USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV > Part 49
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the great Regard you have shown for his Royal Instructions. I have, however, applied myself closely to making the necessary Pro- visions of Victuals and Transports for the Men raised here, that they may be ready to embark at the Time appointed ; and tho' you have denied your Assistance, yet I have the Comfort to see others of His Majesty's loyal Subjects here not only express their Con- cern for your Mis-Conduct, lest the Expedition, so far as concerns this Province, should be retarded, but have generously offered to supply me with what was justly expected from you, and have agreed to trust to His Majesty's Justice for their being repaid. I must not, however, for the sake of Truth and my own Honour (tho' your sudden Adjournment without my Consent, and against my In- stances, prevented me at your last Sitting), let your Message of the Eighth Instant pass unobserved.
" If any Judgment is to be form'd of the Tempers and Disposi- tions of Men by their Writings, I fear the World will not entertain a very favourable Opinion of yours. In one Message you say, The Governor is pleased to assume to himself; In the last, When he might with equal Truth say any thing he pleases, If what the Gov- ernor informs us be true, Those Lawyers (if any such there be)-A Calumny often heretofore objected, If the Governor can venture to affirm so freely, Some such like Misrepresentations as his own, &ca. These are but a few of your Civilities ; many more may be Collected out of this and other Messages, since you were urged by me to make a Provision for the Defence of the Province, for that was the Foundation of all your Opposition and Dislike to me. But as I have carefully avoided an Imitation of your Language hitherto, I hope no Provocation will ever induce me to return such to the Representa- tives of the People, or even to the meanest Inhabitant of the Pro- vince.
"You are pleased to say, That the Scarcity of Labour, occasioned by enlisting Servants, and the Necessity of your Speaker's Absence, were the principal Motives for your adjournment; and that these are omitted in the Reasons by me enumerated. Revise that Mes- sage, and you will be convinced that there is no mention made in it of the Scarcity of Labour by inlisting Servants. As for the neces- sity of your Speaker's Absence that could be no good Reason for Adjourning, when a Matter which so nearly concerned the King's Service lay before you, since you might have proceeded to the Choice of another, if the Bill in which you said you had made a consider- able Progress could not have been finished in Time; for it would be thought no compliment to your House to suppose that there are not many Members in it fit to supply his Absence from the Chair. As a Probability of a peace was a Conclusion drawn in your House, as I was informed by a grave Member of it of the same persuasion with the present Majority, from a Report that the Duke of Argyle had laid down his places, and that Lord Cathcart had declined the
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Command of the Forces designed for the Expedition, it was truly said by me that the Rumour of a probability of a peace was in your House only, and that no one else heard any Thing of it.
" Had any Acts of Parliaments, or Acts of the Assembly of this Province, prohibited the receiving Servants or Apprentices, not transported for Felony, into the King's Service, I presume I should have been made acquainted with them before this Time by the Per- son whose Duty it was so to do, after Application made to him by me for that purpose. As none such have been produced, I freely own to you that it did not appear reasonable to me that I should take upon me to determine that a Contract betwixt two Subjects should give one a Property (as you are pleased to call it) in the other, so as to destroy the King's Right of receiving such into his Service as shall voluntarily offer themselves in a necessary War for the preservation of the Rights, Trade, and Navigation of His Subjects in general; and, therefore, I could not take upon me to give the Officers positive Orders to discharge Servants after they had inlisted themselves, taken the Oath's before the Magistrates, and received the King's Subsistence for some Weeks, before any application was made to me about them; but I chose rather to fol- low the Example of your House, and to leave the Point to be deter- mined by Law, lest I should betray His Majesty's Right. How- ever, tho' this was my Opinion, I gave the Officers, with their War- rants, Directions to receive none but Freemen, out of Regard to the Interest of the Inhabitants, in Hopes that the Companies might have been compleated with such, by a timely Encouragement from the Assembly; and I have since done all that could be done, con- sistent with the Good of the Service, for the Discharge of Servants.
"So soon as I received His Majesty's Commands to communicate such Parts of his Instructions as related to the Assembly, I recom- mended the giving a Bounty, after the Examples of other Provinces, to encourage Freemen to inlist; and there was not one man inlisted 'till it was publickly known That you could not chearfully accede to the King's Measures, or appropriate Money to the Uses recom- mended in my Speech, which was in the very Words of His Majes- ty's Instructions.
" The Treatment I have received from you ever since the Defence of the Province was recommended to you, was a sufficient Warning to me not to propose any Thing of the like kind to an Assembly principled against Arms, without His Majesty's express Commands.
