Edward Gove-9th Great Grandfather

Family History & Research
Repinski-Dietz Family Tree
Dietz Family Line
Pope-Gove Family Branch
Edward Gove
9th Great Grandfather

I cried when I read the following two paragraphs:

The judge then respited all the defendents except Edward Gove until the king should declare their punishment; but immediately, shedding tears while doing so, passed sentence upon Edward Gove, as follows:

You, Edward Gove, shall be drawn on a hedge to the place of execution, and there you shall be hanged by ye neck, and when yet living be cut down and cast on the ground, and your bowels shall be taken out of your belly, and your privy members cut off and burnt while you are yet alive, your head shall be cut off and your body divided into four parts, and your head and quarters shall be placed where our sovereign lord, the King pleaseth to appoint. And the Lord have mercy on your soul.

Sometimes in the course of researching family history a story arises that should be put down in our family collection of stories, and this is one.


Meet Edward Gove, the 9th Great Grandfather of myself and my siblings through our mother, Marlene Dietz Repinski.

Forward 

I have known the name of my 9th Great Grandfather Edward Gove for about a year now, since discovering my Pope family line a few years ago but I have not had time to research this line beyond the pedigrees until a few days ago.

Edward is my ancestral  9th Great Grandfather through my mother, Marlene Dietz Repinski and her father Ray Dietz and his mother Grace Pope. (Family Pedigree below).

While researching the Gove branch, I came across a family history of the Gove family that covers the time of my Gove family ancestry in England of the 1500s all the way up to the end of the 19th century (see above photo)

In this book are the stories of almost every one of my ancestral great grandparents from my 16th great grandparents and their families down to my 5th great grandparents and their families.

On about page 15 starts the story of my 9th Great Grandfather and this story takes up quite a few pages after.



To say I was amazed would be a massive understatement. As I read from page to page, I started to realize that Edward's life was anything but ordinary. Quite the contrary, his life was that of what books are made of.....a life of adventure, trials and tribulations, fighting for a cause, being wronged and eventually overcoming adversity.....

Click here to read Edward's biography's in an excerpt of the Gove Book

Click here for the full online Gove Family History

Many parts of this story below are excerpts from various stories on the life of Edward that I have discovered during my research. Those sources are included at the bottom of the post.

So with that being said, It is Edward's story that I want to share today.
Someday it is my hope to write his story into a full biography as it is a story that needs to be told because it is a story of America and the quest for freedom and personal rights.

I am so very proud to be a descendent of this man and to know that some of his blood runs through the veins of myself and my family.

Family Pedigree to Edward Gove

Jane, John, James, Jackie, Jeff Repinski

are the Children of:

Marlene Dietz Repinski (& Maurice Repinski)

is the daughter of:

Raymond Dietz (& Maud Kosmeider)

is the son of:

Grace Pope (& Henry Dietz)

Henry Pope

is the son of:

Elizabeth Gove (& Thomas Pope)

is the daughter of:

Levi Gove (& Olive Law)

is the son of:

Ezekiel Gove (& Betsey May)

is the son of:

Joseph Gove (& Susannah Purvere)

is the son of:

Jeremiah Gove (& Sarah Cram)

is the son of: 

Ebenezer Gove (& Judith Sanborn)

is the son of:

Edward Gove (& Hannah Titcomb/Partridge?)

The Life of  9th GGF- Edward Gove 

Capt. Edward Gove Sr

Born about 1637 in London, England

Son of John Gove Sr and Mary Shard

Brother of Mary Gove, John Gove Jr, Humphrey Gove, Mary Gove, Rachel Gove, Benjamin Gove, Elizabeth Mansfield [half] and John Mansfield [half]

Husband of Hannah (Titcomb/Partridge) Gove — married about 1660 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts

Father of Abiel Gove, John Gove Sr, William Gove, Hannah (Gove) Clements, Mary (Gove) Sanborn, Abigail Gove, Penuel Gove, Abigail (Gove) Prescott, Ebenezer Gove, Edward Gove Jr, Jeremiah Gove, Rachel Gove, Ann Gove and Sarah (Gove) Dearborn

Died 29 May 1691 in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire

Introduction

What if you started a revolution and nobody came? New Hampshire’s Edward Gove found out in 1683 – and the answer is you are sent to the Tower of London to await your gruesome execution.

