Then wed for life the restless, wrangling pair, Then wed to her, if virtue tie the bands, RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. ART. 1. A History of three of the Judges of King Charles the First; Major General Whalley, Major General Goffe, and Colonel John Dixwell ; who, at the restoration, 1660, fled to America, and were secreted and concealed, in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for near thirty years. With an account of Theophilus Whale, of Narragansett, supposed to have been also one of the Judges. By President Stiles. Hartford; printed by Elisha Babcock, 1794. MANY pass their lives in obscurity, whose genius, learning, and morals would give them distinction, if they were known. Others play their parts upon the great theatre, who owe their importance wholly to the times. During the civil war in England men became great by their boldness and energy of character, rather than by their talents or virtues. It began as a political contest in parliament, where patriots spoke their minds with freedom and ardour against the arbitrary maxims of the court; it was finished by men of blood, who first turned the parliament out of doors, and then made the civil wholly subservient to the military power. With a few exceptions, the judges of Charles I. were such men as Cromwell selected to answer his purposes, from the ruder mass of the people, because he could not find men of education violent enough to hurl the nobles from their high places, and bring their monarch to the scaffold. With the bible in one hand, a sword in the other; devotion in their countenances, and cant and falsehood on their tongues, they supported a man whose aim was to exalt himself; but who, in the opinion of Voltaire, "effaced the crime of usurpation by the qualities of a great king." Gen. Whalley, one of the regicide judges, was nearly related to Cromwell, and a late European writer gives him this character; "His valour and military knowledge were confessedly great; his religious sentiments wild and enthusiastick. From a merchant's counter to rise to so many, and so high offices in the state, and to conduct himself with propriety in them, sufficiently evinces that he had good abilities.' * Noble's Anecdotes of the Cromwell Family. Major general Goffe married Whalley's daughter. He was the son of a clergyman; had a brother in the profession, a zealous friend to the church of England; another brother, a Roman Catholick, attached to Charles II. and employed by him. He was himself a zealous presbyterian. He had been "bound apprentice to a salter in London, and his time being nearly out, he betook himself to be a soldier in a righteous cause; was a frequent prayer-maker, presser for righteousness and freedom, and therefore in high esteem with the parliamentary army." This is an extract from the "Fasti Oxonienses," to which Dr. Stiles often recurs for information. They go on to describe his official character. Cromwell made him jor general of Hampshire, Sussex, and Berks. He was so highly esteemed in Oliver's court, that he was judged to be the only fit man to have Lambert's place and command, as major general of the army of foot, and by some, to have the protectorship settled upon him, in future time. He being thus made so considerable a person, was taken out of the house of commons to be made a lord, and to have a negative in the other house, and the rather for this reason, that he never in all his life, as he used to say, fought against any such thing as a single person, or a negative voice, but only to pull down Charles, and set up Oliver, in which he obtained his end." ma Dr. Stiles quotes also a passage from the Athenae Oxonienses, which, being compared with the histories of those times, we find exactly in the spirit of those who are on the side of the court, and very different from the writers on the side of the commonwealth. "It has been the manner of all the court historians," says our author, 66 ever since the licentious era of Charles II. to confound all the characters of religion with the irrational and extravagant fashion of that day and every age. But candour ought to confess, at least to believe, and even to know, that in the cause of liberty, in the parliamentary cause, while there were many mad enthusiasts in relig ion and politicks; the great and noble transactions of that day show there was also great wisdom, great abilities, great generalship, great knowledge of law and justice, great learning, great integrity, and rational and sincere religion," &c. From this passage, and many others, it is evident, that the Dr. is highly in favour of Cromwell and the commonwealth, in which he agrees with most of our congregational ministers of the past century, who could not forget the sufferings of their fathers, and, till the revolution, had reason to dread the rods of ecclesiastical tyranny, which some lordly prelates shook over their heads. In this history of the judges, Dr. Stiles undertakes to vindicate the whole conduct of the protector; and