William Stoughton (Massachusetts) - Politics and Land Development

Politics and Land Development

With little prospect for another position in England, Stoughton returned to Massachusetts in 1662. He preached on several occasions at Dorchester and Cambridge, but refused offers of permanent ministerial posts. He instead became involved in politics and land development. He served on the colony's council of assistants (a precursor to the idea of a governor's council) almost every year from 1671 to 1686, and represented the colony in the New England Confederation from 1673 to 1677 and 1680 to 1686. In the 1684 election, Joseph Dudley, who had been labelled as an enemy of the colony (along with Stoughton, Bulkley, and others) for his moderate position on colonial charter issues, failed to win reelection to the council. Stoughton, who was reelected by a small majority and was a friend and business partner of Dudley's, refused to serve in protest.

In 1676 he was chosen, along with Peter Bulkley, to be an agent representing colonial interests in England. Their instructions were narrowly tailored. They were authorized to acquire land claims from the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason that conflicted with some Massachusetts land claims in present-day Maine. These they acquired for £1,200, incurring the anger of Charles II, who had intended to acquire those claims for the Duke of York. They were unsuccessful in maintaining broader claims made by Massachusetts against other territories of Maine and the Province of New Hampshire. Their limited authority upset the Lords of Trade, who sought to have the colonial laws modified to conform to their policies. The mission of Stoughton and Bulkley did little more than antagonize colonial officials in London because of their hardline stance.

For many years Stoughton and Joseph Dudley where friends, as well as political and business partners. The two worked closely together politically, and engaged in land development together. In the 1680s Stoughton acquired significant amounts of land from the Nipmuc tribe in what is now Worcester County in partnership with Dudley. The partnership included a venture that established Oxford as a place to settle refugee Huguenots. Dudley and Stoughton used their political positions to ensure that the titles to lands they were interested in were judicially cleared, a practice that also benefited their friends, relatives, and other business partners. Concerning this practice, Crown agent Edward Randolph wrote that it was "impossible to bring titles of land to trial before them where his Majesties's rights are concerned, the Judges also being parties." This was particularly obvious when Stoughton and Dudley were part of a venture to acquire 1 million acres (4,000 km2) of land in the Merrimack River valley. Dudley's council, on which Stoughton and other investors sat, formally cleared that land's title in May 1686.

When Dudley was commissioned in 1686 to temporarily head the Dominion of New England, Stoughton was appointed to his council, and he was then elected by the council as the deputy president. During the administration of Sir Edmund Andros he served as a magistrate and on the council. As a magistrate he was particularly harsh on the town leaders of Ipswich, who had organized tax protests against the dominion government, based on the claim that dominion rule without representation violated the Rights of Englishmen. When Andros was arrested in April 1689 in a bloodless uprising inspired by the 1688 Glorious Revolution in England, Stoughton was one of the signatories to the declaration of the revolt's ringleaders. Despite this statement of support for the popular cause, he was sufficiently unpopular due to his association with Andros that he was denied elective offices. He appealed to the politically powerful Mather family, with whom he still had positive relations. In 1692, when Increase Mather and Sir William Phips arrived from England carrying the charter for the new Province of Massachusetts Bay and a royal commission for Phips as governor, they also brought one for Stoughton as lieutenant governor.