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         Series XXVI           Nos. 1-2-3

         JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
                       IN
         Historical and Political Science

      Under the Direction of the Departments
        of History, Political Economy, and
                Political Science

       *       *       *       *       *




BRITISH COMMITTEES, COMMISSIONS, AND COUNCILS OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS,
1622-1675


BY CHARLES M. ANDREWS
Professor of History



  BALTIMORE
  THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS

  PUBLISHED MONTHLY
  January, February, March, 1908


  Copyright 1908 by
  THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

CONTROL OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS UNDER JAMES I AND CHARLES I.

  Before 1622, Privy Council the sole authority                         10
  Commission of Trade, 1622-1623                                        11
  Commission of Trade, 1625-1626                                        12
  Privy Council Committee of Trade, 1630-1640                           13
  Temporary Plantation Commissions, 1630-1633                           14
  Laud Commission for Plantations, 1634-1641                            14
  Subcommittees for Plantations, 1632-1639                              17
  Privy Council in control, 1640-1642                                   21
  Parliamentary Commission for Plantations, 1643-1648                   21


CHAPTER II.

CONTROL OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS DURING THE INTERREGNUM.

  The Council of Trade, 1650-1653                                       24
  Plantation Affairs controlled by the Council of State, 1649-1651      30
  Standing Committee of the Council for Plantations,
    1651-April, 1653                                                    33
  Plantation Affairs controlled by the Council of State,
    April-Dec., 1653                                                    35
  Trade controlled by Council of State and Parliamentary Committees,
    Dec., 1653-June, 1655                                               36
  Importance of the years 1654-1655                                     36
  The great Trade Committee, 1655-1657                                  38
  Parliamentary Committees of Trade, 1656-1658                          43
  Plantation Affairs controlled by Protector's Council and Council
      of the State, 1653-1660                                           43
    Special Council Committees for Plantations, 1653-1659               44
    Council Committee for Jamaica and Foreign Plantations, 1655-1660    44
    Select Committee for Jamaica, known later as Committee
      for America, 1655-1660                                            45
  Inadequacy of Control during the Interregnum                          47


CHAPTER III.

THE PROPOSALS OF THE MERCHANTS: NOELL AND POVEY.

  Career of Martin Noell                                                49
  Career of Thomas Povey                                                51
  Enterprises of the Merchants, 1657-1659                               53
  Proposals of Noell and Povey                                          55
    "Overtures" of 1654                                                 55
    "Queries" of 1656                                                   58
    Additional Proposals, 1656, 1657                                    58


CHAPTER IV.

COMMITTEES AND COUNCILS UNDER THE RESTORATION.

  Plantation Committee of Privy Council, June 4, 1660                   61
  Work of Privy Council Committee                                       63
  Appointment of Select Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1660         64
  Membership of these Councils                                          67
  Comparison of Povey's "Overtures" with the Instructions for
    Council for Foreign Plantations                                     68
  Comparison of Povey's "First Draft" with Instructions for
    Council of Trade                                                    71
  Work of Council for Foreign Plantations, 1660-1665                    74
  Control of Plantation Affairs, 1665-1670                              79
  Work of Council of Trade, 1660-1664                                   80
  Parliamentary Committee of Trade, 1664                                85
  Commission for English-Scottish Trade, 1667-1668                      86
  Reorganization of Committees of the Privy Council, 1668               87
  Work of Privy Council Committee for Foreign Plantations, 1668-1670    90
  New Select Council of Trade, 1668-1672                                91


CHAPTER V.

THE PLANTATION COUNCILS OF 1670 AND 1672.

  Influence of Ashley and Locke                                         96
  Revival of Council for Foreign Plantations, 1670-1672                 97
    Membership                                                          97
    Commission and Instructions                                         99
    Meetings and Work                                                  101
  Select Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations, 1672-1674           106
    Membership                                                         106
    Commission and Instructions                                        107
    Meetings and Work                                                  109
  Causes of the Revocation of the Commission of Select Council, 1674   111
  Later History of Plantation Control, 1675-1782                       112


APPENDICES.

  I.   Instructions, Board of Trade, 1650                              115
  II.  Instructions, Council for Foreign Plantations, 1670-1672        117
       Additional Instructions for the Same                            124
  III. Draft of Instructions, Council of Trade and Foreign
         Plantations, 1672-1674                                        127
  IV.  Heads of Business; Councils of 1670 and 1672                    133




BRITISH COMMITTEES, COMMISSIONS, AND COUNCILS OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS,
1622-1675.




CHAPTER I.

Control of Trade and Plantations Under James I and Charles I.


In considering the subject which forms the chief topic of this paper, we
are not primarily concerned with the question of settlement, intimately
related though it be to the larger problem of colonial control. We are
interested rather in the early history of the various commissions,
councils, committees, and boards appointed at one time or another in the
middle of the seventeenth century for the supervision and management of
trade, domestic, foreign, and colonial, and for the general oversight of
the colonies whose increase was furthered, particularly after 1650, in
largest part for commercial purposes. The coupling of the terms "trade"
and "foreign plantations" was due to the prevailing economic theory
which viewed the colonies not so much as markets for British exports
or as territories for the receipt of a surplus British population--for
Great Britain had at that time no surplus population and manufactured
but few commodities for export--but rather as sources of such raw
materials as could not be produced at home, and of such tropical
products as could not be obtained otherwise than from the East and West
Indies. The two interests were not, however, finally consolidated in
the hands of a single board until 1672, after which date they were not
separated until the final abolition of the old Board of Trade in 1782.
It is, therefore, to the period before 1675 that we shall chiefly direct
our attention, in the hope of throwing some light upon a phase of
British colonial control that has hitherto remained somewhat obscure.
Familiar as are many of the facts connected with the early history of
Great Britain's management of trade and the colonies, it is nevertheless
true that no attempt has been made to trace in detail the various
experiments undertaken by the authorities in England in the interest
of trade and the plantations during the years before 1675. Many of
the details are, and will always remain, unknown, nevertheless it is
possible to make some additions to our knowledge of a subject which
is more or less intimately related to our early colonial history.

At the beginning of colonization the control of all matters relating
to trade and the plantations lay in the hands of the king and his
council, forming the executive branch of the government. Parliament
had not yet begun to legislate for the colonies, and in matters
of trade and commerce the parliaments of James I accomplished much
less than had those of Elizabeth. "In the time of James I," says Dr.
Prothero, "it was more essential to assert constitutional principles
and to maintain parliamentary rights than to pass new laws or to create
new institutions." Thus the Privy Council became the controlling factor
in all matters that concerned the colonies and it acted in the main
without reference or delegation to others, since the practice of
appointing advisory boards or deliberative committees, though not
unknown, was at first employed only as an occasional expedient. The
councils of James I were called upon to deal with a wide variety of
colonial business--letters, petitions, complaints and reports from
private individuals, such as merchants, captains of ships voyaging
to the colonies, seamen, prisoners, and the like, from officials
in England, merchant companies, church organizations, and colonial
governments, notably the governor and council and assembly of Virginia.
To all these communications the Council replied either by issuing orders
which were always mandatory, or by sending letters which often contained
information and advice as well as instructions. It dealt with the
Virginia Company in London and sent letters, both before and after the
dissolution of the company, to the governor and council in Virginia,
and in all these letters trade played an important part. For example,
the order of October 24, 1621, which forbade the colony to export
tobacco and other commodities to foreign countries, declared that such
a privilege as an open trade on the part of the colony was desirable
"neither in policy nor for the honor of the state (that being but a
colony derived from hence)," and that it could not be suffered "for that
it may be a loss unto his Majesty in his customs, if not the hazarding
of the trade which in future times is well hoped may be of much profit,
use, and importance to the Commonalty."[1] Similarly the Council issued
a license to Lord Baltimore to export provisions for the relief of his
colony at Avalon,[2] ordered that the _Ark_ and the _Dove_, containing
Calvert and the settlers of Maryland, be held back at Tilbury until the
oaths of allegiance had been taken,[3] and instructed the governor and
company of Virginia to give friendly assistance to Baltimore's
undertaking.[4]

Of the employment of committees or special commissions to inquire
into questions either commercial or colonial there is no evidence
before the year 1622. A few months after the dissolution of the third
Stuart parliament, James I issued a proclamation for the encouragement
of trade, and directed a special commission not composed of privy
councillors to inquire into the decay of the clothing trade and to
report to the Privy Council such remedial measures as seemed best
adapted to increase the wealth and prosperity of the realm.[5] At the
same time he caused a commission to be issued to the Lord Keeper, the
Lord Treasurer, the Lord President of the Council and others "to collect
and cause a true survey to be taken in writing of the names, qualities,
professions, and places of habitation of such strangers as do reside
within the realm of England and use any retailing trade or handicraft
trade and do reform the abuses therein according to the statutes now in
force."[6] The commissioners of trade duly met, during the years 1622
and 1623, summoned persons to appear before them, and reported to the
Council. Their report was afterward presented to the King sitting with
the Council at Wansted, "was allowed and approved of, and commandment
was given to enter it in the Register of Counsell causes and to remain
as an act of Counsell by order of the Lord President."[7] There is
evidence also to show that the commission issued orders on its own
account, for in June, 1623, the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London
wrote two letters to the commission expressing their approval of its
orders and sending petitions presented to them by citizens of London.[8]

On April 15, 1625, less than three weeks after the death of James I,
a warrant was issued by his successor for a commission of trade, the
duties of which were of broader and more general character than were
those of the previous body.[9] The first record of its meeting is dated
January 18, 1626, but it is probable that then the commission had been
for some time in existence, though the exact date when its commission
was issued is not known. The text of both commission and instructions
are among the Domestic Papers.[10] The board was to advance the
exportations of home manufactures and to repress the "ungainful
importation of foreign commodities." Looked upon as a subcommittee of
the Privy Council, but having none of the privy councillors among its
members, it was required to sit every week and to consider all questions
that might be referred to it for examination and report. The fact that a
complaint against the patent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges was referred to it
shows that it was qualified to deal not only with questions of trade but
also with plantation affairs.[11] At about the same time a committee of
the Council was appointed to take into consideration a special question
of trade and to make report to the Council. Neither of these bodies
appears to have had more than a temporary existence, although the
commission sat for some time and accomplished no inconsiderable amount
of work.

The first Privy Council committee of trade that had any claim to
permanency was that appointed in March, 1630, consisting at first of
thirteen members, the Lord Keeper, the Lord Treasurer, the Lord
President, the Lord Privy Seal, Earl Marshall, the Lord Steward, Earl
of Dorset, Earl of Holland, Earl of Carlisle, Lord Dorchester, the
Vice-Chamberlain, Sir Henry Cottington and Mr. Secretary Coke. This
committee was to meet on Friday mornings. The same committee, with the
omission of one member, was appointed the next year to meet on Tuesdays
in the afternoon. In 1634 the membership was reduced to nine, but in
1636, 1638 and 1639, by the addition of the Lord Treasurer, the number
was raised to ten, as follows: the Lord President, the Lord Treasurer,
the Lord Keeper, the Lord Privy Seal, Earl Marshall, Earl of Dorset,
Lord Cottington, Mr. Comptroller, Mr. Secretary Coke and Mr. Secretary
Windebank. The meetings were again held on Fridays, though on special
occasions the committee was warned to meet on other days by order of the
Council, and on one occasion at least assembled at Hampton Court.[12]
To this committee were referred all matters of trade which came to the
attention of the Council during the ten years, from 1630 to 1640. Notes
of its meetings between 1631 and 1637 were kept by Secretaries Coke and
Windebank and show the extent and variety of its activities. Except for
the garbling of tobacco it does not appear to have concerned itself
with plantation affairs.[13] As the King was generally present at its
meetings, it possessed executive as well as advisory powers, not only
making reports to the Council, but also drafting regulations and issuing
orders on its own account. Occasionally it appointed special committees
to examine into certain trade difficulties, and on September 21, 1638,
and again on February 3, 1639, we find notice of a separate board of
commissioners for trade constituted under the great seal to inquire into
the decay of the clothing industry. This board sat for two years and
made an elaborate report to the Privy Council on June 9, 1640.[14]

Though committees for trade, ordnance, foreign affairs, and Ireland
had a more or less continuous existence during the period after 1630,
no similar committee for plantations was created during this decade.
Temporary commissions and committees of the Council had been, however,
frequently appointed. In 1623 and 1624 several sets of commissioners for
Virginia were named "to inquire into the true state of Virginia and the
Somers Islands plantations," "to resolve upon the well settling of the
colony of Virginia," "and to advise on a fit patent for the Virginia
Company." In 1631 a commission of twenty-three persons, of whom four
constituted a quorum, was created, partly from within and partly from
without the Privy Council, "to advise upon some course for establishing
the advancement of the plantations of Virginia."[15] Similar commissions
were appointed to meet special exigencies in the careers of other
plantations, Somers Islands, Caribbee Islands, etc. In 1632, we meet
with a committee forming the first committee of the Council appointed
for the plantations, quite distinct in functions and membership
from the committee for trade and somewhat broader in scope than the
commissions mentioned above. The circumstances of its appointment were
these: In the year 1632 complaints began to come in to the Privy Council
regarding the conduct of the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Thomas Morton
and Philip Ratcliffe had been banished from that colony and sent back
to England. Sir Christopher Gardiner, also, after a period of troubled
relations with the authorities there, had taken ship for England. These
men, acting in conjunction with Gorges and Mason, whose claims had
already been before the Council, presented petitions embodying their
grievances. On December 19, 1632, the Council listened to the reading
of these petitions and to the presentation of a "relation" drawn up by
Gardiner. After long debate "upon the whole carriage of the plantation
of that country," it appointed a committee of twelve members, called the
Committee on the New England Plantations, with the Archbishop of York at
its head, "to examine how the patents for the said plantations have been
granted." This committee had power to call "to their assistance such
other persons as they shall think fit," "to examine the truth of the
aforesaid information or any other information as shall be presented to
them and shall make report thereof to this board and of the true state
of the said plantations." The committee deliberated on the "New England
Case," summoned many of the "principal adventurers in that plantation"
before it, listened to the complainants, and reported favorably to the
colony. The essential features of its report were embodied in an order
in council, dated January 19, 1633.[16] This committee, still called the
Committee for New England, was reappointed in December, 1633, with a
slight change of membership, Laud, who had been made primate the August
before, taking the place of the Archbishop of York as chairman. But this
committee was soon overshadowed by the greater commission to come.[17]

The first separate commission, though, in reality, a committee of the
Privy Council, appointed to concern itself with all the plantations,
was created by Charles I, April 28, 1634. It was officially styled
the Commission for Foreign Plantations; one petitioner called it
"the Lords Commissioners for Plantations in General," and another
"the learned Commissioners appointed by the King to examine and rectify
all complaints from the plantations." It is probable that the term
"Committee of Foreign Plantations" was occasionally applied to it,
as there is nothing to show that the committee of 1633 remained in
existence after April, 1634.[18] Recommissioned, April 10, 1636, it
continued to sit as an active body certainly as late as August, 1641,
and possibly longer,[19] though there is no formal record of its
discontinuance. Its original membership was as follows: William Laud,
Archbishop of Canterbury; Richard Neile, Archbishop of York; Sir Thomas
Coventry, the Lord Keeper; Earl of Portland, the Lord Treasurer, Earl
of Manchester, the Lord Privy Seal, Earl of Arundel, the Earl Marshall,
Earl of Dorset, Lord Cottington, Sir Thomas Edmondes, the Master
Treasurer, Sir Henry Vane, the Master Comptroller, and the secretaries,
Coke and Windebank. Later the Earl of Sterling was added.[20] Five
constituted a quorum. The powers granted to the commission were
extensive and almost royal in character: to make laws and orders for the
government of the English colonies in foreign parts; to impose penalties
and imprisonment for offenses in ecclesiastical matters; to remove
governors and require an account of their government; to appoint judges
and magistrates, and to establish courts, both civil and ecclesiastical;
to hear and determine all manner of complaints from the colonies;
to have power over all charters and patents, and to revoke those
surreptitiously or unduly obtained. Such powers clearly show that the
commission was designed as an instrument for enforcing the royal will
in the colonies, and furnishes no precedent for the later councils and
boards of trade and foreign plantations. Called into being probably
because of the continued emigration of Puritans to New England, the
complaints against the Massachusetts charter, and the growth of
Independency in that colony, it was in origin a coercive, not an
inquisitory, body, in the same class with the courts of Star Chamber and
High Commission, and the Councils of Wales and the North. Unlike these
bodies, it proved practically impotent, and there is nothing to show
that it took any active part in the attempt to repeal the Massachusetts
charter or in any important particular exercised the powers granted
to it. It did not remove or appoint a governor, establish a court, or
grant or revoke a charter. It received petitions either directly or
from the Privy Council and made recommendations, but it never attempted
to establish uniformity in New England or to bring the New England
colonies more directly under the authority of the Crown. Whether it was
the failure of the attempt to vacate the Massachusetts charter, or the
poverty of the King, or the approach of civil war that prevented the
enforcement of the royal policy, we cannot say, but the fact remains
that the Laud commission played a comparatively inconspicuous part
during the seven years of its existence and has gained a prominence in
the history of our subject out of all proportion to its importance.

More directly connected with the commercial and colonial interests of
the realm were the subcommittees which the Privy Council used during
these years and earlier as advisory and inquisitory bodies. In addition
to committees of its own, the Privy Council called on various outside
persons known to be familiar with the circumstances of a particular
case or experts in the general subject involved, and entrusted to
them the consideration of important matters that had been called to its
attention. As we have already seen, such a subcommittee on trade had
been appointed in 1625, and after 1630 we meet with many references to
individuals or groups of experts. The attorney general was called upon
to examine complaints regarding New England and Maryland in 1632 and
1635; the Chancellor of London was requested to examine the parties in
a controversy over a living in St. Christopher in 1637; many commercial
questions were referred to special bodies of merchants or others holding
official positions. In 1631 a complaint regarding interlopers in Canada
was referred to a committee of three, Sir William Becher, clerk of the
Council; Serj. (Wm.) Berkeley, afterward governor of Virginia, and
Edward Nicholas, afterward clerk of the Council, and a new committee
in which Sir William Alexander and Robert Charlton took the place of
Becher and Nicholas was appointed in 1632.[21] Berkeley, Alexander,
and Charlton were known as the Commissioners for the Gulf and River of
Canada and parts adjacent, and were all directly interested in Canadian
trade.[22] These committees received references from the Council,
summoned witnesses and examined them, and made reports to the Council.
Similarly, the dispute between Vassall and Kingswell was referred on
March 10, 1635, to Edward Nicholas and Sir Abraham Dawes for examination
and report, and because it was an intricate matter, consumed
considerable time and required a second report.[23] Again a case
regarding the Virginia tobacco trade was referred to the body known
as the "Commissioners of Tobacco to the Lords of the Privy Council,"
appointed as early as 1634 and itself a subcommittee having to do with
tobacco licenses, customs, and trade. The members were Lord Goring,
Sir Abraham Dawes, John Jacob, and Edmund Peisley. The first specific
references to "subcommittees," _eo nomine_, are of date May 23, May 25,
and June 27, 1638. The last named reference mentions the receipt by the
Privy Council of a "certificate" or report from Sir John Wolstenholme
and Sir Abraham Dawes "unto whom their lordships had formerly referred
the hearing and examining of complaints by John Michael in the Laconia
case."[24] As the earlier reference of May 23 had to do with the estate
of Sir Thomas Gates and that of May 25 to a Virginia matter, it is
evident that this particular subcommittee had been appointed some time
before May 23, 1638, and that the only thing new about it was the
term "subcommittee" as applied to such a body. This conjecture seems
reasonable when we note that Wolstenholme and Dawes had already served
on the commission for Virginia and were thoroughly conversant with
plantation affairs, while Dawes was also a member of the tobacco
commission and had served on the committee in the Kingswell-Vassall
case. An examination of later "subcommittees" shows that many of the
same men continued to be utilized by the Council in their capacity as
experts. Lord Goring, John Jacob, Sir Abraham Dawes, with Sir William
Becher and Edward Nicholas, clerks of the Council, and Edward Sandys,
brother of Sir Edwin Sandys, and a councillor of Virginia under Governor
Wyatt, formed the subcommittee to whom, on July 15, was referred the
complaint of Samuel Mathews against Governor Harvey. When the same
matter was referred again to a subcommittee on October 24, Sir Dudley
Carleton, formerly one of the commissioners for Virginia, and Thomas
Meautys, clerk of the Council, were substituted for Dawes and
Nicholas.[25] These committees were instructed "to call the parties
before them, to examine the matter, and find out the truth, and then
to make certificate to their lordships of the true state of things and
their opinion thereof."[26] Similar references continued to be made
during the year 1639, on January 4, February 22, March 8,[27] June 12,
16, July 17, 26, 28, August 28, and the evidence seems to show that the
committee, though frequently changing its membership, was considered
a body sitting regularly and continuously. The certificate of July 9,
1638, in answer to the reference of June 16, was signed by Sir William
Becher, Thomas Meautys, Sir Francis Wyatt, and Abraham Williams; that
of July 23 by Becher, Dawes, Jacob, and Williams. After August 28 we
hear no more of the subcommittee. Whether this is due to a failure of
the Register to enter further references and certificates or to the
actual cessation of its labors, we cannot say. The committee was always
appointed by the Council, and always reported to that body. Frequently
its certificates are entered at length in the Register.[28] The petition
upon which it acted was sometimes sent directly to itself, frequently
to the Privy Council, which referred it to the subcommittee, and but
rarely to the Commissioners for Foreign Plantations.[29] The committee
was limited in its scope to no one colony. It reported on matters in
England, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Somers Islands, and Virginia.
It dealt with secular business and ecclesiastical questions, and on one
occasion at least was required to examine and approve the instructions
issued to a colonial governor.[30] It does not appear ever to have acted
except by order of the Privy Council, and was never in any sense of
the word a subcommittee of the Commissioners of Foreign Plantations,
although in reporting to the Council it was reporting to those who
composed that commission.[31]

From 1640 to 1642 plantation business was managed by the Privy Council
with the aid of occasional committees of its own appointed to consider
special questions. The term "subcommittee," as we have seen, does not
appear to have been used after 1639,[32] but commissions authorizing
experts to make inquiry and report are referred to, and committees
of the Council took into consideration questions of trade and the
plantations. During the year from July 5, 1642, to June, 1643, no
measures relating to the colonies appear to have been taken, for
civil war was in full swing. In 1643, Parliament assumed to itself
the functions of King and Council and became the executive head of the
kingdom. Among the earliest acts was the appointment of a parliamentary
commission of eighteen members, November 24, 1643, authorized to control
plantation affairs. At its head was Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick,
and among its members were Philip, Earl of Pembroke, Edward, Earl of
Manchester, William, Viscount Say and Seale, Philip, Lord Wharton, and
such well known Puritan commoners as Sir Arthur Haslerigg, John Pym, Sir
Harry Vane, Junior, Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Vassall, and others. Four
members constituted a quorum. The powers granted to this commission were
extensive, though as far as phraseology goes, less complete than those
granted to the commission of 1634. The commissioners were to have "power
and authority to provide for, order, and dispose all things which they
shall from time to time find most fit and advantageous to the well
governing, securing, and strengthening, and preserving" of "all those
islands and other plantations, inhabited, planted, or belonging to any
of his Majesty's the King of England's subjects." They were authorized
to call to their assistance any inhabitants of the plantations or owners
of land in America who might be within twenty miles of their place of
meeting; to make use of all records, books, and papers which concerned
any of the colonies; to appoint governors and officers for governing
the plantations; to remove any of the officials so appointed and to put
others in their places; and, when they deemed fit, to assign as much of
their authority and power to such persons as they should deem suitable
for better governing and preserving of the plantations from open
violence and private disturbance and destruction.

In the exercise of these powers the commissioners never embraced the
full opportunity offered to them by their charter. They did appoint
one governor, Sir Thomas Warner, governor of the Caribbee Islands.
They granted to the inhabitants of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport
a patent of incorporation and conferred upon the patentees authority
"to rule themselves by such form of civil government as by voluntary
consent of all or the greater part of them they should find most
suitable to their estate or condition.[33] They also endeavored to make
a grant of the Narragansett country to Massachusetts, at the special
request of Massachusetts' agents in 1643, but failed, partly because
they had no certain authority to grant land and partly because the
only clause of their commission which seemed to give such authority
required the consent of a majority, and the agents could obtain but nine
signatures to the grant. Even these activities on the part of the board
lasted but little over a year, and after 1644 the commissioners played a
more or less passive role. They continued to sit but their only recorded
interest in colonial affairs concerned New England. From 1645 to 1648
they became involved in the controversy over the Narragansett country,
and in the attempt of Massachusetts to thwart her enemies, the
Gortonists and the Presbyterians.[34] Whether the commission continued
to sit after the execution of the King is uncertain; there are no
further references to its existence. That many of its members remained
influential in colonial affairs is evident from the fact that at least
seven of the commissioners became members of the Council of State,
appointed February 13, 1649: Philip, Earl of Pembroke (died 1650); Sir
Arthur Haslerigg, Sir Harry Vane, the younger; Oliver Cromwell, Dennis
Bond, Miles Corbet, and Cornelius Holland. Haslerigg was a conspicuous
leader in colonial as well as other matters during the entire period of
the Commonwealth and the Protectorate; Vane became president of the new
board of trade created in August, 1650, was at the head of the Committee
of the Admiralty, which often had colonial matters referred to it, and
served frequently on plantation committees from 1649 to 1659; while
Bond, Corbet, and Holland, though never very active, were members of
one general and a few special committees that concerned themselves with
trade and plantations. Thus the spirit of the Independent wing of the
old commission continued to influence the policy of the government
in the early years of the Commonwealth period. The Council of State,
appointed by act of the Rump Parliament, was given full authority to
provide for England's trade at home and abroad and to regulate the
affairs of the plantations. Though its membership underwent yearly
changes and its composition and members were altered many times before
1660, its policy and machinery of control remained constant except as
far as they were affected by the greater power which the Council gained
in the face of the growing weakness of Parliament.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Footnote 1: Privy Council Register, James I, Vol. V, p. 173; repeated
p. 618.]

[Footnote 2: P.C.R., Charles I. Vol. V, p. 106.]

[Footnote 3: P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. IX, p. 291.]

[Footnote 4: Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1574-1660, p. 170, Sec. 78.]

[Footnote 5: Rymer, Foedera XVII. pp. 410-414.]

[Footnote 6: Public Record Office, Chancery, Crown Dockets, 4, p. 280,
June 26, 1622.]

[Footnote 7: P.C.R., James I, Vol. VI, pp. 333, 365-368, July, 1624.]

[Footnote 8: Analytical Index to the Series of Records known as
Remembrancia preserved among the Archives of the City of London,
1579-1644, p. 526.]

[Footnote 9: Cal. State Papers, Domestic, 1625-1649, pp. 4, 84.]

[Footnote 10: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1625-1649, pp. 225, 522, Sec.Sec. 19,
20, p. 495.]

[Footnote 11: P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. II, Pt. I, p. 68.]

[Footnote 12: P.C.R., Charles I, Vols. V, p. 10; VI, p. 7; X., p. 3;
XII, p. 1; XV, p. 1.]

[Footnote 13: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1629-1631, p. 526; 1634-1635,
pp. 453, 472, 513, 584; 1635, pp. 30, 515, 548, 598; 1635-1636,
pp. 44, 231; 1636-1637, p. 402; 1637, pp. 47; 1637-1638, p. 410.
The secretaries' notes will be found as follows: Coke, 1629-1631, pp.
526, 535; Windebank, 1634-1635, pp. 500, 513; 1635, pp. 11-12, 29, 502,
536; 1635-1636, pp. 291-292, 428-429, 551-552; 1636-1637, pp. 402; 1637,
p. 47.]

[Footnote 14: Historical MSS. Commission, Report XV. Manuscripts of the
Duke of Portland, VIII, pp. 2-3.]

[Footnote 15: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, pp. 44, 62, 63, 64,
130; Virginia Magazine, VIII, pp. 29, 33-46, 149.]

[Footnote 16: Bradford, pp. 352-355; P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. VIII, pp.
346-347; Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, p. 158.]

[Footnote 17: P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. IX, p. 1. The order in Council
of July 3, 1633, regarding Virginia and Lord Baltimore, is headed "Lords
Commissioners for Foreign Plantations." It is evident, however, that
this body is not a separate board of commissioners but the Privy Council
sitting as a committee of the whole for plantations. The membership does
not agree with that of the committee of 1632, that committee did not sit
in the Star Chamber, and such a committee could not issue an order which
the Privy Council alone could send out. There was no separate commission
of this kind in July, 1633, as Tyler, England in America, pp. 122-123
(Amer. Nation Series, IV) seems to think.]

[Footnote 18: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, pp. 184, 200, 251,
259.]

[Footnote 19: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1675-1676, Sec. 193.]

[Footnote 20: P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. X, p. 1; XII, p. 1; XV, p. 1; Cal.
State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, pp. 177, 232.]

[Footnote 21: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, pp. 9, 140, 151, 158,
211, 258.]

[Footnote 22: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1600, p. 129.]

[Footnote 23: Cal. State Papers, Col., pp. 197-198, 207.]

[Footnote 24: P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. XV, p. 300.]

[Footnote 25: Virginia Magazine, X, p. 428; XI, p. 46.]

[Footnote 26: P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. XV, p. 508.]

[Footnote 27: "Att Whitehall, 8th of March, 1638(9)

Their Lordships do pray and require the subcommittee for foreign
plantations to consider of this petition at their next meeting and to
make report to their Lordships of their opinion concerning the same.

Will. Becher."]

[Footnote 28: P.C.R., Charles I, Vols. XV, p. 343; XVI, pp. 542-543.]

[Footnote 29: P.C.R., Charles I, Vol. XVI, p. 558; Cal. State Papers,
Col., 1574-1660, p. 301.]

[Footnote 30: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1675-1676, Sec. 190.]

[Footnote 31: The commissioners frequently formed a majority of those
present at a Privy Council meeting. For example, in 1638, the Council
wrote a letter to the governor of Virgina. This letter was signed by
eleven councillors, of whom eight were members of the Commission.
It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the different capacities in
which Archbishop Laud acted. A series of minutes drawn up by him in 1638
of the subjects upon which he had prepared reports to the King notes
the following: concerning the six plantations, grants of offices in
reversion, new patent offices and monopolies, the execution of the
King's former directions, and trade and commerce. In making these
reports Archbishop Laud acted as president of the Council, president
of the Commission for Foreign Plantations, president of the committee
for Foreign Affairs, High Commission Court, etc.]

[Footnote 32: The term "subcommittee" is used by petitioners as late
as August, 1640 (Cal. Col., 1574-1660, p. 314), but no references and
reports of so late a date are to be found in the Calendar or the
Register.]

[Footnote 33: This is, of course, the well-known Williams patent of
1644. Rhode Island, Colonial Records, I, pp. 143-146.]

[Footnote 34: Osgood, The Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, III,
pp. 110-112.]




CHAPTER II.

Control of Trade and Plantations During the Interregnum.


The earliest separate council to be established during the period from
1650 to 1660 was that appointed by act of Parliament, August, 1650,
known as the Commission or Council of Trade, of which Sir Harry Vane
was president and Benjamin Worsley, a London merchant and "doctor of
physic," already becoming known as an expert on plantation affairs,
was secretary. This body was specially instructed by Parliament to
consider, not only domestic and foreign trade, the trading companies,
manufactures, free ports, customs, excise, statistics, coinage and
exchange, and fisheries, but also the plantations and the best means
of promoting their welfare and rendering them useful to England.
"They are to take into their consideration," so runs article 12 of the
instructions, "the English plantations in America or elsewhere, and
to advise how these plantations may best be managed and made most
useful for the Commonwealth, and how the commodities thereof may be so
multiplied and improved as (if it be possible) those plantations alone
may supply the Commonwealth of England with whatsoever it necessarily
wants." These statesmanlike and comprehensive instructions are notable
in the history of the development of England's commercial and colonial
program. Free from the limitations which characterize the instructions
given to the earlier commissions, they stand with the Parliamentary
ordinance of October, 1650, and the Navigation Act of 1651, as forming
the first definite expression of England's commercial policy. Inadequate
though the immediate results were to be, we cannot call that policy
"drifting" which could shape with so much intelligence the functions
of a board of trade and plantations. There is no trace here of the
coercive and politico-ecclesiastical purpose of the Laud Commission, or
of the partisan policy in the interests of the Puritans that the Warwick
Commission was instructed to carry out. Here we have the first attempt
to establish a legitimate control of commercial and colonial affairs,
and to these instructions may be traced the beginnings of a policy which
had the prosperity and wealth of England exclusively at heart.

Of the history of this board but little has been hitherto known and
its importance has been singularly neglected. It was more than a merely
advisory body, like the later councils and boards of trade, for it had
the power to issue orders of its own. It sat in Whitehall, received
information, papers,[1] and orders from the Council of State, and
reported to that higher authority, which approved or disapproved of
its recommendations. To it the Council instructed traders and others
to refer their petitions, and itself referred numbers of similar papers
that came into its hands.[2] This board took into consideration the
various questions touched upon in its instructions, especially those
concerning fisheries (Greenland), manufactures, navigation, commerce,
trade (with Guinea, Spain, Canary Islands, etc.), the poor, the trading
companies (especially the East India and Guinea companies), the merchant
companies (chiefly of London), and freedom of trade. During the first
year of its existence it was an active body and could say on November
20, 1651, that it had made seven reports to the Council of State and
seven to Parliament, that it had its opinions on six subjects ready
to be reported, and eight other questions under debate.[3] In two
particulars a fuller consideration of its work is desirable.

