Conceived in Liberty (66 page)

By December Massachusetts had made its fateful decision. The magistrates voted for submission by a small majority. But virtually the entire House of Deputies voted repeatedly against submission, and now, in a turnabout, they were backed by a substantial majority of Puritan clergymen. Even Increase Mather, who had been denounced for preaching submission the year before, now joined the independence cause and became one of the prime leaders of the opposition party.

Randolph again sailed for England with the news, and now the Crown executed a piece of legal trickery to avoid giving Massachusetts even the right to appear in court in its own defense. By changing the writ,
*
the Crown was able to declare the Massachusetts charter annulled, and did so on October 23, 1684. The boom had finally been lowered on Massachusetts; the Crown had at last dissolved the Bay Colony’s charter.

Edward Randolph’s war against Massachusetts now entered an entirely new phase. His first objective—to smash the independent government of Massachusetts—had been achieved. But now there remained his next and final objective: to take control of Massachusetts and, indeed, of all New England, and to rule the land for the profit of himself and the Crown. Energetic as always, Randolph lost no time in putting the next phase of his grand design into effect. He found a perfect ally in the opportunist leader Joseph Dudley, who had gone to England to represent the interest of Massachusetts and had stayed to represent his own. In fact, Randolph and Dudley had worked out a plan for Massachusetts and New England as early as the summer of 1683. The plan proposed a governor general and a Council for all New England, and all were to be appointed by the king. The Council was to be selected, however, from the elected magistrates of the various New England colonies. There was to be no New England Assembly. The Massachusetts government would continue to be elected by the freemen, but the franchise was to be narrowed to those owning over four hundred pounds in assets. The governor general would have the power to veto the seating of any elected official. The governor general would also have the ultimate appellate judicial power. The militia would be ruled by royal officers. All landowners would pay a yearly quitrent to the king. This Dudley-Randolph plan in effect provided for an absolute royal despotism (ruling along with handpicked colonial satellites) over all of New England, but with a thin and hollow façade of democracy and home rule.

Such leading merchants as Richard Wharton and William Stoughton now lined up with Dudley, ready and eager to enjoy the privileges won by political favor. Richard Wharton was typical of this group. Formerly opposed to Randolph’s enforcement of the navigation laws, Wharton now saw where the power lay and determined to gain himself some of its perquisites. Massachusetts, however, was increasingly balking at the promised new dispensation. Although Bradstreet was reelected in the May 1684 elections, it was only by a hairbreadth over Danforth; and Dudley, the main leader of the opportunists, lost his post as assistant—Stoughton resigned his place in sympathy. Nonetheless, Randolph and his cohorts spent the summer and early fall happily working out their plans for the takeover of New England.

*
Roughly, the general lineup of the Council of Magistrates was as follows: for the Naval Office Law were Thomas Danforth, Daniel Gookin, Humphrey Davy, John Richards, Samuel Nowell, James Russell, Bartholomew Gedney, Samuel Appleton, and Peter Tilton.

Against the law, Governor Simon Bradstreet (who refused even to participate in swearing in the naval officer), Daniel Denison, William Stoughton, Joseph Dudley, Peter Bulkeley, John Hull, John Pynchon, William Brown, and Thomas Savage. There were two Saltonstalls on the Council, Richard Jr., in the popular opposition party, and Nathaniel in the opportunist party.

*
Michael Garibaldi Hall,
Edward Randolph and the American Colonies, 1676–1703,
p. 80.

*
The Crown got a writ of
scire facias et alias,
which it could use to speed a judgment in the Court of Chancery without giving Massachusetts any time to prepare a defense.

During his first four years in high office in New England, Edward Randolph exerted a most powerful influence on the Narragansett Country. We have seen that the settlement by the royal commission in 1665 granted the Narragansett Country “as King’s Province” to Rhode Island, but continued the arbitrary Atherton Company land claims in force. Before 1676 the land dispute had been more or less academic, but the eradication of the Narragansett Indians in King Philip’s War now opened the entire country to land settlement. Aware that the Narragansett lands were now a glowing prize, the Atherton Company claimed that Rhode Island had forfeited jurisdiction by failing to do its part in New England’s extermination of the Narragansett Indians.

