February 5, 1679 - John Harvey is appointed acting governor of Albemarle by the Great Council of the colony until the arrival of Seth Sothell, captured on the way by Algerian pirates and kept prisoner.
Seth Sothell (? - 1692) – A businessman
or an adventurist, he found himself wealth enough to purchase the rights of
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon upon the latter’s death in 1674, and thereby
become one of the proprietors of the colony of Carolina. He received then a
baronetcy and a 12 000-acre land in exchange for the promise to build thirty
houses to bring in at least 120 new settlers. The Lords Proprietors decided in
1678 to make him the new governor of Albemarle, thinking that the coming of a
neutral person would help to end in their lasting conflict with the residents.
February 12, 1679 - King Charles II sends a letter to the authorities of
Rhode Island and Connecticut asking them to take their provisions to come and submit
him directly their requests for the allocation of the Narragansett land of
Westerly.
This land was for many years in
the center of a quarrel between Rhode Island and Connecticut. Everything started
in 1644, when the Narragansett sachems had come to place themselves under the
direct protection of the king. In 1662, letters patent had placed the territory
within the borders of Connecticut, but one year later, the charter granted to
Rhode Island attributed it the ownership. A compromise had been signed in 1665
with the royal commissioners who allowed Narragansetts to benefit the royal
protection under the treaty of 1644 but King Philip’s War and the destruction
of this Indian nation had left this land with the greed of suitors from
Connecticut and Rhode Island.
February 19, 1679 - Robert Holden receives from the Lords Proprietors of
Carolina the chief command of all the expeditions to explore the lands of the
colony beyond Appalachia.
February, 1679 - John Harvey is appointed governor of Albemarle and
president of the colony council.
He chose to adopt a
conciliatory attitude by keeping in their position some opponents to the owners
and instructing the case of Thomas Miller. The depositions taken by Robert
Holden added nothing to the former charges of treason and blasphemy already
pressing down on him but he was judged by the Court of Albemarle where sat in
particular George Durant and Timothy Biggs. With the help of some Quakers and
members of the party of the Proprietors, Miller managed, however, to flee to
Virginia where despite an arrest warrant issued by Governor Henry Chicheley, he
succeeded in escaping by sea.
March 16, 1679 - Governor of Massachusetts John Leverett dies in Boston
at the age of 63. Simon Bradstreet is chosen to replace him in this post.
John Leverett had known how to
be a man of consensus. He could be honored to have been at the time a friend of
Cromwell before being knighted in 1676 by king Charles II for the way he hadbeen
able to manage King Philip’s War. He did so far never give up passionately
defending the charter enjoyed by Massachusetts against the will increasingly
displayed by the authorities of London to make a simple royal colony.
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| Simon Bradstreet (1603-1697) Governor of Massachusetts |
After Anne Dudley’s death, occurred
in 1672, he married his second wife Ann Gardner, the widow of captain Joseph
Gardner from Salem.
April, 1679 - William Leete is reelected governor of Connecticut.
April, 1679 - An arrest warrant is issued against Josias Fendall,
elected to the provincial assembly a few months earlier, of whom the governor
of Maryland fears again riot activities.
According to some sources,
Fendall had made a commitment to prove that Lord Baltimore was a traitor and
considered there was no reason to agree to pay his taxes. He believed, on the
other hand, that it was time for people to take their destiny into their hands.
Despite the searches, Fendall remained however unfound.
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| Rev. Increase Mather (1639-1723) |
May 24, 1679 - As agreed, Oneidas turn over the prisoners that they hold
to the commander of Albany.
They waited in exchange to be
returned Iroquois held by the English but it did not happen. Considering themselves
cheated by the Virginians, these threatened the settlers of retaliation while
notifying Andros of their will not to break their alliance with New York.
May 28, 1678 - Simon Bradstreet is officially elected governor of Massachusetts.
June 3rd, 1679 - Josiah Winslow is reelected governor of Plymouth for
the seventh consecutive year.
