Early New Englanders' understanding of arbitrary rule and their efforts to maintain self-government in the late 1600s is the topic of the Bosworth Lecture Series on Thursday, Nov 9, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Michael's Church in Bristol. The event is free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society, a lecture by Providence College History Professor Adrian Chastain Weimer will reference her new book, "A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire." The book will be available for sale.

Prof. Weimer recounts the new English king’s efforts to retain power in the colonies. In 1664 King Charles II sent royal commissioners on warships to America, she explained, conquering the Dutch and transforming New Netherland into New York.

“In New England they tried to pressure, bribe or intimidate Anglo-American colonists into accepting more royal control,” she said. “Would these early New Englanders forge a unified response and mobilize to protect local institutions? Rhode Island - with its brand new 1663 royal charter - was in a particularly tough position, and many people were torn about how to respond.”

Prof Weimer notes that the colonists were ready for the challenge. “From Newport to York, Maine, ordinary people - including women and non-freemen - became involved in the political contest,” she said. “From learned magistrates to housewives armed with boiling kettles, these early Americans demonstrated their constitutional convictions.

“One hundred years before the American Revolution, many proclaimed to ‘have a right from God and man to choose our own governors’ and ‘make and live under our own laws,’ even if it meant defying the crown,” she said. It was the beginning of the Constitutional culture.

Prof Weimer earned her PhD from Harvard University in 2008. Her writings also include Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England. She has been honored with the Jane Dempsey Douglass Prize, the Michael Kennedy Prize and fellowships from American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Antiquarian Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She lives in Barrington with her husband and two daughters.

The Roswell S. Bosworth Jr. Lecture Series is presented by the Men's Club, a local organization that pays tribute to its founding member, former editor and publisher of the East Bay Newspapers, with lectures of interest to the public.

Upcoming Lectures:

Jan. 11: RWU Justice Studies Prof Sean Varano on the Rule of Law

Feb. 8: Grant Rhode on Eurasian Maritime History