Chapter I: A.B. doe truely and sincerely acknowledge pfesse testifie and

declare in my Conscience before God and the Worlde, That our
Soveraigne Lorde Kinge James is lawfull and rightfull King of this
Realme and of all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries; And
that the Pope, neither of himselfe nor by any Authority of the
Churche or Sea of Rome, or by any other meanes with any other, hath
any Power or Authoritye to depose the King or to dispose any of his
Majesties Kingdomes or Dominions, or to authorize any Forraigne
Prince to invade or annoy hym or his Countries, or to discharge any
of his Subjects of their Allegiaunce and Obedience to his Majestie,
or to give Licence or Leave to any of them to beare Armes raise
Tumult or to offer any violence or hurte to his Majestie Royall Pson
State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his
Majesties Dominions. Also I doe sweare from my heart, that
notwithstanding any Declarac̄on or Sentence of Excommunicac̄on or
Deprivac̄on made or graunted or to be made or graunted by the Pope
or his Successors, or by any Authoritie derived or p̄tended to be
derived from hym or his Sea against the saide King his Heires or
Successors, or any Absolution of the saide Subjects from theire
Obedience; I will beare Faithe and true Allegiaunce to his Majestie
his Heires and Successors, and hym or them will defend to the
uttermost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts
whatsoever which shalbe made against his or theire persons theire
Crowne and Dignitie by reason or colour of any such Sentence or
Declarac̄on or otherwise, and will doe my best endevour to disclose
and make knowen unto his Majestie his Heires and Successors all
Treasons and traiterous Conspiracies which I shall knowe or heare of
to be against hym or any of them. And I doe further sweare, That I
doe from my heart abhor, detest and abjure as impious and hereticall
this damnable Doctrine and Position, that Princes which be
excōmunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered
by theire Subjects or any other whosoever. And I doe beleeve and in
my Conscience am resolved, that neither the Pope nor any pson
whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any parte
therof, which I acknowledge by good and full Authoritye to be
lawfully ministered unto mee, and doe renounce all Pardons and
Dispensac̄ons to the contrarie; And all these things I do plainly
and sincerely acknowledge and sweare, according to these expresse
wordes by me spoken, and according to the playne and cōmon sense
and understanding of the same wordes, without any equivocac̄on or
mentall evasion or secret reservac̄on whatsoever; And I doe make
this recognic̄on and acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly
upon the true Faithe of a Christian: So help me God. Unto which Oath
so taken, the saide pson shall subscribe his or her Name or Marke.
[1605.]

Both of these Oaths were commanded during the reign of Charles the First, 1625–1649.

By the third Charter of the Virginia Company, their Treasurer, or any two of the Council, were empowered to administer the Oaths of Supremacy, and of Allegiance, to all persons going to their Colony. And the Pilgrims, through their chief men, agreed with the Virginia Company: “The Oath of Supremacy we shall willingly take, if it be required of us, if that convenient satisfaction be not given by our taking the Oath of Allegiance. John Robinson. William Brewster.”

The Charter of the Massachusetts-Bay Company gave them broader powers in that it did not exact this provision from them but gave the Company liberty to admit new members, called “Freemen” of the Company, and no method, conditions, or qualifications were presented for conferring this privilege. Their leaders, as we shall see, were quick to take advantage of the opportunity given them to frame their own Oaths of citizenship. Too late the government in England, or rather that part which was representative of the Church of England, realized the powers of colonization this gave the dissenting churchmen; and, in 1637, a Proclamation was issued, aimed principally to prevent the emigration of Puritan Ministers, which commanded that none should be suffered to go to New England “without a certificate that they had taken the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, and had conformed to the discipline of the Church of England.” In 1638, another Proclamation “commanded owners and masters of vessels that they do not fit out any with passengers and provisions to New-England, without license from the Commissioners of Plantations.”

