Oaths of Allegiance in Colonial New EnglandEvans, Charles
History
Oaths of Allegiance in Colonial New England
Evans, Charles
Oaths; United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
You shall be truly loyal to our sovereign lord King Charles, his
heirs and successors, and whereas you choose at present to reside
within the government of New Plymouth, you shall not do or cause to
be done any act or acts directly or indirectly, by land or water,
that shall tend to the destruction or overthrow of the whole or any
of the several plantations or townships within the said government
that are or shall be orderly erected or established, but shall
contrariwise hinder, oppose, and discover the same, and such intents
and purposes as tend thereunto, to the Governor for the time being,
or some one of the assistants with all convenient speed. You shall
also submit unto and obey all such good and wholesome laws,
ordinances, and offices as are or shall be established within the
limits thereof. So help you God. [1636.]
The disturbed state of England is also reflected in the 1658 revision of
the Laws when “our sovereign lord the King, his heirs and successors” is
substituted for “the present State and Government of England,” as
follows:
THE OATH OF A FFREEMAN
You shalbee truely Loyall to the present State and Goūment of
England [our Sou^r Lord the King his heires and Successors.] You
shall not speake or doe deuise or aduise Any thinge or thinges Acte
or Actes directly or Indirectly by Land or Water that doth shall or
may tend to the destruction or ouerthrow of these present
plantations or Townshipes of the Corporation of New Plymouth neither
shall you suffer the same to bee spoken or done but shall hinder
oppose and discouer the same to the Gou^r And Assistants of the said
Collonie for the time being; or some one of them; you shall
faithfully submitt vnto such good and wholesome Lawes and ordinances
as either are or shalbee made for the ordering and Gou^rment of the
same; and shall Indeuor to aduance the grouth and good of the
seuerall townshipes and plantations within the Lymetts of this
Corporation by all due meanes and courses; All which you pmise and
Sweare by the Name of the great God of heauen and earth simply
truely and faithfully to pforme as you hope for healp from God who
is the God of truth and the punisher of falchood. [1658.]
At the time of the 1671 revision of the Laws, Charles the Second had
been firmly seated on the English throne for ten years, but his name is
omitted from the superscription of the following Oath. The intensity of
the feeling in the New England Colonies towards even the name of the two
kings is shown in the fact that until after the middle of the next
century Harvard College had only three graduates, if the three Charles
Chaunceys, with whom it was a family name in England, are omitted, and
Yale College only one graduate who bore the Christian name of Charles.
THE OATH OF A FFREEMAN
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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