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 29
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civil and military officers, merchants of the town, and country, being on horseback, the regiment of the town. and many companies of horse and foot from the country, appearing in arms-a great entertainment was prepared in the town house, and wine was served out to the sol- diers."
On the 5th of June, the representatives from several towns assembled at Boston. The council immediately proposed to them to consent to the liberation of the gentle- men seized by the people, upon security, but this was not agreed to ; and on the 27th, they resolved that they were not bailable, and sent up articles against them. Sir Edmund Andros, Col. Dudley,* and others, remained in close custody for upwards of twenty weeks. At last, an order was received from the King, approving the course pursued by the people, and old magistrates, and di- recting that Andros and the rest of the prisoners should be sent forthwith to England. This order arrived late in the year, and on the 16th Feb. 1690, Sir Edmund An- dros, Mr. Dudley, and several others, embarked for Eng- land.
Lieut. Gov. Danforth, in a letter to Dr. I. Mather, speaking of the transactions of this period, says, " Mr. Dudley is in a peculiar manner the object of the people's displeasure, even throughout all the colonies, where he hath sat as judge; they deeply resent his correspondence with that wicked man Randolph, for overturning the gov- ernment. The Governor and Council, though they have done their utmost to procure his enlargement, yet cannot prevail, but the people will have him in the jail :
* Whitman supposes that Dudley obtained his title of Colonel, by an appoint- ment in the British army while in England.
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and when he hath been by order turned out, by force and tumult they fetch him in." Dudley himself, in a letter to Cotton Mather, dated Ist June, says, "I am told that this morning is the last opportunity for rolling away the stone from the mouth of this sepulchre, where I am buried alive," &c. . And in a letter to his brother- in-law, Gov. Bradstreet, dated 12th Sept., he says, " After twenty weeks unaccountable imprisonment, and many barbarous usages offered me, I have now to com- plain that on Monday. the whole day, I could be allowed no victuals, till nine o'clock at night, when the keeper's wife offered to kindle her own fire and warm something for me, and the Corporal expressly commanded the fire to be put out. I may be easily oppressed to death. God will hear them that complain to him. I pray your direction for your oppressed kinsman, J. D."
Gov. Dudley returned to his native country towards the close of the year 1690, having been much more suc- cessful in conciliating the favor of the crown, than he could hope to be of regaining the confidence of the peo- ple. He was now looking to another sphere of action for public honors. The supreme court of the colony of New York was established on the 6th of May, 1691, and on the 15th Mr. Dudley, who had previously been appointed a member of the council of New York, was appointed chief justice by Governor Sloughter. On the 11th Nov. 1692, after the arrival of Gov. Fletcher, he was removed from this station, on account of not being resident in the province. As a member of the council of New York, and senior in the board, he was entitled to preside in the administration of that province, on the death of Sloughter; but being absent in Massachusetts at
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the time, the chief position was given to another, a pro- ceeding which Mr. Dudley did not think it worth while to contest.
Mr. Dudley went the third time to England in 1693 ; where he remained until 1702. While there, he was eight years Deputy Governor of the Isle of Wight, un- der Lord Cutts, through whose interest he was also re- turned a member of the House of Commons, for the borough of Newton in Southampton. On the death of King William, he returned with a commission from Queen Anne, as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with which he arrived at Boston, 11 June, 1702, and was received, says the Boston News Letter of that day, "with great respect and affection."# He was sworn into office, 13th June, 1702. During his absence in England, he had managed to take advantage of the complaints transmitted from Massachusetts against Gov- ernor Phips, and after having caused him to be arrest- ed in London, and held to bail in £20,000, found it an casy matter to supplant him.
On meeting his first assembly, Dudley gave " instances of his remembering the old quarrel, and the people, on their parts, resolved never to forget it."+ " All his in- . genuity could not stem the current of their prejudice against him." A stated salary was demanded for the governor. " As to settling a salary for the governor," replied the House, " it is altogether new to us; nor can we think it agreeable to our present constitution ; but we shall be ready to do what may be proper for his support."
* Sir Charles Hobby, a native of Boston, was a rival of Dudley for the office of governor. He died in London, in 1714.