"Nothwithstanding your Assertion to the contrary, I am well informed that Servants have been received and detained in some Colonies; and that they were not returned in others till the As- sembly had given Encouragement to Freemen to inlist.
" You are pleased to charge me with giving Encouragement to Servants to inlist, knowing them to be such ; and for this, I am told, I have been tried and condemned by a Committee of your House.
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Where you had this Information I shall not trouble myself to in- quire, since a great Number of Gentlemen, whose zeal for the King's service engaged them to accompany me the whole afternoon on which the Proclamation was made, will be so just as to give evi- dence of a quite contrary Behaviour, when it shall be thought neces- sary to call upon them; And if thro' any Familiarity or Condescen- sion of mine, His Majesty's Subjects have been induced so chear- fully to inlist, I have Confidence that it will be rather an Honour than a Reproach to me, with all such as have any Concern for the Success of His Majesty's Arms or the Interests of the British Na- tion.
"I am sorry to find that to use His Majesty's Name indecently, to caluminate me, and to treat the Magistracy with Contempt, is the Road to your Favour, or the Means to engage you to advocate the Cause of such as have been guilty of these things, or that it should be thought blame-worthy in me, after Information received, to call upon the principal Magistrates of the City, to make a proper Enquiry into the Matter, in the Presence of the Person charged, without taking any other Part in it myself. But I find the most impartial Behaviour may be misunderstood. Whatever Light, how- ever, you may see this Matter in, One of the Parties was so con- scious of his having done amiss, that both he and his Father (by a Gentlemen sent on Purpose) desired they might have Liberty to wait upon me, and that I would receive the Son's Submission. To which I answered, That he and some others had made Scandal so familiar to me, that I had learn'd to disregard it; but as to what related to His Majesty, the Duty of my Station would not allow me to pass it over.
" As Acts preventing the importation of Felons had been in Force many years before I came to the Government, and it was not in my Power alone to repeal them, I never expected to have been made accessary to them by joining in the Appointment of an Officer which those Acts had made necessary. But you are pleased to say That a Bill passed the Assembly to repeal those Acts, and might have had my assent if I had thought it fitting, tho' you very well know that I return'd the Bill to you with only a few small amend- ments, to make it consistent with itself, and that you have declined the Consideration of those Amendments, tho' it appears by your own Minutes that a Day was appointed for that Purpose, or to make any farther Application to me on that Bill. Is this dealing in- geniously by me, or those that will be at the trouble of Reading your Message ?
" Every one that knows the present Circumstances of this Pro- vince must read with surprize your Description of the Calamities it labours under from the inlisting some Servants, since it is univer- sally allowed that it never produced a greater Harvest, or that it was ever better got in; that your Trade never was in a more flour-
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ishing Condition, and that the War has been so far from doing you any Injury that it has been a Means to raise the Price of your Pro- duce at Foreign Markets, and has advanced the Value of your Money by lowering the Rate of Exchange here; that altho' you have a considerable Sum in Bank you have not paid any Thing towards the Charge of the War, whilst Great Britain has granted Four Millions to His Majesty for carrying it on, notwithstanding the Load of Debt it labours under, and has suffered in its Trade and otherwise, tho' the wisest Precautions have been taken to pre- vent it.
" As for what you call Reasoning, I shall content myself with leaving that to be judged of by all that have common Sense or the least Degree of Impartiality.
" If your Principles will not allow you to pass a Bill for Estab- lishing a Militia, if they will not allow you to secure the Naviga- tion of the River by Building a Fort, if they will not allow you to provide Arms for the Defence of the Inhabitants, if they will not allow you to raise Men for His Majesty's Service, and on His Majesty's affectionate Application to you for distressing an inso- lent Enemy if they will not allow you to raise and appropriate Money to the uses recommended by His Majesty, is it a Calumny to say That your Principles are inconsistent with the Ends of Gov- ernment at a Time when His Majesty is obliged to have Recourse to Arms, not only to protect the Trade of Great Britain and its Dominions, but likewise to obtain Redress for the Injuries done to His Subjects ?
" Whatever Name some of your Proprietors bear, they have truly the Honour of His Majesty and the British Nation as well as the Interest of this Province at Heart, and, therefore, instructed me long since to use my Endeavours with the Assembly to provide for its Defence; and tho' the Majority of your House oppose all these Things, I know there are some few of the same religious Perswasion in it, and many out of it, who dislike all your Proceedings.