Nearly 100 years before the outbreak of the Revolution, Edward Gove of Hampton New Hampshire led what historians believe was the first armed resistance to the British in the northern colonies.
He was, Rev. Edgar Warren wrote in the introduction to the second edition of Dow's History of Hampton, 1638-1892, "a high-spirited and impulsive man, who resolved not to lightly submit to what he considered an infringement of the people's ancient prerogatives."

Gove’s story is well-preserved in The Gove Book: History and Genealogy of the American Family of Gove, written by William Henry Gove. This is the book that I discovered just last night while researching my Gove family branch...

1604-1647

From England to America in the early 17th Century 

The story starts with my 10th Great Grandfather, John Gove and my 10th Great Grandmother, Mary. Historians have been unable to figure out definetely who John's wife was but research leads to her maiden name being either Shard or Sales.

Born in London about 1604, John was a brazier (brass worker).

John sailed to Charlestown (now Boston) in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 with three children, John, Edward, and young Mary, and there bought a house.
He died in 1647, leaving 50 shillings each to 16 year old John and 18 year old Edward.
Mary who was still a child was given to a family friend, Ralph Mousall, a turner (in pottery he turns the dried clay ware to the required outline before firing) to be raised.

 John appears to have apprenticed himself to Mr. Mousall as he also becomes a turner, leading a somewhat traditional life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and outliving three wives.

1647-1678

An Early Settler of Hampton NH

Edward moved up the coast of Massachusetts living in various communities and eventually to Salisbury by age 27, farmed, and began buying and selling land by the time he was thirty.

He married Hannah Partridge from Salisbury and moved his family to Hampton, in the colony of New Hampshire bordering Massachusetts, when he was 35.

Edward was a large land holder; and he appeared in court several times in maintenance of his rights as to lands.
He was described as a strenuous man, and frank even to bluntness. When he believed he was wronged, he quickly sought to avenge himself, as far as possible, by his own individual efforts.
He did not refrain from forceful language and personal assault and was before the quarterly court several times for such offenses.
In 1673, he was fined for abusing Nathaniel Weare of Hampton and for calling him a thief.
In 1675, he took a neigbor lady to court claiming that she had bewitched him and caused his crops to fail that growing season.

1675-1683 

The King Declares an Independent Province in North America 

In 1675, an attorney for King Charles II gave legal rights to the Province of New Hampshire to Robert Mason, and a royal decree in 1679 ordered the Colony of Massachusetts Bay to stop exercising jurisdiction over this territory, and New Hampshire was made a royal province.  

A president and a council were appointed by the king with a general assembly to be chosen by New Hampshire citizens.  Edward Gove was elected as a representative from Hampton.

In 1680, Robert Mason made plans to visit New Hampshire.  His goal was to collect rent from the settlers, but they refused to pay him rent or to sign his leases.  They claimed that they had been in peaceful possession of the land for 50 years, and they had endured hardship and great expense to make the settlements flourish.  When he was unable to persuade the settlers, Mason next tried to intimidate them.  He threatened to sell their homes.

At a town meeting in 1681, Edward Gove was one of the men appointed to prepare the settler’s case to present to the council.  The council upheld the settler’s claims and prohibited Mason from proceeding with his efforts to collect money from them.  Mason returned to England and appealed to the king.  In 1682, King Charles II appointed Edward Cranfield as lieutenant-governor of the Province in New Hampshire.  The king was promised twenty per cent of all rents collected.

Cranfield arrived in New Hampshire in 1682.  Using his commission as governor, he dropped two of the citizens appointed to the Assembly and suspended two  others.  In 1683, Cranfield completely dissolved the assembly when they would not enact laws that they knew would not be popular with the citizens of New Hampshire.

Cranfield ordered the citizens to sign Mason’s leases within the month.  Few signed, instead asking if the matter could be presented to the king.  Cranfield refused and brought suit against the settlers.

