XXXII.

SIR ROBERT CARR TO THE EARL OF CLARENDON.

MY LORD

May it please your Lord? When Colonel Cartwright returned for England I made bold to trouble you by him with a l°re, which if he be taken by a Dutch Privateer, as we have it reported with us in Boston, that hee is I feare, that that with others miscarried. But the result of what I then sent, was to let Your Lord! understand, that, That prejudice which is throwne upon me by some malicious persons, I do not yet understand what it is; though assured by yo! Lord letter to M Maverick, that there is some against me. It was so long before I saw your Lord's letter, that I had not time to write more.

I had received a fall, by which I had hurt my leg, at Delaware, and that kept me so long, before I could attend the Commission: but before I could well weare a Boot, I went to New-York, & so to Boston: and ever since we begun, which was the 20th of ffebruary, I referr myself to Colonel Cartwrights relation: I hope I shall not loose your Lord's good opinion (which I most highly esteeme) by a single, & a mistaken report.

That little which I had gotten, by the hazarding of my life, at Delaware, I heare is given away and one come over to take possession of it: Wherefore I beseech your Lord? if any thing of my concernes comes before your Lord! that you would give a dispatch unto it.

I have some suspicion of the persons who have prejudiced me, & misrepresented me unto your Lord? I doubt not to make it appeare to be too rashly, if not maliciously done of them: & shall referr myself to Col: Nicolls, & Col. Cartwrights relation for my vindication: I shall speak evell of no man, but I wish that Those persons had demeaned themselves in these parts

so acceptibly as I have done, and things might have beene otherwise then they are.

I beleive, ere long, you may receive an account of our deportments, if you have not already, and shall submitt to your censure, & his Maties sentence thereupon, as to my particular concerns: This aspertion occasioned my boldness to send a letter to be presented to his Matie The copy whereof is inclosed.

I hope you will not too hastily conclude me guilty (my Lord) of any thing may render me disloyall; and shall desire your pardon for troubling you with this relation, desiring you to give his Matie an account thereof, at yo' best oppertunity, and I shall ever acknowledge my self

Your Lord most obliged, faithfull, & humble

Servant,

Boston Decembr. 5. 1665.

To the Right Honob! Edward Earle of Clarendon Lord High Chancellor of England

XXXIII.

ACCOUNT OF MASSACHUSETTS, BY COLONEL CARTWRIGHT, 1665.

The Colony of the Massachusetts was the last, & hardlyest perswaded to use his Majesties name in their forms of justice.

In this colony at the first going over of the Commissioners were many untruths raysed, & sent into the other colonies, as that the King had sent the commissioners thither to rayse 5000 yearly for his Majesties use &c. where upon Major Hawthorn at Salem made a seditious speech at the head of his company; and their

[The name is torn off in the MS.]

late Governor made another in their meeting hous, at Boston, but neither of them were so much as questioned for it by any of their magistrates.

The Commissioners visited all the colonies before. this, hoping both that the submission, & condescension of the other colonies to his Majesties desires would haue abated the refractorinesse wh they much feared in this colony; and that the assistance of Colonell Nicolls, whom they expected, would haue prevaled much. But nether examples, nor reasons could prevayl with them to let the Commissioners hear & determine so much as those particular causes (M' Deans, & the Indian Sachims) wh the King had commanded them to take care of, & to doe justice in; And though the Commissioners (who never desired yt they should appear as delinquents, but as defendants, either by themselues, or by their atturnies) assured them, yt if they had been unjustly complayned of to his Majesty, their false accusers should be severely punnished, & their just dealing made known to his Majesty, & to all the world, yet they proclaymed by sound of trumpet, That the generall court was the Supremest judicatory in that province; That the Commissioners pretending to hear appeales was a breach of their priviledges, granted them by the Kings royall father, and confirmd to them by his Majesties own gratious letters, and that they could not permitt itt. By wch means they haue for the present silenced about 30 petitions, wch desired justice against them.

