they would fire on him. Upon this, Leisler's baffled emis- CHAP. XI. sary "marched down the town and dismissed his men. Finding that he could do nothing at Albany, Milborne, 1689. after signing a contract with some "private but extreme active men" for the support of his soldiers, prevailed on them to accept Staats as their captain, and went back to 16 Novem. New York, leaving his company in great confusion. On his way down the river he stopped at Esopus; but the peo- Milborne ple of Ulster county, being informed of his defeat at Albany, dispatched him quickly from there "for to give an account of his misfortune to his commander Leisler and the committee that sent him."+ at Esopus. Bull at Al A few days afterward Captain Bull reached Albany with 25 Novem. eighty-seven men from Connecticut, who were "extremely bany. well accepted." As it was necessary to garrison Schenectady, Lieutenant Enos Talmage, of Captain Bull's company, was sent there with twenty-four men. Staats refused to 29 Novem. assist with any of his New York soldiers, but went to Schenectady himself, to create faction. Considering "the lamentable condition" of Albany, the Convention ordered that 27 Novem. Wednesday, the fourth of December, should be observed as at Albany. "a day extraordinary for fasting and prayer."+ Fast-day Bayard's nouncing Anxious to visit New York, where his only son was very ill, Bayard had meanwhile written to the justices of the peace there, offering to answer any complaint against him. They replied that "the sword now ruled in their city," and that they could not protect him against Leisler. Upon this, Bayard, as their colonel, wrote to De Peyster and De Bruyn, 20 Oct. two of the captains in his regiment, declaring that Leisler letter deand his associates, without "any the least shadow of Au- Leisler. thority" from William and Mary, having "subverted all manner of Government by law established" in the city of New York, it was his duty, as a royal counselor and their own colonel, to require them to "desist from any ways counselling, aiding, assisting, or abetting the illegal proceedings of the said Jacob Leisler and his associates," because the commissions issued by Andros, who represented the crown of England, were "in full force, notwithstanding Doc. Hist., ii., 69–73; Smith, i., 98; Dunlap, i., 162. † Col. Doc., iii., 647, 675; Doc. Hist., ii., 74; Dunlap, i., 163. ‡ Doc. Hist, ii., 74, 75, 76; Col. Rec. Conn., iii., 463; Dunlap, i., 163. CHAP. XI. the imprisonment, yea death, of any Governor that granted the same, he being only an inferior officer of the crown, and the commissions being matters of record."* 1689. This was certainly a true exposition of English law. It was just what William himself had declared to be his will when he directed all English colonial officers in America to remain in the places which they held under James. But Leisler can the German demagogue in New York, to whom Bayard's stand Bay- letter was shown, saw at once that its logic, if followed, ard's logic. would defeat his own personal ambition. Leisler therefore not with Leisler's falsehood. assembled his adherents in New York, Bergen, and Kings counties, armed, in the fort, where he told them, with impudent falsehood, that their Lieutenant Governor Nicholson, who had been some time in London, was a “Popish dog," and "was turned a Privateer, and would never show his face in England; and that he [Leisler] had discovered a plot, in which Bayard, with about three hundred men, would attempt to retake the Fort for the late King James." Bayard's Albany letter had clearly asserted the supremacy of William and Mary. So Leisler caused his partisans “to make a new subscription, in substance for to be true and faithful to King William and Queen Mary, and to be obedient to the Committee of Safety, as the supreme authority, and to himself as their commander in chief." Dongan, who was now living quietly on his farm at Hempstead, was charged with holding "cabals at his house and other places adjacent, to make an attempt on the Fort;" and this induced many to subscribe Leisler's new association. Such as scrupled were denounced as creatures of King James; and as Captains De Peyster, Lodwyck, and Stuyvesant were dissatisfied, more pliant officers were put in their places. Phillipse Phillipse, who quietly submitted to Leisler, was not disturbLeisler. ed; but his colleagues, Bayard and Van Cortlandt, were roughly searched for in their own houses, as well as in those of their friends, including that of Domine Selyns, and the two royal counselors were obliged to hide themselves from Leisler's rage "till relief from England." These violent doings caused many of the inhabitants of New York to fly to East Jersey and Pennsylvania, where the German captain charged that the Quakers encouraged his opponents. submits to * Col. Doc., iii., 646, 647, 658; Doc. Hist., ii., 22; Dunlap, i., 163. Yet, amid all their troubles, the people of New York joy- CHAP. XI. birthday. ously kept two new holidays. The birthday of King Wil- 1689. liam was heartily observed in the metropolis with bonfires 4 Novem. and the roasting of an ox. The next day-which doubly William's commemorated the "gunpowder treason" of Guy Fawkes 5 Novem. and the landing of William at Torbay-was as earnestly Fawkes. celebrated "with bonfires and burning the Pope."