these Presents for Us Our Heirs and Successors do Grant and Confirm unto the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns full and absolute Licence Power and Authority that they the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns from time to time hereafter for ever at his and their Will and Pleasure may Alien Grant Demise or Enfeoff the Premises or any part or parcel thereof to him or them that shall be willing to Purchase the same and to such Person or Persons as they shall think fit To have and to hold to them the said Person or Persons their Heirs of Assigns in the Fee-simple or Fee-tail or for term of Life or Lives or Years to be held of them the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns and not immediately of Us Our Heirs and Successors And to the same Person or Persons and to all and every of them We do Give and Grant by these Presents for Us Our Heirs and Successors Licence and Authority and Power that such Person or Persons may have and take the Premises or any parcel thereof of the said Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns and the same to hold to themselves their Heirs or Assigns in what estate of Inheritance soever in Fee-simple or in Fee-tail or otherwise as to them and the said Earl of Clarendon their Heirs and Assigns shall seem expedient The Statute of the Parliament of Edward Son of King Henry heretofore King of England Our Predecessor commonly called the Statute of Quia Emptores Terrarum or any other Statutes Act Ordinance Use Law Customs or any other Matter Cause or Thing heretofore Published or Provided to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding and because many Persons born or Inhabiting in the said Province for their Deserts and Services may expect to be capable of marks of Honour and Favour which in respect of the great distance cannot be conferred by Us Our Will and Pleasure therefore is and We do by these Presents Give and Grant unto the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns full Power and Authority to give and confer unto and upon such of the Inhabitants of the said Province or Territory as they shall think do or shall merit the same such Marks of Favour and Titles of Honour as they shall think fit so as those Titles of Honour be not the same as are enjoyed by and conferred upon any of the Subjects of this Our Kingdom of England And further also We do by these Presents for Us Our Heirs and Successors Give and Grant by these to them the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns full Power Liberty and Licence to Erect Raise and Build within the said Province and Places aforesaid or any other part or parts thereof such and so many Forts Fortresses Castles Cities Boroughs Towns Villages and other Fortifications whatsoever and the same or any of them to fortifie and furnish with Ordnance Powder Shot and Arms and all other Weapons Ammunition and Habiliments of War offensive and defensive as shall be thought fit and convenient for the welfare and safety of the said Province or places of any parts thereof and the same or any of them from time to time as occasion shall require dismantle disfurnish demolish and put down and also to place constitute and appoint in or over all or any of the said Castles Forts Fortifications Cities Towns or Places aforesaid Governours Deputy-Governours Magistrates Sheriffs and other Officers Civil and Military as to them shall seem meet and to the said Cities Towns Boroughs Villages or any other place or places within the said Province or Territory to grant Letters or Charters of Incorporation with all Liberties Franchises and Priviledges requisite and usual or to be within any Corporation within this Our King of England granted or belonging And in the same Cities Boroughs Towns and other places to constitute erect and appoint such and so many Markets Marts and Fairs as shall in that behalf be thought fit and necessary And further also to make and erect in the Province or Territory aforesaid or any parts thereof so many Mannors with such Seignories as to them shall seem meet and convenient and every of the said Mannors to hold and to have a Court-Baron with all things whatsoever which to a Court-Baron doth belong and to have and to hold Views of Frank-pledge and Courts-Leet for the conservation of the peace and better government of those Parts with such Limits Jurisdictions Precincts as by the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c or their Heirs shall be appointed for that purpose with all things whatsoever which to a Court-Leet or a View of Frank-pledge belong the same Courts to be holden by Stewards to be deputed and authorized by the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. or their Heirs or by the Lords other Mannors and Leets for the time being when the same shall be erected and because that in so remote a Country and situate among so many Barbarous Nations the Invasion as well of Savages as other Enemies Pirates and Robbers may probably be seared Therefore we have as for Us our Heirs and Successours given power by these presents unto the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns