IT is happy for America that its discov­ery and settlement by the Europeans happened at a time, when they were emerging from a long period of ignorance and darkness. The discovery of the mag­netic needle, the invention of printing, the revival of literature and the reforma­tion of religion, had caused a vast altera­tion in their views, and taught them the true use of their rational and active pow­ers. To this concurrence of favourable causes we are indebted for the precision with which we are able to fix the begin­ning of this great American empire: An advantage of which the historians of other countries almost universally are destitu [...]e; their first aeras being either disguised by [Page 2] fiction and romance, or involved in im­penetrable obscurity.

Mankind do not easily relinquish an­cient and established prejudices, or adopt new systems of conduct, without some powerful attractive. The prospect of im­mense wealth, from the mines of Mexico and Peru, fired the Spaniards to a rapid conquest of those regions and the destruc­tion of their numerous inhabitants; but the northern continent, presenting no such glittering charms, was neglected by the European princes for more than a century after its discovery.1496. No effectual care was taken to secure to themselves the posses­sion of so extensive a territory,Prince's Annals. or the ad­vantage of a friendly traffic with its na­tives, or of the fishery on its coasts; till private adventurers at a vast expence, with infinite hazard and persevering zeal, estab­lished settlements for themselves, and thereby enlarged the dominions of their sovereigns.

Of the voyagers who visited the north­ern coast of America, for the sake of its furs and fish, one of the most remarkable was Captain John Smith; who ranged the shore from Penobscot to Cape Cod,1614. and in this route discovered the river Pascataqua; which he found to be a safe harbour with [Page 3] a rocky shore. He returned to England in one of his ships, and there published a description of the country, with a map of the sea-coast, which he presented to Prince Charles,Smith's Voyage. who gave it the name of NEW-ENGLAND. The other ship he left be­hind under the care of Thomas Hunt, who decoyed about twenty of the natives on board, and sold them for slaves at Ma­laga. This perfidious action excited a vi­olent jealousy in the natives and bitter­ly enraged them against succeeding ad­venturers. Two of those savages having found their way back as far as Newfound­land, then under the government of Cap­tain John Mason, were restored to their native country by his friendly interposi­tion, and reported the strong disapproba­tion, which the English in general enter­tained of the mischievous plot by which they had been carried off. By this means, together with the prudent endeavours of Captain Thomas Dermer, and afterward of the Plymouth settlers, tranquillity was re-established between the Indians and the adventurers,Hubbard's printed Narrative of the [...] with the Indians▪ p. 3. which was tolerably preserv­ed for many years. However fond we may have been of accusing the Indians of treachery and infidelity, it must be con­fessed that the example was first set them [Page 4] by the Europeans. Had we always treat­ed them with that justice and humanity which our religion inculcates, and our true interest at all times required, we might have lived in as much harmony with them, as with any other people on the globe.

1620.The importance of the country now began to appear greater than before, and some measures were taken to promote its settlement. A patent had been granted by King James in 1606, limiting the do­minion of Virginia, from the thirty-fourth, to the forty-fourth degree of northern la­titude; which extent of territory had been divided into two parts, called North and South Virginia. The latter was assigned to certain noblemen, knights, and gentle­men of London, the former to others in Bristol,Gorges's Narrative. Exeter and Plymouth. Those who were interested in the northern colony, finding that the patent did not secure them from the intrusions of others, petitioned for an enlargement and confirmation of their privileges. After some time, the king, by his sole authority, constituted a council,Nov. 3. consisting of forty noblemen, knights and gentlemen^*, by the name of [Page 5] ‘The council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling and governing of New-England,MS Copy in Super. Court files. in America.’ They were a corpora­tion with perpetual succession, by election of the majority; and their territories ex­tended from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of northern latitude. This patent, or charter, is the foundation of all the grants that were made of the country of New-England. But either from the jarring interests of the members, or their indistinct knowledge of the country, or their inattention to business, or some other cause which does not fully appear, their affairs were transacted in a confused man­ner from the begining; and the grants which they made wer [...] so inaccurately de­scribed, and interfer [...]d so much with each other, as to occasion difficulties and con­troversies, [Page 6] some of which are not yet ended.

Two of the most active members of this council were Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason. Gorges had been an officer in the navy of Queen Elizabeth,Hume. intimately connected with Sir Walter Ra­leigh, of whose adventurous spirit he had a large share. After the peace which King James made in 1604, he was appointed governor of the fort and island of Ply­mouth in Devonshire. Whilst he resided there, Captain Weymouth, who had been employed by Lord Arundel in search of a nor [...]hwest passage, but had fallen short of his course and put in at Pemaquid, brought from thence into the harbour of Plymouth, five natives of America, three of whom were eagerly seized by Georges, and re­tained in his service for three years. Find­ing them of a tractable and communicative disposition, and having won their affec­tions by gentle treatment, he learned from them many particulars concerning their country, its rivers, harbours, islands, fish­eries and other productions; and the num­bers, force, disposition and government of the natives; and from this information he conceived sanguine hopes of indulging his genius, and making his fortune, by a tho­rough [Page 7] discovery of the country. For this purpose he, in conjunction with others, ventured several ships,Gorges's Narrative. whereof some met with peculiar misfortunes; and others brought home accounts, which, though discouraging to some of his associates, made him determine upon farther attempts, wherein his resolution and perseverance were more conspicuous than any solid gain. These transactions were previous to the establishment of the council; in soliciting which, Gorges was so extremely active, that he was appointed their president, and had a principal share in all their transac­tions. Mason was a merchant of London, but became a sea-officer, and, after the peace, governor of Newfoundland, where he acquired a knowledge of America, which led him, on his return to England, into a close attachment to those who were en­gaged in its discovery; and upon some vacancy in the council, he was elected a member and became their secretary; be­ing also governor of Portsmouth in Hamp­shire.1621. March 9. He procured a grant from the coun­cil, of all the land from the river Naum­keag [now Salem] round Cape Anne, to the river Merrimack; and up each of those rivers to the farthest head thereof; then to cross over from the head of the one [Page 8] to the head of the other; with all the islands lying within three miles of the coast. This district was called MARIANA. The next year another grant was made, to Gorges and Mason jointly,1622. Aug. 10. of all the lands between the rivers Merrimack and Sagadehock, extending back to the great lakes and river of Canada, and this was called LACONIA.

Under the authority of this grant, Gorges and Mason, in conjunction with several merchants of London, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Shrewsbury and Dor­chester, who styled themselves "The Company of Laconia," attempted the establishment of a colony and fishery at the river Pascataqua; and in the spring of the following year sent over David Thomp­son,1623. a Scotsman, Edward and William Hilton, fishmongers of London, with a number of other people, in two divisions, furnished with all necessaries to carry on their design. One of these companies landed on the southern shore of the river, at its mouth, and called the place Little-Harbour: Here they erected salt-works, and built an house which was afterward called Mason-H [...]ll; but the Hiltons set up their stages eight miles further up the river toward the northwest, on a neck of [Page 9] land which the Indians called Winnicha­hanna [...], but they named Northam, and afterward Dover. Thompson,Hubbard's MS. not being pleased with his situation, removed the next spring to an island in the Bay of Massachusetts;1624. this the General Court afterward confirmed to him,Prince's Annal [...]. and it still bears his name.

These settlements went on slowly for several years, but the natives being peace­able and several other small beginnings being made along the coast as far as Ply­mouth, a neighbourly intercourse was kept up among them, each following their respective employments of fishing, trading and planting, till the disorderly behaviour of one Morton, at Mount Wollaston in the Bay of Massachusetts, caused an alarm among the scattered set­tlements as far as Pascataqua.1628. This man had, in defiance of the king's proclama­tion, made a practice of selling arms and ammunition to the Indians, whom he employed in hunting and fowling for him; so that the English, seeing the Indians armed in the woods, began [...]o be in terror. They also apprehended danger of another kind; for Morton's plantation was a re­ceptacle for discontented servants, whose desertion weakened the settlements, and [Page 10] who, being there without law, were more formidable than the savages themselves. The principal persons of Pascataqua therefore readily united with their neigh­bours,Prince's Annals. in making application to the col­ony of Plymouth, which was of more force than all the rest, to put a stop to this growing mischief; which they hap­pily effected by seizing Morton and sending him prisoner to England.

1629Some of the scattered planters in the Bay of Massachusetts, being desirous of making a settlement in the neighbour­hood of Pascataqua, and following the ex­ample of those at Plymouth, who had purchased their lands of the Indians, which they conscientiously thought neces­sary to give them a just title, procured a general meeting of Indians,May 17. at Squamscot falls, where they obtained a deed from Passaconaway Sagamore of Penacook, Runnaawitt of Pantucket, Wahangnona­witt of Squamscot, and Rowls of New­ichwannock: Wherein they express their ‘desire to have the English come and settle among them as among their coun­trymen in Massachusetts, whereby they hope to be strengthened against their enemies the Tarrateens; and according­ly with the universal consent of their [Page 11] subjects, for what they deemed a valua­ble consideration in coats, shirts and kettles, sell to John Whelewright of the Massachusetts Bay, late of England, min­ister of the gospel, Augustine Story (or Storer) Thomas Wight, William Went­worth, and Thomas Leavit,’ ‘all that part of the main Land bounded by the river Pascataqua and the river Merri­mack, to begin at Newichwannock falls, in Pascataqua river aforesaid, and down said river to the sea; and along the sea-shore to Merrimack river; and up said river to the falls at Pantucket; and from thence upon a northwest line, twenty English miles into the woods; and from thence upon a strait line north­east, till it meet with the main rivers that run down to Pantucket falls, and Newichwannock falls aforesaid^*; the said rivers to be the bounds from the thwart or head line to the aforesaid falls, and from thence the main chan­nel of each river to the sea to be the side bounds; together with all the islands within the said bounds; as also the isles [Page 12] of shoals so called.’ The conditions of this grant were, ‘that Whelewright should within ten years, begin a plan­tation at Squamscot falls; that other in­habitants should have the same privile­ges with him; that no plantation should exceed ten miles square; that no lands should be granted but in townships; and that these should be subject to the govern­ment of the Massachusetts colony, until they should have a settled government among themselves; that for each town­ship there should be paid an annual ac­knowledgement of ‘one coat of trucking cloth,’ to Passaconaway the chief Sag­amore or his successors, and two bush­els of Indian corn to Whelewright and his heirs. The Indians reserved to them­selves free liberty of fishing, fowling▪ hunting and planting within these limits.’ The principal persons of Pascataqua and the province of Maine were witnesses to the subscribing of this instrument,MS Copy in Super. Court files. and giving possession of the lands.

By this deed the English inhabitants within these limits obtained a right to the soil from the original proprietors, more val­uable in a moral view, than the grants of any European prince could convey. If we smile at the arrogance of a Roman Pontiff [Page 13] in assuming to divide the whole new world between the Spaniards and Portuguese, with what consistency can we admit the right of a king of England, to parcel out America to his subjects, when he had nei­ther purchased nor conquered it, nor could pretend any other title, than that some of his subjects were the first Europeans who discovered it, whilst it was in possession of its native lords? The only validity which such grants could have in the eye of rea­son was, that the grantees had from their prince a permission to negotiate with the possessors for the purchase of the soil, and thereupon a power of jurisdiction subor­dinate to his crown.

The same year Captain Mason procured a new patent,Nov. 7. under the common seal of the council of Plymouth, for the land ‘from the middle of Pascataqua river and up the same to the farthest head there­of, and from thence northwestward until sixty miles from the mouth of the har­bour were finished; also through Mer­rimack river to the farthest head there­of, and so forward up into the land west­ward, until sixty miles were finished; and from thence to cross over land to the end of the sixty miles accounted from Pascataqua river;MS in file [...] of Superior Court. together with all [Page 14] islands within five leagues of the coast.’ This tract of land was called NEW-HAMP­SHIRE: It comprehended the whole of Whelewright's purchase; and unless Ma­son's intention was to frustrate his title, it is difficult to assign a reason for the pro­curement of this patent, as the same land, with much more, had been granted to Gorges and Mason jointly, seven years be­fore. If there was an agreement between them to divide the province of Laconia, and take out new patents from the coun­cil, in preference to the making a deed of partition; it is not easy to conceive why the western boundary should be contract­ed to sixty miles from the sea, when the lakes and river of Canada were supposed to be but ninety or an hundred miles from Pascataqua.Gorges's Hist of A­merica, p. 48. If this grant was intended as an equivalent for the patent of Mariana, which the council had the preceding year included in their deed to the Massachusetts company; it is impossible to account for the extension of New-Hampshire to the river Merrimack, when the grant of Mas­sachusetts reached to ‘three miles north of that river and of every part of it^*.’

[Page 15]The west country adventurers were not less attentive to their interest;1630, March 12. for in the following spring they obtained a patent from the council whereby ‘all that part of the river Pascataqua called or known by the name of Hilton's Point, with the south side of the said river up to the falls of Squamscot, and three miles into the main land for breadth,’ was granted to Edward Hilton. This patent, sealed with the common seal of the coun­cil, and subscribed by the Earl of War­wick, sets forth, that Hilton and his asso­ciates had at their own proper cost and charges transported servants, built houses and planted corn at Hilton's Point, now Dover, and intended the further increase and advancement of the plantation.MS Copy in Proprie­tary Office. Wil­liam Blackstone, William Jefferies and Thomas Lewis or either of them,1631. July 7. were impowered to give possession of the prem­ses; [Page 16] which was done by Lewis, and the livery and seizen endorsed. Within these limits are contained the towns of Dover, Durham, and Stretham, with part of Newington and Greenland. It was com­monly called Squamscot patent, but some­times Bloody-point patent, from a quar­rel between the agents of the two com­panies about a point of land in the river which was convenient for both;Hubbard's MS. and, there being no government then established, the controversy would have ended in blood, if the contending parties had not been persuaded to refer the decision of it to their employers.

The London adventurers also thought it prudent to have some security for the interest which they had advanced, and ac­cordingly obtained a grant from the coun­cil,Novem. 3· of ‘that part of the patent of Laco­nia, on which the buildings and salt-works were erected,Hutch. vol. I. p. [...]16. situate on both sides the harbour and river of Pascata­qua to the extent of five miles west­ward by the sea-coast, then to cross over towards the other plantation in the hands of Edward Hilton.’ The grantees named in this patent^* were, Sir [Page 17] Ferdinando Gorges, Captain John Mason, John Gorton, Henry Gardner, George Griffith, Edwin Gay, Thomas Warner­ton, Thomas Eyre and Eliezer Eyre, who, it is said, had already expended three thousand pounds in the undertaking. They were to pay forty-eight pounds per annum by way of acknowledgment to the president and council, if demanded. Captain Camocke, a relation of the Earl of Warwick, with Henry Jocelyn,Hubbard's MS. who were then intending a voyage here were appointed to put the grantees in possession. Within this patent are comprehended the towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, and Rye, with part of Newington and Greenland.

The whole interest being thus divided into two parts, Captain Thomas Wiggen was appointed agent for the upper, and Captain Walter Neal for the lower plan­tation; with him were associated Ambrose Gibbons, George Vaughan,MS Let­ters. Thomas War­nerton, Humphry Chadbourne and one Godfrie as superintendants of the several businesses of trade, fishery, salt-making, building and husbandry. Neal resided at Little-Harbour with Godfrie who had the care of the fishery. Chadbourne built an house at Strawberry-bank, which was cal­led the great house, in which Warnerton [Page 18] resided. Gibbons had the care of a saw­mill, and lived in a palisaded house at Newichwannock, where he carried on trade with the Indians. He afterward re­moved to Sander's-point, where the ad­venturers gave him a settlement for his faithful services. He was succeeded at Newichwannock by Chadbourne, whose posterity are persons of principal figure and interest there at this day. The pro­prietors were also careful to provide for the defence of their plantations, and sent over several cannon which they directed their agents to mount in the most conve­nient place for a fort. They accordingly placed them on the northeast point of the Great-Island at the mouth of the harbour, and laid out the ground ‘about a bow-shot back from the water-side to an high rock,MS in the Recorder's Files. on which it was intended in time to build the principal fort.’

A great part of Captain Neal's errand was to penetrate the interior part of the province of Laconia, concerning which the adventurers had formed very sanguine expectations. It was described as con­taining divers lakes,Gorges's Hist. of A­merica, p. 47. and extending back to a great lake and river in the country of the Iroquois. This river was said to be fair and large, containing many fruitful [Page 19] islands; the air pure and salubrious; the country pleasant, having some high hills; full of goodly forests, fair vallies and fer­tile plains; abounding in corn, vines, chesnuts, walnuts, and many other sorts of fruit; the rivers well stored with fish, and environed with goodly meadows full of timber-trees. In the great lake were said to be four islands, full of pleasant woods and meadows, having great store of stags, fallow-deer, elks, roe-bucks, beavers and other game, and these islands were supposed to be commodiously situat­ed for habitation and traffic, in the midst of a fine lake, abounding with the most delicate fish. No one who is acquainted with the interior part of the country in its wilderness state, can forbear smiling at this romantic description, penned in the true style of adventurers: yet such an im­pression had the charms of Laconia made on the minds of our first settlers, that Neal set out on foot, in company with Jocelyn and Darby Field,1632. to discover these beautiful lakes, and settle a trade with the Indians by pinnaces, imagining the dis­tance to be short of an hundred miles. In the course of their travels, they visited the white mountains, which they describ­ed in the same romantic style, to be a [Page 20] ridge, extending an hundred leagues, on which snow lieth all the year, and inac­cessible but by the gullies which the dis­solved snow hath made:Jocelyn's rarities of New-Eng­land. on one of these mountains they reported to have found a plain of a day's journey over, whereon nothing grows but moss; and at the fur­ther end of this plain, a rude heap of massy stones, piled up on one another a mile high; on which one might ascend from stone to stone, like a pair of wind­ing stairs, to the top, where was another level of about an acre, with a pond of clear water. This summit was said to be far above the clouds, and from hence they beheld a vapor like a vast pillar, drawn up by the sun-beams, out of a great lake into the air, where it was form­ed into a cloud. The country beyond these mountains northward, was said to be "daunting terrible," full of rocky hills, as thick as mole-hills in a meadow, and clothed with infinite thick woods. They had great expectation of finding precious stones on these mountains; and something resembling chrystal being pick­ed up,Hubbard's MS Hist. was sufficient to give them the name of the CHRYSTAL-HILLS. From hence they continued their route in search of the lake; till finding their provision [Page 21] almost spent, and the forests of Laconia yielding no supply, they were obliged to return when they supposed themselves so far advanced, that ‘the discovery wanted but one day's journey of being fi­nished^*.Gorges's Hist. of A­merica, p. 48.’

This expedition, being ended, was suc­ceeded by one of another kind. The coast was alarmed by the report of a pirate, one Dixy Bull; who with fifteen others,November. be­ing employed in the Indian trade at the eastward, had taken several boats and rifled the fort at Pemaquid. Neal, in conjunc­tion with the others, equipped four pin­naces and shallops, manned with forty men, being all the force that both plantations could spare, who, being joined by twenty more in a bark from Boston, proceeded to Pemaquid; but contrary winds and bad weather obliged them to return without meeting the pirates, who made their way farther to the eastward, and at length got to England; where Bull met with his de­serts. The company on their return hang­ed, at Richmond's island,Prince's Annals, vol. 2. p. 73.83. an Indian who had been concerned in the murder of an Englishman.

[Page 22] 1633.The next year Neal and Wiggen joined in surveying their respective patents, and laying out the towns of Portsmouth and Northam, and another which was called Hampton, though no settlement had been made there. They also agreed with Whelewright that the plantation which he had undertaken to make at Squamscot falls, should be called Exeter; and determined the bounds between his land and theirs. This survey was made by order of the company of Laconia, who gave names to the four towns, and the transaction was duly reported to them:MS in Re­corder's Office. soon after which Neal returned to England.

From a number of letters that passed be­tween the adventurers and Gibbons their factor, and which are yet preserved, it ap­pears that their vie [...]s were chiefly turned toward the discovery of the lakes and of mines; the cultivation of grapes, and the advantages of trade and fishery; and that little regard was had to agriculture, the surest foundation of all other improvements in such a country as this. They often complain of their expences, as indeed they might with reason; for they had not only to pay wages to their colonists, but to sup­ply them with provisions, clothing, uten­sils, medicines, articles of trade, imple­ments [Page 23] for building, husbandry and fishing, and to stock their plantations with cattle, swine, and goats. Bread was either brought from England in meal,Prince's Annals. vol. 2. p. 30.70. or from Virginia in grain, and then sent to the wind-mill at Boston, there being none erected here. Very little improvement was made on the lands; the lakes were not explored; the vines were planted but came to nothing; no mines were found but those of iron, and these were not wrought; three or four houses only were built within the first se­ven years; the peltry trade with the In­dians was of some value, and the fishery served for the support of the inhabitants; but yielded no great profit to the adven­turers, who received but inadequate re­turns in lumber and furs. They saw their interest sinking apace, and grew dispirit­ed; and the major part of them either re­linquished the design, or sold their shares to Mason and Gorges, who were more san­guine than the rest, and became (either by purchase or tacit consent of the others) the principal, if not sole proprietors. These gentlemen renewed their exertions with greater vigour, sent over a fresh supply of servants,1634. and materials for carrying on the settlement, and appointed Francis Williams their governor. He was a gentleman of [Page 24] good sense and discretion; and so very acceptable to the people, that when they combined in a body politic they continu­ed him at their head.Hub [...]a [...]d's MS Hist.

The charter by which the council of Plymouth was established,1635. had been from the beginning disrelished by the Virginia company; who spared no pains to get it revoked. Their applications to the king proved fruitless; but when the parliament began to enquire into the grievances of the nation, this patent was complained of as a monopoly.Gorges's Narrative, p. 22 & 44. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, being summoned, appeared before them, and both in person and by his council de­fended it in a masterly manner, but in vain; for when the national grievances were presented to the throne, the patent of New-England was the first. The coun­cil also had got into disrepute with the high-church party, for having encouraged the settlement of the Plymouth and Massachu­setts colonists, who fled from their perse­cutions. These prejudices against them, operating as discouragements to their un­dertaking, induced the council to resign their charter to the king; having previ­ously taken care to secure some portion of the expiring interest to such of themselves as were disposed to accept it. The scheme [Page 25] they had in view was to divide their ter­ritory into twelve provinces, under as ma­ny proprietary governors, subject to one general governor; and they went so far as to nominate Gorges, then threescore years of age, for the person, and build a ship of war, which was to bring him over and remain in the service of the country. But the ship fell and broke in the launch­ing;Hubbard's MS Hist. and their project not being suffici­ently attended to by those in power, they were obliged to be content with such grants as they could make, of those districts, in­to which they had divided the country. That which was now made to Mason comprehended both his former patents, extending from Naumkeag to Pascataqua, and sixty miles northwestward within the land, together with the south half of the Isles of Shoals, and ten thousand acres at Sagadahock; saving to those already set­tled within these limits,Files of the Sup. Cour. the property of their lawful grants on paying "some "small acknowledgment" to the proprie­tor.Hubbard's MS Hist. This grant was dated the twenty-second of April^*. In June following the [Page 26] council surrendered their charter to the king; and in September Gorges sold to Mason a tract of land on the northeast side of the river Pascataqua, extending three miles in breadth, and following the course of the river from its mouth to its farthest head,Printed State of Allen's Ti­tle. including the saw-mill which had been built at the falls of Newichwannock.

But death, which puts an end to the fairest prospects, cut off all the hopes [Page 27] which Mason had entertained of aggran­dizing his fortune, by the settlement of New-Hampshire. By his last will, which he signed a few days before his death,Nov. 26. he disposed of his American estate in the fol­lowing manner, viz. ‘To the corporation of Lynn Regis in Norfolk the place of his nativity, he gave two thousand acres of land in New-Hampshire, subject to the yearly rent of one penny per acre to his heirs, and two fifths of all mines royal; on condition that five families should within five years be settled there­upon. To his brother in law John Wal­laston, three thousand acres, subject to the yearly rent of one shilling. To his grandchild Anne Tufton, ten thousand acres at Sagadahock. To Robert Tufton, his grandson, he gave his manor of Mason-hall, on condition that he should take the sirname of Mason. He also gave to his brother Wallaston in trust, one thousand acres for the maintenance of ‘an honest, godly and religious preacher of God's word;’ and one thousand more for the support of a grammar-school; each of these estates to be conveyed to feoffees in trust, and their successors, paying annually one penny per acre to his heirs. The [Page 28] residue of his estate in New-Hampshire he gave to his grandson John Tufton, he taking the sirname of Mason, and to his lawful issue; or in want thereof to Robert Tufton and his lawful issue; or in want thereof to Doctor Robert Mason, chancellor of the diocese of Winchester, and his lawful issue; or, in want of such issue, to his own other right heirs for­ever; provided that it should not go out of the name of Mason. The residuary legatee was required to pay five hundred pounds out of this estate to his sister Mary, and all the grandchildren were to relinquish their right to one thousand pounds due from this estate to their fa­ther Joseph Tufton.’ The estate in America was valued in the inventory at ten thousand pounds sterling.MS in Sup. Court files.

The Massachusetts planters viewed Ma­son as their enemy, because he with Gorges had privately encouraged some persons whom they had censured and sent home, to petition against them as disaffec­ted to the government; and had endea­voured to get their charter set aside, to make way for the scheme of a general governor^*.

[Page 29]But though Mason and Gorges had not the same religious views with the Massa­chusetts planters, yet their memory de­serves respect. They were both heartily engaged in the settlement of the country; they sunk their estates in the undertaking, and reaped no profit to themselves; yet their enterprizing spirit excited emulation in others, who had the advantage of im­proving their plans and avoiding their mistakes. Gorges accounted for the ill success of his adventures in the following manner.Gorges's Narrative, p. 49. 1. He began when there was no hope of any thing for the present but loss; as he had first to seek a place; which, being found, was a wilderness; and so gloomy was the prospect, that he could scarce procure any to go, much less to reside in it; and those whom he at length sent, could not subsist but on the provisions with which he supplied them. 2. He sought not barely his own profit, [Page 30] but the thorough discovery of the coun­try; wherein he went so far (with the help of his associates) as to open the way for others to [...] their gain. 3. He never went in person to oversee the people whom he employed. 4. There was no settled government to punish offenders, or mispenders of their masters goods. Two other things contributed to the disap­pointment in as great, if not a greater de­gree than what he has assigned. The one was that instead of applying themselves chiefly to husbandry, the original source of wealth and independence in such a country as this; he and his associates, being merchants, were rather intent on trade and fishery as their primary object▪ These can not be profitable in a [...] country, until the foundation is laid [...] the cultivation of the lands. If the lum­ber trade and fishery can not now be car­ried on to advantage, without the constant aid of husbandry in their neighbourhood, how could a colony of traders and fisher­men make profitable returns to their em­ployers, when the husbandry necessary for their support was at the distance of Virginia or England? The other mistake which these adventurers fell into was the idea of lordship, and the granting of lands [Page 31] not as freeholds, but by leases subject to quit-rents. To settle a colony of tenants in a climate so far northward, where the charges of subsistence and improvement were much greater than the value of the lands, after the improvements were made; especially in the neighbourhood of so res­pectable and growing a colony as that of Massachusetts, was indeed a chimerical project; and had not the wiser people among them sought an union with the Massachusetts, in all probability the set­tlements must have been deserted.

WHILE the lower plantation on the river Pascataqua lay under dis­couragement by the death of its principal patron, the upper settlement, though car­ried on with more success, had peculiar difficulties to struggle with. Two thirds of this patent belonged to some merchants of Bristol, the other third to some of Shrewsbury; and there was an agreement that the division should be made by indif­ferent men. Captain Wiggen who was sent over to superintend their affairs, af­ter about one year's residence in the coun­try made a voyage to England, to pro­cure more ample m [...]ans for carrying on the plantation. In the mean time those of Bristol had sold their interest to the lords Say and Broke, George Willys and William Whiting, who continued Wig­gen in the agency, and procured a consi­derable number of families in the West of England, some of whom were of good [Page 33] estates,1633. and ‘of some account for religi­on,’ to come over and increase the co­lony.Hubbard's MS Hist. Dover Re­cords. It appears from ancient records that Wiggen had a power of granting lands to the settlers; but, as trade was their principal object, they took up small lots, intending to build a compact town on Dover Neck, which lies between two branches of the river, and is a fine, dry, and healthy situation; so high as to com­mand all the neighbouring shores, and af­ford a very extensive and delightful pro­spect. On the most inviting part of this eminence they built a meeting-house, which was afterward surrounded with an en­trenchment and flankarts, the remains of which are still visible. Wiggen also brought over William Leverich, a worthy and able puritan minister; but his allowance from the adventurers proving too small for his support in a new country, where all the necessaries of life were scarce and dear, he was obliged to remove to the southward; and settled at Sandwich in the colony of Plymouth. This proved an unhappy event to the people, who, being left de­stitute of regular instruction, were exposed to the intrusions of artful impostors.

The first of these was one Burdet.1634. He had been a minister at Yarmouth in Eng­land;Hubbard's MS Hist. but either really or pretendedly tak­ing [Page 34] offence at the extravagancies of the bishops and spiritual courts, came over to New-England, and joined with the church in Salem, who employed him for a year or two as a preacher, being a good scho­lar and plausible in his behaviour. But, disgusted with the strictness of their dis­cipline,1636. he removed to Dover; and con­tinued for some time in good esteem with the people as a preacher; until by artful insinuations he raised such a jealousy in their minds against Wiggen their gover­nor, that they deprived him of his office, and elected Burdet in his place.

During his residence here, he carried on a correspondence with Archbishop Laud to the disadvantage of the Massachusetts colony,1637. representing them as hypocritical and disaffected, and that under pretence of greater purity and discipline in matters of religion, they were aiming at indepen­dent sovereignty; it being accounted per­jury and treason by their general court, to speak of appeals to the king. The pre­late thanked him for his zeal in the king's service,1638. and assured him that care should be taken to redress those disorders when leisure from their other concerns would permit. This letter of the arch­bishop was intercepted, and shewn to the governor of Massachusetts. Burdet's vil­lainy [Page 35] was considered as the more atrocious, because he had been admitted a freeman of their corporation, and had taken the oath of fidelity. A copy of his own letter was afterward found in his closet.

About this time, the Antinomian con­troversy at Boston having occasioned the banishment of the principal persons of that sect, several of them retired to this settle­ment, being without the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. When this was known, Governor Winthrop wrote to Wiggen, Burdet and others of this plantation, ‘that as there had hitherto been a good corre­spondence between them it would be much resented if they should receive the exiles; and intimating the intention of the general court to survey the utmost limits of their patent, and make use of them.’ To this Burdet returned a scornful answer, refusing to give the go­vernor his title. The governor thought of citing him to court to answer for his contempt; but was dissuaded from it by Dudley, the deputy-governor, who judg­ed it imprudent to exasperate him, lest he should avenge himself by farther accusing them to their enemies in England. The governor contented himself with sending to Hilton an account of Burdet's behavi­our, [Page 36] inclosing a copy of his letter, and cautioning the people not to put them­selves too far under his power. His true character did not long remain secret; for being detected in some lewd actions he made a precipitate removal to Agamenti­cus [now York] in the province of Maine, where he also assumed to rule, and conti­nued a course of injustice and adultery till the arrival of Thomas Gorges, their go­vernor, [in 1640] who laid a fine on him, and seized his cattle for the payment of it^*. He appealed to the king, but his appeal not being admitted, he departed for Eng­land full of enmity against these plantati­ons. When he arrived, he found all in confusion; and falling in with the royal­ists was taken and imprisoned by the par­liamentary party, which is the last account we have of him.

One of the exiles on account of the An­tinomian controversy, was John Whele­wright, brother to the famous Anne Hutch­inson. He had been a preacher at Brain­tree, which was then part of Boston, and was a gentleman of learning, piety and zeal. Having engaged to make a settle­ment within ten years, on the lands he [Page 37] had purchased of the Indians at Squam­scot falls, he with a number of his adhe­rents began a plantation there, which ac­cording to the agreement made with Ma­son's agents they called Exeter. Having ob [...]ined a dismission from the church in Boston^*, they formed themselves into a church; and judging themselves without the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, they com­bined into a separate body politic, and chose rulers and assistants, who were sworn to the due discharge of their office,Exeter Re­cords. and the people were as solemnly sworn to obey them. Their rulers were Isaac Grosse, Nicholas Needham, and Thomas Wilson; each of whom continued in office the space of a year, having two assistants. The laws were made in a popular assembly and for­mally consented to by the rulers. Trea­son, and rebellion against the king, (who is styled "the Lord's anointed") or the country, were made capital crimes; and sedition was punishable by a fine of ten pounds, or otherwise, at the discretion of the court. This combination subsisted three years.

[Page 38]About the same time a plantation was formed at Winnicumet, which was called Hampton. The principal inducement to the making this settlement was the very extensive salt-marsh, which was extreme­ly valuable, as the uplands were not cul­tivated so as to produce a sufficiency of hay for the support of cattle. With a view to secure these meadows, the general court of Massachusetts had [in 1636] em­powered Mr. Dummer of Newbury, with John Spencer, to build an house there at the expence of the colony,Massa. Re­cords. which was to be refunded by those who should settle there. Accordingly an house was built, and commonly called the Bound-house; though it was intended as a mark of pos­session rather than of limits. The archi­tect was Nicholas Easton, who soon after removed to Rhode-Island,Callender's Century Sermon, p. 93. and built the first English house in Newport.

This entrance being made, a petition was presented to the court by a number of persons,MS of Mr. Gookin. chiefly from Norfolk in Eng­land,Massa. Re­cords, Sep. 8, 1638. praying for liberty to settle there, which was granted them. They began the settlement by laying out a township in one hundred and forty-seven shares; and having formed a church, chose Ste­phen Batchelor for their minister, with [Page 39] whom Timothy Dalton was soon after as­sociated. The number of the first inha­bitants was fifty-six^*.

The authority of Massachusetts having established this settlement, they, from the beginning, considered it as belonging to their colony. Though the agent of Ma­son's estate made some objection to their proceeding,MS Depo­sition in Sup. Court files. yet no legal method being taken to controvert this extension of their claim, the way was prepared for one still greater, which many circumstances con­curred to establish.

After the death of Captain Mason, his widow and executrix sent over Francis Norton as her "general attorney;Anne Ma­son's Let­ters, and" to whom she committed the whole management of the estate.MS Depo­sitions in Sup. Court files. But the expence so far exceed­ed the income, and the servants grew so impatient for their arrears, that she was obliged to relinquish the care of the plan­tation, and tell the servants that they must shift for themselves. Upon which they shared the goods and cattle. Norton drove above an hundred oxen to Boston, and [Page 40] there sold them for twenty-five pounds sterling per head, which it is said was the current price of the best cattle in New-England at that time. These were of a large breed, imported from Denmark, from whence Mason had also procured a number of men skilled in sawing planks and making potashes. Having shared the stock and other materials, some of the peo­ple quitted the plantation; others of them tarried, keeping possession of the buildings and improvements, which they claimed as their own; the houses at Newichwan­nock were burned; and thus Mason's estate was ruined. These events happened be­tween 1638 and 1644.

Among the Antinomians who were ba­nished from Boston,Hubbard's MS Histo­ry. and took refuge in these plantations, was Captain John Un­derhill, in whose story will appear some very strong characteristics of the spirit of these times. He had been a soldier in the Netherlands, and was brought over to New-England by Governor Winthrop, to train the people in military discipline. He served the country in the Pequod war, and was in such reputation in the town of Boston,Prince's Annals, MS. that they had chosen him one of their deputies. Deeply tinctured with Antinomian principles, and possessed of [Page 41] an high degree of enthusiasm, he made a capital figure in the controversy; being one of the subscribers to a petition in which the court was censured, with an indecent severity, for their proceedings against Whelewright. For this offence he was disfranchised. He then made a voyage to England;Nov. 15th, 1637. and upon his return petitioned the court for three hundred acres of land which had been promised him for his former services, intending to remove after Whele­wright. In his petition he acknowledged his offence in condemning the court, and declared ‘that the Lord had brought him to a sense of his sin in that respect, so that he had been in great trouble on ac­count thereof.’ On this occasion the court thought proper to question him concerning an offensive expression, which he had uttered on board the ship in which he came from England, ‘that the go­vernment at Boston were as zealous as the scribes and Pharisees, and as Paul before his conversion.’ He denied the charge, and it was proved to his face by a woman who was passenger with him, and whom he had endeavoured to seduce to his opinions. He was also questioned for what he had said to her concerning the manner of his receiv­ing [Page 42] assurance, which was, ‘that having long lain under a spirit of bondage, he could get no assurance; till at length as he was taking a pipe of tobacco, the spirit set home upon him an absolute promise of free grace, with such assurance and joy that he had never since doubt­ed of his good estate, neither should he, whatever sins he might fall into.’ This he would neither own nor deny; but ob­jected to the sufficiency of a single testi­mony. The court committed him for abusing them with a pretended retraction, and the next day passed the sentence of banishment upon him. Being allowed the liberty of attending public worship, his enthusiastic zeal brake out in a speech in which he endeavoured to prove ‘that as the Lord was pleased to convert Saul while he was persecuting, so he might manifest himself to him while making a moderate use of the good creature to­bacco; professing withal that he knew not wherein he had deserved the cen­sure of the court.’ The elders reprov­ed him for this inconsiderate speech; and Mr. Cotton told him, ‘that though God often laid a man under a spirit of bon­dage while walking in sin, as was the case with Paul, yet he never sent a spi­rit [Page 43] of comfort but in an ordinance, as he did to Paul by the ministry of Ana­nias; and therefore exhorted him to ex­amine carefully the revelation and joy to which he pretended.’ The same week he was privately dealt with on sus­picion of adultery, which he disregarded; and therefore on the next sabbath was questioned for it before the church; but the evidence not being sufficient to con­vict him, the church could only admonish him.

These proceedings, civil and ecclesiasti­cal, being finished, he removed out of their jurisdiction; and after a while came to Dover, where he procured the place of governor in the room of Burdet. Gover­nor Winthrop hearing of this, wrote to Hilton and others of this plantation, in­forming them of his character. Under­hill intercepted the letter, and returned a bitter answer to Mr. Cotton; and wrote another letter full of reproaches against the governor to a gentleman of his family, while he addressed the governor himself in a fawning obsequious strain, begging an obliteration of former miscarriages, and a bearing with human infirmities. These letters were all sent back to Hilton; but too late to prevent his advancement.

[Page 44] 1639.Being settled in his government, he pro­cured a church to be gathered at Dover who chose Hanserd Knollys for their mi­nister. He had come over from Eng­land the year before; but being an Ana­baptist of the Antinomian cast, was not well received in Massachusetts, and came here while Burdet was in office, who for­bad his preaching; but Underhill, agree­ing better with him, prevailed to have him chosen their minister. To ingratiate him­self with his new patron, Knollys wrote in his favour to the church in Boston; styling him ‘The right worshipful their honoured governor.’ Notwithstanding which they cited him again to appear be­fore them; the court granting him safe conduct. At the same time complaint was made to the chief inhabitants on the river, of the breach of friendship in ad­vancing Underhill after his rejection; and a copy of Knollys's letter was returned, wherein he had written that ‘Underhill was an instrument of God for their ruin,’ and it was enquired whether that letter was written by the desire or consent of the people. The principal per­sons of Portsmouth and Dover disclaimed his miscarriages, and expressed their rea­diness to call him to account when a pro­per [Page 45] information should be presented; but begged that no force might be sent against him. By his instigation Knollys had al­so written to his friends in England, a ca­lumnious letter against the Massachusetts planters, representing them as more arbi­trary than the high-commission court, and that there was no real religion in the coun­try. A copy of this letter being sent from England to Governor Winthrop, Knollys was so ashamed at the discovery, that ob­taining a licence, he went to Boston; and at the public lecture before the governor, magistrates, ministers and the congregation, made confession of his fault, and wrote a retraction to his friends in England, which he left with the governor to be sent to them.

Underhill was so affected with his friend's humiliation, and the disaffection of the peo­ple of Piscataqua to him, that he resolved to retrieve his character in the same way. Having obtained safe conduct, he went to Boston, and in the same public manner ac­knowledged his adultery, his disrespect to the government and the justice of their proceedings against him: But his confes­sion was mixed with so many excuses and extenuations that it gave no satisfaction; and the evidence of his scandalous deport­ment [Page 46] being now undeniable, the church passed the sentence of excommunication, to which he seemed to submit, and appear­ed much dejected while he remained there.

