each Sabbath. The Praying Indians of Martha's Vineyard who said grace before meals became a topic of conversation on both sides of the Atlantic. Thomas Mayhew the Younger carried on his missionary work with little heed for his personal fortunes. As the elder Mayhew put it, his son had followed this work "when 'twas bare with him for food and rayment, and when indeede there was nothing in sight any waies but Gods promises." The situation was improved somewhat by the formation in 1649 of a London missionary society, usually called the New England Company, which in a few years began to provide substantial aid for the Mayhews and other missionaries. In the fall of 1657, Thomas Mayhew the Younger sailed for England on a trip combining an appeal for missionary funds with personal business. After leaving Boston Harbor, the ship was never seen again. The death of his only son at the age of thirty-six was a heavy blow to Mayhew and greatly increased the burdens he carried in old age. He made repeated efforts to find a replacement to continue his son's ministry to the Indians, but no minister who knew the language or was willing to learn could be induced to settle permanently on the island, so at the age of sixty Mayhew, who had started as a merchant, then turned landed proprietor, became a missionary in his son's place. For the next twenty-five years he traveled on foot as far as twenty miles to preach once a week at the Indian assembly or to visit the native camps. Death When the venerable Governor Mayhew became ill one Sunday evening in 1682, he calmly informed his friends and relatives that "his Sickness would now be to Death, and he was well contented therewith, being full of Days, and satisfied with Life". His great-grandson, Experience Mayhew, a son of John, was only eight at the time, but he clearly remembered being led to the bedside to receive from the dying man a blessing "in the Name of the Lord". Matthew Mayhew, the eldest grandson, succeeded his military and civil duties. Rev. John Mayhew, the youngest grandson and grandfather of Jonathan Mayhew, continued his missionary work to the Indians. Thomas, another grandson, became a Judge of Massachusetts. His descendant Jonathan Mayhew was a prominent 18th-century Boston clergyman who coined the phrase "No taxation without representation." Descendants Matthew Mayhew (1648–1710),