Journal, December 1743: Volume 51

Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations: Volume 8, January 1742 - December 1749. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1931.

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'Journal, December 1743: Volume 51', in Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations: Volume 8, January 1742 - December 1749, (London, 1931) pp. 87-90. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/jrnl-trade-plantations/vol8/pp87-90 [accessed 24 March 2024]

Journal, December 1743

Thursday, December 1. Present:—Lord Monson, Colonel Bladen, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Massachusets.

Acts.

The Board made a further progress in the consideration of the draught of a report to the Lords of the Committee, upon several Acts of the Massachusets Bay, referred to this Board, mentioned in the preceding minute.

Friday, December 2. Present:—Colonel Bladen, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Massachusets.

Acts.

The Board took again into consideration the draught of a report to the Lords of the Committee of Council upon several Acts of the Massachusets Bay, and adjourned the further consideration of the same, to their next meeting.

Read a letter from Mr. Willard, Secretary of the Massachusets Bay, dated at Boston, the 11th of October, 1743, inclosing a certificate, that Nicholas Budd, of Boston, mariner, is the only person in that province, that had then taken the benefit of the late Act of Parliament for naturalizing foreign protestants, settled in any of his Majesty's Colonies in America, passed in the 13th year of his reign.

Wednesday, December 7. Present:—Colonel Bladen, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Massachusets.

Acts.

The Board having gone through the consideration of the draught of a report to the Lords of the Committee of Council upon sixteen Acts of the Massachusets Bay, passed in 1740, and 1741 (mentioned in several preceding minutes), the same was agreed to, and ordered to be transcribed.

Jamaica.

Mines.

Read an Order of the Lords of the Committee of Council, dated November 24th, 1743, referring to this Board the petition of Messrs. Philp and Perrin, to their Excellencies, the late Lords Justices, praying for a grant to the said petitioners, of all mines of gold and silver, found, or to be found, in the parishes of St. Andrew's, Liquiania and St. George's in the Island of Jamaica.

The Board deferred the consideration thereof, till application is made in behalf of the said petitioners.

Thursday, December 8. Present:—Lord Monson, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Massachusets.

The draught of a report to the Lords of the Committee of Council upon sixteen Acts of the Massachusets Bay, having been transcribed, as ordered by the minutes of yesterday, was laid before the Board, agreed to and signed.

Miscellanies.

The Secretary laid before the Board an account of the incidental charges of this office, from Michaelmas to Christmas, 1742, amounting in the whole to the sum of £307 10s. 1d., and a letter to the Lords of the Treasury, desiring payment thereof, and of the salaries due to the Secretary and under officers for the same time, was agreed to and signed.

Friday, December 9. Present:—Lord Monson, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Herbert, Mr. Keene.

Bermudas.

The Board having taken into consideration an Act, passed in Bermuda, the 8th of October, 1740, entituled An Act to prevent Law Suits, mentioned in the minutes of the 18th of March, 1740–1, ordered a draught of a representation to his Majesty thereupon to be prepared, for confirming the said Act.

Barbados.

Robert Lowther, Esquire, formerly Governor of Barbados, attending, together with Charles Edwin, Esquire, one of the members for the City of Westminster, presented to the Board a paper entituled, Memorial for Mr. Graham, which the said Governor had received from Mr. Edwin, in which the Governor was represented as having claimed and taken to his own use some effects of pirates, on board the ship Loyalty, anno 1719.

Mr. Lowther then desired that the minutes of Council of that time, which he transmitted to this Board, might be searched into, and that he might have attested copies of them and other papers concerning that transaction, for his own necessary justification, in answer to the said Mr. Graham's complaint. And the Board was pleased to give directions for looking out the said papers, and ordered that copies thereof be made for Mr. Lowther, according to his desire.

Tuesday, December 13. Present:—Lord Monson, Colonel Bladen, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Bermuda.

