One of the principal concerns of the colonial government at the time was its lack of formal charter. That of neighboring Massachusetts was then under threat by the government of King Charles II of England, and Plymouth, while it had rights to own land, had never been granted formal authority to establish a government. Hinckley took some steps to pursue acquisition of a charter that would legitimize the government, which some of his contemporaries criticized as being weak. These actions were overtaken by the creation of the Dominion of New England in 1686, which brought all of the New England colonies under a single governor. Hinckley was chosen to represent Plymouth in the dominion council; criticized for doing so, Hinckley claimed that this placed him well to counter the heavy-handed rule of the dominion governor, Sir Edmund Andros. The dominion collapsed in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution propelled William and Mary to the English throne, and prompted the 1689 Boston revolt, in which Andros was arrested and returned to England. Plymouth thereafter returned to its old form of governance, with Hinckley again in the governor's seat.