7o8 A. E. McKhdey in New Haven it was the mainstay of the theocracy. The exclu- sive nature of the freemanship in Massachusetts had led to a long contest with King Charles II. ; and Nicholls, whom we see in New York legislating for the Duke of York's province, was also associ- ated by the King with three other commissioners to investigate the general conditions of the New England colonies and institute needed reforms. One of the principal subjects assigned to these commissioners was the extension of the suffrage and the abolition of exclusive freemanship.' Nicholls's instructions from the King and his personal knowledge of the principle respecting freemen in New England must have influenced him when framing his legislation ; for, although the term freeman occurs scores of times in the New England laws,- it is most sedulously erased from the Duke's Laws ; and even the allied sub- jects of residence and admission of inhabitants are omitted from the New York code. The Massachusetts and New Haven laws forbade a man's taking up residence in a town without the consent of the local officers or the town-meeting ; but this method of admission was in principle akin to the New England principle respecting free- men, and it, too, was ignored by Nicholls. In addition to fostering political and ecclesiastical intolerance, the New England freeman- ship, whether of province or town, was opposed to the powers granted by charter to the Duke of York.' Finally, Nicholls had the New Netherland custom on his side, for Stuyvesant, five years before this, had said that the admission of new inhabitants was not a subject for local determination, but belonged to the central authority.' Thus there appear ample reasons for the absence of the subject of freemanship ; Nicholls's own experience in New England, the royal instructions, the Duke's charter and Dutch custom were all opposed to the exclusiveness of the New England corporations ; and in this feature, as in some others, the innovations of the New York governor were steps toward greater freedom. ■See N. Y. Co/. /)o£-.. III. 51-54, 57-63, 84, 110-113; Records of Massachu- setts, IV. pt. II., pp. 129, 173-174, 186 ft., 200-211, 218 ft. 2 The word freeman does occur once in the Laws, but in that case it has the mean- ing qI free man, N. Y. Col. Laws, I. 36. The words freeman and freemen are used twenty-five times in the New Haven laws, and fifty-five times in the Massachusetts code. iJBy the Duke's charter he and his heirs are given power " to admit such and so many person and persons to trade and traftique unto and within the terrytoryes and islands aforesaid and into every and any part and parcell thereof and to have possesse and enjoy any lands or hereditaments in the parts and places aforesaid. ..."
- " None of the Townes of N. Netherlands are troubled with Inhabitance, the which
doe not Lyke her or her Magistrates, beinge reserved that they doe not admitt any In- habitance without approbation and acknowledgement of the Director Generall and Coun- sell ..." N. Y. Col. Doe., XIII. 211.
