USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 17
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Ashurst, April 24, 1700, wrote a letter, asking compensation for services, saying "I have in your lowest estate appeared for you as your Agent. I have done you considerable service, pro- cured you Mr. Partridge, your Leftenant Governor, and was told that I should have a gratuity and a salary settled as the Agent." The Council voted him fifty pounds sterling, and a little later voted that one hundred pounds should be given to the Honorable William Partridge "for what he have expended for the use of this Province." Thus he had a free trip to London, besides his commission as Lieutenant Governor.6
The president and council wrote to Sir Henry Ashurst, February 16, 1696/7, that Mr. Partridge had arrived but had not yet taken oath of his office, and that John Hinckes and council were administering government; "that Governor Allen was pleased to send a person after Mr. Partridge, who overtooke
5 MS. at Concord, No. 804.
6 N. H. Prov. Papers, pp. 125-6, 139.
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him at Plymouth & came over in the same ship with him, by name Charles Storey, recommended to the place of secretary & clerk of our councill together with a Commission for Judge of the Admiralty within this province." Story was received "with all the Countenance, civility & respect he could ration- ally expect. But we quickly found him underserving thereof .... None were his Companions but Redford and Packer, two mal- contents of Mr. Usher's party. Mr. Story was ordered by the council to deliver up the books but he refused. He was ordered into custody, and a warrant was issued to search for the books, which were quickly found and brought to the council board, and Story was told by the council that they dismissed him as secretary and clerk."7 The records were deposited with Major William Vaughan, who was appointed recorder, and were after- ward kept in that office. Charles Story was dispatched by Lieu- tenant Governor Usher to England, with an account of these transactions, which Usher styles "the Pascataqua rebellion." Story returned and served very acceptably as Secretary of the Council till his death, in 1716. While in England he petitioned for reimbursement for his expenses, amounting to fifty-eight pounds, as well as for expenses in London and loss of one year's time.
In answer to the complaint of Usher, made through Charles Story, the lords of trade ordered him to continue to act as lieu- tenant governor till Mr. Partridge should qualify himself, or till the Earl of Bellomont should arrive. Accordingly he pro- ceeded as far as Hampton. Soon after he reported that arms had been taken up against the king's government and that he had left the province, his life being in danger. At Hampton he made a speech in the church, before Mr. Cotton's sermon, and ordered out the militia in his own defense. He reports that of the two hundred and forty men in Hampton only twenty appeared with arms. He read his protest to the twenty and left the province. He afterward was informed that Major Wil- liam Vaughan and Capt. John Pickering were at the head of the militia in Portsmouth and sent forty men to Hampton to seize Usher, and that Story and William Redford, deputy secre- tary, were in custody. John Hinckes had seized fort William
7 MS. ot Concord, No. 777.
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and Mary, at New Castle, as Shadrach Walton said in a petition to the king, Walton had been commander of the fort four years, and three years he had commanded a company in service against the Indians, in which campaign he was wounded several times and had never received any compensation for his services and expense.
While Usher was at Hampton the leaders in Portsmouth held a consultation by night, and the next day Partridge's com- mission was published formally, and he took the oaths pre- scribed. Usher reported these proceedings to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, December 13, 1697. He says that Partridge had neglected for a year to take the oath of his office, not qualifying while in England ; that "the day after I had pub- lished your orders relating to the government, though not qual- ifying himselfe, he entered on the government, contrary to your orders, 3d of August, & Hincks gave him an oath. He then admitted three suspended persons to be of his Councill, without being restored by the King's Signett, or Signe manuall, & putt out Joseph Smith and Kingsley Hall, Esquire, members of the Councill and both loyall persons, which two persons satt with me in Councill the 13th instant, all extremely contrary to the Kings Commission .... Has made one Penny Secretary, a person no ways qualified, being not a freeholder, nor worth five pounds in the world .... Partridge, being Sincible he could not qualifye himselfe before entrance on the Government, had Hincks, Vaughan, Waldron, Eliott and Coffin to give their bonds to pay part of the one Thousand Pounds Penalty by the account, which with submission judge to be a high misdemeanor" .... "Am in- formed Partridge hath with advice of his pretended Councill issued out Warrants to call an assembly for raising Money. If not qualified judge cannott legally soe doe." ... "Reason why Partridge did not enter sooner on the Government because he had two vessells come from Bilboa with some iron, another with goods of Production of Europe, from Newfoundland, all Breaches of the acts of Trade, arrived this Summer" ... "One reason judge why he soe Suddenly entered on ye Government because leastt I should make Ceisure of the vessell and part of the goods, the which I should have endeavored." Usher goes on to say that he had never had one penny for his services of seven years and had spent out of his own estate above seven
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hundred pounds, besides expense of time, and claims the one thousand pounds penalty forfeited by Mr. Partridge.
