The King's Missive

As printed in Samuel Adams Drake (1884)

Told by unattributed — the collector names no informant · collected by Samuel Adams Drake · 1884 · Boston and eastern Massachusetts

1661. " Charles R. " Trusty and Wellbelpved, we greet you well. Having been informed that several of our Subjects among you, called Quakers, have been and are imprisoned by you, whereof some have been exe- cuted, and others (as hath been represented unto us) are in Danger to undergo the Like : We have thought fit to signify our Pleasure in that Behalf for the future, and do require, that if there be any of those people called Quakers amongst you, now already condemned to suffer Death, or other Corporal Punishment, or that are imprisoned, or obnoxious to the like Condemnation, you are to forbear to proceed any farther, but that you foithwith send the said Persons (whether THE king's missive. 47 condemned or imprisoned) over to this our Kingdom of England, together with their respective Crimes or Offences laid to their Charge, to the End such Course may be taken with them here, as shall be agreeable to our Laws and their Demerits. And for so doing, these our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge. Given at our Court at Whitehall, the 9th day of September, 1661, in the thirteenth Year of our Reign. " Subscribed, To our Trusty and Wellbeloved John Endicot, Esq. ; and to all and every other the Governoiu- or Governours of our Plan- tation of New-England, and of the Colonies thereunto belonging, that now are, or hereafter shall be : And to all and every the Ministers and Officers of our said Plantation and Colonies whatever, within the Continent of New-England. " By His Majesty's Command. "WiL. Morris." THIS was no common letter wJiich iu ^S'ovember, 1661, fell like a bombshell into the wicked town of Boston. It was certainly an alarming manifesto. It brought a proud and sen- sitive people, wlio had ceased to pay respect to loyalt}^ and had almost forgotten its forms, once more rudely to their knees. And they were a stern race, fearing God more than they lionored the King. But they felt the shock that had just overthrown the Puritan Commonwealth; and the voice which rose from among its ruins, commanding them to obey, sounded at the moment in their ears very much like the voice of God. Continued encroachment upon the prerogative of the throne had doubtless much to do wath ordering their destiny, — possi- bly as much as had the cruelties practised toward the offending Quakers, to whose prayers for redress the Parliament had paid little attention ; but witli the return of the old monarchy, its likings and its hatreds, the politic Friends had hopes tliat the easy-going Charles would lend a more gracious ear to them in the hour of his great triumph over the Puritan cause ; nor would he be found unwilling to lower the pride of those haughty Puritan subjects of liis on the other side of the Atlantic who w^ere endeavoring to carry on a little commonwealth of NEW-ENGLAND LEGENDS. their own. The moment was indeed opportune. Floating in adulation, Charle.s the king was well disposed to clemency toward all except those who had kept him for twelve years Charles the exile. The Quakers were on their part strongly roused to make renewed effort, too, by the news they received of the execution of William Leddra at Boston. Then Edward Burroughs, a leading Friend, and a man of action, entreated and obtained an audience of the King. ENDICOTT RECEIVING TUE KINO S OllDEIl. When he was ushered into the presence-chamber his first words were, — " Sire, there is a vein of innocent blood opened in your Majesty's dominions which, if not stopped, may overrun all." " I will stop that vein," said the King, shortly. Burroughs then laid before the King a detailed account of what had been done in IS'ew England. After he had listened to the catalogue of scourgings, brandings, cropped ears, banish- ments upon pain of death, and lastly of the execution of four THE king's missive. 49 persons of tliis sect for presuming to return to the Colony when forbidden to do so, the suitor, turning accuser, then presented the King with the proofs that the j^yew England autliorities had refused to allow the Quakers an appeal to England when they had demanded it. His Majesty is reported to have taken great notice of this particular item of the indictment, calling out to the lords who were with him to hear it, and then exclaiming ironically, — " Lo ' these are my good subjects of Xew England." He then inquired when a ship would be ready to sail for New England, and upon being informed, dismissed Burroughs, with the promise that he should presently hear from him through the Lord Chancellor. This promise Charles punctually kept. The mandatory letter which precedes our account was duly prepared, and then — bitterest pill of all for the disloyal colonists to swal- low ! — whom should the King's minister select to be the bearer of it, but Samuel Shattuck, an exiled Quaker, and one who had given the New England magistrates no end of trouble, he being finally banished by them from the Colony upon pain of death. It will thus be seen that nothing had been omitted that could render the humiliation complete. The London Friends, immediately this was done, chartered a vessel, of which Ealpli Goldsmith, another Quaker, was cap- tain, to carry the King's order and his messenger to Boston. In six weeks the ship arrived at her destination. It being the Sabbath, all the company remained quietly on board. Seeing a vessel, with an English ensign at her peak, cast anchor in their road, some of the selectmen of the town hastened on board to learn the news, little dreaming it, however, to be of so much personal interest to themselves. They eagerly asked the captain if he had brought any letters ; for, as may be imag- ined, intelligence of the events then taking place in England was awaited with the utmost anxiety and impatience. The master replied that he had, but he would not deliver them on that day ; and so his visitors got into their boat and went on shore again as wise as they came. But in the meantime some of them NEW-ENGLAND LEGENDS. having…

Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)