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| East and West New Jersey (1680) |
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| René Robert Cavelier de la Salle (1643-1687) |
He tried to convince the
Indians of the interest to build a fort and equip a boat to explore the
Mississippi but these feared that he was actually allied to Iroquois. They then wanted to divert him from his project by describing all the dangers that threatened
him. Panicked, six of his companions preferred to give up.
La Salle was not to be impressed
by the picture painted by the Indians and began from January 15 the building of
the fort he had planned that he called Crevecoeur in reference to his recent troubles.
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| Sir George Carteret (1610-1680) |
January 14, 1680 - George Carteret dies in London at age 70.
He had seen his loyalty to the Royal
cause rewarded with the title of Proprietor of Carolina and New Jersey, alongside
John Berkeley. He was especially credited with publishing in 1665 the
Concessions and Agreements that sealed somehow the basis of the religious
freedom in the new colony of New Jersey.
His friendship with King Charles II had allowed him to enjoy some autonomy in the administration
of New Jersey, despite the ambition of Edmund Andros, the governor of New York.
But his death was soon to weaken the position of his nephew Philip Carteret, the
governor of East Jersey, facing the new designs of the Duke of York.
Lady Elizabeth, the widow of
George Carteret had to sell her shares in the colony to a group of twelve
investors. New Jersey was then shared by many owners and aroused envy of New
York, its powerful and dangerous neighbor which expected to benefit from its rivalries,
including the division of its territory in two parts, one east of the Delaware,
ruled by his nephew Philip Carteret with its capital in Perth Amboy and the other on the West whose capital was Burlington.
January 21, 1680 - John Cutt becomes the first president of the royal
colony of New Hampshire.
John Cutt (- 1681) – Welsh-born,
he arrived in New England in 1646 and settled in the small town of Portsmouth
where he had made a fortune in trading and flour-milling. He however fell ill
shortly after his appointment as President of New Hampshire.
February, 1680 -Captain Henry Wilkinson is appointed governor of Albemarle by the Lords Proprietors. Personal problems preventing him from sailing to the colony, this appointment will remain ineffective.
February 29, 1680 - Cavelier de La Salle sends Jesuit father Louis Hennepin and two of his companions to recognize the Upper Mississippi region while he embarks on his side in search of the Griffon whose some facilities are sorely lacking to finish the boats he planned for the exploration of the river.
March 18, 1680 - John Cranston, the governor of Rhode Island, dies in
Newport at age 54.
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| Edmund Andros (1637-1714) Governor of New York |
The Duke of York had assigned
New Jersey to George Carteret in 1664 but his cousin Philip replied in a measured
way to this ultimatum that, after fifteen years of existence, he did not
conceive his authority on this province to be questioned and that he wished, for his part,
to refer to the king while stating that he would not hesitate to meet force
with force.
Except the new interest of the
duke of York to New Jersey, Andros thought, meanwhile, to have the support of many
of its inhabitants, for years opposed to the party of the Proprietors pampered
by Carteret.
Andros also knew that he had to
find a solution to the threat that could represent for New York the port of
Elizabethtown, in so far as it was subject to no customs duty.
March 16, 1680 - Peleg Sanford is elected governor of Rhode Island.
Peleg Sanford (Portsmouth,1639
– Portsmouth,1701) - He was one of the ten children of John Sanford, an emigrant
from England in 1631 who appeared among the supporters of Anne Hutchinson. He
had taken part with her in the founding of Portsmouth in 1638. Peleg married in
1674, Mary Coddington, the daughter of former governor William Coddington, died
two years earlier.
April, 1680 - In South Carolina,
English traders and slave traders become allied to the Savannah Indians to
destroy the Westo tribe.
April 15, 1680 - The men supposed to hold down Fort Crevecœur during the
absence of Henry de Tonti seize all its provisions and ammunition before
plundering it. Most of them run away to Canada.
Fort Crevecœur had been built
one year earlier on the shores of the Illinois River by Cavelier De La Salle to
serve as starting point for expeditions to the Mississippi. Alerted, Tonti sent
a message to Cavelier de La Salle informing him of the misdeed. Until the fort was
restored, all that could be recovered was transported to the village of
Kaskaskia.
April 21, 1680 - Cavelier de La Salle is back on Niagara, after traveling
250 miles on foot, in particularly harsh weather conditions. He found no trace of
the Griffon, and ironically, he learnt that a ship coming from France with on
board more than FF 20 000 of goods intended for him, sank in the Gulf of Saint
Lawrence.
