‘The 13th April 1683, the King, Charles II. gave the charge of Gentleman in ordinary of his privy chamber’ to Sir Edmund, and ‘the 6th day of the month of June 1685, the King, James II. gave a Commission to the above Sir Edmund Andros to command a troop of Cavalry to go against the rebels in England.’ This refers of course to Monmouth’s Rebellion. ‘In August, 1685, he was made Lieut.-Colonel of Lord Scarsdale’s cavalry.’”
[128] Palfrey, Hist. of New England, iii. 319, 334. In 1678, Andros had written Blathwayt that there would be danger of Indian difficulties, “so long as each petty colony hath or assumes absolute power of peace and war, which cannot be managed by such popular governments as was evident in the late Indian wars in New England.” N. Y. Col. Doc., iii. 271. Earlier still, Gov. Winslow of Plymouth had told Randolph that New England could never flourish until its several colonies were placed under his Majesty’s immediate government (Hutchinson, Coll., p. 509), and Randolph had urged the matter upon the council in his celebrated report. Hutch., Coll., 477–503.
[129] Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 4th Series, vol. ii.
[130] Rhode Island Col. Records, iii. 175–197. Chalmers, Political Annals, 278.
[131] Whitmore, I. xxvii. Cambridge Almanac, 1687.
[132] Whitmore, I. xxvii. Goldwin Smith, in his recent work on The United States, seems to suppose that this occurred in New Hampshire.
[133] Conn. Col. Records (1678–89), 376–378.
[134] Conn. Col. Records (1678–89), 389.
[135] Chalmers, Political Annals, 297, 298. General History of Connecticut, by a Gentleman of the Province (Rev. S. Peters, D. D.), London, 1781.
Peters’s account is as follows: “They resigned it (the charter) in propria forma, into the hands of Sir Edmund Andros at Hertford, in October, 1687, and were annexed to the Mass. Bay colony, in preference to New York, according to royal promise and their own petition. But the very night of the surrender of it, Samuel Wadsworth of Hertford, with the assistance of a mob, violently broke into the apartments of Sir Edmund, regained, carried off and hid the charter in the hollow of an elm, and in 1689, news arriving of an insurrection and overthrow of Andros at Boston, Robert Treat, who had been elected in 1687, was declared by the mob still to be Governor of Connecticut. He daringly summoned his old Assembly, who being convened, voted the charter to be valid in law, and that it could not be vacated by any power, without the consent of the General Assembly. They then voted, that Samuel Wadsworth should bring forth the charter; which he did in a solemn procession, attended by the High Sheriff, and delivered it to the Governor. The General Assembly voted their thanks to Wadsworth, and twenty shillings as a reward for stealing and hiding their charter in an elm.”