CHAP. LXXI.

General affairs of the Massachusetts, from the

to 1676.

year 1671

In the beginning of this last epocha, or series of years, Mr. Bellingham was again chosen governour of the Massachusetts, and Maj. John Leverett, (to whose lot it had fallen some years before to be the major general of the Massachusetts colony,) was at the same time, May 31, 1671, called by the general consent of the electors to be deputy governour, in the room of Mr. Willoughby, that formerly supplied that place, and always by his gravity and prudence, as well as by his integrity and faithfulness, well becoming the dignity thereof.

In the year 1672, Harvard College being decayed, a liberal contribution was granted for rebuilding the same, which was so far promoted from that time, that in the year 1677, a fair and stately edifice of brick was erected anew, not far from the place where the former stood, and so far finished that the publick acts of the commencement were there performed, over which God send or confirm and continue a president, for the carrying on of that hopeful work, that so the glory of the succeeding may in all respects equal and exceed that of the former generation.

In the end of the year 1672 an end was put to the life and government of Mr. Bellingham, a very ancient gentleman, having spun a long thread of above eighty years; he was a great justiciary, a notable hater of bribes, firm and fixed in any resolution he entertained, of larger comprehension than expression, like a vessel whose vent holdeth no good proportion with its capacity to contain, a disadvantage to a publick person; had he not been a little too much overpowered with the humour of melancholy in his natural constitution, (the infirmities of which tincture did now and then appear in his dispensing of justice,) he had been very well qualified for a governour. He had been bred a lawyer, yet turned strangely, although upon very pious considerations, as some have

judged, out of the ordinary road thereof, in the making of his last will and testament, which defect, if there were any, was abundantly supplied by the power of the general court, so as that no prejudice did arise to his successours about his estate.

In the following year, 1673, May 7th, Maj. John Leverett was invited by the free and general consent of the freemen of the Massachusetts, to take the governour's place after him, which he held ever since unto his life's end. His choice at this time was a little remarkable, in that he, being one of the junior magistrates, was called first to be deputy, then governour, which according to the usual course of succession belonged to the senior. Thus many times things so fall out that the last shall be first. What his administration hath been in the time past, as to wisdom, justice, courage, and liberality is known to all, in that which is to come, is left to be related by them to whose lot it may fall to write the epilogue of New England story, which God grant it may not prove so tragical as it hath been in the four last years preceding. But as is well known, since God took him out of this troublesome world, March 16, 1678, he hath in his merciful providence, called one to preside as chief in authority over the colony of the Massachusetts, who, by his sage wisdom, and long experience, (even ever since the first coming over of the patentees,) hath been found the best able to take upon him the conduct of affairs in those difficult times, that have since happened, sufficient to have tried the wisdom of all that preceded in that station.

This year, Monsieur Colve, coming with a few ships. and soldiers from the West Indies, surprized the fort at Manhatos, or New York, in the absence of Col. Lovelace, the governour, under his highness the duke of York, which might have proved no small disadvantage to the colonies of New England, the Dutch having thereby an opportunity to seize many of their vessels, as they passed to and from the West Indies, who were wont to stop on the other side of the Cape Shoals; and many of their vessels were, during the time he held the place, surprized by his orders, which put the country upon a resolu

tion to secure their vessels on that side of the cape; but by good providence the quarrel betwixt the English and the Dutch being ended, those places were again peaceably surrendered into the hands of the English, so as from that time free intercourse and traffick being allowed for the trading vessels, it is hoped the country may now flourish for the future more than formerly.

The court of election, from the beginning of this lustre, fell out in 1671, May 31; 1672, May 15; 1673, May 7; 1674, May 27; 1675, May 12; 1676, May 3; 1677, May 27; in every of which, since the year 1672, unless in 1678, May 8, when Mr. Bradstreet was first chosen governour, and Mr. Danforth, of Cambridge, deputy, Maj. Leverett hath been honoured with the place of governour over the Massachusetts colony. And the principal transactions which have since happened there, relate either to their troubles with the Indians, (of which more may be seen in the narrative forementioned, and the continuation thereof in the following chapter,) or else to the controversy which lately arose, and is yet depending between the heirs of one Capt. Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who have several times complained against the said colony to his majesty, and by reiterated petitions, requested for an hearing thereof before him, have by much importunity, at last obtained their de

sire.

