tor & not suffer a Man Mills so principally concerned in the Matter to Sit with them when they illegally demanded Security of the Collector, then countenancing the outrage of the Pilots as well as the running of Goods are Sufficient to remove them.-Be pleased to make my Compt to the Governor & am &c: CORTLAND SKINNER. To Cha Petit Esq' Gov's Secretary. Letter from Mr. Hatton, Collector of Salem and Cohensey, to the Commissioners of the Customs, Boston, relative to his ill-treatment by the Magistrates at Cape May. [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 257 (275)]. Gentlemen I wrote to your Honours from Perth Amboy on the 25th instant, and inclosed you the Attorney Generals opinion of the Actions of the Magistrates and likewise my last Remonstrance to Gov! Franklin and also the Copies of two Warrants which has been served on me and my Negro. Two Days after I arrived at Burlington & waited on the Governor & delivered a letter from M Skinner a Copy of which is inclosed, after much persuasion His Excellency granted according to Mr Skinner's Opinion an Non Ultimo Prosequi for me but as my Negro happened not to be mentioned in it, the Governor refused me one for him, therefore both he and me as one of his bonds men must appear at their next Court in February, what the issue may be I cannot pretend to say but no good. His Excellency has likewise wrote to the three Magistrates to appear before him and his Council sometime in the Spring the particular time not yet fixed, but if we may judge from former instances the result will be,-I write this from opposite Philadelphia, the Tavern where my son is whose wounds are partly healed but has lost entirely the use of his Arm. I beg your Honours will consider the distress I am in for want of Money as I have now spent nearly forty pounds in travelling so many hundred miles & in fees for advice & other expences caused by this affair and I have still other Expences to pay by reason my man must attend their Court, therefore do most humbly beg your Honours will either grant me my Incidents now due or advance some of my salary or any other means you may think proper, which must be speedily & can be done by an Order on Mr Swift. I have taken out a supreme Writt for Mills the Pilot by the Attorney Generals advice as there is no Court of Admiralty in this Province.— I should be glad your Honours would interpose so as to get the Magistrates punished according to their deserts. I am &ca (signed) JOHN HATTON COOPERS FERRY opposite Philadelphia 30th Dec 1770 N B. The Letter referred to is not yet come to hand. Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to Governor Franklin, relative to providing for the King's Troops. [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 176 (194).] WHITEHALL, January 2 1771. Sir, Governor Franklin. I have received your letter of the 5th of Nov! No 24. and have laid it before the King. Nothing would have been more unbecoming than the Assembly's refusal to provide for the King's Troops, from Resentment for the Repeal of the Paper Currency Act, a Measure to which (however erroneous in its Principle) the King would not have with-held His Royal Concurrence, if it could have been given without violating the Law and the Constitution, and therefore it gave me great Pleasure to find they had receeded from so indecent a Resolution. I am &ca HILLSBOROUGH. Letter from Frederick Smyth to the Earl of Hillsborough, tendering his seat in the Council of New Jersey. My Lord, [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 176 (194).] NEW JERSEY Jan 10th 1771. As there was a vacant seat in the Council of this Province, at the time I was appointed Chief Justice; at the request of Lord Halifax; without any kind of sollicitation on my part, I was appointed a member of the Council, and since my residence here, my attendance has been most punctual. The better to accommodate the inhabitants, I have fixed myself in what is called the capital Town of the province, which is above fifty miles distant from the place the Governor makes his residence at; so that every summons to Council subjects me to some fatigue, and an expence which I can no longer allow myself to be put to, in a Country where my services are so poorly requited, tho' it may be highly proper and necessary that the Chief Justice of the province should have a seat at the Council board, and it would be great pleasure to me, to continue to give all the assistance in my power to the Governor, and the Gentlemen of the Council, in the dispatch of the business of that board, I hope however my Lord circumstanced as I am at present, it will not be thought any disrespect to his Majesty's service if I request your Lordship to accept my resignation of my seat in the Council of this Province. I am truly sorry that I sh have occasion to trouble your Lordship so frequently with Letters, and Memorials of Complaint; yet it is some satisfaction to me, to know, that the grounds of those complaints, cannot be imputed to my misconduct in the discharge of the duty of my station in this Country, but solely to the inadequate reward which I receive for my services in it. I am my Lord with the utmost respect Your Lordships most Obed: Hum Ser Letter from Gov. Franklin to the Earl of Hillsborough, relative to the War with Spain, the Superintendence of Indian Affairs, and announcing the death of John Ladd, a member of the Council. [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 176 (194).] BURLINGTON, Jan 14th 1771 To The Right Honble the Earl of Hillsborough, &c. &c. My Lord, I was Yesterday honoured with the Duplicate of your Lordship's Circular Letter of the 28th of September, and another of Nov! 15, relative to the Prospect of a War with Spain. The Original of the first Letter never came to hand; which I much wonder at, as I observe, by the Contents, that Lord Dunmore might have received the one directed to him before the 11th of December last, when he made his Speech to the Assembly of New York. Let the Event be what it may, His Majesty may have the firmest Reliance on my Attention to the Security of the Colony under my Government, and that I shall use my utmost Endeavours, in case Matters should proceed to Extremities, to prevail on the Assembly to do what may be in their Power towards putting the Province into a better State of Defence. This, I doubt not, they will be the more encouraged to do, from His Majesty's most gracious Assurances, That the Security of His Possessions in America will be a principal Object of his Care & Attention. I am likewise honoured with your Lordship's two Dispatches of Nov! 15. The one respecting Indian Affairs is the first I have ever receiv'd on the Subject, either from His Majesty's Ministers or from the neighbouring Governments; so that this Colony must stand excused for not having complied with His Majesty's Expectations in that Respect. I shall not fail however, to take the first Opportunity to represent this Matter to the Council & Assembly, and urge their Concurrence with the other Colonies in such Regulations of the Indian Commerce as may be thought requisite on their Part to answer the valuable End His Majesty has in View. However I think it my Duty to inform your Lordship, that though some such Regulations as are proposed would not only be highly advantageous to the commercial Interest of Great Britain and her Colonies, but contribute greatly to the Security of the latter from Indian Depredations, yet in all Probability, the very Colonies which are largely interested in the Commerce with the Indians, & whose Frontiers are immediately exposed to their Incursions, will never be able to agree among themselves on any effectual Measure for this desirable Purpose. And as New Jersey has no Inhabitants any ways concerned |