Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	acre_n	penny_n	shilling_n	1,923	5	11.0648	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58148	The revolution in New England justified and the people there vindicated from the aspersions cast upon them by Mr. John Palmer in his pretended answer to the declaration published by the inhabitants of Boston and the country adjacent, on the day when they secured their late oppressors, who acted by an illegal and arbitrary commission from the late King James.	Rawson, Edward, 1615-1693.; Sewall, Samuel, 1652-1730.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing R376; ESTC W479499	38,176	56

some but three or four Acres and all paid 2 l. 10 s. for passing their Grants of 100 Acres of Wood Land with twenty Acres of Marsh where ever it could be found but this bred a great mischief among the People few or none have their Land measured or marked they were in haste and got what they could they had their Emissaries amongst the poor people and frighted them to take Grants some came and complained to the Governour and prayed him to confirm their Rights which he refused to do the Commission and whole proceeding being Illegal having notice they were to be under his Government they resented it but it served their turn The poor have been very much oppressed here the Fort run all to ruine and wants a great deal to repair it Captain Palmer and Mr. West laid out for themselves such large lots and Mr. Graham though not there had a Childs Portion I think some have eight thousand or ten thousand Acres I hear not of one penny rent coming in to the King from them who have their Grants confirmed at York and the five shillings an hundred Acres was only a Sham upon the People at our return we saw very good Land at Winter Harbour enough to make large settlements for many people The Governour will have it first measured and then surveyed and then will dispose of it for settlements Mr. Graham and his Family are setled at Boston he is made Attorney General and now the Governor is safe in his New-York Confidents all others being Strangers to his Council 'T was not well done of Palmer and West to tear all in pieces that was setled and granted at Pemyquid by Sir E. that was the Scene where they placed and displaced at pleasure and were as Arbitrary as the great Turk Some of the first setlers of that Eastern Country were denied Grants of their own Lands whilst these men have given the Improved Lands amongst themselves of which I suppose Mr. Hutchinson hath complained In another May the 16th 1689. he says I must confess there have been ill men from New-York who have too much studied the disease of this people and both in Courts and Councils they have not been treated well Thus does Edward Randolph a Bird of the same Feather with themselves confess the truth as to this matter concerning his Brother Palmer and West And that Oppressive Fees have been extorted by Indigent and Exacting Officers is declared by Mr. Hinckley the present Governour of New-Plymouth in his Narrative of the Grievances and Oppressions of Their Majesties good Subjects in the Colony of New-Plymouth in New-England by the Illegal and Arbitrary Actings in the Late Government under Sir E. A. which Narrative is too large to be here inserted but it is possible it may be published by it self whereby it will appear that every corner in the Countrey did ring with complaints of the Oppressions and to speak in Mr. Palmer's phrase horrible Vsages of these ill Men. Some passages out of Mr. Hinckley's Narrative respecting this matter we shall here Transcribe whose words are these which follow The Bill of Cost Taxed by Judge Palmer seems also to be the greatest Extortion ever heard of before as thrice twenty Shillings for three motions for Judgment at the same Term and was it not their courtesie they did not move ten times one after another at the same rate and Taxed also five pound for the Kings Attorney and one and twenty Shillings for the Judges and ten Shillings for the Sheriff and other particulars as by the said Bill appeareth and that which makes it the greater Extortion is that the whole Bill of Cost was exacted of every one of them which each of them must pay down or be kept Prisoners till they did though all seven of them were jointly informed against in one Information Thus Mr. Hinckley The cry of poor Widows and Fatherless is gone up to Heaven against them on this account for the Probate of a Will and Letter of Administration above fifty Shillings hath been extorted out of the hands of the Poor nay they have been sometimes forced to pay more than four Pounds when not much above a Crown had been due Let Andrew Sergeant and Joseph Quilter among many others speak if this be not true who were compelled to Travel Two Hundred Miles for the Probate of a Will and to pay the unreasonable and oppressive Fees complained of Besides these things under Sir Edmund's Government they had wicked ways to extort Money when they pleased Mr. William Coleman complains and hath given his Oath accordingly that upon the supposed hired Evidence of one Man he sustained Forty Pound damage in his Estate And there were complaints all over the Countrey that Sir Edmund's Excise-men would pretend Sickness on the Road and get a Cup of Drink of the Hospitable People but privately drop a piece of Money and afterwards