USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 41
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1 [The articles are given at length in Pulsifer's edition of the Records of the Commissioners. vol. ix. (1643-52) and x. (1653-79) of the Ply- mouth Col. Records; in Brigham's edition of Plymouth Laws ; in Bradford's Plymouth Plan- tation, p. 416; in Hazard's Collections, ii. Pal- frey, New England, ii. ch. i., makes a survey of the condition of the colonies at this time. -- ED.]
2 On that occasion an address was delivered in the First Church in Boston by John Quincy Adams, which is printed in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., ix. 189-223. In Mr. Adams's Memoirs (vol. xi. PP. 372-379) are some interesting notes about the preparation and delivery of this address, and the perplexity which he felt about changing old
style into new style. The Proceedings of the His- torical Society, ii. 243, 244, note, contains Mr. Adams's letter accepting the invitation to de- liver the address, and a letter from Mr. Savage, at that time President of the Society, pointing out the principal authorities for the history of the confederacy. [Hubbard, in New England, ch. lii., gives an account of the doings of the confederacy, and later accounts are given in Bancroft's United States, i. ch. x. ; Chalmers's Polit. Annals, ch. viii .; Palfrey's New England, i. ch. xv; Baylies's Old Colony, pt. ii. ch. xiii. ; Barry's Massachusetts, i. ch. xi .; Bryant and Gay's United States, ii. ch. ii., &c. - En.]
3 Plymouth Col. Records, ix. 11, 12; Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 9.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Gorton and his company, the commissioners declared that if Gorton and his followers stubbornly refused to obey the summons of the General Court of Massachusetts, the magistrates of that colony might proceed against them with the full approval and concurrence of the other jurisdictions, provided nothing was done prejudicial to the land-claims of Plymouth. Finally, it was ordered that letters should be written to the Dutch and Swedish governors, complaining of the injuries done to the Hartford and New Haven men at Delaware Bay and elsewhere.1
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SIGNATURES OF COMMISSIONERS, 1646.2
Meetings of the commissioners were held annually, and sometimes more frequently, for upward of twenty years; but in September, 1664,-a few weeks after the arrival of the Royal Commissioners sent over by Charles II.,- it was ordered that henceforth the meetings should be held only once in three years.3 At the same time provision was made that the number of the commissioners should be reduced, in case the Connecticut and New Haven colonies should be united under one government. 4 Six years afterward, at a meeting held in Boston in June, 1670, the articles of agree- ment were renewed, again entered on the record, and ordered to be pre- sented to the several General Courts.5 In the new compact the order of the articles was changed, some new provisions were inserted, and some of the powers heretofore exercised by the commissioners were transferred to the General Courts of the United Colonies. Hartford and New Haven
1 Plymouth Col. Records, ix. 12, 13. points of the Royal Commissioners in 1663, as indicating the colony's assumption of the King's prerogative. - ED.]
2 [Endicott and Pelham represented Massa- chusetts; John Brown and Timothy Hatherly, Plymouth; the others, Connecticut and New Haven. - ED.]
3 [This confederacy was made one of the
+ Plymouth Col. Records, x. 319.
5 Ibid. 334-339 ; Hazard, Historical Collec- tions, ii. 511-516.
Starbort Pelham to Endicott
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BOSTON AND THE NEIGHBORING JURISDICTIONS.
having been consolidated under the charter granted by Charles II., in 1662, the number of commissioners was reduced to six. They were to meet only once in three years; and of every five regular meetings, two were to be held in Boston, two in Hartford, and one in Plymouth. But the strength and glory of the old Confed- cracy had departed, and the new union had only a short existence. The commissioners met in September, 1672, and formally ratified these articles ; and they met also in the fol- lowing year, on a special call from the governor and magis- trates of Connecticut,
Simon Braw fros+ Color Daniel Denison · Tho: France James : Tuowoolf John Mayons John- Bathrott Theoph: Eaton With PETE
in consequence of the capture of New York by the Dutch. Their only other meetings were in 1675, 1678, 1679, 1681, and 1684. Their last act was the issuing of a recommenda- tion to the several colonial gov- SIGNATURES OF COMMISSIONERS, SEPT. 1657.1 ernments for the appointment of the 22d of October, 1684, as a day of solemn humiliation, "to the end that we may meet together in united prayers at the Throne of Grace, for the more effectual promoting of the work of general reformation, so long discoursed of amongst ourselves (but greatly delayed) ; and that we may obtain the favor of God for a farther lengthening out of our tranquillity, under the shadow of our Sovereign Lord the King; and that God would preserve his life and establish his crown in righteousness and peace, for the defence of the Protestant religion in all his dominions." 2 The death of that worthless sovereign a few months afterward, the accession of James II., and the appointment of Sir Edmund Andros as governor of all New England put an end to the New England Confederacy. With the expulsion of Andros, who imitated on a narrower field the tyrannical acts which led to the expulsion of James II. from England, the colonies resumed their charter governments ; but the Confederacy was not revived.