" It is not I that have attempted to divide you from your Friends in England, indeed your own Actions may do it; you have like- wise divided yourselves from many of the Inhabitants here by Con- sultations, and by exerting yourselves in Consequence of them, publickly and avowedly, to obtain an uncommon Majority in this Assembly to oppose my Endeavours for the Security of this Part of His Majesty's Dominions. This is a fact so notorious that every Man that knows any Thing of what passes in the Province knows it; and that the Counsel of such, even of your own Persuasion, was despised, who warned you of the ill Consequences that would attend it, and advised you not to interrupt that Harmony which had subsisted for many years betwixt the People of the different religious Societies here, reminding you at the same time of the In- conveniences which had attended such Distinctions formerly.
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"Your own Minutes will shew the rest.
" As Servants cannot now be discharged, even supposing I had a Power so to do, without evident Danger of a Mutiny, and breaking all the Seven Companies raised in this Government, I shall wil- lingly submit my Conduct and the Proceedings of your House to His Majesty. I am glad, however (tho' it be with a View of throwing the Blame upon me), to find that your House, who, upon the Seventh of July last could not preserve good Consciences and come into the Levying of Money and appropriating it to the uses recommended to you in my Speech, because it is repugnant to the religious Principles professed by the greater Number of the pre- sent Assembly, who are of the People called Quakers, can now fix the Number of Three Hundred to be a sufficient Proportion of Men for this Province; And that upon Condition the Servants are dis- charged, you are willing to give such a Sum of Money to the Crown as may be a fit Proportion to what is given by the neigh- bouring Colonies. And I hope, after this Declaration, you will not say, That I willingly mistake you when I understand the Money to be for the same uses. The making my Conduct, however, a pretence for refusing to comply with His Majesty's Instructions, cannot be looked upon as an Instance of Zeal in you; but as I am under no Apprehensions about that, I am far from being intimi- dated by any Representation you can make, and shall proceed with all Diligence to discharge the Trust reposed in me.
" GEO. THOMAS.
" Philada., Aug. 26th, 1740.
" By Command.
"Pat. Baird, Secretary."
The Governor then laid before the Board a Letter or Application to him from the Officers of the Seven Companys of His Majesty's Soldiers raised in this Government, in Pursuance of His Majesty's Instructions; Which was read, and is as follows, vizt .:
"To the Honble GEORGE THOMAS, Esqr., Lieutenant of the Province of Pennsylvania and of the Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware.
" The Officers who have had the Honour to receive His Majesty's Commissions and Warrants from your Honour for inlisting of Men within the Province of Pennsylvan, as well as the British Officers appointed by His Majesty, Humbly beg leave to
" Represent :
" That seven Companies of foot Soldiers have been regularly in- listed by us in this Governmt-, and have been continued in His Majesty's Service several Weeks, and great pains hath been taken to discipline the said Soldiers, insomuch that they have made a con- siderable Progress in the Exercise, but are greatly discouraged by
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the late accounts which have been brought into the Country by the Gentlemen who are Members of the Assembly, and who give out that they do not doubt but that all the Indentured Servants or Ap- prentices inlisted in the said Companies within this Province will soon be disbanded ; for that the Assembly, by some proceedings of their House, have laid the Governor under a Necessity of discharg- ing all the said Servants or Apprentices, and to oblige those con- cerned to return them to their respective Owners without charge, and to the Satisfaction of the Persons nominated by the Assembly for that purpose ; an Injunction which, were it legal in itself, and that the officers had it really in their power to discharge those Per- sons, which they humbly insist they have not, yet it is next to im- possible to be performed by the Officers, who neither have the means of delivering them to their Masters, nor know the several places of the dwellings of the Masters of those Servants or Appren- tices, who are said to live in remote and different places of this Province, and some out of the Province, and besides many are called Servants who utterly deny themselves to be so.
"Under these Apprehensions, The Troops under our Command are rendered exceedingly uneasy, even so as publickly to declare that they will never suffer themselves to be seperated, and rather than be exposed to the inhumane usage of the Masters of some of them, and the Creditors of others for small Debts, they will go into some other Government where they hope to be better used and protected in His Majesty's Service. This uneasiness among the Soldiers has rendred the Duty of the Officers extremely burthensome, and may, in the end, have a bad Effect upon the Soldiers themselves; and we humbly beg leave to say further, that we are of Opinion that these Soldiers, whether they be indented Servants or Apprentices, or Freemen who came Voluntarily to the Officers and inlisted them- selves and took the Oath before a Magistrate, as prescribed by Act of Parliament, and have since received near two Months' Sub- sistence, cannot be legally discharged without the Command of the Colonel of the Regiment.
