some but three or four Acres and all paid 2 l. 10 s. for passing their Grants of 100 Acres of Wood Land with twenty Acres of Marsh where ever it could be found but this bred a great mischief among the People few or none have their Land measured or marked they were in haste and got what they could they had their Emissaries amongst the poor people and frighted them to take Grants some came and complained to the Governour and prayed him to confirm their Rights which he refused to do the Commission and whole proceeding being Illegal having notice they were to be under his Government they resented it but it served their turn The poor have been very much oppressed here the Fort run all to ruine and wants a great deal to repair it Captain Palmer and Mr. West laid out for themselves such large lots and Mr. Graham though not there had a Childs Portion I think some have eight thousand or ten thousand Acres I hear not of one penny rent coming in to the King from them who have their Grants confirmed at York and the five shillings an hundred Acres was only a Sham upon the People at our return we saw very good Land at Winter Harbour enough to make large settlements for many people The Governour will have it first measured and then surveyed and then will dispose of it for settlements Mr. Graham and his Family are setled at Boston he is made Attorney General and now the Governor is safe in his New-York Confidents all others being Strangers to his Council 'T was not well done of Palmer and West to tear all in pieces that was setled and granted at Pemyquid by Sir E. that was the Scene where they placed and displaced at pleasure and were as Arbitrary as the great Turk Some of the first setlers of that Eastern Country were denied Grants of their own Lands whilst these men have given the Improved Lands amongst themselves of which I suppose Mr. Hutchinson hath complained In another May the 16th 1689. he says I must confess there have been ill men from New-York who have too much studied the disease of this people and both in Courts and Councils they have not been treated well Thus does Edward Randolph a Bird of the same Feather with themselves confess the truth as to this matter concerning his Brother Palmer and West And that Oppressive Fees have been extorted by Indigent and Exacting Officers is declared by Mr. Hinckley the present Governour of New-Plymouth in his Narrative of the Grievances and Oppressions of Their Majesties good Subjects in the Colony of New-Plymouth in New-England by the Illegal and Arbitrary Actings in the Late Government under Sir E. A. which Narrative is too large to be here inserted but it is possible it may be published by it self whereby it will appear that every corner in the Countrey did ring with complaints of the Oppressions and to speak in Mr. Palmer's phrase horrible Vsages of these ill Men. Some passages out of Mr. Hinckley's Narrative respecting this matter we shall here Transcribe whose words are these which follow The Bill of Cost Taxed by Judge Palmer seems also to be the greatest Extortion ever heard of before as thrice twenty Shillings for three motions for Judgment at the same Term and was it not their courtesie they did not move ten times one after another at the same rate and Taxed also five pound for the Kings Attorney and one and twenty Shillings for the Judges and ten Shillings for the Sheriff and other particulars as by the said Bill appeareth and that which makes it the greater Extortion is that the whole Bill of Cost was exacted of every one of them which each of them must pay down or be kept Prisoners till they did though all seven of them were jointly informed against in one Information Thus Mr. Hinckley The cry of poor Widows and Fatherless is gone up to Heaven against them on this account for the Probate of a Will and Letter of Administration above fifty Shillings hath been extorted out of the hands of the Poor nay they have been sometimes forced to pay more than four Pounds when not much above a Crown had been due Let Andrew Sergeant and Joseph Quilter among many others speak if this be not true who were compelled to Travel Two Hundred Miles for the Probate of a Will and to pay the unreasonable and oppressive Fees complained of Besides these things under Sir Edmund's Government they had wicked ways to extort Money when they pleased Mr. William Coleman complains and hath given his Oath accordingly that upon the supposed hired Evidence of one Man he sustained Forty Pound damage in his Estate And there were complaints all over the Countrey that Sir Edmund's Excise-men would pretend Sickness on the Road and get a Cup of Drink of the Hospitable People but privately drop a piece of Money and afterwards make Oath that they bought Drink at those Houses for which the Innocent Persons were fined most unreasonably and which was extorted from them though these Villanies were declared and made known to those then in Power William Goodhue James and Mary Dennis might be produced as Witnesses hereof with many more Some of Sir Edmund's