2-329-840 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Thomas Mayhew and the Narragansett sachem, 17th century (c1880). Thomas Mayhew (1593-1682) was part of the so-called Great Migration that saw 20,000 Puritan settlers arrive in Massachusetts from England in the 1630s. In 1642, together with his son, Thomas Jr, he established the first settlement at Martha's Vineyard. Both Mayhews took trouble to foster good relations with the Native American tribes of the area, including the Narragansetts, and Thomas Jr worked tirelessly to bring Christianity to them. After the younger Mayhew was lost at sea on a journey to England in 1657, his father took on the mantle of his missionary work, despite being sixty years old. A print from Cassell's History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume I, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, c1880.