Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles Form L-l r? Tl? This book is DUE on the last date stamded below HOV 1 2 1923 DEC 5 1923 JAN 1 91925 APR MAY SEF 30 1930 AM ^,'22 22 19^8 ' HOV 2 -1959 TfcC 9 HOV 30 1S5 I D-URL JUL 28 1965 I 4-9 9^ PM 10 COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND FROM THE DISCOVERY BY EUROPEANS TO THE Jfvcst ffiennal Congress of tlje "Snglo^ttwrtcan Colonial BY JOHN GORHAM PALFREY IN FOUR VOLUMES VOL. II BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY flTfe CtrtjerisiDe 3305 o Copyright, 187S, By JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. Copyright, 1885, By JOHN CARVER PALFREY. The Rivenide Preu, Cambridge, Mats., Tf. S. Printed by U. 0. Uougbton & Company. fc f CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. BOOK II. CONFEDERACY OF THE FOUE COLONIES. CHAPTER X. THE QUAKERS AND CONGREGATIONAL REFORM. Accession of Charles the Second 1 Addresses to the King and to Parliament, from Massachusetts. 2 Complaints against the Colony 3 Origin of the Sect of Quakers. George Fox 4 Alarm in New England 6 The Quakers in Massachusetts 8 Laws against them. Mary Dyer 9 Action of the Federal Commissioners 10 Pertinacity of the Quakers 11 Execution of Four Quakers 12 Conviction of Wenlock Christison 14 Triumph of the Quakers 15 Controversy respecting Baptism 17 Schism in the Church of Hartford 18 The Half-way Covenant 19 CHAPTER XL CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. Arrival of Colonel Whalley and Colonel Goffe at Boston. ... 22 Pursuit of them to New Haven 28 The Regicides at Hadley 25 Visit of Colonel D'lxwell to them. . 26 iv CONTENTS. HOI Eliot's " Christian Commonwealth " 27 Navigation Act 28 Construction of the Charter of Massachusetts 29 Embassy of Bradstreet and Norton to England 81 Their Return with the King's Answer 83 Death of Norton 85 Action of the General Court on the King's Letter 86 CHAPTER XII. SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. Affairs in Plymouth 87 New Haven 88 Connecticut : Winthrop sent to England 89 Charter of Connecticut 40 Political Extinction of New Haven 42 Reception of the Charter of Connecticut 44 Meeting of the Federal Commissioners 46 Contentions about the Charter 47 John Clarke in England 48 Charter of Rhode Island 60 Conflict of Jurisdiction 68 CHAPTER XIII. ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. Proceedings of the General Court of Massachusetts 66 Arrival of the Commissioners 68 The King's Letter 60 Capture of New Amsterdam 63 Submission of New Haven 66 The Commissioners at Plymouth 67 CHAPTER XIV. ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. Affairs in Rhode Island 69 The King's Province. "C The Commissioners at Boston 71 CONTENTS. y RttB Death of Governor Endicott 72 Bellingham chosen Governor 73 The Commissioners and the General Court 74 Proceedings of the Commissioners interrupted 76 Transactions in the Eastern Settlements 77 Departure of the Commissioners 78 Ruin of the Confederacy 80 Reinvigoration of Massachusetts 80 Reconstruction of the Government in Maine , 81 BOOK III. FINAL RELATIONS TO THE STUART KINGS. CHAPTER L CONDITION AFTER FORTY FEARS. Population of the Colonies 82 Report of the Commissioners 88 111 Influence of Colonization 86 Non-conformity in Great Britain 91 Reestablishment of Episcopacy in Scotland 92 Act for collecting Customs 93 Attempt to renew the Confederacy 94 Adoption of the Plan by Three Colonies 97 Capture of New York by the Dutch 98 CHAPTER IL TRANSACTIONS OF TEN TEARS. John Davenport in Boston 100 Formation of the Third Church in Boston 102 The Half-way Covenant 103 The Baptists in Boston 104 Presidents Chaunoy and Hoar 106 Resignation and Death of Hoar 108 Extension of the Bound&iy of Massachusetts 108 n CONTENTS. PAU Affairs in Plymouth 109 Rhode Island 110 The Quakers in Rhode Island 112 Western Boundary Line 113 Dispute between Rhode Island and Connecticut 114 Administration of Winthrop 115 The Dutch on Long Island 115 Restitution of New York to England 117 Major Andros's Commission 117 HU Visit to Saybrook 118 CHAPTER IIL PHILIP'S WAB. Earlier Relations to the Natives 123 " Praying Indiana " in New England 124 Massasoit 126 Character of Philip 126 His Plot against the English 127 Murder of Sausaman 128 Restlessness of Philip's People 129 Attack on Swanzey 130 Retreat of Philip to Pocasset 131 Treaty with the Narragansetts 132 Defeat of Captain Hutchinson 133 Siege of Brookfield 134 Movements on Connecticut River 137 Colonel Goffe at Hadley 138 Action of the Confederacy 139 Disaster of Bloody Brook 142 Attack on Springfield 143 Bad Faith of the Narragansetts 144 Expedition against them f 145 Attack on the Narragansett Fort 147 CHAPTER IV. PHILIP'S WAK. Attack on Lancaster 152 Captivity of Mrs. Rowlandson 164 CONTENTS. Vil PAG Attacks on Eastern Towns 167 Defeat of Captain Pierce 168 Capture of Canonchet 160 Defeat of Captain Wadsworth 161 Operations on the Connecticut 162 Battle of Turner's Falls 168 Doings of the General Court 164 Defeat of the Indians at Hatfield 166 The Indians repulsed at Hadley 166 Conduct of the " Praying Indians " 167 Restraint on the Indian Converts 168 CHAPTER V. PHILIP'S WAR. Pursuit of Philip 171 Death of Philip 172 Capture of Annawon 173 The War in Maine 174 Major Waldron's Expedition 176 Treaty with the Indians at Boston 178 Further Hostilities in Maine 179 Treaty at Casco 180 Distresses of the War 181 Treatment of the Conquered 182 Character and Policy of Philip 184 Relief sent from Ireland 188 Death of John Clarke 189 Death of John Winthrop, Jr 190 CHAPTER VI. RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. The Council for Foreign Plantations 194 Complaints to the Privf Council 196 Confirmation of the Claims of Mason and Gorges 196 Hostility of the Privy Council 197 Edward Randolph appointed Agent to New England 198 His Reception in Boston 199 Vlii CONTENTS. Randolph in New Hampshire ............................. 202 His Visit to Plymouth .................................... 208 His Departure for England ............................... 204 Proceedings of Massachusetts .......................... ... 205 Mission of S tough ton and Bulkley to England ............. 207 Declaration of the Claim of Massachusetts ......... . ....... 208 CHAPTER VIL CONTINUED DI8PUTB WITH ENGLAND. Memorial of the Agents to the Privy Council .............. 210 Action of the Privy Council .............................. 211 Proceedings of Massachusetts ................. . ........... 215 Petition of the New Hampshire Towns .................... 216 Purchase of Maine by Massachusetts ...................... 217 Opinion of the Crown Lawyers ........................... 220 Proceedings of the Lords of the Committee ................ 221 Oath of Allegiance taken by the Magistrates ............... 222 Pretensions of Episcopacy ................................ 225 Return of the Agents .................................... 228 CHAPTER VIIL BVt THE CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS IN DANGER. Bradstreet elected Governor .............................. 229 Arrival of Randolph ..................................... 231 Letter from the King ..................................... 231 Action of the General Court .............................. 232 Proceedings of Randolph ................................. 234 His Visit to New Hampshire ............................. 235 The King's Letter by John Mason ......................... 236 Randolph again in England .................. . ............ 237 His Reports to the Secretary of State. ..................... 238 Procrastination in Massachusetts .......................... 239 Return of Randolph to Boston ............................ 240 Action of the General Court .............................. 241 Instructions to New Agents ............................... 243 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER IX. HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. MM The Popular Party in Massachusetts 246 The Moderate Party 246 Joseph Dudley 248 Dudley and Richards in England 249 New Instructions to the Agents 251 Writ of Quo Warranto 263 Royal Declaration 254 Firmness of the Deputies 256 Action of the Magistrates 256 Randolph again in England 257 Vacating of the Charter 258 Colonel Kirk appointed Governor-General 260 Arbitrary Measures of Charles the Second 261 Despondency in Massachusetts 262 CHAPTER X. EASTERN- AND SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. Affairs in Maine 264 Thomas Danforth appointed President 266 John Cutts President of New Hampshire 267 Organization of the New Government 268 Mason in New Hampshire 269 Cranfield made Governor 271 His Arbitrary Measures 272 Insurrection of Edward Gove 273 Taxes illegally levied by Cranfield 276 Disorders in the Province 276 Cranfield withdraws to the West Indies 276 Affairs in Plymouth 277 Condition of Connecticut 278 Controversy with Rhode Island 278 Holden and Greene in England 279 Meeting of the Federal Commissioners 280 Decision of the King's Commissioners in Favor of Connecticut 282 Address to the King from Connecticut 283 X CONTENTS. um Administration of Governor Leete 284 Death of Itoger Williams 286 Death of William Coddington 286 End of the Second Confederacy 287 CHAPTER XL PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS. Accession of James the Second 288 Charter Elections in Massachusetts 289 Abdication of the General Court 292 Presidency of Joseph Dudley 294 Organization of the Provisional Government 296 Complaints of Randolph 297 Episcopal Church in Boston 801 Affairs in Plymouth 804 Transactions in Rhode Island 805 Provisional Government in the King's Province 807 Proclamation of King James in Connecticut 308 Writ of Quo Warranto against the Colony 309 Meeting of the General Court 811 Instructions to the Agent 812 Arrival of Andros at Boston 818 CHAPTER XII. FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. Principles of the New Government 314 Effects of the Abrogation of the Charter 316 Authority and Functions of Andros 317 His Reception at Boston 319 Organization of the Government 320 New System of Taxation 321 Intrusion of Episcopacy .. 822 Obstacles to the Administration of Justice 824 Arbitrary Taxation 325 Resistance to Andres's Despotism in Ipswich 826 Demand for Quit-rents 328 Oppressive Exactions in Legal Business 884 CONTENTS. i na Government of Andros in Maine 831 West and Palmer in Cornwall 832 Affairs in New Hampshire and Plymouth 333 Submission of Rhode Island 334 The Narragansett Claims 835 The Usurpation in Connecticut 336 A Surrender of the Charter agitated 338 Visit of Andros to Hartford 340 Concealment of the Charter 841 Last Record of the General Court 842 CHAPTER XIII. ANDROS IN MASSACHUSETTS AND MAINE. Complaint against Charles Morton 343 Reception of the King's Declaration of Indulgence 844 Legal Consolidation of New England 344 Oppressive Legislation 346 Writs of Intrusion 347 Prosecution of Increase Mather by Randolph 351 Mather embarks as Agent to England 852 Castine and the Penobscot Indians 852 Andros and Randolph at Pemaquid 353 Affairs in the County of Cornwall , . . . . 854 CHAPTER XIV. ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDEOS. The " Territory and Dominion " of New England 855 Andros in New York and New Jersey 356 Movements of the Indians 357 Increase Mather in England 358 Andros arrests the Expedition against the Indians 360 His own Campaign in Maine 361 Imprudence of Andros 863 Great News from England 865 Reception of the Intelligence by Andros 866 Agitation in Massachusetts 868 Jtii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. BBVOLUTION OF THE SEVENTEENTH CBWTURT. MM Rising in Boston 370 Declaration of the Patriots 371 Summons to Andres 873 His Surrender 374 Arrest of the other Usurpers 375 Dudley placed under Guard 876 Committee of Public Safety 877 Convention of Delegates 378 Proclamation of William and Mary in Boston 379 Arrival of Sir William Phipps 880 Meeting of the General Court 382 Revolution in Plymouth and Rhode Island 883 The Charter Government resumed in Connecticut 884 Proclamation of William and Mary in Connecticut 886 HISTO11Y OF NEW ENGLAND. BOOK II. CONFEDERACY OF THE FOUR COLONIES. CHAPTER X. THE QUAKERS AND CONGREGATIONAL REFORM. No one of the confederate colonies of New England proclaimed either of the Protectors of the British Commonwealth. An order which, at the death of Oliver, the Council of State sent to Mas- sachusetts to proclaim his son, received no atten- tion, even so far as to be mentioned in the public records. Intelligence of the accession of Charles the Sec- ond to the throne of his ancestors was not 1660 long in reaching Boston ; but the journal of Jul y 27 the General Court, which sat three months later, contains no reference to the new position of things John Leverett was now the colony's agent in 1655. England, having succeeded Edward Wins- NOT. 13 low in that capacity. The Court had not been long adjourned, when information came from 1660 him that the affairs of New England had been NoT ' ^ brought to the King's notice ; that the Quakeri 2 THE QUAKERS. and some of the eastern people had approached the throne with complaints; and that a petition had been presented for the subjection of New England to a General Governor. The Magistrates immediately convoked an ex- traordinary General Court, which " ordered that Addresses be made to the King's most excel- ' lent Majesty, as also to the High Court of Parliament." The Address to the King prayed him to respect the privileges conveyed by his father's charter. The Address to Parliament expressed con- fidence in the " favor and encouragement " of that assembly. These papers, transmitted to Leverett, " or, in his absence, Richard Saltonstall and Henry Ashurst, Esqs.," were accompanied by instructions relating to their presentation and to further pro- ceedings. The agents were directed to engage the favor of "gentlemen of worth in Parliament, or that were near unto his Majesty ; " to inform them- selves respecting the state of feeling of King and Parliament towards the memorialists ; to maintain the privileges secured by the charter, including free- dom from appeals to England ; and to protest against any demands of the Quakers for indul- gence. If called upon to make any public answer, the agents were to reply that they had not received authority to do so. There was much occasion for anxiety, and great need of circumspection. Through thirty years, from the beginning of their settlement, the freemen of Massachusetts had managed their own affairs. Fo RESTORATION OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY. twenty years they had pursued their plans with little apprehension of interference. The restoration of the royal authority revived painful remembrances, and gave birth to serious alarms. Their charter, as long as it should stand good in English law, they reckoned to be a sufficient shield. They had some good friends at court. The Parliament which was in session contained a strong force of men who would not willingly see them wronged. And, in the last resort, the constancy and conduct which, when their numbers were smaller, had stood them in good stead, were now a not less secure depend- ence. Bat, on the other hand, the enthusiasm which brought back the King had invested him with much power for mischief, should he prove to be malig- nantly disposed ; and that Puritan organization in England to which in former dangers they had looked for serviceable sympathy, was disabled. The most compact and solid array of Puritanism now exist- ing was in New England itself. In these circum- stances a gloomy uncertainty rested over the future ; and a sense of responsibility, somewhat new after the comparative calm of a score of years, braced the minds of the pilots of the State. The complaint presented to the King from the eastern settlements was made by that part of the inhabitants who were opposed to the occupation of Maine and Lygonia by Massachusetts, and by persons interested with them. The application of the Quakers related to severities, which, through some six or seven years preceding, had been prac- 4 THE QUAKERS. tised on that sect in the confederate colonies, and especially in Massachusetts. The people known among themselves by the name of Friends, but commonly called Quakers, possess at present, in an eminent degree, the re- spect of mankind. Collectively they present an example of some moral qualities of the highest order, and there are names in their annals which occur to the mind whenever the heroism of philan- thropic enterprise is the theme. But the attractive part of their history begins with its second stage, in the time of William Penn and Robert Barclay. Seldom have enthusiasts been more coarse, more unfriendly, more wild and annoying, than the early Friends. The gratification of fantastic caprices, and of an aimless, absolute, and offensive self-will, seemed to be the governing impulse of their action. The sect appeared in that agitated period of the English Commonwealth which gave birth to man- ifold eccentricities of speculation and of conduct George Fox is reputed to have been its founder, though John Reeves and Ludovick Muggleton had obtained some notoriety by preaching a doctrine similar to his, at a little earlier time. Fox took abundant pains to insult and exasperate everybody, not his disciple, that came in his way ; and his tongue being against every man, it naturally fol- lowed, as it might have done even in less agitated times, that every man's hand was against his. When he was twenty-eight years old, and when six years had passed since the time of his under ALARM CREATED BY THEM. 5 standing himself to have received his first revela- tions, no fewer than twenty-five preachers acknowl- edged him for their apostle ; and in two years more, the number was increased to sixty. They rebuked the rabble and the courts ; and the mobs beat them, and the courts put them in gaol. The marvellous absurdity of their behavior provoked now compas- sion, and now disgust. One of them undertook to fast twenty days, and died of hunger on the tenth ; another, as personating the Saviour, rode into Bristol with a shouting retinue, his horse led by a woman, and others spreading scarfs and hand- kerchiefs in his way. Conduct so unaccountable was not unnaturally accounted for, in the popular mind, by explanations as unreasonable as itself, one of which was that they were Franciscan friars in disguise, emissaries of the Pope to dis- credit and overset the Protestantism of England. Endicott was Governor of Massachusetts when the Quakers entered, in the parent country, on that course of operations, by books and missionaries, which was soon to carry the proclamation of their eccentric faith to the northern, eastern, and west- ern regions of continental Europe, to the Vatican palace, to the camp of the Grand Seignior, and to the islands of the sea. It seemed to the Governor and his fellow- Magistrates that if Quaker preachers were really Popish emissaries, no sphere should be allowed to them for machinations in New Eng- land. If not so, but if, as was quite generally un- 6 THE QUAKERS. derstood, they were publishers of irreligious fancies, declaimers against everything established, " evil- speakers against dignities " of every sort, provokers of tumult and violence wherever they came, then whoever had a right to refuse their companionship would do well to make his door fast against them, To the rulers of Massachusetts imagination rep- resented the fabric of their institutions demol- ished, and all their long and arduous work undone. The memory of their Antinomian troubles had not perished, and they intensely dreaded the renewal of such a strife. The disturbed condition of things in the parent country warned them to be watch- ful. If the iron hand of Cromwell could scarcely restrain hot-headed men from intolerable irregulari- ties, how was restraint to be imposed where the bands of authority were as yet so loosely knit as in these infant colonies ? They overrated the dan- ger; for- they did not know, what later experience has shown, that, at any one time, there is but little fuel in the world for such excitement, because the class of minds susceptible of it is small. Estimat- ing it as they erroneously did, in an evil hour they resolved to keep this dangerous people out of Mas- sachusetts. All the more stiffly did this vigorous people resolve that into Massachusetts they would come, and that there they would abide till it should suit them to depart. The local government proceeded on the familiar conviction that their territory was strictly theii THE QUAKERS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 7 DWII homestead, and as such was invested with all the rights of security and privacy that a private pro- prietor enjoys. They had repeatedly asserted their right to its exclusive occupation, by warning away and dismissing persons whose society they did not relish ; and their decree of banishment had always been effectual. That they should pass such a de- cree, and that it should be disobeyed, was an improbability that could scarcely enter into their calculations. In respect to this passage of her history, Massa- chusetts was unfortunate in the temper of the three men who had now the most important agency in her administration. The Governor and Deputy- Governor at this time were Endicott and Belling- ham, each a person of vehement character in his own way. To them and to John Norton the Quakers correctly, as it seems ascribed the chief influence in determining the course of meas ures which was now begun. After Cotton's death, Norton must be regarded as the leading minister of the colony. His commanding abilities and his melancholy temperament both had their influence on the events which followed. The General Court appointed " a public day Df humiliation," of which the purpose first named was " to seek the face of God in behalf looo. of our native country, in reference to the Ma y 14 - abounding of errors, especially those of the Ranters and Quakers." But the dreaded mischief was al- 3 THE QUAKERS. ready nearer than in the parent country. Scarcely was the fast-day over, when a vessel from July ' Barbadoes brought into Boston harboi two Quaker women, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin. They were disposed of with little difficulty. The master of the vessel was put under bonds to recon- ye y tnem to Barbadoes, and they were kept in gaol till their departure. They had but just left Boston, when another vessel brought from London eight other per- sons of the same persuasion, four men and as many women, besides a man who had joined the party on Long Island, and been converted on his passage thence. One of them, Mary Prince, taken to the Governor's house for a confer- Sept. 8. ence with two ministers, told them they were " hirelings, Baals, and seeds of the serpent." After eleven weeks' imprisonment, this party also were reembarked and sent away. By correspondence from his home on Narragansett Bay, Samuel Gorton had made an arrangement to take them out of the vessel, and set them on shore again in New England. But the Magistrates had information or suspicion of what was going on, and put a stop to it by taking bonds of the ship- master. While this second party lay in prison, the Fed eral Commissioners held one of their annual meetings. They passed a vote recommend- ing " to the several General Courts that all Quakers LAWS IN MASSACHUSETTS AGAINST THEM. 9 Ranters, and other notorious heretics should be forthwith secured, or removed out of all the jurisdictions." Each of the colonies made laws conforming to this advice. The laws passed in Massachusetts were the most detailed and the most severe. Quakers coming into the colony were to " be forthwith committed to the house of correc- tion, and at their entrance to be severely whipped, and by the master thereof to be kept constantly to work, and none suffered to converse or speak with them during the time of their imprisonment." A fine of five pounds was incurred by the importa- tion, circulation, or concealment of their books ; and for a third offence in the way of defending their opinions, the transgressor was to be impris- oned till there should " be convenient passage for him to be sent out of the land." The admonition designed by the new laws was before long to be practically enforced. Anne Bur- den and Mary Dyer came to Boston from J J 1657. England. The latter was wife of John Dyer, Secretary and Naval Officer of Rhode Island. Both the women were imprisoned. Burden, after two or three months, was sent back to England. Dyer, pleading ignorance of the law, was delivered to her husband, to be conducted home. But Christopher Holden and John Copeland, who had been re- shipped to England in the preceding autumn, and had now found their way back, and Mary Clarke and Richard Dowdney, who had now crossed the .10 THE QUAKERS. ocean for the first time, " to warn the persecutors," weie imprisoned and scourged, and the last three were sent away together. They all be- longed to a party of fifteen, who had come from London to New Amsterdam. The contest grew more angry, and heavier penal- ties were imposed. The fine for harboring Quakers was now increased to the amount of forty Oct ' *' shillings for every hour ; and it was ordered that every Quaker, coming into the jurisdiction after being once punished, should, for the first offence, suffer the loss of one ear; for a second offence, the loss of the other; and for a third, should have the tongue " bored through with a hot iron." Of the three last-mentioned provisions, the last two were never executed. The Federal Commissioners thought that the state of things called for yet sterner measures of prevention. They advised the General Courts to 1668 make it a capital offence for a Quaker Sept. 22-3.^ re t urn i n to any colony after being ban- ished from it. The General Court of Massa- chusetts accepted the advice, and passed a law of this precise tenor. Its principle was no novelty in the legislation of Massachusetts. Over and over again, through nearly thirty years, delinquents had been threatened with death if they should return from banishment ; and the threat had never once failed of its desired effect. And there can be no doubt whatever, that, among those whc THEIR PERTINACITY. 11 voted for the law now in question, there was a con- fident expectation that the terror of it would accom- plish all that was desired, and would orevent any occasion for its execution. After all, it was warmly contested, chiefly in the House of Deputies. It was not till after long debate, and repeated con- ferences with the Magistrates, that a bare majority of one vote was obtained for it in that body, which this year consisted of thirty-four members. The Court was not insensible to the responsibility of the step that had been taken, nor to the strong pressure of public sentiment in an opposite direc- tion ; and it ordered that a " declaration," setting forth the urgency of the reasons for its proceeding, should be composed by Mr. Norton, and circulated in print throughout the colony. For a little time there seemed reason to hope that the law would do its office without harm to any one. The first six Quakers who were banished 165a after its enactment went away and returned May> no more. But William Robinson heard of it in Rhode Island, and Marmaduke Stevenson in Bar- badoes ; and they judged themselves to be com- missioned to put it to the proof. They came to Boston, and were joined there by Mary Dyer, from Newport, and Nicholas Davis, from Barnstable. The four were arraigned, and received sen- tence of banishment, with the addition that they would suffer death if they came back. " Nicholas Davis and Mary Dyer found freedom 12 THE QUAKERS. to depart; but the other two were con- strained in the love and power of the Lord not to depart, but to stay in the jurisdiction, and to try the bloody law with death." After four or five oct 13 wee ks they returned to Boston, and were again joined there by Dyer, who had again l ' reconsidered her duty. Brought to trial un- der the recent statute, they were all three sen tenced to be hanged on the eighth day following. Precautions were taken against a popular outbreak, for there was a general disgust at what was going on. A hundred pikemen and musketeers were de- tailed to guard the convicts to execution. A strong night-watch was set, and sentries were posted in and around the town. At this point, without doubt, if not before, the government should have paused and retraced its steps. It would have had to acknowledge itself beaten ; but this it could afford to do, and this it was obliged to do at last. Perhaps each party had continued to hope that the other would relent when the terrible gallows should be reared. But so it was not to be. The contest of will was to last longer. Whatever the rulers of Massachusetts in those days promised or threatened, that it was their practice to do. On the other hand, if they pre- sumed that their antagonists were susceptible of fear, the supposition was a mistake. On the ap- pointed day, the prisoners, surrounded by the guard went from the gaol in Queen (Court) Street to Bos HANGING OF QUAKERS. 13 ton Common, hand in hand, Mary Dyer walking be- tween the other two. The men were hanged, and their bodies were buried beneath the gallows. Dyer, who had stood during the execution with a halter about her neck, was now told that she was dis- missed to the care of her son, who had come from Rhode Island to intercede for her. Her courage had not yet reached the height to which it aspired. She accepted the deliverance, and was led out of the jurisdiction. The undaunted deportment of the sufferers in- creased the wide-spread resentment against the law which had condemned them ; and the Court found it necessary to justify itself in two other " declarations," sent abroad, the one in print, the other in a circular letter from the Secretary to the towns. Dyer was not satisfied with herself; and in the following spring, after some aimless wander- ings, she again came to Boston, and was again brought to trial, and doomed to die. At the gal- lows once more the offer was renewed to 1660 her of release, if she would promise thence- June * forward to keep out of Massachusetts. But she rejected it, and met her fate with brave determina- tion. " In obedience to the will of the Lord I came," she said ; " and in His will I abide faithful to the death." With an inconsistency which shows the repug- nance felt by the Magistrates to executing the hard law, it was left inoperative in some cases of mani- 14 THE QUAKERS. fest violation. But it had one more victim. Wil- liam Leddra returned from banishment, and NOT. was apprehended and brought to trial. An offer of liberation was made to him, if he would en- gage to go to England ; but he rejected it, saying 1661. * na ^ ne na d no business there. He was con- March u. demned and exec uted. All that will be Christ's disciples," he said at the foot of the ladder '* must take up the cross." The last words he was heard to utter, were those of the martyr Stephen, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." During Leddra's trial, Wenlock Christison, who had been banished, and threatened with death if he should return, came into court, and confronted the judges with bold language. After three months he was brought up for trial. The tide had now turned. There was an unprecedented division among the Magistrates, and they are said to have consumed no less than two weeks in debate. The sturdy Governor was so vexed at what he thought their want of spirit, that he said he was half-minded to go back to England. Christison was condemned to die ; but the dreadful sentence could not, a fifth time, be executed. In the mean time the General Court had met, and the evidences of opposi- tion to any further pursuance of this rigorous policy were unmistakable. The contest of will was at an end. The trial that was to decide which party would hold out longest had been made, and the Quakers had conquered. The Court, it is true THEIR TRIUMPH. 15 was not ieady for such an express contradiction of some of the leading men, and such a formal con- cession of victory to the Quakers, as would have been afforded by a repeal of the law for capital punishment. But it made other enactments, which, in the existing state of feeling, would practically supersede the execution of that law. While the vehemence on one side was thus shown to have cooled, on the other it appeared to have not yet mounted to its highest point of fervor. Whether as a consequence or not, after the discon- tinuance of capital punishment, the antics of the Quakers became for a while more absurd than be- fore. Far and near, they disturbed the congrega- tions at their worship. George Wilson at Boston, and Elizabeth Horton at Cambridge, cried through the streets that the Lord was coming with fire and sword. Thomas Newhouse, having delivered to the congregation in the Boston church a message with which he alleged himself to be charged, broke two glass bottles " in a prophetic manner," pro- claiming, " Thus will the Lord break you in pieces." One wretched woman, Mary Brewster, made her- self a spectacle by walking about wrapped in sack- cloth ; and another displayed her face smeared with grease and lamp-black. " Deborah Wilson was constrained, being a young woman of very modest and retired life, and of sober conversation, as were her parents, to go through the town of Salem naked, as a sign." " Lydia [Wardel], being 16 THE QUAKERS. a young and tender, chaste woman, as a sign to them [the church at Newbury], went in (though it was exceeding hard to her modest and shamefaced disposition) naked amongst them." The number of Quakers who were fined, im- prisoned, or scourged, under sentences from the General Court of Massachusetts, was about thirty. The number of those punished in like manner by sentences of the County Courts is not ascertained. Some similar proceedings took place in New Haven and Plymouth, especially in Plymouth, which, as being nearest to Rhode Island, the Quak- ers most frequented of all the confederate colo- nies, after Massachusetts. In England, at the same time, thousands of Quakers were treated in the same way ; and the return of members of this sect from banishment continued to be a felony in Virginia years after it ceased to be a felony in Massachusetts. But it is the unhappy distinction of Massachusetts to have taken the lives of four unfriendly persons who would not quit her terri- tory. It is hard to say what should have been done with disturbers so virulent and wayward. But that they should not have been put to death is certain. Sooner than put them to death, it were devoutly to be wished that the annoyed dwellers in Massachusetts had opened their hospitable draw- ing-rooms to dirty, naked women, and suffered their ministers to ascend the pulpits every Sunday bj steps paved with fragments of glass bottles. CONGREGATIONAL REFORM. 1? The conflict between the Quakers and the peo- ple of New England, so early brought to the notice of King Charles the Second, had begun four years before the restoration of the monarchy, though the execution of Leddra, the last of the sufferers, did not take place till the year next after that event, and the less severe proceedings did not cease for a much longer time. While this quarrel with the Quakers was going on, a question respecting the rite of baptism, differ- ent from the questions which were raised by the sectaries, had occasioned within the Congregational church itself a contention which was carried on with great warmth for twelve years, and has not ceased even at the present day. According to the original scheme of that church, the proper subjects of bap- tism were : 1. Such believers, hitherto unbaptized, as desired admission into the church and to the Lord's Supper ; and 2. The infant children of church-members in full standing; that is, of com- municants. In the lapse of years, numbers who had been baptized in infancy, but who were not ready for the tests of admission into the church, had become heads of families. What was their ecclesiastical position ? Were they, through their baptisoi, in any sense members of the church? If so, were they not entitled to have their children baptized ? Or, if not so entitled already, might they not become so by expressly assuming the engagements which at baptism had been made for i\ rna bj their parents ? These questions naturally 18 CONGREGATIONAL REFORM. led to others. Were not the terms of admission to the Lord's Supper, and to full membership in the church, too strict? Ought a relation of personal religious experience to be rigidly insisted on, as a condition ? Had not all baptized persons of reg- ular life a right to be received to the communion- table? Some went even further than this, and asked, whether all members of a congregation, who contributed to its support, had not a right to act, in the election of its officers, with those members of the church to whom hitherto that pre- rogative had exclusively belonged. The question first assumed form and practical importance in the church of Hartford. The Rev- erend Mr. Stone did some act in relation to bap- tism or to the communion, which, by leading members of his congregation, was considered to 1654 be irregular. Council after council was con- 1666. venec i; ministers and messengers came so far as from Massachusetts ; but all such measures failed. The General Court of Connecticut ap 1656. pointed a committee of four leading men to May- have a formal conference with the ministers of the Colony, and, with their assistance, to prepare such a statement of the matters in debate as should be a basis for consultation with the several mem- bers of the Confederacy. It was drawn up and circulated accordingly, being digested in twenty on3 questions. The General Court of Massachu- setts advised that it should be submitted a + Boston to a Synod of divines from the sev HALF-WAY COVENANT. 19 eral Colonies, and appointed a delegation of fifteen distinguished ministers. Connecticut accepted the proposal, and nominated on her part four 165T ministers, of whom Mr. Stone was one. Feb>26> Plymouth took no action in the matter. New Haven, attached to the old system, and fearful of the consequences of the present movement, refused to have a part in it, and sent a letter of warning, and a full answer to the questions, both prepared by Mr. Davenport. The Synod came together, and sat two or three weeks. Its Result favored some of the less June 4. exclusive views which had been lately gain- ing ground. In particular, as to the case of such baptized persons as, without being prepared to come to the Lord's Supper, were of blameless char- acter, and would own for themselves their baptis- mal obligations, it decided that they ought to be allowed to present their children for baptism. This assuming of baptismal obligations was called by opponents, taking the Half-way Covenant. The decision of the Synod had no legal efficacy ; and the dispute was embittered rather than as- suaged. A majority of the church of Hartford approved the decision, and many tf its members, who were of a different mind, moved away, the Governor being one of them. The current of opinion, in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, was with the Synod; but in both of those colonies, as well as in New Haven, which was more united and resolute, there was strong opposition in high 20 CONGREGATIONAL REFORM. quarters. Political regards brought their explosive fuel to the flame. " From the fire of the altar," writes Cotton Mather, " there issued thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes." Massachusetts 1662. convoked a colonial Synod, which pro- fcept ' nounced the same opinion as had been expressed by the score of Massachusetts and Con- necticut divines five years before. This Result was presented to the General Court, which ordered it to be printed, with a preface, for " the con- sideration of all the churches and people ; " and here all legislative action of Massachusetts on the matter ceased. The more liberal practice as to 1664 baptism, which the Synod had approved, Oct. is. was recommended by the General Court of Connecticut to the churches ; but a majority of them still resisted the innovation. From the period of which some events are re- lated in this chapter, the severity exercised against sectarian disturbers declines. In thirty-five years, Massachusetts had grown sufficiently powerful and confident to dismiss or to relax some of the secu rities which in her early feebleness had been thought essential. "Since," wrote Cotton Mather, "our Jerusalem was come to such a consistence that the going up of every fox would not break down om stone walls, who ever meddled with 'em ? " CHAPTER XL CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. THE Address of the General Court of Massa- chusetts to the King, though tardy, was favorably received. The strength of the Confederacy, of which that colony was the head, was perhaps over- rated at court; and it was probably thought pru- dent to abstain from a quarrel with so important a branch of the Puritan combination, till affairs should be more settled, and better information should be obtained. The King, through Secre- tary Morrice, informed Endicott that he should not " come behind any of his royal predecessors 1661 in a just encouragement and protection of Feb ' 15 ' all his loving subjects " in New England, and should make them " equal partakers of those promises of liberty and moderation to tender consciences, ex- pressed in his gracious declarations." Such language tended to relieve present anxiety, *na to facilitate the quiet reception of anothei document, which was perhaps transmitted by the same ship, though it bore a little earlier date. This was an order for the apprehension of the Jan. 28 fugitive regicides, Colonel Whalley and Col- onel Goffe, whom one Captain Breedon, then in 22 CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. London, reported that he had seen at Boston in the preceding summer. Edward Whalley, a.cousin of the Protector Oli- ver and of John Hampden, and an officer distin- guished in many battles of the Great Civil War was a member of the High Court of Justice at the trial of King Charles the First, and set his name to the death-warrant. He was employed by Crom- well in Scotland ; was one of the Major- Generate among whom the Protector parcelled out the local administration of England ; and sat, successively, in both Houses of the Parliaments of the Common- wealth. William Goffe, who married Whalley's daughter, was, like his father-in-law, a distinguished officer, a member of the High Court of Justice, a signer of the King's death-warrant, a member first of one, then of the other House of Parliament, and a Major-General in charge of a group of counties. To escape what they apprehended might prove the fate of regicides, Whalley and Goffe left Eng- land immediately on the return of King Charles the Second, coming to Boston in the vessel which 1660 brought the news of that event. Having July 27. been welcomed by the Governor, they pro- ceeded to Cambridge, which place for the present they made their home, appearing frequently in the neighborhood, and received everywhere with respect. Six or seven months passed, when intelligence came that the Colonels, as they were called, were REGICIDES IN NEW HAVEN. 23 among those marked by the King's advisers for vengeance. Some members of the General Court assured them of protection, -while others thought it better that they should seek safety elsewhere The Magistrates refused to advise the Gov- 1661 ernor to secure them ; and when they were Feb- 26- ready, they went to New Haven, where they were received into the house of Mr. Davenport. They were presently followed by tidings of the reception at Boston of a proclamation issued by the King for their arrest. Out of regard J . March 27 to their host's safety, they went to Milford, and showed themselves, as if on their way to New Netherland, but returned the same night to Mr. Davenport's house. There they had been concealed for a month, when their friends had information from Boston that the search was to be undertaken in earnest. Endicott, who had received a peremptory order to that effect, could do no less than appear to interest himself to execute it. Two young men, named Kellond and Kirk, had recently come from England. They were known to be zealous royal- ists, but they were not likely to prove skilful detec- tives. Endicott commissioned them to look for the fugitives in Massachusetts, and fitted them out with letters to the other New England Gov- ernors. So qualified, they went to Hartford in pursuit. Thence, on information received from Winthrop, they proceeded towards New Haven, stop- ping, however, at Guilford, to confer with 24 CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. Deputy- Governor Leete, the chief magistrate of the colony. Leete said he could do nothing foi them, without consulting with the other Magis- trates ; and this he could not immediately do, for it was now Saturday afternoon, and to set out, so near to the Sabbath, on a journey to the capital town, was out of the question. Monday, at dawn, the messengers started for New Haven, after there had been some unneces- sary delay, as they thought, in getting their horses ready. Early as it was, an Indian on horseback, no messenger of theirs, had taken the road before them. Leete followed them after two hours, and convoked the Magistrates. The Magistrates, after being " together five or six hours in consultation," said they could not presume to give Kirk and Kel- lond the warrant they wanted, unless by the au- thority of a General Court of the freemen. The messengers told Leete what would become of those who concealed or abetted traitors, and asked him whether he meant to " honor and obey the King or no in this affair." " We honor his Majesty," the Deputy- Governor replied, " but we have tender consciences." Finding little encouragement to wait for " a General Court of the freemen," and prob- ably misled by false information, the messengers proceeded the next day towards New Netherland. The Governor there could tell them nothing ; and they returned by sea to Boston, to report their ill success. Before their departure from that place on tliei REGICIDES AT HADLEY. 25 abortive quest, the fugitives had had notice of what was going on, and had removed from Mr. Davenport's to another house in New Haven. When it was known that the pursuers had got as far as Guilford, and were busy in their ne- gotiation about a warrant, Whalley and Goffe were conducted to a mill two miles from New Ha- ven, where they remained hidden two days and nights. At Hatchet's Harbor, three miles further off, they lay two nights more. A safer hiding-place had now been provided in a sort of cave, on the east side of West Rock, two or three miles nearer to the town. There they remained three months, with the interval of a week or two, during Mayl5 _ which they showed themselves abroad for Ang- 19- the purpose of protecting Mr. Davenport from a charge of harboring them. Towards the end of summer, they were received by a family in or near Milford, with whom they lived in complete secrecy for two years ; after which time they allowed them- selves more freedom, and even conducted the de- votions of a few neighbors assembled in their chamber. But the arrival at Boston of commissioners from the King with extraordinary powers was now ex- pected, and a new danger arose. The troubles in the church of Hartford, related in the last chapter, had led to an emigration from that town and Wethersfield, to a new plantation, high up the river, which took the name of Hadley. Mr. Russell, hitherto o f Wethersfield, was the min- 26 CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. ister. In this remotest northwestern frontier of New England, a refuge was prepared for the hunted 1664 men. At the end of a journey made by Oct. is night, they were received into the house of Mr. Russell, where, except for a remarkable mo- mentary appearance of one of them, to be hereafter related, and except for the visits of a few confi- dential friends, they remained lost to the view of men. Whalley lived ten years longer. At the end of the last century, human remains, believed to be his, were disinterred in the cellar of Mr. Russell's house. Goffe survived him nearly five years, at least ; how much longer is not known. Three or four months after the regicide officers 1665 came to Hadley, they were visited by a Feb. 10. f ormer comrade, Colonel Dixwell, also a member of the High Court of Justice, and a signer of the death-warrant of the King. He remained for some years in their neighborhood, and then re- moved to New Haven, where, bearing the name of James Davids, but affecting no particular pri- vacy, he lived to old age, having meanwhile mar- ried twice. The home government never traced him to America. He had vanished from its view in Germany. The King's favorable answer to the Address of the General Court of Massachusetts indicated sen- timents on his part which it was prudent to make the most of. By the same vessel which brought it, or a little earlier, came intelligence which ap- pears to have suggested the idea of a cheap dis POLITICAL TREATISE OF JOHN ELIOT. 27 play of loyalty. Thomas Venner, who had for- merly been a cooper in Salem, had got back thence to London, and raised a riot there at the head of some sixty persons, who called themselves Fifth Monarchy Men. The feeble insurrection was 1661 easily put down, and the leader and nine Jan- of his friends were convicted and hanged. Some ten years before this time, the apostle John Eliot, following out his plan for the government of the Indians, had written a treatise which he entitled " The Christian Commonwealth, or the Civil Policy of the Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ." The treatise recommended the " Scripture platform of government," as "well suiting the present condition of England, Scotland, and Ireland, or any other religious people." The work remained in man- uscript till about the time of Cromwell's death, when it was published in London by " a Sower of the Season." In the two years that had passed since its publication, it does not appear to have re- ceived any attention. The Magistrates now took notice of it, and found it to be " full of sedi- 1 T* U March 18. tious principles and notions." It is proba- ble that whatever interest had ever been felt in it had now passed away ; Eliot's translation of the New Testament into the Indian language was about to appear, with a dedication to the King ; and the Society for Propagating the Gospel had become dependent on the royal pleasure. The apostle made no difficulty about acknowl- edging his error ; and the Court ordered that 28 CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. his recantation should be recorded, and that the Dook should be " totally suppressed," A Navigation Act had been passed in the time 1651 of Cromwell, who, however, did not demand Oct. 9. y- s enforcement within the colonies of New England. The policy of that act was further pursued, in the year of the Restoration, by a law which prohibited the exportation of various colonial productions to any other than English ports, and which required the colonists to receive imported merchandise in English vessels only, manned with English crews. The General Court of Massachusetts, reasonably apprehending that the commercial interest of England would be watchful for any irregularities in trade, concluded 1661. to repeal certain laws which had hitherto Aug. 7 made their harbors free to the shipping of all countries, and to authorize the Governor to require from ship-masters the bonds and returns prescribed by the new Navigation Act, " that so this country might not be under the least neglect of their duty to his Majesty's just commands." The charter of the Governor and Company con- templated the annual choice of eighteen Assist- ants. A colonial law of long standing limited the number to fourteen. The deviation might occa- sion censure, and that law was now repealed. The practice, however, continued to be the same. An earlier session closed with a vote which may oe taken for the result of deliberations that must have occupied it from first to last. Four Magistrates CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHARTER. 2'J four Deputies, and four ministers were appointed a committee to consider, during the recess, " the present condition of affairs," and report to the next General Court " the result of their apprehensions," " that so," say the Court, " we may speak and act the same thing, becoming prudent, honest, consci- entious, and faithful men." The report was presented and approved at a special session, held after an interval of only r J June 10. a few days. It was probably from the pen of Thomas Danforth, who had now become one of the most important men of the colony. It main- tained that the charter of King Charles the First had created a " body politic," with power to per- petuate itself by the admission of freemen ; that the freemen had power to choose their legislators, and other officers and rulers ; that the rulers thus con- stituted were competent to make, administer, and execute laws, " without appeal, excepting laws re- pugnant to the laws of England," and to take measures of defence against all disturbers; and that " any imposition, prejudicial to the country, contrary to any just laws of theirs, not repugnant to the laws of England, was an infringement of their right." The " duties of allegiance" it de- clared to consist in maintaining that the colony 41 belonged" to the King of England, and refusing to yield it to any foreign prince ; in " endeavoring the preservation of his Majesty's royal person, realms, and dominions ; " and in faithfully govern- ing the people of the colony. CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. Such being the obligations of allegiance as authoritatively interpreted, there could be no great ecruple about avowing them ; and so, fifteen months 1661 after the accession of King Charles the Sec- Aug. 7. ond, he was proclaimed in Boston. The language of the proclamation was studied and cau- tious, and the celebration was lugubrious. The people were charged beforehand to be quiet and orderly in the extreme, and, " in particular," not to " presume to drink his Majesty's health, which he had in special forbid," a constructive prohibition of his which had been expressed no otherwise than in a colonial law. The order to proclaim the King was issued by the Council of Foreign Plan- tations, which, eight months after the Resto- leeo. ration, had been constituted, with the same Dec. 1. powers as had belonged to the Parliamen tary Commission. The complaints of the Quakers had reached the 1661 ear of the King, and he allowed a letter to sept. 9. kg wr itten to Endicott and the other New England Magistrates, directing that pending proc- esses against Quakers should be arrested, and that the persons in custody should be sent to England for trial. The letter was brought to Boston by Samuel Shattuck, a Quaker who har 1 been banished from Salem with the usual threa* of being put to death should he return. Endicott having lead it, and consulted with the Deputy- Governor, said, " We shall obey his Majesty's com- mand." The command, however, produced little EMBASSY TO ENGLAND. . 31 effect. The resolution to abstain from further cap- ital punishments had been taken some months before. The General Court, " that they might not in the least offend his Majesty," suspended " corporal punishment " of Quakets, " until the Court took further order." But the Court took further order, and revived those 1662 laws within a year. And no Quaker pris- Octi 8- oners were sent to England for trial. It would have been a violation of one of the most cherished local principles. . A proposal to " send a person or persons with an Address to his Majesty " occasioned much dif ference of opinion. The Court, called together for a second consideration of it, resolved to send Mr, Bradstreet and Mr. Norton, and raised a 1661 committee to prepare instructions for them, Deo - 81 - " that so," said the Court, " the means used for our safety may not be improved against us for our ruin." The Governor and Deputy-Governor were members of the committee, but disliked the meas- ure, and would never attend the meetings. Norton and Bradstreet were indisposed to undertake the business. They knew that they should incur much displeasure, if, as was highly probable, they failed in accomplishing all that was desired. They might be detained in England as hostages for the good behavior of their constituents. They might be called to account for personal delinquencies; for Bradstreet, as an Assistant fiom the beginning, was responsible for wnatever had been objection* fl* 1 CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. able in the local government, and Norton, as much PS any man, had been forward in the proceedings against the Quakers. Further, if a disturbance of the colonial order should result, the agents might be without indemnity for expenses and losses. At length, the agents elect appeared to be con- 1662. v i nce d or persuaded. They received their Jan-23)24 commission and a letter of instructions, un- willingly signed by the Governor in the name of the General Court ; letters commending their suit to the favor of Lord Clarendon, Lord Manchester, Lord Say and Sele, and other distinguished per- sons, were placed in their hands ; and a vessel, all ready to sail, was detained to convey them. Still they hesitated ; and before they could be prevailed upon to proceed, " the Lord was pleased to visit the Reverend Mr. Norton with a vio- lent fit of sickness, and much cold." Here was a fatal discouragement; and the committee author- ized the vessel to proceed on her voyage, with only some letters to their friends making known the pains which had been taken in vain. So things stood, when, " on the second day, early in the morning, the Lord so encouraged and strengthened the heart of the Reverend Mr. Norton, that he expressed himself willing and resolved to go that day." With all haste, the arrangements were renewed, and the anxious mes- sengers departed. It occasions surprise to observe that a time so critical for the colony should have been chosen foi RETURN OF THE AGENTS. 33 the repetition of an act suitable to give high offence in England. Yet so it was, that, after the agents had sailed, and before tidings from them could have been received, the General Court passed , . . ,. f May7. an order for a new coinage, consisting of u twopenny pieces of silver." These pieces con- tinued to be struck for a long time, like the coins authorized ten years before, and, like them, were all stamped with the date of the year when they were first made. Reports were soon brought to Boston that the agents were imprisoned, and that Norton was in the Tower. But nothing of the kind took place. The Quakers attempted to annoy them, but with little success. Lord Say and Sele and other Puri- tans of consideration took pains to befriend them ; and Lord Clarendon was not disposed for a trial of strength with Massachusetts till he should have informed himself further respecting her spirit and her resources, and should see a better assured set- tlement of affairs at home. The agents re- & Sept. a turned with a gracious answer from the King. He told the people of Massachusetts that he " confirmed the patent and charter here- June 28. tofore granted to them," and was " ready to renew the same," if they desired. This was well, had it been all. But the King's missive had other contents, of a different tenor. He announced his expectation that the administra- tion of justice in Massachusetts should thencefor- ward be in his name ; that " laws and ordinances 34 CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. contrary or derogative to his authority and government " should be " annulled and repealed ; " that worship according to the ritual of the Church of England should be freely allowed ; and that " persons of good and honest lives and conversa- tions should be admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the Book of Common Prayer, and their children to baptism." And he ordered that all persons of suitable character should be eligible to office, without " reference to their opinion or profession ; " and that the franchise should be extended to all " freeholders of compe- tent estates, not vicious in conversations, orthodox in religion, though of different persuasion concern- ing church government." He added, however, that he did not " direct or wish that any indulgence should be granted to those persons commonly called Quakers." The message was received with consternation and distress. " There were many who would not stick to say that Mr. Norton had laid the founda- tion of ruin to all our liberties." Bradstreet, be- cause of his inferior reputation for ability, was less an object of censure, and his phlegmatic nature now stood him in stead. Norton drooped under the loss of the favor which hitherto had so singu- larly followed him. He withdrew to solitude, and there moped and pined. " It was commonly judged that the smothered griefs of his mind, upon the un- kind resentments which he thought many people bad of his faithful and sincere endeavors to serve ACTION OF THE GENERAL COURT. 35 them, did more than a little hasten his end." He lived only seven or eight months after his return. The Quakers set it down for a divine judgment, when, after attending public worship on a 1663 Sunday, he fell in a fit, and died at evening. AprU 5- The General Court resorted to that policy of delay which in other times had so favored their plans. They directed that writs and other 1662 processes should be issued in the King's 0ot-8> name. As to the rest, they only ordered that " for- asmuch as the King's letter had influence upon the churches as well as the civil state, all manner of actings in relation thereunto should be suspended until the next General Court, that so all persons concerned might have time and opportunity to con- sider what was necessary to be done in order to his Majesty's pleasure therein." And they pro- vided for a suitable toning of the public mind by appointing a day of thanksgiving for " the safe and speedy return of the public messengers sent for England," and a day of fasting and humiliation " on account of the afflictive and low estate of the cause and people of God universally, with the prevailing power of Antichrist over the reformed churches beyond the seas, together with some pub- lic rebukes of God among ourselves." Other measures of the session indicate the stern temper that prevailed. The law for scourging ' vagabond Quakers " was reenacted. A censor- ship of the press was for the first time established. Captain Breedon, who had returned from England, 36 CHARLES THE SECOND AND MASSACHUSETTS. was charged with some " insolences and contempt against the Court in the face of the country, tend- ing to mutiny and sedition, and subversion of the government here established by his Majesty's let- ters patent," and was fined two hundred pounds, and required to give bonds in the same amount for future good behavior. This General Court did not sit again. The new 1663. Court, which came together in the following May 27. gpjjjjg^ f e ft ft t o k e necessary to take some further notice of the King's mandate. After " long and serious debate," they raised a committee con- sisting of three Magistrates, four ministers, and five Deputies, besides Leverett, the Speaker, to " draw up what they should judge meet, and to present the same at the next session of Court." They invited the ministers, freemen, and other inhabitants within the jurisdiction, to trans- mit in writing their views to the committee, " so that, after serious consideration and conferences had, something might be deduced and agreed upon, if it were the will of God, that might be satisfactory and safe, as best conducing to his glory, and this people's felicity." The Court issued some orders for putting the militia in more efficient condition, and then adjourned. It met again, as usual, in the autumn ; but its committee made nc report. The policy of inactivity, when cir enmstances admitted of it, was generally in favor. CHAPTER XII. SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. SUCH were the first relations of Massachusetts to the reestablished monarchy. When nearly a year had passed after the reception in New England of intelligence of the accession of King Charles, the General Court of Plymouth colony passed a vote declaring that they " did most humbly and 1661 faithfully submit and oblige themselves for- June5< ever to his said Majesty, his heirs and successors." The internal politics of Plymouth had been more disturbed than those of any other colony by the ir- ruption of the Quakers. Scituate, then the richest town within its limits, was a favorite resort of those intruders, on account of its being upon the border of Massachusetts. The three principal inhabitants of that town, Cudworth, Hatherly, and Dunster (who had retired thither after resigning the Presi- dency of Harvard College), befriended them without adopting their opinions, and by their precept and practice of toleration brought themselves into dis esteem. Hatherly, when chosen an Assist- ant, was not alloweu by his fellow-Magis- trates to take the oath of office. Cudworth, a man of eminent merit in all respects, was still more 38 PLYMOUTH AND NEW HAVEN. hardly dealt with. Besides being degraded from his offices, civil and military, he was disfranchised by a sentence which was not cancelled till after thirteen years. , New Haven took no action in respect to the 1661 King's return till quickened by a letter from July 4. R awsonj t ne Secretary of Massachusetts from which Governor Leete gathered that longer delay would be inexpedient. Leverett, the agent of Massachusetts at the British court, had writ- April 12. ten that it was observed there that no New England colony but Massachusetts had presented an Address. The General Court was con- vened, and " took the matter into serious consideration." The Court wrote to Massachu- setts, vindicating themselves from the imputation of " any mind to slight or disown his Majesty's authority," and desiring that they might be consid- ered as adopting for themselves the Address of Massachusetts, and that they might be allowed " to join in the proportionate share of charge for a com- mon agent." After an adjournment of three weeks they came together again, and were then advised by the Governor to proclaim the King. Accordingly, after debate, they gave orders for a solemnity of proclamation, in which they de- clared "the inhabitants of the colony to be his Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects." The fugi- tive Colonels were not within hearing of the salve of musketry that honored the proclamation. Twc days before, they had gone from West Rock t Milford. WINTHROP SENT TO ENGLAND. 39 Connecticut, though not prompt in acknowledg- ing the King, had been less tardy than eithei Plymouth or New Haven. The first Gen- 1660 eral Court of that colony, assembled after Oct ' 4 - the arrival of tidings of the new state of things in England, does not appear to have taken any action in respect to it. But in the following spring the Court voted to present an Address to the 1661 King, " thereby declaring and professing Marchl4- themselves, all the inhabitants of the colony, to be his Highness's lawful and faithful subjects," and praying the King for " grace and favor, and for the continuance and confirmation of such privileges and liberties as were necessary for the comfortable and peaceable settlement of the colony." A form of Address, prepared by Governor Win- throp, was approved, and he was desired to Ma 1& proceed to England and present it. He was further instructed " to use all means to Jnne7 - procure a copy of *he patent " granted by the Earl of Warwick to Lord Say and Sele and his associ- ates, and, if it could be found, to solicit a confirma- tion of its privileges from the King. At all events, he was to endeavor to obtain a royal charter with " liberties and privileges not inferior or short to what was granted to the Massachusetts," and covering a territory extending " eastward to Plymouth line, [which would have absorbed the Narragansett set- tlements,] northward to the limits of the Massachu- setts colony, and westward to the Bay of Delloway [Delaware], if it might be." A charter like that of 40 CONNECTICUT. Massachusetts had long been earnestly desired by Connecticut. In connection with New Haven, she had endeavored to obtain it from the Parliament, and when the messenger was lost at sea, had attempted to renew the application through Mr. Fenwick. Years had followed which afforded no opportunity for the revival of the project. But at no time had it been lost sight of. In two or three months after his appointment to be agent in England, Winthrop set sail from New Amsterdam for that country, whence he had first come to an American wilderness thirty-one years before, and which he had now not seen during eighteen eventful years that had so changed the aspect of its society. Both from former friends and from others he had a flattering reception. The aged Lord Say and Sele, with whose business in America he had formerly been intrusted, cordially embraced his cause. The Royal Society was just then forming, with Robert Boy'^ ^"or its President, already President of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England. Winthrop, who had made some attainments in physical science, was admitted a member, and the relations thus estab- lished by him were of advantage to his object. The result of his application was the obtaining, 1662 . at the end of a few months, of a charter for May 10. Connecticut with privileges of the most extraordinary kind. All that Massachusetts had given displeasure by claiming for herself was now expressly allowed to the new colony. Nineteen ROYAL CHARTER FOR CONNECTICUT. 41 patentees, with such associates as they should from time to time elect, were made a corporation under the name of " The Governor and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut." The boundaries of their territory were defined to be, Massachusetts on the north, "the sea" [Long Isl- and Sound] on the south, "the South Sea" [the Pacific Ocean] on the west, and " the Narrogan- cett River, commonly called Narrogancett Bay," on the east. Thus it embraced the whole of New Haven colony, with the adjoining Dutch settle- ments ; part of the lands claimed respectively by the planters of Providence and of Rhode Island ; and that country east of Pequot River to which Massachusetts asserted a title. The colonial gov- ernment was vested in a Governor, Deputy-Gov- ernor, twelve Assistants, and a house of Deputies, consisting of two members from each town or city. These officers were to be elected annually by the freemen of the colony ; and the legislature was to meet twice a year. No power was wanting that belongs to an independent State, except that the General Court was forbidden to make laws " con- trary to the laws and statutes of the realm of Eng- land ; " and even this prohibition was nugatory, for want of any provision for its enforcement. Winthrop was backed by powerful friends. He had excellent qualifications for the business he had undertaken ; and he prosecuted it with diligence and zeal. But these facts do not entirely explain the extraordinary result of his endeavors. The in- 42 CONNECTICUT. quiry remains, how it could be that a wary and arbitrary minister, intent on gathering into his master's hands all power that could be seized, was brought to endow a colony with what almost amounted to independence. It did not escape Lord Clarendon, that, in the prosecution of his schemes against New England, the Confederacy was the power that would embar- rass him. Accordingly it concerned him to disturb the cohesion of that league by interposing occasions of dissent among its members. Massachusetts was by far the most powerful of the confederate colo- nies, and was likely, on other accounts, to be found the most unmanageable. An obvious way to dis- able her was to raise up a rival power, and provide occasions of jealousy between them ; and an obvi- ous way of doing this was to enlarge Connecticut, between which colony and Massachusetts there had heretofore been disagreements, and to accomplish that enlargement by methods which Massachusetts would have to disapprove. Thus favored on the one hand, and obstructed on the other, Connecticut would be secured to the royal interest. The requi- site enlargement would be obtained by the incor- poration of New Haven into that colony, and this would bring other consequences satisfactory to the watchful minister. By the union, New Ha- ven, which, like Massachusetts, attached the civil franchise to church - membership, would be de- prived of that defence against the encroachments uf prelacy. New Haven had given high displeasure ROYAL CHARTER FOR CONNECTICUT. 