97 ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ROYAL GEORGE R. GOVERNORS 1 3 February 1774 Additional Instructions to Our Trusty and Wellbeloved WHEREAS by Our Commission to you under our Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the day of I DO 18917- in the year of our reign, you are authorized and impowered, with the advice and consent of our Council for our said Province of under your Government, to settle and agree with the inhabitants of our said Brovince for such lands, tenements and hereditaments, as now are or hereafter shall be in our power to dispose of, and them to grant to any person or persons, upon such terms, and under such moderate quit rents, services, and acknowledgements to be thereupon reserved unto us, as you, by and with the advice aforesaid, shall think fit; and whereas the usual directions for the due execution of the said powers . . . have been found to be inadequate, improper and inconvenient. .. We do hereby revoke and annul all and every part of the said Instructions as they relate to the laying out and passing grants of land within our said Provinces, and to the terms and conditions upon which the said grants are to be made. And it is our further will and pleasure, and We do hereby direct and appoint that the following Rules and Regulations be henceforth strictly and punctually observed in the laying out, allotting, and granting such lands, tenements and hereditaments, as now are, or hereafter shall be in our power to dispose of, within our said Province. That is to say. 1. That you Our said Governor, . . . with the advice and assistance of Our Lieutenant Governor of our said Province, 1 Public Record Office, C. O. 5, 241, PP. 511–24. The blanks in this copy are filled in for Nova Scotia. Our Surveyor General of Lands for the northern District o North America, Our Secretary, Our Surveyor General of Out Lands and Our Receiver General of Our quit-rents for our said Province of or any three of them, do from time to time, and at such times as you shall, with the advice aforesaid judge most convenient, cause actual surveys to be made of such parts of our said Province, not already granted or disposed of, the settlement and improvement whereof you shall think will be most advantageous to the public interest and welfare; taking care, that such Districts, so to be surveyed and laid out as aforesaid, be divided into such a number of lots (each lot to contain not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand acres) as our said Surveyor General shall judge best adapted to the nature and situation of the District so to be surveyed.1 2. That when the said Survey shall have been made, a map of the District so surveyed, with the several lots marked and number'd thereon, be hung up in our Secretary's Office within our said Province, and duplicates thereof transmitted to us by one of our Principal Secretary's of State, and to our Commissioners of our Treasury, accompanied with a report in writing signed by our said Surveyor Ĝeneral, descriptive of the nature and advantages not only of the whole District in general, but also of each particular Lot. 3. That so soon as the said Survey shall have been made and returned, as aforesaid, you our said Governor or Commander in Chief of our said Province for the time being do, with the advice of our Council of our said Province and of the Officers herein before mentioned, appoint such time and place for the sale and disposal of the lands, contained within the said Survey, to the best bidder, as you and they shall judge most convenient and proper, giving previous notice thereof at least four months before such sale by printed advertisements to be published, not only within our said Province, but also in the other neighbouring Provinces; and that you do proceed to This system of prior survey was founded on the system by which the New England colonies had extended their frontier of settlement. Judge William Smith of New York had recommended the application of it to the West in his Historical Account of the Bouquet expedition (F'hiladelphia, 1766), and Governor William Franklin made the same suggestion in his 'Reasons for Establishing a Colony in the Illinois (Illinois Hist. Collections, xi. 252). See above, p. xxvii, and the Ordinance of Congress of 1785, below. such Sales at the times appointed, unless you shall first receive directions from us to the contrary under our signet and sign manual, or by our Order in our Privy Council. 4. That you Our said Governor, or Our Governor, or Commander in Chief of Our said Province for the time being do, with the advice and assistance aforesaid, fix the price per Acre, at which the several Lots shall be put up to sale, according to the quality and condition thereof, taking care, that no Lot is put up to such sale at a less price than six pence per Acre, and all such Lots are to be sold subject to a reservation to Us, Our Heirs and Successors of an annual Quitrent of one halfpenny Sterling per acre. 5. That the printed advertisement containing notice of the time and place of sale, so to be published, as aforesaid, be as full and explicit as may be, as well in respect to the number and contents of the lots to be sold, as the terms and conditions, on which they are to be put up to sale, and the general situation of the lands, and the advantages and conveniency thereof. 