro ...

, militia leader, author of an account of the

Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragans ...

* Sir

Richard Saltonstall Sir Richard Saltonstall (baptised Halifax, England 4 April 1586 – October 1661) led a group of English settlers up the Charles River to settle in what is now Watertown, Massachusetts in 1630. He was a nephew of the Lord Mayor of London Ric ...

, first settler of

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. Watertown ...

, one of the founders of

Connecticut Colony The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...

, later English ambassador to Holland *

Thomas Dudley Thomas Dudley (12 October 157631 July 1653) was a New England colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the tow ...

, who served several terms as

Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony The territory of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the fifty United States, was settled in the 17th century by several different English colonies. The territories claimed or administered by these colonies encompassed a much larger area tha ...

, poet *

John Winthrop the Younger John Winthrop the Younger (February 12, 1606 – April 6, 1676) was an early governor of the Connecticut Colony, and he played a large role in the merger of several separate settlements into the unified colony. Early life Winthrop was born ...

, son of the leader of the fleet, John Winthrop; first Governor of the

Saybrook Colony The Saybrook Colony was an English colony established in late 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in present-day Old Saybrook, Connecticut by John Winthrop, the Younger, son of John Winthrop, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. ...

and

* Rev. George Phillips, religious leader and one of the founders of Watertown. * Rev. John Wilson, founder of the first church in Boston. He delivered the statement of banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to

Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (née Marbury; July 1591 – August 1643) was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her ...

. * Increase Noel, He was the first treasurer for the Massachusetts Bay colony he was born in West England about 1600 and died in 1655. * Sir Robert Parke (English Baronet), Secretary to John Winthrop, Deputy to General Court and Selectman, Served in the Colonial Forces. He died in 1664 in

Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton, Connecticut, Groton and Stonington, Connecticut, United States. Historically, Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in ...

at age 83. * Deacon Edward Converse and wife Sarah Converse, he served as a Charlestown Selectman from 1635-1640, a Deputy to the General Court, one of the first two Deacons of the church in Woburn and was a founding father of Woburn, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Notes

References

*''Dictionary of American History'' by

James Truslow Adams James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 – May 18, 1949) was an American writer and historian. He was a freelance author who helped to popularize the latest scholarship about American history and his three-volume history of New England is well r ...

, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940 * Gager, Edmund R. ''The Gager Family: The Descendants of Dr. William Gager, of Suffolk County, England, and Charlestown, Mass., through His Only Surviving Son, John Gager, Who Later Settled in Norwich, Connecticut''. Baltimore: Gateway, 1985. Print.

External links

The Winthrop Society
is a hereditary organization made up of the descendants of those who arrived on the Winthrop Fleet or other Great Migration ships before 1634. English colonization of the Americas Passenger ships 1630s ships History of immigration to the United States History of the Thirteen Colonies English emigration {{US-hist-stub