On the other hand the council and assembly reported to their Lordships that Mr. Partridge had assumed the office of lieutenant governor and they gratefully acknowledged the favor in appointing "one of our own inhabitants." They added that "Mr. Usher began to give us some disturbance, and, as we understand, has complained to your lordships of our being with- out a government and in a lamentable condition ; whereas the Province never was in a more quiet, peaceable condition; nor has there been any disturbance in it since Mr. Partridge's ar- rival; but only what Mr. Usher has endeavored to give us." This was dated February 3, 1697.8
On the twenty-fifth of February, 1697, the lords of trade recommended to the king the appointment of a governor-general of the provinces of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York, who should also be captain-general of all military forces therein and in Connecticut, Rhode Island and the Jerseys, with chief residence in New York and liberty to go to Boston and return on occasion and in such absence to appoint a deputy. Accordingly Richard, Earl of Bellomont, was appointed to this office. He was the only son of Richard Coote, styled Lord Coloony, and grandson of Sir Charles Coote, who barbarously massarcred the inhabitants of Sligo in 1653, setting fire to the church whither women and children had fled. The son suc- ceeded his father in 1683, served in parliament from 1688, and was created Earl of Bellomont in 1689. After his arrival in New York, where he remained one year, the council sent to him Ichabod Plaisted as their deputy, to present their congrat- ulations and respects, allowing him twenty pounds for his jour- ney, which was increased to over twenty-six pounds in his bill of expenses. His instructions show some knowledge of state- craft :
When you arrive at New York take good advice according to letters herewith given you, how to demean yourself : If you find my lord high and reserved, not easy of access, you must manage your business by some of the gentlemen about him; If you find him to give you a favorable reception and free to discourse, you then may let him know how universally the news
8 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. II, p. 267.
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of his being our Governor did affect us with joy and satisfaction; you must also let him know that we daily expect Mr. Allen, whose commission for Governor here will be accounted valid until his Excellency's commission be here published; and query how we shall demean ourselves in such a case : in short, the principal end in sending you on this message is to pay our respects and duty to his lordship and to prevent Mr. Usher or any other mal-content prepossessing him with any ill thing against us; so that if Mr. Usher or any such be there, you must observe their carriage and endeavor to learn how they are received and treated by my lord; and forthwith, by the first post after your arrival, to give us an account of your affairs.9
Meanwhile Samuel Allen, proprietor of the province, came over and on the fifteenth of September 1698, took the oaths of office and assumed command as governor. At the same time John Usher, now his son-in-law, appeared and claimed to be a member of the council and lieutenant governor, holding that Partridge's assumption of the latter office was illegal. Mr. Allen allowed him to sit as a member of the council, whereat all of the members except Nathaniel Fryer withdrew in spite of Allen's command to the contrary. Nathaniel Weare declared he would not, by remaining in the council, put contempt on the king's commission. His son, Peter Weare, was appointed coun- cilor in his place, and Sampson Sheafe now first appears as councilor and was made secretary in place of Charles Story. Sheafe was also collector of imposts. Joseph Smith and Kings- ley Hall also were made councilors. The new Secretary could not obtain the province records, for Major Vaughan had ab- sconded with them. He had gone to New York and the records were again with Major Hammond in Kittery.
Governor Allen advised the council to send congratulations to the Earl of Bellomont and was surprised to learn that this had already been done, and that no business of importance would be transacted before his arrival. Their last act was to vote that the revenues collected should remain unexpended till the Earl appeared on the scene. Thus Mr. Allen had only the name of governor. The constables he had appointed refused to collect the taxes, and he was obliged to reappoint the con- stables that he had deposed. Mr. Partridge withdrew from the council, but reassumed his office as lieutenant governor as soon as the Earl of Bellomont arrived.
