USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Lives of the governors of New Plymouth, and Massachusetts bay; from the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620, to the union of the two colonies in 1692 > Part 23
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In 1643, Gov. Haynes was re-instated in office. In the same year, four of the New England colonies united in a confederation for mutual protection and defence. This union was proposed by the colonies of Connecti- cut and New Haven, as early as 1638, but was not final- ly completed until 1613.+
Gov. Haynes was one of the most active agents in ac- complishing this important measure, and spent several weeks in Massachusetts in bringing the matter to a con- clusion. He was for several years one of the commis-
* Old code of Connecticut. t Sce pp. 119-122, of this volume.
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sioners of the United Colonies from Connecticut under this confederation.
In the autumn of 1646, Governor Haynes, being on his way from Connecticut to Boston, was overtaken by a tempest, and came near perishing. Gov. Winthrop, in a letter, dated 19 November, says, "Mr. Haynes is come safe to us, but in great danger to have perished in the tempest, but that beyond expectation, wandering in the night, God brought him to an empty wigwam, where they found two fires burning, and wood ready for use. There they were kept two nights and a day, the storm continuing so long with them, with much snow as well as rain."*
Gov. Haynes had during the same year escaped as- sassination. Sequassen, a petty sachem, hired one of the Waronoke Indians to kill Gov. Hopkins and Gover- nor Haynes, with Mr. Whiting, one of the magistrates. Sequassen's hatred to Uncas was insatiable, and, prob- ably, was directed against these gentlemen, on ac- count of the just and faithful protection which they had afforded him. The plan was, that the Waronoke In- dian should kill them, and charge the murder upon Uncas, and by that means to engage the English against him to his ruin. After the massacre of these gentlemen, Se- quassen and the murderer were to make their escape to the Mohawks. The Indian who was hired to perpetrate the murder, after he had received several girdles of wam- pum, as a part of his reward, considering how another of his tribe, named Bushheag, who attempted to kill a woman at Stamford sometime before, had been appre- hended and executed at New Haven-conceived that it
* Savage's Winthrop, ii. 352.
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would be dangerous to murder English sachems. He also revolved in his mind, that if the English should not apprehend him and kill him, he should always be afraid of them, and have no comfort of his life. He also re- collected that the English gave a reward to the Indians. who discovered and brought in Bushheag. He therefore determined, that it would be better to discover the plot, than to be guilty of so bloody and dangerous an action. In this mind he came to Hartford, a few days after he had received the girdles, and made known the plot .*
Governor Haynes, while resident in Massachusetts, seems to have embraced the extreme views of Dudley, Peters, and others, in reference to rigor and strictness in government; and he arraigned the conduct of Gov. Winthrop, as being too lenient toward offenders, where- upon greater strictness in discipline civil and military was enjoined upon the magistrates. ; But after his remo- val to Connecticut, he seems to have become more toler- ant in his views, and to have regretted the harsh pro- ceedings adopted in Massachusetts against the Anabap- tists. , Roger Williams, in a letter dated from Providence, 22d June, 1670, says-" The matter with us is not about these children's toys of land, meadows, cattle, government, &c. But here all over this colonie, a great number of weake and distressed soules scattered are flying hither from Old and New England; the Most High and only wise hath in his infinite wisdom provid- ed this country and this corner as a shelter for the poor and persecuted, according to their several perswasions. And thus that heavenly man, Mr. Hains, Governour of' Connecticut, though he pronounced the sentence of my
* Trumbull, i. 153. t See Life of Winthrop, p. 250, ante.
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long banishment against me at Cambridge, then New- town, yet said unto me in his own house at Hartford, being then in some difference with the Bay, "I think, Mr. Williams, that I must now confesse to you, that the most wise God hath provided and cut out this part of the world for a refuge receptacle of all sorts of con- sciences. I am now under a cloud, and my brother Hooker, with the Bay, as you have been; we have re- moved from them thus far, and yet they are not satis- fied." **
Governor Haynes died at Hartford, in 1654. He was twice married, and had eight children ; five sons and three daughters. By his first wife, he had Robert, Heze- kiah, John, Roger, and Mary ; and by his second, Joseph, Ruth, and Mabel. When he came into New England, he left his sons, Robert, and Hezekiah, and his daugh- ter, Mary, at Copford Hall. Upon the commencement of the civil wars in England, Robert espoused the royal cause; but Hezekiah, declaring for the parliament, was, afterwards, promoted to the rank of major-general, under Cromwell. Upon the ruin of the king's affairs, Robert was put under confinement, and died without issue. Hezekiah enjoyed Copford Hall, under his father, until his decease. He then possessed it as a paternal inheri- tance, and it descended to his heirs. John and Roger, who came into this country with their father, sometime before his death returned to England. Roger died on his passage or soon after his arrival. John graduated at Harvard College in 1656, returned and was admitted to the degree of Master of Arts at Cambridge in England, and was settled in the ministry, at or near Colchester,
* Williams' Letter to Major Mason, in I Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 280.
