Bradford’s Morton: The Lord of Misrule in Early New England

Abstract

Thomas Morton, controversial figure in early New England, attempted to establish a colony in what is today Quincy, Massachusetts. Dubbed the “Lord of Misrule” by William Bradford, Morton was accused of enticing indentured servants to escape their bondage, and staging festivities to a mixed gathering of English and Algonquian-speaking peoples, amongst other crimes. This article will examine two texts: those excerpts of William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation that mention Morton, and Thomas Morton’s New English Canaan. These divergent accounts may be read as a restaging of some predominant preoccupations of early modern England, namely the hostile reception of popular festive practices and the theater, inextricably linked to the articulation of social class, and the fear of “masterless men.” I argue that reading the conflicting accounts of Bradford and Morton offer a key to interpreting the practices of colonization at the hands of Puritans and Pilgrims in early New England.