1667 - Colonies under Dutch Threat

Dutch Attack on The Medway - June, 1667
(Peter Cornelisz Van Soest)

January 7, 1667 - After the events that occurred last year in the north of the colony, Governor of New York Richard Nicolls orders Arent Van Curler, the military governor of Albany, to ensure the protection of the Mohawks against French attacks, in expectation of a potential peace treaty between both parties. 

The Great Bouwerie

January 25, 1667 – Former Governor of the New Netherlands Peter Stuyvesant is given by the Duke of York a safe-conduct allowing him to return to New York.

He had been back to Holland in 1665 to make his report, but the fall of the colony had seriously damaged his reputation, making him an ideal scapegoat. Accused of neglect, betrayal and disgraceful surrender, Stuyvesant went, in Amsterdam, through particularly difficult times, before his case would be finally closed. He got, however, permission to return back to his domain of Manhattan and secured the benefit of the sixth article of the Duke’s Laws on free trade. He was indeed associated with a group of Amsterdam merchants who intended to supply the Dutch people of New York with general merchandise. He had, however, no capital to invest but had been offered a fifteenth of the company for his help and local knowledge.

Despite the reluctance of the English authorities to allow the entry of Dutch ships in their harbors, Stuyvesant was granted a 7-year agreement for three boats. This one was actually revoked a year later and all foreigners were now prohibited from trading with New York. Stuyvesant then spent the rest of his life as a "gentleman-farmer" on his 62-acre domain called  "The Great Bouwery" near the village of Harlem.

April, 1667 - Following complaints forwarded by residents of the Esopus, Governor Richard Nicholls orders an investigation regarding Captain Broadhead’s competence.

All the residents had to testify about a brawl that ended with the death of a man. It turned out at their hearing that Broadhead had been unable to bring calm despite the opportunities that were offered to him. It was established that he had besides broken the orders by keeping deliberately in custody a person he should have released. He was accordingly suspended from duty

April 2, 1667 - A war council headed by Governor Thomas Prence is met in Plymouth to prepare military directives to the cities of the colony.

May 1667 – John Winthrop, Jr. is re-elected governor of Connecticut.

May 6, 1667 - Jesuit Father Claude Allouez (1622 - Niles (Michigan), August 28, 1689) leaves the mission of the Holy Spirit founded two years earlier at Cheqamegon Bay on Lake Superior, to visit the Nipissings tribe and the Sauk who live in northern Illimois.

The mission established by Father Allouez replaced a post founded by French trappers Radisson and Des Groseillers used for fur trade.
Nipissings were nomadic hunters-gatherers people living near Lake Nipigon (Ontario). They had been visited 20 years before by Father Pijart, another Jesuit who had converted some to Christianity. Allouez arrived in Nipissing territory on June 3rd and found that the population was, in his words, mostly "idolatrous" but that they were however about twenty to claim themselves Christians. He celebrated a mass for them and decided to go back to his mission three days later.

John Winthrop, Jr. (1606-1676)
Governor of Connecticut

May 7, 1667 - Governor John Winthrop, Jr. writes to Lord Arlington, the secretary of King Charles II, that, like his counterparts governors of Massachusetts and New York, he is not hostile to provide support to his countrymen in the Caribbean but considers essential to continue to keep safe the North American colonies.

He had, indeed, been informed that the French stationed on the lake side north of Albany and had a significant number of veterans in Canada. They had moreover built forts along Lake Champlain adapted to house garrisons of 2500 to 3000 men who could provide support to their own ships as well as the Dutch ones. John Winthrop, Jr. thought necessary to ensure that the Mohawks would not agree with the French at the expense of the English.

May 14, 1667 - King Charles II appoints Francis Lovelace to succeed Richard Nicholls as governor of the province of New York.

Francis Lovelace (c. 1621 - 1675) was the eighth descendant of John Lovelace, founder in 1367 of Lovelace Place at Berthersden, Kent. His father William was knighted by James 1st in 1609 and married next year Ann Barne, who was both the daughter of Edwyn Sandys, Archbishop of York under Queen Elizabeth and niece of Sir Edwyn Sandys, one of the founders of  the Virginia Company of London. William Lovelace was killed in 1627 during the siege of Burse, Holland, and his wife died soon after, leaving five sons among whom the future poet Richard Lovelace (1618-1658) and three daughters.
Francis was involved in the Civil War, serving as colonel under King Charles 1. Appointed Governor of Carmarthen Castle, he had to surrender in 1645 to the Parliamentary forces after seeing his brother William die by his side, killed during the assault.

He certainly accompanied his elder sister Anne when she went by 1650 to Virginia beside her husband Reverend John Gorsuch but soon returned to Europe where he sided with the troops of Louis XIV. Back to England in 1658 to defend the Royalist cause, he was quickly arrested and imprisoned at the Tower of London where he finally stayed a short time, until the collapse of the Commonwealth. He then found a position at the Admiralty.

The position of governor of New York certainly came at the best time for Francis Lovelace, engaged with many financial concerns that had forced him to part with Bethersden having showed an immoderate generosity in favour of King Charles II. He was going to leave for America with his two young brothers Thomas and Dudley he looked forward to work under him.

May 15, 1667 - By decision of the General Court of Massachusett, the Nipmuck plantation called Quinshepauge is incorporated under the name of Mendon on a land converted from the 1640s by people of Roxbury.