43 at court by sheltering the regicides. For that crime, political annihilation might seem to Lord Claren- don a fitting punishment. It must be supposed to have been more because the minister positively insisted, than because Win- throp easily consented, that the new charter offered no choice to New Haven respecting the termina- tion of its political life. The colony of which Win- throp was at the same time the envoy and the chief magistrate belonged to a confederacy, which in its very existence implied the independence of New Haven, and in its articles of agreement recognized and guarantied that independence. He had no authority to act for New Haven in anything, least of all in decreeing its political extinction. To Mr. Davenport, who, just before he embarked, expressed some anxiety lest the independence of New Haven should be invaded, he gave and reiterated the as- surance "that no such thing was intended, but rather the contrary." After the charter had passed the seals, he appealed to his General Court to respect his engagement. But he must have known, throughout the transaction, that, the charter once executed, his personal control over it would cease, and that in all probability, much esteemed as he was, his wishes as to the use of it would be of little avail. Winthrop was not a man to be charged with double-dealing. But an apparent facility in his concessions takes the reader of these trans- action* by surprise. It may have been some Misgiving, on the agent's 44 CONNECTICUT AND JJEW HAVEN. part, as to the honorableness of the position iu which he had placed himself, that occasioned a delay of several weeks before the transmission of the charter. At length it came, and was received in Connecticut with tumultuous joy, which permitted little delicacy to be shown to the wounded feelings of the New Haven people. Not waiting for action on the part of the sister colony, the General Court of Connecticut received the submission, not only of South- hold, a New Haven town acting in its corporate capacity, but also the submission of a minority of the inhabitants of Guilford, Greeenwich, and Stam- ford. They undertook to oust Massachusetts from Mystic and Southertown, by forbidding her officers in those settlements to exercise their functions. This impetuous beginning having been made, they appointed a committee of two Magistrates and two ministers " to go down to New Haven to treat with the gentlemen and others of their loving friends there." The rulers of New Haven colony asked for delay till they should " receive further information Oct. 17. from the honored Mr. Winthrop, or satisfac- tion otherwise." Mr. Davenport deprecated the proposed union, and condemned the proceedings of Connecticut in emphatic terms. Mr. Street, his colleague, concluded a speech with the words of the prophet Isaiah : " What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation ? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor oi' his people shall trus* CONTENTIONS ABOUT THE CHARTER. 45 in it." Leete's bad reputation with the govern- ment at home made him fearful of giving offence by opposition to the union, even if he was not at heart friendly to it, as some circumstances indicate. The freemen of the colony were convened, J NOT. 4. and raised a committee " to draw up an answer to the General Assembly of Connecticut out of these three heads : 1. That there be due witness-bearing against their sin ; 2. That there may be a deferring of things till Mr. Winthrop's coming, or we [have] satisfaction otherwise ; 3. That we can do nothing till we consult with the other confederates." But Connecticut was not to be so stayed. In Winthrop's absence, the Secretary, John Allyn of Hartford, a man of ability and resolution, was the leading spirit in the colony. He had determined on a thorough assertion of its claim ; and he proba- bly was impatient to finish the business before Win- throp should come home to embarrass it with any explanations or protests. Winthrop, in England, heard with distress of the trouble which he had caused. He wrote to the Deputy- Governor 1663 of his having given " assurance that it was March8 - not intended to meddle with any town or planta- tion that was settled under any other government. Unto this," he added, " I judge you are obliged." But the judgment of his colleagues was different, The letter appears to have been suppressed in Con- necticut. Winthrop sent a copy of it to New Haven. 46 CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN. The General Court of Connecticut appointed magistrates for the New Haven towns of Southhold, Stamford, and Greenwich, and at Aug. 19. a jg^j. session raised a committee to bear a peremptory message, not to New Haven as a colony, but to " their honored friends of New Haven, Milford, Branford, and Guilford," as if these were but separate communities. The annual meeting of the Federal Commissioners was Sept. 8. held at Boston. Winthrop, now just ar- rived from England, appeared as one of the Com- missioners from Connecticut. Without opposition, Governor Leete and Benjamin Fenn were recog- nized as Commissioners for New Haven. Massa- chusetts protested against the claim set up by Connecticut to her territory east of Mystic River. New Haven represented the ill-treatment from which she was suffering, and asked redress. The Commissioners for Massachusetts and Plymouth pronounced their judgment that " the Colony of New Haven might not, by any act of violence, have their liberty of jurisdiction infringed by any other of the United Colonies, without breach of the Articles of Confederation." Connecticut persisted in her pretension. She did not fear the displeasure of the Confederacy, while sustained by the authority of the King. In the absence of the Governor, as the iournal Oct. 8. J probably under his direction, records, an- other peremptory demand was made by the Court lor the submission of the New Haven towns CONTENTIONS ABOUT THE CHARTER. 47 Only three of them still held out, New Haven, Milford, and Branford. These seemed to them- selves to have obtained an advantage in prolong- ing: the contest when they received a royal TVT Jnne21 - missive requiring observance of the Navi- gation Laws, addressed to " the Governor and Assistants of New Haven," and bearing a date a year later than that by which New Haven was said to be annihilated. On the strength of it they issued a Declaration, calling upon seceders " to return to their due obedience, and pay their arrears of rates," under penalty of being proceeded against " as disloyal to his Majesty and disturbers of the peace." The publication of this paper occasioned riots at Guilford and Stamford. Thereupon Leete 1664 convened his General Court, and advised Jan ' 7 ' the renewal of negotiations with Connecticut. The Court resolved not to treat till the usurpations which had been practised upon them were forborne. This decision was not without effect. Conneeti- Feb. 24. cut proposed, as preliminary to a treaty, the continuance, for the present, of the colonial gov- ernment of New Haven, including a provisional restitution of the ancient order of things at Guil- ford and Stamford. And again New Hav- May 25. en held its annual election of Magistrates. Under the direction of the Court, the ministers, Davenport and Street, presented " all their f grievances 1 ' in an elaborate treatise which bears the title " New Haven's I'aue staieu.*' me 48 CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND. journal of the Connecticut Court contains no no- tice of this argument. An attempt to answer it would have been imprudent. In the movement to obtain a charter for his col- ony, Winthrop had unexpectedly found himself obstructed by the interference of John Clarke, of Rhode Island, who had remained in England since the time when he went thither on his errand 1651- to the Parliament. After Clarke's special business had been concluded by the annulling of Coddington's " commission," his fellow-citizens from time to time employed him about some mis- cellaneous affairs, and especially in keeping up their communication with the republican govern- ment and with Cromwell, and securing good-will and protection in those quarters. For a series of years his professions of devotion to the republican leaders, and especially to the Protector, had been of the most obsequious character. They were abundantly authorized by the public acts of his colony, and by its letters of instruction addressed to him. At its first meeting after the King came to enjoy 1660 his own again, the government of Rhode Oct. is. j s i anc j caused him to be proclaimed, and commissioned Clarke to prosecute its interests at court, which he accordingly proceeded to do ; affirming in a memorial to the King that the peo- ple for whom he appeared had "still in their re- mcvop, and in the rest of their actings, made it manifest mat they, as the true natives of England ROYAL CHARTER FOR RHODE ISLAND. *9 had firmly adhered in their allegiance and loyally to the sovereignty thereof." He was intrusted with his suit about a year before Winthrop's arrival in England ; but Winthrop had been there several months, attending to his business, before he heard anything of the designs of Clarke. His charter for Connecticut had passed through the preliminary forms, and was awaiting the great seal, when it was arrested in consequence of represen- tations made by the agent from Rhode Island. The question raised by Clarke related to the boundary line of Connecticut. The ancient patent from the Earl of Warwick to Lord Sale and Sele and others, subsequently transferred from these grantees to the planters on the Connecticut, had described the land conveyed as " lying and extending itself [west- ward] from a river there called Narragansett River." Intending merely to keep this eastern boundary, but to describe it with more precision, Winthrop, in his new charter, bad used the words " bounded on the east by the Narrogancett River, commonly called Narrogancett Bay, where the said river falleth into the sea." To this identity between Narragansett River and Narragansett Bay Clarke objected, as will be presently explained. A third party was interested in the settlement of the eastern boundary of Connecticut. This was the Atherton Company, so called from Humphrey Atherton of Dorchester, one of the partners. They had bought of the natives a tract of land on the western side of Narragansett Bay ; and VOL. II. 4 ^0 CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND. *vhen they heard that Connecticut was soliciting a charter, they naturally desired that their property should be placed under the government of thai colony, rather than under the unstable government of Rhode Island. Winthrop, who was himself one 1662 of the associates, wrote from London that Sept. 2. ^g arr angement he had made accorded with their wish. Rhode Island, however, maintained that the lands of the Atherton purchase belonged to her jurisdiction. In the month in which Winthrop informed his friends of his settlement of the eastern boundary of Connecticut, he learned that Clarke had made great progress towards settling it in a different manner. That bold and dexterous envoy had forced his way against one serious difficulty. The plantations which he represented had solicited and obtained, far more than others in New England, the favor of the usurping powers, which were now overthrown. But, on the other hand, the ex- clusion of Rhode Island from the Confederacy of New England must have seemed to Lord Claren- don to invest that colony with a claim to his friendly regard ; and if the agent's personal griefs led him to manifest a vigorous hostility to Massachusetts, this may well have advanced his suit. When Win- throp thought that he had secured for Connecticut a territory extending eastward to Narragansett Bay, Clarke had obtained for Rhode Island the promise of a charter which pushed its Boundary westward to the Paucatuck River, sa ROYAL CHARTER FOR RHODE ISLAND. 51 as to include in tne latter colony a tract twenty- five miles wide, and . extending in length from the southern border of Massachusetts to the sea. The interference of the charters with each other endangered both. The agents entered into a nego- tiation, which issued, after several months, 1668 in a composition effected by the award of ^r 1117 - four arbiters. Two articles of it were material. One was that Paucatuck River should " be the certain bounds between the two colonies, which said river should, for the future, be also called, 1 alias, Narrogansett, or Narrogansett River.' " The other allowed the Atherton Company to choose "to which of those colonies they would belong." The undesirable consequences of a dispute were thus averted ; though to say that " Paucatuck River" meant Narragansett Bay was much the same as to give to the Thames the name of the British Channel ; and if the agreement between the agents should stand, Connecticut would be sadly curtailed of her domain. The compact concluded, Winthrop without de- lay embarked for America. A singular edict from the King soon followed him. It was ad- June21. dressed to each of the confederated colo- nies, and charged them to extend to the Atherton Company their " neighborly kindness and protec- tion." The occasion of it was recited to be that the King had " been given to understand that his good subjects, Thomas Chiffinch, Jonn Scott, John Winthrop, Daniel Denison," and others, " were 52 CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND. daijy disturbed and unjustly molested in their pos- session and laudable endeavors by certain unrea- sonable and turbulent spirits of Providence colony in New England, to the great scandal of justice and government, and the eminent discouragement of that hopeful plantation." Thomas Chiffinch was the notorious pimp of Charles the Second. John Scott was a mysterious adventurer who passed re- peatedly between England and the American colo- nies, and who was in England at this time. It appears that, without Winthrop's approval, Scott, whose character was not yet fully disclosed, had been engaged by an incautious member of the Atherton Company to make interest at court, and that he had proceeded to do so by the mediation of Chiffinch. When the fruit of his labors appeared, the grave worthies of New England could not fail to be scandalized at the association into which their names were brought in a solemn missive from the King. It was in the third week after the date of this letter that Clarke's charter, which the King prob- ably did not know that he had been contra- dicting, passed the seals. It created " a body corporate and politic, in fact and name, by the name of the Governor and Company of the Eng- lish Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plan- Cations in New England in America." Similar to Ihe charter of Connecticut in grants marked by a iberality hitherto unexampled, it added to them he extraordinary provision that " no person within CONTENTIONS ABOUT THE CHARTERS. 53 the said colony, at any time thereafter, should be anywise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any difference of opinion in matters of religion which did not actually disturb the civil peace of the said colony." Lord Clarendon was creating a precedent with which, in due time, he might rebuke Massachusetts ; and the King was already exercising that dispensing power to which he and his successor meant by-and-by to give a wider extension for the relief of their Romish friends. Among the Assistants appointed by the charter to hold office till the time of the first annual election, Williams was one, but not Cod- dington. In the first popular election also, Wil- liams was chosen, and Coddington passed by. In one year only after this was Williams in IfiTft the magistracy of the colony which he founded. Matters were now all ripe for a conflict of juris* diction between Rhode Island and Connecticut. Using the privilege of choice secured by the com- pact between the agents, the Atherton Com- 1663 pany elected to place their lands, including jBj y 10 - a settlement known by the name of Wickford, under the government of the latter colony. Rhode Island enacted that all persons presuming to set- tle there without her leave should be " taken and imprisoned for such their contempt ; " and she suited the action to the word in the case of four inhab- itants of Wickford, one of them a constable ap- pointed by Connecticut. 64 CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND. This proved to be the beginning of a series of provocations and reprisals between the inharmo- nious neighbors. But the attention of all the col- onies was now turned in a direction different from that of disagreements among themselves. CHAPTER XIII. ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. THE reader remembers that Massachusetts had rendered no satisfactory compliance with the royal demands transmitted through her agents. By the proceedings for an incorporation of New Haven into Connecticut, the Confederacy had now been deranged. The ministry of King Charles might well suppose, that, by the grant of charters to Con- necticut and Rhode Island, the good-will of those colonies had been secured, and that, in the conse- quent transactions, ancient heart-burnings had been revived, and new interests and sentiments created, hostile to Massachusetts. There was a hold upon Plymouth through her hope of a similar indulgence ; and, at all events, Plymouth was feeble in popula- tion and in wealth. It seemed, that, substantially, Massachusetts would have to stand alone in the championship of English liberty in New England. No sooner was the charter of Connecticut de spatched, than " the settlement of the planta- 1662 tions in New England was seriously debated Sept ' ffi and discoursed " in the Privy Council ; and the Lord Chancellor announced that the King was about to send thither commissioners nominated by 56 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. the Duke of York (afterwards King James the 1663 Second). Those were busy times at court ; Apni 10. j. )Ut ^ seven mon ths later, the King renewed his declaration of this purpose. After the General Court of Massachusetts raised its committee to devise some course thai might " be satisfactory and safe, as best conducing to God's glory and the people's felic- ity," a year passed by, and the Committee had made no report. There had been no tidings of action in England to direct their thoughts. The 1664. Court, now convened again for the annual May is. elections, received intelligence which was recognized in the following proceedings : " The Cpurt, being informed that some of his Majesty's ships are on their voyage to these parts, in which are several gentlemen of quality, do therefore order that the captain of the Castle, on the first sight and knowledge of their approach, give speedy notice thereof to the honored Governor and Deputy-Governor ; and that Captain James Oliver and Captain William Davis are hereby or- dered forthwith to repair on board the said ships, and to acquaint those gentlemen that this Court hath and doth by them present their respects to them, and that it is the desire of the authority of this place that they take strict order that their un- der officers and soldiers, in their coming on shore to refresh themselves, at no time exceed a conven- ient number, and that without arms, and that thej behave themselves orderly amongst his Majesty's PREPARATIONS FOR THE COMMISSIONERS. 57 good subjects here, and be careful of giving no offence to the people and laws of this place ; and invite them on shore, provision being made for 'their present refreshment." " The Court, :>eing sensible of many distractions and troubles under which the country do labor in sundry respects, as also the sad estate and condition of God's people and interests in other places, do commend unto all the churches and people of the colony a solemn day of humiliation and prayer for the Lord's mercy to be towards us, and his gracious return to his people, according as we and they may or do stand in need thereof." " Forasmuch as it is of great concernment to this commonwealth to keep safe and secret our patent, it is ordered the patent, and duplicate, belonging to the country be forth- with brought into the Court ; and that there be two or three persons appointed by each House to keep safe and secret the said patent and duplicate, in two distinct places, as to the said committee shall seem most expedient ; and that the Deputy- Governor, Major- General Leverett, Captain Clarke [Deputy for Boston], and Captain Johnson [Deputy for Woburn] are appointed to receive the grand patent from the Secretary, and to dispose thereof as may be most safe for the country." The train- bands in and near Boston were put in order. A tried officer, Captain Davenport, was placed in command of the Castle. Having trimmed their vessel, the wakeful pilots awaited the storm. They did not await it long. At the close of a 58 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. summer day, as the Sabbath stillness in Bos- ton was beginning, two ships of war, the July 23. ~ . I,. , . , , Guinea, carrying thirty-six guns, and the Elias, carrying thirty, came to anchor off Long. Wharf. They were the first vessels of the royal navy ever seen in that harbor. Officers went on board, and came back to the town with intelli- gence that the ships had sailed ten weeks be- fore from England in company with two others, the Martin, of sixteen guns, and the William and Nicholas, of ten, from which they had been parted in bad weather ; and that the fleet conveyed three or four hundred soldiers, and four gentlemen charged with the King's business. These were Colonel Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr, Colonel George Cartwright, and Mr. Samuel Maverick. It may have been supposed in England, that, in the process of reducing the colonies to subjection, some occasion might arise for employing the mili- tary force that was now sent over. The ostensible reason, however, was different. The King, reviving that claim to North America which his predecessors had founded on its discovery by the Cabots, had lately given to his brother James, Duke of York, all the coast country between the rivers Connect- icut and Delaware, including Long Island, which Lord Clarendon had bought of Lord Stirling for his royal son-in-law. The Commissioners who now arrived were charged to take possession of that country for its new proprietor, and to call on the colonies for military aid for that purpose. The CHARACTER OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 59 grant to the Duke also conveyed to him the coun- try between the rivers St. Croix and Kennebec. Nicolls, the principal Commissioner, was a man of honor. In the Civil War he had served the King in the field. While the royal family were in exile, he was attached to the household of the Duke of York. On their return, he was made one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to that prince ; and now, when the lately constituted province should be reduced, he was appointed to administer it as the proprietor's deputy. Neither Carr nor Cartwright was a suitable per- son for a trust like that with which they were invested. Carr, husband of Sir Henry Bennett's sister, to which connection he probably owed his place, was rapacious, passionate, and a hard drinker. Cartwright, said to be a Papist, was at once insolent and tricky. In some respects Maverick was emi- nently qualified for the business in hand. A dweller in New England before the charter government of Massachusetts was erected, he had watched, from the nearest point of view and with an intelligence sharpened by disaffection, the course by which that government had established, in all but the name, an independence of the parent country. With some excellent qualities, he was prone to strong resent- ments, and these had been excited in successive quarrels with the Magistrates. At the Restoration, he lost no time in looking after his revenge ; and be was clothed with ample power for executing it, when ne wa? placed upon this commission. 60 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. While Maverick and Carr remained at Ports- mouth, where they had arrived three days before their colleagues came to Boston, Nicolls and Cart- wright, on the third day after disembark- ing, had a conference with the Magistrates. They presented a letter, addressed to the Gover- nor, from the King; the King's commission to themselves ; and a portion of the instructions for their action under it. The letter set forth various objects of the em- bassy, some of which were, to obtain informa- tion such as would enable the King to advance the well-being of the people of New England, and re- fute the " malicious calumnies that his subjects in those parts did not submit to his government, but looked upon themselves as independent upon him and his laws ; " to settle questions of boundaries between different colonies ; and to inquire into the insufficient obedience paid to his former letter sent by Bradstreet and Norton. The commission authorized the persons therein named, or any three of them, or any two, Colonel Nicolls being one, and having a casting vote, to visit all the New England colonies, and " examine and determine all complaints and appeals, in all causes and matters, as well military as criminal and civil, ac- cording to their good and sound discretions, and to such instructions as they should from time to time receive." Of instructions there were two sets, with the contents of both of which it is probable that th OPENING OF THEIR BUSINESS. 61 Governor of Massachusetts was already acquainted ; for it is certain that he had means of obtaining secret intelligence. One of these papers was composed in a tone conciliating and cautious, on the whole. It abounded in professions of the King's respect and friendship for the colony. It directed the Commissioners to propose settlements of boundary lines for the King's approval ; to report on the methods in use for educating the young and con- verting the natives, on the constitutions of local government in Church and State, on the revenue, military organization, commerce, and other matters illustrative of the condition and resources of the people ; to urge a compliance with the King's re- quisition made two years before ; to search for and apprehend any persons, charged with high treason, who might be lurking within the colony ; and to " take care that such orders were established that the Act of Navigation should be punctually ob- served." The other set of instructions to the Commis- sioners was " to be considerated and communi- cated only between themselves." In it they were informed that "the main end and drift of their employment was to lead and dispose the people to desire to renew their charters, and to make such alterations as should appear necessary for their own benefit." To this end they were to proceed with great circumspection, according to special uirections which were given. " There are two ooints," they were told. " we could heartily wish 52 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. should be gained : the first, that we have the nom- ination of the Governor, or approbation ; the other, that the militia should be put under an officer nominated or recommended by us. But how to approach to these two points we cannot tell, but must leave it to your skill and dexterity." The first business, however, was that which re- atea to the reduction of New Netherland ; and for the present the Commissioners proposed nothing except the raising by Massachusetts of a military force to march within four weeks on that expedi- tion. The Magistrates replied, that they would submit the matter to the General Court, which they had summoned to meet within a week for the consideration of it. The Commissioners, after ex- pressing their displeasure at this delay, informed the Magistrates that they should have other com- munications to make when they should return from New Netherland, " and commended to the Court that in the mean time they would further consider of his Majesty's letter " received two years before. The Court did consider, and expressed the re- sult of their reflections in a " resolution, God Aug. 3. assisting, to bear faith and true allegiance to his Majesty, and to adhere to their patent, the duties and privileges thereof, so dearly obtained, and so long enjoyed by undoubted right in the sight of God and man." They passed an order calling for two hundred volunteers for the New Nether- land campaign. Proceeding to discuss the King's former letter, they repealed the law which made CAPTURE OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 63 church-membership a condition of the franchise, superseding it however by another, of which the practical operation would not be materially differ- ent ; for, by the new law, admission to the franchise could only be obtained through a vote of the Gen- eral Court founded on two certificates, one being from the candidate's minister to the effect that he was orthodox in faith, and of virtuous life, the other from the selectmen of the place where he resided, to the effect that he was a freeholder, and paid ten shillings annual tax. Lastly, the Court raised a committee " to prepare and draw up a petition for the continuance of the privileges granted by charter, filled with such rational arguments as they could find to the end aforesaid." The petition, after more than two months spent in its preparation, was adopted at a special meeting of the General Court, for transmis- sion to the King. With moving eloquence it set forth the vast amount of sacrifice by which the liberties hitherto possessed by Massachusetts had been purchased, and urged the injustice of en- croaching upon them. But it was eloquence by which the King's hard adviser was not impressible. Meanwhile, the Commissioners, leaving Boston be- fore the General Court carne together there, had proceeded by sea towards New Amsterdam, where they were joined by parties of volunteers from Con- necticut and Long Island. The conquest of what is now the commercial capital of America, then num- bring about fifteen hundred inhabitants, proved 64 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. easy. Stuyvesant was resolute, but the burghers refused to be enrolled, the garrison of regulars muti- nied, and nothing remained but to obtain indulgent terms. Nicolls took military possession of the town, and caused himself to be pro- claimed Deputy - Governor of New York. Cart- wright sailed up the river, and received the surrender of Fort Orange, thenceforward called Fort Albany, from the second ducal title of the King's brother. Carr, with two ships, pro- ceeded to the South River (the Delaware), and reduced the feeble posts in that quarter. What is now New Jersey was called Albania, and Long Island received the name of Yorkshire. New Netherland was effaced from the map. British America extended along the coast from Labrador to Florida. The new state of things enforced a settlement of the dispute between Connecticut and New Haven. If the King's new grant of the south- western region of New England should take effect, the whole of New Haven colony, and as much of Connecticut as lay on the western side of the river of that name, would be taken to constitute a broad plantation for the Popish Duke of York. A peace- able union between the two colonies would afford to both a hope of escape from this doom. For New Haven, at all events, it seemed that nothing re- mained except the choice between absorption into Connecticut and submission to New York. When intelligence reached New Haven of what was to be SUBMISSION OF NEW HAVEN. 65 expected from the royal Commissioners, a General Court was at once convened. After sorrow- Aug. 11. ful debate, the Court yielded to the neces- sity which seemed to have overtaken them, only saving their pride by a vote in these words : " That if they of Connecticut come and make a claim upon us in his Majesty's name and by virtue of their charter, then we shall submit to them until the Commissioners of the Colonies do meet." The Commissioners of the Colonies held their annual meeting at Hartford. Commission- Sept. L ers from New Haven appeared, and, not- withstanding a remonstrance from Connecticut, were admitted to their seats. The scene was mournful. Little business was done. The Com- missioners declared their opinion to be unchanged respecting the merits of the case between Connect- icut and New Haven, but earnestly advised " that such a compliance might be between them whereby the sad consequences that would inevitably follow upon their further contentions one with another might be prevented." They proposed, that, if a union should be consummated, two Commissioners should thenceforward represent the one colony thus formed. A vote that thenceforward the Commis- sioners should meet only every third year was a significant symptom of a conviction that the Con- federacy had lived out its time. Leete again convoked his General Court, and laid before them the question whether any further step should be taken before the 66 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. arrival of the royal Commissioners, from whom a visit was immediately expected. The final sur- render was still a measure too painful to be taken ; " the Assembly was broke up, and no more done at this time." A month passed, and again mes- sengers came from Connecticut to New Haven, authorized to invest all the freemen with the franchise of the former colony, to admit other freemen, who should be found duly qual- ified, and to announce the appointment of Gov- ernor Leete, and other principal citizens, to exercise " magistratical power " for Connecticut in their respective towns. Winthrop, Allyn, and three others were sent to New York to argue before the Commissioners the question of the southern and western limits of the new colony. It was a humil- iating position for Connecticut to be placed in ; but, in the circumstances, the result was considered favorable. The Commissioners decided that Long Island belonged to the Duke's prov- ince, and that, for the new colony to be constituted of Connecticut and New Haven, the western boun- dary should be the creek called Momoronook, twelve miles east of West Chester, and a line drawn from the head of its tide-water, in a northwesterly direc- tion, to the border of Massachusetts. To all this there could be only one sequel for New Haven. Another General Court was held in which, however, only the towns of New Dec. 18. * Haven, Guilford, and Branford were rep- resented. A vote was passed, under protest, to THE COMMISSIONERS AT PLYMOUTH. 67 Bnbrait to the unwelcome necessity ; the contro- versy was terminated ; and New Haven colony was no more. This was in the middle of winter. At the time of annual elections in the fol- 1665 lowing spring, the government of the con- ^y 11 - solidated colony was organized. Five towns of the now disbanded colony sent Deputies ; and Leete and three others, lately Magistrates of New Haven, were chosen Assistants of Connecticut. Nicolls was detained at New York by the busi- ness of his new government. His col- Feb 4 . leagues met at Boston, where, in a confer- ence with the Magistrates, they said they Feb - 15 - were going for a little time to Plymouth, " and further signified their desire that order might be taken for the assembling of all the inhabitants at the day of the election, that so they might under- stand his Majesty's grace and favor to them." The Magistrates wanted no such meeting of " all the inhabitants ; " it was enough for them that the free- men would come together ; and they excused them- selves from taking part in the summons proposed. The Commissioners then distributed the proposed invitation in their own names, after which Feb. 17. they set off for Plymouth. Their business was ripening. Three months would determine the issue of the great contest with Massachusetts. The intervening time they were to employ, according to their instructions, in so dealing with the smaller colonies, that Massachusetts, when assailed, should be found in the weakness of a lonely and unsus- tained position. 68 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. As far as the preliminary process went, the event answered to their hopes. Plymouth was feeble in numbers and in property, and was always liable to be beguiled by the hope of that charter which she was never destined to obtain ; and her Governor, Thomas Prince, now an old man, did not feel at- tracted to the anxieties and perils of a struggle with the home government. The Commissioners required of Plymouth to enact that all house- Feb. 22. holders should take the oath of allegiance ; that the courts should be held in the King's name ; that the franchise should not depend on religious opinion ; that the Christian ordinances should be free to persons " of orthodox opinions, competent knowledge, and civil lives, not scandalous ; " and that " all laws, and expressions in laws, derogatory to his Majesty," should be repealed. Some of these demands were the same as had occasioned so much consternation in Massachusetts, when communicated through Norton and Bradstreet. By Plymouth all were now agreed to. The Com- missioners wrote home, strongly commending the compliance of the loyal colony ; and the King ac- knowledged its " dutifulness and obedience " in a cordial letter. " Your carriage," he said, " seems to be set off with the more lustre by the contrary deportment of the colony of the Massachusetts, as if, by their refractoriness, they had designed to recommend and heighten the merit of your com- pliance." CHAPTER XIV. ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. IN the settlements on Narragansett Bay, whither the Commissioners next proceeded, they were awaited with affectionate expectation. Clarke, after twelve years' absence in England, had 1664 returned to Rhode Island nine months be- June7 - fore this time, and, soon after his arrival, had gone to New York to confer with the Commis- Oct. sioners, and, as may be presumed, to aid their counsels against Massachusetts. The Governor and Deputy- Governor of Rhode Island had addressed the Commissioners at Boston with deferential sup- plications for their favor and profuse assurances of devotion to the King. The planters at War- 1665 wick flattered themselves that their hour for March * revenge had come; and they lost no time in ap- proaching the deliverers. Perhaps it would have been better for the rulers of Rhode Island had they been less lavish of professions. The Commissioners, finding them in a mood so compliant, took advantage the more easily of that cession of the Narragansett country to the King which had been procured twenty years before by Gorton and his compaov. They erected 70 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. it into a distinct government, by the name of the King's Province, with the Paucatuck River for its western boundary. They decreed that the Atherton Company should relinquish its lands on the repayment by the Indians of the purchase- money ; and, as a provisional arrangement till tha royal pleasure should be known, they authorized the Magistrates of Rhode Island to administer the government of King's Province. Roger Williams distrusted the expediency of the method in which the Commissioners were proceed- ing. He thought it would have shown better judgment to bring Massachusetts first into subjec- tion. He wrote to Carr : " Your Honor will never effect by force a safe and lasting conclusion, until you have first reduced the Massachusetts to the obedience they would then present them with more work." They proceeded to complain of the long neglect of the King's demands sent by Norton and Bradstreet, and of that unsatisfactory expression of loyalty which appeared to limit its obligations within the terms of the patent. Communicating the sub- stance of several of their instructions, they said that it was their business to inquire into the means of education ; to note offences committed by per- 74 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. sons in authority ; to obtain the apprehension of traitors ; and to insist on a compliance with the royal demands, now remaining unaccomplished for nearly three years. They desired that the charge of collecting the local statistics might be intrusted to some persons on the spot. They specified a vio- lation of the Navigation Laws, said to have been committed three years before, and declared their " will and pleasure " to be, that the colonial author- ities should institute an inquiry concerning it, and " cause justice to be done." And they desired to be furnished with a copy of the colonial laws for examination. At this juncture, a practical question of the highest interest was interposed. It was felt by both parties that nothing was more vital to the position claimed by Massachusetts than that her judicial administration should not be subject to revision by the crown. A vicious person, named 1664. J nn Porter, living at Warwick, under a Oct. 19. sen tence of banishment from Massachu- setts, had there complained to the Commissioners, 1666 and been furnished by them with a safe con- Aprii s. duct to come to Boston for a hearing of his case before them. Apprised of this transaction, the Court wrote to the Commissioners that by it " they apprehended their patent, and his Majesty's authority therein committed unta them, to be greatly infringed." The Commission- ers asked a conference with a committee of the Court. At this interview, the com- THE COMMISSIONERS AT BOSTON. 75 fnittee argued largely, " that his Majesty's charter gave to the Governor and Company here full and absolute power and authority for the government of his subjects of this colony, for the making of laws suitable to that end, not repugnant to the laws of England," and " for the putting such laws in execution." The Commissioners professed themselves to be of a different mind. They declared their purpose to hear appeals, and to proceed without impanel- ling juries. After this it was plain, if it had not been before, that there could be no agreement. A discussion, running through a week, was conducted on the part of the Court 'with great skill in argu- ment and moderation of language. After ranging over various matters, it came back to the vital ques- tion of the competency of the Commissioners to sit in Massachusetts as a Court of Appeal. The Com- missioners repeated their assertion of it in a per- emptory letter, concluding with " one ques- tion, whereunto," said they, " we expect your positive answer : Whether you do acknowledge his Majesty's commission, wherein we are nominated Commissioners, to be of full force to all the intents and purposes therein contained." Bellingham and the Court were not overwhelmed by this question, as it may have been supposed they would be. The Court replied : " We ui -^ i- Ma y 22 - humbly conceive it is beyond our line to declare our sense of the power, intent, or purpose of vour commission. Tt is enough for us to ac- 76 KOYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. quaint you what we consider is granted to us by his Majesty's royal charter. If you rest not satis* fied with our former answer, it is our trouble, but we hope it is not our fault." The Commission- ers, with a rebuke for " such dilatory an- swers," sent notice, that, on the following day, " at nine of the clock of the morning, at the house of Captain Thomas Breedon," they meant to hear and determine the cause of Mr. Thomas Deane and others, plaintiffs, against the Governor and Company and Joshua Scottow, merchant, de fendants. But they were too sanguine. The hearing did not take place. At eight o'clock of the morn- May24. .f J J t ing of the appointed day, a messenger ot the General Court took his stand before the door of Captain Breedon, and published, with sound of trumpet, a proclamation, whereby the Court ex- plained the intended usurpation of the Commis- sioners, and then, " in his Majesty's name, and by the authority to them committed by his royal char- ter, declared to all the people of this colony, that, in observance of their duty to God and to his Maj- esty, and to the trust committed unto them by his good subjects in this colony, they could not con- sent unto, nor give their approbation of, the pro- ceedings of the above -said gentlemen; neither could it consist with their allegiance that they owed to his Majesty, to countenance any should in so high a manner go cross unto his Majesty's irect charge, or should be their abettors or con TRANSACTIONS IN THE EASTERN SETTLEMENTS. 77 Renters thereunto." The proclamation was re- peated, with like parade, in two other parts of the town. The Commissioners saw themselves to be help- less. " We shall not," they wrote to the Court, " lose more of our labors upon you, but refer it to his Majesty's wisdom, who is of power enough to make himself to be obeyed in all his dominions." On the same day they received from the Court the map which had been desired ; and they furnished a list of a number of amendments which they pro- posed to have made in the existing laws, in order to a fuller recognition of the King's authority, and compliance with his wishes. The Court summoned Deane and his associates before them for a reexamination of their May 26. case, and gave notice to the Commissioners to be present. The Commissioners replied by de- claring it to be " contrary to his Majesty's will and pleasure that the cause should be examined by any other Court or persons than themselves." They then dispersed from Boston. Nicolls went back to his government of New York, and his colleagues proceeded to the towns by the Piscataqua, where they obtained a few signatures to a peti- tion to the King, praying him for relief from the government of Massachusetts. The towns of Portsmouth and Dover applied to the General Court ; and three Magistrates, Danforth, Leverett, and Lusher, were directed to repair to that region, and take such steps as might seem to them to 78 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. be required. They presently reported that they found everything quiet, and that the great body of the people would deprecate any change. From the Piscataqua towns, the three Commis- sioners proceeded to the settlements further east. Here, after the King's restoration, there had been some symptoms of disaffection to the government of Massachusetts. Taking advantage of this, they proceeded, at York, to constitute a govern- ment for the eight towns, independent alike of Massachusetts and of the proprietary claim of the grandson of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Con- tinuing their journey to the new province of the Duke of York beyond the Kennebec, they there made similar arrangements for the govern- ment of the few and scattered inhabitants, and gave to the territory the name of Cornwall. On their return, they merely passed through Boston. Carr went to look after his interests in the Delaware country, and in the second following year sailed for England, where he died the next day after landing. Maverick fixed his home at New York, where the Duke gave him a house " in the Broad Way." Cartwright sailed for England in a fury of displeasure, carrying the Report of the Commissioners, and a mass of documents for its illustration. He was taken at sea by a Dutch cruiser, and stripped of all his effects, including hia :apers ; and, while copies were awaited, the indig nation which he labored to inflame wanted fuel PRESENT TO THE KING. 7P the minister he had served was falling from power ; and the impending war with France had a para- mount claim on the thoughts of men in office. Under whatever disadvantages pursued, the quarrel could not yet in England be abandoned with dignity. Secretary Morrice conveyed 1666 . to Massachusetts the King's " express com- Apnl 10 ' mand and charge that the Governor and Council should forthwith make choice of five or four per- sons to attend upon his Majesty, whereof Mr. Richard Bellingham and Major Hathorne were to be two, both which his Majesty commanded upon their allegiance to attend." The Court, after a delay of some months for reflection, and after prayer and consultation with several of the elders, replied that already they had " in all humility given their reasons why they could not submit to the Commissioners and their mandates the last year, to the substance whereof they had not to add, and therefore could not expect that the ablest persons among them could be in a capac- ity to declare their cause more fully. We must, therefore," they said, " commit this, our great con- cernment, unto Almighty God." The Court were well disposed to lighten, in any upright way, the arduous task they had assumed ; and the last business done at the recent session was to take measures for sending to the King a present of masts for the use of the royal navy. It cost the colony nearly two thousand pounds, and was very gratefully received in England, being so season- .SO ROYAL COMMISSIONERS IN NEW ENGLAND. able that it was afterwards thought to have ma- terially contributed to the favorable issue of the existing war with France. When three years had passed since a meeting of 1667 the Federal Congress, six Commissioners 861)4 5 ' came together at Hartford. One star was lost out of its sphere ; and with the wholeness of the system, its attractions, its balance, and its forces had departed. Of the brave Confederacy of the Four Colonies, only the shadow of a great name remained. The defunct jurisdiction of New Haven was complimented by the election of Leete, who now came as one of the Commissioners for Connecti- cut, to be President of the Congress. The Com- missioners disposed of a little business relative to the preaching to the Indians, and agreed on a pro- posal to the several colonies for a new confedera- tion, with some alteration of the terms of the orig- inal compact. But, if the Confederacy was crippled, Massa- chusetts was neither won to the court, nor over- come, nor disabled, nor intimidated. And now Lord Clarendon had fallen from power, and the ministers afterwards called the Cabal were at the helm. In what Massachusetts knew of them, she saw nothing to discourage her from proceeding tc reestablish her position, and reclaim what remained withholden of her rights. The French war had frightened the settlers in Maine, living as they did in scattered families, near REINVIGORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. 81 to Indian tribes, who were under the influence of the Romish missionaries. The King of England took no thought for them ; Gorges could not de- fend them ; the only power in a posture to afford them protection was Massachusetts. So the an- cient loyalty to her was revived and increased, and little opposition to her claims was likely to be manifested, except what might be offered by inter- ested officials. It is true that the King, when he ordered Bellingham and Hathorne to England, had directed that the government of Maine should be left as it had been arranged by the Commission- ers. But quite as serious risks had been already taken by the brave colony as would be incurred by disobedience to that command. The General Court commissioned the Magis- trates Leverett and Tyng, and the Deputies 1668 Waldron and Pike, to repair to York, and May ' reconstruct the lawful government. They were met by some opposition, which, however, they over- came, partly by friendly reasoning, and partly by a harmless show of force. Constables were sworn ; military officers were put in commission for six companies ; and on the third day of their -isit, the commissioners set off for their re- turn to Massachusetts, to report that once more she was mistress of Maine. She might seem to herself to stand erect again, as sovereign as in the time Cromwell, and with the advantage of more peo- w le, more wealth, institutions better knit together, und a generation of citizens born upon her soil. BOOK III. FINAL EELATIONS TO THE STUART KENQ8. CHAPTER I. CONDITION AFTER FORTY TEARS. WHEN the Confederacy of the Four Colonies, having lasted twenty-two years, was brought to an end by the absorption of New Haven colony into Connecticut, there were probably in New England between forty thousand and forty- five thousand English people. Of this number twenty-five thousand may have belonged to Mas- sachusetts ; ten thousand to Connecticut, as newly constituted ; five thousand to Plymouth ; and three thousand to Rhode Island. They inhabited ninety towns, of which four were in Rhode Island, twelve in Plymouth, twenty-two in Connecticut, and the rest in Massachusetts. For subsistence they de- pended much upon the sea, and upon the commu- nication which it afforded with the world that had been left ; and accordingly most of their settle- ments were on the coast. Dedham and Concord were respectively ten miles and sixteen miles dis REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 83 tant from it. From Providence and Warwick, forty miles from the ocean, there was a convenient navigation to it by Narragansett Bay. Hadley and Northampton were the remotest frontier towns, and their communication with the world outside was mostly by the channel of the Connecticut. For them, however, as well as for Springfield, there was a more direct route to Massachusetts Bay through the woods. On that way lay Brookfield, thirty miles from the river, and Lancaster and Marl- borough about forty miles further on. Generally, the sites that were selected for these inland settle- ments, as well as for others of later origin, were broad and fertile alluvial plains. The Royal Commissioners sent home an account of the condition of New England which Ifififi deserves attention, though, by reason of their imperfect knowledge, it cannot challenge im- plicit confidence even in respect to facts which they had no motive for misrepresenting. Connecticut, according to their report, had " many scattering towns, not worthy of their names, and a scholar to their minister in every town or village." In Rhode Island, they said, were " the best English grass and most sheep, the ground very fruitful, ewes bring- ing ordinarily two lambs, corn yielding eighty for one, and in some places they had had corn twenty- six years together without manuring. In this prov- ince only they had not any places set apart for the worship of God ; there being so many subdivided sects, they could not agree to meet together in one 84 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. place, but, according to their several judgments, they sometimes associated in one house, some- times in another." In Plymouth, it was the prac- tice to " persuade men, sometimes to compel them, to be freemen ; so far were they from hindering any They had about twelve small towns, one saw - mill for boards, one bloomary for iron, neither good river, nor good harbor, nor any place of strength ; they were so poor they were not able to maintain scholars to their ministers, but were necessitated to make use of a gifted brother in some places." The commodities of Massachusetts were "fish, which was sent into France, Spain, and the Straits, pipe-staves, masts, fir boards, some pitch and tar, pork, beef, horses, and corn, which they sent to Virginia, Barbadoes, etc., and took tobacco and sugar for payment, which they often sent for England. There was good store of iron made in this province." In the Piscataqua towns, were " excellent masts gotten, and upon the river above twenty saw-mills, and there were great store of pipe-staves made, and great store of good timber spoiled." In Maine there were but " few towns, and those much scattered They were rather farms than towns." In Cornwall, the Duke of York's province beyond the Kennebec, there were " three small plantations, the biggest of which had not above thirty houses in it, and those very mean ones too, and spread over eight miles at least. Those people for the most part were fisher- men, and never had any government among them ; SYSTEM OF JURISPRUDENCE. 85 most of them were such as had fled hither from other places to avoid justice." In Boston, the principal town of America, the houses were " generally wooden, the streets crooked, with little decency and no uniformity ; and there neither months, days, seasons of the year, churches, nor inns were known by their English names. At Cambridge, they had a wooden college, and in the yard a brick pile of two bayes for the Indians, where the Commissioners saw but one [Indian]. They said they had three more at school. It might be feared this college might aftbrd as many schis- matics to the Church, and the corporation as many rebels to the King, as formerly they had done, if not timely prevented." In the sixth year after the dispute between the Royal Commissioners and Massachusetts, J 1672. the General Court of that colony caused to be published a revised collection of the " General Laws and Liberties." In the same year, the colo- nies of Plymouth and Connecticut made each a similar publication of laws then in force. A study of these codes suggests important inferences re- specting both the character and the condition of the communities which constructed them, and of which they regulated the order and the intercourse. They present to the view a social system watch- fully guarding the rights of life, liberty, property, and reputation ; promoting the public contentment and wealth by judiciously fostering the pursuits of industry , affording a generous encouragement to 86 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. talent and merit ; careful of the public morals, aa of the community's paramount interest ; and wisely attentive to the duty of the living generation to provide for the security and well-being of the gen- erations to come. As the population of the four colonies was to a great extent the same in origin, past experiences, and present condition, so the league which connected them in a political union had helped to maintain a similarity in institutions and manners. Thus their several codes bear wit- ness to a substantial uniformity in the social sys- tem which grew up among them. Even the lan- guage of the laws of both Plymouth and Connect- icut is in great part borrowed from the code of Massachusetts. The main difference to be re- marked in a comparison of the three codes is inci- dent to the difference between the colonies in respect to amount of population, and consequently to variety of relations in business, and in other pur- suits and interests. The system of law was more minute and elaborate in Massachusetts than in Connecticut, and more so in Connecticut than in Plymouth. In Plymouth there were as yet no counties, nor did the Deputies to the General Court sit as a separate body. It must be admitted that colonization is a hazard- ous step in respect not only to the superficial ad- vantages which make a fortunate community, but even to the sentiments and habits which afford security for social order. The emigrant to a ne\* country, while he dooms his immediate posterity ILL INFLUENCE OF COLONIZATION. 8> to formidable hardships, exposes them to degen- eracy from himself in culture of mind, manners, and temper. His own first business must be to make a home, and provide the means of subsist- ence ; to take precautions against a strange climate and uncongenial neighbors; and to arrange with his companions the terms on which they are to live together, keeping the peace among themselves and lending mutual protection. By the time his attention has been relieved from such immediately pressing cares, his children have grown up to manhood, and new actors are step- ping upon the stage. In respect to the stronger qualities of character, the men born upon the soil, who are to succeed to the conduct of affairs as the first settlers die or grow old, will not be found the worse by reason of their early familiarity with trouble and danger; but in the refinements of life it cannot be expected that they will excel, and it will be to their credit if they are orderly and peaceable, still more if they prove to have mastered sufficient knowledge for practical occasions. For while they were growing up, schools and colleges, if ever so promptly undertaken, can at best have been only in the process of organization ; every hand has been liable to be in demand for its share of work , nor are the discomforts of a straitened and harassed life favorable to the amenities of social intercourse, or even without effect to generate that selfishness which is its fatal bane. The presence of histor- ical objects, the habitual contact with transmitted 88 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. thoughts and feelings which local associations keep alive, provide a stimulating education for the mind, which it cannot spare without some loss. The consummate flowers and fruits of a high civili- zation seem to require to be nurtured by roots that have been long penetrating into a native soil. Accordingly it would not have been matter of surprise if the New Englander of the first indige- nous generation had been found to be a rude, coarse, unlettered, unmannered, sensual, turbulent person. It might have been supposed, not unreasonably, that a retrograde step had been taken in the direc- tion of barbarism, and that the next step of prog- ress would have to be made from a lower level. Such an inference would, however, derive little jus- tification from what we know of the men who managed the affairs of New England during the reign of Charles the Second. A large majority of those men, and of the freemen who supported them, and of the non-freemen who lived quietly and thank- fully under their government, were of American birth. But their English parents had meditated maturely on the conditions of respectable and happy living, and of the decline and decay of States. In the busy and imperilled infancy of their common- wealth, they had never lost sight of the importance of preventing learning from being buried in the graves of the fathers ; a college and schools were among the necessities for which they earliest made provision, and they took care to instruct their chil dren at their homes in virtue, letters and man MENTAL CULTURE. 89 ners, while schools were getting ready to receive them. The precautions of their wise forecast proved adequate to the occasion in an admirable degree. It would be unsafe to argue from any documents of the time, or other evidence, that the forty years which followed the immigration of Winthrop's com- pany witnessed any sensible degeneracy under the unpropitious influence of the new circumstances of life. At no earlier time was government in New England more quietly or prosperously administered than in the first twenty years that followed the restoration of King Charles. And as the laws of that period are the monument of a capacity for prudent legislation, so even in the luxury of learn- ing there was no token of decline. The books of Mitchell, Oakes, and many others, early pupils of Harvard College, are in our hands ; and we find them not unworthy to be compared, for rich and scholarly rhetoric, with the writings of Chauncy, who came from a professor's stall at Cambridge, or of Cotton, the light of the first Protestant founda- tion at the same University. The Puritan dean of Christ Church, the universally learned Owen, felt such assurance of finding congenial society in New England, that it was only an accident which defeated his purpose of emigrating. Ann Brad- street received her early education in England ; but the volume of her poems, published when she was twenty-two years o!d, may be taken as some in- dication of the tastes and accomplishments culti- 90 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. vated by young women of the best New Eng land families. Nor should it be forgotten that the novel circumstances which had occurred peculiarly favored the diffusion of knowledge and civility from the highest through the inferior social ranks The common necessities and mutual dependence which presented themselves in a new settlement brought the different orders of society into a new acquaintance with each other, of which the better influence could scarcely be impaired by the influ- ence proceeding from the less profitable quarter. Fruitful elements of improvement were imparted to the mass of the community, when husbandmen, artisans, and laborers became, under the new con- ditions of their life, the associates of courtiers and scholars. At the period to which these memoranda relate, Massachusetts, in the opinion of a well-in^ formed historian who wrote a century later, " made a greater figure than it ever did at any other time." " A spirit of industry and economy prevailed throughout the colony," and " some of the Magis- trates and principal merchants grew very rich." If the habits of life inculcated by law and religion were ascetic, they were at all events stern and manly. If the disesteem of frivolous pursuits was carried to extravagance, and the spirit of society was not genial, enervating vices were rebuked, and a high and strict standard of public morality was maintained. Events which occurred in the parent country not long after the departure from New England JNON-CONFORMITY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 91 of the Royal Commissioners could not but have made the colonists congratulate themselves on their enjoyment of a breathing-time of freedom from foreign interference. The Parliament that had banished Lord Clarendon was not behind that min- ister himself in stubborn devotion to the Church ; and its proceedings against English Non-conform- ists were ominous of evil to all Dissenters whom its strong arm might reach. The Cabal ministry, which succeeded the great Chancellor, was made up of elements too heterogenous to pursue a con- sistent policy of intolerance; but its capricious humors gave abundant occasion for anxiety. The King's brother, heir presumptive to the crown, announced hinftelf a Roman Catholic. The truth that the King sympathized with him was already strongly suspected. The instructive spectacle of the rivalry between encroaching popery in the palace and intolerant episcopacy in Parliament, must have made the rulers of Massachusetts felicitate themselves afresh on the successful resistance they had offered to the emissaries of the court ; since, had that resistance been overborne, the interest of New England in what was passing in the parent country would have been that of alarm, while, as things stood, it was little more than the interest of curiosity as to the event, and sympathy with those whom Romanist and Churchman alike intended to oppress. If they were also informed of what was passing at the time in Scotland, they saw still more can* 92 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. for religious dissenters to dread the interference of British power. By a royal decree, registered by an affrighted Scottish parliament, episcopacy had been reestablished in King Charles's north- 1662. ern realm in the second year after his resto- ration. Cruel measures were taken for the main- tenance of that establishment so hated by the great body of the people. When the Presbyterians had been driven from the churches, it was declared treasonable for them to hold meetings in the fields. All persons present at such meetings were bound to inform against their companions. Offenders were hunted by troops of horse, and confession was extorted by torture. The oppressions which afflicted Presbyterian Scotland, there was no reason to doubt would be visited equally upon Congregational New England, should this country come equally within the power of the sovereign and of his bigoted or self-seeking courtiers. The Dissenters of New England, unless false to their convictions, must have proved no less contumacious than the Dissenters of his northern kingdom. Had a creature of the court been made their Governor, with a sufficient military force at his back, they could not reasonably flatter them- selves with exemption from the sword and thumb- screw of which the Duke of Lauderdale, the King's Commissioner, made so free use in Scotland. The New England colonies, however, remained undisturbed by the home government for more than ten years after the departure of Lord Clarendon's ACT FOR COLLECTING CUSTOMS. 93 Commissioners, though the reorganization from time to time of the tribunal which had been insti- tuted for conducting the colonial business of the empire showed that this department of administra- tion was not wholly overlooked. After Lord Clar- endon's fall, the Council for Foreign Planta- 1670 tions, hitherto a numerous body, was made July 80> to consist of but ten members, two of whom were the Earl of Montague, formerly the Parliament'a admiral, and Lord Gorges, a relative of the claim- ant of Maine. After a few months, an addi- 1671 tion was made of six very eminent persons, ^f 1 ^*- among whom were the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert, the King's cousin. In the next year, 1672 a different arrangement was made. Xhe Se P t<16> Council for Trade and the Council for Plantations were consolidated into a single board, with the Earl of Shaftesbury at its head. After the disso- lution of the Cabal ministry, this council 1674 too was dissolved, and, by a return to the D 60 - 21 - ancient practice, the business of the colo- 1675. nies was intrusted to a committee of the M Privy Council. That indecision of the court which was both indicated and necessitated by these fluct- uations, prolonged the respite which was so profit- able to the people of New England. Under the auspices of the Cabal ministry, how- ever, one step was taken, which was destined to affect materially the position of the colonies. An act was passed, imposing customs to be levied in the foreign dependencies of Great Britain 94 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. and to be collected by colonial revenue officers. For various enumerated commodities carried from the plantations, unless a sufficient bond were given to land them in England, duties were to be paid at the place of exportation, to collectors appointed in England by the Commissioners of the Customs, under the authority of the Lords of the Treasury. We shall have occasion to see how fruitful of mis- chief to New England this legislation proved. When the confederacy of -New England was dissolved by the incorporation of New Haven into Connecticut, an attempt to renew it for the three existing governments had little spirit and little effect. By her conduct in the prosecution of that measure, Connecticut had given serious offence to the two older colonies. That desire to unite in preparation for resistance to encroachment from England which had been a main cause of the original confederation, was cooled by recent occur- rences. All the colonies had now formally acknowl- edged the King, and the different temper in which this had been done in Connecticut and in Massachu- setts forbade the expectation that for the present they could act together with zeal in respect to com- prehensive questions of politics. The great favors which Connecticut had received from the King seemed to have awakened in her a loyal affection, while the attitude of Massachusetts towards the parent country had never been more than now one of jealousy and apprehension, if it should not rathei be said that she regarded the existing English gov SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. 95 ernment with a fixed hostility, which considerations of prudence alone caused her to abstain from ex- pressing. Still there existed a strong mutual good-will among the colonies, and a corresponding disposi- tion tc restore the old union as far as altered cir- cumstances might allow. When, agreeably to the arrangement which had been made at the time of the dissolution of the government of New Haven, Commissioners for the three colonies came 1667 together at Hartford, after the expiration of three years, it appeared that the representatives of Plymouth and Massachusetts brought authority only to " act about the Indian affairs of the corpo- ration, and to agitate and treat of any propositions that should be made for the renewing or entering into a new confederation." The result of the con- sultations which should be held on this matter they were to report to their respective governments. Plymouth had not been zealous for a new con- federation. Her views of the scheme had been ex- pressed in a letter from Governor Prince to the General Court of Massachusetts. The Plymouth people complained that the old agreement had been violated by the conduct of Connecticut in respect to New Haven. They did not think it prudent that four Commissioners, instead of six, the number requisite under the old system to determine a vote, should be invested with the authority of the whole body ; and on the other hand they feared that the decision of a question by four votes would not 96 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. prove to be controlling, when experience had shown that the decree of a larger number was liable to be disregarded. Of course, this last suggestion re- ferred to the refusal of Massachusetts to be bound by that action of the Commissioners which sum- moned her to engage in a war with the Dutch and Indians. It appears, however, that Plymouth, on reflection, had become well disposed to a new confederation, and that the chief reluctance or indifference to that measure was on the part of Connecticut. Some amendments of the former system were proposed, part of them being apparently designed to meet the wishes of that colony ; but, without taking any formal steps towards a new alliance, the Commis- sioners separated after transacting some business of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. As the end of another triennial term approached, the question respecting a reformed confederacy was revived. Commissioners appointed by the several 1670. colonies for the special purpose met in Bos- 8 2 ' ton, and agreed upon a frame of Articles for a new compact. Except what was necessary to accommodate it to the diminished number of the contracting parties, there was no considerable de- parture, even so much as in phraseology, from the old system of confederation. In the preamble, the ancient reference to " those sad distractions in Eng- land " was now omitted. In the second Article that war-making power of the Confederacy, which bad proved such a root of bitterness, was restricted SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. 