Upon his return, to please some disaf­fected persons at the mouth of the river, he sent thirteen armed men to Exeter to rescue out of the officer's hand one Fish, who had been taken into custody for speaking against the king. The people of Dover forbad his coming into their court till they had considered his crimes and he promised to resign his place if they should disapprove his conduct; but hear­ing that they were determined to remove him, he rushed into court in a passion, took his seat, ordered one of the magi­strates to prison for saying that he would not sit with an adulterer, and refused to receive his dismission, when they voted it. But they proceeded to chuse another go­vernor, Roberts, and sent back the prison­er to Exeter.

A new scene of difficulty now arose. Thomas Larkham,1640. a native of Lyme in Dorsetshire and formerly a minister at Northam near Barnstable, who had come over to New-England, and not favour­ing the doctrine, nor willing to submit to the discipline of the churches in Massa­chusetts, [Page 47] came to Dover; and being a preach­er of good talents, eclipsed Knollys, and rais­ed a party who determined to remove him. He therefore gave way to the popular pre­judice, and suffered Larkham to take his place; who soon discovered his licentious principles by receiving into the church persons of immoral characters, and assum­ing, like Burdet, the civil as well as ec­clesiastical authority. The better sort of the people were displeased and restored Knollys to his office who excommunicated Larkham. This bred a riot in which Lark­ham laid hands on Knollys, taking away his hat on pretence that he had not paid for it; but he was civil enough afterward to return it. Some of the magistrates joined with Larkham, and forming a court, summoned Underhill, who was of Knollys's party to appear before them, and answer to a new crime which they had to alledge against him. Underhill collected his adherents; Knollys was armed with a pistol, and another had a bible mounted on an halbert for an en­sign. In this ridiculous parade they marched against Larkham and his party, who prudently declined a combat, and sent down the river to Williams the go­vernor, at Portsmouth, for assistance. [Page 48] He came up in a boat with an armed party, beset Knollys's house where Under­hill was, guarded it night and day till a court was summoned, and then, Williams sitting as judge, Underhill and his company were found guilty of a riot, and after be­ing fined, were banished the plantation. The new crime which Larkham's party alledged against Underhill was that he had been secretly endeavouring to per­suade the inhabitants to offer themselves to the government of Massachusetts, whose favor he was desirous to purchase, by these means, as he knew that their view was to extend their jurisdiction as far as they imagined their limits reached, when­ever they should find a favourable oppor­tunity. The same policy led him with his party to send a petition to Boston, praying for the interposition of the govern­ment in their case: In consequence of which the governor and assistants com­missioned Simon Bradstreet, Esq. with the famous Hugh Peters, then minister of Salem, and Timothy Dalton of Hampton, to enquire into the matter, and effect a reconciliation, or certify the state of things to them. These gentlemen travelled on foot to Dover, and finding both sides in fault, brought the matter to this issue, [Page 49] that the one party revoked the excom­munication, and the other the fines and banishment.

In the heat of these disputes, a discovery was made of Knollys's failure in point of chastity. He acknowledged his crime before the church; but they dismissed him and he returned to England, where he suffered by the severity of the long parliament in 1644;Neal's Hist. Puritans, 4to vol. II. p. 113. and being forbidden to preach in the churches, opened a separate meet­ing in Great St. Helen's, from which he was soon dislodged, and his followers dis­persed.Neal's Hist. N. Engld. vol. I. p. 216. He also suffered in the cause of non-conformity in the reign of King Charles the second, and at length (as it is said) died ‘a good man in a good old age.’ (September 19, 1691, Aet. 93.Mather's Magnal. lib. 3. p. 7.)

Underhill having finished his career in these parts obtained leave to return to Boston, and finding honesty to be the best policy, did in a large assembly, at the public lecture, and during the sitting of the court, make a full confession of his adultery and hypocrisy, his pride and contempt of authority, justifying the church and court in all that they had done against him, de­claring that his pretended assurance had failed him, and that the terror of his mind had at some times been so great, that he had [Page 50] drawn his sword to put an end to his life. The church being now satisfied, restored him to their communion. The court, af­ter waiting six months for evidence of his good behaviour,Prince's Annals. took off his sentence of banishment, and released him from the punishment of his adultery: The law which made it capital having been enact­ed after the crime was committed, could not touch his life. Some offers being made him by the Dutch at Hudson's riv­er,Hubbard's MS Hist. whose language was familiar to him, the church of Boston hired a vessel to trans­port him and his family thither, furnish­ing them with all necessaries for the voy­age. The Dutch governor gave him the command of a company of an hundred and twenty men, and he was very service­able in the wars which that colony had with the Indians, having, it is said, killed one hundred and fifty on Long-Island, and three hundred on the Main. He con­tinued in their service till his death.

We find in this relation a striking in­stance of that species of false religion, which, having its seat in the imagination, instead of making the heart better and re­forming the life, inflames the passions, stupifies reason, and produces the wildest effects in the behaviour. The excesses of [Page 51] enthusiasm have often been observed to lead to sensual gratifications; the same na­tural fervour being sufficient to produce both. It cannot be strange that they who decry morality, should indulge such gross and scandalous enormities as are sufficient to invalidate all those evidences of their religious character on which they lay so much stress. But it is not so surprising that men should be thus misled, as that such frantic zealots should ever be reduced to an acknowledgment of their offences; which in this instance may be ascribed to the strict discipline then practised in the churches of New-England.

The people of Dover and Portsmouth during all this time had no power of govern­ment delegated from the crown; but find­ing the necessity of some more determinate form than they had yet enjoyed, combined themselves each into a body politic after the example of their neighbours at Ex­eter. The inhabitants of Dover, by a written instrument,Octo. 22. signed by forty one persons, agreed to submit to the laws of England, and such others as should be enacted by a majority of their number,Hubbard's MS Hist. until the royal pleasure should be known. The date of the combination at Portsmouth is uncertain, their first book of records [Page 52] having been destroyed [in 1652,] after copying out what they then thought pro­per to preserve.Ports. Rec. Williams, who had been sent over by the adventurers, was by annual suffrage continued governor of the place, and with him were associated Ambrose Gibbons and Thomas Warnerton ^* in quality of assistants. During this combi­nation, a grant of fifty acres of land for a glebe was made by the governor and in­habitants ^† to Thomas Walford and Hen­ry Sherburne,May 25. church-wardens, and their successors forever, as feoffees in trust; by virtue of which grant the same land is still held,Ports. Rec. and being let on long leases, a considerable part of the town of Ports­mouth is built upon it. At this time they had a parsonage house and chapel, and had chosen Richard Gibson for their par­son, the patronage being vested in the [Page 53] parishioners. Gibson was sent from Eng­land as minister to a fishing plantation be­longing to one Trelawney. He was ‘wholly addicted to the hierarchy and discipline of England,Gov. Win­throp's Journal, MS. and exercised his ministerial function’ according to the ritual. He was summoned before the court at Boston for ‘scandalizing the go­vernment there, and denying their title;’ but upon his submission, they discharged him without fine or punish­ment, being a stranger and about to de­part the country. After his departure the people of Portsmouth had James Parker^* for their minister,Ports. Rec. who was a scholar and had been a deputy in the Massachu­setts court. After him they had one Browne; and ^† Samuel Dudley a son of [Page 54] Deputy-Governor Dudley; but these were only temporary preachers, and they did not obtain the regular settlement of a minister for many years.

Four distinct governments (including one at Kittery on the north side of the river) were now formed on the several branches of Pascataqua. These combi­nations being only voluntary agree­ments, liable to be broken or subdivided on the first popular discontent, there could be no safety in the continuance of them. The distractions in England at this time had cut off all hope of the royal attention, and the people of the several settlements were too much divided in their opinions to form any general plan of government which could afford a prospect of perma­nent utility. The more considerate persons among them, therefore thought it best to treat with Massachusetts about taking them under their protection. That government was glad of an opportunity to realize the construction which they had put upon the clause of their charter wherein their nor­thern limits are defined. For a line drawn from east to west at the distance of ‘three miles to the northward of Merrimack river and of any and every part thereof,’ will take in the whole province of New-Hampshire, [Page 55] and the greater part of the pro­vince of Maine, so that both Mason's and Gorges's patents must have been vacated.Massa. Rec. They had already intimated their intention to run this east and west line, and presum­ing on the justice of their claim, they rea­dily entered into a negotiation with the principal settlers of Pascataqua respecting their incorporation with them. The affair was more than a year in agitation,1641. April 14. and was at length concluded by an instrument subscribed in the presence of the general court by George Willys, Robert Salton­stall, William Whiting, Edward Holiock, and Thomas Makepeace, in behalf of themselves and the other partners of the two patents; by which instrument they resigned the jurisdiction of the whole to Massachusetts, on condition that the inhab­itants should enjoy the same liberties with their own people, and have a court of justice erected among them. The proper­ty of the whole patent of Portsmouth, and of one-third part of that of Dover, and of all the improved lands therein, was re­served to the lords and gentlemen propri­etors, and their heirs forever.

The court on their part consented thatOctober 8. the inhabitants of these towns should en­joy the same privileges with the rest of the [Page 56] colony, and have the same administration of justice as in the courts of Salem and Ipswich; that they should be exempted from all public charges, except what should arise among themselves, or for their own peculiar benefit; that they should enjoy their former liberties of fishing, planting and felling timber; that they should send two deputies to the general court: and that the same persons who were authorised by their combinations to govern them, should continue in office till the commis­sioners named in this order should arrive at Pascataqua. These commissioners were invested with the power of the quarter courts of Salem and Ipswich, and at their arrival they constituted Francis Williams, Thomas Warnerton and Ambrose Gibbons of Portsmouth, Edward Hilton, Thomas Wiggen and William Waldron of Dover, magistrates, who were confirmed by the general court.

By a subsequent order a very extraor­dinary concession was made to these towns,1642. Sept. 8. which shows the fondness that government had of retaining them under their jurisdiction. A test had been esta­blished by law, but it was dispensed with in their favor; their freemen were allowed to vote in town affairs, and their deputies [Page 57] to sit in the general court though they were not church-members.

The people of Dover being left desti­tute of a minister by the sudden depar­ture of Larkham, Hubbard's MS. who took this method to avoid the shame which would have at­tended the discovery of a crime similar to that for which Knollys had been dis­missed, wrote to Massachusetts for help. The court took care to send them Daniel Maud who had been a minister in Eng­land. He was an honest man,Math. Mag. and of a quiet and peaceable disposition, qualities much wanting in all his predecessors. Larkham returned to England, where he continued to exercise his ministry till ejected by the act of uniformity in 1662, from Tavistock in Devon.Galamy's account of ejected min­isters, p. 246. He is said to have been ‘well known there for a man of great piety and sincerity,’ and died in 1669. AE. 68.

The inhabitants of Exeter had hitherto continued their combination; but finding themselves comprehended within the claim of Massachusetts, and being weary of their inefficacious mode of government they pe­titioned the court,Sep. 8. and were readily admit­ted under their jurisdiction. William Wenborne, Robert Smith, and Thomas Wardhall were appointed their magistrates;Massa. Rec. [Page 58] and they were annexed to the county of Essex. Upon this, Whelewright who was still under sentence of banishment, with those of his church who were resolved to adhere to him, removed into the province of Maine, and settled at Wells, where his posterity yet remain.Hubbard's MS. He was soon after restored, upon a slight acknowledgment, to the freedom of the colony, and remov­ed to Hampton; of which church he was minister for many years; until he went to England where he was in favour with Cromwell: But, after the restoration, he returned and settled at Salisbury, where he died in 1680.

After his departure from Exeter, an at­tempt was made by the remaining inhab­itants to form themselves into a church,1644. and call the aged Stephen Batchelor to the ministry, who had been dismissed from Hampton for his irregular conduct. But the general court here interposed and sent them a solemn prohibition,Massa Rec. importing ‘that their divisions were such that they could not comfortably,May 29. and with approbation, proceed in so weighty and sacred affairs,’ and therefore directing them ‘to defer ga­thering a church, or any other such pro­ceeding, till they or the court at Ipswich, upon further satisfaction of their recon­ciliation [Page 59] and fitness, should give allow­ance therefor.’

Such a stretch of power, which would now be looked upon as an infringement of christian liberty, was agreeable to the principles of the first fathers of New-Eng­land, who thought that civil government was established for the defence and secu­rity of the church against error both doc­trinal and moral. In this sentiment they were not singular, it being universally adopted by the reformers, in that and the preceding age, as one of the fundamental principles of their separation from the Ro­mish church, and necessary to curtail the claims of her Pontiff, who assumed a su­premacy over ‘the kings of the earth.’

AN union having been formed between the settlements on Pascataqua and the colony of Massachusetts, their history for the succeeding forty years is in a great measure the same. It is not my intention to write the transactions of the whole col­ony during that period; but, as many of the people in New-Hampshire had the same principles, views and interests with the other people of New-England, I shall make some observations thereon, and in­tersperse such historical facts as may illus­trate the subject.

In the preceding century the holy scrip­tures, which had long lain hid in the rub­bish of monastic libraries, were brought to public view by the happy invention of printing; and as darkness vanishes before the rising sun, so the light of divine truth [Page 61] began to dissipate those errors and super­stitions in which Europe had long been involved. At the same time a remarkable concurrence of circumstances gave peculiar advantage to the bold attempt of Luther, to rouse Germany from her inglorious subjection to the Roman Pontiff, and ef­fectuate a reformation, which soon spread into the neighbouring countries. But so intimately were the political interests of kingdoms and states blended with relig­ious prejudices, that the work, though happily begun, was greatly blemished and impeded.

Henry the VIIIth of England took ad­vantage of this amazing revolution in the minds of men, to throw off the papal yoke, and assert his native claim to independence. But so dazzling was the idea of power, and the example of the first christian princes, who had exercised a superintendency in spirituals, as well as temporals, that he transferred to himself that spiritual power which had been usurped and exercised by the bishops of Rome, and set up himself as supreme head on earth of the church of England; commanding both clergy and laity in his dominions to swear allegiance to him in this newly assumed character.

[Page 62]This claim was kept up by his son and successor Edward the Sixth, in whose reign the reformation gained much ground; and a service-book was published by royal au­thority as the standard of worship and dis­cipline for his subjects. This excellent prince was taken out of the world in his youth; and his sister Mary, who then came to the throne, restored the supremacy to the pope, and raised such fiery persecu­tion against the reformers, that many of them fled into Germany and the Nether­lands; where they departed from that uniformity which had been established in England, and became divided in their sen­timents and practice respecting ecclesiasti­cal affairs: the native effect of that just liberty of conscience which they enjoyed abroad, pursuing their own inquiries ac­cording to their respective measures of light; uninfluenced by secular power, or the hope of acquiring dignities in a na­tional establishment.

The accession of Elizabeth inspired them with new hopes; and they returned home, resolving to attempt the reformation of the church of England, agreeably to the re­spective opinions which they had embrac­ed in their exile. But they soon found that the queen, who had been educated in [Page 63] the same manner with her brother Ed­ward, was fond of the establishment made in his reign, and was strongly prejudiced in favor of pomp and ceremony in relig­ious worship. She asserted her supremacy in the most absolute terms, and erected an high-commission court with jurisdiction in ecclesiastical affairs. Uniformity being rigorously enjoined and no abatement or allowance made for tender consciences (though it was conceded that the ceremo­nies were indifferent) a separtion from the establishment took place. Those who were desirous of a farther reformation from the Romish superstitions, and of a more pure and perfect form of Religion were deno­minated Puritans; whose principles, as distinguished from those of the other re­formers who were in favor with the queen, are thus represented.

‘The queen and court-reformers held, 1. That every prince had the sole author­ity to correct all abuses of doctrine and worship within his own territories. 2. That the church of Rome was a true church though corrupt in some points of doctrine and government;Neal's Hist. Puritans, vol. 1. p. 95.98. 4to. that all her ministra­tions were valid, and that the pope was a true bishop of Rome though not of the universal church. 3. That the scriptures [Page 64] were a perfect rule of faith, but not a standard of discipline; and that it was left to the discretion of the christian magistrate, to accommodate the government of the church to the policy of the state. 4. That the practice of the primitive church for the first four or five centuries was a proper standard of church government and disci­pline; and in some respects better than that of the apostles, which was only ac­commodated to the infant state of the church, while it was under persecution; whereas the other was suited to the gran­deur of a national establishment. 5. That things indifferent in their own nature as rites, ceremonies, and habits, might be settled, determined and made necessary by the command of the civil magistrate, and that in such cases it was the duty of the subject to observe them.’

‘On the other hand, the puritans, 1. Disowned all foreign jurisdiction over the church, but could not admit of that exten­sive power which the crown claimed by the supremacy. However, they took the oath, with the queen's explication, as only restoring her majesty to the ancient and natural rights of soverign princes over their subjects. 2. They held the pope to be antichrist, the church of Rome a false [Page 65] church, and all her ministrations supersti­tious and idolatrous. 3. That the scrip­tures were a standard of discipline as well as doctrine, and if there was need of a dis­cretionary power, it was vested not in the magistrate but in the officers of the church. 4. That the form of government ordained by the apostles was aristocratical, and de­signed as a pattern to the church in after ages, not to be departed from in its main principles. 5. That those things which Christ hath left indifferent ought not to be made necessary; and that such rites and ceremonies as had been abused to ido­latry and superstition, and had a manifest tendency to lead men back thereto, were no longer indifferent but unlawful.’

‘Both parties agreed too well in assert­ing the necessity of uniformity in public worship, and of using the sword of the magistrate for the support and defence of their respective principles; which they made an ill use of in their turns, whenever they could grasp it in their hands. The standard of uniformity according to the bishops, was the queen's supremacy and the laws of the land; according to the puritans, the decrees of national and pro­vincial synods, allowed and enforced by the civil magistrate. Neither party were [Page 66] for admitting that liberty of conscience and freedom of profession which is every man's right, so far as is consistent with the peace of civil government. Upon this fatal rock of uniformity, was the peace of the church of England split.’

It is melancholy to observe what mis­chiefs were caused by the want of a just dis­tinction between civil and ecclesiastical power, and by that absurd zeal for uniform­ity, which kept the nation in a long fer­ment, and at length burst out into a blaze, the fury of which was never thoroughly quelled till the happy genius of the revoluti­on gave birth to a free and equitable tolerati­on, whereby every man was restored to the natural right of judging and acting for himself in matters of religion. All the celebrated wisdom of Elizabeth's govern­ment could not devise an expedient so suc­cessful. Though her reign was long and prosperous, yet it was much stained with oppression and cruelty toward many of her best subjects; who, wearied with ineffec­tual applications, waited the accession of James, from whom they expected more favour, because he had been educated in the presbyterian church of Scotland, and professed an high veneration for that esta­blishment. But they soon found that he [Page 67] had changed his religious principles with his climate, and that nothing was to be ex­pected from a prince of so base a character, but insult and contempt.

In the beginning of his reign a great number of the puritans removed into Hol­land, where they formed churches upon their own principles. But not relishing the manners of the Dutch, after twelve years they projected a removal to America, and laid the foundation of the colony of Plymouth. The spirit of uniformity still prevailing in England, and being carried to the greatest extent in the reign of Charles the First by that furious bigot Archbishop Laud; many of the less scrupulous, but conscientious members of the church of England, who had hitherto remained in her communion, seeing no prospect of rest or liberty in their native country, follow­ed their brethren to America, and establish­ed the colony of Massachusetts, from which proceeded that of Connecticut.

By such men, influenced by such motives, were the principal settlements in New-England effected. The fortitude and perseverance which they exhibited therein will always render their memory dear to their posterity. To prepare for their enterprize, they had to sell their [Page 68] estates, some of which were large and valu­able, and turn them into materials for a new plantation, with the nature of which they had no acquaintance, and of which they could derive no knowledge from the expe­rience of others. After traversing a wide ocean they found themselves in a country full of woods, to subdue which required immense labour and patience; at a vast distance from any civilized people; in the neighbourhood of none but ignorant and barbarous savages; and in a climate, where a winter much more severe than they had been accustomed to, reigns for a third part of the year. Their stock of provisions falling short, they had the dreadful apprehension of perishing by famine, one half of their number dying before the first year was completed; the ocean on one side separated them from their friends, and the wilderness on the other, presented nothing but scenes of hor­ror, which it was impossible for them to conceive of before they endured them.

But under all these difficulties, they maintained a steady and pious resolution; depending on the providence of the supreme ruler, and never repenting the business on which they had come into this wilderness. As purity in divine administrations was the [Page 69] professed object of their undertaking, so they immediately set themselves to form churches, on what they judged the gos­pel plan. To be out of the reach of pre­latic tyranny, and at full liberty to pur­sue their own enquiries, and worship God according to their consciences, (which had been denied them in their own country) was esteemed the greatest of blessings, and sweetened every bitter cup which they were obliged to drink. They always professed that their principal design was to erect churches on the primitive model, and that the consideration of temporal interest and conveniency had but the second place in their views.^*

In the doctrinal points of religion they were of the same mind with their brethren of the church of England, as expressed in their articles. The Massachusetts planters left behind them, when they sailed,Hutchin. Hist. vol. I. p. 487. a re­spectful declaration importing that they did not consider the church of England as antichristian, but only withdrew from the [Page 70] imposition of unscriptural terms of com­munion. Some of the Plymouth planters had embraced the narrow principles of the Brownists, the first who separated from the church of England; but by the improve­ments which they made in religious know­ledge under the instruction of the renown­ed John Robinson, their pastor in Holland, they were in a great measure cured of that sour leaven. The congregational system of church government was the result of the studies of that truly pious, learned, humble and benevolent divine, who seems to have had more of the genuine spirit of the reformation, and of freedom from bi­gotry, than any others in his day. His farewell charge to those of his flock who were embarking in Holland for America deserves to be had in perpetual remem­brance.Neal's Hist. N. Eng. vol. I. p. 84. ‘Brethren (said he) we are now quickly to part from one another, and whether I may ever live to see your face on earth any more, the God of heaven only knows; but whether the Lord hath appointed that or no, I charge you be­fore God and his blessed angels that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveal any thing to you by any other instrument of his, be as ready to [Page 71] receive it, as ever you were to receive any truth by my ministry; for I am verily persuaded, I am very confident, the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the con­dition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instr [...] ­ments of their reformation. The Lu­therans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; whatever part of his will our good God has revealed to Cal­vin, they will rather die than embrace it. And the Calvinists you see stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be lamented; for though they were burning and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not in­to the whole counsel of God; but were they now living, would be as willing to embrace farther light, as that which they at first received. I beseech you to re­member it is an article of your church covenant, That you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written word of God. Re­member that, and every other article of your sacred covenant. But I must here­withal [Page 72] exhort you to take heed what you receive as truth. Examine, con­sider and compare it with other scrip­tures of truth, before you receive it; for it is not possible the christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that perfecti­on of knowledge should break forth at once.’ It is much to be regretted that this excellent man did not live to reach New-England and to diffuse more gene­rally such truly catholic and apostolic prin­ciples.

Many of the first planters of New-England were persons of good education, and some of them eminent for their abi­lities and learning. Such men could not but see the necessity of securing to their posterity the advantages which they had so dearly purchased. One of their first concerns was to have their children considered, from their earliest years, as subjects of ecclesiastical discipline. This became a matter of controversy, and was largely discussed in sermons and pam­phlets, and at length determined by the au­thority of a synod. A regular course of academical learning was a point of equal importa [...]ce, and admitted of no dispute. They saw that the reputation and happi­ness [Page 73] of the whole country depended great­ly upon it. They therefore took early care for the establishment of schools, and within ten years from their first settlement, founded a college at Cambridge^*, which from small beginnings, by the munificence of its patrons, has made a distinguished figure in the republic of letters. Many eminent men have there been formed for the service of the church and state; and without this advantage the country could not have arrived, in so short a time, at its present respectable state; nor have been furnished with men capable of filling the various stations of usefulness, and of de­fending our civil and religious liberties.

Though the first planters derived from the royal grants and charters a political right as subjects of the crown of England, to this territory; yet they did not think themselves justly entitled to the property of it till they had fairly purchased it of its native lords, and made them full satisfac­tion ^†. Nor did they content themselves [Page 74] with merely living peaceably among them, but exerted themselves vigorously in en­deavouring their conversion to christianity, which was one of the obligations of their patent, and one of the professed designs of their settlement in this country. This painful work was remarkably succeeded, and the names of ELIOT and MAYHEW will always be remembered as unwearied instruments in promoting it. Great care was taken by the government to prevent fraud and injustice toward the Indians in trade, or violence to their persons. The nearest of the natives were so sensible of the justice of their English neighbours, that they lived in a state of peace with them, with but little interruption, for above fifty years.

Slavery was thought so inconsistent with the natural rights of mankind, and detri­mental to society, that an express law was made, prohibiting the buying or selling of slaves, except those taken in lawful war, or reduced to servitude for their [Page 75] crimes by a judicial sentence; and these were to have the same privileges as were allowed by the laws of Moses. There was a remarkable instance of justice in the exe­cution of this law in 1645, when a Ne­gro who had been fraudulently brought from the coast of Africa, and sold in the country, was by the special interposition of the general court taken from his master in order to be sent home to his native land^*. How long after this the importa­tion of blacks continued to be disallowed is uncertain; but if the same resolute jus­tice had always been observed, it would have been much for the credit and interest of the country; and our own struggles for liberty would not have carried so flagrant an appearance of inconsistency.

Severe laws conformable to the princi­ples of the laws of Moses were enacted against all kinds of immorality. Blasphe­my, idolatry, adultery, unnatural lusts, rape, murder, man-stealing, false witness, [Page 76] rebellion against parents, and conspiracy against the commonwealth were made ca­pital crimes; and because some doubted whether the magistrate could punish breaches of the four first commands of the decalogue, this right was asserted in the highest tone, and the denial of it ranked among the most pestilent heresies, and pu­nished with banishment. By the severity and impartiality with which those laws were executed, intemperance and profane­ness were so effectually discountenanced that Hugh Peters, who had resided in the country twenty years, declared before the parliament that he had not seen a drunk­en man, nor heard a profane oath during that period. The report of this extraor­dinary strictness, while it invited many of the best men in England to come over, kept them clear of those wretches who fly from one country to another to escape the punishment of their crimes.

The professed design of the plantation being the advancement of religion, and men of the strictest morals being appoint­ed to the chief places of government, their zeal for purity of every kind carried them into some refinements in their laws which are not generally supposed to come with­in the sphere of magistracy, and in larger [Page 77] communities could scarcely be attended to in a judicial way. The drinking of healths, and the use of tobacco were forbidden, the former being considered as an heathenish and idolatrous practice, grounded on the ancient libations; the other as a species of intoxication and waste of time. Laws were instituted to regulate the intercourse be­tween the sexes, and the advances toward matrimony: They had a ceremony of be­trothing, which preceded that of marriage. Pride and levity of behavior came under the cognizance of the magistrate. Not only the richness but the mode of dress, and cut of the hair were subject to state-regulations. Women were forbidden to expose their arms or bosoms to view; it was ordered that their sleeves should reach down to their wrist, and their gowns be closed round the neck. Men were obliged to cut short their hair, that they might not resemble women. No person not worth two hundred pounds was allowed to wear gold or silver lace, or silk hoods and scarfs. Offences against these laws were presentable by the grand jury; and those who dressed above their rank were to be assessed accordingly. Sumptuary laws might be of use in the beginning of a new plantation; but these pious rulers had [Page 78] more in view than the political good. They were not only concerned for the ex­ternal appearance of sobriety and good order, but thought themselves obliged, so far as they were able, to promote real re­ligion and enforce the observance of the divine precepts.

As they were fond of imagining a near resemblance between the circumstances of their settlement in this country and the redemption of Israel from Egypt or Baby­lon; it is not strange that they should also look upon their ‘commonwealth as an institution of God for the preservation of their churches,Increase Mather's life, p. 57. and the civil rulers as both members and fathers of them.’ The famous John Cotton, the first mini­ster in Boston was the chief promoter of this settlement. When he arrived in 1633, he found the people divided in their opi­nions. Some had been admitted to the privileges of freemen at the first general court,Mather's Magnalia, l [...]b. 3. p. 20. who were not in communion with the churches; after this an order was passed, that none but members of the churches should be admitted freemen; whereby all other persons were excluded from every office or privilege civil or mi­litary. This great man by his eloquence confirmed those who had embraced this [Page 79] opinion, and earnestly pleaded ‘that the government might be considered as a theocracy wherein the Lord was judge, lawgiver and king; that the laws which he gave Israel might be adopted, so far as they were of moral and perpetual equity; that the people might be consider­ed as God's people in covenant with him; that none but persons of approved piety and eminent gifts should be chosen rulers; that the ministers should be consulted in all matters of religion; and that the magistrate should have a superintending and cöercive power over the churches.’ At the desire of the court, he compiled a system of laws founded chiefly on the laws of Moses,Hutch· Collect. papers, p. 161. which was considered by the legislative body as the general standard; though they never formally adopted it and in some instances varied from it.

These principles were fundamentally the same with those on which were ground­ed all the persecutions which they had en­dured in England, and naturally led to the same extremes of conduct which they had so bitterly complained of in those civil and ecclesiastical rulers, from whose tyran­ny they had fled into this wilderness. They had already proceeded a step farther than the hierarchy had ever attempted. [Page 80] No test-law had as yet taken place in England; but they had at one blow cut off all but those of their own communion, from the privileges of civil offices, how­ever otherwise qualified. They thought that as they had suffered so much in lay­ing the foundation of a new state, which was supposed to be ‘a model of the glori­ous kingdom of Christ on earth^*,’ they had an exclusive right to all the honours and privileges of it; and having the pow­er in their hands, they effectually establish­ed their pretensions, and made all dissent­ers and disturbers feel the weight of their indignation.

In consequence of the union thus form­ed between the church and state on the plan of the Jewish theocracy, the ministers were called to sit in council, and give their ad­vice in matters of religion and cases of conscience which came before the court, and without them they never proceeded to any act of an ecclesiastical nature. As none were allowed to vote in the election [Page 81] of rulers but freemen, and freemen must be church members; and as none could be admitted into the church but by the elders, who first examined, and then pro­pounded them to the brethren for their vote, the clergy acquired hereby a vast ascendency over both rulers and people, and had in effect the keys of the state as well as the church in their hands. The magistrates, on the other hand, regulated the gathering of churches, interposed in the settlement and dismission of ministers, arbitrated in ecclesiastical controversies and controled synodical assemblies. This cö­ercive power in the magistrate was deem­ed absolutely necessary to preserve ‘the order of the gospel.’

The principle on which this power is grounded is expressed in the Cambridge Platform in terms as soft as possible.Chap. 17. Sect. 3. ‘The power and authority of magistrates is not for the restraining of churches, or any other good works, but for the helping in and furthering thereof, and therefore the consent and countenance of magi­strates when it may be had, is not to be slighted or lightly esteemed; but, on the contrary, it is a part of the honor due to christian magistrates to desire and crave their consent and approbation [Page 82] therein: which being obtained, the churches may then proceed in their way with much more encouragement and comfort.’ This article (like divers o­thers in that work) is curiously and artful­ly drawn up, so that there is an appearance of liberty and tenderness but none in reali­ty: For although the magistrate was not to restrain any good works, yet he was to be the judge of the good or evil of the works to be restrained; and what security could churches have that they should not be restrained in the performance of what they judged to be good works? They might indeed think themselves safe, while their rulers were so zealous for the purity of the churches of which themselves were mem­bers, and while their ministers were con­sulted in all ecclesiastical affairs; but if the civil powers had acted without such con­sultation, or if the ministers had been in­duced to yield to the opinion of the ma­gistrates, when contrary to the interest of the churches, what then would have be­come of religious liberty?

The idea of liberty in matters of religi­on was in that day strangely understood, and mysteriously expressed. The venera­ble Higginson of Salem in his sermon on the day of the election 1663, speaks thus; [Page 83] ‘The gospel of Christ hath a right para­mount all rights in the world; it hath a divine and supreme right to be receiv­ed in every nation, and the knee of ma­gistracy is to bow at the name of Jesus. This right carries liberty along with it, for all such as profess the gospel, to walk according to the faith and order of the gospel. That which is contrary to the gospel hath no right, and therefore should have no liberty.’ Here the question arises, Who is to be the judge of what is agreeable or cont [...]ary to the gospel? If the magistrate, then there is only a liberty to believe and practise what the magistrate thinks right. A similar sentiment occurs in the sermon of the learned President Oakes on the same occasion in 1673; ‘The outcry of some is for liberty of con­science. This is the great Diana of the libertines of this age. But remember that as long as you have liberty to walk in the faith and order of the gospel, and may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty, you have as much liberty of conscience as Paul de­sired under any government.’ Here the question recurs, Would Paul have sub­mitted to walk according to the opinion which the magistrate might entertain of [Page 84] the faith and order of the gospel? But this was all the freedom allowed by the spirit of these times. Liberty of conscience and toleration were offensive terms, and they who used them were supposed to be the enemies of religion and government. ‘I look upon toleration (says the same au­thor) as the first-born of all abominati­ons; if it should be born and brought forth among us, you may call it Gad, and give the same reason that Leah did for the name of her son, Behold a troop cometh, a troop of all manner of abo­minations.’ In another of these election sermons, [...]hephard's Election Sermon, 1672. (which may generally be account­ed the echo of the public voice, or the po­litical pulse by which the popular opinion may be felt) it is shrewdly intimated that toleration had its origin from the devil, and the speech of the demoniac who cried out, ‘what have we to do with thee, let us alone, thou Jesus of Nazareth,’ is styled "Satan's plea for toleration." The following admonition to posterity, written by the Deputy-Governor Dudley, is ano­ther specimen.

The champion of these sentiments was Cotton, who though eminently meek, placid and charitable, yet was strongly tinctured with the prevailing opinion, That the magistrate had a cöercive power against heretics. The banishment of Ro­ger Williams, minister of Salem, occasion­ed a vehement controversy on this point. Williams having written in favour of li­berty of conscience, and styled the opposite principle "the bloody tenet;" was an­swered by Cotton, who published a treatise in 1647 with this strange title, ‘The bloody tenet washed, and made white in the blood of the Lamb.’ In this work he labours to prove the lawfulness of the magistrate's using the civil sword to extir­pate heretics, from the commands given to the Jews to put to death blasphemers and idolaters. To the objection, that per­secution serves to make men hypocrites, he says, ‘better tolerate hypocrites and tares than briars and thorns. In such cases the civil sword doth not so much attend the conversion of seducers, as the preventing the seduction of honest minds [Page 86] by their means.’ He allows indeed that ‘the magistrate ought not to draw the sword against seducers till he have used all good means for their conviction: But if after their continuance in obsti­nate rebellion against the light, he shall still walk toward them in soft and gentle commiseration, his softness and gentle­ness is excessive large to foxes and wolves; but his bowels are miserably straitned and hardned against the poor sheep and lambs of Christ. Nor is it frustrating the end of Christ's coming, which was to save souls, but a direct ad­vancing it, to destroy, if need be, the bodies of those wolves, who seek to de­stroy the souls of those for whom Christ died.’ In pursuing his argument he refines so far as to deny that any man is to be persecuted on account of conscience ‘till being convinced in his conscience of his wickedness, he do stand out therein, not only against the truth, but against the light of his own conscience, that so it may appear he is not persecuted for cause of conscience, but punished for sinning against his own conscience.’ To which he adds, ‘sometimes it may be an aggravation of sin both in judgment and practice that a man committeth it in [Page 87] conscience.’ After having said that ‘it was toleration which made the world antichristian,’ he concludes his book with this singular ejaculation, ‘the Lord keep us from being bewitched with the whore's cup, lest while we seem to reject her with open face of profession, we bring her in by a back door of tolerati­on; and so come to drink deeply of the cup of the Lord's wrath, and be filled with her plagues.’

But the strangest language that ever was used on this or perhaps on any other subject, is to be found in a book printed in 1645 by the humourous Ward of Ip­swich entitled ‘the Simple Cobler of A­gawam.’ ‘My heart (says he) hath naturally detested four things; the stand­ing of the Apocrypha in the bible: foreigners dwelling in my country, to croud out native subjects into the cor­ners of the east: alchymized coins: toleration of divers religions or of one religion in segregant shapes. He that willingly assents to the last, if he ex­amines his heart by day-light, his con­science will tell him, he is either an atheist, or an heretic, or an hypocrite, or at best a captive to some lust. Poly­piety is the greatest impiety in the [Page 88] world. To authorize an untruth by to­leration of the state, is to build a sconce against the walls of heaven, to batter God out of his chair. Persecution of true religion and toleration of false are the Jannes and Jambres to the kingdom of Christ, whereof the last is by far the worst. He that is willing to tolerate any un­sound opinion, that his own may be to­lerated though never so sound, will for a need, hang God's bible at the devil's girdle. It is said that men ought to have liberty of conscience and that it is persecution to debar them of it: I can rather stand amazed than reply to this; it is an astonishment that the brains of men should be parboiled in such impious ignorance.’

From these specimens, (of which the reader will think he has had enough) it is easy to see how deeply the principle of intolerancy was rooted in the minds of our forefathers. Had it stood only in their books as a sub­ject of speculation, it might have been excused, considering the prejudices of the times; but it was drawn out into fatal practice, and caused severe persecutions which cannot be justified consistently with christianity or true policy. Whatever may be said in favour of their proceedings [Page 89] against the Antinomians, whose principles had such an effect on the minds of the people as materially affected the founda­tions of government, in the infancy of the plantation; yet the Anabaptists and Qua­kers were so inconsiderable for numbers, and the colony was then so well establish­ed that no danger could have been rati­onally apprehended to the commonwealth from them. Rhode-Island was settled by some of the Antinomian exiles on a plan of entire religious liberty:Callender's Century Sermon, 1738. men of every denomination being equally protected and countenanced, and enjoying the honours and offices of government. The Ana­baptists, fined and banished, flocked to that new settlement, and many of the Quakers also took refuge there; so that Rhode-Island was in those days looked upon as the drain or sink of New-England; and it has been said that ‘if any man had lost his religion, he might find it there, among such a general muster of opinionists.’ Notwithstanding this invective, it is much to the honour of that government that there never was an instance of persecution for conscience sake countenanced by them. Rhode-Island and Pennsylvania afford a strong proof that toleration conduces great­ly to the settlement and increase of an in­fant plantation.

[Page 90]The Quakers at first were banished; but this proving insufficient, a succession of sanguinary laws were enacted against them, of which imprisonment, whipping, cutting off the ears, boring the tongue with an hot iron, and banishment on pain of death, were the terrible sanctions. In consequence of these laws four persons were put to death at Boston, bearing their punishment with patience and fortitude; solemnly protesting that their return from banishment was by divine direction, to warn the magistrates of their errors, and intreat them to repeal their cruel laws;Sewel's History of the Qua­kers. denouncing the judgments of God upon them; and foretelling that if they should put them to death others would rise up in their room to fill their hands with work^*. After the execution of the fourth [Page 91] person, an order from King Charles the second, procured by their friends in Eng­land, put a stop to capital executions.

Impartiality will not suffer a veil to be drawn over these disgraceful transactions. The utmost that has been pleaded in favor of them, cannot excuse them in the eye of reason and justice. The Quakers, it is said, were heretics;Hutch. Collect. papers, p. 327. their principles ap­peared to be subversive of the gospel, and derogatory from the honor of the Redeem­er. Argument and scripture were in this case the proper weapons to combat them with; and if these had failed of success, they must have been left to the judgment of an omniscient and merciful God. They were complained of as disturbers of the peace, revilers of magistracy, ‘malignant [Page 92] and assiduous promoters of doctrines di­rectly tending to subvert both church and state;’ and our fathers thought it hard, when they had fled from opposition and persecution in one shape to be again troubled with it in another. But it would have been more to their honor to have suffered their magistracy and church order to be insulted, than to have stained their hands with the blood of men who deserv­ed pity rather than punishment. The Quakers indeed had no right to disturb them; and some of their conduct was to an high degree indecent and provoking; but they were under the influence of a spi­rit which is not easily quelled by oppo­sition. Had not the government appear­ed to be jealous of their principles, and prohibited the reading of their books be­fore any of them appeared in person, there could not have been so plausible a pretext for their reviling government. It was said that the laws by which they were condemned were grounded on the laws in England against Jesuits. But the case was by no means parallel,Sewel's History Quakers. (as the Quakers pleaded) their principles and practices not being equally detrimental to society. It was moreover urged in excuse of the se­verities exercised against the Quakers that [Page 93] the magistrates thought themselves ‘bound in conscience to keep the passage with the point of the sword:Mass. Rec. this (it was said) could do no harm to him that would be warned by it: their rushing on it was their own act, and they brought the blood on their own heads. Had they promised to de­part the jurisdiction and not return with­out leave, the country would have been glad to have rid themselves of the trouble of executing the laws upon them; it was their presumptuous returning after banish­ment that caused them to be put to death.’ This was the plea which the court used in their address to the king;Sewel, b. 6. p. 272. and in another vindication published by their order, the unhappy sufferers are styled "felones de se," or self-murderers. But this will not justify the putting them to death, unless the original crimes for which they were banished had deserved it.p. 199. The preamble to the act by which they were condemn­ed charges them with ‘altering the receiv­ed laudable custom of giving respect to equals and reverence to superiors; that their actions tend to undermine the ci­vil government and destroy the order of the churches, by denying all established forms of worship, by withdrawing from orderly church fellowship allowed and ap­proved [Page 94] by all orthodox professors of the truth, and instead thereof, and in oppositi­on thereto, frequently meeting themselves, insinuating themselves into the minds of the simple, whereby divers of our inha­bitants have been infected.’ Did these offences deserve death? had any govern­ment a right to terrify with capital laws persons guilty of no other crimes than these, especially when they professed that they were obliged to go the greatest lengths in maintaining those tenets which they judged sacred, and following the dictates of that spirit which they thought divine? Was not the mere ‘holding the point of the sword’ to them, really inviting them to "rush on it" and seal their testimony with their blood? and was not this the most likely way to strengthen and increase their party? Such punishment for offences which proceeded from a misguided zeal, increased and inflamed by opposition, will never reflect any honour on the policy or moderation of the government; and can be accounted for only by the strong pre­dilection for cöercive power in religion, retained by most or all of the reformed churches; a prejudice which time and ex­perience were necessary to remove^*.

