Also in use for the Rrovince of New York. From August 1688 to April 1689. Copied by Geo: Hayward, 171 Pearl St. N. Y. for D. T. Valentine's Manual, for 1862 gratior extat, with his Majesty's titles around the circumference; there being on the other side the King's Arms, with the Garter, crown, supporters and motto, and this inscription round the circumference :Sigillum Nova Angliæ in America." In 1688, when James II. joined and annexed to the government of the New England colonies, the Provinces of New York and East and West Jersey, with the territories thereunto belonging, he directed that the seal appointed for New England should be thenceforth made use of for all that territory and dominion, and that the scal for New York should be destroyed. He also directed Gov. Dongan, in resigning the government, to surrender the seal to Andros. The "Instructions for Sir Edmund Andros," preserved in the State Paper Office, London, contain the following :-" And whereas since our accession to the crown, Wee have appointed a new seal for our Colonies of New England, as also another seal for our Province of New York, which being now united under one government, Wee do hereby direct and require that the seal appointed for the said Colony of New England, be henceforth made use of for all that our territory and dominion in its largest extent and boundaries aforementioned, and that the Seal for our Province of New York be forthwith broken and defaced in your presence."* This was done on the 11th August, 1688, and the proceeding is thus described by an eye-witness :-" Upon His Excellency's return to Boston, he received His Maties gracious commission for the annexing the Province of New York and ye East and West Jerseys to His Maties territory of N. England, whereupon he addressed himself to that service with all convenient speed, and being accompanied with severall of the Members of His Maties Councill, arrived at New Yorke on Saterday, the 11th of Sept. [August] last, being mett by a regiment of foot and a troop of horse belonging to that place. His Matics commission was read in ye fort, and afterwards published at ye Citty Hall, and immediately His Excellence sent for and received from Col. Dongan the seal of the late Govt, which was defaced and broken in Councill: then a proclamation for continuing the revenue, and all persons, civil and military, in their respective offices till further order, was published."t The arrangements made by virtue of these instructions lasted for a very short period-only seven months - Andros being deposed in April, 1689, on the abdication of James II. * Instructions for Sir Edmund Andros, N. E., vol. xxxiii., p. 546. |