Lords of the Admiralty direct, for securing ships and vessels of his Majesty's subjects from the Algerines; and for your better guidance how to fill up the blanks in the said passes, I send you one of them filled up for a sample.

Your Lordship will also receive in the box with the passes, 1000 oaths and 1000 bonds, some of which oaths are for English built ships, and the rest for foreign built ships made free, and part of the bonds are for ships trading coast-wise in the plantations; the others for such as trade from the plantations to Europe. Samples of which oaths and bonds with the blanks filled up, I send you for your guidance in the doing thereof, before you fill up or deliver the pass.

And whereas your Lordship will find by the said instructions that a registry must be sent to this office of all passes delivered out by you, I send you likewise a scheme showing in what manner the said registry is to be kept.

And your Lordship being directed by the other order of my Lords of the Admiralty that come indorsed, to secure a fitting number of those passes and bonds for your own Government, and then to distribute the rest to the respective places mentioned in the margin,* I desire you will please at the same time to send the packets also that come herewith to the said places respectively, and that you will own the receipt hereof, and let me know how you dispose of the passes.

I am, my Lord, your Lordships most
humble servant

Ld. Bellomont, Govr of New England.

J. BURCHETT.

Letter to Gov. Bellomont relating to Timber.

[P. 30.] Right trusty and right well beloved Cousin-we greet you well.

Whereas we have been informed that great spoils are daily committed in the woods of New Hampshire and Province of Maine, and other parts within our Goverumt of the Massachusetts Bay, by cutting down and converting to private uses such Trees as are or may be proper for the service of our Royall Navy, and it being necessary that all practices which tend so evidently to deprive us of those supplies be effectually restrained:

Our Will and Pleasure is that upon consideration of the occasions of such abuses, the methods by which they are carried on, and the inconveniences that attend them, you use your endeavors, with Our respective Councils and the General Assemblies of the Massachusetts Bay and of New Hampshire, to dispose them to pass Acts for preventing the further spoils of those woods, and

* Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, Pensilvania, East and West New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island.

for preserving a Nursery of such trees as may be useful for our service; and in case you cannot prevail with them to pass Acts proper and sufficient for those purposes, that you send over hither the heads of such a Bill as may be effectual for those ends, and fit to be enacted here. Soe We bid you heartily farewell.

Given at our Court at Hampton Court, the 19th day of January 1700-1, in the twelfth year of Our Reign.

Draught of a Letter for

his Maj'tys signature to

the Earl of Bellomont, about

preserving his Maj'tys

Timber in New England.

Dated the 9th January 1700-1.

By his Majestys Command,

JAMES VERNON.

[P. 31.]

Copy of his Majestys Letter to the Earl of Bellomont, relating to Accessories in case of Piracies beyond the Seas, February 2d

1700-1.

Right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin-We greet you well:

Whereas by Our letters bearing date the 10th Feb'ry, 1699-1700 we thought fit to give you several directions relating to the trial of Pirates in Our Province of New York, and whereas an Act of Parliament is since passed for the more effectual suppression of Piracy, pursuant to which a Commission under the Great Seal of England has been also sent you, impowering you and others to proceede accordingly in reference to Our said Province, and to Our Province of East and West New Jersey and Our Colony of Connecticut,

Our Will and Pleasure is that notwithstanding anything contained in Our aforesaid letters of the 10th of Feb'ry 1699-1700 you henceforward take care to Govern yourself in matters relating to Pirates according to the intent of the Act of Parliament and Commission aforementioned.

But whereas Accessories in cases of Piracies beyond the Seas are by the said Acts left to be tried in England according to the Statutes of the 28th of King Henry, the 8th, We do hereby further direct & require you to send all such Accessories in cases of Piracy in Our aforesaid Provinces of New York, the East and West New Jerseys and our Colony of Connecticutt with the proper Evidences, that you may have against ym into England in order to their being tried here.

And you are to give notice of Our Pleasure herein to our Provinces of East and West New Jersey and to the Governor and Company of the Colony of Connecticutt, that they may conform themselves thereunto. So we bid you heartily farewell.

Given at Our Court at Kensington the 2a day of February, 1700-1, In the twelfth year of our Reign.

By his Majesty's Command.

[P. 32.]

Extract of a letter from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantatious to the Earl of Bellomont dated the 11th of February, 1700-1.

On the 10th of the last month we laid before his Maj'sty a Representation relating to the state of the Forts and Fortifications on the continent of America, and we send you here inclosed a copy thereof, as likewise of our Letter to Mr. Secretary Vernon on the same subject, You will by them perceive what wee offered in relation to all yor Governments, and more particularly in order to the further defense and security of New York; and his Maj'sty having thereupon been pleased to approve and sign the Letters that we had prepared for yourself with respect to your several Governments, and for the respective Governors and Governments of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pensylvania, Marriland and Virginia, we send you here enclosed all his Maj'tys said Letters; and because they are sealed, we send you likewise copies of those which are not for y'self, that in sending them forwards you may better know what to write along with each of them.

With these we also send you another letter from his Maj'ty relating to the preservation of Timber in the Province of New Hampshire, which his Majs'ty was pleased to direct us to draw in pursuance of our Representations on that subject; whereof we sent you a copy in our letter of the 30th of October last.

