ton, was notoriously above others observed and complained of; and, being convented, he was charged with many particulars; in

1624, preserved by Gov. Bradford in 1 Hist. Coll. III. 28, and who united with others, in all forty-two, in a loan of £1800 sterling, by which its life was preserved. lb. 48. Being received into Boston church 20 March, 1635-6, we may conclude, he had come over in the preceding autumn, probably with Wilson in October. At the general election, in May following, he was admitted to the freeman's oath, at the same time with Samuel Appleton, Henry Flint, and Daniel Maude, who alone, out of sixty-two that day sworn, have the prefix of respect.

Of the curious subject, introduced to our notice by the text, inquiry had, at the former session of the same court, in September, been instituted; aud, from the language of the Record, I. 269, "Capt. Keayne was willed to return Sarah King her necessary clothes again," we may presume, the case was a Aagrant one. It is evident, however, that much more tenderness was shown towards him than delinquents usually received; for we find, at the assist. ants' quarter court, four pages later, in the same volume, this note: "There is £10 delivered the governour by one that had failed by taking too great prices for his commodities. He hath satisfied the parties, whom he sold the com modities unto." At the general court in May after the date in the text, I find, Col. Rec. I. 276," Mr. Robert Keayne had £120 of his fine remitted him; so that there remains only £80 to be paid by him." He was not the only person of eminence liable to this animadversion, though the proceedings against him went further than in any other case within my knowledge. Indeed, the attempt to prevent demand of high price for any commodity, however willing the purchaser may be to give it, is preposterous and destructive to all commerce between man and man. Sedgwick was admonished for a like frailty, in asking the money's worth for his goods. Before this scandal, Keayne had been four times chosen from Boston to the general court; and, after the evil report had passed over, was several times elected, and became speaker in October, 1646, but only for one day. Unhappily, he fell under obloquy again: a less probable, though more injurious accusation was preferred, of which a very particular relation is, in subsequent pages, given by our author. He certainly stood high in the estimation of the government; for, in May, 1639, a grant of four hundred acres had been made to him, when others of no larger quantity were made to several gentlemen of the first rank in the colony.

Keayne died 23 March, 1655-6. His will, proved 2 May after, written with his own hand,—for no other hand could have been so patient,—at different times, beginning 1 August 1653, is a most extraordinary instrument, commencing on page 116 of our first volume of Records in Probate office, and filling one hundred and fifty-eight folio pages. It would be an idle affectation to say, that it has been all studied by me, though most parts were cursorily examined; for no reader of this work would exact of its editor such an unprofitable labour. An abridgment of several pages could easily be afforded here, for it was made; but when thirty pages of the will are occupied about the animadversion of the court on his extortion, as explained in our text, with inculpation of his prosecutor for cruel and unfounded allegations in that and another affair, and thirty pages more given to explanation of his accounts in many different books, with the order and reasons, plentiful enough, of dividing his estate,-the most minute antiquary becomes weary with the trifles. Yet there are several curious parts. The ample declaration of his correct faith, that fills two of the early pages, hardly compensates, however, for the anxiously refined, but equivocal, morality, by which, towards the end, he excuses himself. Between his only son, Benjamin, and a daughter of Dudley,

some, for taking above six-pence in the shilling profit; in some above eight-pence; and, in some §small§ things, above two for one; and being hereof convict, (as appears by the records,) he was fined £200, which came thus to pass: The deputies considered, apart, of his fine, and set it at £200; the magistrates agreed but to £100. So, the court being divided, at length it was agreed, that his fine should be £200, but he should pay but £100, and the other should be respited to the further consideration of the next general court. By this means the magistrates and deputies were brought to an accord, which otherwise had not been likely, and so much trouble might have grown, and the offender escaped censure. For the cry of the country was so great against oppression, and some of the elders and magistrates had declared such detestation of the corrupt practice of this man (which was the more observable, because he was wealthy and sold dearer than most other tradesmen, and for that he was of ill report for the like covetous practice in England, that incensed the deputies very much against him.) And sure the course was very evil, especial circumstances considered: 1. He being an ancient professor of the gospel: 2. A man of eminent parts: 3. Wealthy, and having but one child: 4. Having come over for conscience sake, and for the advancement of the gospel here: 5. Having been formerly dealt with and admonished, both by private friends and also by some of the magistrates and elders, and having promised reformation; being a member of a church and commonwealth now in their infancy, and under the curious observation of all churches and civil states in the world. These added much aggravation to his sin in the judgment of all men of understanding. Yet most of the magistrates (though they dissince

