USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 14
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This change of government gratified the discontented few, but was greatly disrelished by the people in general ; as they saw themselves deprived of the privilege of choosing their own rulers, which was still enjoyed by the other colonies of New-England, and as they expected an invasion of their property soon to follow.
When writs were issued for calling a general assembly, the persons in each town who were judged qualified to vote were named in the writs ;* and the oath of allegiance was administered to each voter. A public fast was observed, to ask the di- Feb. 26. vine blessing on the approaching assembly, and " the con-
" tinuance of their precious and pleasant things." The assem- blyt met at Portsmouth on the sixteenth of March, and was open- ed with prayer and a sermon by Mr. Moodey.
To express their genuine sentiments of the present change, and invalidate the false reports which had been raised against
(1) Council Records.
* The number of qualified voters in each town was,
In Portsmouth 71
Dover 61
Hampton
57
Exeter 20
209
+ The Deputies in this first Assembly were, for Portsmouth.
Hampton.
Robert Elliot,
Anthony Stanyan,
Philip Lewis,
Thomas Marston,
John Pickering. Dover.
Edward Gove. Exeter. Bartholomew Tippen,
Peter Coffin,
Anthony Nutter,
Ralph Hall.
Richard Waldron, jun.
92
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1680.
them, as well as to shew their gratitude and respect to their form- er protectors, they wrote to the general court at Boston, " ac- " knowledging the kindness of that colony in taking them under " their protection and ruling them well ; assuring them, that it " was not any dissatisfaction with their government, but merely " their submission to divine providence and his majesty's com- " mands, without any seeking of their own, which induced them " to comply with the present separation, which they should have " been glad had never taken place ; signifying their desire that " a mutual correspondence might be continued for defence against " the common enemy, and offering their service when it should " be necessary."*1
Their next care was to frame a code of laws, of which the first, conceived in a style becoming freemen, was " that no act, " imposition, law or ordinance should be made or imposed upon " them, but such as should be made by the assembly and approved " by the president and council." Idolatry, blasphemy, treason, rebellion, wilful murder, manslaughter, poisoning, witchcraft, sod- omy, bestiality, perjury, man-stealing, cursing and rebelling against parents, rape and arson were made capital crimes. The other penal laws were in their main principles the same that are now in force. To prevent contentions that might arise by reason of the late change of government, all townships and grants of land were confirmed, and ordered to remain as before ; and contro- versies about the titles of land were to be determined by juries chosen by the several towns, according to fornier custom. The
president and council with the assembly were a supreme court of Judicature, with a jury when desired by the parties ; and three inferior courts were constituted at Dover, Hampton and Ports- mouth.2 The military arrangement was, one foot company in each town, one company of artillery at the fort, and one troop of horse, all under the command of Major Waldron.
During this administration, things went on as nearly as possible in the old channel, and with the same spirit, as before the sepa- ration. A jealous watch was kept over their rights and privileges, and every encroachment upon them was withstood to the utmost. The duties and restrictions established by the acts of trade and
(1) Council Records. (2) MS. Laws.
* This letter fully shews the absurdity of the reason assigned by Douglass in his Summary, vol. ii. page 23, for erecting this new government. " The " proprietors and inhabitants of New-Hampshire not capable of protecting " themselves against the Canada French and their Indians, desired of the " crown to take them under its immediate protection." A random assertion, unsupported by any proof and contrary to plain fact ! The crown could af- ford them no protection against Indians. With the French, the crown was in alliance, and the nation was at peace. [The Letter of the General Assembly of N. H., addressed " to the honourable Governour and Council of the Mas- sachusetts Colony to be communicated to the General Court," is given en- tire by Mr. Adams, Annals of Portsmouth, 65-67.]
93
PROVINCE. JOHN CUTT.
