No. 13. 7th Oct. 1691. Appendix. acts of Government whatsoever soe to bee made passed or done by the said Generall Assembly or in Councill shall be of any force effect or validity any thing herein Charter of Massa-Conteyned to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And wee doe for us our chusetts, by William and Mary. heires and successors establish and ordaine that the said Orders Laws Statutes and Ordinances be by the first opportunity after the makeing thereof sent or transmitted unto us our heires and successors under the Publick Seale to be appointed by us for our or their approbacon or disallowance and that in case all or any of them shall at any time within the space of three years next after the same shall have been presented to us our heires and successors in our or their Privy Councill be disallowed and rejected and soe signified by us our heires and successors under our or theire signe manual and signett or by order in our or theire Privy Councill unto the Governor for the time being then such and soe many of them as shall be soe disallowed and rejected shall thenceforth cease and determine and become utterly void and of none effect Provided alwaies that in case wee our heires or successors shall not within the terme of three yeares after the presenting of such Orders Lawes Statutes or Ordinances as aforesaid signifie our or their disallowance of the same then the said Orders Laws Statutes or Ordinances shall be and continue in full force and effect according to the true intent and meaning of the same until the expiracon thereof or that the same shall bee repealed by the Generall Assembly of our said Province for the time being Provided alsoe that it shall and may be lawfull for the said Governor and Generall Assembly to make or passe any Grant of Lands lying within the bounds of the Colonyes formerly called the Collonies of the Massachusetts Buy and New Plymouth and Province of Maine in such munner as heretofore they might have done by vertue of any former Charter or Letters Patents which Grunts of Lands within the bounds aforesaid Wee Doe hereby will and ordeine to be und continue forever of full force and effect without our further approbacon or consent and soe as neverthelesse and it is our Royall will and pleasure that noe Grant or Grants of any Lands lying or extending from the River of Sagadahock to the Gulph of St. Laurence and Canada Rivers and to the Main Sea northward and eastward to be made or past by the Governor and Generall Assembly of our said Province be of any force validity or effect untill wee our heires and successors shall have signified our or their approbacon of the same And Wee Doe by these presents for us our heires and successors grant establish and ordaine that the Governor of our said Province or Territory for the time being shall have full power by himself or by any Chiefe Comander or other Officer or Officers to be appointed by him from time to time to frame instruct exercise and governe the Militia there and for the spetiall defence and safety of our said Province or Territory to assemble in martiall array and put in warlike posture the Inhabitants of our said Province or Territory and to lead and conduct them and with them to encounter expulse repell resist and pursue by force of armes as well by sea as by land within or without the limitts of our said Province or Territory and alsoe to kill slay destroy and conquer by all fitting wayes enterprises and means whatsoever all and every such person and persons as shall at any time hereafter attempt or enterprise the destruccon invasion detriment or annoyance of our said Province or Territory and to use and exercise the Law Martiall in time of actuall Warr Invasion or Rebellion as occasion shall necessarily require and alsoe from time to time to erect Forts and to fortifie any place or places within our said Province or Territory and the same to furnish with all nenessary amunicon Provisions and Stores of Warr for offence or defence and to comitt from time to time the custody and government of the same to such person or persons as to him shall seeme meet and the said Forts and Fortificacons to demolish at his pleasure and to take and surprise by all waies and meanes whatsoever all and every such person or persons with their Shipps Armes Amunition and other Goods as shall in a hostile manner invade or attempt the invadeing conquering or annoying of our said No. 13. chusetts, by William and Mary.7th Oct. 1691 Province or Territory Provided alwaies And Wee Doe by these Presents for us our Appendix heires and successors grant establish and ordaine that the said Governour shall not at any time hereafter by vertue of any power hereby granted or hereafter to be granted Charter of Massa to him transport any of the Inhabitants of our said Province or Territorie or oblige them to march out of the limitts of the same without their free and voluntary consent or the consent of the Great and Generall Court or Assembly of our said Province or Territory nor grant Comissions for exerciseing the Law Martiall upon any the Inhabitants of