Williams,  governor  of  Strawberry  Bank,  for  assistance,
who  came  up  with  a  company  of  armed  men  and  beset  Mr.
Knollys's  house,  where  Capt.  Underbill  was,  kept  a  guard
upon  him  night  and  day  till  they  could  call  a  court,  and
then,  Mr.  Williams  sitting  as  a  judge,  they  found  Under-
bill and  his  company  guilty  of  a  riot  and  set  great  fines  on
them  and  ordered  him  and  some  others  out  of  the  plan-
tation." '

In  order  to  enjoy  "  the  more  comfortably  .  .  .  the  ben-
efit of  His  Majesty's  laws  "  and  prevent  such  mischief  and
inconveniences  as  had  befallen  them  for  want  of  a  civil
government,  the  inhabitants,  in  October,  1640,  agreed  to
combine  themselves  into  a  body  politic,  and  engaged  tO'  sub-
mit to  His  Majesty's  laws  and  such  orders,  consistent  with
those  laws,  as  should  be  passed  by  a  majority  of  the  free-
men,^

Although  Belknap  informs  us  that  Capt.  Wiggin  had  the
power  of  granting  lands  to  settlers,  and  that  they  took  up
small  lots  inasmuch  as  they  intended  to  build  a  compact
town  at  Dover  Neck,  very  little  is  known  about  the  early

^  Provincial  Papers ,  vol.  i,  p.  122,

^New  Hampshire  State  Papers,  vol.  xvii,  p.  501;  vol.  xxv,  p.  746.
