Joshua Scottow


Joshua Scottow, was a colonial American merchant and the author of two histories of early New England: Old Men's Tears for Their Own Declensions and A Narrative of the Planting of the Massachusetts Colony Anno 1628.

Life

Scottow emigrated to Massachusetts between 1630 and 1634 with his widowed mother Thomasina and older brother Thomas. He settled in Boston and was admitted to membership in the Old Church in 1639. He married Lydia in 1640, and they had seven children. He acquired considerable wealth trading with Acadia, dealing in waterfront property, and developing frontier settlements near Scarborough, Maine. In November 1658, William Crowne, proprietor of Nova Scotia, leased a portion of the colony to Scottow and Captain George Curwin. He served as a captain in King Philip's War alongside pardoned pirate Peter Roderigo. He was survived by his wife and four children, three daughters and a son Thomas, who graduated from Harvard College in 1677.

Writings

Scottow was a Puritan and self-described "Old Planter." Both of his histories declare that the founding generation of New England was “animated as with one soul” for the achievement of a millennial religious mission and that the present generation has lost its focus and loyalties. Scottow’s language is replete with biblical and classical references.

Opposition to Witchcraft Trials

In 1656, Scottow seems to have opposed some aspect of the prosecution of Ann Hibbins, who was accused of witchcraft. Scottow wasn't alone. Another contemporary critic of the trial, Rev. John Norton was said to have quipped that Hibbins "was hanged for having more wit than her neighbors." Ann Hibbins was executed on June 19,1656 and Scottow was one of five men named in her will. The winter following her execution, Scottow was elected as a town selectman for the first time. Around the same time of his election, Scottow seems to have felt pressured to retract his original support for Hibbins and issue an apology to the court. "He stated that he did not intend to oppose the proceedings of the General Court in the case of Mrs. Ann Hibbins: " I am cordially sorry that anything from me, either in word or writing, should give offense to the honored Court, my dear brethren in the church, or any others."
Scottow finally returned to the same subject almost 40 years later in 1694. This was less than two years after the infamous trials at Salem, which he addresses at length in his, Narrative of the Planting making this work an important contemporary source. Scottow again seems to come down on the side of presumed innocence and against the accusers whose testimony was fickle and inconsistent. He further blames a departure from the non-superstitious theology taught by Jean Calvin and embraced by the earlier teachers:, "Can it be rationally supposed:? that had we not receded from having Pastors, Teachers, and Ruling Elders, and Churches doing their duty as formerly... that the Roaring Lion could have gained so much ground upon us..." Scottow includes a tally, "...above two hundred accused, one hundred imprisoned, thirty condemned, and twenty executed." In the previous decade, Increase Mather and his son Cotton Mather, had both been industrious in New England's government and written several enthusiastic books on witchcraft. Scottow was also a close neighbor to one of the judges Samuel Sewall. In bringing the witchcraft trials to an end, Scottow seems to give credit to the relatively un-zealous leadership of the swashbuckling and non-literary governor, the native born William Phips "who being divinely destined, and humanely commissioned, to be the pilot and steersman of this poor be-misted and be-fogged vessel in the Mare Mortuum and mortiforous sea of witchcraft, and fascination; by heaven's conduct according to the integrity of his heart, not trusting the helm in any other hand, he being by God and their Majesties be-trusted therewith, he so happily shaped, and steadily steered her course, as she escaped shipwreck... cutting asunder the Circean knot of Inchantment... hath extricated us out of the winding and crooked labyrinth of Hell's meander."

Works