97 by a provision that the " determination of an offen- sive war, properly so called, so as to engage the colonies therein, should be in the several General Courts." Meetings of Commissioners were to be held only once in three years, one meeting in five to be at Plymouth, two at Boston, and two at Hartford. When this amended plan was presented to the General Courts of the three colonies, Con- . . Oct. is. necticut adopted it without exception, nor does any qualification of it appear to have been desired by Plymouth. Massachusetts was not en- tirely satisfied. When her General Court took the scheme into consideration, they pro- posed two material emendations. By the seventh Article the commissioners were authorized to " en- deavor to frame and establish agreements and orders in general cases of a civil nature : " the Court pre- ferred to reduce this power to that of " consulting of and proposing to the several General Courts, to be by them allowed and established, such orders in general cases." As to supplies of men and money for war, the ninth Article retained the old rule of a levy on the several colonies according to the number of their men of military age : the Court objected to this rule, and desired that it might be referred to future conference. Connecticut insisted on the ancient rule for mili- tary supplies, nor can it be supposed that a depart- ure from it would have been more acceptable to Plymouth. At length, at a meeting held at Bos 98 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. ton of representatives from the three colonies, the point was adjusted by an agreement that thence- forward, for fifteen years, troops and money for any war should be contributed in the proportion of a hundred for Massachusetts to sixty for Con- necticut, and thirty for Plymouth. The agreement having been solemnly ratified at Plymouth by Commissioners authorized by all the colonies for that purpose, the old Confederacy was faintly repro- duced. The Commissioners proceeded to hold one 1672 of the prescribed triennial meetings. But it sept. 5. na( j none O f t ne importance of the meetings of earlier times. Little was done except to audit an account of money disbursed by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, to receive reports from the society's missionaries, and to despatch a letter to the Mohegan Uncas, " to encourage him to attend on the ministry." A year after this, the Commissioners held a special meeting at Hartford, being summoned by 1673 the Magistrates of Connecticut, in their Aug. 21. a j arm on account of the recent capture of New York by the Dutch. In King Charles's sec- ond war with the United Provinces, Cornelius Evertsen and Jacob Binkes, in command of twelve Dutch armed vessels, appeared before New York, and landed eight hundred men. Lovelace, who ^ad succeeded Colonel Nicolls as Governor for the Duke of York, was absent at New Haven. The garrison at New York was in no condition for resistance ; and, after a short and almost CONFEDERACY OF THREE COLONIES. ^J bloodless conflict, the place was entered by the enemy. The reconquest of Fort Albany, and of most of the territory comprehended within New Netherland, immediately followed. The Magistrates of Connecticut wrote to the Dutch commanders to ask information respecting their further designs. An unsatisfactory reply in- creased their apprehensions, and prompted them to seek assurances of support from their allies. At the meeting which was accordingly convoked, the Commissioners declared that they should " at all times account the damage or spoil that should be done to any one member of the confeder- ate jurisdiction as done to the whole," and resolved to recommend to their several governments " that sufficient orders be given, and all due and effectual care be forthwith taken, for provision of all man- ner of ammunition, men, and means of defence." It might not be unreasonable to surmise that Con- necticut, on this occasion, was showing a solici- tude for the honor of the King and his brother's interest, to which the feeling in the other colonies did not warmly respond. CHAPTER II. TRANSACTIONS OP TEN TEAKS. THE reader remembers, that, in the later part of the period treated in the Second Book of this his- tory, the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecti- cut were agitated by a controversy respecting the proper subjects of baptism. New Haven had taken no part in measures for its adjustment. Under the rigid institutions of that colony, the innovation which found favor elsewhere had no considerable advocates. John Davenport, pastor of the First Church in New Haven, was the chief framer of the ecclesias- tical system which was there maintained. He had also, from the beginning, been second to none among the citizens of the colony in attachment to its integrity and independence. Both as a patriot and as a sectary, he was distressed by its annexa- tion to Connecticut, as by the disappointment of hopes and plans cherished above all others through thirty years of thoughtful and busy life. New Haven, almost his creation, the object, so long, of his solicitude, his devotion, his pride, was no longei attractive to him. It was rather the monument of a great defeat and sorrow. JOHN DAVENPORT IN BOSTON. 10] In the dispute about baptism, the First Church in Boston, under the lead of Wilson and Norton, its Pastor and Teacher, had taken part with the reformers. But Norton died before the catastrophe of New Haven, and his aged colleague sur- 1667 vived him only four years. The question Auf 7- as to a successor to the vacant place was one of unsurpassed interest to all the churches. Owen, now dismissed from his offices of Dean of Christ Church and Vice- Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Oxford, was invited to emigrate, and become Wilson's successor; and he seriously en- tertained the proposal. But, in consideration of the probability that he might be useful in the crisis which was then passing in his own country, he determined to remain there. The man who, for personal qualities and public services, stood preemi- nent in New England, was the dissatisfied Pastor of New Haven. The influence of his reputation proved sufficient to overcome the objection of his being the champion of opinions opposite to those entertained by a majority of the widowed church; and he was invited to remove, and assume the highest clerical position in the chief colony. When nearly seventy years of age, he was installed 1668 in Boston, and entered on a new career. A large minority, however, of the church could not be won by their respect for his character to acquiesce in the views entertained by him respect- ing a question which, though religious in its first aspect, was not without an important political re ,iJ2 MASSACHUSETTS. iation. Twenty-nine men, several of whom were persons of consequence, resolved to secede, and set up another congregation. The scheme had to encounter opposition, in which the Governor, who fully sympathized with Davenport, was active. The discontented party applied to the First Church for a dismission, which was refused. They then convoked an ecclesiastical council, which advised them to proceed, recognized them as a distinct church, and censured the First Church for opposing their project. The controversy which had occu- pied the Synod was revived with new warmth, ex- citing afresh the whole colony. The Governor as- 1669 sembled the Magistrates, and informed them Jnjy * that he "feared a sudden tumult." The Magistrates, however, a majority of whom were of the opposite inclining, saw no occasion to 1670 interfere; and the seceders went on to in- Feb ' 16 stall a minister of the Third Church of Bos- ton. Till within a week of this time, no other town of New England had more than one church. The General Court, which presently after came together, considered these movements as entitled to its notice. The House of Deputies, which May. * proved to have a majority of Anti-Synodists, raised a committee to inquire respecting prevalent sins. The committee reported that there had been " declension from the primitive foundation work ; innovation in doctrine and worship, opinion and practice ; an invasion of the rights, liberties, and privileges of churches ; " and they went on to refer HALF-WAY COVENANT. 103 in terms of censure, to the late proceedings in Bos- ton. But it seems that the committee did not in this matter represent the sense of the colony. Vt the next annual Court for Elections, fifteen 1671 ministers presented an elaborate memorial, M** complaining of the recent action of the Deputies The tribunal now addressed by the petitioners was constituted very differently from that which had rebuked them. Of fifty Deputies in the new House, only twenty were the same as had served in the last year. There can be no doubt that what occasioned this revolution was the judgment of the majority of the towns on the pending religious controversy. The question was reconsidered, with a result favorable to the memorialists. " The Court declared that they knew no just cause of those scandalizing reflections against Magistrates, elders, and churches, either in reference to the new church of Boston, or otherwise." The aged Davenport was spared the distress which this decision would have cost him. He died in little more than a year after his removal to Boston. The controversy which had so inter- ested him was not at an end ; but the tendencies of the time were adverse to the reinstitution of the ancient strictness of church order. The novelty sanctioned by the Synod found its chief opponents among the more conservative class of laymen. Its advocates among the clergy were from the first a majority, which went on increasing from genera- tion to generation ; and the Half-way Covenant, as 104 MASSACHUSETTS. it was opprobriously called, came to be approved by the general practice of the congregational churches of New England. This protracted discussion of questions respect- ing that rite which in other aspects engaged the special attention of the Baptists had naturally kept alive the zeal of that sect, and not improbably had increased their number. At the height of the alarm caused by the visit of the Royal Commis- sioners, when it might seem that local disaffection was fraught with peculiar danger, five persons of 1665. * na * profession had been disfranchised for Oct. 11. rece i v i n g to their communion persons who had been excommunicated by other churches, and a law had been passed by force of which two others were afterwards put in prison. Soon after this, the congregation obtained a place for its meetings on Noddle's Island, in Boston harbor. They did not here escape the notice of the Magistrates, who, " being willing by all Christian candor to endeavor the reducing of the said persons from the error of lees, their way," voted to offer to the backsliders March 7. an O p portun ity o f a full and free debate," and appointed six ministers to conduct it on their part. It was held in the meeting-house of the First April Church of Boston, the Baptist champions 14 ' 15- being assisted by three brethren who came to them from Newport. It lasted two days, and came to nothing. The dissentients were not re- claimed, and the General Court, which soon met SECT OF BAPTISTS. 105 proceeded to consult upon their case. Thomas Gold, William Turner, and John Farnum were sentenced to banishment from the col- ony, and declared liable to imprisonment in case they should return. Besides strong remonstrances from eminent men on the spot, thirteen English ministers among whom were persons so emi- nent as Goodwin, Owen, and Nye wrote to the Governor, urging him, partly on account of 1669 the effect on their own position at home, to March 25> desist from this intolerant course of proceeding. The interference of the citizens was resented by the imposition of a fine upon two persons Who had been active in circulating the remonstrance. But either the Magistrates did not care to follow up the business any further than was thought necessary to assert the authority of the government, or they ob- served the growth of a public sentiment of tolera- tion which it would not be wise to oppose. For the sentence of banishment remained unexecuted, and the Baptists continued to maintain their wor- ship on Noddle's Island. Five years had scarcely passed after that decree when one of them 1674 was able to write : " The church of the Jan> 9 - baptized do peaceably enjoy their liberty ; " and they used their liberty in transferring their weekly worship to a house which they hired for the pur- pose within the town. The death of the severe Belli ngham, which took place while, in his 1672 eighty-second year, he was occupying the Dec - 12 chief magistracy for the ninth time in succession, 106 MASSACHUSETTS. afforded them a prospect of more repose in future. 1678 Leverett, who succeeded him, was of a May7 less impulsive nature, and his mind had been liberalized by larger commerce with the world. The government had another subject of anxiety. There was trouble in the College. It had con- stantly won on the public respect during the seven- teen years of the Presidency of Chauncy, who suc- ceeded Dunster ; and, in the last of these years, the original edifice being insufficient in size, and falling into decay, a liberal private contribution had been made for the erection of another. But, when the 1672 President died, the choice of his successor Feb. 19. j e( j to dissensions. Leonard Hoar, an Eng- lishman by birth, had been educated at Harvard College under the presidency of Dunster, and had then returned to his native country, where he mar- ried a daughter of Lord Lisle. At college he had been a member of the class next after that of Mr. John Collins, who, now a minister of London, was intrusted there with the affairs of the colony. Without delay, after hearing of Chauncy's death, Hoar embarked for Boston, fortified by a May 10. letter from Collins to the Governor, recom- mending him for the vacant office. Three months earlier, in anticipation of Chauncy's death, John Owen and twelve other eminent Eng- lish ministers had written to Massachusetts to the same effect. The General Court shared, or caught, the en- HARVARD COLLEGE. 107 thusiasm of their English friends. They voted to raise the President's annual allowance from Oct. 8 a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds, provided that Hoar should be placed in the office ; and they offered to the College a new charter (which, however, did not take effect) embracing some extension of its privileges. Hoar was made President, and those who expressed their minds at all joined in vociferous applause. But the fairest prospects are sometimes the quick- est to fade. What was the matter with President Hoar, the present age does not know. The age immediately succeeding his own did not know how to describe it. But his administration proved a failure. The youth at the College were unruly. Some of its governors were disaffected. A year had scarcely passed when from " some of 1673 the honored Overseers " the General Court Oct ' 15- " received a narrative of uncomfortable debates and motions," so serious as to cause the Court to threaten an expression of " their due resentment as to the obstructors." At the end of another year, " the Court, by good information, under- 1674 stood, that, notwithstanding all former en- Oct- 7 deavors, the College yet remained in a languishing and decaying condition ; " and, to the end of taking u further effectual course, if possible, for the revival of that great work and its future flourishing and establishment," they appointed a day to hear the representations of a numerous body of persons, then and formerly connected with the College. The 108 MASSACHUSETTS. hearing was had. " The President, upon his own voluntary motion, in consideration of the paucity of scholars, did freely lay down fifty pounds of his salary ; " and the Court resolved that if, at its next meeting, u the College were found in the same languishing condition, the President was concluded to be dismissed without further hearing of the case." Of course, if there remained a possibility of restoring subordination, this vote put an end to 1675 it. Before the Court met again, the Presi- Marchis. font resigned his office. The mortification was too much for him. He fell into a decline, and died at Boston before the end of the Nov. 28. year. The capture of New York by the Dutch had some immediate consequences for Massachusetts. Dutch cruisers appeared in Long Island Sound, and it was feared might extend their voyages fur- 1673. * ner east> ^ ne fortifications at Boston, Dec. 10. Cb ar ]estown, Salem, and Portsmouth were repaired, and the Court ordered that " a vessel 1674 or two, with about one hundred men, armed March 11. an( j e q u jpp e( j as a sn jp or ships of war, be immediately set out to repress the insolence of the Dutch." Possibly the government of Massachu- setts supposed that the loss of New York would incline the Duke to abandon the rest of his Amer- ican property. Immediately after that event they proceeded to extend their eastern border so aa to enclose territory belonging to his province of Cornwall, eastward of the River Kennebec. A new PLYMOUTH. 109 aurvey had shown that the charter line running on a line of latitude three miles north of every part of the River Merrimack would include the southern part of the country beyond the Piscataqua, as far east as to the outlet of Penobscot Bay. The Gen- eral Court accordingly, in the spring after the capture of New York, proceeded to in- corporate this country into Massachusetts, and presently appointed commissioners to organize it as the County of Devonshire. In the other colonies of New England, as in Massachusetts, the tranquil course of events during the ten years next following the visit of the Royal Commissioners presents little matter for the notice of history. In Plymouth, Thomas Prince was con- tinued at the head of the government, till, having reached the seventy-third year of his age, he 1673 died, and was succeeded by Josiah Wins- AprU8- low, son of the third Governor. Winslow was a man of more facile temper than his predecessor. By his influence, in the first year after his acces- sion, James Cudworth, whose tenderness for 1674 the Quakers had cost him his high place May> in the public regard, was reinstated in the Magis- tracy. Prince, though unlearned, had an enlight- ened sense of the worth of knowledge; and by his liberal zeal a measure was advanced, which, how- ever, was not quite brought to a conclusion before his death. The Court voted that a public 1678 school, the earliest in the colony, should June - be set up in the town of Plymouth, and that the 110 RHODE ISLAND. revenue from the " Cape Fishery " should be ap propriated to its support. The relations between Governor Prince and the Royal Commissioners had been friendly. On the one hand, his colony desired, as far as might be, to stand well at the English court, in order to the accomplishment of its hope of obtaining a charter; on the other hand, it reasonably distrusted its ca- pacity to maintain itself against the consequences of royal displeasure. It suited the Commissioners to encourage this pliant temper, because it was a rebuke to the contumacy of Massachusetts. They cultivated a good understanding with Plymouth by their action in respect to the boundary on the side of Rhode Island. They determined that Plymouth colony extended to the west as far as the waters of Narragansett Bay. The government which in Rhode Island had been set up under the royal charter was in its scheme a great advance on the previous organizations in that quarter. But the experience scarcely fulfilled the promise. As things stood, there was little ambition for office, and still less disposition to be ruled. In a community composed of citizens with minds so ex- cursive, so variously inclined, and so stubborn each in his own way, the function of governing could scarcely be attractive. After the novelty was over Deputies and even Magistrates did not care to tome to the place of meeting. Others were chosen in their place, but they, too, absented themselves. Rewards and penalties were tried, but with no CONTINUED DISORDER. Ill aatisfactory success. Hitherto a government in Rhode Island seemed to be impossible. Nor in a community so constituted could occa- sions of discord fail to be constantly arising. One such occasion grew out of John Clarke's agency in England. The colony owed him three or four hundred pounds. To satisfy this debt and 1664 some others, a tax was levied of six hundred Oct- pounds. Portsmouth, Providence, and Warwick were dissatisfied with the assessments made upon them, and Warwick sent an angry remonstrance. Williams interposed with a letter to that town, ex horting it to more becoming behavior. It was read to the Warwick trainband, who voted that 1666 it was " a pernicious letter, tending to stir March 26- up strife." The Assistants repeated their demand for payment; when the townsmen of Warwick voted the missive to be " full of uncivil Ian- 1669 guage, as if it had been indicted in hell," March 25- and ordered " that the clerk put it on file, where impertinent papers should be kept for the future, to the end that those persons who had not learned in the school of good manners how to speak to men in the language of sobriety, if they were sought for, might there be found." This was the beginning of what has been known in Rhode Island as tht impertinent file. One of a committee of three persons charged with the collection of the tax of six hundred pounds was William Harris, who had been one of Wil- Uams's original companions when he came from 112 RHODE ISLAND. Salem, but had afterwards a violent quarrel with him. Harris and Arthur Fenner were Magistrates of Providence, and they too disagreed. Fenner had 1667 interest with the General Court to get his ji y 2. jjvaj a discharged from the office of an As- sistant for the future." The next year Harris was 1668 restored, and replaced upon the committee May6 - to gather the tax. But Williams followed 1672 him up, and obtained a warrant for his arrest Feb. 24. an( j i m p r i sonmen t under a charge of trea- sonable correspondence with Connecticut. Mean- while, the tax remained unpaid. The Court was angry, and repeatedly threatened the defaulters with heavy penalties. But the penalties could not be executed, and the money did not come. Quakers had become numerous in Rhode Island. Persons so considerable as Coddington and Easton had enrolled themselves with the sect. Its weight in the colony may be fairly inferred from the elec- tions. In the ten years after the visit of Lord Clar- endon's Commissioners, Easton served six times as Deputy- Governor, and twice as Governor, while towards the end of the same period Coddington held the first office for two terms, and the second for one. In the year of Easton's first elec- 1672 tion to be Governor, nearly the whole ad- ministration was changed, and several of the per- sons who had been chosen, and who found them- selves in a minority in the government, refused to serve, probably on account of their repugnance to Quaker ascendency. George Fox, recovering frorr WESTERN BOUNDARY LINE. 113 an illness of some months in England, found that u it was upon him from the Lord to visit the plan- tations in America." He visited no New England p'antation except Rhode Island. There, he writes, he rendered " very good service," and " truth had good reception," there being " no priests in the island, and no restriction to any particular way of worship." He went up to Providence, where Roger Williams also was at the time. The two champions did not meet. But no sooner had Fox returned to Newport, than Williams sent him a challenge to a public discussion of his system. The discussion did not take place. Fox said that the challenge was delayed till Williams knew that it could not reach him in time to be accepted. Williams maintained that Fox knew it was on the way, and " slyly departed " from Newport to avoid the necessity of either accepting or declining it. Williams rowed himself down the bay to Newport, to hold a dispute with three of Fox's "journeymen and chaplains." It lasted three or four days. Both parties claimed the victory, and each party published its report of the arguments. The books survive to illustrate the rare talent for obloquy possessed by the Quakers, and by their present antagonist in a degree not surpassed by the most accomplished among themselves. The reader remembers, that, according as the 'oyal charters given respectively to Connecticut and to Rhode Island should be interpreted, the country between Narragansett Bay and Paucatuck kiver L14 CONNECTICUT. belonged to the one or the other of those colonies. The King's Province, established by the Royal Commissioners, included the whole of the Narra- gansett country, making the Paucatuck River the eastern boundary of Connecticut, and leaving to Rhode Island little or nothing except the towns of Newport, Portsmouth, and Providence. The Com- missioners had scarcely departed, when, in disregard of their decree, the quarrel between the two colo- nies broke out anew, and for years it dragged its slow length along. Its incidents were numerous, but they had little variety, and have little interest for readers at the present day. If Connecticut was the more powerful of the competitors, the Rhode Islanders had an advantage in the greater nearness of the debatable ground to their peopled towns ; and the action of Connecticut was embarrassed by the scruples of her upright but not sufficiently reso- lute Governor, who declared himself precluded by his arrangement in England with Clarke from actively sustaining the pretension of his colony to jurisdiction on the east side of the Paucatuck Commissioners were appointed to treat. They met, argued, quarrelled, and went their way. Rhode Isl- and arrested alleged trespassers from Connecticut. Connecticut retaliated with the like process. Nego- tiation was again fruitlessly attempted, and again each party took its vindication into its own hands. Other attempts at agreement followed, other fail- ures, and other hostilities ; till, as will presently be een. more absorbing interests suspended the dispute, LONG ISLAND TOWNS. 115 In Connecticut, Winthrop, without opposition, was continued from year to year at the head of the government. Mason, Deputy-Governor during ten successive years, withdrew from that place by reason of advancing age, and was succeeded in it by Leete, formerly Governor of New Haven, who was also continued in the office by repeated elections. In Connecticut, as in Massa- chusetts,, the electors were remarkably constant in the confidence reposed by them in the incumbents of the highest trusts ; but in the former colony the change, from year to year, of Deputies from the towns was rather the rule than the exception. The capture of New York by the Dutch fleet was an event of special interest to Connect- icut. Those towns on Long Island which were near to the city submitted quietly to the in- vaders ; but the plantations at the eastern end of the island, which had formerly belonged to Con- necticut, now refused to surrender themselves, and desired to be annexed to that colony. Some hos- tilities followed, on an humble scale. Massachu- setts, after some hesitation, took part in them, so far as to despatch two armed vessels, besides a land force of five hundred and fifty foot-soldiers and a hundred and ten horse, under the command of Major-General Denison, " to repress the insolence of the Dutch in the Sound." The Dutch governor sent a vessel to the eastern end of Long Island to claim the submission of the settlements. Near Southbold, the party which bore the summons were 116 CONNECTICUT. met by a warning not to " come with that thing [the Prince of Orange's flag] within range of shot of the village." " Clearly perceiving," so they wrote, " that they should be unable to effect anything," they went back to New York. Four 1674 vessels presently came on the same errand Feb. rp n e E n gij sn a t Southhold had meantime been reinforced. The Dutch commander threat- ened to exterminate them " with fire and sword," but got an answer of defiance. A few shots were exchanged between the vessels and the town, with- out injury on either side; and the squadron "pres- ently weighed and set sail." A repetition of the attempt continued to be feared, but none took place. Probably the result of another attack was regarded as uncertain ; the Dutch commander could not afford to risk many men ; the object was not of considerable importance ; and for some reason, as was said, there was " a great damp, at present, upon most of the spirits of the enemy at New York." The further prosecution of these obscure hostilities was soon interrupted by the arrival of intelligence of a pacification between the parent countries. One article in the treaty of peace stipulated the mutual restitution of conquered places. At New York it ^ 7 occasioned a paroxysm of " distracted rage and passion." The phlegmatic burghers so far forsook their usual habits as to threaten to " fire the town, pluck down the fortifications, and tea? out the governor's throat." They " belched forth RESTITUTION OF NEW YORK. 117 their curses and execrations against the Prince of Orange and States of Holland." They proposed to " keep up fighting so long as they could stand on one foot, and fight with one hand." The sym- pathizing governor imprisoned the bearer of the news in " the dungeon in the fort, with warning to fit and prepare himself for death, for in two days he should die ; " and in a more comprehensive in- dulgence of his displeasure he proceeded to confiscate all the goods and effects of Eng- y lish colonists found within his jurisdiction, " to- gether with the outstanding debts remaining" due to them. Events, however, proceeded in much the same current as if the Dutchmen at the mouth of the Hud- son had been less irascible. Orders came from their High Mightinesses " for the evac- uation of the forts, and the restitution of that country to the order of the King of Great Britain." And in due time an English squadron entered the harbor of New York, conveying Major Ed- NOT. i. mund Andros, who proceeded to take pos- NOT. 10. session of the province anew, as Lieutenant of the Duke of York. Connecticut was relieved in one way, but in another she was endangered and annoyed anew. The Duke, on the recovery of his province from the Dutch, had obtained from his brother June 29. a new patent, which established the boun- daries as originally defined. Accordingly, Andres's commission gave him jurisdiction over the country 118 CONNECTICUT. extending " from the west side of Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." He 1675 sent copies of his master's patent and of his Mayl- commission to the General Court of Con- necticut, and formally demanded the surrender of so much of the property, alleged to Belong to the Duke, as now was held under their government They replied, that the question of their western boundary had been authoritatively settled ten years before, and that they had " no power to dispose of any of his Majesty's planta- tions or subjects in any other way than was ap- pointed by his sacred Majesty in his gracious charter." Other letters were interchanged, but without practical effect; when, intelligence having reached Connecticut of a rising of the In- y ' dians beyond her eastern border, a messen- ger was sent to communicate it to Andros. It was turned by him to an unexpected use. He re- plied that he was " very much troubled " by it, and that, accompanied by a force that would enable him " to take such resolutions as might be fit for him upon this extraordinary oc- casion," he " intended, God willing, to set out this evening, and to make the best of his way to Connecticut River, his Royal Highness's bounds there." It behooved the government of Connecticut to attend to his reception at the mouth of the river In all haste the Magistrates sent Captain Bull, o* MAJOR ANDROS AT SATBROOK. 119 Hartford, with a hundred men, to occupy the fort at Saybrook. The General Court, coming to- gether, approved this proceeding, and unani- mously adopted a resolve, protesting against '* Major Andres's challenge and attempts to surprise the main fort of the colony," " as also against all his aiders and abettors, as disturbers of the public peace of his Majesty's good subjects ; " and engag- ing themselves to "use their utmost power and endeavor (expecting therein the assistance of Almighty God) to defend the good people of the colony from the said Major Andres's attempts." Andros was as good as his word. Four days after announcing his purpose, he arrived at the mouth of the river with two small vessels. Thence he wrote to the Magistrates of Hartford, in- forming them, that, finding no occasion for his intervention in respect to the Indians, he de- sired their " direct and effectual answer " to his former demand, and that he should wart for it " in discharge of his duty accordingly." Bull had reached Saybrook a few hours before him, and was in the fort. He was instructed to inform Major Andros that the force from New York might act advantageously against the Indians at the head of Narragansett Bay. He was to allow Andres's people to land for refreshment, but they were to come unarmed, and to make their visit short. He was " to keep the King's colors standing, under his Majesty's Lieutenant, the Governor of Connecti- cut," and to permit the raising of no others. He 120 CONNECTICUT. was " to avoid striking the first blow ; but, if they began, he was to defend himself, and do his best to secure his Majesty's interest and the peace of the whole colony." In reply to Andres's letter, the General Court of Connecticut sent another exposition of their July 10. rights and their purpose. At an early hour of the day after this reached him, he landed with a party, and, at his request, was met on the river's bank by the officers of the garrison. "In his Majesty's name" he "commanded his Majesty's charter [the Duke's patent] to be read, and after that his Highness's commission, which, notwithstanding that they were required in his Majesty's name to forbear, was done." Androsthen said that he should proceed no further, and should set sail immediately, unless he was desired to stay. The officers told him that they " had no order to desire him to stay, but must now read something else ; and forthwith the protest was read in Major Andres's and his gentlemen's presence. He was pleased to speak of it as a slander, and so an ill requital for his kindness, and by-and-by desired a copy, which the officers declined to give ; but yet parted peaceably. His Honor was guarded with the town soldiers to the water-side, went on board, and presently fell down below the fort, with salutes on both sides." The Magistrates approved on th? whole the course that had been taken, though they would have preferred that it should be less forbear- ing. "We wish," they wrote, "he [Andros] had MAJOR ANDROS AT SAYBROOK. 121 been interrupted in doing the least thing under pretence of his having anything to do to use his Majesty's name in commanding there so usurp- ingly, which might have been done by shouts, or sound of drum, etc., without violence." CHAPTER IIL PHILIP'S WAR THE alarm in Connecticut, which had furnished to Governor Andros a pretext for his undesired visit to Saybrook, was not causeless. The Indians had begun a war which proved most costly and afflict- ing to the colonists. The course of conduct pursued by the colonists towards the natives had all along been praise- worthy in a singular degree. The reader is aware how erroneous it would be to represent the lands of Plymouth and Massachusetts as being already occupied when the English arrived. The strangers came and found a vacant domain, on which, with- out intrusion on any predecessors, they built and planted. When they wanted an enlargement of their borders, they obtained it, if at all, by amicable agreement with any who had earlier possession. If the prices which were paid Seem small to us, they were all that the property parted with was worth to the seller. And while all that he yielded was yielded with his free consent for an equivalent that satisfied him, he was honestly and effectively protected in the possession of all that he was dis- posed to keep. No doubt, he was subject to injury EARLIER RELATIONS TO THE NATIVES. 123 from lawless people. He might be occasionally cheated and otherwise ill used, as incapable and unlucky persons are, more or less, in all times, and in all conditions of society. But the shield of law was held over him with assiduous solicitude, and whoever could be detected in wronging him was made ty> feel that he had a watchful guardian severe in measures of redress. It may reasonably be believed that time would have developed inconsistent interests between the natives and the strangers, if through successive gen- erations they had multiplied largely in each other's neighborhood. But as yet the new state of things was highly advantageous to the children of the soil. They were benefited on a vast scale, in respect to the accommodations of their daily life, even while they adhered to their ancient manners and charac- ter, remaining in ignorance of the arts of civiliza- tion and of the revelations of Christianity. Should they continue to be brutal savages, still they lost nothing, but, on the contrary, gained much, by the neighborhood of industrious and orderly persons of a different race, who had commodities to sell which it was for their advantage to buy ; who were glad to buy what they had in plenty, without knowing how to use ; who practised, and were inclined freely to impart, an infinity of methods unknown to them of obtaining security, comfort, and enjoyment. Besides such benefits derived in the necessary rurse of things by the native from the English tettlers, they esteemed it to be their duty to en- 124 PHILIP'S WAR. deavor to share with him what to themselves were the priceless blessings of civilization and Chris- tianity. The reader of these volumes is aware of the diligence and earnestness with which such endeavors were made. Their apparent success, whether really greater or less within the line to which they extended, did not affect the mass of the native population. The great southern tribes the Pokanokets (orWampanoags),the Nyantics, the Narragansetts, the Mohegans (though Uncas, their chief, was always an ally of the English) reso- lutely refused to listen to the missionaries. A few converts were made among the poor remnant of the conquered race of Pequots. But the scenes of prosperous attempts at proselytism were chiefly three, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, and the country around Boston, within forty miles of that town. The number of " praying Indians " in New Eng- land, when at the largest, was reckoned to be about four thousand, of whom eleven hundred belonged to Eliot's congregations in Massa- chusetts, six or seven hundred to Plymouth, fifteen hundred to Martha's Vineyard and the neighboring island of Chappequiddick, and three hundred to Nan- tucket. In Massachusetts there were two churches of Indians, one at Natick, the other at Hassana- misitt (Grafton) ; the former numbering no fewer than fifty communicants. At Martha's Vineyard there were two churches, and one at Chappequid- lick. The congregations had native teachers, who EARLIER RELATIONS TO THE NATIVES. 125 besides being schoolmasters for the children during the week, led the public devotions on the Lord's day when no English minister was present. Of the Plymouth Indians, their minister reported that one hundred and forty -two. could read their own language, seventy-two could write it, and nine could read English. While it seemed that such operations tended within their sphere to make closer the friendly re- lations between the natives and the English, more than half a century had passed since the settle- ment of Plymouth, and nearly forty years since the end of the only war that had taken place between the strangers and any native tribe. There had been alarms, threats, negotiations, and military demon- strations ; and a watchful eye had all along been kept upon the Indians of the region between Con- necticut River and Narragansett Bay. But the quarrels that arose from time to time had at some rate been pacified, and the peace had been pre- served. It is not probable that the number of the natives had increased since the arrival of the English. Massasoit, sachem of the numerous tribe of Pokanokets, always maintained faithfully the treaty which he had made with the colonists of Plym- outh a few months after their arrival ; and, on the other hand, he trusted to their alliance for defence against the Narragansetts, his neighbors on the other side of his country. Nearly forty years after that treaty, Massasoit, dying at an advanced age, was succeeded by his I2b PHILIP'S WAR. sons, "Wamsutta and Metacom, or Metacomet, who having asked the Plymouth people for bet- ter names, received from them the names respectively of Alexander and Philip. Alexander's reign was short. Falling under some suspicion of plotting with the Narragansetts, he was summoned to Plymouth, where he cleared himself of the charge. At Major Winslow's house at Marshfield he was taken with a fever. Being impatient to go home, he was conveyed thither carefully by water, but died within a few days. His brother and successor never had the confi- dence of his English neighbors. Repeatedly, through twelve successive years, there were sus- picions, complaints, explanations, and reconcilia- tions. Philip said that the Nyantics calumniated him for their own purposes ; and the Plymouth, and still more the Massachusetts people were not indisposed to believe that it was so. But at one 1671 time his movements appeared so threatening Apnl- to Plymouth, that he was required to make a temporary surrender of his arms. He engaged to do so, but broke his word. Massachusetts was con- sulted, and sent three of her eminent citizens to have " a fair and deliberate hearing of the Sept. 24. controversy." They do not appear to have imagined the existence of any dangerous plot. But, finding Philip to be a capricious, passionate, and untrustworthy person, they warned him to " amend his ways if he expected peace ; and that, if he went on in his refractory way, he must ex EARLY SUSPICIONS OF PHILIP. 127 pect to smart for it." With the concurrence of his tributary sachems, he made all the submission required. When for more than three years the quiet thus obtained had been unbroken, of a sudden If ~d " the Governor of Plymouth was informed by Sausarnan, a faithful Indian, that the said Philip was undoubtedly endeavoring to raise new troubles, and was endeavoring to engage all the sachems round about in a war ; some of the Eng- lish, also, that lived near the said sachem, com- municated their fears and jealousies concurrent with what the Indians had informed." Sausarnan was a " praying Indian," who could write as well as speak English, and had been employed as a schoolmaster at Natick. Getting into some trouble there, he betook himself to the Pokanoket country, and was employed by Philip to write for him, when he had occasion for that kind of service. After a while, Sausaman returned to Natick, where he received baptism, and officiated as a preacher. On a visit to his old friends of Philip's tribe, he observed the suspicious proceedings which he made known to the Governor of Plymouth. " Many concurrent testimonies from others" corroborated his story. What he had seen he related under an assurance that the source of the information should be concealed, " adding also, that, if it were known that he revealed it, he knew they would presently kill him." Philip, hearing that the Governor of Plymouth J28 PHILIP'S WAR. had received intelligence to his disadvantage, and would probably send for him to appear at the next 1675. Court, resolved to anticipate that step ; and, March - coming of his own accord to Plymouth be- fore the meeting of the Court, he had a conference with the Assistants. His protestations of inno- cence did not satisfy them ; but, " not having full proof, and hoping that the discovery so far would cause him to desist, they dismissed him friendly," with a warning, " that, if they heard further con- cerning that matter, they might see reason to demand his arms to be delivered up for their security." Philip went home, and, not many days after, Sausaman disappeared. His friends, searching for him, found his hat and gun on the frozen surface of a pond in what is now the town of Middle- borough. Thus attracted to the spot, they dis- covered his body under the ice. They dragged it out and buried it, supposing that he had been acci- dentally drowned. But the Governor caused it to be disinterred and examined ; when marks of vio- lence appeared, such as left no doubt that the man had been murdered. The crime was traced to three Indians, who were presently arrested June 1. J and tried. The Court directed, " that, to- gether with the English jury, some of the most in- differentest, gravest, and sage Indians should be admitted to be with the jury, and to help to consult and advise with, of, and concerning the premises." An Indian testified, " that, by accident standing RESTLESSNESS OF PHILIP'S PEOPLE. 129 unseen upon a hill, he had seen them [the prison- ers] murdering the said Sausaman, but durst never reveal it for fear of losing his own life likewise, until he was called to the Court at Plymouth, or before the Governor, when he plainly confessed what he had seen." On this evidence, confirmed by " other remarkable circumstances," the murder- ers were convicted, and sentenced to die, the Indian assessors, six in number, fully concurring with the jury in their verdict. Two of the convicts , , , , JnneS. were hanged, and one, having " on some considerations" been reprieved for two or three weeks, was shot. One of them confessed that he had stood by, while the other two committed the crime. " A little before the Court " met at which the trial took place, " Philip began to keep his men in arms about him, and to gather strangers unto him, and to march about in arms towards the upper end of the neck on which he lived, and near to the Eng- lish houses." The neck on which Philip lived was that beautiful peninsular range of hills, twelve miles long, called Mount Hope, and now belonging to the town of Bristol, which the traveller from Boston to New York by Fall River sees on his right hand as he passes down Taunton River into Nar- ragansett Bay. Philip's movements were observed ; but it was thought prudent to take " as yet no fur- ther notice than only to order a military watch in fcll the adjacent towns, hoping that, Philip finding himself not likely to be arraigned by order of the 130 PHILIP'S WAR. said Court, the present cloud might blow over, oa some others of like nature had done before." But no sooner was the Court dissolved, than intelligence came to Plymouth from Swanzey to the effect " that Philip and his men continued con- stantly in arms, many strange Indians from several places flocked in to him, and that they sent away their wives to Narragansett ; " that they " were giv- ing frequent alarums by drums and guns in the night, and invaded the passage towards Plym- outh ; and their young Indians were earnest for a war." The Magistrates " wrote an amica- Junel4. ble, friendly letter to Philip, advising him to dismiss his strange Indians, and command his own men to fall quietly to their business, and not to suffer himself to be abused by reports concerning them who intended him no wrong nor hurt." But the messenger obtained no answer. The town of Swanzey, " consisting of forty dwelling-houses, most of them very fair buildings," was the nearest of the English towns to Philip's territory. On a Sunday, a party of Indians ap- proached it, burned two houses, and then June 20. . withdrew. Three days after this, " a dozen more of their houses at Swanzey were rifled." The June next day an Englishman was killed there ; 23 ~ 25 ' and the next several others, " upon whose bodies they exercised more than brutish barbari- ties, beheading, dismembering, and mangling them and exposing them in the most inhuman manner.' By this time a small force from the Plymouth HIS RETREAT FROM MOUNT HOPE. 131 towns had marched, under the command of Major Bradford and Major Cudworth, to Swanzey, where they were presently joined by a company of foot under Captain Henchman, a troop of horse June 28. under Captain Prentice, and a hundred vol- unteers under Captain Mosely, all of whom had been despatched from Boston by the Magistrates as soon as intelligence of what had taken place reached that town. On the evening of their arrival, after a forced march of more than twenty-four hours, a reconnoitring party of the troopers was fired upon from the bushes, and one man was killed and another wounded. The next morning, a num- ber of Indians, approaching the English camp, were driven back by Captain Mosely, and five or six of them were killed. Philip perceived his position to be untenable, and the following night transported himself and his companions in canoes to Pocasset, on the eastern shore of the bay, where stands at present the town of Tiverton. The English, now led by Major Savage, who had come from Bos- ton with a reinforcement to assume the chief com- mand, occupied Mount Hope, where they found the heads of eight of their countrymen raised on poles, and where they lost some time in throwing up a slight fortification. Meanwhile, parties of Philip's men, who had crossed the bay, moved to- wards Plymouth, and fell upon the settlements at Dartmouth, Taunton, and Middleborough, burning the houses, and butchering the inhabitants. It was thought material to take precautions 13V! PHILIP'S WAR. against combinations by Philip with other tribes ; and commissioners of Massachusetts and Connect- icut, attended by a strong military force, were sent to obtain new guaranties of friendship from the Narragansetts. They succeeded in negotiating a treaty, by which the chiefs of that formi- July 15. J dable race agreed, for a stipulated price, to deliver up to the English, living or dead, whatever subjects of Philip should come within their coun- try, and to resist any invasion by him of their own lands or of the lands of the English. And they gave hostages for their fulfilment of these en- gagements, and of others of a more general nature. Plymouth was understood to be included in the agreement, though the imperilled state of that colony prevented the presence of commissioners on its part. But already the war had broken out in a differ- ent quarter ; and the state of things became much more alarming when an attack upon the Massachusetts town of Mendon by some Nipmuck Indians showed that Philip's was even now not the only hostile tribe. Except at Brook- field, where fifteen or sixteen families had settled, the central region of Massachusetts, from Lancaster to Connecticut River, was uninhabited by English- men. " There was a great rendezvous of Nipmuck Indians at Quaboag," (Brookfield,) and Captain Edward Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, was sent to them, in the hope of effecting a similar understand- ing to what had lately been brought about with RISING OF THE NIPMUCKS. 133 the Narragansetts. Arrangements for a conference were made, and Hutchinson, with three ' Aug. 2. citizens of Brookfield, escorted by twenty troopers under Captain Wheeler, repaired to the spot agreed upon, "a plain within three miles of Brookfield," but did not find the savages. Pro- ceeding in search of them some seven miles further, the party fell into an ambush, where the path lay between " a very rocky hill on the right hand and a thick swamp on the left." The Indians fired upon them, and killed eight men upon the spot. Hutch- inson, Wheeler, and two others were wounded. Wheeler's horse was killed, and he was supplied with another by his son, who, though nearly help- less from a wound of his own, dismounted and pursued his feeble way on foot, till, fortunately, after receiving another gunshot wound, he caught the horse of one of his dead comrades. As yet Philip, after decamping from Mount Hope, had sheltered his followers from pursuit in a bushy swamp at Pocasset, which the English could not penetrate, though there were oc- i i u 11- Jtd y 18 - casional skirmishes, and several lives were lost on both sides. At length, finding himself too closely pressed after the return of the troops who had been in the Narragansett country, he on a Sun- day left his refuge, crossed Taunton River, and led his companions into the interior country. The English, with a party of Mohegans, pursued him, and cut off thirty of his men, but did not succeed in preventing his junction with the 134 PHILIP'S WAR. Nipmucks, whose camp he reached the day before the fight near Brookfield which has iust been Aug.l. & J related. The English fugitives from that unfortunate field got back to Brookfield by a circuitous way, and, with such means as they had, proceeded to fortify themselves in a large house, where they were pres- ently joined by most of the inhabitants. Wheeler, disabled by his wound, devolved the command of the feeble garrison on Simon Davis, of Concord. The Indians soon appeared, in number, as was believed, no less than three hundred, and burned all the buildings in the outskirts of the town. They drove back two men who were sent out with a message to Boston. Their fire mortally wounded one man in the house. Another, venturing out of it, fell into their hands. They " cut off his head, kicking it about like a foot-ball ; and then, putting it upon a pole, they set it up before the door of his father's house." Their shot allowed the beleaguered English no rest that night. When the moon rose, at three o'clock the next morning, the Indians heaped up a quantity of combustible matter at one Aug. 3. J corner of the house, and set it on fire ; but it was extinguished by a sallying party, who were protected by the marksmen in the house. On a third attempt, made just before dawn, a messenger got away on the path towards Boston. Through that day and the next night the discharge of mus- ketry against the house continued, and repeated RELIEF OF BROOKFIELD. 135 attempts were made to fire it. Arrows, tipped with burning rags of cotton and linen, were shot to the roof, through which holes had to be cut to get at them with water. " A ball of wild-fire " reached the garret, where was a heap of flax or tow, but was fortunately discovered in season to prevent mischief. Besides the men, there were women and children within the house to the num- ber of fifty, and the shot from without often pierced the walls. The difficulty for the Indians was to get near enough, under the fire from the house, to burn out the besieged party. By the third day, they had built a sort of " carriage, about four- teen yards long," with a barrel for a wheel, and " loaded the front or fore end thereof with matter fit for firing, as hay, and flax, and chips, etc." But Providence was watchful. In the course of the day there fell " a shower of rain, whereby the mat- ter prepared, being wet, would not so easily take fire as it would otherwise have done." The worst was now over. An hour after night- fall, Major Simon Willard galloped into the town at the head of forty-seven heavy-armed horsemen. In the forenoon Willard was on his way with that little force from Lancaster to Groton, when a mes- senger from Marlborough overtook him with the tid- ings which had been brought thither by the runner from Brookfield. The distance to be travelled in order to carry relief was thirty miles, and the road was not such as might favor a rapid movement. 136 PHILIP'S WAR. But Willard was at home in the saddle, notwith standing the burden of seventy years, and he came in season to save his friends another night of sleep, less misery ; " God, who comforteth the afflicted, as he comforted the holy Apostle Paul by the com- ing of Titus unto him, so he greatly comforted his distressed servants, both soldiers and town inhab- itants, by the coming of the said honored Major, and those with him." The Indians fired upon the new-comers, and wounded two men. But the next morning, before daybreak, they dis- persed, having, according to a subsequent statement of one of them, suffered a loss of not fewer than eighty, in killed and wounded, during the three days. On that day, as was afterwards reported by a captive Indian, Philip, accompanied by forty of his men, with their women and children, was conducted to a swamp ten or twelve miles from Brookfield, where he met some of the Nip- muck chiefs, and made them presents, in acknowl- edgment of their recent exploit. The next week, as many of the survivors of Wheeler's command as were able to travel came down to Marlborough, where Hutchinson died of his wound. Near by, at Lancaster, the Indians, who had followed them, surprised and butchered an English family that were keeping their Sab- bath at home. Willard proceeded to Hadley, and remained there with his troop two or three weeks. After Philip's departure from Plymouth, that colony was tranquil for a time; but, throughout MOVEMENTS ON CONNECTICUT RIVER. 137 the length and breadth of Massachusetts, the alarm reached every settlement and every dwelling. The exposed state of the remote towns on the Connecti- cut excited special solicitude, and forces were sent in that direction from the seaboard, under the com- mand of Captain Beers, of Watertown, Captain Lothrop, of Ipswich, and Captain Mosely, of Boston ; and from Hartford, under the command of Major Treat, of Milford, who was also accom- panied by a party of Mohegans. Major Pynchon, of Springfield, son of the former Assistant of that name, was the officer highest in command in this quarter, after Willard went eastward. Hadley was designated to be made the principal military post, and the place of deposit for supplies. At Hatfield, a little stockade had been put in charge of some Indian auxiliaries, who were supplied with arms and ammunition. There appeared reason to sus- pect their fidelity ; and Beers and Lothrop, sent with a hundred men to disarm them, found that they had decamped the night before. The Eng- lish pursued, and came upon them in a swamp, where an engagement took place, in which ten of the English fell, and twenty-six of the savages. At the end of another week, separate attacks were made upon two of the settlements on the Connecticut. At Deerfield, several houses and barns were burned, and two men were killed. Sept. 1. At Hadley, from which place the Indians had observed most of the garrison to be absent, 138 PHILIP'S WAR. the inhabitants were keeping a fast, when their de- votion was disturbed by the outcries of the furious enemy. Seizing the muskets which stood by their sides, the men rushed out of their meeting-house, and hastily fell into line ; but the suddenness of the assault, from a foe now enclosing them all around, was bewildering, and they seemed about to give way, when, it is said, an unknown man of ad- vanced years and in ancient garb appeared among them, and abruptly assumed the direction, with the bearing and tone of one used to battles. His sharp word of command instantly restored order. Musket and pike were handled with nerve. The invaders were driven in headlong flight out of the town. When the pursuers collected again, their deliverer had disappeared, nor could any man get an answer to the question, by what instrument a gracious Providence had interposed for their rescue. It was the regicide, Colonel Goffe. Sitting at a window of the minister's house, while his neigh- bors were at worship, he had seen the stealthy sav- ages coming down over the hills; again the old ardor took possession of him ; he rushed out to win one more victory for God's people, and then went back to the retirement from which no man knows that he ever afterwards emerged. The savages were skulking in the woods all along the river, from Springfield to the upper- most English settlement, which was at Northfield (Squakheag). At the latter place, a party having ventured out of a block -house, wat ACTION OF THE CONFEDERACY. 139 intercepted on its return, and nine or ten men were killed. Thirty-six men, sent up under Captain Beers with wagons to bring off what remained of the garrison and its stores, had arrived within three miles of the place, when they were fired upon by a concealed party of the enemy. The English fought till their ammunition waa spent, and then gave way, having killed twenty- five of their assailants. More than twenty of their own number fell, including their commander. Most of the survivors got back to Hadley the same night. One wandered in the woods six days, and when he same in " was almost famished, and so lost his understanding that he knew not what day the fight was on." Major Treat was sent up the river with a force of a hundred men to repeat the at- tempt in which his unfortunate comrade had failed, and, " coming nigh Squakheag, his men were much daunted to see the heads of Captain Beers's soldiers upon poles by the wayside." They also were waylaid, and their commander was wounded by a spent ball. They fought their way through, and brought off their friends in safety from Northfield ; and for the present that settlement was abandoned. So stood the war at the time when, at Boston, the Commissioners of the three colonies came to- gether for their first regular meeting after the estab- lishment of the new Confederacy. The Com- missioners from Plymouth laid before their associates a " Narrative snowing the Manner of the 140 PHILIP'S WAR. Beginning and Progress of the Present War," and bringing down the story to the attack upon Swan- zey, eleven or twelve weeks before the Commis- sioners assembled. Thereupon the Commission- ers, by unanimous votes, declared the war to be " both just and necessary, in its first rise a defen- sive war ; " " agreed and concluded that it ought now to be jointly prosecuted by all the United Colonies, and the charges thereof to be borne and paid as was agreed in the Articles of Confedera- tion ; " and ordered " that there be forthwith raised a thousand soldiers, whereof five hundred to be dragoons or troopers, with long arms." Of this force Massachusetts was to furnish five hundred and twenty-seven men, Connecticut three hundred and fifteen, and Plymouth one hundred and fifty eight. If a wide conspiracy of the natives had been planned, with Philip for its leader, it may be sup- posed that the Commissioners would have had some information or some suspicion of it. But nothing of this kind can be gathered from their record, after they had had three months to make observations, and had conferred with Philip's neigh- bors at Plymouth. What they saw was that the madness, which all along there had been cause to watch and fear, waa now broken loose. However much or little the movement that was going on had of arrangemen* or concert, at all events it was destructive. So long as mischief was threatened only by the tribe DISASTER OF BLOODY BROOK. 141 of their ancient allies on the eastern shore of Nar- ragansett Bay, the danger was not appalling. But it would be far otherwise should the thirst for blood become epidemic; and the last fortnight had shown that the contagion was already spread over a wide extent. During ten weeks the Federal Commissioners came together repeatedly ; or, rather, they Sepfc ^ held a nearly continuous session. More NoT 1J distressing intelligence than had yet come was presently to reach them from the west. After Northfield was abandoned, Deerfield, which be- came the most northerly settlement, was the next to be broken up. The inhabitants having been fired upon as they went to public worship, and their houses burned, it was thought best to withdraw them into the lower towns. They left a quan- Sept. 12. tity of wheat, just reaped, and " threshed out as well as they could in those tumults." This it was desirable to secure. From Hadley, twenty miles distant, the head-quarters of the troops, a party was despatched to finish threshing the grain, and bring it in. Eighteen wagons, with their teamsters, were convoyed by a company of ninety picked men, led by Captain Lothro^. The grain was threshed, and put in the wagons, with some furniture of the inhabitants, and the party pro- ceeded on their return. Captain Mosely, whom they found at Deerfield with his company, re- mained there on their departure, and undertook, by his scouts, to secure his friends against any sudden approach of the foe. 142 PHILIP'S WAR. Lothrop's party made a few miles of their pro- posed march in safety, and about seven o'clock in the morning reached a small stream within the township of Deerfield, since called Bloody Brook, in memory of that disastrous day. The stream was bordered by thick woods. As the was- R r f 1 ft ons slowly forded it, tradition relates that the men imprudently put their arms in them, and scattered to gather the wild grapes which hung ripe upon the vines. A sudden volley from hun- dreds of muskets on the right of the path startled them from their security. Several were killed. A crowd of savages sprang from an ambush, and fell upon the rest, before they had time to form and regain their weapons. Lothrop was " a godly and courageous commander;" but valor so beset was unavailing. The assailants were believed to be not fewer than seven hundred. Lothrop was shot dead early in the action. Seven or eight Englishmen, at the utmost, escaped. One of these had been stripped and left for dead, after being wounded, first by a musket-ball, and then by a toma- hawk. Another forced his way through with his musket, with which he laid about him with one arm, after the other was broken. The dead were all buried in one grave, now covered with a me- morial stone, which arrests the traveller's attention on the side of the highway in South Deerfield. Lothrop's company was known by the name of " The Flower of Essex," being " all culled out of the towns belonging to that county." Its fate ATTACK ON SPRINGFIELD. 143 was " a sad and awful providence," " a dismal and fatal blow," " a sadder rebuke of Providence than anything that hitherto had been." The day was " a black and fatal day," " the saddest that ever befell New England." Mosely heard the firing four or five miles off, and, marching down with all speed to relieve his comrades, found the conquerors busy in scalping and spoiling the dead bodies. He came upon them at eleven o'clock before noon, and attacked them with vigor ; but, though he killed a consider- able number, they kept up the contest from their hiding-places till evening, when Major Treat, who had been further up the river with a hundred Eng- lishmen and half as many friendly Mohegans, came down and drove the savages from the ground. The English encamped over night near the scene of the battle, and in the morning proceeded to bury the bodies of their friends, after again dispers- ing some Indians whom they found engaged in stripping and disfiguring them. When, after a few days, Mosely's force was ordered away from Deerfield, the few remaining inhabitants deserted that place ; and Springfield, Hadley, Northampton, and Hatfield were the only towns on the Connect- icut still held by the English in Massachusetts. Springfield was fiercely attacked by a large force, and some thirty houses were ravaged and burned : a disaster which was the more de- plored, because the planters had lived on the most friendly terms witn the natives in their neighbor- 144 PHILIP'S WAR. aood through the whole history of that settlement, now forty years old, and had lately received from them the most positive assurances of friendship. The last appearance of any considerable force of Indians for the present at the western plan- tations was at Hatfield, whence, after a sharp encounter, they were repulsed with consider- able loss. From this time they appear to have dispersed, especially towards the holds of the Nar- ragansetts. Many also of the English troops from the sea-coast were withdrawn to their homes. The attitude of the powerful Narragansett tribe was regarded with anxiety. It was known that, BO far from keeping their compact to surrender such enemies of the English as should fall into their hands, they had harbored numbers of Philip's dis- persed retainers and allies. While the Federal Commissioners were in session at Boston, Canon- chet, sachem of the Narragansetts, came Oct. 18. thither with other chiefs, and promised that the hostile Indians whom they acknowledged to be then under their protection should be surren- dered within ten days. But probably the course of events on Connecticut River emboldened them. At all events, they did not keep their engagement. The day for the surrender came and went, and no Indians appeared. If that faithless tribe, the most powerful in New England, should assume active hostilities, a terrible desolation would ensue. The Commissioners moved promptly. The fifth day after the breach of the treaty found them re- ATTITUDE OF THE NARRAGANSETTS. 145 assembled after a short recess. They immediately determined to raise an additional force of a thousand men for service in the Narragansett country. They appointed Governor Winslow, of Plymouth, to be commander-in-chief, and desired the colony of Connecticut to name his lieutenant. The General was to place himself at the head of his troops within six weeks, " a solemn day of prayer and humiliation " being kept through all the coloniee meanwhile. The Commissioners " commended to the several General Courts or Councils that effect- ual care be taken that the soldiers sent on this ex- pedition be men of strength, courage, and activity ; their arms well fixed, and fit for service ; that their clothing be in all respects strong and warm, suit- able for the season ; that they have provisions in their knapsacks for a week's march from their rendezvous, and supply in a magazine appointed for a more general service ; also, that there be a meet number of able ministers and chirurgeons provided and appointed for the expedition." Time was thus given to the Narragansetts to make their peace u by actual performance of their covenants made with the Commissioners ; as also making reparation for all damages sustained by their neg- lect hitherto, together with security for their further fidelity." If they failed to profit by the respite, then they were to feel the blow in the success of which the being of civilized New England was visibly involved. It is not known whethe; Philip was among the VOL. II. 10 146 PHILIP'S WAS. Narragansetts at this time. Under whatever in- fluence it was, whether from stupidity or from con- fidence, they made no further attempt at pacifica* tion. Their present quiet afforded no omen of peaceful intentions. For the season was not favor- able to active operations on their part. On a march they could find no provisions except what they should obtain by pillage, and the leafless trees and bushes denied them the concealment which was required by their methods of conducting war. The Massachusetts troops marched from Ded- ham to Attleborough on the day before that which had been appointed by the Com- missioners for them to meet the Plymouth levy at the northeastern corner of the Narragansett coun- try. The following day they reached Seekonk. A week earlier, the few English houses at Dec. 2. Quinsigamond ( Worcester) had been burned by a party of natives ; and a few days later, the house of Jeremiah Bull, at Petty quamscott, which had been designated as the place of general ren- dezvous for the English, was fired, and ten men and five women and children, who had taken refuge in it, were put to death. Six companies of foot and one mounted troop, from Massachusetts, under Major Appleton, of Ipswich, and two companies from Plymouth, under Major Bradford, came to Smith's house, at Wickford. There, after a few days, they received infor- Dee. 13. mation that Major Treat, of Connecticut, had reached Pettyquamscott, with five companies MARCH AGAINST THE NARRAGANSETTS. 