this place, endeavored to deprive us of our lands, and exposed us to the unjust severity of persons ill affected to us, whereby a considerable part of our estates is unrighteously extorted from us, to the great prejudice of our families, and the loss of many necessary comforts, and he persisting, from time to time, in his own malicious forging complaints against one or other of us, whereby we are in continual hazard of many further great inconveniences and mischief. We do, therefore, seize upon his person, resolving to secure him for the hands of justice, to deal with him according to his demerit.'

The seizure of Clark, who was excessively odious for his meanness and rapacity, was the only act of violence committed in the Plymouth colony.

A pamphlet was published in the year 1691, and re-printed by Isaiah Thomas in 1773, bearing the title of "The Revolution in New England justified." To which is added a narrative of the proceedings of Sir Edmund Andros and his accomplices, by several gentlemen who were of his Council." This pamphlet sets forth numerous atrocious deeds perpetrated by Sir Edmund and his minions, the truth of which appears well substantiated by numerous affidavits. Among the accusations are,—that he actually encouraged the Indians to make war upon the English settlers, and furnished them with powder and balls for that purpose, while at war. This they proved by the declaraion of the Indians themselves, and by squaws detected coming directly from the governor's quarters, having those articles in their baskets. That Sir Edmund invited the French to come and take possession of the country, and that preparations were making accordingly. That property was illegally arrested from proprietors, and that arbitrary fines, taxes, and illegal imprisonments were so common that no one could feel secure from arrest of person and property. That when the people complained of grievances it was declared in the governor's Council, that the king's subjects in New England did not differ much from slaves, and that the only difference was, that they were not bought and sold."

That those who were in confederacy with Sir Edmund Andros, for the enriching themselves on the ruins of New England, did invade the property as well as liberty of the subject, is in the clearest manner proved. They gave out, that now their charter was gone, all their lands were the king's, 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," asks the writer, "that had the spirit 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 inhabit all that the people now in New England, and their fathers before them, had labored for!

One Nathaniel Clark, of Sir Edmund's council and creatures, desired to have Clark's Island, which belonged to the town of Plymouth, conveyed to him. This was opposed by the town, and their agents obtained a voluntary subscription to bear the cost of the suit, and they were treated as criminals, and against all law compelled to answer in another county, and not in that where the pretended misdemeanor was committed. The Island was, however, conveyed to Clark. The Rev. Mr. Wiswall, minister of Duxbury, by desire of some concerned, transcribed a writing, which tended to clear the right which the town had to the Island; not long after, a messenger was sent to bring him before the governor at Boston, on the 21st of June, 1688; he was then lame in both feet with the gout, unable to move without great pain; he therefore wrote to the governor, praying that he might be excused until he should be able to travel, and engaged that then he would attend any court; but the next week an officer, by an express order from Sir Edmund, forced him to ride in that condition, being shod with clouts instead of shoes; and when he came before the Council, he was made to stand till the anguish had almost overcome him. Being at length dismissed from the Council, the messenger came and told him he must go to gaol, or enter into bonds for his appearance at the next court in Boston, and pay down £4 2s. in silver. His sickness forced him to decline a prison,

and to pay the money. At the next superior court he appeared

in the same lame and sick condition, and the extremity of the weather caused such a violent fit of sickness, that he was nigh unto death, and he thought that he should soon be out of their bonds, and at liberty to lay his information against his oppressors before the righteous judge of the whole world. After all this he was forced a third time out of his own county and colony, near 40 miles, and was delivered from the hands and humors of his tyrannical oppressors, who had exposed him to great difficulties and charges, and to 228 miles travel, to and from Boston, where he never ought to be called for trial, even had he been guilty of the pretended misdemeanors, which his worst enemies had not the face to read in open court, or openly to charge him with.

The following sketch of the character of Nathaniel Clark, compiled chiefly from the papers of the late Isaac Goodwin, Esq., will not be out of place in this connexion. It will serve

to show that our puritan fathers could defeat and overthrow by their determined and irresistible energies the selfish views of a corrupt and unprincipled man.

