Roger Clap, 1609-1691
No. 15195 Roger Clap trading a loaf of bread for a fish in Watertown 1630. Monument in Watertown.
from The Clapp Memorial. Record of the Clapp Family in America … Ebenezer Clapp, compiler. (Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1876)
Roger Clapp was born in Salcombe Regis, Devonshire, England, April 6, 1609; sailed from Plymouth for New England, March 20, 1630, and arrived at Nantasket, May 30, 1630. He came in the ship Mary and John, Captain Squeb. Two learned non-conformist ministers, Rev. John Maverick and Rev. John Warham, came in the same vessel, also other persons of distinction. The passengers of this ship were the first settlers of Dorchester, and they arrived there about June 17, 1630.
[Footnote: The “Mary and John” was the second of sixteen vessels which left England with passengers, in 1630, under the patronage of the Massachusetts Bay Co. The patent of this company, previously granted by King James I., was confirmed by Charles I, March 4, 1629, and seems to have held out new inducements to emigration among those who could not conform to the ecclesiastical requirements of the time. Capt. Roger Clapp, in his “Memoirs,” speaks thus of this Patent: “Was it not a wondrous good Hand of God to incline the heart of our King so freely to grant it, with all the Priviledges which the Patent expresseth!” The number of passengers on board the “Mary and John” was 140; which, with those who came in the fifteen other vessels during the year, and on board another for Plymouth sent out by a private merchant, amounted to nearly 1000 persons. “These seventeen ships,” says Dudley in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, “arrived all safe in New England, for the increase of the Plantation here this year 1630, but made a long, a troublesome, and costly voyage, being all in wind-bound long in England, and hindered with contrary winds after they set sail, and so scattered with mists and tempests that few of them arrived together. Our four ships which set sail in April arrived here [Salem] in June and July, and found the Colony in a sad and unexpected condition, above eighty of them being dead the winter before; and many of those alive weak and sick; all the corn and bread amongst them all hardly sufficient to feed them a fortnight.” Capt. Roger thus alludes to the destitute condition of the emigrants in Dorchester, before the time came to gather the fruits of the next season:–“O the Hunger that many suffered, and saw no hope in an Eye of Reason to be supplied, only by Clams, and Muscles, and Fish. We did quickly build Boats, and some went a Fishing. But Bread was with many a very scarce thing; and Flesh of all kinds as scarce.” It is recorded of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower at Plymouth, that on the return of that vessel to England the next spring, no one of the survivors through that terrible winter went back in her. So of those in the “Mary and John,” at Dorchester, we do not read of one emigrant who returned in her to Old England. This, however, was not the case with other companies of emigrants. Dudley says of those at Salem and elsewhere, “The ships being now [August, 1630] upon their return, some for England, some for Ireland, there was, as I take it, not much less than a hundred, some think many more, partly out of dislike of our government, which restrained and punished their excesses, and partly through fear of famine, not seeing other means than by their labor to feed themselves, which returned back, again; and glad we were so to be rid of them.”]
All the efforts which have been made to learn the name and history of Roger’s father have proved unavailing. The records of that date, in his native town, have been removed or destroyed, and in no existing document, yet discovered, in this country, is his father mentioned by name. Roger, in his “Memoirs,” speaks of him as “a man fearing God,” and whose “outward estate was not great.” He also alludes to his final consent to the emigration of his son to New England, and of his generous answer to an appeal for provisions, shortly after the arrival of the Dorchester Company at their new home. These meager, incidental facts are probably all that we shall ever know about the father of one who filled so conspicuous a place in the early history of Dorchester. That Roger had a nephew John, son of John Clapp, living in Colyton, Co., Devon, Eng., in 1680, is shown by a power of attorney from him to his uncle, in that year, the original of which may be seen in the Massachusetts archives.