* * Col. Doc., iii., 634, 646, 647, 648, 655, 656; Doc. Hist., ii., 24, 25, 38, 246; ante, 533. Guy CHAP. XII. July. London colonies. CHAPTER XII. 1689-1691. WHEN the reports which Nicholson and his counselors had dispatched from New York in May, and the other co1689. lonial intelligence brought by Riggs reached Whitehall, Trouble in they showed that William and his ministers had been duped about the by Mather and Phipps into committing a great mistake in colonial administration. The intrigue which had withheld from Andros the directed notification of the accession of William and Mary, and of the continuance in their several places under them of all English colonial officers, had resulted in a mutiny in Massachusetts, the disruption of the royal "Dominion of New England," and great confusion in New York by reason of "secession." After the departure of Phipps to Boston in April, the most active notice which William's embarrassed government took of his American colonies was to send a packet-boat in June with orders to the colonial authorities in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania announcing his war with France, and promising that a squadron would be sent to protect the English Plantations. By a letter of Randolph from "the common gaol" of Boston, the king's Plantation Committee learned that the revolt in Massachusetts was not so much against Andros as for restoring the old charter of that colony, under which its Puritan ministers might regain power, and gainful privateering and illicit trade be encouraged. The next day Mather hurried to Hampton Court, where he was received by the king in his bedchamber, who did "kindly accept" of what the Boston insurgents had done. Sir Henry Ashurst also presented the Plymouth address to the king, who assured him "that he would take care of the good of his colonies in New England." But William saw that an unexpected colonial mutiny had broken up his "dominion" there, and that it was necessary for him to re-establish his 3 July. 4 July. occupied by politics. direct authority in the several colonies and provinces into CHAP. XII. which that dominion had been reduced against his will. 1689. Mather's adroit suggestion that "by means of New England" he might become "the Emperor of America," had william no weight with the new British sovereign, whose mind was European occupied with Europe. A few days afterward, when Riggs 16 July. told the Plantation Committee his story of what he had wit- 22 July. nessed at Boston, the whole truth came out. It was clear that Andros had been imprisoned because he had executed the orders of his lawful English sovereign. Such orders it was not William's colonial policy to undervalue. A petition from Andros having been read before the king in coun- 25 July. cil, it was ordered that Sir Edmund, and his fellow English subjects, "seized by some people in Boston, and detained under close confinement there," should be sent at once to London "to answer before his Majesty what may be objected against them." A royal letter was accordingly writ- 30 July. ten to the acting authorities in Massachusetts, requiring letter to them to send Andros, Randolph, Dudley, Palmer, West, Graham, Farewell, Trefrey, and Sherlock by the first ship to England. The existing government of the colony was also 12 August. authorized by William to continue in administration until further directions.* William's Massachu setts. 8 August. William's A letter was at the same time addressed to Nicholson by 29 July the Privy Council, directing him, as lieutenant governor, "with the assistance of the principal freeholders and inhabitants of their Majesties' Province of New York," to proclaim William and Mary according to a form which was inclosed. The king also authorized Nicholson to take on him- 30 July. self the government of the province, calling to his assistance letter to such of "the principal freeholders and inhabitants" as he should think fit; and requiring him, until further order, "to do and perform all things which to the place and office of our Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of our Province of New York doth or may appertain." William's letter, like that of his Privy Council, was addressed to "Francis Nicholson, Esquire, Our Lieutenant Governor * Col. Doc., iii., 574–576, 578-583, 593, 664; Doc. Hist., ii., 26; Penn. Col. Rec., i., 301, 302; Burk, ii., 307; Mass. H. S. Coll., ix., 246, 247; xxvii., 191; xxxii., 299; xxxv., 199-202, 206, 209, 210; Parentator, 122; R. I. Rec., iii., 256, 257; Hutch. Mass., i., 388, 390, 391; Narcissus Luttrell, i., 557; Macaulay, iii., 379-414; Chalmers's Annals, ii., 26, 27, 29; Sixth Collection of Papers, 29; Davis's Morton, 472; Bancroft, iii., 79; Barry, i., 509, 510; Palfrey, iii., 585, 586; Andros Tracts; ante, 543, 561. II.-P P Nicholson. |