Leaving the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which "returned humble thankes to his Majesty for sending Commissioners, and made great demonstration of loyalty and obedience," the Commissioners now visited Hartford, where they met the General Assembly of Connecti cut on, or about, the 20th of April, which "returned humble thankes to his Majesty for his gracious letters, and for sending Commissioners to them, and made great promises of their loyalty and obedience; and they did submit to have appeales made to his Majesties Commissioners, who did hear and determine some differences among them." The Commissioners laid their Propositions before the Assembly, and received their answer. They also received Connecticut's reply to the claim and petition of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, but came to no determination with respect to this troublesome claim. The Commissioners seem to have been pleased with their reception in this Colony, and with the willingness shown to "amend anything that hath been done derogatory to his Majestyes honour, if there be any such thing, so soone as they shall come to the knowledge of it." 3

The Commissioners now turned their faces toward Massachusetts," and came privately and separately to Boston the latter end of April, and so prevented, designedly as was supposed, that respect which was intended to have been shewn them at their arrival." On the 2d of May, the day before the Election, the Commissioners, having been joined by Colonel Nichols, from New York, delivered five papers to the Deputy-Governor (for the Governor, Endicott, had gone to his final account ere the return of the royal emissaries) and some of the magistrates. As soon as the Election was over, viz. May 4th, these papers were submitted to the Court, and the Commissioners were requested to communicate all his Majesty's requisitions; but this was refused. On the 5th the Court returned its answer to the five papers. The Commissioners replied, exhibited further instructions, and mentioned the case of John Porter, Jun., saying that they "dared not refuse to examine it, but would leave it to the choice of the Court whether it should be heard at Providence, in Rhode Island, or at Boston, either at that time, or after their return from the Eastward, where they were going." On the 8th they desired that "they should cause justice to be done to Thomas Dean," and asked for a copy of the Colony Laws, that they might examine them. On the 9th the Court sent word to the Commissioners, that they apprehended their Patent to be greatly infringed by the protection granted to John Porter, upon which the Commissioners, on the 10th, proposed a conference on the subject.

On the 16th, Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick issued an Order, whereby leave was granted to "Hermon Garret, alias Wequash Cook, to remove with his family near Wequapauock, or Tismatuck, in the King's Province

pers, pp. 413-16, 420; Commissioners' declaration of April 8, 1665; Danforth Papers, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xvi. 96; the Answer of Connecticut, March 25, 1665, to the Hamilton Claim, in Trumbull, i. 530, 532; Mass. General Court's Proclamation. May 24, 1665, in Hutchinson, i. 226; Trumbull, i. 314-15; Brinley's Brief Account, in Mass. Hist. Coll. v. 218; King Charles's letter of Feb. 12, 1678-9, to Rhode Island, ibid. 221-2; History of the Narragansett Country, ibid. xx1. 217, 219–20; Roger Williams's letters, in R. I. Hist. Coll. n. 159, 164, 165.

This is the language of the Commissioners in their Narrative. And yet Chalmers (Political Annals, p. 296,) says that Connecticut "received the royal Commissioners with a studied indifference, but with a fixed resolution to deride their authority, and to disobey their commands"!

2 See Trumbull, i. 276, 316, 530-2; Chalmers, pp. 288, 296-7, 299-301.

3 Commissioners' Narrative, in Hutch. Coll. pp. 412-13; Trumbull, i. 275-6, 315, 316.

4 Hutchinson, i. 215-20; Danforth Papers, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xvii. 55–64.

of y Narraganset Country, whereof ye said Hermon Garret is one of the Sachems."

Meanwhile the Court having answered several instructions, relating to Whalley and Goffe, the Act of Navigation, Thomas Dean, the Oath of Allegiance, &c., on the 18th the Commissioners, coming into Court, declared, that they were sorry to find, by the Court's answer, that they put a greater value upon their own conceptions than upon the wisdom of his Majesty and Council, and that they would reduce all to this question, do you acknowledge his Majesty's Commission?"?

