WEBVTT NOTE 48. The Crown Takes over New Hampshire, 1680-1685 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.600 Volume 1, Chapter 48, The Crown Takes Over New Hampshire, 1680-1685 2 00:00:08.600 --> 00:00:16.600 Edward Randolph arrived in America in December 1679. His first task was to set up the royal 3 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:23.240 government in New Hampshire. At Portsmouth in mid-January, Randolph invested John Cut, 4 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:29.180 a leading Portsmouth merchant, with the office of president. Randolph's problem in New Hampshire 5 00:00:29.180 --> 00:00:35.520 was to rule the four towns that were led by a small group of wealthy Puritan and Massachusetts 6 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:42.520 merchants, the Vaughns, the Waldrons, the Cots. As elsewhere, his policy was to divide 7 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:50.280 and conquer. He achieved this aim by finding an ally in John Cot. Next, Randolph appointed 8 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:56.920 to the post of counselor the other key merchant leaders. These included Richard Waldron, Richard 9 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:03.600 Martin and William Vaughan. But five of the six counselors at first refused to serve and 10 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:09.320 it was the influence of John Cot that finally persuaded them to end their civil disobedience 11 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:15.240 and to assume their post. Waldron became vice president of the colony. 12 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:22.240 The new general court of New Hampshire, consisting of council and elected assembly, met in March 13 00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:27.040 and bravely passed a kind of declaration of rights, asserting that, 14 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:39.040 No act, imposition, law or ordinance be made or imposed upon us, but such as shall be made by the Assembly and approved by the President and Council. 15 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:45.740 Brave words, but they ran straight against the intentions of the royal power. 16 00:01:45.740 --> 00:01:51.740 Leaving New Hampshire, Randolph left behind him another pliable ally, Walter Barefoot, 17 00:01:51.740 --> 00:01:58.140 his deputy collector of customs. Barefoot was to enforce the navigation acts strictly 18 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:04.620 and collect the corollary revenue. Another ally was the Englishman Richard Chamberlain, 19 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:10.820 a friend of Mason's who was appointed secretary of the New Hampshire Council. However, Randolph 20 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:18.500 lost his number one ally, Cot, who died in early 1681. Succeeding him in the post was 21 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:24.620 was the tough-minded merchant Richard Waldron. The new spirit was evident when Barefoot decreed 22 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:32.580 that all ships entering and leaving Portsmouth must do so only under his authority. Waldron 23 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:38.300 and his colleagues immediately displayed the old Massachusetts spirit of independence promptly 24 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:43.740 arresting Barefoot and trying him before the President and Council as the Supreme Court 25 00:02:43.740 --> 00:02:50.740 New Hampshire was now in virtual revolt against the Crown's rule. King Charles quickly did 26 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:19.140 This allowed the colony's declaration of rights, and Robert Mason came to New Hampshire in 27 00:03:19.140 --> 00:03:26.140 late 1681 with the king's order requiring Mason to be admitted as a member of the council. 28 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:33.060 Mason's agents then began to demand his current and back quit rents from the settlers on pain 29 00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:39.540 of eviction, and to forbid the settlers to cut timber on his lands. Acting on numerous 30 00:03:39.540 --> 00:03:47.020 The Council commanded Mason and his agents to cease and desist from these harassments. 