Creatures have said That such things as these made his Government to stink Also John Hovey and others complain of sustaining Ten Pound damages by the Extortion of Officers though never any thing they could hear of was charged upon them to this day John and Christopher Of good complain of their being sent to Prison nine or ten days without a Mittimus or any thing laid to their charge and that afterwards they were forced to pay excessive charges It would fill a Volume if we should produce and insert all the Affidavits which do confirm the truth of these complaints In the time of that unhappy Government if the Officers wanted Money it was but Seizing and Imprisoning the best Men in the Countrey for no fault in the World and the greedy Officers would hereby have Grist to their Mill. Thus was Major Appleton dealt with Thus Captain Bradstreet Thus that worthy and worshipful Gentleman Nathaniel Salstorishal Esquire was served by them and barbarously prosecuted without any Information or Crime laid to his charge for he had done nothing worthy of Bonds but it was the pleasure of Sir E. and some others thus to abuse a Gentleman far more Honourably descended than himself and one concerned in the Government of N. E. before him but to his Eternal Renown one who refused to accept of an Illegal and Arbitrary Commission when in the Reign of the Late K. James it was offered to him We have now seen a whole Jury of complaints which concur in their Verdict against Sir E. A. and his Confederates Were these things to be heard upon the place where the Witnesses who gave in their Affidavits are resident they would amount to legal proof as to every particular which was by the Agents of the
their Enemies which they could as easily have done as a thousand men are able to kill one and therefore when they secured their Persons they declared as in their Declaration Printed at Boston in New England is to be seen that they would leave it to the King and Parliament of England to inflict what punishment they should think meet for such Criminals Their seizing and securing the Governour was no more than was done in England at Hull Dover Plimouth c. That such a man as Mr. John Palmer should exclaim against it is not to be wondred at seeing he was one of the Governours Tools being of his Council made a Judge by him and too much concern'd in some Illegal and Arbitrary Proceedings But his Confidence is wonderful that he should publish in Print that neither himself nor Sir Edmund Androsse nor others of them who had been secured by the People in New England had any Crimes laid to their charge whereas the foresaid Declaration emitted the very day they were secured doth plainly set forth their Crimes And in the Preface of his Book he hath these words viz. We appeared at the Council-Board where the worst of our Enemies even the very men who had so unjustly imprisoned and detained us had nothing to say or object against us By these Enemies he speaks of we suppose he means those who were lately sent as Agents from Boston in New England He hath therefore necessitated us to inform the World that the following Objections tho' not by his Enemies yet by those Agents presented at the Council-Board Matters objected against Sir Edmund Androsse Mr. Joseph Dudley Mr. Palmer Mr. Randolph Mr. West Mr. Graham Mr. Farewell Mr. Sherlock and others as occasions of their Imprisonment in New England 1. IT is objected against Sir Edmund Androsse that he being Governour of the Massachusetts Colony after notice of His present Majesties intention to land in England issued out a Proclamation requiring all persons to oppose any descent of such as might be authorized by him endeavour'd to stifle the News of his Landing and caused him that brought this Kings Declaration thither to be imprisoned as bringing a Seditious and Treasonable Paper 2. That in the time of his Government he without form or colour of legal Authority made laws destructive of the Liberty of the People imposed and levied Taxes threatned and imprisoned them that would not be assisting to the illegal Levys denied that they had any Property in their Lands without Patents from him and during the time of actual War with the Indians he did supply them with Ammunition and several Indians declared that they were encouraged by him to make War upon the English and he discountenanced making defence against the Indians 3. As to all the other persons imprisoned they were Accomplices and Confederates with Sir Edmund Androsse and particularly Mr. Dudley Mr. Randolph and Mr. Palmer were of his Council and joined with him in his Arbitrary Laws and Impositions and in threatning and in punishing them who would not comply Mr. West was his Secretary and guilty of great Extortion and gave out words which shewed himself no Friend to the English Mr. Graham was his Attorney at one time and Mr. Farewell at another both concerned in illegal proceedings destructive of the Property of the Subject Mr. Farewell prosecuted them who refused to comply with the Illegal Levies and Mr. Graham brought several Writs of Intrusion against men for their own Land and Mr. Sherlock another person imprisoned though not named in the Order acted there for some years as an High Sheriff though he was a stranger in the Countrey and had no Estate there during his Shrievalty he impannelled Juries of Strangers who had no Free-hold in that Countrey and extorted unreasonable Fees These particulars were not only presented at the Council-Board but there read before the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee for Foreign Plantations on April 17. 