New England Company : The New England Company is the oldest protestant missionary society still in existence. It was created by an ordinance of July 27, 1649, entitled "An Act for the promoting and the propagating of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England", which provided that sixteen persons, who were named, were to form a self-perpetuating corporation in England, with the right to purchase or acquire lands, tenements, or hereditaments not exceeding the yearly value of £2000. It also ordered that a general collection throughout England should be made to further the purposes of the ordinance.
Although the ordinance of 1649 stipulated that the corporation was to be known by the name of "The President and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England", the corporation was commonly styled the New England Company and has been known by the name from the earliest days.
The yield of the collections and the gifts of private benefactors placed the Company in a position to purchase property, the rent from which formed the funds sent to New England for the conversion of the Indians. The funds were administered in New England by the Commissioners of the United Colonies, who acted as the Company's agents. The funds were spent largely on salaries for the missionaries, food and clothing for the relief of poor Indians, and the translation into Indian languages and the printing of "the holy scriptures and some few choice practical books".
At the Restoration, the ordinance of 1649 became "null and void", although the "late pretended corporation", as the Company was described at the Restoration, continued to send money to New England. However, a charter was quickly procured, largely through the influence of wealthy city merchants such as Henry Ashurst, and also through the persuasion of men like Richard Baxter and the Honourable Robert Boyle. The charter (MS. No. 7908), dated February 7, 1661/2, made no reference to the "late pretended corporation", but created a new self-perpetuating corporation consisting of forty-five members, who were named; and it appointed the Honourable Robert Boyle the first Governor. The Company was granted the power of purchasing or disposing of lands, tenements, or hereditaments; but there was an important omission from the Company's point of view. It was not stated that the estated held by the Company under the ordinance of 1649 should remain its property. This omission occurred in spite of an order-in-council dated April 10, 19661, by which the Attorney General was to add a clause to this effect. Although the Company eventually succeeded in recovering all its property, the omission involved it in protracted and costly litigation.
The Restoration retarded the work of the Company but did not alter either its ends or its principal means. Many members of the original company were re-named in the charter, and several of the officers were re-elected. In New England, the Commissioners of the United Colonies continued to act as the Company's agents until 1864, when they ceased to meet. After that date, the Company appointed its own commissioners, known as the Commissioners for Indian Affairs, who carried on the Company's work in the same way as the Commissioners for the United Colonies had done.
The greatest break in the continuity of the New England Company's work was caused by the American Revolution. At the beginning of the war the Company discontinued its payments to New England, and after the war its funds were diverted to Canada by virtue of a decree in Chancery (May 23, 1785). The charter of 1661/2 has styled the Company "The Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America", and the court decreed that Canada would therefore form a suitable field for the Company's work. Thus, in 1786, the Company began its work in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A supplemental charter (MS. No. 7910), dated June 12, 1899, finally confirmed the Company's right to expend its funds in Canada.
On May 24, 1786, the Company appointed the Lieutenant-Governor and the Chief Justice of New Brunswick, and seven other "fit persons" residing in the same province, to be their commissioners in America, for carrying into execution the purposes of their charter. Their attempts to do so were not too successful, and on March 1, 1804, the Company changed its mode of appropriating funds in New Brunswick. After making many enquiries the Company finally adopted the recommendations submitted to them by Major General John Coffin, one of the original commissioners, and on January 28, 1808, the Company appointed General Coffin and five other persons residing in New Brunswick as their commissioners in America. Coffin's scheme was to place Indian children with English families where they were to be instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, reading, writing, and some trade or business which they might imbibe during their early years. Coffin was to superintend the operation of the scheme with the assistance of salaried religious instructors and schoolmasters. By 1815 there were thirty-five Indian boys receiving such instruction at Sussex Vale in New Brunswick.
In 1820, on the appeal of Rev. Dr. Stewart, and the reports and recommendations of many others, the Company began applying some of its funds towards the propagation of the gospel in Upper Canada. In 1825, when gross abuses in the working of the General Coffin's system of apprenticeship came to light, the Company decided to discontinue its Sussex Vale establishment, and to concentrate its efforts among the Six Nations Indians in Upper Canada. Within a few years, they established stations on the banks of the Grand River, near Lake Erie; on the shores of Rive Lake and (Mud or) Chemong Lake; on the shores of the Bay of Quinté, northeast of Lake Ontario; and on the banks of the Garden River, near Sault Ste Marie.
The business of the Company, in the period covered by these records, was transacted to a great extent by two standing committees: the Estates Committee transacted the business connected with Company's property in England; the Special Committee superintended the correspondence with the colonies and administered the expenditure of funds overseas. Each committee consisted of the Governor or Treasurer, and such other members as would attend. The Company also held one General Court a year, when, until 1834, the entire net income, after deducting the expenses in England was placed a the disposal of the Special Committee for expenditure in the colonies. Special Courts, when needed, were summoned by the order of the Governor.
