USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 48
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of Hull himself (Amer. Antiq. Soc. Coll., vol. iii.), throw light on ITull's life and character. The one date, 1652, continued on these early coins as struck for thirty years. Hull claimed all liis rights under a very advantageous con- tract for coining the money, and died rich. Felt, Mass. Currency. The coins are figured in Drake's Boston, P. 330, and Landmarks, pp. 21I, 237, and in Lossing's Field-book of the Revolution, i. 449, &c. Cf. John II. Hickox, Hist. Acc. of Amer. Coinage, Albany. Hull is supposed to have lived in Sheaffe Street ; he lies buried in the Granary. A large property -350 acres - which he possessed in Long- wood was known as Sewall's Farm after it de- scended to his son-in-law. Wood, Brookline, p. 109 .- ED.]
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and was ready to renew the same whenever desired; and that he pardoned all his subjects of that Plantation for all crimes and offences committed against him during the late troubles, except any such persons who stood attainted of high treason, if any such persons had transported themselves into those parts.
These clauses in this missive of the King were then regarded by the colonists, and were often afterwards referred to by them, as a confirmation of their charter privileges and an amnesty of all past errors.
There were some things, however, in the King's letter, hard to comply with ; and though the authorities, agreeably to the King's command, ordered it to be published, it was with the proviso that "all manner of actings in relation thereto shall be suspended until the next General Court."
After the expressions of favor above recited from the King's letter, his Majesty proceeded as follows : -
" Provided always, and be it in our declared expectation, that upon a review of all such laws and ordinances that are now or have been during these late troubles in practice there, and which are contrary or derogative to our authority and government, the same may be annulled and repealed, and the rules and prescriptions of the said charter for administering and taking the oath of allegiance be henceforth duly observed, and that the administration of justice be in our name.1 And since the principle and foundation of that Charter was and is the freedom of liberty of con- science, We do hereby charge and require you that that freedom and liberty be duly admitted and allowed, so that they that desire to use the Book of Common Prayer, and perform their devotion in that manner that is established here, be not denied the exercise thereof, or undergo any prejudice or disadvantage thereby, they using their liberty peaceably without any disturbance to others ; and that all persons of good and honest lives and conversations be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; according to the said Book of Common Prayer, and their children to baptism. We cannot be understood hereby to direct or wish that any indulgence should be granted to those persons commonly called Quakers, whose principles being inconsistent with any kind of government, We have found it necessary, with the advice of our Par- liament here, to make a sharp law against them, and are well content you do the like there. Although We have hereby declared our expectation to be that the Charter granted by our royal father, and now confirmed by us, shall be particularly observed ; yet, if the number of assistants enjoined thereby be found by experience, and be judged by the country, to be inexpedient, as We are informed it is, We then dispense with the same, and declare our will and pleasure, for the future, to be, that the number of the said assistants shall not exceed eighteen, nor be less at any time than ten, We assuring ourselves, and obliging and commanding all persons concerned, that, in the election of the governor or assistants there be only consideration of the wisdom
1 These are made the conditions of the Par- don which the King may annex, as he thinks fit, on the performance whereof the validity of the Pardon will depend. What follows seems to be rather a requisition or recommendation of cer- tain acts upon the performance whereof depends his Majesty's further grace and favor. This is
called a Letter, and certainly was not a Pardon under the Great Seal. It is, however, often claimed as a Grant or Charter as well for the remission of all offences as for the confirmation of all Liberties and Privileges granted by Patent. (Hutchinson's note. )
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and integrity of the persons to be chosen, and not of any faction with reference to their opinion or profession, and that all the freeholders of competent estates, not vicious in conversations, orthodox in religion (though of different persuasions con- cerning church-government), may have their vote in the election of all officers civil or military. Lastly, our will and pleasure is, that, at the next General Court of that our Colony, this our letter and declaration be communicated and published, that all our loving subjects may know our grace and favor to them, and that We do take them into our protection as our loving and dutiful subjects, and that We will be ready from time to time to receive any application or address from them which may concern their interest and the good of our Colony, and that We will advance the benefit of the trade thereof by our uttermost endeavor and countenance, presuming that they will still merit the same by their duty and obedience." 1
