USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 10
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On April 15, Easter, the Governor celebrated the day at the South meet- ing-house, promising that it should be for the last time. A few days later he started for the eastward, where he unfortunately affronted Castine, a French adventurer, resident on the Penobscot. A few parleys were had with the Indians, and then he hastened home, arriving May 28. Here he found awaiting him a new commission, making him governor of all the English possessions on the mainland, except Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, with Boston as his capital. The next few months, to October, were spent by Andros in a trip through his new dominions. He took especial pains at Albany to confirm the friendly relations with the Five Nations, which he had formerly established when governor of New York.
During his absence a panic in regard to the Indians arose in Boston. Five persons were slain by them at Springfield, and fears were entertained that the Indians near Casco would declare war. The Council pressed four men from each Boston company, thirty-two in all, and sent them, with six
1 [Already quoted. See Vol. I. p. 212. - ED.]
I 2
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
men from Charlestown, to the eastward, Sept. 10, 1688. On the 25th, sixteen more men were pressed in Boston.1
On October 25 Andros returned to Boston, and after trying the effect of a proclamation in pacifying the Indians, he started on Nov. 17, 1688, with nearly a thousand men, for the seat of war. Sewall was one of the drafted men, but he was on the point of sailing for England; and so, as Jonathan Wales offered to be his substitute for £5, he got himself released. Sewall sailed Nov. 22, 1688, and reached here on his return Dec. 2, 1689; so that we lack his testimony as to the stirring scenes which were enacted here between these dates.
The campaign to the eastward was mainly a defensive one, and was pro- ductive only of discontent and suspicions on the part of the hastily-levied forces. " At Pemaquid, information came to Andros of the apprehensions entertained at court of a movement of the Prince of Orange ; whereupon he issued, Jan. 10, 1688-89, a proclamation commanding His Majesty's sub- jects in New England, and especially all officers, civil and military, to be on the alert, should there be an approach of any foreign fleet, to resist such landing or invasion as might be attempted." 2
We now know that the Prince of Orange had succeeded ; that on Dec. 23, 1688, James fled from London, and that on Feb. 13, 1688-89, William and Mary were proclaimed. Let us, however, trace events as they occurred at Boston.
Early in March, 1689, Andros reached Boston, and on April 4, John Winslow arrived here in a vessel from Nevis, bringing copies of the pro- clamation issued by William at his landing.3 Andros endeavored vainly to seize these papers, which were doubtless circulated at once among the in- habitants. The secret history of the next fortnight will probably never be revealed, but the following statements in the Life of Rev. Cotton Mather, by his son (p. 42), seem to have been overlooked by Palfrey.4 There is apparently no good reason for doubting their truth :-
" It was in the Month of April when we had News by the Edges, concerning a Descent made upon England by the Prince of Orange, for the Rescue of the Nations from Slavery and Popery. Then a Strange Disposition entred in the Body of our People to assert our Liberties against the Arbitrary Rulers that were fleecing them. But it was much feared by the more sensible Gentlemen at Boston that an unruly Company of Soldiers - who had newly deserted the Service in which they had bin
1 [See chapter iii. of this volume. - ED.]
2 Palfrey, New England, iii. 569. [It was in March that Andros, while in Maine, learned by a messenger despatched from New York of the landing of William at Torbay. See J. R. Brod- head's paper on "The Government of Sir Edmund Andros over New England " in the Hist. Mag., Jan. 1867, p. II. The document conveying the intelligence is given in the New York Colonial Documents, iii. 591, 660. - ED.]
8 [Winslow's deposition is in the Massachu-
setts Archives ("Inter-charter papers,") xxxv. 218, and it is printed in the Andros Tracts, i. 78. Winslow was the son of John Winslow, of Bos- ton, and he the son of John Winslow (and Mary Chilton) the brother of Governor Edward Wins- low, of Plymouth Colony. The proclamation brought by Winslow was at once reprinted as a broadside. "Boston, printed by R. P., for Benja- min Harris, at the London Coffee House, 1689."
4 [See History of New England, vol. iii., chaps. xiv. and xv. - ED.]
13
THE INTER-CHARTER PERIOD.
employed for the Eastern War, by the gathering of their Friends to them to protect them from the Governor, who, they thought, intended nothing but Ruine to then - would make a great Stir and produce a bloody Revolution.
