66 with Phips. ince. Phips came thither by land, and applied to Hinckes, President of the Council, and in Usher's tempo- His quarrel rary absence the head of the government, for a warrant to seize Short "as their Majesties' prisoner fled from justice;" but, with the approbation of the Council, it was refused. Phips summoned Hinckes to arrest Short on board the merchant-ship, which the latter declined to do. The Governor, with an armed party, went to 1693. the vessel, and demanded the surrender of Short, March 28. who, the master said, was on shore and out of his power to deliver." Phips then took from the ship-master the warrant he had given him in Boston for the transportation of Short to England, and tearing from it his signature and seal, substituted another for the surrender of that officer to the purser of the "Nonsuch," who had come to New Hampshire to apprehend him and the deserters. Phips ended, if Short told the truth, by breaking open his chest, and seizing his papers. The ship-master, with vehement complaints, applied to the Council for advice and protection. But the Council, willing to be rid of the matter, advised him to find "his remedy at law," and concluded, as to Phips, that it might "be inconvenient to call him to account by this Board."1 Phips's commission made him General and Admiral of the King's land and sea forces in the north-eastern Provinces. In this capacity he undertook to inspect the fort at Portsmouth, but Usher refused him admission to it, and when, notwithstanding this, he attempted an entrance, he was met by a corporal's guard which turned him back. 1 Memorial (March 30, 1693) of Jeremiah Tay, commander of ship Walter and Thomas," to the Council of the Province of New Hampshire; Letter (April 6) of Phips to the Lords of the Admiralty; and Letter (April 20) of Short to the Secretary of the Admiralty, in British Colonial Papers. It is very hazardous to dissent from Dr. Belknap; but in details his narrative of these transactions (Hist. of New Hampshire, 136, 137) does not accord with the contemporaneous documents, which I follow. (Comp. N. H. Provincial Papers, II. 91, 99-102.) April. 1694. He demanded assistance in vain to search for the deserters from the frigate. Finally, in resentment of the disrespect which had been shown him, Phips ordered back into Massachusetts a force which he had detached for the defence of the feebler Province. In the last summer of his administration, after that devastation. July 18-30. at Dover which has been mentioned in connexion with the renewal of the Indian war,2 there was a sharp correspondence between him and Usher, introduced by requisitions from the latter for military assistance.3 With Stoughton, who had much disapproved Phips's conduct on this occasion, Usher transacted business more agreeably, after the Governor's retirement. In the last year but one of the war, the Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, at Usher's solicitation, sent a reinforcement of troops "for the security of the frontiers;" and the application was repeated in the following summer, when June 26. a party of Indians, landing from canoes, had murdered fourteen persons near Portsmouth.* 1695. June. 1696. Except for the military operations, and for his strifes with the Governor of Massachusetts, Usher's administration was uneventful. He passed much of his time in Boston, attending to his private affairs, though he liked to magnify his office by coming to New Hampshire and summoning meetings of the Council, with slight pretences of business to be done. When he asked the Assembly for money, he was told truly that the people were too 1 N. H. Provincial Papers, II. 104, clared to the Board that the reason 105, note. 2 See above, Vol. IV. 151. The havoc at Dover was frightful. (N. H. Provincial Papers, II. 125-130.) 3 Letters to and from Phips and Usher, in British Colonial Papers. 4 N. H. Provincial Papers, II. 158, 169, 189, 190, III. 37; comp. Mather, Magnalia, VII. 89. > for his not staying here was that the Province had not made provision for support of the honor of the King's government." (N. H. Provincial Papers, II. 115.) 644 Having been two years with you, and not one penny received for support of the honor of the government, but instead thereof the ProvThe Lieutenant-Governor de- ince, by their Representatives, have 1695. poor;1 and when he applied for troops, he was answered that the Province was overtasked, and could not hold its ground without the help of Massachusetts; which was not only very near the truth, but what they wished to have represented at court, that it might weigh in favor of that annexation which they never ceased to desire. The government was parsimoniously supported by a duty on imported goods, and an excise on wine and spirits, levied from year to year by the Assembly. The Lieutenant-Governor moved them urgently to do something better. They replied that their means seemed exhausted in providing Nov. 9. for their defence, but that, if possible, they would oblige him, "provided he and the Council would join with them in petitioning the King to annex the Province to Massachusetts." They made him no allowance. Allen had guarantied to him a salary of two hundred and fifty pounds a year, which, on Usher's application at the end of three years, he