1690. when Sir Edmund Androsse Mr. Palmer and the rest concerned were present and owned that they had received Copies thereof from Mr. Blaithwaite It is true that the Paper then read was not signed by the Agents aforesaid for which reason as we understand nor could it rationally be otherwise expected the matter was dismissed without an hearing Nevertheless the Gentlemen who appeared as Counsel for the New England Agents declared That they were ready to prove every Article of the Objections which shall now be done 1. That Sir E. A. with others whom the People in New England seized and secured did after notice of His present Majesties intended descent into England to deliver the Nation from Popery and Arbitrary Power to their utmost oppose that glorious design is manifest by the Proclamation Printed and Published in New England Jan. 10. 1688. signed by Sir E. A. and His Deputy Secretary John West in which K. James's Proclamation of Octob. 16. 1688. is recited and referred unto Sir Edmunds Proclamation begins thus Whereas His Majesty hath been graciously pleased by His Royal Letter bearing date the 16th of October last past to signifie that He hath undoubted Advice that a great and sudden Invasion from Holland with an armed Force of Foreigners and Strangers will be speedily made in an hostile manner upon His Majesties Kingdom of England and that although some false Pretences relating to Liberty Property and Religion c. And then he concludes thus All which it is His Majesties pleasure should be made known in the most publick manner to His Loving Subjects within this His Territory and Dominion of New England that they may be the better prepared to resist any Attempts that may be made by His Majesties Enemies in these parts I do therefore hereby charge and command all Officers Civil and Military and all other His Majesties Loving Subjects within this His Territory and Dominion aforesaid to be vigilant and careful in their respective places and stations and that upon the approach of any Fleet or Foreign Force they be in readiness and use their utmost endeavours to hinder any Landing or Invasion that may be intended to be made within the same 2. And that they used all imaginable endeavours to stifle the News of the Prince's Landing in England appears not only from the Testimony of the People there and from the Letters of those now in Government at Boston but from the deposition of Mr. John Winstow who affirms that being in Nevis in Feb. 1688. a Ship arrived there from England with the Prince of Orange's Declaration and intelligence of the happy change of Affairs in England which he knew would be welcom News in New England and therefore was at the charge to procure a written Copy of that Princely Declaration with which he arrived at Boston about a fortnight before the Revolution there He concealed the Declaration from Sir Edmund because he believed if it came into his possession he would keep the people in ignorance concerning it but intimation being given that
had a good God and a good King and should do well to stand for our Priviledges Jury returns us all six guilty being all involved in the same Information We were remanded from Verdict to Prison and there kept one and twenty days for Judgement There with Mr. Dudley's approbation as Judge Stoughton said this Sentence was passed viz. John Wise suspended from the Ministerial Function fine fifty pound money pay cost a thousand pound bond for the good behaviour one year John Appleton not to bear Office fine 50 l. money pay cost a thousand pound bond for the good behaviour one year John Andrews not to bear Office fine 30 l. money pay cost five hundred pound bond for the good behaviour one year Robert Kinsman not to bear Office fine twenty pound money pay cost five hundred pound bond for the good behaviour one year William Goodhue not to bear Office fine twenty pound money pay cost five hundred pound bond for the good behaviour one year Thomas French not to bear Office fine 15 l. Money past cost 500 l. bond for the good behaviour one year The Total Fees of this case upon one single Information demanded by Farewell abovesaid amount to about a hundred and one pound seventeen shillings who demanded of us singly about sixteen pound nineteen shillings six pence the cost of Prosecution the Fines added make up this viz. Two hundred eighty and six pounds seventeen shillings money Summa Totalis 286 l. 17 s. To all which we may add a large account of other Fees of Messengers Prison