The Council of Trade devoted a considerable amount of time to regulating
the buying and selling of wool, and to settling the difficulties that
had arisen among the curriers, fellmongers, staplers, and clothiers
of London and elsewhere regarding their trade privileges. Late in the
spring of 1651 petitions and statements of grievance had been sent
both to the Council of Trade and to the Common Council of London by
the "freemen of the city trading in wool," for redress of grievances
practiced by the Society of Staplers. Shortly afterward, May 13,
apparently in answer to the complaint of the freemen of London, the
fellmongers of Coventry petitioned the Council of Trade, begging that
body not to interfere with its ancient privileges. Taking the matter
into consideration, the Council, on May 14, issued an order requiring
the companies to present their expedients and grievances, and appointed
a committee of two expert wool staplers, members of the Staplers
Company, to meet with the other companies and draft a certificate of
their proper and ancient rights. The Common Council, on the same day,
ordered its committee of trade, or any five of them, to attend the
Council of Trade and assist the "Company of Upholders," the committee
presenting the original complaint, in its attempt to obtain a redress
of grievances according to the plan already placed before the Common
Council. These efforts were not very successful, for the wool growers
refused to meet the committee of staplers appointed by the Council of
Trade, and the fellmongers and clothiers could not reach an agreement
with the staplers as to the latter's ancient privileges. Consequently,
the Council of Trade, on June 11, issued a second order requiring the
committee of trade of the Common Council to report on "the foundation
and nature of the Staple and the privileges pretended to by that
Society." This committee "heard certain of the principal staplers and
perused the acts and records produced by them in defence of the same,"
and reported to the Council of Trade on June 26 that, in its opinion,
the Company of Staplers had become an unnecessary and useless Society,
and were the principal cause for the dearness of wool, the badness of
cloth, and the general decay of the woolen trade.[4]

The trouble seems to have been that the fellmongers and staplers
were deemed useless middlemen between the growers and the clothiers,
and injurious to the clothing industry because of their abuses. The
controversy was carried before the Council of State and its committees,
and both fellmongers and staplers argued long and forcibly in defence
of their trade.[5] On November 3, 1652, the two societies presented an
answer to the particular order of the Council of Trade which declared
them unnecessary and disadvantageous, denied the charges, and prayed
that they might enjoy their trade as before. Even as late as April 16,
1653, the fellmongers petitioned for leave to produce wool-growers and
clothiers to certify the necessity of their trade.[6] But fellmongers
and staplers as factors in English trade and industry were beginning
to pass away by the middle of the seventeenth century.

The second important question that came before the Council was no less
significant in its relation to the growth of British trade than was the
decay of the Societies of Fellmongers and Staplers. It concerned the
breaking down of the privileges of the merchant companies in general,
and the establishment of free ports and free trade in England--that is,
free trade controlled and ordered by the state. To this end, the Council
appointed a committee of eleven merchants to whom it gave elaborate
directions to report on the feasibility of setting apart four free ports
to which foreign commodities might be imported without paying customs
dues if again exported. These merchants met and drew up a report dated
April 26, 1651, and again on May 26 of the same year expressed further
opinions on the advisability of the "opening of free ports for trade."
"Trade being the basis and well-being of a Commonwealth, the way to
obtain it is to make it a free trade and not to bind up ingenious
spirits by exemptions and privileges which are granted to some
particular companies." In addition to the home merchants, the Council
of Trade presented its queries to the merchant strangers and to the
Committee for the Affairs of Trinity House, all of whom returned
answers. It also made public its desire to consider the appointment of
"convenient ports for the free trade in the Commonwealth," and as early
as May 22 a number of the out-ports, Dover, Plymouth, the Isle of Wight,
Barnstaple, Bideford, Appledore, and Southampton petitioned that they be
recognized as free landing places. The period was one of rivalry between
London and the out-ports, and the latter believed that the various acts
of 1650 and 1651 were in the interest of the London merchants only.
"Yet thus much that act seems to have on it only a London stamp and
a contentment to subject the whole nation to them, for most of the
out-ports are not capable of the foreign trade to Indies and Turkey. The
Londoners having the sole trade do set what price they please upon their
commodities, knowing the country cannot have them nowhere but by them,
whereby not only the out-ports are undone but the country brought to the
devotion of the city. But a great abuse is here, for the city are not
contented with this act but only so far as it serves their own turns,
for they procure (upon some pretexts or other) particular licenses for
many prohibited commodities contrary to that act, as namely for the
importation of French wines and free both of custom and excise tax,
and for the importation of whale oil and skins so as either directly or
indirectly they will have the whole trade themselves."[7] Evidently the
Council of Trade favored the establishment of a freer trade as against
the monopoly of the merchant companies, believing, it may be, that
London did monopolize trade and that it was "no good state of a body
to have a fat head and lean members." The city authorities, apparently
alarmed at the favorable action of the Council, took immediate action.
On June 19, 1651, the Court of Aldermen instructed Alderman Fowke, one
of its most influential members, in case the Council of Trade came to
an agreement favorable to free trade, to move for a reconsideration in
order that London might have a hearing before the matter was finally
settled.[8] But the hearing, if had, could not have been successful in
altering the determination of the Council, for a few months later, on
December 5, 1651, the Common Council of London, probably convinced that
the Council of Trade was in earnest in its policy and alarmed at the
prospect of losing its trading privileges, ordered its committee of
trade to prepare a petition to Parliament, the Council of State, or the
Council of Trade, asking that London be made a free port. The petition
was duly drawn up and approved by the Common Council, which ordered its
committee "to maintain" it before the Council of Trade.[9] Evidently the
matter went no further. The Council of Trade continued its sittings and
debated and reported on a number of petitions "complaining of abuses and
deceits" in trade, but after 1652 it plays but an inconspicuous part.
Even before that date many questions before it were taken over by the
Council of State and referred to its own committees. Fellmongers and
staplers defended their cause before the higher body and the free trade
difficulty continued to be agitated, at least as far as concerned the
Turkey trade and the Greenland fishing, by the Council committee after
it had passed out of the hands of the lesser body.[10] The period was
one of transition from a monopolized to an open trade, and consequently
to many trade everywhere appeared to be in decay. Remedies were sought
through the intervention of the state and the passing of laws, but the
early period of the Commonwealth was not favorable to a successful
carrying out of so promising an experiment. On October 3, 1653, trade
was reported from Holland as "somewhat dead" and the Council of Trade,
which the Dutch at first feared might be "very prejudicial" to their
state, was declared "only nominal," so that the Dutch hoped that in time
those of London would "forget that they ever were merchants." In fact,
however, the Council of Trade had come to an end more than four months
before this report was made.

That the Council of Trade, notwithstanding its carefully worded
instructions, had no part in looking after the affairs of the colonies
is probably due to the activity of the Council of State, which itself
exercised the functions of a board of trade and plantations. According
to article 5 of the Act of February 13, 1649, appointing a Council
of State, it was to use all good ways and means for the securing,
advancement, and encouragement of the trade of England and Ireland
and the dominions to them belonging, and to promote the good of all
foreign plantations and factories belonging to the Commonwealth.
It was also empowered "to appoint committees of any person or persons
for examinations, receiving of informations, and preparing of business
for [its] debates or resolutions." The members chosen February 14, 1649,
were forty-one in number and were to hold office for one year.[11]
February 12, 1650, a second council was elected, of which twenty were
new members and the remaining twenty-one taken over from the former
body.[12] On November 24, 1651, a third council was chosen under the
same conditions.[13] The same was true of the fourth council of
November 24, 1652.[14] Many of the "new" members were generally old
members dropped for a year or more. On July 9 and 14, 1653, the number
of members was reduced to thirty-one, and this council was designed to
last only until the following November.[15] Two councils, the fifth
and sixth were, therefore, elected in the same year, each composed of
fifteen old and fifteen new members. The sixth council, elected November
1, 1653, was chosen for six months, but after six weeks was supplanted
by the body known as the Protector's Council, elected December 16,
1653, under the provisions of the _Instrument of Government_.[16]
This council was to consist of not more than twenty-one nor less than
thirteen members, and according to the method of election provided for
in that instrument, was practically controlled by Cromwell himself. The
membership varied from time to time, rarely numbering more than sixteen,
with an average attendance of about ten. Cromwell was frequently absent
from its meetings, but the council, though designed constitutionally to
be a check upon his powers, was in reality his ally and answerable to
him alone, particularly after the dissolution of Parliament in January,
1655. The council provided for in _The Humble Petition and Advice_ was
but a continuation of the Protector's Council, so that from December,
1653, until May, 1659, the Protector's Council, representing Cromwell
policy and interest, continued to exist. After the abdication of Richard
Cromwell and the restoration of the Rump Parliament, the Protector's
Council came to an end, and a new council, the eighth, was chosen on May
13, 14, 15, 1659.[17] This body contained ten members not of Parliament
and lasted until December 31, when a new Council of State was chosen
for three months; but on February 21 the council was suspended, and two
days afterward the tenth and last council was chosen.[18] On May 21,
1660, this council was declared "not in being," and formally came to
an end on May 27, when Charles II, who had had his Privy Council more
or less continuously since 1649, named at Canterbury Monck, Southampton,
Morrice, and Ashley as privy councillors. The first meeting at Whitehall
was held May 31.[19]

The Council of State itself acted as a board of trade and plantations
and directly transacted a large amount of business in the interest of
manufactures, trade, commerce, and the colonies. It initiated important
measures, received petitions, remonstrances, and complaints, either at
first hand or through Parliament, from which it also received special
orders, entered into debate upon all questions arising therefrom,
summoned before it any one who might be able to furnish information
or to offer advice, and then drew up its reply, embodied in an order
despatched to government officials, private individuals, adventurers,
merchant and trading companies, colonial governments in particular
or in general. For example, it ordered letters to be written to the
plantations, giving them notice of the change of government in 1649,
sending them papers necessary for their information, and requiring them
to be obedient if they expected the protection which the Republic was
prepared to extend to them. Until March 2, 1650, it does not appear to
have organized itself especially for this purpose, but on that date it
authorized the whole council, or any five members, to sit as a special
committee for trade and plantations, and on February 18 and December 2,
1651, repeated the same order.[20] During the early part of this period
it depended to a considerable extent on committees, either of merchants
and others outside the council, men already engaged in trade with the
plantations, such as Worsley, Maurice Thompson (afterward governor of
the East India Company), Lenoyre, Allen, Martin Noell, and others,
or of councillors forming committees of trade (sitting in the Horse
Chamber in Whitehall), of plantations, of the admiralty, of the navy,
of examinations, of Scottish and Irish affairs, and of prisoners, to
whom many questions were referred and upon whose reports the Council
acted. It also appointed special committees to take into consideration
particular questions relating to individual plantations, Barbadoes,
Somers Islands, Bermudas, New England, Newfoundland, Virginia. Of all
these committees none appears to have been more active, as far as the
plantations were concerned, than the Committee of the Admiralty, before
whom came a large amount of colonial business, which was transacted
with the cooeperation of Dr. Walker, of Doctors Commons, advocate for
the Republic, and David Budd, the proctor of the Court of Admiralty.

An important departure was introduced on December 17, 1651, when a
standing committee of the Council was created, consisting of fifteen
members, to concern itself with trade and foreign affairs. This
committee took the place of that which had formerly sat in the Horse
Chamber in Whitehall, and renewed consideration of all questions which
had been referred to that body. It was organized, as were all the
Council committees, with its own clerk, doorkeeper, and messenger, and
as recommissioned on May 4, 1652, and again on December 2, 1652, when
the membership was raised to twenty-one and the plantations were brought
within the scope of its business, became a very independent and active
body until its demise in April, 1653. Its members were Cromwell, Lords
Whitelocke, Bradshaw, and Lisle, Sir Arthur Haslerigg, Sir Harry Vane,
Sir William Masham, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Colonels Walton, Purefoy,
Morley, Sidney, and Thomson, Major Lister, Messrs. Bond, Scott, Love,
Challoner, Strickland, Gurdon, and Alleyn.[21] This committee, to which
new members were frequently added, sat in the Horse Chamber at Whitehall
and took cognizance of a great variety of commercial and colonial
business. It considered the question of free trade versus monopolies
and during the summer of 1652, after the Council of Trade had fallen
into disfavor, debated at length the desirability of opening the Turkey
trade as freely to adventurers as was that of Portugal and Spain. It
listened to a number of forcible papers presented in the interest of
free trade in opposition to trade in the hands of companies; it dealt
with the operation of the Navigation Act of 1651 and rendered decisions
regarding penalties, exemptions, licenses, and the disposal of prizes
and prize goods; it devoted a large amount of time to plantation
business; and, for the time being, probably supplanted consideration
of these matters by the Council of State, and rendered unnecessary the
appointment of any other committee on colonial affairs. Except for the
Admiralty Committee and one or two other committees to which special
matters were referred, as concerning Newfoundland, there appears to
have been no other subordinate body actually in charge of affairs in
America between December 17, 1651, and April 15, 1653. The period was
an important and critical one, and the committee must have had before
it business connected with nearly every one of the colonies in America.
The Council of State referred to it petitions, etc., from and relating
to Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, Rhode Island, Newfoundland,
Maryland and Virginia, Barbadoes, Nevis, Providence Island, and the
Caribbee Islands in general. It dealt with the proposed attack on
the Dutch at New Amsterdam, losses of merchant ships, privateer's
commissions and letters of marque; the Greenland and Newfoundland
fisheries, naval stores, and land disputes. It drafted bills and
governors' commissions, considered vacancies in the colonies, and
received applications for office, and, in one case, promoted the
founding of a plantation in South America.[22] This business was
performed to a considerable extent through subcommittees, many of
which met in the little Horse Chamber and acted in all particulars as
regular committees. On one occasion, the entire committee was appointed
a subcommittee, and very frequently the committee met for no other
purpose than to hear the report of a subcommittee. These subcommittees,
which were generally composed of councillors, referred matters to
outside persons, merchants, judges, and doctors of civil law, while
the committee itself called before it merchants, officials, members
of other committees, and indeed any one from whom information might
be extracted. The main work was performed by the subcommittees, their
reports were reviewed by the committee itself, and, if approved, were
sent to the Council of State, which based upon them recommendations to
Parliament.[23] After April 15, 1653, we hear no more of this committee.
There is some reason to think that the duties entrusted to it were
deemed too extensive and a division between trade, plantations, and
foreign affairs was planned, but no definite record of such a separation
of functions is to be found. A Council Committee of Foreign Affairs was
appointed, probably before June, 1653, reappointed on July 27, and again
reappointed August 16, but no committees of trade and of plantations
appear. Very likely the Council of State, with the assistance of the
committees on Scottish and Irish affairs, admiralty, navy, and customs,
and a few special committees and commissioners, assumed control of
plantation affairs. The interests of industry and trade may have been
looked after by the Committee on Trade and Corporations appointed by the
Barebones Parliament, July 20, 1653, "to meet at Whitehall in the place
where the Council of Trade did sit."[24] Several times during the year
this committee proposed the establishment of a separate council of trade
to take the place of the former Council, to which proposition Parliament
agreed, but nothing was done, and the Parliamentary Committee of Trade
and Corporations seems to have been the only official body that existed
during the year 1653 for the advancement of trade and industry.[25]

On December 29, 1653, the Protector's Council made known its purpose
of taking "all care to protect and encourage navigation and trade,"
and in March, 1654, we meet with a reference to a committee of the
Council appointed for trade and corporations. As this body was organized
for continuous sitting, with a clerk, doorkeeper, and messenger, and
as a second reference to it appears under date August 21, 1654, the
probabilities are in favor of its existence as a regular committee
during the year 1654.[26] That it was an important committee is
doubtful, for we meet with practically no references to its work, and
when in January, 1655, the project of a select trade committee was
brought forward it was referred for consideration and report, not to
this committee, but to Desborough of the Council and the Admiralty
Committee.

The events of the years 1654 and 1655 mark something of an era in the
history of trade and commerce, not because the capture of Jamaica had
any very conspicuous effect upon Cromwell's own policy or upon the
commercial activities of the higher authorities, but because it opened
a larger world and larger opportunities to the merchants and traders of
London who were at this time seeking openings for trading ventures in
all parts of the world. To better their fortunes many men accompanied
the expedition under Penn and Venables, and the merchants at home were
seized with something of the spirit of the Elizabethans in planning,
not only to increase commerce and swell their own fortunes, but also
to drive the Spaniard from the southwestern waters of the Atlantic
and extend British control and British trade into regions heretofore
wholly in the hands of Spain. Barbadoes, Jamaica, Florida, Virginia,
New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland became a world of great
opportunities, and with plans for the expansion of trade went plans for
naval and military activity. If the merchants of the period had had
their way, a systematic and orderly policy of colonial control in the
interest of British power and profit would have been inaugurated during
the second period of the Interregnum, but circumstances do not appear
to have been propitious, and the disturbed political order during the
years 1658 and 1659 led not only to a cessation of activity as far
as the government was concerned but also to decay of trade, shrinking
of profits, decrease of fortunes, and widespread discouragement.
Furthermore, there is nothing to show that Cromwell himself ever rose
to a statesmanlike conception of colonial control and administration.
He was thoroughly interested in those matters, was personally influenced
by the London merchants, frequently called on the most conspicuous of
them for advice, placed them on committees and councils established for
purposes of trade, and was always open to their suggestions. But while
he was willing to act upon their opinions and recommendations in many
respects, he never seems to have grasped the essentials of a large
and comprehensive plan of colonial control, and it is not possible
to discover in what he actually accomplished any broadminded idea of
uniting the colonies under an efficient management for the purpose of
laying the foundations of an empire. His expedients, interesting and
practical as many of them were, do not seem to be a part of any large or
well-formed plan. Whether he would ever have risen to a higher level of
statesmanship in these respects we cannot say, but he never found time
to give proper attention to the suggestions of the merchants or to the
demands of trade and commerce.

That he took a great interest in the industrial and commercial
development of England is evident from one of his earliest efforts to
provide for its proper control. Even while the fleet was on its way
to the West Indies, the Council of State instructed Desborough and
the Admiralty Committee, January 29, 1655, to consider "of some fit
merchants to be a trade committee." There is some reason to think
that this instruction was in response to a paper drawn up by certain
merchants of London in 1654, entitled, "An Essaie or Overture for the
regulating the Affairs of his Highness in the West Indies," drafted
after the expedition had sailed and with the confident expectation of
conquest in mind.[27] If the original suggestion did not come from the
merchants, we may not doubt that in the promotion of the plan they
exercised considerable influence. In 1655, Martin Noell and Thomas Povey
sent a petition to the Protector regarding trade, and suggested that
there be appointed "some able persons to consider what more may be done
in order to those affairs and a general satisfaction for the fixing the
whole trade of England." They wished that a competent number of persons,
of good reputation, prudent and well skilled in their professions and
qualifications should be "selected and set apart" for the "care of his
Highness Affairs in the West Indies." The number was to be not less than
seven, and these not to be "of the same but of a mixt qualification,"
constituting a select council subordinate only to the Protector and the
Council. After careful attention to the fitness of a large number of
prominent individuals, a committee of twenty was named on July 12, 1655.
If the "Overture" was responsible for the decision to name a select
council, its influence went no further, for except that merchants were
placed as members, there is no likeness between the plan as finally
worked out and that formulated by the merchants. Indeed, Povey himself
later expressed his dissatisfaction in saying that "that committee which
[we] so earnestly prest should be settled will not tend in any degree
to what we proposed, the constitution of it being not proportionable
to what was desired."[28] The committee of twenty was soon expanded into
a much larger and more imposing body, possibly due to the receipt of the
news of the capture of Jamaica and the decision announced in Cromwell's
proclamation of August to hold the island. On November 11, 1655,[29]
a board, made up of officers of state, gentlemen, and merchants, was
commissioned a "Committee and Standing Council for the advancing and
regulating the Trade and Navigation of the Commonwealth," generally
shortened to "Trade and Navigation Committee," or simply "Trade
Committee." Its membership, instead of being seven, was over seventy,
and it was thus a dignified though unwieldy body. At its head was
Richard Cromwell and its members were as follows: Montague, Sydenham,
Wolseley, Pickering, and Jones of the Protector's Council; Lord Chief
Justice St. John and Justices Glynn, Steele, and Hale; Sir Henry Blount,
Sir John Hobart, Sir Gilbert Gerard, gentlemen of distinction; Sir
Bulstrode Whitelocke and Sir Thomas Widdrington, sergeants-at-law; Col.
John Fiennes and John Lisle, commissioners of the Great Seal; the four
Treasury Commissioners; Col. Richard Norton, governor of Portsmouth;
Capt. Hatsell, navy commissioner of Plymouth; Stone and Foxcroft, excise
commissioners; Martin Noell, London merchant and farmer of the customs;
Upton, customs commissioner; Bond, Wright, Thompson, Ashurst, Peirpont,
Crew, and Berry, London merchants; and Tichborne, Grove, Pack (Lord
Mayor), and Riccards, aldermen of London; Bonner, of Newcastle; Dunne,
of Yarmouth; Cullen, of Dover; Jackson, of Bristol; Toll, of Lyme;
Legay, of Southampton; Snow, of Exeter; and Drake, of Sussex. At various
times, and probably for various purposes, the following members were
added between December 12, 1655, and June 19,1656: Secretary Thurloe,
William Wheeler, Edmund Waller, Francis Dincke, of Hull; George Downing,
at that time major general and scoutmaster; Alderman Ireton, of London;
Col. William Purefoy; Godfrey Boseville; Edward Laurence; John St.
Barbe, of Hampshire, [Lord] John Claypoole, Master of the Horse, and
Cromwell's son-in-law; John Barnard; Sir John Reynolds; Col. Arthur
Hill; George Berkeley; Capt. Thomas Whitegreane; Thomas Ford, of Exeter;
Francis St. John; Henry Wright; Col. John Jones, Alderman Frederick,
sheriff of London; Richard Ford, the well-known merchant of London;
Mayor Nehemiah Bourne; Charles Howard; Robert Berwick; John Blaxton,
town clerk of Newcastle; Col. Richard Ingoldsby; Edmund Thomas;
Thomas Banks, and Christopher Lister. Thus the Trade Committee, composed
of members from all parts of England, represented a wide range of
interests. Furthermore, any member of the Protector's Council could come
to the meetings of the committee and vote.[30] Such a body would have
been very unmanageable but for the fact that seven constituted a quorum
and business was generally transacted by a small number of the members.
The instructions were prepared by Thurloe after a scrutiny of those
of the former Council of Trade, and bore little resemblance to the
recommendations of the "Overture," because they were designed to cover
a far wider range of interests than were considered by the merchants.
The "Overture" was planned only for a plantation council. The Trade
Committee was invested with power and authority to consider by what
means the traffic and navigation of the Republic might best be promoted
and regulated, to receive propositions for the benefit of these
interests, to send for the officers of the excise, the customs, and the
mint, or such other persons of experience as they should deem capable of
giving advice on these subjects, to examine the books and papers of the
Council of Trade of 1650, and all other public papers as might afford
the members information. When finally its reports were ready for the
Council of State, that body reserved to itself all power to reject or
accept such orders as it deemed proper and fitting.

The Trade Committee met for the first time on December 27, 1655, in the
Painted Chamber at Westminster. Authorized to appoint officers, it chose
William Seaman secretary, two clerks, an usher, and two messengers at
a yearly salary of L280, with L50 for contingent expenses;[31] and from
the entries of the payments ordered to be made to these men for their
services, we infer that the board sat from December 27, 1655, until
May 27, 1657, exactly a year and a half. During this time it probably
accumulated a considerable number of books and papers, though such are
not now known to exist. Proposals, petitions, complaints, and pamphlets,
such, for example, as that entitled _Trading Governed by the State_, a
protest against the commercial dominance of London, were laid before it,
and it took into its own hands many of the problems that had agitated
the former board. It discussed foreign trade, particularly with Holland,
and the questions of Swedish copper,[32] Spanish wines, and Irish linen;
home manufactures, among which are mentioned swords and rapier blades,
madder-dyed silk, needle making, and knitting with frameworks; and
domestic concerns, such as the preservation of timber. It made a number
of recommendations regarding "the exportation of several commodities of
the breed, growth, and manufacture of the Commonwealth," "the limiting
and settling the prices of wines," "vagrants and wandering, idle,
dissolute persons," and the "giving license for transporting fish in
foreign bottoms." These recommendations were drafted by the Trade
Committee, or by one of its subcommittees, and after adoption were
reported to the Council of State and by it referred to its own committee
appointed to receive reports from the Trade Committee. When approved by
the Council of State, the recommendations were sent to Parliament and
there referred to the large Parliamentary committee of trade of fifty
members, appointed October 20, 1656. That committee drafted bills which
were based on these recommendations and which later were passed as acts
of Parliament and received the consent of the Protector. For example,
the recommendation regarding exports, noted above, became a law November
27, 1656.[33]

Under the head of "navigation and trade" came the commercial interests
of the plantations, and though there existed during this year, 1656,
other machinery for regulating plantation affairs, a number of questions
were referred from the Council to the Trade Committee that were strictly
in the line of plantation development. These questions concerned customs
duties on goods exported to Barbadoes, the political quarrels in
Antigua which threatened to bring ruin on that plantation and the
remedies therefor, the pilchard fishery off Newfoundland, and finally
the controversy between Maryland and Virginia which had already been
referred to a special committee of the Council. Upon all these questions
the Trade Committee reported to the Council; its recommendations and
findings were debated in that body or further referred to one of its own
committees or to the outside committee for America, and finally embodied
in an order regulating the matter in question.[34]

Of the activity of the Trade Committee during the few months of the year
1657, when it continued its sessions, scarcely any evidence appears.
There is a very slight reason to believe that it took up the question of
free ports, but there is nothing to show that it accomplished anything
in that direction. That it came to an end in May seems to be borne out
by the fact that the officers of the board were paid only to May 27, but
this statement is rendered uncertain by the further fact that on June 26
Portsmouth petitioned the committee to be made a free port and that the
petition was brought in by one of the members of the committee for
America, Capt. Limbrey.[35] The question cannot be exactly settled.
Though the committee was by no means a nominal body, it accomplished
little, and certainly did not meet the situation that confronted the
trade and navigation of the kingdom.

After the appointment of this select Trade Committee, no standing
committee of the Council was created. Questions of trade were looked
after either by the Council itself, that of May, 1659, being especially
instructed to "advance trade and promote the good of our foreign
plantations and to encourage fishing,"[36] by an occasional special
committee, by the Trade Committee until the summer of 1657, or by the
committees of Parliament. Of Parliamentary committees there were two:
one a select committee of fifty members, appointed October 20, 1656, to
which were added all the merchants of the House and all members that
served for the port towns;[37] and a grand committee of the whole House
for trade, appointed February 2, 1658, which sat weekly and was invested
with the same powers as the committee of 1656 had had.[38] But except
that the first committee adopted some of the recommendations of the
Trade Committee, there is nothing to show that these committees took any
prominent part in the advancement of the interest in behalf of which
they had been created.

From 1654 to 1660 the welfare of the plantations lay chiefly in the
hands of the Protector's Council and the Council of State, and their
system of control was in many respects similar to that which had been
adopted during the earlier period of the Interregnum. At first all
plantation questions were referred to committees of the Council
appointed temporarily to consider some particular matter. From December
29, 1653, to the close of the year 1659 some fifty cases were referred
to about thirty committees, of which twenty were appointed for the
special purpose in hand. Many matters were referred to such standing
committees as the Admiralty Committee, Customs Committee, etc.; others
to the judges of admiralty, commissioners of customs, and the like,
while petitions and communications regarding affairs in Jamaica, New
England, Virginia, Antigua, Somers Islands, Newfoundland, and Nevis,
regarding the transporting of horses, mining of saltpeter, payments of
salaries, indemnities, and trade, and regarding personal claims, such as
those of Lord Baltimore, William Franklin, De La Tour, and others, were
referred to committees composed of from two to eight members of the
Council, whose services in this particular ended with the presentation
of their report. Sometimes a question would be referred to the whole
Council or to a "committee," with the names unspecified, or to "any
three of the Council." The burden of serving upon these occasional
committees fell upon a comparatively small number of councillors:
Ashley, Montague, Strickland, Wolseley, Fiennes, Jones, Sydenham, Lisle,
and Mulgrave. One or more of these names appear on the list of every
special committee appointed except that to which Lord Baltimore's case
was referred, consisting of the sergeants-at-law, Lords Whitelocke and
Widdrington. During 1654 the committees for Virginia and Barbadoes, to
which were referred other colonial matters, came to be known as the
"committee for plantations," but it is doubtful if this was deemed in
any sense a standing committee.

When the affairs of Jamaica became exigent after the summer of 1655
a committee of the Council was appointed to carry out the terms of
Cromwell's proclamation and to report the needs of the colony. Though
the membership was generally changed this committee continued to be
reappointed as one question after another arose which demanded the
attention of the Council. It reported on the equipment of tools,
clothing, medicaments and other necessaries, on the transporting of
persons from Ireland and colonies in America, on the distribution of
lands in the island, and on various matters presented to the Council
in letters and petitions from officers and others there or in England.
After 1656 this committee, which continued to exist certainly until
the middle of April, 1660, played a more or less secondary part, doing
little more than consider the various colonial matters, whether relating
to Jamaica or to other colonies, that were taken up by the select or
outside committee appointed by Cromwell in 1656.

The employment of expert advisers in the Jamaica business was rendered
necessary by the financial questions involved, and in December Robert
Bowes, Francis Hodges and Richard Creed were called upon to assist a
committee of Council appointed May 10, 1655, in determining the amounts
due the wives and assignees of the officers and soldiers in Jamaica.
Creed was dropped and Sydenham and Fillingham were added in 1656.[39]
But a more important step was soon taken. On July 15,1656, Cromwell
appointed a standing committee of officers and London merchants to
take general cognizance of all matters that concerned "his Highness
in Jamaica and the West Indies." The following were the members: Col.
Edward Salmon, an admiralty commissioner and intimately interested in
the Jamaica expedition; Col. Tobias Bridges, one of Cromwell's major
generals, afterwards serving in Flanders, who was to play an important
part in proclaiming Richard Cromwell Protector; Lieutenant Colonel
Miller, of Col. Barkstead's regiment, and Lieutenant Colonel Mills;
Capt. Limbrey, London merchant and Jamaican planter, who had lived in
Jamaica and made a map of the island, and as commander of merchant
vessels had made many trips across the Atlantic; Capt. Thomas Aldherne,
also a London merchant and sea captain, the chief victualler of the
navy, and an enterprising adventurer in trade; Capt. John Thompson, sea
captain and London merchant; Capt. Stephen Winthrop, sea captain and
London merchant; Richard Sydenham, and Robert Bowes, already mentioned
as commissioners for Jamaica,[40] and lastly Martin Noell, London
merchant, and Thomas Povey, regarding whom a fuller account is given
below. Povey, who was not appointed a member until October, 1657,
apparently became chairman and secretary, while Francis Hodges was
clerical secretary. Except for Tobias Bridges, the military members had
little share in the business of the committee, the most prominent part
being taken by Noell, Bridges, Winthrop, Bowes, Sydenham, and Povey.
As far as the records show, Salmon, Miller, Aldherne, Thompson, and
White never signed a report, while Mills and Limbrey signed but one.
The committee seems to have sat at first in Grocer's Hall, afterward
in Treasury Chambers, where its members discussed and investigated
all questions that came before them with care and thoroughness.
Their instructions authorized them to maintain a correspondence
with the colonies, obtaining such infromation and advice as seemed
essential; to receive all addresses relating thereunto, whether from
persons in America or elsewhere; to consider and consult thereof and
prepare such advices and answers thereupon as should be judged meet
for the advantage of the community. Their earliest business concerned
itself with Jamaica, its revenues, finances, expenses of expeditions
thither, arrears due the officers and soldiers, their wives and
assignees, individual claims, want of ministers, and other similar
questions. But as addresses came in from other colonies the scope of
their activity was broadened until it included at one time or another
nearly all the American colonies. The committee reported on the
constitution, governing powers, fortifications, militia of Somers
Islands (Bermudas) and on the fitness of Sayle to be governor there;
on the controversy between Virginia and Maryland and on the organization
and government of the former colony; on the petition of the Long
Islanders and others in New England, and on complaints against
Massachusetts Bay; on the revenue, government, and admiralty system
of Barbadoes; on questions of governor and arrears of salary in
Nevis and Tortugas; on the desirability of continuing the plantation
in Newfoundland; and lastly on the important subject of ship insurance,
upon which Capt. Limbrey presented a very remarkable paper.[41] These
reports were sent sometimes to the Protector, sometimes to the Council
of State, and sometimes to the committee of the Council on the affairs
of America. While the latter committee, under the name of "Committee for
Foreign Plantations" continued until the return of the King, the select
committee for America does not appear to have lasted as a whole after
the final dissolution of the Rump Parliament, March 16, 1660. Thomas
Povey alone seems to have been the committee from March to May, and on
April 9 and May 11 made two reports on matters referred to him by the
Council committee regarding Jamaica and Newfoundland. As Charles II had
been recalled to his own in England before the last report was sent in,
the machinery created under Cromwell for the plantations remained in
existence after the government set up by him had passed away.[42]

Any account of the system appointed for the control of trade and
plantations during the Interregnum is bound to be something of a tangle,
not because the system itself was a complicated one, but because its
simplicity is clouded by a bewildering mass of details. Occasional
committees of Parliament, the Council as a board of trade and
plantations, committees of the Council, and select councils and
committees do not form a very confusing body of material out of which
to fashion a system of colonial control. Yet, despite this fact, the
management of the colonies during the Interregnum was without unity or
simplicity. Control was exercised by no single or continuous organ and
according to no clearly defined or consistent plan. Colonial questions
seemed to lie in many different hands and to be met in as many different
ways. Delays were frequent and there can be little doubt that many
important matters were laid aside and pigeon-holed. When an important
colonial difficulty had to pass from subcommittee to committee, from
committee to Council, and sometimes from Council to Parliamentary
committee and thence to Parliament, we can easily believe that in the
excess of machinery there would be entailed a decrease of despatch and
efficiency. Indeed, during the Interregnum colonial business was not
well managed and there were many to whom colonial trade was of great
importance, who realized this fact. Merchants of London after 1655
became dissatisfied with the way the plantations were managed and
desired a reorganization which should bring about order, improve
administration, economize expenditure, elevate justice, and effect
speedily and fairly a settlement of colonial disputes. They doubted
whether a Council, "busyed and filled with a multitude of affairs,"
was able to accomplish these results and they refused to believe that
affairs of such a nature should be transacted "in diverse pieces and
by diverse councils." The remedy of these men was carefully thought
out and carefully expressed and though it was undoubtedly listened
to by Cromwell, it never received more than an imperfect application.
To these men and their proposals we must pay careful attention for
therein we shall find the connecting link between the Protectorate
and the Restoration as far as matters of trade and the plantations
are concerned.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Footnote 1: Among others, The Advancement of Merchandize or certain
propositions for the improvement of the trade of this Commonwealth,
humbly presented to the Right Honorable the Council of State by Thomas
Viollet, of London, Goldsmith, 1651. This rare pamphlet was drawn up
by Viollet when connected with the Mint in the Tower and sent to the
Council of State, evidently in manuscript form. Most of the papers
composing this pamphlet were transmitted by the Council of State to
the Council of Trade. For Viollet see Cal. State Papers, Domestic,
1650-1651, 1659-1660.]

