not agree about the thing, whether the ensigns should be laid by in that regard that many refused to follow them, the whole case was referred to the next general court, and the commissioners for military affairs gave orders in the mean time that all ensigns should be laid aside."

In the interim a new flag having for an emblem the red and white roses in place of the cross was proposed, and letters in relation to the matter were written to England, for the purpose of obtaining "the judgment of the most wise and godly there." This project seems not to have met the approval of the wise and godly in England, for in December, 1635, it is recorded that the military commissioners" appointed colors for every company," leaving out the cross in all of them and appointing that the king's arms should be put into them, and in the colors of Castle island, Boston.

All ships in passing the fort at Castle island, were bound to observe certain regulations, but after these occurrences the fort wearing for a time no flag to signify its real character, presented the appearance of a captured or deserted fortress.

Under these circumstances in the spring of 1636, the ship St. Patrick, Capt. Palmer, was brought to, by Capt. Morris, the officer in command of the fort, and made to strike her colors. Capt. Palmer complained to the authorities of the conduct of the commander of the fort, as a flagrant insult both to his flag and country. They therefore ordered the commander of the fort before them, and in the presence of the master of the ship, informed him that he had no authority to do as he had done, and he was ordered to make such atonement as Capt. Palmer should demand. The captain was very lenient, only requiring an acknowledgment of his error on board of his ship, “that so all the ship's company might receive satisfaction." This Lieut. Morris submitted to, and all parties became quieted; but within a few days another circumstance occurred respecting the fort with a somewhat different result. The mate of a ship called the Hector pronounced all the people traitors and rebels because they had discarded the king's colors, and was brought before the court and made to acknowledge his offence and sign a paper to that effect.

These occurrences troubled the authorities lest reports should be carried to England that they had rebelled,' and that their contempt of the English flag was proof of the allegation. To counteract such representations, Mr. Vane, the governor, called the captains of the ten remaining ships then in harbor together, and desired to know if they were offended at what had happened, and if so what they required in satisfaction. They frankly told him that if questioned on their return to England "what colors they saw here," a statement of the bare facts in relation to it might result to their disadvantage. Therefore they would recommend that the king's colors might be set up in the fort. The governor and his advisers arrived at the same conclusion, and directed to give warrant to spread the king's colors at Castle island, where ships passed by.

There being no king's colors to be found to display at the fort, the difficulty was met by two of the shipmasters offering to present them with a set, but so fearful were the authorities of tolerating a symbol of idolatry, they declined receiving the colors thus offered until they had first taken the advice of Mr. Cotton in regard to them. It was finally concluded that although they were of the decided opinion that the cross in the ensign was idolatrous and therefore ought not to be had in it, nevertheless as the fort was the king's and maintained in his name, his colors might be used there. In accordance with this opinion the governor accepted the colors of Capt. Palmer, sending him in requital three beaver skins, and directed Mr. Dudley to give warrant to Lieut. Morris, the commander of the fort, to spread the king's colors whenever ships were passing.

This tempest in a tea pot, having been satisfactorily adjusted, the king's colors were continued at the castle, but excluded from use elsewhere in the colony, where through the religious prejudices of the people, the flag bearing the king's arms, continued in use until the establishment of the commonwealth.

In 1638, the subject of forming a confederacy of the New England colonies was discussed, but owing to divers differences the matter was delayed.

1

A seafaring man on approaching in his ship, having noticed that the flag displayed was destitute of a cross, "spoke to some one on board the ship that we had not the king's colors but were all traitors and rebels."-Smith's Hist. Newburyport.

In 1643, the confederacy was formed, and in the articles of compact, the colonies were styled, THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND. The union was declared to be perpetual, and the will of six of the eight commissioners chosen (two for each colony), was to be binding on all. We do not learn however that any common flag was adopted, until several years later (1686), when Gov. Andros received one from the king. (Plate IV.)

In 1651, the English parliament revived and adopted the old standard of St. George as the colors of England, and the General Court of Massachusetts Ordered, "as the court conceive the old English colors now used by the parliament to be a necessary badge of distinction betwixt the English and other nations in all places of the world, till the state of England alter the same, which we very much desire, we being of the same nation, have therefore ordered, that the captain of the castle shall advance the aforesaid colors of England upon all necessary occasions."

THRE

County

TROM

Mr. Whitmore, in the New England Hist. and Gen. Register for July, 1871, furnishes an interesting account of a local company of cavalry raised in 1659, just before the restoration of Charles II, the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Middlesex, Mass., and hence called the Three County Troop, and which according to the records continued in existence until 1677, and possibly longer. His paper is illustrated with the annexed drawing of the standard and a bill of its cost copied from an

entry in a Herald painter's book of the time of Charles I, now

preserved in the British Museum.