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bounds between the two Colonies, which said river should for the future be also called, alias, Narrogansett, or Narrogansett River?" By the third, the Atherton Company were authorized to choose "to which of those Colonies they would belong."1

Favor of the
King to the
Atherton

2

The danger of a dispute which would have led to a revisal, and not improbably to the ruin, of the charters, was averted for both. But to say that "Paucatuck River” meant Narragansett Bay was much the same as to say that the Thames means the British Channel; and, if the agreement between the agents was valid, Connecticut was sadly curtailed of her domain. The compact concluded, Winthrop without delay embarked for America.3 A singular edict from the King soon followed him. It was addressed to each of the confederated Colonies; and it recommended the Atherton Company to their "neighborly kindness and protection, the proCompany. prietors to be permitted peaceably to improve their colony and plantation in New England." The occasion of it was that the King had "been given to understand that his good subjects, Thomas Chiffinch, John Scott, John Winthrop, Daniel Denison," and others, were "daily disturbed and unjustly molested in their possession and laudable endeavors by certain unreasonable and turbulent spirits of Providence Colony in New England, to the great scandal of justice and government, and the eminent discouragement of that hopeful plantation." 4

June 21.

1 Mass. Hist. Coll., V. 248; R. I. Rec., I. 518.

2 See Conn. Rec., III. 275. * See above, p. 551, note 3. "Mr. Winthrop was very averse to my prosecuting your affairs, . . . . . but, as soon as I received intelligence of his depart ure from the Downs," &c. (Letter of John Scott, April 29th, 1663, in Arnold, 383.)

• Of John Scott, the person named second in the King's letter, I know nothing with certainty before this transaction. He was probably the troublesome person of that name who appears in the Records of New Haven (II. 89, 92) as early as 1654. In that year, a "John Scott, of Long Island, and others, were [by the Dutch authorities] arrested and examined as sus

It was in the third week after the date of this letter that Clarke's charter, which the King probably did not know that he had been contradicting, passed the seals.

pected persons" (Brodhead, I. 579); and, in 1660, he had "caused much embarrassment to the people of Southampton and its neighborhood. .... Claiming to have obtained from the Indians large tracts of land, he executed numerous conveyances, which, after much litigation, were found to be fraudulent and void." (Ibid., 671.) He was now "John Scott, smith."

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It seems, from his letter to Edward Hutchinson, of April 29, 1663, (Arnold, I. 383,) that Scott, being then in London, and pretending to have some connection with the Atherton Company, had tried to put himself upon Winthrop, who would have nothing to do with him. When he had the field to himself, after Winthrop's departure, he says he used "a parcel of curiosities to the value of £ 60," to interest "a potent gentleman" in favor of "a petition against Clarke, &c., as enemies to the peace and well-being of his Majesty's good subjects;" and he was in hope of obtaining a letter with authorizing expressions to the Colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut that the proprietors of the Narragansett country shall not only live peaceably, but have satisfaction for injuries already received." Mr. Arnold supposes the King's letter (see my last page) to be the fruit of the potent gentleman's satisfaction with the sixty pounds' worth of curiosities. I have no doubt he is right. I will venture another conjecture. It relates to the identity of the "potent gentleman" whose interest at the ear of the King was secured by Scott's bribe. The first of the King's "good subjects" named in his letter is Thomas Chiffinch. I presume that Scott's

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between was the Tom Chiffinch, who was conspicuous in the scandalous chronicles of the time as a pimp of Charles the Second. Lord Arlington, though not himself fastidious, must have had his thoughts when he signed a missive coupling such a name with the names of Winthrop, Denison, and other patterns of New-England sanctity. It must have made the merry monarch hilarious for one evening. Perhaps Buckingham or Rochester was indulged with composing it for the signature of the graver courtier.

Scott practised more boldly yet on the King's indulgence. He presented a petition, which reads as follows (Hutch. Coll., 380): —

"That your Majesty's petitioner's father, in the year 1641, sold £ 2,200 per annum, and advanced £ 14,300 to the use of his Majesty's father, of everblessed memory, besides the loss of his life in the said service; and your petitioner, for a small expression of his loyalty, by cutting the bridles and girts of some of the then Parliament's horses quartering at Turnham Green (and his late Majesty's at Branford) was, after many hearings before a committee of the said Parliament (by a gift of £ 500 to the said committee, to prevent further mischief), ordered to be sent to New England under the tuition of one Downing, who dealt most perfidiously with your Majesty's petitioner; that your Majesty's petitioner was forced to court any employment to acquire a livelihood, employing himself in and about an island called Long Island, of which island, before your Majesty's happy restoration, the petitioner purchased near one third part.

