1736. The legislature of Massachusetts granted to the Housatunnuk Indians a township 6 miles square; which was laid out by a committee of the general court, and afterward called Stock- Township bridge. The number of Indians then residing at that place was the Indians. upwards of 90; of whom Mr. Sergeant had baptized 52.1 granted to A church was built in Lynde street, in the west part of Bos- Church ton.2 built. ABOUT this time, multitudes of labourers and husbandmen in An Irish Ireland, oppressed by landlords and bishops, and unable to pro- planted in colony cure a comfortable subsistence for their families, embarked for Carolina. Carolina. The first colony of Irish people, receiving a grant of lands near Santee river, formed a settlement, which was called Williamsburgh township.3 lands near To repair the misconduct of New York government in per- Scheme for A heavy shock of an earthquake was felt in New Jersey.5 1738. Earthquake Panama burnt. JAMES OGLETHORPE, having recently been appointed general Oglethorpe and commander in chief of all his majesty's forces in South brings a Carolina and Georgia, was now sent out from England with a Georgia. 1 Hopkins, Memoirs of Housatunnuck Indians, 47-54. The township comprised Wuahktukook, or the Great Meadow. 2 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 263. 3 Hewatt, ii. 63. 4 Smith, N. York, 179, 180. Campbell, after seeking in vain for redress, left 5 Smith, N. Jersey, 427. It caused doors to fly open, and bricks to fall from regiment to 1 10 1738. regiment of 600 men, for the protection of the southern frontiers of the British dominions in America. On his arrival, he held his head quarters at Frederica; but raised forts on some islands lying nearer the Spaniards, particularly on Jekyl and Cumberland. The maintenance of friendship with the Indian nations was of great importance, that in any emergency he might have their assistance. During his absence, the Spaniards had made several attempts to seduce the Creeks, who were much attached to Oglethorpe; and, at the time of his arrival, some of the Creek chiefs were at St. Augustine. When they returned, they found an invitation from general Oglethorpe to all the chieftains to meet him at Frederica. A number of the head warriors immediately set out to meet him at the place appointed; where the general thanked them for their fidelity, made them many valuable presents, and renewed with them the treaty of friendship and alli Attempt to assassinate him. Insurrec groes in Carolina. ance.1 No means were neglected by the Spaniards to prevent the establishment of British colonies on the southern frontier. Finding means to corrupt an English soldier, who had been in the Spanish service, a mutiny through his influence was excited in Oglethorpe's camp, and a daring attempt made to assassinate the general; but his life was almost miraculously preserved, and the principal conspirators were shot. Another and more dangerous effort of Spanish policy was, to tion of ne- attempt a seduction of the negroes of South Carolina; who now amounted to the formidable number of 40,000. Liberty and protection had long been promised and proclaimed to them by the Spaniards at St. Augustine; and emissaries had been sent among them, to persuade them to fly from slavery to Florida.2 The influence of these measures was such as might have been expected. An insurrection of negroes broke out, this year, in the heart of Carolina. A number of them having assembled at Stono, surprised and killed two men in a ware house, from which they took guns and ammunition; chose a captain; and, with colours and drums, began a march toward the southwest, burning every house, and killing every white person in their way, and compelling the negroes to join them. Governor Bull, returning to Charlestown from the southward, and meeting them armed, hastened out of their way, and spread the alarm. ed Wiltown, where a large presbyterian assembly was attending It soon reach 1 Hewatt, ii. 67, 68. Salmon, Chronol. History. 2 To such negroes, as should desert, lands were allotted near St. Augustine, where above 500 British slaves had already been received. Salmon. Of these negro refugees the governor of Florida had formed a regiment, appointing officers from among themselves, allowing them the same pay, and clothing them in the same uniform with the regular Spanish soldiers. Hewatt. divine service. The men, who, according to a law of the 1738. New Inverness, in Georgia, was settled by highlanders, of the New Invercity and province of that name in the north of Scotland. They ness. were conducted to this place by captain William Mackintosh, by order of the procurator of Georgia, captain George Dunbar.2 A college was founded, this year, at Princeton, in New Jersey, College at and called Nassau Hall.3 New Jersey contained 43,388 white Princeton. inhabitants, and 3981 slaves.1 The town of Newport, in Rhode Island, contained 7 worship- Churches in ping assemblies. At Portsmouth there was a large society of R. Island. quakers. In the other 11 towns in the colony there were 25 worshipping assemblies. In the 9 towns on the main land there were 8 baptist churches, 8 quaker meeting houses, 4 episcopal, and 3 congregational churches.5 Winnesimmet, or Romney Marsh, which had hitherto been a Chelsea indistrict or ward of Boston, was incorporated by the name of corporated. Chelsea.6 A workhouse was built in Boston." Work house. Jamaica. The colonists of Jamaica having in vain attempted the subjuga- Treaty with tion of the fugitive negroes, who at length intrenched themselves negroes in in inaccessible places in the mountains; Edward Trelawney, governor of Jamaica, made a treaty with them. It was agreed, that they should remain in a state of freedom; that they should have the property of 1500 acres of land, northeast of Trelawneytown; that they should have liberty to hunt within 3 miles 1 Hewatt, ii. 70, 73. 2 Alcedo, Tr. Art. INVERNESS. This is described by geographers as situated where Darien now is, and as the same town. During a residence of several years in Georgia, I heard nothing of Inverness, but much of Darien, which was at that time in Liberty county, but which now belongs to Mackintosh county, formed at a later period. The name of Mackintosh was still respectably preserved there. 3 Trumbull, Century Sermon. See A. D. 1746. 