USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 55
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In testimony whereof, we subscribe our names the 9th day of October, 1665.
[Subscribed by 16 others. ]
RICHARD CUTT, JOHN CUTT, NATH'L FRYER, ELIAS STILEMAN,
Selectmen.
No. 20. Copy of a certificate of the same matter from Rev. Samuel Dudley, minister of Exeter.
[This certificate is inserted as a note to page 61 of this volume.]
No. 21. Copy of an address of the town of Portsmouth relating to the College.
[This address was not inserted in the former editions.]
To the much honored the General Court of the Massachusetts Colony assembled at Boston the 20th of May, 1669.
The humble address of the inhabitants of the town of Portsmouth, humbly sheweth,-
That seeing by your means under God, we enjoy much peace and quietness, and very worthy deeds are done to us by the favora- ble aspect of the government of this colony upon us, we accept it always and in all places with thankfulness. And though we have articled with yourselves for exemption from public charges, yet we
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never articled with God and our own consciences for exemption from gratitude, which to demonstrate while we were studying the loud groans of the sinking college in its present low estate came to our ears, the relieving of which we account a good work for the house of our God, and needful for the perpetuating of knowledge both religious and civil among us and our posterity after us, and therefore grateful to yourselves whose care and study is to seek the welfare of our Israel.
The premises considered, we have made a collection in our town of sixty pounds per annum, (and hope to make it more) which said sum is to be paid annually for these seven years ensuing, to be improved at the discretion of the honored overseers of the college for the be- hoof of the same, and the advancement of good literature there ; hoping withal that the example of ourselves (which have been accounted no people) will provoke the rest of the country to jeal- ousy ; we mean an holy emulation to appear in so good a work, and that this honored court will in their wisdom see meet vigorously to act for the diverting the sad omen to poor New-England. If a college begun and comfortably upheld while we were little should sink now we are grown great, especially after so large and profitable an har- vest that this country and other places have reaped from the same.
Your acceptance of our good meaning herein will further oblige us to endeavor the approving ourselves to be your thankful and. humble servants.
JOHN CUTT, In the name and behalf of the rest RICH'D CUTT, of the subscribers in the town of Portsmouth.
JOSHUA MOODY,
The address from the inhabitants of the town of Portsmouth was presented by Mr. Richard Cutt and Mr. Joshua Moodey, 20th May, 1669, and gratefully accepted ; and the Governor, in the name of the whole court, met together, returned them the thanks of this court for their pious and liberal gift to the college herein mentioned.
Attest,- EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary. (The four preceding papers are taken from the Mass. Records.)
No. 22. Copy of Robert Mason's Petition to the King.
To the King's most excellent majesty-The humble petition of Robert Mason, proprietor of the province of New-Hampshire, in New-England, sheweth,
That your majesty's royal grandfather king James, of ever bless- ed memory, did by his highness' letters patents under the great seal of England, bearing date at Westminister, the third day of November, in the eighteenth year of his reign, give, grant and confirm unto several of the principal nobility and gentry .of this kingdom by the name of the council of New-England, their successors and assigns forever, all the land in America lying be- tween the degrees of 40 and 48 north latitude, by the name of New-England, to be held in fee, with many royal privileges and
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immunities, only paying to his majesty, his heirs and successors, one fifth part of all the ore of gold and silver that should at any time be found upon the said lands, as by the said letters patents doth at large appear.
That John Mason, Esq., your petitioner's grandfather, by virtue of several grants from the said council of New-England, under their common seal, bearing date the 9th of March, 1621, the 10th of August, 1622, the 7th of November, 1629, and the 22d of April, 1635, was instated in fee in a great tract of land in New-England, by the name of New-Hampshire, lying upon the sea-coast be- tween the rivers of Naumkeak and Pascataqua, and running up into the land westward threescore miles, with all the islands lying within five leagues distance of any part thereof, and also the south half of the Isles of Shoals ; and also the said John Mason, to- gether with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, knt. was enfeoffed by the a- foresaid council of New-England in other lands by the name of Laconia, by their deed bearing date the 27th day of November, 1629, the said lands lying and bordering upon the great lakes and rivers of the Iroquois and other nations adjoining. All which said lands to be held as fully, freely, in as large, ample and bene- ficial manner and form to all intents and purposes whatsoever as the said council of New-England by virtue of his majesty's said letters patents might or ought to hold and enjoy the same, as by the said several grants appears.