"an unhappy and uncomfortable match" is spoken of in this will; and that union, perhaps, with other disagreeable circumstances, compelled the son to return to the land of his fathers, where he died, I presume, in 1668. In August of that year, administration of the estate was granted to his son-inlaw. The male line ended with Benjamin.

The chief claims of Robert to be remembered, must arise from his activity in founding the Artillery Company, of which he was captain, and which is fondly remembered in the endless testament. See the History of that institution for other particulars. A large 4to MS. of his is preserved in the archives of the Historical Society, chiefly composed of the sermons or expositions of Cotton, as taken, probably in church, by the owner. It contains, besides, two very curious cases of ecclesiastical discipline, in which all the church members deliver their opinions on the matters,,-one against Mrs. Hibbins, the other against Serjeant Richard Wait. The lady was cast out; the serjeant continued in the affection of the body. The report of brethren sent to Rhode Island, to warn the dwellers there of contumacy, is also given; and a few other trifles. He left, among other liberal bequests, a large one to Harvard College, still preserved in their exhibit.

cerned of the offence clothed with all these circumstances) would have been more moderate in their censure: 1. Because there was no law in force to limit or direct men in point of profit in their trade. 2. Because it is the common practice, in all countries, for men to make use of advantages for raising the prices of their commodities. 3. Because (though he were chiefly aimed at, yet) he was not alone in this fault. 4. §Because all men through the country, in sale of cattle, corn, labour, &c. were guilty of the like excess in prices. 5.§ Be cause a certain rule could not be found out for an equal rate between buyer and seller, though much labour had been bestowed in it, and divers laws had been made, which, upon experience, were repealed, as being neither safe nor equal. Lastly, and especially, because the law of God appoints no other punishment but double restitution; and, in some cases, as where the offender freely confesseth, and brings his offering, only half added to the principal. After the court had censured him, the church of Boston called him also in question, where (as before he had done in the court) he did, with tears, acknowledge and bewail his covetous and corrupt heart, yet making some excuse for many of the particulars, which were charged upon him, as partly by pretence of ignorance of the true price of some wares, and chiefly by being misled by some false principles, as, 1. That, if a man lost in one commodity, he might help himself in the price of another. 2. That if, through want of skill or other occasion,|| his commodity cost him more than the price of the market in England, he might then sell it for more than the price of the market in New England, &c. These things gave occasion to Mr. Cotton, in his publick exercise the next lecture day, to lay open the errour of such false principles, and to give some rules of direction in the case. Some false principles were these;

1. That a man ||might|| sell as dear as he can, and buy as cheap as he can.

2. If a man lose by casualty of sea, &c. in some of his commodities, he may raise the price of the rest.

3. That he may sell as he bought, though he paid too dear, &c. and though the commodity be fallen, &c.

4. That, as a man may take the advantage of his own skill or ability, so he may of another's ignorance or necessity.

5. Where one gives time for payment, he is to take like recompense of one as of another.

The rules for trading were these:

1. A man may not sell above the current price, i. e. such a itwoll ||particularly]] ||3otherwise|| ||may|| ||5at||

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price as is usual in the time and place, and as another (who knows the worth of the commodity) would give for it, if he had occasion to use it; as that is called current money, which every man will take, &c.

