1658. Nov. 5. letter of humble thanksgiving to the Lord President of the Council, in which was their prayer to his 1655. Lordship to present their humble submission and June 29. acknowledgment to his Highness the Lord Protector."1 They entrusted to him a memorial " to his Highness and Council," accompanied by a letter to himself, in which they congratulated themselves on his "interest in the hearts of their superiors, those worthy and noble Senators with whom he had to do in their behalf," and protested that their "continued and unwearied wishes after the comfortable, honorable, and prosperous proceedings of his Highness and Honorable Council, in all their so weighty affairs, departed not out of their hearts night or day," and "that they flew as to their refuge, in all civil respects, to his Highness and Honorable Council, as not being subject to any others."2 And through him they con 1659. veyed their Address to the Protector Richard, in May 17. which they set forth their "unexpressible sorrow" for "the late departure of his and the nation's most renowned lord and father," and their "great joy that it had pleased God to provide for the three nations and themselves such a cordial" as was applied in the accession of the new sovereign.3 the King. At the first meeting of the government of Proclaiming Rhode Island after the arrival of tidings of the of restoration of King Charles, orders were passed in the name of his Highness, the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging." 1 R. I. Rec., I. 317, 318; comp. 321. Ibid., 395-399. 3 Ibid., 414. The General Assembly recounted in their Address the favors which had been received from the Long Parliament, from the Commissioners for the Colonies, from the 1660. Oct. 18. Council of State, and from his new "Highness's dearest father;" and they professed that, "for his Highness's person, their deepest wishes and humble desires unto God, the Father of lights, were for a double portion of his blessed father's spirit to be poured down into his Highness's noble breast." They had caused Richard to be formally proclaimed in each of their towns two months before. (Ibid., 407.) that he should be proclaimed the next day with every circumstance of ceremony, and "that all writs, warrants, with all other public transactions, should be from thenceforth issued forth and held in his royal Majesty's name." At the same time a " commission," sent to Clarke, constituted him "the undoubted agent and attorney" of the Colony, "to all lawful intents and purposes lawfully tending unto the preservation of all and singular its privileges, liberties, boundaries, and immunities." 1 Contributions, liberal according to the means of his constituents, were made from time to time, to enable him to pursue the objects of this agency.2 The "commission " was issued about a year before Winthrop's arrival in England; but he had been there several months, prosecuting his business, before he heard anything of the designs of Clarke. His charter for Connecticut had passed through the preliminary stages, and was awaiting the great seal, when it was arrested in consequence of representations made by the RhodeIsland agent. Boundary The question raised by him related to the boundary line between the two Colonies. The patent from line of Con- the Earl of Warwick to Lord Say and Sele and others, subsequently transferred from these grantees to the planters on the Connecticut, had described the necticut. 1 R. I. Rec., I. 432-435. he had received letters from Rhode * Ibid., 444, 445, 448, 480, 482, 496, Island, with an Address enclosed, and 505-507, 509, 510. "After the charter was under the great seal and finished, Mr. Clarke then appeared with great opposition, as agent for Rhode Island Colony. He never before made it known to me that he was agent for them [this implies that they had met], nor could I imagine it for a good while after my arrival here. Mr. Alderman Peake told me was desired by those letters to deliver the Address, and afterwards told me he had procured Mr. Mandrick to deliver it. I could not by this conceive they had any other agent. ..... Mr. Clarke might have done their business before my arrival, or all the time since." (Letter of Winthrop from London, September 2, 1662, in Arnold, History of Rhode Island, I. 380.) land conveyed as "lying and extending itself [westward] from a river there called Narragansett River."1 Intending merely to keep this ancient eastern boundary, but to describe it in more exact language, Winthrop, in preparing his new charter, had used the words, "bounded on the east by the Narrogancett River, commonly called Narrogancett Bay where the said river falleth into the sea." 1659. June 17. 1660. Oct. 13. 