Samuel Maverick (1602) was one of the first
colonists
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer.
Settle ...
to settle in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as th ...
. Arriving ahead 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 th ...
, Maverick became one of the earliest settlers, one of the largest landowners and one of the first slave-owners in Massachusetts. He signed his name as "Mavericke". He is the ancestor of rancher
Samuel Maverick
Samuel Augustus Maverick (July 23, 1803 – September 2, 1870) was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. His name is the source of the term "maverick," first cited in 1867, which means "indepe ...
, from whom the term ''
maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Bure ...
'' for "independently minded" and an
unbranded animal derives.
Early life and career
Maverick was born around 1602 to the
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
priest
John Maverick
Rev. John Maverick (1578-1636) was the first minister of the First Parish Church of Dorchester in early colonial Dorchester, Massachusetts.
John Maverick was born to Rev. Peter Maverick, a vicar in Awliscombe, Devon in 1578. In 1595, Maverick en ...
and Mary Gye; his father was one of the first ministers in
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...
upon migrating to the colony in 1630. Samuel's brother,
Moses Maverick Moses Maverick (16111686) was a 17th-century English colonist who migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded Marblehead, Massachusetts. He served as selectman for 14 years. Maverick Street, Maverick Cove, Maverick Court and Moses Maverick ...
is also an important historical figure, in
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends into the northern part of Massachusetts Bay. Attache ...
.
Samuel Maverick was in North America in 1623/4, after explorer Capt.
Christopher Levett
Capt. Christopher Levett (15 April 1586 – 1630) was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the King to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the fi ...
, before his father's arrival in Dorchester some years later. Samuel Maverick first settled at Winnisimmet, modern day
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
.
Maverick settled in the area close by modern-day
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, after his arrival in Massachusetts, which he later claimed was in 1624. Some historians have suggested that Maverick arrived in the area with English explorer Capt.
Christopher Levett
Capt. Christopher Levett (15 April 1586 – 1630) was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the King to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the fi ...
, who made an exploration of the New England coast about that time.
In 1628 Maverick married Amias Cole Thompson, widow of colonist
David Thompson, who had been sent by Sir
Ferdinando Gorges
Sir Ferdinando Gorges ( – 24 May 1647) was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the mai ...
as an early explorer and settler to New Hampshire, and later settled on present-day
Thompson Island in Boston Harbor. After Thompson's death, his wife inherited his properties, including
Noddle's Island. Maverick built a fortified house on Noddle's, to ward against Indian attacks, and armed it with four guns. It is said to be the first permanent house in Massachusetts. Maverick and Amias had three children, and Amias had a son from her previous marriage.
In 1631 the first
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...
ran from the Maverick farm to
Charlestown and Boston. In April 1633 general court granted Maverick property rights to most of the area of modern-day
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
excluding Prattville. In March 1635 Maverick sold his holdings outside his farm in Winnisimmet to
Richard Bellingham, the deputy governor of Massachusetts. The same year he visited
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
to buy seed corn and remained there for a year. When he returned he had two
pinnace
Pinnace may refer to:
* Pinnace (ship's boat), a small vessel used as a tender to larger vessels among other things
* Full-rigged pinnace
The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth ...
s and had also bought many livestock.
In 1638, Maverick was recorded as purchasing black
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, becoming one of the earliest slave-owners in Massachusetts. In 1638, Maverick ordered one of his male black slaves to rape one of his female slaves in order to "breed negros", an act in which shocked visiting English writer,
John Josselyn
John Josselyn (fl. 1638 – 1675) was a seventeenth-century English traveller to New England who wrote with credulity about what he saw and heard during his sojourn there before returning to England. Yet his books give some of the earliest and ...
, who comforted the victim. In 1640, Boston granted him of land from Boston and from
Braintree. In 1646, Maverick was among the seven merchants and entrepreneurs who signed the Remonstrance, petitioning the Massachusetts General Court for conformity to English law and more moderate civil and church policies. John Child and
William Vassall
English colonist William Vassall (1592-1656) is remembered both for promoting religious freedom in New England and commencing his family's ownership of slave plantations in the Caribbean. A patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Vassall was amo ...
included the Remonstrance in their 1647 pamphlet, ''New England's Jonas cast up in London.''
[John Child and William Vassall]
''New-England’s Jonas cast up at London'' (1647)
Ed. W.T.R. Marvin. William Parsons Lunt, 1869. In 1664, he visited England and was granted an audience with the King
Charles II on April 23. When he stated that he had been persecuted because he was an Anglican and a royalist, the king appointed him as one of the four commissioners to arbitrate disputes in New England. He was also to reduce Dutch influence in the colonies.
The commission was granted both military and civil powers in Massachusetts but was eventually unsuccessful. Maverick eventually gave up his possession in Noddle's Island and moved to New York.
Death
The exact date of Maverick's death is unknown; the last sign of him is a letter signed October 15, 1669. The year that he died was thought to be 1670.
References
External links
Maverick in olgp.netSamuel Maverick
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maverick, Samuel
1600s births
1670s deaths
People from colonial Boston
American slave owners
People of colonial Massachusetts
Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony
People from Chelsea, Massachusetts