[Footnote 2: The Council of Trade accumulated in this and other ways a
considerable mass of books and papers, but this material for its history
has entirely disappeared.]

[Footnote 3: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1650, p. 399; 1651, pp. 16, 29,
38, 107, 230; 1651-1652, pp. 87. The first suggestion of this committee
was as early as January 1650, Commons' Journal, VI, p. 347.]

[Footnote 4: Guildhall, Journal of the Proceedings of the Common
Council, Vol. 41, ff. 45, 55; Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1651, pp. 198,
247-249, 270-271; Inderwick, The Interregnum, ch. II.]

[Footnote 5: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1651-1652, pp. 470-472, 479-481.]

[Footnote 6: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1652-1653, p. 282.]

[Footnote 7: British Museum, Add. MSS., 5138, f. 145.]

[Footnote 8: Guildhall, Repertories of the Court of Aldermen, 61, p.
152^{b}.]

[Footnote 9: Guildhall, Journal of the Proceedings of the Common
Council, Vol. 41, pp. 67^{b}, 68.]

[Footnote 10: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1651-1652, pp. 232, 235. The
question was as to whether or not the Turkey trade could best be carried
on by a company "as now," or by free trade, as in the case of Portugal
and Spain. Able arguments in favor of free trade were brought forward,
and when later the question of a monopoly of the Greenland whale fishing
came up, the Council of State admitted free adventurers to a share in
the business. Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1653-1654, p. 379; 1654, p. 16.]

[Footnote 11: Commons' Journal, VI, p. 140.]

[Footnote 12: Commons' Journal, VI, p. 361.]

[Footnote 13: Commons' Journal, VII, p. 41.]

[Footnote 14: Commons' Journal, VII, p. 220.]

[Footnote 15: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 283, 284, 285.]

[Footnote 16: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 343-344; Cal. State Papers,
Dom., 1653-1654, pp. 297-298.]

[Footnote 17: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 652, 654, 655; Cal. State
Papers, Dom., 1658-1659, p. 349.]

[Footnote 18: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 800, 849.]

[Footnote 19: P.C.R., Charles II, Vol. I, May 3/13, 1649--September
28, 1660. Meetings of Privy Councils during the Interregnum were held at
Castle Elizabeth, St. Hillary, Breda (1649-1650), Bruges (1656, 1658),
Brussels (1659), Breda (1660), Canterbury (May 27, 1660), Whitehall (May
31, 1660).]

[Footnote 20: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, pp. 335, 352, 366;
Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1651-1652, p. 43.]

[Footnote 21: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, p. 394; Cal. State
Papers, Dom., 1651-1652, pp. 67, 232, 235, 426; 1652-1653, pp. 18-27.]

[Footnote 22: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, pp. 373-402,
_passim_.]

[Footnote 23: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1651-1652, pp. 266, 350, 396,
472; 1652-1653, pp. 18, 27, 160, 171.]

[Footnote 24: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 19, 287. On May 6, 1653,
a new commission of trade was proposed by the Council of State but
no appointments are given. Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1653-1654,
pp. 310, 344.]

[Footnote 25: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 308, 319, 341, 375.]

[Footnote 26: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1654, pp. 61, 285, 316.]

[Footnote 27: Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 11411, ff. 11^{b}-12^{b}.]

[Footnote 28: That such an outcome was anticipated is evident from the
concluding words of the "Overture." "If his Highness shall think fit
to constitute a council for the general Trade of these Nations and the
several Interests relating thereunto, these seaven may properly be of
that number, the employment being of the same nature and therefore
will rather informe then divert them who ought indeed to be busyed or
conversant in no other Affaires than the matters of Trade."]

[Footnote 29: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655, pp. 27, 133, 240.]

[Footnote 30: Thurloe, State Papers, IV, p. 177; British Museum, Add.
MSS., 12438, iii; Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655, p. 240, 1655-1656, pp.
1, 2, 54, 73, 100, 114, 115, 141, 156, 162, 188, 252, 275, 297, 327,
382. "We might speak also of the famed 'Committee of Trade' which has
now begun its sessions 'in the old House of Lords.' An Assembly of
Dignitaries, Chief Merchants, Political Economists, convened by summons
of his Highness; consulting zealously how the Trade of this country
may be improved. A great concernment of this commonwealth 'which his
Highness is eagerly set upon.' They consulted of 'Swedish copperas' and
such like; doing faithfully what they could." Cromwell's Letters and
Speeches, II, p. 202.]

[Footnote 31: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655-1656, p. 113; 1656-1657,
p. 556; 1657-1658, pp. 308, 589; 1657-1658, p. 69.]

[Footnote 32: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655-1656, p. 318.]

[Footnote 33: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 442, 452, 460.]

[Footnote 34: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660, pp. 436, 439, 440 (2),
441, 443, 447, 453.]

[Footnote 35: Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 12438, iii.]

[Footnote 36: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1658-1659, p. 349.]

[Footnote 37: Commons' Journal, VII, pp. 442, 452.]

[Footnote 38: Commons' Journal, VII, p. 596.]

[Footnote 39: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655-1656, pp. 46, 65, 318, 351.]

[Footnote 40: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1657-1658, pp. 51, 66.]

[Footnote 41: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574, 1660, pp. 445, 447, 448,
449, 450, 452, 453, 455, 456, 458, 459, 460, 461, 464, 465, 468, 470,
477; Brit. Mus. Egerton, 2395, ff. 123, 136, 142, 148-151, 157; Add.
MSS., 18986, f. 258.]

[Footnote 42: Note to the report of May 11, 1660, is as follows: "By
order of the Councill of State sitting and taking care of the government
in the interval between the suppression of the Rump of the Parliament
and the return of his Majesty which was not many days before the date of
this report." Egerton MSS., 2395, f. 263. Probably the recall not the
actual landing at Dover is meant.]




CHAPTER III.

The Proposals of the Merchants: Noell and Povey.


Between the colonial and commercial activities of the later years of
the Interregnum and the corresponding activities during the early years
of the Restoration no hard and fast line can be drawn. The policy of
control adopted by Charles II can be traced to the agitation of men,
chiefly merchants of London and others familiar with the colonies, who
since 1655 had become impressed with the possibilities of the New World
as a field for profitable ventures in trade and commerce, and desired,
whether under a republic or a monarchy, the cooeperation and aid of the
government. Among the leaders of this movement were Martin Noell and
Thomas Povey.

Martin Noell was probably the most conspicuous London merchant of his
time. Of his early life nothing seems to be known. He first appears as
a merchant in 1650 trading with Nevis and Montserrat, and in the next
few years he extended his operations to New England, Virginia, the other
West India islands, and the Mediterranean. His ships trafficked in a
great variety of commodities--iron, hemp, pitch, tar, flax, potashes,
cables, fish, cocoa, tobacco, etc., and he became a power in London,
his place of business in Old Jewry being the resort of merchants,
ship captains, and persons desiring to cooeperate in his ventures.
He was an alderman as early as 1651, was placed a little later on the
commission for securing the peace of the city, and held other offices
by appointment of the city or of the Commonwealth. He was also
a member of the East India Company and influential in its councils.
In addition to his mercantile interests he became a farmer, first of
the inland and foreign post-office,--one writer speaking of him as
"the postmaster,"--and later, on a large scale, of customs and excise.
At one time or another he held the farm of the customs in general and
of the excise of salt, linen, silk mercery, and wines in particular. In
these capacities he acted as a banker of the government, paying salaries
and expenses of official appointees, advancing loans, and issuing bills
of exchange and letters of credit. His vessels carried letters of marque
during the Dutch war and the war with Spain, and he himself traded in
prizes and became one of the commissioners of prize goods. The Jamaican
expeditions of 1654 and afterward gave him an opportunity to become a
contractor and he organized a committee in London for the purpose of
financiering the expedition, himself advancing L16,000, and in company
with Capts. Alderne, Watts, and others contracted for the supplies of
the ships and soldiers, furnishing utensils, clothing, bedding, and
provisions for this and other expeditions, notably that to Flanders.
He was Gen. Venables' personal agent in London and agent for the army
in general in Jamaica. He also became a contractor for transporting
vagrants, prisoners, and others to various American plantations. These
accumulating ventures increased his interest in the colonies, and after
the capture of Jamaica in 1655 he obtained a grant of 20,000 acres in
that island, from which he created several plantations. In his new
capacity as planter he was constantly engaged in shipping servants,
supplies, and horses. The firm of Martin Noell & Company became
exceedingly prosperous, and Noell himself one of the mainstays of the
government. He became a member of the Trade Committee in 1655, of the
committee for Jamaica in 1656, and was frequently called in by the
Council of State to offer advice or to give information. He was on terms
of intimacy with Cromwell, and because of the Protector's friendship
for him and confidence in his judgment, his recommendations for office,
both in England and the colonies had great weight. Povey speaks of the
"extraordinary favor allowed him (Noell) by his Highness." He had a
brother, Thomas Noell, who was prominent in Barbadoes and Surinam and
in charge of his interests there. He was also represented in other
islands by agents and factors, of whom Edward Bradbourne was the most
conspicuous, while Major Richard Povey in Jamaica, and William Povey
in Barbadoes, brothers of Thomas Povey, had for a time charge of his
plantations in those islands. Noell indirectly played no small part in
politics, particularly of Barbadoes, where Governor Searle held office
largely through his influence. Besides his Jamaica holdings he had
estates at Wexford in Ireland, and in April, 1658, wrote to Henry
Cromwell that he had "transplanted much of his interest and affairs
and relations" to that country, seeming to indicate thereby that his
colonial ventures were not prospering satisfactorily. Noell was a
politic man, shrewd and diplomatic, asserting his loyalty to the house
of Cromwell, yet becoming a trusty subject of King Charles, from whom
he afterward received knighthood.[1]

Thomas Povey was born probably about 1615, son of Justinian Povey,
auditor of the exchequer and one of the commissioners of the Caribbee
Islands in 1637. He was one of a large family of children, nine at
least, Justinian, John, Francis, William, Richard, Thomas, Mrs.
Blathwayt (afterward Mrs. Thomas Vivian), Mrs. Barrow, and Sarah Povey,
and he spent his early years at the family home in Hounslow. In 1633 he
entered Gray's Inn and in 1647 became a member of the Long Parliament.
"Purged" with the other Presbyterian members in 1648, he did not return
to Parliament until the restoration of those members in 1659. He was
evidently inclined at first to go into law and politics, but for reasons
unnamed, possibly the slenderness of his fortune, which he says was
hardly sufficient to support him, he turned, about 1654, to trade,
and was thus brought into close relations with Martin Noell. Of his
activities until 1657 we hear very little, though it is evident that
from 1654 to 1657 he lived in Gray's Inn, engaging in many trading
ventures in the West Indies and elsewhere, was on terms of intimacy
with Noell and frequently at his house, and showed himself fertile of
suggestions, as always, regarding the improvement of trade and the
care and supply of men, provisions, and intelligence. In 1657 he lost
by death his brothers John and Francis, and his mother, who died at
Hounslow. As two of his brothers had gone to the West Indies with the
expedition of 1654 and the remainer of the family was scattered, he
decided to marry, and settled down in a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields
next the Earl of Northampton, with a widow without children, but
possessed "of a fortune capable of giving a reasonable assistance to
mine." In October of that year, possibly through Noell's influence, he
became a member of the committee for America, and from that time was
a conspicuous leader among those interested in plantation affairs.
As chairman and secretary of the committee, he took a prominent part
in all correspondence, and was familiar with the chief men in all the
colonies. He exchanged letters with Searle, of Barbadoes, D'Oyley,
of Jamaica, Temple, of Nova Scotia, Digges, at one time governor of
Virginia, Russell, of Nevis, Major Byam, of Surinam, Col. Osborn, of
Montserrat, General Brayne, in command of one of the expeditions to
Jamaica, and particularly with Lord Willoughby of Parham, with whom he
stood on terms of intimate friendship and over whose policy he exercised
considerable control. He was proposed at this time as agent in London
for Virginia, but the suggestion does not appear to have been acted on.
His brother Richard was commissary of musters and major of militia in
Jamaica, and his brother William, the black sheep of the family, who
had married a wife far too good for him, as Povey once wrote her, was
provost marshal in Barbadoes and in charge of Noell's interests there,
bringing that merchant nothing but "discontent and damage," and causing
Thomas Povey a great deal of trouble and expense. The colonial
appointments of these brothers were obtained entirely through the
influence of Noell and Povey in England. The disordered and uncertain
political situation in England in 1659 and the unsettled state of
affairs in both Jamaica and Barbadoes at the same time cost Povey great
anxiety and a part of his own and his wife's fortune, and he echoed
the complaint, widespread at the time, of the decay of trade and the
insecurity of all commercial ventures. We may not doubt that Povey,
as well as Noell, was ready to welcome the return of the King.[2]

Though Noell and Povey were intimate friends and had been engaged in
common trading enterprises for a number of years, we have no definite
knowledge of their earlier undertakings, beyond the fact that with Capt.
Watts and Capt. Aldherne, whom Povey met by accident at Noell's house,
they were particularly concerned in developing the Barbadoes and Jamaica
trade. In the years 1657 and 1658, when Noell was "swol'n into a much
greater person by being a farmer of the customs and excise," we meet
with two enterprises, one for a West India Company, promoted by Lord
Willoughby, Noell, Povey, and Watts, as partners and principals, with
Watts as sea captain in charge of the vessel; the other for a Nova
Scotia Company, composed of Lord William Fiennes, Sir Charles Wolseley,
Noell, Povey, and others, with Watts and Collier as managers and Capt.
Middleton as sailing master. The latter company was organized for
settling a trade in furs and skins in Nova Scotia, and to that end
engaged the cooeperation of Wolseley's cousin, Col. Thomas Temple,
lieutenant general of Nova Scotia since 1655, and of Capt. Breedon,
a prominent merchant of New England. It sent out a ship freighted with
goods under Capt. Middleton, but despite an auspicious beginning,
does not appear to have prospered. The title to Nova Scotia was disputed
not only by the French, but also by the Kirkes, whom Cromwell had
dispossessed in 1655, when he appointed Temple as governor; hostilities
broke out in Nova Scotia, and the company was called upon for a larger
stock and incorporation at a time when its promoters seemed unwilling to
risk more money. Though Povey was encouraged by the specimens of copper
which Temple sent over, the enterprise made no progress until after the
Restoration. It is probable that both Noell and Povey lost money by the
venture.

The project for a West India Company was more ambitious and must have
been formulated some time in 1656 or 1657. Various propositions were
drawn up with care, probably by Povey or by Noell and Povey together,
for the better serving the interests of the Commonwealth by the erection
of a company which had as its object the advancing of trade and the
prosecution of the war with Spain. The two ideas seem, however, to have
been kept separate. Trade was to be promoted by despatching a vessel to
"Florida" under Capt. Watts which, in case it was unable to open trade
there, was to take on a lading of pipe staves in New England, sail to
the West Indies, and return thence with a cargo of sugar and other West
Indian commodities. For the purpose of attacking Spanish towns, of
"interrupting the Spanish fleet in their going from Spain to the Indies
and in their return thence for Spain, and of ousting the Spaniards from
their control in the West Indies and South America"--a subject regarding
which Capt. Limbrey had drawn up a paper of information,--the company
proposed that the state should furnish and equip twenty frigates which
were to be fully provisioned, manned and officered by itself. The
company desired to be incorporated by act of Parliament,[3] rather
than by a patent under the great seal, because the former would confer
"diverse privileges and assistances, and an immunity and sole trade
in any place they shall conquer or beget a trade with the Spaniard's
dominion," all of which a patent could not convey. The proposals were
presented to the Council of State in 1659 and were referred to a special
committee. They were debated in Council on August 7, and on October 20
Povey wrote to Governor Searle that they had received encouragement
and hoped to have a charter from Parliament, and because "they have so
much favor from the state they will have an influence upon most of the
English plantations."[4] Either Parliament refused to incorporate the
company or in the distractions of the winter of 1659-1660 the proposals
were lost sight of.

The group of merchants, among whom Noell and Povey were so conspicuous,
seemed to desire, as far as possible, a monopoly of the trade in America
and the West Indies, and to that end controlled to no inconsiderable
extent political appointments there. Governor Searle, of Barbadoes,
was their appointee, and Governors Russell, of Nevis, and Osborn,
of Montserrat, were in close touch with them and looked to them for
support. In 1657, acting through the committee for America, they
recommended that Edward Digges be made governor of Virginia, and about
the same time Martin Noell and eighteen others petitioned that Capt.
Watts be made governor of Jamaica. Lord Willoughby was practically
one of them, and Gen. Brayne and Lieut. Gen. D'Oyley were on intimate
terms with them. It is not surprising, in view of the importance of the
colonial trade and the disturbed condition of the plantations, that such
a man as Povey, who was always ready with plans and proposals, should
have endeavored to solve the problem of colonial control. He was in
frequent consultation with Noell concerning matters relating to the West
Indies, and in consequence, many schemes were discussed and carefully
worked out by them. The various drafts touching the West India Company
are elaborated in minute detail, and Povey showed clearly that he
possessed admirable qualities as a committee-man and an organizer.

The first "overture" or plan seems to have been written in 1654 at the
time when the expedition of Penn and Venables was on its way to the
West Indies, and does not refer specifically to Jamaica. Its authors
recommended that a competent number of persons, not less than seven, of
good repute and well skilled in their professions and qualifications,
be selected to form a council. A greater number would be undesirable,
they said, because "in such an affair where there are many, the chief
things are done and ofttimes huddled up by a few; and there is neither
that secrecy, steadiness, nor particular care, nor so good an account
given of the trust, where more are employed than are necessary and
proportionable to the business."[5] The qualifications of the seven are
interesting: "(1) One to be a Merchant that hath been in those Indias
and trading that waie. (2) One also to bee a Merchant but not related
to that trade, and who rather retires from than pursues in profession.
(3) One well experienced Seaman, not or but little trading att present.
(4) One Gentleman that hath travailed; that hath language and something
of the civill Lawe. (5) One Citizen of a general capacitie and
conversation. (6) One that understands well our municipall Lawes and
the general Constitutions of England. (7) One to be a Secretarie to his
Highness in all Affaires in the West Indias, and relating thereunto, who
is solely to give himself up to this Employm^{t}." This council was to be
subordinated only to Cromwell and the Council and its powers were to be
fairly extensive. It was

    "to have power to advise w^{th} all other Committees or Persons,
    Officers, or others as occasion shall require;

    "to consider (by what they shall observe here and what shalbee
    represented from the Commission^{rs} now in the expedition) how
    and what forreigne Plantations may be improved, transplanted,
    and ordered;

    "to reduce all Colonies and Plantations to a more certaine,
    civill, and uniforme way of government and distribution of
    publick justice;

    "to keep a constant correspondence with the Commission^{rs} now
    in the expedition, and w^{th} all the Chiefe Ports both at home
    and abroad;

    "to be able to give up once in a year unto his Highness a perfect
    Intelligence and Account of the Government of every place, of their
    complaints, their wants, their abundance of every ship trading
    thither and its lading and whither consigned, and to know what the
    proceeds of the place have been that yeare, whereby the intrinsick
    value and the certaine condition of each port will be thoroughly
    understood. And by this conduct and method those many rich places
    and severall Governments and Adventures will have all due and
    continuall care and Inspection taken of them, w^{th}out divertion
    to the nearest Affairs of this Nation, w^{ch} being of so much of a
    greater and a closer consequence, the Superior Council can seldome
    bee at leisure to descend any further than to breife and imperfect
    considerations and provisions, w^{ch} is the sad Estate of fforeigne
    Dominions, and distant Colonies and Expeditions from whence usually
    the most strict, or servile duty and obedience is exacted, but very
    seldome any Indulgencie or paternall care is allowed to them.

    "These therefore are to indeavour and contrive all possible
    Encouragem^{ts} and Advantages for the Adventurer, Planter, and
    English Merchants, in order also to the shutting out all Straingers
    from that Trade, by making them not necessary to it, and by drawing
    it wholly and with satisfaction to all parties into our Ports here,
    that it may bee afterward instead of Bullion to trade with other
    Nations, it being the Traffick of our own proper and native
    Commodities. That our Shipping may be increased, our poore here
    employed, and our Manufactures encouraged: And by the generall
    consequencies hereof, a considerable Revenue may be raised to
    his Highness.

    "to debate among themselves, and satisfy themselves from others;
    and to present their Results to his Highness in all matters
    reserved and proper for his Highness Judgment and last
    Impressions.

    "to bee a readie and perfect Register both to his Highness and
    all other persons, as far as they may be concerned, of all
    particulars relating to those Affaires.

    "The Secretarie may be the person to represent things from time
    to time between his Highness and this Councill. To make and receive
    dispatches. To make readie papers for his Highness signature.
    And generally his Office wilbee to render the Supreame Management
    & comp^{r}hension of this Affaire less cumbersome and difficult to
    his Highness, hee being allwaies ready to give his Highness a full
    and a digested consideration, if any particular relating to those
    Affaires and w^{th}in the cognizance of that Council."[6]


That these recommendations had any influence in determining the
character of the Trade Committee of 1655 is doubtful, but the next
effort of the merchants was probably more successful. Some time in 1656
Povey drew up a series of queries "concerning his Highness Interest in
the West Indias" in which occur the following suggesive paragraphs:

    "Whether a Councell busyed and filled with a multitude of
    Affaires, w^{ch} concerne the imediat Safety and preservation
    of the State at home, can bee thought capable of giving a proper
    conduct to such various and distant Interests.

    "Whether an Affaire of such a nature and consequence may be
    transacted in diverse peices and by diverse Councells, and how
    a proper Result cann be instantly arise out of such a kind of
    management.

    "Whether a Councill constituted of fitt Persons Solely sett apart
    to the busyness of America be not the likeliest means of advancing
    his Highness Interest there and of bringing them continually to
    a certain account and readiness whensoever his Highness or his
    Privie Councill shall have occasion to looke into any particular
    thereof.

    "Whether it be not a prudentiall thing to draw all the Islands,
    Colonies, and Dominions of America under one and the same
    management here."[7]


That the men who drafted these queries were mainly responsible for the
creation of the select council of 1656, at first known as the Committee
for Jamaica and afterwards as the Committee for his Highness Affairs
in America, we can hardly doubt, for the constitution and work of that
committee represents very nearly the ideas that Povey and Noell had
expressed up to this time. It is not to be wondered at that Povey should
have been the chairman, secretary, and most active member of this
committee after his appointment in 1657.

Two other propositions or overtures appear among Povey's papers that
belong to the period of the Protectorate, and were written probably
the one in 1656, known as the "Propositions concerning the West India
Councill," and the other, known as "Overtures touching the West Indies,"
before August, 1657.[8] In the first of these the number of the
council was to be ten, in the second it was not to exceed six. The
"Propositions" repeat in the main the points already quoted, including
the recommendation that it should be the business of the council
"to consider of the reducing all Colonies and Plantations to a more
certaine, civill, and uniform waie of Governm^{t} and distribution
of publick justice." The "Overtures" are much more elaborate, though
frequently containing the identical phrases of the first "Overture,"
with many new paragraphs which seem to show the same spirit of hostility
for Spain that is exhibited in the formation of the West India Company.
Indeed this document is an outcome of the same movement which led to the
formation of that company. Some of the more important sections are as
follows:

    "To render what we already possess, and all that depends upon it,
    to be a foundation and Inducem^{t} for future undertakings; by
    gathering reasonable assistances from thence, and by mingling and
    interweaving of Interest, and letting it appear that such Persons
    and Collonies shall have the more of the Indulgencie of the State
    as shall merit most in what they shall in any way be readier to do,
    or contribut to the service of the whole; for hereafter they may
    be considered as one embodied Commonwealth whose head and centre
    is here.

    "That every Governour shall have his Commission reviewed, and
    that all be reviewed in one form, w^{th} such clauses and provisions
    as shalbee held necessary for the promotion of his Highness other
    public affairs, and that as soone as order can be conveniently taken
    therein the several Governours to be paid their allowances from
    hence (though upon their own accounts), that their dependencie bee
    immediately and altogether from his Highness....

    "That all prudentiall means be applyed to for the rendering these
    Dominions useful to England, and England helpful to them; and that
    the severall Peices and Colonies bee drawn and disposed into a more
    certaine, civill, and uniforme waie of Government and distribution
    of Publick Justice. And that such Collonies as are the Proprietie
    of particular Persons or of Corporations may be reduced as neare as
    cann bee to the same method and proportion w^{th} the rest w^{th}
    as little dissatisfaction or injurie to the persons concerned as
    may bee.

    "That a continual correspondence bee so settled and ordered ...
    that so each place w^{th}in itself and all of them being as it
    were made up into one Commonwealth may be regulated accordingly
    upon comon and equal Principles."


These proposals are followed by a series of propositions designed to
further the enterprise of the merchants and to aid in the defeat of
the Spaniards, whereby "those oppressed People (who are w^{th}held
from Trade though to their extreme suffering and disadvantage)" may
be released "from the Tyranny [of Spain] now upon them."

Taken as a whole, these documents form a remarkable series of unofficial
papers which formulate foundation principles of colonial empire that
England never applied. That these principles met the approval of those
who were to shape the colonial policy of the Restoration a further
examination will show.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Footnote 1: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660; Dom., vols. for years
1650-1660, Indexes; Brit. Mus. Egerton, 2395, Add. MSS., 11410, 11411,
15858, f. 97, 22920, f. 22; Lansdowne, 822, f. 164, 823, f. 33.]

[Footnote 2: Cal. State Papers, Col. and Dom. Indexes; Egerton, 2395,
which contains Povey's collection of papers; Add. MSS., 11411, which
contains his correspondence. See also Dictionary of National Biography.]

[Footnote 3: A draft of such an act is to be found in Egerton, 2395, f.
202.]

[Footnote 4: Brit. Mus. Egerton, 2395, pp. 87-113, 176 (there is a
duplicate of Povey's letter in Add. MSS., 11410); Cal. State Papers,
Col., 1574-1660, pp. 475, 477.]

[Footnote 5: That all these proposals were drafted by Povey is evident
from similar terms and phrases used in his letters.]

[Footnote 6: Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 11411, ff. 11^{b}-12^{b}.]

[Footnote 7: Brit. Mus., Egerton, 2395, f. 86.]

[Footnote 8: Brit. Mus., Egerton, 2395, f. 99; Add. MSS., 11411, ff.
3-3^{b}. In a letter of August, 1657, Povey refers to these "Overtures,"
which he says were designed "for the better setting and carrying on of
the general affairs of the West Indies, enforcing the authority and
powers of the several governors there, and the establishment of a
certain course," etc.]




CHAPTER IV.

Committees and Councils Under the Restoration.


Charles II landed at Dover on May 25, 1660 and on the twenty-seventh
named at Canterbury four men, General Monck, the Earl of Southampton,
William Morrice, and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who took oath as privy
councillors. Others who had been members of the Council on foreign soil
or were added during the month following the return of the King swelled
the number to more than twenty. The first meeting of the Privy Council
was held on May 31, and it was inevitable that during the ensuing weeks
many petitions concerning the various claims and controversies which
had been agitating merchants and planters during the previous years
and had been reported on by the Committee for America should have been
brought to the attention of the Council. Such matters as appointments to
governorships and other offices, the political disturbances in Antigua,
Barbadoes, and Jamaica, the titles to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and
Barbadoes, became at once living issues. Many of the petitions were from
the London merchants, and we may not doubt that the personal influence
of those whose names have been already mentioned was brought to bear
upon the members of the Council. It became necessary, therefore,
for the King and his advisers to make early provision for the proper
consideration of colonial business in order that the colonies might
be placed in a position of greater security and in order that the
West Indian and American trade, from which the King and his Chancellor
expected important additions to the royal revenue, might be encouraged
and extended. Among the petitions received in June, 1660, were two from
rival groups of merchants interested in the governorship and trade of
the island of Nevis. One of these petitions desired the confirmation
of the appointment of Col. Philip Ward as governor of Nevis; the other
the reappointment of the former governor, Russell. This was the first
difficult question that had yet arisen, for Berkeley's return to
Virginia was a foregone conclusion, while the condition and settlement
of Nova Scotia, Barbadoes and Jamaica were to be of importance later.
Acting on these petitions regarding Nevis, only the second of which is
entered in the Privy Council Register, the King in Council appointed
on July 4, 1660, a committee, known as "The Right Honorable the Lords
appointed a Committee of this Board for Trade and Plantations." The
members were Edward Montague, Earl of Manchester, the Lord Chamberlain;
Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, the Lord Treasurer; Robert
Sydney, Earl of Leicester; William Fiennes, Lord Say and Seale; John
Lord Robartes; Denzil Holles, Arthur Annesley, Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper, and the Secretaries of State, Sir Edward Nicholas and Sir
William Morrice. The committee was instructed to meet on every Monday
and Thursday at three o'clock in the afternoon, "to review, heare,
examine, and deliberate upon any petitions, propositions, memorials, or
other addresses, which shall be presented or brought in by any person or
persons concerning the plantations, as well in the Continent as Islands
of America, and from time to time make their report to this board of
their proceedings."[1]

It is evident from the wording of these instructions that the committee
was designed to be a continuous one and to carry on the work of the
former committee for foreign plantations of the Council of State. There
is no essential difference between these committees, except that one
represented a commonwealth and the other a monarchy. We pass from the
one arrangement to the other with very little jar, and with much less
sense of a break in the continuity than when we pass from the system
under the Republic to that under the Protectorate. The Privy Council
committee had all the essential features of a standing committee and,
after the experiment with separate and select councils had proved
unsatisfactory, it assumed entire control of trade and plantation
affairs in 1675, a control which it exercised until 1696. Though an
occasional change was made in its membership and some reorganization was
effected in 1668, the Lords of Trade of July 4, 1660, commissioned with
plenary powers by patent under the great seal, became the Lords of Trade
of February 9, 1675.

From 1660 to 1675 this committee of the Privy Council played no
insignificant part although, after the creation of the councils, it was
bound to be limited in the actual work that it performed. During the
four months after its appointment it was the only body that had to do
with trade and plantations except the Privy Council, which occasionally
sat as a committee of the whole for plantation affairs. During the
summer the committee considered with care and a due regard for all
aspects of the case the claims of various persons to the government of
Barbadoes. Despite the opposition of Modyford, who had been commissioned
governor by the Council of State the April before, and John Colleton,
one of the Council of Barbadoes, and despite the efforts of Alderman
Riccard and other merchants of London, Francis Lord Willoughby was
restored to the government under the claims of the Earl of Carlisle.
At the same time the claims of the Kirks, Elliott, and Sterling to Nova
Scotia were examined and eventually decided in favor of Col. Temple, the
governor there. Willoughby immediately appointed Capt. Watts governor of
the Caribbee Islands, himself, through his deputy, took the governorship
of Barbadoes, Modyford became governor of Jamaica, Berkeley of Virginia,
and Russell of Nevis. It is at least worthy of recall that Willoughby,
Watts, Temple, and Russell were all within the circle of Povey's
friends, that Povey and Noell both petitioned the King for Russell's
reappointment, and that Temple wrote Povey begging him to exert his
influence in his (Temple's) behalf, lest he lose the governorship. Povey
was certainly in high favor with the monarchy; in 1660 he was appointed
treasurer to the Duke of York and Master of Requests to his Majesty
in Extraordinary June 22, 1660,[2] and during the years that followed
he held office after office and with all the skill of a politician
continued to find offices for his kinsmen. William Blathwayt, of later
fame, was his nephew. Noell was no less honored; he became a member of
the Royal Company of Merchants, the Royal African Company, the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, and was finally
knighted in 1663 and died in 1665.[3] As we shall see, both men became
very active in the affairs of the plantations, and it is more than
likely that the opinions of the King in Council were not infrequently
shaped by their suggestions and advice.