66

Letters had now been received from Secretary Morrice, the Earl of Clarendon, and Robert Boyle. The Secretary, in answer to the Address of the General Court, says, "his Majesty hath commanded me to let you know that he is not pleased with this petition, and lookes upon it as the contrivance of a few persons who have had too long authority;" and again, since his Majesty hath too much reason to suspect that Mr. Endecott is not a person well affected to his Majesties person or his government, his Majestie will take it very well if, at the next election, any other person of good reputation be chosen in the place, and that he may noe longer exercise that charge." 996 "We were all amazed," writes Clarendon, "to find that you demand a revocation of the Commission and Commissioners, without laying the least matter to their charge of crymes or exorbitances I know not what you meane by saying the Commissioners have power to exercise government there altogether inconsistent with your Charter and privileges." "I could not but wonder," says Boyle, "and add to the number of those that cannot think it becomes his Majesty to recal Commissioners, sent so far, with no other instructions than those, before they have time to do any part of the good intended you by themselves, and before they are accused of having done any one harmful thing, even in your private letters."

66

On the 19th of May the Court, in answer to the question proposed by the Commissioners on the 18th, declare that they "see not the grounds of the question, and "have only pleaded his Majesty's royal Charter." The Commissioners replied, on the 20th, that they had "most just grounds to insist upon the former question," and demanded a positive answer " thereto; and on the 22d the Court declared that it was beyond their line to declare their sense" of the power, intent, or purpose" of his Majesty's Commission that it was enough for them to acquaint the Commissioners with their conception of the powers granted to them by Charter. Hereupon the Commissioners, on the 23d, announced their determination "to sit on the morrow, at nine of the clock in the morning, at the house of Captain Thomas Breedon, to hear and determine the cause of Mr. Thomas Deane and others, plfs., against the Governor and Company and Joshua Scottow, merchant, defts., for injustice done Mr. Deane and others, when the Charles of Oleron came into this port." At the same time a summons was sent to Scottow, commanding him to appear at the hour and place appointed. The Court remonstrated against this procedure; but the

1 R. I. Hist. Coll. III. 182; Danforth Papers, 96.

2 Ibid. 64-75; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxv11. 127; Hutchinson, i. 220–4.

3 See Morrice's letter, dated Feb. 25, 1664-5, in Hutch. Coll. Papers, pp. 390-2.

4 It is in Hutchinson, i. 464-5, bearing date March 15, 1664-5.

5 Boyle's letter, dated March 17, 1664-5, is among the Danforth Papers, in Mass. Hist. Coll. XVIII. 49-51.

"Before these letters came to hand," says Mr. Assistant Danforth," the King of Heaven summoned the before-named John Endicott, Esq., Governor of the Massachusetts Colony, to appear before him, he dying March 15, 1664-5, having served the Lord and his people faithfully in the government of this Colony 36 years, and was Governor during the said time 16 years, 44. 49. 51. 52. 53. 55. until 65." Ibid. 52.

Commissioners persisted. The hour for the trial had arrived, when the sound of a trumpet was heard, and the voice of the crier, proclaim. ing to all the people of the Colony, in the name of the King, and by the authority of the Charter, that the Court, in observance of their duty to God and to his Majesty, and to the trust committed unto them by his Majesty's good subjects, cannot consent unto, or give their approbation to, the proceedings of the Commissioners, nor countenance any who shall be their abettors. The Commissioners, astonished at this proceeding, write to the Court, "since you will needs misconstrue all these letters and endeavors, we shall not lose more of our labors upon you, but refer it to his Majesty's wisdom, who is of power enough to make himself to be obeyed in all his dominions." At the same time they laid before the Court the results of their examination of the "Laws and Liberties of the Province." The Court, on the same day, (May 24th) sent to the Commissioners a map of their territories.'

On the 25th the Court, "accounting it their duty, according to their poor ability, to acknowledge their humble thanks to his Majesty for the many and continued expressions of his tender care and fatherly respect to this his Colony, do order, that in the best commodity that may be procured in this his Colony, meet for transportation and accommodation of his Majesty's navy, unto the value of £500, the whole charge be forthwith prepared and sent by the first opportunity, and the Deputy Governor, [Francis Willoughby,] the Major-General, [John Leverett,] Captain Thomas Clarke, Captain [George] Corwin, Mr. [Hezekiah] Usher, Captain [William] Davis, Mr. [John] Hull, and Captain [Thomas] Lake, are nominated a committee to procure the said commodity, and to take order for the transportation thereof, whose engagements shall be discharged by the Treasurer out of the next country rate; and Mr. William Browne is joined to the above named committee; and the major part of this committee is enabled to act, as is above expressed."

