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Time, Communications and Society: The English Atlantic, 1702

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

I. K. Steele
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario

Extract

After the firm establishment of the English Atlantic colonies, and before the emergence of ‘the American identity’, these provinces participated with the metropolis in a political and economic ‘empire’. If ‘empire’ might be challenged as conveying too much political or economic meaning, it might also be challenged as conveying too little social meaning. Was the English Atlantic at the opening of the eighteenth century a civilization, a culture, a society, or a community? Though these terms are maddeningly ill-defined and somewhat interchangeable, they are suggested here as a scale of increasing social cohesiveness, from a relationship that is primarily inherited and parallel (civilization, culture) to a connexion that is primarily based upon the sharing of current ideas, institutions and interests (society, community). One essential pre-requisite for such sharing is a network of communications judged adequate by the people using it.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

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11 These were often very emotional, like the assurance given Maryland Friends in 1710, ‘We tenderly salute you in yt love that many Waters cannot Quench nor distance of Place separate us from …’ Friends House Library, London, Epistles Sent, vol. 2, p. 147. See also same to Antigua, 14th 11 month 1705, Ibid., p. 21. See Tolles, Frederick B., Quakers and the Atlantic Culture (New York, 1960), especially chs. 1 and 2.Google Scholar

12 Friends House Library, Epistles Sent, vol. 2, pp. 204–5.

13 Lords Justices to Rooke, 12 August 1701, Calendar of Slate Papers, Domestic Series, 1700–02, pp. 407–8Google Scholar, hereafter cited as SPD 1700–02.

14 See Maryland Council minutes for 28 May 1702, PRO (Public Record Office, London), CO 5/744, p. 28.

15 Lord Bellomont had been particularly sensitive about communications and revealed something of this problem in a letter to Secretary of State Vernon on 9 July 1700: ‘There came hither two ships from London, the last week in May, which brought me not a letter from any of the ministers, and another ship four days ago, but not a letter by that neither. What must the people here [Boston] and in New York think, but that either the King and his ministers have no sort of care or value for these plantations, … or else that I am in disgrace with the King, and that all this neglect proceeds from a personal slight to me. I never in all my life was so vexed and ashamed as now; I put the best face I can on it, but I find other people take the liberty to judge of the present conduct of affairs in England.’ Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1700, no. 622, hereafter cited as CSPC 1700. A later example is discussed in Katz, op. cit., pp. 197–200.

16 Morgan, W. T., English Political Parties and Leaders in the Reign of Queen Anne, 1702–1710 (New Haven, 1920), p. 62Google Scholar; Churchill, W. S., Marlborough, His Life and Times, 4 vols. (London, 19331938), vol. 2, pp. 26–7Google Scholar; Trevelyan, G. M., England under Queen Anne, 3 vols. (London, 19301934), vol. 1, p. 203Google Scholar. Celia Fiennes, an ardent supporter of William and a keen reporter of such ceremonies, reveals something by her limited comments on William's funeral, which she witnessed. The Journeys of Celia Fiennes, ed. Morris, Christopher (London, 1949), pp. 294–6Google Scholar. William's biographers have been understandably indirect in this matter. See, for instance, Trevor, Arthur, The Life and Times of William III, 2 vols. (London, 18351836), vol. 2, pp. 456–7Google Scholar; Robb, Nesca, William of Orange: A Personal Portrait, 2 vols. (London, 19621966), vol. 2, pp. 482, 483Google Scholar; Baxter, Stephen, William III (London, 1966), p. 401.Google Scholar

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18 Board, Navy to Burchett, 9 March, Adm. 1/3592, n.p., and reply of 10 March, Adm. 2/402, p. 287.Google Scholar

19 Burchett, to Sir George Rooke, Admiral of the WhiteGoogle Scholar, 10 March, Ibid., n. 286.

20 CSPC 1702, nos. 189–91.

21 The official title was Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations.

22 To royal governors, 18 March, CSPC 1702, no. 219. and to proprietary governments the next day, Ibid., no. 220.

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30 Flags were flown at half mast from dawn until 9 a.m. when one round was fired from all the guns in the fort.

