Whereas I [A. B.] being an inhabitant of the Jurisdiction of the
_Massachusets_, and now to be made free. Do hereby acknowledge my
selfe to be subject to the Government thereof (Considering how I
stand obliged to the Kings Majesty, his Heires and Successors, by
our Charter and the Government established thereby Do Swear
accordingly, by the Great and Dreadfull Name of the Ever-Living GOD,
that I will bear Faith and true Alegiance to our Soveraigne Lord the
King, his heires and Successors,) and that I will be true and
Faithfull to the same, and will accordingly yeild Assistance and
Support thereunto with my person and estate, as in equity I am
bound; And will also truely endeavour to maintain and preserve all
the Liberties and priviledges thereof, submitting my selfe to the
wolesome Laws made and established by the same.
And farther that I will not Plot nor Practice any Evill against it,
or consent to any that shall so do, but will timely discover and
reveal the same to Lawfull Authority now here established, for the
speedy prevention thereof.
Moreover I do Solemnly bind my selfe in the sight of God, that when
I shall be called to give my Voyce touching any such matter of this
State wherein Freemen are to deal, I will give my Vote and Suffrage
as I shall in mine own Conscience judge best to conduce and tend to
the Publick Weale of the body, without respect of persons or favour
of any man. So help me God in our Lord Jesus Christ. [1665.]
* * * * *
The oath of the Goūno^r, Dept Goūno^r, & other publicke officers,
to runne thus:—
Whereas I, A. B., am chosen Gouerno^r, &c., considering how I stand
obliged to the kings majesty, his heires & successors, by our
charter and the gouerment here established thereby, doe sweare, &c,
as aboue. [1665.]
In their demand for changes in the 1660 Book of the General Laws and
Liberties, the Commissioners in their 14th section proposed: “That, page
33, ‘none be admitted freemen but such as are members of some of the
churches w^{th} in the limitts of this jurisdiction’ may be explained, &
comp̄hend such as are members of y^e church of England.”
At the General Court of 23 May, 1666.
It is ordered that the Secretary, at the request of all such as are
admitted to the freedome of this Colony or any in their behalf, give
a true copy out of this Courts Records, of their names, by them to
be delivered to the clerks or recorders of those Courts in the
severall Counties to which they do belong, with a copy of the Oath
of Freemen as it is now stated, that they may there take their
Oathes &c. [1666.]
* * * * *
At the General Court of 15 October, 1673:
As an addition to the Law, title Freemen, section the third, it is
ordered by this Court and the authority thereof that henceforth the
names of such as desire to be admitted to the freedome of this
Com̄on-wealth, not being members of churches in full comunion, shall
be entred w^{th} the secretary, from tjme to tjme, at the Court of
election, and read ouer before the whole Court sometime that
sessions and shall not be put to vote in the Court till the Court of
election next followg. [1673.]
This order of Court was repealed 9 February 1682/3.
* * * * *
Att a Generall Court, held at Boston, 10^{th} of October, 1677.
Whereas many secret attempts haue binn lately made by euil minded
persons to set fire in the toune of Boston and other places, tending
to the destruction of the whole, this Court doeth account it their
duty to vse all lawfull meanes to discouer such persons and prevent
the like for time to come.
Bee it therefore ordered & enacted by this Court and the Authority
thereof, That the Law, _title_ Oathes and Subscriptions, page 120
sect. 2., requiring all persons, as well inhabitants as strangers,
(that have not taken it) to take the Oath of Fidelity to the
Country, be revived and put in practice through this Jurisdiction.
And for the more effectual execution thereof, It is ordered by this
Court; That the select men, Constables, and Tithing-men, in every
town do, once every quarter of a year so proportion and divide the
precincts of each town, and go from house to house, and take an
exact list of the Names, quality and callings of every person,
whether Inhabitant or Stranger, that have not taken the said Oath,
and cannot make due proof thereof; and the Officers aforesaid are
hereby required forthwith to return the names of such persons unto
the next magistrate, or County Court, or chief military officer in
the town where no Magistrate is, who are required to give such
persons the said Oath prescribed in the Law, wherein not only
Fidelity to the Country, but Allegiance to our King, is required;
And all such as take the said oath shall be Recorded and Enrolled in
the County Records by the clerk of each County Court. And all such
as refuse to take the said Oath, they shall be proceeded against as
the said Law directs. And further, this Court doth Declare; That all
such refusers to take the said Oath shall not have the benefit of
our Laws to Implead, Sue, or recover any Debt in any Court or Courts
within this Jurisdiction, nor have protection from this Government
whilest they continue in such obstinate refusal.