On the 26th the Court, resolved to take Deane's case into their own hands, acquainted the Commissioners with their determination, and issued a summons to Deane, and also to Thomas Kellond, &c., to appear before them the next day, at 9 o'clock, A. M. The Commissioners replied as follows: "after your interruption of our intentions to have proceeded in the case of Mr. Thomas Deane, cum sociis, according to his Majesty's Commission and particular instructions therein, which we must conclude to be a violation of his Majesty's authority to us committed, we could not have imagined that you would have assumed to yourselves the hearing of the same case; we do, therefore, in his Majesty's name, declare to the General Court that it is contrary to his Majesty's will and pleasure that the cause should be examined by any other Court or persons than ourselves, who are, by his Majesty's Commission, the sole judges thereof, and have already taken the matter into consideration." 3

On this same day Cartwright addressed the following letter to Samuel Gorton :

Mr. Gorton.

These gentlemen of Boston would make us believe, that they verily think that the King hath given them so much power in their Charter to do unjustly, that he reserved none for himself to call them to an account for doing so. In short, they refuse to let us hear complaints against them; so that, at present, we can do nothing in your behalf. But I hope shortly

1 Hutchinson, i. 224-8; Danforth Papers, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xvII. 75-88. 2 Ibid. 90-1.

3 Danforth Papers, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xvIII. 88-92; Hutchinson, i. 229-34; Narrative of the Commissioners, in Hutchinson's Collection of Papers, pp. 417-22.

to go for England, where (if God bless me thither) I shall truly represent your sufferings and your loyalty. Your assured friend,

Boston, 26 May, 1665.

Geo. Cartwright."

1

Thus terminated the operations of the Commissioners at Boston. Colonel Nichols returned to his government at New York, while the others went to Maine and New-Hampshire. Their proceedings in these Provinces will be related elsewhere. "It cannot be denied," says Hutchinson," that the Commission was a stretch of power, superseding, in many respects, the authority and powers granted by the Charter; and there appears in the conduct of the General Court upon this occasion, not an obstinate, perverse spirit, but a modest, steady adherence to what they imagined, at least, to be their just rights and privileges." The submission to the proceedings of the Commissioners, says the General Court in its Declaration, is, as we apprehend, "inconsistent with the maintenance of the laws and authority here, so long enjoyed and orderly established under the warrant of his Majesty's royal Charter."-"The Lord will be with his people," writes John Davenport from New Haven-"their claiming power to sit as a Court for Appeales, was a manifest laying of a groundworke to undermine your whole government established by your Charter. If you had consented thereunto you had plucked downe, with your owne hands, that house which wisdom had built for you and your posterity. Let a collection of your grievances occasioned by the coming over of these Commissioners, and by their actings, in one place and another let, I say, all instances of theire illegal and injurious proceedings throughout the country, be fully collected and clearly proved, and speedily transmitted and represented to the King, the Lord Chancellor, &c., by your next Addres, and therein let them fully and plainly understand that the whole countrey are much aggrieved at these doings, and humbly desire to be resettled in theire former state, according to theire Charter, and that they may be freed from those new encroachments."

Some of the Orders which had been published in the Narragansett Country, by Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick, were subsequently reversed, upon the complaint, it is said, of Colonel Nichols, whose concurrence the King's Commission made necessary to the validity of every act of his associates. The Order of March 20, 1664-5, was countermanded by an Order of the 15th of September, 1665, under the hands of Nicholls, Carr, and Maverick, declaring that "the inhabitants of the King's Province of Nanhigansett shall remain in quiet and full and peaceable possession of all their lands and houses and appurtenances, until his Majesty's pleasure be further known, any Order before made or granted to the contrary notwithstanding."

The Commissioners, having visited New Hampshire and Maine, returned to Boston in the latter part of the year. The court complained that their proceedings at the Eastward tended to the disturbance of the public peace, and proposed a conference; but were answered, by Carr, that the King's pardon for past offences was conditional, and that those who had opposed them must expect the punishment which had befallen so many of those concerned in the late rebellion in England.'

