YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE GOVERNMENT

SIR EDMUND ANDROS

NEW ENGLAND,

1688 AND 1689.
Read before the New York Historical Society, on
Tuesday Evening, 4th December, 1866,

John Romeyn Brodhead.

MORRISANIA, N. Y.
1867.

bradstreet rRESS.

Cjt.l

At a stated meeting of the New York Historical
Society, held in its Hall, on Tuesday evening, Decem
ber 4th, 1866,
The paper of the evening, entitled " The Administra-
" tion of Sir Edmund Andros in Ne-w England in 1688-
" 89," was read by Mr. John Romeyn Brodhead, Do
mestic Corresponding Secretary.
On its conclusion, Mr. Erastus C. Benedict, after
some remarks, submitted the following resolution, which
was adopted :
Resolved, That the thanlcs of the Society be presenied
to Mr, Brodhead for his interesting and able paper read
this evening, and that a copy be requested for the archives
of the Society.
Extract from the Minutes.
Andrew Warner,
Recordi.-:g iiecretar\-.

ERRATA.
Page 7, thirteenth line from bottom, for ** executor,"
read ** executer.*'
Page lo, tenth line from bottom, for "place as a
" Lieutenant," read *' place ^s Lieutenant."
Page 26, seventh line from top, for '* possessed," read
'* professed."

ANDROS IN NEW ENGLAND.

My theme to-night is Tlie Ad/ministration of
Sir JSdmund Andros, whom James the Second
had made his Governor of New England, in
1688. The name " JVew England in America," origin
ally suggested by Captain John Smith, in 1614,
was royally given by Jame.s the First, in his
Patent of 1620. That Patent called " New En-
" gland" all the North American territory lying
between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of
latitude, and extending from the Atlantic to the
Pacific ; over the whole of which the British
King assumed Sovereignty. French Canada and
Dutch New Netherland were included within
James's Patent. The latter Province — now New
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — had been
first discovered by the Dutch in 1609 ; and it
was held and nurtured by them until 1664, when
they were dispossessed by the English — an event
of which the New. Yoke Histoeioal Society
commemorated tbe Second Centennial Anniver
sary, two years ago.
For a long time, liowever, this royal " New
" England " of James the First, existed only nom
inally or historically, and uot really as an entire
British dependency. It was sub-divided into va
rious Colonies, each of which had a distinct

name : — consisting of Plymouth, Massachusetts
Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire
and Maine. These several Colonies had separate
Governments, all of which derived their authority
directly or indirectly from the Sovereign Crown
of England. Plymouth had a Patent, but no
Royal Charter. Massachusetts Bay, Rhode
Island, and Connecticut, were chartered Royal
Corporations. New Hampshire had no charter
but a Governor and Counsellors appointed by the
King, and an Assembly elected by her inhabit
ants. Maine was governed partly as a Ducal
dependency of New York, and partly by the Cor
poration of Massachusetts Bay.
Under her charter, granted by King Charles
" the Martyr," the Royal corporation of Massa
chusetts Bay was perverted into a Sectarian Oli
garchy, composed of Puritan church members,
and wholly controlled by them.
That Puritan oligarchy never allowed its sub
jects a really Popular Assembly. It was too anx
ious to keep all local authority in its own hands;
and it did so, until its Sovereign's charter,
granted in 1629, was legally cancelled in 1684.
According to the English law of that time, the
Royal power, which had been delegated to the
annihilated corporation, passed back at once to
the English Crown. This supreme, original
fountain of English Colonial authority, might
either create a new corporation, to govern Mas
sachusetts under another Eoyal Charter, as
Charles the First had done, or else commission a
Royal Governor and Counsellors to administer
the afi'airs of that colony, either with a pop
ular Assembly, as in New Hampshire and Yir
ginia, or, vrithout such an Assembly, if the Sov-
er^n should think it most expedient.
While Duke of York, James the Second

had granted a popular Assembly to New York,
of which he was then the Proprietor. But when
he became King, James abolished that Assem
bly ; and in June, 1686, he commissioned Colonel
Thomas Dongan to be the Governor of his Royal
Province, whom he authorized, with certain
counsellors, also named by himself, to make all
local laws. This was a very imperious exercise
of the Sovereign's prerogative. Such a commis
sion has been charged to be " arbitrary " and
" illegal." Yet it was no more arbitrary in fact,
than if the English King had sealed a charter
under which New York should be governed by
a corporate oligarchy, as Massachusetts had
long been ruled. There was no more idea of a
popular assembly in the abrogated Massachusetts
Royal charter of 1629, than in the New York
Royal commission of 1686. Both instruments
were legally perfect ; for they had both passed
the talismanic great seal of England, which was
essential to the validity of any English Patent.
The only question about either of them was
whether a King of England could govern an En
glish American Colony, without an Assembly
which represented all the inhabitants of that Col
ony. It was certain that for more than half a
century, Massachusetts had been so governed, un
der a Boy at charter from Charles the First. It
was reasonable that New York might be so gov
erned under a Boyal commission from James the
Second. The same month — June, 1686 — that James thus
commissioned Dongan to be the Governor of his
Royal Province of New York, he commissioned,
in like manner, and with similar powers. Sir Ed
mund Andros — who, for several years, had been
his Ducal Deputy in that Province — to be the
Governor of his Royal " Dominion of New Eng-

" land." This " Dominion" was meant to include
all the British- American territory North-east of
New York, Andros accordingly came to Boston
in December, 1686, and assumed the government
of Massachusetts, In a little while, he extended
his authority over Maine, New Hampshire, Ply
mouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, which,
with Massachusetts, then formed "New Eng-
" land," By the end of the year 1687, Andros
iu New England, Dongan in New York, the Pro
prietors of New Jersey, and William Penn, were
the only immediate representatives of the author
ity of the British crown, North of the fortieth
degree of latitude, in America.
• During the summer of 1687, Denonville, tbe
French Governor of Canada, at the head of a
large force, invaded the Seneca country of New
York. Dongan quickly reported this to King
James, who at once declared his sovereignty over
the five' Iroquois nations, and directed his Gov
ernor to protect them as his subjects. While
doing this, the King also authorized New York
to call on the neighboring English Colonies for
assistance. At the same time, James agreed with
Louis the Fourteenth that uo English or French
subordinate commander in America should invade
the territories of either King, or commit any hos
tility against the subjects of either of them there,
until the first of January, 1689. Before that
day, it was hoped that a satisfactory boundary
line, defining their respective Colonial posses
sions, would bo arranged by a treaty between the
two European monarchs.
, Of all the sovereigns of England, James the
Second had the most accurate knowledge of her
trans-Atlantic Colonies. For nearly a quarter of
a century after the Restoration, he had been the
proprietor of a large ¦ American Province, under

his brother's Royal Patent. In the details of its
administration, he had always taken a lively per
sonal interest; and with his" own hand, he had
written many letters to his deputies in New York,
which, at any rate, had the unusual merit of di
rectness and precision. James's terse autographs
,were.-not constrained by any oflicial " red tape ;"
and far more clearly than his Secretary's verbose
phraseology, they uttered his own imperious
will. . With this long apprenticeship in Colonial af
fairs, James became King of England and her
dependencies early in 1685. The domestic affairs
of his realm for some time occupied his attention.
almost entirely. The rebellions, under Monmouth
in England and Argyle in Scotland, having been
forcibly, put down, the triumphant British sove
reign saw his legitimate authority confirmed, and
he soon assumed powers which did not belong to
his Royal office.
. In the spring of 1688,- Jarnes — too active to
drift, always wishing to row and to steer — was
practically governing Great Britain almost as
absolutely as -Louis was ruling Prance. The
great object of- James was to substitute his own
Roman Catholic faith in place of the Protestant
laiRful religion of England and Scotland. To
this end, he dispensed with St.itutes, forfeited
the charters of corporations, and delayed sum
moning a British Parliament. The far-off Eng
lish Colonies he insisted on governing, by his
foyal prerogative alone, as dependencies of the
British crown, and not as constituencies of the
British Empire. ' So had his predecessors deter
mined ; so had , English , Courts awarded ; so
were; most Englishmen willing that those Colo
nies should be governed. All Colonial charters
bad been granted by the English crown alone ;

