refused to recommend that measure,1 and four days more passed. At the end of this time, whether through the persuasion of others, or their own conviction of the impropriety of involving their generous hosts in further embarrassment, - or simply because they had been awaiting the completion of arrangements for their reception at New Haven, - they set off for that Feb. 26. place. at New Ha ven. A journey of nine days brought them to the hospitable house of Mr. Davenport, where again they moved freely in the society of ministers and magis- The Colonels trates. But they had scarcely been there three weeks, when tidings came of the reception at Boston of a proclamation issued by the King for their arrest. To release their host from responsibility, they went to Milford (as if on their way to New it was reported to him by all persons that they were in exceeding great esteem for their parts; that they held meetings in their house, where they preached and prayed, and gained universal applause and admiration, and were looked upon as men dropped down from heaven; that this was the phrase of all the deponent heard discourse about them, but that penitence for the horrid murder for which they fled did not appear to be any part of that piety which sainted them in their esteem; for that Whalley said openly, almost in all places where he came, that, if what he had done against the King were to be done, he would do it again; and that it was the general report of the place that he was frequently heard to say these words. ... "And the deponent doth likewise remember, that, being afterwards in company of several merchants at Boston, and discoursing of Hugh Peters and his execution, some persons did there say that there were many godly March 7. March 27. Netherland), and there showed themselves in public; but returned secretly the same night to New Haven, and were concealed in Davenport's house. Order to their appre They had been so situated for a month, when their friends had information from Boston that the search for them was to be undertaken in earnest. Further accounts of their having been seen in that place had Endicott for reached England, and the King had sent a perhension. emptory order to the colonial governments for March 5. their apprehension.1 Endicott, to whom it was transmitted, could do no less than appear to interest himself to execute it; and this he would do with the less reluctance, because, in the circumstances, there was small likelihood that his exertions would be effectual. Two young men recently come from England, Thomas Kellond and Thomas Kirk,2 received from him a commission to prosecute the search in Massachusetts, with letters of recommendation to the Governors of the other Colonies. That they were zealous royalists would be some evidence to the home government that the quest would be made in good faith. That they were strangers, unacquainted with the roads and with the habits of the country, and betraying themselves by their deportment wherever they should go in New England, would afford comfortable assurance to the Governor that they would make the quest in vain.3 1 See it in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVII. 123. In ignorance or in carelessness, it was addressed "To our trusty and well-beloved the present Governor or other Magistrate or Magistrates of our Plantation of New England." * Kellond was a merchant, and Kirk a shipmaster, as appears from a letter of Temple to Secretary Morrice, in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 325. It is perhaps an indication of the prevailing good-will to the fugitives, that some of the Court complained that the Governor had taken too much upon him in issuing the order for their arrest. "Many very honestly minded of the Deputies, and some among the Magistrates, could not consent to own the Governor's acting without the Council in executing the King's Majesty's warrant for apprehending Colonels Whalley and Goffe. Though they own it a duty to be done, yet his acting without the major part of the Council assembled made them loath to own the act at all." (Hull's Diary for May 7. From Boston, the pursuers, setting off in an evening of spring, went to Hartford, where they were informed by Winthrop, that "the Colonels," as they were called, had lately been in that town, May 10. but had departed immediately by the road to New Haven.1 Thither the messengers proceeded, stopping on the way at Guilford, the residence of Deputy-Governor Leete, who, since the recent death of Governor Newman, was Chief Magistrate of the Colony.2 for their arrest to The Deputy-Governor received them in the presence of several other persons. He looked over their Application papers, and then "began to read them audibly; whereupon we told him," say the messengers, Governor of "it was convenient to be more private in such New Haven. concernments as that was." They desired to be furnished with horses, &c." for their further journey, "which was prepared with some delays." They were accosted, on coming out, by a person who told them that the Colonels were secreted at Mr. Davenport's, "and that, without all question, Deputy Leete knew as much;' and that, "in the head of a company in the field atraining," it had lately been "openly spoken by them, that, if they had but two hundred friends that would stand by them, they would not care for Old or New England." The messengers returned to Leete, and made an application for "aid and a power to search and apprehend" the fugitives. "He refused to give any power to apprehend them, nor order any other, and said he could do June 4, 1661; in Archæol. Amer. III. afterwards performed." ("Report made 202.) "The honorable Governor [Winthrop] carried himself very nobly to us, and was very diligent to supply us with all manner of conveniences for the prosecution of them, and promised all diligent search should be made after them in that jurisdiction, which was to Governor Endicott by Thomas Kellond and Thomas Kirk," in Hutch. Coll., 334.) But I shall be slow to believe in this alacrity of Winthrop, except on better evidence. 2 Governor Newman died November 18, 1660. nothing until he had spoken with one Mr. Gilbert and the rest of his Magistrates." Magistrates." It was now It was now Saturday afternoon; and for a New-England Governor to break the Sabbath by setting off on a journey, or by procuring horses for any other traveller, was impossible. An Indian had been observed to leave Guilford while the parley was going on, and was supposed to have gone on an errand to New Haven. Monday morning the messengers proceeded thither. "To our certain knowledge," they write, "one John Meigs was sent a horseback before us, and by his speedy and unexpected going so early before day was to give them an information; and the rather because by the delays was used, it was break of day before we got to horse; so he got there before us. Upon our suspicion, we required the Deputy, that the said John Meigs might be examined what his business was, that might occasion his so early going; to which the Deputy answered, that he did not know any such thing, and refused to examine him." Leete was in no haste to make his own journey to the capital. It was for the messengers to judge whether they would use such despatch as to give an alarm there some time before a Magistrate was present, to be invoked for aid. "He arrived," they write, "within two hours, or thereabouts, after us, and came to us, to the Court chamber, where we again acquainted him with the information we had received, and that we had cause to believe they [the fugitives] were concealed in New Haven, and thereupon we required his assistance and aid for their apprehension; to which he answered, that he did not believe they were. Whereupon we desired him to empower us, or order others for it; to which he gave us this answer, that he could not, or would not, make us magistrates. We set before him the danger of that delay and their inevitable escape, and how much the honor and service of his Majesty was despised and trampled on by him, and that we supposed, by his unwillingness to assist in the apprehension, he was willing they should escape. After which he left us, and went to several of the Magistrates, and were together five or six hours in consultation; and, upon breaking up of their council, they told us they would not nor could not do anything until they had called a General Court of the freemen.” For pre The messengers labored with great earnestness to shake this determination; but all in vain. cedents they appealed to the promptness of the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, "who, upon the recite of his Majesty's pleasure and order concerning the said persons, stood not upon such niceties and formalities." They represented "how much the honor and justice of his Majesty was concerned, and how ill his sacred Majesty would resent such horrid and detestable concealments and abettings of such traitors and regicides. as they were." "We asked him," they say, "whether he would honor and obey the King or no in this affair, and set before him the danger which by law is incurred by any one that conceals or abets traitors. To which the Deputy Leete answered, 'We honor his Majesty, but we have tender consciences.' To which we replied, that we believed that he knew where they were, and only pretended tenderness of conscience for a refusal. We told them that for their respect to two traitors they would do themselves injury, and possibly ruin themselves and the whole Colony of New Haven." "Finding them obstinate and pertinacious in their contempt of his Majesty," the messengers, probably misled by some false information, took the road to New Netherland the next day, in further prosecution of their business. The Dutch Governor promised them that, if the Colonels appeared within his jurisdiction, he would give notice to Endicott, and take measures to prevent their |