+ Bancroft, iii. 90, 100.
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Here began the controversy which nothing but indepen- dence could solve. In vain did Dudley endeavor to win from the legislature, concessions to the royal prerogative ; and he, and for a season his son also, became the active opponents of the chartered liberties of New England, endeavoring to effect their overthrow, and the establish- ment of a general government, as in the days of Andros. In December, 1702, he wrote to the board of trade in England, that " many of the council were Common- wealth's men, and that until the Queen should appoint a Council, nothing could be done." In December, 1703, he writes to the secretary of state, that he " had communi- cated the Queen's requisitions to the assembly relative to Pemaquid, and the settlement of salaries-but though he had used all possible methods, he found it impossible to move that sort of men, who love not the Crown and Gov- ernment of England to any manner of obedience." About this time, the copy of a letter written by Paul Dudley, son of the governor, who was then attorney general, was made public, in which he made the offen- sive declaration, that "this country will never be worth living in for lawyers and gentlemen, till the charter is . taken away." Hutchinson says the governor had no rest for the first seven years .*
At the general election in May, 1703, Governor Dud- ley negatived five of the newly elected counsellors-men of probity, influence and popularity-but whose course towards him, in the revolution of 1689, he could not so far overlook, as to admit them among his confidential ad- visers. Thomas Oakes, a representative from Boston, and a popular leader of the opposition, was this year
· Hutchinson, ii. 140.
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chosen speaker of the house. The governor negatived the choice. He was then chosen to the council, when Dudley negatived him there also. He was for many years, representative from Boston, and in 1705, was again chosen speaker. Dudley negatived the choice, and ordered the house to choose another person, but they re- fused. These proceedings, of course, rendered the gov- ernor very unpopular with the people. The belief was also becoming somewhat general, encouraged by the scan- dals of his enemies, that he was secretly encouraging an illicit trade with the French possessions in North Ameri- ca-a charge which does not seem to have had any foun- dation.
In July, 1702, Gov. Dudley visited all the eastern frontiers as far as Pemaquid, taking with him such gen- tlemen of the general court as he thought proper, where he met the delegates from the Indian tribes, and confirmed the treaties which had been formerly made. Queen Anne had already declared war against France, and the colonies soon became again involved in a French and Indian war. To keep the eastern Indians at peace, Governor Dudler in June, 1703, held another conference with the chiefs, who assured him that they had no thought of breaking the peace, which "should continue as long as the sun and moon." In six weeks after, they attacked all the settlements from Casco to Wells, burning and destroying all before them. Governor Dudley, during this painful struggle, appears to have laboured with great carnest- ness to prosecute the war, and protect the people from their enemies. The war continued until the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, was known in America, when the east- ern Indians proposed to treat of peace, and Governor
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Dudley finally concluded a treaty with them at Ports- mouth, on the 13th July .*
From his first arrival as governor, Dudley had shown a fond regard for the interests of his Alma Mater, and President Quincy, in his elaborate History of Harvard University, classes Gov. Dudley among the greatest ben- efactors of the college. "Of all the statesmen, who have been instrumental in promoting the interests of Harvard University, Joseph Dudley was most influential in giving its constitution a permanent character." When, howev- er, near the close of his carcer, the trustees of the col- lege refused to make a son of the governor their treasurer, the corporation incurred his resentment, and that of the family.
The demise of Queen Anne occurred in 1714. This event rendered the tenure of Governor Dudley's office precarious-his influence declined, and he seems to have gathered his robes about him to quit the stage. He met the Assembly for the last time in May, 1715, but made no speech, as was his wont. He was superseded in No- vember, of that year, by Governor Shute.
Gov. Dudley's administration was popular in New Hampshire. Beside his attention to the general interests of the province, and his care for its defence against the Indians, he had the particular merit of favoring the views of the people who were opposed to Allen's claim ; and they made him amends, by promoting in the assem- bly 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. A good harmony subsisted between the governor and
* Penhallow's Indian Wars, 22 -- 0.