April 25, 1680 - The General Assembly of Virginia meets in Jamestown, barely rebuilt after being burned during Bacon's Rebellion.
April 30, 1680 - Thomas Ashe and a group of 45 French Protestant refugees land in Carolina from the Richmond.
April 30, 1680 - Thomas Ashe and a group of 45 French Protestant refugees land in Carolina from the Richmond.
They had left England in
December aboard the frigate Richmond. Thomas Ashe had been sent by the British
Crown to draw up an inventory of the colony and explore new development
opportunities. As for the French Protestants, this destination revived the
memory of their attempt to settle in the area in 1562 when, under the reign of King
Charles IX (who incidentally gave his name to Carolina), Jean Ribault and 250
Huguenot colonists had initially landed in Florida near present day
Jacksonville before moving to Parris Island, South Carolina, where they were
soon targeted by the Spanish soldiery under the new governor of St Augustine
Pedro Menendez de Aviles whose orders were to chase away all those who might
harm the interests of Spain. The
latter had easily seized the French small fort, making execute all the men and
enslaving the women and children. A hundred years later, at a moment when Spain
had lost its luster, setting foot in South Carolina again was a revenge for the
French Protestant community.
The moving of these new
colonists to Carolina was backed by the Crown of England which planned to take
advantage of the experience of the French to promote vine and olive tree
growing as well as silkworm rearing.
April 30, 1680 - Governor of East Jersey Philip Carteret is arrested on
order of Edmund Andros and brought to New York to be tried.
This arrest which took place in
the night was, according to testimony, particularly tumultuous. Carteret was dragged
naked from his bed and pushed through the window of his room before being
thrashed. Andros had certainly, to his advantage, to have to played the
surprise but he should now demonstrate before the 5000 inhabitants of the
province that Philip Carteret had no right on East Jersey and that he usurped
governor's title. The party pledged was not yet won.
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| Thomas Lord Culpeper Governor of Virginia |
These provisions were clearly
intended to put an end to the party of former Governor William Berkeley’s widow,
Frances Culpeper who then enjoyed a real political influence and mainly sought to
keep distance with London.
Upon his arrival, Culpeper
approved Robert Beverley's appointment at the post of clerk of the court of the
Assembly of Virginia, despite the disavowal previously formulated by king
Charles II. Beverley took advantage of it to pass a law requiring all goods to
transit through a port having a warehouse. He reserved otherwise the right to
seize the tobacco in his profit. This law was quickly cancelled.
Robert Beverley (1641-1687) - Little
known until he was appointed clerk of the House of Burgesses in 1677, he was especially
one of Governor William Berkeley's more faithful supporters. Arrived in
Virginia by 1663 from Yorkshire, he had devoted himself to tobacco growing but
had especially been famous by occupying several official duties in Middlesex
County where he became attorney general in 1676 and major at the time of Bacon’s
Rebellion.
May, 1680 - Josiah Winslow is reelected governor of Plymouth.
It was during this term that
was founded the city of Bristol, close to Mount Hope, the former residence of King
Philip.
May, 1680 - the General Court of Massachusetts consists for the first
time of 18 assistants, as requested by King Charles II.
The implementation of this
arrangement does not however prevent it to send a letter to London intended to bias
it acts independently.
May 6, 1680 - Cavelier de La Salle is back at Fort Frontenac. Despite
his courage and a strong organization, accumulating setbacks led this
expedition to disaster.
La Salle was soon to learn by
messengers of the Chevalier de Tonti that Fort Crevecœur had been ransacked and
abandoned by the men he had left behind. On their way back, they took it upon
themselves to plunder the positions where his goods were.
May, 1680 - Maurice Matthews, a settler living in Charleston, South
Carolina considers that the city has about 1000 inhabitants. The Lords Proprietors
ask however governor Joseph West to found a new city at Oyster Point, on the
peninsula across the Ashley River.
Matthews left a particularly
enthusiastic description of the urban plan according to which the city had been
designed. He described on the other hand the quality and richness of the
environment, wondering in particular at the quantity of visible fireflies at
night.