147 of English and fifty Mohegan allies ; whereupon they immediately proceeded to that place. Governor Winslow took the command, and no time was lost. The General had from a pris- oner information of the place where the principal force of the Narragansetts was collected ; and, 01* the night when he made a junction with the Con- necticut troops, he gave orders for an attack upon it, to be made on the following day, though it would be Sunday ; for, in waiting for the rein- forcement from Connecticut, provisions had been falling short. The place where the Narragansetts were to be sought was in what is now the town of South Kingston, eighteen miles distant, in a northwest- erly direction, from Pettyquamscott, and a little fur- ther from that Pequot fort to the southwest, which had been destroyed by the force under Captain Mason, forty years before. According to informa- tion afterwards received from a captive, the Indian warriors here collected were no fewer than three thousand five hundred. They were on their guard, and had fortified their hold to the best of their skill. It was on a solid piece of upland of five or six acres, wholly surrounded by a swamp. On the inner side of this natural defence they had driven rows of palisades, making a barrier nearly a rod in thick- ness ; and the only entrance to the enclosure was ver a rude bridge consisting of a felled tree, four or 6ve feet from the ground, the bridge being pro- tected by a biock-house. The English, breaking 148 PHILIP'S WAR. up their camp while it was yet dark, arrived before the place at one. o'clock after noon. Hav- Dec. 19. ing passed, without shelter, a very cold night, they had made a march of eighteen miles, through deep snow, scarcely halting to refresh themselves with food. In this condition they immediately ad- vanced to the attack. The Massachusetts troops were in the van of the storming column ; next came the two Plymouth companies ; and then the force from Connecticut. The foremost of the assailants were received with a well-directed fire. Captain Johnson, of Roxbury, was shot dead on the bridge, as he was rushing over it at the head of his company. Cap- tain Davenport, of Boston, son of Captain Daven- port of the Pequot war, had penetrated within the enclosure, when he met the same fate. Captain Gardiner, of Salem, and two Connecticut Captains, Gallup, of New London, and Marshall, of Windsor, were also killed outright. Lieutenant Upham, of Boston, and Captain Seeley, of Stratford, received wounds which after a while proved fatal. Major Bradford, of Plymouth, " was sorely wounded, but God had mercy on him, and on his people in him, so as to spare his life, and to restore him to some measure of health." Captain Gorharn, of Barn- stable, who led the other Plymouth company in the action, took a fever which soon ended his days. Captain John Mason, of Norwich, son of the com- mander against the Pequots, received a wound arhich caused his death, though he lingered for sev STORMING OF THE NARRAGANSETT FORT. 149 eral months, and was made an Assistant in the fol- lowing spring. Nothing discouraged by the fall of their leaders, the men pressed on, and a sharp conflict followed, which, with fluctuating success, lasted for two or three hours. Once the assailants were beaten out of the fort; but they presently rallied and regained their ground. There was nothing for either party but to conquer or die, enclosed together as they were. At length victory declared for the English, who finished their work by setting fire to the wig- wams within the fort. They lost seventy men killed, and a hundred and fifty wounded. Of the Connecticut contingent alone, out of three hundred men forty were killed and as many wounded. The number of the enemy that perished is uncertain. " A great counsellor among them," afterwards taken prisoner, said that seven hundred fighting men were killed that day, and three hundred received fatal wounds. But his motives for speaking the truth, his means of knowledge, and his capacity of computation, are alike questionable. What is both certain and material is, that on that day the mili- tary strength of the formidable Narragansett tribe was irreparably broken. Another cold night was now coming on, and snow was again falling. The wigwams of the fort being consumed, there was no shelter for the Eng- lish within many miles ; and the surgeons pro- nounced that it was indispensable to remove the wounded at once to a place of repose, before they 150 PHILIP'S WAR. should become too stiff for treatment. Accordingly, the troops were forced to retrace their way by a night-march through snow that deepened as they went The wounded were cared for with all ten- derness, but several of them died before morning Two hours after midnight most of the army got back to Smith's plantation at Wickford. CHAPTER IV. PHILIP'S WAR. AFTER the great battle of the Narragansett fort, the settlements breathed more freely. But by no means could they promise themselves secu- 1676 rity as yet. Friendly Indians, sent out " to Jan< make discovery of the enemy," brought back intel- ligence that they pretended to be expecting assist- ance from the French, and that they meant soon to fall upon the western line of the seaboard settle- ments ; that " the old men were weary of the war, but the young men were for the continuance of it;" and that "it was reported there were seven hundred fighting men, well armed, left of the Nar- ragansetts." At Wickford, to which place the colonial force had returned, it " lay still some weeks, bread fcr the soldiers being wanting, by reason the extremity of the weather was such as that the vessel laden with provisions could not reach them." Many of the wounded were taken over to Rhode Island, for bet- ter nursing than the camp allowed. The Connect- 'cut troops, " much disabled with tedious storms, and no lodgings, and frozen and swollen limbs," were withdrawn by their commander to Stoning- 152 PHILIP'S WAR. ton. The forces from Massachusetts and Plym-. outh still kept the field ; but to little profit, for the enemy had dispersed in all directions. Some un- important skirmishes took place; but again " bread failed, so as that men were forced to kill horses and feed upon them;" and, after a campaign of nearly two months, the Massachusetts troops re Feb. 5. turned to Boston. The Commissioners then Feb. 8. ca ii e d on the three colonies for another levy of six hundred men, to rendezvous at Brookfield in three weeks. In an alluvial valley, thirty-five miles west from Boston, the beautiful River Nashua receives a large tributary stream before it proceeds on its tranquil way to the Merrimack. Within the border? of New England there is no more attractive spot. The richness of the intervale soil, and the picturesque charm of the surrounding hills, crowned with prim- itive forests of walnut, chestnut, maple, and ever- greens, invited the attention of one of the earliest companies that looked for an inland home. As early as the twenty-fifth year after the planting of Salem, Mr. Joseph Rowlandson was preach- ing to nine families of pioneers at Nashua, as the place was then called. Five years later, Major Willard, of Concord, removed to Lancaster, and continued to make it his residence fo* many years. At the time now under consideration, it contained some fifty houses, and between two hundred and fifty and three hundred inhabitants. When the troops who had been in the Narr* ATTACK ON LANCASTER. 153 gansett country were withdrawn from the field, in- formation was brought by spies that the Indians were intending to destroy Lancaster. Mr. Row- landson had already been sent by his neighbors to Boston, to represent their exposed condition. But the government moved too slowly Rowiandson was still absent in attendance upon them,' and Wadsworth, with a party of forty men, was still on his way towards the town, when an overwhelm- ing force of Indians attacked it. Rowlandson'a wife was there, and a record afterwards composed by her of her observations and experiences while in the hands of the savages constitutes the most circumstantial account that has been transmitted of their manner of life at that time. The party which attacked Lancaster came upon it at sunrise. The first thing they did was 1676 to set fire to the houses on the outskirts. Feb - 10 - " There were five persons taken in one house ; the father and mother and a sucking child they knocked on the head ; the other two they took and carried away alive Another there was, who, run- ning along, was shot and wounded, and fell down ; he begged of them his life, promising them money, as they said, but they would not hearken to him, but knocked him on the head, stripped him naked, and split open his bowels." Rowlandson's house, standing on the border of a brook, was fortified, and several of the neighbors took refuge in it on the first alarm. After besetting it for two hours, End shooting down several of the occupants, (who 154 PHILIP'S WAR. at the onset were forty-two in number,) the assail- ants, approaching from a slight eminence behind, succeeded in setting it on fire. Twelve of those within were killed ; one only escaped ; the rest were carried away by the savages, who, before their departure, reduced most of the hamlet to ashes. Two other fortified houses escaped the ruin. Be- fore the Indians, who had dispersed in search of plunder, were again collected, Captain Wads worth came up from Marlborough with his party, and put them to flight. The government sent a force to bring to Boston those of the inhabitants who had escaped ; and, after their departure, the remaining buildings were fired by the Indians. Mrs. Rowlandson was among the captives. She came out of the garrison house, carrying in her arms her daughter, six years old. A bullet struck the child, and entered her own side. The next morning, she writes, " one of the Indians carried my poor wounded babe upon a horse ; it went moaning all along, ' I shall die, I shall die.' I went on foot after it with sorrow that cannot be ex- pressed. At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms till my strength failed me, and I fell down with it After this it quickly began to snow, and when night came on they stopped. And now down I must sit in the snow, by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me with my sick child in my lap, and calling much for water, being now, through the wound, fallen intc ft violent fever; my own wound, also, growing sc MRS. ROWLANDSON'S " REMOVES." stiff that I could scarce sit down or rise up ; yet so it must be that I must sit all this cold winter night upon the cold snowy ground, with my sick child in my arms, looking that every hour would be the last of its life, and having no Christian friend near me either to comfort or help me. Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God that my spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction ; still the Lord up- held me with his gracious and merciful spirit." For three days neither mother nor child had any- thing to sustain life, " except only a little cold water." The Indians desired to preserve the mother for the sake of a ransom ; but they were impatient of her grief; and one after another would come to her and say, " Your master will knock your child on the head." At one of the places where they made a halt was an empty wigwam. Thither, continues the sad narrative, " I went with a very heavy heart, and down I sat with the pic- ture of death in my lap. About two hours in the night my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life, it being about six years and five months cJd. It was nine days from the first wounding in this miserable condition, without any refreshing of one nature or another, except a little cold water. I cannot but take notice how at another time I could not bear to be in a room where a dead per- son was; but now the case is changed; I must and could lie down with my dead babe all the night after. I have thought since of the wonder- ful goodness of God to me in preserving me so in 156 PHILIP'S WAR. the use of my reason and senses in that distressed time that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life I went to take my dead child in my arms, to carry it with me, but they bid me let it alone. There was no resisting, but go I must, and leave it." For two months the party to which Mrs. Row- landson was a prisoner wandered about, with no apparent aim, unless it were to escape pursuit. They travelled for the most part in the neighbor- hood of Connecticut River, but at one time came as far east as Mount Wachusett. They had brought away abundance of all sorts of stores from Lancaster; but these, with that marvellous stupid- ity as to the future which belonged to their race, they presently wasted, and they were soon reduced to a scanty supply of acorns and ground-nuts, and, in the frequent failure of this resource, were fain to support life on the most odious garbage. Mrs. Rowlandson saw Philip two or three times, but not in circumstances to stimulate the sentiment of hero-worship. At the end of nearly three months, she was ransomed for twenty pounds, and joined her husband at Boston. The incidents of this sad history may be taken for a sample of the experience of the numerous English captives in this war who have left no rec- ord of what they endured and what they wit- aessed. After the assault upon Lancaster, the course of devastation turned eastward. Sudburj and Chelmsford were attacked. At daybreak, ATTACKS ON EASTERN TOWNS. 157 arhile the villagers were asleep, an onset was made upon Medfield. Twenty English people were killed, and half the town was laid in ashes, before the ravagers were repulsed. At Weymouth, where they burned seven or eight buildings, they made their nearest approach to Boston. The deserted dwellings in Mendon Feb 25. were given to the flames. At Eel River, in the outskirts of Plymouth, eleven Eng-"*" 1112 - lishmen were massacred. In the opposite direction from Boston, the forty houses which consti- Marcb 18. tuted the settlement at Groton were all con- sumed ; only one inhabitant, however, being killed, and ten wounded. An assault upon Northampton was unsuccessful. Five Englishmen were March 14. killed there, and as many wounded ; but the Indians were driven off, leaving the dead bodies of eleven qf their number. Passing into Rhode Island, the savages appeared at . March 17. Warwick, and burned every house except one. The destruction of all the remaining English houses between Narragansett Bay and the Pau- catuck River immediately followed. As spring approached, the full activity of the war revived. The new year, as in that age it was reckoned, had a doubly calamitous opening. While the. people of Marlborough were at their March 26 bunday worship, the stealthy enemy crept out of their covert and fired the town; and the destruction was so complete, that the inhabitants abandoned their settlement and " another candle- 168 PHILIP'S WAR. stick was removed out of his place." At the same hour, a still heavier disaster was experienced else- where. The government of Plymouth, perceiving the tide of war to be turning again in the direction of their country, despatched Captain Pierce, of Scituate, in command of fifty Englishmen and twenty friendly natives, to Pawtuxet. He fell in with a party of natives, headed by the Narragan- sett chief, Canonchet, and engaged them. They appeared to retreat, and so lured him into an am- bush, where he was surrounded by greatly superior numbers, and was killed, with eight of his Indians, and all of his English companions but one, at the cost to the enemy, as was reported, of the lives of a hundred and forty. This was the most serious single disaster sustained by Plymouth colony dur- ing the war. Nor was it the last misfortune of that unhappy day. Eighteen English people were riding into Springfield to attend divine service, when they were fired upon from a hiding-place, and two of the company were killed on the spot, and four others two women with their children - fell into the hands of the ravagers, and were put to death. On the night after their exploit at Marlborough, the Indians, some three hundred in number, en- camped near that place, between it and Sudbury, a plantation ten miles distant from Marlborough to the east. Forty men, march! ns from Sudbury March 27. . / . - in quest of them, and guided by their fires, came upon them by surprise, just before the dawn FURTHER DEVASTATIONS. 159 of the nex t day. " God so disposed of the bullets that were shot at that time," that, according to in- formation afterwards obtained from prisoners, " no less than thirty Indians were wounded, of whom there were fourteen that died." No Englishman was hurt. The next day, a marauding party appeared on the border of Rhode Island, Ml and burned forty houses at Rehoboth. On the two following days, they fired the town of March Providence in different quarters, and thirty 29) 8 1 or forty houses were consumed. In one of them were the early records of the settlement. In the same predatory way the war was prose- cuted on the part of the savages for two months more. Wrentham, Seekonk, Plymouth, April and Andover, Chelmsford, Sudbury, Scituate, May - Bridgewater, and Middleborough were wholly or partly sacked and burned. The Indians, in their knowledge of the country, and their facilities for concealment and for falling suddenly on the fixed residences of their enemy, had the same immense advantage, that, a century and a half later, involved the United States of America in an expenditure of millions of dollars and of thousands of lives, before they could subdue a few hundreds of wretched native vagabonds in Florida. But, on the other hand, Philip's adherents, dispersed more or less during the winter months from the places where their supplies scanty at the best had been nitherto found, were now distressed for want of food ; and the constancy of the whites, tracking 160 PHILIP'S WAR. them to their dens with indefatigable diligence, speedily recovering every available point of de- fence that had been surrendered, and reinforced, as often as was necessary, with means of living and munitions of war, was telling with dispiriting effect upon a rout of barbarians who had no ground for reliance on each other's fidelity, and no basis for their own resolution better than a love of rapine and of blood. With returning spring, the Connecticut troops, who, after the fight at the Narragansett fort, had withdrawn to their colony, came again into tne field. Captain George Denison marched towards Plymouth at the head of a small party of English volunteers from Stonington, Norwich, and New London, and of some auxiliary natives of the Mo- hegan and Pequot tribes, and of the subjects of Ninigret, the Nyantic sachem, who throughout this war acted a friendly part, troublesome as he had been found in earlier times. In the Narragansett country Denison fell in with some hostile Indians, of whom he killed and took prisoners forty-five. Among the captives was the sachem Canonchet, just returned from the slaughter of Captain Pierce's party. His perfidy in respect to the late treaties was thought to have forfeited for him all claim to mercy ; and he was taken to Stonington, and there put to death by the native allies of the English. Pursuing his way. Denison encountered and defeated an April 27. ' other force of the Indians, killing and taking DEFEAT OF CAPTAIN WADSWORTH. 161 captive twenty-six of their number. Two Narra- gansett sachems were among the prisoners. Two important successes, however, the Indians had, after the tide thus turned against them. Cap- tain Wadsworth, of Milton, with seventy men, had been left at Marl borough, " to strengthen that frontier." Hearing there that the enemy had ap- peared at Sudbury, he " marched in the night with all the speed he could." The next afternoon he fell in with about a hundred Indians. They broke and fled before his attack, as was usual with them when confronted with anything like an equal force. Incautiously he pur- sued them into the woods, where he found himself surrounded by as many as five hundred assailants. He drew his men off to a hill, and there continued the contest as long as daylight lasted, killing, as a prisoner afterwards reported, a hundred and twenty of the enemy. But the combatants were too un- equally matched. Only twenty Englishmen es- caped. Wadsworth and his lieutenant were among those slain on the field. Five or six of their com- rades were less fortunate. The victors " carried them away alive, but that night killed them in such a manner as none but savages would have done. For they stripped them naked, and caused them to run the gantlet, whipping them after a cruel and bloody manner, and then threw hot ashes upon them, cut out the flesh of their legs, and put fire into their wounds, delighting to see the miser- able torments of wretched creatures." VOL. II. 11 162 PHILIPS WAR. As the spring advanced, a large English force, consisting of four companies from Massachusetts and four from Connecticut, was stationed in the towns of Northampton, Hatfield, and Hadley. From time to time small parties of the enemy attacked their outposts, but without gaining any A rii27 considerable advantage. An inhabitant of Hadley, carried off by the savages in one of thest forays, effected his escape, and brought Intel- Ma 16 ligence that a numerous party of them were planting and fishing by the upper falls of the River Connecticut, where that stream now di- vides the towns of Gill and Montague. Captain Turner, of Boston, in command of the English force in the upper towns, at once arranged to at- tack them. By a night march of twenty miles, he came in sight of the Indian camp just at daylight, with a hundred and eighty troopers. The surface of the ground was such as required that it should be passed on foot Dis- mounting, the party tied their horses, and were still unobserved, till, having reached the edge of the camp, they disturbed its repose with a volley of musketry. The enterprise thus far was com- pletely successful. The Indians, in their sudden terror, made a feeble and useless resistance. Num- bers perished by shot and by the sword. A crowd rushed to the river, where some escaped in theii canoes ; others were carried over the falls ana drowned ; others, swimming for life, were reached by the bullets of the marksmen lining the shore. BATTLE OF TURNER'S FALLS. 163 By the nmsket, the sword, and the water, three hundred Indians perished in this action. The English lost one man only. The affair derived further importance from being attended with the destruction of a large store of the enemy's supplies of food and ammunition. But the fortune of the day was inconstant Another party of natives, not far off, heard the tumult, and hastened to the scene ; and the Eng- lish presently found themselves so closely pressed by a large hostile force, that they esteemed them- selves fortunate to recover their horses, and begin their retreat. All along the line of their march, they were now attacked from various points at once. An Indian prisoner said that Philip was close by with a thousand men. The story passed through the ranks, and increased the panic. Cap- tain Holyoke, the second in command, was charged to protect the rear. His column was nearly sur- rounded, and he was himself about to be cut off, when, by shooting the foremost of several Indians who were close upon him, he checked their ad- vance. His force broke up into small parties. One party was cut to piecec as it was passing through a morass. Another, forced to surrender, was doomed to a worse fate. Holyoke marched back his surviving men, a hundred and forty in number, to Hatfield. He won enthusiastic praise for the courage and conduct which, in such woful circum- stances, had averted worse calamity. But the day was fatal to him. Though he was only twenty- 164 PHILIP'S WAR. eight years old, it broke down his strength, and he died before the winter. Captain Turner was killed in Greenfield meadow. He was feeble from re- cent illness ; and an opinion was entertained at the time, that the fatigue of the night march, followed by the excitement of battle, and then by exposure to a scorching sun, had incapacitated him for di- recting the dispositions needful at such a juncture. The General Court of Massachusetts, now in session, was adopting the most vigorous measures. Not content with unsparingly pressing men and supplies for the camp, they empowered town offi- cers " to impress men for the management and car- rying on of the husbandry of such persons as were called off from the same into the service, who had not sufficient help of their own left at home to manage the same." They provided for the pun- ishment by fines of every impressed person who failed to report himself for duty ; if his neglect was " accompanied with refractoriness, reflection, or contempt upon authority," he was to suffer death or some other grievous punishment. Men driven from their homes by the enemy were to be enrolled for military duty in the places of their refuge. All persons, under the penalty of confiscation of all their property, were forbidden to trade with Indians, except such as were in the service or the custody of the government. No person could leave the town he belonged to without permission from the local military committee. The General Court invited Plymouth and Connecticut to make new exertions DISTRESS OF THE INDIANS. 165 And they charged some messengers sent to the In- dians with offers of a treaty, to manage the busi- ness " with clearness and confidence, that so no panic, fear, or weakness of mind might appear ; and let them know that the English were resolved to make war their work, until they enjoyed a firm peace." The last considerable success obtained by the Indians was that which has just been related. Emboldened by it, they attacked Hatfield *u f t u j A May8 - with a force of six or seven hundred men, and fired several buildings. The flames were seen at Hadley, and twenty-five men were despatched to relieve the place. On their way they came upon a detachment of a hundred and fifty savages, killed twenty-five of them, and put the survivors to rout, with a loss of five of their own number killed and three wounded ; after which the inhab- itants, thus reinforced, drove the savages from the town. One more attack concluded their series of operations on Connecticut River. After the affair at Turner's Falls, (so called from the name of the commander in the late battle,) Major Talcott, with a force of two hundred and fifty English soldiers and two hundred Mohegans, was despatched to the scene of war, with instructions to form a junc- tion at Brookfield with Captain Henchman, who was leading thither a force from Boston. On their way, both had successful engagements with the ene- my, the former killing and capturing more than fifty of them in what is now the town of 166 PHILIP'S WAR. Dudley, and the latter killing six, and making twen- ty-nine prisoners, near Lancaster. Talcott, who did not fall in with the Massachusetts troops, had been at Hadley only a day or two when that place was set upon by a force of Indians, said to be seven hundred strong. They divided themselves into two parties, one of which lay in ambush at one end of the town, while their comrades made an open assault at the other end. The assailants overleaped a palisade by which the group of dwellings was surrounded ; but the discharge of a cannon threw them into dis- order, and they presently fled in all directions. It was said that they lost thirty men ; while only three or four of the English fell, and this in conse- quence of their having rashly continued a pursuit too far. In other quarters the savages were generally no more successful. The loss experienced by them at the falls of the Connecticut, notwithstanding the turn in their favor, had crippled them severely. Several of their chiefs had fallen there, and the principal fishing-place of the region had been ren- dered insecure for their use, It was already late in the season for planting, and no time was to be lost in repairing to their several homes, if they were to raise any crop for their subsistence in the com- ing winter. Small parties, on their way to landa heretofore used for this purpose, or wandering about the country in search of food wherever it might be found, were hunted by the better-provided Eng PRATING INDIANS. 167 lishmen, and broken up one after another. Cap- tain Brattle surprised a party who were fish- ing near Rehoboth. At Norwich, seventy May hostile red men appeared, and made a volun- June16 - tary surrender. In four engagements within June 26. a week, one near Maryborough, two in the jui y 2. Narragansett country, and a fourth near Jul 4 Providence, Major Talcott killed two hun- dred and fifty of the enemy. " Two hundred Indians came and submitted themselves to mercy, in Plymouth colony, being partly necessitated thereunto by the distresses which God, in his holy providence, had brought them into." Captain Church, who was now for a third time in the field, was making prisoners of straggling parties of Philip's own tribe. James the Printer, with a hundred and forty followers, sur- rendered on the faith of a proclamation in which the government had offered pardon to such Indians in arms as should come in and yield them- selves. James was a Praying Indian, of Hassanamissitt, (now Grafton,) who had acquired the addition to his name by being employed as an assistant at Cambridge in the printing of Eliot's translation of the Bible. In the war which was now approach- ing its termination the Praying Indians had not proved so faithful to their English friends as was hoped when it broke out. So fully had they been trusted, that, at the beginning of hostilities, 1675 a company of them, fifty in number, was July 168 PHILIP'S WAR. raised for service against Philip. But it was known that some of the professed converts were concerned in the early attack on Mendon ; and from that time their movements were observed with anxious vigil- ance. Frequently the marauders in the Nipmuck country were recognized as Indians who had pro- fessed Christianity ; nor in that region was it found that there was any community, or any considerable number of natives, who could be relied upon as allies by reason of the bonds of a common faith. The restraint which, after the assault on Brookfield, it was thought needful to impose on the professed converts would have been harsh, if it had r.iot seemed to be demanded by the necessity of the case. All the Christian Indians of the Nipmuck tribe were required by the Magistrates to come together at five places that were named, and there build their wigwams in compact settle- ments. They were not to go from these more than a mile's distance, unless accompanied by an Eng- lishman ; and if they violated this regulation, they were liable to be imprisoned or put to death. They were to extend no hospitality to other Indians ; and they were charged to disclose to the English all that they should learn of the enemy's designs. Such precautions proved insufficient, and at one time no fewer than two hundred went off in a body to the hostile camp. Some Praying Indians, on the other hand, served the English well as soldiers and as spies ; while some, loving mischief more than they cared at whose cost it was PRAYING INDIANS. 169 /fone, joined the one side or the other from time to time, according as they were allured by the pros- pect of plunder. The assault on Springfield by Indian neighbors who had always been relied upon as friends in- creased the consternation and distrust. It is of the nature of perfidy that the punishment extends further than the crime. In circumstances of seri- ous hardship to them, the converts at Natick and some other towns were now withdrawn to Deer Island, in Boston harbor. A number of the Chris- tianized natives of Plymouth colony were in like manner collected at Clarke's Island in the harbor of Plymouth. The Praying Indians on Cape Cod proved themselves worthy of all confidence, nor did the unconverted natives in that region give serious occasion for uneasiness. And so trusted were the converts on Martha's Vineyard, that prisoners, when they became numerous, were sent thither for safe- keeping. By the spring, the good conduct of those converts who had been under restraint, and the services of some of their number in the field and otherwise, had conquered the prejudice against them. They were discharged from their impris- onment on the islands, and in large num- bers were taken into the military service, in which they acquitted themselves with fidelity and to good purpose. CHAPTER V. PHILIP'S WAB, PHILIP had not been seen by the English in any battle ; nor was it ever certainly known, except on two or three occasions, where and how he was em- ployed while the havoc that has been described was going on. Towards midsummer of the second year of the war, the English had intelligence that he was on his way back to the seat of his tribe. " A captive negro, the week before escaped from Philip," gave information that the chief was pre- paring to attack Taunton. And so it proved ; but, the town having been reinforced meanwhile, the 1676 English, without loss to themselves, drove juiv 11. jjj s followers into the woods. While strong parties, in search of him, scoured the country about Mount Hope, the indefatigable Major Tal- cot captured sixty rovers in the Narragansett woods ; and Pomham, the Narragansett who, thirty -three years before, had surrendered his lands to Massachusetts, but who had now assisted in the massacre of the settlers, was overtaken by a party from Dedham and Medfield, and made prisoner, with fifty followers. The Nipmuck saga- more John presently came in and surren- July 27 dered himself, with a hundred and eighty PURSUIT OF PHILIP. 171 companions. Engagements still took place in dif- ferent quarters, but uniformly to the advantage of the English. The enemy was unsupplied, dispir- ited, without concert, and distressed. It was no longer a war, but a chase. Some Bridgewater men fell in with Philip. He escaped them, but with the loss of his uncle and ten other men killed, and his sister taken prisoner ; and the pursuit was so active that "he threw away his stock of powder into the bushes that he might hasten his escape." Captain Church was now close upon his track. On two successive days, Church captured a hundred and fifty of the sachem's people, among whom were his wife and son. Two days later, in a sharp engagement, in which several were killed, he made prisoners of forty more. In the same week, Weetamoo, squaw sachem of Pocasset, the widow of Philip's elder brother, and Philip's constant ally, was found drowned in Taun- ton River. She had attempted to pass over to- wards Mount Hope on a raft, which proved too slender. With a small band of followers, Philip had come back to his ancient home. Holding the isthmus which was the only avenue for his escape by land, the English pressed him closer every day. One of his tribe, professing to have been offended by the murder of his brother, who was killed by Philip for advising submission, deserted to the English, and offered to guide them to the place of the sachem's 172 PHILIP'S WAR. retreat. Church, when the news reached Rhode Isl- and, hastened over to Bristol Neck, where he arrived at midnight. He marched a party to the neighbor hood of the designated spot, and there, before dawn, they lay down in the bushes. When day broke, the Indians, perceiving themselves to be so closely beset, rushed from their hiding-place in a disorderly manner, under a heavy fire of those who stopped the way. At one of the points likely to be passed by the fugitives Church had stationed an English- man and a friendly Indian named Alderman, who presently saw Philip approaching them, half dressed, and running at full speed. The Englishman's gun missed fire. The Indian's took effect, one bullet passing through the heart of the chief, and another lodging in his shoulder. " He fell upon his face in the mud and water, with his gun under him." " When the English had drove the swamp through, and found the enemy had escaped, or at least the most of them, and the sun now up, and so the dew gone, that they could not so easily track them, the whole company met together at the place where the enemies' night shelter was, and then Captain Church gave them the news of Philip's death, upon which the whole army gave three loud huzzas." Philip's hands were cut off, and carried to Boston. His head was brought to Plymouth, and there exposed upon a pole, on a day appointed for a public Thanksgiving. Not many days afterwards, Church surprised anc THE WAR IN MAINE. 173 captured a party, commanded by Annawon, one of Philip's captains, who had escaped with it when tne sachem was killed. Tishaquin, another chief who had been active in the mas- sacres, came in and surrendered himself. Numer- ous fugitives sought an asylum in Canada, and among the Mohawks. Virtually, the war in the country of the Pokanokets and of the Nipmucks was brought to an end. It raged longer, as it had begun later, in a dif- ferent region, where, from the rough character of the English settlers, it may well be believed that the natives were not without frequent provocation. Intelligence of the outbreak of hostilities in Plym- outh colony reached the eastern Indians, and made them restless. At length a party of them came to the farm of Thomas Purchas, at what is 1676 now Brunswick, and stole some household ^P*- 5 - stores and arms, without, however, offering per- sonal violence to the inmates. At Falmouth lived an old man named Wakely, with his family of nine persons. Some savages attacked and burned his house, and murdered him and his wife, with his son, his daughter-in-law, and three of his grandchildren. The remains of the old peo- ple and of their son and his wife were found in the ruins of the house. Those of the young mother had been shockingly mangled ; of two of her chil- dren who were at the same time carried off, one was ransomed the next summer, the other was never heard of more. At Saco, at Scarborough, 174 PHILIP'S WAR. nt Wells, at Kittery, at Woolwich, and at other Sept. is. places, the natives committed depredations Sept. 20. an( j butcheries. In three months, they killed eighty Englishmen between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec. Coming further westward, they marked their track with conflagration and murder at Oyster River, Berwick, Salmon Falls, Dover, and Exeter. The General Court of Massachusetts sent commissioners instructed to take meas- Oct. ures for a pacification, and at the same time to make arrangements for military operations, should these prove to be necessary in that quarter. A fall of snow, in depth four feet upon a level, was thought to have proved a service- able peace-maker. Compelled to look to the larger English settlements for supplies of food, the eastern Indians were glad to make a treaty, in which they stipulated to restore their captives without com- pensation, and to conduct themselves peaceably in future. They still complained of wrongs received at the hands of white men belonging to some of the ill- regulated settlements of that remote district ; and they were discontented at being prohibited from freely purchasing supplies of powder and shot, which they represented to be necessary to them for the chase, but which it was not thought prudent to allow them to obtain without supervision and re- straint. They continued quiet for the most part, nowever, till, when Philip's men were scattered during the weeks immediately preceding his death THE WA.R IN MAINE. 175 and especially when that event occasioned the dis- persion of his remaining followers and allies, some of these found their way beyond the Piscataqua, and excited there anew the passions of their coun- trymen. Falmouth was now attacked, and 1676 thirty-four persons were killed, or led away Aug- n prisoners. At Stinson's Point (Woolwich), three persons were killed, and sixteen carried off. At Arrowsick, an island in the Kennebec, was a little fort of the English. The garrison were off their guard, not suspecting any enemy to be near. One evening, as a sentinel, without being relieved at his post outside of a gate, passed into the fort, he was closely followed by a party of Indians, who had stealthily approached the place, and been watching his movements. The English fought desperately; but the force which assailed them was overpowering. Thirty-five of them were either killed or made prisoners ; about a third as many succeeded in making their escape. The planters further east now abandoned their homes ; the Indians came in and burned them; and be- tween Casco Bay and the Penobscot not an English settlement remained. At first, many of the fugi- tives took refuge at Monhegan and other islands. But even these posts were not thought safe, and were deserted as soon as means of transportation to Boston and the other populous towns could be found. The government of Massachusetts, busy as it was with nearer dangers was not inattentive to L76 PHILIP'S WAR. these proceedings. A force of a hundred and thirty English and forty friendly Indians was despatched to Dover, where it was to be met by as many troops from the neighboring towns as it was prudent to withdraw from their homes. Unfortunately, Major Waldron, of Dover, who, living almost within sight of the recent atrocities, may be supposed to have been peculiarly incensed against their authors, was in command of the English force, as Sergeant- Major of the County of York. His orders were to seize all Indians who had murdered Englishmen, or otherwise violated the recent treaty. Four hun- dred Indians, uninvited and without any guaranty of protection, came to Dover, professedly to treat. Waldron believed that at least with a portion of them, who would not find it difficult to impart their purpose to the rest this offer of negotiation was only a feint. Among them, if his information was trustworthy, were persons who had been intimate associates of Philip, and others who had been ac- tive in the infractions of the treaty. Between such, on the one hand, and innocent persons on the other, he could only discriminate by having the whole in his power ; while not a few of his soldiers, driven to fury by the accounts which had reached their ears, clamored for leave to fall upon them without distinction. In these circumstances, Waldron resorted to a stratagem, which, by no means belonging to the authorized deceptions of war, can only be justified oy his knowledge if such knowledge he had THE WAR IN MAINE. 177 of the existence of a treacherous design on the other side. He proposed to the Indians to have a sham fight with them on the following day. It took place ; and, in the course of it, at his ^T\t 1ft bidding, they all discharged their muskets at once. No sooner had they done this, than the English, who had held their own fire, closed around them, and made them ground their arms. There was no bloodshed. Of the four hundred prisoners taken, one half were immediately discharged ; about two hundred, considered to be identified as mur- derers of Englishmen, or violators of the treaty, were sent prisoners to Boston. The day after this transaction, a detachment of the English force, under the command of Captain Hathorne, proceeded by water to Falmouth, where they built a fort. While they remained there, a party of seven of them, separated from their r . ' Sept. 23. friends, were encountered by the Indians, whom they resisted till every one of them fell. The next day, a remote settlement in Yorkshire was attacked ; and, of forty persons, part were carried away, the rest were massacred with circumstances of shocking barbarity. Wells, Black Point, Scar- borough, and other places, where some of the for- mer inhabitants had collected, were again depopu- lated. When winter was about to set in, Captain Hathorne, having beard of a great Indian fort on Ossipee River, determined to attack it, and Marched for that purpose with all his force. The expedition occupied two months. Part of the VOL. II. 12 178 PHILIP'S WAR. time the troops had to make their way through 1677 deep snows, and rivers half frozen over Jan ' 9 ' And, after all, their fatigues were fruitless. The fort was found ; but there was not an Indian in or near it. Meanwhile, there had been another formal paci- fication. An Etetchemin chief, named Mugg, pre- 1676 sented himself at Portsmouth to Major-Gen- NoT - 6 - eral Denison, with credentials which were satisfactory to that officer. Mugg accordingly waa sent to Boston, where he concluded with the Magis- trates a treaty, of which the principal articles stip- ulated the cessation of hostilities, the restoration of prisoners and stolen property to the English, satisfaction for damages sustained by them, and a prohibition to the natives to purchase ammuni- tion except of a person to be appointed by the Governor to sell it. But so tardily and imperfectly were these en- gagements observed, as to create a persuasion that the Indians had intended only to secure a quiet winter, and would resume hostilities as soon as the spring should open. It was thought prudent to be in readiness to anticipate them ; and a force of 1677 ninety Englishmen and sixty friendly In- ?eb. 7. cHans, under the command of Major Wal- dron, sailed from Boston for the Kennebec. Leav- ing half of his party at the mouth of that river to Duild a fort, Waldron proceeded with the rest to Pemaquid, where he appointed a meeting with some sachems. It was agreed that THE WAR IN MAINE. 179 both parties should come to the interview unarmed. But, when they met, a quantity of lances was discovered lying in the Indian canoes. An alter- cation ensued, which was observed from the vessel from which Waldron had landed, and an armed party was despatched to his assistance. They killed ten of the Indians, and took four prisoners. Hopeless of an accommodation, the commander left forty men at the fort near the mouth of . March 11. the Kennebec, and returned with the rest of his force to Boston. His apprehensions were not unfounded. As soon as the weather permitted, the crazy marauders were abroad again. They intercepted a party belonging to the fort lately constructed by Major Waldron, and killed nine men. They shot seven men whom they found at work in a . April 7. field, two miles from York. At Wells they murdered six or eight persons. At Black A P rU13 Point they were less successful ; they killed three Englishmen, and carried off another to be tortured ; but here they were repulsed with consider- able loss, the distinguished sachem Mugg being one of those who fell. Returning to Wells and York, they renewed at those places their work of havoc. In a second affair near Black Point the enemy obtained a signal success. A party of ninety men, mostly from the Bay, fell into one of their ambuscades, and, after a vigorous resistance, wa? utterly defeated, with the loss of sixty of its number. Taking to their boats, the 180 PHILIP'S WAR. natives surprised twenty fishing-vessels, mostly from Salem, which lay at anchor, feebly manned ; they killed and wounded a number of the seamen, stripped the vessels, and then disappeared. In Yorkshire, some white inhabitants still held their ground ; but the county of Devonshire was entirely deserted. Sir Edmund Andros, at New York, became apprehensive for the safety of his master's province of Cornwall. He sent a force to Pemaquid, to build and occupy a fort ; and the officer in command entered into communi- August* cation with the neighboring Indians, and procured the release of fifteen English captives. If the natives had obtained great successes in the eastern country, it had been at no little cost to themselves ; and, unreflecting though they were, they could not fail, by this time, to be impressed with the resources and the perseverance of their enemy. In the spring, Squanto, Madockawando, 1678 and other chiefs of the tribes on the Andros- Apni 12. C oggin and the Kennebec, met at Casco three commissioners appointed by the government of Massachusetts, and entered into a treaty which may be regarded as the termination of this distress- ing war. They promised to surrender all their pris- oners without ransom, and to refrain from further molestation of the settlers. On the other hand, it was stipulated, that, for every English family estab- lished in their country, they should receive annu- ally a peck of corn. Almost every settlement beyond the Piscataqua DISTRESSES OF THE WAR. 181 had been laid in ashes. Between two hundred and fifty and three hundred Englishmen had been either killed or carried away captive, never to be heard of more. For the present, hostilities were at an end. But the Indians were by no means so effectu- ally disabled in that region as in other parts of New England. A recital of battles does not go far towards tell- ing the history of this terrible war. It was a suc- cession of ruthless ravages, on a large or a small scale. Outlying houses were fired by night, while their inmates slept. Husbandmen at their work, and women at the well, and travellers on the road, were shot down. Only in the large towns could an Englishman leave his door with safety. Every bush near it might hide a watchful marksman. The amount of distress that was endured cannot be set forth by a mere inventory of murders and pillages, of massacres and conflagrations, even could such a list be made complete. But a partial statement of that kind affords some basis for a conception of the awful reality. In Plymouth and Massachusetts there were eighty or ninety towns. Of these ten or twelve were wholly destroyed, and forty others were more or less damaged by fire, making together nearly two thirds of the whole number. Five or six hundred of the men of mili- tary age, one in every ten or twelve of the whole, were stealthily murdered, or fell in battle, or, be- coming prisoners, were 'ost sight of forever, an unknown number of them being put to death with 182 PHILIP'S WAR. horrible tortures. There was scarcely an English family in those two colonies that was not in mourning. Impoverishment was added to bereave- ment. In the first year of the war the sum of three thousand six hundred and ninety-two pounds had been contributed to it by twelve towns of Plym- outh colony, the inhabitants of Dartmouth and Middleborough being excused from the assessment on account of their being reduced to destitution. At the termination of hostilities the debt which had been incurred by the colony is believed to have ex- ceeded the value of the whole personal property of its people. That by such experiences the colonists should have become intensely exasperated may well be supposed. Nor was a sense of enormous ingratitude on the part of the assailants without its influence, when the final conquerors in this terrible strife ap- proached the question of the necessity for making such examples as should deter from a repetition of the outrages that had been perpetrated. Some of the hostile Indians who fell into their hands had treacherously violated the most solemn engage- ments ; and the lives of such were esteemed to be justly forfeit, if considerations of prudence should exact that penalty. Wattascompanum, chief sachem of the Niprnucks, and a professed convert, had been the principal agent in seducing the Praying In- 1676 dians at Hassan amissitt from their fidel- June - ity. He fell into the hands of the English and was tried, convicted, and executed at Boston TREATMENT OF THE CONQUERED. 183 Captain Tom, a Praying Indian of Natick, having oeen intrusted with a command, not only deserted to the enemy, but persuaded some of his men to do the same. Being taken prisoner, he was June 26. hanged, notwithstanding the intercession of some of his native fellow-officers who had done well. Matoonas, the Nipmuck who began the wai in Massachusetts by the attack on Mendon, was brought in by Sagamore John, and some other repentant Indians, who, on his being condemned to die, were permitted, at their own request, to execute the sentence by shooting. A An 26 fortnight after Philip's death, three Nipmuck chiefs were hanged at Boston ; and, some weeks later, a Narragansett sachem, surren- dered by some Rhode Islanders, was there shot. Tispaquin and Annawon, principal men of Philip's tribe, having fallen into Church's hands, were be- headed at Plymouth, to his great discontent. Of seven prisoners who were ascertained to have been of the party that set fire to the outpost in Plym- outh, four were executed at that place. Many captives were sold to service among the conquer- ors, and many were transported to slavery in the West Indies. Of the two hundred prisoners taken by Waldron, at Dover, and sent to Boston under the charge of having violated the treaty of peace, seven, who, in pursuance of that perfidy, were ascertained to have taken life, were executed ; the rest were sent to Bermuda to be there sold. And this latter is said to have been the fate of Philip's 184 PHILIP'S WAR. son. It was a shocking way of disposing of the conquered barbarians. The selling of man, woman, or child to be a slave is a horrible act, though there was nothing to give it peculiar aggravation in the circumstance that one of the sufferers was the son of Philip. On the other hand, when the danger seemed passed away, " the well-ordering and settlement of those Indians that remained and were under 1677. command " was taken into consideration as May ' " a matter of great concernment to the peace and security of the country, and the welfare, civi- lizing, and education of the said Indians and their children ; " and numbers of them, " Praying In- dians, as well as others," were brought together in settlements of their own at Natick, Stoughton, Groton, and Chelmsford ; while others were to u remain as servants "in English families, " to be taught and instructed in the Christian religion," the servitude of a portion of them being limited to the time when they should become twenty years of age. The careful reader of the contemporaneous nar- ratives of transactions of this period finds reason to distrust conceptions which have prevailed of both the policy and the character of Philip. To a lively imagination it has appeared, that, with considerate foresight, Philip took alarm at the prospect of the extirpation of his race and the occupation of their land by strangers ; that, with a strenuous purpose, acapacity for political combination, and an aptnesi CHARACTER AND POLICY OF PHILIP. 185 for influencing the action of men, such as belong to minds of a high class, he slowly matured a con- spiracy to rid the country of the English interloper by a united movement, and restore it to its ancient owners ; that, though unlucky circumstances caused the rising to occur prematurely, this misadventure did not prevent him from carrying out the contest to its disastrous end with vigor and determination ; and that his life and death deserve the eulogies which are fit to be bestowed on a brave and saga- cious patriot. But the public documents of the time do not in- dteate a belief, on the part of the English, of any such comprehensive and far-sighted scheme as in later times has been attributed to Philip. The natural conclusion from their language is, that his outbreak was but regarded as being prompted by the vindictiveness and caprice of an unreasoning and cruel barbarian. As to his supposed patriotic apprehension, that, unless timely resistance were made, his people would be crowded out of their country, the sagacity with which he has been gen- erously decorated could not have failed to reveal to him the material facts already noticed, that the country was capable of bearing a vastly larger population without obstruction to the habits of either civilized or savage men ; that no portion of it had ever been appropriated by the strangers ex- cept by honest purchase from the former occupants ; and that the condition of his people was immensely improved by the access obtained through their new 186 PHILIP'S WAR. neighbors to conveniences hitherto unknown, and by the market opened for articles within their reach, but hitherto worthless to them, or of trifling value. 7 O Nor is his supposed jealousy of the territorial ex- tension of the English to be easily reconciled with his frequent voluntary sales of land to them, 01 with his knowledge of the strictness with which they had guarded his rights in this particular. Nor does the opinion of a concert established by him with the chiefs of other tribes accord well with various unquestionable facts that followed. If a war had been so elaborately concerted by a man of sense, it is scarcely to be believed that it would have been entered on without a competent supply of munitions ; yet, when Philip came from Mount Hope into Massachusetts, " his men were about thirty of them armed with guns, the rest had bows and arrows ; " and he said that he could not have defended himself, had he been pressed a few days more at Pocasset, for " his powder was almost spent." If the Nipmucks were pledged in such a plot as has been imagined, a runner from Mount Hope would have reached their central holds in much less than a summer's day ; nor can it be sup- posed, that, in that case, Brookfield, lying wholly at their mercy, would have been let alone for six weeks, or that the assault on the unprotected towns along Connecticut River would have been delayed for more than two months, till there had been time to reinforce them from the seaboard. The Narra- gansetts had been restless from the earliest period CHARACTER AND POLICY OF PHILIP. 187 of the acquaintance of the English with them. That they should plot against the English was at no time unlikely ; but it was highly improbable that they should yield the lead in such a movement to the Wampanoag, Philip. If they were parties to a conspiracy, the beginning of Philip's war, when their force was unimpaired, when the season was favorable for their operations, and when the Eng- lish were surprised, was the time for them to strike. Their conduct is intelligible on the supposition of a hostile and treacherous disposition on their part, encouraged and excited to action by the disasters of the English in the first autumn of the war ; but that, if any movement had been deliberately re- solved upon, they should have deferred it till their intended victim was warned and armed, and should have waited to be attacked at every disadvantage, js a statement that passes belief. Almost as diffi- cult is it to imagine, that the savages about the Piscataqua, who could also have been reached be- tween sun and sun by a message from the Poka- noket country, were in league with Philip before he struck, when we find, that, with every advantage for mischief, their first movement was nearly two months later than Philip's, and that their most vigorous operations took place after his death. It may be reasonably believed that their action, as well as that of the Nipmucks, was independent of the action of Philip and his tribe, except only so f ar as example, and the hope of impunity by reason of the embarrassment of the English, assailed in 188 PHILIP'S WAR. BO many quarters at once, were an excitement to minds always ready for murder and pillage, when not restrained by fear. Connecticut had bravely, and most usefully, borne her large share of service and of cost. But her set- tlements had not been violated by the enemy. The Mohegans and Pequots within her bounds had proved faithful as heretofore. Among the rumors of the time was one that Philip visited the Mo- hawks on the Hudson, and endeavored to bring them into an alliance ; but, if he made the attempt, it proved ineffectual. Rhode Island sent no troops to the war ; but, of its two towns on the main-land, Warwick was destroyed, and a large part of Prov- idence ; and considerable expense was incurred in guarding the insular settlements. The misery fell chiefly on Plymouth and Massachusetts. The lat- ter colony, in its wealth and numbers, had a strong recuperative power. The former was nearly ruined. But a community capable, in such circumstances, of such action as that of Plymouth, is no subject for commiseration. By years of steady industry and pinching frugality she paid her enormous debt, principal and interest. New England never learned the doctrine of " repudiation." Relief, to the amount of nearly a thousand pounds, for such as were " impoverished, dis- tressed, and in necessity by the late war," was con- tributed by " divers Christians in Ireland." The colonies had been defending what, if it was their own home, still was recognized at court as a de DEATH OF JOHN CLARKE. pendence and domain of the King of England. But from the King and court came no aid what- ever. Nor was any aid solicite.d, oppressive as was the need of it. " It is not altogether ground- lessly reported," wrote their friend, Lord Anglesey, from London, " that you are poor and yet proud." It is not difficult to satisfy one's self as to the rea- son of their silence in such extremity. The mem- ory of the visit of the Royal Commissioners was still fresh ; more recent events, hereafter to be re- lated, had kept alive their solicitude about the repetition of such attempts ; and they preferred to struggle alone under their load, rather than come under obligations to a power which, as they be- lieved, entertained designs unfriendly to their Eng- lish liberties. In fact, those liberties were again in serious peril. The task of the patriotic rulers of Massachusetts, who, twelve years before, had discomfited the emis- saries of Lord Clarendon, was about to be forced on them anew. Two men, who the one con- sciously, the other with no unfriendly purpose had helped to dissipate the strength which might now have stood New England in stead, were not to see the ripening of the harvest which their hands had sown. While Rhode Island, by day and night, was kept against the prowling savages by a circle of patrol boats constantly in motion, the long and rest- 1676 less life of J-hn Clarke was there brought AprU 20 ' 10 an end. Clarke had some claim to be called the father of Rhode Island. For many years before i90 PHILIP'S WAR. his death he had been the most important citizen of his colony. Savage, Aspinwall, Hutchinson, and others, fellow-sufferers with him in the Anti- nornian revolt, had reconsidered the occasion of their discontent, and gone back to become peace- able and useful citizens of Massachusetts. Cod- dington and Williams had been long ago eclipsed by his more steady star. And both Williams and Coddington, eccentric as in different ways they were, were men of placable temper. The factious people to whom Clarke adhered never trusted him with their highest office, nor would they so much as pay him the money so well, earned by his activ- ity in their behalf at the British court. But the shortcomings of Rhode Island he could forgive ; the power and policy of Massachusetts were not to be borne with, nor to fail to be resisted by him at all times, with all determination. John Winthrop, of Connecticut, died a fortnight before Clarke, while on a visit to Boston to April 6. attend a meeting of the Federal Commission- ers, just before the end of the first year of the war. His character was of a different mould from that of the vindictive champion of Rhode Island; but, to a considerable extent, circumstances combined the influence of the two on the political destiny of New England. Each had an agency in loosing that union, which, while it lasted, made New Eng- land a power in the world. It is no more than just to believe that Winthrop went to England after the Restoration without a purpose to wrong Ne\ JOHN WINTHROP THE YOUNGER. 191 Haven, or to weaken the Confederacy of the four colonies. In England, where his estimable and winning qualities were at once recognized, he was caressed and petted by men who did not love his adopted country as he did, or who, at all events, did not see its vital interests and honor in the light in which they were regarded by her own wisest sons. Lord Manchester, Lord Anglesey, Lord Hollis, and other Puritan nobles, who had become courtiers as the best thing that was to be done in those evil times, were willing to patronize New England, but only with circumspection and re- serve. The aged Lord Say and Sele, the early patron of the suitor from Connecticut, had had enough of opposition to the King ; and he had no partiality for the colony of New Haven, which had been erected, without leave asked, on land of which he claimed to be a proprietor by royal grant. Robert Boyle, and the academicians over whom he presided, conferred the signal honor of election to their Society on the philosopher from beyond the water ; and Boyle made no secret of his opinion that his New England friends would do well to be tractable and quiet. Lord Clarendon, whose scheme of colonial policy was ripe, saw his oppor- tunity to practise on the amiable envoy ; and the blandishments of that courtly though arbitrary .tatesman were not easy to withstand. It is not safe for the most upright man to receive flattering attentions from those whose political designs he ought not to favor L92 PHILIP'S WAR. It is by no means always to ill intentions, or tc general incapacity, on the part of important actors, that political errors and disasters are to be traced. If the influences to which Winthrop was subjected in England confused his perceptions of a patriot's duty, there is no proof that they ever tempted him to do a conscious wrong. It is fair to suppose that he was brought to see or believe that an annexa- tion of New Haven to Connecticut was the best provision attainable by him for the well-being of both colonies. But to New Haven the measure could not be expected to appear otherwise than as a gross outrage, aggravated by the engagements that were made by him during his absence and after his return. He honestly desired to make the calamity as little afflicting as possible to the ag- grieved colony. But the power had gone from him. The signed and sealed charter, that doomed New Haven, had passed from his hands into hands stronger and less dainty. His gentle genius bent before the coarser and more resolute spirit of the Secretary, John Allyn. "While, as to external pol- itics, Bellingham, Leverett, and Danforth, rather than Winthrop, represented in the reign of Charles the Second the intelligent patriotism of New Eng- land, Allyn, more than he, was ruler of Con- necticut. It was not the way of Winthrop, Gov- ernor of Massachusetts, to admit any such contro as in the sister colony was exercised by the able and determined Secretary. Plymouth was poor and weak, and coveted a JOHN WINTHROP THE YOUNGER. 193 charter from the King, like that with which he had obliged and won Connecticut. Massachusetts de- sired no favor from him but neglect, and had re- ceived no favor to attach her by ties of gratitude. Bat, for Massachusetts alone, the conflict with him that was always imminent was too unequal. The possibility if the unity of New England had re- mained intact of a Dutch alliance, when Eng- land was corrupt, priest-ridden and distracted, and Holland was strong and severely Protestant ; the possibility of a healthy revival of the patriot party in the parent country, had there been in New Eng- land, as formerly, a Puritan confederacy unanimous and robust, such are conceptions that swim in the brain of the commentator of the present day. But the Confederacy was no more ; and with it seemed to have departed the chance of resistance to royal usurpation. The wasting Indian war in- tervened, and with its miseries seemed to settle the question. Whether there could be further oppo- sition to the oppressive designs of the English court, and, if so, what degree of energy might in- spire it, would be for later times to make known. "M- II. 18 CHAPTER VI RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. IT has been mentioned that the calamities of New England in the conflict with the Indian tribes obtained little compassion in the mother country. This was not the v worst. The time of the miser- able distress of New England was seized upon by the counsellors of King Charles to deal a destruc- tive blow to her representative colony. For nearly ten years after the frustrate attempt of Lord Clarendon to reduce Massachusetts to sub- jection, there had been almost a suspension of political relations between New England and the parent country. More pressing political concerns prevented a vigorous renewal of the enterprise But the home government had never wholly aban- doned it, and an embarrassment in the way of prosecuting it was removed when peace was made with the Dutch. After the fall of Lord Clarendon from power, 1670. the Council for Foreign Plantations was ' three times reconstructed within a little 1671. April more than two years. Still the arrange* 1672. riient was found unsatisfactory, and the Sept. 16. " 1675 Council was dissolved, the ancient prac March 12. {.j ce b em g resumed of managing the busi- COMPLAINTS TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL 195 ness of plantations by a standing committee of the Privy Council, called " The Lords of the Commit- tee of Trade and Plantations." When the Privy Council turned its attention tG New England, its first action was professedly prompted by a desire to do justice to the preten sions of Ferdinando Gorges and Robert Mason These persons had not suffered their claims to sleep, though, after the peaceable settlement of the towns in New Hampshire and Maine under the government of Massachusetts, their complaints ob- tained little attention at court. Their prospect brightened, when, associating with them- selves Lord Stirling, heir of the patentee of Nova Scotia, they presented to the King a memo- rial, in which they proposed to surrender to him their respective patents, on condition of having secured to them " one third part of all the cus- toms, rents, fines, and other profits which should be made in the said province, or such other reason- able compensation in lieu thereof as his Majesty should see fit." There was another party, hostile to Massachu- setts, whose aid in furthering the unfriendly de- signs of the court was of much more importance than any which could be contributed by the claim- ants of Eastern New England. The merchants and manufacturers of England were irritated by the evasion of the Navigation Laws which was said to be practised in the New England colonies, and especially in Massachusetts, whose commercial 196 RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. importance was now highly estimated. By those iaws the exportation of various colonial staples was forbidden, except from the place of produc- tion to some English port ; and in their import trade the colonists were restricted to a direct com- merce with England, being forbidden to bring the products, not only of England, but of any Eu- ropean country, from any except English ports, or in any but English vessels. The evasion of these laws had been for several years a subject of discontent to the English merchants. A peti- tion of a number of them was presented to the King, praying for a strict enforcement of the reg- ulations. At what appears to have been their first meet- ing, the Lords of the Committee resolved to pray the King to send five commissioners to Massachu- setts, to endeavor to arrange its affairs to the satis- faction of the court. " In case they [the colonists] should decline his Majesty's overtures, and appear refractory," the Lords judged " that his Majesty should take the advantage of the law against them, and they must expect to find all the stop and in- terruption upon their trade which by the Acts of Navigation might be given therein." At the same time, they directed the law officers of the crown to examine the claims presented in the recent peti- tions of Mason and Gorges. The lawyers re- ported that Mason had " a good and legal title to the lands conveyed [to his grand father by the Council for New England] by the HOSTILITY OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 197 name of the Province of New Hampshire ; " and that Gorges had " a good title to the Province of Maine." Matters now approached a crisis. The Lords of the Committee presented to the King in Dw. 20. Council the fruit of their deliberations on the claims of Mason and Gorges. Avowing their doubts whether royal commissioners sent to Mas sachusetts would be received with respect, they ad- vised that copies of the claimants' petitions should be despatched to that colony, and that it should be required, within a specified time, to send over agents " to receive his Majesty's determination in the matter." The recommendation was adopted by the Privy Council, and the time allowed for agents to appear was fixed at six months. Thus empowered, the Lords of the Committee resumed their arrangements. But it was with timid circumspection. "As to the circular 1676 letters for New England," they judged that Jan -* L " there ought to be prepared such a draught as was probable those people would bear;" and "their Lordships entered into a long debate whether this particular time was proper for the sending of circular letters into New England." But on a comparison of opinions they took heart again, and "did agree that this was the conjuncture to do something effectual for the better regulation of that government, or else all hopes of it might be here- after lost." The " conjuncture " was manifestly a favorable 198 RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. one. The Dutch, who might have encouraged the colonies to resist, were not only no longer enemies to England, but they had their hands full with their desperate war with Franqe. Still more, the colonists were disabled by their struggle with the Indians, which was now at its most critical point. The movement against them was promptly fol- lowed up. It was resolved to transmit the King's demands by a special messenger, who should be also charged with the duty of making minute in- quiries into the condition of the country, and re- porting the result to the home government. This arrangement brings to view for the first time a person who for the next fifteen years makes a con- spicuous figure in the history of New England. The agent selected to do the royal errand was Ed- ward Randolph, of whose earlier life and position nothing is known, except that he was a relation of Robert Mason. It was perhaps through Mason's interest that he was invested with this important trust. He soon proved himself so capable and ac- tive, and so devoted to the purposes of the court, that the court valued him for his own sake. Randolph sailed immediately for Boston, where, " after a tedious passage of ten weeks," he March 30. . r ' arrived, to find the attention of the govern- ment occupied with the Indian war. He waited on Governor Leverett, announced " the cause of his coming," and desired, " that, with what convenient speed might be, the Magistrates might be assembled to hear his Majesty's letter read." The EDWARD RANDOLPH IN BOSTON. 