Edmund Andros - Fort Hill Square

King Charles II of England and his successor King James revoked several charters in the Americas and replaced them with one, unified charter called the Dominion of New England. This gave James more power over colonial trade, religion, and manufacturing.

The problem with that was the previous charters, like the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, were a joint-stock company that gave the colonists the freedom they had monetarily paid and left England for, and the new charter removed their quasi-democratic/theocratic state under Puritan rule and placed them under New York’s direction, specifically under Sir Edmund Andros.

Andros sent Joseph Dudley in limited commission under his rule and was met with opposition. Councilors refused to serve under him and he had no authority to introduce new revenue laws, and the Massachusetts government had repealed all such laws in 1683 in anticipation of the loss of their charter. What few tax laws were left went unpaid as colonists felt they were made from a previous government and now invalid.

Once Andros arrived in Boston on Dec 20th, 1686 his hardline position met with stiff resistance from a number of Massachusetts communities where he quickly became hated. His attitude didn’t help him with local residents. Andros is quoted as saying “the colonists had left their rights behind when they left England.” The leaders of Ipswich had been most vocal in their opposition and were tried and convicted of misdemeanor offenses.

The religious leaders of Massachusetts, led by Cotton and Increase Mather, were opposed to the rule of Andros and organized dissent targeted to influence the court in London. They sought favor with King James to repeal the charter. With the British ‘Glorious Revolution’, James was deposed by William III and Mary II. Increase Mather petitioned the new monarchs and the Lords of Trade for restoration of the old Massachusetts charter and to delay notifying Andros of the change to English monarchy.

Previous Colonial governor Simon Bradstreet is one of several possible organizers of the 1689 Boston Revolt where Bradstreet and other pre-Dominion magistrates addressed an open letter to Andros on that day calling for his surrender. Edmund Andros, Edward Randolph, and Joseph Dudley were arrested and imprisoned in Boston.

The Dominion then effectively collapsed as local authorities in each colony seized dominion representatives and reasserted their earlier power. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire scrambled to reinstate previous charters in some modernized form with legal backing from King William III.

Andros managed to send a message while in captivity to Lieutenant Governor Nicholson. However he was unable to take any effective action due to rising tensions in New York combined with the fact that most of Nicholson’s troops had been sent to Maine. Nicholson was overthrown by local colonists supported by the militia in Leisler’s Rebellion and he fled to England.

This led to the formation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay charter in 1691 which merged Massachusetts with Plymouth colony and restored the territories that had been taken by New York including Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, the Elizabeth Islands, and parts of Maine.

The Boston Revolt returned control of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the Puritans and inspired revolts in other American colonies. Colonists had rebelled and been supported by the new British King. One generation later history shows this prevailing rebellious attitude only grew as American’s grievances against English authority grew.

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This location is now known as Fort Hill Square, and there used to be a hill here, with a Fort, aptly named Fort Hill which was part of the Sconce, or South Battery. (Separate from Roxbury’s Fort Hill) Edmund Andros used this location as his headquarters during his command. See last links for how it was addressed as both Fort Mary and Fort Hill despite being the same spot as Boston had a habit of moving and switching Fort names. (See South Battery for more info on the fortifications of Fort Hill.)

-Source Links-

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/great-boston-revolt-1689/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_New_England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1689_Boston_revolt

https://www.ancestry.com/historicalinsights/boston-revolt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Mather

https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:9s161975x https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston1692.jpg and https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/siege-of-boston-map.htm locational maps show fort on south east side of Shawmut Peninsula/Boston – double checked with Siege of Boston/ NPS Pelham map overlay and that fits this spot as the garrison headquarters of Andros – Fort Hill Square, Boston