America and West Indies: January 1736

Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 42, 1735-1736. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1953.

This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.

'America and West Indies: January 1736', in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 42, 1735-1736, (London, 1953) pp. 151-156. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol42/pp151-156 [accessed 27 April 2024]

January 1736

Jan. 8.
Whitehall.
230. Council of Trade and Plantations to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. Enclose accounts of incidental charges of the Office, Michaelmas to Christmas, 1735, and request payment of one quarter's salaries then due. v. Journal. [C.O. 389, 37. pp. 367, 368.]
Jan. 9.
Whitehall.
231. Council of Trade and Plantations to the King. Recommend Abell Dottin for the Council, Barbados, in the room of Col. Wm. Terrill deed. [C.O. 29, 16. p. 44.]
Jan. 10.
St. Christophers.
232. Governor Mathew to Mr. Popple. Encloses Minutes of Council and Journal of Assembly, Montserrat, Sept—Dec. 1735. Signed, William Mathew. Endorsed, Recd. 9th March, Read 30th Sept., 1736. Holograph. 1 p. [C.O. 152, 22. ff. 84, 91 v.]
Jan. 13.
St. Christophers.
233. Governor Mathew to Mr. Popple. Encloses duplicate of Nov. 14th, with Minutes of Council of Antigua to July 1735 etc. Signed, William Mathew. Endorsed, Recd. 9th March, Read 30th Sept., 1736. Holograph. 1 p. [C.O. 152, 22. ff. 85, 90 v.]
Jan. 14.
Boston.
234. Governor Belcher to the Council of Trade and Plantations. As the affair of the bounds betwixt this Province and New Hampshire greatly affects the peace and welfare of H.M. subjects in both Provinces, I think it my duty to pray your Lordships would let me have the King's Orders afresh in this matter, and if they were of the nature of my 80th Instruction for the Massachusetts, with great deference I should think it the most equal and quiet way of getting to an issue of this long dispute. And this Province, who oppos'd such a method formerly, are now very desirous to come into it ; and I would humbly observe to your Lordships that I can see none so likely to settle the matter to all intents and purposes, as what shall be done in consequence of the voluntary consent and agreement of both Governments : for should H.M. make out an order of ascertaining the bounds, your Lordships are sensible the Law would still be open for the people to be vexing and harrassing one another. I hope your Lordships will give such dispatch to this matter, as that I may have H.M. Orders hereupon by the first ship in the spring etc. Signed, J. Belcher. Endorsed, Recd. 9th April, Read 16th Sept., 1736. 3 pp. [C.O. 5, 879. ff. 10, 10 v., 13, 13 v.]
Jan. 15.
Boston.
235. Governor Belcher to the Council of Trade and Plantations. I did myself the honour of writing your Lordships the 8th of last month at large, and to which I now humbly crave your reference. I heartily wish your Lordships may in the present session of Parliament obtain an additional bounty on hemp from H.M. Plantations, because I think it would soon produce large quantities of that commodity from the King's Provinces in America, and thereby prevent a great exportation of gold and silver, that goes into the Baltic for hemp, while the Plantations would be paid for it in woollen manufactures of the Mother Kingdom. The Assembly of this Province has now been sitting near seven weeks, and your Lordships have herewith their Journal from the last time I sent it, where (among other things) your Lordships will find I have press'd upon them their incouraging the making of pot-ash, to which I believe no country in the world is better adapted. And as there is a gentleman lately arriv'd from Great Britain, that pretends to have good understanding in this affair, I have reason to believe the Assembly will (before they rise) give some considerable incouragement towards the manufacturing of this commodity. And I hope your Lordships will also recommend to the Parliament of Great Britain, the giving of a good bounty on Plantation pot-ash. When this Assembly rises, (which may be in 10 or 14 days) I shall write your Lordships again at large on this and some other heads etc. Signed, J. Belcher. Endorsed, Recd. 15th March, Read 16th Sept., 1736. 3 pp. [C.O. 5, 879. ff. 11–12 v.]
Jan. 15.
Boston.
236. Governor Belcher to the Duke of Newcastle. As nothing has lately occurred here worth your Grace's notice, I have not had the honour of addressing your Grace for some time etc. Encloses Journal of House of Representatives for the present session etc. Signed, J. Belcher. 2 pp. [C.O. 5, 899. ff. 207, 207 v.]
Jan. 22.
Whitehall.
237. Council of Trade and Plantations to the King. Recommend for confirmation Act of Barbados for paying a certain sum to the Viscountess Howe etc. [C.O. 29, 16. p. 45.]
