Richard's life in the New World
Richard was six years old when the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Colony. Immediately upon setting foot on land, he would have worked with all of the others to help gather supplies for food and shelter as well as to bury the dead after the epidemic, which would ultimately leave half of the original passengers dead. In the spring of 1621, he would have attended what has now become known as the first Thanksgiving. In 1627, at the age of 14, Richard is recorded as living at Plymouth Colony.
Nothing is known of Richard during his years living with the Brewster family from 1620 to 1627, except that his name is on a document concerning the division of cattle and other livestock, and that he lived in Salem. In 1635 he is listed as arriving from England on the Blessing, which had sailed from London to Massachusetts Bay. The purpose of this journey to London is unknown. At some point, Richard went to work for Allerton as an apprentice. Under Allerton's apprenticeship, he fished in various locations around Plymouth and Maine, working as crew, and at some point he would become captain of the ships that supplied the new American colonies. On 20 April 1636 Richard More married Christian Hunter who had been a passenger with him on the Blessing They lived at Duxbury for a time before moving to Salem. Richard worked as a retainer and a labourer for Richard Hollingsworth, another passenger from the Blessing who was Christian's guardian and step-father.
By early 1642, Richard joined the Salem church. As a member, he would be allowed a voice and a vote in Salem affairs.
Richard had his first two sons, Samuel and Thomas More, baptised.
By about 1640s, and by the age of twenty-four, Richard would have been addressed as Captain of his own ketch and is known to have traded with the colonies, the West Indies, and England. He had sold his twenty acres in Duxbury and moved himself and his family to Salem Neck. He applied for a permit and set up his own fishing stand. Since drinking water was scarce, Richard dug a well on common ground for himself and others to use. He traded tobacco and other merchandise and supplies with Virginia and the West Indies, and made voyages to England. In 1653, he served with his ship in an unsuccessful expedition against the Dutch settlement on the Hudson (later to become New York). In 1653, Captain More was paid for ye Dutch expedition.
Beginning in 1654, for two consecutive years, he took part in two attacks by sea against the French, who were threatening New England's fishing and maritime trade in the lower Hudson River region. In 1654, Richard More served in a successful combined English and New England expedition against the French at Port Royal, the principal settlement of the French colony of Acadia, now Nova Scotia. Captain More was at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, when the French fort was reduced to English Obedience in 1654, and from thence a bell was later brought to Salem in Capt. Moor's Ketch. Thus Richard More contributed to the foundations of New England's maritime greatness.
During this time, Richard received land at Plymouth as an "Ancient Freemen". The land was granted by the General Court and purchased from the Indians. He obtained lots near the Fall River and was one of the purchasers of lots in Swansea. In 1673, he sold land at Mattapoisett (he is referred to as) he of Massachusetts Colony on 1 March 1667/8; and formerly of Plymouth and now of Salem sold lots in Swansea and Sepecan on 30 August 1673.
The Staple Act 1663, which stated, among other things, that the shipping of European goods to the colonies except through England or Wales was forbidden, forced hard times upon both colonial ship captains and the colonists. The restrictions threatened the very survival of the colonists and, to survive, the captains had to be extremely creative in their shipping manifests. The Navigation Acts, along with the continued taxation of the colonies into the next century, brought about the growth of isolationism, which eventually resulted in the American Revolution.
In 1665, Richard rescued the colonists at the newly established colony at Cape Fear. The ship that was supposed to bring supplies failed to arrive and, consequently, the people were dying of starvation and the lack of adequate protection against the weather. It was an extremely hazardous area for ships but, upon learning of the situation, Richard brought a shipment of food and supplies to aid the desperate colonists. When Richard's old sailing friend, Richard Starr, was murdered, he took on the responsibility of Starr's three children. In his fifty years as a mariner Richard had never lost a vessel, nor had any sailor brought charges against him.
Richard served alongside Joseph Dudley during the Great Swamp Fight in December 1675, a massacre of the Narragansett people living around Narragansett Bay.
In later life, Richard suffered from financial hardship. On 1 July 1688, he was brought before the Salem church elders for 'gross unchastity with another man's wife'. The elders had spoken to him privately on several occasions as Richard represented a member of the Ancient Days and they wanted to maintain a special place in their history. He was publicly sanctioned and excommunicated from the church. Richard accepted the judgment and made a public repentance and, according to documents, was restored to the church in 1691. According to David Lindsay, historian and author, the pastor who punished him was Reverend Nicholas Noyes. Noyes was a man whom Richard knew well and would become directly involved with in his later life. Noyes was the same man who would lead the campaign against the so-called witches of Salem.
Richard More is buried in Salem. There is documentary evidence that he was alive in 1694 and dead in 1696. His gravestone gives an age of 84, but he deposed in 1684 that he was aged seaventy yeares or thereabouts indicating he was unsure of his birth date. The gravestone in the old Salem burial ground gives a date of 1692.