Many of these requirements were grievous to our ancestors. "The agents met with the same fate," says Hutchinson, " of most agents ever since. The favors which they obtained were supposed to be no more than might well have been expected, and their merits were soon forgot; the evils which they had it not in their power to prevent were attributed to their neglect or to unnecessary concessions." Mr. Norton was so sensibly affected by the displeasure of his neighbors that he drooped and died in a few months after his return. Mr. Bradstreet was a man of more " phlem," and of less ability than his associate, and perhaps was regarded as less responsible.2
The only thing done at this session of the General Court, - held in October, 1662, -in obedience to the King's orders, beside making the letter public, was the ordering that "all writs, process with indict- ments," &c., be made and set forth in the King's name. At the next session, in May, 1663, a commission was appointed, after long and seri- ous debate, to consider what was proper to be done as to other parts of the letter ; and in the mean time both clergymen and laymen were invited to send in their thoughts, so that something might be agreed upon " satisfactory and safe, conducing to the glory of God and the felicity of his people." 3
Notwithstanding the gracious expressions and promises in some of the King's letters to the Massachusetts authorities, it must be admitted that, from the Restoration until the vacating of the charter, the Colony never stood well in England, and the principal persons in the colony, both Church and State, were never without fears of being deprived of their privileges. The years 1664 and 1665 afforded them greater occasion for apprehension than they had met with at any previous period, - certainly since the time of the meeting of the Long Parliament.
At a meeting of the Privy Council, Sept. 25, 1662, " The settlement of the plantations in New England [were] seriously debated and discoursed, and the Lord Chancellor declared then that his Majesty would speedily send commissioners to settle the respective interests of the several colonies.
1 Hutchinson, Papers, pp. 377-381. 2 Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, i. 222, 223. 3 Ibid. p. 223.
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The Duke of York to consider of the choice of fit men." At a meeting on the 10th April, 1663, " A letter from New England, and several instruments and papers being this day read at the Board, his Majesty (present in Council) did declare that he intends to preserve the charter of the planta- tion, and to send some commissioners thither speedily to see how the charter is maintained on their part, and to reconcile the differences at present amongst them."
These orders of the Privy Council were a foreshadowing of what was to come. In the spring of 1664 intelligence was brought that several men- of-war were coming from England, with some gentlemen of distinction on board. At the meeting of the Court in May, they order that " the Captain of the Castle, on the first sight and knowledge of their approach, give speedy notice thereof to the honored Governor and Deputy-Governor; and that Captain James Oliver and Captain William Davis are hereby ordered forth- with to repair on board the said ships, and to acquaint those gentlemen that this Court hath and doth by them present their respects to them, and that it is the desire of the authority of this place that they take strict order that their under officers and soldiers, in their coming on shore to refresh themselves, at no time exceed a convenient number, and that without arms, and that they behave themselves orderly," &c. A solemn day of humiliation and prayer was commended to be held by all the churches, " for the Lord's mercy to be towards us." And " forasmuch as it is of great concernment to this Commonwealth to keep safe and secret our patent, it is ordered, the patent and duplicate, belonging to the country, be forthwith brought into the Court; and that there be two or three persons appointed by each House to keep safe and secret the said patent and duplicate, in two distinct places, as to the said committee shall seem most expedient ; " and " that the Deputy-Governor, Major-General Leverett, Captain Clarke, and Captain Johnson are appointed to receive the grand patent from the secretary, and to dispose thereof as may be most safe for the country. The secretary, being sent for the patent, brought it into Court, and delivered it to the Deputy-Governor, Richard Bel- lingham, Esq., and the rest of the committee, in the presence of the whole Court, and was discharged thereof."1 The train-bands were put in order, and Captain Davenport was placed in command of the Castle. "Having trimmed their vessel, the wakeful pilots awaited the storm." 2
On Saturday the 23d of July, 1664, two ships of war, the "Guinea " and the " Elias," came to anchor before the town of Boston. They had sailed ten weeks before from Portsmouth, England, in company with two other ships, the " Martin " and the " William and Nicholas," from which they had parted a week or two before in bad weather. The fleet conveyed three or four hundred troops, and four persons charged with public business, viz., Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, Colonel George Cartwright,
