and sailed for Boston in October, 1775. In the following January he sailed for England.1

However, not all the refugees from New Hampshire went to England, or even to Boston. At least a few joined Burgoyne during the fall of 1777, including Levi Warner of Claremont, who testifies that he served with the British during the entire war and was at St. Johns at the head of Lake Champlain in 1783, and Captain Simon Baxter who was condemned to death by the Whigs, but on the day set for his execution escaped "with the rope around his neck and succeeded in reaching Burgoyne's army." At the peace he went to New Brunswick and was living at Norton, King's County, when death finally overtook him in 1804. Joseph Stacey Hastings, a Harvard graduate of the class of 1762, sought safety. at Halifax, although he ultimately returned to Boston where he kept a grocery store. No doubt, New York City and the neighboring islands became sooner or later during the Revolution the favorite asylums of the exiles from New Hampshire, as they were for most of those from the other Northern States. Indeed, some of them accompanied Howe's army from the Nova Scotian capital to Staten Island in the fall of 1776. Among these was Governor Wentworth himself, who spent more or less of his time at Flatbush on Long Island, only a few miles from New York, until his departure for Philadelphia and London. In a letter to his sister written from this point, in January, 1777, the deposed Governor, referring to a group of his fellow refugees from Portsmouth who had returned with him to American soil, reports the good health of Messrs. Meserve, Hale, and Lutwyche, as also of Captain Cochran, Mr. Macdonough, and Mr. Wentworth, the three last being with him, as he specifically states. As we have already met most of these gentlemen it will suffice here to say that Thomas Macdonough had been Governor Wentworth's secretary and that Benning Wentworth was to return to Nova Scotia after the peace and to be honored with several high offices there (a membership in the Council, and the secretaryship and treasurship of the Province)

'Brewster, Rambles about Portsmouth, 2d Series, 252, 253; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, (1847) 680, 215; Sec. Rep., Bur. of Archives, Ont. Pt. I (1904) 831; Hutchinson's Diary and Letters, II, 192; Colls. Hist., and Miscel. and Monthly Lit. Jour., III, 44, 220; Colls. Top., Hist., and Biog., I, 55; Colls. N. H. Hist. Soc., II, 112; Raymond, Winslow Papers, 429; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 476, 464, 433, 630, 341, 286; Lyford, Hist. of Concord, N. H., I, 252-254.

L-2

during the years 1795 to 1797. The Governor refers in the same letter to Messrs. Boyd and Traill who were evidently also in exile the former being undoubtedly George Boyd who had been a member of the Council of New Hampshire, while the latter was with equal certainty Robert Traill, until recently comptroller of the customs at Portsmouth. Where these persons were at the time is left in doubt.1

The early flights from New Hampshire and particularly from Portsmouth, which was the seat of the provincial government, must have been increased by the termination of royal authority there and also by the action of the Continental Congress, October 6, 1775, in recommending to the various provincial assemblies and committees of safety the arrest of such persons as were regarded to be dangerous to the liberties of America. Gen. John Sullivan violently denounced "that infernal crew of Tories" at Portsmouth in a letter of October 29th to Washington, who replied November 12th, with an order that all officers of the royal government who had manifested an unfriendly disposition be seized and dealt with according to the wishes of the Provincial Congress or Committee of Safety. The other Tory inhabitants of the town were specifically omitted from this order, although Washington declared that they would "meet with this or a worse fate" in the near future, if they failed to reform their conduct. When, in the middle of November, the New Hampshire Congress took action in accordance with Washington's recommendation, it contented itself with designating six persons only for removal to moderate distances from Portsmouth, or for confinement in specified towns. The fact that the penalties imposed were not of a severer nature, or the number of those condemned larger may be fairly taken as another indication that the more objectionable officials had already fled. However, the six victims were let off easily, for they were kept under restraint less than six weeks.2

As yet New Hampshire had not adopted the policy of expelling its dangerous inhabitants. On the contrary, it was to become in the late autumn the custodian of considerable numbers of such

'Sec. Rep., Bur. of Archives, Ont.; (1904) Pt. II, 1020; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 148, 149, 350; N. H. Prov. Papers, Documents, and Records, 1674-1776, VII, 394; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 453, 680, 171, 651.

