USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire. Comprehending the events of one complete century and seventy-five years from the discovery of the River Pascataqua to the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, Vol I > Part 6
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Calender's Century Sermon, 1738.
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The Quakers at firft were banifhed ; but this proving infufficient, a fucceffion of fan- guinary laws were enacted againft them, of whichimprifonment, whipping, cutting off the ears, boring the tongue with an hot iron, and banifhment on pain of death, were the terri- ble fanctions. In confequence of thefe laws four perfons were put to death at Bofton, bearing their punifhment with patience and fortitude ; folemnly protefting that their re- turn from banifhment was by divine direc- tion, to warn the magiftrates of their errors, and intreat them to repeal their cruel laws ; denouncing the judgments of God upon Sewel's History of them ; and foretelling that if they fhould put the Quak them to death others would rife up in their ers. room to fill their hands with work *. After
" The following passages extracted from William Leddra's letter to his friends, written the day before liis execution, March 15, 1660, shew an ele- gance of sentiment and expression, not common in their writings.
" Most dear and inwardly beloved,
" The sweet influence of the morning star, like a flood, distilling into my « innocent habitation hath so filled me with the joy of the Lord in the beauty " of holiness, that my spirit is as if it did not inhabit a tabernacle of clay, " but is wholly swallowed up in the bosom of eternity from whence it had its " being."
" Alas, alas ! what can the wrath and spirit of man that lusteth to " envy, aggravated by the heat and strength of the king of the locusts which " came out of the pit, do unto one that is hid in the secret places of the Al- " mighty ? or to them that are gathered under the healing wings of the " Prince of Peace ? O my beloved, I have waited as the dove at the win- " dows of the ark, and have stood still in that watch, which the master did at " his coming reward with the fulness of his love ; wherein my heart did re- " joice that I might speak a few words to you, sealed with the spirit of " promise. As the flowing of the ocean doth fill every creek and branch " thereof, and then retires again toward its own being and fulness and leaves " a savour behind it ; so doth the life and virtue of God flow into every one " of your hearts, whom he hath made partakers of his divine nature ; and Af when it withdraws but a little, it leaves a sweet savour behind it, " that many can say they are made clean through the word that he has spok- " en to them. Therefore, my dear hearts, let the enjoyment of the life alone " be your hope, your joy and your consolation. Stand in the watch within, " in the fear of the Lord which is the entrance of wisdom. Confess him " before men, yea before his greatest enemies. Fear not what they can do " to you : Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the work, for he " will clothe you with humility and in the power of his meekness you shall " reign over all the rage of your enemies."
Sewel's Hist. Quakers, page 274.
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the execution of the fourth perfon, an order from King Charles the fecond, procured by their friends in England, put a ftop to capi- tal executions.
Impartiality will not fuffer a veil to be drawn over thefe difgraceful tranfactions. The utmoft that has been pleaded in favor of them, cannot excufe them in the eye of reaf- on and juftice. The Quakers, it is faid, were heretics ; their principles appeared to be fubverfive of the gofpel, and derogatory from the honor of the Redeemer. Argument and fcripture were in this cafe the proper weap- ons to combat them with; and if thefe had failed of fuccefs, they muft have been left to the judgment of an omnifcient and merciful God. They were complained of as diftur- bers of the peace, revilers of magiftracy, " malignant and affiduous promoters of doc- " trines directly tending to fubvert both " church and ftate ;" and our fathers thought it hard, when they had fled from oppofition and perfecution in one fhape to be again troubled with it in another, But it would have been more to their honor to have fuf- fered their magiftracy and church order to be infulted, than to have ftained their hands with the blood of men who deferved pity rather than punifhment. The Quakers in- deed had no right to difturb them ; and fome of their conduct was to an high degree inde- cent and provoking ; but they were under the influence of a fpirit which is not eafily quelled by oppofition. Had not the govern- ment appeared to be jealous of their princi- ples, and prohibited the reading of their books before any of them appeared in perfon, there
Hutch. Collect. papers, p. 327.