and nqne had questioned its authority. The
colonial system of James the Second was merely
an arbitrary exercise of his acknowledged pre
rogative. He allowed a popular Assembly to
Virginia, and he denied it to New England and
to New York. Yet, this system of James was
in many respects tolerant and equitable. It
carefully provided for the happiness and pros
perity of all classes of inhabitants in New York
and New England, who, while they were not
allowed popular representation in local Assem
blies, were guaranteed equal political rights as
English Colonial subjects, and as large religious
liberty as Englishmen in England.
Bigoted Roman Catholic, and tyrannical as he
was, James had nevertheless one characteristic
which shone out in vivid contrast to his others.
He was a much more patriotic Englishman than
his witty brother Charles had ever been. Anx
ious for the friendship of Louis, the duller James
scorned to betray England, or any of her de
pendencies, to France. Hardly had he directed
Dongan to prevent all hostilities against French-
American subjects, when he was convinced that
Louis had obtained the advantage. Canada was
under one Governor-General, whose sole mind
executed all his master's orders. The English
Colonies, on the other hand, had different local
governments, which did not always act in har
mony. James, therefore, determined to consoli
date his North American territories, as far as
convenient, under one vice-regal administration.
By this means he hoped to secure them against
their restless Canadian neighbor, and at the
same time strengthen his own arbitrary rule.
Dongan had pleaded that Connecticut and the
Jerseys should be annexed to New York. But
Connecticut was now a part of New England,

under the government of Andros. The Propri
etors of New Jersey had just surrendered their
authority to the King. Instead of annexing
Connecticut and the fferseys to New York, as
Dongan had urged, James resolved to add New
York and the Jerseys to his " Dominion of New
England." Pennsylvania was not included in
this arrangement, because her Quaker Proprietor
was too useful an instrument for the King to
offend. But all the rest of the titular New Eng
land of James the First, excepting French Can
ada, was now united, for tbe first time, as a
political whole, under one Colonial Governor
appointed by James the Second,
This determination must displace either An
dros or Dongan. Both had been twice commis
sioned by James ; first when Duke of York, and
again when King of England. Of the two, An
dros had the longest experience in government,
and perhaps the best administrative talent. He
had already governed New York for several
years ; and his vigorous rule in New England
was now giving much satisfaction to his arbitrary
Sovereign. Although "fond of prelacy," Sir
Edmund was not a Roman Catholic. But he had
proved himself to be an uncompromising executV
of all the Royal commands. An accomplished
soldier, Andros naturally made prompt and im
plicit obedience his standard of duty.
On the other hand, Dongan — likewise a soldier,
yet more a patrician — was an Irish Roman Cath
olic, a nephew of Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, and
the presumptive heir of his own elder brother,
the intensely loyal Irish Earl of Limerick. But
Dongan had more independence of character
than Andros. He had foiled and embittered
Penn, and had angered Perth and Melfort of
New Jersey, in the interest of New York. All

these were powerful courtiers at Whitehall.
The impulsive Governor of New York had been
sharply censured by the King of France, for
maintaining the King of England's antagonistic
authority over the Iroquois. In a word, Dongan
had shown more official " zeal " than an experi
enced politician in high place — then and now —
would have considered expedient in a subor
dinate. So James superseded his Roman Catho
lic Governor of New York, and issued a new
commission, making the Protestant, Sir Edmund
Andros, Governor General of his " Dorainion of
" New England," which now included all the
territory (except, Pennsylvania) between Mary
land and Canada.
The recall of Dongan gratified the vanity of
Louis, whom he had offended. But Louis Ijad
no reason to be pleased that James had appointed
Andros to govern the consolidated British Amer
ican Colonies, which, it was understood in Lon
don, would " be terrible to the French, and make
" them proceed with more caution than they have
" lately done." However disagreeably this
measure of her King affected New York, it was
certainly patriotic and wise, in respect to the
colonial interests of England in America, as op
posed to those of France.
The instructions which the King gave to An
dros with his new commission, named forty-two
of the principal inhabitants of the several colo
nies now forming his " Dominion of New En-
" gland " to be its Counsellors. Those from New
York were Anthony Brockholls, Frederick Phil-
lipse, Jervis Baxter, Stephen Van Cortlandt, John
Spragg, 'John Younge, Nicholas Bayard, and
John Palmer, nearly a fifth of the whole num
ber. By the advice and consent of a majority of
the Counsellors, of whom five ^vere an ordinary

9

quorum, the Governor could make laws and im
pose taxes throughout the Dominion. The Pro
vincial seal of New York was directed to be
broken, and that of New England to be there
after used in its place. Liberty of conscience,
pursuant to the King's Declaration of April, 1687,
was to be allowed " to all persons, so they be
" contented with a quiet and peaceable enjoy-
" ment of it." No press was to be used, nor book to
be printed, without the Governor's license. But
this was no novelty ; for press censorship had long
been the darling Puritan practice in Massachusetts.
Such were the most prominent Instructions of
James the Second to Andros, forthe Government
of his Dominion of New England. As the terri
tory of that Dominion was now so vast, it was
necessary that some one should be appointed to
act for the Governor, in case of his absence or
death. Captain Francis Nicholson was accord
ingly commissioned by the King to be his Lieuten
ant Govemor of New England. No place was
fixed by the Sovereign as the seat of Government
of his American Dominion. It might be at Bos
ton, or New York, or elsewhere within that Do
minion, at the discretion of Andros ; {New York
Colonial Documents, III., 536-550, ix, 372.)
When Dongan was notified of these arrange
ments, so unexpected by himself, he prepared to
surrender his government of New York to An
dros. Among other things, it was ordered in
Council, that all Spanish Indians who had been
made slaves within the Province, should be set
free, if they could " give an account of their Chris-
" tian faith, and say the Lord's prayer." The
last law passed by Dongan and his New York
Council, on the second of August, 1688, was " to
•' prohibit shoemakers from using the mystery of
«' tanning hides." The last patent, under the Pro-
2

10

vincial seal of New York, was issued by its
Governor, on the same day, to the Town of Hunt
ington, on Long Island.
Meanwhile, AndrOs had heard of his promo
tion over Dongan, of whom he was jealous,
and anxiously awaited the arrival of his new
commission at Boston. The news of its coining
quickly spread ; and Attorney General Graham
of New York, who had been an old ship com
panion of Sir Edmund, hurried eastward towards
the rising sun, which radiantly promoted him to
be the Attorney General of the whole Dominion
of New England. John Palmer, one of the
Judges of New York, whom Dongan had sent
with his dispatches to London, in the previous
autumn, now returned to Boston ; and Andros at
once made him a fourth Associate Justice of the
Superior Court of the enlarged Dominion, along
with Joseph Dudley, and William Stoughton,
and Peter Bulkley, who had been its three
Judges since 1687; {Col. Soc. IIL, 421,428-
478; T^alentine's 3Ianual for 1862, 741; Pal
mer's Impartial Account, 22 ,• Sutc/iinson's Mas
sachusetts, I, 362-371.)
At length, on the nineteenth of July, 1688, the
Governor General's new commission was pub
lished, with great parade, from the Balcony of
the Boston Town House, Nicholson, at the same
time, was installed in his place as 1^ Lieutenant
Governor of the whole Dominion of New En
gland, A fortnight afterwards Andros set out
for New York, attended by several of his coun
sellors, to resiime its government, together with
that of New Jersey,
On Saturday, the eleventh of August, 1688
Andros reached the metropolis, where he was re
ceived by Colonel Bayard's Eegiment of militia
infantry, and a troop of horse. The Governor

