|
Lib. J. R.
& U. S.
|
be averse to countermanding' such Orders, otherwise I shall
find myself under a necessity of exerting the Power with
which I am invested to preserve the peace of the province &c.
February 2d 1756. To General Shirley
To all Officers employed in raising of Recruits for any of
his Majesty's Regimts in North America.
It is his Excellency General Shirley's Orders if amongst
the indented Servants you may have enlisted any of them
are willing to return to their Masters; that you are to destroy
their Attestations, provided the Masters to whom such
Servants belong do furnish an able Bodied Man fit for the
Kings Service, in lieu of every Servant they get back :
Roger Morris
Aid de Camp.
Boston 29p- February 1756.
sr
Yesterday late in the Evening I received the Favour of
your Letter dated the 16th Instant, inclosing a Copy of the
Assemblys Address to you on the 11th containing a Re-
monstrance against the Practice used at present by the
officers now recruiting within your Province of entertaining
indented Servants.
Tho I have very lately wrote to you Sir upon this Head,
and might rest the point in dispute upon your very reas-
onable, just and clear Answer to the Address, yet at the
Instance of your Assembly to lay the Matter complained of
before me for my Consideration I have reconsidered it, and
now transmit to you my farther Sentiments .and final De-
termination thereon :
The Restraint I lately laid the recruiting Officers under,
by forbidding them to enlist indented Servants (which the
Assembly themselves referr to in their Address), must con-
vince them how tender I am of suffering his Majesty's Ser-
vice under my Care to break unnecessarily into the Contracts
of these Servants with their Masters or their Assigns &
depriving the latter of any part of the Service they originally
indented for, though it was my settled clear opinion that the
King has a Right to the Service of indented servants as well
as other Voluntiers; and it is evident that a Liberty to enlist
them must make the recruiting Officers Duty easier, and fill
his Majesty's Regiments much sooner and at a less Expence
to them, yet whilst I flattered myself with Hopes that the
Officers might be able to compleat their Regiments in time
for the King's Service without entertaining indented servants,
|
|