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Minds of the People, if not totally prevent such tumultuous Proceedings in the future; and we hope, if any Remedy can be provided, so that the heavy Expence sometimes attending Law Suits, may be regulated and lessened, it will have your Concurrence. And we cannot but express the great Satisfaction we feel at the virtuous Conduct and Spirit shown by the Magistrates, Sheriff and People of the County of Essex, in supressing the first Appearance of Riot in that County; had a like Spirit been exerted in Monmouth, it probably had prevented the Disturbance since.

We on our Part do assure your Excellency, we shall ever discountenance such riotous Proceedings, and will heartily join in all necessary Measures to bring every Offender to condign Punishment, and for ensuring Obedience to the Laws; for this salutary Purpose we shall give due Consideration to what your Excellency hath recommended.

As the Persons accused of the late Riots, have been and are in a Way of Trial according to Law, we cannot think it necessary at present to alter the constitutional and established Mode of Trial to another County; nor will it be necessary at this Time to make any Provision for Expences that may hereafter arise, as the Assembly of this Colony have always honourably paid the extraordinary Exigencies of Government; so your Excellency may be assured, should the like Disorders occasion it, we shall not be wanting in our Duty to defray the Expence.

We must take Notice to your Excellency, that the Meeting of the Assembly at this Time, ought to have been at Amboy, according to established Custom, and however the Necessity of the Business now to be done, may excuse our going into it, we desire it may not be drawn into Precedent,

By Order of the House,

CORTLAND SKINNER, Speaker.

March 20, 1770.

Proclamation of Governor Franklin, offering a reward of £25 for the discovery of the person or persons who set fire to the stable and outhouses of David Ogden.

[From P. R. O. B. T., Vol. 26.]

A PROCLAMATION

Whereas I have received Information that on the night of the ninth day of January last the Stable and some other out Buildings of the Honorable David Ogden Esq' were consumed by Fire: and that there is great Reason to believe they were wilfully set on Fire by some wicked Person or Persons unknown. And Whereas the House of Assembly of this Province by their Message of this day, have requested me to issue a Proclamation offering a reward of twenty five Pounds for discovering and bringing to condign Punishment the Person or Persons guilty of that attrocious and Alarming Villany, I have therefore thought fit, by and with the Advice and Consent of his Majesty's Council to issue this Proclamation hereby requiring and Commanding all Judges, Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs and other Officers to be particularly vigilant in detecting the Perpetrator or Perpetrators of so horrid a Crime, and promising the said reward of twenty five Pounds to any Person or Persons who shall discover the said Offender or Offenders so that he, she or they be convicted of the said Crime.

And I do hereby farther promise his Majesty's most gracious Pardon to any Accomplice who shall discover and prosecute to Conviction any one or more of the said Offenders.

Given under my hand and Seal at Arms at the City

of Burlington in the said Province of New Jersey the twenty first day of March in the tenth year of his Majesty's Reign Anno Domini 1770

W FRANKLIN

By His Excellencys Command Cha. Pettit D. Secret GOD SAVE THE KING.

Ordinance in relation to the Court of Chancery.

[From Book AB of Commissions, in Secretary of State's Office, at Trenton, fol. 54.]

An Ordinance For the better Establishing a High Court of Chancery in the Province of New Jersey and for appointing the Chancellor or Judge thereof By his Excellency William Franklin Esq. Captain General Governor and Commander in Chief in and over his Majestys Province of New Jersey and Territories thereon depending in America and Vice Admiral in the same & in Council this twenty eighth day of March in the tenth year of his Majestys Reign, Annoque Domini One thousand seven hundred and seventy. Whereas there always hath been a Court of Chancery held in the Province of New Jersey and the same at present requires regulation. His said Excellency the Governor by and with the Advice and Consent of His Majestys Council for the said Province, and by virtue of the Powers and Authorities to him given by his Majestys Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain bearing date the ninth day of September in the Second Year of his present Majestys Reign, hath thought fit to ordain and declare, and by and with the Advice and Consent of his said Majestys Council doth hereby ordain and declare that his said Excellency William Franklin Esq. is hereby constituted and ap