31 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:53.540 There followed a test of strength. Mason summoned the Council to appear before the King. The 32 00:03:53.540 --> 00:03:59.600 Council issued a warrant for Mason's arrest as an usurper. Upon losing the test, Mason 33 00:03:59.600 --> 00:04:03.380 escaped arrest and fled back to England. 34 00:04:03.380 --> 00:04:08.980 But New Hampshire had also to face the royal might of England. Mason, having told his tale 35 00:04:08.980 --> 00:04:20.220 The King decided to remodel the administration of New Hampshire and bring the rebellious 36 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:22.740 colony to heel. 37 00:04:22.740 --> 00:04:28.340 Instead of a president, New Hampshire was now to have a royally appointed governor with 38 00:04:28.340 --> 00:04:30.820 greatly expanded powers. 39 00:04:30.820 --> 00:04:37.700 The governor could convoke or dissolve the general court, veto its laws, remove counselors, 40 00:04:37.700 --> 00:04:41.740 Constitute Courts and Appoint Officers. 41 00:04:41.740 --> 00:04:47.300 Selected to be the first royal governor was the court favorite, Edward Cranfield, who 42 00:04:47.300 --> 00:04:53.060 was promised a handsome salary and one-fifth of all the quit-rents received. 43 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:58.820 Cranfield arrived in New Hampshire in October 1682. 44 00:04:58.820 --> 00:05:05.020 Virtually his first act was to remove the independent-minded Waldron and Martin from 45 00:05:05.020 --> 00:05:07.380 office. 46 00:05:07.380 --> 00:05:13.740 He called an assembly, which promulgated a new code of laws, this time omitting the Declaration 47 00:05:13.740 --> 00:05:20.700 of Rights. By December, Cranfield had discovered that Mason, in persuading him to take the 48 00:05:20.700 --> 00:05:26.700 office, had misrepresented the little colony by stating that it was far wealthier and more 49 00:05:26.700 --> 00:05:33.980 populated than it was. For a short while, Cranfield, disappointed at the poor pickings, 50 00:05:33.980 --> 00:05:45.980 In a few more weeks, however, Cranfield remembered what he was there for, and settled down to 51 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:50.300 his job of plundering as best he could. 52 00:05:50.300 --> 00:05:56.180 As Cranfield was reported to have said, he had come to New Hampshire for money, and money 53 00:05:56.180 --> 00:05:57.740 he would have. 54 00:05:57.740 --> 00:06:02.980 Cementing his alliance with Randolph, he put Randolph on the New Hampshire Council, 55 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:06.420 and also appointed him attorney general of the colony. 56 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:12.820 Toward the end of December, Cranfield seized and dragged into court George Jaffrey, a Puritan 57 00:06:12.820 --> 00:06:19.820 merchant of Portsmouth, for shipping goods deemed contraband under the navigation laws. 58 00:06:19.820 --> 00:06:25.600 At the trial, the jury, following the great English tradition of deciding on the justice 59 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:33.320 of the Law as well as the facts of the specific case decided against the law and brought a 60 00:06:33.320 --> 00:06:41.000 verdict with court cost against the Crown. Cranfield reacted by removing Elias Stallman 61 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:47.960 from his office of councilman and commander of the fort. Stallman had disobeyed an order 62 00:06:47.960 --> 00:06:54.300 to fire on Jaffrey's ship and was replaced as commander by the always pliable Captain 63 00:06:54.300 --> 00:07:00.340 and Walter Barefoot. The most high-handed reaction of Cranfield was to direct Randolph 64 00:07:00.340 --> 00:07:07.900 to prosecute the jury and all others involved in the criminal conspiracy. Cranfield would 65 00:07:07.900 --> 00:07:12.940 have liked to proceed against the main leader of the resistance, Reverend Joshua Moody, 66 00:07:12.940 --> 00:07:19.260 a Puritan minister who was also a merchant. Cranfield now found the popularly elected 67 00:07:19.260 --> 00:07:25.100 of the Assembly refusing to pass his demands for higher taxes. The Governor decided to 68 00:07:25.100 --> 00:07:32.100 institute a complete executive despotism and subdue the recalcitrant colonist. Cranfield 69 00:07:32.140 --> 00:07:38.060 dissolved the Assembly and made himself and the Council the supreme legislative and judicial 70 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:45.060 power. He changed the juries from being elective to agencies appointed by the Governor. Virtually 71 00:07:45.060 --> 00:07:51.660 Virtually the entire populace of the colony, led by the merchants, freeholders and puritans, 72 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:58.300 bitterly opposed the despotic regime that Cranfield had managed to impose in three short 73 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:01.860 months in office. 