1670 - Foundation of Charles Town, Carolina

Carolina in 1670

January 3rd, 1670 - General George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle and Lord Proprietor of Carolina dies in London at the age of 61. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. His only son Christopher inherits his titles) and properties.

Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, Earl of Torrington (August 14, 1653 - October 6, 1688) - Member of Parliament and Gentleman of the King’s Chamber, he will die without descendent.

January 25, 1670 - The Council of New York decides to review the case of Marcus Jacobson, a.k.a. " The Long Finn ", condemned last December for rebellion by the Court of Delaware. He has his sentence partly lightened.

He was transferred to prison in New York on December 20 pending the application of his punishment. Captain Rousseau was charged to inform him of the governor and council decision to reduce his sentence retaining only flogging and an obligation to serve during four years on a plantation in Barbados. His departure was scheduled the next day and Captain Rousseau accompanied him to the Fort Albany, a ship bound for the West Indies.

Document appointing Peter Carteret governor of Albemarle

March 10, 1670 - Peter Carteret is appointed as governor of Albemarle. He succeeds Samuel Stephens died in office.

Peter Carteret (1641- ?) - Second son of George Carteret, one of the eight Lords Proprietor of Carolina, he had settled since 1664 in the colony where he had successively served as assistant to the governor, councillor and secretary of the County.

Nevertheless, his life looked more like that of a farmer. He had cleared Colleton Island to establish a plantation but had often come close to starvation. The plagues that struck Albemarle were worth of those of biblical Egypt and himself did not count the lost crops and decimated herds. Hardly appointed governor, he could only admit that "it had pleased God to impose such suffering on the people of the region that they had never, despite the years, enjoyed the fruits of their labor. "

March 15, 1670 - a group of 44 survivors of the Carolina, a ship left from Barbados about six months earlier, reaches the shores of Carolina close to Port Royal. It carries Captain William Sayle, recently appointed governor of the new colony. Aware of the docking difficulties, captain Joseph West decides to sail up to the Ashley River's mouth.

According to a passenger report, being friendly, the Indians showed in bad Spanish the best place to drop anchor.

Spain considered that Carolina formed part of its territories especially as St Augustine, the main Spanish city of North America was not very far. The Edisto Indians were actually hardly pleased to see the English settle permanently but the leader of the coastal neighboring Kiawah tribe who lived a little further north invited the newcomers to settle down among his people, hoping in exchange that they would help him to get rid of the Spaniards and their Westo Indians allies. The crew accepted the offer and sailed up to the region called today West Ashlee.

Charles II ascended the throne of England with the support of the nobility of his country, but lacking financial resources to show his gratitude, he had especially chosen to offer the territories listed in the Heath's Carolana Charter, 1629 to eight of his followers. Many settlers of the Barbados had shown keen interest in the Carolina colonization project, tired of tropical storms, diseases and moisture. The new Lords Proprietor had praised this approach by sending a letter of encouragement to those that they had dubbed the "Barbadian Adventurers".

They would eventually influence the culture of this new colony, by their European feudal tradition, their experience of rice growing and their bias towards African slaves' labor. From 1663, they had sent William Hilton to visit the coasts of Carolina in order to find places to settle down but he had seen nothing conclusive. They had however succeeded in founding a short-lived colony near Cape Fear and sent a boat to explore the Port Royal area. Captain Robert Sanford had even met the Edisto Indians with whom he got friendly, leaving behind Doctor Henry Woodward with the aim of studying the inland and local tribal languages.

In August, 1669, the three ships Carolina, Port Royal and Albemarle left England for Barbados. The third was wrecked in reaching the Caribbean while the two others loaded supplies according to the program planned by the Lord Proprietors. They replaced however the damaged Albemarle by the Three Brothers. Both ships made their way to Carolina but were dispersed by a storm. The Port Royal drifted for six weeks before running aground off the Bahamas. Some of the 44 survivors died before the captain had a new boat built but once completed, it enabled them to reach New Providence and Bermuda where they purchased another ship who was to carry them to Carolina. The Three Brothers reached from her part Virginia on May 23.

William Sayle

William Sayle (? - 1671) - native of Dorset, he had been a captain and privateer, distinguished through the capture of several Spanish ships. He had then been governor of Bermuda between 1640 in 1645 and led the moving of the first Puritans to the Bahamas in October, 1648. These were about 70 to flee Bermuda due to persecutions organized by the Church of England and Presbyterians. Sayle had long served as intermediary between England and Atlantic islands before finding that his actions had no chance to succeed. He had then founded the Company of the Eleutherian Adventurers and completed, not without difficulty, his project to establish in the Bahamas a society based on religious tolerance. Sayle had been in 1662 relieved of his governorship before being called back by the Lords Proprietors of Carolina who hoped, despite his age, that he helps them to set up their government on the Bahamas archipelago, just granted to them by King Charles II.

