118. RECORDS CONCERNING COLONIES (1660-81)

(A) Appointment of Committees of the Council (1660)

[4 July.] Upon a petition presented to his majesty by divers merchants and 
others interested in and trading to the English plantations in America, 
exposing the good behaviour and great merit of Colonel James Russell, late 
governor of the island of Nevis in the West Indies, and humbly beseeching 
his majesty to grant his commission for the continuance of him, the said 
Colonel Russell, in the government of the said island: his majesty, this day 
sitting in council, hath appointed the lord chamberlain, the earl of 
Southampton, the earl of Leicester, the lord viscount Say and Seal, the lord 
Roberts, Mr. Denzil Holies, Mr. Secretary Nicholas, Mr. Secretary Morice, 
Mr. Arthur Annesley, and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, or any three or more of 
them, to meet and sit as a committee every Monday and Thursday at three of 
the clock in the afternoon, to receive, hear, examine, and deliberate upon 
any petitions, propositions, memorials, or other addresses which shall be 
presented or brought in by any person or persons concerning the plantations 
as well in the continent as islands of America, and from time to time make 
their report to this board of their proceedings....

[17 August.] The Turkey [Company], the Merchant Adventurers, the East India, 
Greenland, and Eastland Companies, and likewise the incorporated traders for 
Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, and the West India plantations [are] to 
present unto his majesty the names of four of their most knowing, active men 
— of whom when his majesty shall have chosen two, and unto this number of 
merchants added some other able and well-experienced persons, dignified also 
with the presence and assistance of some of his majesty's privy council — 
all these [are] to be by his majesty appointed, constituted, and authorized 
by commission under the great seal as a standing committee to inquire into 
and certify all things tending to the advancement of trade and commerce....

            Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial Series, I, 295, 297 f.

(B) Instructions for the Council of Trade (1660)

1. You shall take into your consideration the inconveniences which the 
English trade hath suffered in any parts beyond the seas, and are to inquire 
into such articles of former treaties as have been made with any princes or 
states in relation to trade, and to draw out such observations ... as may be 
necessary for us to advise or insist upon in any foreign leagues or 
alliances, that such evils as have befallen these our kingdoms through want 
of good information ... may be provided against in time to come.

2. You are to consider how and by whom any former articles or treaties have 
been neglected or violated; what new capitulations are necessary either to 
the freedom of sale to your commodities of all sorts ... , to the best 
expedition of justice, to the recovery of debts ... , or to the prevention 
of those interruptions which the trade and navigation of our kingdoms have 
suffered by embargoes of foreign princes or states....

3. You are to consider well the interest of all such trades as are or shall 
be incorporated by our royal charters, and what jurisdictions are necessary 
to be obtained ... for the more regular management ... of the trade and of 
the members of those our corporations in foreign factories.

4. You are to consider the several manufactures of these our kingdoms, how 
and by what occasions they are corrupted ... and by what probable means they 
may be restored and maintained in their ancient goodness and reputation, and 
how they may be farther improved ... by a just regulation and standard of 
weight, length, and breadth....

5. You are also to take into your consideration all the native commodities 
... of these our kingdoms, and how they may be ordered, nourished, 
increased, and manufactured to the employment of our people and to the best 
advantage of the public.

6. You are specially to consider of the whole business of the fishings of 
these our kingdoms or any other of our distant dominions or plantations, and 
to consult of some effectual means for the re-enforcing, encouraging, and 
increasing, and for the regulating and carrying on of the trade in all the 
parts thereof....

7. You are seriously to consider ... whether the importation of foreign 
commodities do not overbalance the exportation of such as are native, and 
how it may be so ordered ... that we may have more sellers than buyers in 
every part abroad....

11. You are to consider the general state ... of our foreign plantations and 
of the navigation, trade, and several commodities arising thereupon ... and 
you are also, in all matters wherein our foreign plantations are concerned, 
to take advice or information ... from the council appointed and set apart 
by us to the more particular inspection, regulation, and care of our foreign 
plantations....

    Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, II, 913 f.