"N. H. Provincial Papers, Documents, and Records, (1764-1776), VII, 623, 662, 695.

persons from New York, sent over by the Committee of Conspiracies of that State. One group of these prisoners, which was forwarded to Exeter in the latter part of October, or later, numbered 117 persons; but in March, 1777, the New Hampshire Committee of Safety was notified by a new board of Commissioners, recently appointed by the New York Convention, that all of the latter's prisoners were to be recalled and given the choice between taking the oath of allegiance, or seeking the protection of the enemy. Meanwhile, New Hampshire sought to encourage the departure of her own Tories, for on January 16th her House of Representatives adopted a resolution granting full liberty to such of the inhabitants as were disaffected and desirous of leaving the State with their families and effects to do so within the next three months and, in the language of the resolution itself, "go to any other parts of the Globe they may choose," provided that they would notify the selectmen of their respective towns 30 days in advance of their departure.1 Again, we are confronted by the lack of evidence that would enable us to determine how many took advantage of the terms of this resolution. Doubtless, that evidence lies buried in numerous town records of the period, insofar as these have survived to the present day. On June 13, 1777, the House of Representatives itself readily granted permission to John Pierce, of Portsmouth, who was then in prison, "to repair to the West Indies or to Great Britain, and not to return to this State nor to any part of this Continent, without leave had and obtained of the General Assembly or of the Continental Congress."'2 With equal readiness the New Hampshire Committee of Safety gave its consent on October 8 to a schooner that had recently arrived at Portsmouth under a flag of truce to transport the families of Benjamin Hart and other designated inhabitants to Rhode Island, an exception being made in the case of one person only, who was held as a prisoner of war. 3

A month later the House of Representatives showed conclusively that it entertained suspicions toward the non-juring Quakers of the State by appointing a committee from several counties to

'Brewster, Rambles about Portsmouth, N. H., 204-296.

2N. H. State Papers, Documents, and Records from 1776 to 1783, VIII. 379-383, 393, 394, 508, 468, 584.

Ibid., 702.

examine the records and papers of the Friends' societies in Dover, Hampton Falls, Seabrook, and other towns with a view to transmitting to the House for further inspection any writings of a political nature that might be disclosed.1 But, after all, it was not the Quakers against whom the General Assembly directed its most determined action. This action was embodied in the measure adopted in November, 1778, to prevent the return of 76 persons named therein and of others who had left, or might leave, the State and had joined, or might join, the enemy. These persons were roundly denounced for deserting the cause of liberty and abetting that of tyranny by depriving the United States of their personal services at a time when their utmost assistance was needed; and since their return might be productive of new dangers the measure forbade their voluntary reappearance without leave, obtained in advance, by special act of the Assembly. It also made it the duty of the inhabitants of any district, as well as of the local officers, to apprehend and carry before a justice of the peace for commission to the common jail any absentee who might presume to return. The person thus committed was to be kept in custody until he should be sent out of the State. A master of a vessel who know ingly brought into the State any of the persons above described, or a person who willingly harbored a return refugee, was to pay a fine of £500 on conviction, one-half to go to the State and the other to him who should sue for it. Fugitives who should return a second time were to suffer death. Of those named in the act 32 had been residents of Portsmouth, 6 of Londonderry, 5 of Keene, 4 of Dunbarton, 3 of Hollis, and a like number of Alstead, while a dozen or more other towns had contributed the remainder in smaller numbers.2

'N. H. State Papers, Documents, and Records, (1776-1783) VIII, 713.