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in the county of Essex, in England, where he died before 1698, leaving issue. Joseph, graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1658, was ordained pastor of the first church in Hartford, and died 24 May, 1679, leaving one son, John. a magistrate, and judge of the superior court of Connec- ticut, who graduated at Harvard College in 1689. Mar: married Joseph Cook in England ; Ruth married Sam- uel Wyllys, son of Governor Wyllys, of Hartford, and Mabel was married to James Russell, of Charlestown, a counsellor, judge, and treasurer in Massachusetts; and all had issue. The Rev. Mr. Haynes, of Hartford, had one son, John, a gentleman of reputation, for some years one of the magistrates and judges of the colony. He had sons, but they died without issue, and the name became extinct in this country.
Trumbull, in noticing the death of Governor Haynes. says-"He was not considered, in any respect, inferior to Governor Winthrop. He appeared to be a gentle- man of eminent piety, strict morals, and sound judgment. He paid attention to family government. His great in- tegrity, and wise management of all affairs, in private and public, so raised and fixed his character, in the esteem of the people, that they always, when the constitution would permit, placed him in the chief seat of govern- ment, and continued him in it till his death."*
* Trumbull's Hist. Conn. i. 216.
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IV. SIR HENRY VANE.
THE VANES are descended from an ancient family in Wales. The ancestor of this family, and of the Earls of Westmoreland and Darlington, was Howel ap Vane, of Monmouthshire, who lived before the Conquest. The first of the name distinctly noticed in history, is Sir Henry Vane, who was knighted by Edward, the Black Prince, for his bravery at the battle of Poictiers, in 1356. Six generations are recorded between Howel ap Vane and the Knight of Poitiers, and several generations suc- ceeded, when we find another of the family, Sir Ralph Vane, knighted by Henry VIII., for good conduct at the siege of Boulogne. He died without issue, and was suc- ceeded by John, his brother, who changed the name to Fane, and left two sons, Henry, the ancestor of Lord Barnard, and Richard, from whom is descended the Earl of Westmoreland. Henry, grandfather of Sir Henry Vane, died at Roan, 14 October, 1596. His son Henry of Raby Castle in Durham, and Harlow in Kent, who resumed the name of Vane, was born 18 February, 1589, and was knighted by James I. in 1611. Af- ter finishing his travels, and completing his educa- tion in foreign languages, and the other learning of his day, he was elected to Parliament from Carlisle in 1614,* and continued from that time, for more than thirty years, to exercise a controlling influence in the senate and the
* Sir Henry Vane, the elder, was chosen from Carlisle, in the parliaments which assembled in 1614, 1620, and 1625, and in every parlament afterwards to the time of his death, being elected for Thetford in Norfolk, Wilton in Wiltshire, and for the county of Kent. Willis' Notitia Parliamentaria.
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SIR HENRY VANE.
cabinet. King James appointed him Cofferer to Prince Charles, an office which he continued to sustain, after the latter had ascended the throne. He was also a mem- ber of his Majesty's Privy Council. In 1631, he went to Denmark as Ambassador Extraordinary, and shortly afterwards, in the same capacity, he visited the court of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. In both countries, he concluded treaties of great importance to the com- merce and power of England. He also acted a con- spicuous part in military affairs. In 1633, and again in 1639, he entertained King Charles with great -splendor in his castle at Raby. In the last named year he was made Treasurer of the Household, and advanced to the highest seat in the administration, as his Majesty's Prin- cipal Secretary of State. The Earl of Strafford was his rival, and after the Earl had been attainted and brought to the block, through the instrumentality of Sir Henry Vane and his son, the King became offended, and re- moved the elder Vane from his offices. He remained, however, in parliament, until ejected by Cromwell, in 1653. He died in 1654.