These disturbances led to mutual recriminations. Joseph
9 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. II, p. 264.
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Smith of Hampton wrote to John Usher, Jan. 17, 1698, saying that John Pickering, the speaker of the assembly, is "known to be of ill principles, being a common Drunkard, if not a notorious felon"; and in an address to the Earl of Bellomont, August II, 1699, signed by William Partridge, John Hinckes, Peter Coffin, Robert Elliot, John Gerrish and Richard Waldron, as councilors, they declare that Sampson Sheafe, Shadrach Walton, Joseph Smith and Thomas Packer are unfit to hold office, for various reasons stated.10
Samuel Allen, doubtless urged on by John Usher, asserted his claim to lands purchased of the heirs of Mason, which was enough to intensify opposition to all his wishes. In reply to the expressed advice of the assembly to "carry on with a more moderate conduct" he said, "As for your future proceedings I do advise you to act safely. And finding, Gentlemen, your aim and drift is to strike at the Kings honor and prerogative, and countenancing of such who are violent against the same, I shall render an account unto his Majesty of my whole proceedings; and in the meanwhile you are dissolved; and in his Majestys name I do dissolve you. The Court is dissolved." And nobody doubted the fact. His reiterated statement made it perfectly clear.11 At once Robert Elliot was suspended "for several mutinous and contemptuous words and carriages."
In the spring of 1699 the Earl of Bellomont set out for his eastern provinces. Elaborate preparations were made to receive him in New Hampshire. Twenty-five pounds and ten shillings were paid for a boat, oars, awning and carpet for the use of his Excellency. Major Joseph Smith, treasurer, was ordered to ad- vance one hundred pounds for the reception of his Excellency and to make due provision for his entertainment. Later Colonel Richard Waldron was paid sixty-nine pounds for entertaining the Earl. Immediately on his arrival the council and assembly voted to him a present of five hundred pounds, tho too poor to grant any salary to Usher. A letter was drawn up and sent by special messengers, to be offered to the Earl on his arrival at Boston, and John Usher, the asserted lieutenant governor, Joseph Smith of Hampton and Captain Shadrach Walton con-
10 MS. at Concord, Nos. 828, 896.
11 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. II, p. 293.
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veyed it. The tone of this letter must have been quite different from the address of the council and assembly to the Earl after his arrival, in which they say that "John Usher, Esquire, during his exercise of the Government of this province, did manage the affairs thereof with so uneven a temper, with so much rashnesse and precipitency that it tended very much to the kings disser- vice and the Grievance and disquiet of his Majesties good Sub- jects, by reason whereof some of the principal inhabitants were forced to leave the province, and it has been particularly ob- served that sundry of the Gentlemen of the assembly, who dis- covered a different opinion from Mr. Usher, were by his order immediately upon the dissolution of the assembly taken up and sent as private Centinells to keep Garrison in the frontier towns and one particularly sent to prison besides sundry other Malad- ministrations."12 Of course it was not fitting that men of wealth and station, in a time of common peril, should be im- pressed as common soldiers and sent to do duty on the frontier. The real work of keeping watch and ward and of being shot by Indians, as most people think, should be done by the poor men of low estate.
The Earl of Bellomont arrived and published his commission on the thirty-first of July, 1699, remaining in Portsmouth only eighteen days and never returning. First impressions are not always the best. The correspondence of the Earl reveals what his first impressions were and how they were subsequently modified. The impression made by him upon the people was a pleasing one, and he is known in history as the good and popular governor. The following citations from his letters may modify the impressions of the reader.
Writing to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, September 9, 1699, he says, that the charges of John Usher against William Partridge, John Hinckes, William Vaughan and Col. Richard Waldron "are not well grounded, proceeding more from Mr. Usher's unhappy Cholerick temper than any just occasion given by those persons he accused. I have charity enough for Mr. Usher to believe he meant well in what he did, yet I can not find but that he might have managed the people of New Hamp- shire easily enough, had his carriage been moderate." The Earl