11

¦General's commission was read in Fort James,
and then published at the City Hall. The Pro
vincial seal of New York was received from
Domgan, and " defaced and broken in council,"
aoooiiding to the King's order. In its stead, the
great seal of New England, with its motto from
Claudian, " Nunquam libertas gratior extat^' was
thenceforth to be used throughout the Dominion.
{Valentine's Manual for 1862, 738,739; JV. Y.
Gol. Doc. Ill, 546-567.) The same day a procla
mation was issued, continuing all persons in of-
flee, and directing all former taxes to be col
lected. Thus Andros began his second govern
ment of New York. He had left the Province,
seven years before, at the command of the Duke
of York. In the interval, she had gained, and
had lost, a popular Assembly. And now her old
Governor returned among familiar scenes, to as
sume almost imperial authority, as the Viceroy
of James the Second.
A few days afterwards, the Governor General
went over to New Jersey, and published his com
mission at Elizabethtown, and then again at Bur
lington. Several local officers were at once com-
missioned by Andros, under the great seal of the
Dominion. It was remarked that both East and
West Jersey were thinly inhabited ; but that all
the people " showed their great satisfaction in be-
"ing under His Majesty's immediate govern-
"ment." {Col. Doc. Ill, 554-567.)
But if the people of New Jersey were satisfied
with tbeir altered condition, the people of New
York, who had long been accustomed to the di
rect government of James, were not generally
pleased that their Province should lose its indi
viduality, and be consolidated with the Royal Do
minion of New England, It was true that their
ojd Governor had come back to his first Ameri-

12

can home,, and that many of its inhabitants pre
ferred Andros, the Protestant, to Dongan, the Ro
manist. Yet the return of Andros to New York
was accompanied by humiliating circumstances.
It demonstrated that she had ceased to exist as a
distinct British- American Province. To be sure
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and Maine,
and Ehode Island, and Connecticut, and New
Jersey, had also ceased to exist, as separate En
glish Colonies. But New York, from her begin
ning, had something peculiar about her. Histo
rically, geographically, and socially, she was,
and always must be, distinguished from every
other North American possession of her British
Sovereign. For half a century before her
conquest, she had remained a territory of the
Dutch Republic, interposed between the English
Puritan Colonies at the North East, and the
English Episcopalian and Roman Catholic Col
onies at the South. For more than that period,
her relations with the Canadian French, and
with the Iroquois within her own borders had
required special skill in their management. Of
all the North American possessions of England,
comprehensive New York seemed most to need a
separate government. Up to this time she had,
in fact, been differently governed from any other
British-American Colony. She had never been
chartered as a corporation, under either Dutch
or English authority. In truth, she had never
¦desired to be ruled by an oligarchy, like some of
the incorporated Colonies in New England.
What the eclectic people of New York desired,
and what for a season they had enjoyed, was a
" Charter of Liberties," which did not sequester
local authority for the benefit of a sectarian mi
nority of Church members ; but which secured to
^very inhabitant of their territory a share in

13

legislation, freedom of conscience, and entire
toleration of all modes of Christianity. The ex
pressive words, " T'he People," were, for the first
time, used in that superbest of all American
Colonial Charters, drafted by the freemen of
our own dear old " Empire State." {See N. Y.
Colonial Documents, IIL, 358.) If New York
wished Connecticut and New Jersey to be an
nexed to her, it was because those Colonies had
belonged to her ancient territory, and ought to
belong to her now, under the King's Patent of
1664. But New York, in sympathy with Rhode
Island, had no wish to be too closely associated
with Massachusetts. It is not surprising that
the metropolitan city of the old Dutch Province,
knowing that it had become " the envy of its
" adjacent neighbors, who did not cease by all
" their little artifices to interrupt its trade,"
should have especially lamented "that unhappy
" annexation to New England." {Col. Doc. IIL,
576, 792, 799 ; Dunlap, IL, App. CXLI.)
Nevertheless, if the people of New York gen
erally felt it a political "degradation" to be thus
annexed to New England, there were some who
at first enjoyed gratification. Her Provincial
Counsellors found their official importance in
creased by the act of their king. If the New
England Counsellors could now vote on the.
affairs of New York, the New York Counsellors
could likewise vote on the afi'airs of New En
gland. And this they did, in the case of a pro
posed law to regulate the carrying of passengers
abroad in ships, which Andros failed in causing
to be passed in Council at Boston, but which was
easily enacted when it was again brought up in
Council at New York.
An event now occurred which gave the Dutch
people of New York real uneasiness. Por almost

14

half a generation, they had hoped that the wife
of their own Prince of Orange would become
Queen of England. Joyfully would they have
mingled cries of "Oranjb Boven" with ''Long
" LIVE THE Queen." But James had married a
Roman Catholic second wife, who bore him a
son on the tenth of June, 1688 ; and this son, as
Prince of Wales, would become King of En
gland, on the death of his father, if all should go
regularly on. The news was received at New
York with regret by the Dutch Orangeists, but
with vehement joy by the Royal officials. A
great city carouse was given the same eveining,
at which the mirth waxed so boisterous, that the
record quaintly tells us Mayor Van Cortlandt
"sacrificed his hat, peruke, &c." (Col. Doc. III.,
554, 665.)
A conference with the Five Nations at Albany,
and a visit to Esopus, detained Andros for some
weeks in New York, where he would have staid
longer if he had not been obliged to hasten to
Boston on account of Indian troubles which had
broken out in Maine.
Nicholson was accordingly directed to remain
in New York, to administer its government, as
sisted by the local Counsellors, PhilJipse, Bayard,
Van Cortlandt, Younge and Baxter, the latter of
. whom was stationed, in command of the Fort, at
Albany. Brockholls accompanied his old chief,
Andros, to Boston ; and such of the New York
Records as were necessary for the Governor-
General to have at hand were taken Eastward.
When he returned to Boston, after an absence
of eleven weeks, Andros disapproved of what
his subordinates there had done, and took vigor
ous measures to check the outrages of the sav.
ages in Maine. Most of the King's three^icom-
pauies of regular soldiers at New York an4

16

Boston were at once dispatched thither, under
the command of Brockholls, with stores and pro
visions. But this did not meet the emergency.
It was therefore ordered in Cbuneil, on the first
of November, 1688, that a militia force should
be raised out of the whole " Dominion of New
" England," and that the command of this force
should be offered to Fitz John Winthrop, of
Connecticut, one of the King's Counsellors. But
Winthrop pleaded illness, and declined the haz
ardous duty. The offer was repeated to other
Colonial militia officers of the Dominion, every
one of whom " absolutely refused the service."
They all preferred staying at home, to doing
duty in chilly Maine. Yet, a little while after
wards, this pusillanimity was attempted to be
excused by the suggestion that Brockholls was a
" Popish cbmmander," and that Andros, by his
vigorous policy for the defence of its frontier,
was plotting " to bring low" the people of the
rest of the Dominion. But, certainly, if Andros
had been plotting " to bring them low," he
would not have weakened the garrison in Boston
by detaching most of the King's stipendiary sol
diers for service in the forests of Maine.*
Seeing that no New England militia officer
was willing to conduct the campaign against the
Maine savages, the Governor-General, by the
advice of his Council, resolved to take the com
mand himself. Palmer, one of his Counsellors,
thus records the truth, which has hitherto been
suppressed : " The Governour's proposal to the

* According to a return made to Andros in J688, the militia
force of Jta,33achusetts, New Hampshire, Maine. Plymouth,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut, was 13,529, That of New
York, was. about 2,000 in the same year. See, .also, Arnold,
I., 520 ; JV, r. Col. Doc. III., 58), 723, lY.. 29, 185, 197, 213 j
F'tirce'a Tracts, IV., No. 10, p. 11.

