Winthrop Fleet

[2] The King's imposition of Personal Rule gave many Puritans a sense of hopelessness regarding their future in that country, and many prepared to leave it permanently for life in New England, and a wealthy group of leaders obtained a royal charter in March 1629 for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

[3] A fleet of five ships had departed a month previously for New England that included approximately 300 colonists led by Francis Higginson.

Over the ensuing winter, the leaders recruited a large group of Puritan families, representing all manner of skilled labor to ensure a robust colony.

[7] The voyage was rather uneventful, the direction and speed of the wind being the main topic in Winthrop's journal, as it affected how much progress was made each day.

They were not the first settlers of the area; there was an existing settlement at Salem, started in about 1626 and populated by a few hundred Puritans governed by John Endicott, who had arrived in 1629 and seized control from Roger Conant.