How early the decision was reached to create separate councils of trade
and foreign plantations it is impossible to say. Some time between May
and August, 1660, Povey must have planned to recast his "Overtures"
and to present them for the consideration of the King. At first he
endeavored to adapt those of 1657 to the new situation by substituting
"Foreign Plantations" for the "West Indies," "Ma^{tie}" for "Highness,"
and "his Ma^{ties} Privie Councill" for "the great Councill"; but
he finally decided to present a new draft, in which, however, he
retained many of the essential clauses of the former paper. Whether the
recommendations of Povey as presented in the "Overtures" influenced Lord
Clarendon to recommend such councils to the King we cannot say; it is
more likely that the practice adopted under the Protectorate had already
commended itself to the Chancellor, who was beginning to show that
interest in the plantations which characterizes the early years of his
administration. That he should have consulted Noell and Povey and other
London merchants is to be expected of the man who for at least five
years kept up a close correspondence with Maverick of New England,
Ludwell of Virginia, and D'Oyley, Littleton, and Modyford in the
West Indies,[4] and who was constantly urging upon the King the
importance of the plantations as sources of revenue and the great
financial possibilities that lay in the improvement of trade. On August
17, 1660, the King in Council drafted a letter to "Our very good Lord
the Lord Maior of the Citty of London & to the Court of Aldermen of the
said City," reading as follows:

    "After our hearty commendations these are to acquaint you, That
    his Majesty having this day taken into his princely consideration
    how necessary it is for the good of this kingdom, that Trade and
    Commerce with foreign parts, be with all due care, incouraged
    and maintayned, And for the better settling thereof declared his
    gracious intention to appoint a Committee of understanding able
    persons, to take into their particular consideration all things
    conducible thereunto; We do by his Ma^{ts} special command and
    in order to the better carrying on of this truly royal, profitable,
    and advantageous designe, desire you to give notice hereof
    unto the Turkey Merchants, the Merchant Adventurers, the East
    India, Greenland, and Eastland Companys, and likewise to the
    unincorporated Traders, for Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, and
    the West India Plantations; Willing them out of their respective
    societies to present unto his Majesty the names of fower of their
    most knowing active men (of whom, when his Majesty shall have
    chosen two and unto this number of merchants added some other
    able and well experienced persons, dignified also with the
    presence and assistance of some of his Majesty's Privy Council)
    All those to be by his Ma^{tie} appointed constituted and authoried
    by commission under the Great Seal as a Standing Committee, to
    enquire into and rectify all things tending to the Advancement
    of Trade and Commerce; That so by their prudent and faithful
    council and advice, his Ma^{tie} may (now in this conjuncture,
    whilst most Foraigne Princes and Potentates doe, upon his Ma^{ties}
    most happy establishment upon his throne, seek to renew their
    former Allyances with this Crowne), insert into the several
    Treatyes, such Articles & Clauses as may render this Nation more
    prosperous and flourishing in Trade and Commerce. Thus by prudence,
    care, & industry improving those great advantages to the highest
    point of felicity, which by its admirable situation Nature seems
    to have indulged to this his Majesty's kingdom. So we bid you
    heartily farewell."[5]


This letter was signed by Chancellor Hyde, Earl of Southampton, George
Monck, Earl of Albemarle, Lord Say and Seale, Earl of Manchester, Lord
Robartes, Arthur Annesley, and Secretary Morrice, who probably formed a
special committee appointed to draft it. Some time within the month the
answer of the Aldermen must have been received, for on September 19 the
Council ordered the attorney general "to make a draught of a commission
for establishing a Councell of Trade according to the grounds layed"
in the letter of the seventeenth of August, "upon the perusal whereof
at the Board his Ma^{tie} will insert the names of the said Counsell."
It is more than likely that the project for the second council, that of
plantations, went forward _pari passu_ with the Council for Trade and
that the letter to the Mayor and Aldermen served a double purpose. At
any rate that must have been the understanding among those interested at
the time, for on September 26, one Norwich, Captain of the Guards, who
had been in Clarendon's employ, sent in a memorial to the Chancellor
begging that the King employ him "in his customs and committees of trade
and forraign plantations."[6] The matter of drafting the commissions
must have taken some time, for they are not mentioned as ready for the
addition of names before the last week in October. The business of
making up the lists of members must have been a difficult and tedious
matter. Many lists exist among the Domestic Papers which contain
changes, erasures and additions, drafts and corrected drafts, which show
how much pains Clarendon and the others took to make the membership of
the Council of Trade satisfactory. A suggested list was first drawn up
containing the names of privy councillors, country gentlemen, customers,
merchants, traders, the navy officers, gentlemen versed in affairs, and
doctors of civil law. With this list was considered another containing
the names of the persons nominated by the different merchant companies.
Other lists seem also to have been presented.[7] Probably in much the
same way the list of the members of the Council for Foreign Plantations
was made up, but more slowly.

The commissions were both ready by October 25 and on November 7 had
reached the Crown Office (Chancery), ready to pass the great seal. The
commission for the Council of Trade passed the great seal on that day
and is dated November 7, 1660; but the commission for the Council for
Foreign Plantations was held back that the names of other members might
be added and it became necessary to have a new bill passed and duly
engrossed three weeks later.[8] Therefore the commission for the Council
for Foreign Plantations is dated December 1, 1660.

An analysis of the membership of these two councils and of the
membership of the Royal African Company, created soon after, shows many
points of interest. The Council of Trade consisted of sixty-two members,
that of Foreign Plantations of forty-eight,[9] and that of the African
Company of sixty-six. Twenty-eight members are common to the first two
bodies, eleven are common to the Council of Trade and the Royal African
Company, and eight are common to all three groups. These eight are John
Lord Berkeley of Stratton; Sir George Carteret, Sir Nicholas Crispe,
Sir Andrew Riccard, Sir John Shaw, Thomas Povey, Martin Noell, and
John Colleton. The other members common to the two councils are
Lord Clarendon, the Earl of Southampton, Earl of Manchester, Earl of
Marlborough, Earl of Portland, Lord Robartes, Francis Lord Willoughby,
Denzil Holles, Sir Edward Nicholas, Sir William Morrice, Arthur
Annesley, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, William Coventry, Daniel O'Neale,
Sir James Draxe, Edward Waller, Edward Digges, William Williams, Thomas
Kendall, and John Lewis; while among the other members of the Council
for Foreign Plantations are such well-known men as Sir William Berkeley,
Capt. John Limbrey, Col. Edward Waldrond, Capt. Thomas Middleton,
Capt. William Watts, and Capt. Alexander Howe. Thus the merchants,
sea-captains, and planters, men thoroughly familiar with the questions
of trade and plantations and intimately connected with the plantations
themselves are members of the Council of Plantations and sometimes
of that of Trade also. It is significant that among the four London
merchants common to all three groups should be found the names of Noell
and Povey. Their associates, Crispe and Riccard, were persons well
known in the history of London trade, and probably the four names
represent the four most influential men among the merchants of London
who supported the King. When we turn to the work of these councils we
shall see that Povey and Noell were active members also.

However uncertain we may be regarding the influence of Povey and Noell
in shaping the policy of Clarendon and the King, that uncertainty
disappears as soon as we examine the instructions which were drafted
to accompany the commission for a Council for Foreign Plantations.
The instructions are little more than a verbal reproduction of the
"Overtures" which Povey drafted some time during the summer of 1660
for presentation to the King. They are based on the earlier overtures
and proposals and certain passages can be traced back unchanged to the
first "Overture" of 1654. Seven of the eleven clauses are taken from
the Povey papers as follows:

  _Overtures._                           _Instructions._

  They may forthwith write letters       2. You shall forthwith write
  to everie Governour ... requiring      letters to evrie of our
  an exact and perticular Account of     Governo^{rs} ... to send unto
  the State of their affairs; of the
  nature and constitution of their       3. you ... perticular and exact
  Lawes and Government, and in what      accompt of the state of their
  modell they move; what numbers of      affaires; of the nature and
  them, what Fortifications, and         constitution of their lawes and
  other Strengths, and Defences are      governm^{t} and in what modell
  upon the Places.                       and frame they move and are
                                         disposed; what numbers of men;
                                         what fortifications and other
                                         strengths and defences are upon
                                         the place.

  To apply to all prudentiall meanes     5. To applie your selves to
  for the rendering these Dominions      all prudentiall means for the
  usefull to England, and England        rendering those dominions usefull
  helpfull to them; and that the         to England, and England helpful
  Severall Pieces, and Collonies bee     to them, and for the bringing the
  drawn and disposed into a more         severall Colonies and Plantacons,
  certaine, civill, and uniform waie     within themselves, into a more
  of Government; and distribution of     certaine civill and uniforme
  publick justice.                       [waie] of government and for the
                                         better ordering and distributeing
                                         of publicque justice among them.

  To settle such a continuall            4. To order and settle such a
  correspondencie, that it may be able   continuall correspondencie that
  to give upp an account once a yeare    you may be able, as often as you
  to his Ma^{tie} of the Goverment of    are required thereunto, to give
  each Place; of their Complaints,       up to us an accompt of the
  their Wants, their Aboundance, of      Governm'{t} of each Colonie; of
  everie Shipp trading there, and its    their complaints, their wants,
  lading; and whither consign'd; and     their abundance; of their severall
  to know what the proceeds of that      growths and comodities of every
  Place have been that yeare; whereby    Shipp Tradeing there and its
  the instrinsick value, and the true    ladeing and whither consigned and
  condition of each part and of the      what the proceeds of that place
  whole may be thoroughly understood;    have beene in the late years; that
  and whereby a Ballance may be          thereby the intrinsick value and
  erected for the better ordering and    the true condicon of each part of
  disposing of Trade, and of the         the whole may be thoroughly
  growth of the Plantations, that soe,   understood; whereby a more steady
  each Place within itself and all of    judgem^{t} and ballance may be
  them being as it were made up into     made for the better ordering and
  one Comonwealth, may by his Ma^{tie}   disposing of trade & of the
  bee heere governd, and regulated       proceede and improvem^{ts} of the
  accordingly, upon common and equal     Plantacons; that soe each place
  principles.                            within it selfe, and all of them
                                         being collected into one viewe and
                                         managem^{t} here, may be regulated
                                         and ordered upon commonand equall
                                         ground & principles.

  To enquire diligently into the         6. To enquire diligently into
  Severall Governments and Councells     the severall governm^{ts} and
  of Plantations belonging to            Councells of Colonies Plantacons
  forreigne Princes, or States;          and distant Dominions, belonging
  and examine by what Conduct and        to other Princes or States, and
  Pollicies they govern, or benefitt     to examine by what conduct and
  their own Collonies, and upon what     pollicies they govern or benefit
  Grounds. And is to consult and         them; and you are to consult and
  provide soe, that if such Councells    provide that if such councells be
  be good, wholesome, and practicable,   good wholesome and practicable,
  they may be applyed to our use; or     they may be applied to the case
  if they tend, or were designed to      of our Plantacons; or if they
  our prejudice or Disadvantage, they    tend or were designed to the
  may bee ballanced, or turned-back      prejudice or disadvantage thereof
  upon them.                             or of any of our subjects or of
                                         trade or comerce, how then they
                                         may be ballanced or turned back
                                         upon them.

  To receive, debate, and favour         11. To advise, order, settle, and
  all such Propositions as shall         dispose of all matters relating to
  be tendered to them, for the           the good governm^{t} improvement
  improvement of any of the forreigne    and management of our Forraine
  Plantations, or in order to any        Plantacons or any of them, with
  other laudable and advantageous        your utmost skill direccon and
  enterprize.                            prudence.

  To call to its Advice and              7. To call to your assistance
  Consultation from time to time, as     from time to time as often as the
  often as the matter in debate and      matter in consideration shall
  under consideration shall require,     require any well experienced
  any well experienced Persons,          persons, whether merchants,
  whether Mechants, or Seamen, or        planters, seamen, artificers,
  Artificers.                            etc.


In the "Overtures" there are no clauses corresponding to those in the
Instructions relating to the enforcement of the Navigation Act or to the
spread of the Christian religion; these may well be deemed Restoration
additions, inserted at Clarendon's request. But the clause concerning
the transportation of servants, poor men, and vagrants may well have
been Povey's own, for both Povey and Noell were interested in the
question and Noell had been in the business since 1654. In the "Queries"
is the following paragraph:

    "Whither the weeding of this Comon Wealth of Vagabonds, condemned
    Persons and such as are heere useless and hurtful in wars and
    peace, and a settled course taken for the transporting them to
    the Indias and thereby principally supplying Jamaica is not
    necessary to be consulted."


Among the Povey papers is one entitled "Certain propositions for the
better accommodating the Forreigne Plantacons with Servants," which
Povey may have drawn up. Hence, there is no good reason to doubt but
that Povey wrote the entire draft of these instructions himself. Even
those portions that are not to be found in the "Overtures" are written
in Povey's peculiar and rather stilted style.

That Povey and Noell were the authors of the instructions given to the
Council of Trade it is not so easy to demonstrate. A preliminary sketch
of "Instructions for a Councill of Trade" as well as a copy of the final
instructions are to be found among the Povey papers and both Povey and
Noell were sufficiently familiar with the requirements of trade at that
period to have drafted such a document. The fact that the second paper
is but an elaboration of the first leads to the conclusion that they
bear to each other much the same relation that the "Overtures" bear
to the Instructions for the Council of Plantations:


  FIRST DRAFT.                           FINAL INSTRUCTIONS.

  1. You shall in the first place        1. You shall take into your
  consider, and propound how to          consideration the inconveniences
  remedy inconveniencys of the the       w^{ch} the English Trade hath
  English trade, in all the respective   suffered in any Partes beyond the
  dominions of those Princes and         Seas, And are to inquire into such
  States with whom his Mat^{ie} may      Articles of former Treaties as
  renew Alliance, and to that end        have been made with any Princes or
  make due enquiry into such former      States in relation to Trade, And
  treaties as relate to Trade.           to draw out such Observations or
                                         Resolutions from thence, as may be
                                         necessary for us to advise or
                                         insist upon in any forreigne
                                         Leagues or Allyances. That such
                                         evills as have befallen these our
                                         Kingdomes through the want of
                                         good information in these great
                                         and publique concernm^{ts} may be
                                         provided against in tyme to come.

  What Articles have bin provided        2. You are to consider how & by
  in favour of the Trade of his          whome any former Articles or
  Ma^{ties} Subjects, How they have      Treatyes have been neglected or
  been neglected & Violated, What        violated, what new Capitulations
  new Capitulations may be necessary     are necessary either to the
  pro Ratione Rerum, et temporum.        freedome of Sale of your
                                         Commodities of all sorts, as to
  And those, either in Relation:         price & payment, Or to the best
                                         expedition of Justice to the
  1. To the freedome of Sale of your     recovery of Debts, or to the
  Commodities of all sorts, as to        Security of Estates of all factors
  price & payment.                       & their Principalls in case of the
                                         factor's Death, Or to the
  2. To the best expedition of           prevention of those interruptions
  Justice for recovery of your debts.    w^{ch} the Trade & Navigations of
                                         our Kingdomes have suffered by
  3. To the security of the Estates      Imbargoes of forreigne Princes or
  of all factors, and their              States, Or Imprestinge the Shipps
  Principalls in case of the factor's    of any of our Subjects, for their
  death.                                 Service.

  4. To the Prevention of the            3. You are to consider well the
  Interruption of the Trade &            Interest of all such trades as
  Navigation, by Embargos of forraigne   are or shall be Incorporated
  Princes & States, or imprestinge       by our Royall Charters, & what
  your Shipps to their Service.          Jurisdictions are necessary to
                                         be obteyned from such as are,
  5. To the Interest of all Trades       or shall be in Allyance with us,
  that are or shall be incorporated      for the more regular managem^{t}
  by his Mat^{ies} Charters, what        & governm^{t} of the Trade,
  jurisdictyon is necessary to be        & of the members of those our
  obtained from our Allies, for          Corporations & forreigne
  the more regular government            factories.
  of the Trade & members of those
  Corporations in forraigne              4. You are to consider of the
  factoryes.                             several Manufactures of these our
                                         Kingdomes how & by what occasions
  2^{ly}. And next you shall             they are corrupted, debased &
  consider, how the reputation           disparaged, And by what probable
  of all the manufactures of his         meanes they may be restored &
  Mat^{ies} Kingdome may be recovered    maintained in their auncyent
  by a just regulation and standard      goodness & reputation, And how
  of weight, length, and breadth,        they may be farther improved to
  that soe the more profitable and       there utmost advantage by a just
  ample Vent of them may be procured.    Regulation & Standard of weight
                                         Length & Breadth, that soe the
                                         private profitt of the Tradesmen
                                         or Merchants may not destroy
                                         the Creditt of the Commodity,
                                         & thereby render it neglected
                                         & unvended abroad, to the great
                                         loss & scandall of these our
                                         Kingdomes.

                                         5. You are also to take into
                                         your Consideration all the
                                         native Commodities of the growth
                                         & production of these our
                                         Kingdomes, and how they may be
                                         ordered, nourished, increased &
                                         manifactured to the ymployment
                                         of our People and to the best
                                         advantage of the Publique.

  4^{ly}. How the fishinge Trades        6. You are especially to
  of Newfound Land, the Coasts           consider of the whole business
  of England, Irland, & New              of fishings of these our
  England may be most improoved,         Kingdomes or any other of our
  and regulated to the greatest          distant Dominions or Plantations
  advantage of the Stocke and            & to consult of some effectuall
  navigation of the nation, by           meanes for the reinforceing
  excludinge the intrusion of our        encouraging & encreasinge, and
  neighbors into it.                     for the regulating & carryinge
                                         on of the Trade in all the
                                         Parts thereof. To the end That
                                         the People and Stock, and
                                         Navigation of these our Kingdomes
                                         may be ymployed therein and
                                         our Neighbors may not be
                                         enricht with that which soe
                                         properly & advantagiously may
                                         be undertooke & carryed on by
                                         our own Subjects.

  3^{ly}. How the Trade of the           7. You are seriously to
  Kingdome to forraigne parts            consider & enquire whether the
  may be soe menaged and                 Importation of forreigne
  proportioned, that we may in           Commodityes doe not over-ballance
  every part be more Sellers than        the Exportations of such as are
  buyers, that thereby the Coyne         Native, And how it may be soe
  and present Stocke of money may        Ordered remedied, & proportioned
  be preserved and increased.            that we may have more
                                         Sellers than Buyers in every
                                         parte abroad, And that the
                                         Coyne & present Stock of these
                                         our Kingdomes, may be preserved
                                         & increased, We judging,
                                         that such a Scale & Rule of
                                         proportion is one of the highest
                                         and most prudentiall points
                                         of Trade by w^{ch} the riches
                                         & strength of these our Kingdomes,
                                         are best to be understood
                                         & maintained.

                                         8. You are to consider & examine
                                         by what wayes & means other
                                         Nations doe preferr their owne
                                         growths & Manifactures, &
                                         Importations, & doe discourage
                                         & suppress those of these
                                         our Kingdomes, & how the best
                                         contrivances and managem^{t}
                                         of Trade, exercysed by other
                                         Nations may be rendred applicable
                                         & practicable by these our
                                         Kingdomes.

                                         9. You are well to consider all
                                         matters relatinge to Navigation,
                                         & to the increase, & the Security
                                         thereof.

                                         10. You are thoroughly to consider
                                         the severall matters relatinge
                                         to Money, how Bullonge may be
                                         best drawne in hither, & how any
                                         Obstructions upon our Mynt may
                                         be best removed.

  5^{ly}. How the forraigne              11. You are to consider the
  Plantations may be made most useful    general State & Condition of our
  to the Trade & Navigation of these     forreigne Plantations & of the
  Kingdomes.                             Navigation Trade & severall
                                         Commodityes ariseinge thereupon,
                                         & how farr theire future
                                         Improvem^{t} & Prosperitie may
                                         bee advanced by any discouragement
                                         Imposition or Restraint, upon
                                         the Importation of all goods or
                                         Commodityes w^{th} which those
                                         Plantations doe abound, and may
                                         supply these our Kingdomes, And
                                         you are alsoe in all matters
                                         wherein our forreigne Plantations
                                         are concerned to take advise or
                                         information (as occasion shall
                                         require) from the Councell
                                         appointed & sett apart by us to
                                         the more perticuler Inspection
                                         Regulation and Care of our
                                         forreigne plantations.

                                         12. You are to consider how
                                         the transportation of such
                                         things may be best restreined
                                         and prevented, as are either
                                         forbiddenby the Lawe,
                                         or may be inconvenient,
                                         or of disadvantage by being
                                         transported out of these our
                                         Kingdomes and dominions.[10]


The councils thus commissioned and instructed soon met for organization
and business, the Council for Plantations holding its preliminary
session December 10, 1660, in the Star Chamber, and all remaining
meetings in the Inner Court of Wards; the Council for Trade meeting,
first, in Mercer's Hall, near Old Jewry, afterwards in certain rooms in
Whitehall, still later in a rented house which was consumed in the great
fire, and, after 1667, in Exeter House, Strand. Philip Frowde became the
clerical secretary of the Plantation Council and George Duke secretary
of the Council of Trade, a position that he seems to have lost in 1663
but to have resumed again before 1667. The meetings were attended
chiefly by the non-conciliar members, for it was usually the rule that
privy councillors were to be present only when some special business
required their cooeperation. Both councils were organized in much the
same manner, with a number, at least seven, of inferior officers,
clerks, messengers, and servants, and in both cases journals of
proceedings and entry books containing copies of documents, patents,
charters, petitions, and reports were kept.[11] Whether minutes were
taken of the meetings of the subcommittees is doubtful; no such papers
have anywhere been found.

The Council for Plantations had a continuous existence from December 10,
1660, when the preliminary meeting was held, probably until the spring
of 1665, though August 24, 1664, is the date of its last recorded
sitting. During that time it shared in the extraordinary activity which
characterized the early years of the Restoration and represents, as far
as such activity can represent any one person, the enthusiasm of the
Earl of Clarendon. There was not an important phase of colonial life and
government, not a colonial claim or dispute, that was not considered
carefully, thoroughly, and, in the main, impartially by the Council.[12]
The business was nearly always handled, in the first instance, by
experts, for with few exceptions the working committees were made up
of men who had had intimate experience with colonial affairs or were
financially interested in their prosperity. The first committee, that of
January 7, 1661, for example, was composed of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,
who had been on plantation committees during the Interregnum; Robert
Boyle, president of the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel
in New England and one of the founders of the Royal Society; Sir Peter
Leere and Sir James Draxe, old Barbadian planters; Edmund Waller,
poet and parliamentarian, who had been interested in colonial affairs
for some years; General Venables, who knew Jamaica well; Thomas Povey,
Edward Digges, John Colleton (soon to be Sir John), Martin Noell (soon
to be Sir Martin), and Thomas Kendall, all merchants and experts on
colonial trade, and Middleton, Jefferies, Watts, and Howe, sea-captains
and merchants in frequent touch with the colonies. Other committees
were made up in much the same way, although the number of members was
usually smaller. When letters were to be written or reports drafted that
required skill in composition and embodiment in literary form, we find
the task entrusted to Povey alone or to Povey assisted by the poets
Waller and Sir John Denham. Povey was, indeed, the most active member
of the Council, serving as its secretary in much the same capacity
as on the Committee for America from 1657 to 1660.[13] On both these
boards he exemplified his own recommendation that there should be on
the Council "a Person who is to be more imediately concern'd and active
than the rest ... allwaies readie to give a full and digested account
and consideracon of any particular relating to those Affaires." Among
the Povey papers are many drafts of letters and reports in process of
construction, bearing erasures and additions which point to Povey as
their author.[14]

The Council for Plantations and its committees sat and deliberated
apart, the latter in Grocer's Hall; but the subjects under examination
were considered by both bodies. The subcommittees were frequently
instructed to call in persons interested, to write to others from whom
information could be obtained, and to pursue their investigations with
due regard for both sides of the case. Sometimes questions would be
submitted to the attorney general, to Dr. Walter Walker and others
from Doctors Commons, to special members of the Council who were more
familiar than the rest with the facts in the case. On at least one
occasion all the members of the Council were requested to bring in what
information they could obtain regarding a particular matter. Question
after question was postponed from one meeting to another, because the
Council had not obtained all the details that it felt should be in
hand before the report was sent to the King in Council. On a few
occasions members of the Council accompanied the report to the Privy
Council apparently with the intention of explaining or emphasizing
their recommendations. The subjects under debate concerned the internal
or external affairs of all the colonies. They related to Jamaica,
Barbadoes, Maryland, Virginia, and New England, including Nova Scotia,
Massachusetts, Maine, and Long Island; they dealt with Quakers, Jews,
vagrants, and servants, supplies, provisions, naval stores, emigrant
registration, and abuses in colonial trade; they included that burning
question of the period, the Dutch at New Amsterdam and the complaints
that arose regarding Holland as an obstruction to English trade. The
amount of time taken and pains expended on controversial points can be
inferred from an examination of the New England case, which was taken
up at the first regular meeting in January and was under examination
from that time until April 30, when the Council sent in its report.
Even then it was taken up by the Privy Council, referred to its own
committee, called the Committee for New England, and in one or two
particulars was sent back to the Council for further consideration.
In the performance of its duties the Council for Plantations can never
be charged with indolence or neglect. In the year 1661 alone it held
forty meetings, or an average of one every nine days.

After August, 1664, the records of the Council come to an end, but there
is reason to believe that the Council continued its sessions at least
until the spring of 1665. That the last meeting was not held on August
24 is certain, not only from the wording of the minute, which reads:
"ordered, being a matter of great moment and the day far spent, that the
further consideration be deferred for a week," but also from two further
references to the existence of the Council, of later date,--one dated
September 7, when the Council sent in a report regarding the proposed
establishment of a registry office, and the other in the form of an
endorsement upon a letter from Lord Willoughby which says: "Ref^{d} to
the Council, Feb. 24," that is February 24, 1665. It seems probable,
therefore, that the Council was sitting as late as February-March
of that year.[15] Probably its meetings were broken up by the plague
which started in London about that time, in the westernmost parish,
St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and lasted until the end of October. Whether
the Council resumed its sessions after the plague had subsided it is
almost impossible to say. No definite record exists of its meetings or
work. Some of its members had died, Sir Martin Noell in October, 1665,
and Sir Nicholas Crispe the next year; others had left England, Lord
Willoughby, Capts. Watts and Kendall, and possibly Sir James Draxe;
while others had accepted posts that took them away from London, as in
the case of Capt. Middleton, who became commissioner of the navy at
Portsmouth. Certainly Povey could have had very little to do with the
affairs of a council in London in 1664-1666, when as surveyor-general of
the victualling department he was required to be frequently at Plymouth
and to spend a considerable amount of time travelling about England.[16]
Yet there is nothing to show that its commission was revoked, and
an order of the Privy Council, September 23, 1667, to which further
reference will be made below, reads as if the Council were in existence
at that time. If so, it must have been merely a nominal body.

After 1665, and until 1670, plantation affairs seem to have been
controlled entirely by the Privy Council and its committees, which
proved themselves capable and vigorous bodies. Before 1666, besides
the Committee for Foreign Plantations, which has already been noticed,
other committees were appointed as occasion arose,--committees for
Jamaica, for Jamaica and Algiers, for the Guinea trade, for the Royal
Company, for fishing in Newfoundland, for Jersey and Guernsey, and
for New England. Committees for Trade and for hearing appeals from
the Plantations also existed. On December 7, 1666, after the plague
had subsided and the great fire had spent itself, the Privy Council
reappointed its plantation committee, which now entered upon a career of
greatly increased activity.[17] At the same time the Council made use of
its other committees, particularly the "Committee for the Affaires of
New England and for the bounding of Acadia," October 2, 4, 1667, which
took into consideration the question of the restitution of Acadia to the
French;[18] and it referred important matters of business to committees
of selected experts. Under these conditions the affairs of the colonies
were managed until the appointment of a new Plantation Council in
August, 1670.

The Council for Trade met in Mercer's Hall some time before November
13, 1660, and at its preliminary session considered that part of its
instructions which related to bullion and coin. On December 13, 1660, it
passed a resolution urging and inviting people and merchants to send in
petitions, and it requested the King to issue a proclamation defining
its powers in all matters relating to trade and manufactures and calling
on "any person, concerned in the matters therein to be debated or who
have any petition or invention to offer, to apply to them for redress
of evils brought on by the late times or for the improvement of trade
regulations."[19] In response to, this appeal a large number of
petitions, sent either to the Privy Council or directly to the Select
Council itself, were received, and the discussion of these petitions
and the preparing of reports upon them occupied the attention of the
Council during the first two years. These reports show that the Council
took its duties seriously and was thoroughly in earnest to improve,
if possible, the trade of the kingdom, and to carry out to the full
the commands which the King had laid upon it. There is not a clause
of the instructions to which it did not pay some attention, and upon
many matters it debated long and ardently, making reports that are as
valuable for the student of the trade policy of the seventeenth century
as are the familiar writings of well-known mercantilists. The Council
took up and discussed the export of bullion and coin, expressing its
opinion that the penalties should be withdrawn as injurious to trade,
because they prevented the English merchants from bringing their money
into the kingdom where it would be detained, and saying that money most
abounded in countries which enjoyed freedom from restraints on exports.
The trade in the Baltic, the East Indies, and the Levant to which trade
freedom to export bullion was preeminently important; the Merchant
Adventurers, regarding whose history and position the Council made
a valuable report, viewing the subject from the beginning; the East
India Company, whose petition,--largely reproduced in the report of the
Council,--contained a bitter arraignment of the Dutch, calling to mind
the "impudent affronts to the honor of this nation and the horrid
injuries done to the stock and commerce thereof," and demanding damages
and a definite regulation of trade in the forthcoming treaty with
Holland then under debate; treaties with foreign powers, clauses in
which concerning trade were taken up at the early meetings of the
Council; prohibition of imposts on foreign cloths and stuffs, regarding
which sundry shopkeepers, tradesmen, and artificers of London had
petitioned the Privy Council in November, 1660,[20]--all these matters
the Council took under consideration. It dealt with the granting of
patents, with the encouragement of home industries, particularly the
business of the framework knitters, silk-dyeing, and the manufacture of
tapestry, and with the establishment of an insurance company.[21] As far
as the plantations were concerned, its recommendations were few, and
were made chiefly in connection with reports on the ninth and eleventh
articles of its instructions, which touched upon convoys, imports,
and composition-ports. It drafted a carefully drawn list of necessary
convoys in which, of all the American plantations, only Newfoundland
is mentioned. It considered the importation of logwood and tobacco,
and upon the latter point made the suggestion "that all tobacco
of English Plantations do pay at importation 1/2d. a pound and at
exportation nothing." This recommendation was accompanied by a valuable
essay on trade in general. It dealt with the question of making Dover
a free port for composition trade and took the ground that the Acts
of Navigation should be inviolably kept. On this question the Earl of
Southampton, the Treasurer, and Lord Ashley (Cooper), Chancellor of the
Exchequer, took the opposite ground, favoring the freedom of the port,
"Dover having formerly been a port for free trade," and adding that
"a free trade thus settled we conceive might conduce to the advantage
of your Majesty's customs," trade being injured by the "tyes and
observances which the Act of Navigation places upon it." They reported
further that the farmers of the customs wished the Act to be dispensed
with in some cases.[22]

Regarding the attitude of the Council toward the sixth article
of its instructions, the promotion of the fisheries, we have fuller
information. At the session of December 17, 1663, there were present the
Earl of Sandwich, William Coventry, Sir Nicholas Crispe, Henry Slingsby,
Christopher Boone, John Lord Berkeley, Sir Sackville Crowe, Thomas
Povey, John Jolliffe, and George Toriano. Acting on a special order
from the King, they debated how best the fishing trade might be
gained and promoted, and how encouraged and advanced when gained.
They considered the respective merits of a commission and a corporation,
and whether, if a corporation should be agreed upon, it ought to be
universal or exclusive, perpetual or limited, a joint stock or a divided
stock, and what immunities and powers should be granted, the character
of the persons to be admitted and the number. Taking up each point in
turn, the members of the Council first considered "How to gain the Trade
of Fishery" and laid down seven methods: 1, 2, by raising money either
through voluntary contributions or through lotteries; 3, 4, by restraint
of foreign importation or by impositions upon all foreign importation;
5, by letters to all countries urging them to contribute such especial
commodities as cordage, lumber, boards, and the like, in exchange for
fish; 6, by declaring a war against the Dutch, and at the same time,
7, by naturalizing or indenizing all Hollanders who would come into
the English fishery. For the support of the trade when gained the
Council proposed: 1, to impose a proportion of fish upon every vintner,
innkeeper, alehouse-keeper, victualler, and coffee house in England;
2, to refuse all licenses for fish, which were to be paid for to the
corporation; 3, to take the stock of the poor of every parish and
provide for the impotent and aged only out of the product, and employ
such as were able to work in the fishery--the impotent in the making
of nets, etc.; 4, to require the gentlemen of all maritime counties
to raise a stock of money in their counties to be employed toward the
advance of the fishery; 5, to raise busses, _i. e._, Dutch herring
boats, and to set them forth to their own use and to receive the profits
in fish or in the product of it; 6, to employ the imposition laid upon
fish by the last Parliament for the purpose of advancing the trade; to
accept the offer of fishmongers to raise busses and money; 8, to require
the master and wardens of the company, and, 9, to encourage private
persons to do the same; 10, to bring over Dutchmen to teach the English
the art of curing, salting, and marking fish, and of making casks.
It was then decided, "after a long and solemne debate of the whole
matter," _nemine contradicente_, "that there being no disadvantage in a
corporation But many great Advantages, powers and Immunities that cannot
be had by Commission That the best way of advancing & encouraging the
Fishing Trade is by way of [a] Corporation." To this corporation were to
be granted "the sole power of Lycensing the Eating and killing of flesh
in Lent," the power to make by-laws, to dispose of "guifts that are or
shalbee given for carrying on of this Trade," to administer oaths, to
constitute officers, to exercise coercion in case of contempt against
orders, to fine and in some cases to imprison, to send for papers,
persons, books, etc. The corporation was to be universal, perpetual, and
a joint stock company.[23] As a result of the report of the Council a
charter of incorporation was issued to the Duke of York and thirty-six
others, forming the Governor and Company of the Royal Fishery of Great
Britain and Ireland, and George Duke, "late Secretary to the Committee
of Trade," was recommended by the King as its secretary.[24]

This account of the debate in the Council upon the fishery question
is important not only because it gives an interesting glimpse of the
Council at work, and the only glimpse that we have at any length of
its procedure, but because it illustrates a phase of mercantilism in
the making. It shows, also, the intensity of the rivalry that existed
between England and Holland, and furnishes an admirable example of one
of the causes of that rivalry, the Dutch predominance in the fishing
business.[25] The Council frequently appealed to the methods employed
by the Dutch as a sufficient argument to support its contention, and
when objections were raised against the universal corporation it
answered, "You destroy the essence of a Corporation by lymitting it,
And if you lymitt it, no man will venture their Stocke, and the mayne
reason why the Dutch employ not only their Stocke but their whole
families in the fisheries, is because their corporation is perpetual."