m
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could not have been fo plaufible a pretext for their reviling government. It was faid that the laws by which they were condemned were grounded on the laws in England againft Jefuits, But the cafe was by no History Sewer's means parallel, (as the Quakers pleaded) Quakers. their principles and practices not being equal- ly detrimental to fociety. It was moreover urged in excufe of the feverities exercifed againft the Quakers that the magiftrates thought themfelves " bound in confcience to Mass. Rec: keep the paffage with the point of the fword : this (it was faid) could do no harm to him that would be warned by it: their rufhing on it was their own act, and they brought the blood on their own heads. Had they promifed to depart the jurifdiction and not return without leave, the country would have been glad to have rid themfelves of the trouble of executing the laws upon them ; it was their prefumptuous returning after banifh- ment that caufed them to be put to death." This was the plea which the court ufed in their addrefs to the king; and in another p. 279. Sewel, b. 6: vindication publifhed by their order, the un- happy fufferers are ftyled " felones de fe," or felf-murderers.' But this will not juftify the putting them to death, unlefs the original crimes for which they were banifhed had de- ferved it. The preamble to the act by which P. 199 they were condemned charges them with " altering the received laudable cuftom of giv- ing refpect to equals and reverence to fupe- riors ; that their actions tend to undermine the civil government and deftroy the order of the churches, by denying all eftablifhed forms of worthip, by withdrawing from or-
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derly church fellowfhip allowed and approv- ed by all orthodox profeffors of the truth, and inftead thereof, and in oppofition there- to, frequently meeting themfelves, infinuat- ing themfelves into the minds of the fimple, whereby divers of our inhabitants have been infected." Did thefe'offences deferve death ? had any government a right to terrify with capital laws perfons guilty of no other crimes than thefe, efpecially when they profeffed that they were obliged to go the greateft lengths in maintaining thofe tenets which they judg- ed facred, and following the dictates of that fpirit which they thought divine ? Was not the mere "holding the point of the fword" to them, really inviting them to "rufh on "it" and feal their teftimony with their blood ? and was not this the moft likely way to ftrengthen and increafe their party ? Such punifhment for offences which proceeded from a mifguided zeal, increafed and in- flamed by oppofition, will never reflect any honour on the policy or moderation of the government ; and can be accounted for only by the ftrong predilection for coercive pow- er in religion, retained by moft or all of the reformed churches ; a prejudice which time and experience were neceffary to remove *.
* From the following authorities, it will appear that the government of New-England, however severe and unjustifiable in their proceedings against the Quakers, went no farther than the most eminent reformers ; particularly the Bohemians, the Lutherans, the celebrated Calvin and the martyr Cran. incr.
In the war which the Emperor Sigismond excited against the Bohemian reformers, who had the famous Zisca for their general ; " The acts of bar- barity which were committed on both sides were shocking and terrible be- yond expression. For notwithstanding the irreconcileable opposition between the religious sentiments of the contending parties, they both agreed in this one horrible point, that it was innocent and lawful to persccute and extir- pite with fire and sword, the enemies of the true religion, and cach they
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The miftakes on which their conduct was grounded cannot be detected in a more maf- terly manner, than by tranfcribing the fenti- ments of Doctor Increafe Mather, who lived in thofe times, and was a ftrong advocate for the coercive power of the magiftrate in mat- ters of religion ; but afterward changed his opinion on this point. " He became fenfi- " ble that the example of the Ifraelitifh re- " formers inflicting penalties on falfe worfhip- " pers would not legitimate the like proceed- " ings among chriftian gentiles : For the ho- " ly land of old was, by a deed of gift from " the glorious God, miraculoufly and indif- " putably granted to the Ifraelitifh nation, " and the condition on which they had it was
reciprocally appeared to be in each others eyes." Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. 3. p. 261. *
" It were indeed ardently to be wished, that the Lutherans had treated with more mildness and charity those who differed from them in religious opinions. But they had unhappily imbibed a spirit of persecution in their early education. This was too much the spirit of the times, and it was even a leading maxim with our ancestors (this author was a Lutheran) that it was both lawful and expedient to use severity and force against those whom they looked upon as heretics. This maxim "was derived from ROME ; and even those who separated from that church did not find it easy to throw off all of a sudden that despotic and uncharitable spirito that had so long been the main spring of its government and the general characteristic of its members. Nay in their narrow view of things, their very piety seemed to suppress the gen- erous movements of fraternal love and forbearance, and the more they felt themselves animated with a zeal for the divine glory, the more difficult did they find it to renounce that ancient and favourite maxim, that whoever is found to be an enemy to God, ought also to be declared an enemy to his country." Mosheim, vol. 4. page 437.