July 2nd, 1679 - Following the report presented by the Board of Trade
and Plantations, King Charles II asks the governors and the Councils of
Plymouth and Rhode Island to restore to William Harris his lands at Pawtuxet.
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| Du Lhut landing at the Mille Lacs |
Du Lhut (or Du Luth) had
received for mission to take up territories that he would discover on behalf of
king Louis XIV.
He had left Montreal in September,
1678 for Lake Superior. After spending winter at Sault Ste Marie, he had
reached the west end of the great lake where he had initiated peace talks with the
Ojibwe and Sioux nations who lived in the region.
July, 1679 – Further to King Charles II’s letter, the Rhode Island
assembly confirms that it’s up to it to rule Narragansett land, as well as it
was already established by the royal commissioners in 1664-65, forbidding any
foreign intrusion.
July 24, 1679 - New Hampshire is recognized as a royal province.
July 29, 1679 - The residents of Narragansett (Wickford) petition King
Charles II to put an end to the differences of which they are the object in the
administration of their city.
August 1st, 1679 - Governor of Rhode Island John Cranston writes to King
Charles II to dispute the allocation to Plymouth the lands that possessed
Philip in Mount Hope, considering that these traditionally fell within his
province.
August, 1679 - Appointed for only 6 months, John Harvey, the governor of
Albemarle dies while in office. Colonel John Jenkins is called back to succeed
him. He is supported in his duties by a Council including Richard Foster, John
Willoughby, Anthony Slocum and Robert Holden.
The escape of Thomas Miller had
created confusion within the colony and generated quarrels between pro and
anti-proprietor factions. Timothy Biggs who had helped Miller to the gateaway
tried to create diversions by accusing the anti-owners of breaking the laws,
threatening to refer to London. His posturing not receiving the expected
response, he preferred to resign from the council and take refuge in Virginia.
Robert Holden immediately revived
the proceedings against Thomas Miller and suggested to indict all those who had
helped him to run off. The Council decided then to send John Culpeper to London
to report the abuses committed by Miller when he was Commissioner of Customs.
Thomas Miller had certainly
shown arrogance and dishonesty but Culpeper’s rebellion reflected an unrest
whose origins went back to the reign of King Charles 1st. The latter had
granted, at the time, a series of monopolies in order to bail out the state
coffers. Yet, if these had been abolished under Cromwell, Charles II had
restored them in 1660, aware of the juicy proceeds from fees that the colonies
could pay to England. He needed for this purpose to have on them absolute power
and that prevail the laws of the monarchy. The Lords of Trade had, as such, been
instructed in 1675 to convert the colonies into genuine royal provinces.
Facing them, the settlers
refused to admit that what they already considered as a threat for their
freedom was more accompanied with coercive measures such as the Plantation Duty
Act dated March 29, 1673 which also concerned domestic trade. And tobacco which
was the only Albemarle production likely to be exported had so become the subject
of a vital issue, as far as for lack of getting ships suitable for crossing the
Atlantic Ocean, the planters had to transit first through Virginia before shipping
it to England, and pay for this additional tax.
August 8, 1679 - The city of Boston is struck by a fire. 80 houses are destroyed
as well as most warehouses and boats moored in the port.
Most houses were then made of fine
cedar shingles filled with bricks or cob which made them especially vulnerable
to fire.
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| René Robert Cavelier dela Salle (1643-1687) |
August 29, 1679 - The city of Boston creates its first professional fire
brigade consisted of eight companies placed under Thomas Atkins's command. A
specific machine is for that purpose directly ordered in England.
September 5, 1679 - Sioux and Ojibwe conclude a peace treaty on the site
of the present city of Duluth (Minnesota).