12 MS. at Concord, No. 897.
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says he formed his opinion of Usher principally from the state- ments of Mr. Fryer and Mr. Coffin. That is, he wrote home about Mr. Usher, as his own opinion, what Usher's opponents said against him.13
The Earl goes on to express the wish that the propriety of lands in New Hampshire be settled; that it is impossible that there should be an equal and fair trial in the courts between Colonel Allen and the inhabitants, "for all are parties against him except those that have no substance or anything to lose, and such are not legally qualified to be judges or jurors." He says that Allen bought Mason's claim for three hundred pounds, "the cheapest purchase of that country that ever was heard of in any part of the world : for he has often told me, while I was at Pascattaway, that he reckoned upon £22,000 per an. in Quitrents at 3d per acre or 6d in the pound rent, and if he recovers the lands of that province, he intends to sue the people for all damages and trespasses committed in the woods ever since the year 79, which would amount to several hundred thousand pounds, this he told me himselfe" ... "Let his title be what it will, I am sure the people here will never submit to part with their lands to him, and he must bring an army, if he means to get possession of them. After all I pity the man, he is I believe very necessitous and much in debt. Mr. Partridge intended to arrest him on an action of £2000 he owes him, but I prevailed with him to forbear." He says further that there were seven hundred families in the province and that common laboring men received as much as three shillings per day, and that the forests were being wasted.
He tells also of his scheme to send two hundred or three hundred Mohawks from New York against the eastern Indians. His offer was rejected by the governor and council of Massa- chusetts. "They only thanked me and refused my offer. Since that I have been told their reason was, they would not make use of the devill to destroy the devill ; such a nicety and squeam- ishnesse as all the rest of the world will laugh at; as if it were a sin to employ those western Indians to Cutt of these eastern Indians. They own here at Boston that it has cost 'em £100,000 to manage the war with the eastern Indians during this last
13 MS. at Concord, No. 909.
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war with ffrance, the losse of a 1000 families, as is Computed, and I am of opinion that for £3000 they may have a party of the Mohawk & other Indians to fall on the eastern Indians and Cut 'em off."14
Later letters of the Earl of Bellomont reveal the change in his mind and his contempt of such as had risen from the ranks. He prefers blue blood to red blood and can not view undisturbed a former wage-worker sitting in the seat of the mighty. A rail- splitter holding the highest office in America would have shocked him beyond power of recovery. In a letter to the Lords of Trade, April 23, 1700, he states that masts and ship timber were being wasted in New Hampshire; that Mr. William Part- ridge is wrongly exporting such timber to Portugal and making large gains thereby; that said "Partridge is not fit for the post of Lieut. Governor. He is a Millwright by trade, which is a sort of Carpenter, and to set a Carpenter to preserve woods is like setting a wolfe to keep sheep .... In the next place he is of the Country, and the interest of England is neither in his head nor his heart, like the generality of the people in these planta- tions, and lastly he is a mean man and as such is unfit for government. I have nothing to object against his fair dealing between man and man. I know him not enough to judge of his morals, but what I quarrel at is his selfishnesse and interested- ness in prefering a little sordid gain before the interest of Eng- land." His views as to the character of governors and inferior officers in the future for the plantations are thus expressed,- "I mean that they be men of undoubted probity and well born, secondly that they be not men of the Country, but Englishmen, thirdly that they be men of some fortune in England, to be a tye upon them to behave themselves honorably in their respec- tive trusts. I should humbly advise the Governors and Lieut. Governors especially might be of quality, because 'tis a debasing of the King's authority to put those Imployments into the hands of little men. I may be allowed to complain of this mischief, because I find the ill Consequence of it every day and am put to great trouble by that very means. What a disparagement was it to Government and the King's authority to advance a man that was a Carpenter (and wrought in this town for day-