How much longer the Council of Trade continued its sessions it is
impossible to say. Its last recorded action is a report, dated July,
1664, which contained its opinion upon the question of trade with
Scotland, a matter soon to be taken up by the higher authorities.
It is probable that, as in the case of the Council of Plantations, its
sessions were suspended because of the plague and the fire and were not
resumed. Its commission was not revoked and it certainly had a nominal
existence until 1667. That it had no actual existence in April, 1665,
seems likely from a letter sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury at that
time, begging that the King appoint a council of trade to find out the
cause of the decay in the coal trade.[26] By the summer of 1665 trade
was reported dead and money scarce and to the plague was ascribed "an
infinite interruption to the whole trade of the Nation." The fire and
the Dutch war completed the demoralization of commerce and in 1666 the
plantations were deemed in great want of necessaries on account of the
obstructions of trade by the war. Though in that year many questions
arose that might naturally have been referred to such a council had
it been in session, no such references appear among the records. The
advancement of trade was looked after by the Privy Council and its trade
committee, and particularly by the Committee of Trade appointed by
Parliament. The latter body had been named as early as March, 1664,
to investigate the export of wool, wool-fells, and fullers' earth.
A few weeks later it was entrusted with the duty of inquiring into the
reasons for the general decay of trade. As this function was conferred
on the Parliamentary Committee at a time when the Select Council was
still holding its sessions, it is reasonable to suppose that the work
of the latter body had not proved satisfactory. There is some slight
evidence to show that the meetings of the Council were at this time but
little attended and that its members were not working in harmony.[27]
The Parliamentary Committee, acting as a Council of Trade, ordered
representatives from all the merchant companies to prepare an account
of the causes of obstruction in their different branches, and when the
latter, among other obstacles, named the Dutch as the chief enemies of
English trade, resolved that the wrongs inflicted by the Dutch were the
greatest obstructions to foreign trade, and recommended that the King
should seek redress. Other causes were considered and debated.[28]

An excellent idea of procedure can be obtained from studying the history
of trade relations with Scotland during this decade. Immediately after
the passage of the Navigation Act of 1660, the Scots petitioned that the
Act might be dispensed with for Scotland, and special deputies were sent
from the Scottish to the English Parliament to prevent, if possible, the
extension of the Act to their country. The matter was referred to the
Customs Commissioners and to the Privy Council, and the latter appointed
a special committee to investigate it. Both of these bodies reported
that the grant of such liberties to the Scots would frustrate the object
of the Act, and gave elaborate reasons for this opinion.[29] As an act
of retaliation the Scottish Parliament laid heavy impositions upon
English goods, and English merchants in 1664 petitioned Parliament for
relief. Parliament recommended the appointment of referees on both sides
and in July, 1664, the Privy Council placed the matter in the hands
of Southampton, Ashley, and Secretary Bennet. This committee laid the
question before the Council of Trade, which suggested a compromise,
whereby duties on both sides should be reduced to 5 per cent., the Scots
should have the benefits of the Act of Navigation but no intercourse
with foreign plantations, and should not buy any more foreign built
ships. As a result of these and further negotiations Parliament passed
an act in 1667,[30] "for settling freedom and intercourse of trade
between England and Scotland," and under the terms of that act
commissioners were appointed to meet with commissioners for Scotland
in the Inner Star Chamber to negotiate a freedom of trade between the
two countries. The commissioners duly met on January 13, 1668, and the
papers recording their negotiations are full and explicit. The whole
question of the relations between England and Scotland since the union,
both political and economic, was investigated with great care; papers
were searched for, records examined, memorials and petitions received,
and various conditions of trade inquired into. The commissioners
frequently disagreed and harmony was by no means always attained,
resulting in delays in drafting the treaty and the eventual failure
of the negotiations. In October the Scottish commissioners returned
to Edinburgh, and the conditions remained as before.[31]

The fall of Clarendon, at the end of the year 1667, led to important
changes in the organization of the government, and the widespread
demoralization in trade demanded an improvement of the system of trade
and plantation control. The year 1668 is significant as the starting
point for a number of attempted remedies in matters of finance and
trade supervision. We have no opportunity here to examine the political
aspects of these changes or to determine how far they were effected
in the interest of mere political control. Suffice it to say that too
many conditions of the reign of Charles II have been attributed to
extravagance and political intrigue, and too few to an honest desire
on the part of those concerned to restore the realm to a condition of
solvency and prosperity. Heavily burdened with debt at the outset of the
reign, distracted by plague, fire, and foreign war during the years from
1665 to 1668, the kingdom needed the services of all its statesmen,
and even the most selfish politician must have realized the need of
reorganization. Acting upon a suggestion which Clarendon himself had
made to the King, the Privy Council in 1667 began by strengthening
its own committee system, and on January 31, 1668, established four
standing committees--for foreign affairs, military affairs, trade and
plantations, and petitions and grievances. These committees had almost
the character of state departments, though they had no final authority
of their own, all orders emanating from the Privy Council only. They
became, however, more independent than had been previous committees by
virtue of the fact that no order was to be issued by the Council until
it had been "first perused by the Reporter of each Committee
respectively," The following is a copy of the regulations:

    His Ma^{tie} among other the important parts of his Affairs
    having taken into his princely consideration the way & method
    of managing matters at the Council Board, And reflecting that
    his Councills would have more reputation if they were put into
    a more settled & established course, Hath thought it fit to
    appoint certaine Standing Comitties of the Council for several
    Businesses together with regular days & places for their
    assembling in such sort as followeth:

    1. The Committee of FORRAINE AFFAIRES is already settled to
    consist of these Persons following (besides his Royall Highness,
    who is understood to be of all comittees, where he pleases to be)
    vizt. Prince Rupert, L^{d} Keeper [Sir Orlando Bridgeman], Lord
    Privy Scale [Lord Robartes], Duke of Buckingham, Lord General
    [Duke of Albemarle], L^{d} Arlington, & M^{r} Sec^{ry} Morice,
    To which Committee His Ma^{tie} doth also hereby referr the
    corresponding w^{th} Justices of peace & other officers & ministers
    in the Severall Countys of the Kingdome, concerning the Temper of
    the Kingdome &c. The constant day for this Committee to meete to be
    every Monday besides such other dayes wherein any extraordinary
    Action shall oblige them to assemble, And the place for their
    meeting to be at the Lord Arlington's Lodgings in Whitehall.

    2. Such matters as concerne the Admiralty & Navy as also all
    Military matters, Fortifications &c, so far as they are fit to
    be brought to the Councill Board, without intermedling in what
    concernes the proper officers (unlesse it shall by them be
    desired). If his Ma^{tie} is pleased to appoint that they be
    und^{r} the consideracon of this following Committee, vizt,
    Prince Rupert, L^{d} General [Duke of Albemarle], E. of Anglesy,
    Ea. of Carlisle, Ea. of Craven, Lord Arlington, Lord Berkeley,
    M^{r} Comptroller [Sir Thomas Clifford], M^{r} Sec^{ry} Morice,
    S^{r} W^{m} Coventry & S^{r} John Duncombe. The usuall day of
    meeting to be Wensdays, & oftner, as he that presides shall
    direct, & the place to be the Councill Chamber, and hereof
    Three or more of them to be a Quorum.

    3. Another Committee his Ma^{tie} is pleased to constitute for
    the Business of Trade under whose consideration is to come
    whatsoever concernes his Ma^{ts}: FORRAINE PLANTATIONS, as also
    what relates to his Kingdomes of Ireland or Scotland, the Isles
    of Jersey & Guernsey, which is to consist of the Lord Privy
    Scale [Lord Robartes], Duke of Buckingham, Earle of Ossory,
    Ea. of Bridgewater, Ea: of Lauderdail, L^{d}: Arlington,
    L^{d}: Holles, L^{d}: Ashley, M^{r}. Comptroller [Sir Thomas
    Clifford], M^{r} Vice Chamberlain [Sir George Carteret],
    M^{r} Sec^{ry}. Morice, & S^{r} W^{m} Coventry. The usuall day
    of meeting to be every Thursday in the Councill Chamber, or
    oftner as he that presides shall direct, and hereof 3 or more
    of them to be a Quorum.

    4. His Ma^{tie} is pleased to appoint one other Committee to
    whom all PETITIONS of COMPLAINT & GREIVANCE are to be referred in
    which His Ma^{tie} hath thought fit hereby particularly to
    prescribe not to meddle w^{th} Property or what relates to
    Meum & Tuum. And to this Committee his Ma^{tie} is pleased
    that all matters which concerne Acts of State or of the
    Councill be referred. The persons to be the Arch. B^{p}: of
    Canterbury, Lord Keeper [Sir Orlando Bridgeman], L^{d}: Privy
    Seale [Lord Robartes], L^{d}: Great Chamberlain [?], L^{d}
    Chamberlain [Edward, Earl of Manchester], Ea: of Bridgewater,
    Ea: of Anglesey, Ea: of Bathe, Ea: of Carbery, Viscount
    Fitzharding, L^{d}: Arlington, L^{d}: Holles, L^{d}: Ashley,
    M^{r} Sec^{ry}: Morice, M^{r}: Chancellor of the Dutchy
    [of Lancaster, Sir Thomas Ingram], and S^{r}: John Duncombe.
    The constant day of meeting to be Friday in the Councill
    Chamber. And his Ma^{ts} further meaning is, that to these
    two last committees, any of the Councill may have Liberty to
    come & vote and that his two principall Sec^{ries}: of State
    [at this time Lord Arlington and Sir William Morrice] be ever
    understood to be of all Com^{tees}:, And hereof 3 or more of
    them to be a Quorum.

    And for the better carrying on of Business at those severall
    Comittees, his Ma^{tie}: thinks fit, and accordingly is pleased
    to appoint, That each of these Committees be assigned to the
    particular care of some one person, who is constantly to attend
    it. In that of the Navy & Military matters his Royal Highness
    may p^{r}side, if he so please, or else the Lord Generall [Duke
    of Albemarle]. In Forraine matters the L^{d} Arlington. In Trade
    & Plantations the L^{d}: Privy Seale [Lord Robartes]. In matters
    of State & Greivances, the Lord Keeper [Sir Orlando Bridgeman].

    Besides which fixt & established Committees, if there shall
    happen anything extraordinary that requires Advice, whether in
    matters relating to the Treasury, or of any other mixt nature
    other than what is afore determined His Ma^{ties} meaning and
    intention is, that particular Committees be in such Cases
    appointed for them, as hath been accustomed. And that such
    Committees do make their Report in Writing, to be offered to
    his Ma^{tie}: the next Councill day following, in which, if any
    Debate arise, the old Rule is ever strictly to be observed, that
    the youngest Councell^{r}: do begin, and not to speake a second
    time without Leave first obteyned. And that as on the one side
    nothing is hereafter to be resolved in Councill, till the matter
    hath been first examined, And have received the Opinion of
    some Committee or other, So on the other hand, that nothing be
    referred to any Committee, untill it have been first read at
    the Board, except in Forraine Affaires. And his Ma^{ts} express
    pleasure is, That no Order of Councill be henceforth any time
    issued out by the Clerks of the Councill till the same have been
    first perused by the Reporter of each Committee respectively.[32]


There is very little evidence to show that the Committee of the Council
for Trade and Plantations played any very conspicuous part in regulating
either trade or plantations during the years from 1668 to 1675, though
a number of petitions were referred to it. Its most important report
was that recommending the restoration of the province of Maine to the
grandson of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, but even that matter was taken out
of its hands by the further reference of the Gorges' petition to the
Committee for Foreign Affairs. In 1668, it dealt with the restitution
of Surinam to the Dutch and the settlement of Lord Willoughby's claims;
with relief for Barbadoes after the disastrous fire which destroyed
St. Michaels in April of that year; with the equipment of Sir Tobias
Bridges' regiment in the same island; and with the liberty granted to
certain Dutch ships of trading to New York despite the Navigation Act.
In 1669, it considered a few petitions and reported on Gorges' memorial.
After 1670 it did little, as far as actual evidence of its activity is
concerned, but it is entirely clear that it had to transact a great deal
more business than is recorded either in the Register or in the Colonial
Papers.[33] Many of the questions that were referred to the Select
Council of Trade and the Select Council of Trade and Plantations were
first passed upon by this committee or were referred to it after the
report from the separate body had come in. Furthermore, we know that
in the case of this committee, as of similar committees of the Privy
Council after 1696, many questions were never allowed to pass out of its
hands, except as they were reported to the Council itself. Though not
conspicuous, it was potentially active and quite ready in 1675 to take
up the burden of colonial control that the King placed upon it.[34]

Even before it had begun the reorganization of its committee system, the
Privy Council made known its decision to revive the system of separate
and select councils which had probably been in abeyance since 1665.
On September 23, 1667, it ordered its Committee for Trade and Foreign
Plantations to take into consideration the advisability of revoking
the commissions of the two councils of 1660,--which councils must,
therefore, have been deemed still legally in existence--and of uniting
these bodies so as to form a single select council for trade and
plantations. To this end it instructed the secretaries of those
councils, Philip Frowde and George Duke, to appear before it. For
reasons that are nowhere found among the official papers this plan was
given up and the decision reached to revoke only the commission of the
Council of Trade and to issue a patent for a new body. Roger North, in
his _Examen_, published in 1740, a work little to be depended on as far
as historical accuracy is concerned, declares that this move was merely
a piece of political manoeuvering and never was designed to accomplish
anything of importance for the trade or revenue of the kingdom. He says:

    "The courtiers, for his Majesty's Ease, moved that there might
    be a commission to several of the greatest Traders in _London_
    to examine all matters of that kind, and to report their Opinion
    to the Council; upon which his Majesty might determine. This
    plausible project was put in Execution and the Leaders of the
    Fanatic party in the city [especially Alderman Love and Josiah
    Child] were the Commissioners; for so it was plotted. The great
    House in Queen Street was taken for the use of this Commission.
    Mr. Henry Slingsby, sometime Master of the Mint was the Secretary;
    and they had a formal Board with Green Cloth and Standishes,
    Clerks good store, a tall Porter and Staff, and fitting Attendance
    below, and a huge Luminary at the Door. And in Winter Time, when
    the Board met, as was two or three Times a Week, or oftener, all
    the Rooms were lighted, Coaches at the Door, and great passing in
    and out, as if a Council of State in good Earnest had been sitting.
    All Cases, Complaints, and Deliberations of Trade were referred
    to this Commission, and they reported their opinion."[35]


North's implication that the Council was a contrivance of the enemies
of the King to effect a prohibition of trade with France which the
government wished to keep open seems deserving of little credence.
In the past, facts regarding this Council and its work have not been
complete, and even a full list of its members has been wanting. Even now
the commission and instructions, which, after considerable delay, were
issued on October 20, 1668, have eluded discovery, and we can present
little more than the terms of the docket as entered in the books of
the Crown Office. The docket reads: "A Commission with instructions
annexed establishing a Counsell of Trade, for Keeping a control and
super-inspection of his Majesty's Trade and Commerce." From another
source we learn that the Council was to take into consideration "the
Conditions of your Maj^{tyes} Plantations abroad, in order to the
improvement of Trade and increase of Navigation, and for the further
encouragement of yo^{r} Maj^{tyes} Subjects in their Trade and Commerce
both at home and abroad."[36] A second commission was issued on April
13, 1669, "directed to the same persons in the same form & with the
same powers and instructions ... with a confirmation of all Acts done
in pursuance of the said late commission in election of officers and
otherwise."[37] The clerical secretary was Peter du Moulin, though Dr.
Benjamin Worsley seems to have had some official position on the board.
The members of the Council were as follows: Duke of York, Prince Rupert,
Lord Keeper, Lord Privy Seal, Duke of Buckingham, Duke of Albemarle,
Duke of Ormond, Earl of Bridgewater, Earl of Ossory, Earl of Anglesey,
Earl of Carlisle, Earl of Craven, Earl of Lauderdale, Lord Arlington,
Lord Berkeley of Stratton, Lord Holles, Lord Ashley, Sir Thomas
Clifford, Sir George Carteret, Sir John Trevor, Sir William Morrice, Sir
William Coventry, Sir Thomas Osborne, Sir Thomas Littleton, Sir Henry
Blount, Sir George Downing, Sir Andrew Riccard, Sir William Thompson,
Silas Titus, William Garroway, Henry Slingsby, Thomas Grey, John Birch,
William Love, Esq., Benjamin Worsley, Doctor of Physic; John Buckworth,
Thomas Papillion, John Page, Josiah Child, Thomas Tyte, Benjamin Albyn,
and John Shorter. In 1669 were added the Earl of Devonshire, Earl of
Sandwich, Viscount Halifax, and George, Lord Berkeley, making forty-six
members in all.[38] This is an extraordinary body of men to be engaged
in pulling the wool over the eyes of the King, and though Professor
Ashley is inclined to view North's account with approval, we doubt if
it will stand the test of examination. Professor Ashley's further belief
that from this Council emanated the document called "A Scheme of Trade,"
is capable of satisfactory disproof, since but few of the signers of
that document were members of the Council and the date when it was
issued, November 29, 1674, was after the Council as a separate body had
been abolished.[39]

The Council lasted from 1668 to 1672 and during that time it did
nothing, so far as we can discover, either for or against the trade
with France. It considered the granting of patents, foreign trade with
Piedmont and elsewhere, the export of wool, disputes among the merchant
companies, dispensations from the operation of the Navigation Act, and
a few matters relating to home industry, particularly as regards abuses
in the baize trade. It took into consideration the order in Council
of October 23, 1667, permitting the Dutch to send three or more ships
yearly for seven years to trade from Holland to New York, and reported
so strongly against it that the Privy Council revoked the order.[40]
More important still, it took up the whole question of the operation of
the navigation acts in the colonies, called upon the merchants and the
farmers of the customs for information, and made a careful report to the
Privy Council, which the latter, on January 20,1669, embodied in the
following order:

    "His Ma^{tie} this day taking into consideration the great
    importance the Trade of his severall plantations is to his
    Ma^{tie} & his Kingdome, and being informed that severall
    Governments of the s^{d} Plantations have been wanting to
    their duty in the following particulars, viz:

    1. That Governors have not taken the oath enjoined by law,

    2. That shipps have been permitted to trade to and from the
    Plantations not qualified according to law,

    3. That there has been omission in taking Bond and Security
    and returning those Bonds according as directed by the severall
    Acts of Parliament.

    For redresse it is ordered, that the Farmers of the Customs do
    and are hereby required (at their owne charge) to send over and
    make choice of upon the place & from time to time commissionate
    & maynteyne one or more persons in each Plantation (whom his
    Ma^{tie} shall approve & authorize) to administer the usual oaths
    to the severall Governors, that no vessels be admitted to trade
    there till said officer has the perusal of the passes and
    certificates and certifies that they may trade there, and that
    no Bond or security be admitted without the allowance of said
    officer,

    That letters be written to all said Governors to take said
    oaths before said officer and also to give them countenance and
    assistance,

    That Directions be given to the Commanders of his Ma^{ties} ships
    and to any merchant shipps to arrest any ship trading to His
    Ma^{ties} Plantations contrary to the law."[41]


Under this order Edward Digges, former governor of Virginia and a London
merchant well known to us, was appointed by the farmers of the customs
as a fit person to execute for the colony of Virginia the articles and
instructions contained in this order. No other appointments, however,
appear to have been made at this time.[42]

After 1670 activities of the Council of Trade, as far as they are
recorded, are very few. It considered the trade of the Eastland Company,
provided for a supply of coal for London at reasonable rates, and
discussed a few minor petitions, but as compared with its contemporary,
the Council for Foreign Plantations, it accomplished little.[43]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Footnote 1: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1514-1660, pp. 482, 483; P.C.R.,
Charles II, Vol. II, p. 63; New York Colonial Docts., III, p. 30.]

[Footnote 2: P.C.R., Charles II, Vol. II, p. 37; Bodleian, Rawlinson A.,
117, No. 20.]

[Footnote 3: Professor Osgood thinks that a part of Noell's fortune was
made in the slave trade. Beyond the fact that he was a member of the
Royal African Company, I cannot find any evidence whatever to prove this
statement. Noell certainly was not a slave trader before 1660.]

[Footnote 4: Bodleian, Clarendon Papers, _passim_, New York Hist.
Soc. Collections, 1869; Brit. Museum, Add. MSS., 11410, ff. 18 et seq.
Clarendon had an agent in Jamaica, Major Ivy, who was considering the
setting up of plantations and planting cocoa walks in the interest of
the King's revenue. Clarendon's policy toward the continental colonies
overshadows somewhat his policy toward the West Indies and in
consequence this phase of the subject has been neglected by those who
have dealt with Clarendon's colonial relations.]

[Footnote 5: P.C.R., Charles II, Vol. II, pp. 131-132; printed in part
in Analytical Index to the Series of Records known as the Remembrancia,
preserved among the Archives of the City of London, 1579-1664.
(Privately printed, 1878); and in very much abbreviated form in
Bannister, Writings of William Patterson, III, 251-252, from whom it has
been copied by both Egerton and Cunningham. It seems somewhat strange
that there should be no entry of the receipt of this letter in the
journal of the court of Aldermen nor any draft of an answer among the
Remembrancia or elsewhere. A careful search has failed to disclose any
reference to action taken upon this letter among the papers in the Town
Clerk's office at the Guildhall.]

[Footnote 6: Bodleian, Clarendon Papers, 73, f. 232.]

[Footnote 7: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1660-1661, p. 319.]

[Footnote 8: Public Record Office, Chancery, Crown Dockets, 6, p. 50.
On the docket for the commission of the council of trade the names of
the members are inserted; but on that of the commission for the council
for foreign plantations the place is left blank. A marginal note on the
latter docket gives the explanation noted above.]

[Footnote 9: There is a list of the members in 1661, containing but
forty-seven names with some omissions and additions.]

[Footnote 10: Egerton, 2395, ff. 268, 269; Cal. State Papers, Dom.,
1660-1661, pp. 353-354; P.R.O. State Papers, Domestic, XXI, No. 27;
Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, 4 ed., Appendix.]

[Footnote 11: The journal of the Council of Plantations is among the
Colonial Papers in the Public Record Office, XIV, No. 59, ff. 1-57,
December 1, 1660-August 4, 1664, entitled "Orders and Proceedings at his
Ma^{ts} Counsell for Forraigne Plantacons." There is no journal of the
Council of Trade known to exist, but minutes of one or two meetings,
which have been preserved, show that a journal must have been kept. An
entry-book for patents is mentioned, Cal. State Papers, Col., 1661-1668,
Sec. 15, and an entry-book of petitions and reports, November 13,
1660-March 12, 1662, is in Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 25115.

Regarding the history of the papers of the Council of Trade the
following information may be of interest. The records probably remained
in the possession of George Duke, secretary to the Council, and were
called for by Dr. Worsley, secretary of the Council of 1672 in a letter
dated November 28, 1672 (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1672-1673, pp.
213-214). No answer was received from Duke and evidently the papers were
not handed over, for when in 1698 the Board of Trade applied for them to
Col. Duke's son-in-law, Henry Crispe, it was informed by Mr. Crispe that
he had never even seen any of the papers but had heard that some of them
were burnt in the Temple when in Col. Duke's possession (Journal of the
Board of Trade, XI, p. 55, May 10, 1698). In June and July, 1707, the
Board of Trade attempted again to get hold of the papers and wrote to
Crispe on June 30. Crispe's reply is worth printing:

"If I am rightly informed there are divers original books and papers
relating to the Royal Fishery and the establishing thereof from the
year 1660 for divers successive years in which are contained several
projections concerning the promoting the same. And there are also books
and minutes of the proceedings of the Council of Trade from the year
1660 to 1668, which also contain several material things in relation to
Trade and the improvement thereof, which I understand are in the power
of a friend of mine.

"These books and papers will be disposed of as the Hon^{ble} Board the
Council of Trade shall direct or order.

"But it is humbly desired that consideration be allowed the party that
shall produce these Books and Papers. And that it may be ascertained
what that consideration shall be and by whom it shall be given.

"I was desired to inform you of this to the end you may take such steps
therein as you in your great prudence shall judge most proper.

"If any orders or commands shall be given about this affair that I can
be useful or serviceable therein & they be transmitted for me or be left
at Johns Coffee House in Bedford St. near the Church in Convent Garden
such orders will be faithfully observed by

  "S^{rs} Your faithfull humble Servant
    "H. CRISPE."


Crispe sent a list of the books with his letter, but that list is
missing. The Board answered that it would not buy the books without
seeing them first, but as we find no further mention of the matter in
the Journal and as the books and papers are not to be found to-day the
probabilities are that the negotiations fell through. Journal, XIX,
p. 296; Board of Trade Papers, Trade, H Nos. 74, 76.]

[Footnote 12: This may be inferred from the following note attached to
one of the reports: "The council conceiving themselves to be in noe
capacitie of giving any judgment therein having heard but one side."
Egerton, 2395, f. 299.]

[Footnote 13: See Cal. State Papers, Col., 1675-1676, Sec.Sec. 338, 339, where
he is called "Secretary for Foreign Plantations."]

[Footnote 14: Egerton, 2395, ff. 286, 291, 299, 335, 336.]

[Footnote 15: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1661-1668, Sec.Sec. 790, 833; Dom.,
1664-1665, p. 4.]

[Footnote 16: In December, 1665, he wrote of "an uncomfortable journey
on unfrequented roads, with none to break the ice, in a hackney coach
which receives the wind in all parts." Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1665,
p. 105.]

[Footnote 17: P.C.R., Charles II, Vol. VI, p. 231; Cal. State Papers,
Col., 1661-1668, Sec. 1685.]

[Footnote 18: Egerton, 2395, ff. 449, 451, 452, 453; Cal. State Papers,
Col., 1661-1668, Sec.Sec. 1598-1600.]

[Footnote 19: Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 25115, f. 156; Cal. State Papers,
Dom., 1661-1662, pp. 411-412.]

[Footnote 20: Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 25115; Cal. State Papers, Dom.,
1660-1661, pp. 356, 359, 363, 372, 412; 1661-1662 pp. 28, 80.]

[Footnote 21: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1660-1661, pp. 383, 532;
1661-1662, pp. 111, 277, 529, 446; Bodleian, Rawlinson MSS., A. 478, f.
81.]

[Footnote 22: Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 25115, ff. 133-140; Cal. State
Papers, Treasury Books, 1660-1667, pp. 245-247, containing the list of
convoys, a duplicate of that in the British Museum volume; p. 250, the
Treasurer's report.]

[Footnote 23: Brit. Mus., Egerton, 2543, ff. 137-139.]

[Footnote 24: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1663-1664, pp. 515, 549.
The Fishing Commission, appointed in 1661, had proved a failure, but
the council borrowed from the patent of that commission many of the
suggestions which it recommended. Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1661-1662,
p. 83.]

[Footnote 25: Cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1661-1662, p. 83.]

[Footnote 26: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1665-1666, p. 330. Yet Crispe's
letter (_ante_, p. 75, note) certainly speaks as if the Council had a
continuous existence from 1660 to 1668, and the mention of Exeter House
as its place of meeting after 1667 points in the same direction.]

[Footnote 27: "Some considerations about the commission for trade,"
P.R.O. Shaftesbury MSS., <DW37>. X, 8(1).]

[Footnote 28: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1663-1664, pp. 528, 531, 543,
572, 573, 588.]

[Footnote 29: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1661-1662, pp. 75, 135-136, 149.]

[Footnote 30: 19 Charles II, c. 13.]

[Footnote 31: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1667-1668, pp. 156, 158, 165,
173, 180, 187, 191, 247, 321, 433, 444, 452, 511, 593, 594; 1668-1669,
pp. 35, 40.]

[Footnote 32: Brit. Mus., Egerton MSS., 2543, ff. 205-205^{b}. Endorsed
"Regulation of Committees of the Councill. Read & Ordered in Councill
the 31^{st} January, 1667^{b}." For reasons that cannot be explained
this regulation is not entered in the Privy Council Register. It is
referred to in a similar order of February 12, 1668, P.C.R., Charles II,
Vol. VII, pp. 176-177, but otherwise omitted. For this reason the
document is here printed in full. Cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom.,
1667-1668, p. 261.]

[Footnote 33: For instance, there are among the Colonial Papers memoranda
of proceedings at various sittings of this committee held between
April 7, 1668, and February 18, 1669, relative to domestic, colonial,
and foreign trade, that are not recorded elsewhere.]

[Footnote 34: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1661-1668, Sec.Sec. 1685, 1712, 1759,
1769, 1791, 1870, 1883; 1660-1674, Sec.Sec. 30, 66, 150, 184-186, 751, 837,
1226, I, II, III; 1320, 1353, 1390. Dom., 1668-1669, pp. 62, 201.]

[Footnote 35: Roger North, Examen, p. 461, quoted by Prof. Ashley in
Surveys, Historic and Economic, pp. 274-275.]

[Footnote 36: New York Colonial Docts., III, p. 175.]

[Footnote 37: P.R.O. Chancery, Crown Office, Docket Books, 7, pp. 335,
344; Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1668-1669, pp. 6, 18, 224-225.]

[Footnote 38: Bodleian, Rawlinson MSS. A, 478, f. 77; Cal. State Papers,
Dom., 1668-1669, pp. 224-225, 651.]

[Footnote 39: Ashley, Surveys, pp. 275-276.]

[Footnote 40: New York Colonial Docts., III, pp. 175-178; Cal. State
Papers, Col., 1661-1668, Sec.Sec. 1874, 1875.]

[Footnote 41: P.C.R., Charles II, Vol. VIII, p. 169; Cal. State Papers,
Col., 1661-1668, Sec. 1884, 1669-1674, Sec.Sec. 6, 9.]

[Footnote 42: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1669-1674, Sec.Sec. 104, 696.]

[Footnote 43: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1671, p. 210; 1671-1672,
pp. 450-451.]




CHAPTER V.

The Plantation Councils of 1670 and 1672.


During the years 1668 and 1669 no member of the government was more
active in promoting the development of the plantations than Anthony
Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley. As one of the proprietaries of Carolina,
he had taken the lead in advancing that settlement, had called upon
John Locke to frame a new constitution, and had himself organized the
expedition of 1669 which gave to the new colony its most important
impetus. He became a proprietary of the Bahamas in 1670 and later
attempted to found a plantation on the Edisto River. He planned to
organize these colonies at Charles Town, Albemarle, Edisto, and New
Providence into a kind of cooperative trading group of settlements,
under the same laws and instructions, and from them he hoped to obtain
in time for himself and the other proprietaries ample returns on their
investments. It is of no concern to us here that his scheme failed, the
important fact remains that Ashley and Locke were at this juncture in
the very heyday of their interest in colonial affairs and were eager to
take advantage of every opportunity for encouraging colonial trade. The
revival of the Select Council for Foreign Plantations was due in largest
part to the influence and initiative of these two men, particularly of
Ashley, who in 1670 was at the height of his political power and on
terms of closest intimacy with the King.[1] That he was sincere in this
movement seems to me beyond question, and the charge that has been made
against him of recommending the creation of this Council as a means of
obtaining sinecures for his friends, does not appear capable of the
slightest proof.[2] If membership on the Council was deemed at the first
a position of ease, it must soon have lost that character, for few
committee men ever worked harder than those who looked after plantation
affairs in the years from 1670 to 1674. This fact will appear as we
examine the nature and extent of their activities.

Experience with previous councils had shown that too numerous and
fluctuating a membership was not conducive either to harmony or to
despatch of business. Therefore, in reviving the Council for Plantations
it was decided, as the most important change to be effected, that the
number should be reduced to such terms as to enable the committee to
apply itself as a whole to the business in hand. The commission was
issued on July 30, 1670, to ten persons, of whom but three were members
of the nobility. The commissioners were Edward, Earl of Sandwich;
Richard, Lord Gorges, Baron of Dundalk in Ireland; William, Lord
Allington, Baron of Killar in Ireland; Thomas Grey, son of Lord Grey,
of Warke; Henry Brouncker, Sir Humphrey Winch, Sir John Finch, Edmund
Waller, Henry Slingsby, master and worker of the mint and one of the
gentlemen of the privy chamber, and Silas Titus, one of the grooms of
the bed chamber. To this number was added in 1671 James, Duke of York;
Prince Rupert, George, Duke of Buckingham, Master of the Horse; James,
Duke of Ormond, Lord Steward of the Royal Household; John, Earl of
Lauderdale, Secretary of State for Scotland; Thomas, Lord Culpeper; Sir
George Carteret, Vice-Chamberlain; and John Evelyn, but of these only
the last named stood on the same footing with those first appointed as
a regular and salaried member, the others being appointed to give weight
and dignity to the board and receiving no compensation. In August, 1671,
Sir Richard Temple was added to the board, also to serve without pay.
The only basis for the charge of self-seeking which has been brought
against the members of this Council is the fact that for the first time,
as far as we know, the working members received pay for their services.
The allowances and salaries were as follows: the Earl of Sandwich, as
president, received L700; Lord Gorges, Lord Allington, Thomas Grey,
Henry Brouncker, Sir Humphrey Winch, Sir John Finch, Edmund Waller,
Henry Slingsby, Silas Titus, and John Evelyn, each L500, paid quarterly.
Dr. Benjamin Worsley, who held the position of advisor and assistant
secretary under Slingsby, the secretary of the Council, was allowed
L300, while for contingent expenses L1,000, the same amount that had
been placed at the disposal of each of the secretaries, Sir Philip
Frowde and Col. Duke, of the former councils, was appropriated.[3] Five
members, always including the president or one of the officers of state
authorized to attend, constituted a quorum of the Council, which was
ordered to meet for the first time at Essex House, the residence of
the Lord Keeper, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, near Temple Bar, at two in the
afternoon. After the addition of the new members, May 16, 1671, it
removed to the Earl of Bristol's house in Queen Street near Lincoln's
Inn Fields;[4] and after February 12, 1672, to Lord Arlington's lodgings
in Whitehall, in order, as Evelyn tells us, that the King might be
present and hear the debates. It was authorized to employ clerks,
messengers, solicitors, doorkeepers, and other inferior officers and
attendants as it should think fit and necessary for its service.