31 Barbados Council minutes for 18 May, CO 31/6, pp. 215–21.

32 The date of receipt is not known, but it was probably before 19 May. See CSPC 1702, no. 504.

33 A running line of cannon and musket fire from forts, vessels and militiamen was sounded from the easternmost fort in Nevis to the English defences on St Kitts, passing by ‘the very noses of the French’ at Basseterre, capital of the French part of that island. Codrington to Board of Trade, 4 June 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 570; Harlow, V. T., Christopher Codrington, 1668–1710 (Oxford, 1928), pp. 147–8Google Scholar. Codrington's account so pleased the English authorities that it was ordered to be printed. Board of Trade to Codrington, 8 September 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 944.

34 His letters to England of 9, 24 April and 1 May do not mention any news, except a rumour circulating in the West Indies before William died, to the effect that Louis XIV was dead. CSPC 1702, nos. 3425, 325 (i), 404. A comet seen in the West Indies at the end of February prompted a number of speculations. ‘Some will have it foretell a great war; others the death of several great ones’, Ibid., no. 163.

35 Beckford to Board of Trade, 26 May 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 523.

36 Cannons in forts of the three major centres were fired once at sunset on 23 June in remembrance of William, and three rounds accompanied the proclaiming of Anne the following day. Jamaica Council minutes for 29 May, 9 June, CO 137/5, fos. 296/7.

37 £10. Barbados Council minutes for 30 June and 1 July 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 68r, and 5 August, Ibid., no. 808; Beckford to Board of Trade, 20 July 1702, CO 137/5, fo. 304, misdated in CSPC 1702, no. 743 at 10 July. Also see Ibid., no. 790.

38 Barbados Council minutes of 14 July, CSPC 1702, no. 757. No such representation was made, but the minutes themselves were forwarded to the Board of Trade.

39 On the tobacco convoys, see Middleton, A. P., Tobacco Coast (Newport News, Virginia, 1953), ch. 10.Google Scholar

40 A vessel brought word in from Madeira, tavern and post office of Atlantic seamen. Diary of Samuel Sewall, 3 vols. (Boston, 18781882), vol. 2, p. 56Google Scholar. This was three weeks after first news reached Barbados.

41 Massachusetts Council minutes for 28 May 1702, CO 5/788, pp. 145–6; Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. 2, p. 56.Google Scholar

42 Judge Sewall records the gist of the ceremony, concluding with the sheriff's pronouncement: ‘Volleys, Guns. Went into the chamber to drink, …’ Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. 2, p. 56Google Scholar. The Council minutes for 29 May are in CO 5/788, pp. 147–8. See Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. 1, pp. 69, 70Google Scholar, concerning comparable ceremonies on the accession of James II, 20 April 1685, and terse entry for 22 September 1714 re proclaiming of George I, ibid., vol. 3, p. 20.

43 Massachusetts Council minutes for 1 June 1702, CO 5/788, pp. 149–50.

44 In Holland, bells tolled three times a day for six weeks after receipt of news of William's death. Robb, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 2. At the Boston service Benjamin Wadsworth preached the very interesting King William Lamented in America (Boston, 1702)Google Scholar discussed briefly by Miller, Perry, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), p. 163Google Scholar. Details of the Boston ceremony are in the Massachusetts Council minutes for 2 and 4 June, CO 5/788, pp. 151, 342.

45 Morgan, op. cit., p. 62.

46 No service was afforded Charles II, or Queen Anne. See Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. 1, pp. 69, 70Google Scholar; vol. 2, pp. 19, 20. For the belated adjustment to the Restoration, see Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628–1686, 5 vols. (Boston, 18531854), vol. 4, Pt. 2, Pp. 30–1, 212Google ScholarHutchinson, T., History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, ed. Mayo, L. S., 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1936), vol. 1, pp. 180–1.Google Scholar

