God Save the KING. His Majesty at His first Sitting in His Privy-Council, was Graciously Pleased to Express Himself in this manner : My Lords, B upon any other Business, I think fit to say someSince it hath pleased Almighty God to Place me in this Station, and I am now to Succeed so Good and Gracious a King, as well as so very Kind a Brother, I think it fit to Declare to you that I will endeavour to follow His Example, and most especially in that of His Great Clemency and Tenderness to His People: I have been reported to be a Man for Arbitrary Power: but that is not the only Story has been made of Me: And I shall make it my Endeavour to Preserve this Government, both in Church and State as it is now by Law Established. I know the Principles of the Church of England are for Monarchy, and the Members of it have shewed themselves Good and Loyal Subjects, therefore I shall alwayes take care to Defend and Support it. I know too that the Laws of England are sufficient to make the King as Great a Monarch as I can wish; And as I shall never Depart from the Just Rights and Prerogative of the Crown, so I shall never Invade any Mans Property. I have often heretofore ventured My Life in Defence of this Nation; And I shall still go as far as any Man in Preserving it in all its Just Rights and Liberties. Whereupon the Lords of the Council were humble Suitors to His Majesty, That these His Gracious expressions might be made Publick; which His Majesty did Order accordingly. Printed by Thomas Newcomb in the Savoy, 1684. And Reprinted at Boston in New-England, by Samuel Green, 1685. Reasons for the Inditement of the D. of York, presented to the Grand Jury of Middlesex, Saturday, June 26. 80. By the Fersons hereunder Named. I. "B Ecause the 25th. Car. 2d. when an Act was made to throw Popish Recusants out of all Offices and Places of Trust. The Duke of York did lay down several great Offices and Places (as Lord High Admiral of England, Generalissimo of all his Majesties Forces both by Land and Sea; Governour of the Cinque Ports; and divers others) thereby to avoid the Punishment of that Law against Papists. II. 30th. Car. 2d. When an Act was made to disable Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament; There was a Proviso inserted in that Act, That it should not extend to the Duke of York: On pur 1 pose to save his Right of sitting in the Lords House; though he refuseth to take those Oathes which the Protestant Peers ought to do. III. That his Majesty in his Speech March, 6. the 31. year of his Reign, doth give for a Reason to the Parliament, why he sent his Brother out of England; because he would leave no man room to say that he had not removed all cause which might influence him to Popish Counsels. IV. That there have been divers Letters read in both Houses of Parliament, and at the secret Committees of both Houses from several Cardinals and others at Rome; and also from other Popish Bishops and Agents of the Pope, in other Forreign parts, which do apparently shew the great correspondencys between the D. of Y. and the Pope. And how the Pope could not choose but weep for joy, at the reading of some of the Dukes Letters, and what great satisfaction it was to the Pope to hear the D. was advanced to the Cath. Religion. That the Pope has granted Breev's to the D. sent him Beads, ample Indulgences, with much more to this purpose. V. That the whole House of Commons hath declared him to be a Papist in their Votes, Sunday, April 6th. 1679. Resolved, nemine contradicente, That the Duke of York's being a Papist, and the hopes of his coming such to the Crown, has given the greatest countenance and incouragement to the present Conspiracy and Designes of the Papists against the king and Protestant Religion. What this Conspiracy and Design is, will appear by a Declaration of both Houses of Parliament, March 25. 79. Resolved, Nemine contradicente, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament Assembled; That they do declare, That they are fully satisfied, by the proofs they have heard, there now is, and for divers years last past hath been a horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy, contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion, for the Murthering of his Majesties sacred Person, and for the subverting the Protestant Religion, and the antient well established Government of this Realm. VÍ. That besides all this Proof, and much more to this purpose, it is most notorious and evident he hath for many years absented himself from Protestant Churches during Religious Worship. These are the Reasons why we believe the Duke of York to be a Papist. Huntingdon, Gray of Wark, L. Russel, L. Cavendish, L. Brandon. Sir Edw. Hungerford Kt. of the Bath, Sir Hen. Calverly, Tho. Wharton, Sir William Cooper, Barronet, The Jury was sent for up by the Court of Kings Bench, whilst they were on this Inditement, and Dismist, so that nothing was further done upon it, saving that the Jury received the Presentment. And by the Dismission of the Jury, a very great number of Inditements were Discharged. A thing scarcely to be parallel'd, and of very ill consequence not only to many private Persons, but chiefly to the Publick. Another broadside, headed "The Earthquake, Naples, September 21, 1694"; and a "Notification," signed "By order of the Selectmen" of the town of Boston, "William Cooper, Town Clerk," notifying the citizens to meet at Faneuil Hall for sundry purposes, among others "to consider the application of Isaac P. Davis, that the town would sell him a small gore of land adjoining his lot in Pleasant Street." The President also communicated, with the following explanation, the two letters given below: John Woodward, M.D., born 1665, an eminent geologist, and founder of the Professorship of Geology at Cambridge. In 1692, elected Professor of Physic in Gresham College. Died 1728. He published, 1695," Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth, . . . with an Account of the Universal Deluge." It went through four or five editions, was translated into Latin, and called out some objections from Leibnitz. Cotton Mather said the true origin of the Indian Tribes would be settled, when Dr. Woodward's Natural History of the Earth should be published. GRESH. COLL. 3. Apr. 1721. S-Tho' my Business happens to be now very urgent, I cannot prevail with my-self to pass over this Opportunity of Saluteing you, by Mr. Gale, bound for New England: & returning my Thanks for the Shells you Sent, that afforded some entertainment to the Curious here. For my Self, my studyes determin me more to yo search after Fossils of all Sorts, & such marine Bodyes, Remains of y° Deluge, as are found in Digging, Mineing, &c. These will be of Use to the Perfecting my Nat. Hist. of y Earth: and I find much Difficulty in Procureing any from your