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| March 1. |
776. The Revolutionary Council of New York to the Governor of Connecticut. Whereas the Commissioners appointed by us to treat with Connecticut have been treated with coldness, contempt and disdain, and the Governor and Magistrates of Connecticut have encouraged a party calling themselves the Convention at Albany, we hereby declare the said Governor and Magistrates to be abettors of that rebellious party, and unless they immediately control the orders they have issued for obedience to the Convention, the forces belonging to them at Albany shall be deemed enemies and treated accordingly. We also expect John Allyn to be secured for his traitorous conduct in joining Sir E. Andros's council. Signed. Jacob Milborne. On the opposite page, |
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Copy of an order of the Governor of New York in Council, 29 August, 1688. For the enforcement of an act for raising revenue. Copies. 2 pp. [America and West Indies. 578. No. 112.] |
| March 1. |
777. William Blathwayt to Sir Nicholas Haning. Forwarding two packets from the Governors in the West Indies. Draft. ½ p. [America and West Indies. 601. No. 25.] |
March 1.
Portsmouth. |
778. Governor Kendall to William Blathwayt. We were forced to bear up for this port when off Plymouth and are now detained by contrary winds. A more serious matter is that we have sixty men sick. By the surgeon's report we throw one or two bodies overboard every day, though our Admiral is very careful and keeps the cleanest ship I ever saw. I wish you would use your interest with the Admiralty to procure us fifty men from the Foresight, which will not be ready to sail for these three weeks. I am much concerned that I cannot obtain the mortars and bombs, but since I have done all that I can do, I must rest content. Signed. J. Kendall. Holograph. 1 p. Endorsed. Read at the Committee, 4 March, 1689. [Board of Trade. Barbados, 4. No. 25.] |
March 3.
Barbados. |
779. Lieutenant-Governor Stede to Lords of Trade and Plantations. The ship that carried my letter of 11th February (see No. 759) was driven back by heavy weather, so I am able to write again. All is quiet, and we are in as good a state of defence as is possible without a naval force; but the French may do us great damage by sending a few men-of-war to cruise about us, and capture our ships and steal our negroes. I have done my best by judicious distribution of the militia to prevent this. No French men-of-war have been here since we chased them away, and I wish that we could fit out a similar fleet to do the like in the Leeward Islands, but their superiority at sea forbids this. Sir Timothy Thornhill was in great danger of being cut off and destroyed before he left St. Martins, by ships sent out by the French Governor of St. Kitts. Luckily Governor Codrington sent Captain Hewetson with the Lion and some other ships to his assistance, and Sir Timothy Thornhill was able to encounter the newly arrived French and drive them into the mountains, after which he retreated in safety to his ships and so to Nevis, where he remains with about five hundred men, the survivors of his original force. |
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Sir Thomas Montgomerie and Willoughby Chamberlayne are still prisoners, but do their best by writing and in their conversation with their visitors to ridicule our endeavours against the enemy, though these have not been altogether unsuccessful considering our want of a naval force. We have not lost a ship inward or outward besides the two first that were taken; and though St. Christopher's was surprised and overpowered, we did our best to relieve it. Yet those two men do all they can to discourage our men by seditionary talk and by glorifying the French. They say that only two hundred of Sir T. Thornhill's men are left, whereas there is only that number lost by unusual mortality through smallpox and fevers, which no man could have prevented. The French have suffered much from the same cause, and indeed are so much
