towne of Plymouth, two for Scituate, and two for Duxburrow should, as committees for the whole, be added to the Governor and Assistants, to rectefie and prepare such as should be thought most convenient, that, if approved, they may be put in force the next Generall Court. "The parties menconed for the towne of Plymouth, Mr. Will. Brewster, Mr. Raph Smith, John Done, and Joh. Jenny; for Duxburrow, Mr. Jonath. Brewster and Christopher Wadsworth; for Scituate, Anthony Annable and James Cudworth; all which to repaire to the Governor and Assistants at Plymouth aforesaid the 15th of November next ensuing, and there continue their app[e]arance till such time as the premises be determined." Plymouth Col. Rec., 1. 43. No mention of the submission and acceptance of a report or code is to be found. In Massachusetts the first steps towards framing a code were taken in 1635, but the matter was not completed until 1641. Of this compilation of 1636 these Fundamentals formed a part, but how far they had been altered and modified before 1671 cannot be determined. "1. Wee the Associates of the Colony of New-Plimouth, coming hither as free born Subjects of the Kingdome of England, Endowed with all and singular the Priviledges belonging to such: Being Assembled, Laws to be made by the their "Do Enact, Ordain and Constitute; that no Act, Imposition, Law or Ordinance be Made or Imposed upon us at present or to come, Freemen or but such as shall be Enacted by consent of the body of Freemen representatives. or Associates, or their Representatives legally assembled; which is according to the free Liberties of the free born People of England. "2. And for the well Governing this Colony: It is also Resolved and Ordered, Annually chosen that there be a free Election annually, of Governour, Deputy by the free men. Governour and Assistants, by the Vote of the Freemen of this Corporation. "3. It is also Enacted, that Justice and Right be equally and impartially Justice to be Administred unto all, not sold, denied or causelesly deferred speedily admin- unto any. equally and istred. "4. It is also Enacted, that no person in this Government shall suffer or None to suffer be indamaged, in respect of Life, Limb, Liberty, Good Name but according or Estate, under colour of Law, or countenance of Authority, to Law and by due course and but by Virtue or Equity of some express Law of the General process of Law. Court of this Colony, or the good and equitable Laws of our Nation, suitable for us, in matters which are of a civil nature (as by the Court here hath been accustomed) wherein we have no particular Law of our own. And that none shall suffer as aforesaid, without being brought to answer by due course and process of Law. "5. And that all Cases, whither Capital, Criminal, or between man and man, be Tried by a Jury of twelve good and lawful men, accord- All Trials to be ing to the Commendable custome of England, except where by Jury. some express Law doth referre it to the judgment of some other Judg or Inferiour Court where Jury is not; in which Case also, any party agrieved, may Appeal and have Trial by a Jury. "And it shall be in the liberty of any person, that is to be tried by aJury to challenge any of the Jurors, and if the challenge be found With liberty to just and reasonable by the Bench, it shall be allowed, and others challenge any of the jury. without just exception shall be Impanelld in their room: And if it be in case of Life and Death, the Prisoner shall have liberty (according to the Law of England) to except against twenty of the Jury without giving any reason for the same. "6. That no Person shall be Cast, Condemned or Sentenced in any Case Capital, Civil or Criminal without the testimony of two suffi- What testimony cient Witnesses, or other sufficient Evidence, or Circumstances required in cases. equivalent thereunto, unless in any particular Case the Law hath otherways provided. 66 Wills. 7. And it is Enacted; Being the Priviledge of our Charter; That all Persons of the Age of twenty one Years, of right understanding and Power to make memory, whether Excommunicated, Condemned, or other, having any Estate properly theirs to dispose of, shall have Power and Liberty to make their reasonable Wills and Testaments, and other lawful Alienations of their Lands and Estates; be it only here excepted, That such as are sentenced for Treason against the King's Majesty, or Realm of England, or other Capital crimes, shall forfeit to the King or ColAn Exception. ony, for the carrying on the Charge of Government, their personal Estate: Their Lands and real Estate being still at their disposal. "8. That whereas the great and known end of the first Comers in the year of our Lord, 1620. leaving their dear Native Country, and all The great end of that was dear to them there; transporting of themselves over our coming into the vast Ocean, into this remote wast Wilderness, and therein was Liberty to willingly conflicting with Dangers, Losses, Hardships and Dis- enjoy the pure worship of God tresses, sore, and not a few, Was, that without offence, they without offence under the protection of their Native Prince, together with the to others. enlargement of his Majesties Dominion, might with the liberty of a good Con this Wilderness science enjoy the pure Scriptural worship of God, without the mixture of humane inventions and impositions; and that their Children after them might walk in the Holy wayes of the Lord: And for which end they obtained leave from King James of happy Memory, and His Honourable