e protection of her interests in England. The government of
Plymouth, in July, 1634, sent Edward Winslow to England, and Governor
Dudley and his council engaged him to present an humble petition in
their behalf.[22] Winslow was a shrewd diplomat, but was so far from
succeeding with his suit that upon his appearance before the lords
commissioners in 1635 he was, through Laud's "vehement importunity,"
committed to Fleet Prison, where he lay seventeen weeks.[23]

Gorges and Mason lost no time in improving their victory. February 3,
1635, they secured a redivision of the coast of New England by the
Council for New England, into twelve parts, which were assigned to as
many persons. Sir William Alexander received the country from the
river St. Croix to Pemaquid; Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the province of
Maine from Penobscot to Piscataqua; Captain John Mason, New Hampshire
and part of Massachusetts as far as Cape Ann, while the coast from
Cape Ann to Narragansett Bay fell to Lord Edward Gorges, and the
portion from Narragansett Bay to the Connecticut River to the marquis
of Hamilton.[24]

April 25, 1635, the Council for New England issued a formal
declaration of their reasons for resigning the great charter to the
king, chief among which was their inability to rectify the complaints
of their servants in America against the Massachusetts Company, who
had "surreptitiously" obtained a charter for lands "justly passed to
Captain Robert Gorges long before."[25] June 7 the charter was
surrendered to the king, who appointed Sir Ferdinando Gorges "general
governor." The expiring company further appointed Thomas Morton as
their lawyer to ask for a _quo warranto_ against the charter of the
Massachusetts Company.

In September, 1635, judgment was given in Westminster Hall that "the
franchises of the Massachusetts Company be taken and seized into the
king's hands."[26] But, as Winthrop said, the Lord "frustrated their
designs." King Charles was trying to rule without a Parliament, and
had no money to spend against New England. Therefore, the cost of
carrying out the orders of the government devolved upon Mason and
Gorges, who set to work to build a ship to convey the latter to
America, but it fell and broke in the launching,[27] and about
November, 1635, Captain John Mason died.

After this, though the king in council, in July, 1637, named Gorges
again as "general governor,"[28] and the Lords Commissioners for
Plantations, in April, 163