shall be at the charge of sending over with the Governor ten men, towards the building of the said City; wherein every such Adventurer shall not only have his share of the trade and buildings, but also shall have all other fruit of the ten men's labor, sent as aforesaid. "Moreover there is humbly dedicated to the foundation of a Church in the said City, and maintenance of clergymen to serve in the said Church, ten thousand acres of land, near adjoining to the said City." Certainly, at the first venting of this project, the author did not know, at least not consider, that fifty thousand acres of unimproved land in New England was not at that time worth £50; and therefore would have done but little, as to the building of cities, and endowing of churches. And at this day there is not much of the land in the country, unless in the midst of two or three trading towns, is worth little more than hath been expended in the breaking of it up and fencing of it in. But to go on. The petition of the aforesaid Lords, &c., to the King's Majesty was after this form. 66 MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MOST SACRED MAJESTY. It is humbly desired by the Duke of Lenox, &c., ancient Patentees and Adventurers in the Plantation of New England, that forasmuch as they are now presently_to join in the surrender to your Majesty of the Grand Patent of their Corporation, that your Royal Majesty will be graciously inclined to give order to your Attorney-General, to draw several Patents of such parcels of land, as by their mutual consent have been allotted to them; and to have the same Patents prepared fit for your Majesty's royal signature, with such titles, privileges, [and] immunities, as have been heretofore granted, either to them or to any other, by your Majesty, or by your late royal father, King James, of blessed memory, with reservations of appeal to the Governor or Lieutenant of the territories, in cases reasonable; that they, knowing their own interest, may be the better able to plant and govern them to your Majesty's honor, their particular profits, and their people's civil government and faithful obedience to the laws of your sacred Majesty. April 6, 1635." In order to the carrying on of some such design as seems to be intended in the forementioned petitions, there is a copy of some such agreement concerning one of the forementioned Provinces, which the forenamed persons promised to grant to Captain John Mason, which seems to be drawn up not long before, about that, which runs after this tenor. Forasmuch as by a mutual agreement, we whose names are subscribed, Patentees or Adventurers, and of the Council of New England, are to join in the surrender to his Majesty of the Great Charter of that country, which was granted to us in the 18th year of the reign of King James, of blessed memory; in whose presence, Feb. 3, 1624, lots were drawn for settling of divers and sundry divisions of lands on the sea coasts of the said country, upon most of us, who hitherto have never been confirmed in the lands so allotted: 1 And to the intent that every one of us, according to equity, and in some reasonable manner, answerable to his adventures, or other interest, may enjoy a proportion of the lands of the said country, to be immediately holden of his Majesty: We therefore do condescend, and agree, that all the part of the seacoast of the country aforesaid, shall belong to Captain John Mason, to begin at the middle of Naumkeek River, and from thence to proceed eastward along the seacoast to Cape Anne, and round about the same into Pascataqua Harbor, and so forward up the River of Newichawanock, and to the furthest head of the said river, and from thence northwestward, till sixty miles be finished from the first entrance of Pascataqua Harbor. Also from Naumkeek through the harbor and river thereof, up into the land west sixty miles; from which period to cross over land to the sixty miles end, accounted from Pascataqua, through Newichawanock River, and into the said land northwest as aforesaid; and hereunto is to belong the south half of the Isle of Shoals, and ten thousand acres of land on the southeast part of Sagadehock, at the mouth or entrance thereof. Saving and reserving out of this Division, to 1 The MS. says 1634; but this is a slip of the pen. It was probably Feb. 3, 1624-5. James I. died April 8, 1625 -H. every one that hath any lawful grant of lands, or Plantation lawfully settled in the same, the freeholding and enjoying of his right, with the liberties thereunto appertaining, laying down his jura regalia, if he have any, to the Proprietor of his Division, wherein his land lies, and paying some small acknowledgment, for that he is now to hold his said land anew of the Proprietor of his Division." LENOX, ARUNDEL & SURREY, CARLILE, STARLING, Concordat cum originali, facta collatione per me, THOMAS MAYDWEL, Notar. Publicum. It is not known that many of the rest obtained such like grants, as that late described, from the Grand Council before they surrendered, which, it is said, was done in June, 1635,1and Captain Mason deceasing before that year was expired, he never obtained a confirmation of it from the King, as Sir Ferdinando Gorges did of the Province of Maine, in the year 1639.2 And whether such an