d been unjustly complained of to
his Majesty, their false accusers should be severely punished, and their
just dealing made known to his Majesty and all the world; yet they
proclaimed by sound of trumpet that the General Court was the supremest
judiciary in all the province; that the Commissioners pretending to hear
appeals was a breach of the privileges granted by the King's royal
father, and confirmed to them by his Majesty's own letter, and that they
would not permit it; by which they have for the present silenced above
thirty petitioners which desired justice from them and were lost at sea.

"To elude his Majesty's desire for admitting men of civil and competent
estates to be freemen, they have an Act whereby he that is 24 years old,
a housekeeper, and brings a certificate of his civil life, another of
his being orthodox in matters of faith, and a third of his paying ten
shillings besides head-money, at a single rate, _may then have the
liberty to make his desires known to the Court_, and then it shall be
put to vote. The Commissioners examined many townships, and found that
scarce three in a hundred pay ten shillings at a single rate; yet if
this rate were general it would be just; but he that is _a church
member, though_ he be a servant, and pay not _twopence, may be a
freeman_. They do not admit any who is not a Church member to communion,
nor their children to baptism, yet they will marry their children to
those whom they will not admit to baptism, if they be rich. They did
imprison and barbarously use Mr. Jourdan for baptising children, as
himself complained in his petition to the Commissioners. Those whom they
will not admit to the communion, they compel to come to their sermons by
forcing from them five shillings for every neglect; yet these men
thought their paying one shilling for not coming to prayers in England
was an unsupportable tyranny." ... "They have made many things in their
laws derogatory to his Majesty's honour, of which the Commissioners have
made and desired that they might be altered, but they have done nothing
of it[134]. Among others, whoever keeps Christmas Day is to pay a fine
of five pounds."

"They caused at length a map of the territories to be made; but it was
made in a Chamber by direction and guess; in it they claim Fort Albany,
and beyond it all the land to the South Sea. By their South Sea line
they entrench upon the colonies of New Plymouth, Rhode Island and
Connecticut; and on