Ojibwe (or Chippewa) -
According to the tradition, this Algonquian speaking nation formerly connected
with the coastal Waabanakiing had gradually moved westward to reach current
Minnesota, where a prediction had promised it a land where "food grew over
the waters". Actually, the Ojibwe had more certainly lived on the shores
of Hudson Bay before gradually moving southward, pushed by the global cooling that
had affected the region from the early 15th century. They occupied at the turn
of the 17th the northwest part of current Michigan and had entered their first
relationships with Europeans on the occasion of the arrival of Jesuit
missionaries. They received thereafter the visit of French travelers who
delivered them the first guns by means of which they could win a few victories over
their hereditary enemies, Sioux and Fox, forcing them to abandon the upper Mississippi
valley and Northern Wisconsin.
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| Ojibwe wigwam |
The Ojibwe had also developed a
rather complex pictorial language made up of geometrical forms that they used
to keep historical facts or mathematical bases on rollers made from birch bark.
During their first meeting with Europeans, the Ojibwe only used cut stone to make
arrowheads and spears but they also knew copper whose trade was widespread
through the continent.
Sioux - So nicknamed by Jesuit
Father Jean Nicollet in 1640 who, from the Ottawa word Nadouessiouak meaning
"enemy". Nomads, the Sioux who lived then mainly on hunting, included
three tribes having each their own dialect: Lakota (Teton), Dakota (Santee) and
Nakota (Yankton). They probably lived in the Ohio Valley before moving westward
and settling near the Mississippi headwaters and the Mille Lacs Lake area, Minnesota.
They were, in the tradition, among the first Indians to domesticate and to ride
the Spanish horses gone wild.
September, 1679 - colonels William Kendall and Southley Littleton
represent Virginia during a meeting with Iroquois held by governor Edmund
Andros.
September 10, 1679 - A synod is held in Boston with the aim of reforming
the Church of New England whose behavior is seen immoral by many people. Increase
Mather is responsible for the committee which has to work on the draft of new
rules of faith as a remedy.
Increase Mather (Dorchester (MA),
1639 - Boston (MA), 1723) - the youngest son of Richard Mather, he graduated
from Harvard in 1657 and gave his first sermon the following year. He traveled then to Dublin to study at Trinity College where was already his older
brother. Appointed chaplain of the English garrison of Guernsey, he held this post
until 1661, the date on which he refused the various positions available to him
in England for fear of having to submit to religious conformity. He chose then
to leave for New England and was ordained in the Church of Boston on May 27,
1664. He therefore appeared as the defender of an enlightened and elitist
Puritanism, by especially opposing the Half-Way Covenant created in 1662 by
Rev. Solomon Stoddard, in his view, too liberal.
September 17, 1679 - The governor of Rhode Island and his council hold
their meeting in Westerly to receive the allegiance of its inhabitants. They are
visited by Sunk Squaw, the daughter of the former sachem Ninigret, come to complain
about the actions of certain Harmon Garrets and show, for this occasion, a letter
that sent them the governor of Connecticut, William Leete.
September 18, 1679 - New Hampshire, then called Upper Plantation, is
officially separated from Massachusetts to become a royal colony with Portsmouth
as capital city.
Following an order signed by the
king, was to be formed a government composed of a president and a 9-member
council to represent the 4000 inhabitants of the colony. They had a priority to
form a legislative assembly to raise taxes vote the future laws.
Massachusetts had taken control
over the colony in 1641 but its inhabitants had since never stopped petitioning
for their autonomy, in the name of defending the legacy of captain John Mason.
And although successive royal commissioners since 1668 had all been listening
to their claiming, the arguments and delaying tactics used by the Massachusetts
government had until then reached to obstruct the royal decision.
Considering themselves offended,
the authorities of Massachusetts sought in return to set aside this
arrangement(measure) and continued to claim the territory and to dispute the
borders, referring to the terms of their charter. They were supported in this
by most councilmen of the new colony who, having already held offices under the
puritan jurisdiction of Boston, showed little eagerness to serve this new
government.
