Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

"that a quantity of land, with privilege of the river, proportionable to Captain John Mason's disbursements," should be laid out to his heirs. For the present, nothing more was done. At the restoration of the monarchy, Robert Tufton, his heir, who had taken the name of Mason, hoped for more favor than the Commonwealth could have been expected to show to his loyal family. His petition to the King was referred to the AttorneyGeneral, who reported that "Robert Mason, grandson and heir to Captain John Mason, had a good and legal title to the Province of New Hampshire."

"2

The royal
Commission-

Hampshire.

1665.

July.

It does not appear that the King had given any special directions on this subject. But it afforded good materials for another quarrel, and the three Commissioners took their measures accordingly. In the four towns by the Piscataqua, where by their ers in New violent conduct-especially that of Carr-the people were "so terrified and amazed that they did not well know what to do," they obtained a few signatures to a petition to the King, praying him for relief from the government of Massachusetts. The towns of Portsmouth and Dover, in alarm, applied to the General Court, which appointed a committee of three Magistrates, Danforth, Leverett, and Lusher, - to repair to that region, and act as they might deem circumstances to require. They soon reported, that,

[blocks in formation]

Oct. 10.

can keep the business in agitation until the King, and all his Secretaries there, and all his good subjects here, be weary of it...... Both the readiest and surest way is for his Majesty to take away their charter, which they have several ways forfeited, which King Charles was about to do a little before the Scottish war in 1636 or 1637. ..... But this, without a visible force, will not be effected." (Letter of Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick, of July 26, 1665, O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 102.)

1666.

[ocr errors]

by the action of town-meetings at Portsmouth and Dover, and by certificates from Exeter and Hampton, they were assured that the great body of the people in those places had had no hand in the movement, and deprecated any change. From Kittery, on the opposite bank of the Piscataqua, Carr wrote to the committee, "desiring and requiring they would forbear troubling or molesting' the petitioners. His note received no attention. "One Abraham Corbet, of Portsmouth, a nourisher of much vice and wickedness by giving irregular entertainment of loose persons in his house, had been very active in drawing up and promoting the subscription." The committee sent him a summons to appear before the General Court, which subsequently condemned him to May 23. pay a fine of twenty pounds, to be incapable of "bearing any office," and to "give one hundred pounds' bond, with sufficient security, for his peaceable demeanor for the future."2 Captain Breedon became one of his sureties, as he probably had been one of his prompters. From the Piscataqua towns, the three Commissioners proceeded further to the east. After the death of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his eldest son, John, had seen no encouragement, in the state of the times, to attempt the recovery of his supposed rights. During the protectorate of Richard Cromwell, the son of John Gorges, by name Ferdinando, put together some of his grandfather's papers, and published them in the book, called the "Brief Narrative," which has been often quoted in these pages. After the King's restoration, there were symptoms of disaffection to Massachusetts in the eastern settlements.

Maine.

1659.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

For three years they

meet or do anything commanded them by the Commissioners, at their utmost perils." But if there is anything of this in the Records, I have overlooked it.

See above, p. 383.

1661

-63.

1664. May 27.

June 11.

allowed themselves to be almost unrepresented in the General Court.1 Massachusetts put a new officer in command of their militia, and sent a committee, consisting of Danforth, Hathorne, and Lusher, to the County of York, to "require all persons belonging to this county to return peaceably to their former obedience, and all officers, orderly established,..... to attend the faithful discharge of their respective places." The King, by Secretary Morrice, wrote to his "trusty and well-beloved, the inhabitants upon the Province of Meyn," informing them that he was legally advised that the claim of Gorges was valid and that the government over them by Massachusetts was usurped, and requiring them "forthwith to make restitution of the said province unto the said Ferdinando Gorges or his commissioners, and deliver him or them the quiet and peaceable possession thereof." Upon this, Gorges took some measures towards restoring his authority. The General Court of the Colony gave their attention to the 1665. subject, at the moment of their sharpest collision May 25. with the royal Commissioners; and, "taking into consideration the distracted condition of the people of the County of Yorkshire, occasioned by some persons presuming to claim and exercise government amongst them by a pretended power derived from Ferdinando Gorges, Esq.," the Magistrates despatched thither a proclamation, “requiring all the inhabitants of that county to remain in their duty and obedience to his Majesty, in subjecting to the authority of this Court." 4

[ocr errors]

1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 2,41, 72, 100. * Ibid., 76. at this time (June 25), Daniel Gookin wrote to Gorges, advising him, in a friendly way, to "make some honorable composition with the jurisdiction of Massachusetts for his claim" The letter, which is in the State-Paper Office, has been printed by Mr. George Folsom, in his

very valuable "Catalogue of Original Documents in the English Archives relating to the Early History of the State of Maine" (p. 55; comp. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., XIII. 349).

