Capital of Massachusetts. Few of the early Irish emigrants to Boston were Catholics, as they were unwilling to settle in a Puritan colony. Traces of the Catholic Church are found as early as September 1646, when a ship was in port having two priests on board, who were the guests of the governor. Father Druillettes visited Boston, 1650, to discuss with General Gibbons details of a trading pact and alliance with the Canadian French against the Iroquois; it is surmised that he said Mass at the governor's home. The "Weekly Rehearsal," March 20, 1732, announces:
"We hear that Mass has been performed in town this winter by an Irish priest among some Catholics of his own nation, of whom it is not doubted we have a considerable number among us."