October 23, Massachusetts, laying claim by her charter to all lands south of a line drawn eastward from a point north of the source of the Merrimac, finds this point by survey to lie with its eastern point on the Upper Clapboard Island, in Casco Bay, and confirms it by assumption of jurisdiction.

Governor Printz appoints his son-in-law, John Pappegoin, Governor of the colony and returns home.

Richard Bennett, Colonial Governor of Virginia.

Isles of Shoals and all territory north of Piscataqua, Maine, belonging to Massachusetts, erected into the county of Yorkshire-Kittery, Maine, incorporated in 1647, and Agamenticus made into the town of York, Maine.

The British fleet, under Sir George Ayscue sent to reduce the Virginians to submission, but upon arrival they compromise. In place of force or coercion, conciliation resulting in the political freedom of the colonies ensues.

Rhode Island enacts a law against human slavery.

Mint set up at Boston, Massachusetts, by the General Court, which coined shillings, sixpences, and a few small coin of various denominations. John Hall was the first mint master. He was allowed fifteen pence out of every twenty shillings coined and amassed a large fortune. The dates on these coins were not changed for over thirty years, all bearing the date marks of 1652 and 1662.

1653

May, General Court of election at Boston, Massachusetts, admits for the first time two representatives from Maine, John Wincoln of Kittery, and Edward Rishworth, of York.

John Sanford Sr., President of Portsmouth and Newport, Rhode Island.
George Dexter, President of Warwick, Rhode Island."

December 16, The "Instrument of Government" is as important in the history of written Constitutions in the American Colonies as in England. It was adopted by Cromwell and his council of Officers on Dec. 16, of this year. Under it, Cromwell assumed the office of Lord Protector of England and her Colonies. When the Parliament, for which it provided, met in September in 1654 it passed a Constitution of which the above instrument was its basis.

Richard Bellingham, Deputy-Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Johan Pappegoin, Governor of Delaware under the Swedes.

Cromwell and Parliament addressed by the colonists for aid.

Wells, Saco, and Cape Porpoise, Maine, declared towns.

Alarm and distress of the colonies owing to the trouble with the Dutch. Commissioners are for war but Massachusetts refuses assistance.

1654

February 7, Lord Baltimore issues instructions to Governor Stone to strictly enforce the submission of all the inhabitants of the Province of Maryland to his proprietary rights.

May 3, Richard Bellingham, Governor, and John Endicott, Deputy-Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

May 6, Governor Stone, of Maryland declares by proclamation that the province of Maryland is under the government of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland, etc.

Nicholas Easton, President of the United Towns of Rhode Island.
Johan C. Rising, arrives at Fort Casimir in the sloop, "Eagle,
"direct from
Sweden, with reinforcements for the New Sweden Colony. He demands its
surrender, takes the fort, and renames it Fort Trinity.

July 3, Broke, having been discharged by Lord Baltimore as commander of
Charles County, Governor Stone erects the county into the county of Calvert.
July 22, Commissioners Bennett and Claiborne, under instructions from Lord
Baltimore, proceed to Maryland and make a second reducement of the province.
They appoint Captain Fuller and others commissioners for governing the affairs
of Maryland.

September, Roger Williams, President of the four United Towns of Rhode Island.

October 26, Captain Fuller and other commissioners call an assembly at Patuxent, Maryland, which passes an "act of recognition.''

President Dunster, of Harvard College, is indicted for disturbing infant baptism in the Cambridge Church, convicted, sentenced to a public admonition on lecture day, laid under bonds for good behavior, and compelled to resign and throw himself on the mercies of the General Court.

Charles Chauncey accepts the presidency of Harvard College.

Richard Bellingham, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

John C. Rising, Governor of Delaware under the Swedes.

Maryland Royalists under Lord Baltimore revolt. International hostilities follow but are subdued by Governor Bennett of Virginia.

Colonel Wood, seeking trade with the Indians, explores Kentucky as far as the Mississippi River.

Vice-Governor Pappegoin returning soon to Sweden, Rising, as director general of New Sweden, assumes supreme authority.

Colonists, ordered by Parliament to treat the Dutch as enemies, seize the Dutch house and lands at Hartford.

Death of Governor Haynes.

Acts of the Assembly of Maryland. One concerning religion declares that "none who profess the Popish religion can be protected in the province by the laws of England nor by the government of the commonwealth of England, but to be restrained from the exercise thereof." Also one making void the declaration of Governor Stone, requires the people to acknowledge Lord Baltimore as absolute lord of the province.

1655

January, Governor Stone, hearing from England that Lord Baltimore still retains his patent, reassumes the government and organizes a military force in the county of St. Mary's under Fendall. Fendall seizes the province records which had been deposited in the house of Preston, on the Patuxent River during the revolution in July, 1654, and also arms and ammunition, which had been stored in the house.

March 20, With a force of men and vessels, Governor Stone proceeds by land and water against the Puritans of Anne Arundel.

