[3-45] [Document Endorsed.] Copy of Exeter forged letter to St Charles Wager Honorable S- Finding that you have ordered the Judge & Advocate of your Court of Admity in N : England to come down into this Prov: to inquire into the riot and assault yt was some time since committed in this Town upon your Surveyor D-nb-r and his officers in ye execution of their office. - And we have just cause to fear that we and our relations and friends will be mightily accused to your Honour: - Therefore we have enclosed these to a relation in London & have desired him to wait upon your Honour with it to acquaint your Hon' with the plain truth of the matter, and we hope from which your Hon': will believe us innocent, We must confess to your Hon' that we and most of our friends and relations are concernd in Saw Mills, and in former surveyors times we were indulged by them & their officers in cutting all sort of Mast Trees that lay the most convenient for us, and to be sure we have made great distruction of the finest white Pine Trees, but as soon as D-nb-r came amongst us he and his officers attempted to restrain us by seizing our logs & prosecuting us in the Court of Admiralty: But at the same time our Chief Gov Mr Belcher privately gave us all possible encouragem to go on telling us that we had the most right to those Woods and that we ought not to be restrained & those Laws made to restrain us were wicked and iniquitous Laws and charged us not to regard them or mind that Irish Dog of a Survr or his Deputys for altho' He must make a shew of assisting ye Surv' as He was commanded yet he would manage it so with a majority of his Majestys Council of this Prov: & all ye Justices of the Peace (who durst do nothing but what He directed) that we should not suffer & further to encourage us to cutt & destroy His Majestys Mast Trees & to insult ye Survr D-nb-r he made several of us Justices of the Peace, Officers of ye Malisha &c. And that petition we some time since sent home complaining of your Surv He had drawn up for us at Boston & sent down to us to sign, which we durst not but do and a great many other things he hath done to encourage us to insult & abuse ye Survr & his Deputys & He still continues to encourage us & now tells us not to regard or fear any thing from the inquiry that is now making for he says he shall write to your Hon' about it, and boasts that he hath such an influence over your Honour y1 you will believe every thing He writes you. But we have write your Hon' the plain honest truth & we here also promise for our selves & our friends & our relations yt we will for the future be directed by your Survrs what trees to cutt so we hope your hon' will believe we have been mislead & will not suffer your offi cers of your Court of Admiralty to pull us to pieces & ruin us & our Familys as Gov' Belcher hath been ye principal cause of our acting as we have done. And we also hope & beg yt it may be a secret that we have wrote to you on this affair so long as Gov' Belcher remains Gov' over this Prov: of N: Hamp' for were he to know it he is of such an implacable temper yt he would not stick at any thing to ruin us and we most heartily pray God he may not long continue over this Prov: of N: Hamp for if this Prov: should continue under him much longer it must be absolutely ruin'd & all His Majestys Woods destroy'd And whatever may have been told you to the contrary we can assure you that there is no part of His Majestys Dominions in North America y1 hath any Mast Trees in any degree like what grows in this His Majestys own Prov: of N: Hamp & more particularly upon this River of Piscataqua either for quality or bigness for severall of us have travelled thro' all the Wood Lands as far as thro' N: Scotia & there is nothing like the Woods of this Province : & no body knows or understands ye woods better than we do that have been bred in them: And if your Hon' should have any Doubt of ye truth of what we here write you there is severall Gent" both of this Prov: and of the Prov: of ye Massa Bay now in London yt knows all those things very well, particularly Mr Sam" Waldo who is Mr Gulstons Agent for procuring Masts for the Royal Navy & Mr Wentworth of this Prov: and we have onely to pray your Honour to pardon this freedom we have taken of writing to your Honour concerning those things whereof we are accused. And we are in behalf of our selves & a great number of our misled friends & rela-. tions Your Honours Most Obedient humble Servts Township of Exeter in the Prov: of N : Hamp' the 5th of May 1739 For the Honble Sir Charles Wager at the Admiralty Office London Copyed ye 6th & 7th of October 1739 [The foregoing was plainly the work of Dunbar, who used all the means' in his power to supersede Governor Belcher; and the Governor used his best endeavors to secure the removal of Dunbar. —ED.] * [Evidently should be 1734. ED.] [3-46] [Copy of commission to William Parker, Jr., to be a notary public in place of James Jaffrey, "whose commission for that office is hereby superseded." The term of the office was "during pleasure." Commission dated October 24, 1734.