charges Money for Bonds and Transcripts of Records exhausted by those ill men one way and another to the value of three or fourscore pounds besides our expence of time and imprisonment We judge the Total charge for one Case and Trial under one single Information involving us six men abovesaid in expence of Time and Moneys of us and our Relations for our necessary Succour and Support to amount to more but no less than 400 l. Money Too tedious to illustrate more amply at this time and so we conclude John Wise John Andrews Senior William Goodhue Junior Thomas French these four persons named and Robert Kinsman These four persons first named appeared the twentieth day of December and Robert Kinsman appeared the one and twentieth day of December 1689. and gave in their Testimony upon Oath before me Samuel Appleton Assistant for the Colony of the Massachusetts in New-England 6. That those who were in confederacy with Sir E. A. for the enriching themselves on the Ruins of New-England did Invade the Property as well as Liberty of the Subject is in the next place to be cleared and we trust will be made out beyond dispute When they little imagined that there should ever be such a Revolution in England as that which by means of His Present Majesty this Nation is Blest with they feared not to declare their Sentiments to the inexpressible exasperation of the people whom they were then domineering over They gave out that now their Charter was gone all their Lands were the Kings that themselves did Represent the King and that therefore Men that would have any Legal Title to their Lands must take Patents of them on such Terms as they should see meet to impose What people that had the Spirits of Englishmen could endure this That when they had at Vast Charges of their own conquered a Wilderness and been in possession of their Estates Forty nay Sixty years that now a parcel of Strangers some of them indigent enough must come and inherit all that the people now in New-England and their Fathers before them had laboured for Let the whole Nation judge whether these Men were not driving on a French design and had not fairly Erected a French Government And that our Adversaries may not insult and say these are words without proof we shall here subjoyn the Testimonies of the Reverend Mr. Higginson and several other worthy Persons given in upon Oath concerning this matter Being called by those in present Authority to give my Testimony to the Discourse between Sir Edmund Androsse and my self when he came from the Indian War as he passed through Salem going for Boston in March 1688 9. I cannot refuse it and therefore declare as followeth what was the substance of that Discourse Sir Edmund Androsse then Governour being accompanied with the Attorney General Graham Secretary West Judge Palmer the Room being also full of other people most of them his Attendants he was pleased to tell me he would have my judgment about this question Whether all the Lands in New-England were not the Kings I told him I was surprized with such a question and was not willing to speak to it that being a Minister if it was a question about a matter of Religion I should not be averse but this being a State matter I did not look upon it as proper for me to declare my mind in it therefore entreated again and again that I might be excused Sir E. A. replied and urged me with much importunity saying Because you are a Minister therefore we desire to know your judgment in it then I told him if I must speak to it I would only speak as a Minister from Scripture and Reason not medling with the Law He said the Kings Attorney was present there to inform what was Law I then said I did not understand that the Lands of N. E. were the Kings but the Kings Subjects who had for more than Sixty years had the possession and use of them by a twofold right warranted by the Word of God 1. By a right of just Occupation from the Grand Charter in Genesis 1st and 9th Chapters whereby God gave the Earth to the Sons of Adam and Noah to be subdued and replenished 2. By a right of purchase from the Indians who were Native Inhabitants and had possession of the Land before the English came hither and that having lived here Sixty years I did certainly know that from the beginning of these Plantations our Fathers entered upon the Land partly as a Wilderness and Vacuum Domicilium and partly by the consent of the Indians and therefore care was taken to Treat with them and to gain their consent giving them such a valuable consideration as was to their satisfaction and this I told them I had the more certain knowledge of because having learned the Indian Language in my younger time I was at several times made use of by the Government and by divers particular Plantations as an Interpreter in Treating with the Indians about their Lands which being done and agreed on the several Townships and proportions of Lands of particular Men were ordered and setled by the Government of the Countrey and therefore I did believe that the Lands of New-England were the Subjects Properties and not the Kings Lands Sir E. A. and the rest replied That the Lands were the Kings and that he gave the Lands within such limits to his Subjects
