Oaths of Allegiance in Colonial New England. Чарльз Эванс

[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

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      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

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      You shalbee truely Loyall to our Sou^r Lord the Kinge his heires and Successors; you shall not doe nor speake deuise or aduise any thinge or thinges act or actes directly or Inderectly by Land or water; that shall or may tend to the destruction or ouerthrow of any of these plantations or towneshipes 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 endeauor to advance the good and grouth of the seuerall Towneshipes and plantations within the Lymetts of this Corporation by all due meanes and courses; all which you p^rmise and sweare by the Name of the great God of heauen and earth simply truely and faithfully to pforme as you hope for healpe from God whoe is the God of truth and the punisher of ffalchood. [1671.]