He was, however, quickly blamed for his deficiencies.

April, 1670 - John Winthrop, Jr. is reelected governor of Connecticut.

April 13, 1670 - Governor of New York Francis Lovelace purchases all of Staten Island to the last Indians still living there.

April, 1670 - Led by Joseph West, the settlers of Carolina land in a place called Albemarle Point on the Ashlee River where they found a town named Charles Town in honor of the king. Florence O' Sullivan, an Irish soldier is appointed surveyor general of the colony and commander of the militia.

Florence O' Sullivan had certainly glory days on various battlefields but although recommended by Lord Proprietor Peter Colleton, he proved very fast not to be up to the task. It was hoped that his military skills provide to the new colony the way to defend against a Spanish threat but he was a poor land surveyor and his miscalculations would soon generate disputes.

Richard Bellingham (1592-1672)
Governor of Massachusetts

May, 1670 - 78-year-old Richard Bellingham is reelected governor of Massachusetts. The population of the colony reaches at that time 25 000 inhabitants.

The Assembly will pass, during this term, a law providing that the children of slaves are themselves enslaved.

Massachusetts was not conducive to large plantations and property owners had only few slaves usually assigned to housework. They preferred for it the younger, cheaper than grown-ups and more easily raised to specific works. It was not unusual that a settler loads some rum on a ship bound to the Indies and gets along with his captain to swap it for a slave child.

May, 1670 - Nicholas Easton succeeds Dr. John Clarke as lieutenant governor of Rhode Island.

May 12, 1670 - the town of Wallingford, Connecticut, which has so far 126 households, is incorporated.

It was founded three years earlier by a group of 38 settlers after the agreement from the provincial General assembly.

John Lederer's second journey

May 20, 1670 - John Lederer leaves for a second expedition in Virginia hinterland. He is accompanied with Major Harris and Indian guides.

His group went up the James River and reached on June 9 the village of Sapon, on the banks of the Roanoke River. This one belonged to Nahyssan, a tribe which had been in trouble with the "Christians" a decade ago but which reserved a warm welcome for Lederer in exchange for glasswares and trinkets. He collected a lot of information and argued his diplomatic skills to the point that he was offered to marry a young woman of the tribe. He decided, however, to pursue his trip southward along the east side of the mountains in search of a passage to the west. It took him fifteen days to reach Katearas, the capital of Tuscarora. The people immediately showed a strong hostility towards him and he preferred to turn back. He arrived in Jamestown on June 28 after five weeks of exploration.

May 23, 1670 - the Three Brothers reaches the Bay of Charles Town. A dozen passengers left to get water on St Catherine Island off the coast of current Georgia, are missing, captured by Indians allies of the Spaniards. Of the hundreds of migrants left from England and the Barbados, only 148, including three African slaves, arrive alive at Charles Town.

160 Kiawah Indians lived there, depending on hunting and fishing. The soil was fertile and there were few mosquitoes. As for the Spaniards, their fortress of St Augustine being more than 250 miles, they did not pose an immediate danger. The new settlers sent letters to Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, one of the eight Lords Proprietors that his secretary, the philosopher John Locke, grouped under the name of "Shaftesbury Papers".

May 25, 1670 - after several months of hesitation, Governor of New Jersey Philip Carteret imposes his project of land tax giving rise to the discontent of the owners.

The divorce seems consummated between Carteret and the residents of the colony.

May 29, 1670 - Nathaniel Morton, secretary of the Plymouth colony publishes the list of all the freemen of the jurisdiction.

June 3rd, 1670 - Thomas Prence is re-elected governor of Plymouth. He is also appointed commissioner to the United Colonies together with Josiah Winslow.

A law enacted during his mandate imposed a fine on all those who refused to work in the service of an elected councilor, recalling that this one was not only police chief executive, but had to monitor the affairs of a city including the ethical conduct of its people and was moreover judicial officer.

Another law from that period established that a whale or a big fish stranded on the territory of a city and from which could be extracted oil would be attributed for two thirds to the local government and the rest to the people who discovered it.

It is also from this time that the Indian tribes living on the territory of the colony ceased to be regarded as full nations. They were therefore legally attached to the local government and subjected to the same laws as the settlers. Thus, they were more and more Indians to appear before the courts, for all kinds of offences. They would often suffer from of a real discrimination, given the penalties imposed against them, much higher than for the English.

August 6, 1670 - a storm strikes the Albemarle colony in Carolina, destroying crops and many houses.

All the local economy suffered the vagaries of weather. The fact that cetaceans kept off the coastline compromised in particular the future of Governor Peter Carteret’s company, specialized in the sale of whale oil.

Sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains
(painting by Jeff Pittman)

August 20, 1670 - John Lederer leaves for his second expedition of the year towards the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Accompanied by colonel Catlet and five Indian guides, he went up the Rappahanock River to the foothills of the mountains but had to return hastily because of a spider bite that got infected.