It had accomplished the purpose for which it was formed; but it was never a strong organization, and it had the inherent defects of every simple confederation. Even if the growing jealousy of the colonies which existed in the mother country would have permitted its re-establishment, public
1 [ Bradstreet and Denison represented Mas- sachusetts Bay; Prince and Cudworth, Plymouth Colony; and the others, Connecticut and New
Haven colonies, not then united as a single juris- diction. - ED.]
2 Plymouth Col. Records, X. 411, 412.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
opinion on this side of the ocean was not yet ripe for the formation of a tinion in any considerable degree free from the interference and control of the colonial legislatures. In its carly days, however, the Confederacy had exerted a powerful influence in making the colonies feared and respected by their Dutch and French neighbors, and by the Indians within their own borders. As the principal town in the most important colony in the Con- federacy, Boston shared largely in the benefits which Massachusetts derived even from this imperfect union; and in any enumeration of the causes which have combined to make Boston what she now is, the formation of the New England Confederacy of 1643 cannot be overlooked.1
Chº C. Smith
1 Any account of the relations of Boston with the neighboring jurisdictions would be incom- plete which did not include some reference to the two abortive missions of Father Druilletes to Boston and Plymouth in 1650 and 1651. Four years after the formation of the New England Confederacy, Governor Winthrop wrote to the Governor of Canada proposing a free trade be- tween the colonies. Apparently no answer was returned to this proposition during Winthrop's life ; but in 1650 Gabriel Druilletes, one of the Jesuit fathers, was sent to New England by his superior, with the concurrence of the Governor, to negotiate on the subject. The chief object of Druilletes seems, however, to have been to engage the New England colonies in a war with the Mohawks for the advantage of the Abenakis; but his mission failed to produce any result, though he says he had a moral assurance that three of the four colonies were favorable to his plans. In his narrative he represents the Gov- ernor of Plymouth as urgent in the affair, and he had strong hopes that the younger Winthrop would give his aid, "after the letter which 1 wrote him praying him to finish what his father began." Of Boston he writes: "The Vice- Governor of Boston, named Mr. Endicott, who is now probably Governor, has pledged his word to do all in his power to bring the Boston magis- trates to consent and unite with the Governor of Plymouth. All the Boston magistrates write that they will recommend it earnestly to the deputies. Boston's interest is the hope of a good trade with Quebec, especially as that which it has with Virginia and the Isle of Barbadoes and St. Christopher's is on the point of being destroyed by the war excited by the Parliamen-
tarians to exterminate there the authority of the Governors who still hold for the King of England. This interest has made the Boston merchants say in advance, that if the republic
makes any difficulty about sending troops, the volunteers will be satisfied with a simple per- mission for the expedition." While here, he visited Salem, and was hospitably entertained by Endicott, who, he says, "speaks and under- stands French well." Ile also went to Plymouth to sec Governor Bradford, whose influence, every one told him, was all-powerful. At Roxbury he spent the night with the Rev. John Eliot, "who was instructing some Indians," and he adds ; " Ile treated me with respect and affection, and invited me to pass the winter with him." In Boston he was the guest of Major-General Gib- bons, who "gave me the key of a room in his house, where I might in all liberty pray and perform the exercises of my religion, and he be- sought me to take no other lodgings while I re- mained at Boston." Druilletes was very nat- urally impressed by these attentions; but the failure of his mission shows that he was over- confident in his expectations. It is not at all probable that the United Colonies had any in- tention of attacking the Mohawks. In the following year he came again under the authority of a regular appointment from the Government of Canada, accompanied by the Sieur Godefroy, one of the council. But their mission also failed of success. (See Hutchinson, IFist. of Mass. Bay, pp. 166-171 ; 2 Coll. N'. Y. Hist. Soc., iii. 305-328 ; Proceedings of Muss. Hist. Soc. for Oct. 1869, pp. 152-154 ; Plymouth Col. Records, ix. 199-203 )
[NOTE. - La Tour's story is the subject of an essay by Henry Winsor of Philadelphia, con- tained in Montrose and Other Biographical Sketches, Boston, 1861. There is a paper on D'Aulnay in 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., iv. 462, translated by Dr. William Jenks from Œuvres de l'histoire de la Maison de Menou, Paris, 1852, p. 165. A con- siderable number of original papers relating to La Tour and D'Aulnay are preserved at the State House in Mass. Archives, vol. ii. - ED.]
