all and every of Our Courts whatsoever as Lawfully may be Adjudged most Advantageous and Favourable to the said Edward Earl of Clarendon George Duke of Albemarle William Earl of Craven John Lord Berkeley Anthony Lord Ashley Sir George Carterett Sir John Colleton and Sir William Berkeley their Heirs and Assigns although Express Mention c. Witness our Self at Westminster the Thirtieth Day of June in the Seventeenth Year of our Reign Per ipsum Regem THE Fundamental Constitutions OF CAROLINA OUR Sovereign Lord the King having out of His Royal Grace and Bounty granted unto us the Province of Carolina with all the Royalties Proprieties Jurisdictions and Privileges of a County Palatine as large and ample as the County Palatine of Durham with other great Privileges for the better Settlement of the Government of the said Place and establishing the Interest of the Lords Proprietors with Equality and without Confusion and that the Government of this Province may be made most agreeable to the Monarchy under which we live and of which this Province is a Part and that we may avoid erecting a numerous Democracy we the Lords and Proprietors of the Province aforesaid have agreed to this following Form of Government to be perpetually established amongst us unto which we do oblige our selves our Heirs and Successors in the most binding Ways that can be devised § 1. THE Eldest of the Lords Proprietors shall be Palatine and upon the Decease of the Palatine the Eldest of the Seven surviving Proprietors shall always succeed him § 2. There shall be Seven other Chief Offices erected viz. The Admirals Chamberlains Chancellors Constable chief-Chief-Justices High-Stewards and Treasurers which Places shall be enjoy'd by none but the Lords Proprietors to be 〈◊〉 at first 〈…〉 upon the Vacancy of any one of the Seven Great 〈…〉 or otherwise the Eldest Proprietor shall 〈…〉 the said Place § 3. The whole Province shall be 〈◊〉 into Counties each County shall consist of Eight 〈◊〉 Eight Baronies and Four Precincts each Precinct shall consist of Six Colonies § 4. Each Signiory Barony and Colony shall consist of Twelve Thousand Acres the Eight Signiories being the Share of the Eight Proprietors and the Eight Baronies of the Nobility both which Shares being each of them one Fifth part of the Whole are to be perpetually annex'd the one to the Proprietors the other to the Hereditary Nobility leaving the Colonies being Three Fifths amongst the People that so in setting out and planting the Lands the Ballance of the Government may be preserved § 5. At any Time before the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and One any of the Lords Proprietors shall have Power to relinquish alienate and dispose to any other Person his Proprietorship and all the Signiories Powers and Interest thereunto belonging wholly and intirely together and not otherwise But after the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred those who are then Lords Proprietors shall not have Power to Alienate or Make over their Proprietorship with the Signories and Privileges thereunto belonging or any Part thereof to any Person whatsoever otherwise than as in § 18. but it shall all descend unto their Heirs Male and for want of Heirs Male it shall all descend on that Landgrave or Cassique of Carolina who is descended of the next Heirs Female of the said Proprietor and for want of such Heirs it shall descend on the next Heir general and for want of such Heirs the remaining Seven Proprietors shall upon the Vacancy chuse a Landgrave to succeed the deceased Proprietor who being chosen by the Majority of the Seven surviving Proprietors he and his Heirs successively shall be Proprietors as fully to all Intents and Purposes as any of the Rest § 6. That the Number of Eight Proprietors may be constantly kept if upon the Vacancy of any Proprietorship the Seven surviving Proprietors shall not chuse a Landgrave to be a Proprietor before the Second biennial Parliament after the Vacancy then the next biennial Parliament but one after such Vacancy shall have Power to chuse any Landgrave to be Proprietor § 7. Whosoever after the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred either by Inheritance or Choice shall succeed any Proprietor in his Proprietorship and Signiories thereunto belonging shall be obliged to take the Name and Arms of that Proprietor whom he succeeds which from thenceforth shall be the Name and Arms of his Family and their Posterity § 8. Whatsoever Landgrave or Cassique shall any way come to be a Proprietor shall take the Signiories annex'd to the said Proprietorship but his former Dignity with the Baronies annexed shall devolve into the Hands of the Lords Proprietors § 9. There shall be just as many Landgraves as there are Counties and twice as many Cassiques and no more These shall be the Hereditary Nobility of the Province and by Right of their Dignity be Members of Parliament Each Landgrave shall have Four Baronies and each Cassique Two Baronies hereditarily and unalterably annexed to and settled upon the said Dignity § 10. The first Landgraves and Cassiques of the Twelve first Counties to be planted shall be nominated thus that is to say of the Twelve Landgraves the Lords Proprietors shall each of them separately for himself nominate and chuse One and the remaining Four Landgraves of the First Twelve shall be nominated and chosen by the Palatine's Court. In like manner of the Twenty Four first Cassiques each Proprietor for himself shall nominate and chuse Two and the remaining