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1747. day, and were seen no more. Sir Charles Knowles, in reward of the bravery of captain Stevens, presented him a handsome sword; and from this circumstance the township, when it was incorporated, took the name of Charlestown.1

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The village of Saratoga, containing 30 families, was entirely destroyed by the French and Indians.2

A great tumult was raised in the town of Boston. Commodore Knowles, while lying at Nantasket with a number of men of war, losing some of his sailors by desertion, thought it reasonable that Boston should supply him with as many men as he had lost. He therefore sent his boats up to town early in the morning, and surprised not only as many seamen as could be found on board any of the ships, outward bound as well as others, but swept the wharves, taking some ship carpenters' apprentices, and labouring landmen. This conduct was universally resented as outrageous. A mob was soon collected. As soon as it was dusk, several thousand people assembled in King's street, below the town house, where the general court was sitting. Stones and brickbats were thrown into the council chamber through the windows. A judicious speech of the governor from the balcony, greatly disapproving of the impress, promising his utmost endeavours to obtain the discharge of the persons impressed, and gently reprehending the irregular proceedings of the people, had no effect. Equally ineffectual were the attempts of other gentlemen to persuade them to disperse. The seizure and restraint of the commanders and other officers, who were in town, were insisted on, as the only effectual method to procure the release of the inhabitants aboard the ships. The militia of Boston was summoned the next day to the aid of government, but refused to appear. The governor, judging it inexpedient to remain in town. another night, withdrew to Castle William. Letters, in the mean time, were continually passing between him and the commodore. The council and house of representatives now passed some vigorous resolutions; and the tumultuous spirit began to subside. The inhabitants, assembled in town meeting, while they expressed their sense of the great insult and injury by the impress, condemned the riotous transactions. The militia of the town, the next day, promptly made their appearance, and conducted the governor, with great pomp, to his house. The commodore dismissed most, if not all, of the inhabitants, who had been impressed; and the squadron sailed, to the joy and repose of the town.3

1 Belknap, N. Hamp. ii. 248–251. Brit. Emp. i. 369.

2 Brit. Emp. ii. 339. All the people were massacred.

3 Hutchinson, ii. c. 4. Brit. Emp. i. 372, 373. Mr. Knowles was afterwards an admiral in the British navy, and in 1770, being invited by the empress of Russia, went into her service.

No seminary of learning being yet established in Rhode 1747. Island, several public spirited men founded a library at Newport for the promotion of literature in the colony. Abraham Red- Redwood wood, esquire, gave £500 sterling in books toward the design. Several persons were incorporated by a charter from the colony; and a handsome building for the library was erected.1

Library.

The Ecclesiastical Convention of New Hampshire was formed N. Hamp. at Exeter.2

Convention.

On a medium of three years, there were exported to England Tobacco. from the American colonies forty millions of pounds weight of tobacco.3

The town house in Boston was burnt.4

A French mariner returned to Europe through the Straits of S.Le Maire. Le Maire; a passage, which, from south to north, had been deemed impracticable.5

A frost in South Carolina, on the 7th of February, killed al- Frost in most all the orange trees in the country.6

Carolina.

Benjamin Colman, pastor of the church in Brattle street, Death of Boston, died, aged 73 years;7 Jonathan Dickinson, first presi

1 Brit. Emp. ii. 153, 154. Stiles, MSS.

2 Farmer and Moore, Coll. i. 363.

3 Anderson, iii. 265. This account was taken from the Custom house books for 1744, 1745, 1746; and the odd hundred thousands omitted. By the like me. dium there were exported from England 33 millions; so that England annually consumed 7 millions of pounds weight of tobacco. Valuing the 33 millions of pounds at 6d. per pound weight, the duty amounts to

Suppose Scotland to export 7 millions of

pounds, the duty, at 6d. per pound, is

£825,000 0 0

175,000 0 0 £1,000,000 0 0

"Which said million sterling may be deemed all clear gain to the nation, over and above this trade's giving employment to about 25,000 tons of British shipping."

4 Pemberton, MS. Chron. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 251, 269. It was a spacious and handsome edifice, built in 1712; and stood where the old State house, at the head of State street, now stands. The county records, and the minutes of the council from the beginning to 1737, kept in the lower apartments, were saved. Judge Wendell informed me, that the fire was occasioned by the remains of a fire, left the preceding day (Dec. 8.) in the council chamber.

