50. The Re-Opening of the Narragansett Claims, 1679-1683

0:00Volume 1, Chapter 50, The Reopening of the Narragansett Claims, 1679 to 1683 During his first four years in high office in New England, Edward Randolph exerted a most powerful influence on the Narragansett country. We have seen that the settlement by the Royal Commission in 1665 granted the Narragansett country as King's province to Rhode Island, Land, but continued the arbitrary Atherton Company land claims in force. Before 1676, the land dispute had been more or less academic, but the eradication of the Narragansett Indians in King Philip's War now opened the entire country to land settlement. Aware that the Narragansett lands were now a glowing prize, the Atherton Company claimed that Rhode Island had forfeited jurisdiction by failing to do its part in New England's extermination of the Narragansett Indians. In early 1679, the King wrote to the colonies, ordering the status quo to remain in the Narragansett lands, and suggesting that all interested parties submit their claims to England. In reply, the commissioners of the New England Confederation got together

1:24In the same year, the Atherton Company expanded its membership, with Richard Wharton soon

1:45becoming a leading partner. The Company petitioned Connecticut to assume jurisdiction, but to and no avail. Randolph now agreed to plead the Atherton Company's case and in 1680 backed up the new Atherton plan for an independent charter for King's Province. The company also managed to win the support of Governor Andros of New York for its claims. But its most important friend at court was Lord Culpepper, the royal governor of Virginia, This support was purchased by Wharton in exchange for a partnership in the Atherton Company. Lord Culpepper urged the Lords of Trade to appoint a new set of commissioners to decide the Narragansett Problem, for which he suggested a list of substantial, able and uninterested persons.

2:42The list included such an uninterested group as Fitz-John Winthrop, son of the late John Winthrop Jr., and a partner in the Atherton Company, Winthrop's brother-in-law, Edward Palms, Edward Randolph, and William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley of the pro-crown opportunist group of Massachusetts merchants. The Lords of Trade accepted Culpepper's suggestion. Their agreement being facilitated by Wharton's discreet offer sent via Randolph to the Secretary of the Lords, William Blathewaite, a payment for services rendered. In April 1683, the Lords appointed a new royal commission to investigate the Narragansett claims. They accepted Culpepper's eight-man list, adding to it only Governor The Commission, reeking with built-in bias, gathered at the house of one of the Atherton proprietors and surrounded itself with several of the other partners.

3:50The Rhode Island government vigorously protested these proceedings and ordered the Commission out of its jurisdiction. The Commission sent in its report in October 1683, Finding for Connecticut and the Atherton and Company, and invalidating the previous Royal Commission and the jurisdiction of Rhode Island. Typical of the Commission's almost egregious cynicism was Chairman Cranfield's message to Blathwaite, accompanied the report. The message informed the latter that the Atherton proprietors do all intend to complement you with a parcel of land within their claim. So it was that the Cranfield Commission paved the path for the land grab of the Narragansett country by the Atherton Company.