Dominion of New England

A territory comprised of northeastern American colonies, formed in 1686 by King James II. It included Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, East Jersey, West Jersey, New York, Plymouth, and Rhode Island. A lack of control over New England and the fear that the colonies would not be able to defend themselves against France if disconnected prompted England to consolidate them. But colonists had no voice in government, and most opposed the dominion. The breakup of the dominion in 1689 was aided by the revolution a year before in England that overthrew James II.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

After Charles II (1660–1685) was restored to the English throne in 1660, the Crown took steps to limit the independence of localities within England and the American colonies. Various measures were taken to ensure that the colonies remained loyal and subordinate to Britain. The Navigation Acts restricted colonial trade in favor of English commercial interests, and in 1675 colonial policy was placed under the Lords of Trade and Plantations, a subcommittee of the king's own Privy Council. Bitter land disputes, restrictions placed on Church of England members by the Puritan government, conflict with the Indians (particularly King Philip's War), and especially mass evasion of the Navigation Acts drew the Crown's attention toward Massachusetts and New England.

Until its charter was revoked in 1684 the fiercely independent Massachusetts colony had never had a royal governor. In May 1686, however, King James II (1685–1688) carried forward plans initiated under Charles II to place the New England colonies directly under Crown control. James named Edmund Andros, a soldier and former New York governor, "Captain General and Governor in Chief of Our Territory and Dominion of New England" on 3 June 1686. Andros had jurisdiction over Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, the disputed Narragansett territory, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. New York and New Jersey were added in 1688.

The Dominion government, headquartered in Boston, was modeled on the Spanish viceroyalty system, in which the Spanish crown ruled directly through appointed officials and councils. Governor Andros arrived in December 1686 with a force of sixty English soldiers and quickly moved to establish a vice regal government, consisting of the appointed governor and council but no representative assembly. The governor's appointees replaced local elected officials. Rights to jury trial and bail were restricted, the press was censored, and freedom to leave the Dominion was limited. Church of England members were favored for appointments, as Andros actively promoted the Church and dislodged Massachusetts Puritans from their formerly exclusive hold on government power. Andros even forced Puritan congregations to allow Church of England services in their meeting-houses. Though not all were sorry to see Puritan power broken, colonists united in opposition to Andros's tax and land policies. In March 1687 Andros imposed new direct and indirect taxes without any legislative consent. He infuriated colonists with his land distribution policies, especially when the Dominion government claimed title to all undistributed land that had formerly been held in common by individual towns.

By the summer of 1688 the Dominion government had completely alienated Puritan and non-Puritan colonists alike. Then in early 1689 reports arrived that William of Orange had, by invitation of parliamentary leaders, invaded England with his Dutch army and ousted James II from power. Spurred on by the still unofficial news, an uprising began in Boston on 18 April 1689. Andros was arrested after a brief siege and the colonies' former governments restored. Though Massachusetts absorbed Plymouth Colony and was placed under a royal governor in 1691, the new king, William III (1669–1702), made no renewed attempt to impose direct royal power upon the colonies.

Bibliography

Johnson, Richard R. Adjustment to Empire: The New England Colonies, 1675–1715. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1981.

Lovejoy, David S. The Glorious Revolution in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.

McFarlane, Anthony. The British in the Americas: 1480–1815. New York: Longman, 1994.

Sosin, J. M. English America and the Revolution of 1688: Royal Administration and the Structure of Provincial Government. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

Speck, W. A. Reluctant Revolutionaries: Englishmen and the Revolution of 1688. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

—Aaron J. Palmer

Seal of the dominion

The Dominion of New England in America (1686–89) was a short-lived administrative union of English colonies in the New England region of North America.

King James II of England decreed the creation of the Dominion as a measure to enforce the Navigation Acts and to coordinate the mutual defense of colonies against the French and hostile Native Americans. The Dominion initially comprised the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, the Province of New Hampshire, the Province of Maine, and the Narraganset Country or King's Province. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and the Connecticut Colony were added to the Dominion on September 9, 1686. On May 7, 1688, the Province of New York, the Province of East Jersey, and the Province of West Jersey were added to the Dominion. The capital was located in Boston but, due to its size, New York and the Jerseys were run by the lieutenant governor from New York City.

Although the New England colonists had previously sought a loose voluntary association in the form of the New England Confederation, the imposition of a centralized authority from England was highly unpopular. The Dominion Governor in Chief Edmund Andros began promoting the Church of England, banning town meetings, and challenging land titles. Andros's actions, along with the behavior of English soldiers garrisoned at Boston, angered many colonists in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and elsewhere in British North America.

When word of the overthrow of James II by William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 reached Boston, the colonists rose up in rebellion and arrested Andros on May 18, 1689. The Dominion immediately collapsed. One month later, Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson was deposed in New York City during Leisler's Rebellion.

The word dominion would later be used to describe the 1867 Dominion of Canada, and other self-governing British colonies (although no precedent from the Dominion of New England is cited in these cases).

Governors in Chief of the Dominion of New England in America

This is a list of the Governors in Chief of the Dominion of New England in America from 1686 to 1689:

Governor in Chief	Date
Joseph Dudley	1686
Sir Edmund Andros	1686–1689

When the Dominion disintegrated in 1689, Simon Bradstreet served as Governor of Massachusetts Bay until William Phips arrived as Royal Governor in 1692.

References

• Alan Taylor, American Colonies: the Settling of North America, part of The Penguin History of the United States series, Eric Foner, Editor, Penguin Books, 2001.
• "Dominion of New England: Colonial America, 1686–1689". Travel and History. Online Highways. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h546.html. 

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