weakened that if we could safely transport our men we could do great damage to the French Islands. M. de Blenac spread false reports of the arrival of a great armament from France and of his intention to attack the Leeward Islands, which frightened the English there somewhat, for they were weakened by sickness, and one of the ships of thirty guns was stolen away by the lieutenant and eighty men while the captain was ashore. The Governor of Antigua then sent to me for further assistance, but we could not supply an adequate force of men and ships in so short a time, to say nothing of our lack of money. If the French have the numbers that they pretend, it will go hard with the Leeward Islands, but a sloop just arrived with some timorous inhabitants from Nevis reports that the English sloops can find no such large force about Martinique. We are in great difficulties for want of advices from England, but till we receive them we have resolved that the merchant fleet shall not sail. Copy. 2 pp. [Board of Trade. Barbados, 4. No. 24, and Col. Entry Bk., Vol. VIII., pp. 198–204.] |
| March 4. |
780. Commission of Jacob Leisler and his adherents to Johannes de Bruyn, Johannes Provost and Jacob Milborne to march to Albany with the force assigned to them, proclaim the King and reduce the people who uphold the authority of Sir Edmund Andros to obedience, and establish the Government as in New York. They are also to obtain Fort Orange at Albany, treating the garrison as enemies if they refuse to deliver it. Signed by Jacob Leisler, Peter Delanoy, Thomas Williams, Samuel Edsall, Benjamin Blagge, Samuel Staats, Hendrich Cuyler, Hend: Jansen van Feurden. Printed in New York Documents, III., 702. [America and West Indies. 578. No.113.] |
| March 4. |
781. Journal of Lords of Trade and Plantations. Colonel. Kendall's letter of 1 March (No. 778), and Major Nott's of 27 February, complaining of want of beds for the recruits on board ships read. Draft report on the charges of Colonel Ludwell against Lord Howard read. Further information as to the guns and arms required from Lord Howard. [Col. Entry Bk., Vol. CIX., p. 319.] |
| March 6. |
782. Lord Howard of Effingham to Lords of Trade and Plantations. In reply to your further enquiries, (1.) Whether the guns in Virginia are mounted on new carriages in their several platforms. I found no revenue and the Colony in debt when I arrived in Virginia, so could not repair the carriages and platforms, but as soon as I had money I repaired the small arms in 1686, and repaired the platforms and remounted the cannon in James Fort and Rappahannock. The platforms at York and Nancymond were not finished when I left, but I have since heard of their completion. (2.) As to the transmission of the accounts of the revenue. This has been done annually. Signed. Effingham. 2 ½ pp. Endorsed. Read in Council, 10 April, 1690. [America and West Indies. 636. No. 31, and Col. Entry Bk., Vol. LXXXIII., pp. 300, 301.] |
March 7.
Salem. |
783. Charles Redford to Sir Edmund Andros. I have not seen Boston since your departure; but we have the certain news of Senectady being surprised by the French and Indians with great
slaughter. The town was reported well fortified, but the inhabitants, divided by Leisler's faction, were careless and left the gates open. It is said that the French General ordered that the Justice and his wife should not be hurt. They did no harm to the Maquas either, and indeed they are so anxious to gain their friendship that they had orders not to return the fire if the Maquas fired upon them. A prisoner reported that two hundred French and Indians took part in the attack, and that six hundred more were ready to fall on the frontier of Connecticut. Our "Savity" [Committee of Safety] have laid an embargo on all vessels and are on some great exploit, some say Canada, some say Port Royal. We are irreparably undone if we meet with trouble, and the King do not appoint us officers of his own. The militia will never be of service to the Crown while in the hands of this people. They are fortifying Salem, which raises four companies, with Gidney to command. God grant the King to take our distressed state into consideration. We are the ignorantest, weakest and poorest people in the world. Signed. Charles Redford. 1½ pp. [Board of Trade. New England, 5. No. 68.] |
| March 10. |
784. Minutes of Council of Virginia. George Mason and others concerned in the death of James Payne were brought up and remanded to custody pending report of the matter to England. [Col. Entry Bk., Vol. LXXXIV., pp. 333, 334.] |
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785. Papers relating to the murder of James Payne. ¼ p. |