199 Governor told him that he could present himself to the Magistrates on the afternoon of the same day, as they were then to meet on other business. At the time appointed, he was " admitted into the Coun- cil," where he found the Governor, with the Secre- tary, and six other Magistrates. He handed the King's letter to the Governor, who desired him to be seated. The Governor broke the seal, and read- ing the words, " By his Majesty's command, Henry Coventry," asked Randolph who Coventry might be, and was informed that he was the King's prin- cipal Secretary of State. Leverett then read the letter aloud. In it the King acquainted the Magistrates with the repre- sentations that had been made to him in memo- rials of Gorges and Mason, of which he trans- mitted copies. The King said that he had accord- ingly determined to require the colony to send agents to answer to these charges ; and he com- manded that Randolph should be"admitted to the Council of the Magistrates to hear his letter read, and that he should bring back their answer. Dur- ing the reading, three of the Magistrates, following Randolph's example, " put oft their hats, and sat uncovered ; but the Governor, with the rest, con- tinued to keep their hats on." The reading being finished, " the Governor told the Council that the matters therein contained were very inconsider- able things, and easily answered, and it did in no way concern that government to take any notice thereof/' Randdph said that he had the King's 200 RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. order to require an answer, and to wait for it one month. " The Governor answered that they should consider of those things ; " and the envoy with- drew. While the Magistrates " considered," Randolph bestirred himself in endeavors to stimulate a local faction. He delivered letters with which he had been furnished by Mason to " several of the most eminent inhabitants of Boston," who, he reported, " received him with much kindness, expressed great loyalty to his Majesty," and accommodated him by circulating information concerning his errand, which gave " great pleasure and satisfaction " to the King's well-wishers. Meanwhile, he was em- barrassed, on his own part, by " a report, which seemed artificially raised to amuse and distract the people, about domestic troubles in England." The Magistrates, after two days' consideration, resolved to return their thanks to the King for his "gracious letter," and to send a further answer to it by a vessel about to sail for London. June 15. They called in Randolph, and told him, that, if he proposed to take passage in that vessel, they would intrust to him the letter which they had prepared to one of the Secretaries of State ; other- wise, he could have a duplicate of it whenever he should be ready to depart. He said that he " had other matters of concern under his charge, and should not return so soon ; and withal asked them if they had well considered of his Majesty's letter and the enclosed petition in so short a time, and EDWARD RANDOLPH IN BOSTON. 201 concluded on their agents, and the time of their going for England." The Governor, without an- swering the question, inquired whether he " had anything further to offer them " from the King, Randolph replied that he had nothing; and the Governor said only " that he looked upon him aa Mr. Mason's agent," and then bowed him out of the council-chamber. The next day, Randolph went to visit the Gov- ernor at his house, and formally complained of the infractions which he had already observed of the Acts of Navigation. He had seen " several ships that were arrived at Boston, some since his being there, from Spain, France, Straits, Canaries, and other parts of Europe." The Governor's reply must be given in Randolph's own words. He may not have expressed himself with quite the freedom that is represented ; but it is probable that the reporter did not greatly misunderstand or mis- state his language. " He freely declared to me," Randolph wrote, " that the laws made by your Majesty and your Parliament obligeth them in nothing but what consists with the interest of that colony ; that the legislative power is and abides in them solely to act and make laws by virtue of a charter from your Majesty's royal father; and that all matters in difference are to be concluded by their final determination, without any appeal to vonr Majesty; and that your Majesty ought not t,o retrench their liberties, but may enlarge them if {our Majesty please ; and said your Majesty had 202 RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. confirmed their charter and all their privileges by your Majesty's letter of the 28th of June, 1662, and that your Majesty could do no less in reason than let them enjoy their liberties and trade, they having, upon their own charge, and without any contribution from the crown, made so large a plan- tation in the wilderness." At the end of the second week of his stay in Boston, Randolph wrote to the Governor, remind- ing him of the King's demand for agents to be sent to England, and advising him to call a General Court to settle that business. He pro- posed to wait a fortnight longer for the decision of the Court, and to be the bearer of their reply to the King. To this the Governor answered, re- buking him for the disrespectful abruptness of his behavior, and repeating, that, when he was ready to go back to England, he might have a duplicate of the letter which the Council had al- ready despatched. Randolph next turned his attention to " New Hampshire," as he called it, comprehending under that name the country between the Naumkeag and the Piscataqua, according to the largest interpreta- tion of his friend's patent. He " travelled through several of the most considerable towns," and, announcing his business, was received so he reported with a cordial welcome. He found " the whole country complaining of the op- pression and usurpation of the Magistrates of Bos' ton." At Portsmouth, " several of the principal in JOURNEYS OF RANDOLPH. 203 habitants of the Province of Maine, belonging unto Mr. Gorges, came unto him, making the same complaints with those of New Hampshire." At Boston, on his return to that place, an invi- tation to Plymouth awaited him from Governor Winslow. With Winslow, whom he found " a gentleman of loyal principles," he had gratifying converse. The Governor " expressed his great dis- like of the carriage of the Magistrates of Boston to his Majesty's royal person and his subjects under their government," and went so far as to " say that New England could never be secure, flourish, nor be serviceable to his Majesty, until the several colonies and plantations were reduced under his Majesty's immediate government;" an arrangement to which he assured his new friend " that the colonies of New Plymouth and Con- necticut would readily and willingly submit." During his stay in New England, Randolph satisfied himself, not only of the promising state of sentiment in the smaller colonies, but that, even " at Boston, the principal inhabitants, some where- of were the chief officers of the militia, and the generality of the people, complained of the arbi- trary government and oppression of their Magis- trates, and did hope his Majesty would be pleased to free them from this bondage by establishing his own royal authority among them, and govern them Recording to his Majesty's laws." The time that Randolph had been ordered to wait for an answer from Massachusetts having 204 RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. expired, he " went to the Governor for his des- patches." That impracticable magistrate " entertained him with a sharp reproof for publishing the substance of his errand into those parts, telling him that he designed to make a mutiny and disturbance in the country, and to withdraw the people from their obedience to the magistracy of the colony and the authority there- of." The emissary received a duplicate of the let- ter which had been sent a month before to Secre- tary Coventry ; and, having been desired to assure the King that the English in Massachusetts " were a people truly fearing the Lord, and very obedient to his Majesty," he, in a discourteous letter, took his leave for the present, and soon afterwards sailed for England. When he was gone from Massachusetts, and there had been time for the people to bethink them- selves, it was fit that the Governor should move. The old soldier of Cromwell understood when forcible action would be rash, as well as when it would be effective. No man was less ignorant of the policy of argument and delay. He convoked a General Court, and told them that the occasion of their being summoned was " the receipt of a letter from his Majesty, etc." The Court chose to consider the pending agitation as arising simply out of "the complaints of Mr. Gorges and Mr. Mason about the extent of the patent line ; " and being acquainted that many of the reverend elders were in town, they agreed and sent the marshal t PROCEEDINGS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 205 them to say that they desired their presence and advice " upon the question " whether the most ex- pedient way of making answer to the complaints .... were by sending agents or attorneys to answer the same, or to answer by writing only." The elders deliberated, and gave their advice, that, for several reasons, one of which was to avoid an appearance of "contempt of his Majesty's com- mands," the " expedient way " was to appoint " agents to appear and make answer by way of information at this time and in this case ; provided they were with utmost care and caution qualified as to their instructions, by and according unto which they might negotiate that affair with safety unto the country, and with all duty and loyalty unto his Majesty in the preservation of the patent liberties." The advice does not appear to have been approved, or it was thought best to take more time for consideration and for reconciling opinions ; for a committee, consisting of the Magistrates Bradstreet, Stoughton, the young Joseph Dudley, and the Secretary, Rawson, with five Deputies, was directed to " draw up an address to his Maj- esty," with " a letter and instructions to some meet persons in England," who should " deliver the same to his Majesty accordingly, and appear and make answer by way of information, as the case might require." The Court proceeded to despatch various affairs of common business, and then adjourned for u month. At the next session, the committee presented 206 RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. their draught of an " humble petition and address of the Governor and Company of the Mas- sachusetts Bay in New England, in General Court assembled, to the King's most excellent Maj- esty." It began with a brief reference to the dis- tresses which the colony had suffered in its war with the natives, and to the victory which had recently crowned its arms. A prospect had opened, the memorialists said, of " calmness and composed- ness " in their public affairs, when the war broke out afresh in the eastern country, and at the same time a groundless and vexatious controversy was thrust upon them respecting the rightfulness of their authority over those eastern settlements of the King's subjects which they were straining every nerve to protect. They were, however, " most will- ing, in observance of his Majesty's commands, to offer their pleas and produce their evi- dences in this matter ;" evidences which they es- teemed to be " such as would abundantly clear up their right to those eastern parts to be undoubted, according to the plain intent and necessary sense of the words of their patent, and sufficiently make it appear that their administrations of government there had been noways derogatory to his Majesty's honor, nor prejudicial to his royal interest io this wilderness, but many ways beneficial, as also satis- factory to the inhabitants, his Majesty's subjects, upon that place." They protested that " no inten- tion of wrong to the claimers, no unlawful desigr of enlargement of their borders, no profit or advan- MISSION TO ENGLAND. 207 tage thereby accruing (the contrary whereto they had hitherto found), but a grounded apprehension of their interest, real compassion to the petitioning in- habitants, in an unsettled and suffering condition, together with a sense of duty incumbent to be faithful to their patent trust, did cause them to receive those inhabitants under the wing of his Majesty's government in this colony established. The further management of their defence " they had intrusted to two agents " for whom, as for themselves, with most humble prostration, they begged his Majesty's countenance and favor." The form of address was adopted, and Mr. Wil- liam Stoughton and Mr. Peter Bulkley were ap- pointed to present it. Stoughton, a rich bachelor, now about forty-five years old, was son of the stern and somewhat factious soldier of the Pequot war. He had been educated for the ministry, but had never assumed a cure, and had now been in the magistracy five or six years. Bulkley was son of the able and generous-minded minister of Concord. Though ten years younger than his associate in the agency, he was Speaker of the House of Dep- uties. In the parties which in these dangerous times had begun to take their elementary shape in Massachusetts, Stoughton, enforced by his arbi- trary temperament and influenced by the instincts of wealth, was understood to be indulgent to the pretensions of the crown ; while Bulkley, sustain- ing more popular relations, was then believed though the expectations entertained of him were 208 RENEWED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. not ultimately realized to be devoted to the local traditions, and to be disposed to stand firm for the integrity of the charter. It was probably thought prudent that both styles of thought should be rep- resented in the agency in England, and that the facility of Stoughton should conciliate and qualify, while the sagacity and firmness of Bulkely should watch and protect. But if such was the calcula- tion, the result did not justify it. Bulkely acted no independent part while engaged in this service ; and in later times he made himself discreditably conspicuous as a prerogative man. The case of the colony against the claimants was argued in a paper intrusted to the agents for delivery to the King. It bore the title of "A brief Declaration of the right and claim of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England to the lands now in their possession, but pretended to by Mr. Gorges and Mr. Mason." After a short account of the transactions relating to the eastern country of Massachusetts, as they have been detailed in this work, the memorialists proceeded at length to prove their right by patent, and to show how satisfactory and beneficial the exercise of their government in the disputed terri- tory had been, and how advantageous for the King. The agents were also furnished with letters to the two Secretaries of State, and with two sets of " Orders and Instructions." In one of these sept. 16. } a tt er papers, they were directed to inforrc the King that they were sent u to give his Maj MISSION TO ENGLAND. 209 esty satisfaction concerning the rights of the pat- ent, in answer to the pretensions and ac- cusations of Mr. Gorges and Mr. Mason." They were to confine themselves to this service ; and " to all other clamors and accusations " they were to answer that they had " no order nor instruction." If occasion should arise, they were "then humbly to crave his Majesty's favor for time for a further answer from hence." They were to send home re- ports of their doings by every conveyance, and to come back as soon as possible. The other set of instructions was for the most part the same, but it also contained some confiden- tial matter. The agents were to advise with the Earl of Anglesey, and other friends of the colony in England. They were to " represent to the King and Council the inconsiderableness and small worth of those eastern parts ; " but, " notwithstanding, if they found a sum of money would take them [Gorges and Mason] off from further prosecution of their pretensions, and that that might be a final issue, they should engage in that way as their discretion should direct." VOL. u. 14 CHAPTER VII. CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. IN England the agents of Massachusetts found the minds of the courtiers prepossessed by the erroneous and unfriendly representations of Ran- dolph, who had arrived there three months before them. There was now in the parent country no organized body friendly to New England. The country party was in the ascendant ; but with that party, led by Lord Danby, English Puritans were in so little credit, that, far from being able to pro- tect their sympathizers on the other side of the water, they were living in constant dread of being themselves subjected to all the severity of the per- secution which was raging against their fellow Non-conformists, the Catholics. The agents presented to the Privy Council a memorial, in which they set forth, that, after diligent search " in the Chapel of the Rolls, as in other 1677 offices," they had been unable to find a Jan. ID. recorc j o f th e alleged grants to Mason and Gorges. They therefore prayed that an order should issue to those claimants to furnish them with copies of the papers on which they relied Five months more passed, when, after listening to ACTION OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 211 ** a representation from Edward Randolph, era- ployed by his Majesty concerning several matters relating to the state of New Eng- land and the government thereof, his Majesty was pleased to order in Council that the said represen- tation be referred to the Right Honorable the Lords Committees of this Board for T r ade and Planta- tions, to consider of the same, and to take the opinion of such of his Majesty's judges as they should think fit concerning such heads of the said representation as related to matters of law." The Lords of the Committee presently came to an im- portant conclusion. They reported to the Council, that, reserving their judgment upon some matters of Randolph's representation till the law Lords should have pronounced their opinion, they had no hesitation as to advising the King that Massachusetts had broken the laws of Trade and Navigation, and " that the said government should not only receive notice of his Majesty's pleasure that the said acts be duly executed, but that the Right Honorable the Lord Treasurer should appoint such officers of the cus- toms at Boston and other parts of New England as the said acts did prescribe, for the better obser- vation thereof." The judges (Rainsford, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, and North, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas) were scarcely less prompt. " We," they wrote, " having considered these matters, do humbly conceive .... that 212 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. the patent of 4 Car. L is good, notwithstanding the grant made in 18 Jac. ; for it appeared to us by the recital in the patent 4 Car. I. that the Council of Plymouth had granted away all their interest in the lands the year before, and it must be presumed that they then deserted the government; where- upon it was lawful and necessary for the King to establish a suitable frame of government according to his royal wisdom, which was done by that patent of 4 Car. I. making the Adventurers a corporation upon the place" They gave their judgment, that neither Maine nor New Hampshire was included within the chartered limits of Massachusetts ; that the government of Maine belonged to the heir of Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; and that the government of New Hampshire had never been granted to John Mason, and was not lawfully vested in his heir. As to rights of soil in those territories the judges declared themselves not prepared to decide. The judgment was adopted by the Lords of the Committee, and, on their report, was approved by the Privy Council. The Council ap- Jui is P om t e d a day for hearing the parties, and, after the hearing:, referred the whole mattei July 20. back again to their Committee. This Board, having " debated the business of New England, and the necessity of bringing those people under a more palpable declara- tion of their obedience to his Majesty and depend- ence on his crown," again summoned the agents, and announced to them, 1. That as to jurisdic. ACTION OF THE PRIVY COUNCA 213 tion, their constituents must henceforward " con- fine themselves to such bounds and limits as had been lately reported by the judges ; " 2. That as to their pretended " property of the soil in the Prov- ince of Maine," the King would have scrutiny made, but they would do well to retract an inti- mation " very rashly and inadvertently made by their counsel when they last appeared," of " aban- doning the defence of that province, in case their authority to govern was set by ; " 3. That as to their " presuming to coin money, they must solicit his Majesty's pardon for the offence that was past ; " 4. " That the Act of Navigation must for the future be looked after and religiously observed ; " 5. " That as to their laws, there were great faults observed in some of them, wherein they must expect change or refor- mation ; " 6. That as to what they had said of their defect of powers, " his Majesty did not think of treating with his own subjects as with foreigners, and to expect the formality of powers," but " to do all things that were fit for them and consistent with his own service," and that it would be well for them " from time to time to intimate the same to their principals." They were then dismissed for a week, after being further informed " that his Maj- esty would not destroy their charter, but rather, by a supplementary one, to be given to them, set all things right that were now amiss." At the next discussion of the subject, " Mr. Attorney did, according to order, read a catalogue 214 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. of those laws, passed by the government of New England, which were repugnant to the laws of this kingdom. The like list waa sent in by Mr. Solicitor with very little alteration ; and their Lordships found very much reason to ad- vise his Majesty to write unto New England for the abolishing all those laws. And the Attorney did acquaint their Lordships that the agents of New England, with whom he had spoken, were in a manner ashamed of them, only as to that concern- ing the observation of the Lord's day they seemed somewhat tenacious." The Committee " took no- tice," that, notwithstanding " his Majesty's letter of 1662, requiring that any who should exercise their religion according to the Church of England might be free therein, and equally qualified with others for any office, yet that the practice had all along been quite otherwise, and as before. And also, complaint being urged touching the prin- ciples and discourses of the present Governor, Mr. Leverett, with Mr. Randolph when there, savoring of very little obedience to his Majesty, their Lord- ships did deliberate upon it as a point importing much to his Majesty's service, that no Governor there to be chosen should be established and con- firmed without his Majesty's approbation. Some of the Lords added, that not only his Majesty's ap- probation, but commission, was requisite; but this was thought at present unseasonable." The agents were called in again, and told that the King expected a repeal of al laws in force PROCEEDINGS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 215 among their constituents repugnant to the laws of England ; that " the practice touchii g prefer- ment of church-members ran contrary to the law they had made ; " and that " they should receive an officer of the customs, to see the Act of Navi- gation, in his Majesty's behalf, fully conformed unto." They were further rebuked for the " levying of money on the King's subjects who trafficked with them, over whom they had not the same power as over the members of their own corpora- tion." And they were " directed to attend Mr. Attor- ney-General " for information respecting his objec- tions to their laws, and respecting " the model of such a pardon as they stood in need of from his Majesty for their coining of money without author- ity." Here the business was suspended for the present, except so far as that the agents Sept. 6. put in a petition for leave to retain the four New Hampshire towns under the government of Massachusetts. The agents sent home information of the plight in which they found themselves. The General Court was in session when their letters arrived. Without a day's delay after the notice of u his Majesty's ex- pectation that the Acts of Trade and Navigation be exactly and punctually observed by this his Majesty's colony," an order was passed re- quiring all masters of vessels arriving or de- parting " 10 yield faithful and constant obedience unto, and observation of, all the said Acts of Nav- igation and Trade," and iivtructing the Governor 216 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. and all inferior magistrates " to see to the strict observation of the said Acts." The Court sent to the agents a letter of approval of their con- duct, and with it a petition of the four New Hampshire towns to be permitted to remain under the government of Massachusetts. And they trans- mitted an address of thanks to the King for his gracious reception of their messengers. With it they sent letters, composed partly of compliment and partly of argument, to the Lord Chancellor (Lord Shaftesbury), the Lord Privy Seal (Lord Anglesey), and Coventry and Williamson, Secre- taries of State. On receiving the petition of the New Hampshire 167g towns, the agents renewed their solicitations Jan - 28 -'to the Privy Council for that arrangement as to the organization of those settlements which was so desired both by the existing local govern- ment and by the governed. Mason presently in- formed the Lords of the Committee that he had been approached with an applica- tion, which hitherto he had resisted, to sell his pat- ent to Massachusetts. He at the same time com- municated the confounding intelligence that a similar application to Gorges had been successful, and that the bargain had actually been completed. This was true. Massachusetts had outwitted the King He was intending to buy Maine of Gorges, as an endowment for his favorite though trouble- some son, the Duke of Monmouth. But he was not apt to have ready money, and he was not quid' PROCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND. 217 enough for the wakeful colony. Its broker, John Usher, the Boston merchant, had come to 1677 London, and paid Gorges the sum of twelve May 6 ' hundred and fifty pounds for his patent ; and the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay had become, by purchase, lord paramount of Maine. This measure boded no favor to the colony on the part of the Lords of the Committee, when next they should enter on a consideration of its affairs. Randolph goaded them with persevering hate. Andros, who was now in England, was no favor- able witness. The Quakers, too, were again in the field. When, in the agony of the Indian war, the General Court of Massachusetts had undertaken to search out the causes of wrath and defection, a mistaken lenity to the Quakers was judged to be one of them ; and laws were passed making any ship-master who should land them liable to a fine of at least twenty pounds, and forbidding attend- ance upon their assemblies under a penalty of im- prisonment in the house of correction for three days, on a diet of bread and water. This was a great mitigation of the former severity of their treatment ; but it served to bring their brethren in England again to the foot of the throne in their behalf. Under such influences, the Lords of the Com- mittee proceeded with their business. They 1678 were stimulated "very much to resent that A P ri18 - no more notice was taken in Ne~v England of those points which were so fairly and with so much soft 218 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. ness intimated to the agents ; " and they were " so far from advising his Majesty immediately to grant a pardon, much less the accession of government in the country claimed by Mr. Mason, which they petitioned for, that they were of opinion that this whole matter ought seriously to be considered from the very root Some of the Lords inclined to think that nothing but the establishment of a Governor there would accomplish " the desired ob- ject of submission to the King's authority, " all agreeing that it must be a Governor wholly to be supported and maintained by his Majesty But, forasmuch as to enable their Lordships to ad- vise his Majesty in this great affair it would first be necessary to know how far his Majesty was at liberty to do herein what his service might require, therefore Mr. Attorney and Mr. Solicitor General were directed to examine and report the grounds of what had sometime been objected before them: " 1. That the people of Massachusetts colony have not any legal charter at all. " 2. Next, that, by reason of several irregulari- ties, there was, about the year 1635, a quo war- ranto brought for the dissolution of such charter as they had, the prosecution whereof went far, and stopped only on account of the public troubles ensuing. " 3. And lastly, supposing that the said charter were originally good, their Lordships desired to knov* whether the corporation had, by maladmin- istration of the powers, or otherwise, forfeited the PROCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND. 219 same, so as to be at his Majesty's mercy and dis- posal." In the preceding autumn the General Court of Massachusetts had made an order "that the 1677 law requiring all persons, as well in- c habitants as strangers, that have not taken it, to take the oath of fidelity to the country, be revised and put in practice throughout the jurisdiction." This pro- ceeding had now come to Randolph's knowledge, and provided him with an effectual topic of com- plaint. He sent in a memorial averring that the oath had been imposed on persons loyal to the King, and therefore disinclined to that engagement, and praying, that, by a ship just about to sail, an order might be sent for the protection of loyal men in New England, who should refuse to take the oath, or who were friendly to him during his stay in that country, or who had corresponded with him since. " The agents endeavored to explain i 6 78. this law to the Board, and to soften their Apn11 indignation against it, but without effect." The Board advised the King that the oath prescribed by the Massachusetts people was " derogatory to his Majesty's honor as well as defective in point of their own duty, inasmuch as their allegiance to his Majesty and their fidelity to the colony were joined together in the same undecent form, and where such fidelity was made even to precede their obe- dience to his Majesty ; '" and they recommended that without delay the King should " strictly in- quire and command that the oath of allegiance, as 220 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. it was in England by law established, . . . . should be administered and taken by all his sub- jects in that colony." Their advice was adopted by the King in Coun- cil ; and, in immediate conformity with a further order, the agents from Massachu- were Drou ght before the Lords of the Committee, " and the oath of allegiance as it is set down in the statute of 3 Jacobi was administered to them. After which these gentlemen declared, that, as they had taken the said oath, so they be- lieved the Magistrates of the Massachusetts col- ony, and all the other inhabitants, would most willingly do the like, except only such as refused to take any oath whatsoever." Next came the all-important report of the crown lawyers (Jones and Winnington) on the legal condition of Massachusetts. They gave their opinion, under three heads, as follows : " 1. That, as to the patent of 4 Caroli, whether it were good in point of creation, it was most proper that the opinion of the Lords Chief Justices should be had thereupon. " 2. That neither the quo warranto mentioned to be brought against them, nor the judgment there- upon, was such as to cause a dissolution of their charter. " 3. That the misdemeanors objected against them do contain sufficient matter to avoid their patent. " Their lordships did thereupon order a report t PROCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND. 221 be prepared, reciting all things that were past from the first settlement of New England, the several encroachments and injuries which the colony of Massachusetts had continually practised upon their neighbors, and their contempts and neglect of his Majesty's commands ; and will offer their opinion that a quo warranto be brought against their char- ter, and new laws framed instead of such as were repugnant to the laws of England." And " their Lordships agreed to recommend Mr. Randolph unto the Lord Treasurer for a favorable issue of his pre- tensions to be employed as Collector of his Maj- esty's customs in New England, in consideration of his zeal and capacity to serve his Majesty therein." The Lords of the Committee proceeded with in- creasing confidence. They summoned the agents before them to give an account of the effect July 80. that had been produced by the letters sent out by them to the colony in the preceding sum- mer. The agents said, that, when those letters arrived, the General Court was just rising ; and, though it had recently assembled again, this was merely for the annual election, and " there was no full account of what they did, the small-pox hav- ing then very much interrupted their meeting." Some discussion took place, which " confirmed raany of their Lordships in their opinions that the establishment of a General Governor, and of a fit judicature there for the determining of differences, was become altogether necessary." The agents lad had enough of England. The constrained 222 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. oath of allegiance, the loss of New Hampshire, the perpetual altercations with Randolph, and now the serious project of a General Governor for the crown, must have made them wellnigh weary of their lives. They begged for leave to go home. But they were told that that could not be " before there was a final resolution taken upon this whole business." The General Court of Massachusetts held a dreary meeting after the arrival of intelligence of these proceedings. The clear-sighted old Governor had, it seems, made up his mind at once as to what it was best to do in respect to one demand, and, having resolved, had proceeded to action with- out delay. He " read his Majesty's letter, with the copy of the oath of allegiance sent therein, acquainting the Court that himself, the Deputy-Governor, and Magistrates then present in Council at Cambridge, the of August last, with the Secretary, took the said oath in toti- dem verbis" Things looked serious. The Court set apart the ninth instant to humble themselves before the Lord, and seek his face, desiring the help of the Governor and Assistants, and that "he Reverend Mr. Oakes give a word of exhor- tation." What they had made up their minds to do, they proceeded to do thoroughly. Having taken the oath themselves, they ordered that it should Oct. 10. J be taken by all persons within the jurisdic- tion of sixteen years of age and upwards; that. t PROCEEDINGS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 223 this end, magistrates, justices of the peace, and constables, should be furnished with " printed co- pies of the said oath of allegiance, exactly agreeing with the written copy enclosed in his Majesty'? letter, and signed by the Secretary of State ; " and that the constables should convene the inhabitants of the several towns and villages with all conven- ient speed for the administration of the oath. In a further expression, which might almost seem ironical, of exuberant zeal for the King's quiet, they amended their law of treason, so as to make punishable with death the utterance of any de- sign against his life or his government, whether " by printing, preaching, or malicious and advised speaking." The Court caused to be prepared an address to the King, and a full letter of further instructions to the agents, accompanied with replies to the strict- ures of the law officers and of the Lords of the Committee. To the agents the Court expressed their high sense of the value of the charter, and of the benefits which it had been the means of ob- taining both for Massachusetts and for the parent country. " "We would not," they wrote, " that by any concessions of ours, or of yours in our behalf, any the least stone should be put out of the wall ; and we are not without hope, that, in the issue, his Majesty's favor will be as the north wind for the scattering of those clouds that do seem at present to threaten the loss of our future tranquillity." They hoped that the King, on full advisement, 224 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. would not object to their continuing to coin monej ; and they "would take it as his Majesty's signally owning them, if he would please to order such an impress as would be to him most acceptable." They approved of the purchase of Maine, and de- sired the continuance of every effort to secure the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. The King's arms they had " ordered to be forthwith carved by an able artist, and erected in the court-house." In respect to several questions raised by the law officers and by the Lords of the Committee, they " dared not presume to give an answer, his Maj- esty not having as yet declared his pleasure there- in ; " but they enclosed a memorandum of their views upon several heads, of which the agents, " as they had opportunity, might make use." Re- ferring to the " laws for encouraging trade and navigation," they used the following remarkable words : " We humbly conceive, according to the usual sayings of the learned in the law, that the laws of England are bounded within the four seas, and do not reach America, the subjects of his Majesty here being not represented in Parliament. So we have not looked at ourselves to be impeded in our trade by them, nor yet we abated in our rel- ative allegiance to his Majesty." " Laws accounted repugnant to the laws of England," they were willing to u repeal with all convenient speed .... except such as the repealing whereof would make them to renounce the professed cause of their first coming." PRETENSIONS OF EPISCOPACY. 225 Before adjourning, the Court appointed a day in the following month " to be solemnly kept as a day of fasting and prayer in all the churches a.nd congregations throughout the jurisdiction, to pour forth strong and unanimous cries unto God." They exhorted the people to pray, that, " as he was present with the blessed generation of his pre- cious ones, the leaders of his people into and in this wilderness, and did hear them when in their dis- tresses they cried unto him, he will still please to dwell in the midst of us, and not forsake us: that he will not take away his holy gospel, and, if it be his good will, yet to continue our liberties, civil and ecclesiastical, to us and to our children after us." What they esteemed the needful safeguards of their " liberties ecclesiastical " were presently to be assailed more directly than as yet they had been. Randolph presented a memorial to the King 1679 in Council, praying, among other things, Jan - 16 - that Churchmen might be admitted to public office in Massachusetts, and that the worship of the Church of England there might be made lawful. The Lords of the Committee, on its refer- ence to them, gave their advice, " that the Lord Bishop of London be directed to appoint forthwith some able minister to go and reside at Boston in New England, and to appoint so many others from time to time as the country should be willing to maintain And their Lordships still further advised his Majesty, that all persons VOI* II. 15 226 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. taking the oath of allegiance, and joining them selves with the congregation of the minister to be appointed by the Lord Bishop of London, and having obtained a certificate, under the hand of the said minister and three of the said congregation, of their conformity to the Church of England, should be by his Majesty's express orders declared as capable of all freedoms and privileges as any other person whatsoever." Other recommendations made by Randolph at the same time the Commit- tee were not yet prepared to approve. One was, that the number of Magistrates should never be less than eighteen ; another, that no laws made in that colony should be valid without being con- firmed by the King in Council ; and another, that all inhabitants should be freemen on the sole con- dition of taking the oath of allegiance. A fourth related to the military force ; it was, that all mili- tary commissions should be issued in the King's name, and that Governor Winslow, of Plymouth, should be made Commander-in-Chief of the mili- tia of New England. The impatience of the agents to take them- selves out of the way did not escape notice or animadversion. They were summoned be- fore the Lords of the Committee " upon an information that they were preparing for their de- parture to New England, contrary to his Majesty's commands." They disavowed all such intention, and were told that their stay had been prolonged by the neglect of their principals to give the King RETURN OF THE AGENTS. 227 satisfaction. Titus Gates and Lord Shaftesbury were more serviceable to Massachusetts in obtain- ing a reprieve than her agents. After three more weary months of hope deferred, the agents began to have a prospect of home. The Lords of the Committee advised that they should be allowed to go, " the rather because the prosecution of the Popish plot had not left a sufficient leis- y ure for a perfect settlement of that colony." But the long process of arranging the conditions of dismissal was yet to be gone through. At last, the Lords of the Committee, finding nothing to change their opinion that " the present conjuncture was not very favorable for settling and es- tablishing his Majesty's service in such method as were to be wished," advised " such a draught of a letter to be writ unto that colony as might keep things in a fair and probable way of amendment, until a fitter season should present more effectually to reassume the care of this whole matter." Not very long after, the agents began to breathe freely again on their homeward passage, carrying with them, as a parting word from the Lords of the Committee, a rebuke in set terms for " the pre- sumption of the Massachusetts in buying the Province of Maine while the complaints of Mr. Gorges were under consideration," that June 19. measure being esteemed " of such evil con- sequences that their Lordships agreed to report, that, upon reimbursement of what should appear lo have been paid for the same, that colony shotud 228 CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. be obliged to make a surrender of all deeds and writings thereof into his Majesty's hands." Ran- dolph had no intention to lose sight of the agents. He and they embarked for Boston about the same time. CHAPTER VIII. THE CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS IN DANGER. NOTWITHSTANDING the show of brave opposition to the demands of the British court, the public spirit of Massachusetts had never been so tame as it was at the time when her agents came back from England. The Magistrates were divided in their policy. Bradstreet, Denison, Dudley, and others were disposed to yield to the encroachments of the King and his ministry. During Governor Leverett's life, they were kept effectually in check by his paramount influence. But he died 1679 two months before the expiration of the March16 - term of service to which he had last been chosen. At the election which took place in the spring before the return of the agents, Bradetreet, then seventy -six years of age, was made Governor. Circumstances independent of his merits- led to his elevation. Symonds, the Deputy- 167g Governor, died before Leverett. Bradstreet Oct - had been in the colony from its beginning. He was one of the few members of the Company who had come out from England, and one of the Assistants chosen in that country, of whom he was now the only survivor. He had been Secre- 230 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. tary for some years, and had been always in the Magistracy. He had acquitted himself not ill in his embassy to England ; and whatever displeas- ure was felt for the unsatisfactory result of that mission had been visited less upon him than upon his more capable and less phlegmatic colleague His family connections gave him consequence. He married first a daughter of Thomas Dudley and then a daughter of Emmanuel Downing. He was a blameless and well-intentioned man, a con- scientious Puritan, and a painstaking officer, emi- nently trustworthy in the details of business ; and if he was not regarded as having a superior un- derstanding or an energy adequate to uncommon occasions, still, when the second place in the gov- ernment fell vacant, there was no reason suffi- ciently clear and weighty for resisting the preten- sions set up for one against whom nothing worse was to be said than that he was the favorite of the moderate party. Then Leverett died, and Brad- street, who had succeeded Symonds as Deputy- Governor, exercised provisionally the functions of Chief Magistrate. When, after a short interval, the time for another election came, a difficulty was naturally felt in resisting his elevation in favor of some comparatively inexperienced candidate ; nor was it to be expected that the great neutral body, who respected his private character and were grateful for his long services, would entertain a severe judgment of the mediocrity of his qualifica- tions. He can scarcely be pronounced to hav* LETTER FROM THE KING. 231 been equal, either in ability of mind or in force of character, to the task of steering the straining ves- sel of the State in those stormy times. More than any other man then living in Massachusetts, Thomas Danforth was competent to the stern occasion. But, in the circumstances, the verdict of the electors is not matter of surprise. The ad- ministration acquired character and strength by the election of Danforth to the second office ; and both Governor and Deputy-Governor were con- tinued in place, by successive elections, as long as the charter government lasted. Randolph, sailing for New York, reached Amer- ica a fortnight earlier than the agents ; but 1679 he did not appear at Boston till more than Dee- 7> a month after them, being instructed first to 1680 go to New Hampshire and settle a govern- Jan - 28 - ment there, as will hereafter be related. A week after his arrival at Boston, the General Court assembled, and the King's letter which had been brought by the agents was read. In it the King expressed his disappointment that Stough- ton and Bulkley had not been furnished with fuller powers, and announced his " will and pleasure," liat, within six months, other agents, " duly in- structed," should be sent out. He repeated his injunctions respecting an admission of members of the Church of England to the franchise and to every kind of civil equality, and respecting an in- crease of the number of Assistants, so as to accord vith the charter. He again required a recital of 232 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. the royal authority in military commissions and legal proceedings, and a strict obedience to the Acts of Trade and Navigation. He gave notice of the appointment of Randolph to be " Collector, Surveyor, and Searcher " for all the colonies of New England ; and concluded by declaring him- self " surprised " that the Massachusetts people should " presume " to buy the province of Gorges when he was himself "in treaty for it," and by making known his expectation that they would transfer it to him, " upon a reimbursement of what it should appear they had paid for the same." After its own manner, for the Deputies were stern, and compromises had to be studied, the Court proceeded to act upon these instructions. A form of military commission was drawn up, in which the officer was informed that he was ap- pointed " for the service of his Majesty," and that it was " in his Majesty's name" that he was " authorized and required " to take command. Provision was made for the election in future years of eighteen Assistants, " according to the charter." The Governor was instructed to take " the oath required by his Majesty for the observa- tion and executing of the statutes for the encour- aging and increasing of Navigation and Trade." The ancient claim to New Hampshire was re- linquished by an order vacating " all commissions formerly granted by the colony of Massachusetts to any person that lived in the towns of Hampton Exeter, Portsmouth, and Dover." On the othei ACTION OF THE GENERAL COURT. 233 hand, the colony, by virtue of its purchase, stepped into Gorges's place as Lord Proprietor of Maine. At the next General Court for Elections, for the first time in the history of the colony, eigh- '*_ ' May 19. teen Assistants were chosen, in accordance with a provision of the charter, and with the royal pleasure recently expressed. The session was pro- tracted to the unusually long period of three weeks. This may well be supposed to have been owing to the difficulty of coming to the decision, already too long delayed, respecting an answer to the King's letter. The greater part of the session was whiled away in the transaction of business of mere detail. But the King could not be expected to wait indefi- nitely. Even if he was busy with other matters, Randolph had abundance of time to attend to Mas- sachusetts. Clearly, it was prudent to say some- thing as soon as might be ; and, after wearisome pondering and anxious debate, a letter was indited to the King, which cannot be regarded as express- ing the sentiments of either of the parties that divided the Court, but rather as indicating that the best compromise which they were able to reach rested on silence and further procrastination in re- spect to the pending matters of greatest moment. In respect to the question that required the most delicate treatment, the Court wrote begging the King's further indulgence for their omission to send over agents, on the grounds of the information they nad of his being just then busy with " matters of far greater impoHance," of their " present low con- 234 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. dition through the vast charges of the late war* and a recent " wasting fire " in Boston, and of " the great hazard of the sea," then infested with " Turk- ish pirates." The Court could not, except under strong necessity, be brought to trust agents in Eng- land with its business. Meanwhile, Randolph, proceeding without delay after his arrival at Boston to one part of the business with which he was charged, had " seized several vessels with their lading." To seize was a simple process ; but forms of law had to be gone through with before vessels and cargoes could be con- demned, and Randolph found courts and juries utterly indisposed to meet his wishes. In plaintive language he summed up his first experiences of this description : " His Majesty's authority and the Acts of Trade were disowned openly in the coun- try, and I was cast in all these causes, and damages given against his Majesty." He wrote home, that it was " now in every man's mouth that they were not subject to the laws of England, neither were those of any force till confirmed by their authority ; " and that " the church party at Boston endeavored to debauch the merchants and loyal men." In respect to the arrangements for Gorges's province, he reported that it was ' " promised by sufficient merchants in Bos- ton to deposit the money for the purchase of Maine, and upon such terms as it might be for the bene- fit of the poor, distressed inhabitants." His impa- tience was stimulated by the personal vexations t ACTIVITY OF EDWARD RANDOLPH. 235 which he found himself continually liable ; and he sent over a memorial to the King urging 3 AprilS. the expediency of proceeding against the charter of Massachusetts by a writ of quo warranto. While he affected no secrecy as to his sentiments, and little as to his designs, it may well be supposed that he found himself engaged in a perpetual quar- rel, and was more and more irritating and irritated day by day. " I have," he wrote, " only hope and my life left, which I am unwilling to expose to the rage of a deluded multitude, who, under the pretence of great privilege from the King, take liberty to oppose his royal authority." " I expect hourly to have my person seized, and cast into prison." He now left Boston for a time for New Hamp- shire, being probably frightened away. His repre- sentations produced part of their natural effect in England. The King wrote again to the Magis- trates, and now much more angrily than ever before. He " strictly commanded and required " them, " as they tendered their allegiance," to despatch agents within three months after their reception of the order, with full powers. And he ended with a very definite injunction : " That the due observance of all our commands above mentioned may not be any longer protracted, we require you, upon the re- eipt hereof, forthwith to call a General Court, and herein to read these our letters, and provide for out speedy satisfaction ; in default whereof we shall take the most effectual means to procure the same. A.nd so we bid you farewell." 236 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. The Court meeting again in the autumn, while this letter was on its way, made various arrange- ments relating to the orderly conduct of elections, and to a reorganization of the militia, but took no measures respecting the pending controversy with England, further than to appoint a fast, for " all the Lord's remembrancers to be earnest with him in prayers, that all humbling dispensations towards us in these ends of the earth may be sanc- tified, and that God would yet, for his name's sake, continue our liberties, both civil and spiritual." Presently the King's letter came, brought by John Mason himself, the heir to New Hampshire ; and a " Special General Court " was 1681 convened to consider it. For a week after Jan. 4. com j n g together, the Court " adjourned diem per diem, having debates and consideration of the things then incumbent." Without doubt the de- bates were warm. The record is brief. Orders were at length made for notifying to the in- habitants of the New Hampshire towns the state of Mason's claim ; for hastening a revision of the laws, which had been lingering for two or three years ; and finally for the appointment of agents to go to England, agreeably to the royal command. William Stoughton and Samuel Nowell were chosen to that trust by a joint ballot of the two branches of the Court. Nowell, who was not a man of eminent abilities, belonged to the anti- prerogative party. Stoughton had had enough of this kind of business. A formal vote of thanks foi RANDOLPH AGAIN IN ENGLAND. 237 his recent services as agent stood on the record, but he read little gratitude in the countenances of his old friends. He excused himself from the service, and John Richards, also a Magistrate, was chosen in his place. Richards belonged to the knot of those who, if Randolph had read them aright, only " waited for an opportunity to express their duty to his Majesty." The practical signifi- cance of the King's injunction to enlarge the num- ber of Magistrates began to be evident. Prerog- ative principles, which had more favor with the Magistrates than with the Deputies from the towns, obtained an advantage in the General Court. But the popular party knew how to interpose delays, and the elected messengers to England still re- mained at home. The Court which took this action had not broken up when Randolph again sailed for Eng- I J TT 1J March 15. land. He could not have arrived there at a moment more auspicious for his revenge. The King, after a series of humiliations, had just ob- tained a signal advantage over the Parlia- ment convened at Oxford, and was again well on his way to absolute power. The memo- rial sent by Randolph from Boston had been re- ferred by the Privy Council to the Lords of their Committee of Trade and Plantations. " My Lord Culpepper attended, and gave their Lordships an account of the state of New England," bringing them to the u opinion that New England could not be brought to a per- 238 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. feet settlement unless a General Governor were sent over, and maintained there at the King's charge." Randolph had a short passage, and could scarce- ly have reached England before he went to work on reports to Sir Lionel Jenkins, Secretary of State. In them he exposed " the corre- spondency and combination which to his knowl- edge was continued betwixt the factious parties in both Englands." Among other measures he pro- posed that Mr. Danforth, Mr. Saltonstall, and Mr. Gedney " should be declared incapable of public trust or offices, and be bound to their good behav- ior in 1000 bonds ; " that a writ of quo warranto should be issued against the charter of Massa- chusetts; that a General Governor should be ap- pointed for New England, for which office he rec- ommended Lord Culpepper ; and that a provisional government should be immediately constituted for Massachusetts, to consist of Bradstreet, Stoughton, Dudley, Denison, and eight other principal inhab- itants, understood to be disaffected to the popu- lar cause. " Which proposals, as preliminaries," Randolph concludes, " if his Majesty be pleased to direct and commit to my conduct, I do not ques- tion but to give a satisfactory account." At the General Court for Elections in Massa- chusetts, held two months after Randolph's de- parture, the objections presented by the King's law officers against the local laws were considered and it was determined to repeal the laws May 11. " against keeping Christmas," and for pun- PROCRASTINATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 239 shing with death Quakers returned from banish- ment ; and to amend those relating to heresy, and to " rebellion against the country." As if to take away from these changes the appearance of be- ing made under coercion, other amendments, with which the British government did not concern itself, were adopted at the same time. The form of oaths and commissions for commanding officers of regi- ments was revised ; the crime of the " rebellious son " was newly defined ; and highway robbery was constituted a capital offence. It was resolved to make no change in the law " about marriage," or in the law " touching walking in the fields and streets on the Sabbath day." The only other matter transacted at this Court, relating to the controversy with the home J June 3. government, was the despatch of a letter to Sir Lionel Jenkins, in answer to the King's letter brought by Mason in the preceding autumn. The Court said that they had " carefully perused their whole book of laws," with reference to the excep- tions taken by the Attorney- General and the Solic- itor-General, and had " made a considerable prog- ress towards a conclusion ; " and that they had " published his Majesty's pleasure to those villages of the colony on the south of Merrimack, some part whereof Mr. Mason made his pretensions unto." The question about sending agents to England, agreeably to the King's peremptory order, was that which embarrassed them most. Referring to it, they did but repeat the plea for indulgence which they had made in the preceding year. 240 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. The record of the next General Court contains no reference to these affairs. They had not Oct. 12. been presented anew by any message from England, and the Court was not inclined to vol- unteer any action in respect to them. But, as winter approached, Randolph appeared again at Boston. He now came invested with an additional power of annoyance. Blathwayt, clerk 1680. f ^e Lords of the Committee, had been May19 ' commissioned by the King to be his " Sur- veyor and Auditor General of all his revenues aris- 1681 i n * n America | " and by him Randolph Oct. is. jj a( j Deen appointed and commissioned " to be his deputy and under-officer within all and any of the colonies of New England, his Majesty's col- ony of New Hampshire alone excepted." He brought yet another letter from the King. This important paper comprehended a careful sur- vey of the whole controversy, and concluded with the following peremptory language : " We once more charge and require you forth- with to send over your agents fully empowered and instructed to attend the regulation of that our government, and to answer the irregularity of your proceedings therein. In default whereof, we are fully resolved, in Trinity Term next ensuing, to direct our Attorney- General to bring a quo war- ranto in our Court of King's Bench, whereby our charter granted unto you, with all the powers there- of, may be legally evicted and made void. And s we bid you farewell." ACTION OF THE GENERAL COURT. 241 Here was matter for serious thought ; the more BO, as the King's restoration to unrestricted power was now known in Massachusetts. The 1682 General Court assembled, and listened to Feb - 15 - the reading of the King's letter, of Randolph's commission as Collector, of the King's " patent to William Blathwayt, Esq., for constituting him to be Auditor and Surveyor General," and of " Mr. Blathwayt's deputation to Mr. Randolph." They agreed upon an Address to the King, of which the principal import was, to entreat his longer for- bearance ; to inform him, that, in compliance with his " commands in several letters," they had " de- spatched their worthy friends Joseph Dudley and John Richards ; " and to place in a favorable light their proceeding in the purchase of Gorges's prop- erty in Maine. They ordered that the Acts of Trade and Navigation should " be forthwith pub- lished in the market-place in Boston by beat of drum, and that all clauses in said acts relating to this plantation should be strictly taken notice of and observed." They constituted Naval Officers, one for Boston, the other for " Salem and ad- jacent ports," to be commissioned by the Gov- ernor, and to exercise powers of a nature to con- trol the Collector appointed in England. They repealed their laws under the titles Conspiracy and Rebellion, and directed a substitution of the word jurisdiction for " the word commonwealth, where it imported jurisdiction." They revised their law of treason so as to read as follows : " If any man con- VOL. II. 16 242 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. spire and attempt any invasion, insurrection, or public rebellion against the King's Majesty, his government here established, or shall endeavor to surprise any town or towns, fort or forts therein, or shall treacherously and perfidiously attempt the alteration and subversion of our frame or polity of government fundamentally, he shall be put to death." Danforth, who had come from his government in Maine to take his place in the General Court, was now chairman of the committee for prepar- ing instructions for the agents. He took care that Dudley, (whom no man knew better,) and his easy colleague, should be carefully limited as to the exercise of a discretion so liable to abuse, As to the coining of money, they were directed to ask the King's pardon for the past, and, for the future, his " gracious allowance, it being so exceedingly necessary for civil commerce." They were to represent that there was no colonial law " prohibiting any such as were of the persuasion of the Church of England ; " that the " severe laws to prevent the violent and impetuous intrusions of the Quakers " had been suspended ; that " as for the Anabaptists, they were now subject to no other penal statutes than those of the Congregational way;" and that "the law restraining freemen to church-members only was repealed." They weie to give assurance " that the Acts of Trade, so far as they concerned the colony, should be strictly ob served, and that all due encouragement and assist MISSION TO ENGLAND. 243 ance should be given to his Majesty's officers and informers that they might prosecute the breaches of said Acts of Trade and Navigation." To any project for " appeals to his Majesty and Council in cases concerning his Majesty's revenue," they were to object, that there was " cause to fear it might prove extremely burdensome, and, as it might be improved, intolerable, should it be admitted." They were to expose the vexatious injustice of Robert Mason's present exorbitant claim, and to " give his Majesty a true relation of the proceed- ings with reference to the settlement of the govern- ment of the province of Maine, according to the charter granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges." " We do not understand," so the General Court in- formed their messengers, " that any alteration of the patent is intended. You shall therefore neither do nor consent to anything that may violate or in- fringe the liberties and privileges granted to us by his Majesty's royal charter, or the government estab- lished thereby ; but, if anything be propounded that may tend thereunto, you shall say you have received no instructions in that matter, and shall humbly crave his Majesty's favor that you may not be constrained to make answer thereto." It was not to be supposed that such proceedings of the General Court would assuage the hostility of Randolph. His sense of them was expressed in a paper which he entitled " Articles of High Mis- demeanor exhibited against a Faction in the Gen- eral Court." He accused that faction, headed by 244 THE CHARTER IN DANGER. the Deputy - Governor, and consisting of several Magistrates and Deputies whom he named, of re- fusing " to declare and admit of his Majesty's letters patent creating an office of Collector, etc., of his Majesty's Customs in New England ; " of withholding the payment to him of " several sums of money which he was forced to deposit in court before he could proceed to trial of causes relating to his Majesty's concerns ; " of obstructing him by the revival of a law which constituted a colonial Naval Officer ; of usurping, in the General Court, judicial powers confined by the charter to the Gov- ernor and Assistants ; of neglecting to repeal their laws " contrary to the laws of England ; " and of disregarding the King's letters patent " creating an office of Surveyor and Auditor General of his Maj- esty's revenues arising in America." He wrote to Sir Lionel Jenkins, that, on account of his zeal in the King's service, his life was con- tinually in danger, and that " imprisonment was the least he expected." In a letter despatched by the vessel that carried the agents, he advised strongly that Dudley should be received with such attentions as would secure him in the interest of the court, describing him as a person who had " his fortune to make in the world," and who " would cringe and bow to anything ; " and he proposed the new measure of declaring all mar- riages null " but such as are made by the minis* ters of the Church of England." CHAPTER IX. HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. THE reader is apprised that the politics of Mas- sachusetts, in her relations to the parent country, were now embarrassed for want of the unanimity which had existed in earlier times. According as men were resolute or timorous, according as they were aspiring for themselves or public-spirited, to some extent, according as they were rich or in those moderate or humble circumstances which are less liable to be disturbed by public commotion, they looked upon the measures of the home gov- ernment with different eyes. Two parties had already taken a definite shape and character. The strength of the popular party was in the House of Deputies, where the muni- cipal corporations were represented on a basis of substantial equality with one another. The inte- rior towns were less affected by those influences which disturbed the ancient relations of things in the busy marts along the seaboard. In these quiet neighborhoods, the primitive principles and man- ners prevailed in unbroken severity. The sense of danger from any violence en the part of England \vas not brought home to hamlets which could only 246 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS be invaded by means of toilsome marches through the woods. The cruel sufferings of the recent war had elevated the tone of public virtue, and en- hanced the sense of the worth of those privileges, which, having been defended against savage as- saults, were now threatened again by a pagan king on the other side of the ocean. Of the popular party, Danforth, the Deputy- Governor, a man of excellent abilities and virtue, was the acknowledged head. With him were Gookin, Nowell, Saltonstall, Gedney, and others among the Magistrates, and numerous prominent names among the Deputies, as Cook, Brattle, Hathorne, Wait, Hutchinson, and Pike. Notwithstanding the liberal tendencies of the mass of the voters, the opposing moderate party, as it was called, was largely represented in the Board of Assistants ; for the traditional respect of the freemen for advantages of social position was great, and even under strong excitements they could not easily be brought to displace the men who, with personal dignity and the associations of con- sequence which grow with length of possession, had occupied the high seats of power. The mod- erate party had some accession of strength from a quarter whence it might less have been expected The clergy no longer stood up for the chartered rights of Massachusetts with the same undivided front as in former times. The political schism in their ranks was not yet very apparent ; but it was sufficient, and sufficiently well known, to damage THE MODERATE PARTY 247 the cause of the patriots. The social and even the domestic relations of the clergy with those prom- inent families which were represented in the wa- vering Board of Magistrates were intimate. Their own consideration appeared in some measure tc be due to the credit thus reflected upon them. The legal arrangements for the religious establishment caused the liberality of the provision made for them to depend not a little on the good-will of leading men ; and a standing order of clergy is always morbidly alive to the danger of popular imprudence. The ancient spirit of the clergy of Massachusetts was by no means extinct. But it was already enfeebled by hesitation, uneasiness, division, and distrust. Denison, Major-General of the colony, had been prominent in the moderate party, but he 1682 was now infirm, and died soon afterward. Sept " Its most considerable names were those of the Governor, Bradstreet, and of Stoughton and Dud- ley, Assistants. The Governor's ordinary under- standing and feeble and irresolute temper gave him the equivocal consequence often possessed by those whom all parties commend, or forbear to op- pose, because each party hopes, if they are advanced to power, that it will be able to rule and use them. Stoughton, a rich, atrabilious bachelor, not un- conscientious after his own dreary manner, was one of those men to whom it seems to be a neces- sity of nature to favor oppressive and insolent pre- tensions, and to resent every movement for freedom 248 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. and humanity as an impertinence and affront. Hia unhesitating and stubborn absolutism might be relied upon to sway the course of the apprehen- sive and pliant Governor. But Stoughton's power was that of a dogged will, and not of a superior understanding. The ruling spirit of the moderate party was Joseph Dudley, a name sadly famous in New England history. Dudley had come forward into public life under all favorable auspices. Born of Thomas Dudley, the second Governor, there was scarcely in New England a more distinguished parentage than his. He received the best education of the time at Harvard College, under President Chauncy. His position was strengthened by the domestic alli- ances of his family. One of his sisters married Governor Bradstreet ; another married General Denison; and his wife was daughter of Edward Tyng. He was early a member of the House of Deputies, became an Assistant when he was scarcely thirty years old, and in the next year, having been meanwhile charged with an important trust in Philip's war, was associated with Danforth in the high office of Commissioner of the United Colonies. This last appointment was renewed to him by several suc- cessive elections, and he was continued in the Mag- istracy almost as long as the government lasted. He was made Sergeant- Major (or actual command- er-in-chief) of the militia of Suffolk County, and from time to time was invested with various tern DUDLEY AND RICHARDS IN ENGLAND. 