shewed themselves in other Colonies, and seem to justify your apprehensions that they may have the same consequences in New Jersey; The King however confides in the professions you have made of a dutifull obedience to His Commands, that you will upon this occasion use your best endeavours to dissuade the Assembly from taking any notice of these Resolves and to induce them to make such provision for quartering the Troops as the Act requires, which will be the best plea they can have for any alteration they may wish to have made in it.

I lost no time in receiving His Majesty's Commands to communicate to the Board of Trade your Letter No 19 recommending M Bayard to supply the Vacant Seat in the Council.

Their Lordships however have thought fit that the present vacancy should be filled up by the appointment of M Cortlandt Skinner who has long been upon their list, as a Person to whom they stood engaged for the first vacancy; at the same time I am warranted in saying that this circumstance would not have induced them without the greatest reluctance to have postponed the appointment of the Gentlemen you recommended, had it not appeared that two of them are at present not resident in the Colony; and that the other is actually of a profession that might require his attendance.

I am &c

HILLSBOROUGH.

Letter from Governor Franklin to Secretary Pownall, relative to the provision for the Support of the King's troops.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies. Vol. 174 (192).]

BURLINGTON Dec 10, 1769

Sir

Secretary Pownall

I duely receiv'd your Letter of the 4th of October, informing me of Lord Hillsborough's Absence, and that my Dispatch N. 17, was received and laid before the King.—

I must beg the Favour of you to acquaint his Lordship, that the General Assembly of this Colony, which met here on the 10th of October last were on the 6th Instant prorouged after an amicable Session, in which they made the same Provision for the Support of the King's Troops as heretofore, notwithstanding Endeavors were used to induce them to follow the Example of S. Carolina in this respect.-It is not in my Power to send his Lordship the Minutes of their Transactions by this opportunity, but they are Copying with the utmost Expedition, and will, with the Laws which have been passed, be transmitted without Loss of Time. I am with great Regard & Esteem,

Sir Your most obedient humble Servant
WH FRANKLIN

Letter from Henry Wilmot to Committee of Correspondence, relative to a Paper Currency and the bill for Septennial Elections.

[From Skinner Papers among the manuscripts of W. A. Whitehead,
Volume 2, No. 2.]

Gentlemen

BLOOMSBURY SQUARE 12th Dec 1769.

I have been Several times at the Board of Trade; and I find that Administration are willing to let you have a paper Currency provided it be not made a legal Tender. The Governor, I believe was directed not to pass any Bill for Paper Currency, but to transmit such Bills over here as should be tendered to him for Consideration. Your last Bill was accordingly transmitted by the Governor, and I find it was the Opinion of the Board of Trade, and they So reported to his Majesty that in the Manner the Paper Money was made Current by the Bill, it would have been a legal Tender and therefore they would not direct the Governor to pass that Bill. But an instruction is gone to the Governor that it is the Intention of Administration that Paper Currency may be permitted, provided it be not made legal Tender, and that he may Either Send over such Bills as are tendered to him for his Majesty's Pleasure, or he may take all possible Care that the Paper Money be not made a legal Tender, and pass the Bill with a Suspending Clause, so that I hope you will now have a Bill passed that will answer your purpose, and receive the Royal assent without difficulty.

The Bill for regulating the Practise of the Law must wait 'till a Counsell is appointed to the Board of Trade, to whom it must be referred.

As to the Bill for Septennial Elections, I perceive that this Bill is likely to lye some time, the Lords do'nt

think it in any Haste, as Septennial Elections they say hath been the Constant usage without it.

The Bill for choosing Representatives for the County of Morris, Cumberland, & Sussex will not be passed; The Board think there is no necessity of a Bill for it. All the members of Each County, they say, were chosen by Virtue of his Majesty's Instructions to the Governor, and his Majesty might direct his Governor to issue Writs for the Counties if he thought it right to do so. And if you apply to his Majesty by Way of Petition for this purpose Stateing the Necessity of it, and get the Governor to write his sentiments upon it to the Board of Trade, I have Reason to believe it will be granted, an Instruction sent to the Governor to issue Writs for that County.

The Bill you mention to appoint Commissioners to supply the Barracks &c was rejected, so that hath had its Effect.

I am with the greatest Honor & Regard

Gentlemen Your most faithful &

Most Obed Humble Servt

HENRY WILMOT

Order in Council appointing Stephen Skinner, Esq., to be of the Council of New Jersey, in the room of Lewis Ashfield, Esq., deceased.

L. 8.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 108.]

AT THE COURT AT ST JAMES'S THE 14TH
DAY OF DECEMBER 1769.

PRESENT

The Kings most Excellent Majesty in Council.

Whereas there was this day read at the board, a Representation from the Lords Commissioners for

Trade and Plantations, dated the 13th of this instant, Setting forth, That there is a Vacancy in His Majesty's Council for the province of New Jersey, by the death of Lewis Ashfield Esquire, and that Stephen Skinner Esquire hath been recommended to the said Lords Commissioners as a person well qualified to serve His Majesty in that Station, and humbly proposing, that he may be appointed one of His Majesty's said Council in the Room of the said Lewis Ashfield Esquire deceased-His Majesty in Council approving thereof, is pleased to Order, as it is hereby ordered, that the said Stephen Skinner' Esquire be constituted and appointed a Member of His Majesty's said Council in the province of New Jersey, in the Room of the said Lewis Ashfield Esquire deceased; And that the Right Honourable the Earl of Hillsborough, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, do cause the Usual Warrant to be prepared for His Majesty's Royal signature accordingly.

PHIL: SHARPE

Letter from Gov. Franklin to the Earl of Hillsborough, transmitting Chief-Justice Smyth's Memorial respecting his Salary.

[From P. R. O. America & West Indies, Vol. 175 (193).]

BURLINGTON, Dec! 24th 1769

Right Honble the Earl of Hillsborough

My Lord,

At the Request of M: Smith. Chief Justice of this Colony, I transmit the enclosed Memorial to your

1 Stephen Skinner was the second son of the Rev. William Skinner, of Perth Am boy, and Elizabeth Van Cortlandt, of New York. He was a younger brother of Cortlandt Skinner. For several years prior to 1707 he kept a "general store" at Perth Amboy, and engaged in the West India Trade. He was Treasurer of East Jersey for several years. (See ante, p. 37.) In April, 1775, he was elected to the Provincial Congress, but on the breaking out of the War he removed with his family to New York, and thence to England. His New Jersey property was confiscated.-Whitehead's Perth Amboy, 101, 111.