to the limit of longitude above mentioned." Of this terri- CHAP. VII. tory Penn was made the absolute proprietor, with power to 1681. ordain laws, appoint officers, and enjoy the general authority of a feudal chief. But all laws were to be assented to by the freemen of his province, and to be subject to the king's approval; and no taxes were to be laid nor revenue raised unless by a Provincial Assembly; reserving, always, the supreme power of the Parliament of England to regulate commercial duties. Episcopalian clergymen, approved Episcopacy by the Bishop of London, were also to "reside within the for in Pennsaid Province, without any denial or molestation whatso-sylvania.

ever."*

provided

comes to

After procuring a letter from the king declaring his pat- 2 April. ent, Penn appointed his kinsman, William Markham, to be 10 April. his deputy governor, and dispatched him to take possession Markham of his province. Andros, who was now in London, was also America. directed by Werden to notify his subordinates in New York 12 May. of the Pennsylvania charter. Markham sailed at once to Boston, and, on reaching New York, received from Brock- 21 June. holls instructions to the duke's officers within the limits of relinquishPennsylvania to obey the government of its actual owner. vania to The surrender was accordingly completed; preliminary covenants were made with the savages; and Markham, in september. an interview with Lord Baltimore, found that a vexatious question of boundaries was to be settled between the proprietors of Maryland and Pennsylvania.†

Brockholls

es Pennsyl.

Markham.

Meanwhile, Philip Carteret, informed of the Duke of York's action in regard to East Jersey, had issued a proc- 2 March. lamation disowning the authority of the Governor of New York. A few weeks afterward Brockholls sent to Carteret 14 April. a copy of Warden's notification, and promised that when and East the duke's deeds were produced he would respect them. Until then he required Carteret to desist from meddling 18 April. with the government.

*The Charter of Pennsylvania is printed at length in Colden, ii., 164–182; Proud, i., 171-187; Hazard's Register, i., 293-297; Annals, 488-499; Colonial Rec. Penn., i., 17-26; Chalmers, i., 636-639.

† Hazard's Register, i., 305; iii., 33; Annals, 501-516, 524, 538; Upland Records, 195, 196; Chalmers, i., 640, 641; Proud, i., 189–196; Dixon, 191; Colonial Doc., iii., 286, 290; Col. MSS., xxi., 143, 144; Ord., Warr., etc., xxxii, 49, 50. Andros reached Portsmouth from New York on 1 March, 1681: Ord.,Warr., etc., xxxii, 46.

Leaming and Spicer, 685, 686; Ord.,Warr., etc., xxxii, 41, 42, 43; Whitehead's East Jersey, 75, 76; ante, 342. Philip Carteret now followed the example of his kinsman, James, in 1673 (ante, 190, note), by wedding a New York wife. On the 26th of March, 1681, he obtained a license from Brockholls to marry Mary Elizabeth Smith, widow of William Law

Carteret

Jersey.

CHAP. VII.

1681.

Carteret

Staten Isl

and.

About the middle of July Secretary Bollen returned from London with the desired papers, and with orders from Lady Carteret "to lay claim to Staten Island, as beclaims longing to us, according to His Royal Highness's grant." This was an ill-founded pretense. As early as 1669 Staten Island had been “adjudged to belong to New York." This judgment had been respected by all parties; and in 1670 Lovelace had bought the island for the Duke of York from its savage claimants. With a knowledge of these facts, Sir George had obtained from the duke, in 1674, a new grant of New Jersey to himself, in severalty. Yet now his widow, seeing that James was exiled in Scotland, thought that she might win Staten Island if she made a bold push. Accord21 July. ingly, Bollen, in behalf of the dowager, submitted various papers to Brockholls; claimed Staten Island for her as a part of East Jersey, and demanded its surrender. No notice being taken of this demand, Bollen was sent again to Fort James with more documents. These, being examined 26 July. in the New York Council, were found insufficient to enable Carteret" to act in or assume the government of New Jersey," and Brockholls required him to desist until he should, agreeably to his parole, "produce and show a sufficient authority." No allusion was made to the claim of Staten Island on the part of its deceased proprietor's dowager; but in writing to Andros and to Werden, Brockholls declared that he would not part with that island unless by special orders from the duke.*