By their commission the members of the Council were empowered "to inform
themselves by the best ways and meanes they can of the present State and
condition of our Plantations, together with the Increase, or Decay of
the Trade, and strength of each of them respectively, And the Causes and
Reasons of such Encrease or Decay, And to use all Industry and Diligence
for gaining the full knowledge of all things transacted within any part
of those our Dominions, either by the respective Governours themselves
or their respective Deputies or by them and the respective Councills, or
Assemblies, belonging to any of our said respective Plantations, and
thereof from time to time to give us a true faithfull and certaine
Accompt togeather with their best advice and opinion thereupon." The
range of colonial interest was a wide one, "all the affaires which doe
or may touch or concerne any of our Forreigne Plantations, Colonies, or
Dominions, situate, lying and being in any part of America or in the
Ocean lying betweene this and the maine Land of America, or in any part
of the Bay of Mexico, or upon the Coast of Guinea, or within any of that
circuit of the Globe, that is generally known or called by the name of
the West Indies, whether the said Plantations, Countries, and
Territories, be immediately held by us, or held by any others of us, by
vertue of any Charters, Graunts, or Letters Patents thereof already made
or graunted, or hereafter to be made or graunted, and of all other and
forreigne Plantations, Colonies, and Dominions (our Towne, Citty and
Garrison of Tangier only excepted)." The Council had power to send for
any person or persons whom it deemed able to furnish information or
advice; to call for any books, papers, or records that it judged likely
to be useful to it, and to require of every person called upon or
colonial official addressed prompt and ready response.

By its instructions and additional instructions the Council was
ordered to make full inquiry into the state of the plantations and
to take every means of acquiring full and accurate information as to
the powers of the governors, the execution of the same, the number of
parishes, planters, servants, and slaves there, and the best means for
increasing the supply where needed. It was to instruct the governors
to live at peace with the Indians and not to suffer them to be injured
in their persons, goods, or possessions; and to keep on terms of amity
with their neighbors, whether Dutch, French, or Spanish; to take such
measures that all commodities of the growth or making of the Plantations
be duly manufactured and improved, and to inquire whether it were
possible to promote in any way the production of such tropical
commodities as cotton, ginger, cocoa, etc. It was to find out what
islands were best fitted for the breeding of cattle and to encourage
the same; to investigate the opportunities of obtaining masts and to
stimulate the production of hemp, flax, pitch, and tar in New England,
and the setting up of saw mills. It was instructed to study the question
of procuring servants and slaves, to settle all difficulties between the
Royal African Company and the colonies, and to do all in its power to
check "spiriting" or the enticing of children and young persons from
England to the plantations. It was to deal with colonial trade, both
oceanic and coastwise, to see that the acts of navigation were duly
enforced; to inquire into the conduct of colonial governments, to
examine colonial laws and to recommend for annulment such as were
contrary to honor, justice, or the law of England. It was to become
familiar with colonial geography, to procure maps and charts, and to
have them available for examination. It was to aid the spread of the
Gospel, the purification of morals, and the instruction of Indians and
slaves. By the additional instructions, issued August 1, 1670, it was to
consider the question of colonial defence, to recommend the production
of saltpetre, to consider how spices, gums, drugs, dyeing stuffs, etc.,
might be procured for the plantations from the East Indies, and to
study the systems employed in other countries for the improvement of
trade and the plantations.[5]

It is noteworthy that the sessions of the Council were held in secret,
no one being admitted except the members, and even those only after each
had taken an oath not to betray the proceedings. "You shall swear," so
runs this oath, "to be true and faithful to our Sovereign Lord the King,
his heirs and successors; you shall according to the best of your skill,
discretion, knowledge, and experience give unto his Maj^{tie} true and
faithful councell, in all things that shall be demanded of you touching
or concerning his Ma^{ties} forreigne Plantations. You shall keepe
secret and conceale his Ma^{ties} said Councells, without disclosing the
same to any person except he be of the same Councill, and if the matter
touch any of the same Councill you shall not disclose the same to him.
You shall not promote or further any matter in the said Councill, for
any reward, favour, affection, or displeasure, And in case you shall
perceive anything to be done contrary to his Ma^{ties} honour and
service you shall to the utmost of your Power with stand and Lett
the same."

The Council had its first meeting on August 3, 1670, when the commission
and instructions were read; and from that time until September 20, 1672,
a period of nearly twenty-three months, it held one hundred meetings of
which we have record, and probably many more of which no record has been
found.[6] It is reasonable to infer that during the working months the
Council met twice a week.

The Council began by taking over much of the business left unfinished
by the Committee of the Privy Council, but it soon increased its
activity. It early inaugurated a policy and system of control that was
more comprehensive than any which had been put into practice by the
previous boards. Efficient though some of the former councils and
committees had been, no one of them had endeavored to cover so wide a
range of colonial business or to inquire so minutely into the details
of colonial government as did this Council of 1670. It not only took
into consideration all petitions, memorials, statements of claim, and
subjects in dispute, but it also set up an elaborate system of inquiry
on its own part, following out the instructions which had been given to
it to require of every colonial governor frequent information regarding
the condition of his government. It drafted long series of queries which
were despatched to all the colonies, and to which elaborate replies
were received, notably from Berkeley, of Virginia, Wheeler, of St.
Christopher, and Lynch, of Jamaica. It supplemented the information
thus received by demanding letters from the governors, and received
in response long and frequent epistles, dealing with colonial affairs
in the most minute detail. Wheeler, Stapleton, Lynch, Willoughby,
Colleton, and others furnished the Council with all sorts of descriptive
and statistical matter, and were always ready to offer suggestion and
advice. Merchants, planters, agents, and others familiar with colonial
trade were also called upon for statements, either in person or in
writing, and at many a meeting outsiders were called in to make reports
to the board. The evidence thus obtained was generally discussed
in the Council itself, at which the King and officers of state were
occasionally present, and it was also referred to committees of two or
more, which made their report to the Council. Upon the information and
opinions thus obtained, the Council based its orders and reports to the
Privy Council.[7]

In addition to these functions, the Council assumed an important and in
some ways a new role when it took upon itself the business of preparing
all the preliminary drafts of the various commissions and instructions
of the governors, often spending many days in the consideration of
these instruments, and often receiving from the appointees themselves
suggestions as to the wording of certain clauses. As far as the more
general powers and duties were concerned, these instructions were
modelled somewhat after those which the Council itself had received,
and lively debate arose not infrequently over the nature and extent of
the authority that ought to be conferred on the appointees. The drafts
of the commission and instructions, when completed, were sent to the
Secretary of State, by whom corrections might be made, then conveyed to
the Privy Council, where the documents were frequently referred to the
attorney general for his advice on legal points, and sometimes to the
Committee of the Council, which at this time, as well as afterward, felt
itself fully empowered to make any alterations it pleased. Thus many
hands may have had a share in shaping these important papers before they
were finally engrossed, although it is probable that in the majority of
instances the draft of the Council was accepted unchanged by the King.

The Council was also beginning to exercise another important function
in receiving from the Privy Council copies of laws passed in the
colonies upon the character of which its opinion was desired, and in
being called upon by the Privy Council or the Secretary of State to
make recommendations as to fit persons to hold colonial offices. In
this particular, the most responsible task of the Council lay in the
selection and instruction of special commissioners, who in accordance
with many earlier precedents were vested with authority to go to the
colonies for the settlement of difficult questions there. Three such
commissions were set on foot by the Council of Plantations: that
appointed to bring to an end the dispute with the French at St.
Christopher; that appointed to treat with the Dutch regarding the
English subjects at Surinam; and that designed for New England, which
was to be openly commissioned to settle boundary disputes, but to be
secretly instructed to inform the Council of the condition of the New
England colonies, "and whether they were of such power as to be able
to resist his Majesty and declare for themselves as independent of the
Crown." No commissioners were, however, sent until the time of Edward
Randolph.[8]

A large amount of time was consumed by the Council in considering the
petitions and memorials of private persons, who had some grounds of
complaint against one or other of the colonial governments. Among these
the charges of Mason and Gorges against Massachusetts hold prominent
place, but other complainants were none the less insistent; Capt.
Archibald Henderson, of Antigua, who had been imprisoned by Governor
Wheeler for alleged seditious practices; the owners of the ship _James_,
of Belfast, which had been seized by Wheeler as a "stranger-built"
trading contrary to the Navigation Acts; the owners of the logwood
ship _William and Nicholas_, also seized by Wheeler on suspicion that
it had obtained its lading in violation of the treaty of 1670 with
Spain; owners of the _Peter_, of London, seized by the Spaniards in
violation of the same treaty; Jamaica planters who claimed that Spain
had broken the clause of the treaty relating to logwood cutting at
Campeachy; one Mark Gabry, exporter of wool; merchants in Jamaica
complaining of the number of Jews there and their engrossment of trade;
inhabitants of Easthampton, Southampton, and Southold in Long Island in
regard to their whale fishery and their relations with the Dutch at New
Amsterdam; the government of Virginia against the Arlington and Culpeper
grant. The Council also discussed many other matters, all more or less
closely bound up with the welfare of the plantations and of plantation
trade, such as the despatch of their letters and orders; the proper time
for the sailing of merchant ships in order that advantage might be taken
of companies or convoys; the sugar question in the West Indies, notably
Barbadoes, that perennial cause of dispute from the point of view of
customs and impositions; the enticing or spiriting away of young people
from England to go as servants to the plantations, a grievance almost
as old as the plantations themselves and one which Ashley had made a
special subject of inquiry with the result that Parliament passed an
Act, March 18, 1670, making "spiriting" a capital offence; the fisheries
and the abuses in the Newfoundland trade; privateering, especially in
relation to the act of Governor Modyford in commissioning Capt. Morgan
to cruise against the Spaniards and to capture Panama; the slave trade
and the relations of the plantations with the Royal African Company;
and lastly, in obedience to the fourth article of its additional
instructions, the proper supplying of the West India colonies with such
commodities as silk, galls, spices, senna and other dyeing materials,
in order to see whether or not such things could be obtained from
the plantations, a subject upon which Dr. Worsley, who had already
experimented with senna, was deemed an authority.

The efficiency of the Council of Foreign Plantations and the
inefficiency of the Council of Trade during the same period may
well have led to the belief that the work would be better done if the
functions of the latter were transferred to the former body. The death
of the Earl of Sandwich, who lost his life in the naval engagement of
Southwold Bay with De Ruyter, May 28, 1672, may have hastened this
conclusion, and the need of economy, especially manifest in this year,
1672, may have been a further influence. Whatever the causes, as early
as the summer of 1672 the decision was reached, undoubtedly through the
advice of Lord Ashley, now the Earl of Shaftesbury, to reconstitute
the Council, and to issue a new patent which should cover trade as
well as foreign plantations. Evelyn says that the old Council met at
Shaftesbury's house on September 1, 1672, to consider the draft of the
new commission. The form of the commission having been approved, the
warrant was issued to the attorney general on September 16 to prepare
the bill for the King's signature, and on the twenty-seventh the Council
was duly commissioned by writ of privy seal. The membership remained the
same as before, with the single exception that the Earl of Shaftesbury
took the place of the Earl of Sandwich as the president of the board,
with Lord Culpeper as vice-president. When in December of the same year
Sir John Finch was appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in place
of Sir Daniel Harvey, deceased, Sir William Hickman was constituted
a member of the Council in his stead. As in the case of the former
Council, the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, and the chief officers of
state were authorized to attend and vote but without pay. To their
number were now added the Duke of Ormond, George, Viscount Halifax; Sir
Thomas Osborne, and Sir Robert Long, all of whom, except Long, had been
members of the Council of Trade, while Halifax, who had just returned
from an important mission to France and was rapidly rising to power,
had been a member of the committee of the House of Lords, appointed
in October, 1669, to consider the improvement of trade. Sandwich and
Shaftesbury had both been on the same committee, and it is not unlikely
that the latter was responsible for the remarkable report made by this
committee to the Lords that "some relaxation in ecclesiastical matters
will be a means of improving the trade of this kingdom."[9]

According to its commission, the Council of Trade and Plantations was
"to take care of the welfare of our said Colonies and Plantations and
of the Trade and Navigation of these our Kingdomes and of our said
colonies and plantations," and was to be a council of advice to the
King "in and for all the affairs which do or may any way concern the
navigation, commerce, or trade, as well domestic as foreign of these our
kingdoms and our said foreign colonies and plantations." Five were to
constitute a quorum of which the president or vice-president or one of
the unsalaried members should always be one. The salary of the president
was raised to L800, that of the vice-president was made L700, while that
of the other salaried members remained as before, L500. No treasurer or
secretary is named in the commission, but Dr. Worsley held these offices
until in September, 1673, he was discharged and John Locke took his
place. In all other respects the commission of 1672 reproduces that
of 1670.

The most noteworthy difference between the two councils is to be
found in the instructions, which for the Council of 1672 form a very
comprehensive and intelligent statement of the essentials of plantation
control. The draft was undoubtedly written by Shaftesbury and Locke, for
a preliminary sketch is to be found among the Shaftesbury Papers; the
preliminary meeting for the consideration and approval of the articles
was held at Shaftesbury's residence, Exeter House; and the essential
portions of the document are all to be found embodied in one form or
another in the instructions and suggestions sent to the planters in
the Bahamas and Carolina, colonies which for two years had been a kind
of experimental station for Shaftesbury's and Locke's ideas. All the
later commissions and instructions were based in the main on the
principles laid down in these documents, and neither the Lords of Trade
from 1675 to 1696 nor the Board of Trade from 1696 to 1782 ever in any
important particular passed the limits herein defined. Probably the
instructions of 1672 became from this time forward the precedent and
guide for those who in later years were called upon to shape the powers
vested in the boards of trade and plantations. It frequently happened,
of course, that orders in Council directed the attention of the boards
to matters which needed special examination, but in the main it may be
said that Povey first and Shaftesbury afterward mapped out the lines
to be followed by future commissions in their control of plantation
affairs. This fact gives to the work of these men a peculiar interest
and value.

By the terms of the instructions of 1672, the Council was to consider
first of all the trade of the kingdom and of the plantations in the
following particulars: the increase and improvement of raw commodities
for use at home, the promotion of manufactures, the betterment of
the fishing trade at home and abroad, the opening of rivers, ports,
and harbors, the proper distribution of trade and manufactures, the
obstacles that lay in the way of English trade as compared with those
confronting the trade of other nations, and all abuses of trade and
manufactures in the kingdom. It was to inquire into the best methods of
increasing the sale and export of native commodities and manufactures,
of encouraging the importation of foreign goods at the cheapest rates,
of building ships for the carrying of such bulky articles as masts and
timber, of extending correspondence with the great commercial centers
abroad, and of opening free ports where foreign commodities might be
landed and stored with small charge if designed for reexportation. It
was also to take into special consideration the advantages of a more
open and free trade than that of companies and corporations, and to
encourage inventions and improvements designed to improve any art,
trade, or manufacture or to secure and promote trade and navigation.

So far as the plantations were concerned, the Council was to inquire
into the general state of the colonies, and to obtain full information
regarding councils, assemblies, courts of judicature, courts of
admiralty, legislative and executive powers, statutes, laws and
ordinances, militia, fortifications, arms, and ammunition. It was to
learn all it could about boundaries, lands, mines, staple products,
and manufactures; to determine whether or not nutmegs, cinnamon,
cloves, pepper, and other spices would grow if planted; to inform itself
regarding rivers, harbors, and fishing banks; and to estimate how many
planters and parishes there were, how many whites and blacks yearly
arrived, and how many people died each year. It was to learn the number
of ships trading to the plantations, to discover the obstacles to trade
and how they could be removed, the advantages and how they could be
increased; it was to concern itself with export and import dues, public
revenues, measures taken for the instruction of the people and the
maintenance of the ministry. It was especially instructed to keep in
frequent correspondence with the governors, to urge upon them the
necessity of maintaining peace with their neighbors, the Indians and
others, of taking the Indians under their protection and of guarding
their persons, goods, and possessions according to law. Furthermore,
it was to procure copies of all necessary documents, to purchase maps,
plats, and charts when needed, to study those portions of treaties
made with other countries that related to peace and commerce, and to
determine how far those articles had been upheld and performed. And
lastly, it was to consider the practice of other countries in matters
of trade, commerce, and the colonies, and to see how far such practices
might be of value to England.

The Council had its first meeting on October 13, at Essex House, and
there the commission was read and the oaths were taken. Soon after, it
took up its abode at Villier's House in King's Street near Whitehall,
which it rented of the Duchess of Cleveland for L200 a year. There it
had a council chamber, an office for the clerks, two messengers, a
porter, a maid, and a chamber keeper, all of whom were paid out of the
L1,000 allowed for contingent expenses. We have record of seventy-six
meetings held between October 13, 1672, and December 22, 1674, a period
of twenty-six months; but it is quite certain that more meetings than
this were held, inasmuch as the session-days were every Wednesday and
Friday at ten in the morning.[10] So far as the plantations were
concerned the Council did little more than continue the work of its
predecessor, the Council of 1670, but in addition it concerned itself
with a large number of questions that had to do with domestic and
foreign as well as with colonial trade. The most important of these
related to the petition of the English consul at Venice that his
consulage be levied on goods and not on ships, a matter that aroused
prolonged debate; to the petition of the Gambia adventurers against
the importation by the East India Company of the dyeing wood called
"sanders" which, because cheaper, was taking the place of their redwood
from Africa; to the ordinances issued in Sweden against the English
"privileges" concerning naval stores; to the exportation of wool from
England, a matter already dealt with in an Act of Parliament; and to
the treatment of merchants at the hands of the Spaniards, regarding
which a number of petitions had been received by the board. A few new
petitions were taken into consideration from traders and others in the
plantations, notably those of the Jew Rabba Couty, whose ship had been
seized at Jamaica on the ground that he was a foreigner; of William
Helyar, whose woodland in Jamaica had been seized by Governor Lynch;
of John Rodney and his wife Frances, whose plantation in Nevis had
been seized by Governor Russell, a case destined to drag on for nearly
two years.

In recommending the appointment of governors and other officials,
passing upon colonial laws, scrutinizing nominations as of colonial
councillors, corresponding with the governors, organizing an efficient
system of communication and supervision in all matters touching trade
and commerce, and in making reports to the King in Council,--in short,
in the control and management of colonial affairs, the Council of 1672
placed the British colonial policy on a broader and more comprehensive
foundation than had hitherto been laid and inaugurated a more thorough
system of colonial control than had been established by any of its
predecessors. It is doubtful if even the Lords of Trade or the Board of
Trade surpassed the Councils of 1670 and 1672 in enthusiasm, loyalty,
or dispatch of business.

On December 21, 1674, Charles II revoked the commission of the Council,
and plantation affairs under their cognizance thus being "left loose and
at large" were "restored to their accustomed channel of a Committee of
the Privy Council," that is, to the Committee of the Board appointed for
matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations.[11] The reasons for
this step are of course to be found in the first instance in the fall
of Shaftesbury from power the summer before, but that event is not in
itself a sufficient explanation of the change. At least it is worthy of
remark that the dissolution of the Council took place many months after
Shaftesbury's dismissal. Probably a further cause is to be found in the
widespread demand for economy and retrenchment. The Council of 1672
cost the King nearly L8,000 a year; the Committee of the Privy Council
cost the King nothing for the services of its members, although its
contingent expenses ran higher than had those of any previous board,
amounting to between L275 and L400 a quarter from 1676 to 1687 and L250
and L300 from 1689 to 1696.[12]

Probably a greater reason for the dissolution of the Council of 1672
is to be found in the dissatisfaction which existed with the system of
advisory and independent bodies. Povey expressed the matter well when
he wrote:

    "His Ma^{tie} since his happy Restoraton, rightly considering
    of how great Consequence his foreign Plantations are to this
    Crowne, hath at several times Commissionated certain select
    persons to be Councells for the Plantations, every one of
    which Councels were variously framed, instructed and encouraged,
    w^{ch} have all expired without any considerable advantage, or
    satisfaction to his Ma^{tie} or the Plantations. Among the other
    Reasons w^{ch} may be given, why they proved fruitless, it seems,
    That it is found by experience that whatsoever Council is not
    enabled as well to execute as advise, must needs produce very
    imperfect and weak effects. It being, by its subordination and
    impotency obliged to have a continual recourse to superior
    Ministers, and Councels filled with other business, w^{ch}
    ofttimes gives great and prejudicial delays and usually begets
    new  or slower deliberations and results, than the matter in
    hand may stand in need of, by w^{ch} means the authority and
    virtue of this little Council became faint and ineffectual.
    Seeing therefore it hath been held at all times, that may
    distant Colonies, and the manifold Concernments thereof do
    require and deserve to be consider'd and provided for by some
    select persons as a Councel for those affairs, And that the
    wisdome of our Government admits not such a plenary Authority,
    but solely in the highest Council, it remains only as the best
    expedient, That Com^{rs} be appointed out of the Privy Council
    under the Great Seal, who may sit on some appointed day in every
    [blank] and sometimes an hour before the Councel shall sit, as
    occasion may call for it, to take consideration of any of the
    affairs of the Plantations, who may give direcions in ordinary
    cases, and in cases extraordinary may report to the King and
    Councel."[13]


We do not know when this paper was written nor do we know whether
it ever came to the attention of the King and his advisers. Its
recommendation was certainly carried out, when the King, taking into
his own hands again the full control of trade and the plantations,
issued a commission in February, 1675, placing the entire charge of
these matters in the hands of the committee of the Council, which
through all the changes of fifteen years had never ceased to exercise
its functions of supervision and control of colonial affairs. This
committee, known as the Lords of Trade, acted as a board of trade and
plantations for twenty years and conducted its business with eminent
success. Its membership was occasionally changed, though as a rule the
work fell upon a comparatively small number of men who were in frequent
attendance. After the fall of the Stuarts, King William continued the
same policy, appointing a new Council Committee and resisting all
attempts of Parliament to interfere.

Parliament, however, determined to obtain control of the management of
colonial affairs, and as early as 1694 made an effort in that direction.
Acting evidently under the influence of the merchants of London, who
resented the fact that affairs of this character should be entrusted
to "courtiers without experience," it took into consideration the
appointment of a separate board, whose members should be chosen by
itself. The first bill was thrown out by Parliament, but the matter was
brought up at the next session in December, 1695. Strenuous efforts were
made by a few of the leading out-ports, such as Bristol, to obtain,
through their members in Parliament, a representation on the proposed
board, in order to overcome "the growing greatness of London." During
December and January the matter was debated with great heat in the
House, and Bristol went so far as to send up a special delegation to
lobby in its behalf. The proposal was defeated by the King's opposition
to this attempt to encroach upon his prerogative, and a compromise was
effected, in which the out-ports played no part. Influenced by the
determination of the majority in Parliament, William issued a commission
on May 15, 1696, to a separate Board of Trade and Plantations, the
membership of which was, however, to be controlled by the Crown.

Of the history of the Board of Trade, thus established in 1696, little
need be said here. The board passed through many vicissitudes in its
life of nearly eighty-seven years. It enjoyed its greatest repute during
the first fifteen years of its existence, falling into the hands of
inferior officials and placemen during the era of Walpole and the first
years of the supremacy of Newcastle. Granted new powers in 1752, it rose
again to a position of prominence which it held for fourteen years, and
it reached a climax in 1765, when it was made a ministerial executive
office of government, as were the Secretary's office and the boards of
the Admiralty and the Treasury, possessing full authority and complete
jurisdiction in all matters relative to its own department. This
position of independence was, however, soon lost. On August 8, 1766,
an order in Council declared that all measures relative to commerce and
the colonies should originate either with the King in Council, the
Committee of the Council, or one of the principal Secretaries of State.
This order, which evidently originated with Shelburne, Secretary of the
Southern Department, that he might increase thereby his control over
all colonial affairs, reduced the board to the position of an advisory
and consulting body upon such matters as the Council might refer to
it. Henceforth all estimates for colonial services and the direction
and application of money granted thereupon, which had hitherto been
transacted by the board, were resumed by the higher authorities. From
this time the importance and influence of the board steadily declined
until it was finally abolished in 1782. The control of the colonies
during the period from 1768 to 1782 was assumed by the new Secretary
of State for the colonies and remained in his charge until his office
also was abolished in the same year.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Footnote 1: See various papers among the Shaftesbury MSS., Division X,
particularly 8, No. 4, "L^{d} Shaftesbury's Advice to his Majesty about
Trade, etc."]

[Footnote 2: Edward Long, governor and historian of Jamaica, viewed
the appointment of the Council as a piece of jobbery and graft, an
undertaking espoused not for the national good, but in order to obtain
new and lucrative offices for Ashley and others "his Brethren in the
ministry." Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 12438, iii, f. 17.]

[Footnote 3: Henry Slingsby is named secretary and treasurer in the
commission and his signature or initials are appended to all orders from
October 5, 1670, to July 23, 1672. During this time and until September
13, 1673, Dr. Worsley acted as assistant and is called "secretary" until
November 15, 1672, when he was made treasurer also. On October 15, 1673,
after the discharge of Worsley, John Locke, secretary, friend, and ally
of the Earl of Shaftesbury, president of the new Council of 1672, was
sworn in as secretary and as treasurer on December 16, 1673. He remained
in service until the abolition of the Council. Evelyn speaks of Worsley
as dead on October 15, but this statement cannot be true as Worsley was
still alive in March, 1675.]

[Footnote 4: Evelyn in describing the room in which the Council sat
mentions atlases, maps, charts, globes, etc., but Locke when called upon
to hand over the papers in March, 1675, reported that he never had had
any globes and maps.]

[Footnote 5: The commission, instructions, and additional instructions
of the Council for Foreign Plantations are to be found among the
Shaftesbury Papers in the Public Record Office, fair written in an entry
book bound in vellum. <DW37>. X, 10. Another copy of the instructions is
contained in X, 8 (11).]

[Footnote 6: The sources for the history of the councils of 1670 and
1672 are: The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1669-1674, which
contains abstracts of the papers of the Councils now among the Colonial
Papers. Had it been possible to examine each original document before
writing this paper there is no doubt that the list of the meetings given
in the Appendix would have been considerably extended. The calendaring
is often far from clear and the indexing, as far as all the boards are
concerned from 1622 to 1675, is a muddle of confusion. Among the Board
of Trade Papers is an Index to the entry books of the councils, which
shows that the following books, "called in the stile of the office, the
'rough books,'" were kept: "A Journal," "Orders of Council of Foreign
Plantations," "Petitions, References, and Reports," "Addresses and
Advices," "Letters and Answers," "Miscellanies," "Barbadoes," "Leeward
Islands," "Jamaica," "Virginia," "Letters from the Council," "New
England," "Fishery," "West India, Surinam," and "Letters to the
Council." Most of these entry books have been found scattered among
the Colonial Office volumes. Unfortunately the most important book,
"A Journal," is missing and has been missing for two centuries. The
"Index," however, contains a series of entries entitled, "Heads of
Business," which is very incomplete as an index to the meetings, but
upon which I have drawn in making up my list. The "Virginia" volume
is also missing, but it apparently contained nothing except blank
leaves. Part one of the volume entitled "Letters and Answers" and the
whole of "Letters to the Council" are also missing. The "New England"
volume contains only a copy of the Massachusetts charter; that entitled
"Miscellaneous" three interesting papers "Concerning Spiriting,"
"Consideration about Foreign Plantations," and "Other considerations
concerning Plantations." The complete minutes of two meetings are among
the Shaftesbury Papers and very interesting notes in Evelyn's Diary.]

[Footnote 7: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1669-1674, Sec.Sec. 327, I, 415, 565,
663, 680, 697, 704, 737, 804, 805, 891, 896, 1044, 1101.]

[Footnote 8: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1669-1674, Sec.Sec. 287, 365, 822, 834,
917, 1003, 1011-1013, 1100, 1186, 1197, 1212, 1251-1252, 1255, 1295,
1300, 1306, 1386.]

[Footnote 9: Lord's Journal, XII, pp. 254, 257, 273-274, 284.]

[Footnote 10: Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1672-1673, pp. 213-214.]

[Footnote 11: New York Col. Docts., III, pp. 228, 229-230; Cal. State
Papers, Col., 1675-1676, Sec.Sec. 648, 649.]

[Footnote 12: Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 9767, 9768, containing an itemized
expense account of the Lords of Trade from 1676 to 1696.]

[Footnote 13: Brit. Mus., Egerton, 2395, f. 276.]




APPENDIX I.

Instructions, Board of Trade, 1650.


_First._--They are to take notice of all the Native commodities of this
Land, or what Time and Industry may hereafter make Native and advise how
they may not only be fully Manufactured, but well and truly wrought, to
the Honor and Profit of the Commonwealth.

_Secondly._--They are to consider how the Trades and Manufactures of
this Nation may most fitly and equally be distributed to every part; to
the end that one part may not abound with Trade, and another remain poor
and desolate for the want of the same.

_Thirdly._--They are to consult how the Trade may most conveniently be
driven from one part of this Land to another. To which purpose they are
to consider how the Rivers may be made more Navigable and the Ports more
capable of Shipping.

_Fourthly._--They are to consider how the Commodities of this Land may
be vented, to the best advantage thereof, into Foraign Countreys, and
not undervalued by the evil management of Trade, And that they advise
how Obstructions of Trade into Foraign parts may be removed; and desire
by all means, how new ways and places may be found out, for the better
venting of the Native commodities of this Land.

_Fifthly._--They are to advise how Free Ports or Landing-places
for Foreign Commodities imported (without paying of Custom if again
exported) may be appointed in several parts of this Land, and in what
manner the same is to be effected.

_Sixthly._--They are to consider of some way, that a most exact account
be kept of all commodities imported and exported through the Land,
to the end that a perfect Balance of Trade may be taken, whereby the
Commonwealth may not be impoverished, by receiving of Commodities yearly
from Foraign parts of a greater value than what was carried out.

_Seventhly._--They are duly to consider the value of the _English_
Coyns, and the Par thereof, in relation to the intrinsic value which it
bears in weight and fineness with the Coyns of other Nations. Also to
consider of the state of the Exchange, and of the gain or loss that
comes to the Commonwealth by the Exchange now used by the Merchants.

_Eighthly._--They are (in order to the Regulating and Benefit of Trade)
seriously to consider what Customs, Impositions, and Excise is fit to be
laid upon all Goods and Commodities, either Native or Imported, and how
the said Customs, Impositions, and Excise may be best ordered and
Regulated, and so equally laid and evenly managed, as neither Trade may
be thereby hindered, nor the State made incapable to defray the Publique
Charges of the Commonwealth.

_Ninthly._--They are to take into their consideration whether it be
necessary to give way to a more open or free Trade than that of
Companies and Societies, and in what manner it is fittest to be done;
wherein, notwithstanding, they are to take care that Government and
Order in Trade may be preserved and Confusion avoided.

_Tenthly._--They are to inform themselves of the particular Ordinances,
Orders, Grants, Patents, and Constitutions of the several Companies of
Merchants and Handicraftsmen, to the end that if any of them tend to
the hurt of the Publique, they may be laid down in such manner as the
Parliament shall think fit.

_Eleventhly._--They are to consider the great Trade of Fishing, and
that not only upon the coasts of _England_ and _Ireland_ but likewise of
_Iceland_, _Greenland_, _Newfoundland_, and _New England_, or elsewhere,
and to take care that the Fishermen may be encouraged to go on in their
Labors, to the increase of Shipping and Mariners.

_Twelfthly._--They are to take into their consideration the English
Plantations in America or elsewhere, and to advise how those Plantations
may be best managed, and made most useful for this Commonwealth, and how
the Commodities thereof may be so multiplied and improved, as (if it
be possible) those Plantations alone may supply the _Commonwealth_ of
_England_ with whatsoever it necessarily wants. (Inderwick, _The
Interregnum_, p. 74 note.)




APPENDIX II.

Instructions for the Council for Foreign Plantations, 1670-1672.


Given at our Court at Whitehall the 30th day of July, 1670.

[Sidenote: Preamble.]

Forasmuch as our severall Colonies, and Plantations abroad, have by the
Prudence of our Predecessors, and not without the great hazard, Charge
and Expence of these Nations been respectively setled, and being so
setled are become the proper Right and Soveraigne Posessions of us: And
forasmuch as the said Colonies having upon severall Occasions readily
exprest their loyalty and faithfulnesse towards us, have thereby the
more engaged us, out of our Princely care, not only to take notice of
them, but by all Wayes and meanes to endeavour the promoting of their
Welfare and Increase, togeather with their flourishing Estate and
condition, and more especially their Protection and Defence.

[Sidenote: To inquire of the State of the Plantations, of the Powers
and Instructions of the Governours how Executed.]

1. You are therefore strictly to inquire and informe your selves, by
the best wayes and meanes you can of the State and condition of all and
every of our said respective Colonies, and Plantations, what it is, by
whome they are respectively governed, and what Commissions, Powers and
Instructions, have been graunted by us, or any way derived from us to
that End, how the same have been duly executed and observed.

[Sidenote: Miscarriages to be represented.]