5 Univ. Hist. xxxix. 215. A strong current sets through these straits to the southward.

6 Hewatt, ii. 208.

7 Life and Character of Colman, by Rev. Mr. Turell of Medford. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 300; x. 169. Dr. Colman was born in Boston, and educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1692. He soon after went to England, and having spent some time there, he returned to America, and was the first minister of the church in Brattle Street, in Boston. "He was a most gentlemanly man, of polite aspect and conversation, very extensive erudition, great devotion of spirit and behaviour, a charming and admired preacher, extensively serviceable to the college and country; whose works breathe his exalted, oratorical, devout, and benign spirit." Sketch of eminent ministers, by Rev. Mr. Barnard of Marblehead, among president Stiles's MSS. He was a fellow of the corporation of Harvard College, and in 1724 was chosen president, but

B. Colman.

1747. dent of New Jersey College, in his 60th year; and David Brainard, a missionary to the Delaware Indians, in the 30th year of his age.2

1748.

Oct. 7.
Treaty of

pelle.

A TREATY of peace between England and France was signed Aix la Cha- at Aix la Chapelle on the 7th of October. By the articles of this treaty, Cape Breton was given up to the French, in a compromise for restoring the French conquests in the Low Countries to the empress queen of Hungary and the States General, and for a general restitution of places, captured by the other belligerent powers.3

declined the office. In 1731 he received a diploma of doctor in divinity from the University in Glasgow. His publications are numerous, among which his Sermons upon the parable of the ten virgins are pronounced excellent. What president Holyoke said of Dr. Colman, in an oration at the commencement after his death, was considered as truth, not panegyric: "Vita ejus utilissima in rebus charitatis, humanitatis, benignitatis, et beneficentiæ, nunquam non occupata est." Eliot and Allen, Biog. Thacher's Century Sermon.

Mr. Dickinson was graduated at Yale College in 1706; and not long after was settled in the ministry of the first presbyterian church in Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, where he performed his very useful labours nearly forty years. On the enlargement of the charter of the college of New Jersey by governor Belcher in 1746, he was appointed its president. He was a man of distinguished talents and learning, and a celebrated preacher. Possessing a quick perception, and an accurate judgment, he was eminent as a controversial writer; and his impartial regard to truth, with his exemplary life, heightened the influence of his essays. In 1732, he published The reasonableness of Christianity, in four sermons; and in 1741, The true scripture doctrine concerning some important points of Christian faith, in five discourses; in 1745, Familiar Letters upon various important subjects in religion; and, at different times, several other sermons and tracts. Allen, Biog.

2 Rev. Mr. Brainard received the principal part of his education at Yale College. In 1742, having received a license to preach, he was invited to New York, where he was examined by the Correspondents of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge, and appointed by them a missionary to the Indians. In 1743, at the age of 25, he began his labours at Kaunameek, an Indian village between Stockbridge and Albany, where he continued about a year. In 1744, he was ordained at Newark, in New Jersey, and soon after went to an Indian settlement at the Forks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, where he continued a year. He afterward visited the Indians at Crosweeksung, near Freehold in New Jersey, where his evangelical labours were attended with remarkable success. In less than a year he baptized 77 persons, 38 of whom were adults, who gave satisfactory evidence of their Christian character. In 1746 he visited the Indians on the Susquehannah, whom he had repeatedly taught before; and, on his return, was so worn down by the hardships of his journey, and his health was so much impaired, that he was able to preach but little afterward. Having visited Boston, he went to Northampton, where, in the family of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, having gradually declined, he died on the 9th of October. Though his labours were short, they were intense, incessant, and remarkably successful. President Edwards, Life of Brainard. Brainard's Journal. Account of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge. Brown, Hist. propagation of Christianity, i. 99. Allen, Biog.

3 Blair, Chronology. Univ. Hist. xxxix. 340. Minot, i. 81. Anderson, iii. 267. Trumbull, U. S. i. c. 9.

3

crease the

A bill was brought into the British parliament, by which all 1748. the king's instructions were to be enforced in the colonies; but the great danger which threatened the rights of the colonies, by Bill to ina clause that swept away all the charters without trial or legal royal powjudgment, excited opposition on the part of Massachusetts, and er. was successfully resisted by her provincial agent. Not long after, advantage was taken of the desire of all honest men to abolish the paper currencies in America; and an act was passed for regulating and restraining bills of credit in the colonies. By this act no such money was allowed, excepting for the current expenses of the year, and in case of an invasion; but in no case might it be a legal tender for the payment of debts, on pain of dismission from office on the part of any provincial governor, who should assent to it, and a perpetual incapability of serving in any public employment.2

indigo.

The parliament passed an act for allowing a bounty of 6d. per Bounty on pound on all indigo, raised in the American plantations, and imported directly into Great Britain from the place of its growth.3

This year, 500 vessels cleared out from the port of Bos- Trade of ton for a foreign trade, and 430 entered inwards, exclusive Boston, of coasting and fishing vessels.4 The clearances from Ports- Portsmouth (New Hampshire) were 121, and the entries, 73; beside mouth, about 200 coasting sloops and schooners. The clearances from Newport. Newport (Rhode Island) were 118, and the entries, 56.5

The Nianticoke Indians emigrated from Maryland to Wyo- Nianti ming.