act of consent of the Grand Council, being not confirmed, can invalidate the actual possession of others, that entered upon the land as void of all grant and possession, especially if their possessions were in like manner granted by the Grand Council, §and§ were confirmed by any preceding grant from his Royal Majesty, is not hard to determine. By these steps and degrees was the first planting of the lands about Pascataqua carried on; nor was the right and title of any of the present inhabitants ever particularly and expressly questioned, or any kind of rent demanded of them, till the year 1679, by Mr. Mason, or any in his name before; the validity of whose pretensions is at this present time under debate, the issue of which will ere long be made known. Some gentlemen in England not long before, or about the time, when the Grand Charter of New England was surrendered up into the hands of the King, had prepared a ship of considerable bigness, which should have been 1 June 7, 1635. See page 89.-H. 2 April 3d. See the Grant in Hazard, i. 442–55.—H. employed in bringing over the General Governor, and to have been kept there as a man of war; but the design succeeded very ill, for the ship, in the launching, turned on one side and broke her back, which caused them to lay aside their purpose, as was mentioned before, Chap. xxvii. And not long after one of the gentlemen, that was known to be one of the greatest adversaries to the affairs of the Massachusetts, fell sick, and died soon after. In his sickness he sent for the minister, and bewailed his enmity against them, and promised, if he recovered, to be as great a friend to New England as ever he had been an enemy before. But his fatal hour being come, his purposes of that nature were cut off; which should instruct all to do the good they intend, while their time. lasteth, for there is no work nor device in the grave, whither they are going. The passage foregoing was certified by letters from my Lord Say and others, to the Governor of New England, about the year 1635.2 CHAP. XXXII. The general affairs of the Massachusetts, from the year 1636 to the year 1641. THINGS had hitherto been very successfully carried on in the Massachusetts; and in the entrance of the year 1636, the 25th of May, Mr. Henry Vane, that arrived there with sundry other gentlemen in the year 1635,3 was chosen Governor of the Massachusetts Colony, at which time also Mr. Winthrop was chosen Deputy Governor, and Mr. Roger Harlakenden," that came along in the same ship with Mr. Vane, the year before, was chosen an Assistant. There was then as great hopes of the continuance of the peace and prosperity of the Plantation, as ever before, or rather greater. But ||ofttimes a bright morning is followed with a dark and obscure evening. Many sad and threatening storms of trouble were observed falling upon that country, before this lustre was half run out, some of which were mingled with showers of blood; although || often || The individual referred to is John Mason. ii. 12.-H. See Sav. Win. i. 187; 'See page 177.—H. in the beginning thereof there were many new Plantations carrying on, both about the Bay, and up higher in the country, as far as Connecticut River, an hundred miles westward from Boston. And now the country increasing, and growing every year more populous than other, by the addition of many hundred families, that every season were resorting thither, it was judged || necessary || to make some further progress in settling the government, by some other forms or ways of Council and Courts of Judicature, for the safety and ease of the people, and to prevent the travelling of the inhabitants many miles from their own places to obtain justice; long journies at that time being, for want of horses and other means of transportation, very difficult to any sort of people. Therefore, about the beginning of this lustre,1 a Standing Council was ordered to be chosen out of the magistrates, and to be for term of life, unless for some weighty cause they were found unworthy; and the Governor for the time being was always to be President. But since that time, upon further experience, every particular magistrate is declared to be of the Standing Council of the country. At this time there were but three to be the Standing Council, viz. the Governor, Mr. Winthrop, and Mr. Dudley. 3 Further also, besides the Quarter Courts, when all the magistrates were wont to meet, other particular Courts were ordered to be kept at Boston, New-Town, (since Cambridge,) Salem and Ipswich, consisting of one magistrate at least, and three or four associates, chosen by the Court out of the persons nominated by the freemen of their several jurisdictions, with liberty of appeal to the Quarter Courts, (which, since that time, are reduced to two, called the Courts of Assistants, one in March, the other in September, in every year,) if either plaintiff or defendant found themselves aggrieved by the proceedings of those inferior Courts. The proceedings in either of these Courts is after the manner of the Sessions or Assizes, by juries, grand and petit, &c., in the realm of England.5 ||reasonable || 1 April 7, 1636.-H. | to By the law of 1639, says Washburn, Judic. Hist. Mass., p. 30.-н. 'See Mass. Col. Laws, (ed. 1672) p. 36.—н. |