4 Smith, N. Jersey, p. 489; total, 47,369. 5 Callender, 67. Beside one congregational church on Block Island. 6 Pemberton, MS. Chronology. 7 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 252. A brick building 120 feet long and 2 stories high. 1738. of the English settlements; that they should submit to the orders of the governor, and assist in defence of the island; and that they should deliver up all fugitive negroes.1 Death of Edmund Quincy, agent at London for settling the boundary E. Quincy. line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, died in that city, of the small pox, in the 57th year of his age. The general court of Massachusetts made a donation to his heirs of 1000 acres of land in the town of Lenox, in the county of Berkshire; and caused a monument to be erected to his memory in Bunhill Fields, London.2 War de clared against Spain. Scheme for American colonies. 1739. WAR being declared by Great Britain against Spain,3 admiral Vernon was sent to take the command of a squadron on the West India station, with orders to act against the Spanish dominions in that quarter. Sailing with six men of war from Jamaica to Porto Bello, he attacked that fortress on the 21st of November, and the next day the Spanish governor capitulated. The admiral, having blown up the fortifications and castles of the place, returned fo Jamaica.4 During this war with Spain, a scheme for taxing the British taxing the colonies was mentioned to Sir Robert Walpole. I will leave that," said the minister, "for some of my successors, who may have more courage than I have, and be less a friend to commerce than I am. It has been a maxim with me during my administration, to encourage the trade of the American colonies in the utmost latitude."5 The scheme of taxation was reserved for a bolder minister, and a more eventful period; but the British 1 Salmon, Chron. Hist. Raynal. vi. 345-348; but he says, in 1739. 2 Quincy's Life of Josiah Quincy. The late President Adams told me, that Mr. Quincy, had he not been a Dissenter, would have been interred in Westminster Abbey. 3 The English colonies, but chiefly Jamaica, had carried on a contraband trade with the settlements in America, which custom had long made them consider as lawful. The court of Madrid concerted measures to stop or at least to check this intercourse; and, under the pretence of carrying on a contraband trade, many ships were stopped, which, in reality, had a legal destination. England, incensed to find these hostilities carried to an excess inconsistent with the law of nations, after taking measures for redress, declared war against Spain 23 October, 1739. Raynal, v. 90-95. Hewatt, ii. 69, 75. 4 Univ. Hist. xli. 412, 416. 5 Annual Register for 1765. The minister said more; and the reason assigned for his maxims and measures was recollected, more than twenty years afterward, to his honour. "Nay," proceeded the minister, "it has been necessary to pass over some irregularities in their trade with Europe; for by encouraging them to an extensive growing foreign commerce, if they gain £500,000, I am convinced that in two years afterwards full £250,000 of their gains will be in his majesty's exchequer, by the labour and product of this kingdom; as inmense quantities of every kind go thither; and as they increase in their foreign American trade, more of our produce will be wanted. This is taxing them more agreeably to their own constitution and ours." parliament passed an act for more effectually securing and en- 1739. couraging the trade of the British to America; and an act for naturalizing such protestants and others, as were, or should be, settled in any of his majesty's colonies in America.1 visits the Oglethorpe, agreeably to a promise which he had made at the Oglethorpe treaty the last year, went into the Indian country, 500 miles Indians; distant from Frederica. At the town of Coweta, he conferred with the deputies of that town, and with those of the Chickasaws. These deputies, after drinking black broth together, according to the usage of their ancestors, unitedly declared, that they adhered nant. in their ancient love to the king of Great Britain, and to the who renew agreements made in 1733 with the trustees of Georgia. They their covefarther declared, that all the dominions, territories, and lands from the Savannah river to St. John's river and all the islands between them, and from St. John's river to the bay of Apalache, and thence to the mountains, do by ancient right belong to the Creek nation; and that they would not suffer either the Spaniards, or any person, excepting the trustees of the colony of Georgia, to settle on the said lands. While they acknowledged the grant which they had formerly made to the trustees of all the lands on Savannah river, as far as the river Ogeechee, and all the lands along the sea coast as far as St. John's river, and as high as the tide flows, and all the islands as far as the said river, particularly the islands of Frederica, Cumberland, and Amelia ; they declared, that they reserved to the Creek nation all the land from Pipemaker's Bluff to Savannah, and the islands of St. Catharine, Ossabaw, and Sapelo; and farther declared, that the said lands were holden by the Creek nation as tenants in common. Oglethorpe, as commissioner for George II. declared, that the English should not enlarge or take up any lands, excepting those granted, as above, to the trustees, by the Creek nation; and covenanted, that he would punish any person, who should intrude upon the lands, so reseved by that nation.3 2 There were, at this time, upward of 100 sail of vessels, be- Newport. longing to Newport, in Rhode Island.4 The yellow fever raged in Charlestown, South Carolina, near Yellow as violently as in 1732.5 Jeremiah Dummer, of Boston, died at Plastow, in England. 1 Salmon, Chronological History. 2 They gave to these islands the names of the king's family, "out of gratitude to him." 3 Univ. Hist. xl. 462. Postlethwayt, i. 360. 4 Callender, 41. 5 Ramsay, Hist. S. Carolina, ii. 84. 6 Eliot and Allen, Biog. Hutchinson, ii. c. 3. He was born in Boston, and educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1699, when, as his president afterward declared (in a Preface to a publication of Mr. Dummer's), he was "the best scholar that had been there." Soon after he took his degree fever. Death of J. Dummer. |