Eight shall be nominated and chosen by the Palatine's Court and when the Twelve first Counties shall be planted the Lords Proprietors shall again in the same Manner nominate and chuse Twelve more Landgraves and Twenty Four Cassiques for the Twelve next Counties to be planted that is to say Two Thirds of each Number by the single Nomination of each Proprietor for himself and the remaining One Third by the joint Election of the Palatine's Court and so proceed in the same Manner till the whole Province of Carolina be set out and planted according to the Proportions in these Fundamental Constitutions § 11. Any Landgrave or Cassique at any time before the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and One shall have Power to alienate sell or make over to any other Person his Dignity with the Baronies thereunto belonging all entirely together But after the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred no Landgrave or Cassique shall have Power to alienate sell make over or lett the Hereditary Baronies of his Dignity or any Part thereof otherwise than as in § 18. but they shall all entirely with the Dignity thereunto belonging descend unto his Heirs Male and for want of Heirs Male all entirely and undivided to the next Heir general and for want of such Heirs shall devolve into the Hands of the Lords Proprietors § 12. That the due Number of Landgraves and Cassiques may be always kept up if upon the Devolution of any Landgraveship or Cassiqueship the Palatine's Court shall not settle the devolved
Multiplicity of Laws which by Degrees always change the right Foundations of the Original Government All Acts of Parliament whatsoever in whatsoever Form passed or enacted shall at the End of a Hundred Years after their Enacting respectively cease and determine of themselves and without any Repeal become null and void as if no such Acts or Laws had ever been made § 80. Since Multiplicity of Comments as we â—â—aâ— of Laws have great Inconveniences and serve only to obscure and perplex All manner of Comments and Expositions on any Part of these Fundamental Constitutions or any Part of the Common or Statute Law of Carolina are absolutely prohibited § 81. There shall be a Registry in every Precinct wherein shall be enrolled all Deeds Leases Judgments Mortgages and other Conveyances which may concern any of the Land within the said Precinct and all such Conveyances not so entred or registred shall not be of Force against any Person nor Party to the said Contract or Conveyance § 82. No Man shall be Register of any Precinct who hath not at least Three Hundred Acres of Freehold within the said Precinct § 83. The Freeholders of every Precinct shall nominate Three Men out of which Three the Chief Justice's Court shall chuse and commission one to be Register of the said Precinct whilst he shall well behave himself § 84. There shall be a Registry in every Signiory Barony and Colony wherein shall be recorded all the Births Marriages and Deaths that shall happen within the respective Signiories Baronies and Colonies § 85. No Man shall be Register of a Colony that hath not above Fifty Acres of Freehold within the said Colony § 86. The Time of every one's Age that is born in Carolina shall be reckoned from the Day that his Birth is entred in the Registry and not before § 87. No Marriage shall be lawful whatever Contract and Ceremony they have used till both the Parties mutually own it before the Register of the Place where they were married and he register â—â— with the Names of the Father and Mother of each Party § 88. No Man shall administer to the Goods or have Right to them or enter upon the Estate of any Person deceased till his Death be registred in the respective Registry § 89. He that doth not enter in the respective Registry the Birth or Death of any Person that is born or dies in his House or Ground shall pay to the said Register One Shilling per Week for each such Neglect reckoning from the Time of each Birth or Death respectively to the Time of Registring it § 90. In like manner the Births Marriages and Deaths of the Lords Proprietors Landgraves and Cassiques shall be registred in the Chamberlain's Court. § 91. There shall be in every Colony one Constable to be chosen annually by the Freeholders of the Colony His Estate shall be above a Hundred Acres of Freehold within the said Colony and such subordinate Officers appointed for his Assistance as the County Court shall find requisite and shall be established by the said County Court The Election of the subordinate Annual Officers shall be also in the Freeholders of the Colony § 92. All Towns Incorporate shall be governed by a Mayor Twelve Aldermen and Twenty Four of the Common-Council The said Common-Council shall be chosen by the present Housholders of the said Town the Aldemen shall be chosen out of the Common-Council and the Mayor out of the Aldermen by the Palatine's Court. § 93. It being of great consequence to the Plantation that Port-Towns should be built and preserved Therefore whosoever shall lade or unlade any Commodity at any other Place but a Port-Town shall forfeit to the Lords Proprietors for each Tun so laden or unladen the Sum of Ten Pounds Sterling except only such Goods as the Palatine's Court shall Licence to be laden or unladen elsewhere § 94. The first Port-Town upon every River shall be in a Colony and be a Port-Town for ever § 95. No man shall be permitted to be a Freeman of Carolina or to have any Estate or Habitation within it that doth not acknowledge a