THE WORK OF SETTLEMENT	53
royal patent a few years before, but influenced
now, it may be, by Gorton's insistence that a legal
title could be obtained only from England, sailed
overseas and secured from the parliamentary
commissioners in March, 1644, a charter uniting
Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport, under the
name of Providence Plantations in the Narragan-
sett Bay, and granting them powers of government.
For the moment even this document had no
certain value, for, in spite of the fact that the par-
liamentarians were at war with the King, Charles I
was still sovereign of England and should he win
in the Civil War the title would be worthless.
However, the patent was not put in force until
1647, after the victory of Cromwell at Naseby
had given control into the hands of Parliament;
and then a general meeting was held at Ports-
mouth consisting of the freemen of Warwick,
Portsmouth, and Newport, and ten representatives
from Providence. The patent did not state how
affairs were to be managed, and the colonials,
meeting in subsequent assemblies, worked out the
problem in their own way. They refused to have
a governor, and, creating only a presiding officer
with four assistants, constituted a court of trials
for the hearing of important criminal and civil