by a Charter upon such conditions as were not performed and therefore all the Lands of New England have returned to the King and that the Attorney General then present could tell what was Law who spake divers things to the same purpose as Sir E. A. had done slighting what I had said and vilifying the Indian Title saying They were Brutes c. and if we had possessed and used the Land they said we were the Kings Subjects and what Lands the Kings Subjects have they are the Kings and one of them used such an Expression Where-ever an Englishman sets his foot all that he hath is the Kings and more to the same purpose I told them that so far as I understood we received only the right and power of Government from the Kings Charter within such limits and bounds but the right of the Land and Soil we had received from God according to his Grand Charter to the Sons of Adam and Noah and with the consent of the Native Inhabitants as I had expressed before They still insisted on the Kings right to the Land as before whereupon I told them I had heard it was a standing Principle in Law and Reason Nil dat qui non habet and from thence I propounded this Argument he that hath no right can give no right to another but the King had no right to the Lands of America before the English came hither therefore he could give no right to them I told them I knew not of any that could be pleaded but from a Popish Principle that Christians have a right to the Lands of Heathen upon which the Pope as the Head of the Christians had given the West Indies to the King of Spain but this was disowned by all Protestants Therefore I left it to them to affirm and prove the Kings Title They replied and insisted much upon that that the King had a right by his Subjects coming and taking possession of this Land And at last Sir E. A. said with indignation Either you are Subjects or you are Rebels intimating as I understood him according to the whole scope and tendency of his Speeches and Actions that if we would not yield all the Lands of N. E. to be the Kings so as to take Patents for Lands and to pay Rent for the same then we should not be accounted Subjects but Rebels and treated accordingly There were many other various replies and answers on both sides but this is the sum and substance of that discourse John Higginson aged seventy four years Stephen Seawall aged thirty two years John Higginson Minister in Salem personally appeared before me Dec. 24. 1689. and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence John Hathorne Assistant Captain Stephen Seawall of Salem appeared before me Dec. 24. 1689. and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence John Hathorne Assistant Joseph Lynde of Charles-towne in the County of Middlesex in N. E. being fifty three years of age testifieth and saith That in the year 1687. Sir Edmund Androsse then Governour of New-England did inquire of him the said Lynde what Title he had to his Lands who shewed him many Deeds for Land that he the said Lynde possessed and particularly for Land that the said Lynde was certainly informed would quickly be given away from him if he did not use means to obtain a Patent for it The Deed being considered by Sir E. A. he said it was worded well and recorded according to N. E. custom or words to the same purpose He further enquired how the Title was derived he the said Lynde told him That he that he bought it of had it of his Father-in-law in Marriage with his Wife and his said Father from Charles-towne and the said Town from the General Court grant of the Massachusetts Buy and also by purchase from the Natives and he said my Title were nothing worth if that were all At another time after shewing him an Indian Deed for Land he said that their hand was no more worth than a scratch with a Bears paw under-valuing all my Titles though every way legal under our former Charter Government I then petitioned for a Patent for my whole Estate but Mr. West Deputy Secretary told me I must have so many Patents as there were Counties that I had parcels of Land in if not Towns finding the thing so chargeable and difficult I delayed upon which I had a Writ of Intrusion served upon me in the beginning of the Summer 1688. the Copy whereof is in Charles-towne's Mens complaint and was at the same time with that of Mr. James Russel's Mr. Seawall's and Mr. Shrimpton's it being for the same Land in part that I shewed my Title unto Sir E. A. as above being my self and those I derived it from possessed inclosed and improved for about Fifty years at which time I gave Mr. Graham Attorney General three pounds in Money promising that if he would let the Action fall I would pay Court charges and give him Ten pound when I had a Patent compleated for that small parcel of Land that said Writ was served upon me for which I did because a Quaker that had the promise of it from the Governour