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM THE DEATH OF WINTHROP TO PHILIP'S WAR.
BY COLONEL THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.
W TINTHROP died in 1649. The best picture left to us of the wonderful transformation which he had seen wrought in the New England wilds since his coming is to be found in the quaint narrative by Edward Johnson, The Wonder-working Providence, probably written about 1650. He says of the condition of the Colony : -
" The Lord hath been pleased to turn all the wigwams, huts, and hovels the English dwelt in at their first coming into orderly, fair, and well-built houses, well furnished many of them, together with Orchards filled with goodly fruit trees, and gardens with variety of flowers. There are supposed to be in the Mattachusets Government at this day neer a thousand acres of land planted for Orchards and Gardens, there being, as is supposed in this Colony, about fifteen thousand acres in tillage, and of cattel about twelve thousand neat, and about three thousand sheep. Thus hath the Lord incouraged His people with the encrease of the general, although many particu- lars are outed, hundreds of pounds, and some thousands, yet are there many hundreds of labouring men, who had not enough to bring them over, yet now worth scores and some hundreds of pounds.
" And those who were formerly forced to fetch most of the bread they eat, and beer they drink, a hundred leagues by Sea, are through the blessing of the Lord so encreased that they have not only fed their Elder Sisters, - Virginia, Barbados, and many of the Summer Islands that were prefer'd before her for fruitfulness, -- but also the Grand- mother of us all, even the fertil Isle of Great Britain ; beside Portugal hath had many a mouthful of bread and fish from us in exchange of their Madeara liquor, and also Spain." 1
And, speaking especially of Boston, he thus rejoices in its growth : -
" The chiefe Edifice of this City-like Towne is crowded on the Sea-bankes, and wharfed out with great industry and cost, the buildings beautifull and large, some fairely set forth with Brick, Tile, Stone, and Slate, and orderly placed with comly streets, whose continuall inlargement presages some sumptuous City. . .. But now behold the admirable Acts of Christ : at this his peoples landing, the hideous Thickets in this place were such that Wolfes and Beares nurst up their young from the eyes of all
1 Johnson, Wonder-working Providence, Poole's edition, pp. 174, 175, 208.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
beholders, in those very places where the streets are full of Girles and Boys sporting up and downe, with a continued concourse of people. Good store of Shipping is here yearly built, and some very faire ones : both Tar and Mastes the Countrey affords from its own soile ; also store of Victuall both for their owne and Forreiners ships, who resort hither for that end : this Town is the very Mart of the Land ; French, Portugalls, and Dutch come hither for Traffique." 1
Such was the peaceful life of the Massachusetts Colony.2 The busy citizens thus continued to thrive, and the children to sport, during all the period when the iron Cromwell ruled England, taking little thought among his eares and victories for the humble settlements across the ocean. He sometimes found them a convenient place of banishment for his Scotch prisoners,3 and he thought of them as a source from which he could re- people Jamaica ; but this was almost all. He ruled, and died; and his weak son succeeded, -and still Massachusetts was at peace under the beneficent leadership of Endicott, while the stern progress of events was bringing about the great Royalist reaction in England, and the day of the Restoration was drawing near.