Another Oath, drawn up in England, also claims a place here because it was sometimes voluntarily taken by settlers in the New England Colonies. In the year 1655, during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, an Oath, probably similar to that prescribed by the Rump Parliament to the Council of State, was enacted which was known as:

THE OATH OF ABJURATION

I do hereby swear that I do renounce the pretended title of Charles
Stuart, and the whole line of the late King James; and of any other
person, as a single person pretending, or which shall pretend to the
crown or government of these nations of England Scotland and
Ireland, or any of them; and that I will, by the grace and
assistance of Almighty God, be true, faithful and constant to the
Parliament, and Commonwealth; and will oppose the bringing in, or
setting up any single person or House of Lords, and every
of them, in this Commonwealth.

Soon after the Restoration, Charles the Second, by Proclamation commanded that the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance be tendered to all persons disaffected to the Government and, in case of refusal, that they were to be prosecuted under the Statute of the 7th of James. During the reign of his Roman Catholic successor, James the Second, the Oath of Supremacy was allowed to lapse, and the Oath of Allegiance, only, was in full force in the Colonies, up to the publication of his declaration of liberty of conscience for all denominations in England and Scotland, in 1687–1688, which sealed his doom.

These preliminaries are necessary to a full understanding of our subject which naturally begins, in point of time, with the settlement

_In New Plymouth Colony._

Strictly speaking, Plymouth was not a New England Colony. It was without a Charter, and the functions of its government were those of a Corporation. The power of the Oath of Allegiance their leaders had assented to always seemed to hang over them, and paralyze the initiative they should have taken. Their attempts to increase their circumscribed boundaries at New Plymouth were futile; and, in the case of their attempted settlement in Maine, disastrous both to the business reputation of their leaders, and to the Corporation. They could spare neither the men nor the means from the parent settlement to form permanent settlements elsewhere. They seemed doomed to failure. And yet hardly that, when we consider the impress upon our Nation made by their sterling qualities of mind and heart, their patience and fortitude under severe trials, the hopes and ambition of their teachings, and their never-failing trust in God’s Providence. These high qualities still animate and live in the great and growing number who proudly claim their ancestry from the Pilgrims at New Plymouth.

COMBINATION FOR FOUNDATION OF GOVERNMENT
known as
THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT

In y^e name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall
subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y^e grace of
God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland, king, defender of y^e
faith, &c. haveing undertaken, for y^e glorie of God, and
advancement of y^e Christian faith, and honour of our king and
countrie, a voyage to plant y^e first colonie in y^e Northerne parts
of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in y^e
presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves
togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering &
preservation & furtherance of y^e ends aforesaid; and by vertue
hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes,
ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as
shall be thought most meete & convenient for y^e generall good of
y^e Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd
y^e 11 of November, in y^e year of y^e raigne of our soveraigne
lord, King James, of England, France, & Ireland y^e eighteenth, and
of Scotland y^e fiftie fourth. An^o: Dom. 1620. [Forty-one names.]

The Mayflower Compact has received full and adequate treatment in the paper read before this Society in October, 1920, by Arthur Lord, LL.D.

The exact date of the two forms of Oaths first given has not been determined, but they are certainly later than the formation of the first Council in 1624.

OATH OF ALLEGIANCE AND FIDELITY

The forme of Oath ... which liue in this Colonie ... the Oth of
alegance to his maj ... fidelity to the same.

You shall sweare by the name of the Great God ... & earth & in his
holy fear, & presence that you shall not speake, or doe, deuise, or
aduise, anything or things, acte or acts, directly, or indirectly,
By land, or water, that doth, shall, or may, tend to the destruction
or ouerthrowe of this present plantation, Colonie, or Corporation of
this towne Plimouth in New England.

Neither shall you suffer the same to be spoken, or done, but shall
hinder, & oposse the same, by all due means you can.

You shall not enter into any league, treaty, Confederac̄ or
combination, with any, within the said Colonie or without the same
that shall plote, or contriue any thing to the hurte, & ruine of the
growth, and good of the said plantation.

You shall not consente to any shuch confederation, nor conceale any
known vnto you certainly, or by conje but shall forthwith manifest &
make knowne the same, to the Gouernours of this said towne for the
time being.

And this you promise & swear, simply, & truly, & faithfully to
performe as a true christian [you hope for help from God, the God of
truth & punisher of falshoode.]

The forme of the Oath which ... of the Gouernour, & Counsell at
euery Election of any of them.

