fidence in your Integrity Learning and Ability have assigned constituted and appointed And We do by these presents assign constitute and appoint you the said David Ogden Esq. to be one of the Justices of our Supreme Court of Judicature for our Province of New Jersey in America: Giving and by these presents Granting unto you full power and Authority to hear, try, and determine all Pleas whatsoever Civil or Criminal & mixed, according to the Laws Statutes and Customs of Great Britain, and the Laws and Usages of our said Province not being repugnant thereunto and Execution of all Judgments of the said Court to award and make such Rules and Orders for the Benefit of the said province as may be found Convenient and usefull and as near as may be agreeable to the Rules & Orders of our Court of Kings Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer in Great Britain To have and to hold the said Office or Place of one of our Justices of our Supreme Court of our said Province of New Jersey with all and singular the Rights priviledges Profits Salaries Fees and Perquisites to the said Place belonging unto you the said David Ogden for and during our Will and pleasure' In testimony whereof We have Caused the Great Seal of our said Province of New Jersey to be hereunto Affixed Witness our Trusty and welbeloved William Franklin Esq. Captain General Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the Province of New Jersey and Territories thereon depending in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral in the same &c. at Burlington the Eighteenth day of May Anno Domini 1772. PETTIT. 1 See N, J. Archives, IX., 323, note. Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to Gov. Franklin, relative to the Claim of the Assembly of New Jersey to order the issuing of a writ for the election of a new member for the County of Essex. Sir, [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 176 (194).] WHITEHALL 7th August 1772. Gov! of New Jersey. The Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations having made their Representation to His Majesty upon the claim of the Commons House of Assembly of the Province of New Jersey to order the issuing a Writ for the Election of a new Member to serve in that House for the County of Essex, in the Room of M: Ogden who had resigned his Seat; I am commanded by the King to acquaint you, that his Majesty considers the said claim as illegal unconstitutional & altogether unwarranted by any approved Usage or Practice in Great Britain or any of her Colonies; & that notwithstanding the Resignation of M Ogden, his Seat continues full, and the order, founded upon his Resignation, is void, because it issued improvidently. It is therefore His Majesty's Pleasure that you do not permit the Seal of the Colony to be affixed to any Writ that shall be issued upon the Ground of such a claim. I am &ca HILLSBOROUGH. P. S. I have opened my Letter to acquaint you, that I have this Moment rec" your Dispatches No 40 & 41, and shall not fail to lay them before the King. H. Letter from the Earl of Dartmouth to Gov. Franklin, relative to the plundering and burning of the Gaspée Schooner in the River of Narraganset. Sir, [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 176 (194).] WHITEHALL 4th Sept: 1772 Governor of New Jersey The inclosed papers will fully inform you of the Measures that have been judged necessary to be taken upon the informations that have been received of the daring Insult offered to His Majesty's Commission in the plundering & burning the Gaspée Schooner in the River of Narraganset within the Colony of Rhode Island. In Consequence of the Commission' which has been 'This Commission is given in full in the Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, page 108, and is directed to Joseph Wharton, Governor of Rhode Island, Daniel Horsmanden, Chief-Justice of New York, Frederick Smyth, Chief-Justice of New Jersey, Peter Oliver, Chief-Justice of Massachusetts, and Robert Auchmuty, Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Boston, who were charged to enquire into and report a full and true account of all the circumstances relative to the attack and burning of the schooner Gaspee. This vessel was a tender to a sloop of war stationed at Newport, R. I., for the purpose of preventing the clandestine landing of articles subject to the payment of duty, and its Captain, Wm. Dudingston, a Lieutenant of the British Navy, had rendered himself very obnoxious by making it his practice to stop and board all vessels entering or leaving the ports of Rhode Island, or leaving Newport for Providence. On the 9th of June (see Proclamation of Gov. Warton) Captain Dudingston, for the purpose of searching a sloop called the Hannah, which left Newport on that day, gave chase to her and ran on Namquit Point and grounded. Captain Lindsley, of the sloop Hannah, reported this circumstance to Mr. John Brown, a merchant of Providence, who, resolving upon the destruction of the Gaspee, immediately directed one of his trusty shipmasters to collect eight of the largest long boats in the harbor, and to proceed quietly to a wharf opposite the dwelling of one James Sabine. Soon after sunset a man passed along the main street beating a drum, crying out boldly that the Gaspee was aground on Namquit Point, and inviting those who felt a disposition to go and destroy tha troublesome vessel to repair in the evening to Mr. James Sabine's