Oaths of Allegiance in Colonial New England

The study compiles and analyzes the forms and uses of allegiance oaths carried from England into New England colonies, presenting English instruments such as the Oath of Supremacy, Allegiance, and Abjuration and the colonial equivalents and compacts used in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, New Haven, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. It reproduces wording for freemen’s and residents’ oaths, the Mayflower Compact, civil compacts, officers’ engagements, and related legal formulas, and traces how religious and civil authority shaped oath practice and administration across different colonial jurisdictions, including provisions against perjury and statements for recusants. The presentation is documentary and comparative rather than interpretive.