And if upon Enquiry or Examination you shall find any neglect, or
miscarriage, to have been committed by any of the said Governours
respectively, or by any of their respective Deputies, or that any such
neglect or miscarriage shall hereafter appeare to you, that shall tend
to the abuse of our Authority, or to the prejudice of our Interest, Or
to the dammage and discouragement of any of our said Plantations, you
are forthwith and at all times from time to time carefully to represent
the same to us, that we may give such direction therein as the affaire
shall require and as to our Princely wisdome shall be thought fitt.

[Sidenote: To send for Coppies of Commissions and Instructions,
and consider of them.]

[Sidenote: To give Directions accordingly.]

2. And to this End you are to demaund of the said Governours respectively,
or of their respective Deputies, the Coppies of all such Commissions and
Instructions, as have mediatly, or immediatly been derived from us, or
to procure and require the same from the Officers of Record, within this
our Kingdome. Which having you shall cause them to be fairly transcribed
and entred in a Booke provided for that purpose. That you may at all
times be the better enabled to judge of the Duties of the said
Governours respectively, and may Administer such directions to them,
as may be suitable thereunto, and most agreeable to our service.

[Sidenote: What Number of Parishes, Planters, Servants and Slaves
are in the Severall Plantations.]

3. And that you may the better provide for the Defence, Welfare, and
Security of the said Plantations, you are diligently to informe your
selves how all and every of the said Colonies and Plantations are
inhabited (viz) What number of Parishes there are in each respective
Goverment, and what number of Planters there be in each Parish and what
number of Servants doe belong to the said Planters respectively, and
whether the said Servants are Christians, or Slaves that are brought
from other parts.

[Sidenote: If thinly stockt to consider how they may be supplyed
from other Plantations or from these Dominions.]

And if you shall find any of the said Plantations to be so thinly and
weakly inhabited as that it may endanger the losse of them, you are to
consider how and which way they may most conveniently be supplyed either
from some other of our Plantations, where they are overstored, or from
any part of these our Dominions.

[Sidenote: Not to give just Provocations to their Neighbours, Indians,
or others.]

[Sidenote: To preserve Amity with them.]

4. And forasmuch as most of our said Colonies doe border upon the
Indians of severall Countries, or doe lye neare the Plantations of
our Neighbours the French, Spanish, or Dutch, and that peace is not
to be expected either with the said Indians, or with such as are our
Neighbours, without the due observance and praeservation of Justice to
each of them respecively. You are therefore strictly in our Name to
charge and Command all and every the Governours of our said Colonies
respectively, that they at no time give any just provocation to any of
the said Indians, nor to any of our said Neighbours, that are at peace
with us, or their Subjects, but that they doe by all just wayes and
meanes endeavour to preserve the Amity that is respectively setled
betweene them, and to begett also for the future a good and faire
Correspondency with them.

[Sidenote: Governours to receive all Indians under their Protections.]

5. And inasmuch as some of the Natives of the said Indians may be of
great use to give Intelligence to our Plantations, Or to discover the
Trade of other Countries to them, or to be Guides to places more remote
from them, or to informe our Governours of severall Advantages, and
Commodities that may be within or neare to our severall Plantations,
not otherwise capable to be known to them, And may be many other wayes
serviceable, either to defend or to succour and assist our Plantations.
It is therefore our pleasure, and we doe hereby require you, to give
strict order to our severall and respective Governours, that if any of
the said Indian Nations shall at any time desire to put themselves under
the protection of our Goverment, that they doe receive them, And that
they doe by all Wayes and Meanes seeke firmly to oblige them, And that
they doe direct or employ some persons purposely to learne the languages
respectively of them.

And that they doe not only carefully protect and defend them from other
Indians, and from any that are the Adversaries of them. But that they
more especially take care that none of our owne Subjects, nor any of
their respective Servants, doe at any time any way harme them.

[Sidenote: Not to suffer them to be injured in their persons Goods
or Possessions.]

And that if any shall dare to offer any Violence to them in their
respective persons, Goods or possessions, the said Governours doe
severely punish the said Injuries agreeable to Justice and Right.

6. And for the better Improovement of the Trade and Commerce of the said
Plantations, you are as much as in you lyeth to take care, and to give
such Rules and Directions therein, as you shall in your Judgement thinke
best.

[Sidenote: That all Commodities of their Growth or making be duly
manufactured and Improoved.]

That all the Commodities which are made and produce in every of our said
Plantations, may be duly cured, Manufactured, Improoved, and made as
Merchantable to the utmost as they may, to the end that they may not
only be of the greater perfection, but of the greater value, worth and
repute abroad among other Countries.

[Sidenote: Whether other Commodities, then what grow at present,
may not be planted and thrive, as Cotton, Ginger, Cocoa &c.]

7. To which End you are to inquire and informe your selves aright.
Whether there may not be some better Species even of those very
Commodities which we now plant, Than what we yet have, as of Cotton,
Ginger, Cocoa &c. Or whether there may not be some better and more
perfect skill used, in some other places, for the husbanding, managing,
and perfecting the said Commodities, than what we use at present.

[Sidenote: To gaine the knowledge and skill of such, & impart them
to the People.]

And if you find the same to be so, you are to use all Endeavour possible
to procure the said Species, or to gaine the Knowledge of the said
skill, and to impart the same to the people of our said Plantations.

[Sidenote: What Islands are fittest and most conveniently seated
for breeding of Cattle.]

8. And forasmuch as the Increase of Horses, and Cattle for Draught
or for Victuall, are of very great use for the settling of new, and for
the furnishing of old Plantations, And that there are severall Islands
which as we are informed, are not so fitt for the inhabiting, or for the
planting of any Commodity in, as for the breeding the said Cattle, and
which may yet be the more easily setled, by how much they require the
lesse people.

You are therefore to informe your selves, what Islands are scituate
most convenient for that purpose, and to conferre with such Seamen and
Captaines of Shipps, as have viewed and coasted along the said places.

[Sidenote: To give Encouragement towards the effecting of the same.]

And to consider accordingly of such Conditions, and to publish such
encouragements, as that the same may be most probable to be effected.

9. And in regard whatever conduceth to the Increase of Shipping, must
equally conduce to the Safety and strength of these Nations.

[Sidenote: Whether Masts and other Materialls for Shipping may not
be furnished from the Plantations.]

And that not only Masts, but all other Materialls, as well for the
building, as fitting out of Shipps of great burthen may as we are
informed be plentifully furnished from some of our Plantations, if
care hereunto were more especially used.

[Sidenote: To encourage the producing of Hempe, Flax, Pitch and Tarre
in New England: and setting up of Sawing Mills.]

You are therefore more particularly to advise about this matter, with
the severall Governours, and Colonies of New England, and to propound
to them or receive their Opinion, what methods and course might be
most fitt for the producing of Flax, Hempe, Pitch and Tarre in those
Countries in most plenty. As also where Mills might be most conveniently
placed and encreased for the sawing of Timber, and Planke, and how best
we may ease the charge and promote the building there of great Shipping.

[Sidenote: How the Plantations may be supplyed with Servants
and Slaves.]

10. You are to take into your Consideration, how all and every our said
Colonies, and Plantations, may be best supplyed both with servants and
Slaves.

[Sidenote: To consider the differences betwixt the Guiny Company,
and the Plantations, and to find out expedients of agreement.]

[Sidenote: That none of his Ma^{ties} Subjects of these kingdomes be
forced or Enticed away to the Plantations by any unlawfull Practises,
but that they may be duly accomodated.]

And what just Objections the said Plantations have against the standing
and Priviledges of the Guiny Company, Or what complaints the Guiny
Company doth justly make against any of the said Colonies. And to find
out such Expedients if possible, that neither of them may lye under any
Discouragements, or that at least neither of them may be permitted to
injure or oppresse the other. You are also as farre as you may, to
provide that none of our Subjects in these Kingdomes, be either forced
or enticed away into any of our said Plantations, by any indirect and
unlawfull practises, But that all such persons neverthelesse, as are
willing, and that shall desire to be transported thither, to seeke a
better condition there than what they have at present at home, may by
all meanes be encouraged.

And that some Course be duly considered by you also how far the future
Vagrants, and all such persons as are Noxious, and infamous for their
Lives here, may be Transported, as that the forreigne Plantations may
be accomodated with them, and these Kingdomes disburthened.

[Sidenote: Correspondency with the Governours the better to understand
their Government, Plantations, Complaints, Trade and Shipping, and the
Increase or Decrease thereof.]

11. You are likewise to order and settle such a continuall
correspondence with all and every our said Plentations, and with all and
every the respective Governements of them. That you may be able as often
as you are required thereunto to give us an Account, not only of the
Governement of each Colony, and of the severall Commodities which they
respectively plant, but of their severall Complaints and wants also,
and how you find their Trade respectively to increase or decrease.

To which purpose you are to require an Account to be sent you
continually from time to time of all the Shipps that shall Trade into
any of the said Plantations. And of the substance of what lading they
import thither togeather with an account also what Shipps are freighted
from thence and with what sort of Goods, and what quantity there is of
each of the said sorts, and whether Consigned. That so the true state
and condition of each Colony in reference to the Trade and Increase and
Decrease of it, may be thoroughly and rightly understood.

[Sidenote: To regulate the trade of the Plantations, so that they may
be serviceable to one another, as well as to these our kingdomes.]

12. And being thus informed you are further to apply your selves by
all prudentiall wayes and Meanes so to Order, Governe, and Regulate the
Trade of our whole Plantations, that they may be most serviceable one
unto another, and as the whole unto these our Kingdomes so these our
kingdomes unto them.

[Sidenote: To take care of the due execution of the Acts for
encouragement of Shipping and Navigation.]

13. You are therefore to inquire into, and strictly to take care of the
due Execution of the severall Acts for the encouragement of Shipping,
and Navigation and that as much as in you lyeth, none of those good
Ends and purposes, so much tending to the strength and benefitt of this
Nation may be frustrated for which the said Acts were primarily intended
and designed.

[Sidenote: To require Coppies of all Charters and Graunts concerning
any forreigne Plantations.]

14. And to the End that nothing may be wanting to the said Regulation
and that Justice may be equally distributed throughout all our said
Plantations, You are likewise to take an Inspection into, and require
a Coppy of all Charters, and Graunts that have been passed by us or by
any of our Praedecessors, to any particular persons, or to any Societies,
and Corporations of Men with reference to any of the said Plantations.

And more particularly to informe your selves what Goverments are held
by vertue of any of the said Charters at present, and by whome.

[Sidenote: To examine how the Ends of them have been pursued or
neglected.]

[Sidenote: In case of any differences to endeavour the composing of
them amicably.]

You are likewise to examine what Causes, Covenants and Conditions, with
relation to our selfe and to the Crowne are inserted in any of the said
Charters or Graunts, and how the same have been performed, and how the
Ends of the said Graunts themselves have been respectively pursued. Or
how much on the contrary, you find they have been neglected, and our
selfe praejudiced, and to report the same to us. And in case there shall
any differences arise concerning the bounds, and Limits of any of the
said respective Charters, or concerning the Priviledges, Rights, or
Properties, which may be challenged by any by vertue of the said
Charters.

[Sidenote: Otherwise to state and report them to his Ma^{tie}.]

You are to endeavour by the best and justest meanes you may, amicably to
compose and determine the same. But if the difference arising about any
of the said Charters, shall have so much difficulty, as that the same
cannot be friendly and amicably ended as aforesaid. In that case you
are after Examination of it to state it to us. That we may give such
Resolution thereupon as may be agreeable to Justice.

[Sidenote: To send for Coppies of the Lawes now in force that if upon
examination any of them be found contrary to honour, Justice, or the
Law of England, they may be nulled.]

15. And as you are not to permitt any of our Loving Subjects to be
oppressed by any of the Governours of our said Colonies contrary to the
Lawes that are in force, within the said Colonies respectively, so you
are as carefully to examine, send for and require a Coppy of all such
Lawes, as have been at any time made, and doe stand yet unrepealed
within any of our said Plantations. That if any of the said Lawes be
found inconvenient or contrary to the Lawes of this Land, or to the
honour and Justice of our Governement, all such Lawes may be immediately
nulled.

[Sidenote: To procure Mapps and Charts of the severall Plantations,
and to Register and keep them.]

16. You are also by all Wayes and meanes you may to procure exact Mapps,
Platts or Charts of all and Every our said Plantations abroad, togeather
with the Mapps and Descriptions of their respective Ports, Harbours,
Forts, Bayes, Rivers with the Depth of their respective Channells
comming in or going up, and the Soundings all along upon the said
respective Coasts from place to place, and the same so had, you are
carefully to Register and Keepe.

[Sidenote: To take effectuall care for the Propagating the Gospell in
the Plantations, and for the providing and maintaining of a pious and
learned Ministry.]

[Sidenote: To reforme the Debaucheries of Planters and Servants.]

You are above all especially required to take an effectual care for the
Propagation of the Gospell, in all our said Colonies and Plantations
respectively, by providing that there be good Encouragem^{t} setled for
the Invitation and maintenance of pious and learned Ministers, and by
sending strict Orders and Instructions for the regulating and reforming
the Debaucheries of Planters and Servants, whose evill Example doth
bring Scandall upon the Profession of Christianity, and doth deterre
such as are not yet admitted thereunto, from effecting and esteeming
the same.

[Sidenote: To invite and Instruct the Indians and Slaves in the
Christian Religion.]

And you are to consider how much of the Indians, or such as are
purchased from other parts for Slaves, may be best Instructed and
invited to the Christian Religion and Faith, it being both for the
Honour of our Crowne, and of the Protestant Religion it selfe. That all
persons within any of our Territories though never so remote should be
taught the Knowledge of God, and be accquainted with the Mysteries of
Salvation.

[Sidenote: To write Letters to the severall Governours to informe them
of his Ma^{ties} great care of the Plantations in erecting this Councill
as also a generall Councill for trade.]

18. You are therefore forthwith to write Letters and to send them
to the severall Governours of our said respective Plantations, or to
their respective Deputies in all parts, wherein you are to informe
them of our great care and signall grace towards our said Colonies,
and of our erecting not only a general Councill for Trade, that might
take cognizance of such things as may be their concerne, But of our
appointing this Councill in particular which is employed only for the
better care and conduct of them.

[Sidenote: To require of them an Account of the state of their present
condition and of what they judge necessairie for their Securitie,
Encouragem^{t}, and accomodation.]

You are therefore to require them, by themselves, or by the Assistance
of the respective Councills or Assemblies of the said Colonies to send
you an exact account of the State of their Condition at present, and of
such particulars within these your Instructions as you shall in the
first place thinke most necessary for them to answer or informe you of.

And that they doe further propound to you what they judge to be
most immediately necessary either for their security, or for the
encouragement, and accomodation of them.

[Sidenote: To observe such other Instructions as shall be sent under
his Ma^{ties} Signe Manuall, and if further Powers be found necessary,
the Councill to adresse to his Ma^{tie} therein.]

19. Lastly you are to follow such other Instructions concerning the
Praemises, as shall be sent to you from time to time by us under our
Signe Manuall.

And in all cases wherein you shall judge that further Powers and
Assistance shall be necessary for you, You are to addresse Your selves
to us, for our further pleasure Resolution and Direction therein.

    Given at our Court at Whitehall the 30^{th}. day of July 1670,
    in the two and twentieth yeare of our Reigne.

    By his Ma^{ties} Command

    ARLINGTON.




Additional Instructions for the Council for Foreign Plantations, 1670-1672.

Given at Our Court at Whitehall the First Day of August, 1670.


[Sidenote: To inquire concerning the Strength Fortifications and
Military discipline of the Plantations.]

1. You are also particularly to inquire and informe your selves of the
strength of all and every of our Colonies, how they are respectively
fortifyed, what the said Fortifications are, and how conveniently
situated; as also to inquire how the Inhabitants of the said Colonies
are respectively trained or disciplined.

And in what Posture they are to make a resistance upon occasion, against
any sudden attempt or Assault, if it should be offred them either by the
Indians, or by the forces of any other Prince or State that are their
Neighbours:

[Sidenote: Concerning the Stores of their Ball, Powder, and other
Ammunition and the securing and praeserving of them.]

And what Stores they have of Armes, Ball, Powder or any other Ammunition
respectively, and what care is further necessary to be employed, for the
better Securing and praeserving each of them, and to give an account from
time to time of the whole to us.

[Sidenote: To recommend to the Governours, the breeding and producing
of Salt Petre.]

2. And forasmuch as we are informed, that there are among severall of
our Plantations, Grounds very proper for the Breeding and producing of
Salt Petre.

And those so rich also that if they were improoved to the utmost, great
quantities of that Commodity might be easily had from those parts,
without sending into the Indies for it:

You are therefore very specially to Recommend this affaire to the
Governours of such Plantations, where you shall be informed the Grounds
are fittest for this purpose. And not only to require their care for the
Improovement of it; but to send your Advice to them, and to receive
their respective answer and opinion, how and in what manner they judge
the same, may be best, and most speedily put in Execution.

[Sidenote: The Planting of such Commodities as are most for the benefit
of the Plantacons and to redresse all praejudiciall Courses of Planting.]

3. And forasmuch as the greatest benefitt that can arise to any of our
said Colonies, must be when the Planters of any of the said Colonies
shall be able to improove their Labour or Ground to the utmost Profitt
respectively.

Wherefore if the Sayle of any of the said Plantations shall be equally
fitt for the producing as well of severall other Commodities, as for the
producing of that which the said Colonie is accustomed unto.

And that the said other Commodities are such also as are of more profitt
to be planted by farre then that which is usuall, And that doe not only
grow in the Countries adjacent to the said Plantations, but are found by
Experience to thrive well even in the very said Plantations themselves.

In this Case you are to take care that a Custome be not nourished to the
praejudice of Trade, and of the said Plantations, But that you take order
for the Planting, Husbanding and Improoving of that Commodity that is
most profitable and most for the benefitt of the said Plantation. And to
this End that you by Letters conferre with the Governour, or with the
Assembly of the said respective Plantation, that some redresse may be
made and some stopp put to such a praejudiciall Course, or Custome of
planting as is aforesaid.

[Sidenote: To consider how Spices, Gummes, Drugs, Dying Stuffes &c. may
best be obtained from the East Indies, and other places, for the storing
and enriching Plantations, and how to Reward the Undertakers thereof.]

4. And forasmuch as the scituation of severall of our said Plantations
is such, as that it seemeth very probable to us, they might be stored
with many more Druggs, Gummes, and Dying Stuffes than what they now
have. Yea with severall Spices, and other Merchandises as well from the
East Indies, Turkie, and other places, as from severall of the Spanish
and Portugeeze Plantations. You are therefor required to consider and
advise what Commodities, in any of the Countries aforementioned or in
any other that shall be considered by you, may be (as you Judge) best
and fittest to transplant into any of our said Colonies (respect being
had to their said severall and respective Climates). And how the said
Commodities may easiest, best, and with least Observation, be obtained
from the said Countries:

What methods are meetest to be used, or what Rewards fittest to be
given, to any that shall runne the hazards and Expence of it, to
undertake them.

And which may therefore the same, may be most probably soe effected, as
that the Commerce mey be encreased, and the said Plantations enriched
through it.

[Sidenote: What Councills are established in other Kingdomes, and what
Powers and instructions are given them for the improving of their Trade
and Plantations and to consider the Advantages and Disadvantages
thereof.]

5. You are to informe your selves as farre as you may what Councills
are Established in any other Kingdome for the good Governement, and
Improoving of their respective Plantations. What Directions or
Instructions, also, are particularly given to the said respective
Councills, and what Policy, Method or Conduct is used by them with
relation to the Strength, Trade and Increase of the said respective
Colonies, or with relation to the people themselves that are sent
thither.

And if you shall discerne such Methods and Directions to be good, or to
be well founded in Experience and Reason, You are to consider either how
the same may be aplyed to the Advantage of our owne Plantations, or how
any Inconveniences that may follow from them may be by you prudently
avoided.

    Given at our Court at Whitehall, the first day of August 1670,
    in the two and twentieth yeare of our Reigne.

    By his Ma^{ties} Command

    ARLINGTON.




APPENDIX III.

Draft of Instructions for the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations,
1672-1674.

The Commission and Instructions Were Issued on September 27, 1672.


[Sidenote: To consider the Improvem^{t} of the Commodityes of these
Kingdomes.]

1. You are to consider how all Goods and Commodityes of the Production
or Growth of these Our Kingdomes may be best Improoved. What other
usefull Commodityes or Materialls for Manufactures there are which the
Nature of Our Sayle with good Husbandry will beare, or that tyme and
Industry can make Native.

[Sidenote: To consider the Setting up of Manufactures.]

2. You are likewise to consider the setting up and Improoving of
Manufactures within Our said Kingdomes, especially of shipping. And such
others as are most for the Employment of Our people of best use, and
greatest Proffit to our Kingdomes. The Establishing of Such Manufactures
in Townes and places most convenient for them. And to provide that all
such Manufactures (especially our Old and new Draperyas) be truely made
and fully manufactured at home.

[Sidenote: The improoving of the Fishing Trade at home & abroad.]

3. You are to consider how the Fishing Trade both at home and abroad may
be encouraged and improoved to the best advantage.

[Sidenote: The opening of Rivers, Ports and Harbours.]

4. How Our Rivers may be made Navigable and Our Ports and Harbours more
capable of receiving Shipping.

[Sidenote: The Distributing of Trade and Manufactures.]

5. And how Trade and Manufactures may be more fitly and equally
distributed through Our Kingdomes.

[Sidenote: To examine the Burthens of Trade.]

6. You are strictly to Examine what Burthens the Trade of Our sayd
Kingdomes doth at present Groane under both at home and abroad, more
then the Trade of Neighbouring Princes and States.

[Sidenote: To enquire into abuses in Trade and Manufactures.]

7. You are to make due Search and Inquiry into the abuses practised
among Merchants, Vintners, Wyne-Coopers, Brewers, Dyers, Apothecaryes,
Goldsmyths, Refyners, Wyre-Drawers, Penterers, Hatters, Clothiers and
other Trades and Manufactures within these Our Kingdomes, as also
concerning Weights and Measures.

[Sidenote: To consider of the better venting of Native Commodity's.]

8. You are to consider how Our Native Commodityes, and Manufactures may
be vented in greater Quantetyes, and with more Hono^{e} and profitt to
Our said Kingdomes.

[Sidenote: How forreigne Commodityes may be brought in at cheaper
Rates.]

9. And how forreigne Goods, and Commodityes may be brought from the
severall places of their Growth or making in fitt and reasonable tymes,
and at the Cheapest rates.

[Sidenote: about building of Ships for the carriage of Bulky
Commodityes.]

10. You are to consider about the Building of Pinkes, Flutes, and other
great Ships for the more convenient Carryage of Masts, Tymber and other
Bulky Commodityes. And about setting them out (according as the place to
which they are bound may allow) with fewer men and Gunns then usuall.

[Sidenote: How Correspondencyes may be kept in places of great commerce
abroad.]

11. You are to consider how Correspondencyes may be settled and kept
in all places of Great Commerce abroad for the better knowing with what
proffit or Losse Our Native Commodityes and Manufactures are vented. And
What Lawes are from tyme to tyme made or Trades new Erected in forreigne
parts to the advantage, or Disadvantage of Our Trade or Commerce.

[Sidenote: How free Ports may be opened.]

12. You are to consider how Free Ports may conveniently be opened
about Our Coasts for the Landing, and Storeing of Forreigne
Commodityes. Giving leave to retransport them paying only some small
acknowledgements. And of the severall Advantages that may arise unto
these Our Kingdomes by Giving way (according to the Example of other
Nations) to a more open, and free Trade then that of Companyes and
Corporations.

[Sidenote: To receive Propositions concerning Trade and Navigation.]

13. And you are to receive and Consider all Propositions or Overtures
concerning new Inventions or Improvements in any Art, Trade or
Manufacture, or concerning the regulating or Securing of Trade, and
Improoving of Navigation that shall be offered unto you by any person
whatsoever.

[Sidenote: To enquire into the State of his Ma^{ts} forreigne
Plantacons.]

14. You are strictly to enquire, and informe yourselves by the best
wayes and Meanes you can of the State and Condition of Our said
Forreigne Collonyes and Plantations. By whome they are Governed and what
Commissions, Powers and Instruccons have been granted by Us, or by any
of Our Royall Predecessors to that End, and how the same have been
Executed and observed.

[Sidenote: To enquire What Councills Assemblies and Courts of Indicature
there are in them.]

15. You are likewise to enquire and informe yourselves. What Councills,
Assemblyes and Courts of Indicature for Civill and Criminall Causes
there are within the said Collonyes and Plantations, and of what Nature
and Kind.

[Sidenote: What Courts of Admiralty.]

16. What Courts of Indicature they have relating to the Admiralty.

[Sidenote: What their Legislative and Executive Powers are.]

17. Where the Legislative and Executive Powers of their Governments are
seated.

[Sidenote: What Statutes and Lawes they have.]

18. What Statutes, Lawes, and Ordinances they have made, and are now in
force.

[Sidenote: What number of Horse and Foot.]

19. What number of Horse and Foot they have and whether Trayned Bands,
Bands, or Standing Forces.

[Sidenote: What Castles and Forts and how provided.]

20. What Castles or Forts they have, how situated and what Stores and
Provisions they are furnished with.

[Sidenote: What strength their Neighbours have.]

21. What strength their Bordering Neighbours have by Sea and Land.

[Sidenote: What Correspondency they keep with them.]

22. What Correspondency they keep with their Neighbours.

[Sidenote: What Armes Ammunition &c. have been sent unto them.]

23. What Armes, Ammunition, and Stores have been sent unto the said
Collonyes and Plantations upon our Accompt, when received, how Employed,
and what part of them is there remayning and where.

[Sidenote: What Moneys have been paid for Armes &c. and Fortifications.]

24. What Moneys have been paid or appointed to be paid by Us, or Leavyed
within the said severall Collonys, and Plantacons for and towards the
buying of Armes, or making and Mayntaining of any Fortifications, or
Castles, And how the said Moneys have been expended.

[Sidenote: The Boundaryes and Contents of their Lands.]

25. What the Boundaryes, and Contents of their Lands are.

[Sidenote: What Mynes, Commodityes and Manufactures they have.]

26. What Mynes they have of Gold, Silver, Copper, Tynne, Ledd, or Iron.
What Commodityes there are of their production, growth, or Manufacture.
What Materialls for Shipping and whether Salt-petre is or may be
produced in any of the said Collonyes or Plantations. And if so, At what
Rates it may be delivered in England.

[Sidenote: Whether Spices, Gumms, Drugs if Planted will not thrive.]

27. Whether Nutmegs, Cinnamon, Cloves, Pepper, and other Spices, and
Gumms, Druggs and Dying Stuffs which now grow in the East Indyes, and
are brought from thence may not be planted and come to perfection in
some of Our Collonyes, and Plantations in the West Indyes.

[Sidenote: What Rivers, Harbours &c. they have.]

28. What Rivers, Harbours, and Roads they have, and of What Depths, and
Soundings.

[Sidenote: What Banks or Shoales for Fishing.]

29. What Banks, or Shoales they have upon, or neare their Coasts for
Fishing.

[Sidenote: What number of Planters and Parishes.]

30. What number of Planters, Servants, and Slaves, and how many Parishes
they have.

[Sidenote: What number of Whites and Blacks doe yearly come.]

31. What Number of English, Scotch, or Irish doe yearely come, and what
Blacks, or Slaves, are brought unto them.

[Sidenote: What number of People dye yearely.]

32. What Number of People doe yearely dye within the said Collonyes and
Plantations both Whites, and Blacks.

33. What Number of Shipps doe Yearely Trade to and from the said
Collonyes and Plantations, and of what Burthen they are.

[Sidenote: What number of Ships Trade yearely.]

[Sidenote: What obstructions they have and Advantages may be gained to
their Trade.]

34. What Obstructions there are, and What advantages may be gained to
the Improovement of their Trade and Navigation.

[Sidenote: What Dutyes are Charged upon Goods imported, or exported.]

35. What Rates and Dutyes are charged and payable upon any Goods or
Commodityes exported out of the said Collonyes and Plantations, whether
of their owne Growth and Manufacture or otherwyse. As also upon Goods
imported.

[Sidenote: What Publick Revenues doe arise among them.]

36. What Revenues doe or may arise unto Us within the said Collynes and
Plantations, and of what nature they are. By whome Collected, and how
answered and Accompted unto Us.

[Sidenote: How they instruct the People in Religion, and pay their
Ministry.]

37. And what Course they take about Instructing of their People in the
Christian Religion. And what Provision is made for the Maintenance of
their Ministers.

[Sidenote: To consider which of the said Collonyes are not fully
Planted.]

38. You are to informe yourselves which of our said Collonyes and
Plantations are not fully Planted or Inhabited, and to consider how such
of them may most conveniently be supplyed from others that are
overstored with people.

[Sidenote: How the s^{d} Collonyes may be serviceable to one another and
useful to these Kingdomes.]

39. You are to consider how our said Collonyes, and Plantations may be
serviceable unto one another in relation to their mutuall Sustenance and
Defence, and how they may be Governed to be of use and advantage
likewise to these Our Kingdomes.

[Sidenote: To Correspond by Letters with forreigne Governours.]

40. You are to take care in Keeping frequent Correspondency by Letters
with the severall Governours of Our said Collonyes, and Plantations.

[Sidenote: To Charge them to preserve peace with their Neighbo^{rs} and
to protect y^{e} Indians.]

41. You are hereby required in Our Name strictly to charge all and every
the Governours of Our said Collonyes and Plantations respectively. That
they doe not Give any just Provocation unto any of their Neighbours
Indians or others that are at Peace & Amity with Us. But that they doe
by all just wayes and Meanes endeavours to preserve such Peace and Amity
and keep a good and fayre Correspondencye with them.

And if any of the said Indians shall desire to putt themselves under
the Protection of the Governours, or Governments of our said Collonyes
or Plantations, That they doe receive them with respect and Kindnesse,
and Give them due Protection, and Defence in their Persons, Goods, and
Possessions according to Lawe. And in case any Persons shall contrary
thereunto offer any Affronts or Injuryes unto them, That the said
Governours doe severly punish such offenders according to Justice and
Right.

[Sidenote: To procure Coppyes of all Grants concerning the said
Collonyes &c.]

42. You are to endeavour the procuring Coppyes of all Letters Patents,
Charters, or Grants of any of Our said Collonyes or Plantations, or of
any Part of them, passed by Us or any of Our Predecessors under the
Great Seale of England, to any Person, Socyety, or Corporation of Men
Whatsoever. And to informe yourselves whether they have been duely putt
in Execution according to the Severall Grants, Clauses and Conditions,
conteyned in them respectively.

[Sidenote: To procure Exact Mapps of the said Collonyes.]

43. You are likewise to endeavour the procuring of Exact Mapps,
Platts, or Charts of all Our said Collonyes and Plantations with the
Descriptions of their respective Rivers, Forts, Harbours, Bayes, and
Roads.

[Sidenote: To consider of the improoving of their Trade and Commerce.]

44. And when you shall have received due Information concerning the
perticulars in the foregoing Instructions. You are to consider of the
best wayes, and Meanes for the encourageing settling, and Improoving
the Trade, and Commerce of Our sayd Collonyes, and Plantations. And
accordingly to offer unto Us your Opinions, and Advice thereupon.

[Sidenote: To Examine if the Articles of Peace and Commerce with
forreigne Princes have been performed.]

45. You are to consider the severall Articles of Peace and Commerce that
have been heretofore made between Us or any of our Royal Predecessors,
and all forreigne Princes, and States, and to Examine whether the
Priviledges and Immunityes by them Granted or agreed for the Benefitt
and advantage of Our Merchants, have from tyme to tyme been carefully
upheld and performed, And in case you shall find any Manifest Breach of
them, or any Injuryes done to Our Merchants, or any Obstructions to Our
Trade thereby, You are to represent the same to Us for Our
Consideration.

[Sidenote: To enquire what Councills of Trade &c. are settled in
forreigne Parts and w^{t} Commiss^{ns} Instructions and Allowances
they have.]

46. You are to informe yourselves the best that may be, What Councills,
or Courts of Indicature are Established in any forreigne Kingdomes
or States for the well Government of their Trade and Navigation,
and for the Improovement Settlement, and Defence of their Collonyes
and Plantations. As also What Commissions, Powers, Authorityes,
Instructions, and allowances they have Given and Granted unto them
for the better carrying on of those Services.

[Sidenote: To observe such other Instructions &c as shall be sent
und^{r} his Ma^{ts} Signe Manuall and to addresse to his Ma^{ty}
for further Instructions &c. if need be.]

47. And Lastly you are required and authorized to observe and putt in
Execution all such other Powers, Authorityes and Instructions (relating
unto Our said Collonyes or Plantations, or unto the Trade, Commerce or
Navigation of them, or of these our Kingdomes) as shall from tyme to
tyme be sent unto you by Us under Our Signe Manuall.

And where you shall judge it necessary to have any further Powers,
Authorityes, or Instructions for the better Carrying on of Our Service
therein. You are to Addresse yourselves unto Us for Our further Pleasure
and Direction.




APPENDIX IV.

Heads of Business of Councils, 1670-1674.


COUNCIL FOR FOREIGN PLANTATIONS, 1670-1672.

_August 3, 1670._

Commission and instructions for a Council for Foreign Plantations read.
(From the Index mentioned on p. 101, note 6, here cited as _Journal_.)

_August 9._

Letter to Trinity House. (_Journal._)

_August 12._

Oath of Secrecy to the Officers. (_Journal._)

_August 16._

Petition of St. Christopher read. (_Journal_; Cal. State Papers, Col.
1669-1674, Sec. 232, here cited as _Cal._)

_August 19._

Commissioners for St. Christopher agreed on. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 232.)

_August 22._

Report on St. Christopher's case. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 232, 850.)