house. The assemblage at that place was large. The boats proceeded upon their errand. With scarcely any resistance the crew of the Gaspee became prisoners (the Captain wounded by a musket shot,) and the vessel burned to the water's edge. The Commission, of which Judge Smyth was a member, met at the State House issued on that Occasion, I have signified to Mr Smyth His Majesty's Pleasure that he do repair with all convenient Dispatch to Rhode Island in order to the carrying that Commission into Execution & as it will be of great Use to that Gentleman to be informed of the different Measures which have been adopted, as well as of the Nature of the Commission, & the Orders given to the Governor of Rhode Island in consequence thereof, you will do well to communicate to him the inclosed papers; but you are to observe that the Transmission of them to you is only for your private information, & consequently that the Communication of them to the Chief Justice must be considered by him in the same Light. I am &ca DARTMOUTH.' at Newport on the 5th of January, 1773, and closed their labors on the 23d of June following. The result of this long enquiry amounted, however, to nothing, except, perhaps, the condemnation of the conduct of the Captain of the Gaspee, of whom the Commissioners in their report to the King said: "There is too much reason to believe that in some instances Lieutenant Dudingston, from an intemperate, if not a reprehensible zeal to aid the revenue service, exceeded the bounds of his duty." The poet of this occasion, after a vivid description of the affair, closes as follows: "Now, for to find these people out, King George has offered very stout But let him try his utmost skill, I'm apt to think he never will Find out any of those hearts of gold, 1 The Right Hon. William, Earl of Dartmouth, was appointed. August 14, 1772, to be" one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State," there being committed to his special care the dispatch of all such business as related to the Colonies, in place of Lord Hillsborough,-Dodsley's Annual Register, for 1772, 162; N. Y. Col. Docts., VIII., 303. One of the causes generally assigned for the change has a local interest, as relating to Governor Franklin. The Governor had become interested as early as 1766 in a project to found a colony on the Illinois river, Col. George Croghan being one of the originators of the enterprise.-Franklin's Works, IV., 233-41. There were at that time insurmountable obstacles in the way of safely settling a region so remote from the frontier, and in 1768, doubtless while negotiating with the Indians at Fort Stanwix for the establishment of a well-defined frontier line, Governor Franklin, Sir William Johnson, Col. Croghan, Samuel Wharton and Letter from Mr. Pownall to the Chief Justices of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts Bay and the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Boston, relative to the destruction of the Gaspée schooner. [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 276.] WHITEHALL 5th Sept! 1772 Dan! Horsmanden' Esq. Chief Justice of New Hampshire [York] Frederick Smyth Esq Chief Justice of New Jersey Peter Oliver Esq Chief Justice of Massachusetts Bay Rob Auchmuty Esq Judge of the Adm'ty Court at Boston Sir, Since the Earl of Dartmouth's Letter to you of yesterday's Date, a dispatch has been received from Rear others then and there present, arranged to establish their colony south of the Ohio river and west of the Alleghanies. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Walpole, a London banker, having been enlisted in the project, the tract was called after the latter, the "Walpole Grant," while the company were generally known as the "Ohio Company." Application having been made to the Crown for a grant of the tract in question, Lord Hillsborough strenuously opposed it, and presented an elaborate report against it (April 15, 1772), and with rare foresight gave as one rea son that such a colony “must draw and carry out a great number of people from Great Britain; and I apprehend they will soon become a kind of separate and independent people, and who will set up for themselves." To this Dr. Franklin replied in one of the ablest of his public papers, bristling with facts, figures and arguments, which led the Lords of Trade to recommend the granting of the desired patent. However, it was so delayed by the troublous state of the times that the grant was never signed by the King.-Franklin's Works, IV., 302-80; ante, 112, note. Writing to the Governor, under date of August 17, 1772, Dr. Franklin said: “At length we have got rid of Lord Hillsborough, and Lord Dartmouth takes his place, to the great satisfaction of all the friends of America. You will hear it said among you, I suppose, that the interest of the Ohio planters has ousted hm; but the truth is, what I wrote you long since, that all his brother ministers disliked him ex tremely, and wished for a fair occasion of tripping up his heels; so, seeing that he made a point of defeating our scheme, they made another of supporting it on pur. DANIEL HORSMANDEN was one of the most famous of the early Recorders of New York city; was for many years a member of the Council, and Chief Justice of New York from 1763 until his death In 1778, at New York City, in his eighty-fifth year. Quite a full biographical sketch of him is given in N. Y. Col. Docs., VII., 528, note. |