16

" Council, about his going to the eastward, met
" with no opposition, lest some of the military
" men there, should have been bound in honour
"to have taken that Imployment upon them-
" selves." {Palmer's Impartial Account, 35.)
So Andros gallantly went to Maine, and,
throughout the biting winter, shared all the
hardships of the militia, whom he led. There
were about eight hundred men in all, raised out
of the several Colonies ; and among the officers,
besides Brockholls, were Lieutenant-colonel Mac-
Gregorie and Captain George Lockhart, of New
York. Many of the soldiers died from fatigue
and exposure, in chasing the savages into their
remote hiding-places. The result was, that this
attempt to capture roaming native Americans,
was like trying " to hedge in the cuckoo^' as Cot
ton Mather afterwards philosophized on the ex
pedition. But Mather omitted to state the dis
gusting fact that while Andros vras thus trying,
with personal devotion, to protect the frontier of
his Government in Maine from the savages, some
Boston merchants, taking advantage of Jiis ab
sence, sent a vessel thither, laden with ammuni
tion and provisions, to truck with those Indian
enemies and their French friends in Canada and
Nova Scotia. {Col Doe. IIL, 581, 724.)
As he could not destroy or capture its savage
foes, Andros established some eleven garrisons
for the protection of Maine. At Fort diaries in
Pemaquid, he placed Brockholls in chief com
mand, with six regular soldiers and sixty militia
men, MacGregorie and Lockhart, of New York,
were stationed at other forts. During the win
ter, he caused a sloop to bo built out of the mag
nificent timber of Maine, and other precautions
to be taken. But everything the Governor did
was misrepresented at Boston, where, during his

17

absence, the most absurd stories were propagated,
and rumors from England cautiously circulated.
Prominent among the King's instructions to
Andros, was one which required him to suppress
" all pirates and sea rovers." This the Gover
nor tried to execute ; but his efforts were foiled
by interested speculators. "Since the vacating
" their charter," wrote Secretary Randolph, " they
"have been kept from the breach of the Acts for
"Trade and Navif;ation, encouraged by their
"former government;" and "they are restrained
"from setting out privateers who, for many years
"together, rmibed tho Spanish West Indies, and
"brought, great booties to Boston; and also, they
" durst hot, during the Governor's time, harbour
"pirates." Boston, as witnessed by Randolph,
had now become "the common receptacle of
"pirates of all nations." According to the tes
timony of Palmer, the "constant and profitable"
correspondence of Massachusetts with "For-
"eigners and Pirates" had been so greatly ob
structed by Andros as to make it " very disagree-
" able to many persons who had even grown old
" in that way of trade." The chief attraction of
freebooters to Boston seems to have been the
Massachusetts mint, established in 1652, which
'¦ encouraged pirates to bring their plate thither,
¦' because it could be coined and conveyed in great
"parcells, undiscovered to be such ; " (Col. Doc.
ZrZ, 581, 582; Palmer, 20.)
The abrogation of the Massachusetts charter
had crippled those worldly advantages. But it
bad still more affected the sectarian interests of
Puritan clergymen ; and it is not suprising that
combined efforts were made by the sufferers to
restore an oligarchy under which they had en
joyed such valued privileges.
Before the Massachusetts charter was cancelled

18

in 1684, not one of its inhabitants could vote for
officers of the corporation, unless he was a free
man of that corporation, and a puritanical com
municant. But these corporate " freemen " were
only a small minority of the population of Mas
sachusetts. The majority of her inhabitants
were disfranchised. They were not represented
in her General Court; they were taxed without
their consent and against their will ; they were
the subjects of a spiritual despotism. Class
government is not and never was democracy.
As long as the Massachusetts charter survived,
the greater part of. her people enjoyed no real
political freedom; aud not until its abrogation
did exclusive privilege give way to equal popular
rights. When the direct government of the English
Crown took the place of the class government
which had domineered Massachusetts by a perver
sion of her Royal charter, it was very natural
that her Puritan ministers should have keenly
felt their altered condition, and have bitterly
vented their griefs. Their political supremacy
was gone. They could no longer control the
choice of corporate officers who would make
laws at their dictation. There was now popular
equality under the Common Sovereign of all En
glish Colonists, where sectari.in privilege had
flourished before, under a colonial oligarchy.
And so, the cry was soon started that Episcopa
lian "wild beasts of the field" had entered
throngh the broken hedge of the old charter, and
were ravaging that succulent Massachusetts
sheep-fold of which Puritanism had so long en
joyed the exclusive pasture.
There was some truth in this metaphor of Cot
ton Mather. Most American Historians have
denounced Andros as Governor of New England

19

oftentimes in terms of coarse invective, and
they have generally represented him as a mere
bigot, and minion, and tyrant. The partisan
statements of early New England writers have
been reiterated without question, to the exclu
sion of almost every thing recorded on the other
side. Whether the Commission and Instructions of
James the Second to his Governor were more or
less " illegal " or " arbitrary " than the charter
which his beheaded father had granted to Massa
chusetts, Snd which " knew no representative
" body," was certainly not a question for Andros
to answer. He was not to blame, because his
King had directed New England to be governed
by himself and his Counsellors, without an As
sembly. His duty was to execute his Sovereign's
commands ; and this duty he did with characteristic
energy — faithfully, fearlessly, and, in some in
stances, harshly. In his administration he greatly
offended the "perverse people " who had so lOng
been accustomed to order every thing in their
own way. So they complained that it was a
great wrong to require deponents to touch the
Bible, instead of holding up their hands ; a
grievance that Quakers should be allowed " free-
" dom to worship God " in their own fashion,
and not be compelled, as of old, to pay forced
rates for the support of Congregational minis
ters; an offpnce that the English Church service
should be celebrated in Boston by the Rector,
Sarauel Miles. They liked the Press to be muz
zled by Puritan censors ; but they groaned when
it was muzzled by Episcopalians. It was espe
cially galling to them that West, and Farewell,
and Graham, and Palmer, whom Andros had
made his chief subordinates and confidants, had
come from New York. These officials were op-
probrioualy called' " a crew of abject persons."

20

Yet, much allowance should be made for sueh
old spiteful words, uttered by partisans, in the
heat of angry controversy. It is certainly true
that many of the acts of the Governor General's
experienced subordinates were selfish and very
oppressive. Land titles were questioned so that
large fees might be exacted for new Patents.
Other official charges were avariciously in
creased. The Judges of the Dominion were
greatly blamed for administering the l%w strictly,
according to the practice in England. They
were especially reviled for not allowing writs of
Habeas Corpus under Shaftesbury's act of 1679.
But those Colonial Judges were at any rate
lawyers enough to know that Shaftesbury's
Statute did not extend to the English Plantations.
It was purely an English domestic measure.
And I may here mention, an as interesting histori
cal fact, that tliis English Habeas Corpus act
never did affect any one British-American Col
ony, until Queen Anne used her prerogative to
stretch it across the Atlantic to Virginia, in
1705. Nevertheless, Andros was held to be re
sponsible for every doing and every saying of
each of his subordinates. Most of his own acts
were able and statesmanlike, while some ] of
them wfere arbitrary and provoking. His great
est fault was that he administered his govern
ment too loyally to his Sovereign, and too much
like a brave soldier. Instead of conciliating, he
wounded ; instead of arguing, he ordered. Even
James saw the injury his honest Viceroy was
doing him in New England, and was obliged to
rebuke his excessive zeal.
_ The King's Declaration of April 1687, for
liberty of conscience, was at first joyfully re
ceived by his most sanguine New England sub
jects. Puritans thought it a deliverance from