47 English centres celebrated the coronation, held six weeks after the accession, as a joyful event separate from the accession. See Trevelyan, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 203, and The Journeys of Celia Fiennes, pp. 21–3Google Scholar, which describe the unusual ceremonies at Bath. Edinburgh and Dublin, like the Atlantic colonies, had only one event – the arrival of news of the accession. This was despite the fact that both centres received news in plenty of time to hold an event on the day of the coronation. See Edinburgh Gazette, no. 313, 16 March 1702Google Scholar; Seafield Correspondence, pp. 350–2Google Scholar; ‘The Diary of John Trumbell’, ed. Rev. Paul, Robert, in Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 1 (Edinburgh, 1893), 412–13Google Scholar; Sir David Hume of Crossrigg, A Diary of the Proceedings in the Parliament and Privy Council of Scotland, May 21, 1700–March 7, 1707 (Edinburgh, 1828), pp. 7981Google Scholar; and Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin, vol. 6, ed. Gilbert, John T. (Dublin, 1896), pp. viii–xii, 261–3, 269–70Google Scholar, re Dublin's reaction seen against the lavish tributes paid William eight months earlier on the eleventh anniversary of the battle of the Boyne.

48 They were also affording travellers time to hear of the service and come to Boston. Jamaica, the only other colony to create an interval by doing more than changing the pace and decor of the ceremonies, took the legally questionable course of leaving the crown vacant overnight after the remembrance for William at sunset on 23 June. See above, n. 36.

49 When Governor Dudley arrived in the colony a week after the service he was greeted by a council delegation in mourning clothes. Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. 2. p. 58Google Scholar; Kimball, Everett, The Public Life of Joseph Dudley (London, 1911), p. 82.Google Scholar

50 New Hampshire Council minutes, 2–4 June, CSPC 1702, no. 566; CO 5/789, pp. 85–6.

51 O'Callaghan, E. B.. Calendar of British Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State Albany. New York, 1644–1776 (Albany, 1866), p. 196Google Scholar, and the fire-damaged proclamation in New York State Library, New York Colonial Manuscripts, vol. 45, p. 53.

52 See DAB.

53 Cornbury to Board of Trade, 23 June 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 652. Cornbury had a party of 30 travelling with him. See below, p. 13. The Five Nations were given the news officially at Albany on 15 July, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, eds. O'Callaghan, E. B. and Fernow, Berthold, 15 vols. (Albany, 1856–87), vol. 4, pp. 982, 984, 986Google Scholar (hereafter cited as NYCD).

54 ‘Report of the Journey of Francis Louis Michel from Berne, Switzerland, to Virginia, October 2, 1701–December 1, 1702’, VMHB, 24 (1916), 125.Google Scholar

55 CO 5/1409, p. 227.

56 Nicholson to Board of Trade, 29 July 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 793; Francis Louis Michel, whose detailed account of the celebrations is so useful, is not reliable as to dates. Michel, loc. cit., pp. 125–9.

57 Ibid., p. 127.

58 Michel wrote of the fireworks condescendingly: ‘In short, nothing was successful, the rockets also refused to fly up, but fell down archlike, so that it was not worth while seeing. Most of the people, however, had never seen such things and praised them highly. The one who had set his part on fire [accidentally] carried off the highest praise, because thev thought he had done something extraordinary. The fireworks were very expensive, but there was not much diversion for one who had seen much more of these.’ Michel, loc. cit., pp. 127–8. For the political use of fireworks in the cult of Louis XIV, see Wolf, John B., Louis XIV (New York, 1968), pp. 374–5.Google Scholar

59 Quary, R. to Board of Trade, 15 October 1703, CSPC 1702–3, no. 1150Google Scholar. Nicholson was scorned in at least one London coffee-house for wasting his money on a party where 500 were drunk for every one that was sober. Historical Collections Relating to the American Colonial Church, ed. Perry, William S., 5 vols. (Hartford, 18701878), vol. 1, p. 71.Google Scholar

60 Nicholson, to Board of Trade, 29 July 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 793.Google Scholar

61 See Steele, I. K., ‘The Board of Trade, the Quakers, and Resumption of Colonial Charters, 1699–1702’, W. & M.Q., 3rd ser., 23 (1966), 615–16.Google Scholar

62 18th 4 month 1702, Correspondence between William Penn and James Logan … and others, 1700–1750, ed. Armstrong, Edward, Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vols. 9 and 10 (Philadelphia, 1870–2), vol. 9, p. 108Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Penn-Logan Corr.

