The Sheffield Patent, dated January 1, 1623 (Julian calendar

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...

) is a land grant from Edmund Sheffield, 1st Earl of Mulgrave

Edmund Sheffield, 1st Earl of Mulgrave

Edmund Sheffield, 1st Earl of Mulgrave KG was a British peer and Member of Parliament, who served as Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire from 1603 to 1619 and Vice-Admiral of Yorkshire from 1604 to 1646...

 ( in the original) of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to Robert Cushman

Robert Cushman

Robert Cushman was one of the Pilgrims. He was born in the village of Rolvenden in Kent, England, and was baptized in the parish church there on February 9, 1577/78. He spent part of his early life in Canterbury on Sun Street. Cushman married Sarah Reder on 31 July 1606...

 and Edward Winslow

Edward Winslow

Edward Winslow was an English Pilgrim leader on the Mayflower. He served as the governor of Plymouth Colony in 1633, 1636, and finally in 1644...

 (residents of Plymouth Colony

Plymouth Colony

Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...

) and their associates. It granted them the use of Cape Ann

Cape Ann

Cape Ann is a rocky cape in northeastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean. The cape is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Boston and forms the northern edge of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester, and the towns of Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and...

 (in present-day Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

) and the neighboring bay and islands, allocating 500 acres (2 km²) for public buildings and 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) for private use for each settler arriving within the next 70 years.

Cape Ann was subsequently settled by members of the Dorchester Company, which was later absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Company.

External links

• The Charter for the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay. known as the Sheffield Patent 1 January 1623 [Reprint]. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/rbpebibTitles18.html - An image of a typeset version, hosted by the Library of Congress
  Library of Congress
  The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
  
  . The original copy of this version is reportedly in the possession of the Essex Institute of Salem, Massachusetts
  Salem, Massachusetts
  Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
  
  .
• Picture of the original, in the possession of the Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum.