Representatives to serve for and represent them in any Great and General Court or Assembly at any time to be held and kept for the service of the said Colony.

Whereas there are divers Acts or Laws, heretofore made and passed by former General Courts or Assemblies of this Colony, for the incorporation of Towns and Districts, which, against common right, and in derogation of the rights granted to the inhabitants of this Colony by the Charter, contain an exception to the right and privilege of choosing and sending a Representative or Representatives to the Great and General Court or Assembly:

Be it therefore enacted and declared by the Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That henceforth every such exception contained in any Act or Law heretofore made and passed by any General Court or Assembly of this Colony, for the erecting or incorporating any Town or District, shall be held and taken to be altogether null and void; and that every Town and District in this Colony, consisting of the number of thirty or more freeholders and other inhabitants, qualified by Charter to vote in the election of Representatives, shall henceforth be held and taken to have full right, power, and privilege to elect and depute one or more persons, being freeholders and residents in such Town or District, to serve for and represent them in any Great and General Court or Assembly, entitled “An Act for ascertaining the number and regulating the House of Representatives,” any exception of that right and privilege, as expressed in the respective Acts or Laws for the incorporation of such Town or District, notwithstanding.

And whereas in and by an Act or Law of this Colony, entitled “An Act for erecting part of the Town of Newbury into a new Town, by the name of Newburyport,” it is enacted and provided, that the said Town of Newburyport should have the right of choosing and sending, from time to time, but one person to represent them in the Great and General Court of this Colony, and that the inhabitants of the Town of Newbury, from and after the time of the making and passing the said Act, should have a right to choose and send no more than one person to represent them in the Great and General Court of this Colony:

Be it enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid, That henceforth each of the said Towns of Newbury and Newburyport shall have the full power and right of choosing and sending as many persons to represent them respectively in the Great and General Court or Assembly of this Colony as each of the said Towns would have had a right to have chosen and sent to the said General Court by virtue of the abovementioned Act or Law, entitled “An Act for ascertaining the number and regulating the House of Representatives,” in case there had not been any restrictions upon the said Towns touching their rights and privilege of choosing and sending persons to represent them respectively in the Great and General Court or Assembly contained or expressed in the said Act for the con-constituting and making that part of the former Town of Newbury, now called Newburyport, a distinct Town.

And be it further enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid, That every corporate body in this Colony which, in the act for the incorporation thereof, is said and declared to be made a District, and has by such act granted to it or is declared to be vested with the rights, powers, privileges, or immunities of a Town, with the exception abovementioned of choosing and sending a Representative to the Great and General Court or Assembly, shall henceforth be, and shall be holden, taken, and intended to be a Town, to all intents and purposes whatsoever.

In the House of Representatives, August 17, 1775: This engrossed Bill having had three several readings, Resolved, That it pass to be enacted.

SAML. FREEMAN, Speaker pro tem.

In Council, August 23, 1775: This engrossed Bill having had two several readings, Resolved, That it pass to be enacted.

SAMUEL ADAMS, Secretary.

Ordered, That Colonel Bowers, Mr. Greenleaf and Col. Orne, be Monitors for the remainder of this session.

Resolved, That the Vote of this House of the 5th instant, appointing Major Hawley and others a Committee on a Letter from Mr. Thomas Amory to Mr. Moses Gill, relative to a cargo of Flour taken, for the use of the Colony, from a Schooner of the said Amory, at Nantucket, be reconsidered; and that the same be committed to the Committee of Supplies.

A Letter from Messrs. Joseph and William Greenleaf relative to the suffering condition of the Poor of Boston.

The Resolve of the Continental Congress relative to making Saltpetre, read to the House.

Mr. Enoch Lincoln was returned a Member from the Town of Hingham, and District of Cohasset.

Mr. Hopkins was appointed a Monitor in the room of Colonel Bowers, gone home.

Afternoon.

John Taylor, Esq., brought down the Report of the Committee on the Memorial of the Officers of the Eastern Regiment of Militia in the County of Lincoln, viz:

“The Committee appointed to take into consideration the Memorial of the Officers of the Eastern Regiment of Militia in the County of Lincoln, beg leave to report, that the conduct of said Regiment of Militia in destroying Fort Pownall, and taking a number of vessels mentioned in said Memorial, is highly approved; that the Sloops mentioned as taken in said Memorial, together with their rigging and sails, be secured in some place or places of safety by the Selectmen and Committees of Correspondence of each Town in the County of Lincoln where these vessels now are, until the further order of this Court; that the Schooner taken as mentioned in said Memorial, be and remain in the care of the petitioners, to be by them employed in defence of the sea-coasts of those eastern parts, and the annoyance of our enemies, in the most prudent and effectual manner, until the further order of this Court; that the Boat or Barge mentioned in said Memorial be under the care of Colonel James Cargill, to be by him used and employed in the Colony service, until the further order of this Court; that Messrs. Phillips and Cruger be discharged, evidence appearing, from several persons of credit now out of Boston, that they have acted a friendly part, in several instances, to the great cause of liberty, and nothing appearing against them but only the Admiral’s pass, without which, it is supposed, they could not go out of Boston with their vessels; and that Jonathan Carleton, mentioned also in said Memorial, and any others in the hands of our friends in said County of Lincoln, be discharged, if the Selectmen and Committees of Correspondence in those parts may judge it fit and proper, and consistent with the publick safety, otherwise to be kept in custody till further orders.

“JOSEPH PALMER, Chairman.
“SAMUEL ADAMS, Secretary.”

In Council, August 15, 1775: Read and sent down.

In the House of Representatives, August 18, 1775: Read and concurred.

Ordered, That a grant be made to the Hon. John Hancock, Esq., of one hundred Pounds, for his expenses, &c., to and at Philadelphia, for which he is to be accountable to this Court; and Dr. Whiting ordered to bring in a Resolve for that purpose.

The Committee appointed to consider whether the Non-Commissioned Officers and Private Soldiers stationed on the Sea-Coast should have a month’s advance pay, reported. The Report was accepted, and is as follows, viz:

Resolved, That there be paid out of the publick Treasury of this Colony to the several Muster-Masters appointed by the late Congress to muster the Companies raised for the defence of the Sea-Coasts, the several sums sufficient to pay the Officers and Soldiers stationed in their respective Counties one month’s Wages, and their Billeting from the day of their enlistment until they were stationed by the Committees appointed for that purpose, as soon as a new emission of Bills shall be issued; and that they pay the same to said Officers and Soldiers, taking their receipts therefor, and that they make return of, and be accountable to this Court for the same.

Sent up for concurrence.

Doctor Whiting reported a Resolve relative to a Grant to the Hon. John Hancock, Esq.    Read and accepted.