September, 1679 - John Cranston (1625-1680), the new governor of Rhode
Island organizes a court at Narragansett by which he tries to make recognize
the authority of his representatives on this land concurrently claimed by Connecticut.
Connecticut was not long to
react and protested against this "theft" through its General Assembly.
The latter ordered the inhabitants of the region to refuse any executive
position that could offer them the authorities of Rhode Island.
 |
| Thomas Culpeper (1635-1689) Governor of Virginia |
It had been already two years that he was appointed governor of Virginia
but thinking of being able to rule the colony from England, he eventually
wanted to play hard to get. Since the death of Colonel Herbert Jeffreys, Sir
Henry Chicheley was responsible for the day-to-day management as deputy
governor but the distance lengthened recklessly the decision deadlines for all
the problems, from the most complex to the most innocuous.
September 18, 1678 - Captain Edmund Cantwell reports to governor Edmund
Andros of his surveys conducted along the Delaware. He explains that having passed
the southern end of Orechton Island, he was prevented to go farther by the chiefs
Matapis and Okenichan claiming they were always the owners of the area for lack
of having been paid for their transfer.
October 10, 1679 - Virginia decides to prohibit the import of tobacco from
Carolina on the grounds that its poor quality is detrimental to the reputation
of its own production. A banning actually with no effect, Carolina tobacco continuing
nevertheless to reach Virginia.
November 1, 1679 - After a trip marked by appalling weather conditions,
Cavelier de La Salle reaches with his 14 men the mouth of the Miami River at
the western tip of Lake Erie where he has to meet Henri de Tonti.
Tonti arrived on November 20
with other team members. He had to inform Cavelier de la Salle that he didn’t
have news of the Griffon, probably lost while returning.
November 12, 1679 - Francis Romboutsis elected mayor of New York for a one -year term.
The mayoral election,
traditionally held each year on October 14 of every year was exceptionally
postponed because of the absence of the governor.
Thirteen establishments were allowed,
under his mandate, to sell liquor while the price of a black slave reached in
New York the sum of 42-£ and 10 schillings.
Francis Rombouts (Hasselt (Belgium) 1631-1691) – From middle-class, he emigrated to America in 1653 when he quickly joined he trading environment, showing a success what allowed him to purchase over the years a stone house in Heeerestraat, now Broadway. He was to hold several offices as Alderman.
Francis Rombouts (Hasselt (Belgium) 1631-1691) – From middle-class, he emigrated to America in 1653 when he quickly joined he trading environment, showing a success what allowed him to purchase over the years a stone house in Heeerestraat, now Broadway. He was to hold several offices as Alderman.
December 19, 1679 - The King’s Privy Council orders to arrest the ship carrying
John Culpeper on his landing at Downes, Kent.
After escaping Albemarle with
the complicity of Timothy Biggs, Thomas Miller, the deposed acting governor,
had succeeded to move to Virginia and take a boat to England where he had
informed in his defense the Lords Proprietors of the events which had just
occurred in the colony. His arguments eventually convinced the Privy Council and Culpeper found himself imprisoned in London, accused of treason.
December 7, 1679 - Edward Randolph lands in New York to take up his post
as customs inspector for New England.
December, 1679 - John Coode, a Protestant settler from St Mary's county,
Maryland is accused of sedition for having supported Doctor James Barree when
he protested against a Catholic plot.
John Coode appeared among the
sympathizers of former governor Josias Fendall, wanted by the authorities of Maryland.
December 23, 1679 – Back from London, William Stoughton and Peter
Bulkley, the agents of Massachusetts, carry a letter from the king dated July
24 which has to serve as compromise.
The king especially wanted that
freedom of conscience was given to all those who served God according the rules
of the Church of England and that no restriction was placed on the admission of
Protestant freemen who owned a property taxed at the rate of 10 schillings. He
required on the other hand that all people enjoying any privilege, or
employment, swear an oath of allegiance to the crown; that all the civil or
military commissions are issued in his name and that are abolished all the trade
laws contrary to those of England.
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