Council: with farther Grants from His Gracious Majesty, Charles the I. and His Honourable Council, by Letters, Patents for sundry Tracts of Land, with many Priviledges therein contained for their better Encouragement to proceed on in so Pious a Work, which may especially tend to the propagation of Religion, etc. as by Letters, Patents more at large appeareth; with further assurance also of the continuance of our Liberties and Priviledges, both Civil and Religious under the Royal hand and Seal of our Soveraign Lord King Charles the II. And whereas by the good hand of our God upon us, many others since the first comers, are for the same end come unto us, and sundry others rise up amongst us, desirous with all good Conscience, to walk in the Faith and Order of the Gospel, whereby there are many Churches gathered amongst us, walking according thereunto: And whereas (by the Grace of God) we have now had above sixty Years experience of the good consistancy of these Churches, with Loyalty to our Prince, civil Peace and Order, and also with spiritual Edification, together with the welfare and tranquility of the Government. "It is therefore for the honour of God, and the propagation of Religion, and the continued welfare of this Colony, Ordered by this Court and the AuThe Churches of thority thereof, That the said Churches already Gathered, or Christ to be pro- that shall be orderly Gathered, may and shall from time to time tected. by this Government be Protected and Incouraged in their peaceable and orderly walking, and the faithful, able, orthodox Teaching Ministry And the Minis- thereof duely incouraged and provided for: together with such ters of the Gos- other orthodox, able Dispensers of the Gospel, which shall or pel to be provided for. may be placed in any Township in this Government, where there is or may be defect of Church Order. "9. And finally, It is Ordered and Declared by this Court and the Authority thereof, that all these aforegoing Orders and Constitutions are so All the foregoing Fundamentally Essential to the just Rights, Liberties, Cominviolably to be mon Good, and Special End of this Colony, as that they shall preserved. and ought to be inviolably preserved." Fundamentals The tendency of legislation on the punishment of crime had been the same in the several Colonies. Coming from the same country, and adopting for the most part what the English statutory laws provided, they intro duced some novel features due to their intense hatred of what they held to be sin or to their material surroundings. Some immoralities which in England fell under the discipline of the ecclesiastical courts, and were usually punishable by a fine, public confession or an act of public penance, in the colonies were punishable by death. The series of enactments which passed in Massachusetts and were embodied in the "Liberties of the Massachusets Colonie in New England" of 1641, were in the main adopted in the other colonies. In 1644 the Commissioners of the United Colonies recommended that a verdict or sentence of a court in one jurisdiction should have a due respect in any other court through the colonies unless better evidence or some just cause should appear to alter or make void the original decision. Plymouth Col. Rec., 1x. 24. Compare the "full faith and credit" clause in the Constitution of the United States, Art 4. § 1. Jo pocock (4 phn Boro ADVENTURERS IN IRON WORKS AT BRAINTREE I N the fore parte of this year, the Pequents fell openly upon the 3 slew sundry of them, (as they were at work in the feilds,) both men and women, to the great terrour of the rest; and wente away in great pride and triumph, with many high threats.2 They allso assalted a fort at the rivers mouth, though strong and well defended; and though they did not their prevaile, yet it struck them with much fear and astonishmente to see their bould attempts in the face of danger; which made them in all places to stand upon their gard, and to prepare for resistance, and ernestly to solissite their freinds and confedrates in the Bay of Massachusets to send them speedy aide, for they looked for more forcible assaults. Mr. Vane, being then Gov[erno]r, write from their Generall Courte to 1 This year Bradford was again called to the office of chief magistrate, and Edward Winslow, Timothy Hatherley, John Alden, William Collier, Thomas Prence, Myles Standish, and John Jenny were chosen assistants. Plymouth Col. Rec., 1. 48. ' Watertown [Wethersfield], Conn., was attacked by Indians who surprised some of the inhabitants unguarded in the fields. They killed six men and three women, and carried away two maids. The Pequots were the offenders. Winthrop, History, 1. *218. See also Hooker's letter to Winthrop in 4 Mass. Hist. Collections, vi. 388. The three settlements on the river had now changed their names, Watertown becoming Wethersfield; Newtown, Hartford; and Dorchester, Windsor. The relative importance may be measured by the call made, in May, 1637, upon them for men to serve in the expedition against the Pequots; of ninety men, Hartford was to furnish forty-two, Windsor, thirty, and Wethersfield, eighteen. Conn. Col. Rec., 1. 9. Saybrook fort. Henry Vane, the younger (1613-1662), was elected governor of Massachusetts in March, 1636. The Pequot outbreak took place during his official period. With the assistance of Roger Williams he negotiated a treaty of peace with the Narragansetts (Winthrop, 1. *198), but becoming embroiled in the so-called antinomian controversy, after the expiration of his official |