our said Province or Territory without the advice and consent of the Councill or Assistants of the same Provided in like manner and Wee Doe by these Presents for us our heires and successors constitute and ordaine that when and as often as the Governor of our said Province for the time being shall happen to die or be displaced by us our heires or successors or be absent from his Government that then and in any of the cases the Lieutenant or Deputy Governor of our said Province for the time being shall have full power and authority to doe and execute all and every such acts matters and things which our Governor of our said Province for the time being might or could by vertue of these our Letters Patents lawfully doe or execute if he were personally present untill the returne of the Governor soe absent or arrivall or constitucon of such other Governor as shall or may be appointed by us our heires or successors in his stead and that when and as often as the Governour and Lieutenant or Deputy Governor of our said Province or Territory for the time being shall happen to die or be displaced by us our heires or successors or be absent from our said Province and that there shall be noe person within the said Province comissionated by us our heires or successors to be Governour within the same then and in every of the said cases the Councill or Assistants of our said Province shall have full power and authority and Wee Doe hereby give and grant unto the said Councill or Assistants of our said Province for the time being or the major part of them full power and authority to doe and execute all and every such acts matters and things which the said Governour or Lieutenant or Deputy Governour of our said Province or Territory for the time being might or could lawfully doe or exercise if they or either of them were personally present untill the returne of the Governour or Lieutenant or Deputy Governour soe absent or arrival or constitucon of such other Governor or Lieutenant or Deputy Governour as shall or may be appointed by us our heires or successors from time to time Provided alwaies and it is hereby declared that nothing herein conteyned shall extend or be taken to erect or grant or allow the exercise of any Admirall Court Jurisdiccon Power or authority but that the same shall be and is hereby reserved to us and our successors and shall from time to time be erected granted and exercised by vertue of comissions to be issued under the Great Seale of England or under the Seale of the High Admirall or the Comissioners for executeing the Office of High Admirall of England And further our expresse will and pleasure is And Wee Doe by these Presents for us our heires and successors ordaine and appoint that these our Letters Patents shall not in any manner enure or be taken to abridge bar or hinder any of our loveing subjects whatsoever to use and exercise the trade of fishing upon the Coasts of New England but that they and every of them shall have full and free power and libertie to continue and use the said Trade of Fishing upon the said Coasts in any of the Seas thereunto adjoining or any armes of the said Seas or Salt Water Rivers where they have been wont to fish and to build and sett upon the lands within our said Province or Colony lying wast and not then possest by particular Proprietors such Wharfes Stages and Workhouses as shall be necessary for the salting drying keeping and packing of their Fish to be taken or gotten upon that Coast and to cutt downe and take such Trees and other matterialls there growing or being upon any parts or places lying wast and not then in possession of perticuler Proprietors as shall be needfull for that purpose and for all other necessary easements help and advantages concerning the said Trade of Fishing there in such manner and forme as they have been heretofore at No. 13. 7th Oct. 1691. Appendix. any time accustomed to doe without makeing any wilfull waste or spoile any thing in these presents conteyned to the contrary notwithstanding And lastly for the better Charter of Massa- provideing and furnishing of Masts for our Royall Navy Wee Doe hereby reserve to us chusetts, by William and Mary. our heires and successors all trees of the diameter of twenty four inches and upwards of twelve inches from the ground growing upon any soyle or tract of Land within our said Province or Territory not heretofore granted to any private persons And Wee Doe restraine and forbid all persons whatsoever from felling cutting or destroying any such trees without the Royall Lycence of us our heires and successors first had and obtained upon penalty of forfeiting one hundred pounds sterling unto us our heires and successors for every such tree so felled cutt or destroyed without such lycence had or obtained in that behalfe any thing in these Presents conteined to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding In Witnesse &c Witnesse ourselves at Westminster the seaventh day of October. By Writt of Privy Seale. This is a true Copy from the original Record remaining in the Chapel of the JOHN KIPLING. APPENDIX No. XIV. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS FOR TRADE AND PLANTATIONS TO THE EARL OF BELLOMONT, DATED 30TH OCTOBER, 1700. No 14. Letter from the Lords Commisand Plantations, The address of the General Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay to his Majesty re- Appendix. ceived with the first of those Letters, shall be laid before his Majesty, with a Representation, which we intend to prepare on the same matters. What has hindered us hitherto from doing it is the want of a Draught of the Charter for Harvard Colledge, and such other informations as we expected to receive from Sir Henry Ashurst, in to the Earl of pursuance of the directions which your Lordship writes you had given him on that subject. We have writ to Sir Henry Ashurst about it some while since, but have yet received no answer. As to the Boundaries we have always insisted, and shall insist upon the English Right as far as the River St Croix; but in the mean while, in relation to the Incroachments of the French and their building a Church on Kennebeck River that seems to us a very proper occasion for your Lordships urging the General Assembly of the Massacusetts Bay to rebuild the Fort at Pemaquid, which they ought to have done long ago; and thereby they might have prevented this and many other inconveniences. The alarm they have had from the Indians, is also another argument to make them think seriously of that matter, and they ought to be pressed to it with all possible earnestness. The Acts that you have sent us of the Massachusetts Bay, past there the 29th of May last, are not under Seal; but we suppose we shall ere long receive an authentick Copy thereof (as we have done others formerly) from Mr Addington, and then they shall be considered. The Representations that we were preparing, upon the Acts of the General Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay having been laid before their Excellencies, we send you copies thereof here inclosed; to which we refer ourselves, for the reasons of what we have therein offered and when we receive orders thereupon, they shall also be transmitted to you that they may be observed. In relation to those Acts, we send you also, herewith, a Copy of some Remarks, that we have made upon divers of them, which we think very proper to be observed by the General Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay, upon all like occasions. Mr Hillary Renue, a member of the Lustring Company, who has had many occasions to apply to us in behalf of that Company, has lately communicated to us the Copy of a Letter he writ to your Lordship the 6th of March 1693, relating to lustrings and Alamodes unlawfully imported into New England, which letter he says was delivered to your Hands: and he has further desired us to recommend the matter he writes about to your Lordships care. Bellomont. Appendix. No. 14. Tho' we cannot advise your Lordship to those particular methods which he suggests, because the Act upon which he grounds his desire is not in force in New EngLetter from the land, as he supposes it to be, yet the Act of the 15th of King Charles the 2nd forbid Lords Commis and Plantations, Bellomont. sioners of Trade ding That any Commodity of the Growth, Production & manufacture of Europe, be to the Earl of imported into any of his Majesty's Plantations, but what shall be bona fide, and without fraud, shipped in England, Wales or the Town of Berwick, &c. being a sufficient authority for stopping of that indirect trade; we think your Lordship will do very well to discourage it by all legal means, and more especially by charging the Officers of the Customes that they be very vigilent in the discharge of their duty in that particular. We desire your Lordship to be mindful of his Majesty's Instruction for sending home yearly accounts of the Arms, Amunition and Stores remaining in all his Majesty's Magazines and Garrisons in several Provinces under your Government: and to take care that those Accounts be regularly transmitted, as his Majesty has directed. We also desire your Lordship (as we shall do the Governours of all his Majesty's other Plantations respectively) that a memorandum be entered upon the Council Books of all your Governments, to caution them, that whenever any of those Governments, by the death, absence or Removal of a Governor or Lieutenant Governor immediately commissioned by his Majesty, comes to devolve upon a President and the Council of any of those Plantations or Governments, such President and Council do forbear to pass any Acts, but such as are immediately necessary for the peace and Welfare of any of the respective Governments, without his Majesty's express order for that purpose. [L. S.] COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, I hereby certify, that the foregoing is a true Copy of Record as existing in this Office. In testimony of which, I have hereunto affixed the Seal of the said Commonwealth, in my custody and possession, this twentieth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the fifty-third. EDWARD D. BANGS, Secretary of the Commonwealth. |