How History Unfolds on Paper: Important Americana from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X

Manuscript Document
Plymouth, Massachusetts, March 3, 1690/91. Single sheet, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (248 x 197 mm). Draft manuscript document, signed by Samuel Sprague, Secretary of Plymouth Colony, regarding negotiations on behalf of the Colony to obtain a separate, independent charter following the dissolution of the Dominion of New England in 1689. Creasing from old folds; small separations and holes along same.

In 1689, after the collapse of the Dominion of New England and the arrest of Governor Edmund Andros, northeastern colonies struggled to re-establish ties with the English Crown. Plymouth Colony, who lacked a royal charter, sent Ichabod Wiswall to England, alongside Massachusetts's Increase Mather, to negotiate a new and distinct charter that would preserve its political separation from Massachusetts Bay. This manuscript, possibly an early draft, instructs Wiswall, Mather, and Sir Henry Ashurst to secure "Ancient Civill and Religious Liberties" for Plymouth. A deleted clause, that does not appear in the final document, demands orthodox religious preaching, and suggests an attempt to moderate the colony's Puritanical image. Ultimately, Plymouth did not receive a separate charter. Instead, the 1691 Charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay merged the two colonies, preventing Plymouth's absorption into New York, but ending its political independence.