as I was informed in the Governors presence should not have it from me the said Lynde having about seven Acres more in the same common Field or Pasture about a Mile from this forty nine Acres near unto the Land that the said Governour gave unto Mr. Charles Lidget of divers of my Neighbours which I concluded must go the same way that theirs went and therefore though desired to be patented by the said Lynde with the forty nine Acres he could not obtain a Grant for it About the same time Mr. Graham Attorney General asked the said Lynde what he would do about the rest of his Land telling him the said Lynde that he would meet with the like trouble about all the rest of his Lands that he possessed and were it not for the Governours going to New-York at this time there would be a Writ of Intrusion against every Man in the Colony of any considerable Estate or as many as a Cart could hold and for the poorer sort of people said Sir E. A. would take other measures or words to the same purpose The said Lynde further saith That after Judgments obtained for small wrongs done him tryable by their own Laws before a Justice of the Peace from whom they allowed no Appeals in small Causes he was forced out of his own County by Writs of false Judgment and although at the first superiour Court in Suffolk the thing was so far opposed by Judge Stoughton as illegal as that it was put by yet the next Term by Judge Dudley and Judge Palmer the said Lynde was forced to answer George Farewell Attorney aforesaid then saying in open Court in Charles-town that all Causes must be brought to Boston in Suffolk because there was not honest men enough in Middlesex to make a
Jury to serve their turns or words to that purpose nor did Suffolk as appeared by their practice for they made use of Non-Residents in divers cases there I mention not my damage though it is great but to the truth above-written I the said Lynde do set to my hand Joseph Lynde Boston the 14th of January 1689 90. Juratus coram me John Smith Assistant And that the practices of these men have been according to their Principles destructive to the Property of the Subject is now to to be declared It is a thing too well known to be denied that some of Sir Edmunds Council begged if they had not had secret encouragement no man believes that they would have done so those Lands which are called The Commons belonging to several Townships whereby Plymouth Lyn Cambridge Road Island c. would have been ruinated had these mens Projects taken effect And not only the Commons belonging to Towns but those Lands which were the Property of several particular persons in Charles-town were granted from them And Writs of Intrusion were issued out against Coll. Shrimpton Mr. Samuel Seawall and we know not how many more besides That their Lands might be taken from them under pretence of belonging to King James An Island in the possession of John Pittome anciently appropriated to the maintenance of a Free-School was in this way seized How such men can clear themselves from the guilt of Sacrilegious Oppression they had best consider Mr. Palmer swaggers and hectors at a strange rate for he hath these words p. 29. I should be glad to see that man who would bare-faced instance in one particular grant of any mans Right or Possession passed by Sir E. A. during his Government And what if we will shew him the men that dare affirm as much or more than that what will he do Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite Ferrum We will produce those that have said and sworn as much as all this comes to For John Pittome hath upon Oath declared That James Sherlock Sir Edmunds Sheriff came on Dear Island on the 28th of January 1688. and turned him and his Family afloat on the Water when it was a snowy day although he was Tenant there to Coll. Shrimpton and that the said Sherlock put two men whom he brought with him into possession of the said Island as he said on behalf of King James the Second Let him also know that Mr. Shepard and Mr. Burrill of Lyn and James Russell Esq of Charles-towne in New-England have declared upon Oath as followeth Jeremiah Shepard Aged forty two years and John Burril aged fifty seven years we whose names are subscribed being made choice of by the Inhabitants of the Town of Lyn in the Massachusetts Colony in New England to maintain their right to their properties and Lands invaded by Sir Edmund Androsse Governour we do testify that besides Sir Edmund Androsse his unreasonable demands of Money by way of Taxation and that without an assembly and Deputies sent from our Town according to ancient custom for the raising of Money or levying of Rates our Properties our honest and just and true Titles to our Land were also invaded and particularly a great and considerable tract of Land called by the name of the Nahants the only secure place for the Grazing of some thousands of our Sheep and without which our Inhabitants could neither provide for their own Families nor be capacited to pay dues or duties for the maintenance of the publick but