96 ~  [16 November 1695]  Proclamation by Govenor Francis Nicholson concerning persons leaving Maryland

Maryland//  By his Ex^ncy the Cap^t Gen^rll, A Proclamation

Whereas by General Complaint it hath been signified as also Evidently made appear unto me, how that several Persons Inhabitants of this Province have been induced to remove out of the same with their Wives & families, some to the Southward & some to the Northward viz. Carolina and Pennsilvania being meerly deceived & led into such fancy through a comon empty Rumor & Report of the great plenty those two places live in, which reports are raised by persons traveling from those parts, but the effects of such fallacious reports, it is well known, divers persons have by sad experience tryed, some returning again from the same in a pooor condicon and others willing to return if they could, but are not able having sold their estates here & by their removall spent or lost most or all of their Substance, whereby they have incapacited themselves to make any return. And for as much as it hath been made manifest how that severall other Persons have been perswaded & terrified out of this Province through a vain & giddyheaded notion & noise of great & heavy taxes of a hogshead or more a head, whereas the same appears to [be] a frivolous idle complaint, not but that the Levies are something large through arrears ever since the Revolution, But hope in God will be now satisfied this year, so that the Levies will become easy & light as formerly, however the foregoing matters tending to the grea distubance of the Peace & Quiet of his Ma’ties good People here, I have, (for prevention of the same as near as be for the future) thought fitt, by and with the advice of his Ma’ties hon’ble Councel, and at the special instance and request of the Wor’ll the House of Burgesses in Assembly now sitting, to publish proclaime & declare, that any Person or Persons hereafter coming from those parts of Carolina or Pensilvania aforementioned, & are or shall be discovered to entice or discourage his Ma’ties liege People & Inhabitants of this Province to remove hence by or through means of the spurious large character by them given of those parts from whence they come, such persons shall be liable (upon complaynt of the same made & proved before a Justice of the Peace) to be committed to Prison, and answer the Law, as a common disturber of the peace, or divulger of false news. ~  And any person or persons bringing an evil report upon the country by maliciously and falsely spreading abroad a noise of great taxes shall in like manner upon due proof of the same made as aforesd be lyable to be committed & prosecuted as afsd. And I doe hereby further publish & declare that this Proclamation is not anywayes intended to debarr or hinder any Person or Persons whasoever from removeing out of the Province themselves or families to any part or place they shall both like or fancy  it is notwithstanding hereby advised that all such Persons do well consider what they are going about least they come to be sorry for their change when it may prove too late; And to the end all persons may have due notice hereof I doe hereby strictly charge & command the severall Sheriffs of the Province to make Proclamation hereof in all pulick places & meetings within their respective Counties, to which all persons are to yield all due and readie obedience as they & every of them will answer the contrary at their peril.  Given at the Port of Annapolis under the broad Seal of the Province this 17th day of October in the 7th year of his Ma’ties Reign anno Dom 1695.

                        God Save the King                              Fr. Nicholson

True Coppy from of the original passed, the broad Seal

                                                            Henry Denton  Clk Concil