[Page 95]The mistakes on which their conduct was grounded cannot be detected in a more masterly manner, than by transcrib­ing the sentiments of Doctor Increase Mather, who lived in those times, and was a strong advocate for the cöercive power of the magistrate in matters of religion; but afterward changed his opinion on this point. ‘He became sensible that the ex­ample of the Israelitish reformers inflict­ing penalties on false worshippers would not legitimate the like proceedings among [Page 96] christian gentiles: For the holy land of old was, by a deed of gift from the glorious God, miraculously and indisputably grant­ed to the Israelitish nation, and the con­dition on which they had it was their ob­servance of the Mosaic institutions. To violate them was high treason against the king of the theocracy, an iniquity to be punished by the judge. At the same time sojourners in the land were not compelled to the keeping those rites and laws which Moses had given to the people. Nay the [Page 97] Israelites themselves fell, many of them, into the worst of heresies, yet while they kept the laws and rites of Moses, the ma­gistrate would not meddle with them. The heresy of the Sadducees in particular struck at the foundation of all religion; yet we do not find that our Saviour ever blamed the Pharisees for not persecuting them. The [Page 98] christian religion brings us not into a temporal Canaan, it knows no weapons but what are purely spiritual. He saw that until persecution be utterly banished out of the world, and Cain's club taken out of Abel's hand, 'tis impossible to rescue the world from endless confusions. He that has the power of the sword will always be in the right and always assume the power of persecuting. In his latter times there­fore he looked upon it as one of the most hopeful among the signs of the times, that people began to be ashamed of a practice which had been a mother of abominations, and he came entirely into that golden maxim, Errantis poena doceri.’

Divers others of the principal actors and abettors of this tragedy lived to see the folly and incompetency of such sanguina­ry laws, to which the sufferings of their brethren, the nonconformists in England, did not a little contribute. Under the ar­bitrary government of King James the second, when he, for a shew of liberty and as a leading step to the introduction of popery, issued a proclamation of indul­gence to tender consciences, the principal men of the country sent him an address of thanks, for granting them what they had formerly denied to others. It is but justice [Page 99] to add, that all those disgraceful laws were renounced and repealed, and the people of New-England are now as candidly dis­posed toward the Quakers as any other denominations of christians. To keep alive a spirit of resentment and reproach to the country, on account of those ancient trans­actions which are now universally con­demned, would discover a temper not very consistent with that meekness and forgive­ness which ought to be cultivated by all who profess to be influenced by the gospel.

But though our ancestors are justly cen­surable for those instances of misconduct, yet they are not to be condemned as un­worthy the christian name, since some of the first disciples of our Lord, in a zealous imitation of the prophet Elias, would have called for fire from heaven to consume a village of the Samaritans who refused to receive him. Their zeal was of the same kind; and the answer which the benevo­lent author of our religion gave to his dis­ciples on that occasion, might with equal propriety be addressed to them, and to all persecuting christians, ‘Ye know not what spirit ye are of, for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.’

DURING the union of these planta­tions with Massachusetts, they were governed by the general laws of the co­lony, and the terms of the union were strictly observed. Exeter and Hampton were at first annexed to the jurisdiction of the courts at Ipswich, till the establish­ment of a new county which was called Norfolk,1643. and comprehended Salisbury, Haverhill, Hampton, Exeter, Portsmouth and Dover. These towns were then of such extent as to contain all the lands be­tween the rivers Merrimack and Pascata­qua. The shire town was Salisbury; but Dover and Portsmouth had always a di­stinct jurisdiction, though they were con­sidered as part of this new county; a court being held in one or the other, sometimes once and sometimes twice in the year, con­sisting of one or more of the magistrates [Page 101] or assistants, and one or more commission­ers chosen by the general court out of the principal gentlemen of each town. This was called the court of associates; and their power extended to causes of twenty pounds value.Mass. Gen. Court Rec. From them there was an appeal to the board of assistants, which being found inconvenient, it was in 1670 ordered to be made to the county court of Norfolk. Causes under twenty shillings in value were settled in each town by an inferior court consisting of three persons. After some time they had liberty to choose their associates,1647. which was done by the votes of both towns, opened at a joint meeting of their selectmen,Dover and Portsmou. Rec. though sometimes they requested the court to appoint them as be­fore. That mutual confidence between rulers and people, which springs from the genius of a republican government is ob­servable in all their transactions^*.

[Page 102]This extension of the colony's jurisdic­tion over New-Hampshire, could not fail of being noticed by the heirs of Mason▪ But the distractions caused by the civil wars in England were invincible bars to any legal enquiry. The first heir named in Mason's will dying in infancy, the e­state descended after the death of the ex­ecutrix to Robert Tufton, who was not of age till 1650.1652. In two years after this, Joseph Mason came over as agent to the executrix, to look after the interest of her deceased husband. He found the lands at Newichwannock occupied by Richard Leader, against whom he brought actions in the county court of Norfolk; but a dis­pute arising whether the lands in question were within the jurisdiction of Massachu­setts, and the court of Norfolk judging the action not to be within their cognizance, recourse was had to the general court; who on this occasion ordered an accurate survey of the northern bounds of their pa­tent [Page 103] to be made; a thing which they had long meditated. A committee of the ge­neral court attended by Jonathan Ince and John Shearman surveyors,Massa. Rec. and several In­dian guides, went up the river Merrimack to find the most northerly part thereof, which the Indians told them was at Aque­dochtan, the outlet of the lake Winnipi­seogee. The latitude of this place was ob­served to be 43 degrees 40 minutes and 12 seconds, to which three miles being added, made the line of the patent, accord­ing to their construction, fall within the lake, in the latitude of 43 degrees 43 mi­nutes and 12 seconds.1653. Two experienced ship-masters, Jonas Clarke and Samuel Andrews, were then dispatched to the east­ern coast, who found the same degrees, minutes, and seconds, on the northern point of an island in Casco Bay, called the Upper Clapboard Island. An east and west line, drawn through these points from the Atlantic to the South sea, was there­fore supposed to be the northern boundary of the Massachusetts patent, within which the whole claim of Mason, and the great­er part of that of Gorges were compre­hended. When this grand point was de­termined, the court were of opinion, that ‘some lands at Newichwannock, with the [Page 104] river, were by agreement of Sir Ferdi­nando Gorges and others, apportioned to Captain Mason, and that he also had right by purchase of the Indians, as also by possession and improvement;’ and they ordered ‘a quantity of land propor­tionable to his disbursements, with the privilege of the river, to be laid out to his heirs.’ The agent made no attempt to recover any other part of the estate; but having tarried long enough in the country to observe the temper of the go­vernment, and the management used in the determination of his suit, he returned; and the estate was given up for lost unless the government of England should inter­pose.

During the commonwealth, and the protectorate of Cromwell, there could be no hope of relief, as the family had always been attached to the royal cause, and the colony stood high in the favor of the par­liament and of Cromwell. But the resto­ration of King Charles the second encou­raged Tufton,1660. who now took the sirname of Mason, to look up to the throne for fa­vor and assistance. For though the plan of colonization adopted by his grandfather was in itself chimerical, and proved fruit­less, yet he had expended a large estate in [Page 105] the prosecution of it, which must have been wholly lost to his heirs, unless they could recover the possession of his Ame­rican territories. Full of this idea, Mason petitioned the king; setting forth ‘the en­croachment of the Massachusetts colony upon his lands, their making grants and giving titles to the inhabitants, and there­by dispossessing him and keeping him out of his right.’ The king referred the petition to his attorney-general Sir Geof­fry Palmer, who reported that ‘Robert Mason,Nov. 8. MS in Su. Cour. files. grandson and heir to Capt. John Mason, had a good and legal title to the province of New-Hampshire.’ Nothing farther was done at this time, nor was the matter mentioned in the letter which the king soon after sent to the colony, though some offensive things in their conduct were therein reprehended,1662. Hutch. Collect. of papers, p. 377. and divers alterations enjoined. But the directions contained in this letter not being strictly attended to, and complaints being made to the king of disputes which had arisen in divers parts of New-England concerning the limits of jurisdiction,Hutch. Hist. Mas. vol. 1. p. 535. and addresses having been pre­sented by several persons, praying for the royal interposition; a commission was issued under the great seal to Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carre, knight,1664. April 25. George [Page 106] Carteret and Samuel Maverick, esquires, impowering them ‘to visit the several co­lonies of New-England; to examine and determine all complaints and ap­peals in matters civil, military and cri­minal; to provide for the peace and se­curity of the country, according to their good and sound discretion, and to such instructions as they should receive from the king, and to certify him of their pro­ceedings.’

This commission was highly disrelished by the colony, as inconsistent with the rights and privileges which they enjoyed by their charter, and which the king had sacredly promised to confirm. It is there­fore no wonder that the commissioners were treated with much coolness at their arrival;Hutch. Colle. pap. 417. but they severely repaid it in their report to the king.

In their progress through the country they came to Pascataqua,1665. June. and enquired into the bounds of Mason's patent. They heard the allegation of Whelewright, who when banished by the colony, was per­mitted to reside immediately beyond what was called the bound-house, which was three large miles to the northward of the river Merrimack. They took the affidavit of Henry Jocelyn concerning the agree­ment [Page 107] between Governor Cradock and Captain Mason, that the river should be the boundary of their respective patents. They made no determination of this con­troversy in their report to the king; but having called together the inhabitants of Portsmouth, Sir Robert Carre,Mass. Rec. Octo. 10. in the name of the rest, told them that ‘they would release them from the government of Massachusetts whose jurisdiction should come no farther than the bound-house.’ They then proceeded to appoint justices of the peace and other officers, with power to act according to the laws of England, and such laws of their own as were not repugnant thereto,Hutchin. Collection pap. 488. until the king's plea­sure should be farther known.

There had always been a party here who were dissaffected to the government of Massachusetts. One of the most active a­mong them was Abraham Corbett of Ports­mouth, who, since the arrival of the com­missioners at Boston, and probably by authority derived from them, had taken upon him to issue warrants in the king's name on several occasions, which was con­strued a high misdemeanor, as he had never been commissioned by the authority of the colony. Being called to account by the general court, he was admonished,Massa. Rec. fined [Page 108] five pounds, and committed till the sen­tence was performed. Irritated by this severity, he was the fitter instrument for the purpose of the commissioners, who em­ployed him to frame a petition to the king in the name of the four towns, complain­ing of the usurpation of Massachusetts over them, and praying to be released from their tyranny. Corbett, in a secret manner, procured several persons both in Ports­mouth and Dover to subscribe this petition, but the most of those to whom he offered it refused.

The sensible part of the inhabitants now saw with much concern that they were in danger of being reduced to the same un­happy state which they had been in before their union with the colony. Awed by the supercilious behaviour of the commis­sioners, they knew not at first how to act; for to oppose the king's authority was con­strued treason, and it was said that Sir Robert Carre had threatened a poor old man with death for no other crime than forbidding his grandchild to open a door to them. But when the rumour was spread that a petition was drawn, and that Corbett was procuring subscribers, the people, no longer able to bear the abuse, earnestly applied to the general court, praying [Page 109] ‘that in some orderly way they might have an opportunity to clear themselves of so great and unjust aspersions, as were by this petition, drawn in their name, cast upon the government under which they were settled; and also to manifest their sense of such perfidious actions, lest by their silence it should be concluded they were of the same mind with those who framed the petition.’ In conse­quence of this petition, the court commis­sioned Thomas Danforth, Eleazar Lusher, and Major General Leverett to enquire in­to the matter, and settle the peace in these places according to their best discretion.

These gentlemen came to Portsmouth,October 9. and having assembled the inhabitants, and published their commission, they told them that they were informed of a petition sub­scribed in behalf of that and the neigh­bouring towns, complaining of the go­vernment; and desired them if they had any just grievances to let them be known, and report should be immediately made to the general court. The next day they assembled the people of Dover and made the same challenge. Both towns respec­tively protested against the petition, and professed full satisfaction with the govern­ment, which they signified in addresses to [Page 110] the court. Dudley, the minister of Exe­ter, certified under his hand to the com­mittee, that the people of that town had no concern directly nor indirectly with the obnoxious petition. They received also full satisfaction with regard to Hampton; a certificate of which might have been ob­tained, if they had thought it necessary.

They then proceeded to summon Cor­bett before them for seditious behaviour; but he eluded the search that was made for him, and they were obliged to leave a warrant with an officer to cite him to the court at Boston. The commissioners had now gone over into the province of Maine, from whence Sir Robert Carre in their name sent a severe reprimand to this com­mittee, forbidding them to proceed against such persons as had subscribed the petition, and inclosing a copy of a letter which the said commissioners had written to the go­vernor and council on the same subject.

The committee returned and reported their proceedings to the court, and about the same time the commissioners came from their eastern tour to Boston; where the court desired a conference with them, but received such an answer from Sir Ro­bert Carre as determined them not to re­peat their request. A warrant was then [Page 111] issued by the secretary, in the name of the whole court, to apprehend Corbett and bring him before the governor and ma­gistrates, ‘to answer for his tumultuous and seditious practices against the go­vernment.’ The next spring he was seized and brought before them;1666. May 23. and af­ter a full hearing was adjudged guilty of sedition, and exciting others to discontent with the government and laws, and of keeping a disorderly house of entertain­ment, for which crimes he was sentenced to give a bond of one hundred pounds with security for his peaceable behaviour and obedience to the laws; he was prohi­bited retailing liquors; disabled from bear­ing any office in the town or common­wealth, during the pleasure of the court; and obliged to pay a fine of twenty pounds and five pounds for the costs of his prose­cution.

This severity in vindication of their charter-rights they thought fit to temper with something that had the appearance of submission to the royal commands. The king's pleasure had been signified to the commissioners,Hutchin. Collect. pap. 419. that the harbours should be fortified. This instruction came to hand while they were at Pascataqua, and they immediately issued warrants to the [Page 112] four towns, requiring them to meet at a time and place appointed to receive his majesty's orders. One of these warrants was sent by express to Boston, from whence two officers were dispatched by the governor and council to forbid the towns on their peril to meet, or obey the commands of the commissioners. But by their own authority they ordered a com­mittee to look out the most convenient place for a fortification, upon whose report ‘the neck of land on the eastward of the Great Island,Massa. Rec. where a small fort had been already built, was sequestered for the purpose, taking in the Great Rock, and from thence all the easterly part of the said island.’ The court of associates being impowered to hear and determine the claims of those who pretended any title to this land; a claim was entered by George Walton, but rejected; and the ap­propriation confirmed. The customs and imposts on goods imported into the har­bour were applied to the maintenance of the fort, and the trained bands of Great-Island and Kittery-Point were discharged from all other duty to attend the service of it, under Richard Cutts, esq. who was appointed captain.

[Page 113]The people of Massachusetts have, both in former and latter times, been charged with disloyalty to the king in their con­duct toward these commissioners, and their disregard of authority derived from the same source with their charter. To ac­count for their conduct on this occasion, we must consider the ideas they had of their political connexion with the parent state. They had been forced from thence by per­secution: they came at their own charges into a wilderness, claimed indeed by the crown of England; but really in possession of its native lords; from whom they had purchased the soil and sovereignty, which gave them a title, considered in a moral view, superior to the grant of any Euro­pean prince. For convenience only, they had solicited and accepted a patent from the crown, which in their opinion constituted the only bond of union between them and their prince, by which the nature and ex­tent of their allegiance to him was to be determined. This patent they regarded as a solemn compact, wherein the king had granted them undisturbed possession of the soil, and power of government within certain limits; on condition that they should settle the country, chris­tianize the natives, yield a fifth of all gold [Page 114] and silver mines to the crown, and make no laws repugnant to those of England. They had, on their part, sacredly perform­ed these conditions; and therefore con­cluded that the grant of title, property and dominion which the crown had made to them was irrevocable. And although they acknowledged themselves subjects of the reigning prince, and owned a dependence on the royal authority; yet they under­stood it to be only through the medium of their charter.

The appointment of commissioners who were to act within the same limits, inde­pendently of this authority, and to receive appeals from it; whose rule of conduct was no established law, but their own "good and sound discretion," was regard­ed as a dangerous stretch of royal power, militating with and superseding their char­ter. If the royal authority was destined to flow through the patent, it could not regularly be turned into another channel: if they were to be governed by laws made and executed by officers of their own choosing, they could not at the same time be governed by the "discretion" of men in whose appointment they had no voice, and over whom they had no control. Two ruling powers in the same state was a so­lecism [Page 115] which they could not digest. The patent was neither forfeited nor revoked; but the king had solemnly promised to confirm it, and it subsisted in full force. The commission therefore was deemed an usurpation and infringement of those char­tered rights, which had been solemnly pledged on the one part, dearly purchased and justly paid for on the other. They regarded "a royal donation under the great seal (to use their own words) ‘as the greatest security that could be had in hu­man affairs;Hutch. Hist. Mass. Vol. I. p. 54 [...].’ and they had confidence in the justice of the supreme ruler, that if they held what they in their consciences thought to be their rights, and performed the engagements by which they had ac­quired them, they should enjoy the pro­tection of his providence, ^* though they should be obliged to abandon the country, which they had planted with so much la­bour and expence, and seek a new settle­ment in some other part of the globe.

These were the principles which they [Page 116] had imbibed, which they openly a­vowed and on which they acted. Policy might have dictated to them the same flexibility of conduct, and softness of ex­pression, by which the other colonies on this occasion gained the royal favour. But they had so long held the sole and unin­terrupted sovereignty, in which they had been indulged by the late popular govern­ment in England; and were so fully con­vinced it was their right; that they chose rather to risque the loss of all, than to make any concessions; thereby exposing themselves farther to the malice of their enemies and the vengeance of power.

The commissioners, having finished their business, were recalled by the order of the king, who was much displeased with the ill treatment they had received from the Massachusetts government, which was the more heinous, as the colonies of Plymouth, Rhode-Island and Connecticut had treated the commission with acknowledged respect. By a letter to the colony he commanded them to send over four or five agents,April 10. Hutch. p. 547. pro­mising ‘to hear in person, all the allega­tions, suggestions, and pretences to right or favour, that could be made on behalf of the colony,’ intimating that he was far from desiring to invade their charter; [Page 117] and commanding that all things should remain as the commissioners had settled them until his farther order; and that those persons who had been imprisoned for petitioning or applying to them should be released. The court, however, conti­nued to exercise jurisdiction, appoint offi­cers, and execute the laws in these towns as they had done for twenty-five years, to the general satisfaction of the people who were united with them in principles and affection.

This affection was demonstrated by their ready concurrence with the proposal for a general collection,1669. for the purpose of erect­ing a new brick building ^* at Harvard col­lege, the old wooden one being small and decayed. The town of Portsmouth, which was now become the richest, made a sub­scription of sixty pounds per annum for seven years; and after five years passed a town vote to carry this engagement into effect. Dover gave thirty-two,Harvard Col. Rec. and Ex­eter ten pounds for the same laudable purpose.

The people of Portsmouth, having for some time employed Joshua Moody as a preacher among them,1671. and erected a new [Page 118] meeting-house,1666. proceeded to settle him in regular order. A church consisting of nine brethren ^† was first gathered; then, the general court having been duly informed of it,Ports. Chh. Records. and having signified their approba­tion, according to the established practice, Moody was ordained in the presence of Governor Leverett and several of the ma­gistrates.

The whole attention of the government in England being at this time taken up with things that more immediately con­cerned themselves,1674. nothing of moment re­lating to Mason's interest was transacted. He became discouraged, and joined with the heirs of Gorges in proposing an alie­nation of their respective rights in the pro­vinces of New-Hampshire and Maine to the crown, to make a government for the Duke of Monmouth. The duke himself was greatly pleased with the scheme, as he had been told that an annual revenue of five thousand pounds or more might be collected from these provinces.Hutch. Collection of Papers, 451, 472. But by the more faithful representations of some persons who were well acquainted with the country, he was induced to lay aside the [Page 119] project. Many complaints were made a­gainst the government of Massachusetts; and it was thought to be highly expedi­ent that more severe measures should be used with them; but the Dutch wars, and other foreign transactions, prevented any determination concerning them, till the country was involved in all the horrors of a general war with the natives.

AT the time of the first discovery of the river Pascataqua by Captain Smith, it was found that the native inha­bitants of these parts differed not in lan­guage, manners, nor government, from their eastern or western neighbours. Though they were divided into several tribes, each of which had a distinct sachem, yet they all owned subjection to a sovereign prince, called Bashaba,Smith's Voyage. whose residence was some­where about Pemaquid. It was soon after found that the Tarratenes, who lived far­ther eastward, had invaded his country, surprized and slain him, and all the people in his neighbourhood, and carried off his women, leaving no traces of his authority. Upon which the subordinate sachems, hav­ing no head to unite them, and each one striving for the pre-eminence, made war among themselves; whereby many of their people, and much of their provision were destroyed. When Sir Richard Haw­kins visited the coast in 1615,Gorges's Narrat. p. 17.54. this war was [Page 121] at its height; and to this succeeded a pe­stilence, which carried them off in such numbers that the living were not able to bury the dead;Prince's Annals. 1617. but their bones remained at the places of their habitations for several years. During this pestilence, Richard Vines and several others, whom Sir Fer­dinando Gorges had hired, at a great ex­pence, to tarry in the country through the winter, lived among them and lodged in their cabbins, without receiving the least injury in their health, ‘not so much as feeling their heads to ach the whole time.Gorges, p. 12.’ By such singular means did di­vine providence prepare the way for the peaceable entrance of the Europeans into this land.

When the first settlements were made, the remains of two tribes had their habi­tations on the several branches of the river Pascataqua; one of their sachems lived at the falls of Squamscot, and the other at those of Newichwannock; their head quar­ters being generally seated in places con­venient for fishing. Both these, together with several inland tribes, who resided at Pantucket and Winnipiseogee, acknow­ledged subjection to Passaconaway the great sagamore of Pannukog, or (as it is com­monly pronounced) Penacook. He excel­led [Page 122] the other sachems in sagacity, dupli­city and moderation; but his principal qualification was his skill in some of the secret operations of nature, which gave him the reputation of a sorcerer, and ex­tended his fame and influence among all the neighbouring tribes. They believed that it was in his power to make water burn, and trees dance, and to metamor­phose himself into flame;Hutch. Hist. Mass. Vol 1. p· 174. that in winter he could raise a green leaf from the ashes of a dry one, and a living serpent from the skin of one that was dead.

An English gentleman who had been much conversant among the Indians was invited, in 1660, to a great dance and feast; on which occasion the elderly men, in songs or speeches recite their histories, and deli­ver their sentiments, and advice, to the younger. At this solemnity Passaconaway, being grown old, made his farewell speech to his children and people; in which, as a dying man, he warned them to take heed how they quarrelled with their English neighbours; for though they might do them some damage, yet it would prove the means of their own destruction. He told them that he had been a bitter enemy to the English, and by the arts of sorcery had tried his utmost to hinder [Page 123] their settlement and increase; but could by no means succeed. This caution perhaps often repeated, had such an effect, that upon the breaking out of the Indian war fifteen years afterward, Wonolanset,Hubbard's printed Narrative. p. 9.31. his son and successor, withdrew himself and his people into some remote place, that they might not be drawn into the quarrel.

While the British nations had been dis­tracted with internal convulsions, and had endured the horrors of a civil war, pro­duced by the same causes which forced the planters of New-England to quit the land of their nativity; this wilderness had been to them a quiet habitation. They had struggled with many hardships; but pro­vidence had smiled upon their undertak­ing, their settlements were extended and their churches multiplied. There had been no remarkable quarrel with the savages, except the short war with the Pequods, who dwelt in the south-east par [...] of Con­necticut: They being totally subdued in 1637, the dread and terror of the English kept the other nations quiet for near forty years. During which time the New-England colonies being confederated for their mutual defence, and for maintaining the public peace, took great pains to pro­pagate the gospel among the natives, and [Page 124] bring them to a civilized way of living, which, with respect to some, proved ef­fectual; others refused to receive the mis­sionaries, and remained obstinately preju­diced against the English. Yet the object of their hatred was at the same time the object of their fear; which led them to forbear acts of hostility, and to preserve an outward shew of friendship, to their mutual interest.

Our historians have generally represent­ed the Indians in a most odious light, especially when recounting the effects of their ferocity. Dogs, caitiffs, miscreants and hell-hounds, are the politest names which have been given them by some wri­ters, who seem to be in a passion at the mentioning their cruelties,Hubbard's Narrative and Mather's Magnalia. and at other times speak of them with contempt. What­ever indulgence may be allowed to those who wrote in times when the mind was vexed with their recent depredations and inhumanities, it ill becomes us to cherish an inveterate hatred of the unhappy na­tives. Religion teaches us a better tem­per, and providence has now put an end to the controversy, by their almost total extirpation. We should therefore proceed with calmness in recollecting their past in­juries, and forming our judgment of their character.

[Page 125]It must be acknowledged that human depravity appeared in these unhappy crea­tures in a most shocking view. The prin­ciples of education and the refinements of civilized life, either lay a check upon our vicious propensities, or disguise our crimes; but among them human wickedness was seen in its naked deformity. Yet, bad as they were, it will be difficult to find them guilty of any crime which cannot be pa­ralleled among civilized nations.

They are always described as remarka­bly cruel; and it cannot be denied that this disposition indulged to the greatest ex­cess, strongly marks their character. We are struck with horror, when we hear of their binding the victim to the stake, biting off his nails, tearing out his hair by the roots, pulling out his tongue, boring out his eyes, sticking his skin full of lighted pitch-wood, half roasting him at the fire, and then making him run for their diver­sion, till he faints and dies under the blows which they give him on every part of his body. But is it not as dreadful to read of an unhappy wretch, sewed up in a sack full of serpents and thrown into the sea, or broiled in a red hot iron chair; or mangled by lions and tygers after having spent his strength to combat them for the di­version [Page 126] of the spectators in an amphithea­tre? and yet these were punishments a­mong the Romans in the politest ages of the empire. What greater cruelty is there in the American tortures, than in confining a man in a trough, and daubing him with honey that he may be stung to death by wasps and other venomous insects; or flea­ing him alive and stretching out his skin before his eyes, which modes of punish­ment were not inconsistent with the soft­ness and elegance of the ancient court of Persia? or, to come down to modern times; what greater misery can there be in the Indian executions, than in racking a pri­soner on a wheel, and breaking his bones one by one with an iron bar; or placing his legs in a boot and driving in wedges one after another; which tortures are still, or have till lately been used in some Euro­pean kingdoms? I forbear to name the torments of the inquisition, because they seem to be beyond the stretch of human in­vention. If civilized nations, and those who profess the most merciful religion that ever blessed the world, have practised these cruelties, what could be expected of men who were strangers to every degree of refinement either civil or mental?

The Indians have been represented as [Page 127] revengeful. When any person was killed, the nearest relative thought himself bound to be the avenger of blood, and never left seeking, till he found an opportunity to execute his purpose. Whether in a state, where government is confessedly so feeble as among them,Numbers ch. 35. v. 19. Deutero­nomy ch. 19. v. 12. such a conduct is not jus­tifiable, and even countenanced by the Jewish law may deserve our consideration▪

The treachery with which these people are justly charged, is exactly the same dis­position which operates in the breach of solemn treaties made between nations which call themselves christian. Can it be more criminal in an Indian, than in an European, not to think himself bound by promises and oaths extorted from him when under duress?

Their jealousy and hatred of their En­glish neighbours may easily be accounted for, if we allow them to have the same feelings with ourselves. How natural is it for us to form a disagreeable idea of a whole nation, from the bad conduct of some individuals with whom we are ac­quainted? and though others of them may be of a different character, yet will not that prudence which is esteemed a virtue, lead us to suspect the fairest appearances, [Page 128] as used to cover the most fraudulent de­signs, especially if pains are taken by the most politic among us, to foment such jealousies to subserve their own ambitious purposes?

Though the greater part of the English settlers came hither with religious views, and fairly purchased their lands of the In­dians, yet it cannot be denied that some, especially in the eastern parts of New-England, had lucrative views only; and from the beginning used fraudulent me­thods in trade with them. Such things were indeed disallowed by the government, and would always have been punished if the Indians had made complaint: but they knew only the law of retaliation, and when an injury was received, it was never forgotten till revenged. Encroachments made on their lands, and fraud committed in trade, afforded sufficient grounds for a quarrel, though at ever so great a length of time; and kept alive a perpetual jea­lousy of the like treatment again^*.

[Page 129]Such was the temper of the Indians of New-England when the first general war began.1675. It was thought by the English in that day, that Philip, sachem of the Wom­panoags, a crafty and aspiring man, part­ly by intrigue, and partly by example, excit­ed them to such a general combination. He was the son of Massassoiet, the nearest sachem to the colony of Plymouth, with whom he had concluded a peace, which he maintained [...] through fear than good will, as long as he lived. His son and immediate suc­cessor Alexander, preserved the same ex­ternal shew of friendship; but died with choler on being detected in a plot against them. Philip, it is said, dissembled his hostile puposes; he was ready, on every suspicion of his infidelity, to renew his submission, and testify it even by the de­livery of his arms, till he had secretly in­fused a cruel jealousy into many of the neighbouring Indians; which excited them to attempt the recovering their country by extirpating the new possessors. The plot, it is said, was discovered before it was ripe for execution; and as he could no longer promise himself security under the mask of friendship, he was constrained to shew him­self in his true character, and accordingly began hostilities upon the plantation of [Page 130] Swanzy, in the colony of Plymouth, in the month of June 1675.

Notwithstanding this general opinion, it may admit of some doubt, whether a single sachem, whose authority was limit­ed, could have such an extensive influence over tribes so remote and unconnected with him as the eastern Indians; much more improbable is it, that those in Virginia should have joined in the confederacy, as it hath been intimated.Hubbard's Narrative, p. 1 [...]. The Indians ne­ver travelled to any greater distance than their hunting required; and so ignorant were they of the geography of their coun­try,Neal's Hist. N.E. Vol. 1. p. 21. that they imagined New-England to be an island, and could tell the name of an inlet or streight by which they sup­posed it was separated from the main land. But what renders it more improbable that Philip was so active an instrument in ex­citing this war, is the constant tradition among the posterity of those people who lived near him, and were familiarly con­versant with him, and with those of his Indians who survived the war: which is, that he was forced on by the fury of his young men, sorely against his own judg­ment and that of his chief counsellors; and that as he foresaw that the English would, [Page 131] in time, establish themselves and extirpate the Indians, so he thought that the mak­ing war upon them would only hasten the destruction of his own people. It was al­ways a very common, and sometimes a just excuse with the Indians, when charg­ed with breach of faith, that the old men were not able to restrain the younger from signalizing their valour, and gratifying their revenge, though they disapproved their rashness. This want of restraint was owing to the weakness of their govern­ment; their sachems having but the sha­dow of magistratical authority.

The inhabitants of Bristol shew a parti­cular spot where Philip received the news of the first Englishmen that were killed,Callender's Century Sermon, p. 73. with so much sorrow as to cause him to weep; a few days before which he had rescued one who had been taken by his Indians, and privately sent him home. Whatever credit may be given to this ac­count, so different from the current opi­nion, it must be owned, that in such a sea­son of general confusion as the first war occasioned, fear and jealousy might create many suspicions, which would soon be formed into reports of a general confede­racy, through Philip's contrivance; and it is to be noted that the principal histories [Page 132] of this war, [Increase Mather's and Hub­bard's] were printed in 1676 and 1677, when the strangest reports were easily cre­dited, and the people were ready to be­lieve every thing that was bad of so formi­dable a neighbour as Philip. But as the fact cannot now be precisely ascertained, I shall detain the reader no longer from the real causes of the war in these eastern parts.

There dwelled near the river Saco a sa­chem named Squando, a noted enthusiast, a leader in the devotions of their religion,Hubbard, p. 29.61. and one that pretended to a familiar inter­course with the invisible world. These qualifications rendered him a person of the highest dignity, importance and influ­ence among all the eastern Indians. His squaw passing along the river in a canoe, with her infant child, was met by some rude sailors, who having heard that the Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of the brutal kind, in a thought­less and unguarded humour overset the canoe. The child sunk, and the mother instantly diving fetched it up alive, but the child dying soon after, its death was imputed to the treatment it had received from the seamen; and Squando was so provoked that he conceived a bitter anti­pathy [Page 133] to the English, and employed his great art and influence to excite the Indi­ans against them. Some other injuries were alledged as the ground of the quarrel;Magnalia, Lib. 7. p. 55. and, considering the interested views and irregular lives of many of the eastern set­tlers, their distance from the seat of go­vernment, and the want of due subordi­nation among them, it is not improba­ble that a great part of the blame of the eastern war belonged to them.

The first alarm of the war in Plymouth colony spread great consternation among the distant Indians, and held them a while in suspence what part to act; for there had been a long external friendship subsisting between them and the English, and they were afraid of provoking so powerful neighbours. But the seeds of jealousy and hatred had been so effectually sown, that the crafty and revengeful, and those who were ambitious of doing some exploits, soon found means to urge them on to an open rupture; so that within twenty days after Philip had begun the war at the southward, the flame broke out in the most northeasterly part of the country,Hubbard, p. 13. at the distance of two hundred miles.

The English inhabitants about the river Kennebeck, hearing of the insurrection in [Page 134] Plymouth colony, determined to make trial of the fidelity of their Indian neigh­bours, by requesting them to deliver their arms. They made a shew of compliance; but, in doing it, committed an act of vio­lence on a Frenchman, who lived in an English family; which being judged an offence, both by the English and the elder Indians, the offender was seized; but up­on a promise, with security, for his future good behaviour, his life was spared, and some of them consented to remain as hos­tages; who soon made their escape, and joined with their fellows in robbing the house of Purchas, an ancient planter at Pechypscot.

The quarrel being thus begun, and their natural hatred of the English, and jealousy of their designs, having risen to a great height under the malignant influence of Squando and other leading men; and being encouraged by the ex­ample of the western Indians, who were daily making depredations on the colonies of Plymouth, and Massachusetts; they took every opportunity to rob and murder the people in the scattered settlements of the province of Maine; and having dis­persed themselves into many small parties, that they might be the more extensively [Page 135] mischievous, in the month of September they approached the plantations at Pas­cataqua, and made their first onset at Oyster river then a part of the town of Dover, but now Durham. Here they burned two houses belonging to two persons named Chesly, killed two men in a canoe, and carried away two captives;Hubbard, p. 19. both of whom soon after made their escape. About the same time a party of four laid in ambush near the road between Exeter and Hamp­ton, where they killed one, and took an­other, who made his escape. Within a few days an assault was made on the house of one Tozer at Newichwannock, where­in were fifteen women and children, all of whom, except two, were saved by the intre­pidity of a girl of eighteen. She first seeing the Indians as they advanced to the house, shut the door and stood against it, till the others escaped to the next house, which was better secured. The Indians chopped the door to pieces with their hatchets, and then entering, they knocked her down, and leaving her for dead, went in pursuit of the others, of whom two children, who could not get over the fence, fell into their hands. The adventurous heroine reco­vered, and was perfectly healed of her wound.

[Page 136]The two following days they made se­veral appearances on both sides of the ri­ver, using much insolence, and burning two houses and three barns, with a large quantity of grain. Some shot were ex­changed without effect, and a pursuit was made after them into the woods by eight men, but night obliged them to return without success. Five or six houses were burned at Oyster river, and two more men killed. These daily insults could not be borne without indignation and reprisal. About twenty young men, chiefly of Do­ver, obtained leave of Major Waldron, then commander of the militia, to try their skill and courage with the Indians in their own way.Hubbard, p. 22. Having scattered themselves in the woods, a small party of them disco­vered five Indians in a field near a desert­ed house, some of whom were gathering corn, and others kindling a fire to roast it. The men were at such a distance from their fellows that they could make no signal to them without danger of a discovery; two of them, therefore, crept along silently, near to the house, from whence they sud­denly rushed upon those two Indians, who were busy at the fire, and knocked them down with the butts of their guns; the other three took the alarm and escaped.

[Page 137]All the plantations at Pascataqua, with the whole eastern country, were now filled with fear and confusion: Business was suspended, and every man was obliged to provide for his own and his family's safe­ty. The only way was to desert their ha­bitations, and retire together within the larger and more convenient houses, which they fortified with a timber wall and flank-arts, placing a centry-box on the roof. Thus the labour of the field was exchang­ed for the duty of the garrison, and they who had long lived in peace and security were upon their guard night and day, sub­ject to continual alarms, and the most fear­ful apprehensions.

The seventh of October was observed as a day of fasting and prayer; and on the sixteenth the enemy made an assault upon the inhabitants at Salmon falls, in Berwick. Lieutenant Roger Plaisted, being a man of true courage and of a public spirit, imme­diately sent out a party of seven from his garrison to make discovery. They fell into an ambush; three were killed, and the rest retreated. The Lieutenant then dispatched an express to Major Waldron and Lieutenant Coffin at Cochecho, beg­ging most importunately for help, which they were in no capacity to afford, con­sistently [Page 138] with their own safety. The next day Plaisted ventured out with twenty men, and a cart to fetch the dead bodies of their friends, and unhappily fell into another ambush. The cattle affrighted ran back, and Plaisted being deserted by his men, and disdaining either to yield or fly, was killed on the spot, with his eldest son and one more; his other son died of his wound in a few weeks. Had the heroism of this worthy family been imitated by the rest of the party, and a reinforcement arrived in season, the enemy might have received such a severe check as would have prevent­ed them from appearing in small parties. The gallant behaviour of Plaisted, though fatal to himself and his sons, had this good effect, that the enemy retreated to the woods; and the next day Captain Frost came up with a party from Sturgeon creek, and peaceably buried the dead:Hubbard, [...]. 24. But be­fore the month had expired a mill was burned there, and an assault made on Frost's garrison, who though he had only three boys with him, kept up a constant fire, and called aloud as if he were commanding a body of men, to march here and fire there: the stratagem succeeded, and the house was saved. The enemy then proceeded down the river, killing and plundering as they [Page 139] found people off their guard, till they came opposite to Portsmouth; from whence some cannon being fired they dispersed, and were pursued by the help of a light snow which fell in the night, and were overtaken by the side of a swamp, into which they threw themselves, leaving their packs and plun­der to the pursuers. They soon after did more mischief at Dover, Lamprey river and Exeter; and with these small, but ir­ritating assaults and skirmishes, the autumn was spent until the end of November; when the number of people killed and taken from Kennebeck to Pascataqua a­mounted to upwards of fifty.

The Massachusetts government being fully employed in defending the southern and western parts, could not seasonably send succours to the eastward. Major General Denison, who commanded the mi­litia of the colony, had ordered the majors who commanded the regiments on this side of the country, to draw out a sufficient number of men to reduce the enemy, by attacking them at their retreat to their head-quarters at Ossapy and Pigwacket. But the winter setting in early and fiercely, and the men being unprovided with rack­ets to travel on the snow, which by the tenth of December was four feet deep in [Page 140] the woods, it was impossible to execute the design. This peculiar severity of the sea­son however proved favourable. The In­dians were pinched with famine, and hav­ing lost by their own confession about ninety of their number, partly by the war, and partly for want of food, they were re­duced to the necessity of suing for peace. With this view they came to Major Wal­dron, expressing great sorrow for what had been done, and promising to be quiet and submissive. By his mediation a peace was concluded with the whole body of eastern Indians, which continued till the next Au­gust; and might have continued longer, if the inhabitants of the eastern parts had not been too intent on private gain, and of a disposition too ungovernable to be a barrier against an enemy so irritable and vindictive. The restoration of the captives made the peace more pleasant: A return from the dead could not be more welcome than a deliverance from Indian captivity.