In London, on the 29th of May, 1660, the River Thames was alive with gay barges, the streets were full of merry-making people, the air resounded with martial music, with cheering, and with the roar of great guns from the Tower. The merchants had hung brocade and cloth of gold from their shop windows, and among these gorgeous stuffs drooped torn and tattered flags that had been scorched with fire from Cromwell's eannon. The pike- heads of the train-bands glittered along the streets, decked here and there with wreaths of flowers tossed from upper casements by laughing girls. All this tumult and passion and madness was to welcome the Restoration of a profligate prince and a fatal dynasty; and meantime, in the quiet streets of Boston, men came and went about their sober errands, and " girles and boys " still played in the highways, not knowing that all they had revered and trusted in the mother country was being swept away. For twenty years Massachusetts had exercised virtual self-government, had kept clear of all English complications. She had never directly recognized the succes- sion of Richard Cromwell; she was in no haste to recognize that of Charles the Second.
The news of the Restoration was brought to America by the very ship which brought Goffe and Whalley, the regicides. Massachusetts had never distinctly approved the execution of the King, but she took the men who had abetted it into her heart. For nearly a year they were honored guests at the firesides of the State; when a Commission was sent for their arrest, the fugitives were hurried from place to place though New England,
1 Johnson, as before, p. 43.
2 [Descriptions of the occasional disturb- ance of the town's quiet by trials and execu- tions for witchcraft - as when Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, suffered in 1648, and Ann Ilibbins in 1654 - will find a place in Mr.
Poole's chapter of this work, in the second volume. - ED.]
3 [A ship arriving in 1652 brought two hun- dred and seventy-two such, - captives of Dun- bar battle and others. A list is given in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., i. 377 .- ED.]
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FROM DEATH OF WINTHROP TO PHILIP'S WAR.
and faithfully guarded; there was an outward acquiescence in the search, but " the Colonels," as they were habitually called, were always warned and removed in ample season. Their names were as well known on the lips of the people as those of Endicott and Winthrop; they remained a traditional phrase down to this present generation : I can distinctly remember to have heard from the lips of country people, in my childhood, the oath " By Goffe- Whalley ! " 1
But even the testimony of " the Colonels" did not readily convince the people that the Restoration was a permanent thing. Affairs in the mother country were full of changes, and this might be but one change more. Then followed trials and executions that affected New England as well as Old. Sir Henry Vane, once Governor of Massachusetts, the defender of Quakers, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, the opponent of slavery and of Cromwell himself when needful, -Sir Henry Vane suffered death at the block. Hugh Peter, once the minister of Salem and one of the founders of Harvard College, was hanged; his last words to his friends being, "Weep not for me, my heart is full of comfort ; " and to his daughter, " Go home to New England and trust God there." These events must have touched the hearts of the Colonists very nearly; but the ocean then seemed very wide; a passage of six weeks was considered short; Europe was far more remote in those days of Colonial dependence than in these of National separation. This had already taught Massachusetts men the habit of evading some troublesome problems by simple delay; so they let a year pass before they sent a congratulatory address to the newly. made King.
When the time for writing the letter came, it seemed necessary to put some loyalty into their words, if there was not much in their actions. The
1 [Colonels Goffe and Whalley had ar- rived in Boston July 27, 1660, and were kindly received by the principal people ; but they very soon removed to Cambridge, and when the Act of Indemnity, in which they were by name ex- cepted, arrived from England, they relieved the magistrates of embarrassment by departing in February, 1661, without their jurisdiction. It was one of the charges raised against Massachu- setts Bay a year or two later that " Whaley and Goffe were entertayned by the magistrates with great solemnity, and feasted in every place ; " Cartwright's account, in N. Y. Hist. Coll., 1869, p. S5. When the Royal order was received by Endicott for their arrest, the Governor de- spatched two commissioners to find their hiding- place, but they returned to Boston without accomplishing their purpose. The pursued men finally found refuge in lladley, but kept up a correspondence with friends in England through Increase Mather in Boston. Several of Goffe's letters are given in the Mather papers, now pre- served in the Public Library, and printed in 4 Aass. Ilist. Coll., viii. Hutchinson had before this printed others in his Collection of Papers. The
regicides were, it would seem, visited at Hadley by Governor Leverett, and by Mr. Richard Salton- stall (son of Sir Richard), who left £50 in the hands of Edward Collins, of Charlestown, for them when he went to England in 1672. Their story is succinetly told in Dr. Chandler Robbins's lecture, " The Regicides sheltered in New Eng- land," in the course before the Lowell Institute. Cf. also President Stiles's Hist. of the Judges : Palfrey's New England, ii. 495; Trumbull's Connecticut, i. 242; F. B. Dexter's memoranda in the New Haven Colony Hist. Soc. Papers, vol. ii .; N'. F. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., July, 1868, P. 345; Sibley's Harvard Graduates, i. 115, &c. Bostonians find more interest, however, in a third of the regicides, though he was never in Boston, but lived and died in New Haven under the name of James Davids. Ile was the progeni- tor, through a female line, of James Davids a well-known Boston family,
who have taken his true name, and who have erected a monument in the ancient burial-ground of that city, giving it as John Dixwell. - ED.]
