oc. no. 104, the act 28
Henr. VIII. ch. 15 (1536) provided for the trial of piracy by
commissions specially appointed for the purpose, and with a jury, but
did not extend to the oversea plantations, while the act 11 and 12
Will. III. ch. 7 (1699-1700) extended to those dominions the crown's
authority to appoint such commissions. Before the passage of the
latter statute, colonial governors had as vice-admirals appointed such
commissions, which had then proceeded under the civil (Roman) law, and
not under the statute. But South Carolina had in 1712 expressly
adopted the act of 28 Henr. VIII. (Cooper, _Statutes at Large_, II.
470) and here we have a commission issued by the deputy governor and
council, under authority of the proprietors of Carolina, for trial
under the act of 1536, though action could have been taken under that
of 1700. The accused persons for whose trial the commission was issued
were acquitted. For the whole subject of piracy in or near Carolina,
where it was rife in these years, see S.C. Hughson, "The Carolina
Pirates and Colonial Commerce", in _Johns Hopkins University Studies_,
XII. The most famous case was that of Major Stede Bonnet, but the
original records of that case are fully printed in _State Trials_, ed.
Hargrave, vol. VI.]

South Carolina.

His Excellency John Lord Carteret, Palatine, The most Noble Henry Duke
of Beaufort, the Right Hon'ble William Lord Craven, the Hon'ble
Maurice Ashley Esqr., Sir John Colleton Baronet, John Danson Esqr.,
and the rest of the true and absolute Lords and Proprietors of
Carolina,[2] To Nicholas Trott Esq., Judge of the Vice Admiralty in
South Carolina and chief Justice of the said Province,[3] The Hon'ble
Capt. Thomas Howard Commander of his Majestys ship the _Shoram_, the
Hon'ble Charles Hart Esqr., one of the Members of our Council in South
Carolina, the Hon'ble Thomas Broughton, Speaker of the Lower House of
Assembly in South Carolina, Arthur Middleton and Ralph Izard Esqrs.,
Capt. Philip Dawes, Capt. Willm. Cuthbert, Commander of the _Fortune_
Frigate, Capt. Allen Archer, Commander of the Brigantine _Experiment_,
and Samuel Deane and Edward Brailsford, merchants, Greeting.

[Footnote 2: The six proprietors of Carolina here named held at this
time six of the eight shares in the property. The holder of the
seventh was a minor; the eighth was in litigation.]

[Footnote 3: Nicholas Trott, LL.D., attorney-general of Bermuda
1696-1697, the first attorney gen