The war at the southward, though re­newed in the spring,1676. drew toward a close. Philip's affairs were desperate; many of his allies and dependents forsook him; and in the month of August he was slain by a party under Captain Church.Church's Memoirs, p. 44. Those western Indians who had been engaged in [Page 141] the war, now fearing a total extirpation, endeavoured to conceal themselves among their brethren of Penacook who had not joined in the war, and with those of Ossapy and Pigwacket who had made peace. But they could not so disguise themselves or their behaviour as to escape the discern­ment of those who had been conversant with Indians. Several of them were taken at different times and delivered up to pub­lic execution. Three of them, Simon, Andrew and Peter, who had been concern­ed in killing Thomas Kimbal of Bradford, and captivating his family, did, within six weeks voluntarily restore the woman and five children. It being doubted whether this act of submission was a sufficient atone­ment for the murder, they were commit­ted to Dover prison till their case could be considered. Fearing that this confinement was a prelude to farther punishment, they broke out of prison, and going to the east­ward, joined with the Indians of Kenne­beck and Amoriscogin in those depreda­tions which they renewed on the inhabi­tants of those parts, in August, and were afterward active in distressing the people at Pascataqua.

This renewal of hostilities occasioned the sending of two companies to the eastward [Page 142] under Captain Joseph Syll, and Captain William Hawthorne. In the course of their march they came to Cochecho, on the sixth of September, where four hun­dred mixed Indians were met at the house of Major Waldron, with whom they had made the peace, and whom they consider­ed as their friend and father. The two captains would have fallen upon them at once, having it in their orders to seize all Indians, who had been concerned in the war. The major dissuaded them from that purpose, and contrived the following stra­tagem. He proposed to the Indians, to have a training the next day, and a sham fight after the English mode; and sum­moning his own men, with those under Captain Frost of Kittery, they, in conjunc­tion with the two companies, formed one party, and the Indians another. Having diverted them a while in this manner, and caused the Indians to fire the first volley; by a peculiar dexterity, the whole body of them (except two or three) were sur­rounded, before they could form a suspi­cion of what was intended. They were immediately seized and disarmed, without the loss of a man on either side. A sepa­ration was then made: Wonolanset, with the Penacook Indians, and others who [Page 143] had joined in making peace the winter be­fore, were peaceably dismissed; but the strange Indians, (as they were called) who had fled from the southward and taken re­fuge among them, were made prisoners, to the number of two hundred; and being sent to Boston, seven or eight of them, who were known to have killed any Eng­lishmen, were condemned and hanged; the rest were sold into slavery in foreign parts.

This action was highly applauded by the general voice of the colony; as it gave them opportunity to deal with their ene­mies in a judicial way, as rebels, and, as they imagined, to extirpate those trouble­some neighbours. The remaining Indi­ans, however, looked upon the conduct of Major Waldron as a breach of faith; inas­much as they had taken those fugitive In­dians under their protection, and had made peace with him, which had been strictly observed with regard to him and his neighbours, though it had been broken elsewhere. The Indians had no idea of the same government being extended very far, and thought they might make peace in one place, and war in another, without any imputation of infidelity; but a breach of hospitality and friendship, as they deem­ed [Page 144] this to be, merited, according to their principles, a severe revenge, and was never to be forgotten or forgiven. The major's situation on this occasion was indeed ex­tremely critical; and he could not have acted either way without blame. It is said that his own judgment was against any forcible measure, as he knew that many of those Indians were true friends to the colony; and that in case of failure he should expose the country to their re­sentment; but had he not assisted the forces in the execution of their commission, (which was to seize all Indians who had been con­cerned with Philip in the war) he must have fallen under censure, and been deemed accessary, by his neglect, to the mischiefs which might afterward have been perpe­trated by them. In this dilemma he finally determined to comply with the orders and expectations of government; imagining that he should be able to satisfy those of the Indians whom he intended to dismiss, and that the others would be removed out of the way of doing any further mis­chief; but he had no suspicion that he was laying a snare for his own life. It was unhappy for him, that he was obliged in deference to the laws of his country, and the orders of government, to give offence [Page 145] to a people who, having no public judica­tories and penal laws among themselves, were unable to distinguish between a legal punishment and private malice^*.

Two days after this surprisal the forces proceeded on their route to the eastward, being joined with some of Waldron's and Frost's men; and taking with them Blind Will, a sagamore of the Indians who lived about Cochecho, and eight of his people for pilots. The eastern settlements were all either destroyed or deserted, and no enemy was to be seen; so that the expe­dition proved fruitless, and the companies returned to Pascataqua.

It was then thought adviseable, that they should march up toward the Ossapy ponds; where the Indians had a strong fort of timber fourteen feet high, with flankarts; which they had a few years before hired some English carpenters to build for them, as a defence against the Mohawks, of whom they were always afraid. It was thought that if the Indians could be surprized on their first return to their head-quarters, at [Page 146] the beginning of winter, some considerable advantage might be gained against them; or if they had not arrived there, that the provisions, which they had laid in fo [...] their winter subsistence, might be destr [...]ed. Accordingly, the companies being well provided for a march at that season, set off on the first of November; and after tra­velling four days through a rugged, moun­tainous wilderness, and crossing several rivers, they arrived at the spot; but found the fort and adjacent places entirely de­serted, and saw not an Indian in all the way. Thinking it needless for the whole body to go further, the weather being se­vere, and the snow deep, a select party was detached eighteen or twenty miles above; who discovered nothing but frozen ponds, and snowy mountains; and supposing the Indians had taken up their winter quarters nearer the sea, they returned to Newich­wannock, within nine days from their first departure.

They had been prompted to undertake this expedition by the false accounts brought by Mogg, an Indian of Penobscot, who had come in to Pascataqua, with a proposal of peace; and had reported that an hundred Indians were assembled at Ossapy. This Indian brought with him two men of [Page 147] Portsmouth, Fryer and Kendal, who had been taken on board a vessel at the east­ward; he was deputed by the Penobscot tribe to consent to articles of pacification; and being sent to Boston, a treaty was drawn and subscribed by the governor and magistrates on the one part, and by Mogg on the other; in which it was stipulated, that if the Indians of the other tribes did not agree to this transaction, and cease ho­stilities, they should be deemed and treat­ed as enemies by both parties. This treaty was signed on the sixth of November; Mogg pledging his life for the fulfilment of it. Accordingly, vessels being sent to Penobscot, the peace was ratified by Mado­kawando the sachem, and two captives were restored. But Mogg, being incau­tiously permitted to go to a neighbouring tribe, on pretence of persuading them to deliver their captives, though he promised to return in three days, was seen no more. It was at first thought that he had been sacrificed by his countrymen, as he pre­tended to fear when he left the vessels; but a captive who escaped in January gave a different account of him;1677. that he boast­ed of having deceived the English, and laughed at their kind entertainment of him. There was also a design talked of among [Page 148] them to break the peace in the spring, and join with the other Indians at the eastward in ruining the fishery. About the same time it was discovered that some of the Narrhaganset Indians were scattered in the eastern parts; three of them having been decoyed by some of the Cochecho Indians into their wigwams, and scalped, were known by the cut of their hair. This raised a fear in the minds of the people, that more of them might have found their way to the eastward, and would prosecute their revenge against them.

From these circumstances it was suspec­ted, that the truce would be but of short continuance. The treachery of Mogg, who was surety for the performance of the treaty, was deemed a full justification of the renewal of hostilities; and the state of things was, by some gentlemen of Pas­cataqua, represented to be so dangerous, that the government determined upon a winter expedition. Two hundred men, including sixty Natick Indians, were en­listed and equipped, and sailed from Boston the first week in February, under the com­mand of Major Waldron; a day of prayer having been previously appointed for the success of the enterprize.

[Page 149]At Casco the major had a fruitless con­ference, and a slight skirmish with a few Indians, of whom some were killed and wounded. At Kennebeck he built a fort, and left a garrison of forty men, under the command of Captain Sylvanus Davis. At Pemaquid he had a conference with a com­pany of Indians, who promised to deliver their captives on the payment of a ransom: Part of it being paid, three captives were delivered, and it was agreed that the con­ference should be renewed in the after­noon, and all arms be laid aside. Some suspicion of their infidelity had arisen, and when the major went ashore in the after­noon with five men, and the remainder of the ransom, he discovered the point of a lance hid under a board, which he drew out and advanced with it toward them; charging them with treachery in conceal­ing their arms so near. They attempted to take it from him by force; but he threatened them with instant death, and waved his cap for a signal to the vessels. While the rest were coming on shore, the major with his five men secured the goods: Some of the Indians snatching up a bun­dle of guns which they had hid, ran away: Captain Frost, who was one of the five, seized an Indian, who was well known to [Page 150] be a rogue, and with Lieutenant Nutter, carried him on board. The major search­ing about found three guns, with which he armed his remaining three men; and the rest being come on shore by this time, they pursued the Indians, killed several of them before they could recover their ca­noes, and after they had pushed off, sunk one with five men, who were drowned; and took four prisoners, with about a thou­sand pounds of dried beef, and some other plunder. The whole number of the In­dians was twenty-five.

Whether the casual discovery of their arms, which they had agreed to lay aside, was sufficient to justify this severity, may be doubted; since, if their intentions had really been hostile, they had a fine oppor­tunity of ambushing or seizing the major and his five attendants, who came ashore unarmed; and it is not likely that they would have waited for the rest to come ashore before they opened the plot. Possi­bly, this sudden suspicion might be ground­less, and might inflame the prejudice against the major, which had been already excited by the seizure of their friends at Cochecho some time before.

On the return of the forces, they found some wheat, guns, anchors and boards at [Page 151] Kennebeck, which they took with them. They killed two Indians on Arrowsick Island, who, with one of the prisoners taken at Pemaquid, and shot on board, made the number of Indians killed in this expedition thirteen. They returned to Boston on the eleventh of March, with­out the loss of a man, bringing with them the bones of Captain Lake, which they found entire in the place where he was killed^*.

There being no prospect of peace at the eastward, it became necessary to maintain great circumspection and resolution, and to make use of every possible advantage against the enemy. A long and invete­rate animosity had subsisted between the Mohawks and the eastern Indians, the original of which is not mentioned, and perhaps was not known by any of our historians; nor can the oldest men among the Mohawks at this day give any account of it. These Indians were in a state of friendship with their English neighbours; and being a fierce and formidable race of men, their name carried terror wherever [Page 152] it was known. It was now thought, that if they could be induced to prosecute their ancient quarrel with the eastern Indians, the latter might be awed into peace, or incapacitated for any farther mischief. The propriety of this measure became a subject of debate; some questioning the lawfulness of making use of their help, "as they were heathen;" but it was urged in reply, that Abraham had entered into a confederacy with the Amorites,Genesis, ch. 14. among whom he dwelled, and made use of their assistance in recovering his kinsman Lot from the hands of their common enemy. With this argument the objectors were satisfied; and the two messengers, Major Pynchon of Springfield, and Richards of Hartford were dispatched to the country of the Mohawks; who treated them with great civility, expressed the most bitter hatred against the eastern enemy,Hubbard's MS Histo­ry. and promised to pursue the quarrel to the ut­most of their power.

Accordingly some parties of them came down the country about the middle of March, and the first alarm was given at Amuskeeg falls; where the son of Wono­lanset being hunting, discovered fifteen Indians on the other side, who called to him in a language which he did not un­derstand; [Page 153] upon which he fled, while they fired near thirty guns at him without effect. Presently after this they were discovered in the woods about Cochecho. Major Waldron sent out eight of his Indians whereof Blind Will was one, for farther information. They were all surprized to­gether by a company of the Mohawks;MS Jour­nal, March 30. two or three escaped, the others were either killed or taken: Will was dragged away by his hair; and being wounded, perished in the woods, on a neck of land, formed by the confluence of Cochecho and Ising­glass rivers, which still bears the name of Blind Will's Neck. This fellow was judged to be a secret enemy to the English, though he pretended much friendship and respect; so that it was impossible to have punished him, without provoking the other neighbouring Indians, with whom he lived in amity, and of whose fidelity there was no suspicion.Hubbard's MS Hist. It was at first thought a fortunate circumstance that he was killed in this manner; but the con­sequence proved it to be otherwise; for two of those who were taken with him escaping, reported that the Mohawks threatened destruction to all the Indians in these parts without distinction:MS Jour­nal. So that those who lived in subjection to the En­glish [Page 154] grew jealous of their sincerity, and ima­gined, not without very plausible ground, that the Mohawks had been persuaded or hired to engage in the war, on purpose to destroy them; since they never actually exercised their fury upon those Indians who were in hostility with the English, but only upon those who were in friend­ship with them; and this only in such a degree as to irritate, rather than to weak­en or distress them. It cannot therefore be thought strange that the friendly In­dians were alienated from their English neighbours, and disposed to listen to the seducing stratagems of the French; who in a few years after made use of them, in conjunction with others, sorely to scourge these unhappy people. The English, in reality, had no such design; but the event proved, that the scheme of engaging the Mohawks in our quarrel, however lawful in itself, and countenanced by the exam­ple of Abraham, was a pernicious source of innumerable calamities.

The terror which it was thought this incursion of the Mohawks would strike in­to the eastern Indians was too small to prevent their renewing hostilities very early in the spring. Some of the garrison who had been left at Kennebeck were surprized [Page 155] by an ambush, as they were attempting to bury the dead bodies of their friends, who had been killed the summer before, and had lain under the snow all winter.Hubbard's MS. The remainder of that garrison were then taken off and conveyed to Pascataqua; whither a company of fifty men and ten Natick Indians marched, under Captain Swaine, to succour the inhabitants, who were alarmed by scattered parties of the enemy, killing and taking people, and burning houses in Wells, Kittery, and within the bounds of Portsmouth^*. A young woman who was taken from Raw­ling's house, made her escape and came into Cochecho, informing where the enemy lay: Three parties were dispatched to am­bush three places,April 2 [...]. by one of which they must pass: The enemy appearing at one of these places, were seasonably discovered; but by the too great eagerness of the party to fire on them, they avoided the ambush and escaped.

Soon after this the garrisons at Wells and Black Point were beset,May 16. and at the lat­ter place the enemy lost their leader Mogg, [Page 156] who had proved so treacherous a negocia­tor. Upon his death they fled in their canoes, some to the eastward and others toward York, where they also did some mischief.May 27. On a sabbath morning, a party of twenty, under the guidance of Simon, surprized six of our Indians, who lay drunk in the woods, at a small distance from Portsmouth; they kept all day hovering about the town, and if they had taken ad­vantage of the people's absence from home, in attending the public worship, they might easily have plundered and burned the out­most houses;MS Letter of Mr. Moody. but they were providentially restrained. At night they crossed the ri­ver at the Long Reach, killed some sheep at Kittery, and then went toward Wells; but, being afraid of the Mohawks, let their prisoners go. Four men were soon after killed at North Hill,June 13. one of whom was Edward Colcott, whose death was much regretted.

More mischief being expected, and the eastern settlements needing assistance, the government ordered two hundred Indians of Natick, with forty English soldiers, under Captain Benjamin Swett of Hamp­ton, and Lieutenant Richardson, to march to the falls of Taconick on Kennebeck river; where it was said the Indians had [Page 157] six forts, well furnished with ammunition. The vessels came to an anchor off Black Point;July. where the captain being informed that some Indians had been seen, went on shore with a party; and being joined by some of the inhabitants, so as to make a­bout ninety in all, marched to seek the enemy; who shewed themselves on a plain in three parties. Swett divided his men accordingly, and went to meet them. The enemy retreated till they had drawn our people two miles from the fort, and then turning suddenly and violently upon them, threw them into confusion, they being mostly young and unexperienced soldiers. Swett, with a few of the more resolute, fought bravely on the retreat, till he came near the fort, when he was killed;MS Letter of Mr. Gookin of Hampton. sixty more were left dead or wounded, and the rest got into the fort. The victorious sa­vages then surprized about twenty fishing vessels, which put into the eastern harbours by night; the crews, not being apprehen­sive of danger on the water, fell an easy prey to them. Thus the summer was spent with terror and perplexity on our part;Hubbard MS Hist. while the enemy rioted without control, till they had satiated their vengeance, and greatly reduced the eastern settlements.

[Page 158]At length, in the month of August, Major Androsse, governor of New-York, sent a sloop with some forces to take pos­session of the land which had been grant­ed to the Duke of York, and build a fort at Pemaquid, to defend the country against the encroachment of foreigners. Upon their arrival the Indians appeared friendly; and in evidence of their pacific disposition, restored fifteen prisoners with the fishing vessels. They continued quiet all the suc­ceeding autumn and winter, and lived in harmony with the new garrison.

In the spring, Major Shapleigh of Kit­tery,1678. Captain Champernoon and Mr. Fryer of Portsmouth, were appointed commissi­oners to settle a formal treaty of peace with Squando and the other chiefs,MS Jour­nal, April 1 [...]. which was done at Casco, whither they brought the remainder of the captives. It was sti­pulated in the treaty, that the inhabitants should return to their deserted settlements, on condition of paying one pe [...]k of corn annually for each family, by way of ac­knowledgment to the Indians for the pos­session of their lands, and one bushel for Major Pendleton, who was a great pro­prietor. Thus an end was put to a tedious and distressing war, which had subsisted three years. The terms of peace were dis­graceful, [Page 159] but not unjust, considering the former irregular conduct of many of the eastern settlers, and the native propriety of the Indians in the soil: Certainly they were now masters of it; and it was entire­ly at their option, whether the English should return to their habitations or not. It was therefore thought better to live peaceably, though in a sort of subjection, than to leave such commodious settlements and forego the advantages of trade and fishery, which were very considerable, and by which the inhabitants of that part of the country had chiefly subsisted.

It was a matter of great enquiry and speculation how the Indians were supplied with arms and ammunition to carry on this war.Hubbard's printed Narrative, p. 82. The Dutch at New-York were too near the Mohawks for the eastern In­dians to adventure thither. The French in Canada were too feeble, and too much in fear of the English, to do any thing which might disturb the tranquility; and there was peace between the two nations. It was therefore supposed that the Indians had long premeditated the war, and laid in a stock beforehand. There had for­merly been severe penalties exacted by the government, on the selling of arms and ammunition to the Indians; but ever [Page 160] since 1657, licences had been granted to particular persons to supply them occasion­ally for the purpose of hunting, on pay­ing an acknowledgment to the public trea­sury. This indulgence, having been much abused by some of the eastern traders, who, far from the seat of government,Ran­dolph's Narrative in Hutch. col. papers, p. 492. were im­patient of the restraint of law, was sup­posed to be the source of the mischief. But it was afterward discovered that the Baron de St. Castine, a reduced French of­ficer, who had married a daughter of Ma­dokawando, and kept a trading house at Penobscot, where he considered himself as independent, being out of the limits of any established government, was the person from whom they had their supplies; which needed not to be very great as they always husbanded their ammunition with much care, and never expended it but when they were certain of doing execution.Ibid, p. 562.

The whole burden and expence of this war, on the part of the colonies, were borne by themselves. It was indeed thought strange by their friends in England, and resented by those in power, that they made no ap­plication to the king for assistance. It was intimated to them by Lord Anglesey ‘that his majesty was ready to assist them with ships,Hutchin. Hist. vol. 1. p. 309. troops, ammunition or money, if [Page 161] they would but ask it;’ and their silence was construed to their disadvantage, as if they were proud, and obstinate, and de­sired to be considered as an independent state. They had indeed no inclination to ask favours from thence; being well aware of the consequence of laying themselves under obligations to those who had been seeking to undermine their establishment; and remembering how they had been ne­glected in the late Dutch wars, when they stood in much greater need of assistance: The king had then sent ammunition to New-York, but had sent word to New-England,Hutch. col. pap. p. 506. ‘that they must shift for them­selves and make the best defence they could.’ It was therefore highly injuri­ous to blame them for not making ap­plication for help. But if [...]ey had not been so ill treated, they coul [...] [...]ot be charg­ed with disrespect, since they really did not need foreign assistance. Ships of war and regular troops must have been altogether useless; and no one that knew the nature of an Indian war could be serious in pro­posing to send them. Ammunition and money were necessary, but as they had long enjoyed a free trade, and had coined the bullion which they imported, there was no scarcity of money, nor of any stores [Page 162] which money could purchase. The me­thod of fighting with Indians could be learned only from themselves: After a little experience, few men in scattered parties were of more service than the largest and best equipped armies which Europe could have afforded. It ought ever to be remembered for the honor of New-Eng­land, that as their first settlement, so their preservation, increase, and defence, even in their weakest infancy were not owing to any foreign assistance, but under God, to their own magnanimity and perseve­rance.

Our gravest historians have recorded many omens, predictions, and other alarm­ing circumstances, during this and the Pe­quod war, which in a more philosophical and less credulous age would not be wor­thy of notice. When men's minds were rendered gloomy by the horrors of a sur­rounding wilderness, and the continual apprehension of danger from its savage in­habitants; when they were ignorant of the causes of many of the common ap­pearances in nature, and were disposed to resolve every unusual appearance into pro­digy and miracle, it is not to be wonder­ed that they should imagine they heard the noise of drums and guns in the air, [Page 163] and saw flaming swords and spears in the heavens, and should even interpret eclipses as ominous. Some old Indians had inti­mated their apprehensions concerning the increase of the English, and the diminu­tion of their own people, which any rati­onal observer in a course of forty or fifty years might easily have foretold, without the least pretence to a spirit of prophecy; yet these sayings were recollected, and re­corded, as so many predictions by force of a supernatural impulse on their minds, and many persons of the greatest distinction were disposed to credit them as such. These things would not have been men­tioned, but to give a just idea of the age: If mankind are now better enlightened, superstition is the less excuseable in its re­maining votaries.

WHILE the country was labouring under the perplexity and distress arising from the war,1675. measures were taking in England to increase their difficulties and divide their attention. The scheme of selling the provinces of New-Hampshire and Maine to the crown being laid aside, Mason again petitioned the king for the restoration of his property; and the king referred the matter to his attorney general Sir William Jones, and his solicitor general Sir Francis Winnington, who reported that ‘John Mason, esq. grandfather to the pe­titioner,May 17. by virtue of several grants from the council of New-England under their common seal was instated in fee in sun­dry great tracts of land in New-England, by the name of New-Hampshire;MS Copy in Superior Court files. and that the peti [...]ioner being heir at law to the said John had a good and legal title [Page 165] to said lands.1676. March 10.’ Whereupon a letter was dispatched to the Massachusetts colony, requiring them to send over agents with­in six months, fully impowered to answer the complaints, which Mason and the heirs of Gorges had made, of their usurping jurisdiction over the territories claimed by them; and to receive the royal determi­nation in that matter. Copies of the com­plaints were inclosed; and Edward Ran­dolph, a kinsman of Mason, a man of great address and penetration, resolute and in­defatigable in business, was charged with the letters, and directed by the Lords of Trade to make enquiry into the state of the country. When he arrived,June 10. he waited on Governor Leverett, who read the king's letter with the petitions of Mason and Gorges in council, Randolph being pre­sent,Hutchin col. pap. [...] 504. who could obtain no other answer than that "they would consider it."

He then came into New-Hampshire, and as he passed along,July. freely declared the business on which he was come, and pub­licly read a letter which Mason had sent to the inhabitants. Some of them he found ready to complain of the government, and desirous of a change; but the body of the people were highly enraged against him; and the inhabitants of Dover in public [Page 166] town-meeting ‘protested against the claim of Mason; declared that they had bonâ fide purchased their lands of the Indians; recognized their subjection to the go­vernment of Massachusetts, under whom they had lived long and happily, and by whom they were now assisted in defend­ing their estates and families against the savage enemy.’ They appointed Major Waldron ‘to petition the king in their behalf, that he would interpose his royal authority and afford them his wonted favor; that they might not be disturb­ed by Mason, or any other person, but continue peaceably in possession of their rights under the government of Massa­chusetts. [...]over Re­ [...]ords.’ A similar petition was sent by the inhabitants of Portsmouth, who ap­pointed John Cutts and Richard Martyn,Portsmou. Records, [...]ept. 1. esqrs. Captains Daniel and Stileman to draught and forward it.

When Randolph returned to Boston, he had a severe reproof from the governor, for publishing his errand, and endeavour­ing to raise discontent among the people. To which he made no other answer than that ‘if he had done amiss,Hutchin. [...]ol. pap. [...]. 510. they might complain to the king.’

After about six weeks stay, he went back to England and reported to the king, that [Page 167] ‘he had found the whole country com­plaining of the usurpation of the magi­strates of Boston; earnestly hoping and expecting that his majesty would not permit them any longer to be oppressed; but would give them relief according to the promises of the commissioners in 1665.’ With the same bitterness of temper, and in the same strain of misre­presentation, he inveighed against the go­vernment in a long report to the Lords of Trade; which farther inflamed the pre­judice that had long been conceived against the colony, and prepared the way for the separation which was meditated.

After his departure, a special council being summoned, at which the elders of the churches were present, the question was proposed to them ‘whether the best way of making answer to the complaints of Gorges and Mason about the extent of their patent, be by sending agents, or by writing only?’ To which they answered, ‘That it was most expedient to send agents, to answer by way of in­formation, provided they were instruct­ed with much care and caution to nego­ciate the affair with safety to the coun­try, and loyalty to his majesty, in the preservation of their patent liberties.’ [Page 168] Accordingly William Stoughton, after­ward lieutenant-governor, and Peter Bulk­ley then speaker of the house of deputies,Hutchin. Hist. vol. 1. p. 311. were appointed agents and sailed for Eng­land.

At their arrival an hearing was ordered before the lords chief justices of the king's bench and common pleas;1677. when the agents in the name of the colony disclaimed all title to the lands claimed by the petitioner,Narrative of Allen's Title, p. 5. and to the jurisdiction beyond three miles northward of the river Merrimack, to fol­low the course of the river, so far as it ex­tended. The judges reported to the king ‘that they could give no opinion as to the right of soil, in the provinces of New-Hampshire and Maine, not having the proper parties before them; it appearing that not the Massachusetts colony, but the ter-tenants had the right of soil, and whole benefit thereof, and yet were not summoned to defend their titles. As to Mason's right of government within the soil he claimed, their lordships, and in­deed his own counsel, agreed he had none; the great council of Plymouth, under whom he claimed, having no pow­er to transfer government to any. It was determined that the four towns of Portsmouth,Hutchin. col. 1. p. [...]17. Dover, Exeter and Hamp­ton [Page 169] were out of the bounds of Massachu­setts.’ This report was accepted and confirmed by the king in council.

After this, at the request of the agents, Sir William Jones the attorney general drew up a complete state of the case to be transmitted to the colony;1679. Sept. 18. by which it seems that he had altered his opinion since the report which he gave to the king in 1675,Hutch. vol. 1. p. 317. concerning the validity of Mason's title. It was also admitted that the title could be tried only on the place, there be­ing no court in England that had cogni­zance of it.

It became necessary then to the establish­ment of Mason's title, that a new juris­diction should be erected, in which the king might direct the mode of trial and appeal at his pleasure: This being resolved upon, the colony of Massachusetts was in­formed, by a letter from the secretary of state,July 24. of the king's intention to separate New-Hampshire from their government,Hutchin. col. pap. 522. and required to revoke all commissions which they had granted there, and which were hereby declared to be null and void. To prevent any extravagant demand, the king obliged the claimant to declare, un­der his hand and seal, that he would re­quire no rents of the inhabitants for the [Page 170] time passed, before the twenty fourth of June 1679, nor molest any in their pos­sessions for the time to come; but would make out titles to them and their heirs for­ever, provided they would pay him six-pence in the pound, according to the year­ly value of all houses which they had built and lands which they had improved.

Things being thus prepared, a commis­sion passed the great seal on the eighteenth of September for the government of New-Hampshire;Commissi­on. which ‘inhibits and restrains the jurisdiction exercised by the colony of Massachusetts over the towns of Ports­mouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton, and all other lands extending from three miles to the northward of the river Mer­rimack and of any and every part there­of, to the province of Maine; constitutes a president and council to govern the pro­vince; appoints John Cutts, esq. president, to continue one year and till another be appointed by the same authority; Rich­ard Martyn, William Vaughan, and Thomas Daniel of Portsmouth, John Gilman of Exeter, Christopher Hussey of Hampton and Richard Waldron of Do­ver, esquires, to be of the council, who were authorised to choose three other qualified persons out of the several parts of the [Page 171] province to be added to them. The said president and every succeeding one to ap­point a deputy to preside in his absence; the president or his deputy with any five to be a quorum. They were to meet at Portsmouth in twenty days after the ar­rival of the commission and publish it. They were constituted a court of record for the administration of justice, accord­ing to the laws of England, so far as cir­cumstances would permit; reserving a right of appeal to the king in council for actions of fifty pounds value. They were impowered to appoint military offi­cers, and take all needful measures for defence against enemies. Liberty of conscience was allowed to all protestants, those of the church of England to be particularly encouraged. For the support of government they were to continue the present taxes, till an assembly could be called; to which end they were with­in three months to issue writs under the province seal, for calling an assembly, to whom the president should recommend the passing such laws as should establish their allegiance, good order and defence, and the raising taxes in such manner and proportion as they should see fit. All laws to be approved by the president and [Page 172] council, and then to remain in force till the king's pleasure should be known, for which purpose they should be sent to England by the first ships. In case of the president's death, his deputy to suc­ceed, and on the death of a counsellor, the remainder to elect another, and send over his name, with the names of two other meet persons, that the king might appoint one of the three. The king en­gaged for himself and successors to con­tinue the privilege of an assembly, in the same manner and form, unless by in­convenience arising therefrom he or his heirs should see cause to alter the same. If any of the inhabitants should refuse to agree with Mason or his agents, on the terms before mentioned, the president and council were directed to reconcile the difference, or send the case stated in writing with their own opinions, to the king, that he with his privy council might determine it according to equity.’

The form of government described in this commission considered abstractedly from the immediate intentions, characters, and connexions of the persons concerned, appears to be of as simple a kind as the nature of a subordinate government and the liberty of the subject can admit. The [Page 173] people, who are the natural and original source of power, had a representation in a body chosen by themselves; and the king was represented by a president and coun­cil of his own appointment, each had the right of instructing their representative, and the king had the superior prerogative of disannulling the acts of the whole at his pleasure. The principal blemish in the commission was the right claimed by the king of discontinuing the representation of the people, whenever he should find it inconvenient, after he had solemnly en­gaged to continue this privilege. The clause, indeed, is artfully worded, and might be construed to imply more or less at pleasure. Herein Charles was consist­ent with himself, parliaments being his aversion. However, there was in this plan as much of the spirit of the British constitution as there could be any founda­tion for in such a colony; for here was no third branch to form a balance between the king or his representative, and the peo­ple. The institution of an house of peers in Britain was the result of the feudal sys­tem: the barons being lords of the soil and enjoying a sovereignty within their own territories and over their own vassals; the constitution was formed by the union [Page 174] of these distinct estates under one common sovereign. But there was nothing similar to this in New-England. The settlements began here by an equal division of pro­perty among independent freemen. Lord­ship and vassalage were held in abhorrence. The yeomanry were the proprietors of the soil and the natural defenders of their own rights and property; and they knew no superior but the king. A council, whether appointed by him or chosen by the people could not form a distinct body, because they could not be independent. Had such a simple form of colony government been more generally adopted, and persevering­ly adhered to, and administered only by the most delicate hands, it might have served better than any other, to perpetuate the dependence of the colonies on the Bri­tish crown.

THE commission was brought to Ports­mouth on the first of January by Ed­ward Randolph,1680. Council Rec. than whom there could not be a more unwelcome messenger. It was re­ceived with great reluctance by the gentle­men therein named; who,Fitch's MS. though they were of the first character, interest and in­fluence, and had sustained the principal offi­ces civil and military under the colony go­vernment^*; yet easily saw that their ap­pointment [Page 176] was not from any respect to them or favour to the people; but merely to obtain a more easy introduction to a new form of government, for a particular purpose, which they knew would be a source of perplexity and distress. They would gladly have declined acting in their new capacity; but considering the temper of the government in England, the una­voidable necessity of submitting to the change, and the danger (upon their refusal) of others being appointed who would be inimical to the country, they agreed to qualify themselves, determining to do what good, and keep off what harm they were able.Council Rec. They therefore published the commission, and took the oaths on the twenty second day of January, which was beyond the utmost time limited in the commission. Agreeably to the royal di­rection they chose three other gentlemen into the council; Elias Stileman of Great Island, who had been a clerk in the coun­ty courts, whom they now appointed se­cretary, Samuel Dalton of Hampton and Job Clements of Dover. The president nominated Waldron to be his deputy or vice president, Martyn was appointed trea­surer, and John Roberts, marshal.

[Page 177]This change of government gratified the discontented few, but was greatly dis­relished by the people in general; as they saw themselves deprived of the privilege of choosing their own rulers, which was still enjoyed by the other colonies of New-England, and as they expected an invasion of their property soon to follow.

When writs were issued for calling a ge­neral assembly the persons in each town who were judged qualified to vote were named in the writs^*; and the oath of al­legiance was administered to each voter. A public fast was observed,Febru. 26. to ask the di­vine blessing on the approaching assembly and ‘the continuance of their precious and pleasant things.’ The assembly^† met at Portsmouth on the sixteenth of March, and was opened with prayer and a sermon by Mr. Moody.

[Page 178]To express their genuine sentiments of the present change, and invalidate the false reports which had been raised against them, as well as to show their gratitude and re­spect to their former protectors, they wrote to the general court at Boston ‘acknow­ledging the kindness of that colony in taking them under their protection and ruling them well; assuring them, that it was not any dissatisfaction with their government, but merely their submission to divine providence and his majesty's commands, without any seeking of their own, which induced them to comply with the present separation, which they should have been glad had never taken place; signifying their desire that a mutual correspondence might be conti­nued for defence against the common enemy, and offering their service when it should be necessary^*.Council Records.’

Their next care was to frame a code of laws, of which the first, conceived in a style becoming freemen, was ‘that no [Page 179] act, imposition, law or ordinance should be made or imposed upon them, but such as should be made by the assembly and approved by the president and coun­cil.’ Idolatry, blasphemy, treason, re­bellion, wilful murder, manslaughter, poisoning, witchcraft, sodomy, bestiality, perjury, man-stealing, cursing and rebel­ling against parents, rape and arson were made capital crimes. The other penal laws were in their main principles the same which are now in force. To prevent conten­tions that might arise by reason of the late change of government, all townships and grants of land were confirmed, and ordered to remain as before; and contro­versies about the titles of land were to be determined by juries chosen by the several towns, according to former custom. The president and council with the assembly were a supreme court of judicature, with a jury when desired by the parties; and three inferior courts were constituted at Dover, Hampton and Portsmouth. The military arrangement was,MS Law. one foot com­pany in each town, one company of artil­lery at the fort, and one troop of horse, all under the command of Major Waldron. During this administration, things went on as nearly as possible in the old channel, [Page 180] and with the same spirit, as before the se­paration. A jealous watch was kept over their rights and privileges, and every en­croachment upon them was withstood to the utmost. The duties and restrictions established by the acts of trade and navi­gation were universally disgustful, and the more so as Randolph was appointed col­lector, surveyor and searcher of the customs throughout New-England. In the exe­cution of his commission he seized a ketch belonging to Portsmouth, but bound from Maryland to Ireland, which had put into this port for a few days. The master Mark Hunking,March 23. brought an action against him at a special court before the president and council, and recovered damages and costs to the amount of thirteen pounds. Randolph behaved on this occasion with such insolence, that the council obliged him publickly to acknowledge his offence and ask their pardon.Council Records and Files. He appealed from their judgment to the king; but what the issue was doth not appear. Having con­stituted Captain Walter Barefoote his dep­uty at this port, an advertisement was published requiring that all vessels should be entered and cleared with him. Upon which Barefoote was brought to examina­tion, and afterward indicted before the [Page 181] president and council, for, ‘having in an high and presumptuous manner set up his majesty's office of customs without leave from the president and council;March 25. in contempt of his majesty's authority in this place; for disturbing and obstruct­ing his majesty's subjects in passing from harbour to harbour, and town to town; and for his insolence in making no other answer to any question propounded to him but "my name is Walter."’ He was sentenced to pay a fine of ten pounds, and stand committed till it was paid. But though Randolph's authority was denied, yet they made an order of their own for the observation of the acts of trade, and appointed officers of their own to see them executed. They had been long under the Massachusetts government, and learned their political principles from them; and as they had been used to think that all royal authority flowed in the channel of the charter, so they now thought that no authority derived from the crown could be regularly exercised in the province but through their commission. In this they reasoned agreeably not only to their former principles, but to their fundamental law, to which they steadily adhered, though they had no reason to think it would be [Page 182] allowed by the crown; and though they knew that a rigid adherence to rights, however clear and sacred, was not the way to recommend themselves to royal favour. But they were not singular in these senti­ments, nor in their opposition to the laws of trade. Randolph was equally hated, and his commission neglected at Boston; where the notary refused to enter his protest against the proceedings of the court;MSS in files. and he was obliged to post it on the exchange.

In the latter end of the year Mason ar­rived from England with a mandamus, re­quiring the council to admit him to a seat at the board,Dec. 30. 1681. which was accordingly done. He soon entered on the business he came abou [...]; endeavouring to persuade some of the people to take leases of him, threaten­ing others if they did not, forbidding them to cut fire-wood and timber, asserting his right to the province and assuming the title of lord-proprietor. His agents, or stew­ards as they were called, had rendered themselves obnoxious by demanding rents of several persons and threatening to sell their houses for payment. These proceed­ings raised a general uneasiness; and pe­titions were sent from each town, as well as from divers individuals, to the council [Page 183] for protection; who, taking up the matter judicially, published an order, prohibiting Mason or his agents at their peril to re­peat such irregular proceedings, and de­claring their intention to transmit the grievances and complaints of the people to the king. Upon this, Mason would no longer sit in council, though desired, nor appear when sent for; when they threat­ened to deal with him as an offender, he threatened to appeal to the king, and pub­lished a summons to the president and se­veral members of the council, and others to appear before his majesty in three months. This was deemed ‘an usurpa­tion over his majesty's authority here established,’ and a warrant was issued for apprehending him; but he got out of their reach and went to England.

During these transactions President Cutts died,March 27. April 5. and Major Waldron succeed­ed him, appointing Captain Stileman for his deputy, who had quitted his place of secretary upon the appointment of Rich­ard Chamberlayne to that office by royal commission.Dec. 30. 1680. The vacancy made in the council by the president's death was filled by Richard Waldron, junior. On the death of Dalton, Anthony Nutter was chosen. [Page 184] Henry Dow was appointed marshal in the room of Roberts who resigned.

During the remainder of the council's administration,1682. the common business went on in the usual manner, and nothing re­markable is mentioned, excepting another prosecution of Barefoote, with his assistants, William Haskins and Thomas Thurton for seizing a vessel ‘under pretence of his majesty's name,March 10. without the know­ledge of the authority of the province, and without showing any breach of statute though demanded.’ Barefoote pleaded his deputation from Randolph; but he was amerced twenty pounds to be respited during his good behaviour, and his two assistants five pounds each; the complainant being left to the law for his damages. This affair was carried by appeal to the king: but the issue is not mentioned.

It will be proper to close the account of this administration with a view of the state of the province as to its trade, im­provements and defence, from a repre­sentation thereof made by the council to the lords of trade, pursuant to their order.

"The trade of the province (say they) is in masts, planks, boards and staves and all other lumber, which at present is of [Page 185] little value in other plantations, to which they are transported; so that we see no other way for the advantage of the trade, unless his majesty please to make our river a free port.

"Importation by strangers is of little value; ships commonly selling their car­goes in other governments, and if they come here, usually come empty to fill with lumber: but if haply they are at any time loaded with fish, it is brought from other ports, there being none made in our province, nor likely to be, until his majesty please to make the south part of the Isles of Shoals part of this govern­ment, they not being at present under any^*.

"In reference to the improvement of lands by tillage, our soil is generally so barren, and the winters so extreme cold and long that there is not provision enough raised to supply the inhabitants, many of whom were in the late Indian war so im­poverished, [Page 186] their houses and estates being destroyed, and they and others remaining still so incapacitated for the improvement of the land, (several of the youth being killed also) that they even groan under the tax or rate, assessed for that service, which is, great part of it, unpaid to this day^*.

