1641 Thomas Rollins

From Records of Families of the name Rawlins or Rollins
 In the United States, pages 5-9
Compiled by John R. Rollins
 (Printed 1874 in Lawrence, Mass. By Geo. S. Merrill & Crocker)

Hometown--Bloody Point, New Hampshire
Death--Exeter, New Hampshire

    Thomas lived, also [as his eldest brother, Ichabod], at Bloody Point; was taxed there in 1662 and 1668, and removed to Exeter, N. H., where he remained till his death.  His farm appears to have been located on the old road leading from Exeter to Hampton.  We know but little of him; but one passage, in his life has been preserved, which tends to show that he possessed something of his father's independence, and that his ideas of justice were something in advance of those of his neighbors.  He was one of the Company of Edward Gove, a member of the dissolved Assembly of N. H., 1683, who were found in arms, and endeavoring to excite an insurrection for the overthrow of the arbitrary government of the Royal Governor--Edward Cranfield.

Charged with High Treason

    In order to gain a correct understanding of this effort at rebellion or revolution, it will be necessary to state that after the death of Capt. John Mason, one of the original proprietors of New Hampshire, which occurred in 1635, his widow, weary of the great expense and inadequate returns of the Portsmouth plantation, informed her servants that they must provide for themselves.  Some removed with their goods and cattle; others remained, keeping possession of the buildings and improvements which they henceforward claimed as their own.  The houses at Newichwannoch were consumed by fire, and nothing was left of Mason’s estate but a doubtful interest in the soil.  The people, left without a government, formed themselves, after the example of the people of Exeter, into a body politic; and those of Dover did the same.  By a written instrument, 1640, signed by forty-one persons, they agreed to submit to the laws of England, and such other laws as should be enacted by a majority of their number, until the royal pleasure should be known. [Source is listed at bottom of page but cannot be read.]  

    Matters continued thus until April 14, 1641, when New Hampshire came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and the history of the two plantations, for a period of thirty years, became blended together.  In 1680 a royal commission was brought to Portsmouth, declaring New Hampshire a royal Province.  This was brought about through the influence of Robert Tufton Mason, with the design of recovering the possessions of his ancestor.  The first President under the new Commission (John Cutts), and a majority of the council were in the interest of the people and opposed to Mason’s designs.  The appointment of these men would do very well to disguise, for a time, the real object of the new government, but as their continuance in office would not further Mason’s views, he obtained, in 1682, the appointment of Edward Cranfield.  Arbitrary, needy, and rapacious, Cranfield made no secret of his object, in accepting the office, and openly sought to reciprocate the liberality of Mason, by a devotion to his claim.


    By his commission he was vested with extraordinary powers; he could adjourn, prorogue and dissolve General Courts; had a negative voice on all acts of government, could suspend any of the Council, appoint Judges, and all subordinate officers; and, in short, exercise the powers of Vice-Admiral.

    Within six days after the publication of his Commission, he suspended the popular leaders--Waldron and Martyn.  This was one step towards rendering him odious to the people.  Either from shame or more probably to quiet the popular clamor, he restored them to their places, Nov. 14th.

    The Assembly met the same day, and hoping to detach the Governor from the interests of Mason, they voted him L250.  This put him in good humor for a time; but the opposition of the Assembly to his measures, was so irritating that he adjourned it.  At the next session, the Assembly refused to pass a bill raising money for the support of the government, and he dissolved it.

    The dissolution of the Assembly, a thing before unknown, aggravated the popular discontent, and kindled the resentment of some, in Hampton and Exeter, who headed by Edward Gove, a member of the dissolved Assembly, declared by sound of trumpet for liberty and reformation.

    Gove went from town to town, declaring that the Governor was a traitor, and had exceeded his Commission, and that he would not lay down his arms until matters were set right; and endeavoring to incite the principal men of the Province to join in a confederacy to overthrow the government.