And furthermore, It is Ordered; That if any Officer intrusted with
the Execution of this Order, do, neglect, or omit his or their duty
therein, they shall be fined according to their demerits, not
exceeding five pounds for one offence, being complained of, or
presented to the County Courts or Court of Assistants, And this Law
to be forthwith Printed and Published, and effectually executed from
and after the last of _November_ next. And that all persons that
administer the Oath abovesaid, shall in like manner make return of
the Names of such persons so sworn to the respective Clerks of the
County Courts. Made October 10, 1677.
* * * * *
Att the second sessions of the Gen̄ll Court held at Boston, 2
October, 1678.
_Whereas it hath pleased his most excellent Majesty, our gracious
king by his letter bearing date the twenty-seventh of Aprill, 1678,
to signifie his Royall pleasure, That the Authority of this his
Colony of Massachusetts in New-England, do give forth Orders that
the Oath of Allegiance, as it is by Law established within his
Kingdome of England, be administred and taken by all his subjects
within this Colony who are of years to take an oath_:
In Obedience whereunto, and as a demonstration of our Loyalty; It is
ordered and enacted by this Court and the Authority thereof, that,
as the members of this Court now sitting have readily taken the Oath
of Allegiance, so, by their Example and Authority, they do require
and command that the same Oath be given and taken by all his
Majesties subjects within this Jurisdiction that are of sixteen
years of age and upwards. And to the end this Order be duely
executed, it is hereby Ordered, that a convenient number of printed
Copies of the said Oath of Allegiance, exactly agreeing with the
written copy inclosed in his majesties Letter, and signed by the
Secretary of State, to be sent forth unto every Magistrate and
Justice of peace, and to the Constable of every town within this
Jurisdiction.
And it is further Ordered that the Magistrates and Justices, or such
as are Commissioned with Magistratical Authority in every County of
this Colony do with all convenient speed repair to the several Towns
and Villages within this Jurisdiction, at such time, and in such
order as they best may, and accomplish the same; giving forth their
warrant to the Constables of each Town to convene all the
inhabitants of the Age abovesaid, and taking their names in writing,
administer the said Oath of Allegiance to each of them, and return
their Names to the Recorder of each County Court to be enrolled. And
if any shall refuse to take the said Oath, or absent themselves
unless in case of sickness, the Names of such shall be returned to
the Recorder of the County, who are to be proceeded against by the
County Courts respectively, for the first offence whereof he is
legally convicted, to pay such a fine as the County Court shall
impose, not exceeding five pounds, or three Moneths Imprisonment in
the common prison or house of Correction: And for the second offence
whereof he shall be lawfully convicted, what summe the County Court
shall inflict, provided it exceed not ten pounds, or six Moneths
Imprisonment without Baile, or Mainprise. [1678.]
The officials of the Government, ignoring the copy of the Oath of
Allegiance given them by the royal commissioners, took the Oath in Court
as it is given in Michael Dalton’s “The Countrey Justice,”—a work of
much esteem in its time, which passed through some ten or eleven
editions, three of which are in the valuable Library of this Society,
and one of them, there is reason to believe, may have been the volume
used in this historical incident,—all of them declaring that the same is
to be understood as not infringing the liberties and privileges granted
in his Majesty’s royal Charter to this Colony of the Massachusetts.
Regarding the manner of taking the Oath; the New England custom was by
holding up the right hand, as opposed to the custom in England of
holding, or laying the hand on the Bible, or kissing it. This was one of
the irritating questions in dispute between the Colonists and the Andros
faction. Samuel Sewall, in his Diary, under date of June 11, 1686, says:
“I read the Oath myself holding the book in my left hand, and holding up
my right hand to Heaven.” And, in 1687, Increase Mather discoursed on
the “laying the hand on and kissing the booke in swearing.” This
question continued to irritate, and was one of the predisposing causes
of the Revolutionary War in the Province of New York. In 1772, a Bill
was lost in Council, “For Removing Doubts in the administration of
Oaths.” This Bill was designed to favor a number of people, chiefly from
Scotland and the north of Ireland, who held conscientious scruples
against the present legal form of kissing the Bible; and allow them to
use the form in use in Scotland and the New England Colonies of lifting
up the right hand. The weight of Episcopal authority denied them this
right.