"There is at the Great Island in Ports­mouth, at the harbour's mouth, a fort well enough situated, but for the present too weak and insufficient for the defence of the place; the guns being eleven in number are small, none exceeding a sacre [six pounder] nor above twenty one hund­red weight, and the people too poor to make defence suitable to the occasion that may happen for the fort.

"These guns were brought, and the fortification erected, at the proper charge of the towns of Dover and Portsmouth, at the begining of the first Dutch war, about the year 1665, in obedience to his [Page 187] majesty's command in his letter to the go­vernment under which this province then was.

‘There are five guns more lying at the upper part of Portsmouth, purchased by private persons, for their security and defence against the Indians in the late war with them, and whereof the owners may dispose at their pleasure. To supply the foresaid defect and weakness of the guns and fort, we humbly supplicate his majesty to send us such guns as shall be more ser­viceable, with powder and shot.’

By an account of the entries in the port annexed to the above, it appears, that from the fifteenth of June 1680, to the twelfth of April 1681, were entered, twenty two ships, eighteen ketches, two barks,Council Records. three pinks, one shallop and one fly-boat; in all forty seven.

EXPERIENCE having now con­vinced Mason,1682. that the government which he had procured to be erected, was not likely to be administered in a manner favourable to his views, he made it his business, on his return to England, to so­licit a change; in consequence of which it was determined to commission Edward Cranfield, esq. lieutenant-governor and commander in chief of New-Hampshire. By a deed enrolled in the court of chan­cery, Mason surrendered to the king one fifth part of the quit-rents,Jan. 25. which had or should become due: These with the fines and forfeitures which had accrued to the crown since the establishment of the pro­vince, and which should afterwards arise, were appropriated to the support of the [Page 189] governor. But this being deemed too precarious a foundation, Mason by ano­ther deed mortgaged the whole province to Cranfield, for twenty-one years,MS in the [...]les. as se­curity for the payment of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, for the space of seven years. On this encouragement Cranfield relinquished a profitable office at home,Fitch's MS. with the view of bettering his fortune here.

By the commission, which bears date the ninth of May, the governor was im­powered to call, adjourn, prorogue and dissolve general courts; to have a nega­tive voice in all acts of government; to suspend any of the council when he should see just cause (and every counsellor so sus­pended was declared incapable of being elected into the general assembly;) to ap­point a deputy-governor, judges, justices, and other officers, by his sole authority; and to execute the powers of vice-admiral. The case of Mason was recited nearly in the same words as in the former commis­sion, and the same directions were given to the governor to reconcile differences, or send cases fairly stated to the king in council, for his decision. The councellors named in this commission were Mason, who is styled proprietor, Waldron, Daniel, [Page 190] Vaughan, Martyn, Gilman, Stileman and Clements: These were of the former council, and to them were added Walter Barefoote and Richard Chamberlayne.

Cranfield arrived and published his com­mission on the fourth of October,Council Records. and within six days Waldron and Martyn were suspended from the council, on certain ar­ticles exhibited against them by Mason. This early specimen of the exercise of power must have been intended as a pub­lic affront to them, in revenge for their former spirited conduct; otherwise their names might have been left out of the commission when it was drawn.

The people now plainly saw the dan­gerous designs formed against them. The negative voice of a governor, his right of suspending counsellors, and appointing officers by his own authority, were wholly unprecedented in New-England; and they had the singular mortification to see the crown not only appointing two branches of their legislature, but claiming a nega­tive on the election of their representatives, in a particular case, which might some­times be essentially necessary to their own security. They well knew that the sole design of these novel and extraordinary powers was to facilitate the entry of the [Page 191] claimant on the lands which some of them held by virtue of grants from the same authority, and which had all been fairly purchased of the Indians; a right which they believed to be of more validity than any other. Having by their own labour and expense subdued a rough wilderness, defended their families and estates against the savage enemy, without the least assist­ance from the claimant, and held pos­session for above fifty years; they now thought it hard and cruel, that when they had just recovered from the horrors of a bloody war, they should have their liberty abridged, and their property demanded, to satisfy a claim which was at best disputable and in their opinion groundless. On the other hand it was deemed unjust, that grants made under the royal authority should be disregarded; and that so great a sum as had been expended by the ances­tor of the claimant, to promote the settle­ment of the country, should be entirely lost to him;Mason's Will. especially as he had foregone some just claims on the estate as a condi­tion of inheritance. Had the inhabitants by any fraudulent means impeded the de­signs of the original grantee, or embezzled his interest, there might have been a just demand for damages; but the unsuccess­fulness [Page 192] of that adventure was to be sought for in its own impracticability; or the negligence, inability or inexperience of those into whose hands the management of it fell after Captain Mason's death, and during the minority of his successor.

An assembly, being summoned, met on the fourteenth of November; with whose concurrence a new body of laws was enacted, in some respects different from the former; the fundamental law being omitted and an alteration made in the appointment of jurors, which was now ordered to be done by the sheriff,MS Laws. after the custom in England.

Vaughan's Journal.Cranfield, who made no secret of his in­tention to enrich himself by accepting the government, on the first day of the assem­bly restored Waldron and Martyn to their places in the council; having, as he said, examined the allegations against them and found them insufficient.Council Rec. In return for this shew of complaisance, and taking advan­tage of his needy situation, the assembly having ordered an assessment of five hun­dred pounds, appropriated one half of it as a present to the governor; hoping here­by to detach him from Mason, who they knew could never comply with his en­gagements to him. Prefering a certainty [Page 193] to an uncertainty, he passed the bill, though it was not presented to him till after he had given order for adjourning the court,Decemb. 1. and after Mason,MSS in the Files. Barefoote and Chamber­layne were withdrawn from the council.

This appearance of good humour was but short-lived;1683. Jan. 20. for at the next session of the assembly, the governor and council having tendered them a bill for the sup­port of government, which they did not approve, and they having offered him se­veral bills which he said were contrary to law, he dissolved them; having previously suspended Stileman from the council and dismissed him from the command of the fort; for suffering a vessel under seizure to go out of the harbour.Council Rec. Barefoote was made captain of the fort in his room.

The dissolution of the Assembly, a thing before unknown, aggravated the popular discontent, and kindled the resentment of some rash persons in Hampton and Exe­ter; who, headed by Edward Gove, a member of the dissolved assembly, declar­ed by sound of trumpet for "liberty and "reformation." There had been a town meeting at Hampton, when a new clerk was chosen and their records secured. Gove went from town to town proclaiming what had been done at Hampton, carrying his [Page 194] arms, declaring that the governor was a traitor and had exceeded his commission, and that he would not lay down his arms till matters were set right, and endeavour­ing to excite the principal men in the prov­ince to join in a confederacy to overturn the government. His project appeared to them so wild and dangerous, that they not only disapproved it, but informed a­gainst him and assisted in apprehending him. Hearing of their design he collect­ed his company, and appeared in arms; but on the persuasion of some of his friends he surrendered. A special court was im­mediately commissioned for his trial, of which Major Waldron sat as judge, with William Vaughan and Thomas Daniel assistants. The grand jury presented a bill in which Edward Gove, John Gove, his son, and William Hely, of Hampton; Joseph, John and Robert Wadleigh, three brothers, Thomas Rawlins, Mark Baker and John Sleeper, of Exeter, were charg­ed with high-treason. Gove, who behav­ed with great insolence before the court, and pretended to justify what he had done, was convicted and received sentence of death in the usual hideous form;Feb. 2. and his estate was seized, as forfeited to the crown.Records of [...]pecial Courts. The others were convicted of being ac­complices, [Page 195] and respited. The king's pleasure being signified to the governor that he should pardon such as he judged objects of mercy; they were all set at lib­erty but Gove, who was sent to England, and imprisoned in the tower of London about three years. On his repeated peti­tions to the king, and by the interest of Randolph with the Earl of Clarendon, then lord chamberlain, he obtained his pardon and returned home in 1686, with an order to the then president and council of New-England to restore his estate.

Gove in his petitions to the king plead­ed "a distemper of mind" as the cause of those actions for which he was prosecuted.Gove's Papers. He also speaks in some of his private let­ters of a drinking match at his house, and that he had not slept for twelve days and nights, about that time. When these things are considered, it is not hard to ac­count for his conduct. From a letter which he wrote to the court whilst in pris­on,MS in files. one would suppose him to have been disordered in his mind. His punishment was by much too severe, and his trial was hurried on too fast, it being only six days after the commission of his crime. Had he been indicted only for a riot there would have been no difficulty in the proof, nor [Page 196] hardship in inflicting the legal penalty. Waldron, it is said, shed tears when pro­nouncing the sentence of death upon him.

On the fourteenth of February the gov­ernor, by advertisement, called upon the inhabitants to take out leases from Mason within one month, otherwise he must, pursuant to his instructions, certify the re­fusal to the king, that Mason might be discharged of his obligation to grant them. Upon this summons and within the time set, Major Waldron, John Wingett and Thomas Roberts, three of the principal landholders in Dover, waited on the gov­ernor to know his pleasure, who directed them to agree with Mason. They then retired into another room where Mason was, and proposed to refer the matter to the governor, that he might according to his commission, state the matter to the king for his decision. This proposal Ma­son rejected, saying that unless they would own his title, he would have nothing to do with them. Whilst they were in dis­course the governor came in and desired them to depart.Weare's MS.

This piece of conduct is difficult to be accounted for, it being directly in the face of the commission. Had the method there­in prescribed, and by these men proposed, [Page 197] been adopted, it was natural to expect that the king, who had all along favoured Mason's pretensions, would have deter­mined the case as much to his wish as upon an appeal from a judicial court; besides, he had now the fairest opportunity to have it decided in the shortest way, to which his antagonists must have submitted, it being their own proposal. His refusal to accede to it was a capital mistake, as it left both him and Cranfield exposed to the charge of disobedience. But it afforded a powerful plea in behalf of the people; whose confidence in the royal justice would have induced them to comply with the di­rections in the commission. It being now impossible to have the controversy thus decided they determined to hearken to none of his proposals. As he generally met with opposition and contradiction he was induced to utter many rash sayings in all companies. He threatened to seize the principal estates, beggar their owners, and provoke them to rebellion by bring­ing a frigate into the harbour and procur­ing soldiers to be quartered on the inhabi­tants.Weare's MS. These threats were so far from in­timidating the people that they served the more firmly to unite them in their de­termination not to submit; and each par­ty [Page 198] was now warm in their opposition and resentment.

The governor on some fresh pretence suspended Waldron, Martyn and Gilman from the council. The deaths of Daniels and Clements made two other vacancies. Vaughan held his seat the longest, but was at length thrust out for his non-com­pliance with some arbitrary measures. So that the governor had it in his power to mo­del the council to his mind, which he did by appointing at various times Nathanael Fry­er, Robert Eliot, John Hinckes, James Sherlock, Francis Champernoon and Ed­ward Randolph, esquires. The judicial courts were also filled with officers proper for the intended business. Barefoote, the deputy governor, was judge; Mason was chancellor; Chamberlayne was clerk and prothonotary; Randolph was attorney-ge­neral,Council Records. and Sherlock provost marshal and sheriff. Some who had always been disaf­fected to the country, and others who had been awed by threats or flattered by promises took leases from Mason; and these served for under sheriffs, jurors, evidences and other necessary persons.

Things being thus prepared, Mason be­gan his law-suits by a writ against Major Waldron, (who had always distinguished [Page 199] himself in opposition to his claim) for holding lands and felling timber to the amount of four thousand pounds. The major appeared in court, and challenged every one of the jury as interested per­sons, some of them having taken leases of Mason, and all of them living upon the lands which he claimed. The judge then caused the oath of voire dire to be admini­stered to each juror, purporting ‘that he was not concerned in the lands in ques­tion, and that he should neither gain nor lose by the cause.’ Upon which the major said aloud to the people present. ‘That his was a leading case, and that if he were cast they must all become te­nants to Mason; and that all persons in the province being interested, none of them could legally be of the jury.MS in the files.’ The cause however went on; but he made no defence, asserted no title, and gave no evi­dence on his part. Judgment was given against him and at the next court of sessi­ons he was fined five pounds for "muti­nous and seditious words."

Suits were then instituted against all the principal landholders in the province, who, following Waldron's example, never made any defence. Some, chiefly of Hampton, gave in writing their reasons for not join­ing [Page 200] issue; which were, the refusal of Ma­son to comply with the directions in the commission; the impropriety of a jury's determining what the king had expressly reserved to himself; and the incompetency of the jury, they being all interested per­sons, one of whom had said that ‘he would spend his estate to make Mason's right good.’ These reasons were irri­tating rather than convincing to the court. The jury never hesitated in their verdicts. From seven to twelve causes were dispatch­ed in a day, and the costs were multiplied from five to twenty pounds. Executions were issued, of which two or three only were levied; but Mason could neither keep possession of the premises nor dispose of them by sale,MSS in files, and Weare's MSS. so that the owners still enjoy­ed them. Several threatened to appeal to the king but Major Vaughan alone made the experiment.

A suit was also commenced against Martyn who had been treasurer, for the fines and forfeitures received by him, during the former administration; and judgment was recovered for seventy one pounds with costs. Martyn petitioned Mason as chancellor, setting forth, that he had received and disposed of the mon­ey according to the orders of the late pre­sident and council, and praying that the [Page 201] whole burden might not lie upon him. A decree was then issued for the other surviving members of the late council, and the heirs of those who were dead, to bear their proportion.MSS in files. This decree was afterward reversed by the king in council.

Cranfield with his council had now as­sumed the whole legislative power. They prohibited vessels from Massachusetts to enter the port, because the acts of trade were not observed in that colony: They fixed the dimensions of merchantable lum­ber; altered the value of silver money, which had always passed by weight at six shillings and eight-pence per ounce: and ordered that dollars should be receiv­ed at six shillings each, which was then a great hardship; as many of them were greatly deficient in weight: They also changed the bounds of townships; esta­blished fees of office▪ made regulations for the package of fish, and ordered the constables to forbear collecting any town or parish taxes till the province tax was paid, and the accounts settled with the treasurer.Council Rec.

The public grievances having become insupportable, the people were driven to the necessity of making a vigorous stand for their liberties. The only regular way [Page 202] was by complaint to the king. Having privately communicated their sentiments to each other, and raised money by sub­scription, they appointed Nathaniel Weare, esq. of Hampton their agent; and the four towns having drawn and subscribed distinct petitions of the same tenor, Weare pri­vately withdrew to Boston from whence he sailed for England. Major Vaughan who accompanied him to Boston, and was appointed to procure depositions to send after him, was upon his return to Ports­mouth, brought to an examination, treated with great insolence and required to find sureties for his good behaviour;MSS in Files. which, having broken no law, he refused^*; and was by the governor's own warrant im­mediately committed to prison; where he was kept nine months to the great damage of his health, and of his own as well as the people's interest.

Amidst these multiplied oppressions, Cranfield was still disappointed of the gains he had expected to reap from his office;1684. and found to his great mortification, that there was no way of supplying his wants, but by application to the people, through [Page 203] an assembly. He had already abused them so much that he could hope nothing from their favour; and was therefore obliged to have recourse to artifice. On a vague rumour of a foreign war, he pretended much concern for the preservation of the province from invasion; and presuming that they would show the same concern for themselves, he called an assembly at Great-Island where he resided, to whom he tendered a bill,January 14. which in a manner to­tally unparliamentary, had been drawn and passed by the council, for raising mo­ney to defray the expence of repairing the fort, and supplying it with ammunition, and for other necessary charges of govern­ment. The house^* debated a while, and adjourned for the night, and the tide serv­ing, the members went up to the town. In the morning they returned the bill with their negative; at which the governor was highly enraged, and telling them that they had been to consult with Moody, and other declared enemies of the king [Page 204] and church of England, he dissolved them; and afterward by his influence with the court of sessions, divers of the members were made constables for the following year.Court Rec. Vaughan's Journal. Some of them took the oath, and others paid the fine which was ten pounds. Thus by a mean and execrable revenge, he taxed those whom he could not per­suade to tax their constituents for his pur­poses.

But Moody was marked as an object of peculiar vengeance. He had for some time rendered himself obnoxious by the freedom and plainness of his pulpit dis­courses, and his strictness in administering the discipline of the church; one instance of which merits particular notice. Ran­dolph having seized a vessel, she was in the night carried out of the harbour. The owner, who was a member of the church, swore that he knew nothing of it; but upon trial there appeared strong suspicions that he had perjured himself. He found means to make up the matter with the governor and collector; but Moody, be­ing concerned for the purity of his church, requested of the governor copies of the evidence, that the offender might be called to account in the way of ecclesiastical dis­cipline. Cranfield sternly refused, saying [Page 205] that he had forgiven him, and that neither the church nor minister should meddle with him; and even threatened Moody in case he should. Not intimidated, Moody consulted the church and preached a ser­mon against false swearing; then the offender,Ports. Chh Records. being called to account was cen­sured, and at length brought to a public confession. This procedure extremely dis­gusted the governor who had no way then in his power to shew his resentment. But malice, ever fruitful in expedients to at­tain its ends, suggested a method, which to the scandal of the English nation, has been too often practised. The penal laws against nonconformists were at this time executing with great rigour in England; and Cranfield, ambitious to ape his royal master, determined to play off the ecclesi­astical artillery here, the direction of which he supposed to be deputed to him with his other powers. He had attempt­ed to impose upon the people the obser­vation of the thirtieth of January as a fast, and to restrain them from manual la­bour at Christmas; but his capital stroke was to issue an order in council ‘that af­ter the first of January, the ministers should admit all persons of suitable years and not vicious, to the Lord's supper, [Page 206] and their children to baptism; and that if any person should desire baptism or the other sacrament to be administered according to the liturgy of the church of England, it should be done, in pur­suance of the king's command to the colony of Massachusetts^*; and any mi­nister refusing so to do should suffer the penalty of the statutes of uniformity.’

The same week in which he dissolved the assembly, he signified to Moody in writing, by the hands of the sheriff, that himself, with Mason and Hinckes, intend­ed to partake of the Lord's supper the next Sunday; requiring him to adminis­ter it to them according to the liturgy; and, as they justly expected, he at once denied them. The way was now opened for a prosecution; and the attorney gene­ral [Page 207] Joseph Rayn, by the governor's order exhibited an information at the next court of sessions, before Walter Barefoote judge,Feb. 5. Nathanael Fryer and Henry Greene assist­ants, Peter Coffin, Thomas Edgerly and Henry Robie justices, setting forth, ‘that Joshua Moody clerk, being minister of the town of Portsmouth within the do­minions of King Charles, was by the duty of his place and the laws of the realm, viz. the statutes of the fifth and sixth of Edward VI, the first of Eliza­beth, and the thirteenth and fourteenth of Charles II, required to administer the Lord's supper in such form as was set forth in the book of common prayer, and no other. But that the said Moody in contempt of the laws had wilfully and obstinately refused to administer the same to the Honourable Edward Cran­field, Robert Mason, and John Hinckes,MSS in files. and did obstinately use some other form.’ Moody in his defence pleaded that he was not episcopally ordained as the statutes re­quired; nor did he receive his maintenance according to them; and therefore was not obliged to the performance of what had been commanded; that the alleged sta­tutes were not intended for these planta­tions, the known and avowed end of their [Page 208] settlement being the enjoyment of freedom from the imposition of those laws which freedom was allowed and confirmed by the king,Ports. Chh. Records. in the liberty of conscience grant­ed to all protestants, in the governor's commission.Vaughan's Journal. Four of the justices, viz. Greene, Robie, Edgerly and Fryer were at first for acquitting him; but the matter being adjourned till the next day, Cran­field found means before morning to gain Robie and Greene, who then joined with Barefoote and Coffin, in sentencing him to six months imprisonment, without bail or mainprize. The other two persisted in their former opinion, and were soon after removed from all their offices. Moody was immediately ordered into custody, without being permitted first to see his fa­mily; and he remained under confinement, in company with Major Vaughan, at the house of Captain Stileman, with liberty of the yard, for thirteen weeks; "his bene­fice" being declared forfeited to the crown. The next week after Moody's trial, the governor in a profane bravado sent word to Seaborn Cotton minister of Hampton, that ‘when he had prepared his soul, he would come and demand the sacrament of him as he had done at Portsmouth.Vaughan's Journal.’ Upon which Cotton [Page 209] withdrew to Boston. The minister of Dover, John Pike, was (as far as I can find) unmolested. Exeter had then no settled minister.

During Moody's imprisonment, Cran­field would neither suffer him to go up to the town to preach, nor the people to as­semble at the island to hear, nor the neigh­bouring ministers to supply his place; on­ly the family where he was confined were permitted to be present with him at sab­bath exercises. But whilst the governor was absent on a tour to New-York, Ma­son gave leave for opening the meeting-house twice,Vaughan's Journal. when they obtained a mini­ster t [...] officiate; he also allowed both Moody and Vaughan to make a short vi­sit to their families. At length, by the interposition of friends, Moody obtained a release, though under a strict charge to preach no more within the province, on penalty of farther imprisonment. He then accepted an invitation from the first church in Boston; where being out of the reach of his persecutors, he was employed as a preacher, and was so highly esteemed that upon the death of President Rogers he was invited to take the oversight of the college, which he modestly declined,Harvard College Records. and continued his ministrations at Boston, fre­quently [Page 210] visiting his destitute church at Portsmouth, at their private meetings, till 1692; when, the government being in other hands, and the eastern country under trouble by the Indians, at the earnest re­quest of his people,Original MSS. and by the advice of an ecclesiastical council, he returned to his charge at Portsmouth, and spent the rest of his days there in usefulness, love, and peace^*.

Upon a calm review of this prosecution, one can hardly tell which is most detesta­ble, the vindictive temper which gave it birth; or the profaneness and hypocrisy with which it was conducted. The pre­tended zeal of the prosecutors was totally inconsistent with a due regard to those laws, and the principles of that church, for which they made themselves such con­temptible champions. For it had been long before this time, a received opinion in the church of England, that the vali­dity of all the sacramental administrations depends on authority derived from the apostles, by episcopal ordination, in an uninterrupted succession; and one of the statutes on which the prosecution was [Page 211] grounded enacts, ‘that no person shall presume to consecrate and administer the Lord's supper,Stat 13 & 14 Car. II. before he be ordained a priest by episcopal ordination, on pain of forfeiting for every offence one hun­dred pounds.’ The ministers then in the province, being destitute of the grand pre-requisite, were in [...]apable by the act, of doing what was so peremptorily requir­ed of them; and had they complied with the governor's order, must have exposed themselves to the penalty, if he had pleas­ed to exact it from them. But the extend­ing these penalties to the king's Ameri­can subjects, who had fled hither from the rod of prelatic tyranny, was a most unwarrantable stretch of power; since the last of these acts, and the only one which had been made since the settlement of the colonies, was expressly restricted in its ope­ration, to ‘the realm of England, domi­nion of Wales, and town of Berwick upon Tweed.’

Disappointed in all his schemes for rais­ing money by an assembly, Cranfield next ventured on the project of taxing the peo­ple without their consent. The pretext for this was a clause in the commission, impowering him, with the council, ‘to continue such taxes as had been former­ly [Page 212] levied, until a general assembly could be called.’ This had been done, with­out offence, at the beginning both of this and the former administration, when the change of government rendered it neces­sary. But the council, though too much devoted to him, were not easily persuad­ed into the measure at this time; till fear at length accomplished what reason could not approve; for, letters being received from the eastward, informing of the dis­covery of a plot among the Indians, who were instigated by Castine the Frenchman to renew the war early in the spring, [...]eb. 14. the council were summoned in haste, and pre­sently agreed to the governor's proposal, for continuing such taxes as had been for­merly laid, which he told them was nec­essary for the immediate defence and se­curity of the province. This affair how­ever, was kept secret for the present; and the people were first to be convinced of the governor's paternal care and kindness in taking the necessary precautions for their safety.March 13. It was ordered that the meeting-houses in each town should be fortified, and bye garrisons were established in con­venient places: Supplies of ammunitton were ordered to be provided: Circular letters were dispatched to the governors [Page 213] of the neighbouring colonies, informing them of the danger: and, to crown the whole Cranfield himself, at the request of the council, undertook a tour to New-York to solicit the governor, Dongan, for a number of the Mohawks to come down and destroy the eastern Indians;Council Records. promising to pay them for their services out of the money which was thus to be raised.Vaughan's Journal.

At his return from this excursion, he found himself under some embarrassment in his favourite views, from a letter of the lords of trade, which directed him to make use of an assembly, in raising money on the people. He could not, therefore, avoid calling one,May 27. though he immediately dis­solved it, because several of the members were those whom he had formerly order­ed to be made constables. At the same time, in his letters to the secretary of state, he represented the assembly as persons of such a mutinous and rebellious disposition, that it was not safe to let them convene; that they had never given any thing to­ward the support of government; that he was obliged to raise money without them; and that it was impossible for him to serve his majesty's interest without a ship of war to enforce his orders; and finally he de­sired leave to go to the West-Indies for the [Page 214] recovery of his health. When this busi­ness was dispatched, warrants were issued for collecting the taxes; which caused fresh murmurings and discontent among the people.

But however disaffected to the governor and his creatures, they were always ready to testify their obedience to the royal or­ders; an instance of which occured at this time. The seas of America and the West-Indies being much infested with pirates, the king sent orders to all the gov­ernors and colony assemblies, directing acts to be made for the suppressing of pi­racy and robbery on the high seas. Cran­field, having received this order, summon­ed an assembly;July 22. and though it consisted almost entirely of the same persons who were in the last; he suffered them to pass the act, and then quietly dissolved them: This was the last assembly that ever he called.Council Records, and Files.

The tax-bills were first put into the hands of the newly made constables; who soon returned them, informing the gover­nor that the people were so averse to the method, that it was impossible to collect the money. The provost, Thomas Thur­ton, was then commanded to do it, with the assistance of his deputies and the con­stables. [Page 215] The people still refusing com­pliance, their cattle and goods were taken by distraint and sold by auction: Those who would neither pay nor discover their goods to the officers, were apprehended and imprisoned; and some of the consta­bles, who refused to assist, suffered the same fate. The more considerate of the people were disposed to bear these grievances, though highly irritating, till they could know the result of their applications to the king. But in a country where the love of liberty had ever been the ruling passion, it could not be expected but that some forward spirits would break the restraints of prudence, and take a summary method to put a stop to their oppressions. Several persons had declared that they would sooner part with their lives, than suffer distraints; and associations were formed for mutual support. At Exeter the sheriff was resisted and driven off with clubs; the women having prepared hot spits and scalding water to assist in the opposition,Dec. 29. as Thurton testified in his deposition on the occasion. At Hampton he was beaten, and his sword was taken from him; then he was seated on an horse,January 22. and conveyed out of the province to Salisbury with a rope about his neck and his feet tied un­der [Page 216] the horse's belly. Justice Robie at­tempted to commit some of the rioters; but they were rescued by the way, and both the justice and the sheriff were struck in the execution of their office. The troop of horse,January 9. under Mason's command, was then ordered to turn out completely mount­ed and armed, to assist in suppressing the disorder; but when the day came not one trooper appeared. Cranfield thus finding his efforts ineffectual, and his authority contemptible,MSS in files. was obliged to desist.

The agent had been a long time in England, waiting for the depositions, which were to have been transmitted to hin in support of the complaint which he was to exhibit. Cranfield and his crea­tures here did all that they could, to retard the business; first by imprisoning Vaughan, and then by refusing to summon and swear witnesses when applied to by others; who were obliged to go into the neighbouring governments to get their depositions au­thenticated; and after all, the proof was defective, as they had no access to the public records. The agent, however, ex­hibited his complaint against Cranfield in general terms,July 11. consisting of eight articles. ‘That he had engrossed the power of erect­ing courts, and establishing fees, exclu­sive [Page 217] of the assembly: That he had not followed the directions in his commission respecting Mason's controversy; but had caused it to be decided on the spot by courts of his own constitution, consisting wholly of persons devoted to his inter­est: That exorbitant charges had been exacted and some who were unable to satisfy them had been imprisoned: That others had been obliged to submit, for want of money to carry on the suits: That he had altered the value of silver money: That he had imprisoned sundry persons without just cause: That he with his council had assumed legislative autho­rity, without an assembly; and, that he had done his utmost to prevent the peo­ple from laying their complaints before the king,Weare [...] MSS. and procuring the necessary evidence.’

'This complaint was, in course,July 23. referred to the board of trade; who transmitted copies of it, and of the several proofs, to Cranfield, and summoned him to make his defence; directing him to deliver to the adverse party copies of all the affidavits which should be taken in his favour; to let all persons have free access to the re­cords; and to give all needful assistance to them in collecting their evidence against him.Ibid▪

[Page 218]When he had received this letter he sus­pended Mason's suits, till the question concerning the legality of the courts should be decided. He also ordered the secreta­ry to give copies to those who should ap­ply for them. At the same time it was complained that the people, on their part, had been equally reserved, in secreting the records of the several towns, so that Mason upon inquiry could not find where they were deposited: and the town clerks, when summoned, had solemnly sworn that they knew neither where the books were con­cealed,MSS in the fi [...]e [...]. nor who had taken them out of their possession.

1685.The necessary evidence on both sides being procured, a new complaint was drawn up, consisting of twelve articles, which were, ‘That at the first session of the assembly, Cranfield had challenged the power of legislation and settlement of affairs to himself, against the words of the commission: That he had by pur­chase or mortgage from Mason, made himself owner of the province, and so was not likely to act impartially between Mason and the inhabitants: That he had made courts, whereof both judges and jurors had agreed with Mason for their own lands, and some had taken deeds of [Page 219] him for other men's lands, so that they were engaged by their interest to set up Mason's title: That Mason had sued forty persons, and cast all; and that the governor's interposal to state the cases, as by his commission he was directed, had been refused though desired: and that the defendants pleas grounded on the laws of England were rejected: That they could not reconcile the verdict with the attachment, nor the execution with the verdict, nor their practise under col­our of the execution with either; that the verdict found the lands sued for ac­cording to the royal commission and in­structions, and that commission only gave power to state the case if Mason and the people could not agree; but the execu­tion took land and all: That the charge of every action was about six pounds, though nothing was done in court but reading the commission and some blank grants without hand or seal; and these were not read for one case in ten: That court charges were exacted in money, which many had not; who though they tendered cattle, were committed to pri­son for non-payment: That ministers, contrary to his majesty's commission, which granted liberty of conscience to all [Page 220] protestants, had their dues withheld from them, even those that were due before Cranfield came, and were threatened with six months imprisonment for not admin­istering the sacrament according to the liturgy: That though the general assem­bly agreed that Spanish money should pass by weight, the governor and council ordered pieces of eight to pass for six shil­lings, though under weight: That men were commonly compelled to enter into bonds of great penalty, to appear and an­swer to what should be objected against them, when no crime was alleged: That they had few laws but those made by the governor and council, when his commission directed the general assembly to make laws: That the courts were kept in a remote corner of the province; and the sheriff was a stranger and had no visible estate,Weare's MSS. and so was not responsi­ble for failures.’

Upon this complaint, an hearing was had before the Lords of Trade on Tuesday the tenth of March; and their lordships reported to the king, on three articles on­ly of the complaint, viz. ‘That Cranfield had not pursued his instructions with re­gard to Mason's controversy; but instead thereof had caused courts to be held and [Page 221] titles to be decided, with exorbitant costs; and that he had exceeded his power in regulating the value of coins.’ This re­port was accepted, and the king's pleasure therein signified to him. At the same time, his request for absence being grant­ed, he, on receipt of the letters,Neal's Hist. and Flitch's MS. privately embarked on board a vessel for Jamacia; and from thence went to England, where he obtained the collectorship of Barbadoes. At his departure, Barefoote the deputy-governor took the chair; which he held till he was superseded by Dudley's com­mission, as president of New-England.

Cranfield's ill conduct must be ascribed in a great measure to his disappointment of the gains which he expected to acquire, by the establishment of Mason's title; which could be his only inducement to ac­cept of the government. This disappoint­ment inflaming his temper, naturally vin­dictive and imperious, urged him to ac­tions not only illegal, but cruel and un­manly. A ruler never degrades his cha­racter more than when he perverts public justice to gratify personal resentment; he should punish none but the enemies of the laws, and disturbers of the peace of the community over which he presides. Had there been the least colour, either of zeal [Page 222] or policy, for the severity exercised in the prosecution of Moody, candour would oblige us to make some allowance for hu­man frailty. His ordering the members of the assembly to be made constables, was a mode of revenge disgraceful to the cha­racter of the supreme magistrate. From the same base disposition, he is said to have employed spies and pimps,Neal. vol. 2. p. 39. to find matter of accusation against people in their clubs, and private discourse. And his deceit was equal to his malice; for, being at Boston when the charter of that colony was call­ed in question, and the people were soli­citous to ward off the danger; he advised them to make a private offer of two thou­sand guineas to the king, promising to re­present them in a favourable light; but when they, not suspecting his intention, fol­lowed his advice, and shewed him the let­ter which they had written to their agents for that purpose, he treacherously represent­ed them as "disloyal rogues;" and made them appear so ridiculous that their agents were ashamed to be seen at court.Hutchin. vol. 1. page 337. How­ever, when he had quitted the country, and had time for reflection he grew a­shamed of his misconduct, and whilst he was collector at Barbadoes, made a point of treating the masters of vessels,Fitch's MS▪ and other [Page 223] persons who went thither from Pascataqua, with particular respect.

Although the decision of titles in Cran­field's courts had been represented, in the report of the lords, as extrajudicial, and a royal order had been thereupon issued to suspend any farther proceedings in the case of Mason till the matter should be brought before the king in council, pursuant to the directions in the commission; yet Bare­foote suffered executions which had before been issued to be extended, and persons to be imprisoned at Mason's suit. This oc­casioned a fresh complaint and petition to the king, which was sent by Weare, who about this time made a second voyage to England, as agent for the province and attorney to Vaughan, to manage an ap­peal from several verdicts, judgments,Weare's MSS. decrees and fines which had been given against him in the courts here, one of which was on the title to his estate. An attempt being made to levy one of the executions in Dover, a number of persons forcibly resisted the officer, and obliged him to re­linquish his design.MSS in files▪ Warrants were then issued against the rioters, and the sheriff with his attendants attempted to seize them, whilst the people were assembled for di­vine service. This caused an uproar in [Page 224] the congregation, in which a young hero­ine distinguished herself by knocking down one of the officers with her bible. They were all so roughly handled that they were glad to escape with their lives.

That nothing might be wanting to shew the enmity of the people to these measures, and their hatred and contempt for the authors of them;MSS in files. there are still pre­served the original depositions on oath, of Barefoote and Mason, relating to an assault made on their persons by Thomas Wiggen and Anthony Nutter, who had been members of the assembly. These two men came to Barefoote's house where Mason lodged,Dec. 30. and entered into discourse with him about his proceedings; denying his claim and using such language as pro­voked him to take hold of Wiggen with an intention to thrust him out of the door. But Wiggen being a stronger man seized him by his cravat, and threw him into the fire; where his clothes and one of his legs were burned. Barefoote, attempting to help him, met with the same fate, and had two of his ribs broken and one of his teeth beaten out in the struggle. The noise alarmed the servants, who at Mason's command brought his sword, which Nut­ter [Page 225] took away, making sport of their mi­sery^*.

Nothing else occured during Barefoote's short administration, except a treaty of friendship, between the Indians of Pena­cook and Saco, on the one part; and the people of New-Hampshire and Maine on the other. The foundation of this treaty seems to have been laid in Cranfield's pro­ject of bringing down the Mohawks on the eastern Indians; which had once before proved a pernicious measure; as they made no distinction between those tribes which were at peace with the English, and those which were at war. Some of the Pena­cook Indians who had been at Albany af­ter Cranfield's journey to New-York, re­ported on their return, that the Mohawks threatened destruction to all the eastern [Page 226] Indians, from Narrhaganset to Pechypscot▪ Hagkins, a chief of the tribe, had inform­ed Cranfield in the spring of the danger he apprehended, and had implored assist­ance and protection, but had been treated with neglect. In August the Penacook and Saco Indians gathered their corn, and removed their families; which gave an alarm to their English neighbours, as if they were preparing for war. Messengers being sent to demand the reason of their movement, were informed that it was the fear of the Mohawks, whom they daily expected to destroy them; and being asked why they did not come in among the English for protection, they answered, lest the Mohawks should hurt the English on their account. Upon this they were persuaded to enter into an agreement; and accordingly their chiefs being assembled with the council of New-Hampshire, and a deputation from the province of Maine,Septemb. 8. a treaty was concluded, wherein it was stipulated, that all future personal injuries on either side should, upon complaint, be immediately redressed; that information should be given of approaching danger from enemies; that the Indians should not remove their families from the neigh­bourhood of the English without giving [Page 227] timely notice, and if they did, that it should be taken for a declaration of war; and, that whilst these articles were observed the English would assist and protect them against the Mohawks and all other ene­mies. The danger was but imaginary,Original MSS in files. and the peace continued about four years.

Though Mason was hitherto disappoint­ed in his views of recovering the inhabited part of the province he endeavoured to lay a foundation for realizing his claim to the waste lands.1686. A purchase having been made from the Indians, by Jonathan Tyng and nineteen others, of a tract of land on both sides the river Merrimack, six miles in breadth, from Souhegan river to Winni­piseogee lake; Mason by deed confirmed the same, reserving to himself and his heirs the yearly rent of ten shillings.April 15. This was called the million acre purchase. About the same time he farmed out to Hezekiah Usher and his heirs, the mines, minerals,Douglas, vol. 1. p. 419. and ores within the limits of New-Hamp­shire, for the term of one thousand years;May 15. reserving to himself one quarter part of the royal ores, and one seventeenth of the baser sorts;Records of Deeds. and having put his affairs here in the best order that the times would ad­mit, he sailed for England, to attend the hearing of Vaughan's appeal to the king.

WHEN an arbitrary government is determined to infringe the liber­ty of the people, it is easy to find preten­ces to support the most unrighteous claims. King Charles the second in the lat­ter part of his reign was making large strides towards despotism. Charters, which obstructed his pernicious views, were by a perversion of the law decreed forfeited. The city of London, and most of the cor­porations in England, either suffered the execution of these sentences, or tamely surrendered their franchises to the all-grasping hand of power. It could not be expected that in this general wreck of privileges the colonies of New-England could escape. The people of Massachu­setts had long been viewed with a jealous eye.Hutch. col. pap. p. 377. Though the king had repeatedly assured them of his protection and sol­emnly [Page 229] confirmed their charter privileges; yet their spirit and principles were so to­tally dissonant to the corrupt views of the court, that intriguing men found easy ac­cess to the royal ear, with complaints against them. Of these the most invete­rate and indefatigable was Randolph,Hutch. vol. 1. p. 329. who made no less than eight voyages in nine years across the Atlantic, on this mischiev­ous business. They were accused of ex­tending their jurisdiction beyond the bounds of their patent; of invading the prerogative by coining money; of not al­lowing appeals to the king from their courts; and, of obstructing the execution of the navigation and trade laws. By the king's command agents were sent over to answer these complaints. They found the prejudice against the colony so strong, that it was in vain to withstand it; and solicited instructions whether to submit to the king's pleasure, or to let the proceed­ings against them be issued in form of law. A solemn consultation being held, at which the clergy assisted, it was determined ‘to die by the hands of others rather than by their own.’ Upon notice of this, the agents quitted England; and Ran­dolph,1683 October. as the angel of death soon followed them, bringing a writ of quo warranto [Page 230] from the king's bench; but the scire facias which issued from the chancery did not arrive till the time fixed for their appear­ance was elapsed: This however was deemed too trivial an error to stop the proceedings; judgment was entered against them, and the charter declared forfeited.

The king died before a new form of government was settled;1685. [...]eb. 6. but there could be no hope of favour from his successor, who inherited the arbitrary principles of his brother, and was publickly known to be a bigoted papist.

The intended alteration in the govern­ment was introduced in the same gradual manner as it had been in New-Hampshire. A commission was issued, in which Joseph Dudley, esquire, was appointed president of his majesty's territory and dominion of New-England; William Stoughton, dep­uty president; Simon Bradstreet, Robert Mason, John Fitz Winthrop, John Pyn­chon, Peter Bulkeley, Edward Randolph, Wait Winthrop, Richard Warton, John Usher, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartho­lomew Gedney, Jonathan Tyng, Dud­ley Bradstreet, John Hinckes, and Ed­ward Tyng, counsellors. Their juris­diction extended over Massachusetts, New-Hampshire, Maine and the Narrhagan­set or King's province. These gentle­men [Page 231] were mostly natives of the country,1686. some of them had been magistrates, and one of them governor under the charter. No house of deputies was mentioned in the commission.