1680.]
navigation were universally disgustful, and the more so as Ran- dolph was appointed collector, surveyor and searcher of the cus- toms throughout New-England. In the execution of his com- mission, he seized a ketch belonging to Portsmouth, but bound from Maryland to Ireland, which had put into this port for Mar. 28. a few days. The master, Mark Hunking, brought an ac-
tion against him at a special court before the president and coun- cil, and recovered damages and costs to the amount of thirteen pounds. Randolph behaved on this occasion with such insolence, that the council obliged him publicly to acknowledge his offence and ask their pardon. He appealed from their judgment to the king ; but what the issue was doth not appear.1 Having consti- tuted Captain Walter Barefoote his deputy at this port, an adver- tisement was published requiring that all vessels should be entered and cleared with him. Upon which, Barefoote was brought to examination, and afterward indicted before the president 1680. and council, for 'having in an high and presumptuous Mar. 25. ' manner set up his majesty's office of customs without
' leave from the president and council ; in contempt of his majesty's ' authority in this place ; for disturbing and obstructing his majes- ' ty's subjects in passing from harbor to harbor, and town to town ; ' and for his insolence in making no other answer to any question ' propounded to him but " my name is Walter."' He was sen- tenced to pay a fine of ten pounds, and stand committed till it was paid. But though Randolph's authority was denied, yet they made an order of their own for the observation of the acts of trade, and appointed officers of their own to see them executed. They had been long under the Massachusetts government, and learned their political principles from them ; and as they had been used to think that all royal authority flowed in the channel of the charter, so they now thought that no authority derived from the crown could be regularly exercised in the province but through their commission. In this, they reasoned agreeably not only to their former principles, but to their fundamental law, to which they steadily adhered, though they had no reason to think it would be allowed by the crown ; and though they knew that a rigid adher- ence to rights, however clear and sacred, was not the way to re- commend themselves to royal favor. But they were not singular in these sentiments, nor in their opposition to the laws of trade. Randolph was equally hated, and his commission neglected at Boston ; where the notary refused to enter his protest against the proceedings of the court ; and he was obliged to post it on the exchange.2
In the latter end of the year, Mason arrived from England with a mandamus, requiring the council to admit him to a seat Dec. 30. at the board, which was accordingly donc. He soon en- tered on the business he came about ; endeavoring to per- 1681.
(1) Council Records and Files. (2) MSS. in files.
94
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1681.
suade some of the people to take leases of him, threatening others if they did not, forbidding them to cut firewood and timber, as- serting his right to the province and assuming the title of lord- protector. His agents, or stewards as they were called, had ren- dered themselves obnoxious by demanding rents of several per- sons and threatening to sell their houses for payment. These proceedings raised a general uneasiness ; and petitions were sent from each town, as well as from divers individuals, to the council for protection ; who, taking up the matter judicially, published an order prohibiting Mason or his agents at their peril to repeat such irregular proceedings, and declaring their intention to transmit the grievances and complaints of the people to the king. Upon this, Mason would no longer sit in council, though desired, nor appear when sent for ; when they threatened to deal with him as an of- fender, he threatened to appeal to the king, and published a sum- mons to the president and several members of the council, and others to appear before his majesty in three months. This was deemed " an usurpation over his majesty's authority here Mar. 28. " established," and a warrant was issued for apprehending him ; but he got out of their reach and went to England.
During these transactions, president Cutt died, and Major
Waldron succeeded him, appointing Captain Stileman for
April 5. his deputy, who had quitted his place of secretary upon the appointment of Richard Chamberlain to that office by royal Dec. 30. commission. The vacancy made in the council by the 1680. president's death was filled by Richard Waldron, junior. On the death of Dalton, Anthony Nutter was chosen. Henry Dow was appointed marshal in the room of Roberts who re- signed.
During the remainder of the council's administration, the com- mon business went on in the usual manner, and nothing remark- able is mentioned, excepting another prosecution of Barefoote, with his assistants, William Haskins and Thomas Thurton Mar. 10. for seizing a vessel " under pretence of his majesty's name, " without the knowledge of the authority of the province, and " without shewing any breach of statute though demanded." Barefoote pleaded his deputation from Randolph ; but he was amerced twenty pounds to be respited during his good behaviour, and his two assistants five pounds each ; the complainant being left to the law for his damages. This affair was carried by appeal to the king ; but the issue is not mentioned.
It will be proper to close the account of this administration with a view of the state of the province as to its trade, improvements and defence, from a representation thereof made by the council to the lords of trade, pursuant to their order.