" Michael Servetua, a Spanish physician, published seven books in which he attacked the sentiments adopted by far the greatest part of the christian church, in relation to the divine nature and a trinity of persons in the God- head. Few innovators have set out with a better prospect of success : But all his views were totally disappointed by the vigilance and severity of Calvin, who when Servetus was passing through Switzerland, caused him to be ap- prehended at Geneva in the year 1553, and had an accusation of blasphemy brought against him before the council. Servetus adhering resolutely to the opinions he had embraced, was declared an obstinate heretic and condemned to the flames." Mosheim, vol. 4. page 171.
Dr. Macclaine in his note on this passage, says, " It was a remaining por- tion of the spirit of popery in the breast of Calvin that lindled his unchristian srl against the wretched Servetus, whose death will be an indelible re. gott upon the character of that great and eminent roforni!"
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" their obfervance of the Mofaic institutions. " To violate them was high treafon againft " the king of the theocracy, an iniquity to " be punifhed by the judge. At the fame " time fojourners in the land were not com- " pelled to the keeping thofe rites and laws " which" Mofes had given to the people. " Nay the Ifraelites themfelves fell, many of " them, into the worft of herefics, yet while " they kept the laws and rites of Mofes, the " magiftrate would not meddle with them. " The herefy of the Sadducees in particular " ftruck at the foundation of all religion ; " yet we do not find that our Saviour ever
In the reign of Edward the sixth of England, anno, 1549, " A woman " called Joan Bocher, or Joan of Kent, was accused of heretical pravity. Her " doctrine was, " that Christ was not truly incarnate of the virgin, whose " flesh being the outward man was sinfully begotten and born in sin ; and " consequently he could take none of it ; but the word by the consent of the in- " ward man of the virgin was made ilesh." A scholastic nicety, not capa- ble of doing much mischief ! but there was a necessity for delivering the wo- man to the flames for maintaining it. The young king though in such ten- der years, had more sense than all his counsellors and preceptors ; and he long refused to sign the warrant for her execution. CRANMER, with his su- perior learning, was employed to persuade bim to compliance, and he said, that the prince, being God's deputy, ought to repress impieties against God, in like manner as the king's deputies were bound to punish offenders against the king's person. He also argued from the practice of the Jewish church in stoning blasphemers. Edward overcome by importunity more than reason at last submitted, and told Cranmer with tears in his eyes, that if any wrong was done, the guilt should lie entirely on his head. The primate was struck with surprize ; but after making a new effort to reclaim the woman and find- ing her obstinate, he at last committed her to the flames. Nor did he ever renounce his burning principles so long as he continued in power." Hume's Hist. Eng. 4to vol. 3. p. 320. Neal's Hist. Purit. 4to. vol. 1. p. 41.
It ought also to be remembered, that at the same time that the Quakers suffered in New-England, penal laws against them were made and rigorous'y executed in England ; and though none of them suffered capital caecution, yet they were thrown into prison and treated with other marks of cruelty. which in some instances proved the means of their death. And though tle: lenity of King Charles the Ild in putting a stop to capital executions here has been much celebrated, yet in his letter to the Massachusetts goweron cut the next year, wherein he requires liberty for the church of England among them, he adds, "Wee cannot be understood hereby to direct, or wish that any " indulgence should be graunted to Quakers, whose principles, being incon- " sistent with any kind of government. Wee have found it necessary with " the advise of our parliament bere to make a sharp law against them, and " are well content you doe, the like there." Records of Deeds. Province " Maine, lib. 1. fol. 129.
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" blamed the Pharifees for not perfecuting
" them. The chriftian religion brings us
" not into a temporal Canaan, it knows no " weapons but what are purely fpiritual. He " faw that until perfecution be utterly ban- " ifhed out of the world, and Cain's club " taken out of Abel's hand, 'tis impoffible to " refcue the world from endlefs confufions. " He that has the power of the fword will " always be in the right and always affume " the power of perfecuting. In his latter " times therefore he looked upon it as one " of the moft hopeful among the figns of the " times, that people began to be afhamed of " a practice which had been a mother of " abominations, and he came entirely into " that golden maxim, Errantis poena doceri."
