Richard Nicolls Quotes
The Duke’s Laws
The code provided for trial by jury and for proportional taxation on property. It was called “The Duke’s Laws” in recognition of the English Duke of York from whom authority in the colony then derived as the English supplanted the Dutch.
Richard Nicolls, 1622-1674, First British colonial governor of New York City and environs, Code of Laws for New York, Hempstead, Long Island, March 1, 1665
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The Diggers were a religious-economic movement that even today would be considered very radical. They advocated the right of the poor to go onto public lands and farm them—thus the name “Diggers.” Beyond their opposition to the private ownership of land to the exclusion of the poor, Winstanley and the Diggers promulgated another very modern doctrine: That the poor should take the responsibility and have the right to determinine how the society should provide for the poor. A version of this became one of the Mottos of the Poverty Program of 1964. See {616966}.
Note that not unlike Sharia, Islamic Law, this meant the death penalty for Witchcraft, Heresy, Adultery and Disobedient Children.
This is the most formalized and sophisticated compendium of laws of the so-called “barbaric peoples” of Europe. The compilation was in many ways a documentation of the traditional laws of the Visigoths that had evolved over hundreds of years.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons American society is so litigious.
The colony created out of a political dispute with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was created when in June of 1636, Hooker and his entire congregation, driving their cattle and carting their belongings, left Massachusetts and set out for the Connecticut Valley, founding Hartford and a new colony. The following year the constitution was written and ratified. It was in many ways similar to the Massachusetts legal system except that it was written and could not easily be changed. However, there were two important historical innovations. First, while Massachusetts had limited voting rights to members in good standing of the Puritan Church, The Fundamental Orders provided for separation of church and state and allowed others (males only) to vote as well. See {624151}. The other innovation was that this appears to be the first introduction of term limits in America. It limited the Governor to a single term, unlike Massachusetts where Governor Winthrop was a fixture.
Richard Nicolls was the first English colonial governor of New York province.