You shall swear, according to that wisdom, and measure of discerning
giuen vnto you; faithfully, equally & indifrently without respect of
persons; to administer Justice, in all causes coming before you. And
shall labor, to aduance, & furder the good of this Colony, &
plantation, to the vtmost of your power; and oppose any thing that
may hinder the same. So help you God.

The words, “a true Christian” were afterwards crossed out, and the form used later: “as you hope for help from God, the God of truth and punisher of falsehood” was substituted.

By the Laws of 1636, every freeman was required to take the following Oath:

THE OATH OF A FFREEMAN

You shall be truly loyall to our Sov Lord King Charles, his heires &
successors, [the State & Govern^t of England as it now stands.] You
shall not speake or doe, devise or advise any thing or things act or
acts directly or indirectly by land or water, that doth shall or may
tend to the destrucc̄on or overthrow of this pr̄nt plantac̄ons
Colonies or Corporac̄on of New Plymouth, Neither shall you suffer
the same to be spoken or done but shall hinder oppose & discover the
same to the Govr̄ & Assistants of the said Colony for the time being
or some one of them. You shall faithfully submit unto such good &
wholesome laws & ordnanc & as either are or shall be made for the
ordering & governm^t of the same, and shall endeavor to advance the
growth & good of the severall Colonies plantations w^{th} in the
limit & of this Corporac̄on by all due meanes & courses. All w^{ch}
you promise & sweare by the name of the great God of heaven & earth
simply truly & faithfully to pforme as you hope for help frō God
who is the God of truth & punisher of falsehood. [1636]

Following the outbreak of civil war in England in 1638, the words “our sovereign lord King Charles his heirs and successors” were erased, and loyalty to “the State and Government of England as it now stands” substituted. The modern rendering intermixed is probably an attempt by the transcriber to fill out missing or undecipherable paragraphs or sentences.

According to Francis Baylies’ “Historical Memoir of New Plymouth,” (I: 235,) the following Oath was prescribed to be taken by any residing in the government of New Plymouth:

THE OATH OF A RESIDENT

You shall be truly loyal to our sovereign lord King Charles, his
heirs and successors, and whereas you choose at present to reside
within the government of New Plymouth, you shall not do or cause to
be done any act or acts directly or indirectly, by land or water,
that shall tend to the destruction or overthrow of the whole or any
of the several plantations or townships within the said government
that are or shall be orderly erected or established, but shall
contrariwise hinder, oppose, and discover the same, and such intents
and purposes as tend thereunto, to the Governor for the time being,
or some one of the assistants with all convenient speed. You shall
also submit unto and obey all such good and wholesome laws,
ordinances, and offices as are or shall be established within the
limits thereof. So help you God. [1636.]

The disturbed state of England is also reflected in the 1658 revision of the Laws when “our sovereign lord the King, his heirs and successors” is substituted for “the present State and Government of England,” as follows:

THE OATH OF A FFREEMAN

You shalbee truely Loyall to the present State and Goūment of
England [our Sou^r Lord the King his heires and Successors.] You
shall not speake or doe deuise or aduise Any thinge or thinges Acte
or Actes directly or Indirectly by Land or Water that doth shall or
may tend to the destruction or ouerthrow of these present
plantations or Townshipes of the Corporation of New Plymouth neither
shall you suffer the same to bee spoken or done but shall hinder
oppose and discouer the same to the Gou^r And Assistants of the said
Collonie for the time being; or some one of them; you shall
faithfully submitt vnto such good and wholesome Lawes and ordinances
as either are or shalbee made for the ordering and Gou^rment of the
same; and shall Indeuor to aduance the grouth and good of the
seuerall townshipes and plantations within the Lymetts of this
Corporation by all due meanes and courses; All which you pmise and
Sweare by the Name of the great God of heauen and earth simply
truely and faithfully to pforme as you hope for healp from God who
is the God of truth and the punisher of falchood. [1658.]

At the time of the 1671 revision of the Laws, Charles the Second had been firmly seated on the English throne for ten years, but his name is omitted from the superscription of the following Oath. The intensity of the feeling in the New England Colonies towards even the name of the two kings is shown in the fact that until after the middle of the next century Harvard College had only three graduates, if the three Charles Chaunceys, with whom it was a family name in England, are omitted, and Yale College only one graduate who bore the Christian name of Charles.