Hutch. Coll., 385.

Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 151, 152; comp. 236, 253; also Hutch. Coll., 396.

The Commis

sioners in Maine.

June 23.

Sept. 5.

1

So matters stood in the eastern county, when the royal Commissioners approached it. Professing to be influenced by "several petitions from the inhabitants of the Province of Meyne, ... in which petitions they desired to be taken into his Majesty's immediate protection," they proceeded, at York, to settle a government independent alike of the Proprietary and of Massachusetts, and to appoint magistrates for each of the eight towns, with authority also to convene as one board, for the transaction of business of general concern.2 Continuing their journey to the new Province of the Duke of York beyond the Kennebec, where Massachusetts had never claimed jurisdiction, they there made similar arrangements for the government of the few and scattered inhabitants, and gave to the territory the name of Cornwall At York, on their way back, they held a court, in which they decreed the invalidity of all titles to land acquired from the natives, or under the Lygonia patent.1 While they were thus engaged, the General Court held another meeting, and, with the advantage of two months' deliberation, proceeded to take some further measures. "Upon the intelligence of De Ruyter approaching their coasts," -so the necessity for arming is explained, they placed a strong garrison in the Castle in Boston harbor, and made other military dispositions; they took care for the more effectual restraint of persons "reproaching the laws and authority here established according to his Majesty's charter;" and, in another Address to the King, they complained of the misconduct of the three Commissioners, and depre

October.

Aug. 1.

1 These petitions were sent to England by the Commissioners, and may be seen by the curious at the StatePaper Office.

2 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 249–251.
* Williamson, History, &c., I. 420 –

422. The settlements were Sagada-
hock, Sheepscot, Arrowsick, and Pem-
aquid. The Commissioners, in their
Report, give a sorry account of the in-
habitants. (Hutch. Coll., 424.)
• Williamson, History, I. 424.

cated the displeasure which might be awakened in England by their malign misrepresentations. "Unto that arbitrary, absolute, and unlimited power which those gentlemen would impose," they said they could not "see reason to submit."

"1

The final visit of the Commissioners to Boston was of short duration. The Court sent them a message proposing a conference on what had lately taken place; but the tone of Carr's answer was offensive, and the Court resolved to proceed no further.2 He went to look after his interests in the Delaware coun- of the Comtry, and in the second following year sailed for England, where he died, the day after landing. Mav

1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 274 – 278. A connected narrative of these transactions with the Commissioners, with a vindication of the government, occupies more than a hundred quarto pages in the printed edition of the Records. (Ibid., 157-273.) I suppose it was prepared by Danforth, and that in the Danforth Papers (Mass. Hist. Coll., XVIII. 46 et seq.) we have the original collection of materials for it.

* Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 279.—In December, 1665, Carr was still in Boston, whence he wrote to Lord Lauderdale:

66

If the King would take the lands lying east to Connecticut River, and join it, with Rhode Island, to the King's Province, it would make a good receptacle for the King's loyal subjects, and be a great stop to the Massachusetts, if they should rebel. Rhode Island Colony is so full of faction, and so void of men fit to govern; for there is, besides the Governor and Deputy-Governor, (betwixt whom, to my knowledge, there is a great feud,) not one fit to make a Governor of," &c. (Letter of Carr, in Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc. for 18581860, p. 274.)

3 Meanwhile, however, he made a visit to Boston, where he had a little

Dispersion

missioners.

adventure. Perhaps he came thither to embark. As in January, 1667, he was merry-making at the Ship Tavern, with Maverick and Temple, on a Saturday evening, a constable stepped in, and desired them to be more regardful of the sobriety of the hour, and disperse. The party drove away the of ficer with blows, and then adjourned to Mr. Kellond's. Arthur Mason, another constable, found them there, and, in an altercation which ensued, he told Carr that he would have taken away the King himself, if he had found him noisy on Saturday evening in Boston. Maverick complained to the Governor, and Mason was informed against, before the Grand Jury, for "maliciously uttering treasonable words." The Grand Jury found a bill to the effect that "the words charged were spoken,” and a petit jury brought in a verdict in the same terms; the Magistrates referred the question of further proceedings to the General Court; and the officer was sentenced to be "admonished in solemn manner by the Governor." (Hutch. Hist., I. 232– 234.) On the other hand, Leverett summoned Carr to appear before him, and answer for "riotous and abusive

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »