sion had taken upon them to join themselves together in a particular company by themselves, and did administer all ordinances amongst themselves in a schismatical way: yea, though some, that had taken upon them the power of such administrations, were themselves under the sentence of excommunication from other churches, which formerly they belonged unto. This company, continuing their assembling together, after they had been warned by the Court to forbear, were sentenced by the Court to be disfranchised if they were freemen, and, if they obstinately continued in their practice, to be committed to prison upon conviction before one magistrate, or the County Court, until the General Court should take further order. By this severity it was expected they should have been restrained, but it proved otherwise. The bent of all men's natures makes it true, nitimur in vetitum, and like waters that are pent up, they swell the more, so came it to pass with these persons who would not forbear, unless the laws had been sharpened to a greater degree of severity than the authority of the place were willing to execute on that account." CHAP. LXVIII.2 The General affairs of New England, from the year 1666 to 1671. DURING this lustre of years there was little alteration in the government of the Massachusetts; Mr. Bellingham holding the first place of government, as Mr. Willoughby did the second, to the end thereof. Nor was there any matters of great moment that happened, besides granting of liberty for several townships, unless the reverting of the Province of Maine to the government of the Massachusetts as heretofore; the occasion and manner thereof shall presently be related. In the year 1667 liberty was granted for erecting a new plantation or township, at a place about thirty or forty miles west from Roxbury, called Mendon, and peopled by some that removed from thence. There was another The first prosecution of the Anabaptists, according to Hutchinson, was in 1665. See Hist. Mass., i. 208; Coll. Papers, pp. 399-401.-H. 2 LXVII in the MS.-H. The Plantation was "granted in answer to Brantry petition " Oct. 16, 1660, and was incorporated by its present name, May 15, 1667.-H. like grant the same year at Brookfield, a commodious place for entertainment of travellers betwixt the Massachusetts and Connecticut, situate about twenty-five miles from Springfield, toward Boston; the liberty had been granted before, in the year 1660, but it was renewed this year, six or seven families being settled there. The grantees having forfeited their first grant, the ordering of the place fell into the Court's power, which was no disadvantage of the township, the management thereof being by the Court committed to the care of two or three prudent persons, fitter to carry on a design of that nature than the whole village was. These two villages last named were erected in an unhappy hour, for before ten years were expired they were utterly ruined and destroyed by the Indians, and not one stick left standing of any building erected there; as may be seen more at large in the narrative of the troubles with the Indians. Marlborough, ten miles beyond Sudbury, ||in|| the road towards Connecticut, (a plat of which was this year laid out and presented to the Court,) escaped very hardly, one half thereof being in like manner destroyed by the barbarous Indians in the years 1675 and 1676. Another village was granted likewise about this time, called Westfield,' seven miles westward from Springfield, which hardly escaped the fury of the Indians in that late rebellion. In the year 1666 two hundred and fifty persons, driven off from St. Christophers, and coming to Boston, were there relieved till they could be transported back to some of the Caribbee Islands, or otherwise disposed of according to their desire. In the following year certain informations being brought to the Massachusetts of some distress his Majesty's fleet was in, at the Caribbee Islands, for want of provision, a motion was made by some merchants of the said place for sending away present supply ; which being quickened by the General Court at Boston, was forthwith despatched away, and came seasonably to their relief. In the year 1670 a law was made in the Massachusetts for giving liberty to administrators to sell lands for payment of the debts of the deceased, with the leave of the Court; an order very just and necessary to make I on 1 First settled, from Springfield, in 1658–9.—H. men honest, and careful to pay their debts before they leave the world, in that place where men often die seized of much land, and little other estates, so as creditors would be extremely damnified, without the provision of some such law. CHAP. LXIX.1 The Province of Maine returns to the government of the Massachusetts: the occasion and manner, how it was brought about. THE government of the Province of Maine, called Yorkshire, having been interrupted for near three years, and the people there like to be reduced to a confused anarchy, for want of a settled order of government, upon some application made to the General Court of the Massachusetts, by some principal persons in the said Province, the Court counted it their duty to God and the King to declare their resolution to exert their power and jurisdiction over the Province or County of York, as formerly; and did accordingly, in the year 1668, set out a Declaration to require the inhabitants there settled, to yield obedience to the laws of their jurisdiction, as they had been orderly published, and to issue out warrants for choosing officers, in order to settling affairs there, as in times past; which was done accordingly, and Commissioners appointed to keep a Court in the usual manner and time as before, ordering Nathaniel Masterson, the Marshal, to require the constable to publish the said order. The Commissioners, appointed by the General Court to manage the business, were Major John Leverett [and] Mr. Edward Ting, Assistants, Mr. Richard Waldron and Major Robert Pike. And to prevent misinformation about that affair, it is thought meet to annex hereunto an authentic copy of the Court's order to the said Commissioners, with a relation of the procedure therein, forasmuch as the same hath been publicly misrecited, to the disadvantage of the Mas 1 LXVIII in the MS.-H. 2 We have seen (pp 542-3) that a portion of the Province of Maine submitted to Mass. in 1652-3. But the inhabitants east of Saco River, being mostly Episcopalians, strenuously maintained their independence, nor was it until July 13, 1658, that "the inhabitants of Black Point, Blue Point, Spurwinke, and Casco Bay, with all the Islands thereunto belonging," would acknowledge themselves subject to the jurisdiction of Mass. See Maine Hist. Coll. 1. 57-62, 290-4.-H. 25 VOL. VI. SECOND SERIES. 1668 sachusetts government, and the persons principally con- The Court's Order and Declaration for the settlement and government in Whereas this Colony of the Massachusetts, in observance of the trust to them committed by his Majesty's Royal Charter, with the full and free consent and submission of the inhabitants of the County of York, for sundry years did exercise government over the people of that County; and whereas, about three years now past, some interruption hath been made to the peace of that place and order there established, by the imposition of some, who, pretending to serve his Majesty's interest, with unjust aspersions and reflections upon this government, here established by his Royal Charter, have unwarrantably drawn the inhabitants of that County to submission unto officers that have no Royal warranty, thereby infringing the liberty of our Charter, and depriving the people now settled of their just privileges; the effect whereof doth now appear to be not only a disservice to his Majesty, but also the reducing of a people that were found under an orderly establishment to a confused anarchy: the premises being duly considered, this Court doth judge meet, as in duty they stand bound to God and his Majesty, to declare their resolution again to exert their power of jurisdiction over the inhabitants of the said County of York, and do hereby accordingly, in his Majesty's name, require all and every of the inhabitants there settled, to yield obedience to the laws of this Colony, as they have been orderly published, and to all such officers as shall be there legally established, by authority of his Majesty's Royal Charter, and the order of our Commissioners, whom this Court hath nominated and impowered to settle all officers, necessary for the government of the people there, and to keep a Court this present summer, the first Tuesday in July, at Yorktown, as hath been formerly accustomed. And for that end we have commanded our Secretary to issue out warrants to the inhabitants there, in their respective towns, to meet to choose jurors, both grand and petit, constables, and other officers, for the service of that County, as the law requireth; the said warrants to be directed unto Nathaniel Masterson, who is by this Court appointed the Marshal of that Court as formerly, and by him the said warrants are to be delivered to the several constables, to be accordingly executed. A due observance whereof, with an orderly return to be made to the Court, to be held as aforesaid, is hereby required of all persons, respectively concerned, as they will answer the contrary at their peril. By the Court. EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary. A copy of the Warrant. You are hereby required, in his Majesty's name, forthwith to deliver the Order of the General Court, above written, to the constable of York, who is alike required forthwith to assemble the freemen and inhabitants together, and then publicly and audibly to read the Order above written, and to signify to them, that they are hereby required in his Majesty's name to choose meet and fit persons for associates, grand and petit jurymen, to serve at the County Court, to be held at York, as in the order aforesaid of the General Court is expressed, and hereof not to fail. To Major-General John Leverett and Mr. Edward Ting; Captain Waldron and Captain Robert Pike.' You are hereby authorized and required to repair to York, in the County of Yorkshire, and there you, or any two of you, whereof Major-General Leverett shall be one, to keep a County Court, according as the law directs; and in case you meet with any person or persons, under the pretence of any other authority, that shall swerve from the due obedience they owe to this jurisdiction, under his Majesty's Royal Charter, to which they have submitted and engaged themselves, that you call before you all such persons, and bring them to a due trial, and to proceed to sentence, as the merit of their offences shall require. Furthermore, you are authorized and commissionated to establish and confirm all officers and commissioners, civil and military, as you shall judge meet, for the security and preserving of order and peace in the said Courts of York. And for the better enabling you to effect the same, you are hereby authorized, from the date of these This is not an exact copy of their Commission, but only the substance thereof. See Williamson's Maine, i. 432-3.—H. |