d a system of
government which, being purely executive, could not even preserve
itself. After struggling with a long course of confusion, and drawing
out, for several years, a miserable political existence, Maine
submitted itself to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and consented
to become a part of that colony. In the course of the years 1651 and
1652, this junction was effected, and Maine was erected into a county,
the towns of which sent deputies to the general court at Boston. To
this county was conceded the peculiar privilege that its inhabitants,
although not members of the church, should be entitled to the rights
of freemen on taking the oath.[69]

[Footnote 69: Chalmer. Hutchison.]

The settlements in New Hampshire, too, were maintaining only a
doubtful and feeble existence, when they drew a recruit of inhabitants
from the same causes which had peopled Rhode Island and Connecticut.

{1637}

In 1637, when Mrs. Hutchinson and other Antinomians were exiled, Mr.
Wheelright, her brother in law, a popular preacher, was likewise
banished. He carried with him a considerable number of his followers;
and, just passing the north-eastern boundary of Massachusetts, planted
the town of Exeter. These emigrants immediately formed themselves,
according to the manner of New England, into a body politic for their
own government.

{1640}

A few persons arrived soon afterwards from England, and laid the
foundation of the town of Dover. They also established a distinct
government. Their first act proved to be the source of future discord.
The majority chose one Underbill as governor; but a respectable
minority was opposed to his election. To this cause of discontent was
added another of irresistible influence. They were divided on the
subject of the covenant of works, and of grace. These dissensions soon
grew into a civil war, which was happily terminated by Williams, who
was, according to the practice of small societies torn by civil
broils, invited by the weaker party to its aid. He marched from
Portsmouth at the head of a small military force; and, banishing the
governor, and the leaders of the Antinomian faction, restored peace to
this distracted village.

Massachusetts had asserted a right over this territory. Her claim
derived aid, not only from the factions which agitated these feeble
settlements, but also from the uncertainty of the tenure by which the
inhabitants held their lands. Only the settlers at Portsmo