The Back Story 

"A History of John Mason and his descendent Robert Mason"

Let me go back to the year 1621 for a bit to give the history of how this all started....

In the early days of settlement, New Hampshire was disputed territory. Claimed by the heirs of John Mason, who had been granted a charter in 1621, it had nonetheless been settled by groups of English immigrants who scoffed at the Mason claims.

Although John Mason had sunk plenty of money into the colony, he died before ever visiting New Hampshire and never turned a profit. 

He had built mills for sawing lumber and milling grain, and he stocked his new colony with cannon and small arms. Upon his death, however, all his work decayed to ruin.

His descendants neglected the territory, leaving it open to, well, squatters. By the time the family figured out that there was money to be made, New Hampshire had gone through a number of governments. 

In 1652, Robert Mason, a descendant, had tried to reestablish ownership of the colony and, though he successfully sued one of the settlers occupying part of the land, he could never extract any payment. He returned to England empty-handed.

With the royal decision to detach New Hampshire from Massachusetts, the time seemed right to Robert Mason to try to enforce his family’s 60-year-old claim to the land once again. With visions of establishing himself a fiefdom, Mason named himself Lord Proprietor of New Hampshire. He then agreed to pay Cranfield a salary of 150 pounds to go to New Hampshire as governor and began demanding that the residents of the colony start paying him rent for their land. He was to send 20 percent of what he collected back to the king.

By 1680, the Masons tried to regain their foothold and talked the King into appointing Edward Cranfield as lieutenant governor. He arrived in New Hampshire in October of 1682 and was immediately disliked by the local Assembly.

 

1683

Jan 1683

Removal from Government Office 

Starting a Rebellion 

Edward took issue with this miserable Governor and on Jan. 26, 1683, raised a protest of the type most common in the colonies at the time. For this protest, Cranfield removed him from the assembly.

Gove was temporarily replaced by Capt. Walter Barefoot, who continued trying to implement Mason's and Cranfield’s schemes.

Edward soon started sowing the seeds of rebellion amongst the townsfolk of Hampton and the surrounding communities and did whatever he could to stop Mason from badgering the local population.

Feb 1683

The Arrest and Arraignment of Edward and his Rebels

Lieutenant-governor Cranfield immediately instituted, by special commission, a court of Oyer and Terminer, and it was held at Portsmouth on Thursday, Feb. 1, 1683, five days after the arrests had been made. 

The judge was Richard Waldron, esquire, and Thomas Daniel and William Vaughan, esquires, assistants, with the other justices of the peace of the province who were then present.

The grand jury, which had been drawn and returned, consisted of John Hinks, Robert Elliott, Thomas Marston, John Redman, Samuel Wentworth, William Sanborn, William More, Richard Sloper, John Moulton, Edward Gillman, John Roberts, Henry Moulton, Joseph Canne, Mathias Haynes, Job Clements, Joseph Beard, Samuel Haynes and Morice Hobbs.

(I discovered through the various stories on the trial that John Hinks, Thomas Marston, William Sanborn, John Moulton,  Mathias Haynes and Nathaniel Batchelor who were members of the jury, were also my ancestral great grandfathers in other lines.)


After hearing from several witnesses, an indictment was handed down, which read in part that Gove and the others were  guilty of “having withdrawn their allegiance and obedience to our Sovereign Lord ye King.” :

Edward Gove of Hampton in ye said Province, planter, John Gove of Hampton aforesaid, carpenter, William Hely of Hampton aforesaid, smith, Joseph Wadley of Exeter, in ye said Province, laborer, John Wadley of Exeter aforesaid, laborer, Robert Wadley of Exeter aforesaid, laborer, John Sleeper of Exeter aforesaid, laborer, Thomas Rawlins of Exeter aforesaid, laborer, Mark Baker of Hampton aforesaid, laborer, with others, not having the fear of God before their eyes, but by the instigation of the Devil, having withdrawn their allegiance and obedience to our Sovereign Lord ye King, did at Hampton on ye twenty-sixth day of January last past, traitorously, with force and arms, viz. swords drawn, guns, pistols and other weapons, and with the sound of a trumpet levy war against his Majesty and his government, appearing and rendevouzing at Hampton aforesaid in a rebellious body and assembly in a hostile manner, raising and making insurrections and with treasonable words at Hampton aforesaid and Portsmouth and other places, moving and inciting the people to sedition and rebellion, declaring for liberty and the like, to the great disturbance of his Majesties peace, to the terror of his people against his crown and dignity and contrary to ye form of ye Statutes in their case made and provided.