Mar. 25, Governor Stone, of Maryland, a royalist, imprisoned by the Colonists. Mar. 25, The people of Providence, Maryland, having prepared for an invasion, a battle ensues between the Puritans and the Marylanders of which it is said "of the whole company of the Marylanders there escaped only four or five." About fifty were slain or wounded, while of the Puritans only two were killed and two died later of their wounds.

As a result of the encounter between the Puritans and the Marylanders, immediately following the event four of Governor Stone's men out of ten who were court-martialed and sentenced to be shot were executed. The others, including Governor Stone, escaped sentence but were held as prisoners of war.

Mar. 8, Edward Winslow, aged sixty years, one of the "Mayflower's" first pas sengers and governor of Plymouth, dies on shipboard near Hispaniola and is buried at sea.

Mar. 23, John Endicott, Governor, and Richard Bellingham, Deputy-Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

September 16-25, Governor Peter Stuyvesant, of Manhattan, captures Fort Trinity and Christiana, Delaware, and brings the colony under Dutch rule. He sends to Europe all Swedes refusing allegiance to Holland.

October 1, Governor Rising, with a company of companions, bids farewell to Delaware and embarks for Sweden on the "De Waag.'

Oct., New Sweden conquered by the Dutch.

November 29, John Paul Jaquet commissioned by Stuyvesant as Governor of the
Dutch colony on the Delaware. He selects Fort Casimir as his residence.

John Endicott, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Edward Diggs, Colonial Governor of Virginia.

Thomas Wells, Governor of the Connecticut colony.

Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of Delaware under the Dutch. (From 1664 to 1682 Delaware was under the government of New York, and from 1683 to 1773 it was under the proprietary government of Penn.)

English, under Major Sedgwick, subdue Penobscot and Port Royal. The whole Acadian province is confirmed to the English who hold it for about thirteen years. Diego de Rebellado succeeds as captain-general to the house of Menendez of Florida.

Civil War in Maryland.

The Dutch capture Swedish forts in Pennsylvania.

1656

Richard Bellingham, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

John Webster, Governor of Connecticut.

Samuel Matthews elected Governor of Virginia and later appointed by Oliver Cromwell.

March 24, The ship "Mercurius' arrives bringing a company of Swedes. Not knowing of the change in government they attempt to go up the river and land, but are prevented by the Dutch.

April 12, Governor-General and council given seventy-five deeds for land, chiefly for lots in New Castle (then New Amstel). These were the first deeds made. July 10, Commission received from Lord Baltimore appointing Fendall as Governor of Maryland.

Two Quaker women, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, arrive from England and are landed at Boston, Massachusetts.

August 7, A number of Quakers arrive in Boston, Massachusetts, on the "Speedwell."

Aug. 16, The Dutch West India Company transfer Fort Casimir and the adjacent territory of New Amstel to the city of Amsterdam.

September 16, In the matter of the disputed proprietary rights of Lord Baltimore in Maryland at this time under consideration in England, the commissioners for trade report favorably of Lord Baltimore to Cromwell's council of state. Sept. 24, Fendall, arrested and imprisoned by the Puritans in Maryland, takes an oath that he will neither directly nor indirectly be any disturber to the government till there be a full determination in England of all the matters relating to the government and is released.

October 4, At this session of the General Court a penalty of one hundred pounds is imposed upon the master of any ship bringing Quakers within the jurisdiction. All brought in are to be sent to jail, given twenty stripes, and kept at work until transported again beyond the seas. Plymouth, Connecticut, and the Dutch at Manhattan, but not the government at Providence, Rhode Island, adopt the same laws.

Oct., Law that Quakers be fined and sent out of the jurisdiction of Connecticut enforced.

November, Lord Baltimore makes his brother, Philip Calvert, one of the couneillors to the governor of Maryland and principal secretary of his province. Mrs. Anne Hibbins, sister of Governor Bellir gham and widow of a magistrate, is condemned and executed as a witch.

A "Healing Question." The Proclamation by Cromwell for a general fast to consider the cause of the continued distressed condition of Britain. In response, Sir Henry Vane, previously governor of Massachusetts and one of the most high minded gentlemen and statesmen of the Commonwealth of England, publishes a tract expounding the principle of civil and religious liberty and proposing the method of forming a constitution through a convention called for that purpose. This method was actually followed in America after the Revolution. New York City founded.

Quakers, who arrived on the "Speedwell," are all imprisoned and banished without ceremony. The masters of the vessels which brought them are placed under bonds to take them away.

1657

January 20, The Pettaquamscot in Rhode Island purchased from the Indians. April, Jaquet is removed for mismanagement and Jacob Aldrich appointed in Holland as governor of New Amstil, Delaware.

May 9, Thomas Prince, Governor of Plymouth colony.

June 18, Luke Barber, Deputy-Governor of Maryland in the absence of Governor Fendall, who embarks for England.

September 24, The Puritan assembly meets at Patuxent, Maryland.