Jan. 22. 238. Samuel Jenner, Agent for the Switzers, to the Council of Trade and Plantations. A great number of Protestant Switzers, who have wherewith to pay their passages to settle themselves, and families in the King's American Dominions are inclined to go there with all convenient speed, if they can obtain the following conditions and encouragements ;—1st. They humbly pray on their arrival in America they may by an Act of Assembly be naturaliz'd thereby to enjoy the rights and privileges of natural born subjects of Great Brittain. 2. They desire to embark in Holland, to be permitted and allow'd to take with them their goods and effects with such necessaries as they stand in need off, without being liable or subject to seizures or confiscations when landed. 3. As their designs and intentions are to plant vines, raise silk, hemp, and flax, and make pot ash, they hope to be placed in a climate and soil proper for such purposes, will be content and satisfy'd with an upland part of North Carolina, the inhabitants of that and adjacent Provinces allways preferring and chusing to live in the lower parts for the conveniency of trade and navigation. 4. The upper parts of North and South Carolina remain uncultivated, uninhabited, and at present useless from the great difficulties and charges attending tedious land carriage in places where no roads are yet made, the small rivers and brooks that water those parts being not deep enough to permitt the least boat to pass up and down ; notwithstanding this great disadvantage and many more these industrious and undaunted Switzers will endeavour by their labour and unwearied diligence to surmount all difficulties provided your Lordships would be pleased to cause a sufficient district of land to be laid out for them, and such as come after from the Cantons, and adjoyning countries, in the inland parts of North Carolina in such manner that they and their posterity may live contiguous, and not to be dispers'd, scatter'd, and separated by having people mixed with them who do not understand their language. 5. They desire that all officers civil and military that are to be appointed in the district they inhabit may be of their own people, that they provide for the maintenance and subsistance of their own clergy and poor only, without being chargeable to the other inhabitants of North Carolina in those respects or being burthend by them, on account of payments to any clergy or poor beside their own. 6. They desire an exemption from quit-rents, and all taxes and impositions raised and collected in that Province during the space of ten years, and that after the time mentioned the quit-rents do not exceed two shillings for one hundred acres for ever. 7. That in laying out the lands allotted them every gentleman may have one thousand acres for his proportion, and every other man four hundred acres, and that they may have the surveys measured by themselves, and patents delivered for their land without the payment of rights or any other fee. My Lords, on these conditions the said Switzers are inclined to leave their own country altho' they live well at home, and are not obliged by any wants or necessity to go into foreign parts. My Lords, provided the Government will be pleasd graciously to encourage this propos'd and intended settlement in North Carolina, it is probable such proceedings would induce considerable numbers of their countrymen and Germans to follow, and inhabit the same province, which cannot but prove a great advantage to this Kingdom. If your Lordships approve of the propositions I do myself the honour to lay before you, I humbly hope the business will be so forwarded that the adventurous Helvetians may be shipped off next summer, which is most respectfully recommended etc. Signed, Samuel Jenner. Endorsed, Recd. Read 22nd Jan., 1735/6. 2 ½ pp. Enclosed,
238. i. Copy of a deputation from several Switzers (Joachim Laurent Haberling de Schenenberg, Lord of Heffenhoffen and Moos, John Ulrick and Jacob Haberling, Lords of Mauve etc., three brothers and free habitants of the Province of Tergovie in Switzerland) to Samuel Jenner for obtaining a tract of 300,000 acres for them in Carolina. Heffenhoffen in Turgovie. 16th Oct., 1735. Endorsed as preceding. 1 p. [C.O. 5, 294. ff. 238, 239–240 v., 241 v.]
[Jan. 22.] 239. Samuel Jenner to the Duke of Newcastle. Similar petition to preceding. Signed, Samuel Jenner. Without date or signature. 2 ¾ pp. [C.O. 5, 309. No. 12.]
Jan. 23.
Whitehall.
240. Council of Trade and Plantations to the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council. Report upon Act of Pennsylvania for the vesting of certain lands etc. Continue : We have consulted Mr. Fane, one of H.M. Council, upon this Act, who hath made no objection to it in point of law, nor have we any reason to alledge against the confirmation of it, but we think ourselves obliged to acquaint your Lordships, that to prevent all surprize to the parties concerned in the case of private Acts, we thought proper some time since to come to a resolution not to recommend any private Acts to H.M. for his Royal confirmation, till the same had lain by six months in our Office. Yet as we find by the Charter of Pennsylvania, that their Acts do acquire a force within six months after their being laid before H.M. Privy Council, if they are not declared void within that time ; we must submit to your Lordships, how long the present Act ought to lye by before it be offered to H.M. for his Royal confirmation. [C.O. 5, 1294. Pp. 84, 85.]
Jan. 24.
Whitehall.
241. Order of Committee of Privy Council. Referring following to the Council of Trade and Plantations for their report. Signed, W. Sharpe. Endorsed, Recd. 4th, Read 6th Feb., 1735/6. 1 ¼ pp. Enclosed,
