How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [12]
With this final victory, Charles II decided the time had come to send Massachusetts a message. The case of Robert Tufton Mason was ideal for composing cutting remarks. Literally cutting: “We have been for a long time solicited by the Complaints of Our Trusty and Well-beloved Subject, Robert Mason,” the king wrote to the governor of Massachusetts, “to interpose Our Royal authority for … relief in the matter of [his] Claims and Right … to the province of New Hampshire.… We have therefore directed that … [Massachusetts] show cause why We should not afford the Petitioner that Relief.”8
Faced with the loss of New Hampshire, Massachusetts commenced legal maneuvers that were countered by Mason. The case was finally adjudicated in 1677. During the maneuverings, Mason sought to improve his chances by relinquishing to the Crown any claim to governing the land. Before the judges, Massachusetts cited an impressive list of documents and precedents. But the issue was no longer about law; it was about power. To a king seeking to solidify his control, particularly a king who had experienced recurrent difficulties in controlling Massachusetts, Mason’s pretrial move was checkmate. Mason, however, did not win. The judges concluded that because “the said lands are in the possession of several other persons not before us”—living, as they did, across an ocean—“if there be any course of justice upon the place having jurisdiction, we esteem it most proper to direct the parties to have recourse thither for the decision.”9
The place having jurisdiction? Couldn’t Their Honours have been a bit more specific? In point of fact, their lack of specificity was the significant element in this decision. No one, based on the evidence presented, had demonstrated clear jurisdiction over the disputed land. Mason may not have won his case, but he had not lost it, either. The loser was Massachusetts.
Mason’s next move was another avowal. In this instance, he promised not to demand back payments from the residents, and to sell their land to them “according to the just and true … value of all houses built by them, and of all lands … improved by them.”10
Following this avowal, Charles II was ready to continue cutting Massachusetts down to size. In 1680 he decreed to the people of New Hampshire that they were now under his direct governance. Two years later the king sealed the deal with Mason. “We have received the Opinion of Our Attorney & Solicitor General that ye said Robert Mason … has good and legal Title to ye Lands conveyed to him,” the king informed Massachusetts, nailing down his proclamation by adding, “We do strictly charge & command you to secure him, his servants & agents from any arrests & molestations whatsoever during his or their abode within ye limits of your Jurisdiction.”11 Translation: Mason had won his match.
With the king having secured the way, Mason arrived in America for the first time. What he found, however, was that selling the land in New Hampshire to its occupants was a whole other game—one at which he was less adept. In 1685 settlers Thomas Wiggins and Anthony Nutter came to the home of New Hampshire’s governor, where Mason was staying, to protest having to pay for what they viewed as their own property. Wiggins stated his views on real estate law in language so colorful that Mason decided to throw him out. Or tried to; Mason ended up being the one who got tossed. Wiggins hurled him into the fireplace, where Mason’s clothing ignited, and one leg was badly burned. The governor quickly intervened and just as quickly lost a tooth and received two broken ribs. One of Mason’s male servants, hearing the scuffle, dashed in brandishing his master’s sword. It ended up in Nutter’s possession as the two obstreperous settlers left, delighting