did we not know the prin ciples and aim of the writer, and the goodness of heart, which ever was mingled with his prejudices, we should think him not serious, but was describing the character of Cromwell in a strain of irony; because, it is well known, that the republicans hated him for his base dereliction of their cause, and that he was as fond of power as Caesar, who would have been king, if he dared. "Oliver, if any man, ought to be credited in his declarations of sincerity, necessity, and obedience to the calls of God and his coun, ry; for I believe he was so sick of the world, even before he ascended the protectorate, that it had no charms for him; and that he would gladly, if possible, have escaped the burdensome and dangerous honour, and evanished from publick life into retirement and obscurity." p. 265. In another place; "The experiment was made upon him; the crown and title, with all its flattering glories, were offered to him, and with the greatest importunity pressed upon him, by the unanimous voice of a misjudging parliament, joined with the first law characters in the nation. He was wiser, and saw farther than all the parliament. He saw, that by accepting the title, the object for which he and the nation had been contending, a free state, would be given up, and this was as dear to him as Washington." Dr. Stiles, in this history, seems to have delighted in tracing, with the utmost minuteness, the steps of these vagrant judges; and we feel indebted to him for a labour, which, though the value of it be small, we could not expect from any other hand. "While the regicides were at New Haven, escaping the pursuit of the officers of government, they found friends, who would protect them in their houses, and give them every alarm, if they were threatened with immediate danger, although they exposed themselves to the resentment of men in power, "whose tender mercies were cruelty." The account is taken from Goffe's diary, which he kept for several years after he left London. This manuscript the late governour Hutchinson obtained from the Mather library. It was lost, with an immense quantity of valuable materials, when an infuriated mob destroyed his house, in the autumn of 1765. Dr. Stiles had extracted some parts of it before this happened, and Mr. Hutchinson had given the medulla of it, perhaps, in his History of Massachusetts Bay. The regicides were concealed by Mr. Davenport; and when he was threatened with a prosecution, and his house searched, they found a place of safety in the house of Mrs. Ayers, a lady of great presence of mind, who once saw the pursuers entering the door, and yet contrived a way for her guests to escape. At another time they were under the bridge which their pursuers went over, making diligent search for them. They stood ready to surrender themselves, rather than Mr. Dav, enport should be brought into trouble on their account, and they doubtless, for this purpose, came into town the 20th of June, and stayed some days. "In this trying time, their friends for their sakes adventured to take the danger on themselves, and risque events. A great, a noble, a trying act of friendship! For a good man, one would even dare to die. Great was the peril, especially of Davenport, Gilbert, Leet, and others; inveterate the resentment of Kellond and Kirk; and pointed and pressing the remonstrances of the governour and secretary of Boston. The magistrates of New Haven were truly brought into great straits. The fidelity of their friendship heroick and glorious! Davenport's fortitude saved them." These are our author's reflections. He then describes their situation after they left New Haven, till August 19, 1661, when they passed over to Milford, where they remained two years, from which place they went to Hadley, Massachusetts, and lived with Mr. Rus sell, the minister of that town, till their days were ended. General Nothing is heard of Goffe after The letters which passed between gen. Goffe and his wife, preserved by Hutchinson, are curious. They discover not only mutual affection, but that they had sincere friends in England, who supplied their wants. There is also a story concerning the military prowess of this regicide, which is worth our notice, and is well attested. In 1675, when the country was in continual alarm, the frontier towns were exposed to such sudden incursions of the Indians, that the people went armed to publick worship. On fast day, Sept. 1, Hadley was attacked, and the meeting house surrounded. "At the same time appeared a man of venerable aspect, and different from the inhabitants in his apparel, who took the command, arranged them in the best military manner; and under his direction they routed and defeated the Indians, and the town was saved. He immediately vanished." This was major general Goffe. By some account, Whalley died in 1674; but if he lived some years after, yet he was then in a state of total imbecility of body and mind, as appears from Goffe's letters. Who this person could be, was