Countryes there. D Mather has said nothing, as yet, about the Water Doves that you Sent Him. I should be glad to see any of the Utensils or Instruments, or any Things used in Religion, by the Pagan Americans there: or to have Samples of their Skulls, Bones, &c. as they may be found, after Battles, in y Fields. If there be any Thing in this Place y' may gratify your Curiosity, pray be very free in Laying your Commands upon, S-By Mr. Gale, returning to New England, I take the Opportunity to Salute you: and to pay my Acknowledgments for your very civil Letter of the later End of last Summer. I must likewise assure you that, sooner, or later, I ever answered your Letters: & generally delivered my Answers to Mr. Dummer; so that I was not in Fault for so long Silence & Intermission. Then, as to what you Say of your Curiosa Americana, after I had carefully perused them my Self, I deliverd them to the Roy. Society; that they might print any thing out of them, that they judgd proper, in the Philosophical Transactions. But the Editors, since Mr. Wallers Death, are very neglectfull & partial; by which the Society suffers not a little and indeed things are very low with them at present. For my own Part I have not been wanting in Doing you Justice: and makeing the Curious here sensible of your great Diligence there. As to my own Studyes, as they find great Approbation from y Ingenuous, I am zealous in y° Prosecution of them, so far as my Business in Physick will give way: & my Medical Undertakings, as well as y Nat. Hist. of y Earth, are ever going on. By what you write, you seem to have forgot how near I am to supplying all ye Defects of my first Essay, in my Observations & Reflections in Answer to Camerarius, 8°. I much admire I hear so litle of Marine Bodyes, Remains of the Deluge, digd up in New England. Pray be more inquisitive on all Occasions of Digging, Mineing, &c. I am, S: Your very faithfull humble Servant, To The Reverend Dr MATHER, At Boston, in New England. J. WOODWARD. Dr. PAIGE made the following communication on the subject of the Incorporation of the Town of Newton, Mass.: Incorporation of Newton. Rev. Jonathan Homer, in our Collections, vol. v. p. 253, says that Newton was incorporated as a separate town December 8, 1691; the "Manual for the Use of the General Court," 1872, indicates December 15, 1691, as the true date; and the 18th day of the same month is mentioned in the "Collections of the American Statistical Association," vol. i. p. 34. In Jackson's "History of the Early Settlement of Newton," the date of incorporation is carried back to August 27, 1679. I am confident that all the foregoing dates are wrong. It appears by the records of the General Court that the inhabitants of Cambridge Village, as Newton was then called, were "freed from contributing towards the ministry on the north side the river," by an order passed May 22, 1661; and by another order, passed May 7, 1673, they were authorized annually to elect one constable and three selectmen, dwelling among themselves, to order their prudential affairs of the inhabitants there according to law, only continuing a part of Cambridge in paying country and county rates, as also town rates so far as refers to the grammar school and bridge, and also pay their proportion of the charges of the deputies of Cambridge." In May, 1678, they petitioned again for incorporation as a town, and a hearing was assigned for “the first Tuesday of the next session in October." In reference to this petition, Jackson says: "The result was that the court granted the prayer of the petition, and Cambridge Village was set off from Cambridge and made an independent township. The doings of the court in this case are missing, and have not as yet been found. But the town record is quite sufficient to establish the fact of separation. The very first entry upon the new Town Book records the doings of the first town-meeting, held 27, 6, 1679, by virtue of an order of the General Court,' at which meeting the first board of selectmen were duly elected, Lamely, Captain Thomas Prentice, John Ward, and James Trowbridge; and Thomas Greenwood was chosen constable." (p. 60.) Another order was passed, in December, 1691, giving a name to the township, which Jackson notices thus: "1691. December 8. In answer to the petition of the inhabitants of Cambridge Village, lying on the south side of Charles River, sometimes called New Cambridge, being granted to be a township, praying that a name may be given to said town, it is ordered that it be henceforth called New Town.' order of the General Court, for a name only, has been mistaken by historians for the incorporation of the town, whereas the petitioners had been an independent town for twelve years. The child was born on the 27th August, 1679, but was not duly christened until the 8th of December, 1691." (p. 63.) This It is evident that the town was incorporated before December 8th, 1691, or rather the 18th: the session of the Court commenced on the 8th, but the order granting a name was adopted December 18, 1691. This order plainly enough recognizes Cambridge Village, or New Cambridge, as already a separate town. Moreover, in 1689, after Andros was deposed and imprisoned, Ensign John Ward appeared as a member of the General Court, and was admitted to a seat, apparently without objection. So far Mr. Jackson has a good case. But other facts of public notoriety would justify grave doubts whether the town was incorporated so early as 1679, even in the absence of positive proof to the contrary. For example, during the seven years following 1679, until the charter government was overturned in 1686, the Village, or New Cambridge, never assumed to send a deputy to the General Court, as a town distinct from Cambridge; but it did not miss representation a single year for half a century after the government was established under the new charter. People as tenacious of their rights as the inhabitants of the Village manifestly were, both before and after incorporation, would not be likely to let the newly acquired right of representation lie dormant for seven years, at a period of intense political excitement. The election of a constable and three selectmen in 1679 by no means furnishes countervailing proof of incorporation; for this is precisely what the inhabitants were authorized to do by the order passed May 7, 1673, which was never understood to confer full town privileges, and which, for aught that appears to the contrary, was the order mentioned in the Town Record, dated 27, 6, 1679. But the evidence in the case is not wholly of a negative character. A certified copy of the order, which is equivalent to an act of incorporation, is fortunately preserved on file in the office of the Clerk of the Judicial Courts in Middlesex County, where it has silently reposed for |