The Legislature, to conciliate the commissioners and obtain the good graces of his Majesty, ordered a present of five hundred bushels of corn to be made to the commissioners. A large committee was appointed to settle the boundaries between Connecticut and the Duke of York. A committee, consisting of Messrs. Allen, Wyllys, Talcott, and Newburg, was appointed to settle the boundary-line between this colony and Massachusetts, and between Connecticut and Rhode Island. They were instructed not to give away any part of the lands included within the limits of the Charter.
Mr. Sherman, Mr. Allen, and the Secretary, were authorized to proceed to New Haven, and, by order of the General Assembly, “in his Majesty’s name to require the inhabitants of New Haven, Milford, Branford, Guilford, and Stamford, to submit to the government established by his Majesty’s most gracious grant to this colony, and to receive their answer.” They were authorized to make declaration, that the Assembly did invest Messrs. Leet, Jones, Gilbert, Fenn, Crane, Treat, and Law, with the powers of magistracy, to govern their respective plantations agreeably to the laws of Connecticut, or such of their own laws as were not inconsistent with the Charter, until their session in May next.
The gentlemen appointed to this service on the 19th of November went to New Haven, and proceeded according to their instructions.
About this time Governor Winthrop, Mr. Allen, Mr. Gould, Mr. Richards, and John Winthrop, the committee appointed to settle the boundaries between Connecticut and New York, waited upon the commissioners on York Island. After they had been fully heard in behalf of Connecticut, the commissioners determined “that the southern boundary of his Majesty’s colony of Connecticut is the sea; and that Long Island is to be under the government of the Duke of York, as is expressed in plain words in the said patents respectively. We also order and declare, that the creek or river called Mamaroneck, which is reputed to be almost twelve miles to the east of West Chester, and a line drawn from the east point or side, where the fresh water falls into the salt, at high-water mark, north-northwest to the line of Massachusetts, be the western bounds of said colony of Connecticut; and the plantations lying westward of that creek, and a line so drawn, to be under his Royal Highness’s government; and all plantations lying eastward of the creek and line to be under the government of Connecticut.”
In consequence of the acts of Connecticut, and the determination of the commissioners relative to the boundaries of the colony, a General Court was called at New Haven on the 13th of December, 1664, and the following resolutions were unanimously passed:
I. “That by this act or vote we be not understood to justify Connecticut’s former actings, nor anything disorderly done by their own people, on such accounts.
II. “That by it we be not apprehended to have any hand in breaking and dissolving the confederation.
III. “Yet, in loyalty to the king’s Majesty, when an authentic copy of the determination of his Majesty’s commissioners is published, to be recorded with us, if thereby it shall appear to our committee that we are, by his Majesty’s authority, now put under Connecticut patent, we shall submit, by a necessity brought upon us by the means of Connecticut aforesaid, but with a solvo jure of our former rights and claims, as a people who have not yet been heard in point of plea.”—Ed. Note.
[25] While the churches were thus divided, they were alarmed by the appearance of the Quakers. A number of them arrived in Boston in July and August, and had been committed to the common gaol. A great number of their books had been seized with the view to burn them. In consequence of their arrival, and the disturbance they had made in Boston, the commissioners of the united colonies, at their court in September, recommended it to the several General Courts,
“That all Quakers, Ranters, and other notorious heretics, should be prohibited coming into the united colonies; and that, if they should come or arise among them, they should be forthwith secured and removed out of all the jurisdictions.”