Scarcely had this arrangement been made, when it became known, that, if dangers still existed, at least the chief danger was over.  On the twenty-sixth of May a ship arrived from England with an order to the authorities on the spot to proclaim King William and Queen Mary.  Never, since the Mayflower groped her way into Plymouth harbor, had a message from the parent-country been received in New England with such joy.  Never had such a pageant as, three days after, expressed the prevailing happiness been seen in Massachusetts.  From far and near the people flocked into Boston; the Government, attended by the principal gentlemen of the capital and the towns around, passed in procession on horseback through the thoroughfares; the regiment of the town, and companies and troops of horse and foot from the country, lent their pomp and noise to the show; there was a great dinner at the Town-House for the better sort; wine was served out in the streets; and the evening was made noisy with acclamations till the bell rang at nine o’clock, and families met to thank God at the domestic altar for causing the great sorrow to pass away, and giving a Protestant King and Queen to England.

The revolution in Massachusetts determined the proceedings in the other Colonies of New England.  On learning what had been done in Boston, the people of Plymouth seized the person of their townsman, Nathaniel Clark, one of Andros’s Counsellors and tools, and, recalling Governor Hinckley, set up again the ancient government.  When the news reached Rhode Island, a summons was issued to “the several towns,” inviting them to send their “principal persons” to Newport “before the day of usual election by Charter, ... there to consult of some suitable way in this present juncture.”  Accordingly, at a meeting held on the day appointed by the ancient Charter for annual elections, it was determined “to reassume the government according to the Charter,” and “that the former Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Assistants that were in place ... before the coming over of Sir Edmund Andros, the late Governor, should be established in their respective places for the year ensuing, or further order from England.”  Walter Clarke was the Governor who had been superseded by Andros.  But he had no mind for the hazardous honor which was now thrust upon him, and Rhode Island remained without a Governor.

On the arrival in Connecticut of the news of the deposition of Andros, the plan of resuming the Charter of that Colony, and reestablishing the government under it, was immediately canvassed in all the settlements.  Agreeably to some general understanding, a number of principal men, most of them elected as Deputies by their respective towns, assembled, on the eighth of May, at Hartford, to consult together on the expediency of taking that step.  They determined to submit, the next day, to the decision of the assembled freemen three questions, namely:  1.  “Whether they would that those in place and power when Sir Edmund Andros took the government should resume their place and power as they were then; or, 2.  Whether they would continue the present government; or, 3.  Whether they would choose a Committee of Safety.”