WESTON, Thomas, adventurer, born in England about 1575; died in England after 1624. He was a successful merchant in London, and went to Leyden about 1619-'20 to negotiate with the merchants of New Amsterdam with regard to the proposed emigration of a colony to northern Virginia. For some reason the Pilgrims showed deference to his advice, and articles of agreement with the London merchants were drawn up, embodying conditions that were proposed by Weston. He advised them to rely neither upon the Dutch nor the Virginia company, assured them that he and others were ready to supply ships and money for such an enterprise, and reminded them that Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others were moving for a new patent in North Virginia, " Unto which," says Bradford, "Mr. Weston and the cheefe of them began to incline it was best for them to goe." A joint-stock company was then formed to continue seven years, with shares of ten pounds each, and John Carver and Robert Cushman were sent to England to collect subscriptions and to make preparations. Cushman conceded certain alterations in the agreement to please the "merchant adventurers," whose part in the scheme was indispensable. About seventy merchants engaged in the enterprise. The latter, having received glowing and deceptive accounts of the English colonists from Captain John Smith, looked upon them as convenient instruments for the establishment of a permanent trading-post in the new country. But as time passed and the Plymouth people sent little or nothing to their English partners, Weston charged them with employing their time in arguing and consulting when they should have been trading, and sold out his interest in the company. He then organized an expedition of his own, and during the winter of 1621-'2 was busy in London gathering his company, which was made of the roughest material. Before sending out the main body he despatched a small party in the " Sparrow" to the fishing-grounds off the coast of Maine, whence they skirted the shore to Cape Ann, crossed to Boston harbor, and thence to Plymouth. The main body of sixty men, described by Weston as being " rude and profane," arrived in the " Charity," of 100 toils, and the "Swan," of 30 tons, landed at Plymouth in June, 1622, and remained there for two months, consuming the scanty stores, which they did nothing to increase. Weston's brother-in-law, Richard Greene, the leader of this party, died during the summer, and was succeeded in command by one Saunders. Finally this body determined to establish a separate colony at Wichaguscussett, or Wessagussett (now Weymouth), near Boston, Massachusetts The colonists became almost at once idle, profligate, and corrupt, and in the extremity of want were objects of contempt for the Indians, whose aggressions they dared not resent, and who determined to exterminate them. Fearful that such an act would be avenged by the Plymouth colonists, the savages decided to fall upon that settlement also; but, before this plan was executed, Miles Standish marched to Wessagussett, killed the chiefs Pecksnut and Wituwamat, and took with him to Plymouth part of the wretched colony, which was then broken up. Weston arrived soon after its dispersion, and a few months later, in 1623, Robert Gorges, who had been commissioned lieutenant-governor, came to Plymouth to look after his grant of land. After exercising his authority, he left suddenly for the coast of Maine in search of Westom whom he proposed to call to account for his various trading misdemeanors, and, meeting him on the way thither, engaged in a heated discussion. Returning to Wessagussett, Gorges sent a warrant to Plymouth for the seizure of Weston's vessel and his immediate arrest, proposing to put him upon trial to answer for the ill conduct of his men at the settlement, whereby the peace of the whole country had been endangered. Weston argued that he could not be held responsible for acts done by others in his absence, and could not answer the o[her charges against him. Governor Bradford and his associates, remembering the service that Weston had rendered them, convinced Gorges that nothing could be gained by prosecuting him. His vessel was then restored to him, with some compensation for its seizure, and, being allowed to depart in peace, he went to Virginia. The patent of Gorges gave him a vague title to all the main-land known as Massachusetts, and he therefore absorbed Wessagussett, landed his stores, and built warehouses on the site chosen by Weston in September, 1623. In the following spring he returned to England, and the people dispersed, but it is thought that a few colonists remained in Weymouth.