Majesties Colonie upon seriouse consideration thereof returne your Hono' our humble thanks for your favourable respect & freindship therein exprest Assuring you that it cannot but very deeply affect us that our application to ye Kings most Excellent Majestie should carrie ye least appearance of any shortnes of Expression of that due submission & acknowledgement which might answer his Maties Royall favour in so bounding the hono'able Commissioners by Instructions wherewith being at that time wholly unacquainted, though since they have ben made known unto us, we were left under the sence of such extent of the Commission as was represented by its Expressions to us & indeed since y we have found them so to insist on y° Exercise thereof as to render those our fears not altogether groundlesse The account whereof being rendred will manifest that there hath not been so clear a convey of his Maties Grace as (we dare not but believe) is lodged in his Maties royall breast towards us. The consideration whereof doth the more depresse us that we should by any shortness of expressing argument for our request occasion his Matie to have such a sence of our humble Application & supplication to him as is manifested in the Honoble Secretary Moris his lore of 25 Feb 64 Being truely sensible how much it is incumbent on us to act in all things according to our duety whereby his Gracious Matie may find in himself why he may be pleased to continue that Grace to us of which we haue so high a value & so great need in this our exile capacity though we cannot deserve it. It is most true that y° Complaints exhibited against us by persons not so studious to serve his Matie as themselves by his Maties authority with their suing for justice at his royall hands could not giue us cause to expect other than his Maties pleasure hath put forth. But of those complaints we haue not received any notice from ye honble Commissioners save one relating to M Thomas Dean & of that in a way whereby they would haue subjected to themselves the authority which hath ben derived to this Court & so long enjoyed by us from ye Favour & Grace of his Matte & his royall predecessors. viz by summoning this Court to appear as Delinquents at the barre which we could not submit unto without forfeiting our Allegeance to his Matie in betraying the trust comitted to us for y° carrying on that work which is the great good & maine end of y° Pattent & our transportation into this wildernesse. For rendring account of any thing alledged against any proceedings of Court or Person in Authority we haue tendred unto them that whereby we might giue his Majesty satisfaction, which hath been refused by them. & therefore we haue sent the Narrative of our proceedings with them that they may be presented & submitted to his Majestie. By which we hope that we shall clear it that this Court hath not any such præsumption that his Maties subjects in this Colonie are without hope of redresse appeales being ordered from inferio' Judicatures of his Mao to them that are superio' & ourselues being ready at all times to render a faithfull & humble account unto his Majesty. & we assure your Lordship we prosume not to expect a continuance of happines in our enjoyments But in the way of duetifull obedience to God & the King Of which we shall indeavo! that there may be no ground of doubt from the whole of this his Maties Colonie. In the Assurance whereof we Crave the Continuance of your Lordships favour & end with humble & earnest prayers unto God to preserve his Matie & your Lordship remaining Right Hono'able Your Lordships most humble servants RI. BELLINGHAM, Gov In the name & by the order of the generall Boston. In New England 30th of May 1665. These ffor the right Honorble Edward Earle of Clarendon Lord High Chancellor of England & of his Majestjes most Honorble Privy Council be humbly presented XXVI. GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM TO ROBERT BOYLE.* HONOURABLE S Itt is a great favor in your hon, had it beene no more then the taking notice of this smale colony of the Massachusets, circumstanced wth both meaness & remotenes, but to shew this respect, at such a tjme when loaded with many calumnies & reproaches from evill minded persons, is as well a great addition to this favour on your part, as of obligation to the reall acknowledgment of the same on ou's; Although we hope the righteous God will in his due time make it manifest to his Majesty & to our Deare Nation & people from whom we are this day voluntary exiles, that ou' accusers are such who designe not the honor of his Majesty, but through the glosse of spetious pretences doe ajme only the advancement of their particular ends, & contriuements yet tending to the great obstruction of his Majestjes reall interest & the jnevitable ruine of his good subjects heere. That any clause in our last addresses should carry any appearance of reflection vpon his