make Oath that they bought Drink at those Houses for which the Innocent Persons were fined most unreasonably and which was extorted from them though these Villanies were declared and made known to those then in Power William Goodhue James and Mary Dennis might be produced as Witnesses hereof with many more Some of Sir Edmund's Creatures have said That such things as these made his Government to stink Also John Hovey and others complain of sustaining Ten Pound damages by the Extortion of Officers though never any thing they could hear of was charged upon them to this day John and Christopher Of good complain of their being sent to Prison nine or ten days without a Mittimus or any thing laid to their charge and that afterwards they were forced to pay excessive charges It would fill a Volume if we should produce and insert all the Affidavits which do confirm the truth of these complaints In the time of that unhappy Government if the Officers wanted Money it was but Seizing and Imprisoning the best Men in the Countrey for no fault in the World and the greedy Officers would hereby have Grist to their Mill. Thus was Major Appleton dealt with Thus Captain Bradstreet Thus that worthy and worshipful Gentleman Nathaniel Salstorishal Esquire was served by them and barbarously prosecuted without any Information or Crime laid to his charge for he had done nothing worthy of Bonds but it was the pleasure of Sir E. and some others thus to abuse a Gentleman far more Honourably descended than himself and one concerned in the Government of N. E. before him but to his Eternal Renown one who refused to accept of an Illegal and Arbitrary Commission when in the Reign of the Late K. James it was offered to him We have now seen a whole Jury of complaints which concur in their Verdict against Sir E. A. and his Confederates Were these things to be heard upon the place where the Witnesses who gave in their Affidavits are resident they would amount to legal proof as to every particular which was by the Agents of the

Sir Edmund meerly upon Indian Testimony yet let it be duly weighed the premises considered whether it might not create suspicion and an astonishment in the People of New-England in that he did not punish the Indians who thus charged him but the English who complained of them for it And it is certain that some very good and wise men in New England do verily believe that he was deeply guilty in this matter especially considering what might pass between him and Hope Hood an Indian concerning which Mr. Thomas Dantforth the present Deputy Governour at Boston in New England in a Letter bearing date April 1. 1690. writeth thus The Commander in chief of those that made this spoil i. e. the spoil which was made in the Province of Maine on the 18th of March last is Hope Hood an Indian one that was with sundry other Indians in the summer 1688 seized by some of Sir Edmunds Justices and Commanders in the Province of Maine and sent Prisoners to Boston Sir E. being then at the Westward where he continued absent many weeks upon his return finding the Indians in Prison fell into a great rage against those Gentlemen that had acted therein declared his resolution to set them at liberty and calling his Council together was by some opposed therein and among others one Gentleman of the Council accused this Hope Hood to be a bloody Rogue and added that he the said Hope Hood had threatned his Life and therefore prayed Sir E. that he might not be enlarged but Sir E. made a flout and scorn of all that could be said At the same time some of the Council desired Sir E. that this Hope Hood might be sent for before the Council to which he replied that he never had had a quarter of an hours conference with any of them and that he scorned to discourse with any Heathen of them all yet all this notwithstanding at the same time whilst the Council was thus met did Sir Edmund privately withdraw himself and repair to the Prison where this Hope Hood was Prisoner and did there continue with him two or three hours in private the truth of what is above related is attested by sundry Gentlemen that were of Sir Edmunds Council and were then Ear Witnesses and likewise by others that saw Sir E. at the Prison and it is now verily believed that at that very time he consulted the mischief that is now acted by the said Hope Hood and Company Thus Mr. Dantforth 9. That Sir Edmund Androsse discountenanced making defence against the Indians is complained of by five Gentlemen who were of his Council and much concerned at his strange actings in that matter as in the account annext to this Apology is to be seen It is also confirmed by the Affidavits of two honest men Henry Kerley aged about fifty seven years and Thomas How aged thirty five years or thereabouts both Inhabitants of the Town of Malborough do both testifie that in the Fall of the year 1688. When Sir Edmund Androsse came from New-York to Boston sometime after the Indians had killed some English men at North-field in New England coming through our Town of Malborough the said Sir E. A. examined this Deponent Henry Kerley by what Order we did Fortify and Garrison our Houses I answered it was by order of Captain Nicholson the said Sir E. then said he had no power so to do He the said Sir E. examined what Arms we made use of and carried with us on the Watch and what charge was given us answer was made by the Deponent they carried Fire Arms and the charge was to keep a true Watch to examine all we met with and secure suspicious persons that we met with the said Sir E. said what if they will not be secured and what if you should kill them answer was made by the Deponent that if we should kill them we were in our way then Mr. Randolph being there in the company said you are in the way to be hanged Sir E. A. said further that those persons that had left their Houses to dwell in Garrisons if they would not return others should be put in that would live there Henry Kerley Thomas How Boston the 27th of Decemb. 