Roger Clapp was married Nov. 6, 1633, to Johanna, the daughter of Thomas Ford, of Dorchester, England, who were passengers in the same vessel with him. She was born June 8, 1617, and consequently was but sixteen years and five months old when she was married. Mrs. Clapp survived her husband between four and five years; she died in Boston, June 29, 1695, aged 78 years, and was buried near her husband. Her father removed to Windsor, CT., with a large portion of the members of the Church, in 1635. In consequence of this removal, and also the carrying away the church record by the Rev. Mr. Warham, who also went, the name of Capt. Clapp as a church member cannot now be found any where recorded—the book taken away being unfortunately lost, and the names contained in it not having been copied into the new one, by Richard Mather, in 1636.
He probably lived, before the removal of himself and family to the Castle in 1665, in a house which he built near the old Causeway road, leading to Little Neck (now South Boston). A passage way (now called Willow court) led from the road to the house. One hundred years after, it was much enlarged and improved in appearance, which appearance it still retains, and is well shown in the accompanying cut.
[note: it now appears that the house in the illustration is probably quite different from the house Roger lived in. The illustration shows the Lemuel Clap House now thought to have been built about 1710 and remodeled in the 1760s. A portion of the house may have been Roger’s house.]
Capt. Clapp’s life was a busy and eventful one. In works of benevolence, he was forward and earnest; his ability and energy of character were acknowledged by the colony and the town. In 1637, when 28 years old, he was chosen Selectman, and fourteen times afterwards, previous to 1665, when he took command of the Castle, he was elected to that office. In 1645, he was one of a committee of five to fix the rate of assessment for building a new meeting house. He was several times chosen Deputy from Dorchester to the General Court. In 1673, being again chosen Deputy, it is significantly recorded by Blake, “afterwards, in this year, ye Court sent an order to choose another Deputy in ye room of Capt. Clap, his presence being necessary at ye Castle, because ye times were troublesome.” To most of the petitions and documents emanating from, and relating to Dorchester, his name was signed, and carried with it a weight and influence. He was one of the Commissioners appointed to marry persons, which at that time was an honorable office.
He was a remarkably industrious man, and continually engaged in some useful employment; idleness he detested. He was a man of goof judgment, and the frequency with which he was called to be overseer of wills, and other weighty business matters, shows that he stood high among his friends and neighbors. His meekness and humility were proverbial, and he was “of a very quiet and peaceable spirit, not apt to resent injuries; but when he thought the honor of God was concerned, or just and lawful authority opposed, he was forward enough to exert himself.” “As to his natural temper, it is said he was of a cheerful and pleasant disposition, courteous and kind in his behavior, free and familiar in his conversation, yet attended with a proper reservedness; and he had a gravity and presence that commanded respect from others.”
At the first regular organization of the military of the colony, in 1644, he was the Lieutenant of the Dorchester company—Humphrey Atherton being the Captain, and Hopestill Foster the Ensign. At that time, the military were obliged to parade eight days each year; a penalty of five shillings was exacted for non-appearance, and none were exempted except “timorous persons,” of which there were few in those days. He was afterwards Captain of the Dorchester Company; and, Aug. 10, 1665, was appointed, by the General court, Captain of the Castle (now Fort Independence), in Boston Harbor, to succeed Capt. Richard Davenport, who was killed at that place by lightning in July of that year. He held this office for twenty-one years, until he was 77 years old, and resigned in 1686, principally on account of the political troubles which then made their appearance under the administration of Sir Edmund Andros. Mr. James Blake, Jr., who gave some account of Capt. Clapp in 1731, says that, under the change of government, “some things were required of him which were grievous to his pious soul.”
Edward Randolph, in his Narrative of the State of New England in 1676, writes, “Three miles from Boston, upon a small island, there is a castle of stone lately built, and in good repair, with four bastions, and mounted with 38 guns, 16 whole culverin, commodiously seated upon a rising ground sixty paces from the waterside, under which, at high water mark, is a small stone battery of six guns. The present commander is one Capt. Clap, an old man; his salary 50 pounds per annum. There belong to it six gunners, each 10 pounds per annum.”
