Boston Founded A.D. 1630

In 1630, as Boston was founded, John Winthrop aboard the Arbella declared that the community would be as a city upon a hill, watched by all people, and warned that if its people dealt falsely with God in the work they had undertaken, they would become a story and a byword throughout the world. That same year, William Bradford at Charles-Towne reflected that from small beginnings greater things had been produced by the hand that made all things of nothing, and that as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled there had shone to many, even in some measure to the whole nation. In 1930, on the three hundredth anniversary of Boston’s founding on September 17, 1630, the City of Boston gave thanks to God for blessings enjoyed under a free government.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States