1 In 1751. It gave efficacy to the royal instructions in this article only. 2 Minot, i. 146-148. A single fact, recorded at the time, gives an impressive view of the depreciation, with its baneful effects. An aged widow, whose husband died more than 40 years before that time, had £3 a year settled on her, instead of her dower; and that sum would, at that day, and at the place where she still lived, procure toward her support 2 cords of wood, 4 bushels of Indian cora, 1 bushel of rye, 1 bushel of malt, 50lb. of pork, and 60lb. of beef. In 1748, she could "at most demand but 17s. 3d. new tenor; which is but about an eighth part of her original £3;" and certainly "would not purchase more than half a quarter of the above necessaries of life; and this she must take up. with; because there is no remedy in law for her. And this is, in a measure, the deplorable case of many widows in the land." Appleton's Sermon at Cambridge, on Fast day, 1748, Note. See TABLES.

3 Hewatt, ii. 139, 140. The preceding year, 200,000lb. of indigo had been sent from Carolina to England, and a petition presented to parliament for a bounty. The parliament, on examination, found that this was one of the most beneficial articles of French commerce; and that Great Britain alone consumed annually 600,000 weight of French indigo; which, at 5s. a pound, cost the nation the prodigious sum of £150,000 sterling. Ib. Anderson, iii. 261, 262. Drayton, 127, 163, 173. See English Statutes, vii. 119.

4 Europ. Settlements, ii. 173. From Christmas 1747 to Christmas 1748.

5 Brit. Emp. ii. 119, 153. The Newport account is from 25 March 1747 to 25 March 1748. From the last date to 25 March 1749, the clearances were 160, and the entries, 75. Ib.

6 Heckewelder, 75. Rev. Christian Pyrlæus, a Moravian missionary at the settlement on the Forks of Delaware, says, "that on the 21st of May, 1748,

cokes.

Halifax settled.

Plan of sending bishops to America

1749.

ACADIE, which was ceded to Great Britain by the late treaty of peace, changed its name to Nova Scotia. The parliament, aware of the importance of this territory, resolved to send out a colony to settle it, and voted £40,000 for that purpose. Advantageous terms being offered by the government,' 3760 adventurers accepted them; embarked for America; and settled at the bay of Chebucto. This place was fixed on as the seat of government; fortified; and, in honour of the earl of Halifax, first commissioner of trade and plantations, the settlement was called Halifax. The honourable Edward Cornwallis, appointed governor and commander in chief of Nova Scotia, accompanied the settlers. The Acadians, the former inhabitants of the country, were allowed peaceably to remain in it; and having sworn never to bear arms against their countrymen, they submitted to the English government, and were denominated French Neutrals.3

Several nonjuring clergymen, in the interest of the Pretender, having come from Great Britain to America, a plan was formed for sending over bishops to this country, to counteract their inproposed; fluence; but the project was opposed by some leading persons in the ministry, and laid aside in the cabinet. The colonies were opposed to the measure, from an apprehension that it would ultimately interfere with established, colonial rights. To obviate their objections, the Society for propagating the gospel, which

a number of the Nanticokes from Maryland passed by Shamokin in ten canoes
on their way to Wyoming." These Indians, among others, had the singular
custom of removing the bones of their deceased friends to the country in which
they dwelt.
"In earlier times, they were known to go from Wyoming and
Chemenk, to fetch the bones of their dead from the Eastern shore of Maryland,
even when the bodies were in a putrid state, so that they had to take off the
flesh and scrape the bones clean, before they could carry them along. I well
remember," adds Mr. Heckewelder, " having seen them between the years
1750 and 1760, loaded with such bones, which, being fresh, caused a disagree-
able stench, as they passed through the town of Bethlehem."

1 Regard was particularly shown, in these terms, to a number a brave sailors and soldiers, left by the peace of Aix la Chapelle without employment. Every soldier and seaman was to be allowed 50 acres of land; every ensign, 200; every lieutenant, 300; every captain, 460; and every officer of higher rank, 600 acres; together with 30 for every servant, whom they should carry with them. No quitrents were to be demanded the first ten years. They were to be furnished with instruments for fishing and agriculture, to have their passage free, and provisions found them the first year after their arrival. Hewatt. In addition to the £40,000, granted this year for the charge of the embarkation and other expenses, parliament continued to make annual grants for the same settlement until the year 1755, when the collective sums amounted to £415,484. 148. 11d. 3-4. Brit. Emp. i. 213. Univ. Hist. xl. 194, 195.

2 This was an Indian name: " endroit que les sauvages appelloient autrefois Chiboucton." Precis sur L'Amerique, 56.

3 Hewatt, ii. 146, 147. Univ. Hist. xl. 194. Brit. Emp. i. 192, 195.

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