Cartwright now sailed for England, with Mr. Benjamin Gillam, and was taken by the Dutch, from whom he experienced 'pretty harsh and

1 This letter is preserved by Chalmers, in his Political Annals, pp. 196-7.

2 Davenport's letter of June 24, 1665, to Leverett, in Hutch. Coll. Papers, pp.

392-6.

3 See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxI. 220-1, and R. I. Hist. Coll. 1. 181.

Williamson's Maine, i. 425; Hutchinson, i. 228 - 9.

coarse usage." He at length arrived in England, though with some difficulty, and, fortunately for Massachusetts, with the loss of all his papers.' By a letter of Feb. 22, 1665-6, the King recommended an expedition against the French in Canada. Colonel Nichols, being informed of this, wrote to Massachusetts on the 6th of July, 1666, that there was a favorable opportunity to take the French by surprise, and urged them to unite their forces with those of Connecticut in an enterprise which was attended with such fair prospects of success. The King's letter was communicated to the Council, July 17, 1666,-and, upon consultation with Sir Thomas Temple, Governor of Nova Scotia, and Mr. Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut, it was concluded "that it is not feasible, as well in respect of the difficulty (if not impossibility) of a land-march over the rocky moun tains and howling deserts about four hundred miles, as the strength of the French there, according to report." Several privateers were, nevertheless, fitted out and commissioned, which served to annoy the enemy, by hovering on their coasts.

On the 6th of September Samuel Maverick, the most obnoxious of the Commissioners, appeared in Boston, and delivered to the Governor and magistrates" a writing, without direction or seal, which he saith is a copy of a signification from his Majesty of his pleasure concerning this Colony of the Massachusetts; the certainty whereof seems not to be so clear as former expresses from his Majesty have usually been." Notwithstanding the suspicions openly avowed as to the authenticity of the document, the Governor deemed it advisable to summon the Court for the consideration of the "writing," which was, in truth, the King's letter of April 10, 1666, in which his Majesty declares that he has received full information from his Commissioners of their reception and treatment, and that it is very evident that the people of Massachusetts believe that he hath no jurisdiction over them"; therefore he thinks fit to recall his Commissioners, that he may receive from them "a more particular account of the state and condition of those Plantations ;" and he orders the Governor and Council forthwith to make choice of "five or four persons, whereof Mr. Bellingham and Major Hathorn are to be two, (both which his Majesty commands upon their allegiance to attend) to attend upon his Majesty," who will then, in person, hear "all the allegations, suggestions, or pretences to right or favor which can be made on the behalf of the Colony." His Majesty also commands that all decisions made by his Commissioners shall remain in force until further orders. A special Court convened Sept. 11th, and agreed to spend the forenoon of the next day in prayer. Accordingly, the forenoon of the 12th was spent in hearing prayers from Wilson, Mather, Symmes, Whiting, Cobbet, and Mitchel. The next day, after Lecture," the Court met, and the elders were present; and some debate [was] had, concerning the duty to his Majesty in reference to his signification." On the 14th the Court assembled, when petitions were presented from Boston, Salem, Ipswich, and Newbury, urging a compliance with the King's demands. After a prolonged debate, obedience to his Majesty's requisitions was refused. "We have given our reasons"thus replied the General Court, in their letter of Sept. 17th, to Secretary Morrice" why we could not submit to the Commissioners and their

1 See pages 585-6; Davis's Morton, p. 315; Josselyn, p. 274; Hutchinson, i. 229 – 30. 2 In Danforth Papers, Mass. Hist. Coll. xvIII. 102.

3 See Nichols's letter, in Hutch. Coll. Papers, pp. 407-8.

4 The letter is in Hutchinson, i. 466-7. Letters of the same date, but of far different tenor, sent to Plymouth and Connecticut, may be found in Hutchinson, i. 465-6, and Trumbull, i. 536–7.

5 See Hutchinson, i. 232, note; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxi. 59-60; Danforth Papers, ibid. XVIII. 103-7; Hutch. Coll. pp. 511-13.