Deprecia money. June 30, 1704 Feb 27, 1705. The financial difficulties created by the war pressed heavily. Within two-thirds of a year, successive tion of paper issues of bills of credit amounted to no less a sum than twenty thousand pounds. With a supply so inflated, a provision that they should be received in payments into the treasury at an advance of five per cent did not save them from continued depreciation. Nor was this the only trouble which attended on them. They were freely counterfeited; and the scrupulous rulers, while they labored to stop the forgeries by penal laws, thought it their duty to make good the loss occasioned by them to innocent private holders. Control of Governor. 1693. 1705. May 30. The Governor put forward a new pretension. As early as the second year of the provincial charter, the the Speaker- question of "the power of the Governor to disship by the miss the Speaker" had come before the Board of Trade; but for the time it passed by without Nov. 21. serious discussion. In the organization of the third General Court constituted since Dudley's arrival, the House chose Thomas Oakes for its Speaker, the agent who in England had opposed the charter. The Governor pronounced his disapproval, and directed them to proceed to a new election. The House voted that it was "not in the Governor's power to refuse the election of a Speaker." The Governor hesitated to take the responsibility of arresting the public business. He needed a grant of twenty-two thousand pounds, which the House was ready to make, when he should cease to interfere with its organization. He proposed to the House to "put another person in the chair, with a salvo jure, till Counsellors should have been chosen," an election which, by the provision in the charter, could not be delayed. Without paying regard to the suggestion, they proceeded to the election of Counsellors; and the Governor, yielding to 1 British Colonial Papers. July 25. Sept. 15. March 2. Persistent Governor for a fixed June 22. the inconvenience of further pressing the question, consented to the whole list.1 He wrote to the Lords of Trade, that Oakes, to whom he had objected as Speaker, was" a known Commonwealth's man, never quiet, nor satisfied with the government, but particularly very poor." 2 It was at this General Court that Lieutenant-Governor Povey appeared for the last time. The Governor had accepted a grant of two hundred pounds made to him by the General Court now expired. Taking care to keep his claim alive, with however little prospect of present claim of the success, he sent a message to move the new House for a suitable and honorable allowance for salary. the support of the Governor." For answer they gave him another three hundred pounds, whereupon he prorogued them for two months, expecting, before the expiration of that time, to be prepared for a more vigorous movement. Accordingly, when they came together again, he told them of the letter which he had received from the Queen, expressing in positive terms her Majesty's expectation that they would rebuild the fort at Pemaquid, contribute to the repair of the work at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and establish regular salaries for the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor; and he added that he was instructed to represent that "the neglect of these commands would show the General Assembly undeserving of her Majesty's royal favor and bounty towards them." The Representatives replied that, since the date of the Queen's letter, which was several months old, they had, in an Address, explained 1 Mass. Prov. Rec. 2 British Colonial Papers. 366 I have received her Majesty's picture and coat-of-arms. The arms were the next day fixed in the Council Chamber of this Province. . . . . Her Majesty's picture I have set up in my own house, where it is always in June 30. Sept. 5. Jan. 25. the view of all masters of sea, strangers, and others who are bound to make their attendance, and where the Counsellors and gentlemen of the country frequently are." (Letter of Dudley to the Lords of Trade, of March 10, 1705, in British Colonial Papers.) themselves to her Majesty on the subject of fortifying Pemaquid; and they desired that the two other matters might be deferred to the next session, and then "debated and answered by a full House," which now, on account of "the affairs of husbandry," could not be obtained, “the members of three counties being absent." Sept. 11. The Governor still insisted, and the House, having probably first ascertained that they might promise themselves support in the other branch, sent up a resolute message presenting their whole case. They said, 1. That, while the fortifying of Pemaquid would occasion a great outlay, which they were in no condition to meet, - for the war had already cost them "not less than eighty thousand pounds, the greatest part whereof was still unpaid," it would be simply useless when done, for the fort on Casco Bay, fifty miles west of Pemaquid, was "seated near the extent of the former settlements and plantations of the English within the Province, and considerably beyond any of the present English dwellings; " 2. That the cost to New Hampshire of the fort on the Piscataqua would not equal the sum expended in the war by many single towns in Massachusetts; that Massachusetts vessels passing in and out of the river paid toll at that fort; and that forts built by Massachusetts without aid from New Hampshire were as useful for the defence of New Hampshire as of the sister Colony; and, 3. That as to the establishment of permanent salaries, their circumstances and ability were different at different times, and it was "the native privilege and right of English subjects to raise and dispose of money according to the present exigency of affairs." The great principle of the question, still evaded, was not presented till some years