249 porary trusts of a responsible and honorable char- acter. Thus by the favor and confidence of his fellow-citizens laid under obligations of gratitude, and at the same time armed with a power and brought under a temptation to harm them by treacherous conduct, it remained for time to show which part he would elect. Already, however, it appeared to right-minded observers that his inti- macy with Bradstreet was inauspicious to the pub- lic welfare. The Governor's well-merited reputa- tion for uprightness screened the equivocal conduct of his friend, while Dudley's dexterity in affairs now made up for, and now used, the clumsiness of the more responsible actor. In England, where Dudley and his associate agent arrived after a tedious passage of 1682 nearly twelve weeks, they lost no time in ^s- 20 - approaching the Privy Council. Taking up con- secutively the various charges that had been brought against their constituents, they represented, in an elaborate paper, that the delay in their appearance had been occasioned by the danger of the voyage and the poverty of the colony, which, at the time when the command was issued, was in debt to the amount of twenty thousand pounds sterling for the expenses of the recent war ; that there was no law or custom in Massachusetts preventing the use of the English liturgy, or the election of members of the Church of England to office; that the an- cient number of eighteen Assistants had been re- itored, agreeably to the roval command ; that all 250 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. official persons took the oath of allegiance ; that military commissions and judicial proceedings were in the King's name ; that " all laws repugnant to or inconsistent with the laws of England for trade were abolished ; " that Randolph's commission had been recognized and enrolled, and that he and his subordinates had been subjected to no penalties but such as were needful " to the providing dam- ages for the officers' unjust vexing the subjects ; " and that, in Massachusetts, the Acts of Trade and Navigation had " been fully put in execution, to the best discretion of the government there." They restated in full the position of their colony in rela- tion to the claims of Gorges and Mason, and they concluded by expressing the hope that the demand for appeals to the King " in matters of revenue " might be reconsidered. But the time had gone by when an effort of this nature could be of any avail, had it been much more hearty than, on the part of the principal agent, it was. The design of the King and his counsellors to crush Massachusetts had been ma- tured. The agents submitted their commis- Sept. 20. . sion to feir .Lionel Jenkins, and were pres- ently informed, as the unanimous decision of the Privy Council, that they must remain for the pres- ent in England, and that, unless they obtained fur- ther powers without delay, the colony would be proceeded against by a quo warranto at the next term of the Court of King's Bench. The Dec. ". courtiers were angrily in earnest, and ar INSTRUCTIONS TO THE AGENTS. 251 order was sent to Randolph to return to England, and give his aid in the prosecution of the writ. Intelligence of these threatening proceedings caused the Governor to convene a General 1683 Court, which issued a new commission and Feb-9> new instructions to the agents. One clause in the commission indicates expressly the appre- MarchaO. hensions which were felt respecting the fidelity of Dudley. It authorized him and his colleague " jointly and not severally " to act " for the regulation of anything wherein the corporation had ignorantly or through mistake deviated from their charter ; and to accept of and consent unto such proposals and demands as might consist with the main ends of their predecessors in their remov- ing hither the charter, and his Majesty's govern- ment here settled according thereunto," But the instructions to the agents imposed material limitations upon their power. In these they were told : " Whereas, in our commission and power sent to you, one general limitation is the saving to us the main ends of our coming over into this wilderness, you are thereby principally to understand our liberties and privileges in matters of religion and worship of God, which you are therefore in nowise to consent to any infringement of." If a liberty of appeals to England were in- sisted on, the agents were " not to conclude the colony by any act or consent of theirs, but to crave leave to transmit the same to the General Court f T their further consideration." They were " not to 252 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. make any alteration of the qualifications that were required by law, as at present established, respect- ing the admission of freemen." They were " not to consent to any removal [that is, to England] of the seat of the government here according to char- ter," nor to any alteration of " the present consti- tution of the General Court, consisting of Magis- trates and the Deputies as the select representatives of the freemen, being, without doubt, agreeable to the patent." u By order of the General Court," the agents were authorized, in a private letter, to deliver up to the King the deeds of the Province of Maine, if they found that such a surrender would help to save the charter. They were informed of recent further legislation of Massachusetts, in com- pliance with the King's wishes as to the Naviga- tion Laws, and for the security of his rights in mines of gold and silver, of which some discovery was said to have been made within the jurisdiction. But " the sum," wrote the General Court by their Secretary, " of all we can pray and commend unto you is, to do us all the good you can, and to en- deavor the preventing all the inconveniences you may, which we doubt not but you will unfeignedly do; and the God of heaven direct, counsel, assist, prosper, and succeed all your undertakings." Before dispersing, the Court appointed a day for " solemn humiliation throughout the colony, there, in humbly to implore the mercy and favor of God in respect to their sacred, civil, and temporal con cerns, and more especially those in the hands of WRIT OF QUO WARRANTO. 253 their agents abroad; as also for those kingdoms upon whose welfare their own did so nearly de- pend, and for the Protestant churches and interest elsewhere." At the next animal General Court for elections, the great subject was not revived. Randolph May ie. had gone again to England. It is probable that he had delayed his departure in order to watch the proceedings which have just been related ; for he sailed as soon as they were brought to an end and the Court was dissolved. Presently ... J May 28. after his arrival, he received an order to " attend Mr. Attorney- General, with proofs of his charges against the Massachusetts government." The business had been matured beforehand, and the formal proceedings took little time. Before Randolph had been a month in England, he had virtually accomplished the object of his ambition and revenge. The blow with which the colony had so long been threatened was struck. The writ was issued which summoned it to stand, ' June 27. for the defence of its political existence and of the liberty and property of its people, at the bar of a court in London. It was ordered by the Privy Council " that Mr. Edward Randolph be sent to New England with the notification of the said quo war- ranto, which he was to deliver to the said Gov- ernor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, and thereupon to return to give his Majesty an account of his proceedings therein." He was to 854 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. be furnished with " two hundred copies of all the proceedings at the Council Board concerning the charter of London, to be dispersed by him in New England, as he should think best for his Majesty's service." And he was to carry over a royal " Declaration," which must have made those who composed it smile, when they remembered what had been 'the issue of the more important Declaration of Breda. In it the King announced his " will and pleas- ure " to be, " that the private interests and prop- erties of all persons within the colony should be continued and preserved to them, so that no man should receive any prejudice in his freehold or estate." He promised, " that, in case the said cor- poration of the Massachusetts Bay should, be- fore prosecution had upon the said quo warranto, make a full submission and entire resignation to his pleasure, he would then regulate their charter in such manner as should be for his service and the good of the colony, without any other altera- tion than such as he should find necessary for the better support of his government there." And he " further declared and directed, that all those per- sons who were questioned in or by the said quo warranto, and should go about to maintain the suit, should make their defence at their own par- ticular charge, without any help by, or spending any part of, the public stock of the said colony ; and that as well those that were not freemen, as uch as were willing to submit, should be dis- LITIGATION ON THE CHARTER. 256 charged from all rates, levies, and contributions to- wards the expense of the said suit, both in their persons and estates." The agents, being " not willing to undertake the defence and manage- ment" of the question upon the charter in West- minster Hall, received liberty to return home ; but they were not to set sail till after Randolph should be " embarked for his said voyage." Randolph arrived at Boston a few days after tire agents. Forthwith the General Court was convened, and his alarming message was delivered. " The Court sat diem per diem on the. consideration of the weighty matters that were presented." Their consultations resulted in noth- ing but sending out a power of attorney to Mr. Robert Humphreys, a London barrister of the In- ner Temple, with instructions to appear for them at the approaching term of the court of King's Bench. He was informed that his object should be " to save a default and outlawry for the pres- ent." He was to " entertain the best counsel possible, and gain what time might be had, cunc- tando reslituere rem, and that a better day might shine." With reference to several particulars of questionable principle and irregular form which were specified, he was to plead to the jurisdiction of the court in the case as now brought before them ; and he was urgently to represent that the predecessors of the impeached party "transported themselves hither, settled and defended themselves here at their own cost and charge, many of them 256 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. leaving large accommodations in England for an uncertain settlement in this wilderness, confidently relying on the security given them by their charter for the enjoyment of the privileges therein contained." Of the proceedings of this General Court in re- lation to the great question that was pending, this is all that appears upon the record. The cold leaves reveal nothing of the temper and agony of the discussions that were protracted for four weeks. We learn something of them from other sources. Dudley, secured to the King's interest, and now again seated among the Assistants, assured the Court that there was no hope for them but in sub- mission. In the upper branch of the government there was found at length a servile majority. The Magistrates voted that an humble Address NOT. 15. be sent to his Majesty, declaring, that, "upon a serious consideration of his Majesty's gracious intimations in his former letters, and more particu- larly in his late declaration that his pleasure and purpose is only to regulate our charter in such a manner as shall be for his service and the good of this his colony, and without any other alteration than what is necessary for the support of his gov- ernment here, we will not presume to contend with his Majesty in a course of law, but humbly lay ourselves at his Majesty's feet, in a submission to his pleasure so declared ; and that we have re- solved, by the next opportunity, to send our agents, empowered to receive his Majesty's commands accordingly. And, for saving a default for non FIRMNESS OT THE DEPUTIES. 257 appearance upon the return of the writ of quo war- ranto, that some meet person or persons be ap- pointed, and empowered by letter of attorney, to appear and make defence, until our agents may make their appearance and submission, as above. The Magistrates have passed this with reference to the consent of their brethren the Deputies hereto." The Deputies were prepared for no such suicide, though there were not wanting faint hearts or grovelling aims among them. After a fortnight's debate over the action of the Magistrates, the lower house came to the following vote : " The Deputies consent not, but adhere to their former bills." The proposal of submission was rejected. Soon after this decision, Randolph sailed again for England, where he made reports to the Secretary of State and to the Privy Council of his proceedings. Intelligence that followed him indicated no progress in the undertaking of Dud- ley and his friends to obtain a submission of Massachusetts to the pleasure of the King. At the General Court for elections, Dudley had 1684 been dropped from the list of Assistants. M^ 7 - Bradstreet and others of his party had not been displaced ; but the vote that elected them had been close, and Stoughton had been so disgusted with the rejection of his friend, that he refused to take the oath of office, though he was at the same time complimented by being chosen a Federal Com- missioner. The General Court had sent another VOL. II. 17 258 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. letter to Humphreys, urging him to " use his en- , deavor to spin out the case to the utter- May 10. most ; " and, with it, another Address to the King, in which they prayed that he would not impute it to " the perverseness of their minds " that they could not make the submission which he demanded. Before these papers reached England, judicial action was taken that was all but definitive. The Court of Chancery, to which the business had been transferred, made a decree vacating the char- ter, at the same time directing " that judg- ment be entered up for his Majesty as of this term ; but if defendants appear first day of next term, and plead to issue, so as to take notice of a trial to be had the same term, then the said judgment, by Mr. Attorney's consent, to be set aside ; other- wise, the same to stand recorded." This staggering intelligence reached Massachu- setts in a private letter to Dudley. A General Court was convened ; but nothing was Sept. 10. done except to hear the letter read. An ad- journed meeting was held five weeks later. The Court then addressed the King once more, with the accustomed plea for justice and forbearance And they wrote to their attorney, Humphreys, that, "though they knew not what could be done more, nor could not direct for the future, yet, if he should find any way for their advantage, they were con- fident in his endeavors, and did assure him they Would not be ungrateful." These papers had not VACATING OF THE CHARTER. 259 been despatched from Massachusetts when the final step was taken in England. The counsel for the colony moved in the Court of Chancery for an arrest of proceedings, on the ground that time had not been allowed for procuring a power of attorney between the issuing of the writ of scire facias and the day appointed for its return. But the Lord Keeper said that corporations ought always & J Oct. 28. to have their attorney in court, and ordered final judgment to be entered for the vacating of the charter. Massachusetts, as a body politic, was now no more. The elaborate fabric, that had been fifty-four years in building, was levelled with the dust. The hopes of the fathers were found to have been merely dreams ; it seemed that their brave struggles had brought no result. The honored ally of the Protec- tor of England lay under the feet of King Charles the Second. It was on the charter granted to Roswell and his associates, Governor and Com- pany of Massachusetts Bay, that the structure of the cherished institutions of Massachusetts, relig- ious and civil, had been reared. The abrogation of that charter swept the whole away. Massachu- setts, in English law, was again what it had been before James the First made a grant of it to the Council for New England. It belonged to the King of England, by virtue of the discovery of the Cabots. No less than this was the import of the decree in Westminster Hall. Having secured its great triumph, the court had 260 HUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. no thought of losing anything by the weakness of compassion. The person selected by the King to govern the people of his newly acquired province was Colonel Piercy Kirk. That campaign in the west of England had not yet taken place which has made the name of Kirk immortal ; but fame enough had gone abroad of his brutal character to make his advent an anticipation of horror to those whom he was to govern. It was settled, that he was to be called " his Majesty's Lieutenant and M- portant The time for such practitioners had com* CHAPTER X. EASTERN AND SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. WHEN the Province of Maine, having been ad 1677. judged in England to be the property of May e. Ferdinando Gorges, was purchased from him by the Governor and Company of Massachu- setts Bay, that corporation accordingly became Lord Proprietor in his place. It had come into possession of little but vacant land. During the war with the Indians, Maine had been almost emptied of English settlers. The return of peace invited the fugitives back to their homes, and made it fit that a government should be reconstituted. Recurring to the system formerly in force, the General Court of Massachu setts admitted Deputies from towns in Maine, and made provision for the present administration of justice. But, when Randolph came from England a third time, bringing notice of the King's extreme dis- pleasure at that purchase of Maine which took it out of his own hands, it was time for Massachu- setts to see to the security of her property, if she did not mean to lose it. In doing so, it was im- possible for her to overlook the new relation intc MAINE. 265 which she was legally brought to the people for- merly dealt with on a footing of complete equality. From being a part of the colony, and as such sharing in the functions of government, voting for Governor and Magistrates, and sending Deputies from its towns to the General Court, Maine was now a subject province, to be administered in such manner as Massachusetts, exercising the preroga- tives set forth in the grant to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, should decree. Accordingly, " the Court taking into consideration the necessity of a speedy 16SO establishing a government in the Province Feb ' 4 ' of Maine, the honored Council of the juris- diction was requested and empowered to take order for settling the said government, and appointing a President, with justices of the peace, and other officers, as directed in Mr. Gorges's patent, and to commissionate the same under the seal of the colony." By virtue of this vote, the Governor and Assist- ants proceeded to establish and organize a govern- ment for Maine. They determined that there should be a provincial President, to be appointed from year to year by Massachusetts, and a legisla- ture to meet once a year, and to be composed of two branches. The upper house, called the Stand- ing" Council, was to consist of eight persons, ap- pointed annually by the Governor and Assistants of Massachusetts, and subject to be removed by them. The Standing Council was also the supreme judicature. The other legislative branch was to 266 EASTERN NEW ENGLAND. consist of Deputies from the towns. Under the authority conferred on them bj the General Court, the Governor and Assistants appointed Thomas Danforth to be President of Maine for the first year. Their action was approved by the Court at June 11. ... its session which speedily took place ; and towards the close of summer, attended by sixty soldiers, Danforth sailed for Casco Bay to Aug. * assume his charge. The General Court of the following year con- 1681 tinued Danforth in his place. The General May 11. Assembly of the province, constituted upon the new system, came together. They petitioned the government of Massachusetts for a guar- anty against " all claims and demands due, and by charter belonging, to the chief Lord Pro- prietor for the time past," and for immunity for the future from imposts on townships previously granted, and on " streams, saw-mills, corn-mills, etc otherwise than should be necessary for their own defence." On these conditions, they professed themselves willing to make provision for all the public charges of the province, and to make certain annual contributions to Massachusetts, as proprietary. The General Court accepted these proposals, and accordingly " ordered and empowered the President of said province to make legal confirmation to the inhabitants re- spectively of their just propriety in the lands there, under his hand and seal, according to the direc- tions of their charter." And the Assembly of Maine NEW HAMPSHIRE. 267 sent a memorial to the King, warmly expressing their gratitude for the protection and kindness ex- perienced from Massachusetts in time past, and their desire " to live under the rule of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts, now," they said, " your Majesty's Lieutenant, and our chiei Lord Proprietor." When it had been decided in England that neither Massachusetts nor Robert Mason had a right to rule New Hampshire, it became necessary to provide some other government for the four towns which still constituted the whole inhabited part of that territory. The King in Council accord- ingly instituted such an authority. New 1679< Hampshire was created a royal province. Julyl John Cutts, of Portsmouth, a respectable mer- chant, now far advanced in life, was made . . Sept. 18. President of it, with power to appoint a Deputy. Six persons were designated to compose his Council, while three others were to be chosen by them. The Governor and Council were to be a judicial court, subject to an appeal to the King in Council in cases involving a value of more than fifty pounds. They were authorized to appoint military officers, and, with the concurrence of the Assembly, to assess taxes. The Assembly, to con- sist of Deputies of the towns, was to constitute a part of the government so long as the King should not see fit to order otherwise. Enactments were to be immediately transmitted to the Privy Coun- cil, and were to remain in force until disallowed by 268 EASTERN NEW ENGLAND. that authority. Liberty of conscience was to be maintained. It was ordered that a seal should be transmitted to the province, with a portrait of the King and the royal arms, to be set up at the seat of government. Edward Randolph brought the commission to leso. Portsmouth, and made known its contents Jan- lf to the persons named in it as Magistrates. All of them were well affected to Massachusetts, and no one was ambitious of the position to which he was raised. They accepted the trust simply from a conviction, that, if declined by them, it would fall into hands that would deal less justly with the rights and interests of their neighbors. They took the oaths of office ; issued writs Jan. 22. J convening an Assembly, to consist of two Deputies from Exeter, and three from each of the other towns ; and appointed a fast-day to pray for " the continuance of their precious and pleas ant things." When the members of the government thus organized came together, almost their first act was a grateful recognition of the bene- fits which had in times past been experienced from the government of Massachusetts. They framed a code of laws introduced by the provision March 25. " that no act, imposition, law, or ordinance, should be made or imposed upon them, but such as should be made by the Assembly, and approved by the President and Council." They established inferior courts of justice, to be held in each of the NEW HAMPSHIRE. 269 towns of Portsmouth, Dover, and Hampton. They organized a military force, consisting of four com- panies of infantry (one for each town), a troop of horse, and an artillery company for the fort in Portsmouth harbor. Almost simultaneously with the institution of the new government, Randolph began his operations at Portsmouth as Collector of the King's Customs. The master of a vessel which he seized brought an action against him, and obtained a verdict with thirteen pounds damages. His deputy, Walter Barefoote, was convicted and fined five pounds for " having, in a high and presumptuous manner, set up his Majesty's office of customs without leave from the President and Council, in contempt of his Majesty's authority," and " for disturbing and obstructing his Majesty's subjects in passing from harbor to harbor, and town to town." It was time for Mason to be looking after his affairs in person. He came out armed with a mandamus from the Privy Council, consti- Dec. 30. tuting him a member of the Council of the province. He proceeded at once to molest the in- habitants by requiring them to take leases of their lands from him, and demanding rents for past oc- cupation, under a threat of seizure and sale. The Council, stimulated to action by numerous peti- Hons, peremptorily commanded Mason and his agents to desist from such annoyances. There- upon he absented himself from the meetings of the Council. They sent to require his presence, undei 270 EASTERN NEW ENGLAND. i the penalty of their displeasure for contumacy. He replied by publicly summoning them to an- swer him before the King within three months. They issued a warrant for his arrest for " a usurpa- tion over his Majesty's authority here established." He eluded it, and took passage for England. Three months before this, Richard Chamberlain had arrived, appointed, by a commission from the King, to supersede Elias Stileman, whom the Coun- cil had made their Secretary. President Cutts died ; and Waldron, who, ac- cording to the provision in the fundamental March 27. g^ succeeded to the chief office, appointed Aprils. ]y r< Stileman to be his Deputy, while Wal- dron's son was elected to the place now vacant in the Council. But this government was too good to be allowed to last. Mason's representations in England took effect, and the Privy Council re- solved to advise the King to remodel the adminis- tration of the province. Mason was so fortunate as to fall in with a person who at the same time was fit for his purposes, acceptable to the govern- ment, and in search of some way to get a living. This was one Edward Cranfield, said to have been of the family of the Lord Mounteagle, who was concerned in the detection of the Gunpowder Plot. Cranfield meant to have good security for his pay ; and it was agreed between him and Mason, that, if he should obtain from the crown a commission as Governor of New Hampshire, with an allow ance of all fines and forfeitures, Mason should fur NEW HAMPSHIRE. 271 ther allow him one-fifth part of all sums received as quit-rents, and should secure to him an annual income of a hundred and fifty pounds, for seven years, by a mortgage on the lands of the province for a term of twenty-one years. And an 1682 instrument of this tenor was enrolled in the Jan - 25 * Court of Chancery. The job was all arranged, and the commission was issued. It authorized the Governor to convoke, prorogue, and dissolve Genera. Courts, which were to continue to consist of a Council and Chamber of Deputies; to refuse to approve Acts of the two Houses, which should thereupon be void ; to remove Counsellors, who should thenceforward be incapable of serving as Deputies ; to constitute courts of judicature ; to appoint a Deputy-Governor, and judicial and mili- tary officers ; and to administer admiralty jurisdic- tion. Cranfield was made Governor. All of the .former Counsellors who were still living were re- tained, including Mason, who came back with the Governor ; and Barefoote and Chamberlain were added to the list. So far as Waldron and Martyn were concerned, the nomination seemed to have been intended only to prepare the way for an affront; for almost the first act of Cranfield, on arriv- Oct. 4. ing at the seat of his government, was to Oct. 10. dismiss them from the Council. He gave Cham- berlain the lucrative offices of clerk of all Oct 23. courts of judicature and registrar of deeds and wills. He summoned an Assembly ; and a 272 EASTERN NEW ENGLAND. new code of laws was promulgated, from which was omitted the provision that only laws ' enacted by the local legislature should be of force in the colony. A very few weeks had passed, before Mason and his viceroy fell out. Cranfield's eyes were opened about many things. He had been " not fairly treated by Mr. Mason and Mr. Cham- berlain." He recalled Waldron and Martyn to tne Council, " finding them to be persons very useful for his Majesty's service," and " nothing to render them guilty of such disloyalty as they were charged with ; " while Mason had " much misrepresented the whole matter, both as to the place and people," and " taken wrong measures for his procedure." One fruit of the altered relations of the parties was a tax laid by the Assembly, to the amount of five hundred pounds, of which sum they appropri- ated one half as a gratuity to the Governor. They probably hoped thus to secure his good-will, to protect them against the plots of Mason. But whether it was that Cranfield had now attained the object of his professed friendship, or merely that the new alliance had no reasonable basis, it 1683 was speedily broken. At the next meeting Jan. 20. o f ^ e legislature, which took place after a short interval, the Governor and the Assembly differed respecting several measures ; and he ex- ercised his extraordinary power to dissolve it, a high-handed proceeding, for which there had been no precedent in New England. As a measure of NEW HAMPSHIRE. 273 precaution, he dismissed Stileman from the charge of the fort at Portsmouth, and gave the command to Barefoote. The dissolution roused the people into a fury. Edward Gove, a Deputy from Hampton to the recent Assembly, gathered a little company, with which he went about among the towns, calling upon the inhabitants to aid him in securing " lib- erty and reformation." With eight of his associ- ates he was apprehended, and immediately ar- raigned for high treason. All were convicted ; but all were presently set at liberty except Gove, who was sentenced to suffer the penalty of the crime, with its odious accompaniments speci- fied by the law of England. The result of this mad outbreak made Cran- field's position more secure, but at the same time rendered it more disagreeable. He caused notice to be given that all the inhabitants must take leases from Mason within a month, under pain of having their failure reported to the King, and be- ing made liable to the forfeiture of their claim to a preemption. Having displaced Waldron and Mar- tyn from the Magistracy a second time, and ap- pointed Barefoote to be Deputy-Governor, he re- paired to Boston, where he considered that no little of his business lay, and where henceforward much o>f his time was spent. The passing year was a critical one for Mason. He had been appointed Chancellor, and, the Magis- Tates and the sheriffs (who selected the juries) be- VOL. II. 18 274 EASTERN NEW ENGLAND. ing now creatures of the Governor, he entered on the judicial prosecution of his claims with every fa- vorable prospect. The first suit which he brought was against Waldron, who, having been overruled in his challenge of the jurymen, as being tenants of Mason, and therefore interested persons, made no defence, and was defaulted with heavy costs. The same course was taken with all the principal landholders. But the futility of it was exposed when the executions were levied. Nobody would venture to buy the forfeited lands, or attempt to take possession of them. The despotism of Cranfield and his colleagues was unchecked and impudent. They excluded Massachusetts vessels from their river, on account of alleged violations, in that colony, of the laws of Trade. They put an arbitrary valuation on silver coin. They altered the boundaries of the towns ; forbade the collection of town and parish taxes, till taxes assessed for the province should have been paid in ; and in various other ways made the people feel the weight of a yoke which the imprudence of the recent rebellion showed the difficulty of throwing off. Enforced by poverty to convoke the provincial legislature again, the Governor informed them 1684. that he had intelligence that there was dan- jan. 14. g er Q a f ore ig n wai>j arK j O f an invasion oi the province by the King's enemies ; and he pre- sented to the Assembly a bill, which, reversing the proper order of procedure, he had already caused NEW HAMPSHIRE. 275 to be passed by the Council, appropriating money for the repair and supply of the fort at Portsmouth, and for other expenses of the government. The Assembly refused to enact the bill, and Cranfield revenged himself by dissolving it, and by causing several of the members to be chosen constables for the year, an appointment which could not be escaped but by the payment of a fine. With his obsequious Council, Crantield now proceeded to the extreme length of levying taxes without the action of an Assembly. The pretence was an alarm of invasion from the eastern Indians. Great military preparations were made ; and the Governor went to New York, to endeavor to make arrangements with Governor Dongan to engage an auxiliary force of Mohawks. He gave further offence to Massachusetts by ex- acting duties from vessels trading to the eastern side of the Piscataqua, which was within the bor- der of Maine. The Lords of the Committee wrote to Cranfield, censuring his course in causing the claims of Mason to be adjudicated upon in the province, instead of referring them to England, according to his instructions, and in presuming to fix the values of current coin. He was now ut- terly disappointed in his expectation of making a fortune, and disgusted with the -< f exations of the contest which he had dishonestly provoked ; and, oefore receiving this rebuke, he had written borne, asking to be relieved from his post. 276 EASTERN NEW ENGLAND. The King in Council gave him permission to ap- point a Deputy, and " to go to Jamaica 01 Barbadoes for the recovery of his health, which he alleged to be much impaired by the severity of the cold." The attempt to enforce payment of the illegally assessed taxes led to general disorder. The con- stables reported that they could collect no money. They were ordered to proceed by the process of distraint ; but when they had succeeded, through many difficulties, in seizing property, and offered it for sale, nobody would venture to buy. The people grew more turbulent, when a rumor got abroad that the Governor was soon to leave them. At Exeter they drove off the Marshal, the women having prepared boiling water and red-hot spits to use in support of the men's cudgels. From Hampton he had to withdraw with a beat- 1685 ing and the loss of his sword, and was Jan. 22. escor t e( j thence to Salisbury on horseback, with a rope round his neck, and his legs tied under the horse's belly. Robie, one of the Magistrates, attempting to seize some of the mob, was himself assaulted. The troop of horse was ordered to Jan. 9. parade under Mason, to put down the insur- rection ; but, on the appointed day, Mason found himself alone at the field of rendezvous. From these storms, when at their height, Cranfield, avail- ing himself of the leave of absence which he had secured in time, withdrew to the more tranquil atmosphere of the West Indies, taking passage PLYMOUTH. 277 privately at Boston. Barefoote was left at the head of the government. Of the confederate colonies, Massachusetts alone had hitherto been annoyed by Randolph and his employers and associates. Plymouth and Con- necticut he had as yet seemed disposed rather to favor and flatter than to disturb. It was with the claims of Massachusetts that the pretensions of Mason and Gorges conflicted ; and it was plain, that, if Massachusetts should be broken down, the other colonies would be an easy prey, and that, while the struggle was going on, a show of royal favor to them would strengthen the royal cause by creating jealousies among the parties to the colo- nial alliance. Plymouth recovered but slowly from the exhaust- ion consequent upon the Indian war. Some 1680 vague expressions of good-will in a letter jTmel - from the King revived in that colony the always delusive hope of obtaining a royal charter, and James Cudworth, of Scituate, was sent to England to present an Address having that object. In his absence, he was chosen Deputy- Governor, succeed- ing in that office to Thomas Hinckley, of Barn- stable, who had been the first to hold it, and who, after a single year's service, had, on the death of Governor Win slow, been placed at the head of the administration. Cudworth died soon after his arrival in England; and after iggi. nearly two years more of disappointed hope, Mr. Ichabod Wiswall, minister of Duxbury, Feb. e 278 SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. was sent to renew the suit. But all would not do. Plymouth never got a royal charter. Connecticut, on the other hand, rejoicing in the possession of that valued security, was for the present quiet and content, as well as thrifty. In the years immediately succeeding the Indian war her tranquillity was disturbed only by a continuation of the chronic ' strife with Rhode Island for pro- prietorship and jurisdiction in the Narragansett country. While that territory was a field of battle with the Indians, the controversy between its Eng- lish claimants was of course suspended. When the quarrel was revived, it was under somewhat altered conditions. To the more ancient claims of Connecticut was now added that of conquest ; for, while her troops had composed a large part of the force which had fatally struck at the Narragansett tribe in its stronghold, and finally swept over its domain, Rhode Island had held herself neutral in the war, to the extreme disgust of the other colo- nies. Almost before the Indians were reduced, the dispute broke out again in its old forms. Rhode 1676 Island made proclamation that no person Oct. 27. mus t "exercise jurisdiction in any part of the Narragansett country, under any pretence what- ever, except under her authority." Some back- 1677. woodsmen complained to Rhode Island of May1 ' being annoyed by Connecticut; and the former colony resolved that she would stand by them, " and relieve them," and " vindicate her jurisdiction unto the Narragansett country." The CONNECTICUT AND KHODE ISLAND. 279 intruders relied on this assurance, and some Con- necticut officers brought them to Hartford, and put them in gaol. More of that spirited altercation followed, with which the reader is already well enough acquainted. But in action, Rhode Island, though she put her militia in order, was less adventurous than she had been in former times. Considerations of the recent practice of Connect- icut in arms may have influenced her impulsive neighbor. Randall Holden and John Greene were now in England, calling the attention of the Privy Council to their ancient quarrel with Massachu- setts, and to that surrender of the Narragansett lands to the King which they had obtained from the natives forty years before. John Crowne was also there, representing the loss which his father had sustained by the surrender of Nova Scotia to the French, and seeking to be reimbursed by a grant of the territory lately conquered from the Pokanokets at Mount Hope. The King wrote to the colonies, directing that " all things relat- 1679 ing to the said Narragansett country, or the Feb ' 12- King's Province, should be left in the condition as they now were, or had lately been in, as to the possession and government thereof;" and that claimants of " the soil or the government of the? said lands " should, " with all speed, and by the first convenience, send over persons sufficiently em- powered and instructed to make their right and title appear." The colonies were at the same time 280 SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. to " certify what right or title any of them might pretend unto the said country of Mount Hope, and also the true extent, value, and propriety of the said lands, with the grounds and evidences of their respective claims, if any should be made." The King's letter seemed to present an occasion for a consultation of the Commissioners of the three confederate colonies. The Commis- sioners accordingly held a special meeting at Boston, and agreed upon a joint letter to Lord Sunderland. They informed him, that, as to the origin of the late Indian war, they had "just ground not only to fear, but without breach of charity to conclude, that those malicious designers, the Jes- uits, those grand enemies to his Majesty's crown as well as to the Protestant religion, had had their influence in the contrivement thereof." They represented that the lands of Mount Hope, for- feited by Philip in " his breach of covenant," lay within the patent bounds of Plymouth ; and that as to Crowne, who was seeking to be endowed with those lands, " neither his former losses, which were rather imaginary than real, nor his present demeanors, seemed such as should highly deserve of his Majesty, being rather a burden and disser- vice to such places where he had been, than other- wise." The Narragansett lands, they said, were " in- cluded in his Majesty's charter granted to Connect- icut, and so regularly under the government there- of; but, since the war, these parts were CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND. 281 disturbed by sundry who did intrude themselves upon them, by countenance of the government of Rhode Island, as they alleged, and were an un- governed people, utterly incapable to advance his Majesty's interest, or the peace and happiness of their neighbors." The settlement made by the Royal Commissioners, fifteen years before, it was argued, was invalid, because of the absence of Colonel Nicolls, whose concurrence with his col- leagues in any decision was made necessary by the terms of their appointment. Finally, it was urged that it would " be most difficult, if not impossible, for the several claimers of right in that country, now resident in the colonies, to defend their interest in England, the whole estate of many of them being not able to transport them over seas." On the other hand, Sanford, Governor of Rhode Island, transmitted to the King a statement of the successive settlements within that jurisdiction, vin- dicating the claim of his constituents on the ground of ancient possession. At home and in England the quarrel was carried on with animation, but with no important varia- tions of incident, for some months longer, after which, as is indicated by the silence of the records both of Connecticut and of Rhode Island, it was suspended for more than two years. The firm attitude assumed by the former colony probably tended to keep the peace upon the spot, while the home government had no leisure for attention to the business during that time. At the end of it, 282 SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. the King appointed " Commissioners for examin- 1688. i n g anf l inquiring into the respective claims Apni 7. anc j Cities, ag we \\ o f himself as of all per- sons and corporations whatsoever, to the imme- diate jurisdiction, government, or propriety of the Boil of or within the province commonly called the King's Province or Narragansett Country." The Commissioners were Edward Randolph, Edward Cranfield, Governor of New Hampshire, William Stoughton, Joseph Dudley, and five other Massa- chusetts men prominent in the prerogative party. Their decision, reported to the Privy Coun- cil, sustained the pretensions of Connecti- cut and the Atherton Company, and disdainfully set aside those of Rhode Island. They said that the King's charter to Connecticut distinctly gave to that colony the lands in question ; that the sub- sequent agreement between Winthrop and Clarke had no virtue to invalidate the royal grant ; and that they found " no cause to judge that Pauca- tuck River anciently was, or ought to be called or accounted, the Narragansett River." And they added : " We hold it our duty humbly to inform your Majesty, that, so long as the pretensions of the Rhode Islanders to the government of said prov- ince continue, it will much discourage the settle- ment and improvement thereof, it being very im- probable that either the aforementioned claimants, or others of like reputation and condition, wil* either remove their families, or expend their estates under so loose and weak a government." CONNECTICUT. 283 While Connecticut had such great interests de- pendent on the pleasure of the court, her people were not backward in manifestations of loy- 1678 alty. The authorities sent an Address to the Oct - 10 - King, to thank him for the happy issue of the late Indian war. " Under God," they said, " we must acknowledge ourselves debtors to your Majesty ; the greatness of your name and power, with the gracious aspect towards us, being a terror to our heathen adversaries." But the expression of their gratitude to him for the advantage his gracious aspect had afforded them in their hunt of the In- dians did but introduce a more practical topic. They extolled his " great goodness in those charter bounds and privileges which had been no small engagement and encouragement by which to de- fend and recover the whole, when others that pre- tended a part deserted the same," and added an " earnest beseeching the continuance of his princely grace, in the full enjoyment of all the limits men- tioned in their said charter, and the privileges thereof." When the regulations of commerce were Dressed, " the Governor did, in the presence 1680 i f the Court, take the oath respecting the May 14- Act of Navigation and Trade appointed by his Majesty ; " and he assured the Commissioners of the Customs that his government had " ap- 1681 pointed Customers or Collectors in the sev- Jan - 2 * > eral counties to take special care that the Acts of Navigation and Trade were duly observed and fcept, and had commissioned them accordingly," 284 SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. and that they would " be ready to grant Mr. Ran* dolph such necessary aid and assistance as should be requisite, if he also should see cause to take any cognizance of these affairs in the colony." Andros leso. wrote to Governor Leete that he was in- 18> formed of Colonel Goffe's living concealed in Hartford, under the name of Cooke ; a warrant was forthwith issued to the constables " to make diligent search " for the culprit " in the houses, barns, out-houses, and all places " of that town ; and Andros was apprised that the search had proved fruitless, as well as that " our people were amazed that any such thing could be suspected." Governor Leete was at the head of the adminis- tration in Connecticut during nearly all the period 1683 treated in this chapter. He died when he Apni 16. na( j been Governor nearly seven successive years, and was succeeded by Robert Treat, (the General for his colony in Philip's war,) with whom James Bishop, of Hartford, was associated as Deputy - Governor. The political refractoriness which Leete brought to America seems never to have wholly recovered from the shock it received before the surrender of New Haven ; and he never gave Randolph occasion to make a quarrel with the consolidated colony of which he became Chief Magistrate. Another character of his administra- tion should not be overlooked. He imported into the legislation of Connecticut something of the New Haven element of extreme Puritan rigor, DEATH OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 285 an innovation to which his chief associate in the Magistracy was also by no means adverse. From the beginning of Leete's administration, " the great unreformedness " of the people excited more anxi- ety; " provoking evils " and "crying sins" seemed to multiply ; " rebukes and threatenings " were more remarked ; and Divine judgments appeared to be more deserved and more certainly impending. But Leete was an intelligent and virtuous ruler, and Connecticut prospered under his care. The disappearance of another name, in perhaps the same month, from the roll of the living, was less observed at the time, though the name fills a larger place in history. Busy and conspicuous as has seemed the part that for a time he acted, the precise date of the death of Roger Williams is not known. For many years before it took place, he can scarcely be said to have been prominent in the view even of his own little public. In whatsoever proportions the failure may have been owing to his own eccentricities on the one hand, and to the ob- tuseness and waywardness of those whose conceits he had stimulated on the other, it is certain that he failed to command the controlling considera- tion which might have been expected to follow his possession of some uncommon abilities, and his repeated manifestations of a public spirit singularly disinterested and earnest. Free as he was from selfish ambition, it is not to be doubted that his life was a happy one, though it cannot be called, in any common use of the term, successful. A 286 SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. Magistrate, at two or three distant intervals, of the colony which he had founded, his official life was mostly passed in a furious turmoil, such as would have made wretched any man of less cheer- ful temper. Leaving the public scene, not because his associates there were ungrateful, but because they were intractable, and betaking himself to the woods to turn Indian trader, no constant good for- tune appears to have attended him even in that sphere. It seems that his expectations from his new employment were disappointed, and that in his old age he was maintained by his son. William Coddington had ended his course a few years earlier. The principal founder of one of the two communities which were united in the colony of Rhode Island, the sovereign of it, as at one time he had been by royal grant, survived, by many years, not only his official and his personal importance, but probably his intellect- ual faculties, which were never of the highest order. Whether it was owing most to want of balance and want of force in his mind and character, or to the perversity of those whom he had undertaken to improve, profit, and govern, his hold on their confidence had not proved lasting. Happily for his peace of mind, from Antinomian he had turned Quaker ; and the visions and the controversies of his sect provided him with resources for enjoyment in his declining years. What remained of the Confederacy of the New England colonies was now about to expire. Afte END OF THE SECOND CONFEDERACY. 287 fchat meeting of the Commissioners at which were considered the conflicting claims to the Narragan- sett country, only two more meetings were held. At the former of these, which took place in 1681 Boston, no business was transacted except Sept> ^ the settlement of two or three small claims made by private parties on account of the late war. The last meeting was at Hartford. Arrange- J684 ments having been made to pay another ^P*- 5 - little war-debt to Richard Smith, the final act of the Board of Commissioners of the Confederate Colonies was to proclaim a day of fasting and humiliation, that the people might bewail " those rebukes and threatenings from Heaven which they were at present under, His hand being stretched out still," and might pray " for a further lengthen- ing out of their tranquillity under the shadow of their sovereign lord the King, and that God would preserve his life, and establish his crown in right- eousness, for the defence of the Protestant religion in all his dominions." But the life that was de- sired for protection against a Popish reign was to be prolonged, in such righteousness as appertained to it, but a very little further. CHAPTER XL PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS. WITHIN a few months after the abrogation of 1685 the charter of Massachusetts, King Charles ?eb ' 6 ' died suddenly, and his brother, the Roman Catholic Duke of York, ascended the throne of England, with the title of James the Second. In this short interval no arrangements were concluded for the government of the subjugated colony; and the variety of important business which belonged to the beginning of a new reign, and the insurrection under the Duke of Monmouth which took place soon after, fully occupied the attention of the ministry of King James. Accordingly, no orders came from England for a new regulation of affairs in Massa- chusetts, and the administration was continued in the ancient form. On the day of King James's accession to the throne, he issued his proclamation, directing tha* all persons in authority in his kingdoms and col onies should continue to exercise their functions till further order should be taken. A printed copy of the proclamation was transmitted to Boston by Blathwayt, along with an order to proclaim CHARTER ELECTION. 289 the new King. The General Court was convened, by the Governor to receive and register the edict. The Court was prepared to re- ply that the royal pleasure had been anticipated. A fortnight before its meeting, on the reception of a less formal instruction to the same effect, " the Governor and Council had ordered his Majesty with all due solemnity to be proclaimed in the high street in Boston ; which was done. The Honorable Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Assistants, on horseback, with thousands of peo- ple, a troop of horse, eight foot companies, drums beating, trumpets sounding, his Majesty was pro- claimed by Edward Rawson, Secretary, on horse- back, and John Greene, Marshal-General, taking it from him, to the great joy and loud acclamations of the people, and a seventy piece of ordnance next after the volleys of horse and foot." The annual elections in Massachusetts took place as usual : but the government was May 27. now regarded as only provisional, and was conducted without spirit. It was still expected that Colonel Kirk would soon come over as Gov- ernor. A universal despondency prevailed. The General Court found it necessary to threaten Borne of the towns for their neglect in send- ing Deputies; and, "judging it a matter of great- est concernment in the present juncture of Provi- dence towards this people, that they so managed themselves as that they might not be led into temptation, to the doing of anything dishonorable VOL. II. 19 290 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. to their profession, disloyal to his Majesty, or the peace of those that had betrusted them," they summoned certain " reverend elders of the several towns to meet and confer with the Court in council " at an adjourned session. The Court came together again for this purpose ; and Mr. Higginson, minister of Salem, was de- sired " to seek the face of God for his special guidance and direction." But nothing came of the conference that followed except another July 24. Address to the King, rehearsing the same arguments for justice and lenity which had again and again proved so unprofitable. Meanwhile, the indefatigable Randolph was at work in England. Soon after the defeat of the Duke of Mon mouth's invasion afforded the gov- ernment some leisure, Randolph presented a petition to the King, praying him to erect a temporary government over Massachusetts and its dependencies, and to send him over with com- missions for it, and with writs of quo warranto against Rhode Island and Connecticut. He Sept. 2. . furnished a list of " well-disposed persons fit to be concerned in the temporary government of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay." Dudley's name is at the head of the catalogue, then Stoughton's, then Bulkley's. And he submitted a scheme of a joint House of Assembly, in which Massachu- setts should be represented by twenty Deputies, Plymouth and New Hampshire each by nine, and Maine by eight. But this project, imperfect protec- LAST CHARTER ELECTION. 291 don as it would have afforded to the colonists, was strangled in the birth. The King would have no House of Assembly. Other ar- rangements went slowly on, as the leisure of the government allowed. An Admiralty Court was constituted for " New England and all the parts thereof." Randolph received a commission to be Postmaster. And the Privy Council made provision for setting up in Boston the Ocfc ^ worship of the Church of England. One more annual election was held in Massa- chusetts according to the provisions of the 1686 charter. The freemen showed their dis- ^r 12 - satisfaction with Dudley by leaving him out of the Magistracy, a proceeding which so offended his friend Stoughton that he again declined to serve. They were not, however, consigned to private life. Arrangements had now been completed for the humiliation of the obnoxious colony. Two days after the annual General Court came to- May 14. gether, a frigate brought Randolph to Bos- ton, with an exemplification of the judgment against the charter, and commissions for the func- tionaries of a new government. It was to con- sist of a President, Deputy-President, and sixteen Counsellors. Their authority extended over Mas- sachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and the King's Province. Over this district they were to exercise undivided control, no arrangement being made for a House of Assembly. Their functions, however, were Inly executive and judicial. They had no legisla- 292 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. tive authority, nor could they collect any taxes ex- cept such as had already been determined by law Dudley was appointed President, and Stoughton Deputy - President. Randolph and Mason were made members of the Council. So were Fitz- John Winthrop and Wait Winthrop, of Connecti- cut, both of whom had lived in Boston much of the time since their father's death. Randolph was also Secretary and Registrar. Six of the Counsel- lors named in the commission had previously been Assistants. Two of them, Bradstreet and Salton- stall, refused to assume the trust, as did also Dudley Bradstreet, the Governor's son, and lately a Deputy. Dudley and Randolph, with those Counsellors who consented to become their associates, May 1". laid their commission before the General Court, declining, however, to recognize the Mag- istrates and Deputies in an official capacity. On the third day following, the Court abdicat- ed the government provisionally and under protest, after passing a unanimous vote to reply to the new rulers in the following terms : " Gentlemen, We have perused what you left with us as a true copy of his Majesty's commis- sion showed to us the 17th instant, empowering you for the governing of his Majesty's subjects in- habiting this colony, and other places therein men- tioned. You then applied to us, not as a Governor and Company, but (as you were pleased to term us) some of the principal gentlemen and chief in Habitants of the several towns of the Massachu ABDICATION OF THE OLD GOVERNMENT. 293 setts, amongst other discourse saying it concerned us to consider what therein might be thought hard and uneasy. Upon perusal whereof we find, as we conceive, First, That there is no certain de- terminate rule for your administration of justice ; and that which is, seems to be too arbitrary. Sec- ondly, That the subjects are abridged of their lib- erty, as Englishmen, both in the matters of legisla- tion and in laying of taxes ; and indeed the whole unquestioned privilege of the subject transferred upon yourselves, there not being the least mention of an Assembly in the commission. And there- fore we think it highly concerns you to consider whether such a commission be safe for you or us. But, if you are so satisfied therein as that you hold yourselves obliged thereby, and do take upon you the government of this people, although we can- not give our assent thereto, yet we hope we shall demean ourselves as true and loyal subjects to his Majesty, and humbly make our addresses unto God, and in due time to our gracious Prince, for our relief." They raised a committee of three persons, with the universally venerated Samuel Nowell at its head, to receive from the Secretary, and keep in their own hands, " such papers on file with the Sec- retary as referred to their charter, and negotiations from time to time for security thereof, with such as referred to their title of their land by purchase of Indians or otherwise." This done, " the whole Court met at the Governor's house," and passed a 294 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. formal vote of adjournment to a day in autumn. It was the last act of the old charter government; and with it the series of ancient records of Massa- chusetts, begun fifty-eight years before in a count- ing-house in London, is brought to a close. The President might now please himself with the thought that he had secured the first step to what would prove a lofty eminence, if he should but continue to play his part with the audacity and adroitness in which no American of the time was his equal. The angular points of the heroic character are not seldom found to have disap- peared in the second generation of an historical family. He whose early years have been passed in the chill of -a home overshadowed by the pen- alties of opposition to the ruling influences of the time is tempted, even if entertaining honest aims, to court that smile of the world which, from want of experience and of confidence in him- self, he rates at too high a value, and to look for some course of action that may reconcile self- respect with ease and good repute. Neither the second Winslow, nor even (with all his merit) the second Winthrop, had chosen for himself all the ruggedness of his father's path. Joseph Dudley, from the earliest period of memory, had been told )f his father, not as of a disappointed man, for the governing aims of Thomas Dudley were not worldly, but as of one who had lived and died in a position less prominent and less luxurious than his early advantages might have seemed to prom' PRESIDENCY OF JOSEPH DUDLEY. 295 be; and such a career the enterprising son had no mind to repeat for himself. In early life, with dis- tinguished ability, a diligence that nevei wearied, and the resources of a culture the most thorough that his country could afford, he pursued that rep- utable course which leaves the wise observer at a loss to decide whether it is dictated by uprightness and public spirit, or by a mere prudential watch- fulness of the first avenues to advancement. Con- secrated to the clerical profession when he first came into the public view, he was screened, in a community like that in which he lived, from all jealous analysis of his springs of action ; and, de- voting himself to public business in early manhood, he had strengthened by able services in various sub- ordinate trusts that public confidence which, when the time should be ripe, might make a stepping- stone for his vaulting ambition. But, flattering as were now his prospects, it was impossible that he should be unapprehensive of the embarrassments that surrounded him. Disarmed for the present as the patriot leaders were, he knew them well enough to expect that they would profit by all favorable circumstances to revive a resolute and skilful opposition to his courtly policy. He was not too ill-tempered to be willing to use concili- atory measures, when measures of that character arould best promote his aims. But the unavoid- able difficulty was to conciliate the patriots with- out estranging Randolph ; for Randolph, always intolerant and impracticable, had now become vin- 896 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. dictive to an extreme degree. On his way to the eminence where he now found himself, Dudley had been effectively helped by Randolph's favor, and he was not yet powerful enough to venture to break with his ally. The yoke in which Randolph held him was often experienced to be galling ; for Dud- ley, selfish as was his nature, ready as he had been to be corrupted, was not entirely without a con- science, nor could he yet entirely release himself from the early influences of Thomas Dudley's house. Perhaps he still loved the college. Per- haps he had still some love for the colony, which, grateful for his father's great services, and welcom- ing his own fair promise, had so affectionately showered its honors upon him. He could not but respect, if he no longer loved, the men upon whom it now devolved to do, in bitterness of heart and in defiance of him, the work in which they should have had him for a powerful coadjutor. But he loved his own elevation better than aught beside, and the ladder by which he was ascending was still steadied by Randolph's hand. Within a week after the final separation of the General Court, the President and his Coun- May 25. cil met, published by proclamation their com- mission from the King, and took formal possession cf the government. They appointed John Usher, who was of the Council, to be Colonial Treasurer. They lost no time in informing the Lords of the Committee of the ease with which the revolution had been effected, and of the mea* PRESIDENCY OF JOSEPH DUDLEY. 297 ares which were in their contemplation for the future. As to military security, they wrote, that. Peter Bulkley having declined the office, they had intrusted the command of the Castle in Boston harbor to " Captain Wait Winthrop, a person of known loyalty ; " and, so far from adhering to the ancient bigotry of the country, they gave assur- ances that the Reverend Mr. Ratcliffe, who they had been informed was to be sent over by the Bishop of London to institute Episcopal worship in Boston, should " want no encouragement " from them. They referred to the " inconveniences happening by the indispositions and refusal of several persons nominated in his Majesty's most gracious commission," and reported the vacancies existing in the places assigned in it to Governor Bradstreet, Dudley Bradstreet, and Saltonstall. To their credit it is to be recorded that they expressed the opinion that it would be " much for his Maj- esty's service, and needful for the support of the government and prosperity of all these plantations, to allow a well-regulated Assembly to represent the people in making needful laws and levies." They prayed for authority to establish a mint. Arrange- ments were made for the administration to proceed according to the ancient forms. The President took an oath to observe the Navigation laws. The sanguine expectations of Randolph from the new order of things were disappointed. He grew constantly more exacting and absolute, and it was unavoidable that he and the President should 298 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. soon fall out. The second month of the new gov ernment had not ended, when, laying hif July 28. J grievances before the Lords of the Commit- tee, he wrote : " The proceedings of the Governor [President] and Council, whatever they write and pretend in their letters to your Lordships, are man- aged to the encouragement of the Independent faction, and utter discountenancing both of the minister and those gentlemen and others who dare openly profess themselves to be of the Church of England, not making any allowance for our min- ister more than we raise by contribution among ourselves. The frame of this government only is changed, for our Independent ministers flourish, and expect to be advised with in public affairs. Under the color of his Majesty's authority, the President takes great liberty to enjoin upon me in my station, and would not assist me to make a seizure of a vessel in the harbor, which my officers were not permitted to board My life .may be made very uneasy, unless his Majesty shall be pleased graciously to recommend me to the care and protection of his General Governor, for whose speedy arrival all good men heartily pray." He complained that only two members of the government, Mr. Mason and himself, were mem- bers of the Church of England ; that, " of above sixty officers in the militia of the whole govern- ment, there were not above two captains, or three inferior officers, but were either church-members or such as constantly frequented those meetings, PRESIDENCY OF JOSEPH DUDLEY. 299 which made Non-conformists from all places resort there." The effect of this favor of the local gov- ernment in encouraging the immigration of danger- ous characters he specified in the instances of three considerable persons, who had lately appeared in Massachusetts. Mr. Morton, he said, " an excommunicated min- ister," had lately " come hither from Newington Green. He was welcomed by the President, and designed to be master-head of the college ; but not daring to proceed at first by such large steps, he was called to be minister at Charlestown, a very good living, and was ready at hand to be Presi- dent of the college. Two brothers of the name of Bailey, great and daring Non-conformists at Lim- erick, in Ireland, had been here two years, and well provided for. In the time of Mon mouth's rebel- lion, most part of the ministers animated the peo- ple, saying the time of their deliverance was at hand ; and not one of them prayed for his Majesty nor would give credit to his Majesty's most gra- sious letter, signifying the overthrow of the rebels." Accordingly, the writer " humbly proposed, as greatly for the quiet and welfare of the plantation of New England, that no minister from England should be permitted to land without the license of the General Governor, and that he should have power or license to restrain from preaching such as were already upon the place From all which " he toncluded it to be " very necessary that his Maj- tty v/ould be graciously pleased to send over a 300 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. General Governor, to unite and settle this dis- tracted country, and also to make good what was already begun in this colony, the delay whereof might be of evil consequence, and give way for the factious people here to reassume the government, which they openly declared they had not parted withal, but expected an opportunity to be re- stored." To his friend, Mr. Blathwayt, Randolph at the same time poured out his griefs still more largely. " The President," he wrote, " has so contrived the matter, that Captain George [of the Rose frigate, which had brought Randolph over] has received above two hundred pounds money, which legally belongs to me as collector and informer." The mutual dissatisfaction between the President and the members of his Council was such, that " now, instead of meeting to do public business, 'twas only to quarrel, and that in such heats that it threatened to occasion the dissolving the govern- ment. I am forced," he continued, " to moderate others' passion, though I have most cause to com- plain, and quietly to suffer my profits to be shared out amongst others, till Sir Edmund Andros come over. He is longed for by all sober men who find themselves abused by the false President Mr. Stoughton is inclined to the Non-conformist ministers, yet stands right to his Majesty. Mr. Usher is a just, honest man, and will not see his Majesty's interest suffer. But we are over- voted, and cannot help overselves till Sir Edmund PRESIDENCY OF JOSEPH DUDLEY. 