What do you think of when you think of Puritans? The three most likely answers are Thanksgiving, a religion of dark dresses and bonnets, and witch trials. One person was known to have been at that first Thanksgiving who lived long enough to play a role in the Salem witch trials seventy years later, but he was not exactly a Puritan himself. The quirky American story of Richard More is well documented thanks to his father and grandfather, neither of whom ever set foot in the New World. The tale began in early seventeenth century Shropshire England when the only son of Jasper More died in a duel. In accordance with the laws of the day, Jasper’s 500 acre estate would go to distant relatives or even strangers because his daughter, Katherine, an unmarried 26 year old, could not inherit the land. His cousin, Richard More, offered a solution: he would give Jasper 200 pounds (roughly $80,000 in today’s currency) and his son Samuel as a husband for Katherine in exchange for Jasper’s estate. Jasper agreed. That kept the land in the family, and got Katherine off his hands. The arrangement was not a happy one for either Samuel or Katherine. Samuel was only sixteen, ten years younger than Katherine, and spent most of his time in London learning a trade. Nevertheless, Katherine had four children in four years. Samuel began to doubt the children were his. They looked, he thought, a lot like one of More’s tenant farmers, a man Katherine’s age named Jacob Blakeway. Samuel formally charged Katherine with adultery. Katherine responded with a shocker: her marriage to Samuel was illegal because she had earlier secretly married Jacob; therefore her children by him were legal. The court rejected Katherine’s defense. Her children were declared illegitimate and taken from her. Samuel had no use for them, and without Katherine knowing it, he put them on the Mayflower, a ship hired to take a group of Puritans to the English colony in northern Virginia. The Puritans accepted the More children—Elinor age 8, Jasper age 7, Richard age 6, and Mary age 5—as their indentured servants. The 66-day journey was brutal. The children spent most of the trip in a hold beneath the deck where they would have eaten insect infested biscuits, used buckets to relieve themselves, and lacked water to bathe. Making conditions in the crowded hold even worse, weather was so bad, and seasickness so common, the sailors mocked their passengers as “Puck-stockings”. Unfriendly winds drove the Mayflower off course, forcing it to drop anchor near Cape Cod. Three of the More children died on board. The sole survivor was six year old Richard. Further up the coast the Pilgrims found an abandoned Native American village, probably the site of a smallpox epidemic. Naming it New Plymouth, the Pilgrims moved in, and the boy Richard, who probably spent that first pitiless winter on the ship, took his place as a servant in the home of William Brewster, the only college educated member of the community and its acknowledged leader. Among the boy’s duties was assisting in the burial of the dead. He most certainly was present at that first Thanksgiving. Richard was fourteen when his indenture to Brewster ended. He apprenticed with Isaac Allerton, a fisherman and sea captain who transported supplies from England to the colonists. Within ten years Richard himself had become a sea captain. Only twenty-four and well-respected, he made his base home in Salem, married, and for a while joined the church there.
From here his story becomes more controversial and depends on how the facts are read. We know he gained a reputation for hard drinking and causing trouble. He had several wives in different ports, and was at least once charged with adultery, which got him excommunicated. On the positive side, he was certainly a naval hero. When he learned a settlement on Cape Fear was starving because no ship could reach them through stormy, rocky waters, he volunteered to try to get through with supplies. Despite the odds against crashing waves, he succeeded and literally saved the colonists. He participated in several naval battles against the French, and was honored for having never lost a ship. When a close friend was murdered, he adopted his three children. He also had eight legitimate children of his own. The number of illegitimate ones is unknown. When he retired from the seas, he opened a tavern in Salem. Among his best friends was the Reverend Nicholas Noyes who launched the Salem witch trials. Richard provided testimony about the drunken behaviors he had seen from his tavern patrons. His eye-witness accounts sent at least two men to the gallows. Reverend Noyes turned against Richard and charged him with a variety of immoral deeds. Rather than risk death, Richard confessed and did a public penance for several weeks. Whether viewed as a scoundrel or a hero, Richard More, member of that first Thanksgiving, was certainly a quirky character. And if all of this talk of Thanksgiving leaves you feeling like you need to buy some gifts for the people you are thankful for, there are many to be found on Quirky Gifter!
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