21

English Prelacy ; Quakers and Anabaptists felt
that they could at length share in the liberty
which Congregationalists had monopolized ; and
the small band of Episcopalians gathered iu
Boston rejoiced that they might now Ireely hear
the beautiful liturgy of their denomination read
by a surpliced clergyman. What in our own
day is called " Broad Church," seemed to be es
tablished by James the Second throughout his
Dominion of New England. But the Puritan
ministers of Massachusetts soon caught an alarm.
They quaintly complained " that a licentious
" people take the advantage of a liberty to with-
"hold maintenance from them." They were
vexed that Andros would not allow all the in
habitants to be distressed by constables visiting
their' bouses, to levy tbe compulsory churah
rates to pay the salaries by which Massachusetts
Congregational preachers had been comforted of
old. All around Boston, these Sectarians waxed
wroth when they discovered that their own hatred
of Protestant Episcopacy was surpassed by that
of the Roman Catholic head of the Churcli of
England : and the most discerning Puritan poli
ticians in the Bay Colony began to dread a
Royal toleration more than the enforcement of
the suspended penal laws about religion, which
tbey now called " the only wall against Popery."
Addresses of thanks to the King were, neverthe
less, adopted by several congregations ; but, at
the same time, petitions were signed for relief
from some of the imperious measures of Andros.
These documents were entrusted to Increase
Mather, one of the most eminent Puritan minis
ters in Massachusetts, who had been sued for a
libel by Randolph, and was obliged to embark
in disguise for England, apparently hoping to ob.

22

tain from the King a restoration of his Colony's
effete oligarchy.
But the determination of James to maintain
the government he had established in New En
gland, could not be shaken. Personal favorites,
prevailing in other points, were foiled in this.
Sir William Phipps, a native of Maine, whom
he had made a Knight, for his success in recov
ering a large treasure from a Spanish wreck near
Hispaniola, was allowed to' ask what he pleased ;
and Phipps asked " that New England might
" have its lost liberties restored." But James,
who had no idea of re-establishing Puritanism in
Massachusetts, replied, " Anything but that.''
Phipps then procured a Royal Patent to be
High Sheriff of New England, so that he could
ii^pannel jurors, and thus counteract Andros.
With this he came to Boston some time after
Mather had gone ; but the Governor found a way
to defeat his Patent, and Phipps returned to Lon
don full of indignation. (Magnalia, 71,175,176,
178.) In the mean time, Mather had been kindly re
ceived by James on the thirtieth of May, and, in
conjunction with Nowell and Hutchinson, former
magistrates of Massachusetts, had petitioned for
liberty of conscience, and favor to the College at
Cambridge. But these petitions spoke of the
Episcopal Church in such "very indecent lan-
" guage," that tbe Agents were obliged to with
draw them from the Plantation Committee, to
which they had been referred. The Agents then
petitioned for a confirmation of estates in New
England, " and that no laws might be made, or
" monies raised, without an Assembly, with sun-
" dry other particulars." This petition was re
ferred to Attorney-General Powis for a report-
But Lord Sunderland, the President of the Coun-

iz

cii, struck out of it, " the essential proposal of
" an Assembly," telling Mr. Brent of the Temple,
the Solicitor of' the petitioners, " that it was by
" his advice that the King had given a commis-
" sion to Sir Edmund Andros, to raise monies
" without an Assembly, snd that he knew the
" King would never consent to an alteration ;
" nor would he propose it to His Majesty."
Powis, however, had been "dexterously gained;"
and being hardly a third-rate lawyer, and very
jealous -of his predecessor Sawyer, he reported
that the Massachusetts charter had been " ille-
" gaily vacated." A copy of this report was
dispatched to Boston, where it was used to excite
hopes of a new charter, " with larger power."
But the agents at length became convinced that
the Massachusetts charter would neither be re
stored nor enlarged, and that the King would
not disturb the policy he had adopted in regard
to consolidated New England. They then asked
the Plantation Committee to report " that until
" His Majesty shall be graciously pleased to
" grant an Assembly, the Conncil should consist
"of such persons as shall be considerable pro-
" prietors of' lands within his Majesty's Domin-
" ions," that each county should have a Coun
sellor, and that no law should be made except
by a vote of the majority of these Counsellors.
This would of course have placed the govern
ment of New England in the hands of a local
landed aristocracy.
But extraordinary events were now culmi
nating in England, which postponed definite
action on Colonial affairs. In the midst of these
movements, William Penn retained the favor of
his Sovereign, who made him " Supervisor of
" excise and hearth money," and promised to
enlarge Pennsylvania by " a grant under the

24

" great Seal, for the three counties on the Dela-
" ware." If this royal promise had been exe
cuted, there would have been one less North
American State ; and New York would now
have had a rival Sister, no less powerful in qom-
merce than in agriculture. Yet, while James
thus especially favored Penn, he promised Mather
a " speedy redress" of many grievances in New
England; and that, in the mean time, Andros
" should he written unto, to forbear the measures
" that be was upon." But no such instructions
were sent to Andros.
A revolution in England prevented many of
the King's designs in America from being car
ried out. One of these designs seems to have
been to extend the system of consolidation, which
had worked so well in New England, throughout
the other British North American Colonies. If
James had remained King, he would very soon
have included Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia
and the Carolinas in one grand general govern
ment, with New England, under his North Amer
ican Viceroy. It was also his purpose, as he
afterwards informed the Pope, " to have set up
" the Roman Catholic religion in the English
" Plantations of America." This, however, could
not have been accomplished as long as the Mother
Country was Protestant. The rash bigotry of
James precipitated the event, in that country,
which observing men had long foreseen. It
alarmed the penetrtiting judgment of the Vatican.
" We must," said the thoughtful cardinals of In
nocent the Eleventh, " excommunicate this King,
"who will destroy the little of Catholicism
" which remains in England." But before Rome
applied her precautionary "brake," the last
male Stuart sovereign of Great Britain was de
throned.

25

The story of the English Revolution of 1688
is familiar. James the Second offended English
Protestants so rauch, that they invited the Dutch
Stadtholder, William the Third, Prince of Orange,
to come over from Holland and deliver them from
their Roman Catholic King, who had now har
rowed God's fleld long enough. As soon as
James was assured that William was coming, he
issued a Proclamation summoning his subjects to
defend their country from invasion. He also
wrote a circular letter, on the sixteenth of Oc
tober, 1688, to Andros, and his other Colonial
Governors, warning each of them " to take care,
" that upon the approach of any fleet or foreign
" force, the militia of that our Plantation, be in
" such readiness as to hinder any landing or in-
" vasion that may be intended to be made within
" the same."
The dispatch of this circular was the last
official act of James the Second in regard to his
American Colonies. Lord Sunderland, the versa
tile Minister who countersigned it, was removed
from office, a few days afterwards, for treasonable
correspondence with the enemies of his master.
But nothing could now help James. On the fifth
of November, 1688 — the eighty-third anniversary
of the discovery of Guy Pawkes's " Gunpowder
"Plot" against James the First, in 1605 — ^by a
singular coincidence, William landed at Torbay
in Devonshire, at the head of a large Dutch
force. The second James, less lucky than his
grandfather, became stupefied, abdicated his
crown, and fled to France. A provisional direc
tory of English Peers was formed at London,
which invited the Prince of Orange to assume
the administration of the English Government.
This invitation was accepted by William, who,
after partaking of the Holy Communion, accord-
4

