If, as was probably the case, Morton was the secret mover of this action, it proved to be his last effort. It was completely fruitless also. When the order reached Boston, sometime in the early summer of 1638, it naturally caused no little alarm, for the apprehension of a general governor had not yet disappeared. Indeed, on the 12th of April, “a general fast [had been] kept through all the churches, by advice from the Court, for seeking the Lord to prevent evil that we feared to be intended against us from England by a general governor.”[158] With the missive of the Lords Commissioners, however, came also tidings of “the troubles which arose in Scotland about the Book of Common Prayer and the canons which the King would have forced upon the Scotch churches.”[159] The result was that in August, instead of sending out the charter, Governor Winthrop, at the direction of the General Court, wrote “to excuse our not sending of it; for it was resolved to be best not to send it.”[160]
Archbishop Laud molested the colony no further. Doubtless Morton yet endeavored more than once to stir him up to action, and the next year he received from New England other and bitter complaints of the same character as those which had come to him before. This time it was the Rev. George Burdet—a disreputable clergyman, subsequently a thorn in Gorges’s side as now in that of Winthrop—who wrote to him. The harassed and anxious Primate could, however, only reply that “by reason of the much business now lay upon them, [the Lords Commissioners] could not at present ... redress such disorders as he had informed them of.”[161] Events in England and Scotland were then moving on rapidly as well as steadily to their outcome, and Massachusetts was bidden to take care of itself.
Nothing more is heard of Morton until the summer of 1643. The Civil War was then dragging along in its earlier stages, before Fairfax and Cromwell put their hands to it. It was the summer during which Prince Rupert took Bristol and the first battle of Newbury was fought,—the summer made memorable by the deaths of Hampden and Falkland. Gorges had identified himself with the Royalist side, and now Morton seems to have been fairly starved out of England. When or how he came to Plymouth we do not know; but, on the 11th of September, Edward Winslow, whom he had eight years before “clapte up in the Fleete,”[162] thus wrote to Winthrop:—
“Concerning Morton, our Governor gave way that he should winter here, but begone as soon as winter breaks up. Captain Standish takes great offence thereat, especially that he is so near him as Duxbury, and goeth sometimes a fowling in his ground. He cannot procure the least respect amongst our people, liveth meanly at four shillings per week, and content to drink water, so he may diet at that price. But admit he hath a protection, yet it were worth the while to deal with him till we see it. The truth is I much question his pretended employment; for he hath here only showed the frame of a Common-weale and some old sealed commissions, but no inside known. As for Mr. Rigby if he be so honest, good and hopefull an instrument as report passeth on him, he hath good hap to light on two of the arrantest known knaves that ever trod on New English shore to be his agents east and west, as Cleaves and Morton: but I shall be jealous on him till I know him better, and hope others will take heed how they trust him who investeth such with power who have devoted themselves to the ruin of the country, as Morton hath. And for my part, (who if my heart deceive me not can pass by all the evil instrumentally he brought on me,) would not have this serpent stay amongst us, who out of doubt in time will get strength to him if he be suffered, who promiseth large portions of land about New Haven, Narragansett, &c., to all that will go with him, but hath a promise but of one person who is old, weak and decrepid, a very atheist and fit companion for him. But, indeed, Morton is the odium of our people at present, and if he be suffered, (for we are diversely minded,) it will be just with God, who hath put him in our hands and we will foster such an one, that afterward we shall suffer for it.”[163]
The Rigby referred to in this letter was Mr. Alexander Rigby, an English gentleman of wealth who, besides being a strong Puritan, was a member of the Long Parliament, and at one time held a commission as colonel in the army. Cleaves was the George Cleaves already mentioned as having come out in 1637, with a protection under the privy signet.[164] He had then appeared as an agent of Gorges, but subsequently he had got possession in Maine of the “Plough patent,” so called, under which the title to a large part of the province was claimed adversely to Gorges.[165] This patent Cleaves induced Rigby to buy, and the latter was now endeavoring to get his title recognized, and ultimately succeeded in so doing. Cleaves, as well as Morton, enjoyed the reputation of being “a firebrand of dissension,”[166] and the two had long acted together. As Gorges had joined his fortunes to the Royalist side, Morton clearly had nothing to gain by pretending at Plymouth to be his agent or under his protection. So he seems to have tried to pass himself off as a Commonwealth’s man, commissioned by Rigby to act in his behalf. Winslow was probably quite right in suspecting that this was all a pretence. Rigby’s claim was for territory in Maine. It is not known that he ever had any interests in Rhode Island or Connecticut. There can, in short, be little doubt that Morton was now nothing more than a poor, broken-down, disreputable, old impostor, with some empty envelopes and manufactured credentials in his pocket.
At Plymouth, as would naturally be supposed, Morton made no headway. But the province of Maine was then in an uneasy, troubled condition, and there was reported to be a strong party for the king in the neighborhood of Casco Bay. Thither accordingly Morton seems to have gone in June, 1644.[167] His movements were closely watched, and Endicott was notified that he would go by sea to Gloucester, hoping to get a passage from thence to the eastward. A warrant for his arrest was at once despatched, but apparently he eluded it; nor if he went there, which, indeed, is doubtful, did Morton long remain in Maine. In August he was in Rhode Island, and on the 5th of that month he is thus alluded to in a letter from Coddington to Winthrop:—
“For Morton he was [insinuating] who was for the King at his first coming to Portsmouth, and would report to such as he judged to be of his mind he was glad [to meet with] so many cavaliers; ... and he had lands to dispose of to his followers in each Province, and from Cape Ann to Cape Cod was one.... And that he had wrong in the Bay [to the] value of two hundred pounds, and made bitter complaints thereof. But Morton would let it rest till the Governor came over to right him; and did intimate he knew whose roast his spits and jacks turned.”[168]
Prospering in Rhode Island no more than at Plymouth, Morton is next heard of as a prisoner in Boston. How he came within the clutches of the Massachusetts magistrates is not known; his necessities or his assurance may have carried him to Boston, or he may have been pounced upon by Endicott’s officers as he was furtively passing through the province. In whatever way it came about, he was in custody on the 9th of September, just five weeks from the time of Coddington’s letter to Winthrop, and the latter then made the following entry in his Journal:[169]—
“At the court of assistants Thomas Morton was called forth presently after the lecture, that the country might be satisfied of the justice of our proceeding against him. There was laid to his charge his complaint against us at the council board, which he denied. Then we produced the copy of the bill exhibited by Sir Christopher Gardiner, etc., wherein we were charged with treason, rebellion, etc., wherein he was named as a party or witness. He denied that he had any hand in the information, only was called as a witness. To convince him to be the principal party, it was showed: 1. That Gardiner had no occasion to complain against us, for he was kindly used and dismissed in peace, professing much engagement for the great courtesy he found here. 2. Morton had set forth a book against us, and had threatened us, and had prosecuted a quo warranto against us, which he did not deny. 3. His letter was produced,[170] written soon after to Mr. Jeffreys, his old acquaintance and intimate friend.”