America and West Indies: March 1662

Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 5, 1661-1668. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1880.

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'America and West Indies: March 1662', in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 5, 1661-1668, (London, 1880) pp. 80-84. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol5/pp80-84 [accessed 19 March 2024]

March 1662

March 6. 250. Warrant for payment of 2,818l. 6s. to Col. Wm. Legg, Lieutenant of the Ordnance, for provisions of arms for Jamaica. [Dom. Docquet.]
March 6. 251. Warrant for payment of 1,000l. to the Earl of Marlborough, as his Majesty's free gift towards his personal provisions for his intended journey to the [West] Indies. [Dom. Docquet, Cal., p. 300.]
March 7. 252. The King to Lord Windsor, Governor of Jamaica. Recommends John Man, appointed by patent of Jan. 1660-1 Chief Surveyor of Jamaica, and who has petitioned for the office of Registrar and Keeper of the Records of the Survey of that island, to his Lordship for that place, or else to certify what he conceives fit to be done therein. 3 pp. [Dom. Entry Bk., Chas. II., Vol. XIII., p. 80.].
March 10.
Aboard the Diamond, Jamaica.
253. Captain Whiting to the Officers of his Majesty's Navy. Seized a Dutch vessel of 300 or 400 tons and 26 guns on 2nd Feb., freighted with negroes, and trading with the island ; but after 24 hours the Governor dispossessed him, took out the negroes and money, and sent her away. Before her seizure 48 negroes had been sold. The ship was named the Maerten Van Roffen, Capt. Leonard Johnson, belonging to Dutch merchants of Middleburgh, and had not one Englishman in her. 1 p. Two copies. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., Nos. 30, 31.]
March 11.
Aboard the Diamond, Jamaica.
254. Thos. Cowley, purser, to the Officers of his Majesty's Navy. Their provisions are nearly expired, though the General has sent away the Rose Bush in order that the stores may last until Lord Windsor's coming ; but they will not hold out unless his arrival be speedy. 1 p. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., No. 32.]
March 11. 255. Warrant by the commissioners of Ferdinando Gorges to the Marshal of the Province of Maine or his deputy. To seize all records of a public nature as concerning any act done within this province, being the interest and joint right of the Lord Proprietor and the freeholders of this Province, which are surreptitiously kept away from their common officers, by which means justice and equity cannot be administered, whether in the hands of Edward Rishworth, Mr. Michael, Godfrey, or the executors of Roger Gard, George Cleves, Rich. Tucker, Francis Neale, or any others, to be delivered sealed up to Capt. Francis Champernoune, and opened and examined at the next General Court. Signed by Fran. Champernoune, Hen. Jocelyn, Robt. Jordan, and Nich. Shapleigh. Copy certified by Francis Neale, Secretary. Also on same sheet,
Return of the Marshal, Nathaniel Mastersonn, that he has seized on all the records and writings in Rishworth's hands, and delivered them to Champernoune, 21st March 1662. Also all the records and writings that he can hear of he has received and delivered to Francis Champernoune, 15th May 1662. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., No. 33.]
March 11. 256. Another copy of the preceding warrant. 2 pp. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., No. 34.]
March 13. 257. Petition of John Powell [to the King] for 1,000 acres in Jamaica, which he would stock and defend with good arms and able men. With reference to Lord Windsor, Governor of Jamaica. p. [Dom. Entry Bk., Chas. II., Vol. XIII., p, 76.]
March 20. 258. Warrant for a grant to Jane West, daughter of the Dowager Lady De la Warr, of a pension of 200l. a year, in consideration of her mother's loss by discontinuance for 11 years of a pension of 500l. a year, granted her for her late husband's services in improving the Plantation of Virginia. [Dom. Entry Bk., Vol. V., p. 219.]
March 21.
Whitehall.
259. Instructions to Thomas Lord Windsor, Governor of Jamaica. To publish his commission as soon as he lands ; constitute the Council ; and administer the oaths. To settle judicatories for council affairs and for the Admiralty. To commission under the public seal of the island judges, justices, sheriffs, and other officers with fit salaries. Power to pass grants of the little islands adjacent to Jamaica, as Salt Island, Good Island, Pigeon Island, and others, and to raise forts there. To grant commissions and erect Courts of Admiralty. To promulgate the King's license for transporting planters from the neighbouring plantations to Jamaica, with liberty to trade with the Spanish plantations, for the benefit of Jamaica. To order an exact survey of all harbours and landing places, and erect necessary fortifications, and "as well for the bearing of such like expenses as for a mark of our sovereignty in and over the said islands" to set out 400,000 acres for a Royal demesne, 100,000 acres in each quarter of the island, to be preserved and improved to the best advantage for the use of the King and his successors ; also to order a survey of the whole island, and a register of the plantations to be sent home as soon as possible. All planters and Christian servants to be provided with arms, mustered and trained, with power in case of insurrection or invasion to proclaim martial law. Power to grant lands and ratify former grants to the planters and their heirs for ever in free and common soccage, with reservation of fit rents to the King ; and to grant to himself and his heirs for ever lands not already granted to the extent of 50,000 acres. To take care that drunkenness and debauchery be discountenanced and punished, and none admitted to public trust or employment whose ill conversation may bring scandal thereupon, and to give the best encouragement to orthodox ministers. To encourage trade and suppress the engrossing of commodities. All goods exported to be free for seven years, and afterwards a duty of five per cent. to be paid. To appoint markets and fairs and take care that the wild cattle, horses, hogs, and sheep be preserved, licensing or prohibiting the hunters as he thinks fit. To direct the improvement