Ghosts in my DNA

Arrival of the Winthrop Fleet (1630) On a sunny June day on the shores of Shawmut (Boston), a family group was busy preparing a large meal for their clan. They had moved from their winter home, a long house, miles from the coast. They were celebrating the completion of building summer homes, domed shelters where single families would reside. They were digging for clams and quahogs in the mud flats to prepare a long-awaited seafood feast. Thirty Wampanoags; men, women, and children had labored through the week preparing the earth for planting corn with their summer homes placed in the middle of the planting ground, neatly spaced to accommodate each family. They had prepared cedar saplings for the frames and made walls with cedar bark and reeds. Animals hide completed the outer layer. Woven cedar mats covered the floor and kept insects away. On the shore, a fire pit in the sand burned down into coals. Children gathered seaweed to throw on the hot coals and women added baskets of clams and quahogs. More seaweed was placed over the shellfish, and the aroma was thick in the air. White Owl, the elder, gathered them together facing the big waters for the offering of thanks. He raised his hand with the sacred tobacco, and they all gave prayers for the beautiful spring day and the food they were about to eat. As they stood, White Owl became silent while gazing at the horizon. He was the first to see the peaks of masts with many large sails approaching. Panic was welling up in the elders who maintained their composure while giving prayers. The children were transfixed while they watched the fleet of many big sails approaching. White Owl had seen ships before but never so many at once. The east wind was at the stern of these square-rigged galleons as they came fully into view. The smell of horses, cows, pigs, and chickens arrived with the onshore breeze. Eleven behemoths spread across the shore. They made wide swings into the wind and dropped anchors and sails over the next hours. White Owl realized there were not only men but women and children. There were close to 1,000 people. How would they live on the land? How many more ships were on the way? From experience they knew that the occupiers would overrun their hunting and fishing grounds. They would take over their planting fields and fishing spots. The clan feasted while a cloud of doom and the smells of strange beasts hung in the air. Several of my ancestral families were among the passengers of the Winthrop Fleet that left Southampton, England in March of 1630. Some were my mother’s ancestors. Governor Winthrop was the leader and acted with the authority given to him by the King of England. This authorization they gave themselves was based on the centuries-old Doctrine of Discovery that gave them the rights by God to eradicate the non-Christian savages and remove them from this Eden or convert them to Christians and utilize their labor. One of the eleven ships was the Talbot. It contained my paternal ancestral family, the Kingsburys. There were three Kingsbury brothers, two wives, and three children. Brother Joseph Kingsbury is my direct ancestor. After the first year the three brothers were among the survivors, Henry, John, and Joseph with his wife Millicent Ames. Second, third and fourth sons of wealthy landowning families were among the fleet. They had been forced to strike out to make their own fortunes as land in England was becoming scarce. Many emigrants were deeply religious Puritans of the Church of England but differed from the Pilgrims at Plymouth in that they meant to reform the Church, not repudiate the Church entirely. Others were merchants and artisans. Some were indentured servants. They were all weary from the three-month voyage and the sea sickness. They grieved the lives lost along the way.