Skip to main content
Massachusetts State Seal
Commonwealth Museum   Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin
Commonwealth Museum Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin

Castle Island: Turbulent Times


From its earliest years, Castle Island was used to hold captives including religious dissenters, Native people, and French prisoners of war. One of the most prominent was Governor Edmund Andros.


“

“Sir Edmund Andros did attempt to make an escape in women’s apparel.”

– Nathaniel Byfield, 1689

”

The Dominion of New England

A painting of warships at sea
A seventeenth century Dutch map roughly parallels the Dominion of New England.
- Library of Congress
Although granted a charter by King Charles I, the King’s advisors quickly had second thoughts about the Puritan founders and demanded the charter’s return. Concerns grew that an English fleet might arrive to dissolve the colony. A beacon was placed “on sentry hill” to give warning of approaching threats (the origin of the name “Beacon Hill.”) The colony government also decided to erect a fort. Nantasket, in present day Hull, was considered before Castle Island was selected to defend the new Boston settlement.

Arrest of Governor Andros. - Massachusetts State House Art Collection
Arrest of Governor Andros.
- Massachusetts State House Art Collection

Escape Artist
Nathaniel Byfield reported “That on Friday last towards evening Sir Edmund Andros did attempt to make an escape in women’s apparel and passed two guards, and was stopped at the third, being discovered by his shoes, not having changed them.” Andros was moved to Castle Island for greater security but still managed to escape. He was captured in Newport. Rhode Island, returned to the Castle, and eventually sent to England on instructions from King William. 


A portrait of Sir Edmund Andros

Andros

Historical document from 1694 where Samuel White of Weymouth petitions Governor William Phipps for reimbursement of expenses incurred during the capture of Edmund Andros, detailing the pursuit and return of Andros to the castle by White and his fifty-two men.

Capturing Andros

Historical document from 1661 detailing the imprisonment of Quaker Nicholas Upsall by the Puritan colony, highlighting the intolerance of religious dissent and the conditions of his confinement on Castle Island, as recorded in the Massachusetts Archives.

Intolerant of religious dissent