Majestjes wisdome, & Iustice or be wanting in that due respect which we owe to his Majesty as it ministers vnto us matter of much exercise, so we can truely say, it was far from our jntencōn, who doe acknouledge ourselues so abundantly obliged in the chearefull discharge of our duty to his Majesty, for the reitterated assurances given us of the full & peaceable enjoyment of all the libertjes granted vnto us, by his royall charter, & particularly & in speciall wise expressing the same in his jnstructions given to his honourble Comissioners for the regulating of them in the excerting the power & authority to them given by their comission, so far as the same relateth to this colony. [* Compare Endicott to Boyle: Oct. 19, 1664, in Birch's Boyle; Appx. 450, and Boyle to Endicott: March 17, 1665 in 2 M. H. S. Coll. VIII. 49.] SE Your expressions of tender respect for our good coming wth so much reallity christianly counselling & cautioning of us in the way of duty the only & sure way for the obteyning of our just desires, doeth embolden us with the greater freedome to give you' honou this further trouble, humbly crauing this favor from you' hon, that so far as you' wisedom shall find any just plea in what we present, you will please to improve the same, according to the oppertunity the lord hath given you for our just vindication & in anything you find lesse pertinent, or jnconvenient to be insisted on, that the same may be burjed in your oune_breast The result of the late negotiation betweene his Majesty Comissioners & this his Majesty colony, we know not how better to comunicate to your hono', then by the transmitting true Copies of all that haue passed in conference betweene us, the which we haue caused to be done vnder the hand of the Secretary of our Generall Court herewith inclosing the same. Vpon pervsall whereof your honour will easily perceiue where they & we haue disagreed, as also the reasons why we could not submitt to their proposalls & Comands to our generall Court & all our officers both military & ciuil in such wise as appeares by the warrant vnder their hands. The ample assurance given us by his Majestje that he hath not the least intencon nor thought of violating or in the least degree Infringing his Royall charter heretofore granted by his royall father as more particularly is fully exprest in his Majesty" letter to this colony of Aprill 23d 1664 doth encourage us to hope & expect that we shall yet haue the continuance of his royall favour towards us, & that he will not charge us with the denyall of his Soueraignty for our non obseruance of those Comands of his Comissioners as were expressly derogatory to his Majestjes honor & authority heere as contrary to his Instructions given them to obserue in the exercise of their Comission in this Colony; as by comparing his Majestjes letter of Aprill 23a 1664 sect. 24 his Instructions to his Comissione's sect 2 34 & 8a with their warrant for protection of John Porter Jun', their third reply to our returnes made to their proposall, on the eighth Instruction; the peticōn of the President of the Colledge & sundry other gentlemen the same will fully appeare. And whereas It is a grand priuiledge of his Majestjes subjects in this colony as is conteyned in his Majestjes royall charter that wee & our children after us shall haue & enjoy all libertjes & jmunitjes of free & naturall subjects win any of his Majestys Dominions to all intents constructions & purposes whatsoeuer: Giving & Granting vnto the Gouerno & Company liberty from tjme to time to make lawes &c for the well gouerning of the people of this Colony not contrary to the lawes of England, & appointing the said Charter or the duplicate or exempliffication there of for the putting the sajd lawes in execution to be a sufficjent warrant to discharge &c: all this being pleaded by us in conference that we had with them, together with our rejtterated tender by both word and writing, to give them an account of the grounds of our proceedings in any matter or case that his Majestje had comanded them, or themselues sawe meete to make inquiry into; and we willingly grattified their desire wth giving them a Copy of a letter wee received in the time of our Conference from S Willjam Morrice, wherein his Maje although manifesting himself not well pleased with our last addresse; is graciously pleased to declare that his intent in sending them in such a capacity to this place is out of his speciall favour to us; & that he might be truely informed of those many complaints against us, as well by neighbour colonjes, particular persons, & the natiues, & in case they could not compose matters themselues, then to give an account of the true state of any such case to his Majesty; all which we willingly submitted vnto, as may appeare in our returnes to them before recited, yet neuerthelesse they still jnsisted vpon our Submission to them as a Court of |