pointed Chancellor and Judge of the High Court of Chancery or Equity in this Colony, and Impowered to hold the said Court, and in the same to hear and determine all Causes from time to time in such manner as heretofore hath been usual and as nearly as may be, according to the usage and Custom of the high Court of Chancery in that part of Great Britain called England. And it is hereby ordained and declared that his Excellency William Franklin Esq. before holding the said Court shall take an Oath in the words following that is to say, "You shall well and truly serve his Majesty to the best of your Skill and Knowledge as Chancellor and Judge of the High Court of Chancery Erected within this Province, you shall faithfully and uprightly to the best of your Power, cause Justice to be duly Administered, to such as shall sue before you for the same according to Equity and the Order of the Law you shall not take nor receive of any person any Gift or reward in any Cause or matter depending before you. So help you God. And it is hereby further ordained and declared that his said Excellency William Franklin Esq. shall and may, and he is hereby Authorized and Impowered from time to time to nominate and fix days for hearing, Tryal and determination of any Cause that may arise or be brought before him, and to appoint and Order such days & times as to him shall seem meet, for hearing Motions, and entering Rules and Orders in the said Court. And further to nominate constitute appoint and Commissionate so many Masters, Clerks, Examiners, Registers and other necessary Officers as shall be needfull to the holding the said Court and doing the Business therein and also to make such Rules Orders & Regulations for carrying on the Business of the said Court, as to him from time to time shall seem necessary."

1 The need of a Court of Chancery upon a proper basis had been urged upon the Assembly in 1768 by Governor Franklin, but that body was not disposed to create any new offices, nor to add to the emoluments of those then existing, and no legis

In Testimony whereof I have caused the Great Seal of the said Province to be hereunto Affixed at Burlington the day & year first above Written.

Assented to and ordered to be Recorded.

WM. FRANKLIN

This ordinance having been read & Compared in Council, is Consented to

STIRLING.

ation on the subject was enacted.-Field's Provincial Courts of New Jersey, 123. The Governor then took the advice of his Council as to his power to establish and regulate the Court by ordinance. The opinion of Richard Stockton has been given (see ante, p. 155). Another Councillor, John Stevens, wrote to the Governor, at his request, under date of March 20, 1770, as follows: "I am of opinion that a Court of Chancery in this Province is requisite, and that it ought to be kept open, but that at this Time and ever since the year 1713, the Court has not been held on a proper establishment, as no Ordinance for erecting said Court, or qualification of the Chancellors appears. I therefore with submission, advise that the Governor and Council do form an Ordinance for the Establishment of the Court of Chancery, to consist of his Excellency, the Governor, with such of the Council or others as shall be thought proper or fitting for the Trust, and that they all take the necessary qualification for the due discharge of their duty; and that every step may be taken to give authority and permanence to the Court I would propose that a full state of the Court of Chancery, as to the manner in which it has been from time to time held, be made and transmitted to our Most Gracious Sovereign for his further instructions to the Governor with regard to his will and pleasure therein."-N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Record, October, 1884. 147. The outcome of this movement was the above Ordinance, which remained in force until the adoption of the Constitution of July 2, 1776, which continued the Governor as Chancellor, and it so remained until 1844. Some curious information regarding the New Jersey Court of Chancery will be found in the Annual Law Register of the United States, by William Griffith, Burlington, 1822, IV., 1183. In Colonial times the Court was always viewed with jealousy, inasmuch as it was independent of the people, and vested too much power in the Governor, as Chancellor. The New York Assembly repeatedly expressed hostility to it.-Smith's History of New York, edition of 1814, 269, 385-8; Works of William H. Seward, II., 55; Journals of New York Legislative Councils, 562-9. In Pennsylvania, at the request of the Assembly, Lieutenant-Governor Keith established a Court of Chancery, by ordinance, consisting of himself and his Council.-Penn. Archives, I., 171; Proud's Hist. Pennsylvania, II., 125-8. The Assembly of 1736 adopted an able and ingenious address, pointing out the objections to thus establishing and maintaining a Court independent of that body.-Penn. Col. Records, IV., 27-32, 41-6. This memorial was effective, for Proud says (ut supra, 128, note): "This Court of Chancery afterwards, in Governor Gordon's time, came to be considered as so great a nuisance, that it was, therefore, then entirely laid aside."--[W. N.]

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