Boston "to tender satisfaction to the Church," "but the Church would not admit him to public speech. So after one week he returned home."*

But persevering in his plan, in September, 1640, having obtained another safe conduct, " by means of the elders and others of the Church of Boston," he repaired to Boston during "the time of the Court of Assistants," and upon a lecture day, by leave of the ministers, again made a public confession, and at its close, asking "the Church to have compassion on him, and to deliver him out of the hands of Satan, was received into the Church again." Soon after, he went into the General Court and there confessed his misconduct, asking pardon, and was released from his banishment.†

How Underhill should have obtained a safe conduct to Boston, "by means of the elders and others of the Church of Boston," when they would not permit him to speak in their meeting a few months previous, and how he was so readily received again into the Church, and relieved from his banishment, upon his confession, would be a mystery, were not the fact known, that upon going home, Underhill became a strong advocate for a union of the plantations at Piscataqua with that of Massachu setts !!

His proceedings forth with produced the utmost confusion in the colony, and for their better government, a majority of the people on the 23d of October, 1640, entered into a combination, or "body politic" for the purpose of enjoying "the benefit of his Majesty's laws," and all such laws as should be "concluded by a majority of the free men." Underhill attempted to "rend this combination," and "contrary to his oath and fidelity," "went from house to house, and for his own ends, by flattering and threatening, got some hands to a note of their willingness to submit themselves under" the government of Massachusetts.§ Some of the magistrates of Larkham's party cited Underhill to appear before them, and answer for his conduct in "secretly endeavoring to persuade the inhabitants to offer themselves to the government of Massachusetts, whose favor he was desirous to purchase by these means, as he knew that their view was to extend their jurisdiction as far as they imagined their limits

Winthrop's N. E., Vol. 1, pg. 328.

Winthrop's Ilis. N. E., Vol. 2, pg. 13 & 14.

Belknap, Appendix No. 13, pg. 438.

Ms. letter of Larkham, Waldron, Wentworth, Haynes, and others to the Governor of Massachusetts.

reached, whenever they should find a favorable opportunity."* Underhill collected together his forces to attack Larkham's party; but they being in the minority, declined a contest. Meantime they had sent to the mouth of the river for assistance, and Williams, the Governor at Portsmouth,came up to Dover with a party, a Court was formed of which Williams was judge, and Underhill and his party were found guilty of riot, and were fined and banished the colony. Underhill had also sent for assistance, and what was not a little singular, he had sent to Massachusetts for that assistance; which goes to show that he thought he had been engaged in a work pleasing to them, if not with their knowledge and understanding. This was in February, 1640. March 4th following, the leading inhabitants of Dover, sent the following letter to the Governor of Massachusetts, explanatory of Underhill's conduct, and of their objection to coming under the Government of Massachusetts:

"NORTHAM, 4 i month. (1. 40.) HONOURED SIR: We, the Inhabitants of Northam, make bould to trouble you wth these few lynes, Certifyinge you that whereas wee suppose Captaine Underhill hath informed you and the rest of your brethren of the Matechusheth baye, that wee are all willinge, voluntarily to submit our Selves to your Government upon fformer Articles propounded; truth it is wee doc very well aprove of your judicious wayes, and shall be very joyful, yu please God to enlarge us, that wee may be free from other ingagements and prmises wch some of us are obliged in to the owners or patentees, from whom under his Mat's Letter Patents we enjoy our free liberty, wch causeth us not for present to submit to any other government than that wch wee have already entered into combination to observe according to the King's Mat's lawes, until such time as the owners come over to us, wch wee suppose will be about three months hence, and then our prpositions Considered as the Lord shall direct us, wee will labour more to satisfy you. But for the prceedings of Captain Underhill seeking to undermyne us, and contrary to his oath and fidellyty as we suppose intrusted to him, hath went from house to house, and for his own ends, by flattery and threatening, gotten some hands to a note of their willingness to submitt themselves under your goverument, and some that have no habitation, to bring his purposes to pass; we doubt not but you are to well acquainted with his stratagems in plotting his

Belknap, pg. 26.

owne designs, wch wee refer to your grave iudgments. Some of those that subscribed to his note have this day utterly prtested against their owne act, for he hath raysed such a mutinie amongst us wch if we take not Course for the stoping thereof it may Cause the effusion of blood, by reason he hath by his designes privately rent the combination as much as in him lyeth, Contrary to his Act, that is that wee should continue in the same govmut except an agreement or cause shewed to the Contrary in open Court, agreed on by the maior p'te. thus Much we thought good to acquaynt your wor'p, wthall beseeching your favourable construction, hoping you will weigh our Case in Equity and Conscience, and not any way to enforce us to any act whereby wee should break pr'mise or Covevant wth the patentees or amongst ourselves whchin soe doinge we should sinne greatly. wee heartyly desire your prayers for us, and comit you to the prtection of the Almightye at yor to be

From this letter it would seem that the leading men of Dover supposed Underhill was in correspondence with the government of Massachusetts, and was doing their work while he "raysed such a mutinie," and was rending "the combination as much as in him lyeth !" Also that the proprietors of the Hilton Patent were expected from England in about three months.