Whereupon your petitioner's said grandfather did expend up- wards of twenty-two thousand pounds in transporting people, building houses, forts, and magazines, furnishing them with great store of arms of all sorts, with artillery great and small, for de- fence and protection of his servants and tenants, with all other necessary commodities and materials for establishing a settled plantation.
That in the year 1628, in the fourth year of the reign of your majesty's royal father, some persons did surreptitiously and un- known to the said council, get the seal of the said council affixed to a grant of a certain lands, whereof the greatest part were sol- emnly past unto your petitioner's grandfather and others long be- fore, and soon after did the same persons by their subtile practices get a confirmation of the said grant under the great seal of Eng- land, as a corporation by the name of THE CORPORATION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY IN NEW-ENGLAND, your majesty's royal father being unwitting thereof, and having thus by fraud obtained a grant and confirmation, they compelled the rightful inhabitants to desert their plantations, and by many out- rageous actions they became possessed of that part of the country, declaring themselves to be a free people, framing to themselves new laws, with new methods in religion absolutely contrary to the laws and customs of this your majesty's realm of England, punish- ing divers that would not approve thereof, some by whipping, others by burning their houses, and some by banishing, and the like.
At last the complaints of the oppressed subjects reaching the
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ears of your royal father, his majesty caused the whole matter to be examined before his most honorable privy council and all being fully proved, his majesty did command the council of New-Eng- land to give an account, by what authority, or by whose procure- ment those people of the Massachusetts Bay were sent over, his majesty conceiving the said council to be guilty thereof.
But the said council of New-England made it plainly to appear to his majesty that they were ignorant of the whole inatter and that they had no share in the evils committed and wholly disclaim the same, and the said council finding they had not sufficient means to give redress and rectify what was brought to ruin, they humbly referred it to his majesty to do therein as he pleased, and thereupon the said council of New-England resolved to resign, and did actually resign, the great charter of New-England into his majesty's royal hands, seeing there was an absolute necessity for his majesty to take the management of that country to him- self, it being become a business of high consequence and only to be remedied by his sovereign power, all which appears by the declaration of the council of New-England dated the 25th of April, 1635, together with the act of surrender of the great charter of New-England dated the 7th day of June, the same year.
That immediately thereupon, his majesty in trinity term, 1635, caused a quo warranto to be brought up by Sir John Banks, his majesty's then attorney general, against the governor, deputy gov- ernor, and every of the assistants of the said corporation of Massa- chusetts in New-England severally, according to their names men- tioned in the said patents of incorporation, being twenty-six per- sons, whereof two being dead, of the remaining twenty-four per- sons, there did fourteen at several times appear at the king's bench bar and there disclaimed the charter, the remaining ten persons were outlawed, and thereupon judgment given for the king, that the liberties and franchises of the said corporation of Massachu- setts Bay should be seized into the king's hands and the body of the governor to be taken into custody for usurping the said liber- ties, all which appears by the rolls in the crown office, and office of custos brevium for the king's bench of the proceedings in the several terms from the year 1635 to 1637.
That thereupon his said royal majesty on the 3d day of May, 1637, did order in council that the attorney general be required to call for the said patent and present the same to the board, and his majesty by his declaration of the 23d of July, 1637, in the 13th year of his reign declared his royal pleasure for establishing a gen- eral government in his territory of New-England for the preven- tion of the evils that otherwise might ensue for default thereof, thereby declaring Sir Ferdinando Gorges to be governor general of the whole country and requiring all persons to give their obe- dience accordingly.