God and that God is publickly and solemnly to be Worshipped § 96. As the Country comes to be sufficiently Planted and Distributed into fit Divisions it shall belong to the Parliament to take care for the Building of Churches and the publick Maintenance of Divines to be employed in the Exercise of Religion according to the Church of England which being the only true and Orthodox and the National Religion of all the King's Dominions is so also of Carolina and therefore it alone shall be allowed to receive publick Maintenance by Grant of Parliament But since the Natives of that Place who will be concerned in our Plantation are utterly Strangers to Christianity whose Idolatry Ignorance or Mistake gives us no Right to expel or use them ill and those who remove from other Parts to plant there will unavoidably be of different Opinions concerning Matters of Religion the Liberty whereof they will expect to have allowed them and it will not be reasonable for us on this Account to keep them out that Civil Peace may be maintained amidst the Diversity of Opinions and our Agreement and Compact with all Men may be duly and faithfully observed the Violation thereof upon what Pretence soever cannot be without great Offence to Almighty God and great Scandal to the true Religion which we profess and also that Jews Heathens and other Dissenters from the Purity of Christian Religion may not be scared and kept at a distance from it but by having an Opportunity of acquainting themselves with the Truth and Reasonableness of its Doctrines and the Peaceableness and Inoffensiveness of its Professors may by good Vsage and Perswasion and all those convincing Methods of Gentleness and Meekness suitable to the Rules and Design of the Gospel be won over to embrace and unfeignedly receive the Truth therefore any seven or more Persons agreeing in any Religion shall Constitute a Church or Profession to which they shall give some Name to distinguish it from others § 98. The Terms of Admittance and Communion with any Church or Profession shall be written in a Book and therein be subscribed by all the Members of the said Church or Profession which Book shall be kept by the Publick Register of the Precinct where they reside § 99. The Time of every ones Subscription and Admittance shall be Dated in the said Book or Religious Record § 100. In the Terms of Communion of every Church or Profession these following shall be three without which no Agreement or Assembly of Men upon Pretence of Religion shall be accounted a Church or Profession wiehin these Rules I. That there is a GOD. II. That GOD is publickly to be Worshipped III. That it is lawful and the Duty of every Man being thereunto called by those that Govern to bear Witness to Truth and that every Church or Profession shall in their Terms
and Voting in the Upper House and shall continue defective in the said Qualification for the space of Forty Years successively such Landgrave or Cassique his Heirs and Successors shall from thenceforth be for ever utterly Excluded and his or their Dignity Honour Priviledge and Title of Landgrave or Cassique shall cease and be utterly lost and the Letters Patents of Creation of such Dignity shall be vacated 15. AND in order to the due Election of Members for the Biennial Parliament it shall be lawful for the Freeholders of the respective Precinct to meet the first Tuesday in September every Two Years in the same Town or Place they last met in to choose Parliament-Men and there to choose those Members that are to sit next November following unless the Proprietors Court shall by sufficient Notice _____ Days before appoint some other Place for their Meeting 16. A New Parliament shall be assembled the first Monday of the Month of November every second Year and shall meet and sit in the Town they last sat in without any Summons unless by the Proprietors Court in Carolina they be summoned to meet at any other Place and if there shall be Occasion of a Parliament in these Intervals it shall be in the power of the Proprietors Court to assemble them in _____ Days Notice and at such Time and Place as the Court shall think fit 17. AT the Opening of every Parliament the first thing that shall be done shall be the Reading of these Fundamental Constitutions which the Palatine and the Proprietors and the Members then present shall subscribe Nor shall any Person whatsoever Sit or Vote in the Parliament till he has in that Session subscrib'd these Fundamental Constitutions in a Book kept for that purpose by the Clerk of the Parliament 18. ANY Act or Order of Parliament that is Ratifyed in Open Parliament during the same Session by the Governor and Three more of the Lords Proprietors Deputies shall be in Force and continue till the Palatine himself and Three more of the Lords Proprietors themselves signifie their Dissent to any of the said Acts or Orders under their Hands and Seals But if Ratified under their Hands and Seals then to continue according to the time limited in such Act. 19. THE whole Province shall be divided into Counties by the Parliament 20. NO Proprietor Landgrave or Cassique shall hereafter take up a Signory or Barony that shall exceed Four Thousand Acres or thereabouts for a Proprietor or Landgrave and Two Thousand Acres or thereabouts for a Cassique in one County 21. NO Cause whether Civil or Criminal of any Freeman shall be tryed in any Court of Judicature without a Jury of his Peers 22. NO Landgrave or Cassique shall be tryed for any Criminal Cause in any but the Chief Justices