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people, and between the two branches of the legislature of the province, during the whole of his administration. ' The general feeling in his favor was evinced in 1707. when a petition from Massachusetts to the Queen against the governor, was read before the general assembly in New Hampshire. The council and representatives in full assembly, nemine contradicente, voted that some of the charges were scandalous, unheard of, and false re- proaches ; and they drew up an address to the Queen, in which they justified his administration from all those ca- lumnies, and prayed his continuance in the government. ¡
Governor Dudley, as one of the original grantees of the town of Oxford, Massachusetts, conceived the pro- ject of forming there a settlement of French Protestants, who were looking for safety by flight to other countries, on the revocation of the edict of Nantz.t A correspon-
* John Usher, who was lieutenant governor of New Hampshire under Dud- ley, furnishes a key to the good understanding between the governor and the people of New Hampshire. In a letter written in January, 1704, to the Board of Trade and Plantations, he says that " Dudley, in consideration of Life per annum, allows a Republican party to govern, and every one against a Crown government, in places of trust." In a previous letter to the Board, dated Dec. 1703, Usher complains of the bad state of the government of New Hampshire- " which will not be happy unless a Governor is sent, who, without regard to money, will enforce the prerogative, and curb their anti-monarchical principles." Sampson Sheafe, then collector of the customs at New Castle, in Feb. 1704, wrote the Board of Trade, that " Usher had come to a ticklish government, as the people are of an ungovernable spirit, and, notwithstanding their pretensions. are against monarchical government." [From copies of Records in Plantation Office, London, in possession of Col. PETER FORCE, Washington, D. C.J
t In June, 1706, a petition was presented to the Queen for the removal of Governor Dudley, on the charge of mal-administration of the government and of being secretly concerned with the smugglers. It appears that he had granted permits to some of those traders to carry contraband articles to Port Royal. This was the source of many suspicions against him. The general court of Massa. chusetts, however, passed a vote in Nov. 1707, expressing their belief that Mr Dudley was innocent of the charge. Felt, 344. Hutchinson, ii. 145.
: Henry IV. of France, on the 13 April, 1508, signed at Nantz, an edic., granting " perpetual and inviolable liberty of conscience to the Protestants This edict was revoked by Louis XIV. on the 8 Oct. 1685
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dence took place between some of the leading Protestants at Rochelle, and the proprietors of Oxford, which result- ed in the settlement of that town in 1686, by thirty Huguenot families, who had escaped from France .*
On leaving office, Governor Dudley retired to his estate in Roxbury, where he died on the 2d April, 1720, in the 73d year of his age. "He was buried, (says the Boston News-Letter,) on the Sth, in the sepulchre of his father, with all the honors and respect his country was capable of doing him. He was a man of rare endow- ments and shining accomplishments, a singular honor to his country. He was early its darling, always its orna- ment, and in age its crown. The scholar, the divine, the philosopher, and the lawyer, all met in him." Hutchin- son says, "he applied himself with the greatest diligence to the business of his station. The affairs of the war, and other parts of his administration, were conducted with good judgment. In economy, he excelled, both in pub- lic and private life."
Such is the judgment of a contemporary, and of the early historian of Massachusetts, respecting the second Governor Dudley. Bancroft, with the added lights of his- torical investigation, comes to this stern estimate: "The character of Dudley was that of profound selfishness. He possessed prudence and the inferior virtues, and was as good a governor as one could be, who loved neither freedom nor his native land. His grave is among stran- gers; his memory has perished from among those whose interests he flattered, and is preserved only in the coun- try of his birth. He who loved himself more than free-
* See an interesting memoir of the French Protestants of Massachusetts, by the fate Dr. HOLMES, in 2d vol. 3d series Mass. Ilist. Collections.
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dom or his country, is left without one to palliate his selfishness."*
Governor Dudley married, in 1668, Rebecca, daugh- ter of major-general Edward Tyng, of Boston, afterwards of Dunstable. She survived the governor about two years, and died 21 Sept., 1722. Their children were,
1. Thomas, born 26 February, 1670, graduated at Harvard College in 1685.
2. Edward, born 4 September, 1671, died in Janua- ry, 1683.
3. Paul, born 3 September, 1675, graduated at H. C. in 1690, and died at Roxbury, 21 January, 1751, aged 75. He finished his law studies at the Temple, London ; was appointed attorney general of the province, and afterwards chief justice. He was a learned and pious man, and founder of the Dudleian Lecture at Har- vard College. A member of the Royal Society of Lon- don, several valuable articles from his pen are found among their published transactions.
