John Endicott was my 11th Great Grandfather. He was born in 1588 in the south of England and arrived in Salem, MA in September of 1628 as a passenger on the ship Abigail along with his friend Ralph Sprague and Ralph's two siblings, Richard and William. William Sprague is still another Great Grandfather of mine. They all had left the Dorchester, England area via Weymouth, seeking a new life in the new world.

They had also been influenced by the Rev. John White who was a puritan divine and often called the "Patriarch of Dorchester". When in 1606 John the Patriarch was appointed Rector of Holy Trinity, Dorchester was one of the largest towns located on one of the busiest intersections in Dorset. There is no doubt that he continued to preach, this time from his own pulpit, with as Wood put it, "great gravity and presence" and he quickly gained respect not only from the local community but the puritan movement as a whole.

The good preacher not only administered to the souls of his parishioners but actively sought to bring about a new social order. He was the driving force behind the governors of Dorchester that rapidly became known as a puritan town and who actively sought to create a sober, godly, giving society there. Dorchester reformers also showed a striking concern for relieving the deserving poor; for feeding, clothing, and educating their children; for providing shelter for the elderly and fuel for the indigent. These things were as much a part of godly reformation as the fining of drunkards, the stocking of those who swore, or the flogging of the idle and vagrant. All these actions stemmed from the vision that had been inspired by the preaching of John White

John Endicott became interested in colonization through the influence of John White, the Puritan clergyman. Endicott was included among the six patentees of the New England Company because he was willing to emigrate as the former director of the Cape Ann settlement. Unlike the Pilgrims who didn't know what to expect in the New World, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had a good idea of where he was going. When the Colony sent its first ships to what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, they were led by Governor John Endicott who had helped lead the Dorchester Bay Company's settlement earlier on Cape Anne, Massachusetts in the 1620s.

Appointed "chief-in-command" and commissioned to prepare the way for more colonists, Endicott arrived at Salem in September 1628. Under his directorship Salem became a Puritan community in New England. He sent two brothers who continued using the Anglican Prayer Book back to England and had the cross of St. George removed from Salem's militia flag. Endecott and the settlers wintered with the remainder of the Dorchester Colony in Salem. Then in June and July of 1630, they welcomed eleven ships bringing over 1,000 better-equipped Puritan settlers. Together the settlers set off with the Colony's new leader, John Winthrop, who had arrived with them.

Though Endecott was replaced by Winthrop, he had earned the respect of the colonists who benefited from his knowledge and strong leadership during that first winter. He remained an active voice in the Colony's politics. Over a decade later, he would be elected Governor again, serving almost continuously from 1644 to his death on March 24, 1665 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was buried in the N.W. corner of Granary Burying Ground in Boston.

The Lineage to my g-grandfather Endicott is as follows; Gov John Endicott> Dr Zerubbabel> Elizabeth Endicott> Elizabeth Gilbert> Hannah Hersey> Abigail Lewis> Abigail Hersey> Margaret H Smith> Lorena Morgan> Augusta Madonna Cushing> Norman Philip Sprague> and down to me.

With some genealogical research, you may also discover that you have some influential or noteworthy grandparents, too. Endicott and other past leaders have many more ancestors that don't yet realize that they are genetic branches from the tree of famous individuals in our past. You may be one of them.