"The petitioner, therefore, humbly

Charter of Rhode Island and Providence.

It created "a body corporate and politic, in fact and name, by the name of the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England in America." Similar to that of Connecticut in grants

July 8.

prays your Majesty, of your princely grace and favor, to bestow upon him the government of the said island and islands adjacent, or liberty to the inhabitants to choose a Governor and Assistants yearly."

The King pretended to believe him so far as to direct a reference of the petition (June 26, 1663) to the Committee of Foreign Plantations, with an intimation of his being "most graciously inclined to encourage him [Scott] in his desires." Arcades ambo. Scott's next appearance is in an order of the Council for Plantations (July 6, 1663), "that Captain Scott, and Mr. Maverick, and Mr. Baxter [George Baxter, formerly of New Netherland (see above, p. 310; comp. Brodhead, I. 620)] do draw up a brief narration of and touching these particulars following, viz. 1. Of the title of his Majesty to the premises [New Netherland]; 2. Of the Dutch intrusion; 3. Of their deportment since, and management of that possession, and of their strength, trade, and government there; 4 and lastly. Of the means to make them acknowledge and submit to his Majesty's government, or by force to compel them thereunto or expulse them;—and to bring in such their draft on paper to this Council on this day sevennight, that this Council may humbly make report to his Majesty touching the whole matter as they shall see cause." (Documents relative to the History of New York, III. 46.) Scott returned from England in December, 1663, bringing with him the royal instructions concerning the enforcement of the Acts of Navigation.

(N. H. Rec., II. 510; see above, p. 554.) He had somehow established such credit with the western Colonies, that the General Court of New Haven (January 7, 1664) instructed a committee to treat with Captain Scott about getting a patent for Delaware” (N. H. Rec., II. 515), and Connecticut made him a Magistrate on Long Island. (Ibid., 541; comp. Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, II. 393, 399-407.) He presently got himself into trouble with the latter government by attempting to detach from it the settlements which it claimed on the island (Brodhead, 726; O'Callaghan, History of New Netherland, 500, 502); and orders were issued (March 10) to the Marshal to arrest him, and bring him to trial, “for sundry heinous crimes and practices seditious, to the great disturbance of the peace of his Majesty's subjects on the Island," and for a long list of other offences. (Conn. Rec., I. 418, 420, 421, 424.) He was apprehended accordingly, after making resistance. (O'Callaghan, Hist. New Netherland, II. 512.) This proceeding, for some reason, excited a strong sensation in New Haven. By Scott's servant, who, it seems, went express to Boston, Governor Leete wrote (April 22) to the Council of Massachusetts. (Mass. Archives, II. 183; N. H. Rec., II. 540.) He referred to a previous letter which he had written, "of the sad business respecting Captain Scott, to MajorGeneral Leverett, who, he conceived, did best know him, his interest in England, and service to this country there." "The extremity of hazards to him

marked by a liberality hitherto unexampled, it added the extraordinary provision, that "no person within the said Colony, at any time thereafter, should be anywise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any difference of opinion in matters of religion which

.....

[Scott] and the country, growing on so fast by some transactions of a cloudy aspect," had caused the writer to "think it a duty incumbent on him again to solicit them [the government of Massachusetts] as confederates of a special interest in the weal public and peace of the country, . . . . . entreating them to lay the matter to heart, and do their utmost for the preventing of Captain Scott's ruin, and the hurt that might come thereby to the country, he being reputed his Majesty's servant, and upon service now by letter to the four United Colonies, when thus obstructed." "If ever advice and succor were needful to confederates," Leete continues, "it is now; but to prescribe the way is difficult." He says he hears that Scott's trial is fixed for "the 8th of May next, if he be not dead before, as was like to have been the other day, by poison, as he [Scott] conceives;" and he recommends that instant application be made by Massachusetts to Plymouth to unite with her in procuring a meeting of the Federal Commissioners at Hartford before that day. "The main of the matter seems to him to lie in the expedition;" and he concludes with expressing his "hope that the Lord would appear in the Mount Difficulty, and withhold every arm stretched forth unto any fatal blow that might bring hurt unto God's people and their concerns."