The new form of government took place on the twenty-fifth day of May; and on the tenth of June an order of council was issued for settling the county courts, which consisted of such members of the council as resided in each county, and any others of them who might be present; with such justices as were commissioned for the pur­pose. These courts had the power of try­ing and issuing all civil causes, and all criminal matters under life or limb; from them an appeal was allowed to a superior court held three times in the year at Boston, for the whole territory; and from thence appeals, in certain cases, might be had to the king in council. Juries were pricked by the marshal and one justice of each county, in a list given them by the select­men of the towns. A probate court was held at Boston, by the president, and ‘in the other provinces and remote counties’ by a judge and clerk appointed by the president. The territory was divided into four counties, viz. Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex and Hampshire; and three provinc­es, viz. New-Hampshire, Maine, and [Page 232] King's province. By another order of the same date, town-taxes could not be assessed but by allowance of two justices;Printed or­ders in the files. and the members of the council were exempted from paying any part thereof.

Things were conducted with tolerable decency, and the innovations were render­ed as little grievous as possible; that the people might be induced more readily to submit to the long meditated introduction of a governor-general.

In December following, Sir Edmund Androsse who had been governor of New-York,Dec. 30. arrived at Boston with a commission appointing him captain-general and gov­ernor in chief of the territory and domin­ion of New-England, in which the col­ony of Plymouth was now included. By this commission, the governor with his council, five of whom were a quorum, were impowered to make such laws▪ im­pose such taxes, and apply them to such purposes as they should think proper. They were also empowered to grant lands on such terms and subject to such quit­rents,MS Copy o [...] the Commis­sion. as should be appointed by the king. Invested with such powers, these men were capable of the most extravagant actions. Though Androsse, like his master, began his administration with the fairest profes­sions, [Page 233] yet like him, he soon violated them, and proved himself a fit instrument for ac­complishing the most execrable designs. Those of his council who were backward in aiding his rapacious intentions were neglected. Seven being sufficient for a full board, he selected such only as were devoted to him, and with their concurrence did what he pleased. Randolph and Ma­son were at first among his confidents; but afterward when New-York was an­nexed to his government,Hutchin. vol. 1. p. 344. Collect. pap. p. 564. the members from that quarter were most in his favour.

To particularize the many instances of tyranny and oppression which the country suffered from these men,1687. is not within the design of this work. Let it suffice to ob­serve, that the press was restrained; liber­ty of conscience infringed; exorbitant fees and taxes demanded, without the voice or consent of the people, who had no privi­lege of representation. The charter being vacated, it was pretended that all titles to land were annulled; and as to Indian deeds, Androsse declared them no better than ‘the scratch of a bear's paw.Revolution in N. Eng. justified, p. 21.’ Land­holders were obliged to take out patents for their estates which they had possessed forty or fifty years; for these patents ex­travagant fees were exacted, and those who [Page 234] would not submit to this imposition had writs of intrusion brought against them, and their land was patented to others. To hinder the people from consulting about the redress of their grievances, town-meetings were prohibited, except one in the month of May for the choice of town officers; and to prevent complaints being carried to England, no person was permit­ted to go out of the country without ex­press leave from the governor. But not­withstanding all the vigilance of the gov­ernor, his emissaries and his guards, the resolute and indefatigable Increase Mather,I▪ Mather's [...]e p. 107. minister of the second church in Boston, and president of the college, got on board a ship and sailed for England, with com­plaints in the name of the people against the governor, which he delivered with his own hand to the king; but finding no hope of redress, he waited the event of the revolution which was then expected.

When the people groaned under so many real grievances,1688. it is no wonder that their fears and jealousies suggested some that were imaginary. They believed Androsse to be a papist; that he had hired the In­dians, and supplied them with ammuni­tion to destroy their frontier settlements;Revolution justified, p. 29, 40. and that he was preparing to betray the [Page 235] country into their hands of the French. At the same time, the large strides that King James the second was making toward the establishment of popery and despotism, raised the most terrible apprehensions; so that the report of the landing of the Prince of Orange in England was received here with the greatest joy. Androsse was so alarmed at the news, that he imprisoned the man who brought a copy of the prince's declaration, and published a proclamation commanding all persons to be in readiness to oppose "any invasion from Holland," which met with as much disregard as one he had issued before, appointing a day of thanksgiving for the birth of a Prince of Wales.

The people had now borne these inno­vations and impositions for about three years: Their patience was worn out,1689. and their native love of freedom kindled at the prospect of deliverance. The news of a complete revolution in England had not reached them; yet so sanguine were their expectations, so eager were they to prove that they were animated by the same spirit with their brethren at home, that upon the rumour of an intended massacre in the town of Boston by the governor's guards, they were wrought up to a degree of fury. [Page 236] On the morning of the eighteenth of April the town was in arms, and the country flocking in to their assistance. The gov­ernor, and those who had fled with him to the fort, were seized and committed to prison. The gentlemen who had been magistrates under the charter, with Brad­street, the late governor, at their head, assumed the name of a council of safety, and kept up a form of government, in the exigency of affairs, till orders arrived from England; when Androsse and his accom­plices were sent home as prisoners of state, to be disposed of according to the king's pleasure.

The people of New-Hampshire had their share of sufferings under this rapacious administration: and Mason himself did not escape. Having attended the hearing of Vaughan's appeal to the king which was decided in Mason's favour: the judg­ment obtained here,Nov. 6, 1686. being affirmed; and having now the fairest prospect of realiz­ing his claim, he returned hither in the spring of 1687, but found his views ob­structed in a manner which he little ex­pected. The government was in the hands of a set of hungry harpies▪ who looked with envy on the large sha [...] of territory which Mason claimed,Hutchin. collect. pa. p. 564. and were for par­celing [Page 237] it out among themselves. The new judges delayed issuing executions on the judgments which he had formerly recover­ed, and the attorney-general, Graham, would not allow that he had power to grant lands by leases. This confirmed the people in their opinion of the invalidity of his claim, and rendered them (if possi­ble) more averse to him than ever they had been. At length, however, he ob­tained from Dudley the chief justice,MS in Sup. Court files. a writ of certiorari, directed to the late judges of New-Hampshire, by which his causes were to be removed to the supreme court of the whole territory, then held at Boston;July 13, 1688▪ but before this could be done, death put an end to his hopes and relieved the peo­ple for a time of their fears. Being one of Sir Edmund's council,Aug. or Sept. 1688. Hutchin. vol. 1. p. 365. Collect. papers, p. 5 [...]6. and attending him on a journey from New-York to Al­bany; he died at Esopus, in the fifty ninth year of his age; leaving two sons, John and Robert, the heirs of his claim and controversy.

The revolution at Boston, though ex­tremely pleasing to the people of New-Hampshire, left them in an unsettled state. They waited the arrival of orders from England; but none arriving, and the peo­ple's minds being uneasy, it was proposed [Page 238] by some of the principal gentlemen, that a convention of deputies from each of the towns should consider what was best to be done. The convention-parliament in Eng­land was a sufficient precedent to author­ize this proceeding. Deputies were ac­cordingly chosen ^* and instructed to resolve upon some method of government. At their first meeting they came to no con­clusion;1690. January. but afterward they thought it best to return to their ancient union with Massachusetts.Massa. Rec. Portsmou. Dover and Exeter Re­cords. A petition for this pur­pose being presented, they were readily admitted; till the king's pleasure should be known and members were sent to the general court which met there in that and the two following years.March 12. The gentlemen who had formerly been in commission for the peace, the militia and the civil offices, were by town votes, approved by the gen­eral court, restored to their places, and [Page 239] ancient laws and customs continued to be observed.

Had the inclination of the people been consulted,1691. they would gladly have been annexed to that government. This was well known to Mather and the other agents,I. Mather's Life pag. 136. who when soliciting for a new charter, earnestly requested that New-Hampshire might be included in it.Hutchin. vol. 1. p. 412. But it was an­swered that the people had expressed an aversion to it and desired to be under a distinct government. This could be found­ed only on the reports which had been made by the commissioners in 1665, and by Randolph in his narrative. The true reason for denying the request was; that Mason's two heirs had sold their title to the lands in New-Hampshire to Samuel Allen of London, merchant;April 27. for seven hundred and fifty pounds, the entail hav­ing been previously docked by a fine and recovery in the court of king's bench;MS in Sup. Court files. and Allen was then soliciting a recognition of his title from the crown, and a commission for the government of the province. When the inhabitants were informed of what was doing, they again assembled by depu­ties in convention, and sent over a petition to the king, praying that they might be annexed to Massachusetts. The petition [Page 240] was presented by Sir Henry Ashurst, and they were amused with some equivocal promises of success by the earl of Notting­ham;Hutchin. vol. 2. p. 6. but Allen's importunity co-inciding with the king's inclination, effectually frustrated their attempt. The claim which Allen had to the lands from Naumkeag to three miles northward of Merrimack, was noticed in the Massachusetts charter;1692. March 1. and he obtained a commission for the gov­ernment of New-Hampshire in which his son in law John Usher, then in Lon­don, was appointed lieutenant governor, with power to execute the commission in Allen's absence. The counsellors named in the governor's instructions were John Usher lieutenant governor, John Hinckes, Nathaniel Fryer, Thomas Graffort, Peter Coffin, Henry Green, Robert Eliot, John Gerrish, John Walford and John Love. The governor was instructed to send to the secretary of state the names of six other persons suitable for counsellors. Three were a quorum, but the instructions were that nothing should be done unless five were present except in extraordinary emer­gencies. Major Vaughan, Nathaniel Weare and Richard Waldron,MS copy of Com. &c. Council minutes. were afterward added to the number.

[Page 241]The council was composed of men who, in general, had the confidence of the peo­ple; but Usher was very disagreeable, not only as he had an interest in Allen's claim to the lands, but as he had been one of Sir Edmund Androsse's adherents, and an active instrument in the late oppressive go­vernment.Council minutes. He arrived with the commis­sion and took upon him the command, on the thirteenth day of August. The people again submitted, with extreme re­luctance, to the unavoidable necessity of being under a government distinct from Massachusetts.

The year 1692 was remarkable for a great mortality in Portsmouth and Green­land by the small pox. The infection was brought in bags of cotton from the West Indies,MS Le [...] and there being but few people who were acquainted with it, the patients suffered greatly, and but few recovered.

IT was the misfortune of this country to have enemies of different kinds to con­tend with at the same time. Whilst the changes above related were taking place in their government, a fresh war broke out on their frontiers, which, though as­cribed to divers causes, was really kindled by the rashness of the same persons who were making havock of their liberties.

The lands from Penobscot to Nova-Sco­tia▪ had been ceded to the French, by the treaty of Breda,Hutchin. coll. pap. p. 548. in exchange for the island of St. Christopher. On these lands the Baron de St. Castine had for many years resided, and carried on a large trade with the Indians; with whom he was intimate­ly connected; having several of their wom­en, beside a daughter of the sachem Ma­dokawando, for his wives. The lands which had been granted by the crown of England to the duke of York (now King James the second) interfered with Castine's plantation, as the duke claimed to the riv­er St. Croix. A fort had been built by [Page 243] his order at Pemaquid, and a garrison sta­tioned there to prevent any intrusion on his property. In 1686 a ship belonging to Pascataqua landed some wines at Penob­scot, supposing it to be within the French territory. Palmer and West, the duke's agents at Pemaquid, went and seized the wines; but by the influence of the French ambassador in England an order was ob­tained for the restoration of them. Here­upon a new line was run which took Cas­tine's plantation into the duke's territory. In the spring of 1688,1688. Androsse went in the Rose frigate, and plundered Castine's house and fort; leaving only the orna­ments of his chapel to console him for the loss of his arms and goods. This base ac­tion provoked Castine to excite the In­dians to a new war,Hutchin. coll. pap. p. 562. pretences for which were not wanting on their part. They complained that the tribute of corn which had been promised by the treaty of 1678, had been withholden; that the fishery of the river Saco had been obstructed by seines; that their standing corn had been devour­ed by cattle belonging to the English; that their lands at Pemaquid had been patent­ed without their consent; and that they had been fraudulently dealt with in trade. Some of these complaints were doubtless [Page 244] well grounded; but none of them were ever inquired into or redressed.

They began to make reprisals at North Yarmouth by killing cattle. Justice Black­man ordered sixteen of them to be seized and kept under guard at Falmouth; but others continued to rob and captivate the inhabitants. Androsse, who pretended to treat the Indians with mildness, command­ed those whom Blackman had seized to be set at liberty. But this mildness had not the desired effect; the Indians kept their prisoners, and murdered some of them in their barbarous frolicks. Androsse then changed his measures, and thought to frighten them, with an army of seven hun­dred men, which he led into their coun­try in the month of November. The rigor of the season proved fatal to some of his men; but he never saw an Indian in his whole march. The enemy were quiet during the winter.

1689.After the revolution, the gentlemen who assumed the government took some precautions to prevent the renewal of hos­tilities. They sent messengers and pre­sents to several tribes of Indians,Hutchinson, Neal, and Mather. who an­swered them with fair promises; but their prejudice against the English was too in­veterate to be allayed by such means as these.

[Page 245]Thirteen years had almost elapsed since the seizure of the four hundred Indians, at Cochecho, by Major Waldron; during all which time, an inextinguishable thirst of revenge had been cherished among them, which never till now found opportunity for gratification^*. Wonolanset, one of the sachems of Penacook, who was dismissed with his people at the time of the seizure, always observed his father's dying charge not to quarrel with the English; but Hag­kins, another sachem, who had been treated with neglect by Cranfield, was more ready to listen to the seducing invitations of Castine's emissaries. Some of those In­dians, who were then seized and sold into slavery abroad, had found their way home, and could not rest till they had revenge. Accordingly a confederacy being formed between the tribes of Penacook and Pig­wacket, and the strange Indians (as they were called) who were incorporated with them, it was determined to surprise the major and his neighbours among whom they had all this time been peacably con­versant.

[Page 246]In that part of the town of Dover which lies about the first falls in the rive [...] Co­checho, were five garrisoned houses; [...]ree on the North side, viz. Waldron's, Otis's and Heard's; and two on the south side, viz. Peter Coffin's and his son's. These houses were surrounded with timber-walls, the gates of which, as well the house doors, were secured with bolts and bars. The neighbouring families retired to these houses by night; but by an unaccountable negligence no watch was kept. The In­dians who were daily passing through the town visiting and trading with the inhab­itants, as usual in times of peace, viewed their situation with an attentive eye. Some hints of a mischievous design had been given out by their squaws; but in such dark and ambiguous terms that no one could comprehend their meaning. Some of the people were uneasy; but Waldron who, from a long course of experience, was in­timately acquainted with the Indians, and on other occasions had been ready enough to suspect them, was now so thoroughly secure, that when some of the people hint­ed their fears to him, he merrily bade them to go and plant their pumpkins, saying that he would tell them when the Indians would break out. The very even­ing [Page 247] before the mischief was done, being told by a young man that the town was full of Indians and the people were much concerned; he answered that he knew the Indians very well and there was no danger.

The plan which the Indians had pre-concerted was, that two squaws should go to each of the garrisoned houses in the evening, and ask leave to lodge by the fire; that in the night when the people were asleep they should open the doors and gates, and give the signal by a whistle; upon which the strange Indians, who were to be within hearing, should rush in, and take their long meditated revenge. This plan being ripe for execution, on the evening of Thursday the twenty-seventh of June, two squaws applied to each of the garrisons for lodging, as they frequent­ly did in time of peace. They were ad­mitted into all but the younger Coffin's, and the people, at their request, shewed them how to open the doors, in case they should have occasion to go out in the night. Mesandowit, one of their chiefs, went to Waldron's garrison, and was kindly enter­tained, as he had often been before. The squaws told the major, that a number of Indians were coming to trade with him the next day, and Mesandowit whilst at [Page 248] supper, with his usual familiarity, said, ‘Brother Waldron, what would you do if the strange Indians should come?’ The major carelessly answered, that he could assemble an hundred men by lifting up his finger. In this unsuspecting confidence the family retired to rest.

When all was quiet the gates were open­ed and the signal was given. The Indians entered, set a guard at the door, and rush­ed into the major's apartment, which was an inner room, Awakened by the noise, he jumped out of bed, and though now advanced in life to the age of eighty years, he retained so much vigour as to drive them with his sword, through two or three doors; but as he was returning for his other arms, they came behind him, stun­ned him with an hatchet, drew him into his hall, and seating him in an elbow chair on a long table, insultingly asked him, ‘Who shall judge Indians now?’ They then obliged the people in the house to get them some victuals; and when they had done eating, they cut the major across the breast and belly with knives, each one with a stroke, saying, ‘I cross out my ac­count.’ They then cut off his nose and ears, forcing them into his mouth; and when spent with the loss of blood he was [Page 249] falling down from the table, one of them held his own sword under him, which put an end to his misery. They also killed his son in law Abraham Lee; but took his daughter Lee with several others, and having pillaged the house, left it on fire. Otis's garrison, which was next to the major's, met with the same fate; he was killed, with several others, and his wife and child were captivated. Heard's was saved by the barking of a dog just as the Indians were entering: Elder Wentworth, who was awakened by the noise pushed them out, and falling on his back, set his feet against the gate and held it till he had alarmed the people; two balls were fired through it, but both missed him. Coffin's house was surprized, but as the Indians had no particular enmity to him, they spared his life, and the lives of his family, and contented themselves with pillaging the house. Finding a bag of money, they made him throw it by handfuls on the floor, whilst they amused themselves in scrambling for it. They then went to the house of his son who would not admit the squaws in the evening, and summoned him to surrender, promising him quarter: He declined their offer and determined to de­fend his house, till they brought out his [Page 250] father and threatened to kill him before his eyes: Filial affection then overcame his resolution, and he surrendered. They put both families together into a deserted house, intending to reserve them for pris­oners; but whilst the Indians were busy in plundering, they all escaped.

Twenty three people were killed in this surprisal, and twenty nine were captivat­ed; five or six houses, with the mills, were burned; and so expeditious were the Indians in the execution of their plot, that before the people could be collected from the other parts of the town to oppose them, they fled with their prisoners and booty. As they passed by Heard's garrison in their retreat, they fired upon it; but the people being prepared and resolved to defend it, and the enemy being in haste, it was pre­served. The preservation of its owner was more remarkable.

Elizabeth Heard, with her three sons and a daughter, and some others, were re­turning in the night from Portsmouth. They passed up the river in their boat un­perceived by the Indians, who were then in possession of the houses;1689. but suspecting danger by the noise which they heard, after they had landed they betook them­selves to Waldron's garrison, where [Page 251] they saw lights, which they imagined were set up for direction to those who might be seeking a refuge. They knocked and begged earnestly for admis­sion; but no answer being given, a young man of the company climbed up the wall, and saw, to his inexpressible surprize, an Indian standing in the door of the house, with his gun. The woman was so over­come with the fright that she was unable to fly; but begged her children to shift for themselves; and they with heavy hearts, left her. When she had a little recovered she crawled into some bushes, and lay there till day-light. She then perceived an Indian coming toward her with a pistol in his hand; he looked at her and went away; returning, he looked at her again; and she asked him what he would have; he made no answer; but ran yelling to the house, and she saw him no more. She kept her place till the house was burned, and the Indians were gone; and then re­turning home, found her own house safe. Her preservation in these dangerous cir­cumstances was the more remarkable, if (as it is supposed) it was an instance of justice and gratitude in the Indians. For at the time when the four hundred were seized in 1676, a young Indian escaped [Page 252] and took refuge in her house, where she concealed him; in return for which kind­ness he promised her that he would never kill her, nor any of her family in any fu­ture war, and that he would use his influ­ence with the other Indians to the same purpose. This Indian was one of the party who surprised the place, and she was well known to the most of them.

The same day, after the mischief was done, a letter from Secretary Addington, written by order of the government, di­rected to Major Waldron, giving him no­tice of the intention of the Indians to sur­prize him under pretence of trade, fell in­to the hands of his son. This design was communicated to Governor Bradstreet by Major Henchman of Chelmsford,Mass. Rec. who had learned it of the Indians: The letter was dispatched from Boston,Appendix No. 47. the day be­fore, by Mr. Weare; but some delay which he met with at Newbury ferry prevented its arrival in season.

The prisoners taken at this time were mostly carried to Canada, and sold to the French; and these, as far as I can learn, were the first that ever were carried thither^*. [Page 253] The Indians had been seduced to the French interest by popish emissaries, who [Page 254] had began to fascinate them with their religious and national prejudices. They had now learned to call the English here­ticks, and that to extirpate them as such was meritorious in the sight of heaven. When their minds were filled with religi­ous phrenzy, they became more bitter and implacable enemies than before; and find­ing the sale of scalps and prisoners turn to good account in Canada, they had still farther incitement to continue their de­predations, and prosecute their vengeance.

The necessity of vigorous measures was now so pressing, that parties were imme­diately dispatched, one under Captain Noyes to Penacook, where they destroyed the corn, but the Indians escaped; another from Pascataqua, under Captain Wincal, to Winnipiseogee, whither the Indians had retired, as John Church, who had been ta­ken at Cochecho and escaped from them, reported: One or two Indians were killed there, and their corn cut down. But these excursions proved of small service, as the Indians had little to lose, and could find an home wherever they could find game and fish.

In the month of August Major Swaine, with seven or eight companies raised by the Massachusetts government, marched [Page 255] to the eastward; and Major Church, with another party, consisting of English and Indians from the colony of Plymouth, soon followed them. Whilst these forces were on their march, the Indians, who lay in the woods about Oyster river, observ­ed how many men belonged to Huck­ing's garrison; and seeing them all go out one morning to work, nimbly ran between them and the house, and killed them all (being in number eighteen) except one who had passed the brook. They then attacked the house, in which were only two boys (one of whom was lame) with some women and children. The boys kept them off for some time and wounded sever­al of them. At length the Indians set the house on fire, and even then the boys would not surrender till they had promised them to spare their lives. They perfidi­ously murdered three or four of the chil­dren; one of them was set on a sharp stake, in the view of its distressed mother, who with the other w [...]men and the boys were carried captive. One of the boys escaped the next day. Captain Garner with his company pursued the enemy, but did not come up with them.

The Massachusetts and Plymouth com­panies proceeded to the eastward, settled [Page 256] garrisons in convenient places, and had some skirmishes with the enemy at Casco and Blue Point. On their return, Major Swaine sent a party of the Indian auxiliaries under Lieutenant Flagg toward Winni­piseogee to make discoveries. These In­dians held a consultation in their own language; and having persuaded their lieutenant with two men to return, nine­teen of them tarried out eleven days longer; in which time they found the enemy, staid with them two nights, and informed them of every thing which they desired to know; upon which the enemy retired to their inaccessible desarts;Magnalia, lib. 7. p. 67. the forces returned without finding them, and in November were disbanded.

Nothing was more welcome to the dis­tressed inhabitants of the frontiers than the approach of winter, as they then expected a respite from their sufferings. The deep snows and cold weather were commonly a good security against an attack from the Indians but when resolutely set on mischief, and instigated by popish en­thusiasm, no obstacles could prevent the execution of their purposes.

The Count de Frontenac, then governor of Canada,1690. was fond of distinguishing himself by some enterprizes against the [Page 257] American subjects of King William, with whom his master was at war in Europe. For this purpose he detached three parties of French and Indians from Canada in the winter, who were to take three different routes into the English territories. One of these parties marched from Montreal and destroyed Schenectada, a Dutch village on the Mohawk river, in the province of New-York. This action which happened at an unusual time of the year, in the month of February, alarmed the whole country; and the eastern settlements were ordered to be on their guard. On the eighteenth day of March, another party which came from Trois Rivieres, under the command of the Sieur Hertel, an officer of great repute in Canada, found their way to Salmon falls, a settlement on the river which divides New-Hampshire from the province of Maine. This party consisted of fifty two men, of whom twenty five were Indians under Hoophood a noted warrior. They began the attack at day-break, in three different places. The people were sur­prized; but flew to arms and defended themselves in the garrisoned houses, with a bravery which the enemy themselves applauded. But as in all such onsets the assailants have the greatest advantage, so [Page 258] they here proved too strong for the defen­dants; about thirty of the bravest were killed, and the rest surrendered at discre­tion, to the number of fifty four, of whom the greater part were women and children. After plundering, the enemy burned the houses, mills and barns, with the cattle^* which were within doors, and then retreat­ed into the woods, whither they were pur­sued by about one hundred and forty men, suddenly collected from the neighbouring towns, who came up with them in the after­noon at a narrow bridge on Wooster's river. [Berwick.] Hertel expecting a pursuit, had posted his men advantageously on the op­posite bank. The pursuers advanced with great intrepidity, and a warm engage­ment ensued, which lasted till night, when they retired with the loss of four or five killed; the enemy by their own account lost two, [...]arlevoix [...]. 7. p. 74. one of whom was Hertel's ne­phew; his son was wounded in the knee; another Frenchm [...]n was taken prisoner, who was so tenderly treated that he em­braced the protestant faith,Magnalia. lib. 7. p. 68. and remained in the country. Hertel on his way home­ward met with a third party who had [Page 259] marched from Quebec, and joining his company to them attacked and destroyed the fort and settlement at Casco, the next May. Thus the three expeditions plan­ned by Count Frontenac proved success­ful; but the glory of them was much tarnished by acts of cruelty, which christ­ians should be ashamed to countenance, though perpetrated by savages^*.

[Page 260]After the destruction of Casco the east­ern settlements were all deserted, and the people retired to the fort at Wells. The Indians then came up westward, and a party of them under Hoophood sometime in May made an assault on Fox Point, [in Newington] where they burned several houses, killed about fourteen people, and carried away six. They were pursued by the Captains Floyd and Greenleaf,Mag. lib. 7. p. 73. who came up with them and recovered some of the captives and spoil, after a skirmish in which Hoophood was wounded and lost his gun. This fellow was soon after kill­ed by a party of Canada Indians who mistook him for one of the Iroquois, with whom they were at war. On the fourth day of July eight persons were killed as they were mowing in a field near Lam­prey river, and a lad was carried captive. The next day they attacked Captain Hil­ton's garrison at Exeter, which was reliev­ed by Lieutenant Bancroft with the loss of a few of his men; one of them, Simon [Page 261] Stone, received nine wounds with shot, and two strokes of a hatchet; when his friends came to bury him they perceived life in him,Mag. lib. 7. p. 74. and by the application of cor­dials he revived to the amazement of all.

Two companies under the Captains Floyd and Wiswal were now scouting, and on the sixth day of July discovered an In­dian track, which they pursued till they came up with the enemy at Whelewright's Pond, [in Lee] where a bloody engage­ment ensued for some hours; in which Wiswal, his lieutenant Flagg, and sergeant Walker, with twelve more, were killed, and several wounded. It was not known how many of the enemy fell, as they al­ways carried off their dead. Floyd main­tained the fight after Wiswal's death, till his men, fatigued and wounded, drew off; which obliged him to follow▪ The enemy retreated at the same time; for when Captain Convers went to look after the wounded, he found seven alive, whom he brought in by sunrise the next morning; and then returned to bury the dead. The enemy then went westward, and in the course of one week killed, between Lam­prey river and Almsbury, not less than forty people.

[Page 262]The cruelties exercised upon the cap­tives in this war exceeded, both in number and degree, any in former times. The most healthy and vigorous of them were sold in Canada, the weaker were sacrificed and scalped; and for every scalp they had a premium. Two instances only are re­membered of their releasing any without a ransom; one was a woman taken from Fox Point,Mag. 73. who obtained her liberty by procuring them some of the necessaries of life; the other was at York; where, after they had taken many of the people, they restored two aged women and five children, in return for a generous action of Major Church, who had spared the lives of as many women and children when they fell into his hands at Amariscogin.MS Letter.

The people of New-England now look­ed on Canada as the source of their troubles, and formed a design to reduce it to subjec­tion to the crown of England. The en­terprize was bold and hazardous; and had their ability been equal to the ardour of their patriotism it might probably have been accomplished. By straining every nerve, they equipped an armament in some degree equal to the service. What was want­ing in military and naval discipline was made up in resolution; and the command [Page 263] was given to Sir William Phips, an honest man, and a friend to his country; but by no means qualified for such an attempt. Una­voidable accidents retarded the expedition, so that the fleet did not arrive before Quebec till October; when it was more than time to return. It being impossible to continue there to any purpose; and the troops growing sickly and discouraged, after some inef­fectual parade, they abandoned the enter­prize.

This disappointment was severely felt. The equipment of the fleet and army re­quired a supply of money which could not readily be collected, and occasioned a pa­per currency; which has often been drawn into precedent on like occasions, and has proved a fatal source of the most compli­cated and extensive mischief. The peo­ple were almost dispirited with the pros­pect of poverty and ruin. In this melan­choly state of the country, it was an hap­py circumstance that the Indians volunta­rily came in with a flag of truce,Nov. 29. and de­sired a cessation of hostilities. A conference being held at Sagadahock, they brought in ten captives, and settled a truce till the first day of May, which they observed till the ninth of June;1691. when they attacked Storer's garrison at Wells, but were brave­ly [Page 264] repulsed. About the same time they killed two men at Exeter, and on the twenty-ninth of September,Mag. 78. a party of them came from the eastward in canoes to Sandy Beach [Rye] where they killed and captivated twenty-one persons.MS Letter of Morril to Prince. Captain Sherburne of Portsmouth, a worthy officer, was this year killed at Macquoit.Fitch's MS.

The next winter the country being alarmed with the destruction of York,1692. Januar. 25. some new regulations were made for the general defence. Major Elisha Hutchinson was appointed commander in chief of the militia; by whose prudent conduct the frontiers were well guarded, and so con­stant a communication was kept up, by ranging parties, from one post to another, that it became impossible for the enemy to attack in their usual way by surprize. The good effect of this regulation was presently seen. A young man being in the woods near Cochecho, was fired at by some Indians. Lieutenant Wilson imme­diately went out with eighteen men; and finding the Indians, killed or wounded the whole party excepting one. This struck a terror and kept them quiet the remainder of the winter and spring. But on the tenth day of June, an army of French and Indians made a furious attack [Page 265] on Storer's garrison at Wells, where Cap­tain Convers commanded; who after a brave and resolute defence, was so happy as to drive them off with great loss.

Sir William Phips, being now governor of Massachusetts, continued the same me­thod of defence; keeping out continual scouts under brave and experienced officers. This kept the Indians so quiet that, ex­cept one poor family which they took at Oyster river, and some small mischief at Quaboag, there is no mention of any des­truction made by them during the year 1693.1693. Their animosity against New-Eng­land was not quelled; but they needed a space to recruit; some of their principal men were in captivity, and they could not hope to redeem them without a peace. To obtain it, they came into the fort at Pemaquid;Aug. 11. and there entered into a solemn covenant; wherein they acknowledged subjection to the crown of England; engaged to aban­don the French interest; promised perpet­ual peace; to forbear private revenge; to restore all captives; and even went so far as to deliver hostages for the due perform­ance of their engagements. This peace,Mag. p. 85. or rather truce, gave both sides a respite, which both earnestly desired.

The people of New-Hampshire were much reduced; their lumber trade and [Page 266] husbandry being greatly impeded by the war. Frequent complaints were made of the burden of the war, the scarcity of pro­visions, and the dispiritedness of the peo­ple. Once, it is said in the council minutes that they were even ready to quit the pro­vince. The governor was obliged to im­press men to guard the outposts; they were sometimes dismissed for want of pro­visions, and then the garrisoned officers were called to account and severely punished: Yet all this time the public debt did not ex­ceed four hundred pounds. In this situation, they were obliged to apply to their neigh­bours for assistance; but this was granted with a sparing hand. The people of Mas­sachusetts were much divided and at vari­ance among themselves, both on account of the new charter which they had receiv­ed from King William, and the pretend­ed witchcrafts which have made so loud a noise in the world. Party and passion had usurped the place of patriotism; and the defence, not only of their neighbours, but of themselves was neglected to grati­fy their malignant humours. Their gov­ernor too had been affronted in this prov­ince, on the following occasion.

Sir William Phips, having had a quar­rel with Captain Short of the Nonsuch fri­gate [Page 267] about the extent of his power as vice admiral, arrested Short at Boston, and put him on board a merchant ship bound for England, commanded by one Tay, with a warrant to deliver him to the secretary of state. The ship put into Pascataqua, and the Nonsuch came in after her. The lieutenant, Cary, sent a letter to Hinckes, president of the council threatening to im­press seamen if Short was not released. Cary was arrested and brought before the council, where he received a reprimand for his insolence. At the same time Sir William came hither by land, went on board Tay's ship, and sent the cabbin-boy with a message to the president to come to him there; which Hinckes highly resent­ed and refused. Phips then demanded of Tay his former warrant, and issued anoth­er commanding the re-delivery of Short to him, broke open Short's chest, and seized his papers. This action was looked upon by some as an exertion of power to which he had no right, and it was pro­posed to cite him before the council to an­swer for assuming authority out of his ju­risdiction. The president was warm;March 30. but a majority of the council, considering Sir William's opinion that his vice admiral's commission extended to this province, [Page 268] (though Usher had one, but was not present) and that no person belonging to the province had been injured,MS in [...]iles. advised the president to take no farther notice of the matter. Soon after this Sir William drew off the men whom he had stationed in this province as soldiers; and the council advised the lieutenant governor to apply to the colony of Connecticut for men and provisions; but whether this request was granted does not appear.

The towns of Dover and Exeter being more exposed than Portsmouth or Hamp­ton suffered the greatest share in the com­mon calamity. Nothing but the hope of better times kept alive their fortitude. When many of the eastern settlements were wholly broken up, they stood their ground, and thus gained to themselves a reputation which their posterity boast of to this day.

The engagements made by the Indians in the treaty of Pemaquid,1694. might have been performed if they had been left to their own choice. But the French mission­aries had been for some years very assidu­ous in propagating their tenets among them, one of which was ‘that to break faith with hereticks was no sin.’ The Sieur de Villieu, who had distinguished [Page 269] himself in defence of Quebec when Phips was before it, and had contracted a strong antipathy to the New-Englanders, being then in command at Penobscot, he with M. Thury, the missionary, diverted Ma­dokawando and the other sachems from complying with their engagements; so that pretences were found for detaining the English captives, who were more in number, and of more consequence than the hostages whom the Indians had given. Influenced by the same pernicious councils, they kept a watchful eye on the frontier towns, to see what place was most secure and might be attacked to the greatest ad­vantage. The settlement at Oyster river, within the town of Dover, was pitched upon as the most likely place; and it is said that the design of surprizing it was publickly talked of at Quebec two months before it was put in execution▪ Rumours of Indians lurking in the woods there­about made some of the people apprehend danger; but no mischief being attempted, they imagined them to be hunting parties,Magnalia▪ lib▪ [...]. p. 8 [...] ▪ and returned to their security. At length, the necessary preparations being made, Villieu, with a body of two hundred and fifty Indians, collected from the tribes of St. John, Penobscot and Norridgwog,Charlevoix li [...]. 15. p 210. at­tended [Page 270] by a French priest, marched for the devoted place.

Oyster river is a stream which runs into the western branch of Pascataqua; the settlements were on both sides of it, and the houses chiefly near the water. Here were twelve garrisoned houses suf­ficient for the defence of the inhabitants, but apprehending no danger, some fami­lies remained at their own unfortified houses, and those who were in the garri­sons were but indifferently provided for defence, some being even destitute of pow­der. The enemy approached the place un­discovered, and halted near the falls on Tuesday evening, the seventeenth of July. Here they formed two divisions, one of which was to go on each side of the river and plant themselves in ambush, in small parties, near every house, so as to be ready for the attack at the rising of the sun; and the first gun was to be the signal. John Dean, whose house stood by the saw-mill at the falls, intending to go from home very early, arose before the dawn of day, and was shot as he came out of his door. This firing, in part, disconcerted their plan; several parties who had some distance to go, had not then arrived at their stations; the people in general were immediately [Page 271] alarmed, some of them had time to make their escape, and others to prepare for their defence. The signal being given, the attack began in all parts where the enemy was ready.

Of the twelve garrisoned houses five were destroyed, viz. Adams's, Drew's, Edgerly's, Medar's and Beard's. They entered Adams's without resistance, where they killed fourteen persons; one of them, being a woman with child, they ripped open. The grave is still to be seen in which they were all buried. Drew sur­rendered his garrison on the promise of security, but was murdered when he fell into their hands; one of his children, a boy of nine years old, was made to run through a lane of Indians, as a mark for them to throw their hatchets at, till they had dispatched him. Edgerly's was eva­cuated; the people took their boat, and one of them was mortally wounded before they got out of reach of the enemy's shot. Beard's and Medar's were also evacuated and the people escaped.

The defenceless houses were nearly all set on fire, the inhabitants being either killed or taken in them, or else in endeav­ouring to fly to the garrisons. Some es­caped by hiding in the bushes and other [Page 272] secret places, Thomas Edgerly, by con­cealing himself in his cellar, preserved his house, though twice set on fire. The house of John Buss, the minister, was de­stroyed, with a valuable library. He was absent, his wife and family fled to the woods and escaped. The wife of John Dean, at whom the first gun was fired, was taken with her daughter, and carried about two miles up the river, where they were left under the care of an old Indian whilst the others returned to their bloody work. The Indian complained of a pain in his head, and asked the woman what would be a proper remedy: she answered, Occapee, which is the Indian word for rum, of which she knew he had taken a bottle from her house. The remedy being agreeable, he took a large dose and fell asleep; and she took that opportunity to make her escape, with her child, into the woods, and kept herself concealed till they were gone.

The other seven garrisons, viz. Burn­ham's, Bickford's, Smith's, Bunker's, Davis's, Jones's, and Woodman's were re­solutely and successfully defended. At Burnham's the gate was left open: The Indians, ten in number, who were ap­pointed to surprize it, were asleep under [Page 273] the bank of the river, at the time that the alarm was given. A man within, who had been kept awake by the tooth-ach, hearing the first gun, roused the people and secured the gate, just as the Indians who were awakened by the same noise were entering. Finding themselves dis­appointed, they ran to Pitman's, a defence­less house, and forced the door at the mo­ment that he had burst away through that end of the house which was next to the garrison, to which he with his family, taking advantage of the shade of some trees, it being moonlight, happily escaped. Still defeated, they attacked the house of John Davis, which, after some resistance, he surrendered on terms; but the terms were violated, and the whole family was either killed or made captives. Thomas Bickford preserved his house in a singular manner. It was situate near the river, and surrounded with a palisade. Being alarmed before the enemy had reached the house, he sent off his family in a boat, and then shutting his gate, betook himself alone to the defence of his fortress. Despising alike the promises and threats by which the Indians would have persuaded him to surrender, he kept up a constant fire at them, changing his dress as often as he [Page 274] could, shewing himself with a different cap, hat or coat, and sometimes without either, and giving directions aloud as if he had had a number of men with him. Finding their attempt vain, the enemy withdrew, and left him sole master of the house which he had defended with such admirable address▪ Smith's, Bunker's, and Davis's garrisons, being seasonably appriz­ed of the danger, were resolutely defended; one Indian was supposed to be killed and another wounded by a shot from Davis's. Jones's garrison was beset before day; Capt. Jones hearing his dogs bark, and imagin­ing wolves might be near, went out to secure some swine and returned unmolested. He then went up into the flankart and sat on the wall. Discerning the flash of a gun, he dropped backward; the ball entered the place from whence he had withdrawn his legs. The enemy from behind a rock kept firing on the house for some time and then quitted it. During these trans­actions the French priest took possession of the meeting-house, and employed himself in writing on the pulpit with chalk; but the house received no damage.

Those parties of the enemy who were on the south side of the river having com­pleted their destructive work, collected in [Page 275] a field adjoining to Burnham's garrison, where they insultingly shewed their pri­soners, and derided the people, thinking themselves out of reach of their shot. A young man from the centry-box fired at one who was making some indecent signs of defiance, and wounded him in the heel: Him they placed on a horse and carried away. Both divisions then met at the falls, where they had parted the evening before, and proceeded together to Capt. Wood­man's garrison. The ground being un­even, they approached without danger, and from behind a hill kept up a long and severe fire at the hats and caps which the people within held up on sticks above the walls, without any other damage than galling the roof of the house. At length, apprehending it was time for the people in the neighbouring settlements to be col­lected in pursuit of them, they finally withdrew; having killed and captivated between ninety and an hundred persons, and burned about twenty houses, of which five were garrisons^*. The main body of them retreated over Winnipiseogee lake, where they divided their prisoners, sepa­rating those in particular who were most [Page 276] intimately connected, in which they often took a pleasure suited to their savage na­ture^†.

