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LYONEL COPLEY, Esq; Governor.
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1692. |
June 8th, 1692.
" Notice to be given to Cæcil
Butler, deputed by Col. Darnall as Naval Officer, that he forbear
" further to collect the 14 d. per Ton Fort Duties;
it being ordered to be collected by the
" Collector, &c. the same to be signified publicly
by an Order of this Board, to be set up in the
" Collector's Office."
The Foundation of Mr. Darnall's
Petition was the following Royal Letter which was produced
and read at the same Time, viz.
WILLIAM
R.
" Truly and Well-beloved, WE greet
you well. Whereas our right trusty and well-beloved
" CHARLES Lord BALTIMORE, hath by his humble Petition
represented unto Us,
" that he has not received any Benefit of our Royal Letter
of the 1st of
February 1689, nor of
" an Order of Council of the 26th of February
1690, both which gave him Liberty, by his
" Agents in Maryland, to collect his Revenues
and Duties there: That he is informed, from his
" Agents there, that by Reason of their long Confinements
and other Hardships in that Province,
" they were rendered altogether incapable of acting for
him, whereby he has received
" no Returns from thence this last Shipping. We
have thought fit, upon Consideration thereof,
" and at the humble Request of the said CHARLES Lord
Baltimore,
hereby to signify our
" Will and pleasure to you, that you do take Care, and
give strict Orders, as there shall be Occasion,
" that Henry Darnall, Gent. who for several Years
has been the Petitioner's Agent and
" Receiver in Maryland, as also such person or
persons as the said
Henry Darnall shall appoint,
" be permitted to live peaceably and quietly, and to
act as formerly, in receiving the said
" CHARLES Lord Baltimore's Dues and Revenues in
that Province. And our further Pleasure is,
" that no Ships or Vessels be cleared in Maryland,
before the said Lord Baltimore's Agent and
" Receiver-General, shall have received his Dues from
the Shipping there: They behaving
" themselves peaceably, and with due Submission to our
Government. And for so doing this
" shall be your Warrant. And so we bid you farewell.
Given at our Court at Whitehall the
" 12th Day of November 1691, in the Third Year
of our Reign.
" By his Majesty's Command,
" To our trusty and well-beloved Lyonel
Copley, Esq;
" Captain-General
and Governor in chief in and over
NOTTINGHAM."
" our Province
of Maryland, in America, and to our
" chief Governor
or Governors, for the Time being.
The above Act, together with Mr. Darnall's
Petitionary
Demand, in Behalf of Lord Baltimore's
Dues and Revenues, and the Opinion of Both Houses thereon,
being transmitted to England,
received a final Determination by his Majesty in Council,
from which the following is extracted.
' At the Court at Whitehall, the 23d of February
1692.
' PRESENT,
" The KING's most Excellent Majesty,
' L. Archbp. of CANTERBURY, Earl of ROCHESTER,
Lord Bishop of LONDON,
' Lord PRESIDENT,
Earl of MONMOUTH, Sir ROBERT HOWARD,
' L. GREAT CHAMBERLAIN,
Earl of MONTAGUE, Mr. VICE CHAMBERLAIN,
' Lord CHAMBERLAIN,
Earl of SCARBOROUGH, Mr. CHANCELLOR of the Excheqr.
' Earl of BEDFORD,
Earl of WARRINGTON, Lord Chief Justice HOLT,
' Earl of BRIDGEWATER,
Earl of RANELAGH, Sir EDWARD SEYMOUR,
' Earl of MACCLESFIELD,
Viscount NEWPORT, Sir HENRY GOODRICK,
' Earl of NOTTINGHAM,
Viscount FAULKLAND, Mr. BOSCAWEN.
' The Right Honourable the Lords of
the Committee for Trade and Plantations, having laid
' before his Majesty in Council, a Report from Sir Thomas
Trevor, Knt. their Majesty's Sollicitor-General,
' upon several Demands of the Lord Baltimore,
as Lord Proprietary of their Majesty's
' Province of Maryland, which having been Read
at the Board as followeth,
viz.
" To the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee
of Trade and Plantations.
" In Obedience to your Lordships Order
of Reference, of the 19th of September last, I have
" considered of the several Demands made by my Lord Baltimore,
in the Province of Maryland,
" and represented to their Majesties by the Assembly
of that Province; and I have been attended
" by the Lord Baltimore and his Council, &c.
&c.
" As to the second Demand of Fourteen
Pence per Ton, &c. I find by an Act of the Assembly
" of that Province in 1661, it was Enacted, That all
Vessels whatsoever, not properly
" belonging to that Province, having a Deck flush Fore
and Aft, coming in, and trading within
" that Province, should pay, for Port Duties and Anchorage,
a Pound of Powder and three
" Pounds of Shot, or so much in Value, for every Ton
of Burthen, to the Proprietor and his
" Heirs. WHich Duty hath by Usage been turned into
Money, viz. Fourteen Pence per Ton,
" and so answered to the Lord Baltimore, and constantly
applied to his own Use, and not to the
" Support of Government, as the Lord Baltimore
affirms to me. And, by Order of Council,
" of the 26th of February 1690, this Duty of Fourteen
Pence per Ton, was directed to be
" answered to the Lord Baltimore as Proprietor
of the Province; and likewise Instructions given
" Col. Copley, the Governor of Maryland,
to permit the Lord
Baltimore, or his Agents, to receive
" the same without any Disturbance or Interruption.
And I conceive upon the Words of the
" Act, this Duty doth belong to my Lord Baltimore
as Proprietor, to be received by him, or
" to his own Use. And it would be a Thing of dangerous
Consequence to admit of Parole
" Proof of an Intention, in the Law-Makers, different
from the Words of a Law, to say that
" the Duty which the Act calls a Port-Duty, was
intended to be a
Fort-Duty; and it seems to
" be admitted by the Assembly, that this Duty of Fourteen
Pence per Ton doth by law now
" belong to the Lord Baltimore, by desiring their
Majesty's Royal Assent to an Act to invest it
" in their Majesties, &c. &c.
" All which is humbly submitted to your Lordships
great Wisdom.
THO. TREVOR." |
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