Nathaniel Clark was born in Plymouth, in the year 1644, was the son of Thomas Clark, who died in 1697 at the advanced age of 98 years, and whose grave stone is among the oldest on our burying hill. He was educated in his native town by secretary Morton, and after the death of his patron in 1685, he succeeded him in the office which had been so honorably filled. Besides preserving a register of the legislative proceedings of the colony, the duties of Clerk of the Courts, Register of Deeds and of Probate were all performed by the secretary of that famous republic. An office of such importance in that day necessarily attracted to it much political influence, and its emoluments were not undeserving the attention of the worldly minded and ambitious. Unfortunately for the reputation of Nathaniel Clark, his lot seemed to be cast in a season of peculiar temptations, and the principles of his early education formed but a feeble barrier against its assaults. The humble colonists of New England were just recovering from the scourge of an unprecedented Indian war waged for the extermination of Philip and his allies. At this gloomy period, their charters were vacated by writs of 'quo warranto' from the star-chamber, and Sir Edmund Andros, a fit tool to execute the obnoxious measures of a tyrant, was sent from England to take the head of the government here. He arrived in Boston in the month of December, 1686, and commenced his odious administration by depriving the people of the privilege of choosing their representatives, by prohibiting town-meetings, excepting for the purpose of aiding him in the collection of such taxes as he strove to draw from their limited and scanty resources. The press was to be silenced, and he had orders to maintain such a military force as would enable him to execute his decrees at the point of the bayonet. Judge Sewall, who lived in Boston, and was there at the time Andros arrived, notes in his Diary, December 24, 1686,"about sixty red coats are brought to town, landed at Mr. Pool's wharf, where they drew up and so marched to Mr. Gibbs' house at Fort Hill." The simplicity of puritan habits was grossly scandalized by an introduction of false splendor in living, and a feeble imitation of the manners and customs of the great, the irreligious, and the worldly. In the selection of his council, Sir E. Andros made choice, with few exceptions, of such of the citizens as he thought would be obsequious to his will and ready to execute his mandates. Besides two whom he brought with him, the council consisted of 37 members-appointed from the different colonies in the following proportion:

10

From Massachusetts

New York

Plymouth

Rhode Island
Connecticut

New Hampshire

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2

From the Plymouth colony the following gentlemen were appointed:

Thomas Hinckley,

Barnabas Lothrop,

William Bradford,

Daniel Smith,

John Sprague,
John Walley,
Nathaniel Clark.

The unprincipled profligacy of the minions of Andros would have been ill repaid by grants of uncultivated land in the wilderness; hence, resorting to one of the most odious doctrines of the Feudal system, he declared, that as the charters were vacated, all the lands had reverted to the King, as the Lord paramount of the soil, and he, as vicegerent of his majesty, would proceed to parcel them out anew. To preserve a semblance of justice, he offered to confirm the titles of such as would make speedy application, but his grants were so encumbered with fines, forfeitures and fees, that it was estimated there was not personal property enough in the country to supply his exactions for these purposes. During the rising indignation of an oppressed people, he began to make his peace by dealing out large tracts of land to such of his followers as would subserve his interest. Among these was the subject of this notice, who was no sooner called to the council board at Boston, than he was found to be sufficiently yielding to all the wishes of his master.

The Island in Plymouth harbor, called Clark's Island, contains a little more than 80 acres of fertile land. It was upon this Island that the first Christian sabbath was kept in New England, for it was the earliest resting place of the Pilgrims from amidst the storm which they encountered on the night of Friday, December 18, 1620, while coasting along the bay in their little shallop, before their final landing. These circumstances may have led our fathers to attach a superstitious reverence to this spot. It was neither sold nor allotted in any of the early divisions of the lands, but was reserved for the benefit of the poor of the town, to furnish them with wood and with pasture for their cattle.

The avarice of counsellor Clark was attracted to this Island, -the hallowed ark that had rescued his fathers from the mingled horrors of a night storm, upon an inclement and unknown shore, and in succeeding years the support of the destitute and the wretched. His master made the wished for grant, and accordingly on the 3d of March, 1687-8, it was surveyed and laid out for his use. Immediately, in defiance of arbitrary threatenings, and the heaviest denunciations, a town-meeting was called, and a firm and united resolution was adopted, to reclaim the Island at every hazard. A committee was chosen to collect subscriptions to defray the expenses. Amidst the indignation of his townsmen and neighbors, 'the secretary stood alone.' He immediately arrested the committee for levying taxes upon his majesty's subjects, and they, together with the town clerk and minister of Duxbury, were bound over to the Supreme Court at Boston.

The following letter from Rev. John Cotton, then pastor of the church at Plymouth, to Rev. Mr. Mather of Boston, is feelingly descriptive of these scenes.

Plymouth, July 9, 1688. "Awful and considerable changes have attended poor Plymouth since your departure from the Gurnet, by reason of the motions about Clark's island. The committee chosen about that affair were at so much charge as necessitated our people to engage, by free and voluntary subscriptions, to re-imburse them, and to vote the securing some lands till the money was paid them. For this (******) telches, the committee with a writ, charging that they had resolved and raised money upon his majesty's subjects contrary to law, and the town clerk, godly Elder Faunce, for calling the vote, and Mr. Wiswall for writing the paper, £3 7s. each, beside their expenses, and all were bound over to the Superior Court at Boston, where they are all likely to be considerably fined, besides costs of court, &c."

But the reign of tyranny was short. A report of the landing of the Prince of Orange in England reached America early in the year 1689, but before the news of the entire and glorious revolution there had arrived in Boston, Andros was seized and imprisoned by the inhabitants of that town. This took place on the morning of the 18th of April, and William and Mary were proclaimed in Boston on the 29th of the month following. The people of Plymouth at the same time declared their detestation of Counsellor Clark by a spirited manifesto, which bears date April 22d, 1689, setting forth his oppressions and his crimes, and declaring that they seized upon his person, resolving to secure him for the hands of justice to deal with him ac