1 Mass. Col. Rec., IV. (ii.) 102. 2 Palfrey, New England, ii. 577.
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and Mr. Samuel Maverick.1 The two last named had arrived at Piscataqua three days before. They jointly bore a commission from the King for reducing the Dutch at Manhadocs (New York), and for hearing and dc- Richard nicoll . Robert Can George Cartwright Jamarle Maricke termining all matters of complaint, and set- tling the peace and security of the coun- try ; any three or two of them to be a quo- rum, Colonel Nichols during his life being one. The commis- sion, dated April 25, 1664, is in Hutch- inson.2 They also brought a letter from the King to the Governor of Massachusetts, of two days' earlier date, declaring the purpose of the embassy to be to obtain information for the guidance of his Majesty in his attempts to advance the well-being of his subjects in New England ; to suppress and utterly extinguish those unreasonable jealousies and malicious calumnies which wicked and unquiet spirits perpetually laborcd to infuse into the minds of men, that his subjects in those parts did not submit to his government, but looked upon themselves as independent of him and his laws; to compose such differences as existed upon questions of boundaries between different colonies; to assure the native tribes of his protection; to over- throw the usurped authority of the Dutch; to confer upon the matter of his former letter sent by Bradstreet and Norton, and the Colony's answer thereto, of which he would only say that the same did not answer his expectations, nor the professions made by their messengers. The letter is in the Massachusetts Colony Records.3 They also had two sets of instruc- tions from the King; one set to be shown, the other for the guidance of the Commissioners.+
At the wish of the Commissioners, the Governor called a meeting of the Council on Tuesday the 26th of July. The Commissioners then laid before that body their commission, the King's letter of the 23d of April, and part of their instructions, and proposed that the Colony should raise such a number of men as they could spare to assist in the reduction of the Manhadoes, to begin their march on the 20th of August; promising that in the mean time, if they could dispense with their services, they would give the necessary order. The Council replied that they would cause the General
1 [Cf. N. E. Hist. and Gencal. Reg., October, IS54, P. 378. Letters of Maverick during this period are in the Clarendon Papers, printed by the N. Y. Hist. Soc. in 1869. Maverick, the Commissioner, was the same person of that name whom Winthrop found on Noddle's Island ; any
doubt which once existed on that point has been dispelled by the petition of his daughter, Mrs. Hooke. Cf. Sumner, Fast Boston, p. 107. - ED.]
2 Mass. Bay, ii. 535.
3 IV. (ii). 158-160.
4 See Brodhead, Documents, &c , iii. 51 ct seq.
.
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Court to assemble on the 3d of August, and lay the proposal before them. The Commissioners then proceeded to the Manhadoes, intimating, on their departure, that they should have many more things to communicate to the Council at their return, and desiring that the King's letter of June 28, 1662, might, in the mean time, be further considered, and a more satisfactory answer than before given to it.
On the assembling of the Court at the time appointed, they first resolved " that they would bear faith and true allegiance to his Majesty, to adhere to their patent, so dearly obtained and so long enjoyed by undoubted right in the sight of God and men." They then resolved to raise not exceeding two hundred men, at the Colony's charge, for his Majesty's service against the Dutch. As Manhadoes so soon surrendered upon articles, no orders were given for the men to march. The Court then pro- ceeded to consider his Majesty's letter of 1662, -the letter brought by Bradstreet and Norton two years before, - to which the Council's attention had been specially called. They repealed the law which confined the franchise to church membership, superseding it by another which provided that from henceforth all Englishmen, being twenty-four years of age, house- holders, and settled inhabitants, and presenting a certificate from the minister of the place that they were orthodox in religion and not vicious in their lives, and a certificate from the selectmen that they were free- holders and ratable to the value of ten shillings, should have the privilege of applying to be chosen freemen. The practical effect of this law was to produce little change. Finally, the Court chose a committee of three, to draw up a petition to the King for the continuance of the privileges granted by charter.
Two months were spent in preparing this petition, which is a paper of some length. It bears date Oct. 1, 1664. It sets forth, with considerable eloquence, the sacrifices by which the liberties hitherto possessed by the Colony had been purchased, and urged the injustice of the present proceedings against them.