    His project, however, appeared so wild and dangerous, that they not only disapproved it, but informed against him, and assisted in apprehending him.  Hearing of their design, he collected his Company and appeared in arms, but on the persuasion of some of his friends, surrendered.  A special Court was immediately commissioned for his trial, of which Major Waldron sat as Judge, with William Vaughn and Thomas Daniel as Assistants.  The grand jury presented a bill, in which Edward Gove, his son John Gove, and William Healy, of Hampton; Joseph, John and Robert Wadleigh (three brothers), Thomas Rawlins, Mark Baker and John Sleeper, of Exeter, were charged with high treason.

    Gove, who behaved with great insolence before the Court, and pretended to justify his conduct, was convicted and received sentence of death in the usual hideous form.  (The sentence was as follows.--”That the prisoner be carried back to the place whence he came, and from thence be drawn to the place of execution, to be hanged by the neck; be cut down alive; that his entrails be taken out, and burned before his face; that his head be cut off, and his body be divided into four quarters, and that his head and quarter be disposed of, at the King’s pleasure.”--N.H. Historical Collections.  Vol. II, p. 44.

    The Judge, who loved Cranfield no better than did the prisoner, is said to have wept while
pronouncing the sentence.


A Conviction and Pardon

    Gove’s estate was also seized and forfeited to the Crown.  His companions were convicted of being accomplices.  They were all pardoned except Gove, who was sent to the Tower of London, and imprisoned about three years--his sentence having been commuted.

    On his repeated petitions to the King, and by the interest of Randolph with the Earl of Clarendonk, then Lord Chamberlain, he obtained his pardon, and returned home in 1686, with an order to the President and Council to restore his estate.

    Mason, for some time after, endeavored to enforce his claim, and wearied the patience of the colonists by vexatious lawsuits, but with very indifferent success, until such representations were made tot he home government, as to draw down the royal censure, and secure the removal of Cranfield.

    To one of the petitions for his removal we find attached the name of Thomas Rawlins; and his rebellious blood continued to flow in the veins of his descendants, for we find twenty or more of them, at a subsequent period, engaged in rebellion against the arbitrary government of George III, with better success.  He was unsuccessful--therefore a rebel; they successful--therefore patriots.  In the former case, the parties were to be dispossessed of lands and buildings voluntarily relinquished to them by the representative of the original proprietor, and which for years they had cultivated and improved as their own; this was the grievance which they sought to redress; in the latter case, they resisted the principle of taxation without representation.

Marriage and Justice of the Peace

    Rawlins was a Justice of the Peace in 1682.  He married, about 1670, Rachel, daughter of Moses and Alice Cox, of Hampton.  (Moses Cox, born 1594; died at Hampton, May 28, 1687, aged 94.)

Death

    The precise date of his death is not known; his inventory was returned to the Probate office, Nov. 7, 1706.

Children

Thomas,    b. Exeter,    July 14, 1671
Moses,    b. Exeter,    Oct. 14, 1672
Joseph        b. Exeter,    May 6, 1674
Mary,        b. Exeter,    May 8, 1676    married Stephen Page*, of Hampton, Jan. 3, 1701, who died Feb. 1714, in his 37th year.
Benjamin    b. Exeter,    July 6, 1678
Aaron        b. Exeter,    --------------
Samuel    b. Exeter,        1690      
John        b. Exeter,    --------------
Alice,        b. Exeter,    --------------    md. Roger Shaw, of Hampton, March 2, 1705.
Rachel        b. Exeter,    --------------  


*Stephen Page, born May 14, 1677, was son of Thomas and Mary (Hussey) Page, of Hampton.  Stephen’s grandfather, Robert, one of the first settlers of Hampton, was born at Ormsby, Co. Norfolk, England; emigrated to American, 1637.  He was one of the leading men of Hampton, being a member of the first Board of Selectmen; member of the General Assembly, 1657, 1658; and Marshall of the old County of Norfolk.

Source:  James R. Rollins [he uses N.H. Historical Collection. Vol, 13?. p. 44   Story continues on pg. 5-