Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/217

ACCESSION OF WILLIAM AND MAllY. 169 royal commission as Governor of the New England Colonies and from this date till his departure, April, 1689, he exer- cised his authority like a despot. The press was put under subjection, the people were threatened with a loss of their meeting houses and the freedom of worship, titles to land were declared invalid, taxes were imposed by Andros and his Council, town meetings except for choice of town officers were prohibited, imprisonment and fines followed remon- strance and opposition to the government orders. The anxiety of the people was great, the peril threatening free institutions was oppressive. Society stood still and awaited its expected overthrow as property, social order, democratic government, religious institutions and chartered rights were ruthlessly assailed. Governor Hinckley of Plymouth had the courage to lay the wrongs and complaints of the people before the throne, but without avail. A war was begun by Andros against the Eastern Indians, and the men able to bear arms were impressed into a fruitless service. Whence was relief to come ? The God of Providence was on the side of the colonists for their protection. On the last of April, 1689, news reached Boston that William, Prince of Orange, had landed in Eng- land. Inflamed by their wrongs, and overjoyed by the glorious tidings, the people seized their arms, pro- claimed William and Mary sovereigns of England, arrested Andros and confined him a prisoner in the Castle, compelled him to resign, and by acclamation called their old Governor, Simon Bradstreet, then at the age of eighty-seven, to accept control of the government. The Colonies were once more a free people, thanks to the God of Nations. The event of greatest consequence to Plymouth Colony occurred in the year 1691, when the old colony was called upon to surrender its de facto if not its de jure existence and become a part of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Plymouth had never held a charter owing to the hostility of Charles the Second. Rev. Ichabod Wiswall of Duxbury with Cooke and Oakes of Boston were sent to England as agents of the Bay Colony