Sir Henry Vane, the elder, married Frances, daugh- ter and heiress of Thomas Darcy, of Essex, and had a family of fourteen children, Sir Henry, the principal subject of this memnoir, being the eldest, and born in 1612. Two of his brothers, Thomas and John, dicd young. George was knighted, 22 Nov. 1640, and buried at Long Newton, in Durham, 1 May, 1679, having had thirteen children. Charles was distinguished as a di- plomatist in the times of the Commonwealth, particularly as Envoy to Lisbon. Margaret, the eldest sister, 3 June, 1639, married Sir Thomas Pelham, ancestor of the
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families of the Duke of New Castle, Earl of Chichester, and Lord Yarborough. Anne, born in Aug. 1623, mar- ried Sir Thomas Liddell, of Ravensworth Castle, Dur- ham, who died in 1697. Frances, born 30 April, 1630, married Sir Robert Honeywood, and another married Sir Francis Vincent .* 1
. It will thus be seen that young Vane's entrance into life was under the most favorable circumstances. At six- teen years of age, he became a gentleman commoner of Magdalen College, Oxford. In his early youth, accord- ing to his own account, he had been giddy, wild, and fond of "good fellowship," but the year before entering College he became seriously inclined. As he progressed in his studies, he became alienated from the doctrines and forms of the established church, and when the period of his matriculation arrived, he quitted his gown, declined to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and thus for- feited his membership at the University. Leaving Ox- ford, he passed over to the Continent, visited Holland and France, and spent some time in Geneva.
The rumor of his abandonment of the church, soon became known to the King, and his Majesty was advised to take steps to recover him to the cause of the establish- ment. Archbishop Laud, too tyrannical to be a safe counsellor or friend, undertook to reclaim the young dis- senter, but failed. The circumstances caused some excite- ment in the higher circles of English society at the time. Sir Henry Vane, the elder, then of his Majesty's Privy Council, who was strongly opposed to the puritans, was greatly disturbed by the course of his son. To relieve
* Betham's Baronetage of England. See also Playfair's British Family Antiquities, and the Biographia Britannica, art. Vane
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his father from embarrassment, young Vane determined to remove to America. At first, the father was opposed to the plan ; but afterwards yielded, at the instance of the King.
Mr. Vane arrived at Boston, in one of the ships that came over in the autumn of 1635. On the Ist of No- vember, he was admitted a member of the church of Boston, and on the 3d of March following, to the free- dom of the colony .*
The colonists were naturally prepared to receive him with open arms; and their regard and attachment were increased, as they became personally acquainted with him. His interesting demeanor, grave and commanding aspect. and extraordinary talents; but above all his extensive theological attainments, entire devotion to the cause of religion, earnest zeal for its institutions, and the un- affected delight with which he waited upon its ordinances and exercises, won the admiration, love, and veneration of the Puritans. After a short residence in the country, when the annual election came round, in May, 1636, he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, being at that time but twenty-four years of age.
His administration was brief and stormy. He con- tended for principles which were in advance of the times. and soon found the applause which every where met his arrival, turned into distrust, and eventually into opposi- tion.
When his election as governor was announced, a sa- lute was fired by the shipping in the harbor, there being at the time some fifteen large vessels in port. The lead- ing men had misgivings about there being so many for-
* Savage's Winthrop, i. 170; ii. 366.
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eign vessels in the harbor, and were apprehensive lest the presence of their officers and crews should corrupt the morals of the inhabitants. Governor Vane under- took to remedy the evil ; and inviting the captains of all the ships to dine with him, he succeeded in effecting an arrangement, by which inward bound vessels were to remain below the fort, until the Governor's pass should be obtained ; all invoices to be submitted to the inspection of government before landing; and none of the ships' crews to remain on shore after sunset .*
Soon after this, the mate of a British vessel affected to be very indignant because the King's colors had not been displayed upon the fort ; and in a moment of excitement he denounced the colonists as a set of " rebels and trai- tors." The people became so clamorous against the mate, for this insult upon their loyalty, that Gov. Vane was obliged to order his arrest. The crew resisted the marshal, but the captain of the vessel at last surrendered the mate, who made an apology ; and this being done, the British officers were inclined to insist, that the flag should be hoisted over the fort. This was a sad dilem- ma for the puritans. Endecott had just before torn the cross from the flag at Salem, and now that they were re- quired to hoist the flag, on which the dreaded Papal Cross was represented, was an abomination. On the other hand, to refuse to acknowledge the King's sove- reignty by displaying his flag, might subject them to great difficulty. They hoped to escape, however, by the re- ply that there were no such colors in the country. The captains offered to lend them a flag; and then the ques- tion had to be submitted to the clergy. The result was,
* Savage's Winthrop, i. 167.
