Mr. Richard Jackson to the Lords of Trade. [New-York Pipers, Bundle Un., No. 81. ] To the Right Honh,e the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. May it please Your Lordships. In obedience to your LordPPs commands signified to me by a letter of Mr Cumberlands inclosing a copy of part of the Commission of the Gov' of New York relating to the Custody and use of the great seal of the said province and informing me that it was surmised, that the said seal is at this time in the power of the Rebels, and desiring me to consider and report what further authority is necessary to be given on that head, and what seal may be substituted in the Place of the public Seal until another one can be made and allotted for that Province. I have taken the same into consideration and conceive that His Maju may by his sign manual legally appoint any seal to be used as the Great Seal of the Provee either for a longer or shorter time, and consequently to be used as such, until a new great seal can be made in the manner, new Great seals have usually heretofore been made for the Provinces in America. I cannot however, but represent to your Lordpi* that it seems expedient that the interim seal (if I may so call it) should be, if possible, sufficiently discriminated from all other seals, that impressions of it in Wax should be sent to the Sherriffs at least to so many of them within the province as are in the obedience to His Majesty, to the end, that they may make the same known to His Majesty's subjects by Proclamation, or that the knowledge of the said seal should be otherwise published; and it seems proper that the seal used as a great Seal, should be used for no other purpose; and should be destroyed in the presence of proper Officers, when the New Great seal shall be delivered to the Govr. All which is humbly submitted by In pursuance of your advice respecting the Great Seal of New York we have amended the Article in General Robertsons Commission by adding—"Or such other Seal as We may direct "to be used instead thereof." 1 RICHARD JACKSON, King's Counsel, F. R. S., F. S. A., was the son of the Deputy-Governor of the South Sea Company. In 1764 he became Secretary to Mr. Grenville, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and represented Weymouth in the House of Commons. After filling various offices, he became, in 1782, one of the Lords of the Treasury, and died at the Southampton buildings on 6th May, 1787. On account of his extensive reading and retentive memory, he was known as Omniteient Jackson. At the time of his death he was Governor of the Society among Dissenters for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and a member of Parliament. Gentleman't Magazine, LVII., 464. — ED. Mr Eden1 tells us that Mr Tryon uses a Seal, (whether an interim one, or not, he cannot tell) upon this information I request to know whether the Secretary of State may not give the Kings Commands to Governor Robertson to use such Seal as Mr Tryon used if it shall so prove that the Rebells have got the Great Seal without formality of a Sign Manual founded on a Representation from the Board. To Thomas De Grey Esquire under Secretary of State &c &c. Sir, There being some reason to apprehend that the public Seal of New York is in the hands of the Rebells, my Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations in preparing that Article of Major General Robertsons Commission as Govr of the said Province, which gives him the use and custody of the public Seal have proposed to add in the following words—" Or such "other Seal as His Majesty may direct to be used in lieu thereof "I am therefore directed by my Lords to suggest to you, for the information of Lord George Germain, that it may be adviseable for his Lordship to signify to Major General Robertson by His Majesty's Command that if he should find (as it is apprehended) the public Seal of the Province in the hands of the Rebells in that case he should use and keep such other Seal in lieu thereof as hath been used and kept by his predecessor Governor Tryon and therewith Seal all things whatsoever that have usually passed the Great Seal of the said Province under this Government. 1 WILLIAM EDEN, 1st Lord Auckland, the third son of Sir Robert Eden, Bart., was educated at Eton, and after going through Oxford and the Middle Temple, was called to the bar in 1769. He afterwards entered Parliament; was appointed Under Secretary of State, for the Northern Department, in 1771; in 1776, became a member of the Board of Trade; in 1778, accompanied Lord Carlisle to America as Commissioner to negotiate with Congress; and in 1780 was appointed Chief Secretary in Ireland under the same Lord Carlisle. Id 1785 he went Ambassador to the Court of Versailles, and in 1788 to the Court of Spain; in 1789, to the States-General, and in November of that year, was created an Irish Peer, by the title of Baron Auckland. In 1793 he was advanced to the British Peerage, and, after a life spent principally in diplomatic service, died 28th May, 1814. Debrell. — Ed. 2 THOMAS De Grit, 2d Lord Walsingham, F. K. S., was born 14th July, 1748; was one of the Board of Trade in 1777; was appointed Under Secretary of State in 1778; returned to the Board of Trade in 1780, and succeeded to his father's title 9th May, 1781. He was twenty years chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords, and resigned that office in 1814, on a pension of £2000 sterling a year. He died 16th January, 1818, in the 70th year of his age. Debrctt. N° 75. My Lord. Governor Tryon to Lord George Germain. [New-York Paper* (8. P. 0.) CLXIX. ] Fore Post King's Bridge. 