21 July.

30 July.

28 July.

30 July.

Carteret naturally complained of Brockholls's "uncivil answer," and acquainted the grasping widow that the New York authorities would not surrender to her Staten Island, which, he pronounced, "is as much your Honor's due as any other part of this Province." Brockholls, however, while denying Carteret's authority, did not disturb his local government. An East Jersey Assembly was quietly held at Elizabethtown, which voted the proceedings of Andros 19 October illegal. Nevertheless, the old spirit of discord broke out 2 Novem. again. In the autumn, the Assembly quarreled with Car

23 July.

to

rence, of Flushing, on Long Island, and the wedding took place the next month: Ord., Warr., etc., xxxii, 39; Thompson's Long Island, ii., 364, 365; Whitehead, 85; Hatfield, 195; Col. Doc., ii., 607, note.

* Ord., Warr., etc., xxxii, 53, 54, 53, 57; Col. Doc., iii., 286; Leaming and Spicer, CS6; Whitehead, 77, 216; Mass. H. S. Coll., xxxvii., 315; ante, 149, 166, 268, 334.

teret and his council, respecting the right of the proprietors CHAP. VII. to alter their “concessions," and the governor dissolved his 1681. refractory Legislature. This was Philip Carteret's last important public act. East New Jersey soon passed into other hands, and its first governor gave up the authority he had so long exercised.*

nation in

chants re

duties.

The recall of Andros, the presence of Lewin, and the incapacity of Brockholls, meanwhile produced insubordina- Insubordition throughout New York, which was weakly attempted New York. to be checked. At length, provincial trouble culminated in the metropolis. In the hurry of his departure, Sir Edmund, as has been told, neglected to renew, by a special order, the Duke of York's customs' duties, which had expired, by their three years' limitation, in November, 1680. This oversight being "publicly known to the merchants," they refused to pay any duties to the duke on what they The merimported into his province. It does not appear that the fuse to pay recusants abated a farthing from the prices of the goods they sold to consumers; but they nevertheless seem to have thought—as, perhaps, modern smugglers and cheats often think that any compensatory evasion of the revenue laws of a country is a proper, if not a patriotic felony. This seems to have been the moral philosophy of the "merchants" of New York in the spring of 1681. While Brockholls was at Albany, looking after Indian affairs, and Collector Dyer lay "ill of a fever" in the metropolis, a pink from London came into port, and her cargo was taken to 9 May. the warehouses of her consignees, who "absolutely" refused to pay any customs' duties to the duke's provincial officers. In this quandary, Brockholls, when he got back to town, summoned his council. Wanting the guidance of the experienced Secretary Nicolls, that body decided that there 14 May. was "no power or authority" to continue expired taxes Brock"without orders from His Royal Highness." This may Council. have been convenient shirking, but it was not even provincial statesmanship. James himself thought so when this

* Ord.,Warr., etc., xxxii, 57; Leaming and Spicer, 137, 138, 687; Col. Doc., iii., 293–300; Chalmers, i., 620; Gordon, 48; Whitehead, 80, 192-195; Hatfield, 195, 210, 211, 212. It would seem that Lady Carteret did not know or recognize the conveyance to Cremer and Pocock of 6 March, 1680 (ante, 342, note); and Philip Carteret (who knew all the facts about Staten Island belonging to New York) may have been sarcastic when he told her ladyship that it was as much her "due" as any part of New Jersey: compare ante, 149, 150, 166, 268; Hist. Mag., X., 297-299; N. J. H. S. Proc., X., SS-158; i. (ii.), 31–36.

Decision of

holls's

1681.

CHAP. VII. “scruple" was reported to him. Yet the pusillanimity of Brockholls and his council made a colonial revolution. Their inaction may have been caused by the recent opinion of Sir William Jones, and the consequent freedom of trade which was already prospering New Jersey at the expense of New York.*

31 May.

Dyer sued,

ed with

high trea

son.