4. Samuel, born in September, 1677.
5. John, born 28 February, 1679.
6. Rebecca, born in 1681, married 15 Sept. 1702, to Samuel Sewall, son of Chief Justice Sewall, and propri- etor of a large estate in Brookline, where he died of pa- ralysis in 1751, aged 73.
7. Catharine, who died young. S. Anne.
9. William, born 20 Oct. 1686, graduated at H. C. in 1704, was a colonel of militia, and member of the council.
10. Daniel, born 4 February, 1689.
11. Catharine, 2d ; and 12. Mary.
+ Bancroft, iii. 100.
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X. SIR EDMUND ANDROS.
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, "Seigneur of Sausmares," as he styled himself,* and "a poor Knight of Guernsey," as he is called by Oldmixon, was a native of Guernsey, where he was born in 1632. His family is represented to have been wealthy and respectable, and Edmund was secured a commission in the army, in which he after- wards obtained the rank of major. Circumstances had introduced him to the notice of the Duke of York, who took him under his protection ; and his connection with that prince, led to his subsequent employment in Amer- ica.
The treaty of Westminster, of 9 February, 1674, restoring to England the possession of her American ter- ritories, the Duke of York obtained from Charles II. a renewal of his patent, for the same territory which had been conveyed to him in 1664. This patent was dated 29th June, and two days thereafter the Duke appoint- ed Major Andros, Governor of his territories in Ameri- ca. In May, 1674, Andros was empowered by a royal order to raise 100 soldiers in London, besides officers, and transport them to New York, to garrison .the fort there, of which he was to have command. On the 31st October, 1674, Andros arrived at New York, received the surrender of the territory from the Dutch authorities, and re-established the former government of the Duke.
* In a grant of land, or confirmation of a prior grant, to Richard Smith, on Long Island, dated 25 March, 1677, Andros styles himself, " Edmund Andros, Esquire, Seigneur of Sausmares, Lt. & Gov Genl." &c.
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One of the first acts of his administration, was to arraign Captain Manning, who on the 28th July, 1673, treacherously surrendered the English fort at New York to the Dutch, whose invading fleet had come to anchor off Staten Island. Manning escaped the pun- ishment of death, but was publicly disgraced,-Andros in this case exhibiting almost the only act of lenity record- ed of him towards an offender, by using his influence with the court martial to avert the sentence of death.
The territory conferred on the Duke, by his charter, comprehended not only New York, but the greater por- tion of the whole coast to the north .* The charter it- self went so far as to sanction whatever ordinance the Duke of York, or his agents, might establish, and in regard to justice and legislation, (says Bancroft,) An- dros, the governor, was left to his own conscience and his employer. He entered at once, upon the execution of all his powers.
Not content with jurisdiction in civil and military af- fairs, Governor Andros extended his supervision over the moral and religious conduct of the people. Some
* The grant, in terms, was as follows : " All that part of the main land of New England, beginning at a certain place called or known by the name of St. Croix, next adjoining to New Scotland, in America, and from thence extending along the seacoast, unto a certain place called Pemaquie, or Pemequid, and so up the river thereof, to the furthest head of the same, as it tendeth northward ; ex- tending from thence to the river of Kimbequin, and so upwards, by the shortest course, to the river of Canada, northward ; and also all that island or islands com- monly called by the several name or names of Meitiwacks, or Long Island, situate and being towards the west of Cape Cod, and the narrow Higansetts, abutting upon the main land between the two rivers, then called and known by the sever- al names of Connecticut and Hudson's river, together also with all the said river called Iludson's river, and all the land from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware bay, and also all those several islands called and known by the names of Martin's vineyard, or Nantucks, or otherwise Nan. tucket."