later. Sept. 12. The Governor was ill-advised enough to bring the subject before the Council, on which it may be presumed that he still relied for support. But the Council, being brought to a vote as to the three proposals which Sept. 15. the House had put aside, determined that they could not give their advice in favor of any one. An Address to the Queen, framed by a joint committee of the two branches, was debated in the Council, "the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor withdrawing." adopted with some amendments; the Secretary was directed to sign and forward it; and the Court was prorogued the same day.1 It was The discontent with Dudley, so rife in Massachusetts, was seeking a hearing in England. John Nelson, who had taken a prominent part with the patriots in the deposition of Andros, but who had since changed his side, wrote to the Secretary of the Board of Trade, urging the continuance of the Governor in his place. He was “informed of the endeavors of a faction who are busy to reinstate themselves into the government." to displace There was no reasonable "complaint against him the Gover[Dudley]; but that which displeases is his care and attendance on the Church of England," 1 Mass. Prov. Rec. and Council Rec., at the dates. - "It is the native right and privilege of English subjects, ," said the Council and Representatives in this joint Address, by consent of Parliament from time to time to raise and dispose such sum and sums of money as the present exigency of affairs calls for. The which privileges we, your Majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, humbly crave leave to plead our right unto, not only as subjects of the crown of England, but also as privileges by the royal charter granted to this Province by their late Majesties," &c. 2 Interest had already been making to supersede him by the appointment of Sir Charles Hobby. (Hutch., II. 153.) Hobby is represented as being a man of loose life, though Cotton Mather was one of his zealous "Endeavors his nor. 1706. Feb. 11. partisans. He was a native of Boston, who, says Hutchinson, "had been knighted, as some said, for fortitude and resolution at the time of the earthquake in Jamaica; others, for the further consideration of £800 sterling." (Comp. Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, III. 631, note.) Dec. 10, 1706, he presented a Memorial to the Board of Trade, "desiring copies of such complaints as Colonel Dudley has or shall transmit over against him." (Journal of the Board of Trade.) 8 "He [Dudley] joined himself to the congregation of Queen's Chapel, as it was now called, on the accession of Queen Anne, and his name constantly appears on the list of vestry-men." (Greenwood, History of King's Chapel, 61.) It stands also at the head of the names of subscribers to a letter addressed, Dec. urging action relating to the building of an eastern fort and the establishment of salaries, and his "care of the Acts of Trade." As one of the wardens of Queen's Chapel, Nelson at the same time joined with the clergyman and "chief of the church" in representing to the Bishop of London that Dudley had "been very successful in his government;" that "his constant attendance and care for the peace of the church and support and honor thereof was apparent to all men, as well as his example of justice and virtue;" and that "his continu 23, 1703, by "the members of the Church at Boston " to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which they solicit his favor for Mr. Bridge, their minister (Hist. Mag., for December, 1868, 268), and of subscribers to a letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," Dec. 8, 1713, representing that" nothing can contribute more to the flourishing state of religion among us" than the scheme for settling bishops in these American parts. (Greenwood, History of King's Chapel, 167.) But Dr. Colman, in his funeral sermon, says ("Ossa Josephi," 35): "He was in principle a Calvinist, according to the manifest doctrine of the Church of England in her Articles. He preferred the way of worship in our churches, and was wont frequently to say that he loved a great deal of ceremony in the government, but as little as might be in the church." It seems that the Episcopalians claimed or disclaimed him according to their exigencies, as these presented themselves from time to time; and this equivocal position entirely comported with his own policy, enabling him to call on one or another set of champions, as his occasions made convenient. Directly on the heels of the letter of Dudley and others soliciting the appointment of Bishops, went another, of Feb. 17, 1714, from Myles, the minister, representing that "the Church here, and also in other parts of this Province, would increase much more under a Governor that was a constant communicant thereof, from whom we might reasonably expect all requisite protection and encouragement. The present Governor, Joseph Dudley, Esq., is a member of an Independent Church at Roxbury, where his dwelling is, and has communicated there from his first coming to be Governor, and never communicated with us . . . . . only this 25th of December last past." (Mass. Hist. Col., VII. 217.) Sewall was much disturbed by the encouragement given by Dudley to the setting up of an Episcopal congregation in Newburyport in 1712. (Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc. for 1873, 374–378.) Letter of Nelson to Popple, in British Colonial Papers. He says that before leaving England Dudley had "paid £1300 sterling for seals, equipment, &c.;" that in four years of administration he had received from Massachusetts "£1400 sterling, and no more, which will not pay him his advance, and find him a stable to put his horses in;" and that during these four years his expense, houserent, servants, horses, and a table, amounts to £700 per annum, his own proper cost." |