What the Fairbanks and Prescott Families Would Take and Leave Behind: Packing for a New Life in the 17th Century New World, Part II
By the time the Fairbanks sailed to New England in 1633, settlers had come to the New World for over twenty years. Jamestown was settled in 1607. It was based on business and commodities. As a working community it was mostly male, few women or families.
In 1620, Plymouth Plantation was founded by the Pilgrims. They were financed as a business venture. They were expected to make a profit to send back to the financiers. The main purpose of their emigration for the Pilgrims was religious freedom. Many of the Pilgrims were families. However there were single men, called Strangers, not part of the congregation, that came purely for business. Both settlements would have sent letters to England on ships traveling back.
The Great Migration, to New England commenced in 1628. This started with the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Like the others, their charter was based on business. However, like Plymouth, religious freedom was paramount for its founders. John Winthrop, who became the first governor, Reverend Higginson, and Joslin Johnson, all sent letters to England informing new immigrants what to bring and what to expect.
What Grace Fairbanks and Mary Prescott Packed to Bring to New England
Meals for 12 months
Plans and provisions had to be made for food on the voyage over. The ship sometimes had barrels of water and hard tack (hard biscuits.) Occasionally the travelers were allowed to fish at sea. However the passengers brought much of their own food. In calm seas, they could cook over small burners in the middle part of the ship where they stayed. When the sea was rough, everything and everyone had to be secured. If getting out of port was delayed, due to license checks, or there were unfavorable winds in the channels or at sea, the food and provisions could run low.
Food stores for twelve months after landing was of utmost importance. There were no markets or fairs in New England, thus nowhere to buy food. If you ran out before you had a crop to harvest, you must rely on generous neighbors or the Native Americans pedaling corn, game, berries and nuts in the towns. Your own ingenuity in hunting and fishing was the remaining option.
Household Goods for Cooking
for one man
Antique Firkin
8 bushels of meal
1 gallon oil
2 bushels of peas
2 gallons vinegar
2 bushels of oatmeal
1 firkin of butter
1 gallon of aqua-vita
Household Items for Cooking
Based on 6 person families
1 iron pot
1 large frying pan
1 brass mortar
2 skillets
1 great copper kettle
1 small frying pan
1 spit
1 small kettle
1 grid iron
Platters
Dishes and trenchers
Wooden spoons
Spices and Herbs for Medicine and to Preserve Foods
There were no or very few doctors and no apothecaries (pharmacy and walk in clinics). The wives had to learn how to treat sickness and injuries. They had to deliver babies a cause of much mortality.
The women brought remedies with them and plants and seeds to grow their own. They grew a kitchen garden and medicine garden. Herbs and spices were also used to preserve food over the winter and through the growing season. Harvest was the only time of plenty.
Mint, Cloves, and Cinnamon
Mint
Cinnamon
Cloves
Mustard Seed
Sugar
Nutmeg
Mace
Pepper
What Jonathan Fairbanks and John Prescott Packed
Clothes for One Man
1 Monmouth cap
3 falling bands
Mons cap, as a monmouth cap was called, was required wear in England and a necessity in New England.
3 shirts
1 waistcoat
1 suit of canvas
1 suit of frieze
1 suit of cloth
3 pairs of stockings
4 pairs of shoes
12 pair of sheets
7 ells of canvas to make a bed and bolster
1 pair of blankets
1 coarse rug
Tools for Building a House and Farm
All settlers brought everything they needed to build a house, farm structures, and boats or canoes. They may send people ahead to build them or pay the ship’s fare for indentured servants to help them build and open their land for farming. Carpenters were needed early. Blacksmiths became the most important man in town, except for the minister. The smith could make or repair most tools and household utensils. He always brought his anvil and hammer. To conserve space only the heads of tools were packed. The bulky handles could be replaced from the wood in New England.
