reason and equity." For their proceedings in respect to the "persons attainted of high treason," they referred to their narrative before transmitted to the King. The Act of Navigation they were "not conscious to themselves that they had greatly violated, neither knew they any law of theirs against it." As to matters specified in the King's former letter, they "expressed and declared, that it was their resolution, God willing, to bear faith and true allegiance to his Majesty, and to adhere to their patent;" that they had given orders for the taking of an oath of allegiance; and that, "for some time past," justice had been administered in the King's name. "The use of the Common-Prayer Book" among them, they said, "would disturb their peace in their present enjoyments;" and they would not have been "voluntary exiles from their dear native country, could they have seen the word of God warranting them to perform their devotions in that way, and to have the same set up here.”1 "The word of the Lord" was the rule "concerning ecclesiastical privileges," by law ❝commended to the ministry and people." By a late law, they had "accepted the qualifications mentioned in his Majesty's letter, to elect or be elected unto civil offices." The oath of allegiance which they had framed, and of which they furnished a copy, may pass for a specimen of ingenuity. It was as follows: "Whereas I, A. B., am an inhabitant within this jurisdiction, considering how I stand obliged to the King's Majesty, his heirs and successors, by our charter and the government established thereby, do swear accordingly, by the great and dreadful name of the everliving God, that I will bear faith and true allegiance 1 By their Instructions the Commissioners had been permitted, rather than directed, to be accompanied by a chap lain; and it was recommended that he should not wear the surplice. (O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 58.) to our sovereign lord the King, his heirs and successors; and so proceed as in the printed oaths of freedom and fidelity." "1 May 18. The arrangements thus described could not be expected to satisfy the Commissioners. They complained of the qualifications in the oath of allegiance; of the continued limitations to liberty of worship; and of the insufficiency of the new conditions of the franchise. "You have so tentered," they said, "the King's qualifications as in making him only who payeth ten shillings to a single rate to be of competent estate;' ..... the truth is, that not one church-member in an hundred pays so much, and that, in a town of an hundred inhabitants, scarce three such men are to be found." "These answers are so far from being probable to satisfy the King's expectation, that we fear they will highly offend him. Abuse not the King's clemency too much." The question respecting the competency of the Commissioners to sit as a Court of Appeal was vital. They repeated their assertion of it in a short and peremptory letter, concluding with "one question, whereunto," said they, "we expect your positive answer, which we shall faithfully report to his Majesty : 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." 2 The Court were not taken by surprise. No English lawyer- still less the official strangers, who were men of other pursuits-understood the charter of Massachusetts better than Richard Bellingham. Perhaps, in the passing transactions, he had the interest of one who is to see whether the work of his own hands is as strong as he had meant to make it. The Court 1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 198–203. 2 Ibid., 203-206. See above, I. 307, note. May 19. May 20. May 22. answered, the same day, with a mere repetition of the request to be informed of complaints against them. The reply of the Commissioners propounded their lofty inquiry again, in a letter consisting of a single sentence; whereupon they were informed by the Court: "We humbly conceive it is beyond our line to declare our sense of the power, intent, or purpose of your commission. It is enough for us to acquaint you what we conceive is granted to us by his Majesty's royal charter. If you rest not satisfied with our former answer, it is our trouble, but we hope it is not our fault." The Commissioners, with a rebuke for "such dilatory answers," 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, defendants." "1 May 23. May 24. The hearing did not take place. At eight o'clock in the morning of the appointed day, a messenger of the General Court took his stand before the door of Captain Breedon, and published, with sound of trumpet, a proclamation, whereby the Court explained the intended usurpation of the Commissioners, and then, "in his Majesty's name, and by the authority to them committed by his royal charter, declared to all the people of this Colony, that, in observance of their duty 1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 207-210.— Deane had been associated with Kirke and Kellond in the complaint of breaches of the Navigation Laws. (Ibid., 218.) The house occupied by Breedon is said to have been on the east side of Hanover Street, near the corner of Cross Street, where the old Hancock School-House lately stood. exaltation. On the day when the Commissioners were thus defied, the Magistrate Gookin, taking the oath of allegiance, recorded his declaration that he was to "be so understood as not to infringe the liberty and privileges granted in his Majesty's royal charter" (Massachusetts Archives, CVI. 132); and two days after, Danforth accompanied his oath with a similar protest. Of course, this was a time of some (Ibid., 133.) to God and to his Majesty, and to the trust committed unto them by his Majesty's good subjects in this Colony, they could not consent unto, nor give their approbation of, the proceedings 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 direct charge, or should be their abettors or consenters thereunto" The proclamation was repeated, with like parade, in two other parts of the town. The Commissioners saw themselves to be helpless. "Gentlemen," they wrote, "we thought, when we received our Commission and Instructions, that the King and his Council knew what was granted to you in your charter, and what right his Majesty had to give us such commission and commands; and we thought the King, his Chancellor, and his Secretaries, had sufficiently convinced you that this commission did not infringe your charter; but, since you will needs misconstrue all these letters and endeavors, and that you will make use of that authority which he hath given you to oppose that sovereignty which he hath over you, we shall not 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." Two other communications were made on that day. The Court placed in the hands of the Commissioners a map of their territory, as they understood its limits to be defined; and the Commissioners furnished a list of a number of amendments which they proposed to have made in the existing laws, in order to a better recognition of the King's authority, and compliance with his wishes. The Court summoned Deane and his associates before them for a re-examination of their complaint, and sent a notice to the Commissioners, in order that, if so disposed, they might be present, and, "accord May 26. ing to his Majesty's command to them, might understand the grounds of the said complaint." The Commissioners replied: "We do in his Majesty's name declare to the General Court, that it is contrary to his Majesty's will and pleasure that the cause should be examined by any other Court or persons than ourselves, who are, by his Majesty's commission, the sole judges thereof." This was their last act before they dispersed from Boston.1 Nicolls went back to his government of New York, and his colleagues proceeded to the northern towns of Massachusetts. New Hampshire. In the twenty-two years that had passed since the death of Captain John Mason, his family had had no favorable opportunity for reclaiming his American estate. The elder of his two grandsons died in infancy. Soon after the younger came of age, an agent was sent to the Piscataqua to look after the property. An action, brought by him in the Court of 1652. Norfolk County for the possession of some lands, raised the question whether they were within the limits of Massachusetts, and gave occasion to that exploration of the northern boundary which has been mentioned in another place. Having ascertained that the jurisdiction was their own, but that Mason had acquired some rights in the soil, the General Court ordered 1653. Aug. 30. 1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 210 – 215. Carr and Maverick, reporting to Bennett the interruption to their intended judicial proceedings, say the trumpet was blown "by eight of the clock in the morning, under Colonel Cartwright's chamber-window, he being then lame of the gout at Captain Breedon's, where we intended to have sat." (Letter of November 20, in the State-Paper Office.) - Davenport wrote from New Haven to Leverett, June 24th, in a strain of triumph for the present result of these transactions. (Hutch. Coll., 392.) Leverett had acquainted him with them the next day after their conclusion. Davenport uses the opportunity to bewail the evil omen of the decision of the recent Synod respecting baptism, and the political catastrophe in New Haven. A person attentive to chronological coincidences may observe, not without interest, that the month of the first excitement in Boston against the Stamp Act was the Centennial Anniversary of this defeat of the royal Commissioners. See Vol. I. pp. 404, 523, 592. |