To elude his Majesties desire of their admitting men civile, & of competent estates to be freemen, they haue made an act, whereby he who is four & twenty years old, a hous-keeper, & brings one certificate of his civile life, another of his being orthodox in matters of fayth, & a third of his paying 10, besides head-mony, at a single rate, may then haue liberty to make his desire known to the court, and it shall be put to the vote. The Commissioners examined many townships, & found y' scarce 3 men in 100 payd 10 at a single rate; yet if this rule was generall, it would be just. But he, who is a church.

member, though he be a servant, & pay not 24 may be made a freeman.

They will not admitt any who is not a church member to the communion, nor their children to baptisme, yet they will marry their children to those whom they will not admit to baptisme, if they be rich. They did imprison & barbarously use Mr Jurdain, for baptizing children, as himselfe complaynd in his petition to the Commissioners. Those whom they will not admitt to the communion they compell to come to their sermons, by forcing 5 from them for every neglect; yet these men thought their own paying of 12a for not comming to prayers in England was an insupportable tyranny, and they yet constantly pray for their persecuted bretheren in England.

They haue put many quakers of other provinces to death, (for wh also they are petitioned against) first they bannisht them as Quakers upon payn of death; & then executed them for returning. They haue beaten some to Jelly, & been otherwayes exceeding cruell to others, & they say, That the king allowes it in his letter to them. Indeed they haue misconstrued all the kings letters to their own sence.

They haue many things derogatory to his Majesties honor in their lawes of wch the Commissioners made a breviat, & desired yt they might be altered; But they haue yet donne nothing in it. Amongst others, who ever keeps Christmas day, is to pay 5o.

They caused at last a mappe of their terratories to be made; but it was made in a chamber, by direction, & guesse. In it they claym Fort Albany, & beyond it, all the lands to the South Sea. By their south line they entrench upon the colonies of New plymouth, Rode island, & Conecticot, & on the East they haue usurped wholly the pattents of Mr Mason, & Mr Gorges; & say, y the Commissioners had nothing to doe betwixt them & Mr Gorges, becaus his Majesty commanded them ether to deliver possession to Mr Gorges, or to giue his Majesty reasons why they did not.

The Commissioners being at Piscatoquay, when they received his Majesties command to see the harbours fortifyed, sent their warrants to 4 towns upon that river requiring them to meet at a certain time & place to hear his Majesties letter read &c. one of these warrants was sent post to Boston, from whence 2 marshalls were sent the next day post by the Governor & councell with another warrant to forbid those towns either to meet, or to doe any thing commanded them by the commissioners, at their utmost perills; and withall sent an unbecoming letter to the Commissioners.

Colonel Whaley, & Goffe were entertayned by the magistrates wth great solemnity, & feasted in every place, after they had been told that they were traytors, & ought to be apprehended. They made their abode at Cambridge untill they were furnished with horses, & a guide, & sent away to Newhaven, for their greater security. Captain Daniell Gookin is reported to haue brought over, & to manage their estates, & the Commissioners being enformed yt he had many cattle at his farm in the kings province, wch were suspected to be Whaleyes, or Goffs, caused them to be seized for his Majesties use, till further order, But Captain Gookin. standing upon the priviledge of their charter & refusing to answear before the Commissioners as so, there was no more donne in it. Captain Pierce, who transported Whaley & Goffe into New England may probably say something to their estates.

They of this Colony say, yt King Charles the first gaue them power to make lawes, & to execute them, & granted them a charter as a warrant against himselfe & his successors, & yt so long as they pay the fift part of all gold & sylver oar wh they shall gett, they are free to use their priviledges granted them, & that they are not obliged to the King, but by civilitie, & yt they hope to tyre the king, the lord chancelor, & the Secretary too with writing, They can easily spinne 7 yeares out with writing at that distance and before that be ended a change may come. Nay, some haue dared to say,