if dispossessed of the Town must needs be impoverished ruined and rendred miserable yet this very tract of Land being Petitioned for by Edward Randolph was threatned to be rent out of our hands notwithstanding our honest and just Pleas for our right to the said Land both by alienation of the said Land to us from the Original Proprietors the Natives to whom we paid our Moneys by way of purchase and notwithstanding near fifty years peaceable and quiet possession and improvement and also inclosure of the said Land by a Stone Wall in which tract of Land also two of our Patentees were interested in common with us viz. Major Humphreys and Mr. Johnson yet Edward Randolph Petitioning for the said Land Sir Edmund the Governour did so far comply with his unreasonable motion that we were put to great charges and expences for the Vindication of our honest rights thereto and being often before the Governour Sir Edmund and his Council for relief yet could find no favour of our innocent cause by Sir Edmund notwithstanding our Pleas of Purchase antient Possession Improvement Inclosure Grant of the General Court and our necessitous condition yet he told us all these Pleas were insignificant and we could have no true Title unless we could produce a Patent from the King neither had any person a right to one foot of Land in N. E. by vertue of Purchase Possession or Grant of Courts but if we would have assurance of our Lands we must go to the King for it and get Patents of it Finding no relief and the Governour having prohibited Town Meetings we earnestly desired Liberty for our Town to meet to consult what to do in so difficult a case and exigency but could not prevail Sir Edmund angrily telling us that there was no such thing as a Town in the Country neither should we have Liberty so to meet neither were our Antient Town Records as he said which we produced for the vindication of our Titles to said Lands worth a Rush Thus were we from time to time unreasonably treated our Properties and civil Liberties and Priviledges invaded our misery and ruine threatned and hastned till such time as our Country groaning under the unreasonable heavy Yoke of Sir Edmunds Government were constrained forcibly to recover our Liberties and Priviledges Jeremiah Shepard John Burril Jeremiah Shepard Minister and John Burril Lieutenant both of Lin personally appeared before us and made Oath to the truth of this Evidence Salem Feb. 3. 1689 90. John Hathorn Assistant Jonathan Corwin Assistant James Russel Esq on the behalf of the Proprietors of the stinted Pasture in Charlestown and on his own personal account declares as followeth That notwithstanding the answer made to Sir E. A. his demand by some Gentlemen of Charlestown on the behalf of the Proprietors which they judged satisfactory or at least they should have a further hearing and opportunity to make out their Rights there was laid out to Mr. Lidget adjoining to his Farm in Charlestown a considerable tract of Land as it is said one hundred and fifty Acres which was of considerable value and did belong to divers persons which when it was laid out by Mr. Wells there were divers bound marks shewed by the Proprietors and some of them and I had Petitioned for a Patent for my particular Propriety yet the whole tract was laid out to the said Lidget who not only did cut down Wood thereon without the right owners consent but Arrested
having lost several of their Ships in their Voyage and hearing that Sir E. A. was taken and now in hold should not proceed at present but threatned what they would do the next Summer Joshuah Conant Joshuah Conant personally appeared before me and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence Salem Novemb. the 23d 1689. John Hathorne Assistant Phillip Hilliard of Salem Jersey-man testifieth That he was taken by the French in a Ketch belonging to Salem viz. The Thomas and Mary Joshua Conant Commander off from Torbay near Cansir this Autumn Septemb. 17. and being carried on board the Lumbuscado did on board the said Ship hear several of the company say that there was about twelve Sail of them Ships of War came out in company together from France and were bound directly for Boston in N. E. and that Sir E. A. the late Governour there had sent into France for them to come over The mark 8 of Phillip Hilliard Phillip Hilliard personally appeared before me and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence Salem Novemb. the 23. 1689. John Hathorne Assistant James Cocks of Salem Mariner testifieth That he was taken by the French in the Ketch Margaret of Salem Daniel Gygles Commander on Tuesday the 17th of September last past off from Tarbay near Cansir by two French Ships of War who had one Merchant-man in company with them and he being carried on board their Admiral viz. the Lumbuscado he there met with a man he had known in London one of the said Ships Company who was a Biscay born named Peter Goit who told him that there was thirteen Ships of them came out of France in company together and that they were bound directly for Boston in New-England expecting that the Countrey was before or would be at their coming delivered up to the King of France and told him before they could get clear of the Coast of France several of their Ships were taken by the English Ships of War and the rest of their Fleet taken or dispersed and lost about New-found-land The mark SS of James Cocks James Cocks personally appeared before me and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence Salem Nov. 23. 