About forty of the enemy under Tox­us, a Norridgwog chief, resolving on far­ther mischief, went westward and did ex­ecution as far as Groton. A small par­ty having crossed the river Pascataqua, came to a farm where Ursula Cutts, wid­ow of the deceased president, resided, who imagining the enemy had done what mischief they intended for that time, could not be persuaded to remove into town till her haymaking should be finished. As she was in the field with her labourers,Magnalia, lib. 7. p. 86. the enemy fired from an ambush and killed her, with three others. Colonel Richard [Page 277] Waldron and his wife with their infant son (afterward secretary) had almost shar­ed the same fate; they were taking boat to go and dine with this lady, when they were stopped by the arrival of some friends at their house; whilst at dinner they were informed of her death. She lived about two miles above the town of Portsmouth, and had laid out her farm with much ele­gance. The scalps taken in this whole expedition were carried to Canada by Ma­dokawando, and presented to Count Fron­tenac, from whom he received the reward of his treacherous adventure.

There is no mention of any more mis­chief by the Indians within this province till the next year, when,1695. in the month of July, two men, were killed at Exeter. The following year,1696. on the seventh day of May, John Church, who had been taken and escaped from them seven years before, was killed and scalped at Cochecho, near his own house. On the twenty-sixth of June an attack was made at Portsmouth plain, about two miles from the town. The enemy came from York-nubble to Sandy-beach in canoes, which they hid there among the bushes near the shore. Some suspicion was formed the day before by reason of the cattle running out of the [Page 278] woods at Little-harbour; but false alarms were frequent and this was not much re­garded. Early in the morning the attack was made on five houses at once; fourteen persons were killed on the spot, one was scalped and left for dead, but recovered, and four were taken. The enemy having plun­dered the houses of what they could carry, set them on fire, and made a precipitate retreat through the great swamp. A com­pany of militia under Captain Shack­ford and Lieutenant Libbey pursued, and discovered them cooking their breakfast, at a place ever since called Breakfast hill. [Rye] The Indians were on the farther side, having pl [...]ced their captives between them­selves and the top of the hill, that in case of an attack they might first receive the fire. The lieutenant pleaded to go round the hill, and come upon them below to cut off their retreat; but the captain fear­ing that in that case they would, accord­ing to their custom, kill the prisoners, rushed upon them from the top of the hill, by which means they retook the captives and plunder, but the Indians, rolling down the hill, escaped into the swamp and got to their canoes. Another party, under anoth­er commander, Gerrish, was then sent out in shallops to intercept them as they should [Page 279] cross over to the eastward by night. The captain ranged his boats in a line, and or­dered his men to reserve their fire till he gave the watch-word. It being a calm night the Indians were heard as they ad­vanced; but the captain, unhappily giving the word before they had come within gun-shot, they tacked about to the south­ward, and going round the Isles of Shoals, by the favour of their light canoes escaped. The watch-word was Crambo, which the captain ever after bore as an appendage to his title^*. On the twenty-sixth day of July, the people of Dover were waylaid as they were returning from the public worship, whe [...] three were killed,Magnalia, lib. 7. p. 89. three wounded, and three carried to Penobscot, from whence they soon found their way home.

The next year on the tenth of June,1697. the town of Exeter was remarkably pre­served from destruction. A body of the enemy had placed themselves near the town, intending to make an assault in the morning of the next day. A number of women and children contrary to the advice of their friends went into the fields, with­out a guard, to gather strawberries. When [Page 280] they were gone, some persons, to frighten them, fired an alarm; which quickly spread through the town, and brought the people together in arms. The Indians supposing that they were discovered, and quickened by fear, after killing one, wounding ano­ther, and taking a child, made a hasty re­treat and were seen no more there. But on the fourth day of July they waylaid and killed the worthy Major Frost at Kit­tery,Mag. lib. 7. [...]. 91. MS Journal. to whom they had owed revenge ever since the seizure of the four hundred at Cochecho, in which he was concerned.

The same year an invasion of the coun­try was projected by the French. A fleet was to sail from France to Newfoundland and thence to Penobscot, where being join­ed by an army from Canada, an attempt was to be made on Boston, and the sea­coast ravaged from thence to Pascataqua. The plan was too extensive and compli­cated to be executed in one summer. The fleet came no further than Newfoundland; when the advanced season, and scantiness of provisions obliged them to give over the design. The people of New-England were apprized of the danger, and made the best preparations in their powe [...]. They strengthened their fortifications on the coast, and raised a body of men to de­fend [Page 281] the frontiers against the Indians who were expected to co-operate with the French. Some mischief was done by lurking parties at the eastward▪ but New-Hampshire was unmolested by them during the remainder of this, and the whole of the following year.

After the peace of Ryswick,1698. Count Frontenac informed the Indians that he could not any longer support them in a war with the English, with whom his na­tion was then at peace. He therefore ad­vised them to bury the hatchet and restore their captives. Having suffered much by famine, and being divided in their opini­ons about prosecuting the war, after a long time they were brought to a treaty at Casco;1699. Januar. 7. where they ratified their former engagements; acknowledged subjection to the crown of England; lamented their former perfidy, and promised future peace and good behaviour in such terms as the commissioners dictated,Mag. lib. 7 p. 94. and with as much sincerity as could be expected. At the [...]ame time they restored those captives who were able to travel from the places of their detention to Casco in that unfavourable season of the year; giving assurance for the return of the others in the spring; but many of the younger sort, both males and [Page 282] females, were detained; who, mingling with the Indians, contributed to a succes­sion of enemies in future wars against their own country.Hutchin. vol. 2. p. 110.

A general view of an Indian war will give a just idea of these distressing times, and be a proper close to this narration.

The Indians were seldom or never seen before they did execution. They appear­ed not in the open field, nor gave proofs of a truly masculine courage; but did their exploits by surprize, chiefly in the morn­ing, keeping themselves hid behind logs and bushes, near the paths in the woods, or the fences contiguous to the doors of houses; and their lurking holes could be known only by the report of their guns, which was indeed but feeble, as they were sparing of ammunition, and as near as possible to their object before they fired. They rarely assaulted an house unless they knew there would be but little resistance, and it has been afterward known that they have lain in ambush for days together, watching the motions of the people at their work, without daring to discover themselves. One of their chiefs who had got a woman's riding-hood among his plunder would put it on, in an evening, and walk into the streets of Portsmouth, [Page 283] looking into the windows of houses and listening to the conversation of the people.

Their cruelty was chiefly exercised upon children, and such aged, infirm, or cor­pulent persons as could not bear the hard­ships of a journey through the wilderness. If they took a woman far advanced in pregnancy their knives were plunged into her bowels. An infant when it became troublesome had its brains dashed out a­gainst the next tree or stone. Sometimes to torment the wretched mother, they would whip and beat the child till almost dead, or hold it under water till its breath was just gone, and then throw it to her to comfort and quiet it. If the mother could not readily still its weeping, the hatchet was buried in its skull. A captive weari­ed with a burden laid on his shoulders was often sent to rest the same way. If any one proved refractory, or was known to have been instrumental of the death of an Indian, or related to one who had been so, he was tortured with a lingering punish­ment, generally at the stake, whilst the other captives were insulted with the sight of his miseries. Sometimes a fire would be kindled and a threatening given out against one or more, though there was no intention of sacrificing them, only to make [Page 284] sport of their terrors. The young Indians often signalized their cruelty in treat­ing captives inhumanly out of sight of the elder, and when inquiry was made into the matter, the insulted captive must either be silent or put the best face on it, to pre­vent worse treatment for the future. If a captive appeared sad and dejected he was sure to meet with insult; but if he could sing and dance and laugh with his masters, he was caressed as a brother. They had a strong aversion to negroes, and▪ generally killed them when they fell into their hands.

Famine was a common attendant on these doleful captivities; the Indians when they caught any game devoured it all at one sitting, and then girding themselves round the waist, travelled without susten­ance till chance threw more in their way. The captives, unused to such canine re­pasts and abstinances, could not support the surfeit of the one nor the craving of the other. A [...]hange of masters, though it sometimes proved a relief from misery, yet rendered the prospect of a return to their home more distant. If an Indian had lost a relative, a prisoner bought for a gun, a hatchet, or a few skins, must supply the place of the deceased, and be the father, brother, or son of the purchaser; and those [Page 285] who could accommodate themselves to such barbarous adoption, were treated with the same kindness as the persons in whose place they were substituted. A sale among the French of Canada was the most hap­py event to a captive, especially if he be­came a servant in a family; though some­times even there a prison was their lot, till opportunity presented for their redemp­tion; whilst the priests employed every se­ducing art to pervert them to the popish religion, and induce them to abandon their country. These circumstances, joined with the more obvious hardships of travelling half naked and barefoot through pathless desarts, over craggy mountains and deep swamps, through frost, rain and snow, exposed by day and night to the inclemency of the weather, and in summer to the ven­omous stings of those numberless insects with which the woods abound; the rest­less anxiety of mind, the retrospect of past scenes of pleasure, the remembrance of distant friends, the bereavements experi­enced at the beginning or during the pro­gress of the captivity, and the daily ap­prehension of death either by famine or the savage enemy; these were the horrors of an Indian captivity.

[Page 286]On the other hand, it must be acknow­ledged that there have been instances of justice, generosity and tenderness during these wars, which would have done honor to a civilized people. A kindness shewn to an Indian was remembered as long as an injury; and persons have had their lives spared for acts of humanity done to the ancestors of those Indians into whose hands they have fallen^*. They would sometimes ‘carry children on their arms and shoul­ders, feed their prisoners with the best of their provision, and pinch themselves rather than their captives should want food.’ When sick or wounded they would afford them proper means for their recovery, which they were very well able to do by their knowledge of simples. In thus preserving the lives and health of their prisoners, they doubtless had a view of gain. But the most remarkably fa­vourable circumstance in an Indian captiv­ity, was their decent behaviour to women. I have never read, nor heard, nor could find by inquiry, that any woman who fell [Page 287] into their hands was ever treated with the least immodesty; but testimonies to the contrary are very frequentMary Rowlandson who was captured at Lancaster, in 1675, has this passage in her narrative, (p. 55.) ‘I have been in the midst of these roaring lions and savage bears, that feared neither God nor man nor the devil, by day and night, alone and in com­pany; sleeping all sorts together, and yet not one of them ever offered me the least abuse of unchastity in word or action.’ Elizabeth Hanson who was taken from Dover in 1724, testifies in her narrative, (p. 28.) that ‘the Indians are very civil toward their captive women, not offering any incivility by any indecent carriage.’ William Fleming, who was taken in Pennsylvania, in 1755, says the Indians told him "he need not be afraid of their abusing his wife, for they would not do it, for fear of offending their God (pointing their hands toward heaven) ‘for the man that affron [...]s his God will surely be killed when he goes to war.’ He farther says, that one of them gave his wife a shift and petticoat which he had among his plunder, and though he was alone with her, yet ‘he turned his back, and went to some distance whilst she put them on.’ (p. 10.) Charlevoix in his account of the Indians of Canada, says, (letter 7.) ‘There is no example that any have ever taken the least li­berty with the French women, even when they were their pri­soners.’. Whether this negative virtue is to be ascribed to a natural frigidity of constitution, let phi­losophers inquire: The fact is certain; and it was a most happy circumstance for our female captives, that in the midst of all their distresses, they had no reason to fear from a savage foe, the perpetration of a crime, which has too frequently dis­graced, not only the personal, but the na­tional character of those, who make large pretences to civilization and humanity.

JOHN Usher, Esquire, was a native of Boston, and by profession a stationer. He was possessed of an handsome fortune, and sustained a fair character in trade. He had been employed by the Massachusetts government, when in England, to nego­ciate the purchase of the province of Maine, from the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and had thereby got a taste for speculating in landed interest. He was one of the partners in the million purchase, and had sanguine expectations of gain from that quarter. He had rendered himself unpop­ular among his countrymen, by accepting the office of treasurer, under Sir Edmund Androsse, and joining with apparent zeal in the measures of that administration, and he continued a friendly connexion with that party, after they were displaced.

Though not illnatured, but rather of an open and generous disposition, yet he [Page 289] wanted those accomplishments which he might have acquired by a learned and polite education. He had but little of the states­man, and less of the courtier. Instead of an engaging affability he affected a severi­ty in his deportment, was loud in conver­sation, and stern in command. Fond of presiding in government, he frequently journied into the province, (though his residence was at Boston, where he carried on his business as usual,) and often sum­moned the council when he had little or nothing to lay before them. He gave or­ders, and found fault like one who felt himself independent, and was determined to be obeyed. He had an high idea of his authority and the dignity of his com­mission, and when opposed and insulted, as he sometimes was, he treated the of­fenders with a severity which he would not relax till he had brought them to sub­mission. His public speeches were al­ways incorrect,Provi [...]c [...] files. and sometimes coarse and reproachful.

He seems, however, to have taken as much care for the interest and preservation of the province as one in his circumstanc­es could have done. He began his ad­ministration in the height of a war which greatly distressed and impoverished the [Page 290] country, yet his views from the beginning were lucrative^*. The people perceived these views, and were aware of the danger. The transfer of the title from Mason to Allen was only a change of names: They expected a repetition of the same difficul­ties under a new claimant. After the op­position they had hitherto made, it could not be thought strange that men whose pulse beat high for freedom, should refuse to submit to vassalage; nor, whilst they were on one side defending their possessions against a savage enemy, could it be ex­pected, that on the other, they should tamely suffer the intrusion of a landlord. Usher's interest was united with theirs in providing for the defence of the country, and contending with the enemy; but when the propriety of the soil was in ques­tion, they stood on opposite sides; and as both these controversies were carried on at the same time, the conduct of the peo­ple toward him varied according to the [Page 291] exigency of the case; they sometimes vot­ed him thanks for his services, and at other times complained of his abusing and op­pressing them.

Some of them would have been content to have held their estates under Allen's title^*, but the greater part, including the principal men were resolved to oppose it to the last extremity. They had an aver­sion not only to the proprietary claim on their lands, but their separation from the Massachusetts government, under which they had formerly enjoyed so much free­dom and peace. They had petitioned to be re-annexed to them, at the time of the revolution; and they were always very fond of applying to them for help in their difficulties, that it might appear how un­able they were to subsist alone. They knew also that the Massachusetts people were as averse as themselves to Allen's claim, which extended to a great part of their lands, and was particularly noticed in their new charter.

Soon after Usher's arrival, he made en­quiry for the papers which contained the transactions relative to Mason's suits. Du­ring the suspension of government in 1689, [Page 292] Captain John Pickering, a man of a rough and adventurous spirit, and a lawyer, had gone with a company of armed men to the house of Chamberlayne, the late secre­tary and clerk, and demanded the records and files which were in his possession. Chamberlayne refused to deliver them without some legal warrant or security; but Pickering took them by force, and conveyed them over the river to Kittery. Pickering was summoned before the gov­ernor, threatened and imprisoned, but for sometime would neither deliver the books, nor discover the place of their conceal­ment, unless by order of the assembly and to some person by them appointed to re­ceive them. At length, however, he was constrained to deliver them, and they were put into the hands of the secretary, by the lieutenant-governor's order.

1693.Another favourite point with Usher was to have the boundary between New-Hampshire and Massachusetts ascertained: There were reasons which induced some of the people to fall in with this desire. The general idea was, that New-Hampshire began at the end of three miles north of the river Merrimack; which imaginary line was also the boundary of the adjoin­ing townships on each side. The people [Page 293] who lived, and owned lands near these li­mits, pretended to belong to either pro­vince, as best suited their conveniency; which caused a difficulty in the collecting of taxes, and cutting of timber. The town of Hampton was sensibly affected with these difficulties,1695. October 12▪ and petitioned the council that the line might be run. The council ap­pointed a committee of Hampton men to do it, and gave notice to Massachusetts of their intention;Prov. files. desiring them to join in the affair. They disliked it and declin­ed to act. Upon which the lieutenant-governor and council of New-Hampshire caused the boundary line to be run from the sea-shore three miles northward of Merrimack, and parallel to the river,Brief of the case of N. Hamp. and Massachu. stated by Strange & Hollings, 1738, p. 3. as far as any settlements had been made, or lands occupied.

The only attempt made to extend the settlement of the lands during these times, was, that in the spring of the year 1694, whilst there was a truce with the Indians, Usher granted a charter for the township of Kingston, to about twenty petitioners from Hampton. They were soon dis­couraged by the dangers and difficulties of the succeeding hostilities, and many of them returned home within two years. After the war they resumed their enter­prize; [Page 294] but it was not till the year 1725, that they were able to obtain the settlement of a minister. No alterations took place in the old towns, except the separa­tion of Great Island,1693. Little Harbour, and Sandy Beach, from Portsmouth, and their erection into a town by the name of New-castle; together with the annexation of that part of Squamscot patent which now bears the name of Stretham, to Exeter, it having before been connected with Hampton.Prov. files.

The lieutenant-governor was very for­ward in these transactions, thinking them circumstances favourable to his views, and being willing to recommend himself to the people, by seconding their wishes, as far as was consistent with the interest he meaned to serve. The people, however, regarded the settling and dividing of townships, and the running of lines, only as matters of general convenience, and continued to be disgusted with his administration. His re­peated calls upon them for money were answered by repeated pleas of poverty, and requests for assistance from the neigh­bouring province. Usher used all his in­fluence with that government to obtain a supply of men to garrison the frontiers; and when they wanted provisions for the [Page 295] garrisons, and could not readily raise the money, he would advance it out of his own purse and wait till the treasury could reimburse it.

During the two or three first years of his administration the public charges were provided for as they had been before, by an excise on wines and other spirituous liquors, and an impost on merchandise. These duties being laid only from year to year, Usher vehemently urged upon the assembly a renewal of the act,1695. Nov. 7 and 9. and an ex­tension of the duty to articles of export; and that a part of the money so raised might be applied to the support of govern­ment. The answer he obtained was, that ‘considering the exposed state of the prov­ince, they were obliged to apply all the money they could raise to their defence; and therefore they were not capable of doing any thing for the support of gov­ernment, though they were sensible his honour had been at considerable ex­pence: They begged that he would join with the council in representing to the king the poverty and danger of the prov­ince, that such methods might be taken for their support and preservation as to the royal wisdom should seem meet.’ Being further pressed upon the subject, [Page 296] they passed a vote to lay the proposed du­ties for one year, ‘provided he and the council would join with them in peti­tioning the king to annex them to Mas­sachusetts.’

He had the mortification of being disap­pointed in his expectations of gain, not only from the people, but from his employer. Allen had promised him two hundred and fifty pounds per annum for executing his commission; and when at the end of the third year, Usher drew on him for the payment of this sum, his bill came back protested ^*. This was the more mortify­ing, as he had assiduously and faithfully attended to Allen's interest, and acquaint­ed him from time to time with the means he had used, the difficulties he had en­countered, the pleas he had urged, the time he had spent, and the expence he had incurred in defence and support of his claim. He now desired him to come over and assume the government himself,Usher's let­ter to Al­len, July and Octo. 1695. or get a successor to him appointed in the of­fice of lieutenant-governor. He did not know that the people were before hand of him in this latter request.

[Page 297]On a pretence of disloyalty he had re­moved Hinckes, Waldron, and Vaughan from their seats in the council. The form­er of these was a man who could change with the times; the two [...]tter were steady opposers of the proprietary claim. Their suspension irritated the people, who, by their influence, privately agreed to recom­mend William Partridge, Esq. as a prop­er person for their lieutenant governor in Usher's stead. Partridge was a native of Portsmouth, a shipwright, of an extra­ordinary mechanical genius, of a politic turn of mind, and a popular man. He was treasurer of the province, and had been ill used by Usher. Being largely concerned in trade he was well known in England, having supplied the navy with masts and timber. His sudden departure for England was very surprising to Usher, who could not imagine he had any other business than to settle his accounts. But the surprise was greatly increased when he returned with a commission appointing him lieutenant-governor and commander in chief in Allen's absence.1697. January. It was obtain­ed of the lords justices in the king's ab­sence, by the interest of Sir Henry Ashurst,Ashurst's letters in files. and was dated June 6, 1696.

[Page 298]Immediately on his arrival, his appoint­ment was publickly notified to the people; though, either from the delay of making out his instructions, or for want of the form of an oath necessary to be taken, the commission was not published in the usu­al manner: But the party in opposition to Usher triumphed. The suspended counsellors resumed their seats, Pickering was made king's attorney, and Hinckes as president of the council, opened the as­sembly with a speech.June 8. This assembly or­dered the records which had been taken from Pickering to be deposited in the hands of Major Vaughan,MS. Laws. who was ap­pointed recorder: In consequence of which they have been kept in that office ever since.

Usher being at Boston when this altera­tion took place, wrote to them, declaring that no commission could supersede his till duly published; and intimated his inten­tion of coming hither ‘if he could be safe with his life.’ He also dispatched his secretary,Febru. 20. Charles Story, to England, with an account of this transaction, which in one of his private letters he styles "the Pascataqua rebellion;" adding, that ‘the militia were raised, and forty horse sent to seize him;’ and intimating that the [Page 299] confusion was so great, that ‘if but three French ships were to appear, he believ­ed they would surrender on the first summons.Usher's Letters.’ The extreme imprudence of sending such a letter across the Atlan­tic in time of war, was still heightened by an apprehension which then prevailed, that the French were preparing an armament to invade the country,Lt Gov. Stough­ton's letter of Feb. 24, in files. and that ‘they particularly designed for Pascataqua river.’

In answer to his complaint, the lords of trade directed him to continue in the place of lieutenant-governor,August 3. till Partridge should qualify himself, or till Richard, Earl of Bellomont, should arrive; who was com­missioned to the government of New-York, Massachusetts Bay and New-Hampshire; but had not yet departed from England. Usher received the letter from the lords together with the articles of peace which had been concluded at Ryswick,Decem. 10. and im­mediately set off for New-Hampshire, (where he had not been for a year) pro­claimed the peace,Decem. 13 and published the or­ders he had received, and having proceed­ed thus far, ‘thought all well and quiet.’ But his opposers having held a consulta­tion at night, Partridge's commission was the next day published in form;Decem. 14. he took [Page 300] the oaths, and entered on the administra­tion of government, to he complete vex­ation and disappointment of Usher who had been so elated with the confirmation of his commission,Usher's pa. that as he passed through Hampton, he had forbidden the minister of that place to observe a thanksgiving day,Council [...]les. which had been appointed by President Hinckes.

An assembly being called, one of their first acts was to write to the lords of trade,1698. January 3. ‘acknowledging the favour of the king in appointing one of their own inhabi­tants to the command of the province, complaining of Usher, and alleging that there had been no disturbances but what he himself had made; declaring that those counsellors whom he had suspend­ed were loyal subjects, and capable of serving the king; and informing their lordships that Partridge had now quali­fied himself, and that they were waiting the arrival of the Earl of Bellomont.’

They also deputed I [...]habod Plaisted to wait on the earl at New-York, and com­pliment him on his arrival. ‘If he should find his lordship high, and reserved, and not easy of access, he was instructed to employ some gentleman who was in his confidence to manage the business; but [Page 301] if easy and free, he was to wait on him in person; to tell him how joyfully they received the news of his appointment, and that they daily expected Governor Allen, whose commission would be ac­counted good till his lordship's should be published,Plaisted's Instructi­ons in files. and to ask his advice how they should behave in such a case.’ The prin­cipal design of this message was to make their court to the earl, and get the start of Usher or any of his friends who might prepossess him with an opinion to their disadvantage. But if this should have hap­pened, Plaisted was directed ‘to observe what reception they met with. If his lordship was ready to come this way, he was to beg leave to attend him as far as Boston, and then ask his permission to return home;’ and he was furnished with a letter of credit to defray his expenses. This message, which shews the contrivers to be no mean politicians, had the desired effect.

The earl continued at New-York for the first year after his arrival in America; during which time Governor Allen came over, as it was expected,Aug. 23. and his com­mission being still in force, he took the oaths and assumed the command.Sept. 15. Upon [...] appearanceNov. 23. [Page 302] in council, where he produced the letter from the lords of trade, claimed his place as lieutenant-governor, and declared that the suspended counsellors had no right to sit till restored by the king's order. This brought on an altercation, wherein Elliot affirmed that Partridge was duly qualified and in office, that Waldron and Vaughan had been suspended without cause, and that if they were not allowed to sit, the rest were determined to resign. The gover­nor declared Usher to be of the council; upon which Elliot withdrew.

At the succeeding assembly two new counsellors appeared;1699. January 5. Joseph Smith, and Kingsley Hall. The first day passed quiet­ly. The governor approved Pickering as speaker of the house; told them he had assumed the government because the Earl of Bellomont had not arrived; recommend­ed a continuance of the excise and powder money, and advised them to send a con­gratulatory message to the earl at New-York.January 6. The next day the house answered, that they had continued the customs and excise till November, that they had already congratulated the earl, and received a kind answer, and were waiting his arrival; when they should enter further on business. They complained that Allen's conduct had [Page 303] being grievous in forbidding the collecting of the last tax, whereby the public debts were not paid; in displacing sundry fit persons, and appointing others less fit, and admitting Usher to be of the council, though superseded by Partridge's commis­sion. These things they told him had ob­liged some members of the council and assembly to apply to his lordship for re­lief, and ‘unless he should manage with a more moderate hand they threatened him with a second application.’

The same day Coffin and Weare mov­ed a question in council, whether Usher was one of that body. He asserted his privilege, and obtained a major vote. They then entered their dissent, and de­sired a dismission. The governer forbad their departure. Weare answered that he would not, by sitting there, put contempt on the king's commission, meaning Par­tridge's, and withdrew. The next day the assembly ordered the money arising from the impost and excise to be kept in the treasury, till the Earl of Bellomont's arrival; and the governor dissolved them.

These violences on his part were sup­posed to originate from Usher's resent­ment, and his overbearing influence upon Allen, who is said to have been rather of a [Page 304] pacific and condescending disposition. The same ill temper continued during the remainder of this short administration. The old counsellers, excepting Fryar, re­fused to sit. Sampson Sheaffe and Peter Weare made up the quorum. Sheaffe was also secretary, Smith treasurer, and William Ardel, sheriff. The constables refused to collect the taxes of the preced­ing year, and the governor was obliged to revoke his orders,MS in files. and commission the for­mer constables to do the duty which he had forbidden.

In the spring the earl of Bellomont set out for his eastern governments. The council voted an address, and sent a com­mittee, of which Usher was one, to pre­sent it to him at Boston; and preparations were made for his reception in New-Hamp­shire; where he at length came and pub­lished his commission to the great joy of the people,July 31. who now saw at the head of the government a nobleman of distinguish­ed figure and polite manners, a firm friend to the revolution, a favourite of King Wil­liam, and one who had no interest in op­pressing them.

During the controversy with Allen, Par­tridge had withdrawn; but upon this change he took his seat as lieutenant-gov­vernor, [Page 305] and the displaced counsellors were again called to the board. A petition was presented against the judges of the superior court, and a proclamation was issued, for justices of the peace and consta­bles only, to continue in office, whereby the judges commissions determined. Rich­ard Jose was made sheriff in the room of Ardell, and Charles Story secretary in the room of Sheaffe.

The government was now modelled in favour of the people, and they rejoiced in the change, as they apprehended the way was opened for an effectual settlement of their long continued difficulties and dis­putes. Both parties laid their complaints before the governor, who wisely avoided censuring either, and advised to a revival of the courts of justice, in which the main controversy might be legally decided. This was agreed to, and the necessary acts be­ing passed by an assembly, (who also pre­sented the earl with five hundred pounds which he obtained the king's leave to ac­cept) after about eighteen days stay he quitted the province, leaving Partridge, now quietly seated in the chair, to appoint the judges of the respective courts. Hinckes was made chief justice of the superior court,Council Records. with Peter Coffin, John Gerrish and John [Page 306] Plaisted for assistants; Waldron chief jus­stice of the inferior court, with Henry Dow, Theodore Atkinson and John Wood­man for assistants.

One principal object of the earl's atten­tion was to fortify the harbour and pro­vide for the defence of the country in case of another war. He had recommended to the assembly in his speech the building of a strong fort on Great Island, and after­ward, in his letters, assured them that if they would provide materials, he would endeavour to prevail on the king to be at the expense of erecting it.1700. June 6. Col. Romer, a Dutch engineer, having viewed the spot, produced to the assembly an estimate of the cost and transportation of materials, amounting to above six thousand pounds. They were amazed at the proposal; and returned for answer to the governor, that in their greatest difficulties, when their lives and estates were in the most immi­nent hazard, they were never able to raise one thousand pounds in a year^*; that [Page 307] they had been exceedingly impoverished by a long war, and were now struggling under an heavy debt, besides being en­gaged in a controversy with "a pretend­ed "proprietor;" that they had expend­ed more "blood and money" to secure his majesty's interest and dominion in New-England than the intrinsic value of their estates, and that the fortifying of the har­bour did as much concern Massachusetts as themselves; but they concluded with assuring his lordship, that if he were ‘thoroughly acquainted with their mis­erable, poor and mean circumstances, they would readily submit to whatever he should think them capable of doing.’ They were also required to furnish their quota of men to join with the other colo­nies in defending the frontiers of New-York in case of an attack ^*.MS in files. This they thought extremely hard, not only because they had never received the least assistance from New-York in the late wars, but be­cause an opinion prevailed among them that their enemies had received supplies from the Dutch at Albany, and that the [Page 308] plunder taken from their desolated towns had been sold in that place. There was however no opportunity for affording this assistance,Smith's Hist. New-York; pag. 108, 175, 214. as the New-Yorkers took care to maintain a good understanding with the French and Indians, for the benefit of trade.

But to return to Allen: He had as lit­tle prospect of success in the newly esta­blished courts, as the people had when Mason's suits were carried on under Cran­field's government.Printed state of Allen's ti­tle, p 9. On examining the records of the superior court it was found that twenty-four leaves were missing, in which it was supposed the judgments re­covered by Mason were recorded. No evidence appeared of his having obtained possession. The work was to begin anew; and Waldron, being one of the principal landholders and most strenuous opposers of the claim, was singled out to stand fore­most in the controversy with Allen, as his father had with Mason. The cause went through the courts, and was invariably given in favour of the defendant with costs. Allen's only refuge was in an appeal to the king,Aug. 13. which the court, following the example of their brethren in the Massa­chusetts, refused to admit. He then pe­titioned the king, who by an order in council granted him an appeal, allowing [Page 309] him eight months to prepare for its pro­secution.1701. April 24.

The refusal of an appeal could not fail of being highly resented in England. It was severely animadverted on by the lords of trade, who in a letter to the Earl of Bellomont upon this occasion, say,April 29. ‘This declining to admit appeals to his majesty in council, is a matter that you ought very carefully to watch against in all your governments. It is an humour that prevails so much in proprieties and charter colonies, and the INDEPEN­DENCY they thirst after is now so noto­rious, that it has been thought fit those considerations, together with other ob­jections against those colonies, should be laid before the parliament; and a bill has thereupon been brought into the house of lords for re-uniting the right of government in their [...] to the crown.MS in file [...]’

Before this letter was written the earl died at New-York,March 5. to the great regret of the people in his several governments, among whom he had made himself very popular. A copy of the letter was sent to New-Hampshire by the council of New-York; but the bill mentioned in it was not passed into an act of parliament. For some reasons [Page 310] of state it was rejected by the house of lords.

The assembly of New-Hampshire, hav­ing now a fair opportunity,Hutch. vol. 2. p. 131. endeavoured as much as possible to provide for their own security; and passed two acts, the one for confirming the grants of lands which had been made within their several town­ships;Sept. 13. the other for ascertaining the bounds of them. Partridge gave his consent to these acts; but Allen had the address to get them disallowed and repealed be­cause there was no reserve made in them of the proprietor's right.MS Laws.

The controversy being carried before the king, both sides prepared to attend the suit. Allen's age, and probably want of cash, prevented his going in person; he therefore appointed Usher to act for him, having previously mortgaged one half of the province to him,Octob. 14. for fifteen hundred pounds; Vaughan was appointed agent for the province,1702. May 29. and attorney to Waldron. It being a general interest, the assembly bore the expence, and notwithstanding their pleas of poverty on other occasions provided a fund, on which the agent might draw in case of emergency.

In the mean time King William died and Queen Anne appointed Joseph Dudley Esq. formerly president of New-England, [Page 311] to be governor of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire; whose commission being pub­lished at Portsmouth,July 13.18. the assembly by a well timed present interested him in their favour, and afterward settled a salary on him during his administration,Council & Assembly Records. agreeably to the queen's instructions, who about this time forbad her governors to receive any but settled salaries.

When Allen's appeal came before the queen in council, it was found that his attorney had not brought proof that Ma­son had ever been legally in possession;Printed state of Allen's ti­tle, p. 9. for want of this, the judgment reco­vered by Waldron was affirmed; but the order of council directed that the appellant ‘should be at liberty to begin de novo by a writ of ejectment in the courts of New-Hampshire,MS Copy of Lords Trade Re­port in 1753. to try his title to the lands, or to quit-rents pay­able for the same; and that if any doubt in law should arise, the jury should de­clare what titles each party did severally make out to the lands in question, and that the points in law should be referred to the court;Files of [...] Sup. [...] or if any doubt should arise concerning the evidence, it should be specially stated in writing, that if either party should appeal to her majesty she might be more fully informed, in order to a final determination.’

[Page 312]Whilst this appeal was depending a pe­tition was presented to the queen, pray­ing that Allen might be put in possession of the waste lands. This petition was re­ferred to Sir Edward Northey attorney ge­neral, who was ordered to report on three questions. viz. 1. Whether Allen had a right to the wastes? 2. What lands ought to be accounted waste? 3. By what meth­od her majesty might put him into pos­session? At the same time Usher was mak­ing interest to be re-appointed lieutenant-governor of the province. Upon this, Vaughan entered a complaint to the queen, setting forth ‘that Allen claimed as waste ground not only a large tract of unoc­cupied land, but much of that which had been long enjoyed by the inhabitants, as common pasture, within the [...]ounds of their several townships. That Usher, by his former managements and misdemean­ours when in office, had forced some of the principal inhabitants to quit the pro­vince, and had greatly harrassed and dis­gusted all the rest, rendering himself quite unacceptable to them. That he was in­terested in the suits now depending, as on Allen's death he would in right of his wife be entitled to part of the estate. Wherefore it was humbly submitted whe­ther [Page 313] it would be proper to appoint, as lieutenant-governor, one whose interest and endeavour it would be to disseize the people of their ancient estates, and render them uneasy; and it was prayed that no letters might be written to put Allen in possession of the wastes till the petitioner should be heard by council.Usher's papers.’

Usher's interest however prevailed.1703. January 28. The attorney general reported, that ‘Allen's claim to the wastes was valid; that all lands uninclosed and unoccupied were to be reputed waste; that he might enter into and take possession of them, and if disturbed might assert his right and pro­secute trespassers in the courts there; but that it would not be proper for her maje­sty to interpose, unless the question should come before her by appeal from those courts; save, that it might be reasonable to direct (if Allen should insist on it at the trials) that matters of fact be found specially by the juries,Superior Court files. and that these spe­cial matters should be made to appear on an appeal.’

Soon after this Usher obtained a second commission as lieutenant-governor; but was expressly restricted from intermedling ‘with the appointment of judges or juries,July 26. or otherwise, in matters relating to the [Page 314] disputes between Allen and the inhabit­ants.’ The people did not relish this re-appointment, nor did his subsequent conduct reconcile them to it. Upon his first appearance in council Partridge took his seat as counsellor;October 27. but the next day desired a dismission on account of a ship in the river which demanded his constant attention. This request was granted, and he soon after removed to Newbury, where he spent the rest of his days in a mercan­tile department, and in the business of his profession.^*

It had always been a favourite point with Usher to get the books and files, which had been taken from Chamberlayne, lodged in the secretary's office. Among these files were the original minutes of the suits which Mason had carried on, and the verdicts, judgments and bills of cost he had recovered. As they were committed to the care of the recorder who was appoint­ed by the general court and removeable only by them, no use could be made of these papers but by consent of the assembly.Nov. 4. When Usher produced to the council an order from Whitehall that these records [Page 115] should be deposited with the secretary,1704. Penhallow, the recorder, who was a mem­ber of the council, refused to deliver them without an act of the general assembly authorizing him to do so.

Usher succeeded but little better in his applications for money. He alleged that he had received nothing for his former services, though they had given hundreds to Partridge; and he complained that no house was provided for him to reside in, which obliged him to spend most of his time at Boston. The plea of poverty al­ways at hand, was not forgotten in an­swer to these demands. But at length, upon his repeated importunity and Dud­ley's earnest recommendation, after the assembly had refused making any provision for him, and the governor had expressly directed him to reside at New-Castle, and exercise a regular command,July 7. it being a time of war; the council were prevailed upon to allow him two rooms in any house he could procure ‘till the next meeting of the assembly,’ and to order thirty eight shillings to be given him for the expence of his ‘journey to and from Boston.’

When Dudley acquainted the assembly with the royal determination in Allen's suits,Feb. 10. they appeared tolerably satisfied [Page 316] with the equitable intention discovered therein; but begged him to represent to her majesty that ‘the province was at least sixty miles long and twenty wide, containing twelve hundred square miles, that the inhabitants claimed only the property of the lands contained within the bounds of their townships, which was less than one third of the province, and had been possessed by them and their ancestors more than sixty years; that they had nothing to offer as a grievance if the other two thirds were adjudged to Allen; but should be glad to see the same planted and settled for the better security and defence of the whole; with­al desiring it might be considered how much time, blood and treasure had been spent in settling and defending this part of her majesty's dominion, and that the cost and labour bestowed thereon far exceeded the true value of the land; so that they hoped it was not her majesty's intention to deprive them of all the herb­age, timber and fuel, without which they could not subsist; and that the lands com­prehended within the bounds of their townships was little enough to afford these necessary articles;Records of [...]he council and assem­ [...]ly. it not being usual in these plantations to fence in [Page 317] more of their lands than would serve for tillage, leaving the rest unfenced for the feeding their cattle in common.’

Notwithstanding this plea, which was often alleged, Allen, by virtue of the queen's permission,Dec. 22, 1703. had entered upon and taken possession, by turf and twig, of the common land in each township, as well as of that which was without their bounds.Usher's pa. He brought his writ of ejectment de novo against Waldron, and when the trial was coming on, informed Governor Dudley of it, that he might come into court and demand a special verdict agreeably to the queen's instructions. Dudley from Boston informed the court of the day when he intended to be at Portsmouth, and directed the judges to adjourn the court to that day. Before it came,1704. Aug. 10. he heard of a body of Indians above Lancaster, which had put the country in alarm, and ordered the court to be again adjourned. At length he began his journey; but was taken ill at Newbury, with a seasonable fit of the gravel, and proceeded no farther. The jury in the mean time refused to bring in a special verdict;Printed state of Allen's [...]itle p. 9. but found for the defendant with costs. Allen again ap­pealed from the judgment.

[Page 318]Perplexed, however, with these repeat­ed disappointments, and at the same time being low in purse, as well as weakened with age, he sought an accommodation with the people, with whom he was desi­rous to spend the remainder of his days in peace. It has been said that he made very advantageous offers to Vaughan and Waldron, if they would purchase his title; but that they utterly refused it. The peo­ple were sensible that a door was still open for litigation; and that after Allen's death they might, perhaps, meet with as much or more difficulty from his heirs, among whom Usher would probably have a great influence. They well knew his indefati­gable industry in the pursuit of gain, that he was able to harrass them in law, and had great interest in England. They therefore thought it best to fall in with Allen's views, and enter into an accom­modation with him. A general meeting of deputies being held at Portsmouth,170 [...]. May 3. the following resolutions and proposals were drawn up, viz. ‘That they had no claim or challenge to any part of the province without the bounds of the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton and Exeter, with the hamlets of New-Castle and Kingston, which were all compre­hended [Page 319] within lines already known and laid out, and which should forthwith be revised; but that Allen and his heirs might peaceably hold and enjoy the said great waste, containing forty miles in length and twenty in breadth, or there­abouts, at the heads of the four towns aforesaid, if it should so please her ma­jesty; and that the inhabitants of the four towns would be so far from inter­rupting the settlement thereof, that they desired the said waste to be planted and filled with inhabitants, to whom they would give all the encouragement and assistance in their power. That in case Allen would, for himself and heirs, for­ever quit claim, to the present inhabitants and their heirs, all that tract of land com­prehended within the bounds of the seve­ral towns, and warrant and defend the same against all persons, free of mort­gage, entailment and every other incum­brance, and that this agreement should be accepted and confirmed by the queen▪ then they would lot and lay out to him and his heirs five hundred acres within the town of Portsmouth and New-Castle, fifteen hundred in Dover, fifteen hundred in Hampton and Kingston, and fifteen hundred in Exeter, out of the common­ages [Page 320] of the said towns, in such places, not exceeding three divisions in each town, as should best accommodate him and be least detrimental to them; and that they would pay him or his heirs two thousand pounds current money of New-England at two payments, one within a year after receiving the royal confirma­tion of this agreement, and the other within a year after the first payment. That all contracts made either by Mason or Allen with any of the inhabitants, or others, for lands or other privileges in the possession of their tenants in their own just right, beside the claim of Mason and Allen, and no other, should be ac­counted valid; but that if any of the pur­chasers, lessees or tenants should refuse to pay their just part of the sums agreed on, according to the lands they held, their share should be abated by Allen out of the two thousand pounds payable by this agreement. That upon Allen's accept­ance, and underwriting of these articles, they would give personal security for the aforesaid payment; and that all actions and suits depending in law concerning the premises should cease till the queen's pleasure should be known.’