In an ancient manuscript Journal, kept by a respectable gentleman of Boston, is the following in relation to Capt. Clapp’s leaving the Castle:
“Sept. 24, 1686.” “Capt. Clapp leaves the Castle; about nine guns fired at his going off. It seems Capt. Clapp is not actually come away, but Capt. Winthrop and Lieut. Thomas Savage did this day there receive their commissions.”
After his resignation, the remainder of his life was spent in Boston, where he died Feb. 2, 1691. His funeral was conducted with much parade and with every mark of respect; military officers, and probably the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (of which he was a member), preceding the corpse, “The Governor and General Court following the relations as mourners, and guns firing at the Castle.”
[Footnote: “Captain Clapp was second sergeant of the [Ancient and Honorable Artillery] company, 1647, the year after his admission, and Lieutenant, 1655, and continued a member many years.”—Whitman’s Historical Sketch of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.]
When he left the Castle, he lived at the south end of Boston, and owned a house and land there, which he left to his wife at his death. The land was bounded on the east by “the sea,” or Boston Bay.
He was one of the founders of the Church in Dorchester and a member thereof about sixty years. It was said of him, that he was very kind and affectionate to the soldiers under his command, and encouraged them both by precept and example to prove worthy citizens, “and enlisted none but pious as well as brave men.” Such was the affection in which he was held by the people of Dorchester, that, during a severe sickness by which he was visited in 1672, they held a fast “to beg his life of God”; and when he recovered, they held a day of thanksgiving.
The “Memoirs of Capt. Roger Clap,” which have been already referred to, were first printed in 1731, from the original manuscript, which was in the hand-writing of Capt. Clapp, and was presented by Mr. James Blake, Jr., of Dorchester to the Rev. Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South Church, in Boston, who wrote the introduction to the work, and in which he says, “The Author was One among those English People, who first came over and dwelt in this Indian Wilderness; an Eye-witness of the things he writes of; and by the publick and continued Esteem his country paid him in his Day, his Testimony comes with Power upon us; and the Style so plain and natural, that in the Reading, it seems as if we came over with Him, and were living in those pious Times.” Several editions have been printed, so that for nearly one hundred and fifty years the descendants of Roger and of his emigrant relatives have been familiar with the book and have prized it as a valuable memento of their early New England history. The Memoirs were probably written soon after 1676, as in them he speaks of “the late war,” undoubtedly meaning King Philip’s War, which in that year had just closed.
[Footnote: Young, in his “Chronicles,” inserts the Memoirs in a re-arranged, chronological order, and omits Roger’s exhortations to his children, and his account of his religious experiences, thereby making the document a more connected and strictly an historical one.]
The following will is transcribed, verbatim, from a copy evidently in Capt. Clapp’s own handwriting. In phraseology and spelling, it differs slightly from that on record at the Probabe office.
Capt. Roger Clapp’s Will
The time of my death is knowne to god, yet not known unto me; I doe therefore now, in the time of my helth, make this my last will, in maner following:
I do commit my immortall soull to the everliving god, whose it is; and my body after death, I leave unto my Relations, to be desently buryed in the dust—there to rest, until my dear lord, and saviour, shall rayse it at his glorious coming unto judgement.