The substance of their complaint was, that whereas, as they pretended a grant had been made by the council of Plymouth to the said Capt. Johr. Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of a distinct Province to each of them, the one called Hampshire, the other Maine, both in the years 1621, 1622, and 1629 and 1635, and that they had, by the expense of many thousand pounds there, taken possession by their agents, yet that they had been dispossessed thereof, by violence and strong hand, by some persons employed by the government of the said colony of the Massachusetts, and notwithstanding all applications made unto them, could obtain no redress or relief of their injuries and wrongs, &c.

By these kind of petitions they prevailed so far as to

obtain letters from his majesty, March 10th, 167% requiring the colony aforesaid to send over agents to appear before him in six months after the receipt of the said letters, with full instructions impowered to answer for them, that so they might receive his royal determination in that matter depending for judgment before him.

This command of his majesty was carefully observed by the Massachusetts, and notwithstanding the many difficulties they were at that time incumbered withal, by reason of their war with the Indians, and the great distance of place, and other sad calamities, they deputed as their agents, Mr. William Stoughton and Mr. Buckley, to take that service upon them, who were ready to attend his majesty's pleasure at Whitehall, within the time limited in his royal letters; and not long after, upon a just hearing of the allegations of each party, his majesty was pleased to give his final determination, wherein he saw cause to confirm unto the Massachusetts their charter, with the original bounds of the same, contrary to the expectation of the petitioners, who had, at least one of them, endeavoured by sundry allegations, to have vacated the same; and the Province of Maine was also, by the said determination, not altered, but left to the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, both as to the soil and government. But as for the Province, which was demanded by Mr. Mason, his plea not being made for any right of government, himself was left at liberty to take his course at law to recover his interest, whatever it was, in the soil. But how the government of the said Province shall be disposed of, was then left to his majesty's determination, who then gave his subjects in that country a ground of hope, that as they have given a good example to all the rest of his plantations in America, of industry and sobriety, so they shall not want any due encouragement from himself, both of protection, and an equal participation of all other acts of his royal grace and favour, which others already have had, or hereafter have hope to receive.

The gentlemen forenamed, having been detained in England for the space of three years, to give answer to

such allegations as Mr. Mason and his adherents had given in against them, at the last were for the present dismissed, upon demand of others to be sent in their room with more full instructions and power to make answer to whatever the lords commissioners for foreign plantations should see cause to require satisfaction in, in reference not only to the claims of Mr. Robert Mason aforesaid, but also to make answer to whatever else might be alleged about the charter of the Massachusetts and the regulation thereof. Accordingly Mr. William Stoughton and Mr. Peter Buckley returning home in the year 1679, there were two other gentlemen deputed in their room to attend that service, viz. Mr. Joseph Dudley, and Mr. John Richards, who were sent to England in the year 1682, which was as soon as things could be prepared and dispatched for their journey, which they safely accomplished, arriving at London about the latter end of August in the same year. Not long before, the honoured gentleman, Edward Cranfield, Esq. appointed by his majesty's special commission to be governour of New Hampshire, arrived there, a Province situate between the river Merrimack and Pascataqua, challenged by Mr. Mason to be his propriety, concerning whose right there. unto, at this time, sub judice lis est; and because many motions have been occasioned by the pretensions of said Mr. Mason, it may not be amiss to take a view of the several grants made to his grandfather, Capt. John Mason, in former times, with the opinion of a great lawyer, Sir William Jones, the king's attorney, about them.

The copy of a grant made by the council of Plymouth, to Capt. John Mason, of the land betwixt Naumkeag and Merrimack, in New England, anno 1621.

"This indenture, made the 9th of March, anno 1621, the 19th year of the reign of our sovereign lord, James, by the grace of God, &c. between the president and council of New England on the one part, and John Mason, gent. &c. on the other part witnesseth, that whereas our sovereign lord, king James, for the making a plantation and establishing a colony, &c. Now this indenture further witnes