8, demanded the charter anew,[29] the
Massachusetts general court would not recognize either order. Gorges
could not raise the necessary funds to compel obedience, and the
attention of the king and his archbishop was occupied with forcing
episcopacy upon Scotland. In 1642 war began in England between
Parliament and king, and Massachusetts was left free to shape her own
destinies. It was now her turn to become aggressive. Construing her
charter to mean that her territory extended to a due east line three
miles north of the most northerly branch of Merrimac River, she
possessed herself, in 1641, of New Hampshire, the territory of the
heirs of John Mason; and in 1653-1658, of Maine, the province of
Gorges.

When the Long Parliament met, in 1641, the Puritans in England found
enough occupation at home, and emigration greatly diminished. In 1643
Massachusetts became a member of the New England confederation, and
her population was then about fifteen thousand; but nearly as many
more had come over and were distributed among three new
colonies--Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven.

[Footnote 1: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 332; Winthrop, _New
England_, I., 36.]

[Footnote 2: Force, _Tracts_, II., No. iv., 15.]

[Footnote 3: _Mass. Col. Records_, I., 75.]

[Footnote 4: Morton, _New English Canaan_ (Force, _Tracts_, II., No.
v.), 109.]

[Footnote 5: Dudley's letter (ibid., No. iv.).]

[Footnote 6: _Mass. Col. Records_, I., 75, 77.]

[Footnote 7: Palfrey, _New England_, I., 323, 324]

[Footnote 8: Ibid., 323.]

[Footnote 9: Hubbard, _New England_ (Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_,
2d series, V.), 138, 139; Winthrop, _New England_, I., 52.]

[Footnote 10: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 64.]

[Footnote 11: _Mass. Col. Records_, I., 82.]

[Footnote 12: Ibid., 87.]

[Footnote 13: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 84, 90, 152.]

[Footnote 14: _Mass. Col. Records_, II., 58, 59; Winthrop, _New
England_, II., 115-118, 193.]

[Footnote 15: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._ 1574-1660, p. 158.]

[Footnote 16: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 356.]

[Footnote 17: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 122, 123.]

[Footnote 18: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 174.]

[Footnote 19: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 161.]

[Footnote 20: Hazard, _State Papers_, I., 341.]

[Footnote 21: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 161, 163, 166, 186, 188,
224.]

[Footnote 22: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 163.]

[Footnote 23: Bradford, _Plimoth