14 Cf. Hist. of Sanbornton.
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wages as other Carpenters did) to the post of Governor, to be stil'd Excellency, which title after all I believe belongs not to any of us, and whether it does or no I little care, a title is what I shall never value myself upon. But a mechanick or mean Governor like him I have hinted, or like Mr. Partridge, holds the reins of Government with too loose a hand. They cannot maintain the authority and respect that is necessary to their Character, because the people know their meannesse and despise 'em, and give me leave to say further that mean or Corrupt Governors (for I think both Characters alike hurtful) are a great allay (sic) to the people's affection toward the King, they con- ceiving an idea of their supreme Governor the King according to the qualifications of the subordinate Governor he sets over them."15 It is evident that he had contracted an antipathy for Mr. Partridge and this may account in part for his ordering that a ship belonging to Partridge and laden with pipe staves and timber should be detained. Subsequently by the king's order the ship was permitted to proceed on her voyage. It is evident, too, that the present of five hundred pounds to the Earl had not acted as a bribe. New Hampshire and Massachusetts never voted him a salary, while New York allowed him four hundred pounds annually. A little later Queen Anne ordered that the colonies fix the salaries of governors and that the latter should receive no presents. Accordingly the salary of Governor Joseph Dudley was fixed by New Hampshire at one hundred and sixty pounds, the first regular salary allowed to a governor in New Hampshire, and liberal enough, considering that Dudley got more from Massachusetts.
In further correspondence the good Earl of Bellomont advises that the exportation of all lumber from New Hampshire be prohibited and says that the people can as well subsist by fishing and that the interests of ten or a dozen private men ought not to be put into the scale against the interest of the king and kingdom. He questions, also, the validity of Mr. Mason's patent of New Hampshire, as no livery of seizin was ever given. In his opinion the settlers had no valid claim to their lands, and this "will let the Crown into a just Challenge of a good Quit rent for all their lands. I have been told the inhabitants
15 MS. at Concord, No. 963.
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have many of them carved themselves great tracts of land. I do not find they derive from the Crown, nor from any body else that could make 'em a good title." The blooded aristocrat appears, concealed under suave and cultivated manners. He is neither for Allen nor for the freeholders of New Hampshire, but for the king, and he wishes to take away their lands and their trade in timber and force them to subsist by fishing, in order that the revenue of the king might be increased. He knew who had created him Earl of Bellomont. What right had a car- penter, like Partridge, to be trading in masts and timber? Do not all things belong to the king and his favorites?
The Earl of Bellomont, on testimony of Robert Armstrong the naval officer of New Hampshire, wrote to secretary Vernon, June 22, 1700, that Mr. Blaithwait, clerk in the Plantation Office in London, had bargained with Colonel Samuel Allen "for half his pretended interest in New Hampshire," mentioning Blaithwait's "treacherous sale of these plantations from Eng- land." Bellomont relates how Samuel Allen urged the marriage of his youngest daughter to Bellomont's youngest son, offering as dowry ten thousand pounds and half the revenues of the pro- vince of New Hampshire.15 Allen told him that his lands comprised one million seven hundred thousand acres, extending beyond Cape Ann to Salem, Massachusetts. All this was inter- preted by Bellomont as an attempt at bribery, so that the Earl might favor the claims of Allen. In a letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations Bellomont urges the appointment of an English attorney-general and of English judges, saying that "those pettifoggers who practice the law among them are rooks and pickpockets, having no skill in the law, but are assuming enough to put the people upon litigating their estates and titles, and then will they play Jack on both sides and take fees from both plaintiff and defendant, so that right or wrong the issue at law goes for him that has the better purse." Here is his opinion of such lawyers as John Pickering. The cry of the oppressed finds its echo in high places.16
About this time John Usher wrote to the lords of trade that "it is a principle too much entertained in these parts ...
15 Ms. at Concord, No. 983b.
16 MS. at Concord, No. 988.
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that acts of Parliament ought not to be laws of Plantations, unless [they] had representatives in parliament," a cry that became familiar in revolutionary times. Usher says the people are "not kingly but for commonwealth government, which pray Libero Nos."17
In the absence of the Earl of Bellomont William Partridge was again the figure-head on the ship of state in New Hamp- shire, pointing the way he was turned. He was acceptable to the merchants and traders and took care to earn a penny for himself by a loose construction of the navigation laws. Ran- dolph accused him of smuggling. He says himself that with an investment of £300 he shipped timber to Portugal and re- ceived £1600 therefor. His whole attention was given to money- making, and the province would have been as well cared for, if there had been no governor at all. He filled a comfortable chair and did nothing to displease. When governor Dudley arrived, he entertained him royally and brought in a bill of one hundred and forty-six pounds, which the council and assembly readily voted. John Hinckes was made chief justice of the superior court, with Peter Coffin, John Gerrish and John Plaisted for assistants. Colonel Richard Waldron was chief justice of the inferior court, and Henry Dow, Theodore Atkin- son and John Woodman were his assistants.
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