The draught of a representation to his Majesty, upon the Bermuda Act, mentioned in the preceding minute, having been transcribed, was laid before the Board; but it was thought advisable, before signing, to have the Attorney General's opinion concerning the said Act, and accordingly the Secretary was directed to write a letter to him upon that subject, and to inclose the said Act, for his consideration and opinion thereupon.

Wednesday, December 14. Present:—Mr. Brudenell, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

St. Christophers.

Read an Order of Council, dated September 29th, 1743, referring to this Board the petition of James Gordon, Esquire, Chief Justice of St. Christophers, setting forth that the petitioner, having affairs to transact in England, had his Majesty's leave of absence for one year, and that the petitioner hath been informed that since his departure from that Island, Governor Mathew hath taken upon him to supersede the petitioner from the said Office of Chief Justice, and to appoint another in his place; directing this Board to examine into the same, and also into the powers given by the Crown to the Governor of the Leeward Islands, in relation to the removal of Judges from their employments, and whether during the petitioner's absence from the post of Chief Justice, having obtained the leave of the Crown for the same, the Governor is vested with any authority to appoint another in his room.

At the same time Mr. Gordon, attending, prayed the Board to appoint a day for considering the said petition and reference, and he promised to acquaint Governor Mathew's agent with this affair, and that the Board desire to have some discourse with him thereupon.

Thursday, December 15. Present:—Lord Monson, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Nova Scotia.

Read a letter of Captain Young, of the Kinsale, to the Board, who is lately returned from his station in Nova Scotia, dated in Hamoze, December 6th, 1743, giving an account of the incroachments of the French in those parts, and relating to an illict trade carried on between the French and people of the Massachusets Bay, and New Hampshire, and the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, and transmitting the following publick papers, viz.:—
No. 1. Answer to heads of enquiry from the Board of Trade, relating to the trade and fishery at Cançeau.
No. 2. Copy of a letter from Mr. Newton, Collector of the Customs, to Captain Young, dated at Cançeau, the 1st of September, 1743, relating to an illegal trade carried on by the people of Massachusets Bay and New Hampshire.
No. 3. Copy of a letter from Mr. Patrick Heron, to Captain Young, dated at Cançeau, the 2nd of September, 1743, relating to the illegal trade carried on from Lewisburg, to his Majesty's Northern Plantations.
No. 4. Copy of the interrogatories Monsieur le Capitaine Devivier (sent to Cançeau by Monsieur de Quesnell, Governor of Lewisburg and Cape Breton), demanded of Captain Young, with his answers thereto.

Ordered that copies of the said letters and of the papers Nos. 2, 3 and 4, be transcribed, and also the draught of a letter, for transmitting the same to the Duke of Newcastle, be prepared.

Friday, December 16. Present:—Lord Monson, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Nova Scotia.

The draught of a letter to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, mentioned in the preceding minute, having been prepared and laid before the Board, was agreed to, transcribed and signed.

Tuesday, December 20. Present:—Lord Monson, Mr. Brudenell, Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

St. Christophers.

James Gordon, Esquire, Chief Justice of St. Christophers, attending, together with Mr. Joshua Sharpe, his solicitor, as likewise Mr. John Sharpe, as agent in behalf of Mr. Mathew, Governor of the Leeward Islands, the Board after hearing what was offered on each side, agreed, at the joint desire of the parties, to delay the report upon the Order of the Committee of Council (mentioned in the minutes of the 14th instant), to a further day.

Wednesday, December 21. Present:—Mr. Plumer, Mr. Keene.

Jamaica.

Read a letter from Mr. Trelawney, Governor of Jamaica, to the Board, dated September 24th, 1743, transmitting minutes of Council and Assembly of that Island, and several Acts passed there, viz.:—
Minutes of Council, from the 17th of August, 1742, to the 27th May, 1743.
Journal of the Council and Assembly, from the 24th of July, 1742, to the 28th of May, 1743.
Minutes of Assembly, from the 7th of April, to the 28th of May, 1743.
Acts, passed between the 29th of April, and 28th May, 1743.

Ordered that the said Acts be sent to Mr. Fane, for his opinion thereon, in point of law.