54 Historical Sketch of New England (1720)
The Inhabitants of New England are the posterity of the old English Puritans or Nonconformists to the Church of England who chose to leave their native country and retire into a wilderness, rather than submit to such rites and ceremonies in religion as they apprehended sinful. They did not differ with the Church in any of the articles of her faith but they scrupled the vestments, kneeling at the Sacrament, some parts of the Common Prayer, and the promiscuous admission of all persons to the communion. For these things they were silenced and deprived of their livings, which put great numbers of the Ministers under a necessity of removing with their followers to America.
The number of Planters that went over to New England before the year 1640 were about 4000; after which for the next 20 Years they had no increase but what sprung up from among themselves. In the reigns of King Charles II and King James II great numbers of Dissenters, both ministers and people went over to avoid the hardships they suffered from the Church. And it deserves to be taken notice of, that the Increase of the English plantations abroad depends very much on the treatment the Dissenters from the Established Church of England meet with at home. When they are allowed the free exercise of their civil and religious liberties, they love their native Country too well to leave it. But when they are oppressed in so tender a point as their consciences, ’tis but reasonable to suppose that many of them will go where they can make themselves easy. For the confirmation of this observation we need look no further at present than Ireland from whence, if I am rightly informed, above 6000 Scotch Presbyterians have shipped off themselves and their effects within these few years for the plantations of America. Chiefly on the account of the uneasinesses they were under with regard to the free exercise of their religion. And great numbers are still going over every summer, which if the Legislature are not pleased to take into consideration may in time very much weaken if not totally subvert the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom.
To such causes as these, New England owes the vast increase of its inhabitants. The whole number of inhabitants must now amount to 160 or 165,000 and of them about 30 or 35,000 fighting men, which is the military strength of the country. From this calculation we may conclude that the Province of New England is in no great danger at present from any of its neighbors. For the Indians are an inconsiderable body of themselves and if the French should join them, though they might ravage the frontiers by their flying parties, they could make no impressions upon the heart of the country. Besides the Indians are divided, some being in alliance with the French and others with the English so that in case of a war they may be played one against the other.
As the Government of New England is dependent on the Crown of England, so is their trade. Tis impossible to make an exact estimate of the exports and imports from New England without examining the Custom House books, but ’tis computed by the most experienced merchants trading to those parts that they receive from hence all sorts of woolen drapery, silks, stuffs, and hats. All sorts of linen and printed calicoes, all sorts of iron manufacture, and Birmingham Ware, as tools for mechanics, knives, scissors, buckles, nails, etc. to the value of £100,000 annually and upwards. In return for these goods, our merchants export from thence about 100,000 Quintals [22 million pounds] of dried Cod-fish yearly which they send to Portugal, Spain, and the several ports of Italy. The returns for which are made to London out of the Product of those Countries and may amount to the value of about £80,000 annually.
But in the concerns of civil life as in their dress, tables, and conversation they affect to be as much English as possible. There is no fashion in London but in three or four months is to be seen at Boston. Nay, they are fond of the very name and person of an Englishman, insomuch that some who have had no great affection for the people on the account of their preciseness have yet been so agreeably entertained by them as to leave the country with regret. In short, the only difference between an 0ld and a New English Man is in his religion. And here the disagreement is chiefly about the liturgy and church government, the one being for a National Church governed by Archbishops, Bishops, and a Convocation. The other esteeming all ministers to be of the same order and every society of Christians meeting together in the same place a complete Christian Church. Having all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within itself, without being subject to a Classis, Synod, or Convocation any further than for advice.
It can’t be denied but there are two State-Factions in New England as well as in most Kingdoms of Europe, which have arisen partly from a private narrow spirit in some leading men who are a sort of spies upon the government they live under and express their dislike of the management of public affairs in all companies, chiefly because themselves have no share in it. But I can assure the world that religion is no part of the quarrel, for there being no sacramental test for preferments in the state, all parties of Christians among them are easy, happy people as long as religion and the state continue on a separate basis. The magistrate not meddling in matters of religion any further than is necessary for the preservation of the public peace, nor the churches calling for the sword of the magistrate to back their ecclesiastical censures with corporal severities. May they long continue on this foot, a sanctuary to oppressed Protestants in all parts of the world!
But after all, it will be impossible for New England to subsist of itself for some centuries of years. For though they might maintain themselves against their neighbors on the continent, they must starve without a free trade with Europe, the manufactures of the country being very inconsiderable. So that if we could suppose them to rebel against England, they must throw themselves into the arms of some other potentate who would protect them no longer than he could sell them to advantage. The French and Spaniards are enemies to their religion and civil liberties and the Dutch are too cautious a people to run the hazard of losing their own country for the alliance of another at so great a distance. ‘Tis therefore the grand interest of New England to remain subject to the Crown of England and by their dutiful behavior to merit the removal of those few hardships and inconveniences they complain of. No other Power can or will protect them, and next to their own, ’tis impossible their religion and civil liberties should be in better hands than in a Parliament of England.
And I must do the people of New England so much justice as to acquaint the world that their inclinations as well as duty lead them to this. They love the English Constitution and would live and die in the defense of it because when that is gone, they know their own must soon follow. In the Reigns of King Charles and King James II all the men of reflection throughout the country seemed to be dispirited and in pain for the Protestant religion and English liberty. But when the good Providence of God brought about the Happy [Glorious] Revolution, they began a jubilee of joy which has continued almost ever since. When the Protestant Succession in the illustrious House of Hannover was in danger, no people in the world prayed more heartily for its taking place. And when it pleased Almighty God to bring His Majesty to the throne of his ancestors, none of his subjects in any part of his Dominions celebrated the auspicious day with louder acclamations of joy and thankfulness. In a word, the people of New England are a dutiful and loyal people and that which the Protestant Dissenters of the City of London declared with so much justice to His Majesty in their Address occasioned by the late rebellion, is literally true of their brethren in this country: that King George is not known to have a single enemy to his person, family, or government in all New England.
Source: Daniel Neal, “The Present State of New-England”, Chapter XIV of his History of New-England, (1720), 600-616. https://archive.org/details/toldcontemporari02hartrich/page/52/mode/2up