63 See above, p. 11.

64 Penn-Logan Corr., p. 110.Google Scholar

65 Ibid., pp. 108–9, 110–11.

66 Ibid., pp. 110–11.

67 Ibid., p. 117.

68 Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 16 vols. (Philadelphia & Harrisburg, 18521853), vo1, 2, Pp. 6970.Google Scholar

69 Ibid., pp. 117–18.

70 News reached Surat, India, and Hudson Bay in September 1702, though Albany Fort, in James Bay, did not hear until 17 February 1702/3. Ingram, Bruce S. (ed.), Three Sea journals of Stuart Times (London, 1936), pp. 176, 185Google Scholar; Davies, K. G. (ed.), Letters from Hudson Bay. 1703–1740 (London, 1965), pp. 56.Google Scholar

71 CSPC 1702, nos. 516, 527.

72 See above, p. 6.

73 Bennett to Popple, 4 August 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 805.

74 See Steele, I. K., The Politics of Colonial Policy (Oxford, 1968), pp. 56–8n.Google Scholar, re Larkin.

75 CSPC 1702, nos. 866, 872. Royal instructions emphasizing that writs of courts should be in the royal name already existed for Massachusetts (1691), New York (1686) and Virginia (1679), but were extended to Bermuda, Barbados, the Leeward Islands and Jamaica in 1702. Labaree, L. W., Royal Instructions to British Colonial Governors, 1670–1776, 2 vols. (New York, 1935), vol. 1, pp. 294–5.Google Scholar

76 CSPC 1702, nos. 929, 939; CSPC 1702–3, no. 87; CO 40/2, p. 49. This was only three weeks before mammoth toasts and a 51-gun salute marked the arrival of the news at the East India Company factory at Surat, India. Ingram, op. cit., pp. 176, 185.

77 Larkin had a commission to establish special colonial courts to try pirates. Bennett's predecessor, Samuel Day, had brought on his own dismissal by imprisoning that indomitable Surveyor General, Edward Randolph. Hall, op. cit., pp. 193–8; Steele, op. cit., p. 50.

78 Bennett, to Nottingham, 24 December 1702, CSPC 1702–3, no. 87.Google Scholar

79 Bennett, to Board of Trade, 19 October 1703, CSPC 1702–3, no. 1158.Google Scholar

80 See his to Popple of 3 April 1703, CSPC 1702–3, no. 538; to Board of Trade, 31 October 1705, CSPC 1704–5, no. 1414; to Popple, 10 February 1707/8, CSPC 1706–8, no. 1330; to Board of Trade, 1 March 1708/9, CSPC 1708–9, no. 389.

81 See below, p. 19

82 Labaree, , Royal Instructions, vol. 1, pp. 82–4.Google Scholar

83 Burchctt to Navy Board, Secretary Hedges, Secretary Nottingham and to Postmaster of Dartmouth, Adm. 2/403, pp. 126–30.

84 CSPC 1702, nos. 431–47, 448–9; see also Steele, op. cit., p. 87 and 87n.

85 Burchett to Blathwayt, to Captains of the Swift and Otter, Adm. 2/403, pp. 172, 179,:180, respectively.

86 The rigidly clockwise pattern of travel in the Caribbean was indicated by Beckford when he received packets for the Leewards and Barbados that had been forwarded from New England. Beckford sent them back to the continent noting that there was not a single vessel in seven years bound from Jamaica to Barbados. To Board of Trade, 26 August 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 919.