refused to pay. Usher then asked to be relieved, either by the Governor in person, or by the appointment of some successor in his own place. Without his knowledge, he had been anticipated in this request. An application, favored by the Governor,3 had been made for the appointment of William Partridge, Treasurer of the Province, to be Lieutenant-Governor. Part- Governor ridge, a ship-builder, who had large connexions put an affront upon the King's commission, as in that of fourteenth Luke, 28, 29, 30 verses. Have spent of cash out of my own estate about £300." (Letter of Usher to the Council, Aug. 11, 1694, in British Colonial Papers.) "It being now about four years since I arrived with his Majesty's royal commission, and at the charge of the Province have not had a house provided to lie in, nor one meal's meat, nor one drop of drink." (Speech of Lieutenant-Governor Usher, Sept. 24, 1696, in N. H. Provincial Papers, III. 46.) 1 Ibid., II. 120; III. 35. Lieutenant 1697. 1696. in England with the dealers in masts and timber, went out to further the movement, and to Usher's January surprise returned with a commission to succeed him, obtained six months before from the Lords June 6. Justices, the King being at that time on the continent. The newly-constituted Board of Trade had been influenced by Sir Henry Ashurst in favor of the appointment. By this time Usher had changed his mind as to the attractiveness of his office. At all events, an involuntary retirement was distasteful to him. In consequence of having come out without his instructions, or from failure in some other preliminary, Partridge was not ready to take his official oath. The Council and Assembly, however, held a meeting, and proceeded to some acts which Usher, writing of them from Boston to England, described as the "Piscataqua Rebellion." The Lords of Trade Aug. 3. instructed him to retain his place, till Partridge should take the oaths, or Lord Bellomont, who was to be Governor of New Hampshire, as well as of Massachusetts, 1697. 2 should arrive in America.3 Accordingly he went Dec. 13. to Portsmouth, where he proclaimed the peace of Ryswick. But his resumed sway was short-lived. 5 The next day his successor assumed the government,* Dec. 14. and Usher went back, a private man, to his Boston counting-room. The Assembly presently sent to the Lords of Trade their thanks to the King for the new appointment, and their assurance, as to Usher, 1698. Feb. 3. 1 N. H. Provincial Papers, I. 209. 2 Ibid., III. 77, 78; British Colonial Papers, under the dates of Sept. 30, Oct. 8, 1696, Feb. 16, Feb. 18, June 8, 1697, and Dec. 9, 1701. 3 N. H. Provincial Papers, II. 216, 217. 4 Ibid., 259, 261. Dec. 31, 1692, a Committee of the Council of Massachusetts, with Stoughton at its head, reported that Usher's account, as Treasurer, extending from May 25, 1686, to July 6, 1690, charged the Province with over £5000, of which sum only £851 was rightly his due, the rest having been paid by him without authority to Sir Edmund Andros. (British Colonial Papers.) that "there had been no disturbance but only what Mr. Usher had endeavored to give."1 Sept. 15. Nov. 29. While Lord Bellomont remained in New York, his commission for New Hampshire not being yet published, Allen came over, and assumed the chief magistracy of New Hampshire. Usher also appeared there, and claimed to be admitted to a seat in the Council. This led to a dispute, which was terminated for the present by the Governor's dissolving the Assembly.3 Every thing remained in suspense till Lord Bellomont, having inaugurated his government in Massachusetts, came to Portsmouth, where he confirmed Partridge in the place of Lieutenant-Governor, and made other arrangements which so recommended him to the people,* 1 N. H. Provincial Papers, II. 267.- Usher's want of personal dignity provoked gross affronts. The Lieutenant-Governor acquainted the Board that " Richard Torlington, constable of New Castle, had offered a great contempt to himself in impressing his saddle, when he had noticed that it was the LieutenantGovernor's." (Provincial Papers, II. 134; see 199 for another anecdote, not transcribable.) · - His invariable style of speaking and writing had a ludicrous peculiarity, consisting partly in the omission of connecting words. The following is a specimen of his characteristic manner: "Acts of Parliament ought not to be laws for plantations, unless had representatives in Parliament, if may write plainly, are not for kingly but for commonwealth government, which pray libera nos." (Usher to Lords of Trade, Dec. 12, 1700, in British Colonial Papers; comp. N. H. Prov. Papers, II. 595, 675; III. 332, 508.) Oct. 17, 1697, the Council of New Hampshire sent a messenger to New York to wait on the Governor. 1699. Jan. 7. July 31. Lord Bello- mont in shire. "Take good advice," he was in- 66 - 3 Ibid., 280-293.-The disappointed Governor was disturbed by the irregular proceedings and growing insolence of the Lieutenant-Governor, W. Partridge, and three or four more of the Council," and thought that they should be sent for to England "to reward them according to their merits." (Letter of Allen, of Nov. 28, 1698, to the Lords of Trade, in British Colonial Papers; comp. letter of same to same, of Jan. 14, 1689.) 4 Lord Bellomont wrote to the |