1689. Jur. Henry Kerley and the 2d of Janu. 1689. Jur. Thomas How Cor. Is Addington Assistant That Sir Edmunds High Sheriff was a Stranger in the Country and one that had no Estate there needs no proof and that Strangers who had no Freehold were Impannelled for Jurors is notoriously known So it was in the case of the Ipswich-men as hath been noted and when that Reverend person Mr. Charles Morton was causelesly and maliciously prosecuted he was not only compelled to answer contrary to Law in another County and not in that wherein the good Sermon they found fault with was Preached but that if possible they might give him a blow there was summoned to serve as a Jury man one John Gibson no Householder nor of any Estate or Credit and one John Levingsworth a Bricklayer who lived in another Colony two hundred Miles distance When those in Government will use such base Artifices as these to accomplish their pernicious designs how should any mans Estate or Life be secure under them 11. That the persons objected against were some of them guilty of great extortion is manifest from what hath been related and may yet be further proved for as by some instances we have already seen and shall now hear more they compelled men to take Patents for their own Lands which they and their Fathers before them had quietly possessed till these covetous Creatures became a Nusance to the Country and it may be none more Criminal as to this particular than Mr. Palmer and Mr. West A Friend of their own viz. Mr. Randolph does in several of his Letters bitterly complain of them upon this account In a Letter of his of August the 25th 1687. he writeth thus I believe all the Inhabitants in Boston will be forced to take Grants and Confirmations of their Lands as now intended the Inhabitants of the Province of Maine which will bring in vast profits to Mr. West he taking what Fees he pleases to demand I shall always have a due Honour and Respect for his Excellency but I must buy his Favour at three or four hundred pound a year loss And in another to the same June 21. 1688. he hath these words I went to one Shurte Town-Clerk of Pemyquid to know what Leases were made lately and by whom and for what quit Rent he told me that above a year ago Captain Palmer and Mr. West produced to them a Commission from Collonel Dungar to dispose of all their Lands to whoever would take leases at five shillings the hundred Acres quit Rent They let there and at a place called Dartmouth twelve or sixteen Miles distant from Pemyquid about one hundred and forty Leases some had eight hundred or ten hundred Acres few less than a hundred

by a Charter upon such conditions as were not performed and therefore all the Lands of New England have returned to the King and that the Attorney General then present could tell what was Law who spake divers things to the same purpose as Sir E. A. had done slighting what I had said and vilifying the Indian Title saying They were Brutes c. and if we had possessed and used the Land they said we were the Kings Subjects and what Lands the Kings Subjects have they are the Kings and one of them used such an Expression Where-ever an Englishman sets his foot all that he hath is the Kings and more to the same purpose I told them that so far as I understood we received only the right and power of Government from the Kings Charter within such limits and bounds but the right of the Land and Soil we had received from God according to his Grand Charter to the Sons of Adam and Noah and with the consent of the Native Inhabitants as I had expressed before They still insisted on the Kings right to the Land as before whereupon I told them I had heard it was a standing Principle in Law and Reason Nil dat qui non habet and from thence I propounded this Argument he that hath no right can give no right to another but the King had no right to the Lands of America before the English came hither therefore he could give no right to them I told them I knew not of any that could be pleaded but from a Popish Principle that Christians have a right to the Lands of Heathen upon which the Pope as the Head of the Christians had given the West Indies to the King of Spain but this was disowned by all Protestants Therefore I left it to them to affirm and prove the Kings Title They replied and insisted much upon that that the King had a right by his Subjects coming and taking possession of this Land And at last Sir E. A. said with indignation Either you are Subjects or you are Rebels intimating as I understood him according to the whole scope and tendency of his Speeches and Actions that if we would not yield all the Lands of N. E. to be the Kings so as to take Patents for Lands and to pay Rent for the same then we should not be accounted Subjects but Rebels and treated accordingly There were many other various replies and answers on both sides but this is the sum and substance of that discourse John Higginson aged seventy four years Stephen Seawall aged thirty two years John Higginson Minister in Salem personally appeared before me Dec. 24. 