VOL. 1. -- 39.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
epistle was termed "a congratulatory and lowly script," and it was written in this style : -
" Royal Sir : your just title to the Crown enthronizes you in our consciences ; your graciousness in our affections ; that inspireth unto duties, this naturalizeth unto loyaltie, thence wee call you lord, hence a savior ... Nowe, the Lord hath dealt well unto our lord the King ; may New England, under your royal protection, be permitted still to sing the Lord's song in this strange land."
Comparing the first sentence with the last, we sce which part of the " script " was perfunctory and which was genuine; it was only when they came to speak of their own affairs that they got down to straightfor- ward talk and monosyllables. Yet doubtless even their loyalty was not wholly fictitious, but it belonged to the realm of vague traditions; it was their present work that was real. They soon discovered the small value for that work of the "royal protection" they asked. Little cared the King and his advisers for that ideal community at which the Puritan Colony aimed. Moreover their easy natures were repelled, and with good cause, by the Quaker persecutions; although truc it is that King Charles himself found those indomitable schismatics quite unmanageable, and was glad to recommend "a sharp law " at last, though always, to his honor, stopping short of the penalty of death. He took, at any rate, small interest in the higher aims of the Colony; but when he considered its thrift and prosperity, and the ships from Spain and Holland that filled the harbor ·of Boston, it was not to be expected that a spendthrift monarch, in those days of commercial monopolies, should keep his hands off. In the Act of Navigation, passed in 1660, the first real blow fell.
" No merchandise shall be imported into the plantations but in English vessels, navigated by Englishmen, under penalty of forfeiture." Trade thus summarily checked, further restrictions followed. It was soon decreed that all exports to America must not only be shipped in English vessels, but from English ports; then the staples of the colonies must be sent to England alone, unless they were also articles which England produced, and in that case they might be sent to remote foreign ports south of Cape Fin- isterre ; no produce must be sent from one American colony to another, except under a duty cqual to that which would have been levied on it in England. It shows what was the spirit of the American people, at that early day, when we consider that these destructive laws remained a dead letter. During sixteen years the Massachusetts Governor, annually elected by the people, never once took the oath which the Navigation Act required of him; and when the courageous Leverett was called to account for this, he answered: "The King can in reason do no less than let us enjoy our liberties and trade, for we have made this large plantation at our own charge, without any contribution from the Crown."
But the navigation acts were to be followed by still more direct inva- sion of liberties. In view of threats and supposed dangers, it became needful for the Massachusetts Colony to send commissioners to England.
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FROM DEATH OF WINTHROP TO PHILIP'S WAR.
Norton and Bradstreet were sent; they were received with courtesy by the King and his ministers, and brought back an answer. The Colonial Charter was confirmed, but wholly new interpretations were placed on it. It was asserted that " the principle of the Charter was the freedom of the liberty of conscience," and that this freedom should extend to those who wished to use " the booke of common prayer." On the same principle it was de- manded that the elective franchise should be given to all male freeholders of competent estate ; and it was also required that justice should be adınin- istered in the King's name, and that all laws in derogation of his authority should be repealed. Some, at least, of these newly required provisions seemed reasonable enough, and some were readily granted; but it was the precedent thus created that was alarming. For instance, it did not seem too much to ask that in an English colony the 2,58 LGG. mo established Church of Eng- land should be at least toler- To: Endicott gut Ri Billingham DEF Gor! Daniel Goakin ated, and indeed a spirit of toleration had long been growing in the Colony itself; but men did not wish to have even toleration forced upon them. The royal authority hurt the very cause it aimed to help; and the antagonism thus created increased the suspicion already growing in England. The union of the two colonies had already been interpreted as a step toward entire independence, and the ghosts of Goffe and Whalley came up to trouble the King's advisers, if not that easy-going personage himself. What if " the Colonels" should be raising an army?
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