" And, therefore, the principal Gentlemen in Boston met with Mr. Mather to con- sult what was best to be done ; and they all agreed, if possible, that they would extin- guish all Essays in our People to an Insurrection ; but that if the Country People to the Northward, by any violent Motions pushed on the Matter so far as to make a Revolution unavoidable, then, to prevent the Shedding of Blood by an ungoverned Multitude, some of the Gentlemen present would appear in the Head of what Action should be done ; and a Declaration was prepared accordingly.
"On April 18 the People were so driving and furious, that, unheaded, they began to seize our public Oppressors ; upon which the Gentlemen aforesaid found it neces- sary to appear, that, by their Authority among the People, the unhappy Tumults might be a little regulated."
These statements apparently agree with the events. The uprising against Andros certainly bears the signs of a popular movement, not based upon any knowledge of the success of the revolution in England, and for that reason not probably the work of any of the citizens of position and wealth. It was a desperate venture, since the continuance of the rule of King James would have brought a speedy and terrible punishment upon the malcon- tents. The inhabitants of Boston in 1689 were fully aware of the scenes which followed Moninouth's failure. Some refugees indeed had found shelter here, and the daughter of that most noted victim, Lady Lisle, had recently been living here as the wife of President Leonard Hoar, and later of Hezekiah Usher.
The blow was struck on April 18, not without some warning; as Andros wrote two days earlier that there was " a general buzzing among the people, great with expectation of their old Charter, or they know not what." About eight o'clock in the morning of that day -
" It was reported at the south end of the town that at the north end they were all in arms ; and the like report was at the north to Jestys end respecting the south end. Where- upon Captain John George (of the " Rose" frigate) was seized, and about nine of the clock the drums beat through the town, and an ensign was set up on the Beacon. Then Mr. Bradstreet, Mr. Danforth, Major Richards, Dr. Cooke, and Mr. Addington, etc., were brought to the Council-house by a company of soldiers under Captain Hill."
In the meantime " the people in arms " captured Randolph, Foxcroft, Bullivant,1 Sherlock, Ravenscroft, White, and many more, and lodged them in jail in charge of a new keeper.
1 [Bullivant was Andros's Attorney-General. in Boston after Andros left, Feb. 13, 1689-90, He was an apothecary, and Dunton, p. 94, gives
and continued it till May 19. It is preserved in an account of him. He kept a journal of events
the Public Record office, London, and has been
14
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
" About noon, in the gallery at the Council-house, was read the Declaration.1 Then a message 2 was sent to the Fort, by Mr. Oliver and Mr. Eyres, signed by Wait Winthrop and the gentlemen then in the Council chamber, to inform him [Andros] how unsafe he was like to be, if he did not deliver up himself and fort and government, - which he was loath to do.
" By this time, being about two of the clock (the Lecture being put by), the town was generally in arms, and so many of the country came in that there was twenty companies in Boston, besides a great many that appeared at Charlestown that could not get over, - some say fifteen hundred. Then there came information to the soldiers that a boat was come from the frigate that made towards the fort, which made them haste thither and come to the Sconce soon after the boat got thither ; and 't is said that Governor Andross and about half a score of gentlemen were coming down out of the fort ; but the boat being seized (wherein were small-arms, hand-grenadoes, and a quantity of match), the Governor and the rest went in again. Whereupon, Mr. John Nelson, who was at the head of the soldiers,
your much obliged Servant
Benjamin Bullirant
from from & Prison in
th June
Bostony
printed in Mass. IIist. Soc. Proc., March, 1878, p. 103. Bullivant had come to Boston in 1685, and having gone to England with Andros's friends after their downfall seems to have returned at a later day. - ED.]
1 [Good judges assign this to the pen of Cotton Mather. Hutchinson speaks of it as being by Mather, " who had a remarkable talent for very quick and sudden composure." It was at once printed on a pot folio sheet, -" Boston, printed by Samuel Green, and sold by Benja- min Harris, at the London Coffee House, 1689." An answer to this declaration, dated at the Castle, June 20, 1689, and vindicating Andros, was made by John Palmer, which was printed in London, 1690, as an Impartial account of the State of New England, and re- printed in Boston under the title of The Present State of New England. It is reprinted in the Andros Tracts, i. 21. See Palfrey, iii. 582. Edward Rawson and Samuel Sewall replied to Palmer in The Revolution in New England justified. ... Published by the in- habitants of Boston and the country adjacent. . . . Printed for Joseph Brunning, at Boston, in New England, 1691. This is also reprinted in the Andros Tracts, i. 63. It was accom- panied by A Narrative of the Proceedings of Sir Edmund Androsse and his Complices, dated Boston, Feb. 4, 1690-91, and proceeding from William Stoughton, Thomas Hinckley, Wait Winthrop, Bartholomew Gedney, and Samuel Shrimpton. Andros Tracts, 1689 i. 137 .- ED.]
