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1654.

March 7.

such due course should be taken as that the English residing in the said river should be orderly governed, and carried on in a way of peace for their common good." Hereupon Thomas Prince was despatched to the river to organize a local administration. He was to require the persons dwelling there, on pain of expulsion, to take an oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth of England and to the government of Plymouth; which done, they were permitted to "act in the choice of such as might be assistant to the Commissioner in making and executing such orders as might be thought fit to be es tablished amongst them."1 In a few weeks Prince was able to report that he had executed his commission, and that a code of laws had been adopted, and local officers appointed, the chief of whom was Thomas Purchas, of Pejepscot, who had willingly made a surrender of his settlement.2 From the trade on the Kennebec, which was farmed out, Plymouth derived a revenue, that was now no more than thirty-five 1655-1658. pounds a year.3

June 20.

Revision of

In the month made memorable by the death of Cromwell, a second revised collection of the laws of Plymouth was published by the authority of the General Court. It was prefaced by a declaration "that no act, imposition, law, or ordinance be made or imposed at present or to come, but such as shall be made and imposed by consent of the body of the Asso

1 Plym. Rec., III. 43 – 45.

2 Ibid., 57-61; comp. 63.- Probably the transfer by Purchas of his plantation from Massachusetts (see Vol. I. 593) to Plymouth was silently as well as gladly acquiesced in by the former Colony, to which at present the care of an isolated settlement at such a distance would be merely a burden.

the laws, and

state of the

churches.

I. 365,) for fifty pounds' yearly rent, had just expired. Game and furs had become less abundant; and the outpost was too remote from the seat of its government to be kept in good order. Bradford, Prince, and Willett took a lease in 1655, for seven years. (Plym. Rec., II. 96, 127, 144, III. 13, 87, 95, 106.)

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3 It had formerly been larger. A lease given in June, 1652, (Williamson, 117.

Plym. Rec., III. 143; comp. 115,

ciates or their representatives legally assembled, which is according to the free liberty of the State of England.”1 The freemen of the eleven towns which constituted Plymouth Colony were only about three hundred in number.2 No person could become an inhabitant without the permission of the municipal authorities; and the right of expulsion was freely exercised. Apprenticeship of young persons of both sexes was common, on condition of competent provision for their support and outfit; and the service of negroes was not unknown. In Plymouth the churches were not so well provided with a ministry, and not so flourishing, as in the other confederate Colonies. The General Court repeatedly took measures to stimulate the towns to their duty in this respect; and, on one occasion, Massachusetts even went so far as to make Sept. 2. the remissness of Plymouth the subject of a representation to the Federal Commissioners. As to religious toleration, the General Court held that "due respect was to be had unto those that were really conscientious, though differing and dissenting in some smaller matters;" but that "if any really, or in pretence of conscience, should profess that which eminently tendeth to the inundation of civil state and violation of natural bonds,

1656.

1 Brigham, Compact, &c., 107.

2 Plym. Rec., VIII. 197. The exact number was 305.

* Ibid., III. 122. 4 Ibid., 27.

5 66 Having heard some time since that our neighbor Colony of Plymouth, our beloved brethren, in a great part, seem to be wanting to themselves in a due acknowledgment and encouragement to the ministry of the Gospel, so as many pious ministers of the Gospel have (how justly we know not) deserted their stations, callings, and relations, our desire is that some course may be taken as that a pious, orthodox ministry may be restated amongst

them." (Hutch. Coll., 283.) The Commissioners earnestly expressed their sense of the obligation of their several governments to take care for the maintenance of a sufficient ministry (Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 348, 349); and the Colony of Plymouth, emboldened by the advice, and impatient of the stigma, took up the business with vigor. (Plym. Rec., III. 81, 155.) The fact is, that Massachusetts was a field of action too near and too attractive to admit of the retention of ministers of high talent in Plymouth. Chauncey and Norton had both served Plymouth churches; but men like them were wanted in a larger place.

or the overthrow of the churches of God or of his worship, here prudence was to be improved in the enacting and execution of laws."1

Expedition

Netherland.

1653.

Oct. 12.

