The Jarring Interests
The Jarring Interests

Author: Philip J. Schwarz

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 143844575X

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Focusing on the men who fought, schemed, argued, petitioned, and maneuvered at all levels of government to resolve the intercolonial disputes over land in America, the author analyzes the tangled webs of interest involved in the conflicts. These controversies are seen to necessitate the use of all available legal and political techniques. Meticulously researched in nearly a dozen manuscript repositories as well as the "public record" and with maps to illustrate the varied interests and entanglements with neighboring colonies. Territorial conflicts between colonies convincingly bear out historian Bernard Bailyn's characterization of much of eighteenth-century provincial politics as the "almost unchartable chaos of competing groups." But the key to New York's boundary disputes is that their settlement required the successful harmonization of discordant interest groups on the local, intercolonial, and Anglo-American levels. This study shows how New York's boundary makers, who had long experience with their province's particularly factionalized politics and with the ever-shifting politics of the Anglo-American connection, managed frequently "to conciliate the jarring interests." The major methodological error of the very few previous studies of boundary quarrels was to rely too heavily on the public record, which was so amply, if not always accurately, made available in nineteenth-century publications of the state of New York. It would be equally mistaken to take private records as the sole repository of a hidden truth, however. The nature of New York's boundary disputes can be made apparent from the public records if they are interpreted with the help of the private sources.

Cadwallader Colden, 1688–1776
Cadwallader Colden, 1688–1776

Author: Philip Ranlet

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-10-29

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 076187142X

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In this book, Philip Ranlet examines the prolific political career of Cadwallader Colden. Colden was the long lasting lieutenant governor of royal New York. A determined foe of entrenched interests in New York such as the manor lords, the lawyers, and the fur smugglers, he remained a vigorous supporter of the royal prerogative. He handled Indian relations for many years and was the first true historian of the Iroquois. Also one of the preeminent scientists of the colonial period and the Enlightenment itself, he established botany in America and also tried to revise the work of Sir Isaac Newton. Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden continued to battle the enemies ofBritish rule until his death during the American Revolution in 1776 at 88 years old.

Early New England
Early New England

Author: David A. Weir

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 486

ISBN-13: 9780802813527

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The idea of covenant was at the heart of early New England society. In this singular book David Weir explores the origins and development of covenant thought in America by analyzing the town and church documents written and signed by seventeenth-century New Englanders. Unmatched in the breadth of its scope, this study takes into account all of the surviving covenants in all of the New England colonies. Weir's comprehensive survey of seventeenth-century covenants leads to a more complex picture of early New England than what emerges from looking at only a few famous civil covenants like the Mayflower Compact. His work shows covenant theology being transformed into a covenantal vision for society but also reveals the stress and strains on church-state relationships that eventually led to more secularized colonial governments in eighteenth-century New England. He concludes that New England colonial society was much more "English" and much less "American" than has often been thought, and that the New England colonies substantially mirrored religious and social change in Old England.

The Lord Cornbury Scandal
The Lord Cornbury Scandal

Author: Patricia U. Bonomi

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-12-01

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 080783906X

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For more than two centuries, Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury--royal governor of New York and New Jersey from 1702 to 1708--has been a despised figure, whose alleged transgressions ranged from raiding the public treasury to scandalizing his subjects by parading through the streets of New York City dressed as a woman. Now, Patricia Bonomi offers a challenging reassessment of Cornbury. She explores his life and experiences to illuminate such topics as imperial political culture; gossip, Grub Street, and the climate of slander; early modern sexual culture; and constitutional perceptions in an era of reform. In a tour de force of scholarly detective work, Bonomi also reappraises the most "conclusive" piece of evidence used to indict Cornbury--a celebrated portrait, said to represent the governor in female dress, that hangs today in the New-York Historical Society. Stripping away the many layers of "the Cornbury myth," this innovative work brings to life a fascinating man and reveals the conflicting emotions and loyalties that shaped the politics of the First British Empire. "A tour de force of historical detection.--Tim Hilchey, New York Times Book Review "Bonomi's book is more than an exoneration of Cornbury. It is a case study of what she aptly calls the politics of reputation." --Edmund S. Morgan, New York Review of Books "A fascinating, authoritative glimpse into the seamy underside of imperial politics in the late Stuart era.--Timothy D. Hall, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography "An intriguing detective story that....casts light upon the operation of political power in the past and the nature of history writing in the present.--Alan Taylor, New Republic For more than two centuries, Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury--royal governor of New York and New Jersey from 1702 to 1708--has been a despised figure whose alleged transgressions ranged from looting the colonial treasury to public cross dressing in New York City. Stripping away the many layers of "the Cornbury myth," Patricia Bonomi offers a challenging reassessment of this fascinating figure and of the rough and tumble political culture of the First British Empire--with its muckraking press, salacious gossip, and conflicting imperial loyalties. -->