marvellous in the eyes of the people of that generation. They generally supposed it was an angel, sent for their deliverance. It was spread over the whole country; and having the Lord on their side, who would send his angels to fight for them, they feared very little from the savages of this American wilderness. The matter was explained in 1692, when Mr. Russell died. It was then known who had been concealed in apartments of his dwelling. The two chapters which describe the characters of these two regicides, and give an account of their concealment, are much the most interesting in the book. The third chapter is a "Memoir of col. Dixwell," who was a respectable member of the Long Parliament, an officer of their army, and whom Cromwell persuaded to sit as one of king Charles's judges. That the whole proceeding was disagreeable to him, appears from other documents, than those contained in this book. At the trial of Downes, one of the judges who was con demned and pardoned, he declared that he was forced to act on that business. He was asked, whether he knew any other who disapproved of it. He said, yes, and mentioned Dixwell. This, perhaps, Dr. Stiles did not believe, for it would have depreciated his worth, in his view. But it may account for his undisturbed residence at New Haven. Though he went by a different name, many doubtless suspected that it was col. Dixwell; but no particular inquiry being made, there was no reason to expect any great reward for betraying him. Sir Edmund Andross saw him in 1686, when he attended publick worship; and it might have been curiosity which led him to pass the sabbath in the place. In his own country, Dixwell made no figure to be compared with Whalley and Goffe, who were lords of Cromwell's upper house, and major generals, with a kind of jurisdiction in the island, that made them excellent in the mimickry of their master's greatness, or the mirrors of his majesty. Dixwell lived at New Haven till 1689; was eighty two years old when he died. His son was an inhabitant of Boston, and very respectable in his character. He was a ruling elder of the church in North Street, of which he was one of the founders in 1714. The 4th. chapter of this history is "An inquiry whether all the three regicides lie buried in New Haven." The 5th. "A justification of the judges; with reflections on the English policy;" which, for the reputation of the author, we could wish had never been printed. Those who understand and admire the English constitution, are uniform in their condemnation of this transaction. Treason and murder, with the mockery of the forms of justice, are not to be palliated. We believe Charles was always weak, often changeable, and sometimes arbitrary; but we feel unable to calculate with coolness, "the deep damnation of his taking off." Dr. Stiles was a learned and excellent man, but he wanted judg ment in many things which were the objects of his study. When he writes concerning the antiquities of his own country, he frequently risks an opinion which no body believes but himself. As a politician, he certainly did not excel, as appears from this chapter, where he exhibits his "Conspectus of a perfect polity," and shows a very imperfect view of the subject. But what renders this part of his book the most exceptionable, is, that he approves of the conduct of the French, even to the murder of their monarch. speaks of Talleyrand, Condorcet, and other jacobins, as oracles of wisdom. Should any man write thus now, we should suppose a temporary lethargy of the moral sense, with the most irrational views of law and government. He The last chapter brings forward Theophilus Whale, of Narragansett, supposed to be one of the judges. But this depends upon traditionary accounts, some of which were contradicted by facts, as gathered from Goffe's diary. Whale was a learned and worthy man, with a singularity of conduct, which led to suspicions, which were transmitted from father to son, and which are communicated to the publick by our author, who, though credulous, examined every thing before he asserted it for truth, not with superficial glance, but the most minute attention. The progeny of Mr. Whale, in Rhode Island, are among the respectable people of the state. Upon the whole, we may consider this History of the Judges a work, which gains more from the reputation of the author, than from its intrinsick merits. There are, however, some things very valuable as objects of curiosity, which an antiquarian would consider as precious documents in his treasury of knowledge. From page 35 to 51, there is "a general and summary idea of the initial polity of New Haven, legislatorial, judicial and governmental;" and certain 66 extracts from the Records," which will entertain the curious in. quirer, and must be very interesting to such as trace out, and collect, and digest the traditions of our fathers, the first lines of New England settlements, or the manners and circumstances of a people in a new and very peculiar state of society. |