would have no jury in any case that they heard. 378 It was also pointed out by 
Governor Bellingham that subjects were not totally without redress, since 
appeals lay from inferior to superior courts within the colony. 877 
All these objections only served to obscure the underlying fact that it had 
been resolved from the first not to allow appeals to England. 378 In their report 
to the King the commissioners made due mention of this recalcitrance on 
the part of the Massachusetts Bay government. 379 Charles 11, affronted by the 
conduct of the colony, recalled the commissioners and ordered agents from 
that colony to appear in England for a full investigation of the matter. 3 so 
After some debate on the matter, the General Court declined to send the requested 
representatives to England. 381 Since the energies and the interests of 
the home government were concentrated in other fields, no further steps were 
taken to bring Massachusetts Bay under royal control until another decade had 
elapsed. 382 
370 4 Rec. Mass. Bay (Part II), 228. See also 
ibid., 197, where the commissioners are reported 
as stating that their commission was a 
commission of oyer and terminer and they 
would have no jury. Compare Cartwright: 
"To the question, whether the Commissioners 
would use a jury or no, it was answeared If 
they were to hear a cause, where matter of 
fact was to be proved, they would use a jury. 
But in this case of Mr. Deans; where the fact 
was already proved, and confessed, they would 
use none" (Clarendon Papers, 97; cf. ibid., 
66; 1 Hutchinson, op. cit., 208). Cartwright 
also pointed out that chancery causes did not 
require a jury, but added that "it did not 
concern them how we would proceed in a 
tryall, when they were resolved before hand, 
that they would not be tryed by us" (Clarendon 
Papers, 105). It was also asserted that 
the commissioners had answered affirmatively 
to the question "whither, on their hearing of 
appeales from the sentence of those Courts, 
they would admitt any new evidences other 
than the former Court had presented to them 
at the first hearing thereof" (4 Rec. Mass. Bay 
[Part ll], 197; 1 Hutchinson, op. cit., 208). 
377 Clarendon Papers, 62. 
s ™lbid., 97, 105. 
379 3 Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N.Y., no; CSP, 
Col., 1661-68, #1103. 
380 In a royal letter to the colony in April, 
1666, it was stated that their attitude indicated, 
despite their protestations of loyalty, 
that they believed "that his Majesty hath noe 
jurisdiction over them, but that all persons 
must acquiesse in their judgments and de- 
terminations how unjust soever, and cannot 
appeale to his Majesty, which would bee a 
matter of such a high consequence as every 
man discernes where it must end" (i Hutchinson, 
op. cit., 453). 
381 In discussing the import of the King's 
order it was stated inter alia: "Though no 
appeal lies to his majesty, so to stop justice, 
but it may proceed to the uttermost, yet the 
king may accept any complaint, and require 
an answer thereto, so that our absolute power 
to determine must not abate the king's prerogative" 
(Danforth Papers, 100-01). At a 
General Court of October 10, 1666, various 
sentiments were expressed on the subject of 
sending agents to appear before the King as 
ordered. Some urged that agents be sent with 
conciliatory gifts; if demand were made why 
tire governor, Major Hawthorne and others 
did not appear, they were "to plead with his 
majesty, shewing how inconsistent it is with 
our being, for any to be forced to appear to 
answer in a judicial way in England, to answer 
either appeals or complaints against the 
country." But "this last proposal was obstructed 
by sundry, as being ruinous to the whole; and 
so nothing can be done" (ibid., no). 
382 Kaye, op. cit., 139; 3 Osgood, op. cit., 192; 
1 Edward Randolph, 42. For a contemporary 
discussion of the sovereignty of Massachusetts 
under the charter, written after the termination 
of the commission, see 46 Mass. Hist. Soc. 
Proc. (3d ser.), 285-301. For a 1671 comment 
of Edward Montagu upon the commission see 
2 Harris, Life of Edward Montagu (1912), 
339-40.