Lederer concluded from these experiences that it was unthinkable that Pacific Ocean is only after eight or ten days of walking.

August, 1670 – The county court jury of Northampton and Accomack, Virginia considers that, following the death of Anthony Johnson occurred a few months earlier, his property belongs to England, given that being of African descent, he is thus a foreigner.

Anthony Johnson was part of the group of twenty Africans sold as slaves in Jamestown in 1619. He had gained his freedom in 1651 and been granted, at that time, a plot of land he had thrived over the years. He had however preferred to move, with his wife, to Maryland because of harms done to black people in Virginia. When he died, only 50 acres remained from the 250 he had purchased and the court decided to deprive his son of this weak legacy to give it to a “white” farmer.

October, 1670 - The assembly of Virginia passes a law prohibiting Africans and Indians, although they are free, to use white servants.

Another law states that all non-Christian Africans arriving in the colony by boat are considered as slaves for life whereas the law that allowed the vote of freedmen is repealed.

October 26, 1670 - Convicted of the murder of Walter House, Thomas Flounders is hanged in Kingston, Rhode Island.

He had been sentenced to death on July 12, 1670 by the Court of Rhode Island after a trial during which he had admitted having had an argument with House, at a time when many quarrels opposed the settlers of Connecticut to those of Rhode Island. Flounders ‘property was confiscated but Kingston residents got together to financially support his wife and child he left.

Charles Calvert
Governor of Maryland

November, 1670 - after more than year spent in England, Governor Charles Calvert is back in Maryland.

Anxious to find an end to the divisions that prevailed within the Assembly between Catholics and Protestants, he decided to give the right to vote only to the planters who owned more than 50 acres or those whose properties amounted to at least to 40 pounds. Only landowners with at least 1000 acres were also now allowed to access responsibilities. The latter provision perversely gave powers to incompetent people.

Charles Calvert continued, since he became governor, to maintain the privileges granted to his family in the 1631 Royal Charter the almost feudal design of which had not stopped arousing controversy between him and his subjects. He was certainly concerned with the well-being of his colony but equated any opposition with an attack against his personal interests. On the other hand, despite the sharp increase of the Protestant population, he continued to focus his Catholic friends to whom he reserved official duties.

Augustine Herman completed at that time the first official map of Maryland which would be printed in London in 1673.

Map of Carolina

1669 - The Long Finn Rebellion

French explorer René Cavelier De La Salle visits Niagara Falls, August 1669

February 16, 1669 - Foundation of Dorchester County in the province of Maryland on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay.

It was so named in honor of Charles Sackville, 6^th Earl of Dorset, whose family maintained friendship with Lord Baltimore.

March 1st, 1669 - John Locke drafts the Constitution of Carolina (Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas) consisted of 120 articles.

The project was commissioned by Lord Ashley, later Earl of Shaftesbury, one of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. This document, also called the "Great Model", provided a feudal organization of the province with the introduction of noble titles and serfdom. The text did not really correspond to Locke’s insights but was however largely inspired by the model of society defended by his protector. The constitution was actually never implemented.

John Locke

John Locke (August 29, 1632 - October 28, 1704) - This philosopher is considered the first English empiricist and proponent of the Social Contract. His ideas had a huge influence on the development of political philosophy and he is regarded as one of the most influential representatives of the Enlightment. His writings inspired both Voltaire and Rousseau, but also the American revolutionaries.

The admirers of Locke always defended his liberalism, his notion of fundamental human rights and his fight for the separattion of powers but his detractors have never failed to remember that he was also haevily involved in trafficking slaves through the Royal African Company. It is also felt that his considerations on unenclosed properties had justified the displacement of local Indian populations. His conception of freedom seen as the natural human condition does not lack hypocrisy when it justifies, furthermore, aristocraty and slavery. The article 110 of the Constitution does not specify that "every free man of Carolina has absolute power over his black slaves whatever his opinions and religion".

Governor of  Virginia William Berkeley

March 9, 1669 - John Lederer leaves Chickahominy for his first exploring expedition of Virginia inland. He is sent by Governor William Berkeley who, like most, keeps thinking since Sir Francis Drake that California (New Albion) is just beyond the mountains of Virginia.

Accompanied with three Indian guides, he reached the first Pamunkey River falls on March 14th and climbed on March 18th the foothills of the Appalachians.

Lederer did not get on his return the expected enthusiasm. It’s just if Governor William Berkeley, who had yet appointed him for this exploration, did not admonish him, jealous that it was not an English who had been brave enough to face the unknown. On the other hand, coastal owners feared that the new territories discoveries would attract other settlers likely to increase tobacco production and cause strong competition.