2 [This made subsequently a broadside, in black letter, of which a copy is preserved in the Hutchinson Papers at the State House (surrendered by the Historical Society to the State), as well as another in manuscript. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1874, p. 228. It is printed in Hutchinson's Mass. Bay, i. - ED.]
15
THE INTER-CHARTER PERIOD.
did demand the fort and the governor, who was loath to submit to them ; but at length did come down, and was, with the gentlemen that were with him, conveyed to the Council-house, where Mr. Bradstreet and the rest of the gentlemen waited to receive him, - to whom Mr. Stoughton first spake, telling him he might thank himself for the
KILBURN
.
1 [This cut follows a photograph, kindly loaned by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, of a portrait belonging to Mr. Henry Lloyd, of
Lloyd's Neck, Long Island. The painting has an inscription which reads : " Aetatis Sua, 78, 1732." Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1879, p. 93 .- ED.]
16
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
present disaster that had befallen him, etc. He was then confined for that night to Mr. John Usher's house, under strong guards, and the next day conveyed to the fort."
her sails on shore.
Andros, and by agreement the " Rose" frigate struck her topmasts and sent
1 [This is copied from the original in the Massachusetts Archives, cvii. 2. - ED.]
apr
Jan Ordered to Signify unto you that for The quieting of the People. It is desired and Expected that according to you promises to the Council you caus The Sales of the frigot to be brought on show to bulas o in some safe place; which is- John Foster and. David Water house are Defined to take care of etno ,,. Ralph Caster is Sent with this Order to fee the fame Effected. /.
Is: Addington fler. To m' Fone Condon Liev! of the Rose Freig egalty
The next day the Castle was surrendered under an order extorted from
THE ORDER FOR THE FRIGATE'S SAILS.1
17
THE INTER-CHARTER PERIOD.
Thus without the shedding of blood the overthrow of the government of Andros was effected. It may be inferred that the conspirators here were well assured that no other of the provinces lately ruled by Andros would interfere to replace him. A provisional government for Massachusetts Colony was therefore their only care. The fifteen gentlemen who met at the council chamber on the 18th were Wait Winthrop, Bradstreet, Stough-
Boa ford Samuel Shrimpton John foryou
ton, Shrimpton, Gedney, Brown, Danforth, Richards, Cooke, Add- ington, Nelson, Adam Winthrop, Sergeant, Foster, and Waterhouse. On the 20th of April they joined to them twenty-two others, as a "Council for the safety of the people and conservation of the peace." They chose Bradstreet president; Foster and Adam Win- throp, Treasurers ; Wait Winthrop, commander -in - chief; Addington, clerk.
Melson
Nather Oliver -Peter Sergeant
Benjamin alford low 25
Dont Lavis@
This provisional Council called a convention of two delegates from each town; and on May 9, 1689, PETITIONERS, JUNE 10, 1689.1 sixty-six members met. This con- vention held that the old charter was in force, and invited the old officers to assume office. This course being refused, they ordered a new conven- tion which assembled on May 22, wherein fifty-four towns were represented. The old Governor, Bradstreet, and the Council of 1686, according to the renewed request of the towns, returned to office.
On May 26 the news of the accession of William and Mary reached here and caused the greatest joy. On June 5 a General Court was held at Bos- ton, including a newly elected Lower House. It called upon the Council as before to assume the duties of magistrates, to which it agreed. The Lower
1 [These are signatures to a petition to the authorities, that the " Rose " frigate may be restored to her Commander, Captain George. - ED.]
VOL. II .- 3.
18
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
House brought charges against Andros, Dudley, Randolph, Palmer, West, Graham, Farwell, and Sherlock, and refused them bail. The Court adjourned July 13, 1689.
Boston. Octot. 25. 1689. The Commissions for the Colonyer Thor Danforth. Elisha Pokr Thôi zinski John galloy
= 1' wranghany
COMMISSIONERS OF THE UNITED COLONIES, 1689.
On December 3 Governor Bradstreet received orders from England giving authority to the persons in office to continue to administer the gov- ernment until otherwise instructed. This was construed to mean a tem- porary restoration of the old charter, and elections were accordingly held under it. Orders 1 had also come to send Andros and his friends to Eng- land, whither they sailed in February, 1689-90.2 The Colony at the same time sent over Elisha Cooke and Thomas Oakes to aid Increase Mather and Sir Henry Ashurst in maintaining the cause of the inhabitants.