of the cocoa walks, and repair of the houses in St. Jago ; whatever is granted by the Governor and Council under the seal of the island to be approved and held good and lawful. Power to search ships suspected to trade with the Spaniards, or to carry planters ammunition or other commodities to Spanish territory, and adjudicate on same in the Admiralty Court. To lodge a Royal Order to Governor Lord Willoughby, of Barbadoes, to be assistant to him, in case of any considerable attempt by the Spaniards against Jamaica. To contrive that the plantations be near together and the sea coast first planted, the better to prevent invasion. For the better encouragement of intending planters no one is to enjoy more than one office at a time, or to execute same by deputy ; and all officers, both civil and military, on misbehaviour to be suspended and discharged. To send accounts of increase of planters, the defects and wants of the place, its chief products and improvements, and the advantages to be obtained by trade. Power to constitute corporations and grant manors and royalties, provided no manor or lordship contain less than 500 acres. To call Assemblies, make laws, and levy moneys, such laws to be only in force for two years, unless confirmed by the King. Power to ratify to every person the number of acres he is lawfully possessed of, to him, his heirs and assigns for ever ; and to grant 30 acres for every servant transported thither, and at the end of his service of four years 30 acres to said servant. Power to act for the advantage and improvement of the island in all things not particularised in these instructions. 20 pp. [Col. Entry Bk., No. 92, pp. 37-56, and No. 27, pp. 13-19.]
March 21.
Whitehall.
260. Two copies of the preceding instructions to Lord Windsor. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., Nos. 35, 36.]
March 21. 261. Jonas Shish and Edm. Rayner to the Navy Commissioners. Send an estimate of provisions to be made for Jamaica ; total value 320l. Items, two shallops ; four yawls ; planks, pitch, tar, nails, and other necessaries for building and finishing three boats ; pitch-tar for stores and other uses ; tallow for stores ; six shipwrights for the boats at 40s. per man a month ; and iron-bound casks. [Dom., Chas. II., Vol. LII., No. 97, Cal., p. 316.]
March 23.
Virginia.
262. One hundred and thirty-eight Acts passed at a Grand Assembly held at James City, Virginia, 23rd March, 12 Chas. II., and from thence continued by prorogation to 23rd March 1661-2. With marginal notes in red ink to those Acts repealed, obsolete, needless, useless or expired. N.B.The titles only of such of these Acts as were afterwards repealed or had expired are printed in editions of the Acts of Assembly of Virginia, viz. : London 1727 ; Williamsburg 1733 ; and Williamsburg 1752, see Col. Entry Bks., Nos. 89, 90, 91. [Col. Entry Bk., No. 88, pp. 1-48.]
1661-2? 263. Col. Thos. Lynch to Williamson. Will deliver his lord's letter to Mr. Moddiford, if sent to his lodgings, the Hourglass by the Pump, Bishopsgate St. p. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., No. 37.]
1662. March 24. 264. Mem. of two letters from the King to the Duke of York. To make provision for transporting forty planters carried by Lord Windsor, twenty by [? from] Mr. Lyttelton, and twenty by the Lord Chancellor to Jamaica, with five ministers and 15 persons in their families. [Dom. Entry Bk., Chas. II., Vol. III., pp. 32, 102.]
March.
Whitehall.
265. The King to the Governor of Barbadoes. By Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England bearing date 2nd Aug. 1660, Francis Cradock was granted the office of Provost-Marshal-General of Barbadoes with all fees and emoluments incident thereto, yet these have been disposed of to others, to his great disadvantage. It is ordered that he be restored to his office, and receive all the fees belonging thereto ; and having been empowered by commission to erect banks in Barbadoes, the Governor is required to give Cradock every assistance in settling the same. 1 pp. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., No. 38.]
March.
[Whitehall.]
266. The King to [the Deputy-Governor of Barbadoes]. Has sent to Barbadoes Francis Cradock, heretofore made Provost-Marshal-General thereof under the Great Seal of England, empowering him and others to erect a bank or banks there for trade, which wise and ingenious persons conceive will be practicable, and of great accommodation to the people of the island, wherefore as much assistance as may be is to be given him, that the experiment may be forthwith made, divers sums of money remaining unaccounted for in the hands of such who during the late troubles had the "manigary" of prize goods and other public receipts. Cradock is also empowered to examine the same and send an account of the true state thereof to the King as speedily as may be. Rights and fees belonging to Cradock as Provost-Marshal-General, having been taken away, and one Povey put in by Cromwell permitted for 13 months to enjoy the same, the Deputy-Governor is required to see that the King's Patent to Cradock be duly obeyed, and allowance made for his damages sustained. 2 pp. [Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., No. 39.]
March? 267. "A short discours of the late forren acquests which England holds, viz., of Dunkirk in Flanders, Tangier in Barbary, Boonbay in the East Indies, Jamayca in the West Indies, demonstrating by cleere politicall reasons how much they may conduce to the honor, security, and advantage of this nation. In answer to some pamplets which have bin obtruded to the world both at home and abroad to the contrary," by J. B. [John Brydall?]. The island of Jamaica speaks for itself by those gainful returns that have been already, and it is like to prove a most hopeful plantation, otherwise so many judicious persons would not have removed thither to better their fortunes from the Barbadoes and other the Caribbee Islands, New England, Virginia, and other places. Also, as a political consideration, Jamaica being so near the Gulf of Mexico, stands very advantageous, in case matters should not go well 'twixt us and Spain, to do her a displeasure and ourselves good by meeting her plate-fleet as they come from the Havanna. [Dom., Chas. II., Vol. LII., No. 145, Cal., p. 327.]