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785. I. Examination of George Mason and others. March 10, 1689–90. On the 3rd of January while aboard the yacht Susanna of Maryland, at anchor at Major Sewall's, about three o'clock in the morning, the watch called me as there was a boat coming alongside. I warned them to stand off or I would fire, whereupon they dropped astern and robbed us of our boat, and thenhauled up again to board us. I again warned them to stand off, whereon Captain Payne said "God damn you I will have you and your yacht too." With that guns were fired on both sides and I and another were hit. I knew nothing of Paine's death till twelve days later, when I saw Captain Coode's order for seizure of the yacht. 2 pp. Endorsed. Recd. 15 April, 1690. |
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785. II. Duplicate of the preceding. Endorsed. Recd. from Mr. Bacon. 9 May, 1690. |
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785. III. Narrative of John Woodcock. To the same effect as No. I. 3 pp. Endorsed as No I. |
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785. IV. Duplicate of the foregoing. Endorsed as No. II. |
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785. V. Deposition of John Reavely. That he was ordered by Captain Paine to report to him when Sewall's yacht, which was under sail, came to an anchor, which he did, and afterwards pulled towards the yacht in a boat with Payne. Mason challenged Payne and told him to keep off, but Payne answered that he was coming to board him as King William's collector to know the reason of his trading between Maryland and Virginia. On hauling up to the yacht a shot was fired so close to Payne that the wad went through his clothes, and he died immediately. 4 pp. Endorsed as No. II. |
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785. VI. Duplicate of preceding. Same endorsement. [Board of Trade. Maryland, 2. Nos. 3 I–VI.] |
| March 10. |
786. Minutes of Council of Jamaica. Orders for enquiry as to the seizure of a sloop by certain French, and for all aliens to give in their letters of naturalisation to the Attorney-General. Edward Winter committed to custody till he find security. Francis Hickman appeared and claimed that he had paid for one of the books of his office. The Board offering him ten shillings he named a much greater sum, and was dismissed. Order for sundry payments. Thomas Ryves produced his accounts, which were passed. [Board of Trade. Jamaica, 77. pp. 29–31.] |
| March 11. |
787. The President of the Council of Virginia to Lords of Trade and Plantations. In spite of his promises to attempt to raise H.M.S. Deptford Captain Rowe writes to me that he was sick, and the weather cold and anchors and cables insufficient, so that it was impossible to weigh the ship, and that he had therefore sent a vessel to save what could be saved. In pursuance of the royal order that no ships should sail except in fleets, we have laid an embargo on all vessels till the 15th and sent to Maryland to do the like; but as their ships were sailed and ours insufficient to make a fleet we let them go, and hope they may escape. The country is quiet and peaceful. I suppose you have heard from Maryland that some of the Protestants there took the Government out of the hands of Lord Baltimore's President and Council and imprisoned divers papists. The President and Major Nicholas Sewall of the Council retired with Colonel William Digges, a protestant, to Digges's house in Virginia. In January Sewall went up in a pleasure boat to his house on the Patuxent river, and while he was ashore, John Payne, the King's Collector, with two boats came towards his yacht. The men in the yacht bade them stand off or they would fire, but as Payne persisted the men fired and Payne was killed. A good many shots were exchanged and one of the yacht's crew was much wounded. I at once caused the men in the yacht to be arrested, and enclose their depositions before myself and Council. Mr. John Coode, who is the chief actor in the management of affairs in Maryland, wrote to me and demanded the delivery of the prisoners. He says that the affray took place in the daytime, that the Collector was going on board the yacht to search her, and that Payne was murdered. Others say that it happened at night, and that Payne came by Mr.Coode's order to seize them and the yacht. But we did not think fit to deliver the prisoners to Mr. Coode or to any other without the royal order. Signed. Nathaniell Bacon. 4 pp. Endorsed. Recd. 22 Oct, 1690. [America and West Indies. 636. No.32, and Board of Trade. Virginia, 36. pp. 12–15.] The portion relating to Maryland is transcribed in Col. Entry Bk., Vol. LII., pp. 164–166.] |
