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Subject: Joseph Jenks, Jr. of Lynn, charged with Treason in 1660 -
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:36:45 EDT

Subject: Joseph Jenks, Junr'r of Lynn charged with Treason, 1660.
Source: History of Lynn, Essex County, Mass. by Alonzo Lewis & James R.
Newhall, 1865.

Annals of Lynn - 1660

p.251

This year, 1660, Charles II took possession of the throne of England.

Joseph Jenks, Jr., who worked with his father at the Iron Works, and who
seems not to
have been very strongly attached to the monarch, was accused of treason,
having, probably
during some free and easy discussion with the other worker, or perhaps in a
political
dispute with the dignitaries assembled at the tavern, after the labors of
the day, made
divers careless remarks that did not favorably strike the loyal minds. He
was brought

before the Court on the first of the next April, and several dispositions
were made against him.

Nicholas Pinion deposed that he "did heere Joseph Jenks, Jun. say that "if
he had the
king here he would cutte off his head and make a football of it."

Thomas Tower testified that when the king's name was mentioned, Mr. Jenks
said, "I
should rather that his head were as his father's, rather than he should come
to
England to set up popery there."

p.252

Several others testified to similar speeches. Joseph Jenks, Jr. was
imprisoned
while the case remained undetermined, the punctilious authorities probably
taking
a strict view of the unbailable character of treason. While in durance, Mr.
Jenks
wrote a letter to the Court and they finally decided that the words proved
against him,
"were all too weak to prove him guilty of treason."

Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

May 15, 1672 - The General Court denied a petition by Joseph Jenks which
would have allowed him to coin money. Jenks had been the master craftsman at the
Hammersmith iron foundry in Saugus, Massachusetts from the start of
operations in 1648 until the foundry closed ca. 1670. (Shurtleff, vol. 4, pt. 2, p.
528 and Crosby, p. 79. For additional information on Jenks see the accompanying
studies.)

_http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/MAMintDocs.chron.html_
(http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/MAMintDocs.chron.html)

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