by themselves or their Captains or other Officers to Levy Muster and Train all sorts of Men of what condition soever born whether in the said Province or elsewhere for the time being and to make War and to pursue the Enemies aforesaid as well by Sea as by Land yea even without the Limits of the said Province and by God's assistance to vanquish and take them and being taken to put them to death by the Laws of War and to save them at their pleasure and to do all and every thing which to the Charge and Office of a Captain-General of any Army belongs or hath accustomed to belong as fully and freely as any Captain-General of an Army hath ever had the same Also Our Will and Pleasure is and by this Our Charter We do give unto the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns full Power and Authority in cause of Rebellion Tumults or Sedition if any should happen which God forbid either upon the Land within in the Province aforesaid or upon the main Sea in making a Voyage thither or returning from thence by him and themselves their Captains Deputies or Officers to be authorized under his or their Seals for that purpose to whom also for Us Our Heirs and Successours We do give and grant by these presents full power and authority to exercise Martial Laws against mutinous and seditious persons of these parts such as shall refuse to submit themselves to their Government or shall refuse to serve in the Wars or shall flie to the Enemy or shall forsake their Colours or Ensigns to be loyterers or straglers otherwise howsoever offending
Motion have thought fit to annex the same Tract Ground and Territory unto the said Province of Carolina and out of the fulness of our Royal Power and Prerogative so do for Us Our Heirs and Successors annex and unite the same to the said Province of Carolina And for as much as we have made and ordained the aforesaid Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns the ame Lords Proprietors of all the Province or Territory aforesaid Know ye therefore moreover that We reposing especial Trust and Confidence in their Fidelity Wisdom Justice Prudence and Circumspection for Us Our Heirs and Successors Do Grant full and absolute Power by virtue of these Presents to them the said Edward Earl of Clarendon and their Heirs and Assigns for the good and happy Government of the said whole Province or Territory full Power and Authority to Erect and make several Counties Baronies and Colonies of and within the said Province Territories Lands and Hereditaments in and by the said Rented Letters Patents and these Presents Granted or mentioned to be Granted as aforesaid with several and distinct Jurisdictions Powers Liberties and Priviledges and also to make ordain and enact and under their Seals to publish any Laws and Constitutions whatsoever either appertaining to the Publick State of the said whole Province or Territory or of any distinct or particular County Barony or Colony of or within the same or to the private Utility of particular Persons according to their best direction by and with the Advice Assent and Approbation of the Free-men of the said Province or Territory or of the Free-men of the County Barony or Colony for which such Laws or Constitutions shall be made or of the greater part of them or of their Diligates or Deputies whom for enacting of the said Laws when and as often as need shall require We will that the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. and their Heirs or Assigns shall from time to time Assemble in such manner and form as to them shall seem best and the same Laws duly to execute upon all Persons within the said Province Territory County Barony or Colony or the Limits thereof for the time being or which shall be constituted under the Power and Government of them or any of them either sayling towards the said Province or Territory of Carolina or returning from thence towards England or any other of our Foreign Dominions by Imposition of Penalty Imprisonment or any other Punishment yet if it shall be needful and the quality of the offence require it by taking away Member and Life either by them the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. and theirs by them or their Deputies Lieutenants Judges Justices Magistrates Officers and Ministers to be ordained and appointed according to the Tenor and true Intention of them Presents and likewise to Erect or make any Court or Courts whatsoever of Judicature or otherwise as shall be requisite and to appoint or establish any Judges Justices Magistrates or Officers whatsoever as well within the said Province as at Sea in such manner and form as unto the said Edward Earl of Clarendom c. or their Heirs shall seem most convenient also to remit release pardon and abolish whether before Judgement and after all crimes and offences whatsoever against the said Laws and to do all and every other thing things which unto the compleat establisment of Justice unto Courts Sessions and forms of Judication and manner of proceedings therein do belong although in these Presents express mention is not made thereof and by Judges by him or them deligated to award press hold please and