Reading Time: 2 minutes [289 words]

THE TRIAL OF JACOB LEISLER FOR HIGH
TREASON. NEW YORK CITY, 1691.

THE NARRATIVE AND TRIAL?

James II of England was very unpopular in the Col-
onies of New York and New England, and a rebellion had
broken out against the Governor, that he had sent there,
when news came that the invasion of England by the Prince
of Orange had been successful and of the accession of Wil-
liam to the throne. The rebels found a ehief in Jacob Leisler,
a New York merchant of standing, and « zealous friend of
the protestant cause, who had formerly suffered imprison-
ment by the order of Andros,* for opposing one of his illegal
acts while governor of New York.

The immediate occasion of the revolt was a report in May,
1689, that the papists intended te attack and massacre the
people while at chureh in the Fort, and declare for James IT.
The people seized the Fort and appointed a committee of
safety for the immediate government of the province, who
signed an agreement to adhere to the prince of Orange, and,
with their lives, to support the protestant religion, and they

\Bibliography. *Chandler’s American Criminal Trials. (See 1,
Am. St, Tr. 116.) Mr. Chandler says that though the inaurrestion
of Leisler and his adherents, which distracted the province of New
York, long after the principal actors in the scene had passed from
the stage, form a prominent topis of remark in the histories of the
period, no detailed report of the trial was ever printed, and of the
actual proceedings on that occasion but little can now be ascertained.

2 Anpros, Siz Epuunp. (1637-1714.) Born on Island of Guern-
sey; Administrator of Colony of New York, 1674; Governor of
all New England, 1686; imprisoned and impeached in 1689, and
sent to England for trial; Governor of Virginia, 1692-1698;
founded William and Mary College; Governor Island of Guernsey,
1704; died in London.

512

Related Posts