rts by giving to each colonial governor, in addition to his
commission as governor, a commission as vice-admiral. Before 1689,
this was done in a few instances, chiefly of proprietary colonies, the
earliest such instance being that exhibited in our doc. no. 1; but in
the case of colonies having no royal governor (corporation colonies)
we find various courts in that earlier period exercising admiralty
jurisdiction (docs. no. 8, no. 25, no. 48, and no. 105, note 1). From
Queen Anne's reign on (doc. no. 102), jurisdiction in prize causes was
conferred, as in the case of the judge of the High Court of Admiralty
in London, by warrant (doc. no. 182) from the Lord High Admiral or
Lords of the Admiralty pursuant to the commission issued to them, as
stated above, at the beginning of the war. In doc. no. 116 we see the
judge of the High Court of Admiralty expressing the belief that it
would be better if all prizes were brought to his court in London for
adjudication, but the inconvenience would have been too great.

[Footnote 3: Such a commission (1748) is printed in R.G. Marsden, _Law
and Custom of the Sea_ (Navy Records Society), II. 279, and another
(1756) in Stokes, p. 278.]

The governor's commission as vice-admiral, issued (after 1689, at any
rate) under the great seal of the High Court of Admiralty, gave him
authority to hold an admiralty court in person. Often the governor was
not well fitted for such work, though not often so frank as Sir Henry
Morgan (doc. no. 46, note 1) in admitting his deficiencies. As
admiralty business increased, it became customary to appoint admiralty
judges to hold vice-admiralty courts in individual colonies, or in
groups of colonies. Sometimes, especially in the earlier period, they
were commissioned by the governor of the colony acting under a warrant
from the Lords of the Admiralty (doc. no. 69) empowering him so to do;
more often they were commissioned directly by those lords, under the
great seal of the Admiralty. Doc. no. 180 is a commission of the
former sort, doc. no. 181 of the latter. When war broke out, authority
to try prize cases was conveyed, as above, to the vice-admiral, the
vice-admiralty judge, and their deputies.

In the trial of a prize case, the first essential document was the
libel (docs. no. 99, no. 128, no. 165, no. 184, and no. 188), by which
claim was laid to ship or goods. Witnesses were examined, chiefly by
means of the systematic series of questions called standi