Bellows 1 whip saw 3 shovels
Scoop 1 file and wrest 2 spades
Great pail 2 hammers 2 broad axes
Casting shovel 2 augers 2 chisels
A sack Wheels for cart 3 giblets
Lantern Wheel barrow 2 hatchets
Tobacco pipes Canoe 2 froes
5 broad hoes Short oak ladder 2 hand bills
5 narrow hoes Plow axle tree Nails
2 hand saws Cart Locks and fetters
Branding iron for beasts Hand vise Grindstone
Hand vise Grains and plants
Protection
Safety started at sea. There were pirates or dunkirkers lurking the waters for ships going to the New World. The ships themselves had cannons and sailed in groups for added protection.
Each man was instructed to bring arms and armor. John Prescott made good use of his when settling Nashaway Plantation (Lancaster, Massachusetts.)
1 armor, complete 1 bandoleer
1 long piece 20 pounds powder
1 sword 60 pounds lead
1 belt 1 pistol and goose shot
17th Century Armor
The actual gun John Prescott brought from England in 1640. It was change over the years and some parts are missing. By permission of Wisconsin Historical Society Museum #1947.1066
English Bull
Livestock
Goat for milk
The family needed animals to start their farm. They seemed to call all their livestock cattle. They brought kine or cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and fowl. Those that could, brought a horse. Sheep were difficult to keep due to the large wolf population. They used oxen, called dry cattle, for farm work and
transportation, so those were important cargo. Goats were used for milk if the family didn’t have a cow. Like Noah, they brought at least one of each gender, so they could start their own herd. They brought young animals because they were smaller for the voyage, they tolerated the voyage and the acclimated to the new environment of the colony better. Pregnant stock were discouraged because they didn’t travel well.
English Springer Spaniel
They also brought dogs. There is documentation of dogs on the ship of Reverend Francis Higginson.
There are stories of dogs at Plymouth. Dedham made ordinances of how young dogs should be trained to hunt. They helped with herds and predators. They were were domestic companions and served as feet warmers in the cold unheated churches. For more on types of dogs they might have brought see: https://www.fairbankshistory.com/colonial-history/dogs-of-the-17th-centrury
What was left behind
The cost for passage was high: 5 pounds for an adult, half that for a child over 12, younger children were free. Some paid for indentured servants to help open the land. That is the only way some men or families were able to afford the voyage. Indenture was not considered a degradation. Although they may have sat below the salt on the table (a position of lesser honor), they were welcome in the family home and at the family table. Some of the indentured servants left their families behind until they finished their tenure and had enough money to send for them. Some married their masters’ daughters.
The ship’s charge for a ton of cargo, was 3-4 pounds. A horse’s passage cost 10 pounds. Most brought only necessities for living, food, tools, necessary clothes, and a Bible. They brought few pieces of furniture. They lived simply, so what they needed could be made from the abundant wood in the New World. Some brought chests filled or a special cupboards filled with their belongings.
Mazer bowl believed to be brought to the colonies from England about 1633 by Fairbanks Family. Found at The Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts
Occasionally they brought a few cherished items, like the lacquered clay jug and Mazer bowl that the Fairbanks brought with them. Both Fairbanks and Prescott had over 15 books in their death inventory. Some of those books probably came with them from England. Undoubtedly, one was a Bible. Every family brought a Bible with them to use both for religious and educational purposes.
http://mayflowerhistory.com/provision-lists/
Primary source of what to bring to New England:
Higginson, Francis. New-Englands Plantation, with The Sea Journal and Other Writings. Salem: Essex Book and Printing company, 1908. 110.
https://archive.org/details/newenglandsplant00higgrich/page/110
http://mayflowerhistory.com/provision-lists/
Josselyn, John, An Account of Two Voyages to New England Made during the Years of 1638, 1663, Boston.
https://archive.org/details/accountoftwovoya00joss/page/n8
Winthrop, John. Life and Letters of John Winthrop from his Embarkation to New England in 1630, with the Charter and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, to His Death in 1649, Volume 2.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Life_and_Letters_of_John_Winthrop.html?id=rd9MAQAAMAAJ
What’s Coming Up?
Next Month we will explore the long Voyage between England and the New World
Reminder
Sign up for the Fairbanks and Prescott E-Reunions. Let’s gather on the internet in support of saving our families’ histories. https://www.fairbankshistory.com/e-reunions