(C) Establishment of a Single Committee on Trade and Plantations (1675)

The right honourable the lord keeper of the great seal of England this day 
acquainted the board by his majesty's command that his majesty, having been 
pleased to dissolve and extinguish his late council of trade and foreign 
plantations ....[1] had thought fit to commit what was under their 
inspection and management to the committee of this board appointed for 
matters relating to trade and his foreign plantations, viz.: the lord 
treasurer, lord privy seal, duke of Lauderdale, duke of Ormond, marquis of 
Worcester, earl of Ossory, lord chamberlain, earl of Bridgewater, earl of 
Essex, earl of Carlisle, earl of Craven, Viscount Fauconberg, Viscount 
Halifax, Lord Berkeley, Lord Holies, Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, Mr. Secretary 
Coventry, Mr. Secretary Williamson, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. 
Chancellor of the Duchy, and Mr. Speaker. And [he] did particularly order 
that the lord privy seal, the earl of Bridgewater, earl of Carlisle, earl of 
Craven, Viscount Fauconberg, Viscount Halifax, Lord Berkeley, Mr. Vice-
Chamberlain, and Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer should have the immediate 
care and intendency of those affairs, in regard they had been formerly 
conversant and acquainted therewith ...; and that their lordships meet 
constantly at least once a week and make report to his majesty in council of 
their results and proceedings from time to time; and that they have power to 
send for all books, papers, and other writings concerning any of his 
majesty's said plantations....

                 Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial Series, I, 619 f.

(D) Charles II: Charter to Connecticut (1662)

Charles ... , etc., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.... 
Whereas we have been informed by the humble petition of our trusty and well-
beloved John Winthrop [and eighteen others] ... , being persons principally 
interested in our colony or plantation of Connecticut in New England that 
the same colony, or the greatest part thereof, was purchased and obtained 
for great and valuable considerations ...: now know ye ... , in regard the 
said colony is remote from other the English plantations ... , and to the 
end the affairs and business which shall from time to time happen or arise 
concerning the same may be duly ordered and managed, we have thought fit ... 
, at the humble petition of the persons aforesaid ... , to create and make 
them a body politic and corporate with the powers and privileges hereinafter 
mentioned....

We ... do ordain, constitute, and declare that they, the said John Winthrop 
... and all such others as now are or hereafter shall be admitted and made 
free of the company and society of our colony of Connecticut in America, 
shall ... forever hereafter be one body corporate and politic ... by the 
name of Governor and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut in New 
England in America.... And further we will and ordain ... that, for the 
better ordering and managing of the affairs and business of the said company 
and their successors, there shall be one governor, one deputy governor, and 
twelve assistants, to be from time to time constituted, elected, and chosen 
out of the freemen of the said company ... in such manner and form as 
hereafter in these presents is expressed.... And further we ... do ordain 
and grant that the governor ... or ... deputy governor ... shall and may 
from time to time ... give order for the assembling of the said company ... 
to consult and advise of the business and affairs of the said company; and 
that forever hereafter, twice in every year ... or oftener in case it shall 
be requisite, the assistants and freemen of the said company, or such of 
them ... who shall be from time to time thereunto elected or deputed by the 
major part of the freemen of the respective towns, cities, and places ... , 
shall have a general meeting or assembly, then and there to consult and 
advise in and about the affairs and business of the said company.... And we 
do hereby ... establish and ordain that once in the year forever hereafter 
... the governor, deputy governor, and assistants of the said company, and 
other officers of the said company ... shall be in the said general court 
and assembly ... newly chosen for the year ensuing by such greater part of 
the said company ... then and there present....

And further ... we do ... ordain, declare, and grant ... that all and every 
the subjects of us, our heirs or successors, which shall go to inhabit 
within the said colony, and every of their children ... shall have and enjoy 
all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects within any the 
dominions of us, our heirs, or successors.... And we do further of our 
especial grace ... give and grant ... that it shall and may be lawful to and 
for the governor or deputy governor and such of the assistants of the said 
company ... as shall be assembled in any of the general courts aforesaid ... 
to erect and make such judicatories for the hearing and determining of all 
actions, causes, matters, and things happening within the said colony or 
plantation and which shall be in dispute ... as they shall think fit and 
convenient; and also from time to time to make, ordain, and establish all 
manner of wholesome and reasonable laws, statutes, ordinances, directions, 
and instructions, not contrary to the laws of this realm of England....