John Lederer (Hamburg 1644 -?) He had to complete his medical studies in Germany when he chose to leave for Virginia. Governor William Berkeley charged him with several exploration missions before he moved to Maryland from 1671.

April, 1669 - John Winthrop, Jr. is reelected governor of Connecticut.

May, 1669 – While he must travel to England, Governor of Maryland Charles Calvert appoints his uncle Philip Calvert, Jerome White and Baker Brooke to replace him during his absence.

May, 1669 - Richard Bellingham is reelected governor of Massachusetts Bay

May 19, 1669 - Located in Western Massachusetts on a site called Waranoake by Pocumtucks, Westfield acquires the city status.

The first colonists had settled there near 10 years earlier. Situated 6 miles west  of Springfield, Westfield was at that time the westernmost settlement of Massachusetts.

June 3, 1669 - Thomas Prence is reelected governor of Plymouth. Josiah Winslow and Thomas Southworth are again chosen as commissioners to the United Colonies.

It is during this term that the Court of Plymouth granted the city status to Namasakett who later changes its name to Middleborough.

Dr John Clarke 
(1610-1679)

May, 1669 - Benedict Arnold is elected for the second time governor of the
royal colony of Rhode Island and doctor John Clarke appointed lieutenant governor of the colony.

Benedict Arnold had already held this position between 1663 and 1166. Meanwhile, John Clarke, had been granted, in 1663, by King Charles II a royal charter for his province after waiting 11 years in England. Back in America, he had re-entered Newport parish where he was minister and also indulged in medicine to improve his livelihoods. He had, since 1664, been regularly reelected as deputy governor.

May 21, 1669 - The new governor and council of Rhode Island appoint "conservatives of the peace " who will be in charge to instruct local matters the damage of which does not exceed 40 schillings.

Samuel Wilson and Jirah Bull were responsible for Pettaquamscutt, Richard Smith and Samuel Dyre for Aquidnesuc, John Crandal and Tobias Saunders for Misquamicut. They had besides the power to appoint their assessors and constitute juries for trials.

Summer, 1669 - The Indian tribes of New England raise an army of 600 to 700 men placed under the command of Chief Wompatuck, intending to attack Mohawk. It is for them to avenge the death of several members of their tribes, killed by  Mohegan leader Uncas.

They besieged unsuccessfully the town of Caughnawaga and began their retreat when they were ambushed by Mohawk. There followed a bloody battle during which were killed all the Indian chiefs of New England, about fifty. The losses were however significant on both sides and they would need some time to recover.

They were at that time only Mahicans to continue to resist Iroquois. Yet, these had taken refuge in the Housatonic valley in Western Massachusetts and despite the incorporation of groups of Wappinger and Mattabesec, they had been so decimated by diseases that their total population did not exceed a thousand.

Wompatuck (1627-1669) - This Massachusett Indian chief, dubbed Josiah Sagamore by the English was the son of Sachem Chickataubut, one the first Indian leaders allies of the European settlers whom he sold a land on which was built the city of Boston. He had succeeded his uncle as sagamore in 1660.

Ninigret (c. 1610-1677)
Sachem of the Niantics

July 12, 1669 - Sachem Ninigret comes to complain to the Rhode Island council that Indians of his tribe are held on Block Island where they serve as domestics for Thomas Morrey. The governor promises to ask the latter by letter for explanations.

Summer, 1669 - a strange traveler come from Sweden appears under the name of Konigsmark in the Delaware colony.

He was actually sent by the Swedish government that worried about the fate of the "left to fend for themselves" Finns. From his real name, Marcus Jacobson, he was quickly accused of coming and going along the river and making speeches to incite rebellion against the English authorities. He partnered with Henry Coleman, a farmer soon blamed for having given up his livestock and crops to follow him. An arrest warrant was pronounced against them but informed, Coleman found refuge amongthe Indians. Governor Francis Lovelace then gave him order to surrender within fifteen days otherwise all his goods would be confiscated and become property of the king.

July 20, 1669 - the governor and council of Rhode Island order the arrest of Ninigret, suspected by them to organize a plot with Metacom (Philip), some of his men having been spotted several days with him without good reason.

Ninigret appeared three days later and explained that the Indians had actually held a big dance to invoke good harvests and that the rumors of conspiracy came from an Indian of Long Island who had abducted, in the past, a chief’s daughter against ransom and that it had taken time to be paid to him.

August 2nd, 1669 - a violent hurricane pounds the Albemarle colony, Carolina in full tobacco-harvesting season. The production is almost destroyed.

Cavelier De La Salle at the Seneca

August 10, 1669 - René Cavelier de la Salle lands in Irondequoit Bay near current Rochester on the shores of Lake Ontario, trying to reach the Ohio tribes.