In early 1679 the king wrote to the colonies, ordering the status quo to remain in the Narragansett lands, and suggesting that all interested parties submit their claims to England. In reply the commissioners of the New England Confederation got together and strongly backed the claim of Connecticut to the territory. They asserted bitterly that the citizens of Rhode Island “were an ungoverned people, utterly incapable to advance His Majesty’s interest, or the peace and happiness of their neighbors.” In the same year, the Atherton Company expanded its membership, with Richard Wharton soon becoming a leading partner. The company petitioned Connecticut to assume jurisdiction, but to no avail. Randolph now agreed to plead the Atherton Company’s case and in 1680 backed up the New Atherton plan for an independent charter for King’s Province. The company also managed to win the support of Governor Andros of New York for its claims. But its most important friend at court was Lord Culpeper, the
royal governor of Virginia, whose support was purchased by Wharton in exchange for a partnership in the Atherton Company.

Lord Culpeper urged the Lords of Trade to appoint a new set of commissioners to decide the Narragansett problem, for which he suggested a list of “substantial, able and... uninterested persons.” The list included such an “uninterested” group as Fitz-John Winthrop, son of the late John Winthrop, Jr., and a partner in the Atherton Company; Winthrop’s brother-in-law Edward Palmes; Edward Randolph; and William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley, of the pro-Crown opportunists group of Massachusetts merchants.

The Lords of Trade accepted Culpeper’s suggestion, their agreement being facilitated by Wharton’s discreet offer—sent via Randolph—to the secretary of the lords, William Blathwayt, of payment for services rendered. In April 1683 the lords appointed a new royal commission to investigate the Narragansett claims. They accepted Culpeper’s eight-man list, adding to it only Governor Cranfield of New Hampshire as chairman. The commission, reeking with built-in bias, gathered at the house of one of the Atherton proprietors, and surrounded itself with several of the other partners. The Rhode Island government vigorously protested these proceedings and ordered the commission out of its jurisdiction. The commission sent in its report, in October 1683, finding for Connecticut and the Atherton Company, and invalidating the previous royal commission and the jurisdiction of Rhode Island. Typical of the commission’s almost egregious cynicism was Chairman Cranfield’s message to Blathwayt, accompanying the report. The message informed the latter that the Atherton proprietors “do all intend to compliment you with a parcel of land within their claim.” So it was that the Cranfield commission paved the path for the land-grab of the Narragansett Country by the Atherton Company.

During the year 1684, while Randolph, Dudley, and their allies were happily spinning plans for the government of New England after the abolition of the Massachusetts charter, the Lords of Trade made their own modifications of the Randolph-Dudley plan of the year before. Their proposal, though very similar, provided that royal despotism be stripped of even the thin façade of home rule allowed by Randolph and Dudley. In the lords’ plan the governor general and the Council for New England would all be
appointed
—the latter to be appointed, of course, by the governor—and unchecked by any representative assembly. Governor and Council would have full power to legislate, adjudicate, tax, regulate trade, foster the Church of England, and impose a system of quitrents. In short, it was a fully centralized royal despotism over all of New England. The characteristic Tory regime of this era, imposing throne, altar, mercantilism, big government, and feudalism, was to be imposed upon the one area in America that had been self-governing and blissfully free of most of these elements. Since the Rhode Island and Connecticut charters were still in operation, the lords’ initial plan was to begin with one royal government for Massachusetts (including Maine), New Hampshire, and, after study of the Cranfield report, the Narragansett Country. The Narragansett lands were to be detached from Rhode Island and joined to the expanded Massachusetts; the governor general would confirm all land titles upon payment of quitrent. The Lords of Trade then decided to add Plymouth to the expanded Massachusetts and looked forward to adding Rhode Island and Connecticut should their charters be abrogated.

No sooner had the Massachusetts charter been dissolved at the end of
October, however, than a grave blow fell on the carefully constructed plan. The king suddenly decided to appoint as royal governor of Massachusetts the notoriously brutal Col. Percy Kirke.

