The colony increased apace, by frequent and numerous accessions. But “it appears by private letters, that the departure of so many of the best, both ministers and private christians, did breed sad thoughts in those behind of the Lord’s intention in the work, and an apprehension of some evil days to come upon England; yea, it began to be viewed by the council as a matter of state, so that warrants were sent to stay the ships, and to call in the patent; but, upon the petition of the ship-masters, alledging how beneficial the plantation was, they were released: Mr. Craddock, however, had strict charge to deliver in the pattent, and wrote to the company to send it home upon receipt of his letter. [July, 1634.] The governor and assistants consulted about it, and resolved to answer Mr. Craddock, but not to return any answer or excuse to the council for the present[11].” On the death of the duke of _Buckingham_, _Laud_ became the king’s prime minister in all affairs of both church and state; and on the death of Archbishop _Abbot_, he was exalted to the see of _Canterbury_. Possessed of such powers, he by his pliant tools _made havock of the church, hauling and committing to prison_ conscientious ministers and laymen who would not bend to his antiscriptural impositions so that the people were scattered abroad and passed over the _Atlantic_ into _America_. The daily inroads of the court on the civil rights of the subject, helped forward the emigration. From the beginning of the colony, until the emigration ceased through a change of affairs in England, [1640.] there arrived in 298 vessels about 21200 settlers (men, women and children) or 4000 families, but they did not all confine themselves to the _Massachusetts_. Notwithstanding the numbers that repaired thither when Josselyn visited Boston, in 1638, “he found it rather a village than a town, there being not above 20 or 30 houses.” These settlers were no less strenuous for their own particular rights and previleges than the Plymouthians. When the governor and company removed from _London_ to the _Massachusetts_ they renounced the appearance of a corporation, and assumed the form of a commonwealth, varying, as it suited them, from the directions of the charter. The change of place and circumstances prevented their keeping to it in certain instances, tho’ not in others; but they could easily satisfy themselves as to any violations; for “they apprehended themselves subject to no other laws or rules of government, than what arose from natural reason and the principles of equity, except any positive rules from the word of God[12].” Persons of influence among them held, that birth was no necessary cause of subjection; for that the subject of any prince or state, had a natural right to remove to any other state or quarter of the world, when deprived of liberty of conscience; and that upon such removal his subjection ceased. They called their own a