The
English were established in four areas in Southern New
England: The Puritans settled in Boston and moved west to
Worchester and Springfield. Puritans had also settled in
the New Haven colony. The Pilgrims settled in Southeastern
Massachusetts with their base at Plymouth and satellites
towns in Cape Cod and the Eastern shore of the Sakonet
River.
A dissident group, mainly of English origin, had settled on
the island of Rhode Island at Portsmouth and at Newport. A
second group had settled on the mainland at Providence and
surrounding towns. Dissidents such as Anne Hutchinson and
Roger Williams had been expelled from the Massachusetts Bay
(Boston) Colony for questioning the orthodox doctrines of
the ruling clergy. Quakers were not permitted in the
colonies ruled by the Puritans and so migrated to Rhode
Island. The Puritans were still members of the Anglican
Church although they wished to remove sacraments, incense
and other remainders of the Roman Catholic Church and thus
purify the church. Many of the Puritans were persons of
consequence with substantial property and University
educations. They had contacts in English society.
The Pilgrims had left the Established church, but also
wanted to remove the accouterments of the Roman Catholic
church from their church services. They were generally
lower on the social scale than the Puritans and had few
contacts in English society. During this period, the
English had developed a profitable raising horses and
selling them in Virginia and the Caribbean Islands. As an
aside, a peninsula was also called a neck. Horses were kept
on peninsulas because only one side needed to be enclosed
and the horses could graze on the salt hay. Hence, the
horse trade is still remembered in Horse Neck Beach in
Westport, Mass.