As before, however, there was a party at Patuxet working in the interests of the Bay Colony, and in 1651, certain settlers there appealed to her for protection against taxes levied upon them. Massachusetts, still claiming jurisdiction, wrote to Williams, requiring that the government refrain from taxing the residents of Warwick, and stating that in case it refused to comply, Massachusetts would seek satisfaction “in such manner as God shall put into theire hands.”[624] There was no doubt what this meant. Footnote 624: _Ibid._, p. 228, and vol. IV, pt. i, p. 47. There was, moreover, additional trouble in store for the distracted settlements. William Coddington, one of the original settlers at Aquidneck, had treacherously gone to England, and there procured a commission appointing him Governor of Rhode Island, his territory thus including the two towns of Portsmouth and Newport.[625] This would have disrupted the union, and have left the mainland towns a prey to Massachusetts. The four towns, being now at last closely united in aim by the common danger, sent Williams and Clarke to England, to protest against Coddington's action; and, largely through the influence of Williams's friendship with Vane, they were entirely successful. Coddington's commission was withdrawn; Williams obtained a safe conduct through Massachusetts, and brought a letter from Vane urging the colonists to unite peaceably and to avoid tumult and disorder.[626] In 1654, the towns reunited by formal action, and two years later, Coddington submitted to the authorities.[627] In 1658, Massachusetts at last resigned her pretensions,[628] while, to guard against any such troubles in future as had been brought about by that colony's faction in Patuxet, Rhode Island passed a law, somewhat later, that, if any citizen should attempt to place his lands under the jurisdiction of another colony, they should be forfeited.[629] Footnote 625: _Cal. State Pap., Col., 1574-1660_, p. 354. Footnote 626: I. Backus, _History of New England with particular Reference to the Denomination of Christians called Baptists_ (1871), vol. I, pp. 223, 232; Hazard, _Historical Collection_, vol. I, p. 495. Footnote 627: _R. I. Records_, vol. I, pp. 278 _ff._, 327. Footnote 628: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. IV, pt. i, p. 333. Footnote 629: _R. I. Records_, vol. I, p. 401.