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Epilogue: nicholson’s redemption In 1710 a set of verses circulated around Boston paying homage to the recent English conquest of acadia. The work began by praising the hero of the moment , the man who had commanded the victorious expedition. “Queen anne sends nicholson from london,” the poet began, “to save new-England from being undone; / Who being come does forward push, / regards nor coin nor life a rush.” The man in question, Francis nicholson, must have been pleased, and perhaps a bit surprised, to be lauded in verse by a new Englander—even one of such questionable talent. after all, nicholson had not always been such a popular man in the region. His first trip to the region had been in 1687, when he served as an officer in the dominion of new England; his tenure as Sir Edmund andros’s lieutenant ended in disgrace when he fled his post in new york to avoid arrest. two decades later, however, he was back, hailed as a hero by people who had previously denounced him as a possible popish agent. The author of the verses, Samuel Sewall, had been one of the most steadfast opponents of the dominion, and a defender of new England’s autonomy. in 1710, these two men stood together, along with many other people in america and Britain, to celebrate a victory that had emerged from the cooperation of provincial new Englanders and imperial officials. clearly, something had changed in the years since nicholson’s first american tour.1 nicholson’s redemption provides a fitting opportunity to reflect on how the empire had developed over the course of one man’s career. Few people played such a prominent role in the English america’s transformation. nicholson served as an imperial agent for over four decades in seven colonies, from the mediterranean outpost of tangier to the dominion of new England, the chesapeake, nova Scotia, and South carolina. nicholson himself was a pugnacious character who relished his role as a representative of royal authority; this fact remained constant from his early days in charles ii’s army to his 208 Epilogue retirement during the reign of George i. But the old soldier succeeded in his task largely because, as the empire changed, he changed with it. He held on to his fundamental beliefs but shifted his tactics, so that the embarrassment of 1689, when subjects rose up against the king’s agents, became unthinkable, or at least unlikely, for most of the eighteenth century. in short, nicholson witnessed the transformation of British america from a place that resisted the empire to one that embraced it. His own actions, and the actions of people like him, at least partially fueled this change.2 nicholson succeeded because he came to embrace the central tenets of the new imperial political culture that emerged during the era of the Glorious revolution. One important aspect of that culture, a belief in centralizing authority under the king, came naturally out of nicholson’s restoration experiences . On his arrival in the dominion of new England, he presented himself as an agent of imperial state-building. Though new Englanders were naturally “very cuning,” nicholson hoped to “convince them what a happy change they made, liveing under a Great and Gratious King now where formerly they were under a number of tyarants.” nicholson never lost this zeal for the royal mission, but he learned that centralization could not be imposed by fiat; he needed to show colonial subjects why they should accept the inevitable loss of autonomy that came with the expansion of empire. He did this by stressing two things: the dangers of popery and the need to provide for defense. His tactics looked quite similar to those of his contemporary the earl of Bellomont, a man from the opposite side of the political spectrum.3 • • • The first stage of Francis nicholson’s redemption occurred in the chesapeake colonies of Virginia and maryland. like other disgraced officers of the dominion of new England, nicholson had no trouble explaining his conduct to ministers in Whitehall, many of whom were holdovers from James ii’s reign. His task was made easier by his connection to the Williamite duke of Bolton. in fact, while Sir Edmund andros had to endure a trial before returning to america, nicholson spent only a year in England before winning appointment as lieutenant governor of Virginia, where he arrived in may 1690. He found a colony fatigued by political unrest and worried about...

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