The protracted disputes with the Dutch and the Indians, which agitated the two youngest members of the Confederacy, had borne especially hard upon New Haven. When that Colony despaired of the co- against New operation of Massachusetts in active hostilities against New Netherland, "the Court saw themselves called to seek for help elsewhere, and could conclude of no better way than to make their addresses to the State of England." At their solicitation, Connecticut joined in the movement; and Governor Haynes was desired to write to Mr. Hopkins, who had lately gone to England, to further the application by his interest with the Protector and with other leading men.2 Mr. Astwood, a distinguished citizen of New Haven, and lately a Federal Commissioner, was appointed to make personal solicitation to Cromwell.3 The intelligence of the arrival at Boston of the expedition under Sedgwick and Leverett gave the liveliest satisfaction to the people of New Haven. They immediately despatched Leete, a Magistrate, and Jordan, a Deputy, to congratulate the commander, and consult with him on a course of proceeding. The messengers were to assure him that they intended, "according to their ability and means, to afford their best assistance, both in men and provisions," and that, "if the Massachusetts should upon any consideration refuse or delay, yet they would readily join with the other two Colonies, or with Connecticut; yea, this jurisdiction alone, if others differed in judg

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June 9.

Hopkins, and Colonel Haynes" (the
Governor's son).

3 In Thurloe's State Papers (I. 564) is a letter from Mr. Hooke, colleague of Davenport, introducing Astwood to the Protector.

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ment, would improve the utmost of their ability to manifest their due submission to the authority of England, and readiness to a service wherein all New England, at least the western Colonies, were so much concerned." While waiting an answer to their message, the Colony ordered frequent trainings, laid an embargo on provisions, set shoemakers, bakers, and armorers at work, provided relays of horses for the conveyance of orders, and levied a rate of two hundred pounds.1 On receiving information from their agents that the design against the Dutch was like to go on," they raised, officered, and provisioned a force of a hundred and thirty-three men, pressed vessels for transports, and appointed a day in the next week, to "be set apart by all the plantations in the jurisdiction to seek God in an extraordinary way in fasting and prayer for a blessing upon the enterprise abroad, and for the safety of the plantations at home."2 Before the appointed fast-day, news came that peace was made. The affrighted Dutch Governor sent post-haste to New Haven to inquire whether it was true; and Eaton - with no satisfaction we may presume despatched to

June 23.

July 5.

him a copy of the proclamation, which allowed New Netherland to be a thorn in the side of New England for a while longer.

Greenwich, on the Dutch border, had all along been an occasion of trouble. Seven years after Patrick had caused it to be annexed to New Netherland, it had been ceded back to New Haven by the boundary treaty made with Stuyvesant. Disturbances which occurred in that settlement were complained of by the Deputies of Stamtion of ford to the General Court, which caused a message to be sent to the inhabitants, "requiring them, according to the justice of the case, to submit themselves to the jurisdiction" of New Haven.5 At the next

Re-annexa

Greenwich.

1655.

May 30.

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annual Court of Elections, the people of Green- 1656. wich made an answer to the demand, with May 28. which "the Court declared themselves much unsatisfied," adding a threat, that, unless it were immediately amended, they would seize some of the principal offenders and bring them to New Haven "to answer their contempt." After some little delay, the menace had its desired effect, and Greenwich sent in its formal submission.1 The seven towns now comprehended in the Colony of New Haven gave it the utmost extent that it ever attained.2

Oct. 6.

The people of that Colony were of opinion that, in order to maintain the strict accountability of public officers, it was fit to make them stipendiaries of the community which they undertook to serve; and the Governor, though the richest man among them, and as generous as rich, received an annual salary of fifty pounds.3 Their sense of the importance of liberally educating their youth was such, that, before their earliest town was ten years old, it had projected the establishment of a College.* It raised above three hundred pound to encourage the work," and Milford pledged another New Haven. hundred. The scheme proved to be premature ; and, for the present, these distant plantations had to expend their judicious bounty on the College of the older Colony, to which their Governor did not fail frequently to invite their attention, reminding them to send their yearly contributions of corn. Before the 1657. first English child born in New Haven had at- May 27. tained his majority, "it was propounded that the Court

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Education in

1655.

See above, p. 237. In 1651 or 1652, Mr. Goodyear offered to promote the object by the gift of his house, which was one of the best in the town.

N. H. Rec., II. 141, 142.

6 Ibid., 149, 210, 225, 311, 318, 354, 357, 382.

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