Dyer, who, besides being collector, was a counselor and the mayor of the city, was immediately sued in the ordinary courts, where he was "cast," for detaining goods for customs, and forced to deliver them without payment. This was decisive. An accusation of high treason was and charg quickly brought in the mayor's court by Samuel Winder, of Staten Island, against Dyer, for having levied the duties he had recently taken. Thereupon the aldermen and court "intimated” the case to the commander and his council, who committed Dyer for trial at the next general assizes. 29 June. But, upon his request, a special court was summoned. It met accordingly; a grand jury was sworn; witnesses were examined; and an indictment for traitorously exercising "regal power and authority over the King's subjects," contrary to Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Statutes of England, was found against the duke's collector. He was taken into custody at once by High Sheriff Younge, and Brockholls demanded from him the seal of the city and his commission as mayor. These Dyer refused to surrender, because he had received them from their common superior, Andros.

30 June.

1 July.

Dyer tried, and his case refer

king.

The next day Dyer was arraigned. Instead of demurring, he pleaded "not guilty" to his indictment. A jury red to the was sworn, and twenty witnesses were examined for the prosecution. The defendant then required to know "the authority and commission by which the court sat; saying if they proceeded by His Majesty's Letters Patents to His Royal Highness, he had the same authority;-and one part could not try the other." After consultation, the unlearned court decided that, as Dyer had questioned their authority, he should be sent to England, "to be proceeded against as his Majesty and Council shall direct." Samuel Winder, his accuser, was also required to give five thousand pounds'

* Col. MSS., xxx., 26, 27; Ord, Warr., etc., xxxii, 31, 43-46, 53; Col. Doc., iii., 246, 289, 292, 318; Doc. Hist., iii., 533, 534; Chalmers, i., 582; Wood's L. I., 99; Council Journals, i., Introd., viii.; ante, 341, 344.

security to prosecute Dyer in England. West, the clerk of CHAP. VII. the court, excused its irregular action because of the nov1681. elty of the charge of high treason, "and the present confusion and discord in the government here." Yet these proceedings against the duke's collector "had the greatest effect in laying in ruins that system of despotism which had so long afflicted the people." Trade was now substantially free; and the absence of both the governor and the secretary of the province gave an opportunity to utter freely the voice of the people of New York.*

The Penn

charter

movement

York.

Present

grand jury.

the Court

This opportunity was helped by the recent visit of Penn's 21 June. deputy, Markham, to the metropolis. It was soon noised sylvania that in the last English-American province established by helps the its sovereign, no laws could be passed, nor revenue levied, in New without the assent of a majority of colonial freemen represented in a local assembly. The popular sentiment of New York, which, from the days of Kieft and Stuyvesant, had maintained the Dutch principle of "taxation only by consent," was emboldened. The metropolitan jury which indicted Dyer accordingly presented to the Court of Assizes 29 June. the want of a Provincial Assembly as a "grievance." Upon ment of the this, John Younge, the High Sheriff of Long Island, was appointed to draft a petition to the Duke of York, and his work was adopted by the court. It represented that the Petition of inhabitants of New York had for many years "groaned of Assizes under inexpressible burdens, by having an arbitrary and duke. absolute power used and exercised" over them; whereby a revenue had been exacted against their wills, their trade burdened, and their liberty enthralled, contrary to the privileges of a royal subject; so that they had become “ a reproach" to their neighbors in the king's other colonies, "who flourish under the fruition and protection of His Majesty's unparallelled form and method of government in his realm of England." The duke was therefore besought that his province might, for the future, be ruled by a Governor, Council, and Assembly-" which Assembly to be duly elected and chosen by the freeholders of this, Your Royal Highnesses' Colony; as is usual and practicable within the realm of England, and other of his Majesty's planta

* Colonial Doc., iii., 287, 288, 289, 291, 318, 320, 354; Ord., Warr., etc., xxxii, 48, 53, 54; Chalmers, Ann., i., 582, 583, 619, 627; Rev. Col., i., 144; Wood's L. I., 150; Whitehead's East Jersey, 124; Contributions, etc., 81.

to the