1689. John Hathorne Assistant But as to one of the Crimes objected against Sir E. A. and his Arbitrary Complices Habemus confitentem reum Mr. Palmer cannot deny but that they levied moneys on the King's Subjects in New-England contrary to the fundamentals of the English Government which doth not allow the imposition of Taxes without a Parliament The New-Englanders supposed that their late Oppressors had been guilty of no less than a capital Crime by their raising Money in such a way as they did and we are assured that one of them after he received and before he acted by vertue of his illegal Commission from the Late King professed that if ever he had an hand in raising a penny of Money without an Assembly his neck should go for it and yet no man that we know of had a deeper hand in it than this person had But Mr. Palmer for the justification of this so foul a business laies down several Positions which he would have no man deny One of his Positions is That it is a fundamental Point consented to by all Christian Nations That the first discoverer of a Countrey inhabited by Infidels gives a right and dominion of that Countrey to the Prince in whose service and employment the discoverers were sent These are his words p. 17. We affirm that this fundamental Point as he calls it is not a Christian but an unchristian Principle It is controverted among the School-men an dominium fundatur in gratiâ Papists are as Mr. Palmer is for the affirmative but the Scripture teaches us to believe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heathen Nations and the Sons of Adam and not the Children of Israel only have a right to the Earth and to the Inheritance which God hath given them therein Deut. 32.8 When Mr. Palmer hath prov'd that Infidels are not the Sons of Adam we shall consent to his notion that Christians may invade their Rights and take their Lands from them and give them to whom they please and that the Pope may give all America to the King of Spain But let him know that the first Planters in New-England had more of conscience and the fear of God in them than it seems Mr. Palmer hath For they were not willing to wrong the Indians in their Properties for which cause it was that they purchased from the Natives their right to the Soil in that part of the World notwithstanding what right they had by vertue of their Charters from the Kings of England Mr. Palmer's Position is clearly against Jus Gentium Jus Naturale which instructs every man Nemini injuriam facere He that shall violently and without any just cause take from Infidels their Lands where they plant and by which they subsist does them manifest injury And let us know of Mr. Palmer if Christian Princes have power to dispose of the Lands belonging to Infidels in the West-Indies whether they have the like Dominion over the Lands belonging to the Infidels in the East-Indies and if these Infidels shall refuse to consent that such Christians shall possess their Lands that then they may lawfully Vi Armis expel or destroy them as the Spaniards did We may send Mr. Palmer for further instruction in this point to Balaam's Ass which ingenuously acknowledged that her Master though an Infidel had a Property in and right of Dominion over her Numb 22.30 But this Gentleman hath some other Assertions which he would have us take for postulata and then we shall be his Slaves without all peradventures He tells us in page 17 18 19. that the English Plantations in particular New-England are no parts of the Empire of England but like Wales and Ireland which were Conquered and belong to the Dominion of the Crown of England and that therefore he that wears the Crown may set up Governments over them which are Despotick and Absolute without any regard to Magna Charta and that whereas in Barbadoes Jamaica Virginia c. they have their Assemblies that 's only from the favour of the Prince and not that they could pretend Right to such Priviledges of Englishmen And now we need no further discovery of the man Could the people of N. E. who are zealous for English Liberties ever endure it long that such a person as this should be made one of their Judges that so by squeezing them he might be able to pay his Debts And can any rational man believe that persons of such Principles did not Tyrannize over that people when once they had them in their cruel Clutches and could pretend the Authority of the late King James for what they did In our opinion Mr. Palmer hath not done like a Wise man thus to expose himself to the just resentments and indignation of all the