87 Burchett, to Randolph, Edward, 16 May 1702, Adm. 2/403, p. 240.Google Scholar

88 H.M.S. Express had replaced the Otter. Barbados Council minutes for 23 June, CO 31/6, pp. 235–6.Google Scholar

89 CSPC 1701, no. 997.

90 Codrington to Board of Trade, 28 June 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 674.

91 Same to same, 6 July 1702, Ibid., no. 700; see also Harlow, op. cit.. pp. 147–51; Crouse, N., The French Struggle for the West Indies (New York, 1943), pp. 252–3Google Scholar; Desalles, Adrien, Histoire Genérate des Antilles, 5 vols. (Paris, 18471848), vol. 2, pp. 252–5.Google Scholar

92 Benbow, to Nottingham, 11 September 1702, CO 318/3, fos. 166–7.Google Scholar

93 Beckford, to Board of Trade, 20 July 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 743.Google Scholar

94 Beckford put most of them on a New York-bound vessel the same day, holding those for Bermuda, the Bahamas and Carolina for direct conveyances. Beckford to Board of Trade, 28 July 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 790.

95 Bourne, Ruth, Queen Anne's Navy in the West Indies (New Haven, 1939), passimGoogle Scholar; Nettels, C. P., ‘England and the Spanish American Trade, 1680–1715’, Journal of Modern History, 3 (1931), 131CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McLachlan, Jean O., Trade and Peace with Old Spain, 1667–1750 (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 36–8.Google Scholar

96 See Kemble, John H., ‘England's First Atlantic Mail Line’, Mariner's Mirror, 26 (1940), 3354, 185–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; St John, J. H., ‘Edmund Dummer and His West India Packets’, University of Iowa Studies in British History, 11 (1941), 125–46.Google Scholar

97 CSPC 1702, nos. 593, 608.

98 Ibid., no. 679.

99 New Hampshire Council minutes, CO 5/789, p. 93.

100 The date is not clear, but see Winthrop to Board of Trade, 29 July 1702, CSPC 1702, no.792.

101 New York's date of declaration is nor clear. Cornbury told the Iroquois that he had not heard certain news by 21 July. NYCD, vol. 4, pp. 983, 993Google Scholar. He did not produce Notting ham's letter of 7 May until the Council meeting of 8 September. New York State Library, New York Council minutes, vol. 9, p. 70.Google Scholar

102 See Nicholson to Board of Trade, 29 July 1702, ibid., no. 793. Pennsylvania proclaimed the war on 24 July, CSPC 1702–3, no. 18 (i), though the informal news was discussed in Council on the 5th. Pennsylvania Council Minutes, vol. 2, pp. 6970.Google Scholar

103 Virginia Council minutes for 2 April 1702, CO 5/1409, p. 208; same for 18 May 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 501.

104 Nicholson to Board of Trade, 29 July 1702, CSPC 1702, no. 793.

105 Virginia Council and Council-in-Assembly minutes of 14 August 1702, CSPC 1702, nos. 846, 847.

106 Maryland Council minutes for 9 October 1702, ibid., no. 1029, and Archives of Maryland, vol. 25 (1905), p. 128.Google Scholar

107 Beckford to Board of Trade, 28 July 1702, ibid., no. 790.

108 Bermuda Council minutes, 28 September 1702, ibid., no. 1002.

109 New France had not heard of the formal declaration of war until after the middle of July. Public Archives of Canada, C11A, 20, p. 68; Lanctot, Gustave, A History of Canada, 3 vols. (Toronto, 1963–5), vol. 2, p. 150Google Scholar. The minister of marine dated his orders for Martinique to go on full alert jusr four days after Nottingham dated his colonial letters on the declaration of war. See Desalles, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 248–9. There was no meaning in America to the fact that France did not officially reciprocate with its declaration of war until July. See Thompson, M. A., ‘Louis XIV and the Origins of the War of the Spanish Succession’, in William III and Louis XIV, eds. Harton, R. and Bromley, J. S. (Toronto, 1968), p. 159n.Google Scholar; De Lamberty, G., Memoires pour servir à I'histoire du xviiie siècle, 2nd ed., 14 vols. (The Hague, 17241740), vol. 2, pp. 107 ff., 200–1.Google Scholar

110 () indicate tentative dating. Asterisked figures are those used for calculating the ‘colonial instant.’ The ‘colonial instant’ is passage time only, and processing of news in England has been deducted.

111 These figures are derived from CSPC 1696–7 ff.