To make sure of a claim of jurisdiction over the patents at Piscataqua, the government of Massachusetts had already entered into a negotiation with the gentlemen in England who owned those patents, for a surrender of the jurisdiction of their patents. This negotiation was nearly completed; but still it was the policy of the Massachusetts government to bring about a voluntary submission on the part of the inhabitants of those patents, to their government. Hence the correspondence with Underhill.

Hence too, upon the application of Underhill for assistance, they sent down a committee of three persons, the noted Rev., Hugh Peters, of Salem, the Rev. Samuel Dalton, and another, to examine into the state of affairs; in the words of Winthrop, "to understand the minds of the people, to reconcile some differences between them, and to prepare them."* Prepare them for what? Why, for the event that Governor Winthrop and the magistrates of Massachusetts had long labored to bring about, the surrender of the jurisdiction of the patents upon the Piscataqua to that government, and which they knew would transpire as soon as the proprietors should arrive from England, whose arrival was expected in a few weeks.,

The government of Massachusetts managed this affair with much adroitness. Underhill had been playing the part of the blustering emissary, till he had thrown the colony into the greatest confusion, and now milder measures and wiser heads were to be used. Accordingly a committee of ability and standing were sent down to Dover, who had the address to settle the differences among the people, "and to prepare them." The immediate result of their mission was this, "that the one party revoked the excommunication, and the other the fines and banishment." t

The prospective result of it was, that the people of Dover were quite willing to agree to the surrender of their jurisdiction. to Massachusetts, as soon as the proprietors had arrived in this country, and had made the necessary disposition to carry that long agitated project into effect.

This mission was doubtless performed in the early spring of 1641, as snow was upon the ground, and the committee travelling on foot, upon their return, they got lost in the woods, and "wandered two days and one night, without food or fire, in the snow and wet."‡

At the same time many of the people of the lower patent upon the Piscataqua, known as Portsmouth, were anxious to come under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. The alleged reason of their anxiety was, their want of any stable government; but another reason was doubtless equally weighty with them, and which was, that there was a claimant for the lands upon which many of them lived.

It will be borne in mind that Capt. John Mason was one of the principal proprietors of the patent of 1631, as also the pro

prietor of the whole of New Hampshire, by his patent of 1629 -and that many of the people sent over by him had laid claim upon his death, not only to the personal effects of their employer in their possession, but to the land on which they resided. Now Norton, the attorney of the executrix of Mason's estate, had already been among them, and claimed the personal property belonging to her deceased husband; and the heir to his estate was ready to prosecute his claims whenever fitting opportunity should arrive. Under such circumstances, it was natural that the people who lived upon Mason's territory without title to their lands, and of course were opposed to his claim, should seek the protection of Massachusetts, the people of which government had laid claim to his lands, and, of course, would continue their opposition; hence they readily heard the arguments of the partisans of Massachusetts, and were ready to be taken under the jurisdiction of that government.

Accordingly when the proprietors arrived from England, about the first of June, 1641, they found the people of their patents fully prepared to pass under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts; and on the 14th of that month an instrument passing the jurisdiction of both the Hilton and Portsmouth or Rendezvous patents to Massachusetts, was duly executed in the presence of the General Court, and provided that Massachusetts should have “jurisdiction of government of the said people dwelling or abiding within the limits of both of said patents, to be ruled and ordered in all causes, criminal and civil, as inhabitants, dwelling within the limits of Massachusetts government, and to be subjected to pay in Church and Commonwealth, as the said inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay do, and no other; and the freemen of the said two patents to enjoy the like liberties as other freemen do in the said Massachusetts' government; and that there shall be a Court of Justice kept within one of the two patents, which shall have the same power that the Courts at Ipswich and Salem have."*

The contract coming before the General Court in October, 1641, in form, on the 9th instant, the Court passed the following order :

:

"Whereas it appeareth that by the extent of the line according to our patent the river of Piscataquack is within the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts, and conference being had at several times with the said people and some deputed by the general court for the settling and establishing of order in the

Hutchinson's His., Vol. 1, pgs. 98 & 99.