26

ing to the ritual of the English Protestant Epis
copal Church, on tho last day of December, 1688,
became the virtual Sovereign of England.
The attention of the Prince of Orange was
quickly called to the situation of the English
Colonies in North America, " for the happy
" state of which he possessed a particular care."
A few days after his assumption of the adminis
tration, ou the ninth of January, 1689, Mather
was introduced to him by Lord Wliarton, and
he was fully informed of the warning letter
which James had sent to his American Gov
ernors in the previous October. William now
thought it prudent to communicate his own in
structions to those Governors. Accordingly, on
the twelfth of January, 1689, under the counter
signature of William Jephson, his private Secre
tary, the Prince wrote an adroit circular letter
to each of them, directing that all persons " not
" being Papists," holding any offices in the Plan
tations, should continue to execute them as for
merly ; and that "all orders and directions lately
" made or given by any legal authority, shall be
" obeyed and performed by all persons," until
further commands should come from England.
Thus William clearly announced his American
policy to be that of " statu quo." This letter
was dispatched to Virginia; and it was directed
to be sent to New England, and the other English
dependencies. But the Massachusetts Agents in London saw
at once, that if William's letter should be re
ceived by Andros, it would be "fatal to their
" schemes ;" because it would reduce their con
stituents to the dilemma of submitting to his au
thority, under the Prince's direction, or else of
treasonably rebelling. By this time Phipps had
got back to London ; and he, with Mather, sb ef-

27

factually wheedled Jephson, that William's let
ter to Andros " was stopped, and ordered not to
" be sent." This was the turning point of the
trouble which followed in New England ; and no
one afterwards regretted the success of this White
hall back-stairs intrigue, of which William was
made the chief victim, more than did William
himself. A month after this letter of the Prince of
Orange was thus withheld from Andros, on tho
thirteenth of February, 1689, William and
Maby were proclaimed King and Queen of En
gland, and " all the Dominions and Territories
'f thereunto belonging." The next day the new
Sovereigns, by their Proclamation, confirmed in
their offices " all Protestants " within the King
dom. But this did not affect officers in the En
glish Colonies. Five days afterwards, on the
nineteenth of February, 1689, another Proclama
tion directed that " all men," in the several Col
onies, "being in offices of Government, shall so
" continue, until . their Majesty's further pleasure
" be known."" The difference between these two
^Proclamations was very significant. In England,
Protestants only were to be kept in office. But
in the English Colonies, all officials were to rp.-
main undisturbed. There was no danger to Pro
testantism iu America, as there had been in Bri
tain.*

* The following, i« a copy of the circular letter of. the EnglUh
Privy Council^ to the se-v-eral Colonial Governors :
"After our very hearty commendations : — Whereas, Wil-
*' HAM aud Hart, Prince" and Princess of Orange, havfe, with
'* the coris'ent and at the desire of the Lords Spiritual iind Tem,
*' poral, in Parli-jment Assembled at Westminaier. been pro-
" claimed Ritip; and Queen of England,' France and Ireland,
*** and of the TeTitnries and Dominions the/eUuto appertaining.
'* We have thought 'fit hereby to signify the same unto ' you,'
"with dliections thai with tbe Council aad other principal of^.-

28

The Revolution in England was thus held by
her statesmen as in no way affecting her Colonies,
except in transferring their allegiance, ¦without
their expressed consent, from one British Sov
ereign to another. But, while Phipps and Mather
acquiesced in this doctrine, they thought the time
had come for a vigorous effort to break up the
consolidated New England of the late King.
They were " secessionists ;" they thought more
of Massachusetts than of Union ; and they wanted
to destroy Union. Encouraged by the favor of
Mary, who, before she left Holland, had been
gained over to their side, by "the eminent"
Abraham Kick, of Rotterdam, Phipps and
Mather, on the eighteenth of February, p ?titioned
William that Massachusetts, Plymouth, Rhode^
Island and Connecticut might be "restored to
" their ancient privileges." But they said
nothing about New York and New Jersey in

" cers and Inhabitants of [Virginia] you proclaim their most
" sacred Majestys. according to the form here inclosed CSee
" Col. Doc, 111,, 605], with the solemnities and ceremonies re-
" quisite on the like occasion. And we do further "transmit
" unto you their Majestys most gracious Proclamation, sigui-
" tying their Majesty's pleasure that all men being in offices of
" Government, shall so continue, until their Majesty's further
" pleasure be known. We do in like manner will and require you
" forthwith to cause to be proclaimed and published, as also that
" you do give order that the oaths herewith sent, be taken by
" all pereons of whom the oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance
" might heretofore have been required ; and thatthe said oaths
" of Allegiance and Supremacy be set aside and abrogated
" within your government. And so, kc. &c. &c
'• From the Council Chamber, the 19th February, 168S-9.
" Halifax, C. P. S. Sbrewbbijrt, Maoclesfiild,
" Bath, H. Capel, J. Boscawen,
" WiNouESTEE, Devonshire. Dxlamerk,
"R" Howard, R. Hampbbn."
This dispatch was sent to, and acted on. in Virginia, and in
Pennsylvania ; and it would surely have been obeyed by An
dros, if he had received it. Compare Col. Doc., UI., 572, 583,
687, 588, 605 ; Chalmers, I., 431, 469 ; Anderson's Colonial
Church, II., 381, 382 ; Penn. Col. Rec, I., 340, 341.

29

which they had no interest. William referred
this petition to his Plantation Coramittee ; and
meanwhile he directed that the dispatches and
Proclamations which the Privy. Council had
ordered to be sent to Andros should be " post-
"poned 'till the business of taking away the
" charters should be considered." ]phipps and
Mather were accordingly heard by their Coun
sel before the Plantation Committee ; and Sir
Robert Sawyer, the former Attorney General, in
1684, reported the reasons for tbe cancellation of
the Massachusetts charter. Sawyer's report was
legally satisfactory. Even Treby and Somers,
the Attorney and Solicitor General of William
the Third, pronounced the "unreversed" judg
ment in Chancery, gained by Sawyer against that
charter, to be good, in spite of the unlawyer-like
opinion which a few months before had been
bought from Powis, the venal Attorney General
of James the Second.
And so, the Plantation Committee of William
the Third agreed to report, on the twenty-second
of February, 1689, " that His Majesty be pleased
" to send forthwith, a Governor to New England,
" in the place of Sir Edmund Andros, with a Pro-
" visional Commission, and with Instructions to
" proclaim His Majesty in those colonies." But
the sending of another Royal Governor in place of
Andros, was just what Phipps and Mather did not
wish to be done. He was as good as any other
Royal Governor might be. Accordingly, the King
was prevailed upon to order that a new charter
should be prepared for New England, which,
while it recognized colonial rights in property,
reserved colonial " dependence on the crown ;" and
that, instead of a Governor, two Commissioners
should be sent to administer its government, in
the name of the Sovereign. Yet even this did not

30

suit the Massachusetts agents. It settled the
fate of Andros; but it showed that William
meant to keep New England consolidated, as
James had established that Dominion.
A general popular Assembly in New England,
was not palatable to the Massachusetts agents.
What they wanted was the restoration of the old
separate Puritan oligarchy in that Colony: —
nothing more, nothing less. Accordingly, on the
fourteenth of March, Mather was again presented
to the King, whom he implored to " favour New
" England." This William readily promised ; but
he keenly remarked, " there have been irregular-
" ities in their government." At the same time
he declared that Andros should be recalled, and
that " the present King and Queen shall be
"proclaimed by their former magistrates."
What William really meant by this phrase, " for-
" mer magistrates," is not clear ; but it is certain
that he did not mean to decompose his pre
decessor's " Dominion of New England " into its
former several integers. He was to6 good a
statesman not to adopt at once James's royal
notion of Colonial consolidation, and'not to main
tain that idea which was so demonstrably ad
vantageous for England, especially when she was
on the eve of a bitter war witfi France. Yet,
William's large European policy was not re
vealed to the agents of his subordinate American
colony. In this state of doubt, Phipps thought
that he had better hasten back to Massachusetts.
But before he left London, a messenger from
James, who was now in Ireland, tendered him
" the government of New England, if he would
« accept it." This Irish offer, by "tlie abdicated
"king," Phipps wisely declined; and soon after
wards he set sail for Boston, carrying the Privv
Council's delayed dispatches to Andros of nine"-