Court and that by a Jury of his Peers unless a sufficient Number of such cannot be legally had and then to be supplyed by the best and most sufficient Free-holders 23. IF upon the Decease of the Governor no Person be appointed by the Lords Proprietors to succeed him then the Proprietor's Deputies shall meet and choose a Governor till a new Commission be sent from the Lords Proprietors under their Hands and Seals 24. BALLOTTING shall be continued in all Elections of the Parliament and in all other Cases where it can conveniently be used 25. NO Man shall be permitted to be a Freeman of Carolina or to have any Estate or Habitation within it that does not acknowledge a GOD and that GOD is publickly and solemnly to be Worshipped 26. AS the Country comes to be sufficiently planted and distributed into fit Divisions it shall belong to the Parliament to take care for the Building of Churches and the publick Maintenance of Divines to be employed in the Exercise of Religion according to the Church of England which being the only True and Orthodox and the National Religion of the King's Dominions is so also of Carolina and therefore it alone shall be allowed to receive publick Maintenance by Grant of Parliament 27. ANY seven or more Persons agreeing in any Religion shall constitute a Church or Profession to which they shall give some Name to distinguish it from others 28. THE Terms of Admittance and Communion with any Church or Profession shall be written in a Book and therein be subscribed by all the Members of the said Church or Profession which shall be kept by the publick Register of the Precinct wherein they reside 29. THE Time of every one's Subscription and Admittance shall be dated in the said Book of Religious Records 30. IN the Terms of Communion of every Church or Profession these following shall be three without which no Agreement or Assembly of Men upon Pretence of Religion shall be accounted a Church or Profession within these Rules I. That there is a GOD. II. That GOD is publickly to be Worshipped III. That it is lawful and the Duty of every Man being thereunto called by those that govern to bear Witness to Truth and that every Church or Profession shall in their Terms of Communion set down the external Way whereby they witness a Truth as in the Presence of God whether it be by Laying Hands on or Kissing the Bible as in the Church of England or by holding up the Hand or any sensible way 31. NO Person above Seventeen Years of Age shall have any Benefit or Protection of the Law or be capable of any Place of Profit or Honour who is not a Member of some Church or Profession having his Name recorded in some one and but one Religious Record at once 32. NO Person of any Church or Profession shall disturb or molest any Religious Assembly 33. NO Person whatsoever shall speak any thing in their Religious Assembly irreverently or seditiously of the Government or Governour or of State-Matters 34. ANY Person subscribing the Terms of Communion in the Records of the said Church or Profession before the Precinct Register and any Five Members of the said Church or Profession shall be thereby made a Member of the said Church or Profession 35. ANY Person striking out his own Name out of any Religious Records or his Name being struck out by any Officer thereunto Authorized by each Church or Profession respectively shall cease to be a Member of that Church or Profession 36. NO Man shall use any reproachful reviling or abusive Language against the Religion of any Church of Profession that being the certain Way of disturbing the Peace and of hindering the Conversion of any to the Truth by engaging them in Quarrels and Animosities to the Hatred of the Professors and that Profession which otherwise they may be brought to assent to 37. SINCE Charity obliges us to wish well to the Souls of all Men and Religion ought to alter nothing in any Man 's Civil Estate or Right It shall be lawful for Slaves as well as others to enter themselves and be of what Church or Profession any of them shall think best and thereof be as fully Members as any Freeman but yet no Slave shall hereby be exempted from that Civil Dominion his Master had over him but be in all other Things in the same State and Condition he was in before 38. ASSEMBLYS upon what Pretence soever of Religion not observing and performing the abovesaid Rules shall not be esteemed as Churches but Unlawful Meetings and be punished as other Riots 39. NO Person whatsoever shall disturb molest or prosecute another for his Speculative Opinions in Religion or his way of Worship 40. EVERY Freeman of Carolina shall have Absolute Power and Authority over his Negro Slave of what Opinion or Religion soever 41. ANY Person at his Admittance into any Office or Place of Trust whatsoever shall subscribe these Fundamental Constitutions in this Form I A. B. do promise to bear Faith and true Allegiance to our Soveraign Lord King WILLIAM and will be true and faithful to the Palatine and Lords Proprietors of Carolina their Heirs and Successors and with my utmost Power will defend them and maintain the Government according to this Establishment in these Fundamental Constitutions THESE Fundamental Constitutions in Number Forty One and every Part thereof shall be and remain the Inviolable Form and Rule of Government of Carolina for Ever Witness our Hands and Seals this Eleventh Day of April 1698. BATH PALATINE A. Ashley CRAVEN BATH for the Lord Carterett William Thornburgh for Sir John Colleton Tho. Amy. William Thornburgh FINIS