Exeter, New Hampshire (August 4, 1639) the colonists defined the purpose for government, stating:
<Whereas it hath pleased the Lord to move the Heart of our dread Sovereign Charles by the Grace of God King &c. to grant License and Liberty to sundry of his subjects to plant themselves in the Westerly parts of America,
We his loyal Subjects Brethren of the Church in Exeter situate and lying upon the River Pascataqua with other Inhabitants there, considering with ourselves the Holy Will of God and our own Necessity that we should not live without wholesome Laws and Civil Government among us of which we are altogether destitute; do in the name of Christ and in the sight of God combine ourselves together to erect and set up among us such Government as shall be to our best discerning agreeable to the Will of God professing ourselves Subjects to our Sovereign Lord King Charles according to the Liberties of our English Colony of Massachusetts, and binding of ourselves solemnly by the Grace and Help of Christ and in His Name and fear to submit ourselves to such Godly and Christian Laws as are Established in the Realm of England to our best Knowledge, and to all other such Laws which shall upon good grounds be made and enacted among us according to God that we may live quietly and peaceably together in all Godliness and honesty.> 1639EX001
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1639EX001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). New Hampshire, City of Exeter, August 4, 1639. Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collection: Consisting of State Papers and other Authentic Documents: Intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America (Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1792), Vol. I, p. 463. Stephen K. McDowell and Mark A. Beliles, America's Providential History (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Press, 1988), p. 59. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 2. Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, "The Providential Perspective" (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 2.