31

teenth of February, and " with certain instructions
" from none of the least considerable persons at
" Whitehall." One of these private " instruc-
" tions " was that if the people of New England
" did give them the trouble to hang Sir Edmund,
" they deserved noe friends : " (Col. Doc. IIL, 587,
588 ; Magnalia, I., 178.)
After the departure of Phipps, the English
Privy Council, on the eighteenth of April, directed
Seqretary Shrewsbury, to inquire who were best
fitted to be Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of
New England. These appointrn6^ts were the
more necessary t0| be made at once, in view of
the opening war with France- It was also con
templated to bring the several proprietary govern
ments in America " imder a nearer dependence on
" the Crown, as His Majesty's revenue in the
" Plantations is very much concerned herein."
Thus William's Whig Counsellors, in the third
month of his reign, advised him to carry out
some of the most decided colonial measures of
his predecessor, because those measures were now
selfishly considered to benefit England.
Two hundred years ago, news from Europe
came tardily and uncertainly across the Atlantic.
The monitory letter sent by James to Andros in
October, did not reach Boston until the following
January. By the same vessel, Mather warned
his Massachusetts friends, " to prepare the minds
" of the people for an interesting change." . The
King's letter was dispatched to Maine, and
in. obediemc,^ to it, op the Tenth pf January,. 1689,
Andros issued his JProclamation,. dated " at_Fori
" Ohaa-les, at Pemaquid^' charging " all officers,
" civil and military, and all othgr His Majesty's
" Ipyihg subjects wi^liin this his Teriitory and
" Dominion aforesaid, to be vigilant and careful
" in their respective places and stations ; and that

82

"upon the approach of any Fleet or Foreign
" Force, they be in readiness, and use their utmost
"endeavour to hinder any landing or invasion
" that may be intended to be made' within the
"same." (See Val. Man., 1859,452; Hist. Mag.,
Nov. 1866, 144, Sup)
A few weeks afterwards, while Nicholson was
putting New York in a better condition of defence,
a coasting vessel from Virginia arrived there, on
the fifth of February ; and Andries Greveraet her
master, called on the Lieutenant-Governor at
Fort James, with news that the Prince of Orange
had landed at Torbay. Astonished to hear it,
Nicholson compared William to Monmouth;
prophesied that "the very 'prentice boys of
" London will drive him out againe ; " and for
bade the news to be divulged to any one. A
week afterwards, Jacob Leisler, a Captain of one
of the City train-bands, and a large_ importerof
foreign liquors, received a confirmation of the in
telligence, by way of Maryland. The news was
"kept private at first" by Nicholson and his
Counsellors, " to hinder any tumult by divulg-
" ing the same so suddenly." But, on the flrst of
March, 1689, "a full account" of it was dis
patched from New York to Andros, in Maine.*
When Andros received Nicholson's dispatches
from New York, he left Brockholls in chief
command at Pemaquid, and hastened to Boston,
which he reached " about the latter end of
" March :" ( Col. Doc. IIL, 581, 723.) A few days
afterwards, on the 4th of April, John Winslow
arrived at Boston from the West Indies, bring-
* It is remarkable that Mr, J, G, Palfrey, the most recent his
torian of " New England," who frequently quotes what he calls
the " O'Callaghan Documents," abstains from any allusion
to this earliest intelligenceTeceived in America, of the landing
of William the Third in England, which is printed, in full, in
the New York Colonial Documents, III,, 591, 660,

33

ing copies of the Prince of Orange's Declaration
from the Hague, and confirmation of the previous
news of his landing in England, Andros re
quired Winslow to produce the Prince's declara
tions ; but he refusing to do so, was imprisoned
for not communicating these important public
documents to the Governor-General of New Eng
land, who certainly had a right to know their
contents. The intrigue of Phipps and Mather, in Lon
don, which prevented the transmission to Andros
of the Prince of Orange's confirmatory letter of
thetwelfthof January, and of the Privy Council's
dispatches of the nineteenth of February, now pro
duced its intended result. That active divine.
Increase Mather, had written home, that "a
" charter with larger power " for Massachusetts,
would be obtained from James. It was plausibly
argued by Mather's correspondents, that, if favor
might be expected from James, much more
would surely come from William. The success
of the Calvinistic Dutch Prince became the earn
est prayer of the New England Puritans. Al
though it was well understood by Louis, and
Seignelay, in France, that the Protestant Andros
would at once declare for William, if he should
become the Sovereign of England, (Co?. Doc. IX.,
403, 404,) the chief leaders of opinion iu Massa
chusetts chose to prononnce otherwise. What
they wanted to get — rightly or wrongly — was a
restoration of the former separate charter govern
ment of the colony. Accordingly, they rumored
that by his Proclamation of January to hinder the
landing of any "foreign force" in New England,
Andros had meant to oppose the commands of
William, if he should become his lawful Sov
ereign. The Boston merchants who had sent
supplies to the Indians in Maine, and others
6

34

whose illicit, trading had been stopped, joined in
the consoiracy against the Governor. By this
time there was great excitement in and around
Boston; and Andros wrote to Brockholls at
Pemaquid, on the sixteenth of April, that " there
'• is a general buzzing among the people, great
" with expectation of tliair old charter, or they
" know not what ;" (Hutch. I., 372.) But the most
reflecting Massachusetts minds saw that the
American Plantations of England must necessa
rily follow the fate of their mother country ; and
that it would be wise to await the event in that
country. As swings the ship with the tide, so
must swing her yawl. So, the " principal gentle-
" men in Boston " after consultation agreed that
they would, if possible, " extinguish all essays in
" the people towards an insurrection." Yet, if an
" ungoverned mobile" should push matters to
extremity, those " principal gentlemen " would
themselves head the movement, and secure any
official rewards that might follow its success.
Accordingly, the young Cotton Mather drew up
a prolix : " Declaration of i/ie gentlemen, mer-
" chants, and inhabitants of Boston, and the coun-
" try a(^acent," explaining their intended revolt,
and their purpose to secure Andros and his offi
cers, "for what justice orders from his Highness
" with the English Parliament shall direct, lest,
" ere we are aware, we find (what we may fear,
" being on all sides in danger) ourselves to be by
" them given away to a Foreign power, before
" such orders can reach unto us ;" ( Magnalia, I.,
119,180 ¦,Hutch.,l.,Z8l; Force- sTraets,lY.,ix.,x.)
There was certainly no " Foreign power "
able or likely to damage New England in the
Spring of 1689, except the French Canadians
and the Savages, against whom Andros had been
the whole winter endeavoring to defend Maine.

35

That he would have " given away" New England
to Louis, was not believed by Louis himself-
fJT. Y. Col. Doc, IX., 403, 404.) But this absurd
intent was charged against Andros, with the de
sign of recommending to William a Colonial re
volt he did not desire, and which must necessarily
embarrass his government. The train thus care
fully prepared was admirably fired. It was
noised about, that Boston was to be destroyed by
the New York Mohawks, and by mines under
the town : that the soldiers in Maine were all
poisoned with rum ; and that a French fleet of
thirty sail was hovering on the coast; (Pal
mer, 9.) These and other absurd stories were so
generally circulated, that insurrection could not
be restrained. On the eighteenth of April, the
populace in and around Boston rose in arms,
seized Captain George, of the Royal frigate
Rose, and imprisoned Sheriff Sherlock, with
Randolph, Farewell, and other obnoxious officials
of the New England government. About noon,
Bradstreet, the last Governor of Massachusetts,
under its cancelled charter, with several other
prominent Boston citizens, assembled in the
Royal Council Chamber at the Town-house ; and
after Cotton Mather's verbose declaration had been
read from the balcony, they notified Andros, who
was then at the fort, to surrender the government,
" to be preserved and disposed according to order
" and direction from the Crown of England,
" which suddenly is expected may arrive." A
boat had meanwhile been sent ashore from the
Rose friiiate, to bring ofl' the Governor. But as
he was going down to embark, he was met by an
armed party bearing the summons from those
assembled at the Town-house. Surprised at this
demand for which he knew " noe cause or ooca-
»' sjon," Andros, with several attendants, went to