74 00:08:01.860 --> 00:08:07.580 The people of New Hampshire were not the sort to take this treatment passively. 75 00:08:07.580 --> 00:08:13.460 Many people in Exeter resisted payment of the tax levy, but Edward Gove, a deputy from 76 00:08:13.460 --> 00:08:21.060 from Hampton decided on more active resistance. Rebellion. Gove, aided by Nathaniel Ladd of 77 00:08:21.060 --> 00:08:26.860 a prominent New Hampshire family, rode to and fro between Hampton and Exeter on January 78 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:34.660 27, trying to raise a rebellion and claiming that Cranfield's commission was invalid. Gove 79 00:08:34.660 --> 00:08:40.660 raised the cry of liberty and reformation, but the other leaders of the colony decided 80 00:08:40.660 --> 00:08:46.220 that rebellion was imprudent, and the tiny band of eleven men was quickly arrested by 81 00:08:46.220 --> 00:08:52.020 the soldiery. There is reason to believe that the Gove Rising was premature and that the 82 00:08:52.020 --> 00:08:58.620 leaders of the popular opposition were themselves preparing to revolt three days later. The 83 00:08:58.620 --> 00:09:04.180 Gove rebels were tried for high treason on February 2nd. Ironically, the chief judge 84 00:09:04.180 --> 00:09:10.580 Judge was Richard Waldron, a man whose views and sentiments were all with Gove. Waldron 85 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:16.340 knew that Gove was right and that he, Waldron, should have been standing in the dock instead 86 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:22.900 of judging the man now there. But as often happens when men confront the embodiment of 87 00:09:22.900 --> 00:09:29.580 their conscience, Waldron was especially severe. For daring to speak in his own defense, Gove 88 00:09:29.580 --> 00:09:36.580 was denounced by Waldron for insolence and then sentenced to be tortured and executed. 89 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:45.580 Gove's property was duly confiscated and part of the spoils, as was the rule, was pocketed personally by Governor Cranfield. 90 00:09:45.580 --> 00:09:51.580 But Cranfield feared the rising revolutionary situation and was worried that Gove might escape, 91 00:09:51.580 --> 00:09:57.580 so he decided to follow the royal rule for rebels and ship Gove to England. 92 00:09:57.580 --> 00:10:09.580 Gove's colleagues, though also convicted of treason, were released. In England, Gove was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where there may have been an attempt to poison him. 93 00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:16.580 Cranfield and his little clique now imposed a grinding despotism upon the colony. 94 00:10:16.580 --> 00:10:25.580 Cranfield speedily removed Waldron and Martin from the council once again, and appointed Barefoot, his deputy governor, and Mason, the chancellor. 95 00:10:25.580 --> 00:10:34.580 With the magistrates and juries all appointed by the governor, Mason began mass prosecution for failure to pay quit rents. 96 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:39.580 Cranfield was supplied with a special incentive to enforce Mason's claims. 97 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:45.580 One-fifth of the quit rents, extracted from the people, was to go to Cranfield himself. 98 00:10:45.580 --> 00:10:55.580 Mason won 30 or 40 suits before packed juries and had the satisfaction of winning the first suit against none other than Waldron. 99 00:10:55.580 --> 00:10:59.580 The jury consisted of tenants of Robert Mason. 100 00:10:59.580 --> 00:11:07.580 But when executions were levied, no one would buy the confiscated lands or take possession of them. 101 00:11:07.580 --> 00:11:11.580 They remained in the hands of the property owners. 102 00:11:11.580 --> 00:11:19.580 Cranfield now tried to meet this non-violent resistance and extract Mason's rents by force. 103 00:11:19.580 --> 00:11:31.580 But the people, emboldened by news of Gove's life being spared, rose up and met force with force, led by Waldron, Vaughan and Reverend Mr. Moody. 