be capable of electing said Representatives, who shall not have one Hundred Acres of Land there in his own Right of an Estate of Free-hold: and that this Number of Representatives shall not be inlarged or dimisnished, or the manner of electing them altered, otherwise than by Act of General Assembly, and the Approbation of his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors.

IX That the Governor's Council may consist of Inhabitants of both Provinces whereof an equal Number to be chosen out of each Province.

X That all necessary Officers and Courts for Administration of Justices in Cases Criminal and Civil, be established in each Province, and that one Supreme Court may be held for both Provinces twice in every year at Perth Amboy in East-Jersey, and Burlington in West-Jersey, alternately; in which Court all Writs of Error or Appeals in the nature of Writs of Error from any other Courts within these Provinces shall be brought and determined; and that this Court may consist of the Governor's Council and the three Capital Judges of each Province (except such of them who pronounced the first Judgment, Sentence or Decree) or of any seven of them, whereof two of the Council, and three Judges for the Time being shall be five, and every Member of the Court who shall be present, shall have an equal vote, saving that where the Court shall be equally divided in their Opinions, the eldest of the Council shall have a decisive Vote.

XI. That no Appeals to the King may lye in Personal Actions, when the Cause of Action is of less Value than two Hundred Pounds.

XII. That all Protestants may be exempt from all penal Laws relating to Religion, and may be capable of being of the Governor's Council and of holding any other Publick Office, though they do not conform to the discipline of the Church of England, or scruple to take an Oath; and that an Instruction be given to the

Governor for procuring a Law to pass in the General Assembly for substituting some proper Declaration in the Place of an Oath.

XIII. That his Majesty will be pleased to permit the Proprietors to nominate the first Governor.

XIV. That all such further Priviledges, Franchises and Liberties, as upon Consideration shall be found necessary to the good Government and Prosperity of the said Provinces, and increasing the Trade thereof, may be granted to the Proprietors.

Memorial of the Proprietors of both East and West Jersey, asking for the approval of Andrew Hamilton as Governor until the Surrender of the Government can be perfected.

[As printed in Grants and Concessions, p 591.Ï

To their Excellencies the Lords Justices of England. The Humble Petition of the Proprietors of the Province of East and West-Jersey in America.

Sheweth.

THAT your Petitioners, as they were advised by their Council, being legally entitled to the Government of those Provinces, by virtue of several Grants from the

late King JAMES, when Duke of York, the Declaration of the late King CHARLES the Second, under the Great Seal of England, and of several Acts of State and Orders of Council, admitting their right, have for many Years appointed Governor's there, and particularly Colonel Andrew Hamilton, who administred the Government to the great Service of the Crown and Universal Satisfaction of the Inhabitants, until an Act of Parliament passed in the seventh and eight Years of his Majesty's Reign, entitled, An act for preventing Frauds and regulating abuses in the Plantation Trade.

Upon which Laws some doubt arising, whether a Native of Scotland, (as Colonel Hamilton, is) were capable of being a Governor of the Plantations, your Petitioners for avoiding any Colour of Offence against the Act of Parliament, appointed one Jeremiah Basse, Governor of those Provinces; but the Lords of the Committee of Trade and Plantations, making then some Scruple concerning your Petitioners Right of Government, Mr. Basse had not such a formal Approbation of his Majesty, as that Act directs, and though your Petitioners were at the same Time honoured with Instructions from the then Lords Justices, and Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, for their Governor's Conduct, which were produced and published by Mr. Basse, as a Testimony of his being nominated Governor, with the Knowledge and implicite Consent of his Majesty and his Ministers of State, yet for want of an Express Approbation in Writing, the Inhabitants refused to obey him, and we returned for England.

Whereupon your Petitioners who had been informed of the Opinions of his Majesty's late Attorney and present Sollicitor General, that a Native of Scotland, was not disabled to execute any Office in the Plantations, were reduced to reappoint the said Colonel Ham- . ilton, (then in England) Governor of those Provinces, whom your Petitioners presented to the Lords of the

Committee of Trade and Plantations, humbly remonstrating to them the necessity of sending a Governor for preservation of the Publick Peace, and praying their Lordships Recommendation of him, for his Majesty's Approbation, but their Lordships having resolved to controvert your Petitioners Right of Government by a tryal at Law, declared they could not consent to such an Approbation without prejudice to his Majesty's Right; yet in regard of the necessity of the People's being under some Government, till the Right was determined, the Lordships delivered their Opinions, that Colonel Hamilton, acting according to the Laws of England, your Petitioners might be safe in commissionating him, and he in executing their Commission, under the security of which Approbation Colonel Hamilton went over, and re-assumed the Government of those Provinces; but some factious and turbulent Persons impatient of any Government. oppose his Administration, because he is not approved of by an Order of Council, according to the express Letter of the Act of Parliament, and have made so great Divisions and Confusions there, that the publick Peace is daily violated, and the publick Justice obstructed.

That your Petitioners have agreed and are ready to surrender all their Right of Government to his Majesty, upon such Terms and Conditions as are requisite for Preservation of their Properties and civil Interests, and which they humbly hope will be allowed to them.

Your Petitioners therefore most humbly pray, that for the Preservation of the publick Peace of these Provinces, your Excellencies will be graciously pleased immediately to approve of Colonel Hamilton to be Governor of the Provinces of East and West-Jersey, until the Terms of Surrender can be adjusted.

And your Petitioners shall ever pray.

Thomas Lane,

Paul Dominique,

Dan. Cox, junr.

Thomas Hart,

Thomas Skinner,

John Bridges,
Michael Watts,
E. Richier,

Clement Plumstead,

Thomas Cooper,

Walter Benthall,

Jos. Brooksbanke, [July 1701 ?]

Joseph Ormston,
Joseph Ormston, as having
procuration from Miles
Foster and Edward Ant-
hill,

Gilbert Molleson,

Thomas Barker.

Lord Cornbury to the Lords of Trade, asking for such an extension of his authority, as will allow of his appointing militia officers in New Jersey and Connecticut.

[From New York Col. Docts., Vol. IV, p 912.]

To the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Planta

tations.

The humble memorial of Edward Lord Cornbury.

Sheweth.

That having perused his Commission for the Government of New York, he finds that the command of the Militia in the Jerseys and the Province of Connecticut is placed in him; but he humbly conceives that he shall not be able to serve the King so usefully as he desires to doe in that matter, unless he may have a power (by commission) to nominate the Officers of the Militia in the said Provinces of East and West Jersey and Connecticut, which he imagines may the more easily be granted, because the Militia in all the parts belonging to the British dominions, is by Act of Par