Divers others of the principal actors and abettors of this tragedy lived to fee the folly and incompetency of fuch fanguinary laws, to which the fufferings of their brethren, the nonconformifts in England, did not a lit- tle contribute. Under the arbitrary govern- ment of King James the fecond, when he, for a thew of liberty and as a leading ftep to the introduction of popery, iffued a procla- mation of indulgence to tender confciences, the principal men of the country fent him an addref's of thanks, for granting them what they had formerly denied to others. It is but juftice to add, that all thofe difgraceful laws were renounced and repealed, and the people of New-England are now as candidly difpofed toward the Quakers as any other denominations of chriftians. To keep alive a fpirit of refentment and reproach to the country, on account of thofe ancient tranf
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actions which are now univerfally condem- ned, would difcover a temper not very con- fiftent with that meeknefs and forgivenefs which ought to be cultivated by all who pro- fefs to be influenced by the gofpel.
But thought our anceftors are juftly cen- furable for thofe inftances of misconduct, yet they are not to be condemned as unwor- thy the chriftian name, fince fome of the firft difciples of our Lord, in a zealous imi- tation of the prophet Elias, would have cal- led for fire from Heaven to confume a village of the Samaritans who refufed to receive him. Their zeal was of the fame kind ; and the anfwer which the benevolent author of our religion gave to his difciples on that occafion, might with equal propriety be ad- dreffed to them, and to all perfecuting chrif- tians, " Ye know not what fpirit ye are of, " for the Son of man is not come to deftroy " men's live's but to fave them."
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CHAP. IV.
Mode of Government under Massachusetts .- Mason's efforts to recover the property of his ancestor .- Transactions of the King's Commissioners .- Opposition to them .- Political prin- ciplcs .- Internal transactions .-- Mason discouraged.
DURING the union of thefe plan- tations with Maffachufetts, they were gov- erned by the general laws of the colony, and the terms of the union were ftrictly obferv- ed. Exeter and Hampton were at firft an- nexed to the jurifdiction of the courts at Ipfwich, till the eftablifhment of a new coun- ty which was called Norfolk, and compre- hended Salifbury, Haverhill, Hampton, Ex- eter, Portfmouth and Dover. Thefe towns were then of fuch extent as to contain all the lands between the rivers Merrimack and Pafcataqua. The fhire town was Salifbury; but Dover and Portfmouth had always a dif- tinct jurifdiction, though they were confid- ered as part of this new county ; a court being held in one or the other, fometimes once and fometimes twice in the year, con- fifting of one or more of the magiftrates or affiftants, and one or more commiffioners chofen by the General Court out of the prin- cipal gentlemen of each town. This was called the court of Affociates ; and their power extended to caufes of twenty pounds value. From them there was an appeal to the board of Affiftants, which being found inconvenient, it was in 1670 ordered to be made to the county court of Norfolk. Caufes under twenty fhillings in value were fettled in each town by an Inferior Court confifting of
1643.
Mass. Gen. Court Rec.
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1. Dover and
Ports. Rec.
1647. three perfons. After fome time they had liberty to choofe their Affociates, which was done by the votes of both towns, opened at a joint meeting of their felectmen, though fometimes they requefted the court to ap- point them as before. That mutual confi- dence between rulers and people, which fprings from the genius of a republican gov- ernment is obfervable in all their tranfac- tions. *
1652.
This extenfion of the colony's jurifdiction over New-Hampfhire, could not fail of being noticed by the heirs of Mafon : But the dif- tractions caufed by the civil wars in England were invincible bars to any legal enquiry. The firft heir named in Mafon's will dying in infancy, the eftate defcended after the death of the executrix to Robert Tufton, who was not of age till 1650. In two years after this, Jofeph Mafon came over as agent to the executrix, to look after the intereft of her de- ceafed hufband. He found the lands at New- ichwannock occupied by Richard Leader,
* In 1632, the number of people in Dover was increased so that they were allowed by law to send two deputies to the General Court. Hampton continued, sending but one till 1669, and Portsmouth till 1672. The names of the representatives which I have been able to recover, are as follows :
For Dover. John Baker,
Valentine Hill,
Richard Cook, of Boston, For Hampton.
Richard Waldron, who was chosen without interrup- tion for 25 years, and was sometime speaker of the House.
Jeoffry Mingay,
Henry Do.,
William buller,
Robert Page,
Richard Cook. Peter Coffin. For Portsmouth.
Roger Shaw, Roger Page,
Bryan Pendleton,
Samuel Dalton,
Henry Sherburne, Richard Cutts, Nathaniel Fryer,
Christopher Hussey,
Elias Stileman, John Cutts, Richard Martyn,
Wilham Gerrish, Icseph Hussey.