" And we further beg leave to represent to your Honour, that from the behaviour of some in this Province (from whom we thought we had reason to expect a ready compliance with His Majesty's Instructions and a peaceable disposition towards ourselves and the Soldiers), We find it extremely difficult to retain the Men in their Duty, and without the utmost care to prevent their returning the Insults and Reproaches they meet with from those who by their conduct plainly shew they are not Friends to the present Glorious Expedition.
" Wherefore, We humbly pray that your Honour will be pleased to signifie to us whether you judge it proper or intend to discharge any of the Soldiers now under our Command, that we may govern ourselves accordingly, and without loss of Time make a just and . full Representation of our Case to our Superior Officers.
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" But if your Honour shall determine to leave such as pretend to have suffered loss by any Illegal act of Ours, by Inlisting In- dented Servants or Apprentices, to seek their Remedy at Law, We shall always be ready to answer any suit they may think fit to com- mence against us while we remain within this Province; and in the mean Time we pray that we may have your Honour's Countenance, and to avoid Tumults and Disorders of all kinds That we may have the Protection of the Civil Magistrate, in common with the rest of our fellow Subjects within this Province, while we continue in our Duty to our King and Country. We are,
" Sir,
Ensigns.
Enos Dexter,
Edwd. Harrison,
Richª. Cager,
Geo. Barr,
Peter Grung,
Vint Marshall,
Cha. Mathew.
First Lieuts.
Archd. Graham, St. John Leader, Willm. Mills.
Richd. Geo. De la Vallee, Adjt.
"Your most Obedient Seryts, Second Lieuts.
John Clifford,
Robert Spicer,
Henry Hodge,
Ja. Sandilands,
Antho. Palmer,
Thomas Beckeley,
James Forster.
Captains.
Archª. Gordon,
Thos Freame,
Will. McKnight,
Thomas Lawrie,
William Thinn,
Rob. Bishop,
Thomas Clarke.
And the foregoing Letter being duly considered, It is the Opinion of this Board,
That the discharging the Soldiers inlisted in this Province to serve His Majesty (whether Freemen or Servants) may be of dan- gerous Consequence to the publick Peace, and cause Mutinies, Tu- mults, and Disorders, not easily to be supress'd under our present Weak and Defenceless Constitution and Government, and that it would be a great Disregard of His Majesty's Royal Instructions and of the British Counsels, and a publick Encouragement to the Enemies of the Nation;
That all His Majesty's Subjects (not restrained by act of par- liament) have, as We conceive, a Right to inlist themselves in the Defence of His Majesty's Person and Government, and for the Se- curity of the Trade and Navigation of the British Nation; And
That the inlisting of bought Servants is not such a Grievance as hath been represented, many of them having so short a time to serve that the loss to the Masters will amply be made up by their
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detention of the Freedom Dues required by Act of Assembly to be given by the Masters to such Servants as serve out the time of their Indentures; And that as at a moderate Computation we conceive not less than Sixty thousand People have been imported into this Province within twenty years; the Number of Men raised here may very well be spared without Injury to it, and the loss suffered by the Masters easily repaired by a reasonable allowance out of the Publick Money, which we conceive is capable both to defray that Expence and to make the Provision expected by His Majesty.
Mr. Preston then laid before the Board accounts exhibited to him by Doctor Græme, Nicholas Scull, and Mary Osborne, against the Province, which are referred to the Examination of Ralph Asshe- ton, Samuel Hasell, and Thomas Griffitts, Esqrs., and for them to Report thereupon.
At a Council held at Philada., August 27th, 1740. PRESENT :
The Honble GEORGE THOMAS, Esqr., Lieutenant Governor.
Anthony Palmer, Ralph Assheton,
Clement Plumsted,
Samuel Hasell, Esqrs.
Thomas Laurence, Thomas Griffitts,
The Minutes of the preceeding Council being read and approved,
The Gentlemen to whose Consideration were referred the Ac- counts exhibited by Doctor Græme, Nicholas Scull, and Mary Os- borne, reported that they had examined the said Accounts and allow'd the Charges to be just.
At a Council held at Philada., Octo" 3d, 1740.
PRESENT :
The Honourable GEORGE THOMAS, Esq., Lieutenant Gov- ernor.