René Robert Cavelier de La Salle (Rouen, November 22, 1643 – Louisiana, March 19, 1687) - A French traveler and explorer, he was the first European to visit territories between Quebec and the Mississippi Delta. he had, in his youth, attended the Jesuits and even belonged to their Congregation to fulfill the wishes of his father before being relieved of his vows for " moral infirmities ". He then proceeded to go to America and arrived in New France in 1667 where he met his brother Jean who was a priest in Montreal. He equipped in 1669 a small expedition consisting of about fifteen men with the aim of exploring Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. He reached upper Ohio River down to Louisville falls but abandoned by his companions, he had to turn back alone to Montreal.

August 13, 1669 - Cavelier de La Salle with Jesuit fathers Dollier de Casson and Bréhan de Galinée reach Totiakton on Honeoye Creek. They offer to the Seneca Indians a double-barrel pistol to be used against their enemies Andostoue and Mohegan. Other presents are kettles, hatchets, knives and glass jewelry.

August 14, 1669 - The Indians inform Cavelier de La Salle that they await the return of a group of young warriors bringing with them prisoners from the Dutch colonies and offer him a wampum belt. He has to attend in the meanwhile the torture and dismemberment of a captive.

September 14, 1669 – a council meets in New York to discuss the letters sent by captain Carr raising the possibility of an uprising in Delaware.

It was decided to send a letter to the officers to encourage them to the utmost vigilance. The council ordered that the "Long Finn", as was called Marcus Jacobson, who was meanwhile clapped in irons, stays in jail until the governor or his representative examine the charges alleged against him, namely "heinous and high nature". All other people who had a connection with the plot were kept under arrest and an inventory of their properties had to be made.

It was for one year, in Delaware, a justice court before which these people were going to be questioned. But the population was divided on their subject, just like the court itself, consisted in part of Finnish councillors. The Dutch also were concerned about this matter, like Robert Alrich, a board member.

September 17, 1669 - the village of Nieuw Dorp, by the Hudson River, is officially named Hurley.

September 25, 1669 - the Esopus village founded in 1658 by Thomas Chambers under the name of Wiltwyck is officially renamed Kingston.

October, 1669 - The Virginia Assembly enacts a law stipulating that when a slave resists his master, this one cannot be accused of murder if the death results from the punishment.

« Whereas the only law in force for the punishment of refractory servants resisting their master, mistress, or overseer cannot be inflicted upon Negroes, nor the obstinacy of many of them be suppressed by other than violent means, be it enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly if any slave resists his master (or other by his master's order correcting him) and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accounted a felony, but the master (or that other person appointed by the master to punish him) be acquitted from molestation, since it cannot be presumed that premeditated malice (which alone makes murder a felony) should induce any man to destroy his own estate. »

October, 1669 - Lord Prorietor of New Jersey George Carteret who is also treasurer of the Navy is dismissed from the House of Commons to have granted funds without prior authorization.

Governor Francis Lovelace

November 22, 1669 - Secretary of New York Matthias Nicholls (c. 1630 - 1687) is appointed to go to Delaware and preside over the High Court which has to judge the " Long Finn " and his partners, accused of inciting a rebellion.

Governor Francis Lovelace had thoroughly prepared the trial and made sure that all the protocol particuliar to the English courts would be applied to supervise the parties. According to the bill of indictment, the "Long Finn" had to respond because « Not fearing God but being inspired by the devil, 28th day of August of the 21st year of the reign of our Sovereign Charles the second, by the grace of God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King and Defender of the Faith, Annoque Domini 1669, at Christina and several other times and places, before thou didst most wickedly traitorously, feloniously, and maliciously conspire and attempt to invade by force of arms this government settled under the allegiance and protection of His Majesty and also didst most traitorously solicit and entice divers and threaten others of His Majesty’s good subjects to betray their allegiance to His Majesty, the king of England, persuading them to revolt and adhere to a foreign prince, that is to say, to the king of Sweden in prosecution whereoff thou didst appoint and caused to be held routous and unlawful assemblies, breaking the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King and the laws of this government in such cases provided….. »

December 6, 1669 – The Long Finn Rebellion trial takes place in New Castle, Delaware before commissioners appointed by Governor Francis Lovelace.

The judgment had been prepared in advance by governor Lovelace and the New York Council. Marcus Jacobson a.k.a. the " Long Finn" was convicted of treason but avoided the death penalty. He was condemned to be flogged in public and have the face branded by the letter "R", meaning rebellion. It was planned to hang around his neck a sign that contained the charge against him and he would eventually be sent to the Barbados where he would be sold as a slave. Eighty people including Henry Coleman suspected of collusion and attempted rebellion were also fined.

1669 - In Virginia, they are 725 Indian warriors to pay tribute. The number of Natives still living in the colony is about 2900 while they were 30 000 sixty earlier, a declined caused by disease, famine, wars and fled to other regions. The European settlers are, on their side, about 30 000.