That the wars and troubles immediately ensuing in Scotland and presently after here in England, did hinder his said majesty from settling that country or prosecuting the right which he intend- ed his subjects, however the proceedings of his majesty caused
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some restraint to the further violences and oppressions of the said Massachusetts, and they contained themselves for a time within their pretended bounds, but no sooner was that king of blessed memory, your royal father, become a sacrifice, but they renewed their former violences by oppressing all the other colonies and designing by encouragement from some in England to erect them- selves into a commonwealth, and in order to lay a foundation for this power and dominion which they now aspired unto, they thought it necessary to extend their bounds and spread into a laiger terri- tory than as yet they had usurped, and that this work might not be done without a mask or color of right, they do in an assembly held at Boston, the 19th of October, 1652, seriously peruse the grant (which had been procured as aforesaid) and therein weighing the words, and trying what new sense they might bear more suitable to their increase of power, they thoughit fit at length to declare themselves mistaken in what they had done in the year 1631, when they erected bound-houses and had for so many years con- fined themselves thereunto, whereas now by the help of an imag- inary line, or rather by a new reason of state, there is a sense im- posed by themselves upon their own words, and they stretch their rights to near two hundred miles of land northward and as much south ward more than they were satisfied withal before, swallow- ing up your majesty's petitioner as well as others, whose properties were established long before the said people had any being. And that they might give execution to this righteous sentence they presently invade and by force of arms seize upon the province of New-Hampshire, and other lands of right belonging to your peti- tioner, besides what they did to others, compelling the inhabit- ants to swear to be true to them and to cast off their lawful lords, and such as refused were either ruined, banished or imprisoned, and any appeals to England utterly denied unto them, then they proceed to coining of money with their own impress, raising the coin of England, and acting in all matters in a most absolute and arbitrary way. And although your petitioner by his agent Joseph Mason did demand redress of the general court of Massachusetts setting at Boston in 1652, offering to make out the right and title of your petitioner to the province of New-Hampshire and other lands against all persons whatsoever, yet no restitution could be obtained without a submission to their authority, and to hold the lands from them which the petitioner then did refuse and hath al- ways refused, choosing rather to wait for more happy times where- in to expect relief than by a legal resignation of his rights to those who had none at all divest himself of what his ancestors had pur- chased at so dear a rate : Your petitioner having as equal a right to the government in the said province as he hath to the land itself, all which appears by a report made to your majesty the 15th of February, 1661, when your petitioner first exposed to your majesty the oppressions under which he had so long groaned, in the evil times, and which grieves him now much more to bear while he has the protection of so just and gracious a sovereign to resort to.
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Wherefore your petitioner most humbly implores your majesty to take notice, that (by a plain discovery of what fraud in the be- ginning and the length of troubled times has helped to conceal) the Bostoners have no patent of incorporation at all, that yet they have under color of right and authority from the crown devoured your petitioner and other proprietors whose titles are by your maj- esty's learned council allowed as strong as the law can make them.
That all ways have been tried and methods used to obtain jus- tice from the Bostoners, but all have proved ineffectual, that your petitioner's losses have been so many and great, and his sufferings so continued, that he cannot any longer support the burthen of them. And when your majesty will but consider how small the respect has been wherewith those people have treated your majes- ty since your happy restoration, and what daily breaches are by them made upon your majesty's acts of navigation, which turns so greatly to the detriment of this kingdom in general, these losses and sufferings of a particular subject cannot much be questioned, so that your petitioner humbly hopes that your majesty will think it high time to stretch forth your royal hand of justice to assist your petitioner, that he may have the quiet possession of his prov- ince, and reparation made him for the losses sustained, in such * ways and methods as the importance of the case requires, and your majesty in your royal wisdom shall think most fit.
And your petitioner shall ever pray.
ROBT. MASON.
(From a copy in the possession of the Masonian proprietors.)
No. 23. Copy of the answer of Massachusetts to Muson's and Gor- ges' complaints.
A brief declaration of the right and claim of the governor and com- pany of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England, to the lands now in their possession, but pretended to by Gorges and Mr. Mason, together with an answer to their several pleas and com- plaints in their petitions exhibited : Humbly presented and submitted by the said governor and company to the king's most excellent majesty, as their defence.