The Trial 

 The petit jury for the trial of the accused was duly drawn and returned.
It consisted of Henry Dow, Humphrey Wilson, John Brewster, Philip Cromwell, Joseph Smith, John Tuck, Francis Page, John Seiver, Obediah Morse, Richard Waterhouse, Mathew Nelson and James Randle. 
(Yet more of my ancestral great grandfathers would be on this jury including Obidiah Morse and Richard Waterhouse).

At the trial, which occurred on Monday, February 5th, Richad Martin of Portsmouth, esquire, testified that about eight o'clock Thursday evening, January 25th, Edward Gove came to his house with Jonathan Thing and said that he "was upon a design, and said 'we have swords by our sides as well as others, and would see things mended before we will lay them down.' He also said that he was going to Dover, and we would hear further from him in three or four days."
Jonathan Thing testified similarly.

Reuben Hull of Portsmouth, merchant, testified that at Dover on Friday, January 26th, he met Edward Gove who had his sword and boots on, and said to him, "How now, Gove, where are you bound? What's the matter with you?"
"Matter," said Gove, "matter enough. We at Hampton have had a town meeting and we resolved as one man that things shall not be carried on end as it is like to be, and we have all our guns ready to stand upon our guard. I have been at Exeter, and they are resolved to do the same. I have my sword by my side, and brought my carbine also with me which I have left somewhere. Jonathan Thing came with me. I have left him at Portsmouth to treat with John Pickering and some others, and I am going to Major Waldern's to see what he will say to it. He said the Governor had stretched his commission." Hull replied, "Gove, what, are you mad? Do you know what you are going to do?" Gove said, "If you will be of the other side, we shall know you. And if they should take me and put me in gaol, I have them that will bring me out."

Henry Green of Hampton, a justice of the peace, testified that on Saturday, the twenty-fifth of January, he saw Edward Gove come into the town with a trumpet and several men with him in two files, some of them having guns. They were taken and secured by a guard; and soon afterward, when he was at Mr. Cotton's house, being informed that the prisoners had broken out, the witness made haste to Cornet Sherborn's. When be reached there, Edward Gove and his company were out, and Gove presented a gun at him.

William Marston of Hampton, the constable who had been authorized to arrest Gove and his men, testified that, upon receipt of the warrant, he with others went to Gove's home and made diligent search, but he did not find him. Returning homeward in the nighttime, when he could not plainly see, he heard the trumpet sound and soon met Gove with the trumpeter. They were going toward Gove's house, but being well mounted they got past. Gove said he would not speak with me there, but at his house. When I came to his house the latch string was pulled in, but Gove bid the door to be opened, and stood upon his defence, with his sword or cutlass drawn in his hand towards the justice, saying, "Hands off! I know your business as well as yourself. I will not be taken in my house." Nathaniel Lad, the trumpeter, stepped to him to assist him with his sword or cutlass drawn toward Marston's breast. Upon this move the latter felt constrained to go and secure more assistance. Returning to Gove's house, the constable saw Edward Gove, Nathaniel Lad, John Gove and William Hely quickly mount and ride away. The constable failed to see them again until the next morning, when they came, mounted and armed, toward Mr. Sherborn's house in two files. Edward Gove was in the front, and the trumpeter blew his trumpet. The lieutenant spoke to Edward Gove and his men, and they made no resistance. They dismounted and delivered up their arms, and were arrested by the military forces.

The Pleas of the Defendants

Each of the prisoners then defended himself and his activities:

Edward Gove acknowledged that the testimony against him was true. He "railed" at Governor Cranfield, saying he was a traitor and acted under a pretended commission and demeaned himself with "insolence and impudence." 

