AHPC VII Bonus Round "East" John Easton

Entry number 4 into the Challenge and its Bonus round again.

This time the Bonus word is "East". And once again our leader Curt had me stumped!

I don't have any Eastern figures, apart from a few Dark Age Rus, so I had to think of something else. A quick trawl in a few books and I came up with a few suggestions. I settled on a chap called John Easton, you can read about him below if you wanna!

The figure used is a Crusader Miniature, which I bought on Ebay,

Pack CCP005 Gentleman Pirates

I decided on a rather subdued paintjob, Easton was a Quaker and looking at
period paintings Quakers seemed to where black. greys or browns.
Check out the link to the Challenge and if you have a mind to, place a vote for your favorite entries.

John Easton (1624–1705) was a political leader in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, devoting decades to public service before eventually becoming governor of the colony. Born in Hampshire, England, he sailed to New England with his widowed father and older brother, settling in Ipswich and Newbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As a supporter of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy, his father was exiled, and settled in Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island (later called Rhode Island) with many other Hutchinson supporters. Here there was discord among the leaders of the settlement, and his father followed William Coddington to the south end of the island where they established the town of Newport. The younger Easton remained in Newport the remainder of his life, where he became involved in civil affairs before the age of 30.

Ultimately serving more than four decades in the public service of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Easton began as an Attorney General for the island towns of Portsmouth and Newport, soon fulfilling the same role for the entire colony. To this line of service he added positions as Commissioner, Deputy, and Assistant, for many years serving simultaneously in multiple roles. In 1674 he was elected to the office of deputy governor of the colony, serving for two years, with a part of his tenure being during King Philip's War, about which he published a written treatise.

Easton was replaced in 1676 during King Philip's War with the militarily experienced John Cranston. In 1675 he wrote an account of the Indian war entitled, "A True Relation of what I know & of Reports & my Understanding concerning the Beginning & Progress of the War now between the English and the Indians." The following year he was a member of a Court Martial at Newport for the trial of certain Indians charged with complicity in King Philip's designs.

Following the overthrow of the Edmund Andros governorship under the Dominion of New England, Easton was elected as governor of the colony for five consecutive years. While in office his biggest concerns were funding the ongoing war that England was fighting with France, and dealing with the disruptive French privateers. Other issues during his tenure included a smallpox epidemic in Newport, charter issues having to do with Rhode Island's militia serving in other colonies, and the ongoing border line disputes with the neighboring colonies.

The period of time from 1676 to 1681 was one of the few periods when Easton did not serve in a public capacity.[7] Throughout the 1680s he was an Assistant, and in January 1690, following the three-year rule of Edmund Andros over all the New England colonies, he was one of the Assistants who wrote a letter to the new English monarchs, William and Mary, congratulating them on their accession to the throne, and informing them that Andros had been seized in Rhode Island, and returned to the Massachusetts Colony for confinement.[7]

War with France

King William's War involved the New England colonies, and subjected them to the exploits of French privateers.

The governor, deputy governor and assistants were exempted from paying any colony tax because of the expenses they incurred in attending to their official duties and the fact that they received no salaries. Easton held the governorship for a period of five years, during which period, England and her allies were engaged in the Nine Years War with France, and the New England colonists were left to deal with this war in North America, known as King William's War. Letters from other colonies came to Rhode Island asking for troops to aide in their efforts, and the reply was usually that the Rhode Island colony had a very exposed condition, and required its men to stay at home. Nevertheless, In October 1690 the General Assembly agreed to raise 300 pounds for the prosecution of the war. The colony now had nine towns: Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, Warwick, Westerly, Jamestown, New Shoreham (Block Island), Kings Town, and East Greenwich, each town being taxed for its portion of the levy. Legislation was also applied to property appraisal, which in the past had been done by the "guess" method, and shipping was to be taxed, with all ships from other colonies being henceforth assessed a tax on cargoes unloaded at Newport.

While the war was a major burden upon the colonists, one bright spot occurred in July 1690. As the colonies were being continuously harassed by French privateers, an expedition consisting of two sloops and 90 men under the command of Captain Thomas Paine went out from Newport to attack the enemy. Paine approached five ships near Block Island, sent a few men ashore to prevent a French landing, then ran into shallow water to keep from being surrounded. A late afternoon engagement ensued, lasting until nightfall, when the French withdrew, losing about half their men to casualties, while Paine's loss was one man killed and six wounded. The brilliant exploit of Paine inspired the people of the colony with a naval spirit; this was the first victory for Rhode Island on the open sea. French privateers, however, continued covering the seas, plundering the commerce of the colonists, and compelled a special session of the Assembly to adopt stringent measures for raising the tax levied but not yet collected.