New England Charter Surrender (April 25, 1635) resignation of Charter by the Council for New England:
<The faithful endeavors of some of us that have sought the advancement of the plantation of New England have not been without frequent and inevitable troubles...from our first discovery of that coast to the present...
It pleased God about that time to bereave us of the most noble and principal props thereof, as the Duke of Lenox, Marquis Hamilton, and many other strong stays to this work...
These crosses did draw upon us such a disheartened weakness as there only remained a carcass in a manner breathless till the end of the last Parliament when there were certain that desired a patent of some lands in the Massachusetts Bay to plant upon, who, presenting the names of honest and religious men, easily obtained their first desires.
But these being once gotten they used other means to advance themselves and step beyond their first proportions to a second grant surreptitiously gotten of other lands also justly past unto Captain Robert Gorges long before, who, being made governor of those parts, went in person and took an absolute seizure and actual possession of that country by a settled plantation he made in the Massachusetts Bay, which afterwards he left to the charge and custody of his servants and certain other undertakers and tenants belonging to some of us, who were thrust out by those intenders...
Whereby they did rend in pieces the first foundation of the building and so framed to themselves both new laws and new conceits of matters of religion and forms of ecclesiastical and temporal orders and government, punishing diverse that would not approve thereof, some by whipping, others by burning their houses over their heads, and some by banishing and the like, and all this partly under other pretenses, though indeed for no other cause save only to make themselves absolute masters of the country, and unconscionable in your new laws...
We...found matters in so desperate a case as that they saw a necessity for his Majesty to take the whole business into his own hands...It is now resolved that the patent shall be surrendered to his Majesty...and a dutiful obedience of all such as shall come under us to his Majesty's laws and ordinances there to be established and put in execution by such his Majesty's lieutenants or governors as shall be employed for those services to the glory of Almighty God, the honor of his Majesty, and public good of his faithful subjects.> 1635NE001
The Act of Surrender of the New England Charter to King Charles I of England, 1635, stated:
<To all Christian People to whom this present writing shall come: The President and Council established at Plymouth in the County of Devon, for planting, ruling, and governing of New England in America, send Greeting, in our Lord God everlasting.
Whereas our late Sovereign Lord King James... did... grant... the... present Council established at Plymouth...Letters Patents...to have perpetual succession...
Now Know ye that, the said President and Council, for divers good causes...have...yielded up and surrendered...unto our most gracious Sovereign Lord Charles by the Grace of God, King of England...the said Letters Patents.> 1635NE002
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1635NE001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). New England Charter Surrender, April 25, 1635, resignation of Charter by the Council for New England.
1635NE002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). New England Charter Surrender, 1635, Act of surrender of Charter to King Charles I of England.