court also draughted a petition to the king, stating in frank and straightforward language exactly what it wanted. It authorized Winthrop, who was planning to go to England, to present the address and the petition and to obtain a renewal of the Warwick patent, the original of which had been lost in a fatal fire at Saybrook, or if possible to secure a charter, the terms of which it had already draughted. It appropriated for expenses a sum of £500, which Fenwick had, in 1657, bequeathed to the colony as compensation for his failure to complete the business of the patent.1

Thus equipped, Winthrop left New Amsterdam on July 23, 1661, and reached England by way of Holland in the autumn. His chances of success were many. He had unusual influence at the court of Charles II., through a warm personal friend in the aged Lord Say and Sele, of the Privy Council, a member of the council for plantations and a friend of Connecticut. Moreover, Winthrop was possessed of great tact and an attractive personality; he had travelled widely and had acquired the habits of courts and courtiers-in fact, so well known were his qualifications that Plymouth tried to obtain his services for a similar errand.'

Winthrop's cause was a good one. The home

1 Trumbull, Hist. of Conn., I., 542, 543; Conn. Col. Records, I., 327-329, 575.

'Mass. Hist. Soc., Collections, 5th series, I., 392, 394; Trumbull, Hist. of Conn., I., 547.

government was well disposed towards Connecticut, a colony which dutifully proclaimed the king, was discreet in its attitude towards Whalley and Goffe, the regicides who had fled to New England, and gave no offence in matters of trade. There is nothing to show that Winthrop employed bribery, as some writers have thought, but there may be truth in the tradition that he presented to Charles II., at an opportune moment, a ring that Charles I. had given to Winthrop's father.' The king was, however, to no small extent guided in his decision by his advisers. The council for plantations and the legal advisers of the crown approved of Winthrop's request. The royal warrant was issued February 28, 1662, and the charter passed the great seal May 10.2 One of the two copies which Winthrop obtained was sent home by way of Boston and "read publicly to the freemen," October 9, 1662. The other copy remained in England until after the revolution of 1689, when it was brought to the colony, probably by Fitzjohn Winthrop, about 1698.

3

With few modifications the Connecticut charter of 1662 contained the essential features of the Fundamental Orders and such amendments to the Orders as had been made by the general court since

1 Mather, Magnalia (ed. 1853), I., 158, 159.

2 Conn. Hist. Soc., Collections, I., 52; and Report, 1899, pp. 17-20 (Hanaper office record).

Conn. Col. Records, I., 369; A. C. Bates, in Encyclopædia Americana, art. 'Charter Oak."

1639. The most important change concerned the representation of the towns, which henceforth, without regard to size or population, possessed practically equal representation in the legislative body.

Winthrop defined the boundaries of the colony, which he phrased in the terms of the Warwick patent,1 giving to Connecticut all the territory from "the Narragansett River commonly called Narragansett Bay to the South Sea, bounded on the north by the Massachusetts line and on the south by the sea, with the islands thereunto adjoining"; a phrase interpreted in 1664 to include Long Island.2

On October 9, 1662, the court completed its organization under the charter and took measures to affirm its title to all the territory thus named. It extended its jurisdiction over Stamford, Greenwich, and Westchester, and over Southold and all other Long Island towns, thus attacking the claims of New Amsterdam on one side and New Haven on the other; and it warned Mystic and Pawtucket not to accept the jurisdiction of any other colony than itself, thus casting down the gauntlet to Rhode Island. To strengthen its position by making its liberties more attractive, it reduced the franchise qualification from £30 to £20. If there is any apology for the aggressiveness of Connecticut, it

1 Mass. Hist. Soc., Collections, 5th series, IX., 33.

2 Conn. Col. Records, I., 426, 427.

lies in the broader life and opportunity that her government offered to towns that had been compelled to submit, often unwillingly, to the narrower "liberties" of New Haven and Massachusetts.

CHAPTER IV

TERRITORIAL ADJUSTMENT IN NEW ENGLAND

NEV

(1662-1668)

EW HAVEN was doomed. Not only was she legally unprotected and helpless, but she was without political or economic strength. The interests of the colony were largely mercantile, and its ventures had not proved successful. The attempt made in 1641 to establish a trading - post on the Delaware was frustrated by the Dutch and Swedes, involved a loss of £1000, and embarrassed many of the wealthiest men of the colony. Five years later the New Haven merchants, hitherto accustomed to deal with England through Boston, attempted to open a direct trade with the mother-country, and sent a ship laden with goods to the value of £5000. The ship, badly built and badly ballasted, foundered at sea, with all on board.

So great was the prevailing despondency that many New Haven colonists returned to England, and others considered favorably Cromwell's proposal to transport them to Jamaica.1 This project was abandoned, however, and the majority of the

1 Strong, in Amer. Hist. Assoc., Report, 1898, pp. 88-92. Cf. Tyler, England in Americu, chap. xv.

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