Anxious to reduce the power of
people come from Barbados, behind the founding of Charleston, the Proprietors
did not spare their efforts to attract new migrants, insisting on the climate
benefits on health and the guarantee to lead a prosperous life. In fact, the situation was not
also idyllic. The prospective immigrants arrived often exhausted by the length
of the journey and many fell ill, especially as the hot and wet climate was
very different from what they were used. Most were quickly subjected to severe infections
and the average life expectancy did not exceed 40 years for the white settlers.
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| Rev. Increase Mather (1639-1723) |
It resulted from it a new
doctrine called Savoy Declaration which without being imposed by the General
Court of Massachusetts was printed and widely distributed in all the churches
of the province.
May 24, 1680 - the Duke of York charges
John Levin to investigate in the most complete way the management of the colony
of New York. He finds that incomes are too low and questions the methods of Governor
Edmund Andros who is asked to go to London to provide explanations as soon as
possible.
Andros
had in vain tried to incur the sympathy of the native Dutch families and only
succeeded, despite the years, to alienate the wealthy English merchants.
According to them, the governor had never ceased favoring the Dutch merchants, without
regard for the Navigation Act, diverting public funds from fees and never meeting
their claims only by excluding them from public positions, overwhelming them
with procedures or throwing them in jail.
June, 1680 - King Charles II
ratifies a law to prevent slaves’ uprisings in Virginia.
Slaves' gatherings on the
occasion of celebrations and funerals being considered dangerous, it was now forbidden
to them to carry weapons and go out of the property of their masters without
prior authorization under penalty of 20 lashes. Similarly, the fact for a slave
to raise the hands against a Christian was punishable with 30 lashes. Finally,
the one who had tried to run away and cause damages to the settlers would incur
the death penalty in case of rebellion during his capture.
June 2, 1680 – After dismissing the governor of East Jersey Philip
Carteret, Edmund Andros proceeds to the dissolution of the assembly of the
province.
Andros had somehow
self-proclaimed governor of New Jersey, a method akin to a coup that some,
including in England no longer hesitated to challenge.
He had initially thought to be
widely supported by the colonists, exasperated by the owners’ party backed by
Carteret but had not quite measured the commitment of the people of New Jersey to
their founding values. Met on June 2, the Assembly, asked him for the confirmation
of the Concessions and Agreements what he fiercely opposed until dissolving it facing
the intransigence of the representatives. He soon realized, however, that the settlers
were not willing to accept the enforcement of the Duke’s Laws nor the authority
of the Long Island Court of Assizes as supreme body of justice. On the other hand, against
all odds, the jury of the Court of New York, having to rule on Philip Carteret
decided to dismiss all charges against him. Edmund Andros violently opposed this
judgment and exerted pressure on the jury but this one kept its position.
June, 1680 - The House of Burgesses of Virginia passes a law to prevent
slaves' revolts. These are no longer allowed to carry weapons or leave their
plantation without prior authorization from their owner or master. Any unjustified
absence, any damage detrimental to the inhabitants and any attempt at rebellion
are now punishable by the death penalty without prior trial.
July 7, 1680 - King Charles II’s agent Edward Randolph is admitted as freeman of the Plymouth colony. He is thus recognized for his support to Governor
Josiah Winslow for obtaining a charter.
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| James, Duke of York |
It was nevertheless a few years
since Byllynge, threatened with bankruptcy, had sold some of his rights to the directors
William Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas who were handling the sale of
lands necessary to cover his debts.
August 10, 1680 - Concerned about what could have happened to the Chevalier de
Tonti, Cavelier de La Salle decides to return to the Illinois.
August 11, 1680 - Sir Henry Chicheley is confirmed in his position as
acting governor of Virginia after Sir Thomas Culpeper left for London.
Culpeper returned to England in
order to redeem the rights granted by charters to the benefit of other owners in
Virginia.
The colony had, at that time,
15 000 indentured servants and 3000 slaves.
September 9, 1680 - French missionary Gabriel de La Ribourde is killed
by Kickapoos while trying to flee the Iroquois.
After the Indian village where he
lived on the shores of the Illinois River had been attacked a few days earlier
by Iroquois, Father Gabriel had managed to escape by boat with some
companions in the hope of taking refuge in Green Bay (Baie des Puants). Their
boat began, however, to take on water and they soon had to land.
Gabriel de La Ribourde (1610-1680) – the only descendant of a noble family from Burgundy, he entered
the Franciscans in 1640 and occupied the highest positions of his order
before leaving to Canada in 1670. He then joined Cavelier De La Salle
through Father Louis Hennepin and reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River in
November 1679 where he built a small chapel. He then went to the
Illinois where he was adopted by Chief Asapista, whom he accompanied
during his summer hunts. He had just converted his first Indians when the
village was attacked.