2By towns those proscribed were as follows: from Portsmouth, John Wentworth, Esq., Peter Livius, Esq., John Fisher, Esq., Geo. Meserve, Esq., Robt. Traill, Esq., Geo. Boyd, Esq., John Fenton, Esq., (Capt.) John Cochran, Esq., Samuel Hale, Esq., Edward Parry, Esq., Thos. McDonough, Esq., Maj. Robt. Rogers, Andrew Pepperell Sparhawk, Esq., Patrick Burn, mariner, John Smith, mariner, Wm. Johnson Rysam, mariner, Stephen Little, physician, Thos. and Archibald Achincloss, Robt. Robinson, merchant, Hugh Henderson, merchant, Gillam Butler, merchant, Jas. and John McMasters, merchants, Jas. Bixby, yeoman, Wm. Pevey, mariner, Benj. Hart, rope-maker, Bartholomew Stavers, post-rider, Philip Bayley, trader, Samuel Holland, Esq., Benning Wentworth, gentleman, Jude Kermison, mariner; from Pembroke, Jonathan Dix, trader; from Exeter, Robt. Luist Fowler, printer; from Concord, Benj.

Before the end of November, 1778, the Assembly proceeded to confiscate the real and personal property of 23 of the proscribed, together with those of two other Loyalists whose names had not appeared in the act of proscription. These two persons seem to have been non-residents of the State.1 In each county trustees, or agents, were appointed to take possession of the sequestered estates and sell the personal property immediately at public auction, except such articles as they might deem necessary for the support of the families of the proscribed. In the case of the furniture and family pictures of Governor Wentworth, however, it was not the trustee but the Assembly itself that decided (April 27, 1780) that these personal effects should be delivered up to the father of the absent official, namely, Mark Hunting Wentworth. The need of clothing for the Continental army led the Assembly at the close of March, 1781, to direct the trustees of the confiscated estates to pay into the State Treasury at once the money accruing rfom sales thus far made. At the same time, the Treasurer was directed to appropriate this money to the payment of orders for military clothing which had been, or was yet to be issued by the Board of War. A few days later (that is, on April 4) a committee of the

Thompson, Esq.; from Londonderry, Stephen Holland, Esq., Richard Holland, yeoman, John Davidson, yeoman, Jas. Fulton, yeoman, Thos. Smith, yeoman, Dennis O'Hala, yeoman; from New Market, Geo. Bell, trader, Jacob Brown, trader; from Merrimack, Edward Goldstone Lutwyche, Esq.; from Hollis, Samuel Cummings, Esq., Benj. Whiting, Esq., Thos. Cummings, yeoman; from Dunbarton, Wm. Stark, Esq., John Stark, yeoman, John Stinson, Jr., Samuel Stinson, Jeremiah Bowen, yeoman; from Amherst, Zaccheus Cutler, trader, John Holland, gentleman; from New Ipswich, Daniel Farnsworth, yeoman; from Francestown, John Quigley, Esq.; from Peterborough, John Morrison, clerk; from Keene, Josiah Pompoy, physician, Elijah Williams, Esq., Thos. Cutler, gentleman, Eleazer Sawyer, yeoman, Robt. Gillmore, yeoman; from Packersfield, Breed Batchelder, gentleman; from Alstead, Simon and Wm. Baxter, yeomen; from Winchester, Solomon Willard, gentleman; from Rindge, Jesse Rice, physician; from Charlestown, Enos Stevens, gentleman, Phineas Stevens, physician, Solomon Stevens, yeoman, Levi Willard, gentleman; from Claremont, John Brooks, yeoman; and from Hinsdale, Josiah and Simon Jones, gentlemen. (N. H. State Papers, Documents, and Records, 1776-1783, VIII, 810-812; Belnap, Hist. of N. H., I, 380, 381.)

'The names appearing in the act of confiscation (Nov. 28, 1778) are as follows: John Wentworth, Esq., Samuel Holland, Esq., Geo. Meserve, Esq., (Capt.) John Cochran, Esq., Thomas McDonough, Esq., Wm. Johnson Rysam, Jas. McMasters, John McMasters, Benning Wentworth, gentleman, Robt. Luist Fowle, Stephen Holland, gentleman, Edward Goldstone Lutwyche, Esq., John Stinson, Zaccheus Cutler, John Quigley, Esq., Daniel Farnsworth, Josiah Pomroy, Elijah Williams, Esq., Breed Batchelder, Enos Stevens, Simon Baxter, John Brooks, Crean Brush (of Cumberland County, N. Y.), Samuel Tarbell, and Jas. Rogers.