In the colonization of New England the figure of John Winthrop looms
colossal. Given time, he would have built an Empire whose only ruler
would have been the Lord of Hosts. He can hardly be called a Puritan—his
conversion came too late—but he was a Congregationalist. His method was
so simple as to be open to the understanding of anyone, but it was a
firm principle of government. As an illustration: when he was appealed
to by a small group of settlers near the border line of New Hampshire
for information as to how they could become freemen of the Colony of
Massachusetts-Bay, his reply was: “Get a Minister.” When they answered
that they had no Minister, and did not know where to get one, again came
back his uncompromising reply: “Get a Minister.” In this reply rested
his whole system of colonization. It was simplicity itself. The English
Government recognized its power when, by Proclamation, they endeavored
to prevent the emigration of Puritan Ministers from England. “Get a
Minister!” Gather about him! Build him a church, and homes for
yourselves and families. This done, you have a Plantation. When you have
thus qualified to become freemen, and have taken the Oath of a Freeman,
you will be entitled to hold office; assist in framing laws, and
enforcing those already made; and, as members of the Commonwealth, be
assured that all your rights will be protected. This principle of
government was firm, but not repellent. If you could not conform to it
there was no reason for remaining among them. The world was wide enough
for every one. And you could go to Maine, or Rhode Island. Under it was
formed a government that has never been equalled in prosperity, morality
and all that makes for happiness. No less a personage than Hugh Peters
has declared that in the six years of his residence in the Colony of
Massachusetts-Bay, he had never seen a drunken man or heard a profane
oath.
The limits of their territory they continually enlarged by firmly
insisting upon the border lines of their Patent, and even stretching
them when near some natural boundary; by purchasing the rights of New
Plymouth in the Colony of Maine, for 400 pounds, they added a tract of
seven hundred square miles; by the purchase of the Gorges Patent, for
1,250 pounds sterling, they acquired a jurisdiction over the rest of the
Province of Maine which made it a District of Massachusetts down to the
year 1820. There has been a good deal of sympathy, and many unnecessary
tears have been shed over the so-called banishment of Roger Williams to
Rhode Island; but it was his friend, John Winthrop, who whispered in his
ear the desirability of the location of the Providence Plantations. And
there was no reason why Roger Williams could not have gone out from
Salem with head erect, and with his gaze fixed on the stars, as every
good missionary should go, knowing that the powers of the government of
Massachusetts-Bay was as much behind his settlement, without an Oath, as
it was behind the colonists of Connecticut, and New Haven, who had gone
out from Cambridge, Watertown and Roxbury, carrying with them the Oath
of a Freeman as a principle of their governments. In the Union of the
Colonies of Massachusetts-Bay, New Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven,
of which John Winthrop was the first President, a new idea was advanced
in his system of government, which eventually attained greater results.
It cannot be said that John Winthrop accomplished these things unaided.
There were others who ably assisted him, whose names, also, should be
held in honored remembrance. But through it all, can be seen the firm,
directing mind and purpose of a man whose vision looked beyond his
present to a future, and a Republic that was to be.
And this is why our people should look upon The Oath of a Freeman, which
was his work, not alone as the glorious first fruit of the
Printing-Press in this Country; but also as a great state paper which
accomplished without bloodshed, on a smaller scale it is true, all that
was achieved, one hundred and thirty-seven years later, after seven
years of warfare, through the Declaration of Independence.
_In Connecticut and New Haven Colonies._
The colonists of Connecticut, in the main, followed closely the general
system of laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, from which they had
emigrated. Their form of government was theocratic, the Oath of a
Freeman being the test of citizenship. The settlers of Windsor, who came
from Dorchester with John Warham, in 1635, did not, however, make church
membership a necessary qualification for holding civil office.
The settlers of Guilford, who were joined to New Haven Colony, exercised
their powers of government by a system which conformed to the grant from
Lord Say and Brook to Theophilus Eaton and his company. Like that at New
Haven it was an aristocracy, but modelled in a singular way. As a part
of New Haven Colony they were entitled to one Magistrate, who was their
head and invested with the whole executive and judicial power. The
settlers were divided into two classes, freemen and planters. The
freemen could consist only of those who were church members, and partook
of the sacrament. They were all under oath agreeably to their form of
government. Out of their number were chosen three or four deputies to
sit with the Magistrate in General Courts, and all public officers. The
planters consisted of all inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years,
with a certain estate, which qualified them to vote in town meetings.