As for that estate, which god hath gratiously given to me; my just debts paid and founerall exspenses descharged; I give unto my dear and loving wife, my house and land in bostone, with all the privilidges, and appurtenanses belonging there unto. which land is bounded on the north with the land of mr Jonathan Balson, on the south with the land of Edward Tucker, on the east with the sea: also six acors of upland, and five acors of meadow, be it more or les, lying in dorchister neck, bounded with the land of william Sumner on the south east, and the land that was Neahmiah Claps, on the north west, and with the sea on the north; and also three acors of meadow in dorchister, being on the north side of a salt creek, at the lower end of hopestill Claps lot, commonly called Cornelies lot, be it three acors, more or les; this house and lands, to inioy during her naturall life. Also I give her two fether beds, with there furniture; a small trunke; and forty pounds in mony, or such goods as shee please to take out of my moveabels: when my debts are paid, and my wifs portion set out, and those small gifts hereafter expressed, payd; my will is, the rest be devided equally to my children: only Samuel, my eldest, to have a dobble portion in all. Except in that which my dear wife is to have for her life. I doe farther declaire: that what so ever Samuel, or any other of my children have had, or shall have, by my life time as part of there portion, shall be reckned as part of there portion: which reseats, that I alow as part of there portion, you shall find in my littell sorrill booke: I doe farther declare that my sons shall have my lands as is after expressed. My sone Samuel shall have all my land, both upland and medow, at powwow point, in dorchister neck, and to small lots in the littell neck, and my lot comanly caled the eaight acor lot, and halfe my farme at punkapage: Preserved, having had land of me allredy at northampton, as by my littell book do appear, he shall have a fifth part of my farme at pachusuck, in westfeeld; my son hopstill shall have that part of the home lot that is below the fence, and all the medow at the end of the home lot, and at the tide mill, and at the end of cornelias lot, as fare as the salt creek: but not over the creek: and to small lots in the littell neck, the land at the mouth of the great neck: and the first and second devission, in the cow walke, and halfe my farme at punkapage, and halfe the wood lot that was hawses, by the fresh marsh. all to be prised. also any land that my sons have, any of them, if not prised by me, and set doune in my sorrill book: it must be prised, that so thos that have had more than there portion, may paye to those that want, to make there portions equall:
I give to my son desire, my third devision of wood land, and to and twenty acors of land, more or les, lying on the north side of nabonset river: also that medow on the south side of nabonset, which was william weekses, be it three acors, mor or les: I give out of my farme at pachasack in westfeeld fifty acors unto the he inhabitance of that towne, towards the maintenance of an able minester in that towne, with this proviso: that they paye, or cause to be pay two busshels of good wheat unto my dear wife in boston yearly, during her naturall life: the ressedeu of my land there, not disposed of, I leave to my exsecutors to dispose of, to paye dets, or to make my childrens portions equall: For as I said before; I say againe, my will is that mychildren, shall have equall portions, as near as may bee; Except my son Samuel, who shall have dubell except in that which his mother have during her naturall life. But that, both house and lands after my wifs desese, I give equally unto my sons, and my to dafters Elizabeth and wait, to be at there (my to dafters one desposing) the small gifts I mentioned, I give unto my grand children, that shall be then living, together with my cozen Estor Bissell and Constant dewey, ten shillings a peece—furder more, my will is, when my children have reseved there portions, that my sons, and dafters shall pay there mother yearly, for her more comfortable living, twenty shillings a peece.
Also I give my wife what falls to her by her father Ford at winsor or else where. I do hereby appoint and ordaine my dear wife and son Samuel to be my executors: and do instetut, and appoint my dear and loving frinds Elder James Black and cozen Thomas swift my over seears to advise, and assist, my executors in the performing this will: and do give my hand and seall, in the pressenc of
November: 19: 1690.
Henry Alline
John Bull
William Tilly Roger Clap [Seal]
Children of Capt. Roger and Johanna (Ford) Clapp:
Samuel, b. Oct. 11, 1634; d. Oct. 16, 1708, aged 74 years.
Roger Clap – funeral
Charles Henry Pope. A History of the Dorchester Pope Family. 1634-1888. (Boston: The Author, 1888), 325.
“His funeral was a notable one, ‘the Military Officers going before the Corps; and next to the Relations, the Governour and the whole General Court following after; and the Guns firing at the Castle at the same time.'” this is quoted by Pope from Blake — does he mean Blake’s Annals?