The prisoners made their answer in defence Edward Gove did acknowledge that what was sworn agst him was true, & withal railed at ye Governor, & said he was a Traitor & acted by a pretended Commission, & that he should have those that would fetch him out of prison, and demeaned himself with great insolence & impudence.

John Gove owned he was in ye Company at ye time of ye break of prison at Hampton with ye prisoners at ye barr, and that he went along with Edward Gove his father by his command.

William Hely confessed That his rising in arms was for liberty, & that he did say so, because he heard Edward Gove say the same words, & that he was in company at ye break of prison, & stood upon his defence.

Joseph Hadley owned he was in Goves company with others when he was apprehended & broke prison. Robert Wadley confessed the same. Thomas Rawlins confessed the same. Mark Baker confessed the same & that Edward Gove putt a pistoll in his hand.

John Sleper confessed ye same, but that having made his escape, he did withal in one hour surrender himself.

John Wadley confessed he was in company of Edward Gove when apprehended, but that he did not break prison.

The Verdicts

The jury were out six hours, and returned a verdict of guilty for each of the defendants:

Edward Gove, guilty according to the inditement.

John Gove, guilty of these crimes, for being in his father's company when apprehended, & breaking out of custody, & standing upon his defence.

William Hely guilty of these crimes, for being in Edward Gove's company when seized with arms, & saying his rising was for liberty, as Gove said, & for breaking out of Custody & standing upon his defence after he was out.

Robert Wadley Jun guilty for being one of Goves company breaking out of Custody, & standing upon his defence.

Joseph Wadley, equall guilty with his Brother Robert.

Mark Baker, guilty of ye same crime with ye aboves4 Wadleys, & for receiving a pistol of his master Gove.

Thomas Rawlins guilty equal with aboves4 Wadleys.

John Wadley guilty of being in Goves Company when apprehended.

John Sleeper guilty of being in Goves Company when apprehended, breaking custody, going away, but coming again within about one hours time & surrendered up himselfe a prisoner.

The Sentences of Edward and his Friends

The judge then respited all the defendants, except Edward Gove, until the king should declare their punishment; but immediately, shedding tears while do so, passed sentence upon Edward Gove, as follows:

You, Edward Gove, shall be drawn on a hedge to the place of execution, and there you shall be hanged by ye neck, and when yet living be cut down and cast on the ground, and your bowels shall be taken out of your belly, and your privy members cut off and burnt while you are yet alive, your head shall be cut off and your body divided in four parts, and your head and quarters shall be placed where our Sovereign Lord the King pleaseth to appoint. And the Lord have mercy on your soul.

The news of Edward Gove's conviction and sentence was widespread in New England. Rev. Noadiah Russell, then a tutor in Harvard College, wrote in his diary:

11 [No 1682-3] Edw: Goave of Hampton in Mr. Masons colony was condemned to dye for taking up armes against ye Governt, after was brought to Boston in order to be sent to England.1

1[Diary of Rev. Noadiah Russell, tutor of Harvard College, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume VIII 1853, page 58.]


My ancestral great uncle, John was pardoned.
The following is a copy of the pardon given to John Gove:

I, Edward Cranfield in pursuance of my Royal commission and instructions do hereby pardon and remit unto John Gove of Hampton in the Said Province Laborer, one of the persons convicted of high treason at the Said Court held by special commission of Oyer and terminer viz the first day of February last past in the year of our Lord 1683 all his crimes and offences of treason and Conspiracy and all penalties and forfeitures for the same. Given under my hand and the Seal of the province the --------- day of Feb in the six and thirteeth year of our sovereign Lord Charles the Second King of England &c A. D. 1683.

A similar pardon was granted to John Wadley, William Helly and John Sleeper.
One of the Wadleys probably died in prison and the other was retained in confinement until the close, or near the close, of the governor's administration.