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shallow enthusiasts in that day, as sometimes happens in the present, making loud professions of personal and exclusive righteousness, Andros, on the 15 Feb. 1675, issued a warrant for the arrest and imprisonment of one of them, named John Gerrits, "for pretending to extra- ordinary sanctity" -- pretending that Christ abided in him, " and endeavouring to instil these notions into the minds of others, particularly some married women," &c. The next day, he issued a warrant to arrest another, named Peter Ellet, "for reporting that he had seen sights or visions over the city, or fort, to the great uneasiness of the public mind."
He next interfered in a religious dispute, which had sprung up at Albany. A. Catholic clergyman, who had been recommended to Andros by the Duke of York, was by the governor stationed at Albany. The Dutch minister at that place disputed his right to administer the sacrament, as he had not the approval of the Classis of Amsterdam. A bitter controversy arose. The Alba- ny magistrates, taking the part of their minister, imprison- ed the catholic priest ; whereupon Andros ordered his'im- mediate release, and summoned the magistrates before him at New York. Warrants were issued against them, and Leisler, who afterwards figured in the history of the province, refusing to comply with the order, was thrust into prison. Finding, after a time, that he was beginning to lose ground in attempting to enforce an ecclesiastical ju- risdiction, Andros finally gave over the further prosecu- tion of this matter, and turned his attention to other portions of the territory claimed by the Duke.
He now required the submission of the inhabitants of-Long Island, and of the whole country west of the
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Connecticut river. The people of the eastern part of Long Island at first resisted his demand, but they finally submitted to his authority.
The people of Connecticut resolved to maintain their independence of the Duke of York, as their char- ter was of prior date to that of the Duke. Detach- ments of militia were therefore ordered to New-Lon- don and Saybrook, the troops at Saybrook being placed under the command of Capt. Thomas Bull, of Hartford.
Early in July, 1675, the people of Saybrook were surprised by the appearance of Major Andros, with an armed force, in the Sound, making directly for the fort. They had received no intelligence of the hostile expe- dition of Andros, and having no instructions from the governor, were undecided what course to take, when at a critical juncture Capt. Bull with his company arrived, and preparations were at once made for the defence of the fort and town. The assembly met at Hartford on the 9th of July, and immediately drew up a protest against the proceedings of Andros, which they sent by express to Saybrook, with instructions to Capt. Bull to propose to Andros a reference of the dispute to commissioners.
On the 11th, Major Andros, with several armed sloops drew up before the fort, hoisted the king's flag on board, and demanded a surrender of the fortress and town. Captain Bull immediately raised his majesty's colors in the fort, and arranged his men in the best man- ner possible. The major did not like to fire on the king's colors, and perceiving that, should he attempt to reduce the town by force, it would in all likelihood be a bloody affair, he judged it expedient not to fire upon the troops.
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Early in the morning of the 12th of July, Andros desired that he might have permission to land on the shore, for the purpose of an interview with the minis- ters and chief officers of the town. He probably flat- tered himself that if he could obtain a foothold upon the soil, and then read the Duke's patent, and his own com- mission, to the people, it would make a serious impres- sion upon them, and that he would be able to gain by artifice that which he could never accomplish by force of arms. He was allowed to come on shore with his suite. Captain Bull and his officers, with the officers and gentlemen of the town, met him at his landing, and informed him that they had, at that instant, received in- structions to tender him a treaty, and to refer the whole matter in controversy to commissioners, capable of de- termining it, according to law and justice. Major An- dros rejected the proposal at once, and forthwith com- manded, in his majesty's name, that the Duke's patent, and the commission which he had received from his royal highness, should be read. Captain Bull, compre- hending at once the artifice of Andros, commanded him, in his majesty's name, to forbear the reading. And when his clerk attempted to persist in reading, Captain Bull repeated his command, with such energy of voice and manner, as convinced the Major that it might not be altogether safe for him to proceed.
The Yankee captain, having succeeded in silencing the valiant representative of the Duke, next informed him that he had a communication to deliver from the as- sembly, and he then read the protest. Governor Andros, affecting to be well pleased with the bold and soldier- like appearance of his opponent, asked, " What is your
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