From this time until the 18th of April, there were doubtless plots and conspiracies without end. On that day the people of Boston rose against Andros and his government, but no hint is given us of the real contrivers of the revolution. Palfrey, iii. 579, writes, "It would be very interesting to know when and how the rising in Boston was projected. But conspirators do not show their hands while they are at their game; and after the settlement under King William, it became altogether unsuitable for those who had been privy to the facts to let it be known that the insurrection at Boston was a movement independent of his enterprise." The contemporary accounts of the proceedings are numerous and full of detail. Byfield's Account was printed very soon and will be found in this volume; Hutchinson gives in his History, (i. 374-377,) a copy of a letter sent to Gov. Hinckley; Palfrey in the notes to his History, gives a number of citations from original papers, including the narrative of John Riggs, a servant of Sir Edmund's; and last, O'Callaghan, (N.Y. Col. Documents, iii. 722,) prints Andros's own version. The events themselves are so fully described in the following pages, that it is necessary to say only that Andros, who was in the fort on Fort-hill, was obliged to surrender on the first day, April 18th, and was lodged under guard at Mr. Usher's house. On the 19th he was forced to order the surrender of the Castle in the harbor, and the Rose frigate was also given up and partially dismantled. A provisional government was at once formed, and Andros was transferred to the custody of John Nelson at the fort. We have printed in the present collection a statement by the Captain of the Castle, of the good treatment afforded Andros and his companions. It seems by Byfield's story, that Sir Edmund made an unsuccessful attempt to escape disguised in woman's apparel, in April; he was more successful on the 2nd of August, when by the treachery of one of the corporals, he escaped from the Castle and reached Rhode Island. Waiting there too long, probably for some vessel bound to New York or to England, he was captured by Major Sanford and sent back to his former prison.
The following named persons were imprisoned with Andros. (R.I. Records, iii. 257.) "Joseph Dudley, Judge Palmer, Mr. Randolph, Lt. Col. Lidgett, Lt. Col. Macgregry, Captain George, Major Brockholes, Mr. Graham, Mr. West, Captain Treffry, Mr. Justice Bullivant, Mr. Justice Foxcroft, Captain White, Captain Ravencroft, Ensign Pipin, Dr. Roberts, Mr. Farewell, Mr. Jemeson, Mr. Kane, Mr. Broadbent, Mr. James Sherlock, sheriff, Mr. Larkin, Captain Manning, Lt. Jordaine, Mr. Cutler,"—25 in all, to which Byfield adds Mr. Crafford and Mr. Smith, and Hutchinson says that the number seized and confined amounted to about fifty. Probably some were soon released, or were too obscure in rank to be recorded.
It is our intention now to trace the personal fortunes of the deposed Governor, rather than the course of his successors. He was kept prisoner until February, 1690, when, in accordance with an order from England, Sir Edmund and his companions were sent thither for trial. The order, which was caused by letters which they had managed to convey to the Court, was dated July 30, 1689, but it did not reach Boston till very late in the year, and the prisoners were sent by the first opportunity.[10]
The Colony sent over Elisha Cooke and Thomas Oakes to assist their agents, Sir Henry Ashurst and Increase Mather, in prosecuting their charges against Sir Edmund and his associates. We find in the New York Col. Documents, iii. 722, and also in R.I. Records, iii. 281, an account by Sir Edmund of his administration, which is termed by Palfrey (iii. 587) "extremely disingenuous," though we cannot assent to this term. In it he says that he and his friends were sent to England "where, after summons given to the pretended agents of New England, and their twice appearance at the Council Board, nothing being objected by them or others, they were discharged."
Hutchinson, indeed, (i. 394,) attempts to lay the blame of this release of Andros and his more guilty associates, upon Sir John Somers, the counsel employed by the agents. It may be nearer the truth to say that Andros had committed no crime for which he could be punished, and that he had in no way exceeded or abused the powers conferred upon him.
At all events, Andros was favorably received at home, and in 1692 was appointed Governor of Virginia, to which command was joined that of Maryland. "He brought over to Virginia the Charter of William and Mary College, of which he laid the foundation. He encouraged manufactures and the cultivation of cotton in that Colony, regulated the Secretary's office, where he commanded all the public papers and records to be sorted and kept in order, and when the State House was burned, had them carefully preserved, and again sorted and registered. By these and other commendable acts, he succeeded in gaining the esteem of the people, and in all likelihood would have been still more useful to the Colony had his stay been longer, but his administration closed in November, 1698." (O'Callaghan, Woolley's Journal, p. 67.)
Strangely enough, the Governor who in Massachusetts was chiefly hated for his love of Episcopacy, was overthrown in Virginia for quarrelling with the Church authorities. The Earl of Bellomont writes in 1690, in a letter printed in N.Y. Col. Doc. iv. 490, "Sir Edmund Andros for quarreling with Doctor Blair in Virginia, brought the resentment of the Bishop of London and the Church (they say) on his head, which is the reason he has lost his government, and by the same rule they would get me recalled by making this a church quarrel." Bishop Meade in his "Old Churches and Families of Virginia," i. 157-8, gives some account of this controversy. The opponent of Andros was the Rev. James Blair, Commissary of the Bishop of London and President of the College, who seems to have passed nearly all his life in disputes with successive Governors; and it is no proof that Andros was in the wrong that he was recalled and superseded. The record of the trial of Dr. Blair is preserved at Lambeth, the result being that he returned triumphant with a good sum of money for his College.
Sir Edmund soon reappears, however, as the recipient of Court favor, being in 1704 appointed Governor of Guernsey, an office which he held for two years, retaining also the post of Bailiff of the Island, which he had for life. This is nearly the last we learn of him, and his age, nearly seventy years, must have debarred him from farther service. We find his name indeed among the new members in the "Proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 20 Feb. 1712-3 to 19 Feb. 1713-4;"[11] and this was in the last year of his life, as he was buried at St. Anne's, Soho, Westminster, London, 27th Feb. 1713-4, in his 76th year.
There remain to be noticed only a few items in respect to Sir Edmund's marriages, all occurring after his return from Virginia.