The servants who try to run away have their servitude period extended to offset the costs incurred by the government to pursue them or for other crimes, such as giving birth to a child or killing a pig.

1668 - Searle's Sack of St Augustine

New York City Hall (1668)

March, 1668 - a collection is held in the Plymouth Colony to finance the printing of  Nathaniel Morton's book "New England Memoriall".

Nathaniel Morton (1613-1686) was the nephew of the late governor William Bradford. He worked with him as secretary of the Plymouth Colony. Largely inspired by the diary written by his uncle, his book is the first published history of the Massachusetts colony.

March 7, 1668 - Governor of Massachusetts Richard Bellingham and his council engage in a debate with Thomas Goold, the Baptist representative who expressed the wish to found churches in Boston and Charlestown.

Bellingham had no interest in accommodating his request, considering Baptists as heretics. He wanted, through the planned debate, to bring Goold in the right way but for lack of reaching it, he made him condemn to banishment on May 7^th, along with William Turner and John Farnum, two other members of his congregation.
Thomas Goold belonged to the Puritan church of Charlestown when he chose in 1665 to join the Baptist doctrine. He would wait for 30 months behind bars whereas many dignitaries of the colony worked for his release, saying the Baptist worship was very close to the church. They finally won their case and once out of prison, Goold was allowed to build the Baptist sanctuary he planned on Noodles Island, near Boston harbor.

March, 1668 - A meteor appears for several days in the skies over New England. This phenomenon frightens the settlers and the magistrates take the opportunity to engage in reforming their morals. The General Court of Massachusetts issues, in this sense, a circular letter to all the ministers.

March 25, 1668 - English Captain Sylvester Salisbury wins a silver cup after his horse-racing victory at Hempstead Plains. It is the first sports trophy granted in America.
The 2-miles long course has been created in Long Island since 1665 by Governor Richard Nicholls whose purpose was to encourage the bettering of the breed of horses.

April, 1668 - John Winthrop, Jr. is reelected governor of Connecticut.

April 21, 1668 - the governor and council of New York take a series of resolutions and directives for the Delaware colony.

According to them, there was an urgent need to restore civilian authority after the period of uncertainty caused by the Anglo-Dutch war. The new measures were intended, in particular, to prevent abuses and challenges against the magistrates. Captain Robert Carr who commanded the garrison had at his disposal a council made up of Hans Block, Israel Helme, Peter Rambo, Peter Cock and Peter Alrich whose mission was to collect the various complaints and determine by majority voting what seemed just and fair. He also had to intervene in quarrels with the Indians and ensure the protection of plantations and settlers who engaged, in exchange, to meet his summonses and obey his recommendations. The newly appointed councilors swore allegiance to the Duke of York but it was agreed to return final authority to Captain Carr in case of a tie vote.

It was also stated that all the laws from the duke would regularly be communicated to the councilors so that they can make their judgments in any legitimacy.
Three of the new councilors, Helme, Rambo and Cock belonged to the Finnish community, whose population formed a large majority along the Delaware.

Peter Rambo (Finland, 1612 - Wicaco (PA), 1698) - He was 27 years old when he left to New Sweden aboard the Kalmar Nyckel. He first worked as a servant but quickly acquired the status of free man and married in 1647 Brita Matsdotter, a native, like him, of Finland. Settled at Passyunk, north of Schuylkill, he became a prosperous farmer and created even his own apple variety, the " Rambo " from seeds imported by Swedes.
He became a member of Governor Johan Rising’s Council in 1654 and continued to hold office under the English rule.

Francis Lovelave

April 21, 1668 - The Court od Assizes is convened in New York by the governor for the trial of Nangenutch (a.k.a. Will) a Montauk Indian accused of raping Mary Miller, a 17-year-old resident of East Hampton, Long Island.

Among its members are Colonial Secretary Mathias Nicolls, Mayor of New York Thomas Willett, Cornelisz Van Ruyven, a Dutch merchant and tax collector, Francis Lovelace, the newly appointed governor, Captain Thomas Delavall, the former mayor. According to the Duke’s Laws, Nangenutch must be judged in the same way as an English settler.

The facts occurred a month earlier. Mary, the wife of John Miller accused Nangenutch for grabbing and raping her on her way home. Testimonies collected were explicit enough to conclude that she was raped despite the denials of Nangenutch, pleading drunkenness and arguing he stopped abusing her when she started screaming. The Court then had to go into intimate details to understand if there was really rape or simply assault.

Facing the confused testimony of young Mary Miller, certainly deeply ashamed to justify before an audience composed exclusively of men, doubts were finally issued as to whether there could be or not consent from her. After it was admitted that there had been no ejaculation, the judges pronounced for a rape attempt and Nangenutch was condemned to be publicly whipped and to be brought to the West Indies to be sold as a slave. This judgment aroused such a protest movement among the Montauk that the colonial government gave way letting Nangenutch escape.

