Background
Richard Wharton was born in England.
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Richard Wharton
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He was not interested in the religious experiment of the Puritans but emigrated to America early in the Restoration Period to make his fortune. He soon found himself in the center of a rapidly increasing imperialistically inclined group, both transplanted Englishmen and New England Puritans of the second and third generation, who wished to expand commerce, invest capital, and develop the natural resources of the country on a large and monopolistic basis. Wharton disapproved of New England's commercial relations with the Dutch and favored the navigation laws as a means to shut them out from the colonial trade as well as the carrying trade in general. During the second Dutch War he seized, under letters of marque and reprisal, a Dutch vessel concerned in trade with New England. This act involved New England against its wishes in commercial warfare with the Dutch. Long delay of the trial of the disputed case caused him and his associates to publish a protest, for which affront to the Massachusetts government he lost his privilege as an attorney. After the Dutch recapture of New Netherland he urged attempting to repossess it, not only for the negative reasons of eliminating Dutch commercial competition but more particularly because he saw the tremendous possibilities for developing American commerce on a unified plan with the port of New York as center. The New England theocracy stood as a barrier against development along imperial lines, and it was therefore natural that he should be one of those urging that the government there be remodelled and the power of the church over the state broken. His legal experience showed him the need of an intercolonial court for hearing appeals and sitting on admiralty cases, while his position as a heavily taxed non-freeman made him feel the injustice of a government that taxed wealth but denied its possessor the right to vote, if he happened not to be a Congregationalist. Largely through the influence of men like himself the Dominion of New England was established in 1686, although none of its supporters had desired or expected that the new government would lack a representative legislative assembly. He sought and received a monopoly of salt production from the General Court of Massachusetts and later applied for a royal monopoly grant. In 1670 he asked of the colonies in the New England Confederation, for himself and associates, exclusive privileges of producing naval stores. Massachusetts and Plymouth granted the petition for a ten year period. His largest scheme was the organization of a company for developing mines in New England, but including the production of salt and naval stores. This plan came to a head during the administration of Sir Edmund Andros and included English as well as colonial investors. The company, through Wharton, petitioned for a royal grant in February 1688, but the overthrow of James prevented the passing of the patent through the seals. Wharton aspired also to be a landed proprietor and was associated with prominent New England men in the Atherton Company and the Million Purchase. His largest venture of this sort was undertaken alone, his Pejebscot Purchase in Maine, a tract of about 500, 000 acres. In all these ventures he and his associates had difficulty in acquiring titles to the lands, for such large projects were disapproved of by the Puritan governments of New England, which preferred a more democratic distribution of the land. This objection on the part of the New England authorities furnished one of the main reasons for the impetus given to the Dominion movement. To the surprise and consternation of the various speculators, Andros, governor of the Dominion, was as opposed to the engrossing of large tracts as were the Puritan rulers. This opposition doomed Andros' chances for success, for his chief support had been from the merchants and landed proprietors. Wharton and his associates as well as the Puritans of the old theocracy worked for a change, although their suggested reforms were along different lines. While in England trying to further his own projects at court and at the same time help the movement against Andros, Wharton died suddenly, leaving his vast estate in a bankrupt condition. By his death the Dominion lost one of its strongest imperialist leaders and the opposition became dominant under the brilliant generalship of Increase Mather.
Achievements
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As an eligible bachelor he had no difficulty in marrying Bethia Tyng from one of the most prosperous New England families. They had three sons. When he lost his first wife he took for his second, Sarah Higginson, the daughter of John and sister of Nathaniel Higginson. They had four daughters. For his third wife he married Martha Winthrop, the spinster granddaughter of John Winthrop, 1588-1649, the daughter of John Winthrop, 1606-1676, and the sister of Fitz John Winthrop. These marriages were all factors in his success.
