Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/459

 13. ANDREWS: COLONIAL CONDITIONS 445 by the Board, except a letter now and then from the Gov- ernor, and the answers to the queries that were occasionally sent to the colony. The references to Connecticut in the Journal are rare, and generally relate to some complaints against her. It is difficult to determine how far the Board believed the statements sent it, but its representations do not show any inclination to lighten the impression which the letters from the colonies give. This was the position that Connecticut occupied in the sight of the home authorities when John Winthrop, a grand- son of one Connecticut Governor and nephew of another, denying the validity of the intestate law, claimed all the real estate of his father who had died in 1717, and, ignoring the right which he had of appeal from the Court of Probate to the Court of Assistants, expressed his determination to ap- peal to the King in Council. This determination was carried out, and as the result of Winthrop's efforts the intestacy law was annulled by an Order in Council Feb. 15, 1728, as con- trary to the laws of England and not warranted* by the charter.^ The case was a private one and the colony was not heard in the matter. There is no doubt that the defendant, Lechmere, was inadequately defended by some one little versed in the colony's affairs, that his evidence was far from complete, his purse far from full, and that he was especially in want of " a good sword formed of the royal oar." ^ Win- throp, on the other hand, was ably defended by Attorney General Yorke and Solicitor General Talbot. The Commit- tee of the Council did not call in the assistance of the Board of Trade, and there are no documents bearing on this phase of the case among their papers. Winthrop did not rest his ^The decree is printed in full in Conn. Col. Rec. VIT, Appendix. Mass. Hist. Sac. Collections, 6th ser. vol. V, pp. 496-506. It will be impossible to give here even an outline of the facts of the case. See Talcott Papers, I, pp. 94 note, 187, 241. Mass. Hist. Sac. Proc, March, 1893, pp. 125-127. Conn. Col. Rec, VII, p. 572 ff. That there was considerable justice in Winthrop's position becomes evident when we know of the contents of "Wait Winthrop's will and of Lechmere's im- pecunious condition. Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 6th ser. vol. V, pp. 367 (note)-370; also Winthrop's letter to Cotton Mather, pp. 425-428. The most detailed account of the case is to be found in the same vol- ume, pp. 440-467. 'Talcott Papers, II, pp. 77-78, 136. Conn. Col Bee, VII, p. 191 note. State Archives, Miscellanies, II, doc. 313.