"This people," it said, "did, at their own charges, transport themselves, their wives and families, over the ocean, purchase the lands of the natives, and plant this Colony with great labor, hazards, costs, and difficulties ; for a long time wrestling with the wants of a wilderness and the burdens of a new plantation ; having also now above thirty years enjoyed the aforesaid power and privilege of government within themselves, as their undoubted right in the sight of God and man."
As to the King's letter brought by Norton and Bradstreet, the Court said : -
" We have applied ourselves to the utmost to satisfy your Majesty so far as doth consist with conscience of our duty towards God, and the just liberties and privileges of our patent. . . . But now what affliction of heart must it needs be unto us, that our sins have provoked God to permit our adversaries to set themselves against us, by their misinformations, complaints, and solicitations (as some of them have made that
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their work for many years), and thereby to procure a commission under the Great Seal, wherein four persons (one of them our known and professed enemy) are empowered to hear, receive, examine, and determine all complaints and appeals in all causes and matters, as well military as criminal and civil, and to proceed in all things for settling this country according to their good and sound discretions, &c. ; whereby, instead of being governed by rulers of our own choosing (which is the fundamental privilege of our patent), and by laws of our own, we are like to be subjected to the arbitrary power of strangers, proceeding, not by any established law, but by their own discretions." 1
Nichols was now occupied at New York by the duties of his new government. The other three commissioners met at Boston in February following (1665), and thence immediately proceeded to Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, to transact with these colonies the business of their mission, before making a final trial of their strength with the Massachusetts. With their reception in these colonies the commissioners, in their report to the King, express complete satisfaction. By the following May they had arrived at Boston, Nichols coming from New York to join his associates only the day before the meeting of the Court of Elections. The parties now entered with spirit into the contest, which was begun and ended in a month. The venerable Governor Endicott had died in the preceding Richard Bellingham Gowy month, and he was succeeded by Bellingham.2 The Commis- sioners laid their claims before the Court, and demanded answers. There was considerable skirmishing on both sides. The purpose of the Commissioners was primarily to have their commission acknowledged by the Government, by which they might substantially override the charter, and prepare the way for a modification of the government. The proceedings occupy a large space in the records of the colony, in which the correspondence is preserved. The personal bearing of some of the envoys was offensive, and the conference soon descended into altercation. The Court demanded that the Commissioners should at once show their whole hand, instead of delivering their papers by piecemeal. Finally, the Commissioners peremptorily asked that body : "Do you acknowledge his Majesty's Commission to be of full force to all the intents and purposes therein contained?" To this question the Court replied : "We humbly conceive it is beyond our line to declare our sense of the power, intent, or purpose of your commission. It is enough for us to acquaint you what we conceive is granted to us by his Majesty's royal charter. If you rest not satisfied with our former answer, it is our trouble,
1 Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, i. 538, 539; Mass. Col. Rec, IV. (ii ) 129, 130. Cf. also Colonel Higginson's chapter in this volume.
2 [Bellingham lived on Tremont Street, about midway between the entrance to Pemberton Square and Beacon Street, on the same estate afterwards owned by the Faneuils and by Lieu-
tenant-Governor Phillips. Drake, Landmarks, 53. He died December 7, 1672, and is buried in the Granary. Shurtleff, Boston, p. 214; Bridgman, Pilgrims of Boston. He figures in that weird picture of the strong contrasts of Puritan life in Boston, Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. - ED.]