Samuel Preston, Clement Plumsted, 1 Esqrs.
Samuel Hasell, Thomas Griffitts,
The Governor laid before the Board the several Returns of Elec- tions for the Year ensuing ; and having nominated the Persons to be Sheriffs and Coroners agreeable to the said Returns, and no Ob -- jections being made thereto-
Ordered,
That Commissions be made out to Septimus Robinson, Esq". as. Sheriff, & Owen Owen, Gent., as Coroner of the City and County of Philada. ; to Benjamin Davis as Sheriff, and Awbrey Bevan as Coroner of the County of Chester; to Joseph Jackson as Sheriff,,
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and William Atkinson as Coroner of the County of Bucks; and to Robert Buchanan as Sheriff, and Joshua Lowe as Coroner of the County of Lancaster.
The Governor also Ordered that Commissions be made out to John Gooding as Sheriff, and Henry Gonn as Coroner of the County of Newcastle ; to Samuel Robisson as Sheriff, and Richard James as Coroner of the County of Kent; and to Cornelius Will- bank as Sheriff, and John Wynkoop as Coroner of the County of Sussex.
At a Council held at Philada, Octo". 15, 1740. PRESENT :
The Honble GEORGE THOMAS, Esqr., Lieut. Governor.
Thomas Laurence and Thomas Griffitts, Esqrs.
The Representatives of the ffreeman Chosen to serve in Assembly this Year waited on the Governor at the Time by him appointed, and John Kinsey, Esq"- informed the Governor that the Members had met pursuant to the Law and Charter and had chosen him for their Speaker, the Duty of which Office, he said, he would en- deavour to execute to the best of his Judgment; and, as is usual, Pray'd the Governor that the House, or Members thereof, might have free Access to the Gov& Person upon all Proper Occasions when the public Good required it; That he would be pleased to put a favourable Construction upon their proceedings, and not give ear to any Reports concerning them or their Debates till the same past into Resolves; That they might enjoy full freedom of Speech and Debate in their House; That the Members Persons might be free from arrest during their Sessions; And that the Governor would be pleased to Excuse any involuntary Errors or Mistakes which he as Speaker might make in the Exercise of his Duty,
To which the Governor reply'd :
That as he never intended to invade any of the just Priviledges of the Assembly, so he hoped their House would not Assume or Claim any other Privileges than such as justly pertained to them.
At a Council held at Philada., Jan'y. 5th, 1740-1. PRESENT : The Honble GEORGE THOMAS, Esqr., Lieut. Governor. Samuel Hasell and Thomas Griffitts, Esqrs.
The Governor laid before the Members Present an Additional
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Instruction from their Excellencys the Lords Justices ; which was read, and is as follows, vizt:
" By the Lords Justices.
"To. Cant Wilmington, P. Hervy, C. P. S. Dorset, Grafton Rich- mond Lenox, & Aubigney Bolton.
" Additional Instruction to George Thomas, Esqr., Deputy Governor of his Majesty's Province of Pennsylvania, in America, Or to the Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's said [L. S.] Province for the Time being. Given at Whitehall, the twenty-first Day of August, 1740, in the fourteenth Year of his Majesty's Reign.
" Whereas an Act of Parliament was passed in the sixth Year of her late Majesty Queen Anne, Entitled An Act for ascertaining the Rates of foreign Coins in her Majestie's Plantations in Amer- ica : And Whereas Complaints have been made that the said Act has not been observed as it ought to have been in many of his Ma- jesty's Colonies and Plantations in America, by Means whereof many indirect Practices have grown up, and various and illegal Cur- rencies have been introduced in several of the said Colonies and Plantations, contrary to the true intent and meaning of the said Act, and to the Prejudice of the Trade of his Majistie's Subjects, In Consequence of which Complaints an Humble Address was pre- sented the last Sessions by the House of Commons to his Majesty, ' That he would be graciously pleased to require and Command the respective Governors of his Colonies and Plantations in America effectually to observe the said Act of the sixth of Queen Ann.' It is, therefore, his Majistie's Royal will and Pleasure, And you are hereby strictly required and commanded to take the most effectual Care for the future that the said Act be punctually and bona fide observed and put in Execution according to the true intent and Meaning thereof. And to the end that His Majesty's Commands herein may be fully made known to all his Subjects within your Government, and that none of them may Pretend Ignorance thereof, You are hereby further required and commanded to Publish this In- struction in such Manner as may best Answer his Majesty's Gracious Intentions herein signified.
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