determine in all the said Courts Places of Judicature all Actions Suits and Causes whatsoever as well Criminal as Civil Real Mixt Personal or any other kind or nature whatsoever which Laws so as aforesaid to be published Our Pleasure is and we do enjoyn require and Command shall be absolute firm and available in Law and that all the liege People of Us Our Heirs or Successors within the said Province or Territory do observe and keep the same inviolably in those Parts so far as they concern them under the Patents or Penalties therein expressed or to be expressed provided nevertheless that the said Laws be consonant to Reason and as near as may be conveniently agreeable to the Laws and Customs of this our Kingdom of England and because such Assemblies of Freeholders cannot be so suddenly called as there may be occasion to require the same We do therefore by these Presents Give and Grant unto the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns by themselves and their Magistrates in that behalf lawfully authorized full power and authority from time to time to make and ordain fit and wholsom Orders and Ordinances within the Province or Territory aforesaid or any County Barony or Province of or within the same to be kept and observed as well for the keeping of the Peace as for the better Government of the People there abiding and to publish the same to all whom it may concern which Ordinances we do by these Presents streightly Charge and Command to be inviolably observed within the same Province Territory Counties Baronies and Provinces under the Penalty therein expressed so as such Ordinances reasonable and not repugnant and contrary but as near as may be agreeable to the Laws and Statutes of this our Kingdom of England and so as the same Ordinances do not extend to the bringing charging or the taking away of the Right of any Person or Persons in their Free-hold Goods or Chattels whatsoever and to the end the said Provinces or Territories may be the more happily encreased by the multude of People resorting thither and likewise be the more strongly defended from the Incursion of Savages and other Enemies Pirates and Robbers therefore We for Us Our Heirs and Successors do Give and Grant by these Presents Power Licence and Liberty to all the Leige People for Us Our Heirs and Successors in Our Kingdom of England or elsewhere within any other Our Dominions Islands Colonies or Plantations excepting those who shall be expresly forbidden to Transport themselves and Families into the said Province or Territory with convenient Shipping and fitting Provision and there to settle themselves to dwell and inhabit any Law Act Statute Ordinance or any thing to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And We do also of Our more special Grace for Us Our Heirs and Successors streightly Enjoyn Ordain Constitute and Command that the said Province or Territory shall be of our Allegiance and that all and singular the Subjects and Liege People of Us Our Heirs or Successors Transported or to be Transportcd into the said Province and the Children of them or such as shall descend from them there born or hereafter to be born be and shall be Denizens and Lieges of Us Our Heirs and Successors of this Our Kingdom of England and be in all things held
and treacherously executed by them though perhaps not sacrificed and none had escaped if their Ambush had succeeded Powhatan invited one Captain Ratcliff and thirty others to trade for Corn and having brought them within his Ambush murdered them all Virginia after its discovery cost no small pains before it was brought to perfection with the loss of many Englishmens Lives In the Reign of King James the First a Patent was granted to several Persons as a Corporation and called the Company of Adventurers of Virginia But upon several Misdemeanors and Miscarriages in 1623. the Patent was made null since which it hath been free for all his Majesties Subjects to Trade into these Parts This Countrey is blest with a sweet and wholsom Ayr Temperature and the Climate so agreeable to the English since the clearing it from Woods that few die of the Countrey-Disease called Seasoning It is every where interlaced with delectable Hills and rich Vallies It s Fertility and of a Soil so fertile that an Acre of Ground commonly yieldeth 200 Bushels of Corn and produceth readily the Grain Fruits Plants Seeds and Roots which are brought from England besides those that are natural to this Countrey and the rest of America Here are excellent Fruits in great abundance Its Fruits which may be compared to those of Italy or Spain as Apricocks Peaches Melons Apples Pears Plums Cherries Grapes Figs Quinces Marrocks Punchamins Chesnuts Walnuts Olives Strawberries Rasberries Gooseberries and Mulberries in great abundance Of their Apples they make Sider of their Pears Perry and of their Grapes Wine They have several sorts of Roots as Potatoes Carrots Turnips Their Roots Artichokes Onions Cabbages Colliflowers Asparagus c. with most sorts of Garden-Herbs known to us in great plenty They have great plenty of Fowl as wild Turkeys Their Fowl which usually weigh six Stone or forty