Treaty of Portsmouth (1713)

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This article is about the 1713 treaty. For the 1905 treaty, see Treaty of Portsmouth.
Pictograph signature of Bomoseen (or Bomazeen), Abenaki sachem

The Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on July 13, 1713, ended hostilities between Eastern

colonists after Queen Anne's War
.

Queen Anne's War

During the

Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, however, restored peace between France and England. As part of the agreement, Acadia
fell under British sovereignty. When the First Nations People realised that they could no longer depend on the French for protection, the
truce, and proposed a peace conference to be held at Casco. Joseph Dudley, governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, agreed to a conference, but chose instead to host it at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which was protected by the guns of Fort William and Mary. For a more detailed timeline of events leading from first contact to the 1713 treaty, see references and resources.[1]

Articles of agreement

On July 11, 1713, Governor Dudley and various dignitaries from New Hampshire and Massachusetts Bay (which then included Maine) met with delegates from Abenaki tribes, including the Amasacontee,

pictographs. It is important to note that historians have found that New England politicians and translators engaged in a "policy of deception" the Wabanaki group of tribes. Consequently, Wabanakis would claim in subsequent years that several articles written into the treaty were at odds with verbal agreements, especially regarding British claims to sovereignty over them.[2]
Others would sign the following year after a similar interpretation at another convention. "Being sensible of our great offence and folly," the Indians agreed to:

  • acknowledge themselves submissive, obedient subjects of Queen Anne
  • cease all acts of hostility towards subjects of Great Britain and their estates
  • allow English settlers to return to their former settlements without molestation or claims by the Indians
  • trade only at English trading posts established, managed and regulated with governmental approval
  • not come near English plantations or settlements below the Saco River, "to prevent mischiefs and inconveniences"
  • address all grievances in an English court, rather than in "private revenge"
  • confess that they had broken peace agreements made in 1693, 1699, 1702 and 1703, and now ask for forgiveness and mercy
  • not make any "perfidious treaty or correspondence" [with the French] against the English; should any exist, to reveal it "seasonally"
  • cast themselves upon Her Majesty for mercy and pardon for past rebellions, hostilities and violations of their promises
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At the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth were also the St John River Maliseet [Wolastoqiyik], Mi'kmaw (

Mi'kmaq), and Abenaki [Aln8bak] nations of Acadia.[3]

Aftermath

The English failed to fulfil their obligations under the treaty. Massachusetts did not, as promised, establish official trading posts selling cheap goods at honest prices to the First Nations. Tribes were forced to continue exchanging their

Father Rale's War. Boundary struggles between New France and New England would continue until the Treaty of Paris
in 1763.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Treaty of Portsmouth (1713).
  1. ^ "Home". 1713treatyofportsmouth.com.
  2. ^ David L. Ghere, "Mistranslations and Misinformation: Diplomacy on the Maine Frontier, 1725 to 1755," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 8, no. 4 (1984): 19.
  3. ^ "Mi'kmaw History - Timeline (Post-Contact)".
  • Francis Parkman, A Half-Century of Conflict, 1907; Brown, Little & Company, Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Herbert Milton Sylvester, Indian Wars of New England, Volume III, 1910; Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio.
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