At this juncture, with all plans in limbo, Charles II died in early February 1685 and was succeeded by his brother, James II, a Roman Catholic and high Tory. James, in a frenzy to eliminate all independent and proprietary colonies, and to change them to outright royal colonies, began
quo warranto
proceedings against several colonial charters, with Randolph enthusiastically drawing up the charges against Connecticut and Rhode Island. The plans for a new, expanded Massachusetts government were temporarily postponed in order to settle the problems of a new reign. But finally, in September 1685, James II decreed the governmental form that the new royal colony of Massachusetts would take.

The new royal colony was to be the Dominion of New England, a colony made up of the former colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the Narragansett Country. Ruling over the Dominion was to be a Grand Council, appointed by the Crown and drawn from residents of all the previous colonies. Secretary and registrar of the Dominion was Edward Randolph, whose suggestions for the Council had all been accepted by King James. Chosen as president of the Council was Joseph Dudley. The appointment of Colonel Kirke had fallen through, and the Randolph-Dudley clique was now in complete control. With the exception of Connecticut and Rhode Island, takeover of the colonies was now complete. There would now be no representative assembly to block the clique’s path to power and plunder. The triumphant Randolph was now reconfirmed in his old commission of collector of customs, his royal salary and fees were considerably increased, and he also acquired the royal offices of auditor for New England, deputy postmaster general, and surveyor of the New England woods.

The Dudley-Randolph government took office in Boston, after Randolph arrived at the end of May 1686. The Dudley Council was to rule until the king could send over a governor general to take charge. The new governing Council of the Dominion of New England was an instructive collection of all the leading pro-English opportunists in Massachusetts and New Hampshire: Joseph Dudley, president; William Stoughton, deputy president; Edward Randolph, secretary; John Usher, treasurer; plus Robert Mason, Fitz-John Winthrop, John Pynchon, Peter Bulkeley, Wait Winthrop, Richard Wharton, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Simon Bradstreet, Dudley Bradstreet, Bartholomew Gedney, John Hinckes, Francis Champernowne, Edward Tyng, and Jonathan Tyng. Of these councillors, all resided in Massachusetts proper except Mason and Hinckes who resided in New Hampshire; Champernowne and Edward Tyng, who came from the Maine towns; and Fitz-John Winthrop, of King’s Province. Of these, however, Saltonstall, Champernowne, and the Bradstreets refused to serve, the
latter two because the office was “a thing contrived to abridge them of their liberty and, indeed, against the Magna Carta.”

Meanwhile, how did once proud Massachusetts react to the stunning news of its demise? The popular opposition party remained in power as the blow fell, and stubbornly refused to make a formal submission. It even proceeded to indict a man for saying that the Massachusetts government no longer existed, but Randolph’s arrival in May put a stop to these proceedings. The General Court had decided on nonviolent civil disobedience: not revolting, but refusing to consent to the new arrangement. Understandably, the court was particularly exercised over the elimination of a representative assembly, and of its sole right to levy taxes. But this did not faze Randolph and Dudley, who successfully proceeded to ignore the General Court and to assume the reins of government.

On May 25 the Dudley Council assumed office over Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and quickly began to make its impact upon New England. The Dudley regime has been accurately termed a “feast of political privilege” for the members of the new ruling clique. Dudley and his relatives took care to grant themselves large tracts of vacant land, and to assign to themselves and their friends all the government offices having any degree of patronage or influence. In this spirit, they determined legal fees, imports, and duties, selected ports of entry, exempted themselves from town taxation, and had themselves paid handsomely for these services to themselves. The ruling clique was composed mostly of merchants who by intermarriage formed a tangled web of family connections. John Usher, treasurer of the Dominion, was the brother-in-law of Dudley’s brother-in-law. Richard Wharton, councillor, had married the first cousin of Dudley’s wife, and had later married Martha Winthrop, sister of Fitz-John and Wait Winthrop. Edward Palmes, made a justice of the peace, had married another Winthrop sister, Lucy. Edward and Jonathan Tyng were the brothers of Dudley’s wife, Rebecca.