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that the request of the captains was at last refused! Gor- ernor Vane, although a puritan, strenuously opposed this over scrupulous conduct of the magistrates, and was supported by Dudley, one of the straitest of the seet. And the obnoxious flag, with the terrible cross, was finally displayed without the authority of the government, on the personal responsibility of Governor Vane and Mr. Dudley. From this hour the popularity of Governor Vane declined.
During the administration of Governor Vane, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, the founder of the sect of antinomians, arrived from England. Possessing extraordinary gifts, the happiness of her life consisted in religious exercises and investigations. It was her fortune, (says Upham, ) " to raise a contention and kindle a strife in the infant commonwealth of Massachusetts, which has secured to her name a distinction as lasting as our annals."* She established meetings, and set herself up as a spiritual teacher. Her opinions were hostile to those of the cler- gy and the government ; but the power of her eloquence and exertions soon carried the people of Boston with her; and when the government took steps to silence her, the sympathy became almost universal in that city. All beyond the limits of Boston was under the sway of the dominant clergy. Governor Vane espoused the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson, as an advocate of religious freedom, and continued to defend her, until at the close of his ad- ministration, he returned to England.
The religious views of this extraordinary woman, which set the colony in a flame, are substantially express- ed in the following description.
* See Upham's Life of Sir Henry Vane, in I Sparks' Biography, iv. 123.
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She believed that it was the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer's heart, that is, the possession and exercise of the pure and genuine and divine spirit of Christianity in the soul itself, which constituted justifica- tion, or made a person acceptable to God; that the ex- ternal and formal indications of piety, or sanctification, might appear where this inward spirit was not expe- rienced, and that in such cases they were utterly worth- less ; and that the great end of the religion revealed in the Scriptures, was not so much to make our conduct or outward deportment correct, or bring us under a coven- ant of works, as to include us under a covenant of grace, by imparting to our souls the Holy Spirit of God.
However unpalatable such doctrines were in a for- mal and sanctimonious condition of society and manners, they would probably meet with a hearty response from enlightened Christains of all denominations at the present day. It is indeed wonderful, that a female in Mrs. Hutchinson's circumstances, placed beyond the reach of every influence that might be thought necessary to lead to such results, encompassed by the privations of a wil- derness and the cares of a young and numerous family, could have made such an advance beyond the religious knowledge of her age .*
When the next election came round, the controversy was at its height. Vane, although he meditated a return to England, was the candidate of the friends of toleration, and Winthrop was supported by the clergy and magis- trates. The fathers and founders of the colony now re- gained the ascendancy. Mrs. Hutchinson, and her broth- er, John Wheelwright, were banished, and some of the
* Upham's Vane, in I Sparks' Biog. iv. 138.
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principal persons in Boston who had defended her were disarmed .* Governor Vane, after a spirited pamphk : controversy with Governor Winthrop, on the great que -- tions at issue, bade adieu to the colony.f He took jas- sage for England, in August, 1637, accompanied by Lord Ley, a young nobleman, son and heir of the Earl of Mail- borough, who had come over a short time before to see the country. A large concourse of the inhabitants of Boston followed their honored friend and former chief magistrate to the wharves, and many accompanied him to the vessel. A parting salute was fired from the town. and another from the castle.
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Governor Vane's first appearance in public life, after his return to England, was in 1640. About this time, through his father's interest with the Earl of Northuni- berland, then Lord High Admiral of England, he was joined with Sir William Russell in the lucrative office of Treasurer of the Navy, whom he supplanted in 1643, and became sole Treasurer. He took his seat in the House of Commons on the 13th April, 1640, as member for Kingston upon Hull.