We writ you formerly about sending the Acts of General Assembly which [P. 33.] concern private persons, under distinct Seals, without fastening them to those that are of a public import. And we now add, that we think there would be a conveniency in sending all public Acts also in the same manner, each of them under a seperate Seal. Provided still, that they be either writ or printed in such a forme that they may conveniently be bound up in Volume as there shall be occasion, which method we desire therefore may be observed in all yo' Governments.

The Commissions for trying of Pirates in his Maj'tys Plantations pursuant to the late Act of Parliament for the more effectual suppression of Piracy, having been brought to us the 24th of the last month; we did on the 27th commit those which concern your Lordship as Govern' of New York and New England, to the care of Mr. Champante.

And in further reference to both these Commissions, we now

here send you inclosed his Maj'tys letters relating to Accessories in cases of Piracy beyond the Seas, who are not to be tried by the said Commissioners.

[P. 34.]

Copy of an Order of Council of the 24th April 1701, upon a Report of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations relating to Mr. Allen's Appeals.

At the Court at Kensington, the 24th day of April, 1701.
The Kings Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

Upon reading this day at the Board a Representation from the Lords Commiss" of Trade and Plantations on the petition of Samuel Allen, Esq., Proprietor of the Colony of New Hampshire humbly praying to be admitted to appeal to his Maj'sty in Council from a Verdict and Judgment given against him in the Superior Court of Judicature, of New Hampshire, the 13th day of August 1700, in favor of Richard Waldron, touching the Petitioners Right as Proprietor to certain Quit Rents of land in the said Colony, his Majesty in council is pleased to approve of the said Representation and accordingly to order, as it is hereby ordered, that the Petitioner, Samuel Allen be admitted to Appeal from the said Verdict and Judgment given against him in the Superior Court of Judicature of New Hampshire, the 13th day of August 1700, in favor of the said Richard Waldron; the petitioner first giving security to prosecute the said Appeal in order to be heard before this Board, the first Council [P. 35.] day in December next, and to abide by his Maj'tys determination in Council therein.

And his Maj'ty is further pleased to order that authentic copies of all proceedings in the said Superior Court of Judicature, in the petitioners case, be transmitted to this Board under the Seal of New Hampshire for his Maj'tys better information herein.

And the Governor, Lt. Governor, or Commander-in-Chiefe of New Hampshire, and all others whom it may concern are to take notice hereof, and to govern themselves accordingly. EDWARD SOUTHWELL.

[P. 36.]

Extract of a letter from the Lords Comm'rs for Trade and Plantations, dated the 29th of April 1701, to the Earl of Bellomont.

As for Masts, Timber &c. to be had in New Hampshire, in order whereunto yor Lordship conceives the Trade from thence to Spain and Portugal ought to be prohibited, having had occasion to lay some matters before the House of Commons, we have offered that amongst other things to their consideration.

1

The appeal that your Lordship had heard was refused in New Hampshire, has occasioned a petition to His Maj'sty which is now under Our consideration. We hear nothing yet of that appeal you mention to have been refused in the Massachusetts Bay.

But this declining to admit Appeals to his Maj'ty in Council, is a matter that you ought very carefully to watch against in all your Governments. It is a humour that prevails so much in Proprieties and Charter Colonies, and the Independency they thirst after is now so notorious, that it has been thought fit those considerations, together with other objections agt these Colonies should be laid before the Parliament; and a bill has thereupon been brought into the House of Lords for Reuniting the right of Government in their Colonies to the Crown.

As to Mr. Allens Claim to ye Province of New Hampshire (mentioned also in the same Letters) that is a point of Law which has been formerly made the consideration of two Chief Justices of England; and a Report having [P. 37.] been made thereon we cannot meddle in it, but the forementioned Appeal which is desired by him from a late sentence of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, will probably bring that matter again under consideration and occasion some positive settlement in it.

We hope that Com for trying of Pirates lately sent to all the Plantations will tend effectually to their extirpation; and the Proclamation of the 6th of March last which we send you here inclosed will also have a good effect; however a constant watchfulness agst Piracyes, and all manner of illegal trade will be always necessary.

As to Piracyes, we send you likewise here inclosed the copy of his Maj'tys letter to you of the 14th inst. sent by Mr. Larkin, one versed in the forms of Admiralty Courts, and appointed by his Maj'ty to carry duplicates of those Commissions to all places where they are to be executed: who goes first to New Found Land, and will from thence take his passage to New England and so forwards through all the Plantations, in order to the settling of those forms according to the Instructions that have been given him for that purpose.

Diverse complaints have been laid before us of irregularities in the Courts of Chancery in his Maj'tys Plantations; and amongst the rest, that in some places the Governors and the members of the respective Councils who compose those Courts, do sit and act therein without taking any Oath to do equal and impartial Justice between parties concerned in the Causes that shall come before them.

Wee have thought fit hereby to direct [P. 38.] you (as we do other Governors) that in case there have been any neglect of this kind in any of your Governments, you forthwith take care to remedy the same as your Commission impowers you, by your taking, in the first place a proper Oath for that purpose and afterward administering the like Oath to the members of the Court of Chancery in that Province, where you shall be presiding at the receipt of this letter; and by your further directing the Lt. Governors of his Maj'tys other Provinces, under yo' Government, immediately to take the like care in each place respectively.