My Kinsman Major Molineux

Two were imprisoned by a popular insurrection a third as Hutchinson inclines

After the kings of Great Britain had assumed the right of appointing the colonial governors, the measures of the latter seldom met with the ready and generous approbation which had been paid to those of their predecessors under the original charters. The people looked with most jealous scrutiny to the exercise of power which did not emanate from themselves and they usually rewarded their rulers with slender gratitude for the compliance by which, in softening their instructions from beyond the sea, they had incurred the reprehension of those who gave them. The annals of Massachusetts Bay will inform us, that of six governors in the space of about forty years from the surrender of the old charter under James II.

Two were imprisoned by a popular insurrection a third, as Hutchinson inclines to believe was driven from the province by the whizzing of a musket ball a fourth in the opinion of the same historian was hastened to his grave by continual bickering with the House of Representatives and the remaining two, as well as their successors, till the Revolution were favored with few and brief intervals of peaceful sway. The inferior members of the court party in times of high political excitement led scarcely a more desirable life. These remarks may serve as a preface to the following adventures which chanced upon a summer night not far from a hundred years ago.