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Safety, and the Selectmen of each town, within their respective Counties, to have the several proportions of men affixed to each town, therein raised with all possible expedition, and, when raised, to form them into Companies of ninety men each, including officers, and, as soon as each Company has chosen their several officers, that they cause them to march forthwith into Canada.
In Council: Read, and concurred.
In the House of Representatives: Whereas, a certain Act, entitled, "An Act for establishing and regulating the Fees of the several Officers within this Province, hereafter mentioned," made and passed at the Session of the Great and General Court of this Colony begun and held at Boston, in the County of Suffolk, upon Wednesday, the 6th day of January, 1773, expired on the last day of October last, and, at present, there is no act or law of this Colony now in force for establishing and regulating the fees of the several officers in the said Act mentioned, excepting a certain Act made and passed in the fourth year of the reign of William and Mary, King and Queen, entitled, "An Act for regulating Fees," which last mentioned Act has, by divers temporary acts, from time to time been superseded and suspended as unsalutary, and the fees thereby settled and established appear to be, in many instances, extravagant and unreasonable:
It is, therefore, Resolved, That henceforward, until the further order of the General Court, it shall be lawful for all Officers named and mentioned in the Act first above-mentioned, to take and receive for the several services therein specified, such, and no higher Fees, than the Fees or sums of money specified in the first-mentioned Act, and be subject to the pains and penalties there provided for offences against the same.
In Council: Read, and concurred.
Petition of James Curtis, of Brunswick, setting forth: "that he raised a Company of fifty men, and was ordered by Colonel Phinney to march them to Head-Quarters, where we arrived the 30th day of July, and, on the 9th day of August, received orders from the honourable Council to return to Deer-Island, in the County of Lincoln, under the command of Colonel James Cargill. Your petitioner would further set forth, that he has made up his muster-rolls upon the establishment, until he received orders, and, also, his rolls, from said 9th of August, upon the sea-coast, and has been at great cost and charge therein, and still at great charge, and the honourable Committee refuses to pass said rolls, by reason they are not made up to and from the 1st day of August, and, also, refuses to allow the men their coats and blankets, according to establishment they inlisted in, when they marched to Head-Quarters without your Honours' approbation. Your petitioner prays your Honours would allow them the same as others that inlisted upon the establishment."
The Committee chosen to take into consideration the Petition of Captain James Curtis, beg leave to report, as their opinion, that said Curtis have leave to make up his Muster Roll, from the time the men inlisted to the 9th day of August, but cannot find that they are entitled to any Coats or Blankets.
In the House of Representatives: Read, and accepted, and Resolved, That the Committee on Muster-Rolls be directed to pass upon said Curtis's Roll, when made up agreeable to the above Report, on the establishment of the Army.
In Council: Read, and concurred.
In the House of Representatives: Ordered, That the Treasurer be directed to pay the two thousand Pounds which the Court have this day resolved to lend Joseph Trumbull, Esq., Commissary-General of the Continental Army, in Continental Bills, if the said Trumbull shall desire it.
In Council: Read, and concurred.
Adjourned to ten o'clock, to-morrow morning.*
Tuesday, January 23, 1776.
Present in Council: Honourables William Sever, Walter Spooner, Caleb Cushing, John Winthrop, Thomas Cushing, John Whetcomb, Jedediah Foster, James Prescott, Eldad Taylor, Benjamin Lincoln, Charles Chauncy, Michael Farley, Joseph Palmer, Samuel Holten, Jabez Fisher, Moses Gill, John Taylor, Benjamin White, Esquires.
The Committee appointed by both Houses to consider the propriety of commissionating such Captains and Lieutenants as marched and joined the Continental Army from the Militia, with full Companies, in pursuance with the Resolve of the General Court, on the 1st day of December last, have attended their duty, and are of opinion, that the commissionating all the Captains and Lieutenants in the order in which they were chosen by their respective companies, as they marched into the camp, is what said officers expected, and, as they have done the duty, sustained the office, and expect the pay due to them by the establishment of the Continental Army, your Committee conclude they ought to be commissionated; therefore, beg leave to report a resolve for that purpose:
Resolved, That all the Captains and Lieutenants marched into the camp, as a temporary reinforcement to the Continental Army, by order of this Court of the first of last month, be now commissionated by the Council, agreeable to the several ranks, and in the order in which they were chosen by their respective Companies, any thing fn a Resolve of this Court, of the 13th instant, to the contrary notwithstanding; and that said commissions bear date the 10th of last month, the day on which most of them arrived in the camp.
In Council: Read, and accepted.
In the House of Representatives: Read, and concurred..
Petition of Joseph Deane, setting forth: "that he has, for several years past, used the Surinam trade; in consequence, a very considerable part of his interest, to the amount of five hundred pounds, now remains in the hands of the merchants in that place, the time limited for the payment of which has already expired. Your petitioner begs leave further to represent to the honourable Cou rt, that he last spring purchased a bill of exchange, to the amount, of five hundred pounds more, drawn by a Dutch merchant there on his correspondent in Amsterdam, whi ch bill has since come back protested to your petitioner, both of which sums must be infallibly lost to your memorialist in case of failure of any of his debtors (which, at this day, is not improbable.) He, therefore, prays your Honours to grant him liberty to sail from this Colony to Surinam in a brigantine which he now has by him, and lying totally useless, in order to secure the aforesaid sums. He means not, nor does he wish to contravene the Resolves of the American Congress, or the regulations made by this Colony. He, therefore, only asks permission to carry empty molasses casks enough to bring home the proceeds of his said debt in the produce of Surinam, and the rest ballast. He intends, if by any means can be obtained, to purchase a cargo of powder; but as this is a matter altogether uncertain, and as molasses casks cannot be procured in Surinam, he prays your Honours to grant him the permission above prayed for.
In the House of Representatives: Read, and committed to the Committee appointed the 15th current, to consider the subject-matter of Thomas Russell's Petition,
In Council: Read, and concurred.
The Committee of both Houses on the above Petition, have attended that service, and having considered the same, report the following Resolve:
Resolved, That Joseph Deane be allowed to send the Brigantine in his Petition mentioned, to the foreign West-Indies, in order to collect any moneys which may be due to him there, he giving bonds with sufficient sureties in the sum of one thousand Pounds to the Treasurer of this Colony, that he will not export in said brigantine any cash or produce of the Colonies. And it is recommended to the said Joseph Deane, to purchase and return here Arms, Ammunition, or any species of Military Stores enumerated in a late Resolution of the Congress, if they are to be obtained.
* COUNCIL-CHAMBER, January 22, 1776.—GENTLEMEN: Your instructions to Mr. Wigglesworth and Mr. Hodge, requesting them to pursue William Miller and Margaret Grozart, were laid before this Board, with the letters which were taken with them.
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