May 1st, 1668 - The Great Deed of Grant afforded to the people of Albemarle by the Lords Propietors of Carolina provides them the same land rights as the Virginia settlers.

These basically confirmed the terms of the patent they had received when the region was placed under William Berkeley's authority, the governor of Virginia. 

May, 1668 - Richard Bellingham is re-elected governor of Massachusetts.

Sir Philip Carteret

May 26, 1668 - Sir Philip Carteret, the governor of New Jersey, convenes the first provincial assembly. He announces his new Puritan-oriented measures aimed, in particular, to sentence to a fine or corporal punishment anyone who would resist the official authority in word or behavior. Any adult man will also be equipped with a gun.

This meeting lasted four days during which immediately appeared dissension between the governor, anxious to impose his own people to better establish his powers and the representatives of the settlers, jealous defenders of their freedom. The cities of Shrewsbury and Middletown had besides refused to send delegates for fear of having their rights threatened. It was planned that a new meeting would be held in November but it never took place because of the contentious issue of land tax (quitrent).

Pirates launching attack in Florida

May 23, 1668 - Informed that a large quantity of silver ingots are kept in royal coffers, privateer Robert Searle (a.k.a. John Davis) and his crewmen ransack the Spanish city of St Augustine on the Florida coast, killing 60 people.

Using the night and weak defenses of the city, only protected by a wooden palisade, Searle has an element of surprise by launching his attack while the residents are still sleeping. Despite the loss of 11 of his men, he plunders public buildings, churches, monastery and houses leaving with an impressive booty and 70 people in hostage whom he will mostly exchange for provisions.

Searle had specialized in this kind of punitive action, targeting the Dutch and Spanish settlements of the West Indies, what had never been to Thomas Willoughby’s taste, the governor of the Barbados as well as for his counterpart of Jamaica Thomas Modyford. Although he sometimes provided support to the English navy, Searle was especially a greedy adventurist and his ability to overcome the rules of diplomacy had gained him a very controversial reputation.
He was threatened with arrest when he pretexted a Spanish aggression in the Bahamas to attack St Augustine, so repeating Sir Francis Drake’s raid in 1586 and helped for the occasion by the French surgeon Pierre Piques, eager to take revenge for the ill-treatment he had suffered from the Spanish governor.

This daring raid allowed Henry Woodward, an early settler of Carolina, to escape while he was held for a year in the governor’s prison. Robert Searle and his men controlled the city during 24 hours before they were disloged  by Governor Francisco de la Guerra de la Vega. The pirates brought, however, with them 70 hostages including children they exchanged afterwards for provisions.

St Augustine had been founded in 1565 by Pedro Menendez to counter the French Huguenots’ attempt to colonize Fort Caroline (Jacksonville) and protect the Bahamas Channel. At the time, he went commit a true massacre for summarily executing about 150 French settlers on behalf of the defense of Catholicism against the heretic Protestants. For a long time inhabited by ex-convict, fugitives or pirates, St Agustine had approximately 700 people in the 1660s among whom 70 friars and nearly 300 garrison men. Robert Searle's sack constituted for the Spaniards a reel trauma and it was decided to build a new stone fort.

Based in Jamaica, Robert Searle was still totally unknown until 1662 and the storming of Santiago de Cuba. More a pirate than a privateer, he drew in 1664 the wrath of King Charles II, getting fed up with English piracy constantly assaulting Spanish ships, at a time when England was for once allied with Spain. He demanded that the goods stolen to the Spaniards be returned to them. Searle used, however, the Anglo-Dutch war to offer to help and woo the colonial government of the West Indies. But the sack of St Augustine knew such an impact that Searle went to lie low until 1670 in the Caribbean.

The departure of Governor Richard Nicholls

May 23rd, 1668 - Colonel Francis Lovelace takes up his duties as governor of New York, replacing Richard Nicholls, called back to England by the Duke of York. These should become effective from August.

The prominent citizens of New York wished to thank Richard Nicholls for the way he had accomplished his task during the last four years by offering him a luxurious good-bye meal the day before his departure for England. He was then escorted up to his boat by two new companies of the local militia.

June 3rd, 1668 - Thomas Prence is reelected governor of Plymouth. He held this position since 1657. Josiah Winslow and Thomas Southwork are chosen as commissioners to the United Colonies.

New York and neighboring townships (1668)

June 5, 1668 - Governor of New York Richard Nicholls sends a letter to captain Robert Carr asking him to take the necessary measures to limit the supply of liquors to Indians.

Peter Rambo, one of the new councilors of Delaware had personally traveled to New York to discuss the serious problems on selling alcohol to the Natives. It had become common in Delaware causing fights and abuses. Seven settlers had just been killed in plantations by Mantas Indians from the Delaware Nation due to drunkenness. Their leaders had appealed to the Finns to establish an absolute prohibition in order to protect their own people. In his letter, Governor Nicholls relied on the new council to implement the guidelines and take appropriate action to curb the scourge.

