Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

The following memorandum was entered by Rev. John Eliot, on his Church Record: ‘1676. On the 7th day of the 2d month, Capt. Gookins, Mr. Danforth, & Mr. Stoughton wr sent by the Councill to order matters at Long Island for the Indians planting there, ya called me wth ym. In or way thither a great boat of about 14 ton, meeting us, turned head upon us (whethr willfully or by negligence, God he knoweth), ya run the sterne of or boate wr we 4 sat under water. Or boats saile or something tangled with the great boat, and by God's mercy kept to it. My cosin Jacob & cosin Perrie being forwarder in or boat quickly got up into the great boat. I so sunk yt I drank in salt water twice, & could not help it. God assisted my two cosins to deliver us all, & help us up into the great boat. We were not far frm the Castle, where we went ashore, dryed & refreshed, & yn went to the Island, performed or work, returned well home at night, praised be the Lord. Some thanked God, & some wished we had been drowned. Soone after, one yt wished, we had been drowned, was himself drowned about the same place wr we wr so wonderfully delivered: the history wrff is’—. Here the account abruptly ends.

At a later day, John Marshall testified that on the 9th of October, 1677, ‘I saw John Joans driveing his trucks, whipping his horses which caused them to run very furiously; the worshipful Thomas Danforth being before the trucks shifted the way several times to escape the horses, and I was afraid they would have ran over him; but having escaped them, when the said Joans came to the wharfe where I was, I asked him why he drave his trucks soe hard to run over people, and told him he had like to have ran over Mr. Danforth; he answered it was noe matter if Mr. Danforth and Major Gucking were both hanged. Sworn in Court. J. Dudley, Assistant. 12. 8. 77. Said Jones is sentenced to be admonished, and not to drive a cart in Boston upon penalty of a severe whipping. J. Dudley, per order.’¹

On account of the popular exasperation, Capt. Gookin failed of election in May, 1676, as one of the Assistants. The General Court, however, manifested their sympathy and confidence, by promoting him, at their first session, to the office of Sergeantmajor, or chief commander of the militia in the County. During the year, the tide of feeling changed in his favor, and in May, 1677, he was reinstated in his former position as an Assistant. Thenceforth, both he and his associate, Danforth, retained their hold on the public confidence until the close of life.