The Massachusetts Bay Company's claim on New England was preceded by those of two other joint stock companies. The first of these was the Dorchester Company, organized by the Anglican minister John White. When it went out of existence in 1626, the company's claim was transferred to a new organization, the New England Company, led by John Endecott. Endecott would ultimately found the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1628. Endecott's shares and those of fifty-six other New England Company investors would soon be absorbed into those of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629. The author ably recounts the fortunes, intrigues, and shifting allegiances of these formative companies, listing members or investors wherever such information has survived. Of great interest to genealogists are the sketches of 125 Adventurers (investors) in Massachusetts Bay.