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but we hope it is not our fault."1 The Commissioners, however, attempted to sit as a court to hear a complaint against the Governor and Company, when the General Court published, by sound of trumpet, its disapprobation of the proceeding, and prohibited every one from abetting a conduct so inconsistent with their duty to God and allegiance to their King. The Commissioners failed in their mission to the Massachusetts, and soon after- wards proceeded to the eastward. Colonel Nichols, however, returned to New York.2 Chalmers's reflection on these proceedings is as follows : -
"The General Court considered the least infringement of those forms that had been established, however contrary to the letter or intent of the patent, as an attack on the chartered rights of the Colony. The truth lay, as usual, in the middle, between both. No grant, no usage, however ancient or inveterate, could exclude a king of England from the power of executing the general laws of the State within the dominions of the State. But that commission was liable to great objection ; because it might have been extended to affect English liberties, which no prerogative of the Crown can abridge. An Act of Parliament was assuredly necessary in order to cut up effectually those principles of independence that had rooted with the settlement of New England." 8
The leading colonists of Massachusetts held more radical views as to their rights and their relation to the mother country. They regarded civil subjection as either necessary or voluntary. Necessary subjection, arising from actual residence within any jurisdiction, created an obligation to submit to its authority, in like manner as every alien who resides in Eng- land owes a temporary allegiance to the king, and obedience to the laws. Voluntary subjection proceeded from special compact ; but the mere circumstance of birth they deemed no necessary cause of allegiance, as subjects of all States had a natural right to remove to any other State, or any other part of the world, and their removal would discharge all former connection and obligation. From this reasoning they deduced this practical principle of independence: "that they no longer owed any allegiance to the Crown, or any obedience to the laws of the State from which they emigrated with its consent." The country to which they themselves had removed had been claimed and possessed by independent princcs, whose right to the lordship and sovereignty thereof had been acknowledged by the kings of England. All this they had purchased for a valuable con- sideration. Their charter, however, they deemed a compact, whence vol- untary subjection arose; and by this test, to which they always appealed, they claimed that the nature and extent of their obligation ought to be determined. Though no natural allegiance was due, they thought them- selves bound by their patent to subject the Colony to no other sovereign, to make no laws contrary to those of England; yet at the same time, that they were to be governed wholly by regulations established, and by officers elected by themselves. Principles somewhat dissimilar, or conclusions
1 Mass. Col. Rec. IV. (ii.) 204, 207. 2 Palfrey, New England, ii. 606-618. 3 Annals, p. 388.
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altogether different, have been often avowed; yet such were the reasonings which exercised a controlling influence in the colony.1
The Commissioners were powerless. "Gentlemen," they wrote, "wc thought when we received our commission and instructions, that the King and his Council knew what was granted to you in your charter, and what right his Majesty had to give us such commission and commands; and we thought the King, his chancellor, and his secretaries, had sufficiently convinced you that this commission did not infringe your charter; but since you will needs misconstrue all these letters and endeavors, and that you will make use of that authority which he hath given you, to oppose that sovereignty which he hath over you, we shall not lose more of our labors upon you, but refer it to his Majesty's wisdom, who is of power enough to make himself to be obeyed in all his dominions." 2
The Colony could not expect otherwise than that their cause would be unfavorably represented to the Government in England by the Commission- ers; and the reports of those officials could not fail also to show that their efforts had become powerless to effect the purpose which the authorities had in view. In this quarrel the Government had been defeated; but they re- solved to carry the contest by another method. On the 10th of April, 1666, the King, by his secretary, in a letter to the Colony, wrote : -
" It is very evident to his Majesty . .. that those who govern the colony of the Massachusetts do believe that the commission given by his Majesty to those Commis- sioners . . . is an apparent violation of their charter, and tending to the dissolution of it ; and that in truth they do, upon the matter, believe that his Majesty hath no jurisdiction over them, but that all persons must acquiesce in their judgments and deter- minations how unjust soever, and cannot appeal to his Majesty." The King had, there- fore, resolved to recall his said Commissioners, " to the end that he may receive from them a more particular account of the state and condition of those his plantations, and of the particular differences and debates they have had with those of the Massachu- setts, so that his Majesty may pass final judgment and determination thereupon. His Majesty's express command and charge is, that the Governor and Council of the Mas- sachusetts do forthwith make choice of five or four persons to attend upon his Majesty, whereof Mr. Richard Bellingham and Major Hathorn are to be two, . .. and his Majesty will then in person hear all the allegations, suggestions, or pretences to right or favor that can be made on the behalf of the said Colony, and will there make it appear how far he is from the least thought of invading or infringing. in the least (legree, the royal charter granted to the said Colony ; and his Majesty expects the appearance of the said persons as soon as they can possibly repair hither after they have notice of this his Majesty's pleasure." 3
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