Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 5 (of 8): The English and French in North America 1689-1763
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 5 (of 8): The English and French in North America 1689-1763
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
When surrendering in 1701 their rights of government, the proprietors
recommended, for the office of royal governor, Andrew Hamilton, their
representative in the colony, in whose ability and integrity they had
the fullest confidence, and who during his previous terms as governor
had also won the admiration and reverence of the governed. Intrigues
against Hamilton, instituted by two influential proprietors, Dockwra
and Sonmans, and by Colonel Quary, of Pennsylvania, resulted in
Hamilton’s defeat and the appointment of Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury,
who was already governor of New York. Cornbury published his commission
in New Jersey on the 11th of August, 1703, and inaugurated, by his
way of dealing with the affairs of the colony, the same series of
violent contests between the governor and the people, represented by
the assembly, that had served under him to keep New York unsettled.
Complaints made by the proprietors against him in England had no
effect, although he had clearly violated his instructions, by
unseating three members of the assembly; by making money the proper
qualification for election to the same, instead of land; and by
allowing an act taxing unprofitable and waste land to become a law.
His successor, John, Lord Lovelace, appointed early in 1708, arrived
in New York early in December of the same year. He had various schemes
for the improvement of both colonies, but it is doubtful whether his
previous position of cornet in the royal horse-guards had fitted
him for administrative and executive work. A disease was, moreover,
already fastened upon him, which in a few months carried him off. His
successor, Major Richard Ingoldsby, is best described by Bellomont,
under whom he had previously served in New York. “Major Ingoldesby
has been absent from his post four years,” says Bellomont in a letter
to the Lords of Trade, October 17, 1700, “and is so brutish as to
leave his wife and children here to starve. Ingoldesby is of a worthy
family, but is a rash, hot-headed man, and had a great hand in the
execution of Leisler and Milburn, for which reason, if there were no
other, he is not fit to serve in this country, having made himself
hatefull to the Leisler party.” Cornbury understood the man so fully
that he would not allow him to act as lieutenant-governor of either
New York or New Jersey, to which office he had been appointed in 1704.
Ingoldsby’s commission as lieutenant-governor was revoked in 1706, but
he was admitted as a member of the council for New Jersey. It seems
that the order revoking the commission was not sent out to New York in
1706, for upon Lord Lovelace’s death he assumed the government, and
acted so brutally that, when news of it reached England, a new order
of revocation was issued. In the short interval before the arrival of
his successor, Governor Robert Hunter, who published his commission
in New Jersey in the summer of 1710, Ingoldsby had managed to get
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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