Volume 1, Chapter 51, The Rule of Joseph Dudley and the Council of New England
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 facade of home rule allowed by Randolph and Dudley.
In the Lord's 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.
of the Assembly. Governor and Council would have full power to legislate, adjudicate,
tax, regulate trade, foster the Church of England and impose a system of quitterance.
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
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 Lord's initial plan was to begin with one royal government
from Massachusetts, including Maine, New Hampshire, and after study of the Cranfield Report, the
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 quit rent. 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
At the end of October, however, then a grave blow fell on the carefully constructed plan.
The king suddenly decided to appoint as royal governor of Massachusetts the notoriously
brutal Colonel Percy Kirk.
At this juncture, with all plans in limbo, Charles II died in early February 1685 and
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 co-war and toe 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
with Dudley. The appointment of Colonel Kirk 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 in the end of May 1686. The Dudley council was to rule
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.
Of these counselors all resided in Massachusetts proper except Mason and Hinks who resided
in New Hampshire, Champernown and Edward Ting, who came from the main towns, and Fitz-John
Winthrop of King's Province.
Of these, however, Saltonstall, Champernown, and the Bradstreet's 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 non-violent 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
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 had 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
Richard Wharton, counselor, had married the first cousin of Dudley's wife, and had later married Martha Winthrop, sister of Fitzjohn, and Waite Winthrop.
Edward Palms, made a Justice of the Peace, had married another Winthrop sister, Lucy.
Edward and Jonathan Ting, who had been married for a long time, had been married for a long time.
Edward and Jonathan Ting were the brothers of Dudley's wife, Rebecca. The Dudley clique happily engaged in their feast of privilege. Dudley, Wharton, the Winthrop's and others banded together to secure themselves a grant to the vast million-acre purchase of the Merrimack River, a territory that included consolidation of previous arbitrary land claims and dubious Indian privilege.
Purchases.
To facilitate the granting of governmental powers over the area, the Council formed the
Merrimack Land into a new Merrimack County, and these grants were secured by giving both
William Blathewaite and Edward Randolph shares in the new company.
But it took only a few weeks in office for Edward Randolph to become disenchanted with
of the Dudley regime, for he saw, to his horror, that the opportunist clique was interested
far more in using power to gain privileges for itself than in regulating and taxing its
fellow citizens to benefit the English crown. In general, this was an easy-going regime.
In his inaugural address, Dudley had promised a transition as plain and easy as possible.
Indeed, many of the old office holders were reappointed by the Council.
Only a few men were hauled before the Council for contempt and only one was imprisoned for
voicing sedition.
Some of the Puritans were scandalized at the appearance of Anglican services and the use
of the Anglican prayer book and by the high-handed wickedness of non-Puritans in Boston, drinking
and Talking Profanely and Bodily to the Great Disturbance of the Town and Grief of Good
People.
But the Council, to Randolph's chagrin, did not foster the Church of England actively.
Randolph also grumbled about the paucity of Anglicans in high office in the Dominion.
On the Council, only he and Mason were Anglicans, and only a handful of the more than sixty
officers of the militia were not Puritan Church members.
Randolph also found himself losing out in the division of the patronage spoils to the
numerous relatives of the Dudley-Warton clique.
Randolph's chagrin was also directed to the alleged failure of this merchant-ruling group
to enforce the Navigation Acts with the enthusiasm that he felt was required.
Dudley, however, had really proceeded auspiciously from the Randolph point of view, quickly launching
and the Radical Innovation of Trying Navigation Act Violations in newly constituted Admiralty
Courts. These were royal prerogative courts that decided cases outside the safeguards
of jury trial and of the features of the common law. In this way, the government could bypass
the checks of jury trial. Dudley worked out the stratagem with Samuel Peeps, Secretary
of the Naval Board in England, and in only two weeks had condemned three ships. But the
implacable Randolph was not satisfied. Riding home, he denounced Dudley as a man of base,
servile and anti-monarchal principle, and portrayed Wharton as a smuggler and a seditionary
who had criticized his, Randolph's, appointment to the Secretariat as intended to enthrall
of this People in Vassalage.
Actually the root of Randolph's carping was the fact that Dudley allowed the naval commander
as well as Randolph to initiate actions enforcing the navigation laws, thus depriving Randolph
of the financial rewards for the commander's successful suits.
Above all, Randolph chafed at the failure of the council to adopt his cherished goal
of Imposing a Drastic Program of Despotism and Plunder, run by himself, on the Dominion.
Randolph wanted to replace the county officers registering land titles with one central office,
his own, where everyone, for a handsome fee, would be forced to register his land title.
When the council refused this attempted grab, Randolph cried out in righteous indignation
Randolph went on to propose a grand compulsory registry of all persons over sixteen, the
forced licensing of all ministers, and the requirement that all ministers must have the
approval of the Governor to assume their post, in short, a virtual Anglican establishment
and Restriction of Non-Anglican Services in the Dominion.
These proposals, too, were rebuffed. To Randolph, this was base ingratitude by his own creatures,
whom he had elevated to state power. Randolph now found that his erstwhile allies were individuals
who agree in nothing but sharing the country amongst themselves and laying out long tracts
and who believed that this change was intended only to advantage them rather than Randolph or the Crown.
Of all the counselors, only Usher and Stoughton now met with his approval.
One saving grace of the Dudley administration, a grace that worked to keep its power relatively weak, was scarcity of funds.
Virtually its only meager sources of supply were the excise on liquors and fees.
It did not dare levy any direct taxes without having the approval of an assembly.
As partners in the Atherton Company, counselors Fitzjohn and Waite Winthrop were largely interested in finally seizing control of the Narragansett country,
now incorporated into the dominion of New England.
The Council, which included several other partners of the Atherton Company, promptly moved to implement the Cranfield Report of three years earlier.
At the end of June, Dudley, Fitzjohn Winthrop, Randolph and Wharton traveled to Kingston in King's Province and reorganized the whole government of the Narragansett country.
They proclaimed that absolute ownership of the land belonged to the Atherton Proprietors,
and announced that anyone settling on these lands without the permission of these arbitrarily
decreed Proprietors would have to purchase or rent the land.
Rhode Island dared not contest this naked seizure of its territory, its life being under
the continuing threat of Quo Warento action.
The proprietors quickly began to exploit this windfall by selling a tract of land to a group
of French Huguenot refugees at 20 pounds for 100 acres.
Finally in December 1686, the complexion of New England and the northern colonies underwent
another change.
Sir Edmund Andros arrived in Boston to assume the rule of an expanded, far more centralized
and Crown-Oriented Dominion of New England. The history of the Northern Colonies was entering
anew and fateful.