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P. R. O.
Colonial
Papers.
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Which letter is entered at large in the entry book of Virginia
V. 3. Pa: 308. The following orders and Reports were made
At the Court at Whitehall the 25. Febry 1684/5
Present
The King's most excellent Majesty in Councill The Right
Honorable the Lords of the Committee for Trade and Planta-
tions having this day presented to the Board the ensuing report
vizt
May it Please your Majesty
Wee have received from the Right Honorable the Earl of
Sunderland a letter to his Lordship from Lord Howard of
Effingham your Majesty's Governor of Virginia with other
Papers concerning a barbarous murther committed on Chris-
topher Rousby Collector of his late Majesty's Customs in
Maryland by Colonell George Talbot one of the Councill and
first in the commission of the Government of that Province
during the absence of the Lord Baltemore, and therein wee do
find that on the 31. of October last the said collector being on
board your Majesty's Ketch, the Quaker in Patuxens River
near Maryland, the said Talbot came on board and after some
words had passed between Captain Allen the Commander and
the said Talbot chiefly concerning your Majesty's Right of
Iurisdictioji in those Parts, the said Talbot without any just
Provocation embracing the said Rousby, stabbed him with a
dagger newly prepared and sharpened, whereof he immediately
dyed. After which the said Talbot being put in Irons by
Captain Allen, the Councill of Maryland had demanded
him in their Lord Proprietaries name in order to his
tryall by common Law in Maryland as for a Fact com-
mitted within the body of that Province, But two of their
members who came on board the said Ketch having refused
to demand the Prisoner in his late Majesty's name And
Captain Allen conceiving the fact to have been committed as
upon the sea carryed him to Virginia where he delivered him
to your Majesty's Governor who with the advice of the Coun-
cill has humbly represented the State and evidence of this case
for your Majesty's directions in what manner and place the
Tryall shall be had, 'whereunto his Lordship was induced as
well by the nature and enormity of the Crime both in Relation
to the murther which was committed on a Person who had the
honor of his late Majesty's Commission and trust in an employ-
ment of such importance to your Majesty's Revenue, as to the
quality of the Prisoner who had after the fact threatened that
if he were on shore, he would raise a thousand men for his
further revenge. Upon which considerations and that the
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