1689. and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence John Hathorne Assistant Captain Stephen Seawall of Salem appeared before me Dec. 24. 1689. and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence John Hathorne Assistant Joseph Lynde of Charles-towne in the County of Middlesex in N. E. being fifty three years of age testifieth and saith That in the year 1687. Sir Edmund Androsse then Governour of New-England did inquire of him the said Lynde what Title he had to his Lands who shewed him many Deeds for Land that he the said Lynde possessed and particularly for Land that the said Lynde was certainly informed would quickly be given away from him if he did not use means to obtain a Patent for it The Deed being considered by Sir E. A. he said it was worded well and recorded according to N. E. custom or words to the same purpose He further enquired how the Title was derived he the said Lynde told him That he that he bought it of had it of his Father-in-law in Marriage with his Wife and his said Father from Charles-towne and the said Town from the General Court grant of the Massachusetts Buy and also by purchase from the Natives and he said my Title were nothing worth if that were all At another time after shewing him an Indian Deed for Land he said that their hand was no more worth than a scratch with a Bears paw under-valuing all my Titles though every way legal under our former Charter Government I then petitioned for a Patent for my whole Estate but Mr. West Deputy Secretary told me I must have so many Patents as there were Counties that I had parcels of Land in if not Towns finding the thing so chargeable and difficult I delayed upon which I had a Writ of Intrusion served upon me in the beginning of the Summer 1688. the Copy whereof is in Charles-towne's Mens complaint and was at the same time with that of Mr. James Russel's Mr. Seawall's and Mr. Shrimpton's it being for the same Land in part that I shewed my Title unto Sir E. A. as above being my self and those I derived it from possessed inclosed and improved for about Fifty years at which time I gave Mr. Graham Attorney General three pounds in Money promising that if he would let the Action fall I would pay Court charges and give him Ten pound when I had a Patent compleated for that small parcel of Land that said Writ was served upon me for which I did because a Quaker that had the promise of it from the Governour as I was informed in the Governors presence should not have it from me the said Lynde having about seven Acres more in the same common Field or Pasture about a Mile from this forty nine Acres near unto the Land that the said Governour gave unto Mr. Charles Lidget of divers of my Neighbours which I concluded must go the same way that theirs went and therefore though desired to be patented by the said Lynde with the forty nine Acres he could not obtain a Grant for it About the same time Mr. Graham Attorney General asked the said Lynde what he would do about the rest of his Land telling him the said Lynde that he would meet with the like trouble about all the rest of his Lands that he possessed and were it not for the Governours going to New-York at this time there would be a Writ of Intrusion against every Man in the Colony of any considerable Estate or as many as a Cart could hold and for the poorer sort of people said Sir E. A. would take other measures or words to the same purpose The said Lynde further saith That after Judgments obtained for small wrongs done him tryable by their own Laws before a Justice of the Peace from whom they allowed no Appeals in small Causes he was forced out of his own County by Writs of false Judgment and although at the first superiour Court in Suffolk the thing was so far opposed by Judge Stoughton as illegal as that it was put by yet the next Term by Judge Dudley and Judge Palmer the said Lynde was forced to answer George Farewell Attorney aforesaid then saying in open Court in Charles-town that all Causes must be brought to Boston in Suffolk because there was not honest men enough in Middlesex to make a

some for cutting their own Wood and so they were deprived of any means to use or enjoy their own Land And notwithstanding there was about twenty Acres of Pasture Land and Meadow taken from the said Russel and given to Mr. Lidget yet afterwards there was a Writ of Intrusion served upon a small Farm belonging unto the said Russel unto which the aforesaid Pasture Land did belong and had been long improved by Patrick Mark his Tenant and others good part thereof above fifty years so that to stop Prosecution the said Russell was forced to Petition for a Patent he having a Tenant who was feared would comply in any thing that might have been to his prejudice and so his Land would have been condemned under colour of Law and given away as well as his Pastorage was without Law Further the said Russel complains that he having an Island in Cascobay called Long-Island which his honoured Father long since bought of Mr. Walker and was confirmed to James Russell by the General Court and improved several years by Captain Davis by mowing as Tenant to the said Russell and the said Russell hearing it was like to be begged away caused his Writ to be entred in the Publick Records in Mr. West's Office which he paid for the Recording of notwithstanding Sir E. A. ordered Capt. Clements as he said to survey the same and he shewed me a Plat thereof and said If I had a Patent for it I must pay three pence per Acre it being 650 Acres He was further informed That if the said Russell would not take a Patent for for it Mr. Usher should have it Per James Russell Jan. 30. 