" The trade of the province, (say they) is in masts, planks, boards and staves and all other lumber, which at present is of Little value in other plantations, to which they are transported ; so
95
PROVINCE. RICHARD WALDRON.
1682.]
that we see no other way for the advantage of the trade, unless his majesty please to make our river a free port.
" Importation by strangers is of little value ; ships commonly selling their cargoes in other governments, and if they come here, usually come empty to fill with lumber : but if haply they are at any time loaded with fish, it is brought from other ports, there being none made in our province, nor likely to be, until his maj- esty please to make the south part of the Isles of Shoals part of this government, they not being at present under any .*
" In reference to the improvement of lands by tillage, our soil is generally so barren, and the winters so extreme cold and long that there is not provision enough raised to supply the inhabitants, many of whom were in the late Indian war so impoverished, their houses and estates being destroyed, and they and others remain- ing still so incapacitated for the improvement of the land, (several of the youth being killed also) that they even groan under the tax or rate, assessed for that service, which is, great part of it, unpaid to this day.+
" There is at the Great Island in Portsmouth, at the harbor's mouth, a fort well enough situated, but for the present too weak and insufficient for the defence of the place ; the guns being eleven in number are small, none exceeding a sacre (six pound- er) nor above twenty-one hundred weight, and the people too poor to make defence suitable to the occasion that may happen for the fort.
" These guns were bought, and the fortification erected, at the proper charge of the towns of Dover and Portsmouth, at the be- ginning of the first Dutch war, about the year 1665, in obedience to his majesty's command in his letter to the government under which this province then was.
" There are five guns more lying at the upper part of Ports- mouth, purchased by private persons, for their security and de-
* When these islands were first settled is uncertain, but it must have been very early, as they are most commodiously situated for the fishery, which was a principal object with the first settlers. While New-Hampshire was united to Massachusetts, they were under the same jurisdiction, and the town there erected was called Appledore. (Mass. Rec.) They are not named in Cutt's nor Cranfield's commission : but under Dudley's presidency, causes were brought from thence to Portsmouth, which is said to be in the same county. In Allen's and all succeeding commissions, they are particularly mentioned ; the south half of them being in New-Hampshire.
t Taxes were commonly paid in lumber or provisions at stated prices ; and whoever paid them in money was abated one-third part. The prices in 1680, were as follows :
Merchantable white pine boards per m. 30s.
White Oak pine staves per ditto £3.
Red Oak ditto per ditto 30s.
Red Oak Hhd. ditto per ditto 25s.
Indian Corn per bushel 3s.
Wheat per ditto 5s.
Malt per ditto 4s.
N. B. Silver was 6s. and 8d. per oz.
96
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1682.
fence against the Indians in the late war with them, and whereof the owners may dispose at their pleasure. To supply the fore- said defect and weakness of the guns and fort, we humbly suppli- cate his majesty to send us such guns as shall be more serviceable, with powder and shot."
By an account of the entries in the port annexed to the above, it appears, that from the fifteenth of June 1680, to the twelfth of April 1681, were entered, twenty-two ships, eighteen ketches, two barks, three pinks, one shallop and one fly-boat ; in all forty- seven.1
CHAPTER VIII.
The administration of Cranfield. Violent measures. Insurrection, trial and imprisonment of Gove. Mason's suits. Vaughan's imprisonment. Pros- ecution of Moodey and his imprisonment. Arbitrary proceedings. Com- plaints. Tumults. Weare's agency in England. Cranfield's removal. Barefoote's administration.
