Chapter I: Front Matter

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American Antiquarian Society

OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE IN COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND

by

CHARLES EVANS

Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1921

Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Published by the Society 1922

The Davis Press Worcester, Massachusetts

CONTENTS

In England.
The Oath of Supremacy
Tenor of The Oath of Allegiance, &c. to be Taken and
Subscribed by Recusants
The Oath of Abjuration
In New Plymouth Colony.
Combination for Foundation of Government known as The
Mayflower Compact
Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity
The Oath of a Ffreeman
The Oath of a Resident
The Oath of a Ffreeman
The Oath of a Ffreeman
In Massachusetts-Bay Colony.
The Oath of a Freeman, or of a Man to be made ffree.
The Oath of Residents
The Oath of a Freeman
The Oath of a Free-man
Freemans Oath
Freemans Oath
Oath of Fidelitie
Oath of Fidelitie
Strangers Oath
Oath of Fidelitie
Freemans Oath
In Connecticut and New Haven Colonies.
An Oath for Paqua’ and the Plantations there
The Oath of a Freeman
In New Haven Colony.
Freeman’s Charge
Oath of Fidelity
Oath of Allegiance
In Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Civil Compact
Second Civil Compact
The Engagement of the Officers
The Reciprocal Engagement of the State to ye Officers
The Preamble to the Law Against Perjury
In New Hampshire Colony.
The Combination for Government at Exeter, with the Forms
of Oaths for Rulers and People
The Elders or Rulers Oath
The Oath of the People
The Combination of the People of Dover to Establish a Form
of Government
Freemen
In Province or County of Maine.
Oath of Councilors of Province of Mayne

OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE IN COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND

The antiquity of the custom of giving and taking Oaths, or the debatable questions of their observance being a religious or legal ceremony, and whether the moral or political aspect has the greater effect upon the minds of men, are subjects with which this paper has nothing to do.

And as the substance of Oaths for particular officers is to engage them to a faithful discharge of their places and trusts to the best of their ability, it has been considered, in general, unnecessary to give them, especially as these offices carry with them the assumption that the general Oaths required of all citizens have first been complied with. No Oaths of office were administered or required in the New Plymouth Colony, the power of the Church being, in effect, superior to the civil power.

For the main purpose of this paper it will not be necessary to go further back in history than to the reign of James the First, of England, 1603–1625, during which time the providences of God directed the course of the voyage of the Pilgrims away from the Colony of Virginia to their settlement at Plymouth in New England, in December, 1620; or to carry the subject beyond the time, in the short-lived reign of James the Second, 1685–1689, when, in December, 1686, Sir Edmund Andros, knight, arrived in Boston with a commission to govern New England, and the Colonial period of New England came to an end.

_In England._

When Henry the Eighth renounced the authority of the Pope, in 1534, an Act of Parliament was obtained declaring him the only supreme head of the Church in England on the earth; and utterly abolishing the authority of the Roman Pontiff within the British Dominions. To give effect to this Act there was further enacted:

THE OATH OF SUPREMACY

I, A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience, that the
Kings Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm, and of
all other His Highness Dominions and Countries, as well in all
Spiritual and Ecclesiastical things (or causes) as Temporal: And
that no Forraign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath,
or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, preheminence
or authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm: and
therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forreign
jurisdiction, powers, superioritie, and authorities, and do promise
that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the
Kings Highness, His Heirs and lawful Successors, and (to my power)
shall assist and defend all jurisdiction, priviledge, preheminence,
& authority granted or belonging to the Kings Highness, His Heirs
and Successors, and united and annexed to the imperial Crown of the
Realm. So help me God, _&c._

The Act of Supremacy which broke the power of the Roman Catholic Church in England, under Henry the Eighth, and his successor, Edward the Sixth, was repealed under Mary Tudor, and revived under Elizabeth, in 1558. Following the Gunpowder Plot, James the First, in 1605, had enacted an Oath of Allegiance, also, which all British subjects were required to take. This Oath of “submission and obedience to the King as a temporal Sovereign, independent of any other power upon earth” contained no acknowledgment of the King as the head of the Church, and, by this omission, Roman Catholics could take it without denying the supremacy of the Pope in spiritual affairs:

TENOR OF THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE, &C. TO BE TAKEN AND SUBSCRIBED BY
RECUSANTS