So great was the reputation he had previously ac- quired, and the impression produced by his appearance and conduct in the House during the brief continuance of this Parliament, that it became an object of some importance to secure his favor and influence to the gov- ernment. He was accordingly signalized by the expres- sions of royal regard. In June, 1640, he received from King Charles the honors of knighthood, and was there-
* See notices of the antinomian heats, in pp. 254-258, 287, 288, of this volume.
t The pamphlets comprising this controversy are preserved in Hutchinson & Collection, pp. 67-100.
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after, until the death of his father, in 1654, distinguished by the title, either of Sir Henry Vane the Younger, or Sir Henry Vane of Raby Castle, Knight.
A new parliament having been summoned by the King, Sir Henry Vanc was re-elected, and took his seat in the celebrated Long Parliament, which commenced on the 3d November, 1640. His career from this period was somewhat distinguished in its bearings upon the destiny of England. He took an open stand against the arbitrary measures of the King, and was soon considered one of the principal leaders of the party of republicans in Parliament. Wood, in his Athenic Oxonienses, thus utters the opinion of a royalist of Vane: "In the be- ginning of the Long Parliament he was a promoter of the rebellion, a frequent committee-man, a speech-maker, a preacher, an underminer, a juggling fellow, and a plot- ter to gain the estates of other persons, that adhered to his Majesty in the worst of times. In sum, he was the Proteus of the times, a mere hotch-potch of religion, chief ringleader of all the frantic sectarians, of a turbu- lent spirit and working brain, of a strong composition of choler and melancholy, an inventor not only of whim- seys in religion, but also of crotchets in the state, (as his several models testify,) and composed only of treason, ingratitude, and baseness."* Clarendon gives the description of him already quoted, on page 254; while Hallam, in his Constitutional History of England, speaks of him as follows: " The royalists have spoken of Vane with extreme dislike; yet it should be remem- bered, that he was not only incorrupt, but disinterested, inflexible in conforming his public conduct to his prin-
* Atheniæ Oxonienses, ili. col. 590.
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SIR HENRY VANE.
ciples, and averse to every sanguinary and oppressive measure ; qualities not very common in revolutionary chiefs."*
In the movements of the party, headed by Mr. Pym. which led the Earl of Strafford to the block, and pre- pared the way for the overthrow of the monarchy, Sir Henry Vane bore a conspicuous part. Sir Thomas Wentworth, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1639, had opposed the appointment of the elder Vane as Sec- retary of State; and when raised to the peerage, in January, 1640, as Earl of Strafford, he procured his pa- tent to be made out with the title of " Baron Raby of Raby Castle," thus appropriating the name of an estate belonging to Vane. Clarendon says, it was "an act of the most unnecessary provocation," on the part of Straf- ford, and there is little doubt that the Earl was made to atone for the insult upon the scaffold; for from this period the Vanes, father and son, pursued him with an irreconcileable hatred. After the Earl's impeach- ment, when the bill was likely to fall to the ground for want of evidence, Sir Henry Vane communicated a paper, taken from his father's closet, containing memo- randa, taken by the Secretary, of opinions given by the Earl and others at a Council on the 5th May, 1640. This paper, ( the production of which, under all the cir- cumstances, is a stain upon the character of the two Vanes,) and the elder Vane's testimony, caused the at- tainder of the Earl.t
* Hallam's Constit. Hist.
t On the 11th November, 1640, the House of Commons resolved upon an impeachment of the Earl of Strafford, and Pym, the great parliamentary leader, was appointed to manage the impeachment. The charges were reduced to 23 articles, alledging various misdemeanors and traitorous counsels to the
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SIR HENRY VANE.
In February, 1641, he carried up to the House of Lords the impeachment against Archbishop Laud ; and in the great debate upon the Episcopacy, in June, 1641, he distinguished himself in the House of Commons. When the Assembly of Divines was summoned, in 1643, he was nominated by Parliament as one of the lay mem- bers. In the same year, when Parliament found it ne- cessary to gain assistance to enable them to bear up against the King, he was appointed one of the Commis- sioners to proceed to Edinburgh, for that purpose. The mission was perfectly successful. The Solemn League and Covenant was agreed upon ; a complete union was formed between the patriots of England and Scotland, upon a basis which also comprehended the Irish, and was adapted to secure their favor and aid.
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