_September 22._

Petition for a chief governor of the Leeward Is. (_Journal_; _Cal._,
Sec. 268.)

_September 24._

Beginning of consideration of Surinam question. (_Journal_; _Cal._,
Sec.Sec. 60, 291, 486, 524, and _passim._)

_September 26._

Col. Lynch to be a committee at St. Christopher and afterwards to goe to
Jamaica as his Maj. Lieutenant. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 287.)

_September 27._

Leeward Is. petition again read. (_Cal._, Sec. 269.)

_September 29._

Drafting of queries to Gov. Berkeley of Virginia. (_Cal._, Sec. 565.)

_September 30._

Jamaica & the Isle of Providence. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 276.)

_October 5._

Surinam, Jamaica, St. Christopher; Conveyance of Letters to Foreign
Plantations. (_Journal_; _Cal._, _Dom._, 1672-1673, p. 295.)

_October 10._

Surinam agreement with the two ships, 20,000^{11} damage at St.
Christopher. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 274, 292, 295.)

_October 18._

St. Christopher order of summons to planters of Barbadoes and
petitioners from St. Christopher to appear. (_Cal._, Sec. 297.) There must
have been a meeting on "Friday next."

_October 25._

Draft instructions for Commissioners for St. Christopher for bringing
off from Surinam English subjects, their families, and estates.
(_Cal._, Sec. 304.)

_October 27._

Leeward Is. their Governor apart, Answer of Lord Willoughby read.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 309, 327.)

_November 1._

Surinam, names of Commissioners. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 319, 320, 324.)

_November 5._

Commission and instructions to Major Bannister for fetching off the
English from Surinam. (_Cal._, Sec. 850.)

_November 8._

Peace with Spain. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 334, 334 I.)

_November 12._

Barbadoes imposition on Sugar. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 332, 519, 520,
p. 229, _passim._)

_November 15._

Order regarding 16th article of the treaty with Spain. (_Cal._, Sec. 334.)

_November 17._

Report on petition of Leeward Is., favoring the petition, despite Lord
Willoughby's objections. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 339, 850.)

_November 26._

Sir Chas. Wheeler appointed governor of the Leeward Is. (_Journal_;
_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 327, 392-397.)

_December 16._

Commission and instructions to Sir Thomas Lynch, Lieut. Gov. of Jamaica.
(_Cal._, Sec. 850.)


1671.

_January 14._

Newfoundland, petition regarding the fishery. (_Journal_; _Cal._,
Sec.Sec. 362, 368, 369, 385.)

_January 21._

Governors of Plantations to take the Oaths [of Allegiance?]. (_Journal._)

_January 28._

Continuation of Newfoundland Question. (_Journal._)

_February 9._

Consideration of proposals of Sir Charles Wheeler. (_Journal_; _Cal._,
Sec.Sec. 410, 412, 415, 420.)

_February 14._

Wheeler's proposals regarding defence of St. Christopher. (_Journal_;
_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 412, 850.)

_February 18._

Spiriting, kidnapping of young persons for transport to the plantations.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, 1661-1668, Preface, p. xxvii _et seq._)

_March 2._

Continuation of Newfoundland question. Report on the petition. (_Cal._,
Sec.Sec. 362, 850.)

_March 8._

Estimate sent (and probably received on same day) by officers of
ordnance regarding ammunition, etc. for Leeward Is. (_Cal._, Sec. 445.)

_March 10._

Report on Newfoundland petition, made on March 2, read. (_Cal._, _Dom._,
1671, under Mar. 10.)

_April 27._

Petition of Ferdinando Gorges read. (_Cal._, Sec. 512; See _Cal._, _Dom._,
1671, April 27, Slingsby to Williamson.)

_May 22._

Robert Mason's first petition to the Council; divers relations
concerning New England, with observations of the commissioners lately
employed there, read. (_Cal._, Sec. 512.)

_May 26._

"The Earl of Bristol's house in Queen's Street (Lincoln's Inn Fields)
was taken for the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, and furnished
with rich hangings of the King's. It consisted of seven rooms on a
floor, with a long gallery, gardens, etc. This day we met the Duke of
Buckingham, Earl of Lauderdale, Lord Culpeper, Sir George Carteret, Vice
Chamberlain, and myself, had the oaths given us by the Earl of Sandwich,
our President. It was to advise and counsel his Majesty, to the best of
our abilities, for the well-governing of his Foreign Plantations, etc.,
the form very little differing from that given to the Privy Council. We
then took our places at the Board in the Council Chamber, a very large
room furnished with atlases, maps, charts, globes, etc. Then came the
Lord Keeper, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Earl of Arlington, Secretary of
State, Lord Ashley, Mr. Treasurer, Sir John Trevor, the other Secretary,
Sir John Duncomb, Lord Allington, Mr. Grey, son to the Lord Grey, Mr.
Henry Broncher, Sir Humphrey Winch, Sir John Finch, Mr. Waller and
Colonel Titus of the Bed chamber, with Mr. Slingsby, Secretary to the
Council, and two clerks of the Council, who had all been sworn some
days before. Being all set, our Patent was read, and then the additional
Patent, in which was recited this new establishment; then, was delivered
to each a copy of the Patent, and of instructions; after which we
proceeded to business.

The first thing we did was to settle the form of a circular letter to
the Governors of all his Majesty's Plantations and Territories in the
West Indies and Islands thereof, to give them notice to whom they should
apply themselves on all occasions, and to render us an account of their
present state and government; but what we most insisted on was, to know
the condition of New England, which appearing to be very independent as
to their regard to Old England or his Majesty, rich and strong as they
now were, there were great debates in what style to write to them; for
the condition of that Colony was such that they were able to contest
with all other Plantations about them, and there was fear of their
breaking from all dependence on this nation; his Majesty, therefore
commended this affair more expressly. We, therefore, thought fit, in the
first place, to acquaint ourselves as well as we could of the state of
that place, by some whom we heard of that were newly come from thence;
and to be informed of their present posture and condition; some of our
Council were for sending them a menacing letter, which those who better
understood the peevish and touchy humour of that Colony, were utterly
against.

A letter was then read from Sir Thomas Modiford, Governor of Jamaica;
and then the Council brake up." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, pp. 63-64.)

_June 6._

"I went to Council where was produced a most exact and ample information
of the state of Jamaica and of the best expedients as to New England,
on which there was a long debate; but at length it was concluded that if
any it should be only a conciliating paper at first, or civil letter,
till we had better information of the present face of things, since we
understood they were a people almost on the very brink of renouncing any
dependence on the Crown." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 65.)

_June 16._

Colonel Cartwright's papers concerning the New England Colonies read.
(_Cal._, Sec. 512.)

_June 19._

Patent of Massachusetts read. (_Cal._, Sec. 572; The _Journal_ says,
"Cartwright's report"; but this seems to be wrong as both Evelyn and the
_Calendar_ place Cartwright's report on the 21st.)

_June 20._

"To carry Colonel Middleton [Capt. Thomas Middleton of the former
Council for Foreign Plantations] to Whitehall, to Lord Sandwich, our
President, for some information which he was able to give of the Colony
in New England." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 65.) Probably no regular
meeting was held on this day.

_June 21._

Commission and instructions of the New England Commissioners read;
Col. Cartwright heard (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 512, 566). "To Council again, when one
Colonel Cartwright a Nottinghamshire man (formerly in commission with
Colonel Nicholls) gave us a considerable relation of that country; on
which the Council concluded that in the first place a letter of amnesty
should be despatched." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 65.)

_June 26._

Further consideration of the New England case. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 512.)

"To Council, where Lord Arlington acquainted us that it was his
Majesty's proposal we should, every one of us, contribute L20 toward
building a Council Chamber and conveniences somewhere in Whitehall, that
his Majesty might come and sit amongst us, and hear our debates; the
money we laid out to be reimbursed out of the contingent monies already
set apart for us, viz. L1000 yearly. To this we unanimously consented."
(Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 66.)

_June 29._

Sir Thomas Modyford, Panama. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 209, 433, 504, 505,
577, 578.)

"To Council, where were letters from Sir Thomas Modiford, of the
expedition and exploit of Colonel Morgan, and others of Jamaica, on the
Spanish Continent at Panama." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 66.)

_July 4._

"To Council, where we agreed to and drew up a letter to be sent to New
England, and made some proposal to Mr. Gorges, for his interest in a
plantation there." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 66.)

_July 12._

Report on Gorges petition, recommending the sending of commissioners to
New England. (_Cal._, Sec. 439, I.)

_July 17._

New England, Massachusetts. (_Journal._)

_July 24._

Robert Mason's second petition to the Council read. (_Cal._, Sec. 512.)

"To Council. Mr. Surveyor brought us a plot for the building of our
Council Chamber, to be erected at the end of the Privy-garden, in
Whitehall." (Evelyn's _Diary_, p. 66.)

_August 3._

Agreement about Commissioners to New England. (_Cal._, Sec. 512.)

Address regarding sending two ships to Surinam. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 596, 850.)

"A full appearance at the Council. The matter in debate was whether we
should send a deputy to New England, requiring them of the Massachusetts
to restore such to their limits and respective possessions, as had
petitioned the Council; this to be the open commission only; but in
truth, with secret instructions to inform us of the condition of those
Colonies, and whether they were of such power, as to be able to resist
his Majesty and declare for themselves as independent of the Crown,
which we were told and which of late years made them refractory. Colonel
Middleton being called in, assured us they might be curbed by a few of
his Majesty's first-rate frigates, to spoil their trade with the
islands; but, though my Lord President was not satisfied, the rest were,
and we did resolve to advise his Majesty to send Commissioners with a
formal Commission for adjusting boundaries, etc., with some other
instructions." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 66.)

_August 12._

Report concerning New England, a representation of the present state of
New England and the sending over of Commissioners. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 512, 598,
850.)

_August 19._

"To Council. The letters of Sir Thomas Modiford were read, giving
relation of the exploit at Panama, which was very brave." (Evelyn's
_Diary_, II, pp. 66-67.)

_September 9._

Commissioners (names of) to be sent to New England. (_Journal._)

_September 15._

"In the afternoon at Council, where letters were read from Sir Charles
Wheeler, concerning his resigning his government at St. Christopher's."
(Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 67.)

_September 19._

Council informed that the king had agreed to the sending commissioners
and desiring instructions to be prepared against spring. (_Cal._, Sec. 512.)

_November 13._

Further information to Council regarding commissioners; Council to treat
with Mason and Gorges regarding sale of their estates in New England,
but not without the king's leave. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 512.)

St. Christopher and Leeward Is. (_Journal._)

<DW64>s, Leeward Is. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 700.)

_November 14._

"To Council, where Sir Charles Wheeler, late Governor of the Leeward
Islands, having been complained of for many indiscreet managements,
it was resolved, on scanning many of the particulars, to advise his
Majesty to remove him; and consult what was to be done to prevent these
inconveniences he had brought things to. This business stayed me in
London almost a week, being in Council or Committee every morning till
the 25th." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 72.)

_November 16._

Mr. Gorges, New England. (_Journal._)

_November 20._

St. Christopher; Publication by Sir Charles Wheeler and answer of the
Council. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 657, 658, 659.)

_November 24._

Report to the king on the same subject. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 659, 850.)

_November 26 (7)._

St. Christopher: proclamation disowning Sir Charles Wheeler read.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 661.)

Mr. Brouncker's conference with the French ambassador read. (_Journal._)

"We ordered that a proclamation should be presented to his Majesty to
sign against what Sir Charles Wheeler had done in St. Christopher's
since the war, on the articles of peace at Breda. He was shortly
afterwards recalled." (Evelyn's _Diary_, p. 73.)

_November 28._

The Answer of the Planters of the Leeward Is. read. (_Journal._)

Account of Jamaica, probably taken from Gov. Lynch's answers to queries.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 663, p. 277.)

Heads of king's proclamation regarding St. Christopher. (_Journal._)

_December 7._

Report of the Council on the proclamation and the framing of something
fit to be offered to the French ambassador. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 675, 677, 850.)

_December 11._

New England Case, Mr. Mason's account of the commodities of New
Hampshire. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 687.)

_December 14._

Mr. Mason, the answer of the Council. (_Journal._)

_December 18._

Instructions to Mr. Slingsby to speak to members of Privy Council
regarding patents to Massachusetts. (_Cal._, Sec. 652.)

_December 19._

Mr. Slingsby's report about a new governor for the Leeward Is.
(_Journal._)

_December 20._

Draft of commission for governor of Leeward Is.; revocation of Wheeler's
commission; report to king concerning Col. Stapleton, the new governor.
(_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 699, 707, 738, 740, 744, 804, 805, 850.)


1672.

_January 22._

Commissioners for New England. (_Cal._, Sec. 512.)

_February 6._

Report of Mr. Gorges, "Commissioner for the province of Maine" read.
(_Cal._, Sec. 753.)

_February 12._

"At the Council, we entered on enquiries about improving the Plantations
by silks, galls, flax, senna, etc., and considered how nutmegs and
cinnamon might be obtained and brought to Jamaica, that soil and climate
promising success. Dr. Worsley being called in, spake many considerable
things to encourage it. We took order to send to the Plantations,
that none of their ships should venture homeward single, but stay for
company and convoys. We also deliberated on some fit person to go as
Commissioner to inspect their actions in New England, and, from time
to time, report how that people stood affected.--In future to meet at
Whitehall." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 74.)

_February 13._

Instructions from Secretary of State to prepare commission, etc., for
New England Commissioners. (_Cal._, Sec. 512.)

_February 16._

Account of the militia in the Province of Maine read. (_Cal._, Sec. 762.)

_February 20._

Letter from Sir Thomas Lynch to the Council read. (_Cal._, Sec. 640.)

_March 1._

"A full Council of Plantations, on the danger of the Leeward Islands,
threatened by the French, who had taken some of our ships, and began
to interrupt our trade. Also in debate, whether the new governor of
St. Christopher's should be subordinate to the Governor of Barbadoes.
The debate was serious and long." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 75.)

_April 2._

Report concerning the general state of the Leeward Is. and the
differences depending between the English and French at St. Christopher.
(_Cal._, Sec. 850.)

_April 9._

About Logwood (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 709, 742, 777, 825), and the
defence of Barbadoes and the Leeward Is. (_Cal._, Sec. 799.)

_April 15._

Commission and instructions for Lord Willoughby and a report on his
proposals. (_Cal._, Sec. 850.)

_April 16._

Letter from Sir Charles Wheeler read. (_Cal._, Sec. 748.)

"Sat in Council, preparing Lord Willoughby's commission and instructions
as governor of Barbadoes and the Caribbee Islands." (Evelyn's _Diary_,
II, p. 78.)

_April 19._

"At Council, preparing instructions for Colonel Stapleton, now to go
Governor of St. Christopher's; and heard the complaints of the Jamaica
merchants against the Spaniards, for hindering them from cutting logwood
on the main land, where they have no pretence." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II,
pp. 78-79.)

_April 26._

Archibald Henderson's case. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 775, p. 339, 806.)

_April 30._

Commissioners for New England named, etc. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 512.)

_May 7._

Case of Mark Gabry, exporter of wool. (_Cal._, _Dom._, 1671-1672,
pp. 155, 156, 481.)

_May 10._

Case of the _James_ of Belfast (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 813), and Wheeler
letter (Sec. 775), containing a statement about Henderson.

Draft commission for Willoughby (Sec. 822).

Agreed that the commission for New England should be expedited (Sec. 512).

Report to the king upon the case of the _William and Nicholas_ (Sec. 850).

_May 14._

Proposals about the Leeward Is. formerly delivered by Lord Willoughby.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 828.)

_May 17._

Case of the _William and Nicholas_, Logwood ship. (_Journal_; _Cal._,
Sec.Sec. 823, 824.)

_May 27._

Letter from Sir Thomas Lynch read. (_Cal._, Sec. 777.)

_June 4._

Consideration of the Logwood trade. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 825, 837.)

_June 11._

Order regarding ship _William and Nicholas._ (_Cal._, Sec. 823.)

_June 13._

Surinam and Curacao. (_Journal_ has "Quarasao"; _Cal._, Sec. 879.)

_June 15._

Continuation of the Logwood difficulty. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 825, II,
879, 880.)

_June 21._

Case of the _Peter_ of London (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 820; _Cal._, _Dom._,
1673, pp. 198-199.)

Petition from Montserrat. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 859, 879.)

_June 25._

Jews in Jamaica. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 848, 879.)

Heads of a letter to Sir Thomas Lynch from the Council. (_Journal_;
_Cal._, Sec. 943.)

Injuries from the French in the West Indies. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 805.)

About ship departure from Jamaica. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 683, 910.)

_July 2._

Opinion and advice of the Council to the king upon a great variety of
matters already discussed. Jews, logwood, Surinam, Jamaica defence,
Curacoa, Leeward Is. and Wheeler, and Stapleton, defense of Montserrat,
etc. (_Cal._, Sec. 879.) In addition the merchants seem to have made a
report on the best time for ships to depart from Jamaica. (_Journal._)

_July 3._

Petition from the Long Islanders regarding the whale fishery and their
relations with New Amsterdam read. (_Cal._, Sec. 875.)

_July 16._

Concerning Virginia--probably the question of the Arlington and Culpeper
grant. (_Journal._)

_July 19._

Regarding the whale fishery. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 875.)

_July 26._

Petition of Sir Ernestus Biron, escheator in Barbadoes, read.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, 1661-1668, Sec. 1622.)

_July 29._

Report on the petition. (_Journal._)

_September 1._

"Our Council of Plantations met at Lord Shaftesbury's (Chancellor of the
Exchequer) to read and reform the draught of our new Patent, joining the
Council of Trade to our political capacities." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II,
p. 83.)

_September 20._

Particulars of monies disbursed for the Council. (_Journal._)

_October 1 (about)._

Letters written by Sir Thomas Lynch on June 20 and July 5 read to the
Council. (_Cal._, Sec. 943.)


COUNCIL FOR TRADE AND FOREIGN PLANTATIONS, 1672-1674.

_October 13._

Commission opened and read and oath administered. (_Journal._)

Letters from Gov. Stapleton and his answer to inquiries read. (_Cal._,
Sec.Sec. 842, 896.)

"Went to my Lord Keeper, (Sir Orlando Bridgeman) at Essex House, where
our new patent was opened and read, constituting us that were of the
Council of Plantations, to be now of the Council of Trade also, both
united. After the patent was read, we all took our oaths, and departed."
(Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 85.)

_October 24._

Oaths administered. (_Journal._)

"Met in Council, the Earl of Shaftesbury, now our President, swearing
our Secretary and his clerks, which was Mr. Locke, an excellent learned
gentleman, and student of Christ Church, Mr. Lloyd, and Mr. Frowde [son
of Philip Frowde, clerk of the former Council of 1660]. We dispatched a
letter to Sir Thomas Linch Governor of Jamaica, giving him notice of a
design of the Dutch on that island." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 86.)

_October 27._

Jamaica laws received and probably considered. (_Cal._, Sec. 829.)

_October 29._

Meeting held at 9. a. m. No statement as to business. (_Cal._, _Dom._,
1672-1673.)

_November 3._

Logwood case; depositions and letters presented. (_Cal._, Sec. 954.)

_November 8._

New England case considered. (_Journal._)

Letter from Sir Thomas Lynch read. (_Cal._, Sec. 855.)

Rodney petition received from the Privy Council and read.
(_Cal._, Sec. 958.)

The petition from the consul of Venice, asking that consulage be levied
on goods not on ships. (_Journal_; _Cal._, _Dom._, 1673, pp. 100, 303.)

"At Council we debated the business of the consulate of Leghorn (?). I
was of the Committee with Sir Humphrey Winch, the Chairman, to examine
the laws of his Majesty's several plantations and colonies in the West
Indies, etc." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 86.)

_November 13._

Letter from Dep. Gov. Coddrington of Barbadoes read. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 872,
901, 902.)

_November 15._

Petition of the consul at Venice considered further. (_Journal._)

"Many merchants were summoned about the consulate of Venice; which
caused great disputes; the most considerable thought it useless."
(Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 86.)

_November 20._

Petition of Rabba Couty, whose ship was seized at Port Royal, Jamaica,
on the ground that he was a foreigner. (_Cal._, Sec. 968; _Cal._, _Dom._,
1672-1673, p. 295.)

_November 29._

Order of Council appointing a committee to confer with Sir Charles
Wheeler. (_Cal._, Sec. 974.)

_December 7._

Report of the conferences. (_Cal._, Sec. 977.)

_December 10._

Report of the conferences. (_Cal._, Sec. 977.)

_December 20._

Report on the case of Rabba Couty, recommending the return of the
vessel. (_Cal._, Sec. 968, IV; _Cal._, _Dom._, 1672-1673, p. 295.)

Order issued for a more speedy and orderly despatch of reports to
the King and of letters and orders to the Governors of plantations.
(_Cal._, _Dom._, 1672-1673, p. 295.)

_December 21._

"Settled the Consulate of Venice." (Evelyn's _Diary_. II, p. 86.)

_December 29._

Report on petition of the Gambia merchants regarding the use of a wood
called "sanders" for dyeing purposes. (_Cal._, Sec. 973, III; _Cal._,
_Dom._, 1673, pp. 190, 217.)


1673.

_January 7._

Letter of Sir Thomas Lynch; complaint of Gambia Company; Russell's
answer to Rodney's petition; report on laws of Jamaica; articles
relating to the Venetian trade; Ordinance in Sweden against "our
privileges"; St. Christopher business; answer to Col. Stapleton; advice
to the King about planting St. Christopher; regarding the books and
papers of the former councils; Newfoundland trade; acts of Barbadoes.
(_Cal._, _Dom._, 1672-1673, p. 403. This series of subjects is the only
complete list of the heads of a single day's business that we find
anywhere, except in the minutes of two meetings noted below.)

_January 9._

About Johnson "the Pyrat." (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 938, 1082, Index; _Journal_.)

_January 11._

Order of the Council to the secretary to report on losses and injuries
lately sustained from the Spaniards. (_Cal._, Sec. 1022.)

_February 1._

Similar order regarding the differences with the French at St.
Christopher. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1028, 1033.)

Heads of a letter to Gov. Stapleton of St. Christopher. (_Journal._)

_February 6._

Gambia Adventurers. (_Journal._)

_February 18._

Gambia Adventurers. (_Journal._)

Secretary's report on St. Christopher. (_Cal._, Sec. 1034.) Secretary
ordered to prepare another report for the 25^{th} on same subject.

_February 25._

Secretary's report probably presented on this day.

_March 6._

Letter to Gov. Stapleton written. (_Journal._)

Letter from Lord Willoughby read. (_Cal._, Sec. 1000.)

_March 17._

Petition from Rodney asking that a certain Carpenter, "who has long
lived in Nevis," may be heard. (_Cal._, Sec. 1049.)

Reply of Capt Rodney to the answer of Gov. Russell read. (_Cal._,
Sec. 1050.)

_April 10._

Heads of an address about St. Christopher. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1038,
1069.)

New England. (_Journal._)

_April 14._

Representations on Gambia question drawn up. (_Cal._, _Dom._, 1773,
p. 142.)

_April 22._

Rodney's petition. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 958, 1049-1050, 1071, 1074,
1110, 1194, 1225. See Index.)

_June 9._

Address of Council to the king regarding differences between the English
and the French at St. Christopher. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 903, 1105.)

_June 23._

Representation and advice of the Council regarding the Rodney case.
(_Cal._, Sec. 1110.)

"To London, to accompany our Council, who went in a body to congratulate
the new Lord Treasurer [Sir Thomas Osborne], no friend to it, because
promoted by my Lord Arlington, whom he hated." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II,
p. 90.)

_July 21._

About the exportation of wool (_Journal_); report on this question
urging that present laws be put in execution and export of wool be
strictly forbidden. (_Cal._, _Dom._, 1673, pp. 382, 541.)

_September 13._

Dr Worsley, his discharge. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 1151.)

_September 16._

To Council about chosing a new Secretary. (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 94.)

_October 15._

Mr. Lock sworne. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1162, 1163.)

"To Council, and swore in Mr. Locke, secretary, Dr. Worsley being dead."
(Evelyn's _Diary_, II, 95. This statement regarding Dr. Worsley cannot
be true.)

_October 21_ (committee).

Charter parties for transporting to Barbadoes stores and provisions
read. (_Cal._, Sec. 1058.)

Letters from Sir Peter Colleton & others read. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1101, 1104,
1131, 1133.)

Regarding capture of New York. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1138, 1157.)

_October 27_ (committee).

About Sir J. Atkins, Barbadoes. (_Journal._)

Regarding New York; Mr. Dyer's project for reducing that town.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 1157.)

"To Council about sending succours to recover New York; and then we read
the commission and instructions to Sir Jonathan Atkins, the new Governor
of Barbadoes." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, 95.)

_November 3._

About New York, Albany, etc.; consideration of the retaking of these
places from the Dutch. (_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1160, 1165.)

_November 7_ (committee).

William Dervell's statement regarding the loss of New York.
(_Cal._, Sec. 1143.)

_November 8._

Barbadoes and Sir J. Atkins. (_Journal._) Probably the question
of Atkins's commission as Governor of Barbadoes was here under
consideration.

_November 19_ (committee).

Letters from Gov. Lynch read. (_Cal._, Sec. 1115.)

_November 24._

Petitions of Steed, provost marshal of Barbadoes, read.
(_Cal._, Sec. 1167.)

_December 1._

Letter from Sir Jonathan Atkins received and (probably) read.
(_Cal._, Sec. 1173.)

_December 5._

Deposition of William Carpenter in favor of Steed. (_Cal._, Sec. 1177.)

_December 19._

Report to the King, presenting draft of commission and instructions for
Sir Jonathan Atkins, governor of Barbadoes. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1182, 1185.)


1674.

_January 7._

Received order from Privy Council committee on grievances regarding the
Rodney petition. (_Cal._, Sec. 1194.)

_January 10_ (committee).

Petition of William Dyer of New York to the King read. (_Cal._, Sec. 1108.)

_January 16._

Report of the Council on this petition. (_Cal._, Sec. 1108.)

_January 23._

Order from the Privy Council instructing the Council to transmit a true
state of the case between Rodney and others. (_Cal._, Sec. 1207.)

_February 10._

"Ordered, That a Copy of M^{r}. Rodneys Peti[~c]on and his Ma^{ties}.
Reference thereupon, and the Report of this Councill should bee
delivered by M^{r}. Lock to M^{r}. Secret^{ry}. Coventry to bee by him
p^{e}sented to his Ma^{ty}.

The Earle of Arlingtons L[~re] to this Councill of the 23^{d}. of
January last signifying his Ma^{ties}. pleasure, That this Councill
should consider of a Com^{n}. & Instru[~cc]ons for the Earle of
Carlisle, appointed to bee Governo^{r}. of Jamaica, and Col: Morgan
appointed to bee Deputy Governo'{r}. was read.

A Draught of Instru[~cc]ons for my Lord Carlisle was read and debated,
and the further debate thereof adjourned till next meeting.

My Lord Culpeper having acquainted this Councill, that my Lord Carlisle
had something to offer to this Councill. The Councill desired my Lord
Culpeper to acquaint his Lord[~sp], That if hee pleased to come to the
Councill on Fryday next in the Afternoone, they shall bee ready to
receive what [~ev] his Lord[~sp] shall bee pleas'd to offer to them.

Ordered that M^{r}. Lock gett some Presses made wherein the papers
belong to this Councill may bee conveniently layd up.

Two Addiconall Instru[~cc]ons for S^{r}. Jonathan Atkins Ordered to bee
drawne, one to p^{e}vent his making of Judges & Justices by Com^{ns}.
limited in tyme, becaus some former Governo^{rs}. by co[~m]issionating
these Officers only for a yeare, kept them at their devo[~c]on for
feare they should bee left out of the next, thereby eluding their
Instru[~cc]ons, which forbid the turning out of any of these Officers,
but for good caus. Another to prevent the perpetuity of Laws in the
Planta[~c]ons w^{th}out his Ma^{ties} confirma[~c]on. Ordered also
that the Addres to his Ma^{ty} ab^{t}. Jonathan Atkins and others
Governo^{rs}. taking the Oath's here, to be drawne w^{th}out Preamble."
(_Shaftesbury Papers_, <DW37>. X, 8 (8).)

_February 17._

"M^{r}. Locke Reported to the Councill, That attending M^{r}. Secretary
Coventry w^{th} the papers concerning Rodney's Case ordered by this
Council the 10^{th} of this Instant February, M^{r}. Secretary Coventry
told him, That the Order of the Privy Councill being to transmitt the
said papers, to his Ma^{ty} in Councill, that itt was not proper to do
itt by his hands, Butt that they should bee sent to one of the Clerks of
the Councill to bee by him delivered.

Ordered thereupon, That the said papers bee delivered to one of the
Clerks of the Councill, to bee by him p^{e}sented to his Ma^{ty} in
Councill.

Ordered That the Address of this Councill to his Ma^{ty} concerning
S^{r}. Jonathan Atkins and other Governo^{rs}. and Deputy Governo^{rs}.
takeing the Oathes &c: here, bee delivered to the Earle of Arlington to
bee by him p^{e}sented to his Ma^{ty}.

Two Addiconall Instru[~cc]ons for S^{r}. Jonathan Atkins, The one about
the Com^{ns}. of Justices of the Peace, and the other about Marshall Law
read & agreed.

A Copy of an Order of the Presid^{ts}. & Councill of Barbados,
concerning the Provost Marshall's place, was brought in by my Lord
Culpeper, who assured the Councill hee had re[~c]ed itt in a Letter from
the Clerk of the Councill there, which letter hee had not now about him.
The considera[~c]on thereof adjourned till this Copy bee made appeare to
this Councill to bee more authentique.

Upon Reading the Addiconall Instru[~cc]on to Sir Jonathan Atkins
concerning the reenacting of Laws. The Councill entred into a debate
about the best way for his Ma^{ty} to confirme the Laws made by the
Planta[~c]ons, which being often tymes ill worded by the Assembly there,
and some tymes faulty in some part though the maine deserves to bee
established. Which being found to bee a matter of great moment, The
farther debate thereof was adjourned till another opportunity, when the
Earle of Shaftesbury should bee present." (_Shaftesbury Papers_, <DW37>. X,
8 (9); _Cal._, Sec. 1221. These minutes are the only complete record that
we have of the proceedings at council meetings. They show how much has
been lost in the disappearance of the original journal.)

_March 6._

Letter from Lord Willoughby read. (_Cal._, Sec. 966.)

Petition of William Helyar regarding woodland purchased by him in
Jamaica. (_Cal._, Sec. 1236.)

_March 8._

Report of the Council upon the petition of Edwin Steed. (_Cal._,
Sec. 1238.)

_March 17._

Mr. Gorges paper regarding the sugar plantations. (_Cal._, Sec. 1244.)

_March 23._

Sends Helyar's petition to Gov. Lynch and wishes reply. (_Cal._,
Sec. 1250.)

Draft Commission for the Earl of Carlisle, appointed governor of
Jamaica. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1251, 1252. Cf. Sec. 1253.)

Similar draft for Col. Morgan, deputy governor of Jamaica. (_Cal._,
Sec. 1254.)

_April 3._

Petition from Representatives of Leeward Is. for convoys, etc.
(_Cal._, Sec. 1257.)

_April 13._

New England: petition of Earl of Sterling, Gorges, and Mason read.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec. 1247.)

_May 8_ (committee).

Letter from Gov. Stapleton read. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1201-1203, 1327.)

_July 3._

Petition of Edmund Cooke, merchant, regarding the barbarous treatment
received from the Spaniards. (_Cal._, Sec. 1320.)

_July 17._

Similar petition from other merchants. (_Cal._, Sec. 1327.)

_September 15._

"To Council, about fetching away the English left at Surinam, etc.,
since our reconciliation with Holland." (Evelyn's _Diary_, II, p. 99.)

_September 22._

Regarding Surinam question--fetching the English away, etc. (_Cal._,
Sec. 1354.)

_September 24._

Report on this question to the King. (_Cal._, Sec. 1355.)

_October 6_ (Committee).

Letter from Gov. Lynch in answer to Col. Helyar's petition read.
(_Cal._, Sec. 1301.)

_October 13._

Letter from Gov. Stapleton on the wrongs suffered from the French in the
Leeward Is. (_Cal._, Sec. 1333.)

_October 15._

Proposal read of F. Gorges, agent of Gov. Stapleton, regarding the
action of the French. (_Cal._, Sec. 1360.)

_October 16._

St. Christopher and Sir William Lockhart's letter. (_Cal._, Sec. 1365, I.)
Lockhart was "Resident with the French King."

_October 27._

Discussion of the Surinam situation. (_Journal._)

_October 30._

Continuation of the same. (_Journal._)

_November 17._

Continuation of the same. (_Journal._)

"To Council, on the business of Surinam, where the Dutch had detained
some English in prison, ever since the first war, 1665." (Evelyn's
_Diary_, II, 100.)

_November 20._

About <DW64>s; probably regarding a clause in Lord Vaughan's commission.
(_Journal_; _Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1386, 1392.)

_November 21._

Jamaica and my Lord Vaughan. (_Journal._)

_November 24._

Heads of Lord Vaughan's commission and instructions. (_Cal._, Sec. 1392).
About <DW64>s. (_Journal._)

_December 4._

About Surinam. Address of the Council to the King (_Journal_; _Cal._,
Sec. 1401.)

_December 17._

Address of the Council regarding Indians brought by force from Guinea to
Barbadoes. (_Cal._, Sec. 1409.)

_December 18._

About Surinam. (_Journal._) Instruction for a vessel sailing to that
island. (_Cal._, Sec.Sec. 1413, 1414, 1415.)

_December 22._

Address from the Council to the King regarding the Surinam question.
(_Cal._, Sec. 1416.)






End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of British Committees, Commissions, and
Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675, by Charles M. Andrews

*** 