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Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England

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Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ..CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 083 937 122 Cornell University Library ^^ The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924083937122 RECORDS OF PLYMOUTH COLONY. %tk of i\t Comittissioitfi's of !lje Initfb Colonies of felo €\4ml YOL. I. ] 643-1051. RECORDS OF THE COLONY OF NEW PLYMOUTH IN NEW ENGLAND. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. EDITED BY DAVID PULSIFER, CLERK IN THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH, MEMBER OF THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOfilCAL SOCIETY, VIXLOW OP TllK AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION, CORKESPONDINQ MEMBER OP THE ESSEX INSTITUTE, AND OF THE RHODE ISLAND, NEW YORK, COXNKCTICUT AND WISCONSIN BISTORICAL SOCIETIES. %t\^ of Jlje ^tinimissioners of Ijje InM Colonirs of Btfo ^iiglank VOL. I. 1643-1651. BOSTON: FROM THE PRESS OF WILLIAM WHITE, rRINTEK TO THE COMMONWEALTH. 185 9. ^CCRMELL^ ;UNIVERSITY LJ BRARY C0MM0.\))EALT11 OF MASSACHUSETTS. ^etrflarn's f eprtnunt. Boston, Apkil o, 1858. By virtue of Chapter forty-one of the Eesolves of the year one thousand eight hundred fifty-eight, I appoint David Pulsifee, Esq., of Boston, to super- intend the printing of the New Plymouth Records, and to proceed with the copying, as provided in previous resolves, in such manner and form as he may consider most appropriate for the undertaking. Mr. Pulsifer has devoted many years to the careful exploration and transcription of ancient records, in the archives of the County Courts and of the Commonwealth. As a penman, and in all clerical qualifications, he has no superior. The studies and practice of his life have rendered him competent and reliable, as a decipherer of the handwriting of the earlier periods of our history, to a degree not equalled, perhaps, by any other person. He is accurate, vigilant, industrious, and indefatigable in this his chosen pursuit ; and having a competent knowledge of colonial history, there is every reason to be assured that he will faithfully and successfully perform the service intrusted to him. OLIVER WARNER, Secreiari/ of the Commonwealth. INTRODUCTION. THE subject of a combination of the Colonies was agitated in a meeting at Cambridge as early as June, 1638, but the confed- eration was not agreed upon until May, 1643. An account of the meeting in 1638 is given in the New Haven Colonial Kecords, edited by Charles J. Hoadly, Esq. It is found, in the answer of the New Haven General Court (held 29th of June, 1653) to the Massachusetts Declaration, as follows : — " The confederation betwixt the colonies was no rash & sudden ingagem', it had bine severall yeares vnder consideration. In anno 1638 there was a meeting at Cambridg aboute it, but some things being then propounded in- convenient for the lesser colonies, that conference ended w'hout fruit, and the foure jurisdictions, though knitt together in affections, stood in refferrence one to another loose and free from any express couenant or combination, till vpon a new invitation and propositions from the Massachusets, another meet- ing was appointed at Boston in May, 1643 ; so that magistrts, deputies and free-men, especially those of the Massachusets had aboute fiue yeares time to consider what they were aboute, the compass and consequences of such a consociation, and probably did improue it, and saw cause to renew the treaty so long suspended." The following extracts from the Colonial Kecords of New Plymouth and Massachusetts show the action of the General Coiu'ts of those colonies in relation to the union of "the four Col- X INTRODUCTION, onies, previous to the signing of the Articles of Confederation by the Commissioners. On the twenty-seventh day of September, 1642, the General order — Court of Massachusetts passed the following : " The magistrates in & neare Boston w"^ the deputies of Boston, Charles- towne, Cambridg, AVatertowne, Roxberry, Dorchester, or the greater part of them, are appointed to bee a comitte to treate w"" any comission" from Plim- oth, Coiiectecot, or Newe Haven, about the union, & concerning avoyding any danger of the Indians, & to have power to do hearin what they shall find needfuU for comon safety & peace, so as they enter not into an offencive " warr w"^out order of this Courte./ At the General Court holden at Plymouth the vij"' of March, 1641, " M' Edward "Winslow & M'^ Wilim CoUyer are elected by the Court to go to treate w"' Massachusetts Bay &(5, about y* combynacSn." At the General Court of Massachusetts held May 10, 1643 : — " The Gov'no', M'^ Dudley, M' Bradstreete, M' Treasurer, Cap! Gibons, & M' Hauthorne are chosen to treat w"* o"^ freinds of CoSectecot, New Haven, & Plimoth about a confederacy between us." And at the same session the following order is recorded : — " The Governo'' & M' Dudley are appointed on the comitte to treate w"^ o' brethren & confederates of Conectecot & Newehaven, & if either of the former be hindered, M' Bellingham is appointed in his steede." I Under date of June 6, 1643, the following order appears in the Eecords of the General Court of Plymouth : — " It is ordered and concluded by the Court, that M'^ Edward "Winslow and M'^ Wilim Collyer shall haue full comission & authoryty, in name of the whole Court, to subscribe the articles of confederacSn (now read in Court) w"^ the Massachusetts, Coiiectacutt, and New Haven, and to subscribe the same in name of the whole, and to affix thereto the coiiion seale of the goQment." The Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of INTRODUCTION. xi New England, now printed, being part of the New Plymouth Records, are contained in two folio manuscript volumes. It ap- pears to have been the practice of the Commissioners at their meetings to put in writing their acts or conclusions, and to sign them; and it is probable that each colony was furnished by the Commissioners with the acts under their hands. Gov. Winthrop says, " The names of the Commissioners and all their proceedings are at large set out in the books of their records, whereof every colony hath one." [Winthrop's Journal, n. 246.] A folio volume of original minutes, from the year 1653 to 1662, much defaced, but recorded in the second volume, makes a part of the New Plymouth Ee cords. The original minutes of the meeting in September, 1646, and of the last day of the third month [May], 1653, and the greater part of the minutes of the meetings of Sept., 1648, and April, 1653, are all that are now known to be preserved belonging to the colony of Massachusetts. It is probable that the rest, together with the Book of the Acts of the Commissioners, referred to in this volume, were destroyed by the fire in 1747, of which an account is given by Secretary Willard, in a letter to Christopher Kilby and William BoUan, Esq., agents of the Province, in London, as follows : — " Boston, Dec'. 21, 1747. Gentlemen I am now to give you the sorrowful News of the grievous & sur- prizing Rebuke of Divine Providence on the Governm' of this Province in the Destruction of the Court House by Fire which happened in the Morning of the ninth Instant. It was generally concluded to have begun in the Floor under the chimneys of the Council Chamber & House of Represent^^* & was not discover'd till it was greatly increased ; All the Books of the Gen- eral Court, Govern"' & Council & House of Represent^^^ there in the House were wholly lost without saving one & all the Books of Commiss°° and other Instrum** as well from the Crown as the Governm' of the Province with most of y" original Papers are likewise consumed." xii INTKODUCTION. In a letter received from J. Hammond Trumbull, Esq., Editor of the Colonial Eecords of Connecticut, dated Nov. 3, 1858, he says, " The Connecticut Manuscript is in excellent preservation." The Book of the Acts of the Commissioners belonging to New Haven Colony has not been preserved. That it was formerly kept is evident, not only from the statement of Gov. Winthrop, but by the following extract from the Kecords of the General Court held at New Haven the 27th of the third month, 1657 : — " "What conclusions of the comission" are yet to be recorded shall be entred in one of y" new bookes that came last yeare from England." The two volumes, first mentioned, are in the handwriting of different persons. The first volume appears to be in the hand- writing of Nathaniel Souther, Nathaniel Morton, and other per- sons ; ihe second volume appears to be wholly in the handwriting of Nathaniel Morton. A few of the pages, left blank by those who recorded the Acts of the Commissioners, were subsequently used by John Cot- ton, Esq., of Plymouth, for indexes or tables of contents. On the first and second pages of the first volume is recorded, " The agreement for the bounds betwixt Plymouth and Massachu- setts," and on 279 and 280 the petition of Humphrey Johnson to the General Court of Plymouth, and answer thereto, which are printed in this volume. The pages of the manuscript are noted by a * in the margin. The following pages were left blank : 3, 4, 24, 42, 72, 174, 218, 219, 220, 261 to 277. Some words omitted in recording, but found in the original minutes, are printed in brackets in the margin, as also some words from the originals, to correct mistakes in the record, are printed in the same manner. No blame, however, should be imputed to Secretary Morton or any one else on this account, as the minutes of the Commissioners appear to have been very hastily written.
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