INTRODUCTION.

HE subject of a combination of the Colonies was agitated in a

THE

meeting at Cambridge as early as June, 1638, but the confederation was not agreed upon until May, 1643. An account of the meeting in 1638 is given in the New Haven Colonial Records, edited by CHARLES J. HOADLY, Esq. It is found, in the answer of the New Haven General Court (held 29th of June, 1653) to the Massachusetts Declaration, as follows:

"The confederation betwixt the colonies was no rash & sudden ingagem*, it had bine severall yeares vnder consideration. In anno 1638 there was a meeting at Cambridg aboute it, but some things being then propounded inconvenient for the lesser colonies, that conference ended wthout fruit, and the foure jurisdictions, though knitt together in affections, stood in refferrence one to another loose and free from any express couenant or combination, till vpon a new invitation and propositions from the Massachusets, another meeting was appointed at Boston in May, 1643; so that magistrts, deputies and free-men, especially those of the Massachusets had aboute fiue yeares time to consider what they were aboute, the compass and consequences of such a consociation, and probably did improue it, and saw cause to renew the treaty so long suspended."

The following extracts from the Colonial Records of New Plymouth and Massachusetts show the action of the General Courts of those colonies in relation to the union of the four Col (ix)

b

onies, previous to the signing of the Articles of Confederation by the Commissioners.

On the twenty-seventh day of September, 1642, the General Court of Massachusetts passed the following order:

"The magistrates in & neare Boston wth the deputies of Boston, Charlestowne, Cambridg, Watertowne, Roxberry, Dorchester, or the greater part of them, are appointed to bee a comitte to treate wth any comission's from Plimoth, Coñectecot, or Newe Haven, about the union, & concerning avoyding any danger of the Indians, & to have power to do hearin what they shall find needfull for comon safety & peace, so as they enter not into an offencive warr wthout order of this Courte./"

At the General Court holden at Plymouth the vijth of March, 1643,

"Mr Edward Winslow & Mr Wilłm Collyer are elected by the Court to go to treate wth Massachusett Bay &c, about ye combynacon."

At the General Court of Massachusetts held May 10, 1643:

"The Gov'no', Mr Dudley, Mr Bradstreete, Mr Treasurer, Capt Gibons, & Mr Hauthorne are chosen to treat wth of freinds of Coñectecot, New Haven, & Plimoth about a confederacy between us."

And at the same session the following order is recorded:

"The Governo & Mr Dudley are appointed on the comitte to treate wth of brethren & confederates of Coñectecot & Newehaven, & if either of the former be hindered, Mr Bellingham is appointed in his steede."

Under date of June 6, 1643, the following order appears in the Records of the General Court of Plymouth :

"It is ordered and concluded by the Court, that Mr Edward Winslow and Mr Wilłm Collyer shall haue full comission & authoryty, in name of the whole Court, to subscribe the articles of confederacón (now read in Court) wth the Massachusetts, Coñectacutt, and New Haven, and to subscribe the same in name of the whole, and to affix thereto the comon seale of the goûment.'

The Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of

New England, now printed, being part of the New Plymouth Records, are contained in two folio manuscript volumes. It ap pears to have been the practice of the Commissioners at their meetings to put in writing their acts or conclusions, and to sign. them; and it is probable that each colony was furnished by the Commissioners with the acts under their hands.

Gov. Winthrop says, "The names of the Commissioners and all their proceedings are at large set out in the books of their records, whereof every colony hath one." [Winthrop's Journal, II. 246.]

A folio volume of original minutes, from the year 1653 to 1662, much defaced, but recorded in the second volume, makes a part of the New Plymouth Records.

The original minutes of the meeting in September, 1646, and of the last day of the third month [May], 1653, and the greater part of the minutes of the meetings of Sept., 1648, and April, 1653, are all that are now known to be preserved belonging to the colony of Massachusetts. It is probable that the rest, together with the Book of the Acts of the Commissioners, referred to in this volume, were destroyed by the fire in 1747, of which an account is given by Secretary Willard, in a letter to Christopher Kilby and William Bollan, Esq., agents of the Province, in London, as follows:

Gentlemen

"Boston, Dec. 21, 1747.

I am now to give you the sorrowful News of the grievous & surprizing Rebuke of Divine Providence. on the Governm of this Province in the Destruction of the Court House by Fire which happened in the Morning of the ninth Instant. It was generally concluded to have begun in the Floor under the chimneys of the Council Chamber & House of Represent ves & was not discover'd till it was greatly increased; All the Books of the General Court, Govern' & Council & House of Representves there in the House were wholly lost without saving one & all the Books of Commissns and other Instrumts as well from the Crown as the Governmt of the Province with most of ye original Papers are likewise consumed."

In a letter received from J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL, Esq., Editor of the Colonial Records of Connecticut, dated Nov. 3, 1858, he says, "The Connecticut Manuscript is in excellent preservation." The Book of the Acts of the Commissioners belonging to New Haven Colony has not been preserved. That it was formerly kept is evident, not only from the statement of Gov. Winthrop, but by the following extract from the Records of the General Court held at New Haven the 27th of the third month, 1657:

"What conclusions of the comissions are yet to be recorded shall be entred in one of ye new bookes that came last yeare from England."

The two volumes, first mentioned, are in the handwriting of different persons. The first volume appears to be in the handwriting of Nathaniel Souther, Nathaniel Morton, and other persons; the second volume appears to be wholly in the handwriting of Nathaniel Morton.

A few of the pages, left blank by those who recorded the Acts of the Commissioners, were subsequently used by John Cotton, Esq., of Plymouth, for indexes or tables of contents.

On the first and second pages of the first volume is recorded, “The agreement for the bounds betwixt Plymouth and Massachusetts," and on 279 and 280 the petition of Humphrey Johnson to the General Court of Plymouth, and answer thereto, which are printed in this volume. The pages of the manuscript are noted by a in the margin. The following pages were left blank: 3, 4, 24, 42, 72, 174, 218, 219, 220, 261 to 277.

Some words omitted in recording, but found in the original minutes, are printed in brackets in the margin, as also some words from the originals, to correct mistakes in the record, are printed in the same manner. No blame, however, should be imputed to Secretary Morton or any one else on this account, as the minutes of the Commissioners appear to have been very hastily written.

The running title, and year and month in the margin, at the top of the printed page, are not in the original, but all other mar