                                Thorpe, Constitutions, I, 529 f.

(E) Charles II: Grant to William Penn (1681)

Charles ... , etc., to all [to] whom these presents shall come, greeting. 
Whereas our trusty and well-beloved subject, William Penn, esquire ... , out 
of a commendable desire to enlarge our English empire and promote such 
useful commodities as may be of benefit to us and our dominions, as also to 
reduce the savage natives by gentle and just manners to the love of civil 
society and Christian religion, hath humbly besought leave of us to 
transport an ample colony unto a certain country hereinafter described in 
the parts of America not yet cultivated and planted ...: know ye therefore 
that we ... do give and grant unto the said William Penn, his heirs, and 
assigns all that tract or part of land in America....[2] And him, the said 
William Penn, his heirs, and assigns, we do by this our royal charter ... 
make, create, and constitute the true and absolute proprietary of the 
country aforesaid ...; saving always to us, our heirs, and successors the 
faith and allegiance of the said William Penn ... and of all other 
proprietaries, tenants, and inhabitants that are or shall be within the 
territories and precincts aforesaid; and saving also unto us, our heirs, and 
successors the sovereignty of the aforesaid country — to have, hold, 
possess, and enjoy the said tract of land ... , as of our castle of Windsor 
in our county of Berks, in free and common socage ... , yielding and paying 
therefor to us, our heirs, and successors two beaver skins, to be delivered 
at our said castle of Windsor on the first day of January in every year, and 
also the fifth part of all gold and silver ore which shall ... happen to be 
found within the limits aforesaid.... And of our further grace ... we have 
thought fit to erect ... the aforesaid country ... into a province and 
seignory and do call it Pennsylvania, and so from henceforth we will have it 
called.

And ... know ye ... that we, reposing special trust and confidence ... in 
the said William Penn ... , do grant free, full, and absolute power ... to 
him and his heirs ... to ordain, make, and enact ... any laws whatsoever for 
the raising of money for the public use of the said province, or for any 
other end appertaining either unto the public state, peace, or safety of the 
said country, or unto the private utility of particular persons, according 
unto their best discretions, by and with the advice, assent, and approbation 
of the freemen of the said country ... or of their delegates or deputies; 
whom, for the enacting of the said laws ... , we will that the said William 
Penn and his heirs shall assemble in such sort and form as to him and them 
shall seem best....

And we do likewise give and grant unto the said William Penn and his heirs 
... full power and authority to appoint and establish any judges and 
justices, magistrates and officers whatsoever, for what causes soever ... 
within the precincts aforesaid ...; also to remit, release, pardon, and 
abolish ... all crimes and offences whatsoever committed within the said 
country against the said laws, treason and wilful and malicious murder only 
excepted....

We enjoin, require, and command ... that all the liege people and subjects 
of us, our heirs, and successors do keep the same [laws] inviolable in those 
parts.... Provided, nevertheless, that the said laws be consonant to reason 
and be not repugnant or contrary — but, as near as conveniently may be, 
agreeable — to the laws and statutes and rights of this our kingdom of 
England; and saving and reserving to us, our heirs, and successors the 
receiving, hearing, and determining of the ... appeals of all ... persons 
of, in, or belonging to the territories aforesaid.... Our further will and 
pleasure is that a transcript or duplicate of all laws ... made and 
published within the said province shall, within five years after the making 
thereof, be transmitted and delivered to the privy council.... And if any of 
the said laws, within the space of six months after that they shall be so 
transmitted ... , be declared by us, our heirs, or successors, in our or 
their privy council inconsistent with the sovereignty or lawful prerogative 
of us, our heirs, or successors, or contrary to the faith and allegiance due 
... from the said William Penn or his heirs or the planters and inhabitants 
of the said province ... , such laws ... shall become void; otherwise, the 
said laws so transmitted shall remain and stand in full force....

                                            Ibid., V, 3036 f.



[1] The committees set up in 1660 (no. 118A) had been superseded by, first, 
two councils and, later, one council of trade and foreign plantations, which 
were distinct from the privy council. The direct control of the privy 
council was restored by this present order.

[2] As specifically bounded in the charter.