[Page 321]These articles were ordered to be pre­sented to Allen for his acceptance: But so desirable an issue of the controvesy was prevented by his sudden death,MS Copy of Report of Lord's of Trade. 1753. which hap­pened on the next day. He left a son and four daughters, and died intestate.

Colonel Allen is represented as a gentle­man of no remarkable abilities, and of a solitary, rather than a social disposition;Atkinson's Letter MS. but [...]ild obliging and charitable. His character,Emerson's funeral ser­mon and letter to Mr. Prince, MS. whilst he was a merchant in Lon­don, was fair and upright, and his domestic deportment amiable and exemplary. He was a member of the church of England by profession, but constantly attended di­vine worship in the congregation at New-Castle, and was a strict observer of the christian sabbath. He died on the fifth of May 1705, in the seventieth year of his age, and was buried in the fort.

After his death his only son, Thomas Allen, Esq. of London, renewed the suit,1706. by petitioning the queen, who allowed him to bring a new writ of ejectment, and ordered a revival of the directions given to the governor in 1703,May. 16. with respect to the jury's finding a special verdict. Ac­cordingly Allen,August 20. having previously con­veyed one half of the lands in New-Hamp­shire by deed of sale to Sir Charles Hobby [Page 322] and appointed his mother Elizabeth Allen his attorney,1707. April 15. brought his writ of ejectment against Waldron in the inferior court of common pleas, where he was cast. He then removed it by appeal to the superior court, where it had been tried three years before. As this was the last trial, and as all the strength of both parties was fully displayed on the occasion, it will be prop­er to give as just a view of the case as can now be collected from the papers on file in the office of the superior court.

On Allen's part were produced copies of the charter by which King James I. con­stituted the council of Plymouth; their grants to Mason in 1629 and 1635; his last will and testament; an inventory of artillery, arms, ammunition, provisions, merchandize and cattle left in the care of his agents here at his death; depositions of several ancient persons taken in 1685, who remembered the houses, fields, forts, and other possessions of Capt. Mason at Portsmouth and Newichwannock, and were acquainted with his agents, stewards, fac­tors and other servants, who divided the cattle and merchandize among them after his death; the opinions of Sir Geoffry Palmer, Sir Francis Winnington and Sir William Jones in favour of the validity of [Page 323] Mason's title; King Charles's letter to the president and council of New-Hampshire in 1680; the paragraph of Cranfield's commission which respects Mason's claim in 1682; the writ, verdict, judgment and execution against Major Waldron in 1683; the decision of the king in council against Vaughan in 1686; Dudley's writ of cer­tiorari in 1688; the fine and recovery in Westminster-hall whereby the entail was cut off, and the consequent deed of sale to Allen in 1691; Sir Edward Northey's re­port in 1703; and evidence of Allen's taking possession of the wastes, and of his inclosing and occupying some land at Great Island. On this evidence, it was pleaded that the title derived from Mason, and his possession of the province, of which the lands in question were part, was legal; that the appellee's possession had been in­terrupted by the appellant and those from whom he derived his title, more especially by the judgment recovered by Robert Ma­son against Major Waldron; and a special verdict was moved for, agreeably to the royal directions. The council on this side were James Meinzies and John Valentine.

On Waldron's part were produced the deed from four Indian sachems to Whele­wright and others in 1629; and deposi­tions [Page 324] taken from several ancient persons who testified that they had lived with Ma­jor Waldron when he began his planta­tion at Cochecho, about the year 1640, and assisted him in building his houses and mills, and that no person had disturbed him in the possession thereof for above forty years. To invalidate the evidence of the title produced on the opposite side, it was pleaded, That the grant from the council of Plymouth to Mason in 1629, was not signed; that livery and feizin were not endorsed on it as on other of their grants, and as was then the legal form; nor was it ever enrolled according to statute: That the sale of part of the same lands in 1628 to the Massachusetts company, by an instrument signed and executed according to law, renders this subsequent grant suspicious; and that his pretending to procure another grant of part of the same lands in 1635, was an argu­ment that he himself could not rely on the preceding one, nor was it credible that the same council should grant the same lands twice, and to the same person: That the grant in 1635 was equally defective; and that he must reliquish one or the other, it being contrary to the reason and usage of law to rely on two several titles at once. [Page 325] It was urged, That Waldron's possess­ion was grounded on a deed from the native lords of the soil,1703. with whom his father had endeavoured to cultivate a friendly connexion; that he had tak­en up his land with their consent, when the country was a wilderness; had cul­tivated it, had defended it in war at a great expense, and at the hazard of his life, which he finally lost in the attempt; that the Indian deed was legally executed in the presence of the factors and agents of the company of Laconia, of which Ma­son was one; that this was done with the toleration of the council of Plymouth, and in pursuance of the great ends of their incorporation, which were to cultivate the lands, to people the country and christian­ize the natives, for the honour and interest of the crown and the trade of England, all which ends had been pursued and at­tained by the appellee and his ancestor. It was also alleged, that the writ against Major Waldron in 1683 was for "lands and tenements," of which the quantity, situation and bounds were not described, for want of which no legal judgment could be given; that no execution had ever been levied, nor was the possessor ever disturbed or amoved by reason thereof; and that [Page 326] the copies produced were not attested,1707. no book of records being to be found. To invalidate the evidence of Mason's posses­sion, it was observed, that he himself was never here in person; that all the settle­ment made by his agents or successors was only a factory for trade with the Indians, and principally for the discovery of a coun­try called Laconia; and that this was done in company with several other merchant-adventurers in London, who, for the secu­rity of their goods erected a fort; but that this could not amount to a legal possession nor prove a title to the country, especially as upon the failure of trade, the object of their enterprize, they quitted their factory after a few years stay in these parts.

As to the motion for a special verdict, it was said that a jury could not find one, if they had no doubt of the law or fact, for the reason of a special verdict is a doubt either in point of law or evidence; nor was it consistent with the privileges of English­men that a jury should be compelled to find specially. In addition to these pleas, it was further alleged, that by the statute law no action of ejectment can be main­tained except the plaintiff, or those under whom he claims, have been in possession within twenty years; and if they have [Page 327] been out of possession sixty years, then not only an ejectment, but a writ of right, and all other real actions are barred in re­spect of a subject, and that in such cases the right of the crown is also barred: and that by the statute of 32 Hen. 8. ch. 9. it is enacted, that no person shall purchase any lands or tenements, unless the seller, or they by whom he claims, have been in possession of the same or the reversion or remainder thereof, or have taken the rents or profits thereof by the space of one whole year next before such bargain is made; and that the appellee and his an­cestor, and no other person whatever had been in possession of the premises, nor was it ever pretended by the appellant that the Masons, of whom the purchase was made, were in possession within one year, or at any time before the alleged purchase; that all the mischiefs provided against by the above statute have been experienced by the people of New-Hampshire from the purchase made by the appellant's fa­ther, of the bare title of the propriety of the province. The council on this side were John Pickering and Charles Story.

A certificate from the lieutenant-gover­nor respecting the queen's directions was delivered to the jury who returned the fol­lowingAug 1 [...] [Page 328] verdict: ‘In the cause depending between Thomas Allen, Esq. appellant and Richard Waldron, Esq. defendant, the jury finds for the defendant a con­firmation of the former judgment and cost of courts. Mark Hunking foreman.’

The court then sent out the jury again, with this charge, ‘Gentlemen, you are further to consider this case and observe her majesty's directions to find specially, and your oaths.’ They returned the second time with the same verdict; upon which the court ordered judgment to be entered, and that the defendant recover costs of the appellant. The council for the appellant then moved for an appeal to her majesty in council; which was allowed on their giving bond in two hundred pounds to prosecute it.

But [...]he loyalty of the people, and the distresses under which they laboured by reason of the war,Council & Assembly's Records. prevailed on the queen's ministry to suspend a final decision; and before the appeal could be heard,Printed state of Al­len's title. p. 10. Allen's death, which happened in 1715, put an end to the suit, which, his heirs being mi­nors, did not renew.

THE peace which followed the treaty of Ryswick was but of short duration, for the seeds of war were already sown both in Europe and America. Louis had proclaim­ed the pretender king of England, and his Governor Villebon had orders to extend his province of Acadia to the river Kennebeck, though the English court understood St. Croix to be the boundary between their territories and those of the French. The fishery was interrupted by French men of war, and by the orders of Villebon, who suffered no English vessels to fish on the banks of Nova-Scotia. A French mission was established, and a chapel erected at Norridgwog, on the upper part of Kenne­beck, which served to extend the influence of the French among the Indians. The governor of Canada, assuming the cha­racter of their father and protector, in­stigated them to prevent the settlement of the English to the east of Kennebeck, and found some among them ready to listen [Page 330] to his advice. The people in those parts were apprehensive of danger and meditat­ed a removal, and those who had enter­tained thoughts of settling there were re­strained.

Things were in this posture when Dud­ley entered on his government. He had particular orders from England to rebuild the fort at Pemaquid; but could not pre­vail on the Massachusetts assembly to bear the expence of it. However he determin­ed on a visit to the eastern country, and having notified his intention to the Indians, took with him a number of gentlemen of both his provinces⁵⁶, and held a conference at Casco with delegates from the tribes of Norridgwog,1703. June 20. Penobscot, Pigwacket, Pena­cook and Amariscoggin; who assured him that ‘as high as the sun was above the earth, so far distant was their design of making the least breach of the peace.’ They pre­sented him a belt of wampum in token of their sincerity, and both parties went to two heaps of stones which had formerly been pitched and called the Two Brothers, where the friendship was further ratified by the addition of other stones. They al­so declared, that although the French emis­saries among them had been endeavouring [Page 331] to break the union, yet it was ‘firm as a mountain, and should continue as long as the sun and moon.’ Notwithstand­ing these fair appearances, it was observed that when the Indians fired a salute their guns were charged with shot; and it was suspected that they had then formed a de­sign to seize the governor and his atten­dants, if a party which they expected from Canada, and which arrived two or three days after, had come in proper season to their assistance. However this might be, it is certain that in the space of six weeks, a body of French and Indians,August 10 five hundred in number, having divided themselves into several parties, attacked all the settlements from Casco to Wells, and killed and took one hundred and thirty people, burning and destroying all before them.^*

The next week (August 17) a party of thirty Indians under Capt. Tom killed five people at Hampton village; among whom was a widow Mussy, a noted speak­er among the friends, and much lamented by them; they, also plundered two houses; but the people being alarmed, and pursu­ing them, they fled.

[Page 332] 703.The country was now in terror and confusion. The women and children re­tired to the garrisons. The men went armed to their work, and posted centinels in the fields. Troops of horse were quar­tered at Portsmouth and in the province of Maine. A scout of three hundred and sixty men marched toward Pigwacket, and another to Ossapy Ponds; but made no discoveries. Alarms were frequent, and the whole frontier country from Deer­field on the west, to Casco on the east was kept in continual terror by small parties of the enemy.

In the fall Col. March of Casco made a visit to Pigwacket, where he killed six of the enemy and took six more; this encou­raged the government to offer a bounty of forty pounds for scalps.

As the winter came on, the frontier towns were ordered to provide a large num­ber of snow-shoes; and an expedition was planned in New-Hampshire, against the head quarters of the Indians. Major Winthrop Hilton, and Captain John Gil­man of Exeter, Captain Chesley and Cap­tain Davis of Oyster river, marched with their companies on snow-shoes into the woods; but returned without success. This is called in the council books "an honour­able [Page 333] service:1703." Hi [...]ton received a gratu­ity of twelve, and each of the captains five pounds.

With the return of spring there was a return of hostilities;1704. for notwithstanding the posting a few southern Indians in the garrisons at Berwick, the enemy appeared at Oyster river,April 25. and shot Nathaniel Me­dar near his own field, and the next day killed Edward Taylor near Lamprey river, and captivated his wife and son. These instances of mischief gave colour to a false alarm at Cochecho, where it was said they lay in wait for Col. Waldron a whole day, but missing him by reason of his absence from home, took his servant maid as she went to a spring for water; and hav­ing examined her as to the state of the garrison, stunned her with an hatchet but did not scalp her. The girl invented this story to palliate her too long absence.

In May Col. Church, by Governor Dud­ley's order, having planned an expedition to the eastern shore, sailed from Boston with a number of transports, furnished with whale-boats for going up rivers. In his way he stopt at Pascataqua, where he was joined by a body of men under Major Hilton, who was of eminent service to him in this expedition^*, which lasted the [Page 334] whole summer, and in which they destroy­ed the towns of Minas and Chiegnecto, and did considerable damage to the French and Indians at Penobscot and Passaquod­dy, and even insulted Port-Royal. Whilst they were at Mount Desart, Church learn­ed from nine of his prisoners that a body of ^* six hundred Indians were preparing for an attack on Casco, and the head of Pascataqua river; and sent an express to Portsmouth which obliged the people to be vigilant. No such great force as this appeared; but small parties kept hovering on the out skirts. At Oyster river they wounded William Tasker; and at Dover they laid in Ambush for the people on their return from public worship, but hap­pily missed their aim. They afterward mortally wounded Mark Gyles at that place,August 11. and soon after killed several people in a field at Oyster river, whose names are not mentioned.

In the former wars New-Hampshire had received much assistance from their [Page 335] brethern of Massachusetts; but these now remonstrated to the governor that his other province did not bear their proportion of the charge for the common defence. The representatives of New-Hampshire urged, in reply, the different circumstances of the two provinces; ‘most of the towns in Massachusetts be [...]ng out of the reach of the enemy, and no otherwise affected by the war than in the payment of their part of the expence, whilst this province was wholly a frontier by sea and land, and in equal danger with the county of York, in which four companies were stationed, and the inhabitants were abated their pro­portion of the public charges.’ They beg­ged that twenty of the friendly Indians might be sent to scout on their borders,Council Rec. which request the governor complied with.

In the winter, Col. Hilton with two hundred and seventy men,1705. including the twenty Indians, were sent to Norridgwog on snow-shoes. They had a favourable season for their march, the snow being four feet deep. When they arrived there, finding no enemy to contend with, they burnt the deserted wigwams, and the cha­pel. The officers who went on this ex­pedition complained that they had only the pay of private soldiers.

[Page 336]The late repairs of fort William and Mary at New-Castle were always com­plained of, as burdensome to the people; and a representation thereof had been made to the queen, who instructed Dud­ley, to press the assembly of Massachusetts, to contribute to the expence; as the river bolonged equally to both provinces. They urged in excuse, that the fort was built at first, at the sole charge of New-Hampshire, to whom it properly belonged; that the whole expence of the repairs did not a­mount, to what several of their towns singly paid, toward the support of the war for one year; that all the trade and navigation of the river, on both sides, paid a du­ty toward maintaining that fortress; and that they had been at great expence in pro­tecting the frontiers of New-Hampshire, and the parties who were employed in getting timber and masts for her majesty's service; whilst New-Hampshire had never contributed any thing to the support of the garrisons, forces and guards by sea, which were of equal benefit to them as to Massa­chusetts. One thing which made New-Hampshire more in favour with the queen was, that they had settled a salary on her governor, which the others never could be persuaded to do. The repairs of the [Page 337] fort, however, went on without their assistance, under the direction of Col. Romer; and when they were completed, a petition was sent home for a supply of cannon, ammunition and stores.

The next summer was chiefly spent in negotiating an exchange of prisoners; and Dudley had the address to protract the ne­gotiation, under pretence of consulting with the other governments about a neu­trality proposed by the governor of Cana­da; by which means, the frontiers in ge­neral were kept tolerably quiet, although the enemy appeared once or twice in the town of Kittery. The line of pickets^* which inclosed the town of Portsmouth was repaired, and a nightly patrole esta­blished on the sea shore, from Rendezvous Point to the bounds of Hampton, to pre­vent any surprize by sea; the coasts being at this time infested by the enemy's pri­vateers.

During this truce, the inhabitants of Kingston who had left the place, were en­couraged to petition for leave to return to their lands which the court granted on condition that they should build a fort in the center of the town, lay out a parson­age [Page 338] and settle a minister within three years▪ This last condition was rendered imprac­ticable by the renewal of hostilities.

The governor of Canada had encourag­ed the Indians who inhabited the borders of New-England to remove to Canada, where being incorporated with the tribe of St. Francis, they have ever since re­mained. By this policy they became more firmly attached to the interest of the French, and were more easily dispatched on their bloody business to the frontiers of New-England, with which they were well ac­quainted. Dudley, who was generally apprized of their movements, and kept a vigilant eye upon them, apprehended a rup­ture in the winter; and gave orders for a cir­cular scouting march, once a month, round the heads of the towns from Kingston to Sal­mon falls; but the enemy did not appear till April;1706. when a small party of them attacked the house of John Drew at Oyster river, where they killed eight and wound­ed two. The garrison was near, but not a man in it: The women, however, seeing nothing but death before them, fired an alarm, and then putting on hats, and loosening their hair that they might ap­pear like men, they fired so briskly that the enemy, apprehending the people were [Page 339] alarmed, fled without burning or even plundering the house which they had at­tacked. John Wheeler, meeting this par­ty and mistaking them for friendly Indians, unhappily fell into their hands and was killed with his wife and two children. Four of his sons took refuge in [...] by the bank of the Little Bay, and though pursued by the Indians escaped unhurt.

In July Colonel Schuyler fro [...] Albany gave notice to Dudley that two hundred and seventy of the enemy were on their march toward Pascataqua, of which he im­mediately informed the people, and or­dered them to close garrison, and one half of the militia to be ready at a minute's warning. The first appearance of this body of the enemy was at Dunstable; whence they p [...]oceeded to Amesbury and Kingston, where they killed some cat­tle. Hilton with sixty four men march­ed from Exeter; but was obliged to re­turn without meeting the enemy. The reason he gave to the council for return­ing so soon was the want of provision, there being none in readiness at the gar­risons, notwithstanding a law lately enact­ed, enjoining it on every town to have stores ready and deposited in the hands of their captains. For the same reason he had [Page 340] been obliged to discontinue a small scout which he had for some time kept up. Hilton was so brave and active an officer that the enemy had marked him for de­struction; and for this purpose a party of them kept lurking about his house, where they observed ten men to go out one morn­ing with their scythes, and lay aside their arms to mow; they then crept between the men and their guns and suddenly rushing on them killed four, wounded one, and took three; two only of the whole number escaped. They missed the major for this time, and two of their prisoners escaped; but suffered much in their re­turn, having nothing to subsist on for three weeks but lilly roots and the rinds of trees. After this they killed William Pearl and took Nathaniel Tibbets at Dover.August 10. It was observed during this war that the ene­my did more damage in small bodies than in larger, and by scattering along the frontiers kept the people in continual ap­prehension and alarm; and so very few of them fell into our hands, that in comput­ing the expence of the war it was judged that every Indian killed or taken cost the country a thousand pounds.Penhallow p. 40.

In the following winter Hilton made another excursion to the eastward,1707. and a [Page 341] shallop was sent to Casco with stores and provisions for his party consisting of two hundred and twenty men. The winter being mild, and the weather unsettled, pre­vented their marching so far as they in­tended: Cold dry weather and deep snow being most favourable to winter expedi­tions. However they came on an Indian track near Black Point, and pursuing it, killed four, and took a squaw who con­ducted them to a party of eighteen,Jan. 21. whom they surprized as they lay asleep on a neck of land at break of day, and of whom they killed seventeen and took the other. This was matter of triumph considering the dif­ficulty of finding their haunts. It was remarked that on the very morning that this affair happened it was reported with but little variation from the truth, at Ports­mouth though at the distance of sixty miles.

When Church went to Nova-Scotia he very earnestly solicited leave to make an attempt on Port Royal; but Dudley would not consent, and the reason he gave was, that he had written to the ministry in England and expected orders and naval help to reduce the place. His enemies however assigned another reason for his refusal; which was that a clandestine trade was carried on by his connivance, and to his [Page 342] emolument, with the French there. This report gained credit and occasioned a loud call for justice. Those who were directly concerned in the illegal traffick were pro­secuted and fined;Hutch. Hist. Massa. Vol. 2. p. 154. and the governor suf­fered much in his reputation. To wipe off these aspersions he now determined to make an attack in earnest, on Port-Royal, even though no assistance should come from England. It was intended that an armament should be sent to America, and the commander was appointed; but the state of affairs in Europe prevented their coming.

Early in the spring the governor appli­ed to the assemblies of both his provinces, and to the colonies of Rhode-Island and Connecticut, requesting them to raise one thousand men for the expedition. Con­necticut declined but the other three rais­ed the whole number, who were disposed into two regiments, of which Colonel Wainwright commanded the one, and Colonel Hilton the other. They embark­ed at Nantasket in twenty-three transports furnished with whaleboats,May 13. under convoy of the Deptford man of war, Capt. Stuckley, and the province galley, Capt. Southack. The chief command was given to Colonel March, who had behaved well in several [Page 343] scouts and rencounters with the Indians, but had never been tried in such service as this.May 26. They arrived before Port [...]oyal in a few days, and after burning some houses, killing some cattle round the fort, and making some ineffectual attempts to [...]om­bard it, a jealousy and disagreement among the officers,Penhallow p. 42. and a misapprehension of the state of the fort and garrison,June 6 & 7. caused the army to break up and reimbark in a dis­orderly manner. Some of the officers went to Boston for orders, some of the transports put in at Casco; a sloop with Captain Chesley's company of sixty men arrived at Portsmouth:June 13. Chesley suffered his men to disperse,Council Rec. but ordered them to return at the beat of the drum: Being call­ed to account for this conduct he pleaded that ‘general orders were given at Port Royal for every man to make the best of his way home.’ The governor, highly chagrined and very angry, sent orders from Boston that if any more vessels should arrive, the men should not be permit­ted to come on shore "on pain of death." After a while he ordered Chesley's com­pany to be collected and reimbarked, offer­ing a pardon to those who might voluntari­ly return, the rest to be severely punished. By the latter end of July they went on board, [Page 344] and with the rest of the army, returned to the place of action. At the landing, an ambuscade of Indians from among the sedge on the top of a sea-wall, greatly an­noyed the troops. Major Walton and Captain Chesley, being then on shore with the New-Hampshire companies, pushed their men up the beach, flanked the ene­my, and after an obstinate struggle put them to flight. The command was now given to Wainwright, and the army put under the direction of three supervisors; but no means could inspire that union, firmness and skill which were necessary. By the last of August the whole affair was at an end, and the army returned sickly, fatigued, disheartened, and ashamed; but with no greater loss than sixteen killed and as many wounded.

Whilst this unfortunate expedition was in hand, the frontiers were kept in con­tinual alarm.May 22. Two men were taken from Oyster river,July 8. and two more killed as they were driving a team between that place and Dover. Captain Sumersby pursued with his troop and recovered the contents of the cart. Stephen and Jacob Gilman, brothers, were ambushed between Exeter and King­ston;Penhallow p. 45. their horses were killed, but both [Page 345] of them escaped to the garrison. King­ston, being a new plantation, was much exposed, and was this summer weakened by the desertion of eight men. The re­maining inhabitants complained to the government, who ordered the captains of Exeter and Hampton to take them up as deserters, and oblige them to return to the defence of their settlements, or do duty at the fort during the governor's pleasure. They were afterward bound over to the sessions for contempt of orders.Council Rec. The state of the country at this time was truly dis­tressed; a large quota of their best men were abroad, the rest harrassed by the ene­my at home, obliged to continual duty in garrisons and in scouts, and subject to se­vere discipline for neglects. They earned their bread at the continual hazard of their lives, never daring to stir abroad unarmed; they could till no lands but what were within call of the garrisoned houses, into which their families were crowded; their husbandry, lumber-trade and fishery were declining, their taxes increasing, their apprehensions both from the force of the enemy and the failure of the Port Royal ex­pedition were exceedingly dismal, and there was no prospect of an end to the war, in which they were now advanced to the fifth sum­m [...]. [Page 346] Yet under all these distresses and discouragements, they resolutely kept their ground and maintained their garrisons, not one of which was cut off during the whole of this war, within the limits of New-Hampshire.

In September one man was killed at Exeter,Septem. 15. and two days after Henry Elkins at Kingston.17. But the severest blow on the frontiers happened at Oyster river, a place which suffered more than all the rest. A party of French Mohawks painted red, attacked with an hideous yell a company who were in the woods, some hewing tim­ber and others driving a team, under the direction of Captain Chesley who was just returned the second time from Port Royal. At the first fire they killed seven and mor­tally wounded another. Chesley, with the few who were left, fired on the enemy with great vigour, and for sometime check­ed their ardour; but being overpowered, he at length fell. He was much lamented, being a brave officer. Three of the scalps taken at this time were soon after recov­ered at Berwick.

The next year a large army from Can­ada was destined against the frontiers of New-England.1708. Dudley received infor­mation of it in the usual route from Al­bany, [Page 347] and immediately ordered guards in the most exposed places of both these pro­vinces. A troop under Captain Rober [...] Coffin patroled from Kingston to Coche­cho, and scouts were kept out continually. Spy-boats were also kept out at sea be­tween Pascataqua and Winter harbours. Four hundred Massachusetts soldiers were posted in this province. The towns were ordered to provide ammunition, and all things were in as good a state of prepara­tion as could be expected. At length the storm fell on Haverhill;August 29. but the enemy's force having been diminished by various accidents, they proceeded no farther, and every part of New-Hampshire was quiet. Hilton made another winter march to Pig­wacket with one hundred and seventy men,Penhallow 45, 48. but made no discovery.

The next spring William Moody,1709. May 5 Sam­uel Stephens, and two sons of Jeremy Gilman were taken at Pickpocket-mill in Exeter,June 30▪ and soon after Bartholomew Ste­venson was killed at Oyster river. Colo­nel Hilton and Captain Davis performed their usual tour of duty in scouting, and the people this summer kept close in garrison, on a report that two hundred In­dians had marched against them from Montreal. But the principal object now [Page 348] in view was a desire of wiping off the dis­grace of a former year, by an attempt, not on Port Royal, but on Canada itself. For this purpose solicitations had been made in England by Francis Nicholson, Esq. who had been lieutenant-governor of Vir­ginia, and Capt. Samuel Vetch a trader to Nova-Scotia, who was well acquainted with the French settlements there, and made a full representation of the state of things in America to the British ministry. An expedition being determined upon, they came over, early in the spring, with the queen's command to the governors of the several provinces, to raise men for the ser­vice. Vetch was appointed a colonel, and Nicholson by nomination of the governor of New-York, and consent of the other governments, was made commander in chief. The people of New-Hampshire were so much exhausted, and their men had been so ill paid before, that it was with great difficulty, and not without the dissolution of one assembly and the calling of another, that they could raise money to levy one hundred men and procure two transports for conveying them. After the utmost exertions had been made by the se­veral governments, and Nicholson with part of the troops had marched to Wood [Page 349] creek, and the rest with the transports had lain at Nantasket three months wait­ing for a fleet, news arrived that the ar­mament promised from England was di­verted to another qua [...]er. Upon which the commander of [...]he [...]igates on the Bos­ton station refused to convoy the troops, the whole army was disbanded, and the expence the colonies had been at was fruit­less. A congress of governors and dele­gates from the assemblies met in the fall at Rhode-Island, who recommended the sending of agents to assist Colonel Ni­cholson in representing the state of the country, and soliciting an expedition against Canada the next spring. The ministry at first seemed to listen to this proposal, but afterward changed their minds, and re­solved only on the reduction of Port Royal.1710. For this purpose Nicholson came over in July with five frigates and a bomb ketch; the colonies then had to raise their quotas; the New-Hampshire assembly ordered one hundred men,August 1. who were got ready as soon as possible, and put under the command of Colonel Shadrach Walton. The whole armament sailed from Boston the eigh­teenth of September, and on the twenty-fourth arrived at the place. The force now being equal to its [...]eduction▪ Suber­case, [Page 350] the governor, waited only the com­pliment of a few shot and shells as a decent pretence for a surrender; which was com­pleted on the fifth of October, and Vetch was appointed governor of the place which in honor of the queen was called Anna­polis.Hutchin­son and Penhallow

Whilst this expedition was in hand, and before the appointment of the command­ers, New-Hampshire sustained an heavy loss in the death of Col. Winthrop Hilton. This worthy officer being concerned in the masting business,July 22. and having several large trees felled, about fourteen miles from home, went out with a party to peel the bark that the wood might not be injured by worms. Whilst engaged in this business they were ambu [...]hed by a party of Indians, who at the first fire killed Hilton with two more, and took two; the rest being terri­fied, and their guns being wet, made no opposition, but escaped. The next day one hundred men marched in pursuit, but discovered only the mangled bodies of the dead. The enemy in their barbarous tri­umph had struck their hatchets into the colonel's brains, and left a lance in his heart. He was a gentleman ‘of good temper, courage and conduct, respected and lamented by all that knew him,Penhallow p. 58.’ [Page 351] and was buried with the honours due to his rank and character.

Flushed with this success, they insolent­ly appeared in the open road at Exeter, and took four children who were at their play. They also took John Wedgwood, and killed John Magoon near his brother's barn, a place which for three days he had visited, with a melancholy apprehension, arising from a dream, that he should there be murdered.

The same day that Hilton was killed, a company of Indians who had pretended friendship, who the year before had been peaceably conversant with the inhabitants of Kingston, and seemed to be thirsting after the blood of the enemy, came into the town, and ambushing the road, killed Samuel Winslow, and Samuel Huntoon; they also took Philip Huntoon and Jacob Gilman, and carried them to Canada;MS Letter of Ward Clark to Prince. where, after some time, they purchased their own redemption by building a saw-mill for the governor after the English mode.

The last that fell this summer was Ja­cob Garland, who was killed at Cochecho on his return from the public worship. As the winter approached, Colonel Walton with one hundred and seventy men travers­ed the eastern shores which the Indians [Page 352] usually visited at this season for the pur­pose of gathering clams. On an Island where the party was encamped, several Indians decoyed by their smoke, and mis­taking them for some of their own tribe, came among them and were made priso­ners. One of them was a sachem of Nor­ridgwog, active, bold and sullen; when he found himself in the hands of ene­mies he would answer none of their quest­ions, and laughed with scorn at their threatening him with death. His wife, be­ing an eye witness of the execution of the threatening, was so intimidated as to make the discoveries which the captors had in vain desired of the sachem; in conse­quence of which, three were taken at the place of which she informed, and two more at Saco river, where also five were killed. This success, inconsiderable as it may ap­pear, kept up the spirits of the people, and added to the loss of the enemy who were daily diminishing by sickness and famine.

In the spring they renewed their ra­vages on the frontiers in small parties.1711. Thomas Downs, John Church, and three more were killed at Cochecho; and on a sabbath day several of the people there fell into an ambush as they were returning from public worship. John Horn was wound­ed, [Page 353] and Humphry Foss was taken; but, by the determined bravery of Lieutenant Heard, he was recovered out of the hands of the enemy. Walton with two compa­nies marched to the ponds about the fish­ing season; but the Indians had withdrawn, and nothing was to be seen but their de­serted wigwams.Penhallow p. 60.

After the reduction of Port Royal Nic­holson went to England to solicit an ex­pedition against Canada. The tory minis­try of Queen Anne, to the surprize of all the whigs in England and America, fell in with the proposal; and on the eighth of June Nicholson came to Boston with orders for the northern colonies to get ready their quotas of men and provision at the arrival of the fleet and army from Europe; which happened within sixteen days; and whilst the several governors were holding a consultation on the subject of their orders. A compliance with them in so short a time was impossible; yet eve­ry thing that could be done was done; the nature of the service conspiring with the wishes of the people, made the gov­ernments exert themselves to the utmost. New-Hampshire raised one hundred men, which was more than they could well spare; one half of the militia being con­tinually [Page 354] employed in guarding the fron­tiers. They also voted them subsistence for one hundred and twenty-six days, be­sides providing for them on shore before their embarkation. Two transports were taken up at eight shillings per month per ton; and artillery stores were issued from the fort. The colony forces formed two regiments under the command of Vetch and Walton. The army which came from England were seven veteran regiments of the Duke of Marlborough's army, and a battalion of marines, under the command of Brigadier-General Hill, which, joined with the New-England troops made a bo­dy of about six thousand five hundred men, provided with a fine train of artillery. The fleet consisted of fifteen ships of war from eighty to thirty-six guns, with forty transports and six storeships under the com­mand of Admiral Walker.Penhallow p. 64. Hutch. vol. 2. p. 190. A force fully equal to the reduction of Quebec.

The fleet sailed from Boston on the thirtieth of July; and a fast was ordered by Dudley to be kept on the last Thurs­day of that, and each succeeding month, till the enterprize should be finished.Coun. Rec. This was an imitation of the conduct of the long parliament during the civil wars in the last century. But the sanguine hopes of [Page 355] success which had been entertained by the nation and the colonies were all blasted in one fatal night. For, the fleet having ad­vanced ten leagues into the river St. Law­rence, in the night of the twenty third of August, the weather being thick and dark, eight transports were wrecked on Egg-Island near the north shore, and one thou­sand people perished; among whom there was but one man who belonged to New-England. The next day the fleet put back, and were eight days beating down the riv­er against an easterly wind which would in two days have carried them to Quebec. After rendezvousing at Spanish river in the island of Cape Breton, and holding a fruitless consultation about annoying the French at Placentia, the expedition was broken up: the fleet returned to England, and the New-England troops to their homes. Loud complaints and heavy charges were made on this occasion; the ignorance of the pilots; the obstinacy of the admi­ral; the detention of the fleet at Boston; its late arrival there; the want of season­able orders;Dummer's defence and letter to a noble lord. and the secret intentions of the ministry, were all subjects of bitter al­tercation: but the miscarriage was never regularly inquired into,Octob. [...]. and the voyage was finally settled by the blowing up of [Page 356] the admiral's ship, with most of his papers, and four hundred seamen, at Spithead.

1712.The failure of this expedition encou­raged [...] Indians to harrass the frontiers [...] as the season would permit. In April one Cunningham was killed at Ex­eter; Ensign Tuttle at Dover, and Jere­my Crommet at Oyster river; on one of the upper branches of this stream the enemy burned a saw-mill with a large quantity of boards. A scouting party who went up the river Merrimack had the good for­tune to surprize and kill eight Indians and recover a considerable quantity of plunder, without the loss of a man. The frontiers were well guarded; one half of the mili­tia did duty at the garrisons and were ready to march at a minute's warning; a scout of forty men kept ranging on the heads of the towns, and the like care was taken by sea, spy-boats being employed in coasting from Cape Neddock to the Great Boar's-head. Notwithstanding this vigilance, small parties of the enemy were frequently seen. Stephen Gilman and Ebenezer Stevens were wounded at King­ston, the former was taken and put to death.June 3. In July an ambush was discover­ed at Dover, but the enemy escaped; and whilst a party was gone in pursuit of them, [Page 357] two children of John Waldron were tak­en, and for want of time to scalp them, their heads were cut off. There being no man at that time in Heard's garrison, a woman named Esther Jon [...]s mounted guard and with a commanding voice call­ed so loudly and resolutely as made the enemy think there was help at hand, and prevented farther mischief.

In autumn the news of the peace of Utrecht arrived in America; and on the 29th of October the suspension of arms was proclaimed at Portsmouth. The Indians being informed of this event came in with a flag of truce to Captain Moody at Casco, and desired a treaty; which the governor, with the council of each province, held at Porsmouth,1713. July 11. where the chiefs and deputies of the several belli­gerent tribes, by a formal writing under hand and seal, acknowledged their perfidy, promised fidelity, renewed their allegiance, submitted to the laws,Penhallow p. 72, 80. and begged the queen's pardon for their former miscar­riages. The frequent repetition of such engagements and as frequent violations of them, had by this time much abated the sense of obligation on the one part, and of confidence on the other. But it being for the interest of both parties to be at peace, the event was peculiarly welcome.

[Page 358]To preserve the dependance of the In­dians, and to prevent all occasions of com­plaint, private traffic with them was for­bidden and it was in contemplation to es­tablish truck-houses at the public expence; the next summ [...] a ship was fitted out by both provinces,1714. and sent to Quebec, where an exchange of prisoners was effected.

During the whole of this long war, Usher behaved as a faithful servant of the crown; frequently coming into the province by Dudley's direction, and sometimes resid­ing in it several months, inquiring into the state of the frontiers and garrisons, vis­iting them in person, consulting with the officers of militia about the proper meth­ods of defence and protection, and of­fering his service on all occasions: Yet his austere and ungracious manners, and the interest he had in Allen's claim, effec­tually prevented him from acquiring that popularity which he seems to have deserv­ed. He was solicitous to support the dig­nity of his commission; but could never prevail with the assembly to settle a salary upon him. The council generally paid his travelling expences by a draught on the treasury, which never amounted to more than five pounds for each journey, until he came from Boston to proclaim [Page 359] the accession of King George; when in a fit of loyalty and good humour they gave him ten pounds, which served as a pre­cedent for two or three other grants. He often complained, and sometimes in harsh and reproachful terms of their neglect; and once told them that his ‘Negro ser­vants were much better accommodated in his house than the queen's governor was in the queens fort.Coun. Rec.’

Dudley had the good fortune to be more popular. Beside his attention to the gene­ral interest of the province and his care for its defence, he had the particular mer­it of favouring the views of those who were most strongly opposed to Allen's claim; and they made him amends by promoting in the assembly addresses to the queen, defending his character, when it was attacked and praying for his contin­uance in office when petitions were pre­sented for his removal. One of these ad­dresses was in one thousand seven hundred and six, and another in one thousand seven hundred and seven, in both of which they re­present him as a ‘prudent, careful and faith­ful governor,’ and say they ‘are perfectly satisfied with his disposal of the people, and their arms and the public money.’ Addres­ses to the crown were very frequent during this female reign. Scarcely a year passed [Page 360] without one or two; they either congratu­lated her majesty on her victories in Europe, or petitioned for arms and military stores for their defence, or for ships and troops to go against Canada, or represented their own poverty or Dudley's merits, or thanked her majesty for her care and protection, and for interposing in the affair of Allen's suit and not suffering it to be decided against them.Council Rec. A good harmony subsisted between the governor and people, and be­tween the two branches of the legislature, during the whole of this administration.

On the accession of King George a change was expected in the government,1715. and the assembly did what they could to prevent it, by petitioning the king for Dud­ley's continuance. But it being now a time of peace, and a number of valuable officers who had served with reputation in the late wars being out of employment; inte­rest was made for their obtaining places of profit under the crown. Colonel Eliseus Burges who had served under General Stan­hope was, by his recommendation, com­missioned governor of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire; and by the same inter­est George Vaughan, Esq. then in London, was made lieutenant governor of the latter province; he arrived and published his commission on the thirteenth of October. [Page 361] Usher had some scruples about the valid­ity of it, as he had formerly had of Par­tridge's, and wrote on the subject to the assembly, who assured him that on inspec­tion they had found Vaughan's commis­sion "strong and authentic;" and that his own was "null and void.Council and As­sembly's Rec." Upon his dismission from office he retired to his e­legant seat at Medford, where he spent the rest of his days, and died on the fifth of September 1726, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

Burges wrote a letter to the assembly in July, in which he informed them of his appointment, and of his intention to sail for America in the following month. But Sir William Ashurst, with Jeremy Dummer, the Massachusetts agent, and Jonathan Belcher, then in London, ap­prehending that he would not be an ac­ceptable person to the people of New-England, prevailed with him, for the con­sideration of one thousand pounds sterl­ing, which Dummer and Belcher gener­ously advanced, to resign his commission; and Colonel Samuel Shute was appoint­ed in his stead to the command of both provinces.Hutch. Vol. II. p. 215· He arrived in New-Hamp­shire, and his commission was published [Page 362] the seventeenth of October 1716. Dud­ley being thus superseded, retired to his family-seat at Roxbury, where he died in 1720, in the seventy-third year of his age.