THE OATH OF A FFREEMAN

You shalbee truely Loyall to our Sou^r Lord the Kinge his heires and
Successors; you shall not doe nor speake deuise or aduise any thinge
or thinges act or actes directly or Inderectly by Land or water;
that shall or may tend to the destruction or ouerthrow of any of
these plantations or towneshipes of the Corporation of New Plymouth;
neither shall you suffer the same to bee spoken or done but shall
hinder oppose and discouer the same to the Gou^r and Assistants of
the said Collonie for the time being or some one of them; you shall
faithfully submitt vnto such good and wholesome lawes and
ordinances; as either are or shalbee made for the ordering and
Gou^rment of the same; and shall endeauor to advance the good and
grouth of the seuerall Towneshipes and plantations within the
Lymetts of this Corporation by all due meanes and courses; all which
you p^rmise and sweare by the Name of the great God of heauen and
earth simply truely and faithfully to pforme as you hope for healpe
from God whoe is the God of truth and the punisher of ffalchood.
[1671.]

_In Massachusetts-Bay Colony._

When on the 4th of March 1628/9, Charles, “by the grace of God, Kinge of England, Scotland, Fraunce, and Ireland, Defender of the Fayth, &c. in the fourth yeare of our raigne” did by letters patent grant unto Sir Henry Rosewell and his twenty-five associates, their heirs and assigns forever, all that certain part of the grant of New England which his “deare and royall father, Kinge James of blessed memory ... hath given and graunted vnto the Counsell established at Plymouth in the County of Devon” and which the said Council by deed dated the 19th of March, 1627/8, had “given, graunted, bargained, soulde, enfeoffed, aliened and confirmed” to Sir Henry Rosewell, Sir John Young, Knightes, Thomas Southcott, John Humphrey, John Endecott and Symon Whetcombe, their heirs and associates forever, “To be houlden of vs our heires and successors, as of our manor of Eastgreenewich, in the County of Kent, within our realme of England,” under the name of the “Governor and Company of the Mattachusetts Bay in Newe England, one bodie politique and corporate in deede, fact, and name, ... and that by that name they shall have perpetuall succession,”—may acquire lands, &c. have a common seal; and that there shall be one Governor, one Deputy Governor, and eighteen assistants to be chosen out of the freemen. He went farther, and constituted “our welbeloved Mathewe Cradocke to be the first and present Governor; Thomas Goffe to be Deputy Governor, and eighteen of the other associates to be Assistants, who before they undertake the execution of their offices and places shall respectively take their corporal oaths for the faithful performance of their duties.” The Oath for Matthew Craddock, as Governor, to be administered by a Master of the Chancery, the Governor was then empowered to administer the oaths to the Deputy Governor and Assistants nominated in the Charter. Oaths to subsequent officers being arranged: the new Governor to take the Oath before the old Deputy Governor, or two Assistants; and the new Deputy Governor, Assistants and all other officers hereafter chosen to take the oath before the Governor for the time being. They were empowered to transport any of our loving subjects, or any strangers willing to become our loving subjects, and any seven at least of their number had “full power and authoritie to choose, nominate, and appointe such and soe many others as they shall thinke fitt, and that shall be willing to accept the same, to be free of the said Company and Body, and Them into the same to admitt.” All subjects inhabiting the lands granted, and their children “which shall happen to be borne there, or on the seas in goeing thither, or retorning from thence shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects, ... as yf they and everie of them were borne within the realme of England.” And the Governor and Deputy Governor, and any two or more of the Assistants, at any of their Courts or Assemblys shall and may at all times have full power to give the Oath of Office and Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, or either of them, to every person who may go to New England to inhabit in the same. They were also authorized to make “the formes of such Oathes warrantable by the lawes and statutes of this our realme of England as shalbe respectivelie ministered vnto them, for the execuc̄on of the said severall offices and places ... and ministring the said oathes to the newe elected officers.”

