1689 Boston revolt

A 19th-century interpretation showing the arrest of Governor Andros during Boston's brief revolt

Date	April 18, 1689 (1689-04-18)
Location	Boston, Massachusetts
Result	Dissolution of the Dominion of New England; ouster of officials loyal to James II's regime.

Belligerents

Boston colonists

Dominion of New England

Commanders and leaders

Simon Bradstreet
Cotton Mather

Sir Edmund Andros (POW)
John George (POW)

Strength

2,000 militia
many citizens

about 25 soldiers (POW)
One frigate

The 1689 Boston revolt was a popular uprising on April 18, 1689, against the rule of Sir Edmund Andros, the governor of the Dominion of New England. A well-organized "mob" of provincial militia and citizens formed in the town of Boston—the capital of the dominion—and arrested dominion officials. Members of the Church of England, believed by Puritans to sympathize with the administration of the dominion, were also taken into custody by the rebels. Neither faction sustained casualties during the revolt. Leaders of the former Massachusetts Bay Colony then reclaimed control of the government. In other colonies, members of governments displaced by the dominion were returned to power.

Andros, commissioned governor of New England in 1686, had earned the enmity of the local populace by enforcing the restrictive Navigation Acts, denying the validity of existing land titles, restricting town meetings, and appointing unpopular regular officers to lead colonial militia, among other actions. Furthermore, he had infuriated Puritans in Boston by promoting the Church of England, which was rejected by many Nonconformist New England colonists.

In the early 1680s, King Charles II of England began taking steps to reorganize the colonies of New England. The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was revoked in 1684 after its Puritan rulers refused to act on his demands for reforms in the colony, when Charles sought to streamline the administration of the small colonies and bring them more closely under crown control. He died in 1685 and his successor, the Roman Catholic James II, continued the process, which culminated in the creation of the Dominion of New England.

In 1686, the former governor of New York, Sir Edmund Andros, was appointed as dominion governor. The dominion was composed of the territories of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island colonies. In 1688, its jurisdiction was expanded to include New York, and East and West Jersey.

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