Algonquin speaking, the Kickapoos
were from the Michigan area and shared a common kinship with the Sauk and Fox
tribes. Iroquois pressure had forced them to settle in the 1640s in present-day
Wisconsin. People of farmers and hunters organized in a system of clans, they held
the dog as a sacred animal. They were known for their hostility to the "Whites".
September 30, 1680 - The inhabitants of Maine petition King Charles II to
complain about abuses of Massachusetts and the heavy taxes imposed on the people
of York, Welles and Kittery.
October, 1680 - Affected by the failure of his attempt to hand over East
Jersey, the Duke of York has no other choice but to recall Edmund Andros to
England.
Captain Anthony Brockholls, an English Catholic who commands the
garrison of Albany, is called as acting governor.
James, Duke of York was going
through rather a disturbed time. King Charles II, his brother, had entrusted
him with a command in Scotland to remove him from London where his declared
Catholicism aroused a wave of opposition from Parliamentarians, even threatening his possible accession to the throne.
This growing distrust of the
duke of York also reached his American colonies and Governor Edmund Andros,
because of his excessive zeal and recent clumsiness was crystallizing the
discontent.
Anthony Brockholls, from his part,
already knew the place, he had already been acting in 1678
November, 1680 - The act regulating New York’s customs duties on imports
expires on its own. The local merchants benefit from the uncertainty caused by Governor
Andros’s callback to London to refuse its renewal.
They relied on the abuses
personally committed by the New York Port tax collector who had just been
seized goods that had illegally been exempted customs duties. This one had been
thrown into prison for high treason in the expectation of being sent back to
London for trail.
November 20, 1680 - Beginning in London of John Culpeper's trial, imprisoned
since last December 19.
The proceedings had taken
nearly one year to complete before the trial began. Accused of treason,
Culpeper had against him the testimonies of Thomas Miller and representatives of the Proprietors. His cause already seemed lost when the king
requested further information after receiving a memo from Lord Shaftesbury
according to which Miller had illegally seized the Albemarle government. This late revelation finally allowed Culpeper to be
acquitted.
John Culpeper was allowed to return
to Albemarle while being kept out of public responsibilities. He died there
between 1691 and 1694.
Although the rebellion of the
Albemarle settlers bears his name, John Culpeper never had the decisive role traditionally
attributed to him. George Durant was actually the real instigator of the
movement. But it is obvious, on the other hand, that because of the close ties
between him and the governor of Virginia William Berkeley, the name of Culpeper
had, in many respects, some legitimacy.
December 1st, 1680 - Cavelier de La Salle finally arrives at the
Illinois village of Pimiteoui where he discovers a scene of desolation. All the
inhabitants were massacred by Iroquois and their bodies horribly mutilated. He searches the ruins of Fort Crevecoeur, burnt by the Indians, but
finds no trace of Tonti. He then decides to descend the Illinois River towards
the Mississippi where he discovers the remains of other slaughters before preferring
to turn back.
December 23, 1680 - Governor Josiah Winslow dies in Plymouth at age 51. He is replaced by Thomas Hinckley.
The fact that Josiah Winslow
was the first colonial governor born on the American soil certainly made him
realize that he was not a migrant but rather a native. He came to consider Wampanoag
no longer as hosts but as cumbersome neighbors. As Commander-in-chief of the
armies of the colonies of New England, he showed an unusual toughnes towards
them and certainly contributed, by his intransigence and hostility to any
negotiation that King Philip’s War ends with a human disaster.
He then never ceased wanting to
eliminate the last survivors of the former Indian nations of the region but, on
the other hand, did not receive any glory. Isolated and struck by the early
loss of two of his children, he failed to govern as a patriarch, as his predecessors
had done and died relatively young at age 51, certainly haunted by the ghosts
of Massasoit and his family.
Thomas Hinckley (1618-1706)
- Born in England, he landed at Scituate with his parents in 1635. He settled four
years later at Barnstable where he became deputy in 1645 and held therefore several
responsibilities in the government of the colony. Married in 1641 to Mary
Richard, then to Mary Glover in 1659, he had not less than seventeen children
and now ranks among the ancestors of Presidents George H Bush, George W Bush
and Barack Obama.
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