This sometimes put him at odds with Nonconformist views that were dominant among the colony's early leaders, which became apparent when he gave shelter to the vocally Separatist Roger Williams.

Endecott also argued that women should dress modestly and that men should keep their hair short, and issued judicial decisions banishing individuals who held religious views that did not accord well with those of the Puritans.

He notoriously defaced the English flag because he saw Saint George's Cross as a symbol of the papacy, and had four Quakers put to death for returning to the colony after their banishment.

[4] Some early colonial documents refer to him as "Captain Endecott", indicating some military experience, and other records suggest he had some medical training.

This group of earlier settlers, led by Roger Conant, had migrated from a settlement on Cape Ann (near present-day Gloucester, Massachusetts) after it was abandoned.

[20] After seeing the conditions at Salem, Winthrop decided to relocate the colony's seat at the mouth of the Charles River, where he founded what is now the city of Boston.

[22] In the early 1630s the religious conflict between the Nonconformists and the Separatists was the primary source of political disagreement in the colony, and it was embodied by the churches established in Boston and Salem.

[25] Boston authorities called for his arrest after he made what they viewed as treasonous and heretical statements; he fled, eventually establishing Providence, Rhode Island.

[26] During this time Endecott argued that women should be veiled in church,[27] and controversially defaced the local militia's flag, because it bore St George's Cross, which Williams claimed was a symbol of the papacy.

[28] This action is celebrated in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, "Endicott and the Red Cross",[29] where the writer presents the "tension between Endecott as a symbol of religious intolerance and as emblem of heroic resistance to foreign domination of New England.

[36][37] At the time the Pequots were aggressively expansionist in their dealings with the surrounding native tribes (including the Narragansett), but had generally kept the peace with the English colonists of present-day southern New England.

The accusation of the Narraganssetts angered Massachusetts authorities (then under governor Henry Vane), who were already upset that the Pequots had earlier failed to turn over men implicated in killing another trader on the Connecticut River.

Lion Gardiner, the leader there, angrily informed Endecott when he learned of the mission's goals, "You come hither to raise these wasps around my ears, and then you will take wing and flee away.

"[41] After some discussion and delays due to bad weather, Gardiner and a company of his men agreed to accompany the Massachusetts force to raid the Pequot harvest stores.

The sachem rushed back, claiming the senior tribal leaders were away on Long Island; Endecott responded that this was a lie, and ordered an attack on the village.

[47] Endecott had no further role in the war, which ended with the destruction of the Pequots as a tribe; their land was divided up by the colonies and their Indian allies in the 1638 Treaty of Hartford, and the surviving tribespeople were distributed among their neighbors.

After much deliberation, Endecott's councils essentially adopted support of the Parliamentarian position, reserving the right to declare independence if the Parliament "should hereafter be a malignant spirit.

[65] A persistent shortage of coinage in all of the colonies prompted Massachusetts to establish a mint on 27 May 1652, and begin production of coins from its silver reserves.

In addition to formally claiming present-day Stonington, Connecticut as spoils from the Pequot War, Endecott sought to establish the colony's northern boundary.

[70] When this survey line was extended eastward, the boundary was determined to fall on the coast at Casco Bay, and the colony thus claimed most of what is now southern Maine and New Hampshire.

[77] This notably included Baptists and Quakers, and these groups began their own migration to the North American colonies to escape persecution.

[84] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recreated the trial of Wenlock Christison in "John Endicott", one of three dramatic poems in a collection called New England Tragedies.

[89] Author Nathaniel Hawthorne described Endecott in "The Gentle Boy", whose title character is the six-year-old son of William and Mary Dyer, as "a man of narrow mind and imperfect education, and his uncompromising bigotry was made hot and mischievous by violent and hasty passions; he exerted his influence indecorously and unjustifiably to compass the death of the enthusiasts [i.e., the Quakers]; and his whole contact, in respect to them, was marked by brutal cruelty.

In Boston it created a more difficult problem for Edward Whalley and William Goffe, two of the "regicide" commissioners who had voted to execute Charles I.

Whalley and Goffe moved freely about the Boston area for some time, and Endecott refused to order their arrest until word arrived of the passage of the Indemnity Act.

Among their complaints was the fact that Charles' ascension to power had not been formally announced; this only took place in 1661 after Endecott received a chastising order from the king.

[99] The Endecott administration dragged its feet on implementation, and after months of inaction, the king sent a commission headed by Samuel Maverick, one of the colony's most vocal critics, to investigate.

They passed a law deliberately using the king's language, allowing anyone "orthodox in religion" to practice in the colony; however, they also defined such orthodoxy as consisting of views that were acceptable to local ministers.

According to his will, several large tracts of land, including the Orchard estate in Salem and one quarter of Block Island, were distributed to his wife and sons; however, it was also noted that some of his books were sold to pay debts.

He and some of his officers had gone ashore to negotiate for pepper in the town of Quallah Battoo when pirates took over the ship, murdered some of her crew and looted the cargo.