The other prisoners were respited until the king's pleasure should be known, which was that he the governor should pardon such as he deemed objects of mercy, they being all young men and not realizing their transgressions, and all with one or two exceptions were pardoned. One died in prison, one was detained in prison for cause now unknown, and was not liberated until after or near the close of the governor's departure.

Edward's estate was forfeited to the crown, leaving his family destitute.

Awaiting the Trip to England

March-June 1683

As he was already unpopular in the settlement, Cranfield did not want to carry out Gove’s death sentence, so Cranfield sent him to England to have the sentence carried out there. 

So Edward was transported to Boston to await the trip to England to await his fate at the pleasure of King Charles.

A few months later, Edward was put on the ship "Richard" in Boston, shackled in Irons for the trip to England. 

The letter from Cranfield detailing the transfer of Edward on to the ship for transport:

To Thomas Joules Commander of the Ship Richard of Boston
Whereas Edward Gove late of Hampton in the Province of New Hampshire in New England was in January Last convicted and condemned for High Treason and the Sentence of Death passd upon him for the same and whereas his Mastie hath Commanded that all persons so offending bee sent home to his Kingdome of England to bee there executed or kept till his Majties pleasure be knowne therein these are therefore in his Majties name to require you the said Thomas Joules to receive on board ye ship Richard the said Gove and to transport him to England and him safely to keep untill he shall be demanded of you By express Warrant under the hand of one of his Majties Principall Secrys of State. Given under my hand and Seale this 29th day of march 1683.

EDW CRANFIELD (SEAL)

June 1683

The Tower of London

On 6 June 1683, Edward Gove arrived in England and was imprisoned in irons in the Tower of London.  

Efforts were immediately begun to seek his release.
My 9th Great Grandmother, Hannah, wrote a petition to the king explaining that her family was suffering under “wretched and deplorable conditions” and that her husband suffered from bouts of “distemper of lunacy”.

To the Kings Most Excelent Majesty
The Petition of Hannah Gove, wife of Edward Gove of Hampton in yor Majtys Province of New Hampshire in New England, prsented ye -------th of ------- 1683.
Humbly Sheweth
The wretchd & Deplorable Condition of her selfe and family, but chiefely her husband, who by means of a distemper of Lunacy or some such like, which he have benn Subject unto (by times) from his youth, and yet is untill now (as his mother was before him) (though at some times seemingly very Rationall) which have occationed him Irationally and evily to demeane himselfe (by means of some unhappy provocation) to such actions whereby he have incured unto himselfe the Sentence of Death; past upon him by yor Maties Court in the same Province, with Loss of all his Estate; and is now sent over into England to attend yor Maties further pleasure therein, on whose Royall favour only now depends all possibility of Releise. And for as much as he never had the least expression of disloyalty or Disafection to yor Maties person, Crown & Dignety or Interest neither then, nor at any other time that wee know of nor nothing tending that way (when Rationall) but the Contrary, as he would have pleaded at his tryall had be been himselfe and doubt not but he would upon tht accompt now begg for his own life either to the Honorable Govt here or of yor Royall Majties there, but he being not capable of so doeing.

Your most deploreable Supplicant Doe in most Humble wise Pray your Sacred Majties favourable admitance of her humble Request for the life of her said Husband (by your Majties Gratious pardon) or what way soever it shall seem good to yor Majties, yor poore petitioner haveing no knowlidge of Law, of the privilidges that a Subject may plead, and yor Majties poore Petitioner, and all her Distressed family, Shall as in duty they are bound ever pray for yor Majties long life and Happy Reigne.

HANNAH GOVE


On the eleventh of June 1683, only a week after his confinement began, Edward wrote the following letter to A Mr. Randolph, whom I presume was something akin to his personal lawyer, requesting him to use his influence with the king to secure his pardon:

I make bold to trouble you with my affairs who are a person that know my circumstances very well; I having little hope but from his Maties mercy desire you will do me the favour to petition the King for my pardon, you know my case & what to urge in my behalfe: had I known the laws of the land to be contrary to what was don, I would never have don it, you may well think I was ignorant of any law to ye contrary, since for 14 or 15 years past the same thing hath been don every yeare and no notice at all taken of it. Sir, if you can prevayle with his Maties to pardon me, I will endeavour by all the actions of the rest of my life to deserve it, and make appear to the world that as I am now heartily sorry for having offended his Maty, so for the time to come I shall by all imaginable services attest my loyalty to the King to the utmost of my power. I have further to request of you (if it may not be inconvenient) that you will pleas to assist me with some money, in my necessity, and (as far as my promise may signify in the case) do promise that whatever you will be pleased to furnish me withall here, you shall take it out of my estate in New England. Those things I desire you will be pleased to do for me, wherby you will do me great acts of charity and always oblidge me to remain

Honble Sr to command to my power


EDWARD GOVE

Tower 11 June, 1683

1684

Saved from Execution by Order of the King of England

Edward's sentence of death was commuted by the King and his irons were finally taken off May 28, 1684; and he wrote the following letter (without date), while in the Tower, to his friends in America:

Worthy gentlemen of New England and other good friends.
Whereas the Kings Majesty hath been graciously pleased to grant me mercy in sparing me my life and releasing me from the daily burthen of my Irons hath also ordered me my liberty in the Tower upon security which I hope to obtain very soonly.

Now my worthy good friends I humbly beg your kindness to help me at this Juncture of time, believing every friend considering my deplorable condition to bestow your small mite upon me in so doing I hope it may put me in a capacity of serving my wife and children. And if it please the Almity good God to make able I will pay you again. Who am Gentlemen your humble servant to command.

EDWARD GOVE
To the warmest of my friends



During this time on the other side of the Atlantic back inNew Hampshire,  Cranfield’s administration became more oppressive.
Court costs were raised, and he and his council assumed all of the legislative power.  The people were horrified at Gove’s sentence, and they wanted vengeance.

When tax collectors would come to the doors of the settler's homes, the wives were said to throw scalding water in their faces and pound on their heads with their bibles.

1686-1691 

The Demise of Governor Cranfield 

Pardon of Edward by King James 

The Death of Edward

In England, newly crowned King James II and his government were learning the details of Cranfield’s behavior in New Hampshire. Cranfield, himself, was beginning to doubt whether his plans would ever succeed.

In April, 1686, Governor Cranfield was removed by a new English Sovereign by the name of King James II. When news of Cranfield’s demotion reached New Hampshire a spontaneous committee formed to remove the erstwhile governor. They stripped him of his sword, tied him to a horse and escorted him to the border of Massachusetts and sent him on his way.

The king then sent a letter to Council of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay stating that he had pardoned Edward Gove and authorizing the council to restore Gove’s estate.

The Pardon of Edward by King James II

In the early summer of 1686, Edward Gove returned to New Hampshire.
Reunited with his wife and his family and his lands restored to him, he lived in quiet seclusion the last few years of his life suffering from an unexplained sickness.
He believed that he was poisoned slowly by the guards on the instructions of Cranfield while imprisoned in The Tower of London.

1691 

The Death of Edward

My 9th Great Grandfather, Edward Gove died in Hampton on 29 July 1691.
He is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Hampton.  The Gove Family Association has placed a marker in the cemetery that reads,

“Edward Gove – Patriot and Assemblyman – 1627 – 1692Convicted of high treason for attempting to incite a rebellion in 1683 against King Charles II of England.  Sentenced to be hanged and later pardoned by King James II.”

Memorial Plaque of my 9th Great Grandfather Edward Gove

So another family branch and another ancestral great grandfather who is a part of the blood of myself and my siblings through our mother.

Rest in peace grandfather. You are not forgotten.

Sources for this post:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20080125/NEWS/801250317

http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/edward-gove-and-his-one-man-revolution-of-1683/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gove%27s_Rebellion

https://archive.org/stream/govebookhistoryg00gove#page/26/mode/2up

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gove-30

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KN4S-B2V?1=1&spouse=LZL6-HSM

http://patandkathie.blogspot.com/2012/03/edward-gove-touched-with-fire.html
http://patandkathie.blogspot.com/2012/01/treason-and-trial-of-edward-gove.html
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/hampton350th/page_19.htm