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necticut pressed him too far. Whatever the "Mount Difficulty" was, it may be supposed, from the action of the Massachusetts Magistrates, that it loomed high in their view, as well as in Leete's. Without loss of time, they despatched Leverett and Captain William Davis to Hartford (April 27), there to present themselves "to the Honorable John Winthrop, Esq., Governor of Connecticut Colony, and to acquaint him, that, on information referring to John Scott, Esq., of some severe proceedings by their authority against him, they [Leverett and Davis] were appointed messengers and commissioners to him in a friendly way, as loving neighbors and confederates that stand obliged to seek the mutual peace of each other, to inquire concerning the said Scott's condition, and further to declare their [the Magistrates'] sense thereof, as the matter should to them [the messengers] appear, according to instructions given them." (Mass. Archives, II. 184.) The main import of the letters conveyed by the messengers (Ibid., 357) was to bespeak credit and attention to their representations and advice. Evidently it was not intended to conduct the negotiation in writing. Only two days later, Plymouth despatched William Bradford and Thomas Southworth to Hartford on the same errand. (N. H. Rec., II. 541; comp. Hutch. Coll., 384.)

Connecticut, however, had her own views on the subject. She brought Scott to trial, convicted him (May 24) under ten charges,-one of them being for forgery, and sentenced him to pay a fine of £ 250, to be imprisoned

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did not actually disturb the civil peace of the said Colony; but that all and every person and persons might, from time to time, and at all times thereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences in matters of religious concernments." Lord

during the pleasure of the Court, and to give bonds to the amount of £ 500 for future good behavior. (Conn. Rec., II. 16; comp. 430.) "New-Haven champion," wrote Rossiter to the Connecticut Court, "in whom they have so much confided, and yourselves so much feared, being now disclosed and foiled." (N. H. Rec., II. 539.) Before July 1st, he broke gaol, and escaped (Conn. Rec., I. 436); and it is likely that the Colony congratulated itself on obtaining so easy and complete a riddance of him.

There are indications that one way in which he had made himself formidable was by threatening charges of treason, which he would agree to suppress for a consideration. He could carry on this business to advantage by vaunting his interest with his friend Chiffinch, and with the royal friend of both.

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He also declared himself to be an agent of the Duke of York. (Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, III. 400.) On his trial, he "affirmed that he had testimonies, to the number of fifty-four, against several persons in authority here, and others, for heinous crimes, many of them were." But he ended by making an humble submission to the mercy of the Court, professing penitence in abject terms (O'Callaghan, II. 553), and retracting a special charge, which he had made against one individual, of uttering "treasonable words."-These last facts are furnished to me by Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull, from the Council Records of Connecticut.

After one other little attempt (January, 1665) at mischief-making on

Long Island (Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York, III. 86), which was easily arrested, Scott's American career was closed. In 1665 or 1666, he went to Barbadoes, whence Lord Willoughby wrote to Colonel Nicolls that he meant to send him prisoner to England. (Documents relative to Col. Hist. of N. Y., III. 136.) But Chiffinch's client, once on English ground, probably did not much fear Lord Willoughby's frown.

There was a Colonel John Scott, known by Pepys to his cost, who may, or may not, have been the same per

son.

He had accused Pepys of Popery and treason. (Grey, Debates of the House of Commons, VII. 303–311.) He killed a coachman in London, in 1682, much to Pepys's relief, who trusted that there was an end to trouble from him. (Pepys, Memoirs, &c., V. 92; comp. I. xxxv.) Pepys speaks of him (Ibid., V. 94) as “our friend Scott, whom God is pleased to take out of our hands into his own for justice." He interests himself with his correspondent to prevent Scott's getting a pardon from the King, "which," Pepys proceeds, "I suppose he will not easily compass, except by some confessions, which I am confident he is able to make, relating to the State, as well as us, that might enough atone for this his last villany; nor do I doubt but, to save his own life, he will forget his trade, and tell truth, though to the hazard of the best friends he has." In the investigation of Scott's charges against Pepys, "numerous affidavits were made by persons resident in France, Holland, America, and England, all agreeing as to the in

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