241. i. Petition of Henry McCulloh of London, merchant, to the King. Sheweth, that there are vast quantitys of land in your Majesty's Colony of North Carolina uncultivated and particularly on the branches of Cape Fear River wherein few or no settlements have been made till within these twelve years and them at present very inconsiderable. That if the same were cultivated and improved they might not only increase your Majesty's Quit rents but be rendered greatly advantageous to this Kingdom in the production of hemp, pitch, tarr and other kinds of naval stores as also in the making of pot ashes which has hitherto miscarried for want of applying a proper expence in engaging persons from foreign parts to go over there who are well skilled in making that commodity, the importation whereof from the Baltick to Great Britain is yearly above two thousand three hundred tons which at twenty-four pounds p. ton at first cost, duty and freight excepted, amounts to fifty-five thousand two hundred pounds besides which advantages the said lands are well scituated for carrying on a furr trade with the Indian nations in that neighbourhood. That your petitioner is willing to settle two tracts out of the said large quantitys of uncultivated lands if your Majesty shall be pleased to grant the same to him, that is to say one tract of seventy-two thousand acres scituated upon the north-east branch of Cape Fear River from the second high bluff upwards or thereabouts and leading towards the point of Trent River on the East side and on the west towards the head of the Black River. And the other tract of sixty thousand acres scituated towards the north-west at or near a place there commonly called or known by the name of the Hawfields and lying between the north-west branch of Cape Fear River and the head of the Nells River ; your petitioner will undertake to settle thereon three hundred Protestants in the space of ten years and to increase that number from time to time as he shall find encouragement from the place and trade intended to be carryed on there whereby he hopes in time to prove very beneficiall to Great Britain and to considerably augment your Majesty's quit rents. But that as an undertaking of this kind will be attended with very great hazards and even the most fortunate of them with great expences at their first outsett and particularly to your petitioner who intends to contract with persons from, foreign parts from whence pott ashes are now imported into this Kingdom to go over to the said Colony to carry on the making of that commodity there, and that as a great many servants and slaves will be necessary more than the said three hundred persons above engaged to be settled, and as both of the said tracts of land are some hundred miles from the seat of Government and will be a kind of barrier to the more inner parts of the said Colony, your petitioner humbly hopes that all reasonable encouragement may be given to the undertaking and particularly an exemption from quit rents for the space of ten years. Your petitioner therefore most humbly prays that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct the Surveyor of your Majesty's lands in North Carolina or his deputy to survey and lay out the said two tracts of land and your Majesty's Governor there to pass a grant under the Seal of the said Colony to your petitioner and his heirs of the said lands so to be laid out with the aforesaid encouragement subject to be void as to so much thereof as your petitioner shall not settle according to the proposals aforesaid. Signed, Henry McCulloh. Endorsed, Recd. Read 6th Feb., 1735/6. Copy. 2 ½ pp. [C.O. 5, 294. ff. 244–247 v.]
Jan. 27.
Whitehall.
242. Council of Trade and Plantations to the Duke of Newcastle. Have prepared copies of papers mentioned in the addresses of the House of Commons (v. 29th May, 1735), and wait H.M. further commands. Autograph signatures. 1 p. Annexed,
242. i. List of copies of papers prepared in accordance with Address of House of Commons (v. 29th May, 1735). [C.O. 5, 5. f. 129 and 324, 12. pp. 128–220.]
Jan. 27.
Whitehall.
243. Mr. Popple to Mr. Fane. Encloses, for his opinion in point of law eight Acts of S. Carolina, 1735, enumerated. [C.O. 5, 401. pp. 168–171.]
Jan. 29. 244. Account of the charge of laying out land in North Carolina and the bounds of the tract desired by Mr. Jenner and the Swiss.
l. s. d.
Governour's fee for the rights of 400 acres .. 1 0 0
Secretary's fee for a warrant .. .. 5 0
Secretary's fee for a patent .. .. .. 10 0
Surveyor's fees for certificate and Entry .. 4 6
Surveyor's fee for surveying .. .. .. 1 13 4
3 12 10
Mr. Jenner, Agent for the Switzers that desire to settle in North Carolina, desires that the lands lyeing between Catankne Creek, and the north-east branch of Cape Fear River by the two lines run between the head of that Creek, and the place where it falls into New River, the nearest way to the north-east branch of Cape Fear River, may be allotted to them, and erected into a new precinct, when 500 Switzers are settled therein. The Govr.'s fee is 2s. 6d. every fifty acres. The above-mention'd fees excepting the Govr.'s fee are what is demanded upon the setting out 640 acres : and for every 640 acres, the same fees are repeated, altho by Act of Assembly the Surveyors can demand but 2 sh. p. hundred after the first 640. Endorsed, Recd, (from Capt. Burrington), Read Jan. 29, 1735/6. 1 p. [C.O. 5, 294. ff. 242, 243 v.]
Jan. 31.
St. Christophers.
245. Governor Mathew to Mr. Popple. Duplicate of letter Jan. 13, 1735/6. Torn. 1 p. [C.O. 152, 22. f. 86.]