1689 90. James Russell Esq personally appeared before me and made Oath to the truth of what is before written William Johnson Assistant Had not an happy Revolution happened in England and so in New-England in all probability those few ill men would have squeezed more out of the poorer sort of people there than half their Estates are worth by forcing them to take Patents Major Smith can tell them that an Estate not worth 200 l. had more than 50 l. demanded for a Patent for it And if their boldness and madness would carry them out to oppress the Rich after such a manner as hath been shewed what might the Poor look for Nevertheless their Tyranny was beyond any thing that hath been as yet expressed For if men were willing to bring their Titles to their Possessions to a Legal Tryal they were not only threatned but fined and persecuted and used with barbarous Cruelty When some Gentlemen in Boston resolved in a Legal way to defend their Title to an Island there Sir Edmund's Attorney threatned that it might cost them all that they are worth and something besides as appears by the following Affidavit The Deposition of Captain Daniel Turel and Lieutenant Edward Willis Sworn say That upon a Writ of Intrusion being served on Deer-Island belonging to the Town of Boston and let unto Colonel Samuel Shrimpton by the Select Men of the said Town the Rent whereof being of long time appropriated towards the maintenance of a Free School in the Town we the Deponents two of the select Men of the said Town do testifie That meeting with Mr. James Graham upon the Town-house and telling him that if Colonel Shrimpton did decline to personate the case of the said Island we the select Men would The said Graham said Are you the Men that will stand Suit against the King We the Deponents told him we would answer in behalf of the Town The said Graham replied There was no Town of Boston nor was there any Town in the Countrey we made answer we were a Town and owned so to be by Sir Edmund Androsse Governor in the Warrant sent us for the making a Rate then the said Graham told us We might stand the Tryal if we would but bid us have a care what we did saying it might cost us all we were worth and something else too for ought he knew and further these Deponents say not Jan. 30. 1689. Daniel Turel Edward Willis Captain Daniel Turel and Lieutenant Edward Willis appeared personally before me and made Oath to the truth of what is above written William Johnson Assistant One of Sir Edmund's Council and Creatures Petitioned for an Island belonging to the Town of Plymouth and because the Agents of the said Town obtained a voluntary Subscription from the Persons concerned to bear the charge of the Suit they were treated as Criminals and against all Law Illegally compelled to answer in another County and not that where the pretended Misdemeanours were committed And Mr. Wiswall the Minister of Duxbury having at the desire of some concerned transcribed a Writing which tended to clear the right they had to the Island in Controversie and also concerning the abovesaid voluntary Subscription both Transcribed in the Winter 1687. A Messenger was sent to bring him to Boston on the 21th June 1688. he was then lame in both Feet with the Gout fitter for a Bed than a Journey therefore wrote to the Governour 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 the cruel Officer by an Express Order from Sir E. A. forced him to Ride in that condition being shod with Clouts instead of Shoes and when he came before the Council he was there made to stand till the anguish of his Feet and Shoulders had almost overcome him after he was dismissed from the Council the Messenger came and told him he must go to Goal or enter into Bonds for his appearance at the next Superior Court held in Boston and pay down 4 l. 2 s. 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 cast him into such a violent Fit of Sickness that he was in the judgment of others nigh unto death and he himself 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 having been forced a third time out of his own County and Colony near Forty Miles he was delivered from the Hands and Humours of his Tyrannical Oppressors who had exposed him to great difficulties charges and to 228 Miles Travel in Journeying to and from Boston directly opposite to the place where he ought to have been tryed had he been guilty of any of the pretended Misdemeanours none of which his worst Enemies ever had the Face to read in open Court or openly to charge him with to this day Now shall such Men as these talk of Barbarous Vsage who have themselves been so Inhumane Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes 7. As for Sir E. A. his supplying the Indians with Ammunition in the