1 [The order of the King requiring Andros He has stood for generations as the type of the to be sent to England is in the Cabinet of the Historical Society, and is printed in 4 Mass.
William R.
Hist. Coll., viii. 711. The signature is herewith copied. - ED.]
2 Although a true view of the character of Andros is not necessarily connected with our local history, it does seem fair to suggest that he has received scant justice from historians.
oppressor, and the especial foe of this colony. But it may be urged on the other part that he was very far from being a Kirke, a Lauderdale, or a Claverhouse. No blood was shed by him, no unusually harsh punishment inflicted even accord- ing to our modern standard. He was undoubtedly desirous of protecting the colony from all foes, and he seems to have used his vast authority very moderately. The charges against him are simply puerile, except the main accusation that he meant to govern according to his commission and not the old charter. The charges broke down completely in England, and in 1692 Andros was appointed by King William to be Governor of Virginia. Here he ruled acceptably for six years; he returned to England, and died Feb. 27, 1713-14, aged 75 years, honored and respected.
19
THE INTER-CHARTER PERIOD.
We have thus brought the history of this period to a close so far as it relates to American affairs. It remains, therefore, to look at the events in England which affected this part of the world. The guiding hand in
the negotiations at the English court was that of Increase Mather; and Boston has every reason to be proud of the work performed by him.
We do not intend to trace the early life of Increase Mather, but we may say that he had before this taken an active part in poli- tics, by publicly advis- ing, after the writ of quo warranto against the Charter had been issued, that the people should stand by their privileges. When there- fore the inhabitants of Massachusetts sought a bold, honest, and able representative to make an effort for the resto- ration of their beloved Charter, Increase Ma- ther was almost the sole name to occur to them for this high and important office. He consented to accept the charge, after obtaining the approval of his church.
Early in April, 1688,
Brambor 26th, 669
Dudley EnRandolph ISalmer
Ja: Grahamy
James Sherlock
PETITION FROM CASTLE ISLAND.1
Mather, as has been stated, sailed for England, unprovided indeed with formal credentials, but still the representative of the greater portion
1 [These signatures are from a letter of mem- bers of the Andros government confined at the Castle, asking that they may be sent to England in accordance with his Majesty's commands.
They had addressed an earlier letter, Dec. 13, of the same purport. Palmer was Judge; Gra- hame and Farwell were king's attorneys; Sher- lock was high sheriff. Captain Fayerweather
20
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
of the citizens of Massachusetts. He bore with him the Addresses of the churches, expressing their thanks for the Declaration of Indulgence recently granted by James II., and he was to lay before the King the complaints of the colonists against the administration of Andros. On May 25, 1688, he arrived at London, where the closing struggle between King James and his people had already begun. A week before the arrival of Mather, the seven bishops had signed the petition requesting the King to dispense with the distribution and reading of that Declaration of Indul- gence for which such loyal thanks had been forwarded from New England. The position of the Agent was thus full of difficulties. On the one hand the King was still the controller of the fortunes of the Colony, and had per- haps earned its gratitude. On the other, it was patent to Mather that this royal favor had been shown against the wishes of the English people, was pronounced to be unconstitutional, and its acceptance might provoke a sharp retribution. His natural advisers, the English Dissenters, were dis- quieted and divided upon the subject.1
For a time some of the leading Dissenters were in favor of accepting the royal favor; and to this opinion Mather at first inclined, influenced perhaps by his friends Penn and Alsop. On May 30, 1688, he waited on the King with the Address of the congregations of New England, and a similar docu- ment from the inhabitants of Plymouth Colony. James heard them gra- ciously, and promised the petitioners " a Magna Charta for Liberty of Con- science." Two days later Mather was again admitted into the King's closet, and then, in reply to a question, ventured to speak of Andros as an oppo- nent of the Declaration.2 Being instructed by James to commit to writing the matters wherein the Colony desired relief, he presented a petition on the 2d of July, which the King received courteously, and still promised his continued favor to New England.
Up to this time Mather had made no attempts to obtain a renewal of the old charter. He desired to check the progress of Episcopacy in Massa- chusetts, to obtain a favorable decision in regard to the titles of lands here to which the Crown made great though vague pretensions, and he may have hoped to procure the recall of Andros. These projects were not unreason-
was in command of the Castle, and the annexed 1712. Sewall, ii. 344, makes honorable mention autographs are from a paper in which he and of him .- ED.] his lieutenant bear testimony to the treatment that Andros and his friends had received at the
nath: Williams
Castle. It is in the Massachusetts Archives, xxxv, 90, dated Jan. 24, 1689, and is printed in the Andros Tracts, i. 174. Fayerweather died in
1 Macaulay, in the seventh chapter of his History, has fully described the situation of these steadfast congregations, so recently the ob- ject of scorn and cruel persecution, now suddenly elevated to the rank of arbiter between the contending factions, and as- siduously courted by both.