November 30, Report of the Commissioners for trade made Sept. 16, 1656, being favorable to the rights of Lord Baltimore, the Puritan agents enter into a treaty with Lord Baltimore to give up their power in the province and give due obedience to his lordship's government, he agreeing especially that he will never give his assent to the repeal of the law established in Maryland, whereby all persons professing belief in the Protestant faith have freedom of conscience there."

Benedict Arnold, President of the four united towns of Rhode Island.

John Winthrop, Governor of the Connecticut Colony.

Cornwallis, Assistant-Governor to Lord Baltimore in Maryland.

Rhode Island refuses the request of the Plymouth Colony to banish or exclude the Quakers.

First Quaker missionaries appear in Maryland.

1658

March 24, The Puritan party in Maryland surrender their power to the governor. October 28, William Beekman appointed vice-governor of the colony with headquarters of the company at Altena, now Wilmington, Delaware.

Thomas Wells, Governor of Connecticut Colony.

Francis Newman, Governor of the New Haven Colony.
Josias Fendall, Proprietory Governor of Baltimore.

First town hall erected in Boston, Massachusetts.

Towns of Scarborough and Falmouth in Maine erected.

1659

May 23, Beekman secures a deed of land from the Indians and erects a fort at the Hoorn-Kill, Delaware.

October 27, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, Quakers, executed for returning to the province after banishment.

December 30, Governor Alrich dies and Alexander Hinoyosa succeeds him as Governor of the Dutch colony in Delaware.

John Winthrop, Governor of the Connecticut Colony. (Until this time no person could hold a second term immediately following the first.)

The Governor of Maryland asserts Lord Baltimore's title to the Dutch settlements on the Delaware Bay and unsuccessfully demands the submission of the settlement.

Baltimore County founded in Maryland.

Isaac Allerton, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, dies in New Haven, Connecticut.
Town of Hadley, Massachusetts, settled.

1660

March 14, William Leddea hanged in New Hampshire for being a Quaker. June 1, Mary Dyer to be hanged as a Quaker, with Robinson and Stevenson, but through the pleadings of her son she is reprieved and again banished. Returning again to Massachusetts, she is hanged.

July 27, Edward Whalley and William Goffe, the regicides, arrive in Boston, Massachusetts.

William Brenton, President of Rhode Island's four united towns.
Benedict Arnold, Assistant President of the Rhode Island Colony.
Philip Calvert, Proprietory Governor of Baltimore.

Sir William Berkeley, Colonial Governor of Virginia.

Navigation Act, passed in 1651, now in force.

Hugh Peters executed in England.

The General Court of Massachusetts forbids the celebration of Christmas under a penalty of five shillings.

Restoration of the Stuarts in England.

Alexander, an Indian Chief, dies.

Estimated population of New Hampshire 2,300, Massachusetts 25,000, Rhode Island 1,500, Connecticut 8,000; New York 6,000, Maryland 8,000, Virginia 33,000, and of North Carolina, 1,000, a grand total for the colonies of 84,800 inhabitants.

1661

August 8, Charles II, of England, proclaimed sovereign in Massachusetts. September 19, Representatives of the Quakers in England cause Charles II to require the government to desist from proceedings against them. A ship is immediately chartered and Samuel Shattock, who has been banished from Massachusetts, is appointed to convey the King's letter to Governor Endicott. Soon after receiving it, Governor Endicott orders the release and discharge of all Quakers in prisons.

William Leete, Governor of the New Haven Colony.

Charles Calvert, later Lord Baltimore, eldest son of the Lord Proprietary, is appointed Governor of Maryland.

Colonel Francis Moryson, Colonial Governor of Virginia.

Eliot finishes his translation of the New Testament into the Indian language.

1662

April 20, New charter granted to Connecticut.

December, Warrant issued at Dover, New Hampshire, directing three Quaker women to be whipped out of the province. Stripped and tied to a cart, they are publicly whipped at Dover and Hampton, but freed at Salisbury through the agency of Walter Barefoot.

Dec., The Quakers hold their first meeting at Newichawannock or Piscataqua, in Maine.

Benedict Arnold, again President of the Rhode Island Colony.

Charles Calvert, Proprietary Governor of Maryland.

At the request of the Assembly, Lord Baltimore coins in England a large quantity of shillings, sixpence, and pounds, which were put in circulation in the province of Maryland.

Sir Henry Vane executed in England.

Children of respectable people not "professors' allowed to be baptized. This was adopted in Massachusetts and called the "Half way Covenant."

Metacomet or Philip, youngest son of Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoags and friend of the English, becomes sachem of the tribe on the death of his brother Alexander.

Congregational Church established in Virginia.

1663

February 7, The Dutch Colony Company in Delaware surrenders its rights to the colony of the city.

Feb. 12, Cotton Mather born in Boston, Massachusetts.

March 24, Albemarle Colony founded.

July 8, Charter granted Rhode Island by Charles. In force until the adoption of the State Constitution in 1842.

November, Benedict Arnold, Governor of Rhode Island, under Royal Charter.