Joshua Gilman,
Anthony Stanyon,
I do not find that Exeter sent aby deputies to court during this union General Court Rec.
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againft whom he brought actions in the 1652. county court of Norfolk ; but a difpute arif- ing whether the lands in queftion were with- in the jurifdiction of Maffachufetts, and the court of Norfolk judging the action not to be within their cognizance, recourfe was had to the general court ; who on this occafion ordered an accurate furvey of the northern bounds of their patent to be made ; a thing which they had long meditated. A commit- tee of the general court attended by Jonathan Ince, and John Shearman furveyors, and fev- eral Indian guides, went up the river Merri- mack to find the moft northerly part there- of, which the Indians told them was at Aque- dochtan, the outlet of the lake Winnipifeo- gee. The latitude of this place was obferv- ed to be 43 degrees 40 minutes and 12 fec- onds, to which three miles being added, made the line of the patent, according to their con- ftruction, fall within the lake, in the latitude of 43 degrees 43 minutes and 12 feconds. Two experienced fhip-mafters, Jonas Clarke and Samuel Andrews, were then difpatched to the eaftern coaft, who found the fame de- grees, minutes, and feconds, on the northern point of an ifland in Cafco Bay, called the Upper Clapboard Ifland. An caft and weft line, drawn through thefe points from the Atlantic to the South fea, was therefore fup- pofed to be the northern boundary of the Maffachufetts patent, within which the whole claim of Mafon, and the greater part of that of Gorges were comprehended. When this . grand point was determined, the court were of opinion, that " fome lands at Newichwan- " nock, with the river, were by agreement of
Massa.REG.
1653.
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1.653. " Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others, appor- " tioned to Captain Mafon, and that he alfo " had right by purchafe of the Indians, as al- " fo by poffeffion and improvement ;" and they ordered " a quantity of land proportion- " able to his difburfements, with the privi- " lege of the river, to be laid out to his heirs." The agent made no attempt to recover any other part of the eftate ; but having tarried long enough in the country to obferve the temper of the government, and the manage- ment ufed in the determination of his fuit, he returned ; and the eftate was given up for loft unlefs the government of England fhould interpofe.
During the commonwealth, and the pro- tectorate of Cromwell, there could be no hope of relief, as the family had always been at- tached to the royal caufe, and the colony ftood high in the favor of the parliament and of Cromwell. But the reftoration of King Charles the fecond encouraged Tufton, who now took the firname of Mafon, to look up to the throne for favor and affiftance. For though the plan of colonization adopted by his grandfather was in itself chimerical, and proved fruitlefs, yet he had expended a large eftate in the profecution of it, which muft have been wholly loft to his heirs, unlefs they could recover the poffeffion of his A- merican territories. Full of this idea, Ma- fon petitioned the king ; fetting forth 'the ' encroachment of the Maffachufetts colony ' upon his lands, their making grants and ' giving titles to the inhabitants, and thereby . ' difpoffeffing him and keeping him out of ' his right." The king referred the petition.
1660.
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to his attorney-general Sir Geoffry Palmer, 1660. who reported that " Robert Mafon, grandfon Nov. 8. " and heir to Captain John Mafon, had a Court files. MS in Sup " good and legal title to the province of New- " Hampshire." Nothing farther was done at this time, nor was the matter mentioned in the letter which the king foon after fent to the colony, though fome offenfive things 1662. in their conduct were therein reprehended, Hutch. Collect. of papers, p. 377. and divers alterations enjoined. But the di- rections contained in this letter not being ftrictly attended to, and complaints being made to the king of difputes which had arif- en in divers parts of New-England concern- ing the limits of jurifdiction, and addreffes Hutc. Hist, having been prefented by feveral perfons, p. 535. Mas. vol. 1: praying for the royal interpofition ; a com- miffion was iffued under the great feal to 1664. Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carre, April 25. knight, George Carteret and Samuel Maver- ick, efquires, impowering them " to vifit the " feveral colonies of New-England ; to ex- " amine and determine all complaints and " appeals in matters civil, military and crimi- " nal ; to provide for the peace and fecurity " of the country, according to their good and " found difcretion, and to fuch inftructions " as they fhould receive from the king, and " to certify him of their proceedings."
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