2. When a man loseth in his commodity for want of skill, &c. he must look at it as his own fault or cross, and therefore must not lay it upon another.

3. Where a man loseth by casualty of sea, or, &c. it is a loss cast upon himself by providence, and he may not ease himself of it by casting it upon another; for so a man should seem to provide against all providences, &c. that he should never lose; but where there is a scarcity of the commodity, there men may raise their price; for now it is a hand of God upon the commodity, and not the person.

4. A man may not ask any more for his commodity than his selling price, as Ephron to Abraham, the land is worth thus much.

[Large blank.]

The cause being debated by the church, some were earnest to have him excommunicated; but the most thought an admonition would be sufficient. Mr. Cotton opened the causes, which required excommunication, out of that in 1 Cor. 5. 11. The point now in question was, whether these actions did declare him to be such a covetous person, &c. Upon which he showed, that it is neither the habit of covetousness, (which is in every man in some degree,) nor simply the act, that declares a man to be such, but when it appears, that a man sins against his conscience, or the very light of nature, and when it appears in a man's whole conversation. But Mr. Keaine did not appear to be such, but rather upon an errour in his judgment, being led by false principles; and, beside, he is otherwise liberal, as in his hospitality, and in church communion, &c. So, in the end, the church consented to an admonition.1

Upon this occasion a question grew, whether an admonition did bar a man from the sacrament, &c. Of this more shall be spoken hereafter.

1 For this unusual instance of moderation in the church, whose corrective hand, in such an offence, had been more appropriately exercised than that of the magistrate, we may find two reasons: 1, that Keayne's principal accuser belonged to the country; the sympathies of Boston people, of whom many, being traders, must have felt the futility of several of the allegations against their craft, were therefore less strongly excited; 2. Wilson, the pastor of the church, was his brother-in-law. Keayne, in his will, says, Winthrop was prejudiced against him, but changed his opinion on the matter shortly before his death, and designed to have moved the court for restitution of the fine.

Being now about church matters, I will here insert another passage in the same church, which fell out about the same time. Their old meeting-house, being decayed and too small, they sold it away, and agreed to build another, which workmen undertook to set up for £600. Three hundred they had for the old, and the rest was to be gathered by voluntary contributions, as other charges were. But there grew a great difference among the brethren, where this new one should stand. Some were for the green, (which was the governour's first lot, and he had yielded it to the church, &c. ;) others, viz. the tradesmen, especially, who dwelt about the market place, desired it might stand still ||near|| the market, lest in time it should divert the chief trade from thence. The church referred it to the judgment and determination of five of the brethren, who agreed, that the fittest place (all things considered) would be near the market; but, understanding that many of the brethren were unsatisfied, and desired rather it might be put to a lot, they declared only their opinions in writing, and respited the full determination to another general meeting, thinking it very unsafe to proceed with the discontent of any considerable part of the church. When the church met, the matter was debated to and fro, and grew at length to some earnestness, &c.; but, after Mr. Cotton had cleared it up to them, that the removing it to the green would be a damage to such as dwelt by the market, who had there purchased and built at great charge, but it would be no damage to the rest to have it by the market, because it would be no less, but rather more convenient for them, than where the former stood, they all yielded to have it set by the market place; and, though some remained still in their opinion, that the green were the fitter place, yet, for peace sake, they yielded to the rest by keeping silence while it passed. This good providence and overruling hand of God caused much admiration and acknowledgment of special mercy to the church, especially considering how long the like contention had held in some other churches, and 3with what difficulty they had been accorded.

(7.) At the court of assistants, one Marmaduke Perry, of ||nearer|| ||3which without||

||2most||

1 Instead of "five of the brethren," was originally written "the governour and four others." We easily understand the cause of the change.

2 The green, the governour's first lot, was the corner of the street, part of which was afterwards taken for the Third, or Old South Church. Prince, who was minister of that church above a hundred years after,-Advertisement to Annals, II.—says, Winthrop "deceased in the very house I dwell in."