104 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:40.580 Cranfield promptly retaliated by clamping the colony's leaders, including Waldron, Moody, Vaughan and Stallman, into jail. 105 00:11:40.580 --> 00:11:47.580 Cranfield undaunted, pressed on in his despotic course. The ships of Massachusetts, thought to be anti-Cranfield, were excluded from New Hampshire, because of Massachusetts' persistent violations of the navigation laws. He altered town boundaries and forbade the collection of taxis. 106 00:12:10.580 --> 00:12:23.580 Executive despots have traditionally had one Achilles heel, taxes. 107 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:32.580 Cranfield found himself forced in January 1684 to recall the assembly to try to raise more tax revenues. 108 00:12:32.580 --> 00:12:38.500 Cranfield used the old device of despots, trying to frighten the assembly with dark 109 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:45.940 forebodings of a foreign and an Indian threat. He had secret intelligence, said Cranfield, 110 00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:51.540 that New Hampshire was in danger of foreign invasion. He therefore demanded the doubling 111 00:12:51.540 --> 00:12:56.780 of tax rates for various increased expenses of government, including the repair of the 112 00:12:56.780 --> 00:13:02.460 and the Portsmouth Fort, but the assembly staunchly refused to be intimidated by war 113 00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:08.180 scares and refused to pass the revenue bill. 114 00:13:08.180 --> 00:13:13.380 Governor Cranfield now dissolved the assembly again and proceeded to the ultimate length 115 00:13:13.380 --> 00:13:19.260 of levying taxes himself without consent of the assembly. 116 00:13:19.260 --> 00:13:24.780 He also angered the colonists deeply by deciding to suppress completely the colony's largest 117 00:13:24.780 --> 00:13:31.780 Church, the Puritan Church, and to impose Anglicanism on New Hampshire by force. 118 00:13:31.940 --> 00:13:37.940 Cranfield's goal was to suppress the Puritan ministers and force them to administer the 119 00:13:37.940 --> 00:13:44.940 sacraments according to the Anglican right. He also called for an Anglican test for holding 120 00:13:45.020 --> 00:13:51.080 any public office. Concretely, he proceeded with enthusiasm against one of the leading 121 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:59.720 Opponents of His Despotic Regime, Portsmouth's Puritan Minister, Rev. Joshua Moody. Cranfield, 122 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:06.640 backed by Mason and Councilor John Hinks, ordered Moody to administer to them the sacrament 123 00:14:06.640 --> 00:14:14.640 of the Lord's Supper after the Anglican Order. When Moody refused, he was arrested. 124 00:14:14.640 --> 00:14:19.580 Cranfield put considerable pressure on the judges, and Moody was condemned and sentenced 125 00:14:19.580 --> 00:14:25.940 to six months imprisonment. After his release, Moody was prohibited from preaching, which 126 00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:32.940 forced him to move to Boston. But the tide now began to turn against the governor. The 127 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:39.300 sober, moderate Nathaniel Weir, justice of the peace and leading citizen of Hampton, 128 00:14:39.300 --> 00:14:45.140 was sent secretly out of the colony. Financed by the leading planters and merchants, he 129 00:14:45.140 --> 00:15:15.140 He sailed to London. Weir came armed with an extensive petition to the king against the tyranny of Cranfield. Even Edward Randolph, apprised of the Weir petition, turned against the extremes of Cranfield. Cranfield's own response to the Weir petition, incidentally, was characteristic of the man. He would get the names of all the signers and it would be the best hand he ever had, for it would be worth a hundred pounds a man. 130 00:15:15.140 --> 00:15:24.140 For helping Weir with the petition, the prominent merchant and landowner, William Vaughan, was imprisoned for nine months by Cranfield. 131 00:15:24.140 --> 00:15:37.140 However, the cause of New England in general, and New Hampshire specifically, was now being argued by the liberal George Seville, Marquis of Halifax and President of the Privy Council. 