w England, and Advocate
of the Court of Admiralty--who saith

That on or about the fifth day of June last past, being at Newport on
Road Island in Company with the Honourable Nathaniel Byfield, Esquire,
Judge of the Court of Admiralty, etc.[2] at the House of Samuel
Cranston, Esquire, Governour of said Island, The said Judge
complaining of the said Governours granting a Commission to Captain
Halsey, a Privateer,[3] after the Receipt of her Majesties Commands to
the Contrary, The said Samuel Cranston replyed, That he had taken the
advice of the Generall Court[4] of that Colony, who were all of
opinion That her Majesties Commands did not forbid him or restrain him
from Granting Commissions for Privateers, And that their Charter
granting them Power of Vice Admiralty,[5] he was determined to
Exercise that power, and Grant such Commissions untill their Charter
was actually and wholly taken away; And that they would not part with
their powers or Government by piece meal, but would Die all at once,
And that they had parted with too many of their priviledges
already....

PAUL DUDLEY.

BOSTON in New England
15 August 1705

Sworne in presence of his Excellency the Governour before us

ISA. ADDINGTON }
ANDREW BELCHER } of the Council

[Footnote 2: Nathaniel Byfield--founder of Bristol, Mass, (now R.I.),
nephew of Archbishop Juxon and grandson of that Rev. Richard Byfield
who was vicar of Stratford-on-Avon during most of Shakespeare's
life--was commissioned admiralty judge for Massachusetts and Rhode
Island during brief periods in 1698 and 1703, again 1704-1715 and
1728-1732.]

[Footnote 3: Nov. 7, 1704, Cranston had given a privateer's commission
to Capt. John Halsey of the brigantine _Charles_, the vessel that had
been Quelch's. The governor's confidence seems not to have been
justified, for presently Halsey entered upon a large and lurid career
of piracy, duly described in Johnson, _General History of the
Pyrates_, II. 110-118.]

[Footnote 4: Assembly.]

[Footnote 5: It would be hard to find any such grant in the Rhode
Island charter of 1663.]

_106. Commission for Trial of Piracy. November 1, 1716._[1]

[Footnote 1: Charleston, Records of the Court of Vice-admiralty of
South Carolina, vol. A-B. The document is spread upon the records of
the court for Nov. 27, 1716, at the beginning of the day's
proceedings. This commission is a peculiar one. As has been explained
in note 2 to doc. no. 51 and in note 1 to d