The four settlements about Narragansett Bay, whose extreme individualism and disinclination to submit to any superior government have already been noted, would probably have been exceedingly slow to form a combination, had it not been for the danger to their existence, threatened by their neighbors. Massachusetts had already set up claims to a portion of the territory, and assumed jurisdiction over some of the natives at the time of the Gorton affair in 1643; and contemplated more aggressive action by attempting to secure a charter from the Commissioners of Plantations, in the same year. While never legally granted, this pretended patent was at first used by the colony to bolster its claims.[611] At the same time at which Massachusetts was trying to obtain that document, Williams, then in England for the purpose, was also endeavoring to secure a patent which would enable the settlements legally to resist encroachment. In this he was successful, and, after that, “the country about us was more friendly,” he wrote, “and treated us as an authorized colony, only the difference of our consciences much obstructed.”[612] The charter named the towns of Providence, Newport, and Portsmouth, and incorporated a vague territory bounded in part by Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the Pequot River, as “the Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England.”[613] The settlers were given the right to erect any form of government which they might choose. Footnote 611: _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings_, Series I, vol. V, pp. 398 _ff._; Arnold, _History of Rhode Island_, vol. I, pp. 118 _f._; Osgood, _American Colonies_, vol. I, p. 354. Footnote 612: _R. I. Records_, vol. I, p. 458. Footnote 613: _Ibid._, pp. 143 _ff._ The Narragansett Indians, after the death of Miantanomo, had agreed to place themselves directly under the protection of the English crown; and Gorton, who, after his release from Massachusetts, had gone back to Warwick, was chosen by them to go to England and carry their submission to the King.[614] In 1644, Plymouth had renewed her claim to Warwick; but in the following year, twenty families from Braintree having petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for permission to settle on Gorton's lands, the Court had granted them ten thousand acres there, and arranged for the organization of a town.[615] A Plymouth settler objected, however, when the party arrived, and the new planters dispersed to other places. At the same meeting of the court at which the Braintree men were granted their land, a letter was ordered sent to Williams, stating that Massachusetts had received a charter for Narragansett Bay, and ordering him to desist from exercising any authority.[616] Footnote 614: _Cal. State Pap., Col., 1574-1660_, p. 326; _R. I. Records_, vol. I, pp. 134 _ff._ Footnote 615: Cited by Arnold, _Rhode Island_, vol. I, p. 159; _Massachusetts Records_, vol. III, p. 49; J. Winthrop, _History_, vol. II, p. 308.