EXPERIENCE having now convinced Mason, that the govern- ment which he had procured to be erected, was not likely to be administered in a manner favorable to his views, he made it his business, on his return to England, to solicit a change ; in conse- quence of which it was determined to commission Edward Cran- field, Esq., lieutenant-governor and commander in chief of New- Hampshire. By a deed enrolled in the court of chancery, Mason Jan. 25. surrendered to the king one fifth part of the quit-rents, which had or should become due. These, with the fines and forfeitures which had accrued to the crown since the estab- lishment of the province, and which should afterward arise, were appropriated to the support of the governor. But this being deemed too precarious a foundation, Mason by another deed mortgaged the whole province to Cranfield, for twenty-one years, as security for the payment of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, for the space of seven years.2 On this encouragement, Cranfield relinquished a profitable office at home, with the view of bettering his fortune here.3
By the commission, which bears date the ninth of May, the governor was empowered to call, adjourn, prorogue and dissolve general courts ; to have a negative voice in all acts of government ; to suspend any of the council when he should see just cause (and every counsellor so suspended was declared incapable of being elected into the general assembly ;) to appoint a deputy-governor, judges, justices, and other officers, by his sole authority ; and to
(1) Council Records. (2) MSS. in the files. (3) Fitch's MS.
97
PROVINCE. EDWARD CRANFIELD.
1682.]
execute the powers of vice-admiral. The case of Mason was recited nearly in the same words as in the former commission, and the same directions were givento the governor to reconcile dif- ferences, or send cases fairly stated to the king in council for his decision. The counsellors named in this commission were Ma- son, who was styled proprietor, Waldron, Daniel, Vaughan, Mar- tyn, Gilman, Stileman and Clements : these were of the former council, and to them were added Walter Barefoote, and Richard Chamberlain.
Cranfield arrived and published his commission on the fourth of October, and within six days, Waldron and Martyn were sus- pended from the council, on certain articles exhibited against them by Mason.1 This early specimen of the exercise of power must have been intended as a public affront to them, in revenge for their former spirited conduct ; otherwise their names might have been left out of the commission when it was drawn.
The people now plainly saw the dangerous designs formed a- gainst them. The negative voice of a governor, his right of sus- pending counsellors, and appointing officers, by his own authority, were wholly unprecedented in New-England ; and they had the singular mortification to see the crown not only appointing two branches of their legislature, but claiming a negative on the elec- tion of their representative, in a particular case, which might sometimes be essentially necessary to their own security. They well knew that the sole design of these novel and extraordinary powers was to facilitate the entry of the claimant on the lands, which some of them held by virtue of grants from the same au- thority, and which had all been fairly purchased of the Indians ; a right which they believed to be of more validity than any other. Having by their own labor and expense subdued a rough wilder- ness, defended their families and estates against the savage enemy, without the least assistance from the claimant, and held possession for above fifty years ; they now thought it hard and cruel, that when they had just recovered from the horrors of a bloody war, they should have their liberty abridged, and their property de- manded, to satisfy a claim which was at best disputable, and in their opinion groundless. On the other hand, it was deemed un- just, that grants made under the royal authority should be disre- garded ; and that so great a sum as had been expended by the ancestor of the claimant, to promote the settlement of the country, should be entirely lost to him ; especially as he had foregone some just claims on the estate as a condition of inheritance.2 Had the inhabitants by any fraudulent means impeded the designs of the original grantee, or embezzled his interest, there might have been a just demand for damages ; but the unsuccessfulness of that ad- venture was to be sought for in its own impracticability ; or the
(1) Council Records. (2) Mason's Will.
15
98
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1682.
negligence, inability or inexperience of those into whose hands the management of it fell after Captain Mason's death, and dur- ing the minority of his successor.