6. That the person, who at such sale shall bid most for any lot, shall be the purchaser, and shall upon payment of the purchase money into the hands of Our Receiver General or his deputy, who is to attend at such sales, receive from him a bill of sale of the lot or lots so purchased, upon producing whereof to you our Governor, ... he shall be forthwith entitled to a grant in fee simple of the land so purchased as aforesaid by Letters Patent under our public seal of our said Province, subject to no conditions or reservations whatever, other than except the payment to us, our heirs, and successors of the annual quit rent of one halfpenny her acre, as aforesaid and also of all mines of gold, silver or precious stones. 7. That the fees to be paid by purchasers of land, in manner herein before recited be such as are allowed by law and no other, . And it is our further will and pleasure, that neither you our Governor do, upon any pretence whatever, presume to grant any lands, tenements or hereditaments within our said Province, which are in our power to dispose of, upon any other terms, or in any other manner, than as herein before recited, without our express authority for that purpose, under our Signet, and Sign Manual, or by our Order in our Privy Council, except only in the case of such commission officers and soldiers, as are entitled to grants of lands in virtue of our Royal Proclamation of the 7 October 1763, to whom such grants are to be made and passed in the proportions, and under the conditions prescribed in the said Proclamation. And it is our further will and pleasure, that in all Districts, which shall hereafter be surveyed, in order to a sale of the lands in manner herein before recited, there be a reservation of such parts thereof, as shall appear from the report of the Surveyor, to be necessary for public uses. And it is our further will and pleasure, that you our said Governor, . . . do from time to time, and as often as any Survey or sales of land shall be made in manner before mentioned, make a full and particular Report to us, by one of our principal Secretaries of State, of all proceedings in regard thereto, together with a state of the expences attending the said Survey and sales, and your or their opinion of the allowances it may be proper to make on that account to the end and intent, that we may take such order therein as shall appear to be reasonable and proper. G. R. A like Instruction and of the same date to the following Governors: New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, East Florida, West Florida. FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNMENT ACT 1 20 May 1774 An Act for the better regulating the Government of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England. [WHEREAS, the method of electing the Councillors of this Province, under the Charter of 1691,2] hath, for some time past been such as had the most manifest tendency to obstruct, and in great measure defeat the execution of the laws; to weaken the attachment of His Majesty's well-disposed subjects in the said Province to His Majesty's government, and to 1 14 Geo. III, c. 45. 2 Unlike the other colonies, where the Council or Upper House was appointed by the royal Governor, the Council of Massachusetts-Bay was annually elected by the whole legislature (General Court). Consequently it reflected the opinions of the Whig majority. encourage the ill-disposed among them to proceed even to acts of direct resistance to and defiance of His Majesty's authority. Be it therefore enacted [that so much of the said Charter which relates to the election of Councillors] is hereby revoked, ... [and that from 1 August 1774] the Council, or Court of Assistants of the said Province for the time being, shall be composed of such of the inhabitants or proprietors of lands within the same as shall be thereunto nominated and appointed by His Majesty, his heirs and successors, from time to time, by warrant under his or their signet or sign manual, and with the advice of the Privy Council, agreeable to the practice now used in respect to the appointment of Counsellors in such of His Majesty's other colonies in America, the Governors whereof are appointed by commission under the great seal of Great Britain: provided, that the number of the said Assistants or Counsellors shall not, at any one time, exceed thirty-six, nor be less than twelve. 2. And it is hereby further enacted, that the said Assistants or Counsellors, . . . shall hold their offices respectively, for and during the pleasure of His Majesty. . . . 3. It shall and may be lawful for His Majesty's Governor... of the said Province, to nominate and appoint, under the seal of the Province, from time to time, and also to remove, without the consent of the Council, all judges of the inferior courts of common pleas, commissioners of oyer and terminer, the attorney general, provosts, marshals, justices of the peace, and other officers to the Council or courts of justice belonging; and . . . [5] to nominate and appoint the sheriffs without the consent of the Council, and to remove such sheriffs with such consent, and not otherwise. 6. ... Upon every vacancy of the offices of Chief Justice and Judges of the Superior Court of the said Province, . . . the Governor for the time being, or, in his absence, the Lieutenant Governor, without the consent of the Council, shall have full power and authority to nominate and appoint the persons to succeed to the said offices, who shall hold their commission during the pleasure of His Majesty. 7. And whereas, by several acts of the General Court,...the freeholders and inhabitants of the several townships. . . are authorized to assemble together annually or occasionally, upon notice given, in such manner as the said acts direct, for the choice of selectmen, constables, and other officers, and for the |