Residents of Braintree had regrouped to acquire a 8000-acre land west of Medfield. In September, 1662, after the contract was signed with the Indian chief " Great John ",  first settlers had moved to this remote area located south of current County of Worcester.

May 24, 1667 - In response to those who criticize his inaction on the Dutch threat, Sir Thomas Temple, the secretary of the province of Massachusetts, writes to Lord Arlington that his colony has instead carried out its work without proving unworthy, that it sent supplies to Barbados and has successfully contained the French outside Nova Scotia.

Josiah Winslow (1628-1680)

May, 1667 - Richard Bellingham is reelected governor of Massachusetts.

June 3, 1667 - Thomas Prence is reelected governor of Plymouth. Josiah Winslow and Thomas Southworth are appointed commissioners to the United Colonies. John Cotton, Jr. is slated to become a Secretary of the colony.

June 4, 1667 - Metacom (aka Philip) is summoned by the Plymouth court to explain about rumors that the Wampanoags would consider an alliance with the French and the Dutch in order to attack the English.

His arms were confiscated and he was brought to Plymouth by captain Thomas Southworth and Major Josiah Winslow. The one who accused him was none other than an Indian of his party who, during interrogation, confirmed his assertions before his chief. Philip dismissed the charge considering that the man was actually manipulated by Narragansett sachem Ninigret, his avowed enemy. He produced as evidence a letter from Roger Williams confirming that the informer was indeed a ruthless character. Based on the document, the court did not pursue its investigations and gave him back his weapons.

Metacom (Philip) before the Court of Plymouth

June, 1667 - Four Dutch warships and two fire-ships destroy five English boats and capture thirteen others on the James River. Faced with this threat, the settlers of Virginia decide to build hastily five new forts.

June 13, 1667 - Francis Lovelace is upgraded Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment that has just created Colonel Sir Walter Vane with the approval of the Duke of York.

July 11, 1667 - Robert Treat and his friends purchase the land of Newark, New Jersey.

July, 1667 - Governor of Albany Arent Van Curler dies drowned in Lake Champlain after his canoe capsized during a storm.

Arent Van Curler (1620-1667)

He was traveling to Quebec at the invitation of Governor of New France Marquis de Tracy to find a peace compromise between the French and the Iroquois. Mohawk and Oneida envoys had also been invited in this purpose in Quebec after the French clearly sent to them threats about a large-scale military intervention if they did not curb their belligerence. Since last year, the French, assisted by Algonquian and Huron warriors, had not stopped harassing Iroquois, burning villages and crops. The Mohawk chief Agariata had even been hanged in Quebec as a warning.

The role assigned to Van Curler was not easy as far as it was essential for English interests that the Iroquois with whom he had for years good relationship would not be tempted to form an alliance with the French at a time when these became stronger in the region. The untimely death of Arent Van Curler fueled for a while rumor of a possible French attack on Albany.

Treaty of Breda (July 31, 1667)

July 31, 1667 - Signing of the Treaty of Breda which ends the second Anglo-Dutch War. England loses the Surinam colony but in return, its conquest of the New Netherlands (New York) and New Sweden (Delaware) is confirmed. Passed for a while under English rule, Acadia goes back to France, ally of the United Provinces (Netherlands). The province of Maine is deprived of the Pantagoet area which passes under French control.

Summer, 1667 - a smallpox epidemic strikes the Eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, resulting in the disappearance of the last Native tribes. It seems to have been transmitted by a sailor whose disease was not diagnosed in time.

August 27, 1667 - a violent hurricane sweeps over Virginia and North Carolina coasts.
It is considered as the most powerful ever to hit the region. Nearly 10 000 houses are destroyed. Water levels rose more than 12 ft. in Chesapeake Bay and the tobacco crop is virtually wiped out.

If all the hurricane descriptions are correct, it seems that no tobacco plant was able to resist its violence. This surpassed anything that had ever been observed in the country. It began with a hailstorm during which rained down hailstones as big as turkey eggs. They fell with such force that all crops were destroyed, grass shredded, windows smashed, roofs damaged and livestock partly decimated.

After the hail, rain began falling during almost 40 days, rotting grain.
August 27th came up a hurricane that lasted 24 hours, with winds of exceptional fury. Formed northeast, it strengthened north before raging by heading southeast. The wind was accompanied with rain but no lightning or thunder. Waters quickly rose despite the width of the rivers and they all overflowed to the bay causing fear and despair of the people.

September 23, 1667 - By decision of the General Assembly met in Jamestown, Christian slaves of Virginia are denied freedom despite their baptism.
“Whereas some doubts have risen whether children that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their owners made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptism, should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly, and the auhority thereof, that the conferring of baptism does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom; that diverse masters, freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity by permitting children, though slaves, or chose of greater growth if capable, to be admitted to that sacrament.”

October 6, 1667 - Samuel Stephen is appointed governor of Albemarle to replace William Drummond recently dead.

October 18, 1667 - the village of Brooklyn (then called Brueckelen) is officially recognized by the governor of the province of New York, Richard Nicholls.

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon  (1609-1674)
Deprived of his rights on Carolina

November, 1667 – The Earl of Clarendon, one of the eight Lords Proprietors of  the province of Caroline is dismissed by the House of Commons and forced to take refuge in France.

It was a few years that he no longer enjoyed the king’s favor because of military setbacks  during the Anglo-Dutch War. But it was the abuse on prisoners in violation of " Habeus Corpus " that actually facilitated his downfall.