An assembly being summoned, met on the fourteenth of Nov- ember ; with whose concurrence a new body of laws was enacted, in some respects different from the former ; the fundamental law being omitted and an alteration made in the appointment of jurors, which was now ordered to be done by the sheriff, after the custom in England.1
Cranfield, who made no secret of his intention to enrich him- self by accepting the government, on the first day of the assembly restored Waldron and Martyn to their places in the council ; hav- ing, as he said, examined the allegations against them and found them insufficient.2 In return for this show of complaisance, and taking advantage of his needy situation, the assembly having ordered an assessment of five hundred pounds, appropriated one half of it as a present to the governor ; hoping thereby to detach him from Mason, who they knew could never comply with his engagements to him. Preferring a certainty to an uncertainty, he
Dec. 1. passed the bill, though it was not presented to him till after he had given order for adjourning the court, and after Mason, Barefoote and Chamberlain were withdrawn from the council.3
This appearance of good humor was but short-lived ; for at the next session of the assembly, the governor and council having
1683. tendered them a bill for the support of government, which Jan. 20. they did not approve, and they having offered him several bills which he said were contrary to law, he dissolved them ; having previously suspended Stileman from the council and dis- missed him from the command of the fort, for suffering a vessel under seizure to go out of the harbor. Barefoote was made cap- tain of the fort in his room.4
The dissolution of the Assembly, a thing before unknown, ag- gravated the popular discontent, and kindled the resentment of some rash persons in Hampton and Exeter ; who, headed by Edward Gove, a member of the dissolved assembly, declared by sound of trumpet for " liberty and reformation." There had been a town meeting at Hampton, when a new clerk was chosen and their records secured. Gove went from town to town pro- claiming what had been done at Hampton, carrying his arms, declaring that the governor was a traitor and had exceeded his commission, and that he would not lay down his arms, till matters were set right, and endeavoring to excite the principal men in the province to join in a confederacy to overturn the government. His project appeared to them so wild and dangerous, that they not
(1) MS. Laws. (2) Vaughan's Journal. Council Records. (3) MSS. in the files. (4) Council Records.
99
PROVINCE. EDWARD CRANFIELD.
1683.]
only disapproved of it, but informed against him and assisted in apprehending him. Hearing of their design, he collected his company, and appeared in arms ; but on the persuasion of some of his friends he surrendered. A special court was immediately commissioned for his trial, of which Major Waldron sat as judge, with William Vaughan and Thomas Daniel assistants. The grand jury presented a bill, in which Edward Gove, John Gove, his son, and William Hely, of Hampton; Joseph, John and Robert Wadleigh, three brothers, Thomas Rawlins, Mark Baker and John Sleeper, of Exeter, were charged with high-treason. Gove, who behaved with great insolence before the court, and pretended to justify what he had done, was convicted and received sentence of death in the usual hideous form ; and his estate was Feb. 1. seized, as forfeited to the crown. The others were con- victed of being accomplices, and respited.1 The king's pleasure being signified to the governor that he should pardon such as he judged objects of mercy ; they were all set at liberty but Gove, who was sent to England, and imprisoned in the tower of Lon- don about three years. On his repeated petitions to the king, and by the interest of Randolph with the Earl of Clarendon, then lord chamberlain, he obtained his pardon and returned home in 1686, with an order to the then president and council of New- England to restore his estate.
Gove in his petitions to the king pleaded " a distemper of mind" as the cause of those actions for which lie was prosecuted. He also speaks in some of his private letters of a drinking match at his house, and that he had not slept for twelve days and nights, about that time.2 When these things are considered, it is not hard to account for his conduct. From a letter which he wrote to the court while in prison, one would suppose him to have been dis- ordered in his mind .* His punishment was by much too severe,
(1) Records of Special Courts. (2) Gove's papers.
[The letter alluded to, addressed to the justices of the court of sessions, and found in the Recorder's office, was copied by Dr. Belknap, for the Ap- pendix to the first volume, but it was, with several other papers, excluded for want of room. It is here added, printed from the copy made by the author.
" A Letter from Edward Gove in Prison to the Justices of the Court of Sessions.
From the great Island in Portsmouth in New-Hampshire, 29 Jany. 1682-3. To the much hond. Justices of the Peace as you call yourselfs by your indite- ment, in which eleven mens names subscribed namely Ed. Gove, John Gove, Jo. Wadly, John Wadly, Rob. Wadly, Ed. Smith, Will. Ely, Tho. Rawlins, John Sleeper, Mark Baker, John Young. Gentlemen excuse me I cannot petision you as persons in anthority by the name of Justises of the peace, for now I am upon a serious account for my Life and the Life of those that are with me. Therefore pray consider well and take good advice of persons in Government from whence you came. I pray God that made the Heavens, the Earth, the sease and all that in them is to give you wisdom and corag in your plases to discharg such duty as God requires of you and 2dly I hartyly pray God to direct you to do that which our grasious King Charls the 2d of blessed memory requires of you. Gentlemen, it may be I may be upon a
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