In conformity with this recommendation, the General Court of Connecticut, in October, passed the following act:
“That no town within this jurisdiction shall entertain any Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, or such like notorious heretics, or suffer them to continue in them above the space of fourteen days, upon the penalty of 5l. per week for any town entertaining such persons. But the townsmen shall give notice to the two next magistrates or assistants, who shall have the power to send them to prison, for securing them until they can conveniently be sent out of the jurisdiction. It is also ordered that no master of a vessel shall land any such heretics; but if they do, they shall be compelled to transport them again out of the colony, by any two magistrates or assistants, at their first setting sail from the port where they landed them; during which time the assistant or magistrate shall see them secured, upon the penalty of 20l. for any master of any vessel that shall not transport them as aforesaid.”—Ed. Note.
[26] Mr. Dudley, while president of the commissioners, had written to the Governor and Company, advising them to resign the Charter into the hands of his Majesty, and promising to use his influence in favor of the colony. Mr. Dudley’s commission was suspended by a commission to Sir Edmund Andros to be Governor of New England. He arrived in Boston on the 19th of December, 1686. The next day his commission was published, and he took on him the administration of the government. Soon after his arrival he wrote to the Governor and Company that he had a commission from his Majesty to receive their Charter, if they would resign it; and he pressed them, in obedience to the king, and as they would give him an opportunity to serve them, to resign it to his pleasure. At this session of the Assembly the Governor received another letter from him, acquainting him that he was assured, by the advice he had received from England, that judgment was by that time entered upon the quo warranto against their Charter, and that he soon expected to receive his Majesty’s commands respecting them. He urged them, as he represented it, that he might not be wanting in serving their welfare, to accept his Majesty’s favor, so graciously offered them, in a present compliance and surrender. But the colony insisted upon their Charter rights, and on the promise of King James, as well as of his royal brother, to defend and secure them in the enjoyment of their privileges and estates, and would not surrender their Charter to either. However, in their petition to the king, in which they prayed for the continuance of their Charter rights, they desired, if this could not be obtained, but it should be resolved to put them under another government, that it might be under Sir Edmund’s, as the Massachusetts had been their former correspondents and confederates, and as they were acquainted with their principles and manners.
This was construed into a resignation, though nothing could be further from the designs of the colony.
The Assembly met, as usual, in October, and the government continued according to the Charter, until the last of the month.
About this time Sir Edmund and his suite, and more than sixty regular troops, came to Hartford, where the Assembly were sitting, and demanded the Charter, and declared the government under it dissolved. The Assembly were extremely reluctant and slow with respect to any resolve to surrender the Charter, or with respect to any motion to bring it forth. The tradition is, that Governor Treat represented the great expense and hardships of the colonists in planting the country; the blood and treasure which they had expended in defending it, both against the savages and foreigners; to what hardships and dangers he himself had been exposed for that purpose; and that it was like giving up his life now to surrender the patent and privileges so dearly bought and so long enjoyed. The important affair was debated and kept in suspense until the evening, when the Charter was brought and laid upon the table where the Assembly was sitting. By this time a great number of people were assembled, and men sufficiently bold to enterprise whatever might be necessary or expedient.
The lights were instantly extinguished, and one Captain Wadsworth, of Hartford, in the most silent and secret manner, carried off the Charter and secreted it in a large, hollow tree, fronting the house of the Hon. Samuel Wyllys, then one of the magistrates of the colony. The people appeared all peaceable and orderly. The candles were relighted, but the patent was gone, and no discovery could be made of it or of the person who had conveyed it away.
It was said that the Charter was delivered up, and that same evening the apartments of Sir Edmund were entered and the patent abstracted; but this does not appear to have been the case. Sir Edmund assumed the government, and the records of the colony were closed in the following words:
“At a General Court at Hertford, October 31, 1687, His Excellency Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, and Captain-General, and Governor, of his Majesty’s territories and dominions in New England, by order from his Majesty James II., King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of the Colony of Connecticut, it being by his Majesty annexed to Massachusets and other colonies under his Excellency’s government.
“FINIS.”