- ED.] [3-47] [Report of Committee on the Condition of Fort William and Mary.] Province of New Hamp' May 8th 1735 Wee whose Names are hereunto subscribed being appointed to view the Fort Wm and Mary which we find in a very Ruinous Decaying Condition and not in a Posture of Defence and as we understand it was the mind of this house the Present Circumstances of the Province would not admit of a Complete Repair we not undertake to Calculate what the Rebuilding of the Walls and Bastions &c and stores would cost, but onely what is now of Present Necessity and are of opinion that there be Provision made for Repairing the Gun Wheels and Platforms within the Fort directly, and our Calculation of the Cost is as followeth - viz : The Platform to ye Westward of the Fort on the Point we find Rotten and are of Opinion that it would be best to Repair it with stone John Sanburn [3-49] LOYAL AV. MORT [Dedimus, from the Original, 1735.] Jonathan Belcher Esq' Governor & Commander In Chief, in & over His Majestys Province of New Hamp in New England To the Justices of His Majesties Inferior Court of Common pleas for said Province or any Two of them Greeting. Whereas Nathaniel Sargent Paul Wentworth and Bartholomew Thing Esqrs are appointed special Justices of the Inferior Court of Common pleas, by a Commission bearing even date with these presents, & sent you herewith In order therefore to enable the said Nathaniel Sargent Paul Wentworth & Bartholomew Thing Esq's duely to execute the office of special Justices as aforesaid. — You are hereby authorized & required, to administer to them the oaths appointed by law, to be taken instead of the oaths of allegiance & supremacy, as also the office oaths, & likewise to cause them to repeat & subscribe the Declarations by law also required, & return this with your doings hereon into the Secretarys office within three months. Given under my hand & seal the twenty seventh day of November 1735, & in the ninth year of His Majestys Reign. By His Excellencys Command J. Belcher Richd Waldron Secry [3-50] [Quakers' Petition concerning Oaths, 1736.] To Jonathan Beltcher Esq': Governor and Commander in Chief (Under God) in and over the provinces of the Massachusets Bay and New-hampshair in Newengland and to the Counsel and house of Representatives in Newhampshair aforesd We the people Comonly Called Quakers in this province when we are Chosen in any office in town affairs and are notified to appear before som magistrate to be Qualified for ye true performance of our duty in such office we are Required to Qualify by an oath which is Contrary to our principle and that which we Cannot Conform to tho we sufer greatly for it: notwithstanding we are willing to serve our Respective towns and have sought to be Qualified as we have been in other Causes but it hath been Refused altho we do not desire the pennalty should be any whit less upon us if we be unfaithful in such office then if we swore with an oath. We humbly desire that you will be pleased to Consider of this mater and provide som way by which we may not be imposed upon as afores so shall our prayers be to ye Lord for you that he may direct you to do Justice and Equity - We Remain your Loveing friends - Signed on behalf and by order of our monthly meeting held at Dover on ye 17th day of ye 2d mo. 1736 By Ebenezer Varney April 29th 1736- In the house of Representatives the within Petition was Read and considered upon and Voted that the Prayer of the Petition be granted and that the Petrs have Liberty to Bring in their Bill accordingly In Council Eod. die Read & Concurred James Jeffry Clr Ass Consented to Richd Waldron Sec J. Belcher [Not printed in journal of the House in Vol. IV. — ED.] [3-51] [Commissioners on Boundary Line Recommended.] [Endorsed] Ldds of Trade nomination of Commissioners for the line. To the Right Honble the Ldds of the Committee of His Majtys most Honble privy Council My Lords Agreeable to your Lordships order of reference dated 24 of January last, we have considered of proper persons to be appointed Commissioners for marking out and settling the boundaries or dividing lines between the Province of the Massa Bay & New Hamp' and for that service we take leave to name to your Lordships George Clark, Francis Harrison, Cadwalder Colden, Abraham Vanhorn, & Philip Livingston Esqrs of the Province of New York: John Anderson, John Hamilton, John Wells, John Reading & Cornelius Van-horn Esq's of the Province of New Jersey; William Skene, William Shirreffe, Henry Cope, Erasmus James Phillips Esq' & Maj' Paul Mascarine of the Province of Nova Scotia, being the five eldest Council's in their respective Provinces And Sam' Vernon, John Gardiner, John Potter, Ezekiel Warner, & George Cornel who were the eldest Councillors for the Colony of Rhode-Island in the year 1734, & may probably be so stil, tho they chuse their Councillors annually |