The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. 7
CHAPTER II.
Thompson's Visit to Dorchester, and settlement on the Island afterwards
called by his name.-The Neponset Tribe of Indians.
THE next European known to have visited the
Dorchester shore was Mr. David Thompson, styled,
in the patent to Robert Gorges, gentleman.* He
had been sent to New England by Mason, Gorges,
and the other grantees of the Laconia patent, in the
spring of 1623, to superintend a trading establishment which they were making at Piscataqua (Portsmouth).t The Plymouth colony, suffering severely
that season for want of corn, sent Capt. Standish
over to Piscataqua for the purpose of procuring a
supply. Thompson, having been appointed by the
New England Company their agent, accompanied
him back to Plymouth,+ where he was to meet
Robert Gorges, to give him possession of a large
grant of territory previously made on the north
shore about Chelsea and Lynn. Gorges and Thompson went by land to Wessagusset (Weymouth), and
thence to Gorges's grant, ~ and it was on this occasion
that Thompson became familiar with the localities
of Boston harbor. He continued his position at
Piscataqua, engaged in the business of his employers, until 1626. At this time he left the service of
the Laconia patentees and set up for himself, for
Hazard, vol. 1, p. 154.
t Levett's Voyage, Mass. His. Col. vol. 28, p. 164; also Prince, p. 133.
$ Winslow;s relation, Young's Pilgrims.
~ Prince's Annals, p. 142.