PROCLAMATION BY ADMIRAL GRAVES

By SAMUEL GRAVES, ESQ., Vice-Admiral of the Blue, and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Ships and Vessels employed, and to be employed, in the River ST. LAWRENCE, &c.

Whereas I have received information that a vessel is arrived at Marblehead with a very considerable quantity of money on board from a Spanish wreck, which must by all means be prevented from falling into the hands of the Rebels: You are therefore hereby required and directed to sail in His Majesty’s Schooner, under your command, to Marblehead, without a moment’s delay of time, and bring the vessel into Boston Harbour with the money, or remove the money into the Diana without delay, and let the vessel follow you hither.

Given under my hand on board His Majesty’s Ship Preston, at Boston, the 7th of May, 1775.

SAMUEL GRAVES.

To Lieut. Graves, Commander of His Majesty’s Schooner Diana.

COMMON COUNCIL OF W1LLIAMSBURGH, VIRGINIA.

At a Court of Common Council for the City of Williamsburgh, held the eighth day of May, 1775:

Whereas it hath been represented to this Hall, that on the fourth instant, in the night time, some person or persons unknown, had broke into the publick Magazine, and taken from thence sundry Fire-Arms belonging to His Majesty:

We, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the said City, being desirous to maintain peace, order, and good government, do hereby declare our abhorrence of such unlawful proceeding, and do require the inhabitants to use their utmost endeavours to prevent the like outrage in future, and exhort all persons who may be in possession of any of the said Arms, to return the same immediately, to be replaced in the Magazine.

And it having been recommended to this meeting, by the Governour and Council, to appoint a guard to protect the said Magazine, they are of opinion that they have no authority to lay any tax for that purpose, but that if some trusty person should be appointed by his Excellency the Governour to be keeper thereof, and care taken to strengthen it with proper bars, there probably would be a stop put to violences of that nature; and they do humbly recommend to his Excellency Mr. Gabriel Maupin, who lives near the Magazine, as a person worthy of that trust.

MATTHEW DAVENPORT, Town Clerk.

SUSSEX COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

At a meeting of the Committee for the County of Sussex, the Court-House, Monday, 8th of May, 1775:

Present: David Mason, Augustine Claiborne, Michael Blow, Henry Gee, John Cargill, William Nicholson, William Blunt, Robert Jones, John Peters, John Mason, Jr., James Jones, George Rieves, Richard Parker, and George Booth, gentlemen.

Resolved, That the thanks of this Committee be given to the Rev. Mr. Campbell, for his excellent prayer of this morning, prior to the Committee entering upon business.

This Committee taking into consideration a paragraph which appears in the publick newspapers, said to be extracted from a letter written to Lord Dartmouth, one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, by Lord Dunmore, Governour of Virginia, on the twenty-fourth day of December last:

Resolved unanimously, as their opinion, That the said extracts (being fraught with calumny, falsehoods, and illiberal reflections against the good people of this Colony in general, who are now, and for some time past have been, contending for their dearest rights in the most decent and orderly manner) can be no other than a wicked and detestable forgery, or the work of some dirty ministerial sycophant, intending to widen our present unhappy differences with the Mother Country, and impress the people of this Colony with unfavourable sentiments of a ruler who, they are unwilling to believe, would so meanly forfeit that general esteem he had, by a mild and pacifick administration, so generally acquired. With this opinion of the said extracts, this Committee cannot forbear, however reluctantly, to observe, that a late manœuvre in seizing the powder in the publick magazine of this Colony, and privately conveying it away in the night, together with his evasive answer to the addresses of the Corporation of the City of Williamsburgh, presented to his Lordship upon that occasion, but too plainly point out to this Colony that the first Magistrate has swerved from the line of conduct which has hitherto marked his administration, and impressed this Committee with an idea that his private wishes are unfavourable to the welfare of this Colony, and the liberties of mankind. No other motives, we presume, could have actuated him to the commission of an act conceived in secrecy and brought forth in darkness; the design of which was evidently to render (at least as far as in his power so to do) this Colony defenceless, and lay it open to the attacks of a savage invasion, or a domestick foe, which a late Proclamation threatens us with, and which his Excellency could not be ignorant of.

Resolved unanimously, That it is absolutely necessary that this County be put into the best posture of defence possible; and to that end, that a meeting of the people be convened at the following places, on the following respective days, that is to say: those that muster under Captains Moore, Judkins, and Mason, at Brown’s Quarter, on Tuesday the sixteenth instant; those that muster under Captains Jones, Smith, Hill, and Marrable, at the High-Hills on the seventeenth; and those that muster under Captains Nicholson, Parker, Reeves, Irby, and Harrison, at the plantation lately belonging to Captain James Jones, on the nineteenth; and that they, and every of them, do bring with them to the said several meetings what arms they and every of them have. And this Committee do earnestly request the Field-Officers and Captains to attend the said several meetings, in order to animate the people in the present time of danger to compliance of the Resolutions of the late Convention.

Resolved unanimously, That we, the members of this Committee now present, and every of us, will, in order to raise a sufficient sum of money to purchase Ammunition, in this time of imminent danger, pay, by way of contribution for that purpose, the sum of ten Pounds, current money, on or before the first day of June next. And as we doubt not but the absent members of this Committee will do the same for themselves, therefore Messrs. John Cargill, Jas. Jones, and George Reeves, are requested immediately to purchase ammunition for the use of this County, to the amount of two hundred Pounds, current money, the present members engaging to indemnify them in such purchase; and that they make report of their proceedings to the next Committee.

Resolved unanimously, That a Committee of Intelligence and Correspondence be appointed, of the following persons, that is to say: Messrs. Blow, Peete, Nicholson, Cargill, Gee, David Mason, Claiborne, and Blunt; that upon they, or any one of them, receiving an alarm, he or they do forthwith fall upon the best method in his or their power, to give notice of such alarm throughout this County, and also to some one or more of the Committees of Southampton and Brunswick, fixing upon the most convenient place for the people to rendezvous at, being guided therein by the quarter threatened most with an invasion, insurrection, or other attack.

Ordered, That the proceedings of this day be transmitted by the Chairman, as soon as may be convenient, to the press, in order to their publication.

MICHAEL BLOW, Chairman.

MECKLENBURGH COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

At a general meeting of the Freeholders of Mccklenburgh County, convened on Monday, the 8th day of May, 1775, at the Court-House of said County, in order to elect a Committee, pursuant to a Resolution of the American Continental Congress: The better to secure a due observation of the Association entered into by said Congress, the Freeholders then proceeded to the choice of a Committee, and elected into the office the following gentlemen, viz: John Speed, Bennett Goode, William Lucas, Henry Speed, Francis Ruffin, Lewis Burwell, Robert Burton,