In the year of our Lord 1628, in the third year of his late maj- esty Charles the First, of happy memory, several loyal and piously disposed gentlemen obtained of the great council of New-England, a grant of a certain tract of land lying in New-England, described and bounded as therein expressed; which was in all respects fair- ly and openly procured and with so good an intent of propagating the gospel among the natives, and to advance the honor and dig- nity of his late majesty, of happy memory, that they were bold to supplicate his said majesty to superadd his royal confirmation thereto, which accordingly in an ample royal charter was passed and remains under the broad seal of England, March the 4th, 1629, in the fourth year of his majesty's reign, with further additions and enlargements well becoming so royal a majesty, and suitable for
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the encouragement of so hazardous and chargeable an adventure. In pursuance whereof many of the said patentees and other ad- venturers transported themselves and estates, and settled in the most known and accommodable parts of those lands contained in the said charter, neither time, estate, nor power suffering them spee- dily to survey the just extent of their limits. Not many years dif- ferent in time, several others also of his majesty's subjects obtained other grants, and made several settlements in the more northern and eastern parts of the country, with whom for several years we had neighborly correspondence, being as they supposed without the limits of our patent, amongst whom the present claimers and petitioners were. These grants partly by reason of the smallness of some of them, and partly by reason of dark involved and dubious expression of their limits, brought the inhabitants under many en- tanglements and dissatisfactions among themselves, which there being no settled authority to be applied to, being deserted and for- saken of all such as by virtue of said grants did claim jurisdiction over them and had made a successless essay for the settlement of government among them proved of some continuance, unto the great disquiet and disturbance of those his majesty's subjects that were peaceable and well disposed amongst them; to remedy which inconvenience they betook themselves to the way of combinations for government, but by experience found it ineffectual. In this time ignorance of the northerly running of Merrimack river, hin- dered our actual claim and extention of government, yet at length being more fully settled, and having obtained further acquaintance and correspondency with the Indians possessing the uppermost parts of that river, encouraging an adventure, as also frequent solic- itations from the most considerable inhabitants of those eastern parts, earnestly desiring us to make proof of, and ascertain our in- terest, we employed the most approved artists that could be obtain- ed, who upon their solemn oaths made returns, that upon their. certain observation our northern patent line did extend so far north as to take in all those towns and places which we now possess ; which when the inhabitants as well as ourselves were satisfied in, (urged also with the necessity of government amongst them) they peaceably and voluntarily submitted to the government of the Mas- sachusetts, (viz.) Dover, Squamscot and Portsmouth, anno 1641, Kittery, York and Wells, anno 1652 and 1653, from which times until the year 1662, when there was a small interruption by a let- ter of Mr. Gorges, and afterwards in the year 1665, (when his majesty's commissioners, Colonel Nicolls and others, came over) the inhabitants of those parts lived well satisfied and uninterrup- ted under the Massachusetts government. But when the said commissioners neither regarding the Massachusetts' just right nor the claims of Mr. Gorges and Mr. Mason, settled a new form of government there, but this hardly outlived their departure, the people impatient of innovations, and well experienced and satisfi- ed in their former settlement, quickly and quietly returned to order again and so continue unto this time. This is in a few words the true state of the matter; for the further illustration whereof and
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justification of our proceedings therein, and vindication of ourselves from the reproachful imputation of usurping authority over his majesty's subjects in the eastern parts pretended to, with other scandals cast upon us by the petitioners, we humbly present the following pleas by way of demonstration, and argue that our ex- tension of government to those eastern parts claimed is agreeable to our indubitable patent right; our patent according to the ex- press term therein contained without any ambiguity or color of other interpretation, lies between two east and west parallel lines drawn from the most southerly part of Charles river and the most northerly part of Merrimack, with three miles advantage upon each, which upon the observation of men of approved and undoubted truth upon oath, are found distant one degree and forty-nine min- utes north latitude, being to extend in full latitude and breadth from sea to sea (ut in terminis) and therefore cannot be bounded by many hundreds or infinite numbers of lines, as the river Merri- mack maketh bends or angles in two hundred miles passage from Winnipiseogee lake to the mouth thereof, which to imagine, as it is irrational, so would it involve us and any borderer into so many inextricable disputes as are by no ways to be admitted by a prince seeking his subjects' peace. Besides were such a construction allowable, (which with uttermost straining is) yet all favorable in- terpretation is to be offered the patentees by the gracious expres- sion of the charter. Now according to the aforementioned obser- vation, (so confirmed) all those eastern plantations challenged by our opponents (ut supra) are comprehended within our northerly line. We deny not but the artists of theirselves, and if any ques- tion thence arise, we fear not to submit to trial to the most exact and rigorous test that may be. The invincible strength of this our first plea, may further appear by the consideration of the friv- olous and insignificant allegations of the petitioners in opposition thereunto, viz. Ist. The nonextension of our line or assertion of our right to those eastern parts for some years, ignorance, as our case was circumstanced, debarring no man of his just right, neither can it reasonably be supposed that the exact survey of so large a grant, in so hideous a wilderness, possessed by an enemy, would be the work of a few years, our own poverty not affording means, and our weakness (allowing no deep adventure into the country) permitting us not to view the favorable running of the river, which none can imagine altered its course by our delay ; we may as well be deprived of far more than we possess or ever saw on our west- ern parts to the south sea (which none will deny) because we have not surveyed it or are soon like to be able, as be taken from our northern right so obvious to the meanest artist.