1661. Besides Rhode Island and Connecticut, a third party was interested in the settlement of this boundary. A company consisting partly of Massachusetts men, The Atherton and commonly called the Atherton Company, from Company. Humphrey Atherton, one of the partners, had bought of the Narragansett Indians a tract of land on the west side of Narragansett Bay.2 When they heard that Connecticut was soliciting a charter, they naturally desired that their territory should be placed under the government of that Sept. 29. Colony, rather than under the government of Rhode Island; and they apprised Winthrop, who was one of their associates, of their wish in that respect. He replied, writing from London, that the arrangement which he had made was such as accorded Sept. 2. with their wish, though he had made it for the different reason which has just been pointed out. There were laws of Rhode Island prohibiting the sale to aliens of 1662. 1 See the patent in Trumbull, Hist., throp, of July 9th, 1659, in which he I. 495; Hazard, II. 597. gives an account of the purchase. He describes the tract as lying twelve miles in length on the shore of Narragansett Bay, with "the trading-house [Wickford] in the middle." Comp. Conn. Rec., II. 541. 2 R. I. Rec., I. 464, 465.-There were seven partners; namely, Winthrop, Atherton, the two Richard Smiths, father and son, long settled on the spot (see above, p. 218), William Hudson and Amos Richardson, of Boston; and John Ticknor, of Nashaway (now Lancaster). In the Trumbull papers in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society (XXII. 5) is a letter from Richardson to Win 3 Letters in the Collection of Trumbull MSS. in the Library of the Mass. Hist. Soc., XXII., Nos. 38, 45, and 47. They have been printed by Mr. Arnold (History of Rhode Island, I. 378-381). lands within her territory. Maintaining that the lands of the Atherton purchase belonged to her jurisdiction, Rhode Island had at once addressed remonstrances upon the subject to the Company, to the General Court of Massachusetts, and to the Federal Commissioners.2 But they had produced no effect. Clarke's ap a charter. With In the month in which Winthrop informed his friends of his settlement of the eastern boundary of Connecticut, it appeared that Clarke had made great progress plication for towards settling it in a different manner. steady perseverance, and with a boldness which has its place among the talents for diplomacy, he had, from an early moment, bespoken the royal patronage, and had forced his way against some great difficulties. The plantations, which he represented, had previously solicited and obtained, far more than others in New England, the favor of the English Commonwealth and of its leading men, and had accepted from them constitutions of government, when Massachusetts had been so shy as to refuse to avail herself of a grant inconsiderately obtained for her by Weld, though it gave her nearly the whole of the Narragansett country. On the other hand, the exclusion of Rhode Island from the New-England Confederacy must have seemed to Lord Clarendon to constitute a claim to the favor of the English court; and if the agent's personal griefs, as well as the public interests which he had in charge, led him to proclaim and manifest a vigorous hostility to Massachusetts, it must have advanced his suit. When Winthrop thought that 1 R. I. Rec., I. 126; comp. 401, 403. • Chalmers has been understood to refer to Clarke where he says (Annals, 273), "The Deputies of these planta tions boasted to Charles the Second of the merits of this transaction [the surrender of the Narragansetts to the King (see above, pp. 136, 137)], and at the same time challenged the agents of Boston to display any one act of duty or loyalty shown by their constituents to Charles the First, or to he had secured for Connecticut a territory extending eastward to Narragansett Bay, Clarke had ob- September. tained for Rhode Island the promise of a char ter which pushed the boundary westward to the Paucatuck River, so as to include in the latter Colony a tract twenty-five miles wide, and extending in length from the southern border of Massachusetts to the sea.1 The interference of the charters with each other endangered both. Complaining of Clarke's unlooked-for opposition, "which was a great wrong, to the hinderance of his voyage," Winthrop found it necessary to remain abroad, to complete the business as best he might. He entered into a negotiation with Clarke; and, after several Agreement months, a composition was effected by the award Clarke and of four arbiters. The agreement consisted of four articles, of which two were material. The April 17. first was that Paucatuck River should "be the certain the present King, from their first es- ..... between Winthrop. greatest security to sovereignty, and 1 Chalmers, Annals, 274; comp. R. 380. Letter of Winthrop, in Arnold, I. |