301 come to regulate the matter. ..... I am treated by Mr. Dudley worse than by Mr. Danforth, yet all under the pretence of friendship, and he is angry that I do not believe him. Honest Major Bulkley is tired out, and can hardly be persuaded to come to Boston." To Archbishop Sancroft he addressed himself in an earlier letter, mainly devoted to eccle- siastical affairs. He had hoped that the towns-people of Boston " would voluntarily submit to have one of their three meeting-houses to be disposed of by the President and Council " for the worship of the Church of England. Disappointed in that expectation, he had with much difficulty obtained for the purpose a little room in their town- house. Ratcliffe, " a sober man," the clergyman who by the appointment of the Bishop of London had come over with him, was now preaching twice every Sunday, administering baptism, and reading " prayers every Wednesday and Friday morning on then: exchange." These unfamiliar proceedings led to "great affronts, some calling the minister Baal's priest, and some of their ministers, from the pulpit, calling the prayers leeks, garlic, and trash." Randolph had " often moved for an honorable maintenance for the minister;" but the townsmen replied, that " those that hired him must maintain him, as they did their own ministers, by contribu- tion." On his part, he " humbly represented that the three meeting-houses in Boston might pay twenty shillings a week apiece, out of their con- 302 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. tribution, towards the defraying" the charges of the newly imported church ; and he advised the sending over of another minister, to keep the sacred fire alive, in case " any illness or indisposi- tion should happen to the present incumbent." He had looked after " the bank of money in the hands of the corporation for evangelizing the Indians." The Archbishop had expressed himself as " very desirous that that money might be inq'iired after, and applied to build a church and free school, that youth might be no longer poisoned with the sedi- tious principles of this country." Randolph replied, that the sum in the hands of the corporation was not less than two thousand pounds, but at present he could not venture to add an attempt to seize it to the other causes of offence which he had found that he had given. After further inquiry respecting the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians, Ran- dolph was able to inform the Archbishop Oct 27 that there were " seven persons, called Com- missioners or Trustees, who had the sole manage of it ; the chief of which were Mr. Dudley, the President, a man of a base, servile, and anti-mo- narchical principle ; Mr. Stoughton, of the old leav- en ; Mr. Richards, a man not to be trusted in pub- lic business ; Mr. Hinckley, Governor of Plymouth colony, a rigid Independent ; and others like to these." The Commissioners, he said, were com- plained of to Mr. Ratcliffe by the Indians for mak- ing; them no allowance for the winter ; and thej PRESIDENCY OF JOSEPH DUDLEY. 303 " would not suffer Aaron, an Indian teacher, to have a Bible with the Common Prayer in it, but took it away from him." Randolph informed his correspondent that the money annually received from England by the Commissioners amounted to not less than three or four hundred pounds, some reckoned it as high as six hundred pounds, and that with this they " enriched themselves, yet charged it all as laid out upon the poor Indians." He represented that " the money now converted to private, or worse uses, would set up good and pub- lic schools, and provide maintenance for the Church minister, who now lived upon a small contribu- tion." There was urgent need for " good school- masters, none being here allowed but of ill prin- ciple ; and till there was provision made to rectify the youth of the country, there was no hope that the people would prove loyal." The prospects of the new church were encouraging. There were " at present four hundred persons who were daily frequenters of it ; and as many more would come over, but, some being tradesmen, others of me- chanical professions, were threatened by the Con- gregational men to be arrested by their credit- ors, or to be turned out of their work, if they of- fered to come to church." The members of the First Church, whose house of worship was near the exchange, were peculiarly " tender-conscienced." Randolph " desired them to let their clerk toll their bell at nine o'clock Wednesdays and Fridays," for the new congregation " to mee^ to go to prayers. 304 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. Their man said, in excuse for not doing it, that they had considered, and found it intrenched on their liberty of conscience granted them by his Majesty's present commission, and could in no wise assent to it." During the existence of the government of Dud- ley and his Counsellors, New Hampshire, Maine, and the Narragansett country had no political his- tory distinct from that of Massachusetts. Dudley's Council lost no time, after its organization, in dis- charging Danforth from the Presidency of Maine. The short remainder of Barefoote's administration in New Hampshire, before the province was again incorporated with Massachusetts under Dudley's government, was inefficient and disturbed ; but it 1685 accomplished the renewal of pacific engage- sept. s. men ^ s on ^ ne p ar t o f some Indians about the Piscataqua and further east, who were sus- pected of preparing for another outbreak. The history of Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecti- cut during the same time is barren of incidents. The period was one of uncertainty and suspense, and there was little public action except to provide for the exigencies of the passing hour. Plymouth, always destitute of even the imperfect protection of a charter, lay entirely at the King's mercy. The same tyranny that had annulled the charter of Massachusetts might at any time strike at the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Men's hearts failed them for fear. At Plymouth, King James was " solemnly pro PLYMOUTH AND RHODE ISLAND. 305 Claimed, according to the form prescribed by his Majesty's most honorable Privy Council ; " a A t ^ I ' , division was made of the colony into coun- ties, three in number, named Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol; and consequently June 4 sheriffs were now first appointed, the duties be- longing to that office having been previously per- formed by constables. The colony sent an Address to the King, again begging for a charter, and received from him a letter informing them of the miscarriage of the enterprises of the Earl of Argyll and the Duke of Monmouth. A revised edition of the colonial laws was pub- lished. These are the only public occur- rences recorded in the history of that colony during the twenty months that elapsed between the death of Charles the Second and the time when 1636 the public record was brought to a close. In Rhode Island, when five years had elapsed after the death of William Coddington, who, in his old age, had been called from his long re- 1674 tirement, and for three years made Gov- J^|; ernor of the colony, his son, bearing the same name, was also advanced to that dig- Mft y 2. nity. He was rechosen in two successive years. The last of these elections took place in 1685 the anxious time which immediately fol- May5> lowed the accession of the new monarch, and Cod- dington positively declined to serve. It may be supposed to have been by his own preference that oe was not a member of the Committee which, VOL. ii. ao 306 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. by the appointment of the General Court, ad- dressed a letter of congratulation to King James. Randolph's plan for the subjugating of New England embraced the two colonies which had obtained charters from King Charles the Second. The new reign had scarcely begun, when the busy informer appeared before the Lords of the Com- mittee for Trade and Plantations with Articles of Misdemeanor against Rhode Island and Connecti- cut. Some of his charges against the Gov- ernor and Company of Rhode Island were, that they raised money by illegal impositions upon the inhabitants ; that they denied appeals to the King; that they made and executed laws con- trary to the laws of England ; that they did not suffer the laws of England to be pleaded in their courts ; that their legislators and magistrates took no legal oaths ; and that they violated the laws of Trade and Navigation. The King in Coun- cil referred this representation to the Attor- ney-General, with an order to prepare a writ of quo warranto against the colony. Randolph served the writ soon after his arrival 1686 at Boston with the commission for Dudley June 12. an( j n j g Council. The Governor called an early meeting of the Assembly, and summoned the whole, body of the inhabitants " to make their ap- pearance, either in person or in writing And, in submission to the said notice given many of the freemen did meet and give in their RHODE ISLAND. 307 judgments to the Assembly ; and then left the further proceeding concerning the premises to the judicious determination of the Assembly." The judicious determination of the Assembly was " not to stand suit with his Majesty, but to proceed by humble Address to his Majesty to continue their privileges and liberties according to their charter, formerly granted by his late Majesty, Charles the Second, of blessed memory." An official Address, of the tenor thus described, was prepared and sent, its prayer being enforced by the declaration that the petitioners were " a people that had been and were leal to the royal interest, and despised by their neighboring colonies." But dissent and contradic- tion were of the very essence of society in Rhode Island. Some conspicuous citizens sent to the King another Address on their own part, declaring, that, as to the Address of the col- ony, they "knew nothing of it, neither had they left the further proceedings with the Assembly." They said they preferred that there should have been a more " full and free submission and entire resignation ; " and they asked to be " discharged of all levies and contributions to defray the charges of an agent's going for England, to which they could not consent." And yet another Ad- dress followed from the Quakers. An early act of Dudley and his Council was to constitute a provisional government, consist- ing of three persons, inhabitants of the Nar- ragansett country, or King's Province, " to keep the 308 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. peace " in that district, at the same time discharg- ing all the King's subjects within its bounds from * the government of the Governor and Company of Connecticut, and of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and all others pretending any power or jurisdiction." Dudley soon repaired to .Tune 28. J T _. . . J . the King s Province in person, accompanied by Randolph and by Fitz-John Winthrop and Richard Wharton, members of his Council. They caused their commission to be read, administered the oath of office to several justices, and appointed commanders of the militia. They gave new names to " the three towns," directing the names of Kings- ton, Westerly, and Greenwich to be superseded re- spectively by Rochester, Feversham, and Deptford. They decided favorably on the claim of the Ather- ton Company to the possession of the tract which had been the occasion of so much debate. They organized courts of justice, and made regulations for a peaceable settlement of questions arising be- tween the owners of lands and irregular settlers upon them. It was in such arrangements of or- ganization and administration that the force and clearness of Dudley's mind appeared to most ad- vantage. On the third day after the arrival in Connecti- cut of the proclamation, by the Privy Council, of 1685 the accession of King James, the Governor Apru 22. an( j Magistrates caused him to be pro- claimed at the capital with due solemnity. They at the same time framed a short Address of con CONNECTICUT. 309 dolence and congratulation to the new monarch, in which they prayed for the " benign shines of his favor on his poor colony." The General Court, which assembled in the following month, May 14. passed a vote approving these transactions, and framed another Address, in which they espe- cially expressed their gratitude for the promises of toleration with which the King had begun his reign. The Addresses reached England about the time that the Articles of High Misdemeanor against Connecticut were presented by Randolph to the Privy Council. These charged the colony with making laws contrary to the laws of England ; with imposing fines upon the inhabi- tants ; with enforcing an oath of fidelity to itself, and neglecting the oaths of supremacy and of al- legiance ; with forbidding the worship of the Church of England ; with denying justice in the courts ; and with " discouraging and excluding the govern- ment all gentlemen of known loyalty, and keeping it in the hands of the Independent party." The same course was taken by the Privy Council with these Articles as with the similar representations against Rhode Island. Two days after the inauguration of Dudley's government in Massachusetts, Randolph 1686 wrote to the Governor and Magistrates of May27 - Connecticut, informing them that he was intrusted with a writ of quo warranto against the colony. " His Majesty intends,' said he, " to bring all New 310 PEOVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. England under one government ; and nothing is now remaining on your part, but to think of an humble submission and a dutiful resignation of your charter, which, if you are so hardy as to de- fend at law, whilst you are contending for a shadow you will in the first place lose all that part of your colony from Connecticut to New York, and have it annexed to that government, a thing you are certainly informed of already ; and nothing will prevent, but your obviating so gen- eral a calamity to all New England by an hearty and timely application to his Majesty with an hum- ble submission I expect not that you trouble me to enter your colony as a herald to de- nounce war. My friendship for you inclines me to persuade an accommodation ; and, to that end, I desire you to send me word whether you will favor yourselves so far as to come to me in Boston, where you will be witnesses of our peace, and be- lief of his Majesty's government not such a scare- crow as to affright men out of their estates and liberties rather than to submit and be happy. Sirs, bless not yourselves with vain expec- tation of advantage, and spinning out of time by my delay. I will engage, though the weather be warm, the writs will keep sound and as good as when first landed." Randolph concealed the fact, that, by reason of the length of his voyage from England, the time for the appearance of the colony to contest the writ had already expired; and he used this inso CONNECTICUT. 311 ent language in the hope that he might avoid the necessity of producing the writ, by inducing the government of the colony to surrender their charter without abiding the legal process. On the recep- tion of his letter, the Governor called a spe- cial session of the General Court, which resulted in nothing but another Address to the King, soliciting, with the usual arguments, the discontinuance of proceedings against the charter, which favor would be an " experience that in the light of the King's countenance is life, and his favor is as the cloud of the latter rain." A fort- night after, Randolph came to Hartford, and served the writ in person on the Secretary and one of the Magistrates. The General Court was again convened. Two days before its meeting, a confidential letter came to the Governor from Dudley, urging upon Connecticut the expediency of seasonably seeking a union with Massachusetts rather than with New York, in " the new modelling and per- fect settlement of all his Majesty's provinces now lying before his Majesty, and probable to have a sudden and lasting despatch." To this voice of the charmer Connecticut gave no heed. Her ob- ject was the conservation of her separate inde- pendent polity. The General Court " de- sired and empowered the Governor, and so many of the Assistants as should convene upon the Governor or Deputy- Governor's order, to procure an agent to appear before his Majesty ; 312 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. .... and generally to do whatsoever might bo judged necessary for the prosecution of the col- ony's affairs in England." And the desponding temper of the Assembly was expressed in the fur- ther vote, " that, if so be there was case of neces- sity, the agent might have instructions in behalf of the colony to accept and submit to such regula- tions as his Majesty should think fit." Mr. Wil- liam Whiting, a merchant of London, son of one of the early settlers of Hartford, was intrusted with the agency. He did his best, but he accom- plished nothing. No further public action was had on the pend- ing question, except to confirm, three months later, acts which had been done by the Governor and Magistrates in obedience to the instructions of the General Court. The time specified for the appear- ance of the colony in Westminster Hall having already passed before the service of the writ, the agent was instructed to employ counsel to make the most of this advantage. But, in view of the existing state of affairs in England, and of the corruption of the courts, little confidence was felt in the success of the attempt. If the charter should be vacated, as was too probab'le, the issue was ex- pected to be that Connecticut would be annexed to Massachusetts or to New York, or else that her territory would be divided by the Connecticut River, and one of the severed parts be attached to each of those colonies. While President Dudley desired to influence Connecticut to prefer an arjr CONNECTICUT 313 nexation to Massachusetts, Governor Dongan, of New York, aimed at the same enlargement for his colony. The Governor of Connecticut kept him- self in a neutral position. He wrote to Dongan for advice, and received from that able functionary a representation of the benefits to result from lean- ing to his side after " a downright humble submis- sion " to the King. But a speedy end was to be put to these hope- less struggles. The year was just closing, when Sir Edmund Andros arrived at Bos- ton, bearing a commission for the government of all New England, CHAPTER XIL FIRST TEAR OP GOVERNOR ANDROS. THE government of Andros in New England lasted two years and four months. Before pro- ceeding to relate the course of its events, the prin- ciples upon which it was constituted may be set forth in a few words. He who reads and ponders them will no longer wonder at the pertinacity with which the colonists had struggled against the abro- gation of the charters. Their resistance is vindi- cated by the results of its defeat. The King, who in England had been pleased to distress and af- front his subjects to the last limit of endurance, now, when the protection of the charters was with- drawn, proceeded in New England according to the same tyrannical pleasure. The discovery of New England by the Cabots, subjects of the King of England, made that mon- arch the sovereign of New England, according to the recognized public law of the time. The King of England gave the territory, by his charter, to the Plymouth Company. After the failure of that cor >oration, he gave the lands to the Council for New England. Proceeding upon a grant of that Council, he gave part of the lands to the Governor and Com- pany of Massachusetts Bay. This Company emi- PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 315 grated, and established themselves upon the soil, which, by virtue of their ownership obtained from the King, they proceeded from time to time to ap- propriate in parcels to their own assigns, after buying out the adverse title of the native inhabi- tants as often as such a title was set up. Some- times the Governor and Company conveyed par- cels of land to individuals. Oftener they conveyed it to bands of settlers, whom, for the purpose of managing the common business, they invested with corporate municipal authority, and recognized as towns ; and the towns distributed to individuals the lands with which they had been endowed by the Governor and Company. Thus, in English law, the titles to landed property in Massachusetts rested ultimately on the gift of the King of Eng- land. Other corporations besides towns had been cre- ated by the Governor and Company of Massachu- setts. Harvard College, the Artillery Company, the Atherton Land Company, are examples. The colonists, under the interpretation which they gave to their charter, established a representative gov- ernment. They levied taxes on inhabitants and sojourners, as well on those who were not, as on those who were, members of their Company. They set up tribunals of justice, with powers extending to every issue that could be tried, even to the issue of life and death. They made war and peace They coined money They exercised all functions of a government. 316 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. By a competent tribunal, the highest court of the empire, the charter of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay had now been declared null and void. In English law, every right, privilege, and immunity which had been founded upon the charter fell with the charter, as much those rights which the charter had been designed to con- vey, as those, if there were any such, which had been foisted into it by erroneous constructions. Among those rights conferred by the charter which its abrogation had annihilated, the right to distribute and convey lands was prominent. Fail- ing that right, the title of the assigns failed also ; and from this it followed that there was not an acre in Massachusetts but now belonged to King James the Second by hereditary and by official descent from King Henry the Seventh, the original Christian owner. Accordingly, King James, when- ever it should please him, might equitably proceed to oust the present holders from property which, under the security of his father's grant, their prede- cessors had been at great cost and hardship to ac- quire, and had peaceably possessed for nearly sixty years. The court doctrine of the existing relation of Massachusetts to the parent country entailed othe consequences. Massachusetts belonged not to the " empire of the King of England," but to the " do- minion of the crown of England." Her people might not claim any birthright of Englishmen, aa such, but " the crown of England might rule and HIS AUTHORITY AND FUNCTIONS. 317 govern them in such manner as it should think most fit." They were in the condition of Ireland, which was " a conquered kingdom," and which, according to Sir Edward Coke, had no interest in the Great Charter, before the time when the privi- leges of that instrument were extended to it by the favor of the first Tudor king. The practical con- clusion was : " The plantations, without any regard to Magna Charta, may be ruled and gov- erned by such methods as the person who wears the crown, for the good and advancement of those settlements, shall think most proper and conven- ient." Net only had Massachusetts no law-mak- ing or executive power of her own. The safeguard which the struggles of past ages had won for the lives, liberty, and property of Englishmen, afforded to her people no protection in the courts of Eng- land. Such, briefly set forth, were the doctrines which Andros, as " Governor in Chief in and over the territory and dominion of New England," was sent thither to reduce to practice, as opportunity should serve. His jurisdiction for the present em- braced nothing except the colony of Plymouth and the County of Cornwall, in addition to the terri- tory that had been presided over by Dudley. In his administration he was to have the advice of a Council, the first members of which were ap- pointed by the King; the Governor might displace them at pleasure, but the King was to fill the vacancies. With the consent of his Council, the 318 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. Governor might make laws, which were to con- form to the laws of England, and to be sent to England for the royal sanction. He might require the oath of allegiance to be taken by any and every person within the jurisdiction. He was to regulate the currency, and to prevent the coining of money. He could reprieve and pardon. With the advice of his Council, he could make regula- tions of trade ; constitute courts of justice (whose decisions, however, were subject to an appeal to the King) ; and appoint judicial, executive, mili- tary, and naval officers. He was commander of the militia and of the forts, and Vice- Admiral and Admiralty Judge. He was empowered to " agree with planters and inhabitants " for the payment of quit-rents. He was to protect liberty of con- science, and particularly to "countenance and encourage" the Church of England. With the advice of his Council, he might impose taxes for the support of his government; but the old laws and customs for raising money were to continue in effect till superseded by further legislation. An- 1686 dros was to receive an annual salary of June7< twelve hundred pounds, as " Governor of New England, out of the revenue arising there ; " and his stipe-.nd was to be remitted from England " until a revenue should be settled in New England for the support of the government." He brought for the use of his government a seal and a flag both of a new device. Andros had now been absent from America HIS RECEPTION AT BOSTON. 319 nearly six years, during which time he had re- ceived the honor of knighthood, and risen to the command of a regiment in the royal army. When the well - proved wickedness of Colonel Kirk had satisfied King James of the expediency of retain- ing him for service in England, it was natural that he should turn his attention to Sir Edmund Andros as the person most fit to carry out his plans in America. He had known Andros many years as a person of resolution and capacity, of arbitrary principles, and of habits and tastes abso- lutely foreign to those of the Puritans of New England; and could scarcely have been ignorant of his personal grudge against Connecticut, and especially against Massachusetts, on account of old affronts. It was not to be doubted that here was a man prepared to be as oppressive and of- fensive as the King desired. The frigate which brought the Governor, arrived in Boston harbor on a Sunday. Attended " Dec. 19. by a company of soldiers, he landed the next day. At the end of Long Wharf he was met by " a great number of merchants and others, with all the militia of horse and foot," who escorted him to the town-house, at the head of King (now State) Street. There he caused his commission to be read, produced the great seal of his government, took, and administered to eight Counsellors, the aths of office, and ordered that all persons hold- jig civil or military office should provisionally con- tinue to exercise their functions. A meeting of the 320 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. Council was appointed for the ninth day after, to afford opportunity to summon the Counsellors from Plymouth and Rhode Island. Five Counsellors then appeared from each of those colonies. The Governor caused his commission to be read again ; administered the oaths of allegiance and of office to the new-comers ; took an oath "for observing the Acts of Trade and Naviga- tion ; " and directed an issue of new commissions to officers throughout his jurisdiction. It was ordered that certain duties hitherto levied in 1687. Jan. 3. Massachusetts on imported articles should Jan ' 4> henceforward be levied and collected in the other colonies of the jurisdiction, and that " a single country rate of one penny in the pound" should be assessed for present use. The Council were informed that the Lords of the Com- Jan. 22. mittee expected to receive every quarter a report of proceedings in the government ; and an effective step was taken for the disarming of oppo- sition to the intended proceedings, by the appointment of Dudley to be censor of the press, accompanied with a prohibition of the print- ing of anything, " either in Boston or Cambridge," without his license. After the first week the meetings of the Council were thinly attended. Out of twenty-six members besides the Governor and Secretary, sometimes not .lore than six or eight appeared, and in some nstances even a smaller number. The members who came were worthy to be assessors of the Gov NEW SYSTEM OF TAXATION. 321 ernor and Randolph. Stoughton was very rarely absent, and Dudley still less frequently. Thus far Dudley was fully in the interest of Andros. Thus far Stoughton was the shadow and echo of Dud- ley. Accordingly, the Governor and the Secretary could take their measures with scarcely a show of opposition. Dudley and Stoughton were gratified by being appointed "judges of the Superior Court," the former with an annual salary of a hundred and fifty pounds, the latter of a hundred and twenty pounds. In legislation there was a prudent delay, prob- ably intended by the Governor to give him oppor- tunity to observe the temper of the people. One very important Act, however, the first in the collection of his statutes, was passed within a few weeks after the beginning of his administration. It was entitled, " An Act for the continuing and establishing of several Rates, Duties, and Imposts." It provided, that, every year, beginning four months after the enactment, the Treasurer should send his warrant to the con- stable and selectmen of every town, requiring the inhabitants to choose a taxing commissioner; that the commissioner and the selectmen should in the next following month make a list of persons and a valuation of estates within their respective towns ; that, in the next month after this, the commissioners for the towns in each county should meet at their respective county towns, and compare and correct their respective lists, to VOL. II. 21 322 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. be forwarded to the Treasurer ; and that he should thereupon issue his warrant to the constables to collect the taxes, so assessed, within ten weeks. And every commissioner or selectman neglecting to perform this duty was punishable by a fine. The Rate was adjusted by this law according to the ancient system of Massachusetts. The pre- scribed duties on imported articles were partly specific, and partly ad valorem. The excise duties were on the manufacture and sale of liquors, and were specific. Randolph wrote that this law M passed with great difficulty," because the colo- nists " have always accounted themselves a free people, and look upon this Act to be a clog upon them and their estates." The feelings of the people were shocked by a proceeding of a different description. On the day of his landing in Boston, the Governor " spoke to the ministers in the library about accommodation as to a meeting - house, that might so contrive the time, as one house might serve two aesem- 1686 blies." The ministers, and a committee Dec>2L of four other persons from each congre- gation, met " to consider what answer to give the Governor." They " agreed that they could not vith a good conscience consent that their meet- ing-houses should be made use of for the Com- mon-Prayer worship;" and two of the ministers, Mather and Willard, were deputed to carry this reply, who " thoroughly discoursed his Excellency about the meeting - bouses, in great INTRUSION OF EPISCOPACY. 323 plainness, showing that they could not consent." If the demand had been for the use of the building for a mass, or for a carriage-house for Juggernaut, it could scarcely have been to the generality of the people more offensive. For a little time the Gov- ernor forbore. But before long, Passion Week drew near ; and his episcopal fervors overcame his delicacy. He sent Randolph to demand 1687 the keys of the Old South Meeting-house, March 23 ' that it might be opened for a service of his church on Good Friday. A committee of the congre'ga- tion waited on him to say that " the land and house were theirs, and that they could not consent to part with it to such use." But Goodman Need- ham, the sexton, was frightened into opening the doors and ringing the bell ; and thence- forward Episcopal worship was held there on Sun- days and other holidays of the church, at hours when the building was not occupied by the regular congregation. The Congregational churches had cause lor alarm on yet another account. There was debate at the Council table on the question whether the laws compelling townsmen to pay the salaries of ministers should be allowed to remain in force. Reporting his proceedings to the Lords of the Committee, at the end of the first three months of his government, Andros made special mention of the lodgment he had effected in the Old South Meeting-house. At the same time, he described the colonies as being poor, partly in consequence 324 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. of the Indian war. He represented the prospects of his administration as hopeful, though not with- out obstacles to be apprehended in extending it to Connecticut ; and he nominated twelve persons as qualified to fill vacancies which might from time to time occur in the Council. For the profit of the agents of the new gov- ernment, the administration of justice was made oppressively expensive. An order went out that all public records of " the late governments now annexed unto this dominion " should be brought to Boston, whither of course it became necessary that they should be followed by whosoever needed to consult them. At Boston only could conclusive action be had on wills presented for probate; and a journey to that place was accordingly always liable to be required of widows and heirs. Another or- ' der made it necessary that all deeds, mort- gages, and wills should be registered by Ran- dolph and his deputies, who should be paid by fees. Excessive fees were demanded ; and, in the uncertainty as to what amount of profit might be had from them by the Secretary, Randolph made an advantageous bargain by farm- 7 ' ing them out to one John West, whom he appointed to be his deputy, and who was also made iudsje of the Inferior Court of the June 9. County of Suffolk. It was believed that juries were corruptly constituted; and the adop tion of the rule to kiss the Bible, in taking the ARBITRARY TAXATION. 325 oath, instead of the Puritan practice of lifting the right hand, discouraged, in frequent instances, the appearance of conscientious witnesses and jurors. The new form was commonly regarded as idolatrous, and, sooner than observe it, many per- sons, when drawn to serve upon a jury, would ex- pose themselves to be proceeded against by a pro- cess for contempt. The laws were not " printed, as was the custom in the former governments, so that the people were at a great loss to know what was law and what not." Two things vital to the objects of the new gov- ernment were especially exasperating to the citi- zens. One was the arbitrary imposition of taxes ; the other, the demand for new patents to be taken out for the ownership of land. The reader knows, that, from the earliest period of New Eng- land, towns had their executive magistracy ; they held meetings as often as occasion arose for delib- eration on matters of common concern; they taxed themselves, and made other orders, for the mainten- ance of their roads, their schools, and their poor; and, when a colony tax was imposed by the Gen- eral Court, each town, having received notice of the proportion which it was to contribute, pro- ceeded, by its municipal officers, to assess the sum on its inhabitants. There was now no General Court; the Governor in Council imposed taxes ; and the first act of nis administration required a compulsory assessment of them by Commissioners and Selectmen 326 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. It was not to be expected that privileges so im- portant and so long enjoyed should be withdrawn without creating dissatisfaction and disturbance. At length the time arrived that had been specified in the Act for its provisions to go into effect. A warrant from the Treasurer came to each town to choose a Commissioner to act with the Selectmen in assessing upon its citizens the sum at which the town was rated. Several towns of Massachusetts, including every town but three in Essex County, refused to proceed to the election which was ordered. / The proceedings of the government against Ips- wich, then perhaps the second town in the colony, attracted particular attention at the time, and will serve for a specimen of the encroachments of the Governor and Council on the one hand, and of the course and the consequences of resistance to it on the other. On the reception of " an order from John Usher, Treasurer, for choosing a Commissioner to join with the Selectmen, to assess the inhabitants according to an Act of his Excellency the Gov- ernor and Council for laying of rates," John Wise, . minister of Ipswich, met several others of the prin- cipal inhabitants at the house of John Appleton, who had been a Deputy under the old govern- rnent. The persons assembled " discoursed and concluded that it was not the town's duty any way to assist that ill way of raising money without a General Assembly." At a town meeting held the next day, they defended this view RESISTANCE TO HIS DESPOTISM. 327 of the rights of their fellow-citizens, and were sus- tained by a vote of the town, which refused to choose a Commissioner, and forbade the Selectmen to impose any rate. For this offence, Wise, Appleton, and four oth- ers were arraigned before a court constituted by special commission, and consisting of Joseph Dud- ley, William Stoughton, John Usher, and Edward Randolph. The court sat, not in the County of Middlesex, where the alleged offence was commit- ted, but in Boston, in the County of Suffolk. " The jurors, most of them (as was said) non-freeholders of any land in the colony, were some of them strangers and foreigners, gathered up to serve the present turn." The prisoners were treat- ed with insolent contempt. One of the judges told them that they " must not think the laws of England followed them to the ends of the earth." Dudley said, " Mr. Wise, you have no more privi- leges left you than not to be sold for slaves." Wise and his friends were " remanded from verdict to prison, and there kept one-and-twenty days," after which their sentences were pronounced. Wise was " suspended from the ministerial function ; " he and Appleton were each fined fifty pounds, and bound over for good behavior for a year in a thou- sand pounds' penalty ; and the other four were amerced in sums varying from thirty to fifteen pounds, and required to give bonds to the amount of five hundred pounds each. " We judge," wrote the Ipswich patriots, " the total c'narge for one case 329 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. and trial, under one single information, involving us six men aforesaid in expense of time and mon- eys of us and our relations for our necessary succor and support, to amount to more, but no less, than four hundred pound money." So vigorous a course of proceeding as this was decisive. Unless the country was prepared for violent measures of redress, submission was un- avoidable. Men who possessed the confidence of their fellow-citizens, and were fit to take the lead in public movements, could not be expected to perse- vere in a course of opposition, at once fruitless to the public, and ruinous to themselves. The towns succumbed. The moneys demanded by the Gov- ernor and his Council were paid agreeably to as- sessments made, under their direction, by the sheriff and three justices, in cases where the more regular process failed. The other principal system of oppression that was entered on was still more intolerable. The doctrine of the invalidity of existing private titles to land was to be practically asserted. The Gov- ernor gave out that whoever wished to have his title confirmed might do so on an application to him and the payment of a quit-rent. The kind of treatment to which a proprietor exposed himself by neglect of this notice may be shown in a single instance. James Russell and others were join owners of a piece of pasture-land in Charlestown A portion of it, consisting of some hundred ana fifty acres, was given by the Governor to Colone 1 HIS DEMAND FOR QUIT-RENTS. 329 Lydgett, one of his favorites. Russell, venturing to remonstrate with warmth, was punished by a writ of intrusion, brought to eject him from a farm, of which he was sole proprietor, in the same town ; and, " to stop prosecution, he was forced to petition for a patent, he having a tenant who, it was feared, would comply in anything that might have been to his prejudice ; and so his land would have been condemned under color of law, and given away, as well as his pasturage was, without law." He owned an island in Casco Bay. A per- son who had been sent by the Governor to survey it, showed Russell the plan which had been made, and told him, that, if he wanted a patent for it, he must satisfy the Governor with ready money ; otherwise, Mr. Usher, the Treasurer, was to have it. The price demanded in this instance was only three pence an acre for six hundred and fifty acres. But, in the earliest transactions of this nature, the amount of the sum extorted was not the main con- sideration. The material thing was to get a prac- tical recognition of the principle, and especially to tempt or frighten the leading men into compliance, after which the extortions might proceed without limit. Many of the towns had commons, used by the inhabitants for the pasturage of cattle. Often these lands, situate near the centre of settlements, were of great value. By the Governor's orders, portions of the common lands of Lynn, Cambridge, and other towns were enclosed, and given to some of his friends. 330 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. Legal transactions were rendered more and more grievously burdensome by excessive fees and bills of costs. West, the Deputy - Secretary, had his fortune to make out of the people, after reimburs- ing himself for the large sum for which he farmed his office from Randolph ; and he required gratu- ities from the officers of the courts, which they in turn had to collect from suitors and others, alike by the oppressive impositions which were made lawful, and by such indirections as it was always easy for them to practise. Persons especially re- fractory were dealt with by having their cases car- ried out of the county, to be tried by a court at a distance from their homes. Meanwhile, the Coun- cil, though partly composed of men who were more or less desirous of protecting their fellow-citizens, had become merely a board of registry of the edicts of Andros and his creatures. These better men were " much dissatisfied and discouraged." The Governor " did quickly neglect the great number of the Council, and chiefly adhere to, and govern by, the advice of a few others, the principal of them strangers to the country, without estates or inter- ests therein to oblige them, persons of known and declared prejudices against this poor people, and that had plainly laid their chiefest designs and hopes to make unreasonable profit of them The debates in Council were not so free as ought to have been, but too much overruled, and a great deal of harshness continually expressed against persons and opinions that did not please." From HIS GOVERNMENT OF MAINE. 331 the first the Governor disregarded the Council's advice. " There was never any fair way of taking and counting the number of the Counsellors con- senting and dissenting, that so the majority might be known." Motions for delay, with a view to de- liberation, " were ever disacceptable, and enter- tained with no little displacency." " After a little while there were no set times appointed or notice given for the making of laws, that so the members of the Council might attend in a fuller number to be helpful therein So that it might be truly affirmed, that, in effect, four or five persons, and those not so favorably inclined and disposed as were to be wished for, had the rule over and gave law to a territory, the largest and most considerable of any belonging to the dominion of the crown." So passed the first year of Sir Edmund Andres's administration in Massachusetts. If the reader wonders how it was possible that men of English blood should bear such rule, let him reflect on the condition of patriots at the same time in the parent country. If the great English people stood baffled and amazed, and all hope of successful opposition for the present had died out of the hearts of men that had shared the counsels of Russell and Sidney, who may wonder that he does not see poor Mas- sachusetts in an attitude for desperate conflict ? By Andros's commission, the " Province of Maine" was comprehended within the limits of his government, with an extension of the territory which the name of Maine had hitherto denoted. 332 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. The grant of American lands which the present King, when Duke of York, had received from his brother, included a district on the eastern side of Kennebec River, reaching as far as to the River St. Croix. Andros, while Governor of New York for the Duke, sent thither a force to take pos- session, and erected a small fortification on the peninsula of Pernaquid, establishing there also a custom-house and a factory for the Indian trade, less When Dongan succeeded Andros at New August. York, he was not long unmindful of his master's eastern province, still called the County of Cornwall. He despatched two Commission- ers to manage its affairs, John West, who, as has been related, soon after became unfavorably conspicuous in Massachusetts, and John Palmer, who was subsequently to act there a still more important part. Already assuming the theory of provincial government on which Andros was pres- ently to proceed in the latter colony, Palmer and West called upon the inhabitants of Cornwall to buy, at exorbitant prices, new patents for their lands, at the same time appropriating large tracts to themselves, and to English partners of theirs in New York. A vessel from Portsmouth, going with a cargo of wine to a landing-place on the River Penobscot, on the supposition of its being within the French jurisdiction, as defined by the treaty of Breda, was seized on her return by Palmer and West for not having paid duties at Pema- quid, a proceeding regarded in Massachusetts HIS GOVERNMENT OF PLYMOUTH. 333 ts an offensive interference with her traffic in the sastern country. In the government of Andros, two Counsellors, namely, Edward Tyng, of Falmputh, and Bar- tholomew Gedney, of Salem, who had property in Maine, represented the consolidated Eastern Prov- ince. The extortions which now began to be prac- tised in Massachusetts in respect to the renewal of land-titles were plied in Maine with still more free- dom and severity. From the feeble population of that province less resistance was to be expected ; and the example there presented of easy success familiarized the people of the stronger colony to the depredations to which they were equally exposed. Robert Mason and John Hinckes represented New Hampshire in the Governor's Council. In that province, discouraged by the results of its recent turbulence, no opposition to the new order of things appears to have been attempted. Plym- outh also yielded with scarcely a struggle, though not without entreaty and complaint. In immediate answer to the summons of the Governor, five of the eight persons belonging to that colony who had been named as Counsellors came to Boston, and took their seats at the first meeting of the Board. They were, Thomas Hinckley, lately Governor, and William Bradford, lately Deputy- Govern or of the colony, with Barnaby Lothrop, John Walley, and Nathaniel Clarke. Andros had not the same ad- vantage in Plymouth as in Massachusetts for that levy of a tax wbic.h was one of the first acts of his 334 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANJROS. admii.istration ; for in Massachusetts, but not in the sister colony, the general scheme of taxation which he adopted was but the revival of a law of the earlier government. In Plymouth, as in Mas- sachusetts, some opposition was made to his de- mand for money, but with similar ill-success. The town of Taunton, when summoned to assess the inhabitants, replied, that they did not feel " free to raise money on the inhabitants without their own assent by an Assembly." For transmitting this 1687. re pty> Shadrach Wilbur, the town-clerk, was Aug. 31. punished with a fine of twenty marks and three months' imprisonment, and bound to find sure- ties by recognizance to appear the next court." The Address of Rhode Island to the King, pray- 1686. ln S f r t ne continuance of the privileges 9 granted by his brother, but submitting ev- ery thing to his discretion, had the effect of imme- diately causing that colony to be included in the commission of Andros. He was in- structed at the same time to demand the surrender of the charter, which he did accordingly, by a letter to Governor Clarke, on the third day after his arrival at Boston. Rhode Island needed no compulsion; and, of the seven Counsellors ap- pointed to represent her, namely, Walter Clarke, John Coggeshall, Richard Arnold, Walter New- berry, John Alborough, John Greene, and John Sanford, the first-named five took their Dec. 80. . seats immediately on being summoned Greene was in England. Sanford probably was HIS GOVERNMENT OF RHODE ISLAND. 335 only kept away by accident. Richard Smith was subsequently appointed a Counsellor for the Nar- ragansett country, but it does not appear that he ever acted as such. Rhode Island had never known so quiet a time as now, for a little while, it was to enjoy under the government of Andros. It made no opposition to his measures, and took no interest in determining what from time to time they should be. Rarely does a member of the Council from this colony appear to have been present at any meeting after the first novelty was over. John Greene, in Eng- land, was busying himself in the Governor's 1687 interest. He " acknowledged his Majesty's Jan- grace and favor in sending over his Honor, Sir Ed- mund Andros," and solicited an enlargement of the Governor's powers in respect to a disposal of the Narragansett lands. To this business Andros at- tended with his accustomed assiduity, and with his usual devotion to the objects of the court. A memoir which he sent to England embraced a full and clear history of claims, public and private, to the Narragansett country. He con- demned the pretension of the Atherton Company, as resting upon extortionate dealings with the In- dians; and he upheld the alleged cession from them obtained by Greene, as vesting in the King a good title to the whole of the territory ; which title, he maintained, had never since been alien- ated, notwithstanding the grants in the charters of the two colonies between which the country lay. J36 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. Connecticut, as well as Rhode Island, was pro- spectively included in Andros's government, though it was not assumed in his instructions that as yet Connecticut had made submission. On the day 1686 when he summoned Rhode Islanders to his Dec. 22. Q ounc ii ne sen ^ an express messenger to Hartford with a letter to Governor Treat. " I am," he wrote, " commanded and authorized by his Maj- esty, at my arrival in these parts, to receive in his name the surrender of your charter, if tendered by you, and to take you into my present care and charge, as other parts of the government, assuring his Majesty's good subjects of his countenance and protection in all things relating to his service and their welfare." By the same conveyance a letter was despatched from Randolph, informing the dil- atory colony that yet another writ of quo warranto had been issued, and explaining, in discourteous terms, that it would be prudent to conciliate the royal favor by a prompt compliance with Andros'a demand. Governor Treat, who, meanwhile, had hastened to congratulate Sir Edmund on his arrival. 1687. Jan. 7. now convoked the General Court, which, Jan. 26. ra t ner than take action of its own on a mat- ter of such delicacy, passed a vote to " leave it with the Governor and Council to take care to do what was requisite to be done in reference to affairs in England, and the last quo warranto" Under the instructions of the Court, however, an answer was prepared to the message of Andros. HIS USURPATION IN CONNECTICUT. . 337 and a letter to Lord Sunderland, Secretary of State. In the latter paper the Court recited the steps which they had taken in respect to the legal pro- ceedings in England against their charter, and con- cluded with language which the government there saw fit to interpret as a voluntary surrender. " We are his Majesty's loyal subjects," they wrote, " and we are heartily desirous that we may continue in the same station that we are in, if it may consist with his princely wisdom to continue us so. But, if his Majesty's royal purposes be otherwise to dispose of us, we shall, as in duty bound, submit to his royal command; and if it be to conjoin us with the other colonies and provinces under Sir Edmund Andros, his Majesty's present Governor, it will be more pleasing than to be joined with any other province." In reply to the letter to himself, in which Treat had said for his colony, " We are well content to remain as we are, and to make no alteration in our present standing," Andros wrote to him, in the name of his Council, remonstrating against any further delay. It " hazarded," he said, "the advantages that might be to the col- ony," and made him " incapable to serve it us he would, but occasioned the contrary." The correspondence continued through the spring and into the summer, with iterations of the same topics. It was conducted in a civil tone on both sides, but the passive position of Connecticut was not VOL. ii. 22 338 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. shaken. The General Court met four times, but transacted very little business, or, at all events, put very little on their records, in relation to the sub- ject which must have weighed most heavily on their minds. " They did not see sufficient reason March 30. to vary from the answer they gave to Sir Edmund Andros, to a motion of a surrender." They " left it with the honored Governor or May 12. J Deputy-Governor, and so many of the As- sistants as might make up seven with the Gov- ernor or Deputy-Governor, to be a Council to act and transact all such emergent occasions and af- fairs as should fall in, in the intervals of the Gen- eral Court;" and they held their annual election of colony officers as usual. Mr. Whiting, their agent in England, was doing his best for their ser- jane ii. v i ce - I* was with little hope of effecting June 14. anything, as he constantly informed them; Aug. 9. but successive accidents favored his perse- sept. 21. verance, and the legal proceedings against the colony were never brought to an issue. Meanwhile, every exertion was made by Andros and his instruments to influence the leading men of Connecticut to a voluntary surrender of the charter. Palmer and Graham visited some of the principal towns. From New Haven they wrote to Andros that at Fairfield they had u fully discoursed Major Gold, then Deputy, and several other people, concerning a surrender unto his Majesty, and the great advantages that would accrue to them thereby." They had similar con- HIS USURPATION IN CONNECTICUT. 339 ferences at Milford and New Haven, and " found all united in one mind, that it was their only in- terest to be joined to York, and they did expect that his Majesty would accordingly dispose of them that way ; but they were so foolishly fond of their charter, that they unanimously agreed to be pas- sive and not active in the case ; that is, they would never surrender, but, if it were his Majesty's pleas ure to take their charter from them, they would submit thereto. The Governor," they continued, u gives your Excellency his service, and proves, with the rest of the Council here, very zealous for his Majesty's service, and promoting your Excel- lency's proposals. The Council have already, with- out the knowledge of the Deputy [Deputy-Governor Bishop], wrote to the Secretary of State concern- ing the whole matter, and have surrendered their interest unto his Majesty's pleasure, and informed that the obstruction of the rest remains with the Deputies, which they cannot compose ; so that, on the whole, we believe that his Majesty will be con- strained to proceed to a judgment against them ; so that it will be your Excellency's interest to make court at home for accomplishing the matter, their agent having, in his last, informed them that it was the discourse at Whitehall that all to the westward of Connecticut will be joined to New York. The rest is not worth desiring. We are afraid their agent, for his own private gains, is a great cause of their stubbornness." It is probable that this information concerning 310 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. the supineness and want of concert in Connecticut, and further information of the same sort which may have followed, determined Andros, after due reflection, to settle the pending question by a stroke of state. The time seemed favorable for such a movement; for, by the successes of the summer, opposition in Massachusetts was for the present silenced, if not overcome. The collection of taxes levied by a despotic authority had been enforced, ancLthe system of making all proprietors pay rent to the King for their lands and houses, as his ten- ants, had been hopefully inaugurated. Taking ad- vantage of this repose, the Governor obtained the advice of his Council to proceed to Connect- icut, in order to assume the government there, " with such of the Council, or other persons, guards, and attendance, as he should think fit." On the same day, he wrote to Governor Treat, that, " pursuant to effectual orders and commands from his Majesty," he was presently to set out on that journey. He executed his purpose so promptly, that he must have reached Hartford almost as soon as his letter. He was attended from Boston by " a company of gentlemen and grenadiers, to the num- ber of sixty or upwards." Some hasty arrange- ments were made for his reception. At Wethersfield, where he crossed a ferry, he was met by a troop of horse, who escorted him io Hartford. There he found " the train-bands of iivers towns united to pay him theu HIS USURPATION IN CONNECTICUT. 341 respects." According to a friendly report, " he was greeted and caressed by the Governor and Assistants," and there was " some treaty between his Excellency and them that evening." Tradition has preserved the memory of a strik- ing incident of that evening's conference. It re- lates, that, while a discussion was proceeding in the presence of a numerous company, the charter of the colony was brought in and laid upon a table. Suddenly the lights were extinguished ; and when they were rekindled, the charter had disap- peared. Captain Wads worth had taken it away, and secreted it in the hollow trunk of a tree which stood hard by, in the grounds of Samuel Wyllys, a Magistrate. No writing of the period alludes to this remark- able occurrence. What is recorded, on good au- thority, is, that, on the morning after Sir Ed- mund's arrival at Hartford, he was " wait- ed on and conducted by the Governor, Deputy- Governor, Assistants, and Deputies, to the Court chamber, and by the Governor himself conducted to the Governor's seat ; and being there seated, (the late Governor, Assistants, and Deputies be- ing present, and the chamber thronged as full of people as it was capable of,) his Excellency de- clared that his Majesty had, according to their de- sire, given him a commission to come and take on him the government of Connecticut, and caused bis commission to be publicly read. That being done, his Excellency showed that it was his Maj- 342 FIRST YEAR OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. esty's pleasure to make the late Governor and Captain John Allyn members of his Council, and called upon them to take their oaths, which they did forthwith ; and all this in that great and public assembly, nemine contradlcente ; only one man said that they first desired that they might continue as they were The Secretary, who was well acquainted with all the transactions of the General Court, and very well understood their meaning and intent in all, delivered their common seal to Sir Edmund Andros." The more brief public record of " A General Court held by order of the Governor," merely contains a list of the Magistrates and Dep- uties present, with these words : " His Excellency Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, Captain- General and Governor of his Majesty's Territory and Dominion in New England, by or- der from his Majesty, James the Second, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the 31st of Octo- ber, 1687, took into his hands the government of this colony of Connecticut, it being by his Maj- esty annexed to the Massachusetts and other col- onies under his Excellency's government. " FINIS." The separate history of Connecticut was closed for the present. Connecticut was the last of the New England colonies to fall. New England was consolidated under one despotism. CHAPTER XIII. ANDKOS IN MASSACHUSETTS AND MAINE. SIR EDMUND ANDROS remained in Connecticut long enough to arrange its government for the future. From Hartford he proceeded to New Haven, Fairfield, and New London, establishing courts of judicature and appointing sheriffs in each of the counties, commissioning all persons who had filled the office of Assistant to be Justices of the Peace, and instituting military officers in each town, and revenue officers in the several sea- ports. As he traversed the colony, making these arrangements, he is said to have been u everywhere cheerfully and gratefully received." In Massachusetts no such welcome awaited him. At the first Council held after his return, a 16g7 complaint was made against Mr. Morton, Noy - 16 - minister of Charlestown, for preaching a NoT - 19 - sermon " containing several seditious expressions." Morton was bound over to take his trial at the first session of the Superior Court, and to keep the peace meanwhile. He was no insignificant per- son. From being a Fellow in the University of Oxford, and a clergyman of the Established Church, he had turned Independent, and, under 344 GOVERNOR ANDROS IN MASSACHUSETTS. the Act of Uniformity, being expelled from his liv- ing. Having a high reputation for scholarship, he set up a school at Newington Green, near London, where Daniel Defoe, who commends him in high terms, was one of his pupils. After the death of John Rogers, President of Harvard College after Urian Oakes, who succeeded Hoar, the eyes of many friends of that institution were turned tc Morton as his successor. It was no doubt with the expectation of receiving that appointment that he came out to New England, preceding Andros by a few months. Dudley being then in power, other arrangements had been made for the College ; and Morton became Pastor of the Charlestown church. At Boston, Andros appears to have received the King's Declaration of Indulgence, brought thither during his absence. He thereupon issued orders for a general thanksgiving throughout his govern- ment, " for his Majesty's health, and his many royal favors bestowed on his subjects here." In New England, as in the parent country, the san- guine portion of Dissenters from the church re- ceived the Declaration with joy ; the sagacious with distrust and apprehension. The consolidation of the government of New England was speedily completed by an Act of Council which extended to Connecticut the obligations of all the laws that had been passed in the time between the arrival of Andros and the annexation of that province to the " Dominion oi New England." LEGAL CONSOLIDATION OF NEW ENGLAND. 345 The Governor might now easily persuade him- self that the largest and the hardest part of his and his master's work was done, and that he needed to have little anxiety as to his power to effect what remained. Accordingly, the legislation which was to be destructive of the ancient liberties of the colonies was henceforward prosecuted with vigor. Internal trade was obstructed by a law which pro- hibited the business of travelling merchants 1688 or peddlers, and confined every dealer's sales Jan> to his own town. "An Act for Additional Duties of Imposts and Excise, for the better collect- u- %/r j. 5 T. M Feb -15- ing and securing his Majesty's Revenue," laid heavy burdens upon commerce, and extorted an excessive tax from the consumer. The privileges of the towns were a main obstacle in the way of the usurpations which were in train. Town-meet- ings for the choice of officers were by ancient prac- tice held in the spring. Before the day for these elections came round a second time under An- dros's government, an Act was passed which struck at the root of the municipal franchises. It forbade more than one town-meeting- to be held in a year, " upon any pretence or color whatso- ever." At that meeting were to be chosen Select- men, Constables, and a Commissioner for the year. The Commissioner was to assess upon the inhabi- tants the tax laid by the Governor in Council upon the town. The Selectmen were to be overseers of the poor, of bridges, of meeting-houses, and of schools, and keepers of the town's property of every kind ; 346 GOVERNOR ANDROS IN MASSACHUSETTS. and they might make assessments for these ob- jects, but not without the approbation of two Justices of the Peace. If a Selectman or Com- missioner, chosen by a town, refused to serve, two Justices of the Peace might appoint another inhab- itant to fill the vacancy. The refusal of a Con- stable to serve was to be punished by a fine of five pounds. It may be presumed that the government, had it lasted, would soon have been centralized still more, by giving to the Justices, creatures of the Governor, the power to appoint local officers for what had been towns, without waiting fot the formality of a municipal election. " An Act for settling the Militia " brought the military force of the country into regular subor- dination to the imported Commander -in- Chief. The Governor and Council decreed that all local laws should cease to have force, and that the peo- ple of the jurisdiction were " not to be guided by any laws or orders but such as were made and pub- lished by his Excellency and Council, or the laws of England where they had not provided." As towns could no longer hold meetings " to make complaints of grievances," so, before long, " where- as by constant usage any person might remove out of the country at his pleasure, a law was made that no man should do so without the Governor's leave," a measure reasonably regarded by the people as an interdiction of attempts to seek re dress in England. When these strong measures had taken partia. WRITS OF INTRUSION. 347 effect, and it seemed that opposition, if not crushed, was intimidated and disabled, the business of va- cating the ancient titles to land was entered upon with new vigor. Several instances of this sort of proceeding are on record, attested by the oaths of the parties concerned. Under this sanction, Jo- seph Lynde, of Charlestown, a man of character and substance, told his story as follows : " In the year 1687, Sir Edmund Andros did inquire of him, the said Lynde, what title he had to his lands ; who showed him many deeds for land that he the said Lynde possessed, and par- ticularly for land that the said Lynde was certainly informed would quickly be given away from him if he did not use means to obtain a patent for it. The deed being considered by Sir Edmund An- dros, he said it was worded well, and recorded according to New England custom, or words to the same purpose. He further inquired how the title was derived. He, the said Lynde, told him, tha* he that he bought it of had it of his father-in-law in marriage with his wife ; and his said father, from Charlestown; and the said town, from the General Court grant of the Massachusetts Bay, and also by purchase from the natives. And he said, my title was worth nothing if that were all. At another time, after showing him an Indian, deed for land, he said that their hand was no more worth than a scratch with a bear's paw, undervalu- ing all my titles, though every way legal under our former charter government. I th^n petitioned 348 GOVERNOR ANDROS IN MASSACHUSETTS. for a patent for my whole estate ; but Mr. West, Deputy- Secretary, told me, I must have so many patents as there were counties that I had parcels of land in, if not towns. Finding the thing so chargeable and difficult, I delayed ; upon which I had a writ of intrusion served upon me, in the be- ginning of the summer, 1688, I gave Mr. Graham, Attorney-General, three pounds in money, promising, that, if he would let the action fall, I would pay court charges, and give him ten pound when I had a patent completed for that small par- cel of land that said writ was served upon me for. About the same time, Mr. Graham, Attor- ney-General, asked said Lynde what he would do about the rest of his land, telling him, the said Lynde, that he would meet with the like trouble about all the rest of his lands that he possessed; and, were it not for the Governor's going to New York at this time, there would be a writ of intru- sion against every man in the colony of any con- siderable estate, or as many as a cart could hold ; and, for the poorer sort of people, said Sir Edmund Andros would take other measures, or words to the same purpose." That this system of extortion might not fail through any hope of indulgence on the part of the government, writs of intrusion were served upon some of the most considerable of those persons who did not come forward to buy new patents for their lands. Samuel Shrimpton, a man of large prop erty, w*? & Counsellor by the King's appointment. WRITS OF INTRUSION. 349 If he could not be spared, less important men could scarcely hope for favor. The rent of Deer Island, in Boston harbor, had from an early time been ap- propriated to the maintenance of a school. Shrimp- ton hired the island of the town, and kept it by a tenant. Sherlock, the sheriff, came thither and seized the tenant, " and turned him and his family afloat on the water when it was a snowy day, and put two men, whom he brought with him, into possession of the said island, as he said on behalf of King James the Second." Two of the Selectmen made oath to a conversation which on that occasion occurred between themselves and Graham, the Governor's Attorney. " "We, the de- ponents, told him we would answer in behalf of the town. The said Graham replied, there was no town of Boston, nor was there any town in the country. We made answer, we were a town, and owned so to be by Sir Edmund Andros, Governor, in the warrant sent us for making a rate. Then the said Graham told us we might stand the trial, if we would ; but bid us have a care what we did, saying it might cost us all we were worth, and something else too, for aught he knew." The people of Plymouth colony were much in- censed by ill-treatment offered to Mr. Wiswall, minister of Duxbury. Clark's Island, in Plymouth harbor, had been appropriated to the support of the poor of that town. Andros gave it to the Coun- sellor Nathaniel Clarke, one of his creatures. Mr. interested himself in a collection of some 350 GOVERNOR ANDROS IN MASSACHUSETTS. money, by voluntary contribution, to defend at law the right of the town. This was construed June 21. as an offence, and Mr. Wiswall was sum- moned to Boston to answer for it. " He was then lame in both feet with the gout, fitter for a bed than a journey ; therefore wrote to the Governor, praying that he might be excused until he should be able to travel, and engaged that then he would attend any court." But the Governor was inex- orable, and the minister had to go to Boston. There, the Council having kept him standing in their presence, " till the anguish of his feet and shoulders had almost overcome him," he was com- pelled to enter into a recognizance for a second appearance, and to pay more than four pounds for fees. A repetition of these hardships brought on an illness which threatened to prove fatal. A third appearance at the capital town was required, at which he was at length judicially " delivered from the hands and humors of his tyrannical oppressors, who had exposed him to great difficulties and charges, and to two hundred and twenty-eight miles' travelling in journeying to and from Bos- ton." The lesson was cogently taught, that it was altogether unsafe to interfere with the Governor's gifts of other people's property, and that no gravity of character, or public estimation, or distance of place, would protect from his vindictiveness. In their distress, the people turned to England with faint hope of relief. Perhaps it was thought that the King's exultation in the new prospect ol INCREASE MATHER. 