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by the Colonial Government to "sue for, levy and recover" debts "in the
name, behalf and for the use of the Governor and Company ;" in i 759 he
was elected to the Council of the Governor.* He was again a member of
the Council in 1765, when Fitch was Governor, whose Councillors were
summoned to administer to him an oath to support the requirements of
the Stamp Act. A historian has described the scene in glowing words,
and tells us that Matthew Griswold was one of those who followed the
lead of Trumbull in refusing to "witness a ceremony which so degraded
liberty, and degraded the Colony," and retired from the council-chamber.**
To February ii"" of this year belongs a letter from Jared Ingersoll, then
in London, preserved among the family-papers, in which, after reporting
the purchase of some law-books, he says :
" The very interesting Stamp Bill for taming Americans passed the House of
Commons last Wednesday. I was present and heard all the Debate, Some of which
was truly Noble, and the whole very Entertaining, at the same time Very Affecting,
Especially to an American."
In 1766, Jonathan Trumbull being Chief Justice, Matthew Griswold
was made a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. On the death
of Governor Pitkin, in i 769, when Trumbull became Governor, he took
the highest seat on the bench as Chief Justice, which office he held during
fifteen years. Meanwhile, for thirteen of those years—from 1771 till 1784
—he was Deputy-Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, of the Colony and
newly formed State. In 1770 he was chosen one of the Commissioners
for Propagating the Gospel in New England and Parts Adjacent in
America, Andrew Oliver of Boston being the Secretary. The very effi-
cient Council of Safety, formed in 1775 to aid the Governor through the
struggles of the Revolution, whenever the Legislature should not be
sitting, was headed by him from the first. The hst of original members is
given thus : " Matthew Griswold, William Pitkin, Roger Sherman,
9' Id., ibid.
«* Life of Jonathan Trumbull Senr. . . . By
55
I. M. Stuart. Boston, 1859, pp. 85-92.