28 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



spider's-net, and cast the useless remains remorselessly away. He was 

 one of the remonstrants against the annexation of the eastern towns to 

 the New York government, and from 1700 to 1720 was the delegate from 

 these towns to the assembly. In 1715 the opposition of the government 

 to his constituency reached the point of a personal conflict with him. 

 In a speech delivered in the assembly in this year, he boldly and un- 

 sparingly denounced the authorities as tyrannical, extravagant, and dis- 

 honest- He cited numerous instances of injustices from officers of the 

 customs to the traders of and to his section. While grain was selling 

 in Boston at Qs. per bushel, and only commanding one-half of that 

 in New York, his people were compelled by existing laws to lose this 

 difference in value. While the government was complaining of poverty 

 and the lack of disposition on the part of the people to furnish means for 

 its subsistence, the governor had received, says Mulford, during the 

 past three years, three times the combined income of the governors of 

 Massachusetts, Ehode Island, and Connecticut. In 1716 the assembly 

 ordered this speech to be put into the hands of the speaker, but Mul- 

 ford, without hesitation, caused it to be published and circulated.* 

 From this time forth the war upon him was, so far as the government 

 was concerned, a series of persecutions, but Mulford undauntedly braved 

 them all and in the end was triumphant. Quite a number of letters 

 passed between the governor and himself, and between them both and 

 the lords of trade in London. As an earnest of the feeling his oppo- 

 sition had stirred up, the governor commenced a suit against him in the 

 supreme court, the judges of which owed their appointment to the ex- 

 ecutive. Shortly after this, Governor Hunter, in a communication to 

 the lords of trade regarding the state of affairs in the province, writes 

 that he is informed that Mulford, w^ho "has continually flown in face of 

 government," and always disputed with the Crown the right of whaling, 

 has gone to London to urge his case.t He states that "that poor, trouble- 

 some old man" is the only mutineer in a province otherwise quiet (an 

 assertion that evidenced either a reckless disregard for truth, or a want 



* A copy of this speech is bound in an old volume of the Boston News-Letter, in the 

 library of the Boston Athena-um. 



t In the address of H. P. Hedges at the Bi-Centenuial celebration at Easthampton, 

 in 1850, he says, when Mulford finally repaired to London to present the case to the king, 

 he was obliged to conceal his intention. Leaving Southampton secretly, he landed at New- 

 port, walked to Boston, and from thence embarked for London. Arrived there, he " pre- 

 sented his memorial, which it is said attracted much attention, and was read by him 

 in the House of Commons." He returned home iu triumph, having attained the desired 

 end. At this time he was seventy-one years old. " Songs and rejoicings," says J. 

 Lyon Gardiner (vide Hedges's Address, p. 21), "took place among the whalemen of Suf- 

 folk County upon his arrival, on account of his having succeeded in getting the King's 

 share given up." It is related of him (Ibid., p. 68) that while at the court of St. 

 James, being somewhat verdant, he was much annoyed by pickpockets. As a pallia- 

 tive, he had a tailor sew several fish-hooks on the inside of his pockets, and soon after 

 one of the fraternity was caught. This incident being published at the time won for 

 Lim an extensive notoriety. He was representative from Easthampton from 1715 to 

 1720, and died in 1725, aged eighty years. 