132 00:15:37.140 --> 00:15:44.100 Halifax argued frankly, according to the report of a French envoy, that the same laws enforced 133 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:50.300 in England ought to be established in a country inhabited by Englishmen, that an absolute 134 00:15:50.300 --> 00:15:57.220 government was neither so happy nor so safe as one that is tempered by laws, and that 135 00:15:57.220 --> 00:16:03.540 he could not make his mind easy to live in a country where the king should have the power 136 00:16:03.540 --> 00:16:10.440 to take the money he had in his pocket whenever his majesty saw fit. 137 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:17.340 The first sign of the Crown's displeasure with Cranfield came in April 1684 when the 138 00:16:17.340 --> 00:16:23.380 Lords of Trade rebuked him for deciding the Mason claims himself instead of sending them 139 00:16:23.380 --> 00:16:27.940 to England to be adjudicated as per his instructions. 140 00:16:27.940 --> 00:16:31.280 But Cranfield's internal troubles were even greater. 141 00:16:31.280 --> 00:16:38.320 The attempt to enforce payment of the new taxes led to general civil disobedience in the colony. 142 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:43.800 All refused to pay taxes to the constables. And when the property of the resistors was 143 00:16:43.800 --> 00:16:50.580 finally seized, no one would buy. In December, the resistance began to move 144 00:16:50.580 --> 00:16:56.820 into the stage of outright revolution. At Exeter, cudgels and boiling water were used 145 00:16:56.820 --> 00:17:05.820 In Hampton, Thurston was disarmed and beaten, and from there was escorted to the village of Salisbury with a rope around his neck. 146 00:17:05.820 --> 00:17:12.820 When the magistrate Roby ordered seizure of some of the mob, he was assaulted instead. 147 00:17:12.820 --> 00:17:19.820 The governor ordered a troop of cavalry, commanded by Robert Mason, into the field to put down the rebellion. 148 00:17:19.820 --> 00:17:26.820 Robert Mason, into the field to put down the rebellion. But so widespread was the revolutionary 149 00:17:26.820 --> 00:17:34.780 movement that at the appointed time and place Mason found himself alone on his horse. During 150 00:17:34.780 --> 00:17:41.780 the height of the turmoil in June 1685, Cranfield took the precaution of taking extended leave 151 00:17:41.780 --> 00:17:49.780 of absence in the West Indies for his health. He left barefoot to face the music. 152 00:17:49.780 --> 00:18:03.780 While England was rapidly turning against its agent, King Charles II died in February 1685 and was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York, James II. 153 00:18:03.780 --> 00:18:10.780 In April, Halifax again censured Cranfield for not sending the Massachusetts disputes to England. 154 00:18:10.780 --> 00:18:16.780 Edward Randolph now began to denounce his former creature openly and bitterly. 155 00:18:16.780 --> 00:18:22.720 Cranfield, in New Hampshire, by his arbitrary proceedings, has so harassed that poor people 156 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:26.920 that they wish again to be under the Bostoners. 157 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:32.600 For Mr. Cranfield has quite ruined that place, and should a governor go over who will tread 158 00:18:32.600 --> 00:18:39.480 in Mr. Cranfield's steps or do worse things if possible, it will cool the inclinations 159 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:45.680 of good men and make them take the first occasion to free themselves. 160 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:52.160 With the accession of King James, Edward Gove was freed from the tower, pardoned, and returned 161 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:55.720 home in the autumn of 1685. 162 00:18:55.720 --> 00:19:01.640 Walter Barefoot was now in precarious charge of the province, but he and Mason lay discreetly 163 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:03.440 low. 164 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:08.880 The symbolic end to the Cranfield reign of terror came in December when the once mighty 165 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:14.740 Barefoot and Mason were severely beaten up in the former's home by two leading citizens 166 00:19:14.740 --> 00:19:24.120 of the Colony. A former despotism had become opera bouffe. And Cranfield? Cranfield found 167 00:19:24.120 --> 00:19:30.780 it best for his health to make his leave permanent. He remained in the West Indies as collector 168 00:19:30.780 --> 00:19:31.900 on Barbados.