36

meet its signers at the Royal Council Chamber.
As he passed thither, " the streets were full of
" armed men; yett none offered him or those
"that were with hira the least rudeness or
" incivility, but, on the contrary, usual respect."
At the Council Chamber, where, among the
civilians, five Boston ministers were very busy,
the Governor was ordered by the conspirators to
be imprisoned along with Graham, West, Palmer,
and other subordinates of the Dominion. But the
mutineers, who " broke open the Secretary's
" office," missed finding " Sir Edmund's papers ;"
and the Great Seal of New England seems also to
have disappeared at this time; (Col. Doc. IIL,
582, 723, 12'^) Hutch. Cott., 667-575.)
And now that Andros was safely in jail, the
question arose how the Government of the Do
minion of New England was to be lawfully
administered. Had he succeeded in his attempt
to embark on the Rose frigate, and gone in her
to Newport or New York, the course of subse
quent events would have been very different.
The seat of the New England Government would
have been changed ; but the government itself
would have been maintained. This made the
Massachusetts insurgents especially anxious to
secure the person of Andros. Under the King's
commission, Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson was
to succeed his chief only in case of his death or
absence from the Territory. The Governor's
forced incapacity had not been contemplated.
(Col. Doc. IIL, 542.) Perhaps the imprisonment
of Andros in Massachusetts did not strictly en
title Nicholson to assume the government of
New England. Yet, next to Andros, he was
the only representative of the English crown
who had any right from that crown to chief
authority in the Dominion. Certainly, no mal-

a?

administration could be alleged against Nichol
son, as it had been charged against Andros.
But those who imprisoned their Royal Governor,
meant to rend consolidated New England into
pieces. Their act was only " secession." Mas
sachusetts did not want union with her sister
Colonies, unless she could control that union, as
she had controlled the New England Confederacy
of 1643. She pined for the separate local gov
ernment which she had enjoyed under her per
verted and abrogated charter. It was very
galling to her, that, in common with neighbor
ing British Colonies, she should be subjected by
her Sovereign to the authority of his own Gov
ernor-General. Although but a subordinate En
glish Colony, without a charter, she determined
to secede from the rest of New England. Ac
cordingly, a Council of Safety assumed the
direction of affairs in Massachusetts, and hast
ened to withdraw the garrisons which Andros
had carefully established in Maine. The last Co-
lonial charter officers, chosen in 1686, were rein
stated, until orders should come from England.
On the twenty-ninth of May, Phipps arrived at
Boston, with the dispatches addressed to Andros
by the English authorities at Whitehall. Find
ing that the Governor was in prison, Phipps
opened the letters directed to him : and the act
ing raagistrates of Massachusetts, the same after
noon, proclaimed Williara and Mary, according
to. the Privy Council's orders to Andros of nine
teenth February, which he would doubtless have
cheerfully obeyed, if they had been dispatched to
him as originally intended. (Col. Doc. IH., 572,
583, 587, 588 ; Chalmers, I., 431, 469.)
Thus, the intrigue begun by Phipps and Mather
at London, was completed at Boston. Without
the knowledge and against the purpose of Wil-

38

liam, his Dominion of New England— which
had hardly lasted eight months after the annex
ation of New York and New Jersey— was " dis-
" united" by the rebellious secession of Massa
chusetts. The name which James the First had
given survived in history ; but the consolidated,
actual New England of Jaraes the Second never
more existed. And thus, Massachusetts became
the first practical exponent, on the American
continent, of that extreme doctrine of " State
"Rights," which afterwards produced so rauch
national disorder. The Boston notion of " se-
" cession" quickly spread throughout the other
New England Colonies. Plymouth — as Wiswall
wrote to Hinckley — did not like "to trot after
" the Bay horse." (Mass. H. S. CoU., xxxv,, 301,)
Therefore, Plymouth set up again her old Patent
govemment ; and so Plymouth seceded frora New
England, Rhode Island had no ' sympathy with
the persecutors of Anne Hutchinson and Roger
Williams, who had now imprisoned Andros; yet,
to avoid anarchy, she replaced her former magis
trates under her charter ; and so Rhode Island
seceded. Connecticut — which had adroitly co
quetted with both Massachusetts and New York,
and did not wish to be governed by either —
boldly resumed her charter government; and
secession was triumphant. Before the summer
of 1689, "New England" was once more resolved
into her several constituent Colonies.
What happened in New York, after the depo
sition of Andros, may perhaps be detailed on
some future occasion.
It only remains to bo observed at this time,
that what is often called the" Eevolution in New
"England^ in the spring of 1689, cannot be
justified on the grounds maintained by the En
glish nation, which after the abdicatiop of

89

James, made William and Mary its King and
Queen. England as a nation had all the attri
butes of Sovereignty ; and what that nation did,
required no confirmation elsewhere. On tho
other hand, New England was a Colonial de
pendency of the Mother Country ; bound to follow
the fate of that country, as long as " the Domin-
" ion " was dependent. In none of the mutinous
movements in that Dominion was there any
thought of making any one of its constituent col
onies independent of England. On the contrary,
the foremost insurgents in Massachusetts most
loudly protested their subjection to English au
thority, and their loyalty to "the Crown of En-
« gland." This was precisely the doctrine of
their Governor General, whom by imprisoning,
they prevented from executing the orders sent
him by that Crown. If they had meant to de
clare themselves independent of the Mother
Country, the Massachusetts mutineers against
Andros had a perfect right to revolt from iSn-
gland; and history would have applauded their
rebellion. They might Tiave failed in their at
tempt at that timo ; yet, at any rate they would
have tried to vindicate the principle of man's
right to self-governraent. But this grand idea
was not the Boston notion of 1689. That notion
was to swing Massachusetts back again to her
former condition of an English corporation, so
that her Puritan ministers might control a col
onial oligarchy, which would, among other
things, evade the execution of the English navi
gation laws. This was not a consistent position
for a subordinate, loudly loyal, English colony to
assume. Yet it was the attitude in which Mas
sachusetts placed herself; nnsuccessfully in re
gard to most of her intended objects. There can
be no just comparison of her selfish colonial mu-

40
tiny against her King's subordinate Governor in
^689, with her grand colonial revolt against her
King himself in 1776. The one was a double-
dealing insurrection of avowed English subjects ;
the other was a defiant rebellion of American
freemen, who boldly renounced their allegiance
to England.
But history tells us that there was, at least,
one common cause of colonial grief in both these
epochs. The oppressive navigation laws of En
gland, which were meant to cripple all colonial
commerce, had much to do with the deposition
and imprisonment of Andros. And here, let rae
say that those laws survived until the spring of
1849, when they were finally abolished by the
British Parliament, mainly through the per
sonal influence and exertions of that eminent
American Historian, now an officer of this Socie
ty, who then so admirably represented his coun
try in England. I repeat, that those English
navigation laws had much to do with the New
England insurrection of 1689 ; as they had much
to do with the American Revolution of 1776.
From " the common gaole in Boston,'' on the
twenty ninth of May, 1689, Randolph, the ira
prisoned Secretary of the Dominion, thus wrote
to the Plantation Committee at Loudon: " My
" Lords : Notwithstanding all the pretensions
" of grievances mentioned in their papers, and
" cries of oppression in the Governor's proceed-
" ings, it is not the person of Sir Edmund An-
" dros, but the government itself, they design to
" have removed, that they may freely trade." ( Col.
Doc UL, 581.)

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08866 0023