Volume 1, Chapter 50, The Reopening of the Narragansett Claims, 1679 to 1683
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,
Land, 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
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
and 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 Culpepper, the royal governor of Virginia,
This support was purchased by Wharton in exchange for a partnership in the Atherton Company.
Lord Culpepper 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
Palms, Edward Randolph, and William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley of the pro-crown opportunist
group of Massachusetts merchants.
The Lords of Trade accepted Culpepper's suggestion. Their agreement being facilitated by Wharton's
discreet offer sent via Randolph to the Secretary of the Lords, William Blathewaite, a payment
for services rendered. In April 1683, the Lords appointed a new royal commission to investigate
the Narragansett claims. They accepted Culpepper's eight-man list, adding to it only Governor
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
and 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 Blathwaite, accompanied the report.
The message informed the latter that the Atherton proprietors do all intend to complement 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.