Meanwhile Mr. White and the partners in England were pushing things vigorously.  Their scheme took a wider scope.  They were determined to establish something more than a trading company.  From Charles I. it was sometimes easy to get promises because he felt himself under no obligation to keep them.  In March, 1629, a royal charter was granted, creating a corporation, under the legal style of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England.  The affairs of this corporate body were to be managed by a governor, deputy-governor, and a council of eighteen assistants, to be elected annually by the company.  They were empowered to make such laws as they liked for their settlers, provided they did not contravene the laws of England,—­a proviso susceptible of much latitude of interpretation.  The place where the company was to hold its meetings was not mentioned in the charter.  The law-officers of the crown at first tried to insert a condition that the government must reside in England, but the grantees with skilful argument succeeding in preventing this.  Nothing was said in the charter about religious liberty, for a twofold reason:  the crown would not have granted it, and it was not what the grantees wanted; such a provision would have been liable to hamper them seriously in carrying out their scheme.  They preferred to keep in their own hands the question as to how much or how little religious liberty they should claim or allow.  Six small ships were presently fitted out, and upon them were embarked 300 men, 80 women, and 26 children, with 140 head of cattle, 40 goats, and abundance of arms, ammunition, and tools.  The principal leader of this company was Francis Higginson, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, rector of a church in Leicestershire, who had been deprived of his living for non-conformity.  With him were associated two other ministers, also graduates of Cambridge.  All three were members of the council.  By the arrival of this company at Salem, Endicott now became governor of a colony larger than any yet started in New England,—­larger than Plymouth after its growth of nearly nine years. [Sidenote:  The Company of Massachusetts Bay]

The time was at length ripe for that great Puritan exodus of which the voyage of the Mayflower had been the premonitory symptom.  The grand crisis for the Puritans had come, the moment when decisive action could no longer be deferred.  It was not by accident that the rapid development of John White’s enterprise into the Company of Massachusetts Bay coincided exactly with the first four years of the reign of Charles I. They were years well fitted to bring such a scheme to quick maturity.  The character of Charles was such as to exacerbate the evils of his father’s reign.  James could leave some things alone in the comfortable hope that all would by and by come out right, but Charles was not satisfied without meddling everywhere.  Both father and son cherished some good intentions; both were sincere believers in their