At the end of the Charter appeared the Oath of Governor:

PRÆDICT, Matthaeus Cradocke Juratus est de Fide et Obedientiâ Regi
et Successoribus suis, et de Debitâ Exequutione Officij Gubernatoris
iuxta Tenorem P^r sentium, 18^o Martij, 1628. Coram me, Carola
Cæsare, Milite, in Cancellariâ Mr̃o.

Char. Cæsar.

By this Charter, under the privy seal of Cardinal Wolseley, was, unwittingly, planted the seed of the fairest flower that ever bloomed in the garden of colonization since Eden.

Up to August, 1630, the business of the Massachusetts-Bay Company was transacted in London. But the business of the Massachusetts-Bay Colony may be said to have really begun in May, 1631.

At “A Gen^rall Court holden att Boston, the 18th day of May, 1631. John Winthrop, Esq̃ was chosen Goun^r for a whole yeare nexte ensueinge by the gen^rall consent of the Court, according to the meaneing of the pattent, and did accordingly take an oathe to the place of Goun̄^r belonginge.”

“Tho: Dudley, Esq̃, is also chosen Deputy Gouñ^r for this yeare nexte ensuing, & did in p^rsence of the Court take an oath to his place belonginge.” And “to the end the body of the com̄ons may be p^rserued of honest & good men, it was likewise ordered and agreed that for time to come noe man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but such as are members of some of the churches within the lymitts of the same.”

The Law that all freemen must be church members, while assented to in Salem in 1631, was modified in 1632, probably for local reasons, that no civil magistrate could be an elder in the church.

To give force to this law an Oath of Freemen was required, and this service the newly appointed Governor and the Deputy Governor elected to perform. The result of their labors, the original draft of the Oath of a Freeman, in the handwriting of the first and greatest of the Governors of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Oath of a Servant, in the handwriting of the second Governor—a document perhaps only surpassed in historical interest and importance by, and worthy to rank with, the Declaration of Independence—is now, appropriately, in the possession of the Public Library of the City of Boston, and its preservation assured.

Through the courtesy of the Trustees, this Society is permitted again to give publicity to the excellent facsimiles of these interesting documents, together with transcriptions of the somewhat obscure handwriting, with interlineations and cancelled words showing, line for line, the changes made by the authors, which first appeared in the _Bulletin_ of the Library for July, 1894.

THE OATH OF A FREEMAN, OR OF A MAN TO BE MADE FFREE.

I, A. B. &c. being, by the Almighties most wise disposic̄on, become
a memb^r of this body, consisting of the Goūn^r, Deputy Goūn^r,
Assistants, & a com^nlty of the Mattachusets in Newe England, doe,
freely & sincerely acknowledge that I am iustly & lawfully subject
to the goūm^t of the same, & doe accordingly submitt my pson &
estate to be ptected, ordered, & goūned by the lawes &
constituc̄ons thereof, & doe faithfully pmise to be from time to
time obedient & conformeable therevnto, & to the authie of the said
Goūn^r & Assistants & their success^rs, & to all such lawes,
orders, sentences, & decrees as shalbe lawfully made & published by
them or their successors; and I will alwaies indeav^r (as in dutie I
am bound) to advance the peace & wellfaire of this bodie or
com̄onwealth to my vtmost skill & abilitie; & I will, to my best
power & meanes, seeke to devert & prevent whatsoeuer may tend to the
ruyne or damage thereof, or of any the said Goūn^r, Deputy Goūn^r,
or Assistants, or any of them, or their success^rs, and will giue
speedy notice to them, or some of them, of any sedic̄on, violence,
treachery, or other hurt or euill which I shall knowe, heare, or
vehem^tly suspecte to be plotted or intended against the said
com̄onwealth, or the said goum^t established; and I will not att any
time suffer or giue consent to any counsell or attempt that shalbe
offered giuen, or attempted for the impeachm^t of the said goūm^t,
or makeing any change or alterac̄on of the same, contrary to the
lawes & ordinances thereof, but shall doe my vtmost endeav^r to
discover, oppose, & hinder, all & eūy such counsell & attempts. Soe
helpe me God. [1631.]

Fac-simile of the Freemen’s Oath

The oath of a serv^t.