that the fort at that important post should be put in thorough repair. June. Extension of to Delaware April 7. Returning to Boston from this expedition, Andros found a great promotion awaiting him. By a new commission the King had constituted him Governor of all the English possessions on New England the mainland of America, except Pennsylvania, Bay. Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The "Territory and Dominion" of New England was now to embrace the country between the fortieth 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 Counsellor 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 for approval or repeal. "Whereas there were great tracts of land within the said Territory and 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 moderate quitrent, 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 April 16. vessels and cargoes, to be transmitted every year to England. The Governor was "to provide by all necessary means that no person keep any printing-press for printing, nor that any book, pamphlet, or other matter whatsoever, be printed without his special leave and license first obtained." 1 Visit of the July 31. August 15. After a few weeks passed in Boston, Andros proceeded southward to take possession of his new government. He published his commission first in New York, and presently afterwards in East and in West Jersey, settling the two lastnamed Provinces "to their great satisfaction." 3 This might well be, for New York and New Jersey had never before had what might seem a stable government of any kind. Returning to New York, he there held a Council, at which members were present from all the Provinces, and an order lately made for suspending 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 proclamation for the keeping of a day of thanksgiving for that August 29. August 23. 1 For this new commission, and the full instructions of Lord Sunderland to Andros which accompanied it, see O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III., 537 -549. The date of the instructions is April 16. Captain Francis Nicholson, who had been a Counsellor since August 24, 1687 (Council Records), was commissioned to be Lieutenant-Governor, April 20, 1688. (Ibid., 536.) Hutchinson says (Hist., I. 331): "Several letters mention the arrival from England of John Palmer, who had been of Sir Edmund's Council, both in New York and New England, with a commission of appointment for Chief Judge of the Supreme Court." But certainly he was in error if he supposed that Dudley was thus superseded. - June 12, Andros's salary was fixed at £1400, "to be paid out of the revenue arising there, in the value of sterling money," and to begin at the publication of his commission. 2 By a sort of commission, dated June 2, Andros designated Hubbard (Mather having gone abroad) to preside at the Commencement of Harvard College, as he had done on a previous occasion. See above, p. 153; comp. Mass. Hist. Coll., XXI. 83. 3 Nicholson's Letter of August 31; comp. Andros's Letter of October 4 to the Lords of the Committee. (O'Cal laghan, Documents, &c., III. 550, 554, 567.) 4 Conn. Rec., III. 447. Visit to the dians auspicious event.' He next passed a month in a visit to Albany, to which place he went chiefly for the purpose of establishing a friendly under- Iroquois Instanding with the Indians of the Five Nations, August 30who, it was feared, were coming under a dan- September 30. gerous influence on the part of the French.2 Indians. The Indians were making disturbance again in all directions. Before going to Albany, the Governor Uneasiness received information of the murder, by some among the 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." 1 Andros to the Lords of the Committee, in O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 554. 2 Conn. Rec., III. 449; O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 555-561.- Mason died while accompanying the Governor on this journey. (Belknap, History, &c., I. 337; Letter of Randolph to the Lords, October 8, in O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 368.) – King James seems to have now had a spasm of English feeling in respect to the threatened encroachments of the French upon his dependencies in America. France was beginning to manifest her ambition for American empire, by employing missionaries and erecting fortresses along the inland English frontier (Charlevoix, Histoire Générale de la Nouvelle France, Livre XI.); and the consolidating of the Northern English Colonies under one head probably seemed to King James's advisers a suitable measure of counteraction. "About the year 1685, the French of Canada encroached upon the lands of the subjects of the crown of England, building forts upon the heads of their great rivers, and, extending their bounds, disturbed the inhabitants; ..... whereupon it was advised and ordered in Council, that the three small Colonies of Connecticut, New Plymouth, and Rhode Island, not able to make any defence against the French, together with the Provinces of New Hampshire and Maine, should be united, and made one entire government, the better to defend themselves against invasion." (Randolph's "Short Narrative," &c., in O'Callaghan, Documents, III. 579.) "This [the annexation of New York and New Jersey to New England], besides other advantages, will be terrible to the French, and make them proceed with more caution than they have lately done." (Blathwayt to Randolph, March 11, 1688, in Hutch. Hist., I. 332.) 3 Letter of Andros to Major Gold, of August 25. (Conn. Rec., III. 448.) Comp. Letter of Randolph, of October 8, to the Lords of the Committee. (O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 550-568.) 4 Letter of Andros to Allyn (Conn. Rec., III. 449), dated New York, Oct. 1. October 15. Thence he went up to Northfield, where he was annoyed by intelligence brought to him from Boston, that the provisional government there, alarmed by a report of turbulent manifestations of the natives about Casco Bay, had sent a force to Maine for the protection of the settlers.2 October 11. May 25. May 30. It does not appear that the Governor felt any concern about the operations of Mather in England. That sanguine emissary had not, however, been inactive. Arriving at London after a short passage, he in a few days obtained an 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 Indulgence. At a second, two days after, he opened his case against Andros, and was directed to present in writing a statement of the griev ances complained of. Subsequently the King received him three times, and renewed his promises of September 26. favor. Meanwhile Mather "made as many June 1. July 2. October 16. friends as he could." William Penn "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 Le always declined it, and said it was next to going to 1 The alarm was wide-spread and serious, even in Massachusetts proper. Deputy-Governor Nicholson, who was t by Andros to Boston on his reception of bad news at Northfield, took active measures of precaution. (Letter of Nicholson, in O'Callaghan, Docu ments, &c., III. 550-552; Mass. Arch., CXXIX. 167, 168, 173, 179.) 2 Conn. Rec., III. 451; Narrative of Proceedings, &c., 11; Randolph to the Lords of the Committee, in O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 365–367. 3 See above, p. 460. 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 "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 he was like to be put off withal.” 1 Proceedings of Mather and his associates in August 10. But he had not confined himself to endeavors in that exalted quarter. Jointly with Samuel Nowell and Elisha Hutchinson, formerly Assistants of Massachusetts, whom he found at 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.2 The memorial "prayed, that the right which they [the Massachusetts people] had in their estates before the government was changed might be confirmed; and that no laws might be made, or moneys 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 no mind to concede 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 follows: "Since your Lordships seem to be of opinion that his .... October. a freedom of speech which had given offence; for there is an indorsement on their papers to the effect that a day was appointed for hearing them (June 19), but "they withdrew their petition, and did not appear." (Ibid.) 3 Narrative of the Miseries of New England, in Sixth Collection of Papers, &c. 33. |