eight pound Partridges Swans Geese Ducks Teal Wigeons Dotterels Heath-cocks Oxe-eyes Brants Pigeons Cranes Herons Eagles and several sorts of Hawks and for small Birds innumerable quantities of sundry sorts as Black-birds Thrushes Red-birds and above all the Mock-bird which counterfeits the Noise of all Birds They have great store of wild Beasts as Lions Bears Leopards Wild Beasts Tygers Wolves and Dogs like Wolves but bark not Buffeloes Elks whose Flesh is as good as Beef Rosconnes Vtchunquois Deer Hares Bevers Otters Foxes Martins Polcats Wesels Musk-Rats Flying Squirrels c. And for tame Cattel Cows Sheep Goats Hogs and Horses in great plenty There is great plenty of excellent Fish as well in the Sea Their Fish and Bay of Chesopeack as in the Rivers viz. Cods Thornback Sturgeon Crampusses Porpusses Drums Cat-Fish Basses Sheeps-heads which makes Broth like that of Mutton Coney-fish Rock-fish Cray-fish White Salmons Soals Plaice Mullets Makarel Trouts Perches Conger-Eels Herrings Oysters Shrimps Cockles Muscles c. The Commodities Commodities which the Countrey doth or may produce are Hemp Flax Hops Rape-seed Annise-seed Woad Madder Pot-Ashes Honey Wax Silk if they would make it since Mulberry-leaves grow in so great plenty several sweet Gums and excellent Balsoms of sovereign Vertues several sorts of Plants and Woods used by Dyers Here are Veins of Allum Iron and Copper together with sundry sorts of rich Furs Elk-Skins which maketh excellent Buff and other Hides Pitch Tar Rozen Turpentine Butter Cheese salted Fish and Flesh which find vent at Barbados and other Charibby-Islands but above all Tobacco which is their principal Commodity and the Standard whereby all the rest are prized There grows a kind of Flax called Silk-grass of which the Indians make Thred and Strings and is good to make Linnen Cloth and Shifts and and would make excellent strong Cables Here all Tradesmen especially Handicrafts find good encouragement and for those Commodities aforesaid the English who have the sole Trade bring them all sorts of Apparel all manner of Utensils belonging to Houshold-stuff or necessary for their Plantations or otherwise also Wine Brandy and other strong Drinks likewise all Silks Stuff and Cloth both Linnen and Woollen which they convert to several Uses according to their slancies being now supplied with Taylors Here groweth likewise sundry sorts of Trees Their Trees as the red and white Oak black Walnut Cedar Pine Cypress Chesnut Poplar Ash Elm c. many of which are very good for the building of Ships and other Uses This Countrey is well watered with several great and swift Rivers Their Rivers which lose themselves in the Gulph or Bay Chesopeak which gives entrance for Shipping into this Countrey and also to Maryland next adjoyning which said Bay is very large capacious and commodious for Shipping being said to run up into the Countrey Northwards 75 Leagues in breadth in many places being 5 6 or 7 Leagues and sometimes more and 6 or 7 fathom deep and its opening to the South between Cape Henry which beginneth Virginia and Cape Charles on the other side opposite being about 10 or 12 Leagues wide The principal of these Rivers beginning at Cape Henry are Pawhonan now called James's River being found navigable about 50 Leagues Pamaunke now York-River also large and navigable about 20 Leagues Rapahanock or Topahanock likewise a good River and navigable about 40 Leagues which is the last River of Virginia northwardly that falls into the Bay of Chesopeak Upon or near these Rivers for the conveniency of Shipping the English are seated which at present do amount unto the number of about thirty or forty thousand and have some Towns the chief amongst which is James-Town or rather James-City commodiously seated on James-River the Town is beautified with many fair and well-built Brick Houses and as it is the chief Town of the Countrey here are kept the Courts of Judicatory and Offices of publick Concern Next to James-Town may be reckoned that of Elizabeth seated at the bottom of the said River a well built Town Also Dales-Gift Wicocomeco Bermuda and others The Governour is sent over by His Majesty who at present is the Right Honourable the Lord Howard of Effingham and the Countrey is governed by Laws agreeable with those of England for the decision of all Causes both Civil and Criminal which said Laws are made by the Governour with the consent of the General Assembly which doth consist of his Council and the Burgesses chosen by the Freeholders And for the better Government the Countrey possessed by the English is divided into several Counties in each of which are Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and other Officers which are from time to time appointed by the Governor The Names of the Counties are those of Carotuck Their Counties Charles Glocester Hartford Henrico James New-Kent Lancaster Middlesex Nansemund Lower-Norfolk Northampton Northumberland Rappahanock Surrey Warwick Westmorland Isle of Wight and York and in each of these Counties are held petty Courts every Month from which there may be Appeals to the Quarter-Court held at James-Town The Virginians are not