2dly. The possession-house in Hampton of so little signification and so long since disused, that Mr. Mason hath forgot the name thereof and calleth it' Bound-house, erected to give the world to know that we claimed considerably to the northward of our then habitations upon the bay, though we did not know the utmost ex- tent of our right, our fathers not being so ignorant of the law of the realm to which they did appertain as to suppose the taking
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possession of part did debar them of the remainder but the con- trary ; and we challenge Mr. Mason or any on his behalf, promis- ing our records shall be open to the most scrutinous search to prove it, either called or intended according to his abuse thereof.
3dly. That notorious falsehood of stretching our right to near four hundred miles north and south more than formerly we were satisfied with, our whole breadth being but one hundred and nine miles which is not much more than a quarter part of what he would have the world believe our new claim and (as he would insinuate) usurped territory doth contain, arising (we would char- itably believe) partly from ignorance of the coasting of the coun- try, Mr. Mason accounting by the sea-side, and we suppose coast- ing in the measure of every harbour and cove to make up that cal- culation, which lies much of it due east and not to the north, but we fear malevolently suggested (as many other things as of little credit) to introduce into his majesty'sroyal breast a belief that we are unreasonable in our pretensions, and so unworthy of his maj- esty's favor, which we hope such unlawful endeavours will never, be so prosperous as to obtain. What may be further added to this our first plea, may be supplied from the reasons formerly pre- sented. We urge secondly, The invalidity of those grants pre- tended to by the petitioners, which are of two sorts ; Ist. Such as bear date after ours, which we see no reason to fear any inter- ruption from. Secondly, Such as are pretended to bear date be- fore ours, against which we object that they are not authentic, wanting a sufficient number of grantors to make them so, none of them as we presume will appear upon trial having above six hands and seals annexed to them, the said council of New-England con- sisting of forty, and his majesty's grant to them expressly requir- ing (as we are informed) seven at the least to sign to make any valid act ; and indeed Mr. Mason's own often unwearied renewal of his grants in 1621, sixteen hundred twenty-two, sixteen hun- dred twenty-nine and 1635, (as he saith) tacitly confesseth the same invalidity, in the former putting him to charge for the latter, till at last he fell into such a trade of obtaining grants that his last and most considerable was six years after the grant of our charter from his majesty, and but three days before the said council's declaration of their absolute resolution to resign, and but a few days before their actual surrender, as he asserts ; which of what value and consideration it is from the said council's circumstanced under a necessity of resignation of their great charter, procured rather by the clamor of such ill affected persons as the present complaint than by any true account of dissettlement or ill man- agement here, is not difficult to judge. Hence it appears, first, how little reason Mr. Mason hath to brand us with fraud or sur- reptitiousness in obtaining our charter ; which hath most show of fraud and surreptitious procuration, a sufficient number of those honorable persons subscribing ours and fewer his pretended anteda- ted grants, is easy to determine. In which assertion is to be ob- served the high reflection cast upon the members of his late ma- jesty and ministers of state, groundlessly rendering the council's
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