2 [Mather's notes for this audience are preserved in the Mather Papers, vii. 12, in the Prince Library (see Prince Catalogue, p. 149), as well as his rough draught of "Matters of complaynt objected agt Sr Edmund Andros," presented later, Ibid, p. 150. The Mather Papers contain various other papers of this time. - En.]
21
THE INTER-CHARTER PERIOD.
able. The King indeed was apparently disposed to treat the colonists as his own especial tenants, and as proprietor of New York he had become, before his accession to the throne, familiar with American affairs.
For three months Mather forbore to seek another interview, though he neglected no opportunity to make friends among those who enjoyed the royal favor. His chief counsellor and associate was Sir Henry Ashurst, a wealthy baronet and member of Parliament, whose family had always been friendly to New England. In a short time William Penn, Lord Sunderland, the Earl of Melfort, and the terrible Jeffries were numbered among his patrons. Even Father Petre was said to be willing to speak a good word for New England. With such supporters the Agent seems to have become more ambitious in his views. He hoped now to regain the old charter; and to his pen may be fairly attributed the pamphlet entitled New England Vindicated from the Aspersions of those who said that the Charter was taken away because the Colonists destroyed the manufactures and commerce of Eng- land, which now appeared. On the 26th of September, and again on the 16th of October, the Agent had another interview with the King, and was regaled with more promises. For a time it seemed as if these promises would be kept, but on a false report of the downfall of the Prince's expedition the affair was stopped, and Mather then felt the falseness of his hopes, and preferred a final request to the Committee to have the Council in New England remodelled and made more efficient. Thus low had the hopes and expectations of the New England party fallen.
The reaction, however, was fated to be a speedy one. On Nov. 5, 1688, William landed at Torbay, and on Feb. 13, 1688-89, William and Mary were proclaimed.
Although Mather was not actively concerned in the conspiracy against James, he could not have been ignorant of what was intended. He was not a stranger in England, and he had cultivated intimate relations with the English Dissenters.1
He was now prepared to say that the congregations of New England prayed for the success of the Protestant religion, and would joyfully ac- knowledge William as their rightful king. On Jan. 2, 1688-89, the Dis- senting ministers, following the Established clergy, and to the number of ninety or more, presented an Address as the others had done; and the fact that Mather reprinted these two addresses in his pamphlet entitled The Miseries of New England, warrants us in supposing that he accompanied his brethren.
On Jan. 9, 1688-89, Mather was favored with an interview with William, being introduced by Philip, Lord Wharton, " renowned as a distributor of Calvinistic tracts and a patron of Calvinistic divines." Wharton spoke earnestly, saying that the New Englanders asked not for money or men, but for their ancient privileges. The Prince replied that he intended to
1 [A portrait of Mather was probably painted engravings were made, both reproduced in An- in England at this time, of which two different dros Tracts, iii. p. xiii. - ED.]
22
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
take the best care he could about it, and would so instruct his Secretary, Mr. Jephson. Lord Wharton then took Mather to the Secretary, and said to him : " Cousin, observe this gentleman; and whenever he comes to you, receive him as if I came myself." On Feb. 1, 1688-89, Abraham Kick wrote from the Hague to the Princess Mary in behalf of the New England colo- nists, begging her "to take the first opportunity to help them to the restora- tion of their ancient patent, privileges, and liberties."
At this time Mather must have made public his account of the Miseries of New England by reason of an Arbitrary Government erected there under Sir Edmund Andros, since a copy reached Boston in season to be printed before the end of the current year, which closed then on March 24, 1689. Nor did his exertions cease here; being informed by Mr. Jephson that a Circular Letter was to be sent to all the Plantations confirming the existing governments until further orders, Mather prevailed on the Secretary to present a remonstrance to the King, and succeeded in stopping the letters for New England. The date of the letters thus intercepted was Jan. 12, 1688-89. This prompt action separated New England from the other colonies, and from that time the question of its charters was an affair to be considered apart. But for Mather's dexterous intervention Andros would have been confirmed; and, as he proved afterward acceptable to the Eng- lish Court, he would probably have remained to complete the consolidation of the Dominion of New England. It was indeed a turning-point in our national history.
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