 

Mohawk warrior

June, 25, 1668 - Governor Richard Bellingham sends a letter to John Winthrop, Jr. to tell him of his fears about the Mohawks. He urges the governor of Connecticut to ensure the neutrality of Mohegan leader Uncas, being afraid that he has struck a secret deal with them.

Bellingham blamed the Mohawks for maintaining a warlike attitude towards the Massachusetts Indians, in particular those of Natick, known to have been converted to Christianity. They had killed some of theirs and looted villages and he had been informed that Uncas had received various gifts from the Mohawks implying that he could side with them. For Bellingham, it made no doubt that the Mohawks were the more threatening they had made peace with the French and welcomed Jesuits among them.

Mohegan Chief Uncas
(c. 1588- c. 1683)

Late August, 1668 - the rains that hit the Albemarle colony in Carolina from the beginning of July stop finally.

Barely recovered from the last year’s hurricane and after experiencing in the spring an unprecedented drought, the region was once again victim of the vagaries of weather.

September 2, 1668 -  Francis Lovelace, the new governor of New York, orders regular meetings to his council the proceedings of which will be recorded in the Council's Minutes.

Among the first measures taken by new Governor Francis Lovelace, were:
- The abolition of the particularly unpopular class distinction introduced by the Dutch between the wealthy "upper middle-class families" to whom were awarded many privileges and those considered as " lower middle-class people ".
- The removal of the controversial Esopus garrison.
- The 30 % decrease on import duties intended to boost trade.
- The granting to the New York merchants of a monopoly on goods traffic passing through the Hudson River.

Lovelace asked all the farmers to bring their crops surplus to Manhattan, including those who were used to go through New England. He set the price of grain and demanded that all the pigs be now slaughtered in New York, what was a boon for butchers and local coopers.
Passionate about sport, he would also encourage horse breeding by organizing regularly races at Hempstead, Long Island.
Finally, he planned to set up a regular mail system between New York and Boston.

Cornelisz Van Steenwyck
Mayor of New York

Cornelisz Van Steenwyck, (died in New York,1688) a rich Dutch merchant, becomes the mayor of New York replacing Thomas Willett.

September 22nd, 1668 - Governor of New Jersey Philip Carteret grants a charter to the city of Bergen.

November, 1668 - Jesuit Father Jacques Frémin (1628-1691) opens the first missionary chapel at Gandougarae ( Kanagaro), among the Seneca. This one is dedicated to St Michael.

The Senecas living in the central and eastern parts of the state of New York, were the most important of the five nations making up the Iroquois confederacy, their population being by itself equal to that of the other four. This preponderance came mostly from the assimilation of prisoners of wars. They called themselves " People of the Great Mountain " (Djionoñdowaneñronoñ). Their capital Tsonontouan was near modern Naples,Ontario County; The name of Seneca,given to them by the English was actually the corruption of an Oneida word meaning " People of the standing rock ". Further to the absorption of the Neutrals in 1651 and the Erie in 1656, they had become masters of a vast territory west of Niagara Falls.

The Senecas came under the influence of Catholic priests after the other Iroquois. The first conversions dated 1654 under the leadership of father Chaumonot. In 1663, a Seneca chief was baptized in Montreal and shortly after, the tribe which was for years at war with the French asked to make peace and agreed missionary-sending.

The Neutrals were an Iroquois-speaking nation living in the Niagara area. They had been given this name in early 1600s by Samuel Champlain because they had refused to get involved in the war between the Hurons and the Five Iroquois Nations. Neutrals who were considered as good farmers were approximately 40 000 at the beginning of the century before being decimated by diseases. Their neutrality was one reasons for their fall against the Iroquois expansionism and the tribe was completely absorbed in 1651.

 The Erie (Nation of the Cat) were an Iroquois-speaking farmers' nation whose lands stretched between Ohio and Lake Erie. They had few direct contacts with the Europeans but were, however, sufficiently involved in fur trade to be confronted with the need to extend their hunting area to the detriment of neighboring peoples. 

Already simmering tensions with the Iroquois Confederacy increased as they chose to host Huron refugees. Although experts in the use of poisoned arrows, they did not get enough guns to win against Iroquois. Defeated in 1656, they were scattered or mostly absorbed by other tribes. According to sources, some found refuge in Canda and Virginia.

1668 - The governor, Council and Burgesses of Virginia send to the king 300 pounds of silk to show him that this new industry is promising.

The Virginia Assembly had two years earlier hoped that every county of the colony created its own garment factories so that this industry is not subjected to the levy.

Despite the efforts of Edward Digges to develop the cultivation of silkworm, it will ultimately prove financially too costly.