Transcript:Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts/v10p264

Previous Page <--- [Vol 10, p 264 - THE REVEREND FRANCIS DOUGHTY, Feb 1906] ---> Next Page

was some other Mr. Doughtie¹ the Earl was purposing to settle in the two small livings. For the intervening time the acts of the Court of High Commission are lost, otherwise we should probably find an account of his trial for that nonconformity for which Doughty is said to have left England. The time of his coming to America is not known, but his name appears as one of the forty-six ancient purchasers at Cohannet. Mr. Emery argues that this purchase was made in 1638, not in 1637 as others have stated.² Mr. Doughty was in the Bay Colony in the summer of 1639, though then purposing, as his sister thought, to leave this jurisdiction. It does not appear that there was any bad feeling between him and the magistrates here, but he was in serious trouble nevertheless, for his sister Elizabeth, executrix of his father's estate, having in the meantime been married to William Cole of Sutton, Che??-Magna, Somersetshire, came here also, with her husband, and entered suit for a considerable amount, which she claimed her brother owed her, in equity, if not in law, from the settlement of her father's estate.³ Mr. Lechford took up her cause as advocate with a rather indiscreet zeal which got him into serious trouble with the magistrates, who disciplined him for approaching the jury out of court in his client's behalf. The details of the case are known only from Mr. Lechford's Note-Book and are not easy to understand, but fortunately it is not necessary for us to retry the case. Throughout the protracted litigation concerning Mrs. Cole's claims against her brother, the officials of the Colony seem to have been scrupulously anxious to be both just and merciful. In the complaint of the Coles is the following request:

And because the said Complts have not such exact proofe of the premises as the Law requires therefore they humbly pray that the said Francis [Doughty] may be enjoyned to answer the premises and every parte thereof in writing upon his oath.⁴

¹ On 12 January, 1635-36, Henry Doughty, clerk, vicar of Meriden, County Warwick, was before the High Commission on some charge not named (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1635-1636, pp. 468, 472).
² S. H. Emery, Ministry of Taunton i. 18, 37.
³ For a general statement of Mrs. Cole's claim in this first case against her brother, see Lechford's Note-Book, p. 110.
⁴ Lechford's Note-Book, p. 173.