351 an heir to his throne might incline him to greater lenity than could be obtained from his representa- tive. Perhaps there was more hope than the facts would justify of effective aid to be obtained from the Dissenting interest in the parent country. It was resolved to send Mr. Mather to make solici- tation at court. Increase Mather, now forty-eight years old, was minister of the Second Church in Boston. The most eminent among the clergy of Massachusetts, he had been twice invited to be- come President of Harvard College, and now held that office provisionally, by an arrangement with his Boston congregation, which could not be pre- vailed upon to release him. A resolute adherence to the old charter had won for him the confidence of the patriots of Massachusetts, and the hostility of the present rulers. A letter, subscribed with the initials of his name, had been received from Boston five years before by a gentleman of Amsterdam. It contained severe animadversions upon the English ministry, and eulogies upon Lord Shaftesbury, Titus Gates, and other persons obnoxious to the King's displeasure. A copy somehow obtained was conveyed to Sir Lionel Jenkins, Secretary of State, who sent it to New England. Mather, brought to bay, insinuated that it was a forgery of Randolph. Randolph prosecuted him for defamation. Mather was ac- quitted by a jury; but Randolph had the govern- ment on his side, and contrived to keep the suit alive, partly for the important object of preventing 352 GOVERNOR ANDROS IN MAINE. Mather's voyage. Mather concealed himself to avoid the service of a writ, and at length managed, by night and in disguise, to get on board a ship bound for England. The great features of his administration having been determined so much to his mind, the Gov- ernor found leisure for an expedition to the east- ward, which he had been contemplating for some months. He hoped to recommend himself both to the King and to the colonies by frightening off the French settlers as far as to the St. Croix. He went from Boston to Portsmouth by land, and thence by sea to Casco Bay. Having visited the settlement at Peiepscot, and ascended the Kennebec sev- April 26. eral miles, he proceeded to Pemaquid, where the Rose frigate awaited him. The frigate took the Governor to the Penobscot, his special object being a conference with an adventurer named Gas- tine, who held a little dominion of his own near the mouth of that river, in disregard of the claim of King James to its possession. Castine was a Frenchman, who had established himself some years before among the Penobscot Indians, adopted their manner of life, and taken three or four of their women for his wives. The Governor caused his ship to be anchored " before Castine's door," and sent an officer on shore to announce his arrival, upon which Castine and his retinue decamped and took to the woods. " The Governor landed, with other gentlemen with him, and went into the house, and found a smal. CASTINE AND THE INDIANS. 353 altar in the common room, which altar and some pictures and ordinary ornaments they did not meddle with anything belonging thereto, but took away all his arms, powder, shot, iron kettles, and some trucking-cloth and his chairs, all of which were put aboard the Rose, and laid up in order to a condemnation of trading." Andros had intended to repair an old English fort on the Penobscot, and had taken with him workmen and materials for the purpose ; but finding the old work gone to ruin, " was resolved to spare that charge till a more proper time offered." He then returned to Pema- quid, having informed Castine, through some In- dian messengers, that his property should be re- stored as soon as he would come to that place and profess allegiance to the King of England. Randolph, who had been detained at Boston by illness, met the Governor at sea, and accompa- nied him to Pemaquid. There the Governor had business of two kinds. Occasion had arisen for uneasiness about the temper of the Indians of Maine, who had never been reconciled after their disasters in Philip's war, and who, excited, as wa thought, by the influence of Castine, had recently broken out into some hostile acts. The Indian chiefs of the neighborhood were now summoned to Pemaquid, wnere they " were well treated with shirts, rum, and trucking-cloth ; and his Excellency in a short speech, by an interpreter, acquainted -hem that they should not fear the French, that he would defend them, and ordered them to call home VOL. it. 23 354 GOVERNOR ANDROS IN MAINE. all their young men, and they should live quietly and undisturbed." The other matter of business related to the re- cent administration of the County of Cornwall by Palmer and West, who, as deputies of Governor Dongan, had had it in charge. Randolph, con- federate as he was with them, professed himself 3 disgusted with the insolence of their proceedings. It has already been related, that, anticipating the policy which Andros had now begun to carry out in Massachusetts, they had terrified the inhabitants into taking out new grants for their lands. This grievance was felt to be the more distressing, when Andros, coming to the knowledge of what had been done, declared the patents lately bought of West and Palmer to be of no validity, " the commission [from Dongan] and the whole pro- ceeding being illegal." " These upstart persons," Randolph wrote, had " very much oppressed the poor here." Randolph was impatient of all rapac- ity which interfered with his own. He ill brooked the influence of any other counsellor with his su- perior ; the interlopers from New York were clever men, and he was not without fear that they would supplant him. Before leaving Pemaquid, the Gov- ernor directed that the works at that important post should be put in thorough repair. CHAPTER XIV. ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDRO8. RETURNING to Boston from this expedition, An- dros found a great promotion awaiting him. 1688 By a new commission, the King had con- June ' stituted him Governor of all the English AprU7 possessions on the mainland of America, except Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The " Territory and Dominion " of New England was now to embrace the country between the for- tieth degree of latitude and the River St. Croix, thus including New York and the Jerseys. The seat of government was to be at Boston ; and a Deputy-Governor, to reside at New York, was to be the immediate head of the administration of that colony and of the Jerseys. The Governor was to be assisted by a Council consisting of forty- two members, of whom five were to constitute a quorum. The Governor might suspend a Coun- sellor for sufficient cause, reporting his proceeding, with the reason of it, to the King. The Governor in Council might impose and collect taxes for the support of the government, and might pass laws, which however were, within three months of their enactment, to be sent over to the Privy Council 356 ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDROS. for approval or repeal. " Whereas there were great tracts of land within the said Territory and April 16. J Dominion yet undisposed of, and other lands, tenements, and hereditaments for which the royal confirmation might be wanting," the Governor was authorized " to dispose of such lands for a moder- ate quit-rent, not under two shillings and sixpence for every hundred acres." He had an unrestricted prerogative to " suspend or discharge " the officers of the militia. The seal of New York was to be broken, and the seal of New England to be used for the whole jurisdiction. Liberty of conscience was to be allowed, agreeably to the Declaration of Indulgence. An account was to be kept of the entrance and clearance of vessels and cargoes, to be transmitted every year to England. The Gov- ernor was " to provide by all necessary means that no person keep any printing-press for printing, nor that any book, pamphlet, or other matter whatso- ever, be printed without his special leave and license first obtained." After a few weeks passed in Boston, Andros pro- July 31. ceeded southward to take possession of his Aug. 11. new government. He published his com- Aug. 15. mission first in New York, and presently Aug. is. afterwards in East and West Jersey, settling the two last named provinces " to their great satis- faction." This might well be, for New York and New Jersey had never before had what might seem a stable government of any kind. Return ' ing to New York, he there held a Coun- MOVEMENTS OF THE INDIANS. 357 cil, at which members were present from all the provinces, and an order lately made for suspend- ing a levy of taxes laid by Dongan was rescinded. There, too, Andros heard the joyful news of the birth of a Prince of Wales, and issued a proclama- tion for the keeping of a day of thanksgiving for that auspicious event. He next passed a month in a visit, to Albany, to which place he Aug. 30- went chiefly for the purpose of establishing Sept. so. a friendly understanding with the Indians of the Five Nations, who, it was feared, were coming under a dangerous influence on the part of the French. The Indians were making disturbance again in all directions. . Before going to Albany, the Gov- ernor received information of the murder, by some of them, of five Englishmen near Springfield, and of six more at Northfield, on Connecticut River. This made occasion for him to hold, on his way homeward, a consultation at Hartford, with some of the principal men of the colony and some of the native chiefs. Thence he went up to Northfield, where he was annoyed by intelligence, Drought to him from Boston, that the pro- visional government there, alarmed by a report of turbulent manifestations of the natives about Casco Bay, had sent a force to Maine for the pro- tection of the settlers. It does not appear that the Governor felt much concern about the operations of Mather in Eng- land. That sanguine emissary had not, however, 358 ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDROS. been inactive. Arriving at London after a short May 25. passage, he in a few days obtained an May so. audience of the King at Whitehall. The King was now diligently courting the Dissenters, and he received Mather with gracious professions. At the first interview, Mather did no more than present Addresses, from ministers of Massachusetts and Plymouth, of thanks for the Declaration of In- dulgence. At a second, two days after, he June 1. . opened his case against Andros, and was directed to present in writing a statement of the July 2. grievances complained of. Subsequently, Sept. 26. the King received him three times, and re- Oct. 16. newed his promises of favor. Meanwhile Mather "made as many friends as he could." Wil- liam Perm "treated him with much civility, and the Roman Catholics themselves used him very courteously." It was said that he came into friendly relations with Father Petre. But this he denied. * Some that were friends to New England strongly advised him to seek an acquaintance with that gentleman, and use his interest with the King ; but he always declined it, and said it was next to go- ing to the Devil for help, and he could never find in his heart to do it." The result of his observations upon the King was, that he u said, in his own mind, ' I will see thy face again no more.' He thought that he had heard good words enough, and saw they were all that he was like to be put off withal." But he had not confined himself to endeavors INCREASE MATHER IN ENGLAND. 359 in that exalted quarter. Jointly with Samuel Nowell and Elisha Hutchinson, formerly Assist' ants of Massachusetts, whom he found in London, he presented a petition to the Lords of the Committee, which received so much notice as to be referred by them to the Attorney- General. The memorial " prayed, that the right which they [the Massachusetts people] had in their estates be- fore the government was changed might be con- firmed ; and that no laws might be made, or mon- eys raised, without an Assembly, with sundry other particulars. . . . The clerk, William Blathwayt, sent to the Attorney-General a copy, wherein the essential proposal of an Assembly was wholly left out. And, being spoke to about it, he said the Earl of Sunderland blotted out that with his own hand." The King's ministers had ho mind to con- cede either of these material points, and Mather and his friends saw that they had effected nothing. One more ineffectual effort they made with King James, all whose attention was now beginning to be far otherwise employed. Their final petition to the Lords of the Committee was as fol- lows: " Since your Lordships seem to be of opinion that his Majesty will not at present grant an Assembly to be held within his Dominion of New England for the making of laws or raising of money, the petitioners humbly conceive that it will be much for his Majesty's service and the peace- able government of his subjects there, that, until his Majesty ?'iall be graciously pleased to grant an 360 ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDROS. Assembly, the Council shall consist of such persona as shall be considerable proprietors of lands within his Majesty's dominions ; and that, the counties being continued as at present, each county may have one at least of such of the inhabitants of the same to be members thereof. And that no acts may pass for law but such as have been or shall be voted by the manifest consent of the major part in the Council. And that all laws, so made, may by printing be published for the general instruction of all the inhabitants." So small a boon, in that dismal time, were men of Massachusetts content to ask from a King of England. The Governor's vexation about Indian affairs was not relieved when he found himself at Ort 2fi home again in Boston. He was possessed with the idea that the Indians at the eastward were hardly treated, and that it was needless sever- ity to send a force against them, as the Magistrates at Boston had done in his ab- sence. He at once arrested the military movement, and discharged some natives who had been taken prisoners, at the same time issuing a proclamation, in which he called upon the Indians to set at lib- erty their English captives at once, and to surren- der up to justice within three weeks every Indian who had killed a settler. He advised them to establish themselves near the settlements, and to cultivate relations of good-will with their English neighbors. The proclamation produced little effect. The CAMPAIGN IN MAINE. 361 Indians were enraged and confident. Castine had taken deep offence, and his influence with the tribes was powerful. No prisoners or culprits were given up. The language of the natives was defiant. Sir Edmund abandoned his peaceful policy. Col- lecting hastily a force of nearly a thousand men, he led them into the eastern country. The hardships and the misfortunes of the cam- paign added to the burden of his unpopularity. The weather was severe. The fatigue of long marches through a country unsettled and without roads was excessive. Sickness spread among the companies. Shelter and hospital stores had been insufficiently provided. The Indians fled unharmed to the woods, where they were at home and secure. The undertaking was contemptibly abortive. But the Governor, with all his faults, was no coward. He pressed on, and did what he could for the protection of the settlers by establishing forts at convenient distances. They were eleven in number, and were garrisoned through the winter by nearly six hundred men. The costliness, discomforts, and inutility of this expedition occasioned clamor in the camp, and in- creased the discontents existing at the capital. It was natural that the despotic Governor should be assailed with more accusations than he merited. The public mind was embittered by suspicions of his be^ng treacherous in these military transac- tions. It was said that he had attacked Castine's fort to provoke him to form a hostile league with 362 ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDROS. the Indians ; that at Albany he had made a peace between the Five Nations and the French, with a view to a concerted action against the colonies of New England ; that he had led Massachusetts troops into a wilderness in the depth of winter, in order to their ruin, and not to the defeat of their enemies. An Indian prisoner reported that his comrades had been told by the Governor that the French would seize on Boston in the spring. Another said that the Mohawks had sent a message to his tribe that they had been hired by Sir Edmund to attack the Eng- lish. The apprehension that he was instructed by the King to turn New England over to the French, in the contingency of a popular outbreak in Eng- land, was confirmed by reports of French men-of- war hovering about the coast for the consummation of this object. At Pemaquid, information came to Andros of the apprehensions entertained at court of a movement of the Prince of Orange ; where* 1689. u po n he issued a proclamation commanding Jan. 10. nig ]vi a j es ty' s subjects in New England, and especially all officers, civil and military, to be on the alert, should there be an approach of any foreign fleet, to resist such landing or invasion as might oe attempted. Not unjustly, it may be believed, :he Governor's object was understood to be to hold New England for King James, if possible, should the parent country regain her freedom. When he returned to Boston from his unpros- perous military expedition to the eastern country, he met no friendly welcome. The IMPRUDENCE OF ANDROS. 363 height to which the discontent with King James had reached in England was not unknown in America, and did not fail to exasperate the pre- vailing resentment against his tyrannical represent- ative. The oppressive character of the Governor's administration created more and more indignation and alarm, as it was more developed and more dis- cussed. The misfortunes of his recent campaign added to the burden of odium under which he lay. Exposure and disease had proved fatal to many of the soldiers, and their friends angrily asked what advantage the sacrifice had won. One of the Governor's first acts after his return tended strongly to increase the popular disaffection. The gloomy and jealous state of men's minds had gained credit for the stories circulating in the army, to the effect that he had a treacherous un- derstanding with the Indians, and had even fur- nished them with ammunition for the destruction of the force under his command. The stories were improbable, but his imprudence gave them an ap- pearance of truth. An Indian had declared, in the hearing of some inhabitants of Sudbury, " that the Governor was a rogue, and had hired the Indians to kill the English," adding some particulars of the alleged bargain. The Sudbury men re- U 1 A u J u x j xu buked him; and when he persisted in the allegation, two of them, named Browne and Goodenow, brought him to Watertown, and there told their story to a Justice of the Peace. By the Justice's advice, they next took him to 364 ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDROS. the Governor at Boston. The Governor was rough with them. They were not admitted to his pres- ence till " after long waiting in a very wet and cold season," and then they " were detained until eleven or twelve o'clock at night." By this time they would have liked to be rid of the business and of their prisoner. But such was not the Gov- ernor's pleasure. He " commanded them still to take care of the Indian till his pleasure was to call for them again, and this as they would answer it. Thus being severely chidden out of his presence, they were forced with the Indian to seek their quarters where they could find them. The next morning," they say in their affidavit, " we were preparing to go home again to Sudbury (being twenty miles or more), being Saturday, when we were again sent for by the Governor by a messen- ger to wait on the Governor with the Indian, which we did, and waited at the Exchange or Council House in Boston, from nine o'clock in the morning till three of the clock in the afternoon, where, in the face of the country, we were made to wait upon the Indian, with many squibs and scoffs that we met withal. At last, we were commanded up before the Governor and his Council, where we were examined apart over and over, and about the sunsetting were granted leave to go home, it being the evening before the Sabbath." The officious witnesses remained at home un- molested a week, during which time, how- ever, five of their neighbors, probably for pro GREAT NEWS FROM ENGLAND. 365 fessing to believe the Indian's story, were by " a messenger fetched down to Boston, where, after ex- amination," one of them " was committed to close prison." The following week, the Sheriff of Middlesex and his deputy came up to Sudbury, and commanded " Browne and Goode- now, with three others," forthwith to appear at Boston, at Colonel Paige's house ; but " it being a wet and cold day, they were detained at Judge Dudley's house at Roxbury, where, after long wait- ing, they had the kindness shown them to have an examination, every man apart, before Judge Dud- ley, Judge Stoughton, Mr. Graham, and others, and were bound over to answer, at the next Su- perior Court to be held at Boston, what should there be objected against them on his Majesty's account." Browne, Goodenow, and another " were each of them bound over in three hundred pound >onds, and each man two sureties in three hundred pound bond apiece." The comment of the time was not unnatural nor uncandid. " Although no man does accuse Sir Edmund merely upon Indian testimony, yet let it be duly weighed (the premises considered) whether it might not create suspicion and an astonishment in the people of New Eng- land, in that he did not punish the Indians who thus charged him, but the English who complained of them for it." The nine days' wonder of the prosecution of the Sudbury men was not over, when a matter of far snore serious *mport c.aimed the public attention. 366 ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDROS. A. young man, named John Winslow, arrived at Boston from the island of Nevis, bringing April 4. a copy of the Declaration issued by the Prince of Orange on his landing in England. His 169 o. story is best told in the words of an affidavit made by him some months after. " Being at Nevis," he says, " there came in a 1689 ship from some part of England with the Feb. p r i nc e of Orange's Declarations, and brought news also of his happy proceedings in England, with his entrance there ; which was very welcome news to me, and I knew it would be so to the rest of the people in New England. And I, being bound thither, and being very willing to carry such good news with me, gave four shillings six- pence for the said Declarations, on purpose to let the people in New England understand what a speedy deliverance they might expect from arbi- trary power. We arrived at Boston harbor the fourth day of April following ; and, as soon as I came home to my house, Sir Edmund Andros, understanding I brought the Prince's Declarations \vith me, sent the Sheriff to me. So I went along with him to the Governor's house ; and, as soon as I came in, he asked me why I did not come and tell him the news. I told him I thought it not my duty, neither was it customary for any passenger to go to the Governor when the master of the ship had been with him before, and told him the news. He asked me where the Declarations I brought with me were. I told him I could not tell, being GREAT NEWS FROM ENGLAND. 367 afraid to let him have them, because he would not let the people know any news. He told me I was a saucy fellow, and bid the Sheriff carry me away to the Justices of the Peace ; and, as we were go- ing, I told the Sheriff I would choose my Justice ; he told me, No, I must go before Doctor Bullivant, one picked on purpose (as I judged) for the busi- ness. Well, I told him, I did not care who I went before, for I knew my cause was good. So soon as I came in, two more of the Justices dropped in, Charles Lidget and Francis Foxcroft, such as the former, fit for the purpose. So they asked me for my papers. I told them I would not let them have them, by reason they kept all the news from the people. So when they saw they could not get what I bought with my money, they sent me to to prison for bringing traitorous and treasonable li- bels and papers of news, notwithstanding I offered them security to the value of two thousand pounds." The intelligence which had reached Winslow at Nevis, and was brought thence by him to Bos- ton, could scarcely have embraced transactions in England of a later date than the first month after the landing of the Prince of Orange. Within that time, the result of the expedition was extreme- ly doubtful. There had been no extensive rising against the King, and every day of delay was in his favor. He had a powerful army and fleet; and the history of Eng/ind taught nothing more clearly than the insecurity of all calculations upon popular discontent, when an occasion arose for 868 ENLARGED JURISDICTION OF ANDROS. putting English loyalty to the last proof. Should the clergy, after all, be true to their ostentatious assertions of the obligation of unqualified obedi- ence ; should the army be faithful ; should the King, by artifice or victory, attract to his side the wavering mass of his subjects, and expel the Dutch invader, then there would be an awful reckon- ing for all who had taken part against the court. The proceedings after the insurrection under Mon- mouth had not entirely shown how cruel James could be. His position then had been far less crit- ical than now. Then he enjoyed some degree of popular esteem, and then the preparations against him were not on a formidable scale. Now he waa thoroughly frightened. In proportion to his pres- ent alarm would be his fury if he should come off victorious. The last chance was pending. If now opposed in vain, he would be henceforward irresist- ible. Englishmen who should now withstand their King must be sure to conquer him, or must aban- don all security for property, liberty, and life. Was it any way prudent for the feeble colony of Mas- sachusetts, divided by parties, and with its admin- istration in the hands of a tool of the tyrant, to throw itself into the contest at this doubtful stage ? It is unavoidable to suppose that these consider- ations were anxiously weighed by the patriots of Massachusetts after the reception of the momen- tous intelligence from England. It is natural to believe, that, during the fortnight which followed there were earnest arguments between the more AGITATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 369 and the less sanguine portions of the people. It seems probable that the leaders, who had most to fear from rashness if it should be followed by de- feat, pleaded for forbearance or at least delay. If any of them took a different part, they took it warily, and so as not to be publicly committed. But the people's blood was up. Though any day now might bring tidings which would assure them whether a movement of theirs would be safe or fatal, their impatience could not be controlled. If the leaders would not lead, some of the followers must take their places. Massachusetts must at all events have her share in the struggle, and her share, if King James should conquer, in the ruin. YOU n. CHAPTER XV. REVOLUTION OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. IT may be presumed that Andros had observed threatening signs, as, when next heard of, he waa within the walls of the work on Fort Hill. Two weeks had passed after Winslow came with his 1689 news, when, at an early hour of the day, April is. without any audible note of preparation, Boston was all astir. The day was Thursday, when the weekly lecture of the First Church in- vited a concourse from the neighboring towns. At the South End of Boston a rumor spread that armed men were collecting at the North End. At the North, it was told that there was a bustle and a rising at the South ; and a party having found Captain George of the Rose frigate on shore, laid hands on him, and gave him over to a guard. " About nine of the clock the drums beat through the town, and an ensign was set up upon the beacon." Presently, Captain Hill marched his company up King (State) Street, escorting Brad- street, Danforth, Richards, Cooke, Addington, and others of the old Magistrates, who proceeded to- gether to the council chamber. Meantime, Sec- retary Randolph, the Justices Bullivant and Fox DECLARATION OF THE PATRIOTS. 371 croft, Sheriff Sherlock, and " many more " of the Governor's party, were apprehended and put in gaol. The gaol-keeper was added to their com- pany, and his function was undertaken by " Scates, the bricklayer." " About noon," the gentlemen who had been conferring together in the council chamber ap- peared in the eastern gallery of the Town House, at the head of King Street, and there read to the assembled people what was entitled a " Declara- tion of the Gentlemen, Merchants, and Inhabitants of Boston, and the country adjacent." The docu- ment contained a short narrative of the oppressions that had been suffered by the colony, beginning with the vacating of the charter. It animadverted briefly on the " illegal " commission to President Dudley and his council, and then proceeded to portray at some length the misgovernment of Andros, as it has been described in these pages. Towards the end, it referred in a few words to "the noble undertaking of the Prince of Orange, to preserve the three kingdoms from the horrible brinks of popery and slavery, and to bring to a con- dign punishment those worst of men by whom English liberties had been destroyed." One point was delicate ; for among the recent Counsellors of the Governor had been considerable men, who, it was hoped, would hereafter act with the people. It is thus disposed of: " All the Council were not engaged in these ill actions; but those of them which were true lovers of their country were sel- 372 REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. dom admitted to, and seldomer consulted at, the debates which produced these unrighteous things. Care was taken to keep them under disadvantages, and the Governor, with five or six more, did what they would." The Declaration concludes as follows : " We do therefore seize upon the persons of those few ill men which have been (next to our sins) the grand authors of our miseries ; resolving to secure them for, what justice orders from his Highness, with the English Parliament, shall direct, lest, ere we are aware, we find (what we may fear, being on all sides in danger) ourselves to be by them given away to a foreign power before such orders can reach us, for which orders we now humbly wait. In the mean time, firmly believing that we have endeavored nothing but what mere duty to God and our country calls at our hands, we com- mit our enterprise unto the blessing of Him who hears the cry of the oppressed ; and advise all our neighbors, for whom we have thus ventured our- selves, to join with us in prayers, and all just actions, for the defence of the land." Andros sent Edward Dudley, the young son of the Chief Justice, with a message to the ministers and to two or three other considerable citizens, in- viting them to the fort for a conference, which they declined. Meanwhile the signal on Beacon Hill had done its office, and by two o'clock in the after- noon, in addition to twenty companies already paraded in Boston, several hundred soldiers were SUMMONS TO ANDROS. 373 seen on the Charlestown side, ready to cross over. Fifteen principal gentlemen, some of them lately Counsellors, and others Assistants under the old charter, subscribed a summons which was sent to Andros. " We judge it necessary," they wrote, " you forthwith surrender and deliver up the gov- ernment and fortification, to be preserved and dis- posed according to order and direction from the crown of England, which suddenly is expected may arrive, promising all security from violence to your- self or any of your gentlemen or soldiers in person or estate. Otherwise we are assured they will en- deavor the taking of the fortification by storm, if any opposition be made." " The frigate, upon the news, put out all her flags and pendants, and opened all her ports, and with all speed made ready for fight, under the com- mand of the lieutenant, he swearing that he would die before she should be taken." He sent a boat to bring off Andros and his attendants ; but it had scarcely touched the beach when the crew were encountered and overpowered by the party from the Town House, which, under the command of Mr. John Nelson, was bearing the summons to the Governor. The boat was kept, with the sailors manning it, who were disarmed. Andros and his friends withdrew again within the fort, from which they had come down to go on board the frigate. Nelson disposed his party on two sides of the fort, and, getting possession of some cannon in an out- work, pointed them against the walls. The sol- 374 REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. diers within were daunted. The Governor asked and obtained a suspension of the attack, till he should send West and another person to confer with the directors of affairs at the Town House. The reply, whatever it was, decided him how to proceed ; and he and his party " came forth from the. fort, and went disarmed to the Town House, and from thence, some to the close gaol, and the Governor, under a guard, to Mr. Usher's house." So ended the first day of the insurrection. The Castle and the frigate were still defiant in the harbor. Andros was induced to order a sur- render of the Castle by a threat, that, " if he would not give it presently, under his hand and seal, he would be exposed to the rage of the people." A party of colonial militia then " went down, and it was surrendered to them with cursings ; and they brought the men away, and made Captain Fairweather commander in it. Now, by the time the men came back from the Castle, all the guns, both in ships and batteries, were brought to bear against the frigate, which were enough to have shattered her in pieces at once, resolving to have her." Captain George, who, as the reader has been told, had long nursed a private quarrel with the arch-disturber, " cast all the blame now upon that devil Randolph ; for had it not been for him, he haa never troubled this good people ; earnestly solicit ing that he might not be constrained to surrendei the ship, for by so doing both himself and all his ARREST OF THE USURPERS. 375 men would lose their wages, which otherwise would be recovered in England, giving leave to go on board, and strike the top-masts, and bring the sails on shore." The arrangement was made, and the necessity for firing on a ship of the royal navy was escaped. The sails were brought on shore, and there put away; and the frigate swung to her anchors off Long Wharf, a harmless and ridiculous hulk. " The country people came armed into the town, in the afternoon, in such rage and heat that it made all tremble to think what would follow; for nothing would satisfy them, but that the Gov- ernor should be bound in chains or cords, and put in a more secure place, and that they would see done before they went away ; and to satisfy them, he was guarded by them to the fort." The fort in Boston had been given in charge to Nelson, and there Colonel Lydgett shared the cap- tivity of the Governor, who was transferred thither the day after his arrest. Graham, Palmer, West, and others of his set were placed in Fairweather's custody at the Castle. Randolph was taken care of at the common gaol, by the new keeper, " Scates, the bricklayer." Andros came near effecting his es- cape. Disguised in woman's clothes, he had safely passed two sentries, but was stopped by a third, who observed his shoes, which he had neglected to change. Dudley was absent on Long Island, on his circuit as Chief Justice. Return- ing homeward, he heard the great news at Newport. He crossed into the Narragansett 376 REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. country, where he hoped to lie concealed at th house of his fellow-Counsellor, Major Smith; but a party got upon his track, and took him to his home at Roxbury. " To secure him against violence," as the order expresses it, a guard was placed about his house. Dudley's host, Smith, was lodged in gaol at Bristol. To secure Dudley against popular violence might well be an occasion of anxious care to those who had formerly been his partners in public trusts. Among the oppressors, he it was whom the people found it hardest to forgive. If Andros, Randolph, West, and others were tyrants and extortioners, at all events they were strangers ; they had not been oreying on their own kinsmen. But this man was ^on of a brave old emigrant Governor ; he had been bred by the bounty of Harvard College ; he had been welcomed at the earliest hour to the offices of the Commonwealth, and promoted in them with a promptness out of proportion to the claims of his years. Confided in, enriched, caressed from youth to middle life by his native colony beyond any other man of his time, he had been pampered into a power, which, as soon as the opportunity was presented, he used for the grievous humiliation and distress of his generous friends. That he had not brought them to utter ruin seemed to have been owing to no want of resolute purpose on his part to advance himself as the congenial instru ment of a despot. A revolution had been consummated, and the COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. 377 government of the King of England in Massachu- setts was dissolved. The day after Andros was led to prison, the persons who had been put for- ward in the movement assembled again to delib- erate on the state of affairs. The result was, that several of them, with twenty -two others whom they nosv associated, formed themselves into J April 20. a provisional government, which took the name of a " Council for the Safety of the People, and Conservation of the Peace." They elected Bradstreet, now eighty-seven years of age, to be their President, and Wait Winthrop to command the militia. Among the orders passed on the first day of this new administration was one addressed to Colonel Tyng, Major Savage, and Captains Davis and Willard, serving in the eastern country, to send certain officers to Boston, and dismiss a portion of their force. There was probably a three- fold purpose in this order, to get possession of the persons of some distrusted officers ; to gratify a prevailing opinion that the exposures of the cam- paign had been needless, as well as cruel ; and to obtain a reinforcement of skilled troops at the centre of affairs. The Council felt the weakness of their position. They held their place neither by deputation from the sovereign, nor by election of the people. They hesitated to set up the charter again, for it had been formally condemned in the King's courts, and there was a large party abou* them who bore it no good-will ; nor was it to be expected that their 378 REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. President, the timid Bradstreet, whatever were his own wishes, could be brought to consent to so bold a measure. Naturally and not improperly desirous to escape from such a responsibility, they decided to summon a convention, to consist of two delegates from each town in the jurisdic- tion, except Boston, which was to send foiy. On the appointed day, sixty-six delegates came together. They brought from their homes, or speedily reached, the conclusion that of right the old charter was still in force ; and they addressed a communication to that effect to the Magistrates who had been elected just before Dudley took the government, desiring those Magis- trates to resume their functions, and to constitute, with the delegates just now sent from the towns, the General Court of the colony, according to an- cient law and practice. Their request was denied. Either the wisdom or the fears of the Magistrates held them back from so bold a venture. The dele- gates then desired the Council to continue May 10. ' to act as a Committee of Public Safety, till another convention might assemble of delegates bringing express instructions from their towns. Fifty-four towns were represented in the new convention. All but fourteen of them had instructed their delegates to insist on the resumption of the charter. In the Council, the majority was opposed to that scheme. After a debate of two days, the popular policy prevailed, and the Governor and Magistrates chosen at th PROCLAMATION OF WILLIAM AND MARY. 379 last election under the charter consented to assume the trusts then committed to them, and, in concert with Deputies to be newly elected, to form a General Court, and administer the col- ony for the present, according to the ancient forms. They desired that the other gentlemen lately asso- ciated with them in the Council should continue to hold that relation. But this the delegates disap- proved ; and accordingly those gentlemen, among whom were Wait Winthrop, the newly-ap- pointed commander-in-chief, and Stoughton, whom the people could not yet forgive, relinquished their part in the conduct of affairs. They did so with prudence and magnanimity, engaging to ex- ert themselves to allay the dissatisfaction of their friends, and only avowing their expectation that the state prisoners would be well treated, and that there should be no encouragement to popular mani- festations of hostility to England. Bradstreet and Addington were reflected to the offices which had been recently assigned to them in the temporary government. Scarcely had this arrangement been made, when it became known, that, if dangers still existed, at least the chief danger was over. A ship arrived from England, with an order to the author- ities on the spot to proclaim King William and Queen Mary. Never, since the Mayflower groped her way into Plymouth harbor, had a mes- sage from the parent country been received in New England with such jcy. Never had such a pageant REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. as. three days after, expressed the prevailing hap- piness, been seen in Massachusetts. From far and near the people flocked into Boston the government, attended by the principal gentle- men of the capital and the towns adjacent, passed in procession on horseback through the thorough- fares ; the regiment of the town, and companies and troops of horse and foot from the country, lent their pomp to the show ; there was a great dinner at the Town House for the better sort ; wine was served out in the streets ; and the evening was made noisy with acclamations, till the bell rang at nine o'clock, and families met to thank God at the domestic altar for causing the great sorrow to pass away, and giving a Protestant King and Queen to England. Three days after the ship which brought to Bos- ton the royal message, came another, in which Sir William Phipps was a passenger. From him there was much for his friends in New England to learn. Phipps, a native of Pemaquid, had, when a young man, come to Boston, and set up a ship-yard, and had there been one of Increase Mather's hearers. The old acquaintance had now recently been re- newed in London, where Phipps, in consequence of a lucky adventure of his in the West Indies, in recovering a sunken Spanish galleon, full of coin, had established a substantial consideration and in- fluence in high quarters ; and, happily for Massa- chusetts, the friends had united their efforts for hei advantage. MATHER AND PHIPPS IN ENGLAND. 381 Tt was unavoidable that the provisional arrange- ments which immediately followed the entrance of the Prince into London should be summary and hasty. It was natural that the general tenor of them should be, to authorize a continuance of the existing state of things till there should be time to make changes with deliberation. Among these arrangements one was an order for the gov- D Jan. 12. ernment of New England to continue for the present in the hands of Sir Edmund Andros. This order became known to Mather, who, by prompt and energetic intervention, succeeded in arresting its transmission to New England. Not to lose the opportunity of the King's so favorable disposition before his thoughts should be demanded for other subjects, Phipps and Mather, immediately after his accession to the regal J & . Feb. 18. power, presented to him a joint petition, in which they prayed that not only Massachusetts, but also Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, might " be restored to their ancient privileges," and that accordingly Bradstreet, Hinckley, Clarke, and Treat might be recognized as Governors of those colonies respectively. This was moving too fast. The young Somers, and the other counsellors of the new monarch, were cautious men. The King could be brought to promise no more than March 14. that " Sir Edmund Andros should be re- moved from the government of New England, and be called unto an account for his malad- ministration," and " that the present King and 382 REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. Queen should be proclaimed by their former Magistrates." A week after the proclamation thus authorized was made, with all forms of ceremony, a General Court assembled at Boston, includ- ing a House of Deputies constituted by a new elec- tion. The joyous excitement that .had attended the recognition of the new sovereigns had not had time to subside, when the explanations brought by Phipps were found to present matter for serious thought. But the prospect was fair ; at all events, the temper of the towns was resolute. Almost the first step taken by the Deputies was to call upon the Council to assume and exercise for the present all the functions conferred by the charter on Magis- trates of the Company. Without this arrangement the Deputies declared that " they could not proceed to act in anything of public concerns ; " and the Coun- cil accordingly agreed to it. The Council proposed that articles of impeachment should be drawn up against the late Governor and his friends now in prison, or else that they should be set at liberty, giving security for their appearance whenever called for ; and Sir Edmund sent in a demand for the release of his friends and of himself. The Deputies complied so far as to send up charges o the Council against Andros, Dudley, Randolph, Palmer, West, Graham, Farwell, and Sherlock, but at the same time resolved that the persons accused could not be admitted to bail. A fortnight later on account of an indisposition of Dudley, the Coun PLYMOUTH AND RHODE ISLAND. 383 cil, with the consent of some Deputies, allowed him to go from the prison, where he had been lodged, to his house at Roxbury, after giving a bond not to leave it, except on Sundays, and then under a guard. But the same night a party from Boston went out, and brought him back to gaol. The General Court, as we may now call it, having done its work of organization, and transacted other necessary business, adjourned on that day. The revolution in Massachusetts determined the proceedings in the other colonies under Andres's sway. In New York they had an unfortunate management and a tragical course, the relation of which does not belong to this history. On learn- ing what had been done in Boston, the peo- 1 . April 22. pie of Plymouth seized the person of their townsman, Nathaniel Clarke, one of Andres's Coun- sellors and tools, and, recalling Governor Hinckley, set up again the ancient government. When the revolution in Massachusetts became . April 23. known at Newport, a summons was issued from that place to " the several towns " of Rhode Island, inviting them to send their " principal per- sons " to Newport " before the day of usual election by charter, there to consult of some suit- able way in this present juncture." Accordingly, at a meeting held on the day appointed by the charter for annual elections, it was deter- mined " to reassume the government according tc the charter," and " that the former Governor, Dep- 384 REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. uty- Govern or, and Assistants that were in place before the coming over of Sir Edmund Andros, the late Governor, should be established in their respective places for the year ensuing, or further order from England." Walter Clarke was the Governor who had been superseded by Andros. But he had no mind for the hazardous honor which was now thrust upon him, and Rhode Island re- mained without a Governor. On the arrival in Connecticut of the news of the deposition of Andros, the plan of resuming the charter of that colony, and reestablishing the gov- ernment under it, was immediately canvassed in all the settlements. Agreeably to some general understanding, a number of principal men, most of them delegated by their respective towns, assembled at Hartford to consult together on the expediency of taking that step. They deter- mined to submit three questions, the next day, to the decision of the freemen, who had come to- gether in large numbers. The questions were : 1. " Whether they would that those in place and power when Sir Edmund Andros took the govern- ment should resume their place and power as they were then ; or, 2. Whether they would continue the present government ; or, 3. Whether they would ehoose a Committee of Safety." The adoption of any one of these proposals dis- posed of the others. The first of them was first submitted to a vote, and prevailed. A General Court after the ancient pattern was con CONNECTICUT. 385 stituted accordingly. The persons just deputed from the towns made the lower house. Governor Treat and Deputy-Governor Bishop resumed their functions, with ten Magistrates elected with them two years before, and two others now chosen by the freemen to fill the places of Magistrates who had died meanwhile. The first measure of the Court was to order " that all the laws of this colony formerly made according to charter, and courts constituted in this colony for administration of justice, as they were before the late interruption, should be of full force and virtue for the future, and till the Court should see cause to make further and other alteration and provision according to charter." The second vote was to confirm " all the present military officers." Justices of the Peace were appointed for the towns where no Magistrates resided. The arma- ment of the fort at Saybrook was provided for. The Governor was charged to convene the General Court " in case any occasion should come on in reference to the charter or government." A day of fasting was proclaimed. And then the Court adjourned. It was soon convened again, in consequence of the intelligence of the accession of William June 13. and Mary to the throne. The King and Queen were proclaimed with all solemnity. A day Was appointed for thanksgiving. And an Address i.f congratulation was prepared, in which the Court VOL. ii. 25 386 REVOLUTION IN NEW ENGLAND. also briefly rehearsed the recent proceedings in the colony, and prayed for "ratifications and confirma- tions of the charter." Again Englishmen were free and self-governed in the settlements of New England. APPENDIX. MAGISTRATES OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES BEFORE THE FIRST REVOLUTION. PLYMOUTH. IN this Colony there was no Deputy-Governor until 1680. At first there was only one Assistant, the office being filled (for precisely how many years is not known) by Isaac Allerton. In 1624, the number of Assistants was increased to five, and in 1633 to seven ; and at this latter time the record of the names of Assistants begins. Till 1637, the elec- tions took place in January, and afterwards in March. GOVERNORS. 1620, 1621. John Carver. 1621-1632. William Bradford. 1633. Edward Winslow. Thomas Prince. William Bradford. Edward Winslow. William Bradford. 1634. 1635. 1636. 1637. 1657-1672. 1673-1680. 1681-1686. 1638. Thomas Prince. 1639-1643. William Bradford. 1644. Edward Winslow. 1645-1656. William Bradford. Thomas Prince. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Hinckley. DEPUTY-GOVERNORS. 1680. Thomas Hinckley. 1682-1686. William Bradford 1681. James Cudworth. ASSISTANTS. William Bradford, 1633, 1634, 1636, Isaac Allerton, 1634. 1638, 1644. Miles Standish, 1633-1635, 1637- 1641, 1645-1656. John Rowland, 1633-1635. John Alden, 1633-1639, 1651-1667. John Doane, 1633. Stephen Hopkins, 1633-1636. William Gilson, 1633. Edward Winslow, 1634, 1635, 1637, 1638. 1641-1643. William Collier, 1635-1637, 1639- 1651, 1654-1665. Thomas Prince, 1635-1637, 1639- 1656. Timothy Hatherly, 1636, 1637, 1639-1657. John Brown, 1636, 1638-1645, 1647- 1655. John Jenny, 1637-1640. John Atwood. 1638. 388 APPENDIX. Edmund Freeman, 1640-1646. Thomas Hinckley, 1658-1679. William Thomas, 1642-1644, 1647- Jas. Brown, 1665, 1666, 1673-1683, 1650. John Freeman, 1666-1686. Thomas Willet, 1651-1664. Nathaniel Bacon, 1667-1673. Thomas Southworth, 1W2, 1653, Constant Southworth, 1670-1678. 1657-1669. Daniel Smith, 1679-1686, James Cudworth, 1656, 1657, 1674- Barnabas Lothrop, 1681-1686. 1680. John Thacher, 1682-1686. Josiah Winslow, 1657-1672. John Walley, 1684-1686. MASSACHUSETTS. In this Colony the annual elections took place in May. GOVERNORS. 1630-1633. John Winthrop. 1646-1648. John Winthrop. 1634. Thomas Dudley. 1649. John Endicott 1635. JohnHaynes. 1650. Thomas Dudley. 1636. Henry Vane. 1651-1653. John Endicott. 1637-1639. John Winthrop. 1654. Richard Bellingham. 1640. Thomas Dudley. 1655-1664. John Endicott. 1641. Richard Bellingham. 1665-1672. Richard Bellingham. 1642, 1643. John Winthrop. 1673-1678. John Leverett. 1644. John Endicott. 1679-1686. Simon Bradstreet. 1645. Thomas Dudley. DEPUTY-GOVERNORS. 1630-1633. Thomas Dudley. 1650. John Endicott. 1634. Roger Ludlow. 1651,1652. Thomas Dudley. 1635. Richard Bellingham. 1653. Richard Bellingham. 1636. John Winthrop. 1654. John Endicott. 1637-1639. Thomas Dudley. 1655-1664. Richard Bellingham. 1640. Richard Bellingham. 1665-1670. Francis Willoughby. 1641-1643. John Endicott. 1671, 1672. John Leverett. 1644, 1645. John Winthrop. 1673-1678. Samuel Symonds. 1646-1649. Thomas Dudley. 1679-1686. Thomas Danforth. ASSISTANTS. Simon Bradstreet, 1630-1678. Increase Nowell, 1630-1655. William Coddington, 1630-1636. William Pynchon, 1630-1636, 1643- John Endicott, 1630-1634, 1637, 1650. 1639, 1640, 1645-1648. Edward Rossiter, 1630. Isaac Johnson, 1630. Richard Saltonstall, 1630, 1681 Roger Ludlow, 1630-1633 1633. APPENDIX. 389 Thomas Sharpe, 1630. William Vaasall, 1630. John Humphrey, 1632-1641. John Winthrop, Jr., 1632-1641, 1643-1649. John Haynes, 1634, 1636. John Winthrop, 1634, 1635, 1640, 1641. Atherton Hough, 1635. Richard Dummer, 1635, 1636. Thomas Dudley, 1635, 1636, 1641- 1644. Richard Bellingham, 1636-1639, 1642-1652. Roger Harlakenden, 1636-1638. Israel Stoughton, 1637-1643. Richard Saltonstall, Jr., 1637-1649, 1664, 1681, 1682. Thomas Flint, 1642-1653. Samuel Symonds, 1643-1648, 1650- 1672. William Hibbens, 1643-1654. Herbert Pelham, 1645-1649. Robert Bridges, 1647-1656. Fi&ncis Willoughby, 1650, 1651, 1664. Thomas Wiggin, 1650-1654. Edward Gibbons, 1650, 1651. John Glover, 1652. 1653. Daniel Gookin, 1652-1675, 1677- 1686. Daniel Denison, 1653-1682. Bimon Willard, 1654-1675. Humphrey Atherton, 1654-1661. Richard Russell, 1659-1676. Thomas Danforth, 1659-1678. William Hathorne, 1662-1679. Eleazer Lusher, 1662-1672. John Leverett, 1665-1670. John Pynchon, 1665-1686. Edward Tyng, 1668-1680. William Stoughton, 1671-1688. Thomas Clarke, 1673-1677. Joseph Dudley, 1676-1683, 1685. Peter Bulkeley, 1677-1684. Nathaniel Saltonstall, 1679-1686 Humphrey Davy, 1679-1686. James Russell, 1680-1686. Samuel Nowell, 1680-1686. Peter Tilton, 1680-1686. John Richards, 1680-1686. John Hull, 1680-1683. Bartholomew Gedney, 1680-168* Thomas Savage, 1680, 1681. William Brown, 1680-1683. Samuel Appleton, 1682-1686. Robert Pike, 1682-1686. Daniel Fisher, 1683. John Woodbridge, 1683. Elisha Cooke, 1684-1686. William Johnson, 1684-1688. John Hathorne, 1684-1686. Elisha Hutchinson, 1684-16M Samuel Sewall, 1684-1686. Isaac Addington, 1686. John Smith, 1686. CONNECTICUT. In this Colony the elections took place in April. GOVERNORS. 1639. John Haynes. 1640. Edward Hopkins. 1641. John Haynes. 1642. George Wyllys 1643. John Haynes. 1644. Edward Hopkins. 1645. John Haynes. 1646. Edwarc Hopkins. 164* John Haynes. 1648. Edward Hopkins. 39C APPENDIX. 1649. John Haynes. 1650. Edward Hopkins. 1651. John Haynes. 1652. Edward Hopkins. 1653. John Haynes. 1654. Edward Hopkins. 1655. Thomas Welles. 1656. John Webster. 1657. John Winthrop. 1658. Thomas Welles. 1659-1675. John Winthrop. 1676-1682. William Leete. t_ 1683-1687. Robert Treat DEPUTY-GOVERNORS. 1639. Roger Ludlow. 1640 John Haynes. 1641 George Wyllys. 1642. Roger Ludlow. 1643. Edward Hopkins. 1644. John Haynes. 1645. Edward Hopkins. 1646. John Haynes. 1647. Edward Hopkins. 1648. Roger Ludlow. 164&. Edward Hopkins. 1650. John Haynes. 1651. Edward Hopkins. 1652. John Haynes. 1653. Edward Hopkins. 1654. Thomas Welles. 1655. John Webster. 1656. 1657. Thomas Welle*. 1658. John Winthrop. 1659. Thomas Welles. 1660-1668. John Mason. 1669-1675. William Leete. 1676-1682. Robert Treat 1683-1687. James Bishop. MAGISTRATES. [Called Assistants after the Charter.] Edward Hopkins, 1639, 1641, 1642, 1655, 1656. William Phelps, 1639-1642. George Wyllys, 1639, 1640, 1643, 1644. Thoma* belles, 1639-1653, 1668. John Webster, 1639-1654, 1657- 1659. Roger Ludlow, 1640, 1641, 1643- 1647, 1649-1653. William Hopkins, 1641, 1642. William Whiting, 1641-1647. John Hayne, 1642. 1648. John Mason, 1642-1659, 1669-1671. Henry Wolcott, 1643-1655, 1662- 1680. William Swayne, '.643, 1644. Beorge Fenw-ck, 1644, 1645, 1647, 1648. John Cosmore, 1647-1650, 1651 1657, 1658. Edward Howell, 1647-1653. John Cullick, 1648-1657. Henry Clarke, 1650-1661. John Winthrop, 1651-1656. Thomas Tapping, 1651-1656, 166- 1661, 1663, 1664, 1674-1684. Samuel Willis, 1654-1684. John Tallcott, 1654-1687. John Ogden, 1656-1660. Nathan Gold, 1657, 1659-1687 Matthew Allyn, 1658-1667. George Phelps, 1658-1662. John Wells, 1658, 1659. Richard Treat, 1658-1664 Thomas Baker 1658-1663. John Mulford, 1658. Alexander Knowles, 1658, APPENDIX. 39J Daniel Clark, 1659, 1660, 1662- 1667. Robert Bond, 1659-1661. Thurston Rayner, 1661, 1663. John Allyn, 1662-1687. Samuel Sherman, 1663-1667. John Howell, 1663, 1664. John Young, 1664. James Richards, 1665, 1667, 1669- 1680. William Leete, 1665-1668. William Jones, 1665-1687. Benjamin Fenn, 1665, 1666, 1668- 1672. Jasper Crane, 1665-1667. Richard Law, 1666, 1667. Robert Treat, 1666, 1673-1675. Benjamin Newberry, 1666, 1667 1685-1687. Anthony Howkins, 1666-1673. Alexander Bryant, 1667-1678. James Bishop, 1667-1682. John Davenport, 1667. Thomas Fairchild, 1667. Giles Hamlin, 1667, 1685-1687. John Nash, 1672-1687. John Mason, 1676. Matthew Gilbert, 1677. Andrew Leete, 1678-1687. John Wadsworth, 1679-1687. Robert Chapman, 1681-1684. James Fitch, 1681-1687. Samuel Mason, 1683-1687. Samuel Talcott, 1685-1687. NEW HAVEN. In this Colony the elections took place in October. GOVERNORS. 1643-1657. Theophilus Eaton. 1661-1667. William Leete. 1658-1660. Francis Newman. DEPUTY-GOVERNORS. 1643-1657. Stephen Goodyeare. 1661-1663. Matthew Gilbert. 1U68-1660. William Leete. 1664-1667. William Jones. MAGISTRATES. Thomas Gregson, 1643. Edmund Tapp, 1643. William Fowler, 1643. Thurston Rayner, 1643. [From a deficiency in the records of New Haven, no list of Magistrate* for the years 1644-1652 can be made out. In 1646, Thomas Gregson, Richard Malbon, William Fowler, John Astwood, Samuel Desbrough. and Andrew Ward were elected. (N. H. Rec. I. 275.) Thurston Kaynei was a Magistrate in 1644 (Ibid. 135); Richard Malbon in 1645 (Ibid. 857); and John Astwood and Samuel Desbrough in 1649 (Ibul. 467). Beginning with 1653, the series war as follows: ] Francis Newman, 1653-1658. Samuel Eaton, 1654, 1655. William Fowler, 1653, 1654. Benjamin Fenn, 1654-1659, 1661- John Astwood, 1653-1655. 1667. Wi'liam Leete, 1653-1658. Matthew Gilbert, 1658-1661, 1664. 392 APPENDIX. Jasper Crane, 1658-1667. William Jones, 1662, 1663. Robert Treat, 1659-1663. William Gibbard, 1662. [Robert Treat was reflected in 1664, but did not take the oath of office nor did John Wakeman, nor John Nash, elected respectively in 1661 and 1664; nor William Gibbard, on his first election, in 1661.] PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. PRESIDENTS. 1647. John Coggeshall. 1654. Nicholas Easton. 1648. William Coddington. 1655, 1656. Roger Williams. 1649. John Smith. 1657-1659. Benedict Arnold. 1650. 1651. Nicholas Easton. 1660, 1661. William Brenton. 1652. John Smith. 1662, 1663. Benedict Arnold. 1653. John Sanford. ASSISTANTS. Roger Williams, 1647, 1648. John Porter, 1650. John Sanford, 1647, 1649. John Wicks, 1650, 1656. William Coddington, 1647. Nicholas Easton, 1653. Randall Holden, 1647, 1653-1655, Richard Burden, 1653, 1654. 1657, 1659. Edward Smith, 1654. Jeremy Clarke, 1648. John Roome, 1655. William Baulston, 1648, 1656-1663. Benedict Arnold, 1655, 1660, 1661. John Smith, 1648. John Coggeshall, 1656. Thomas Olney, 1649, 1653-1656. Richard Tew, 1657, 1662, 1663. John Clarke, 1649, 1650, 1658. Arthur Fenner, 1657. Samuel Gorton, 1649. Joseph Clarke, 1658, 1659. William Field, 1650, 1658-1663. John Greene, 1660-1663. RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. GOVERNORS. 1664, 1665. Benedict Arnold. 1677, 1678. Benedict Arnold. 1666-1668. William Brenton. 1679. John Cranston. 1669-1671. Benedict Arnold. 1680-1682. Peleg Sanford. 1672, 1673. Nicholas Easton. 1683-1685. William Coddingtou 1674, 1675. William Coddington. 1686. Walter Clarke. 676. Walter Clarke. DEPUTY-GOVERNORS. 1664, 1665. William Brenton. 1673. William Coddington. 1666-1668. Nicholas Easton. 1674, 1675. John Easton. 1669. John Clarke. 1676-1678. John Cranston. 1670. Nicholas Easton. 1679-1685. Walter Clarke. 1671. John Clarke. 1686. John Coggeshall. 1672. John Cranston. APPENDIX. 393 ASSISTANTS. John Coggeshall, 1664, 1670, 1671, 1674, 1676, 1683-1686. James Barker, 1664, 1665, 1671, 1676. Joseph Clarke, 1664, 1677-1679. William Field, 1664. Thomas Olney, 1664, 1666, 1668, 1670, 1677, 1678. Roger Williams, 1664, 1670. William Baulston, 1664-1672. John Sanford, 1664, 1679. Randall Holden, 1664, 1665, 1676. Walter Todd, 1664, 1673. John Card, 1665. Edward Smith, 1665. William Carpenter, 1665-1671. Arthur Fenner, 1665, 1667, 1672, 1674-1676, 1679-1686. John Brown, 1665. Samuel Wilbore, 1665-1668, 1677- John Greene, 1665, 1667-1672, 1677, 1680-1684, 1686. William Coddington, 1666. Richard Tew, 1666. John Easton, 1666-1670, 1672, 1673, 1676, 1681-1686. William Harris, 1666-1669, 1673, 1674, 1676. Richard Carder, 1666. Benjamin Smith, 1666-1669, 1671, 1672, 1675. Peleg Sanford, 1667, 1668, 1669, 1677, 1678. William Reape, 1667. John Cranston, 1668-1671. Thomas Harris, 1668, 1G71-1675. Joshua Coggeshall, 1669, 1672-1676. John Tripp, 1670, 1673-1675. James Greene, 1670. John Albro, 1671, 1677-1681, 168*- 1685. Richard ,Smith, 1672. Francis Brinley, 1672. Henry Browne, 1672. Walter Clarke, 1673-1675. Daniel Gould, 1673, 1674 Thomas Field, 1673. Job Almy, 1673. Samuel Stafford, 1674, 1686. Henry Bull, 1675. Edward Thurston, 1675, 1686. Thomas Borden, 1675. Benjamin Barton, 1675, 1683, 1688 William Cadman, 1676, 1682. Samuel Gorton, 1676-1682, 1685. John Whipple, 1077-1679. Stephen Arnold, 1677-1680. Thomas Greene, 1678, 1679, 1684. Caleb Car, 1679-1685. Thomas Ward, 1679, 1680. William Coddington, 1680-1689. Joseph Jenks, 1680-1686. George Lawton, 1680-1686. Richard Arnold, 1681-1686. Walter Newberry, 1686. NEW HAMPSHIRE. PRESIDENTS. 1679,1680. JohnCutts. 1681. Richard Waldron. VICE-PRESIDE NTS. 1680. Richard Waldron. 1681. Elias Stileman. GOVERNORS. 1682-1685. Edward Cratfield. 1686. Walter Barefoot*. 394 APPENDIX. DEPUTY-GOVERNOR. 1683-1686. Walter Barefoot*. COUNSELLORS. Richard Martyn, 1679-1682. William Vaughan, 1679-1686. Thomas Daniel, 1679-1683. John Gilman, 1679-1682. Christopher Hussey, 1679-1686. Richard Waldron, "l679, 1680, 1682. Elias Stileman, 1680-1682. Samuel Dalton, 1680. Job Clements, 1680-1683. Robert Mason, 1680-1686. Richard Waldron, Jr., 1681-1685. Anthony Nutter, 1681-1686. Walter Barefoote, 1682. Richard Chamberlain, 1682-1686. Nathaniel Fryer, 1683-1686. Robert Elliot, 1683-1686. John Hinckes, 1683-1686. James Sherlock, 1683-1686. Francis Champernoon, 1683-1686. Edward Randolph, 1683-1686. COMMISSIONERS OF THE CONFEDERACY. The letter P., after a name, denotes the presiding officer of the body for the year. It was the custom, though not observed without exceptions, to choose for President one of the Commissioners of the Colony in which the meeting was held. PLYMOUTH. MASSACHUSETTS. CONNECTICUT. NEW HAVEN. 1643. Edward Winslow. John Winthrop, P. George Fenwick. Theophilus Eaton William Collier. Thomas Dudley. Edward Hopkins. Thomas Gregson. 1644. Edward Winslow. Simon Bmdstreet. Edw. Hopkins, P Theophilus Eaton. John Brown. William Hathorne. George Fenwick. Thomas Gregson. 1645. Thomas Prince. John Winthrop, P. George Fenwick. Theophilus Eaton. John Brown. Herbert Pelham. Edward Hopkins. Steph'nGoodyeM* 1646. John Brown. John Endicott. Edward Hopkins Theoph. Eaton, P Time thy Hatherly. Herbert Pelham. John Haynes. Steph'nGoodyeare 1647. WilUm Bradford. Thomas Dudley, P. Edward Hopkins. Theophilus Eaton John Brown. John Endicott. John Mason. Steph'nGoodyeare 1648. Wm. Bradford, P. John Endicott. Edward Hopkins. Theophilns Eaton. Johr Brown. Simon Bradstreet. Roger Ludlow. John Astwood. 1649. William Bradford. Thomas Dudley, P. Edward Hopkins. Theophilus Eaton Ihn Brown Simon Bradstreet. Thomas Welles. John Astwood. APPENDIX. 395 PLTM*. TTH. MASSACHUSETTS. COSSKCTICDT. NBW HAYEK. 1660. Thomas Prince Simon Bradstreet. Edw. Hopkins, P. Theophilus Eaton. John Brown. William liat borne. John Haynes. Steph'n Goody eare 1651. John Brown. Simon Bradstreet. Edward Hopkins. Theoph. Eaton, P. Timothy Uatherly. William Hathorne. Roger Ludlow. Steph'n Goodyeare. 1652. William Bradford. Simon Bradstreet. Roger Ludlow. John Astwood John Brown. William Hathorne. John Oullick. 1653. Thomas Prince Sim. Bradstreet, P. Roger Ludlow. Theophilus Eaton. John Brown. William Hathorne. John Cullick. John Astwood 1654. Thomas Prince. Simon Bradstreet. John Mason. Theoph. Eaton, P John Brown. Daniel Denison. John Webster. Francis Newman. 1655. John Brown. Simon Bradstreet. John Mason Theoph. Eaton, P James Cudworth. Daniel Denison. John Cullick. William Leete. 1656. Wm. Bradford, P. Simon Bradstreet. John Mason. Theophilus Eaton. Thomas Prince. Daniel Denison. John Tallcott. William Leete. 1657. Thomas Prince. Sim. Bradstreet, P. John Mason. Theophilus Eaton. James Cudworth. Daniel Denisou. John Tallcott. William Leete. 1658. Thomas Prince John Endicott, P. John Winthrop. Francis Newman. Josiah Winslow. Simon Bradstreet. John Tallcott. William Leete. 1659. Josiah Winslow. Simon Bradstreet. John Winthrop, P Francis Newmau f hos. Southworth. Daniel Denison. Thomas Welles. William Leete. 1660. Josiah Winslow. Simon Bradstreet. John Winthrop. Fras. Newman, P Thoe. Southworth. Daniel Denison. Matthew Allyn William Leete. 1661. Thomas Prince, P. Simon Bradstreet. John Mason William Leete. Thos. Southworth. Daniel Denison. Samuel Willis Benjamin Fenn 1662. Thomas Prince Daniel Denison. P. Samuel Willis William Leete. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth. John Tallcott Benjamin Fenn. 1663. Thomas Prinov. Sim. Bradstreet, P. John Winthrop William Leete. 'osiah Window. Thomas Danforf- John Tallcott. Benjamin Fenn. 396 APPENDIX. PLTMOUTH. MASSACHUSETTS. CONNECTICUT. 1664. NEW HAVM. Josiah Winslow. Sim. Bradstreet, P. Matthew Allyn. William Leeto. 1'hos. South worth. Thomas Danforth. Samuel Willis. William Jonei. PLYMOUTH. MASS A CHUSETTS. CONNECTICUT. 1666. Josiah Winslow. Thomas south worth Simon Bradstreet. Thomas Danforth. John Winthrop. William Leete. Thomas Prince (Subst.). Daniel Denison ) Wm.Hathorne| (Subst - ) Matt. Allyn (Subst.). 1666. Josiah Winslow. Thomas South worth. Simon Bradstreet. Thomas Danforth. John Winthrop. Samuel Willis. Thomas Prince (Subst.). 1667. Thos. Southworth. Thomas Hinckley. Thomas Danforth John Leverett. William Leete, P. Samuel Willis. 1668. Josiah Winslow. Ihos. Southworth. Thomas Danforth John Leverett. John Winthrop. William Leete. Thomas Prince (Subst.). 1669. Samuel Willis (Subst.). Josiah Winslow. Thos. Southworth. Thomas Danforth. John Leverett. John Winthrop. John Tallcott. Thomas Prince (Subst.). Sun. Bradstreet ) (gubgt Wm. Hathorne ) James Richards (Subst.). 1670. Thomas Prince. Simon Bradstreet. Samuel Willis. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth John Tallcott. Wm. Hathorne ) ,_ John Leverett \( S **t.) James Richards (Subst.). 1671. Thomas Prince. Simon Bradstreet Samuel Willis. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth John Tallcott. Thos. Hinckley (Subst.). Wm. Hathorne i > (Subst.) Daniel Denison ) James Richards (Subct. 1672. Thomas Prince, P. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth Simon Bradstreet. William Leete.* James Richards. rhos. Hinckley (Subst.). Wm. Hathorne ) ._ . ( (Subst.). John Leverett > John Tallcott (Subst.). * Conn. Ree. II. 170. But Winthrop, fnstead of Leete, attended the meeting of the Commissioners this year. (hazard, II 628 ; comp. Conn. Rec. II . 182.) APPENDIX. 397 Pi 1KOUTH. MASSACHUSETTS. CONNECTICUT. 1673. Fhomas Hinckley. Thomas Danforth. William Leete, P. Josiah Wiiislow. William Hathorne. Tohn Tallcott. Wm. Bradford (Subst ) Wm Stoughton. Daniel Demson ) John Allyn (Subst.). 1674. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth. John Ulyn. Thomas Hinckley. William Stoughton. James Richards. Wm. Bradford (Subst . Sim. Bradstreet j . Daniel Denison J( Sab8t ->- John Tallcott (Subst.) 1675. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth, P. John Allyn.* Thomas Hinckley. William Stoughton. James Richards. Wm. Bradford (Subst. Sim. Bradstreet ).,,,. Daniel Denison }l Subst ->- John Tallcott (Subst.). 1676. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth. John Tallcott. Thomas Hinckley. William Stoughton. James Richards. Wm. Bradford (Subst.) John Allyn (Subst.). 1 1677. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth. John Allyn. Thomas Hinckley. Joseph Dudley. James Richard*, Wm. Bradford (Subst.). Sim. Bradstreet ) Wm. Stoughton l (Sub8t) - John Tallcott (Subst.,. 1678. Josiah Winslow. Thomas Danforth. William Leete, P Thomas Hinckley. Joseph Dudley. John Ailyn. .1 auies Gadworth (Subst.) 1679. Josiah Winslow, P. Thomas Danforth. John Allyn. Thomas Hinckley. Joseph Dudley. James RlnhanU. James Cudworth (Subst.). Daniel Denison ) ._ | (Subst.). Humphrey Davy ) 1680. Josiah Winslow. William Stoughton. John Allyn. Thomas Hinckley. Joseph Dudley. James Richards- Wm. Bradford (Subst.). 1681. Thomas Hinckley. William Stoughton. Robert Treat. James Cudworth. Joseph Dudley. John Allyn Wm. Bradford (Subst.). By a Tote of the Council, August 18, 1675, John Winthrop was substituted for Allyn (Conn. Rec. II. 851 ) ; and, by a vote of the Genera] Court, of Octobw 14, Wait Winthrop was subst tuted for Richards ( Ibid. 271). 398 APPENDIX. PLYMOUTH. Thomas Ilinekley. William Bradford. Daniel Smith (Subst.). MASSACHUSETTS. 1682. William Stoughton. Peter Bulkeley. Samuel Nowell I . a _ COHHECTICUT. Robert Treat. John Ally n. Thos. Danforth ) v 1683. Thomas Hinckley. William Stoughton. John Tallcott WilUam Bradford. Peter Bulkeley. John Allyn. Daniel Smith (Subst. ). Samuel Nowell (Snbst.). 1684. Thomas Hinckley Samuel Nowell. John Tallcott. William Bradford. William Stoughton. John Allyn. Daniel Smith ) John Walley i Peter Bulkeley i _ . > (Subst.), Joseph Dudley ) Robert Treat. (Subrt.), F 1685. WilUam Stoughton. Samuel Nowell. 1686. Thomas Hinckley. William Stoughton. John Tallcott. William Bradford. Samuel Nowell. John Allyn. John Walley (Subst.). ROYAL PROVINCE OF NEW ENGLAND. GOVERNOR. 1686 (December) -1689. Edmund Andros. COUNSELLORS. The following Counsellors were named in the Commission which took effect in May, 1686, as appears from the Proclamation issued on the 2t>u> of that month, viz : Richard Wharton, 1686-1689. John Usher, 1686-1689. Nathaniel Saltonstall. Simon Bradstreet. Dudley Bradstreet. Bartholemew Gedney, 1686-1689. Jonathan Tyng, 1686-1689. John Hinckes, 1686-1689. Edward Tyng, 1686-1689. Francis Champernoon. In Andros's first Commission all the above-named Counsellors wer included, except the two Bradstreets, Saltonstall, and Champernoon, whc bad not accepted the trust; and the following were added. Their names, Joseph Dudley, 1686 (May)-1689. (President in 1686.) William Stoughton, 1686-1689. (Deputy-President in 1686.) Robert Mason, 1686-1688. Fitz-John Winthrop, 1686-1689. John Pynchon, 1686-1689. Peter Bulkeley, 1686-1688. Edward Randolph, 1686-1689. Wait Winthrop, 1686-1689. APPENDIX. 399 with the preceding, are in a list at the beginning of the original minuted of Andres's Council. Thomas Hinckley, 1686-1689. Walter Clarke, 1686-1689. Barnabas Lotkrop, 1686-1689. Walter Newberry, 1686-1689. William Bradford, 1686-1689. John Sanford, 1686-1689. Daniel Smith, 1686-1689. John Greene, 1686-1689. John Walley, 1686-1689. Richard Arnold, 1686-1689. Nathaniel Clarke, 1686-1689. John Albro, 1686-1689. John CoggeshaU, 1686-1689. In the Journal of Andres's Council the above names of Counsellor* occur, and also the following, subsequently appointed, viz: Fi an cis Nicholson, 1687 ( August ) - John Allyn, 1687 ( November)-168S). 1689. Samuel Shrimpton, 1688 (March) - Robert Treat, 1687 (November)- 1689. 1689. In Andres's second Instructions (April 16, 1688) all the above names were included, and the following in addition, viz : William Browne, 1688, 1689. Stephen Courtland, 1688, 1689. Richard Smith, 1688, 1689. John Young, 1688, 1689. Simon Lynde, 1688, 1689. Nicholas Bayard, 1688, 1689. Anthony Brockholst, 1688, 1689. John Palmer, 1688, 1689. Frederick Phillips, 1688, 1689. John Spragg (Sprague?), 1688, Jervis Baxter, 1688, 1689. 1689. A list of Counsellors in the Massachusetts Archives (CXXVI. 77) con- tains the names of all the Counsellors who served, during the first year, and no others. Hutchinson (Hist. I. 317) had not seen any list that he could rely upon. A list, however, which he found on the fly-leaf of a volume of the Colonial Laws, turns out to be nearly correct. It contained all the names of Counsellors mentioned above, except that of Snnos Lynde. Hutchinson, however, writes John CothiU for John CcpgethalL whose name, in the list in the Archive**, is spelt University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. Form L9-Series 444 3 1158 01197 2634 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 001 364 426 5