3. May 1779. The honour of your Lord's Dispatch of the 3rd March afforded me the highest satisfactions in the assurances it conveyed to me of the Royal approbation, on my remaining last Winter with the Army; Though the King's most gracious intention to allow me a speedy return to my family is a cordial to my spirits; yet permit me to request of you My Lord, to assure His Maj", however necessary the attendance to my private concerns, however warm & sanguine my wishes to re-visit my native Country & family, I have not formed the least idea, in the present momentuous period of the war, to withdraw myself from a situation, wherein 1 wish to be honored by the Commander in Chief, in some share in the efforts of what may very possibly be a decisive Campaign. The instances of His Maj'' benevolence towards me, has been too much, and too recent, for me to be uneasy about my expectations I might have formed, respecting an exchange for my Civil Government. I flatter myself I shall be able on my return to England, to satisfy the Lords Commissioners of His Majy'* Treasury, of the propriety of their Lordp's fulfilling the assurances given me by your Noble and Honorable predecessor in Office, of an additional Salary to the Gov' of New York. The appointments I made to certain officers of the Militia on Long Island, was with the concurrence of the Commander in Chief, and will be defrayed by his Excellency out of the Army extraordinaries, while continued. I have received your Dispatches numbered from 70 to 74 inclusive, and have laid them before the King; and as the same conveyance brought me an account of your expedition to Horse Neck from Sir Henry Clinton, in which he does justice to your zeal and good conduct, and the activity & perseverance of the Troops you commanded; and I have had the satisfaction to acquaint him, they have met with his Majesty's approbation. The Proclamations of which copies are enclosed in your's N° 73. appear well calculated to produce the effects you expected from them, and gives me great pleasure to find the spirit of annoying the Commerce of the King's Enemies increases among the Loyal Inhabitants of New York and that their exertions have been attended with so much private benefit as well as public advantage. Mr Apthorp's Loyalty and sufferings certainly render him an object of attention and intitle him to the share in the public benevolence; but as Sir Henry Clinton is directed to use his discretion in relieving the distresses of such of the King's faithful subjects as are at New York, Mr Apthorp1 must make his situation known to him. I have directed the proper inquiry to be made for the Records of New York that had been put on board the Eagle Man of War, and I hope soon to be able to inform you, they are in safety. The Spanish Ambassador having by order of his Court, on the 16th instant, presented to the Lord Viscount Weymouth, one of His Maj' principal Secretaries of State, a declaration, avowing the hostile intention of the Catholic King against His Maj" subjects and dominions, His Maj was this day graciously pleased to communicate, by Message the said declaration to both houses of Parliament, and inclosed I send you, by His Maj's command, copies of the said Message and Declaration, and of the addresses in return, which were passed in both houses nem con containing the fullest testimony of their Loyalty and affection to His Majw and steadfast resolution to give their utmost support and assistance, in the prosecution of such measures, as his Maj" shall think necessary to adopt upon this great occasion. The King, whose magnanimity and firmness in maintaining the honor and dignity of his Crown, can only be equalled by his paternal affection for his faithful subjects, has come to an immediate determination to commence hostilities against the Catholic King, and altho' all His Maju' faithful subjects may rely upon receiving every possible protection and assistance from the Fleets and armies of great Brittain, I am 'Charles Ward Apthorp was appointed, in 1763, a member of the Council of New-York and took his sent in October, 1764. He held the office until the peace of 1783. He had property in Massachusetts which was confiscated by the act of that State, but his name does not appear in the New-York Statute of 1779.-ED. (*) [From this mark the following was added in lieu of what stands after this (*) mark, in the Draft to Sir Henry Clinton, Ma: Genl Grant, Ma: Genl Prevost, Brig: Gen: Campbell, Col: Guy Johnson, Col: Browne, and Mr Cameron. ] to acquaint you that His Maj'y expects from the zeal and affection of his People every exertion in their power for their own defence and the annoyance of the Enemy, proper authorities for granting letters of Marque against the King of Spain and his subjects will be sent to all the King's Gov's with all possible expedition, but in the mean time you may give assurances to the Owners of all ships bearing letters of Marque against the French King & his subjects, that His Majesty will consider them as having a just claim to the King's share of all Spanish ships & property which they may make prize of. nevertheless further commanded (*) to signify to you His Maj'*'* pleasure, that you do not only take every necessary measure, which the zeal of the people under your Govern' shall enable you to execute for the security of the very valuable committed to your care, but Island Province excite them to make captures of the ships of Your letters N" 75, 76. and 77. have been received and laid before the King. Your determination to remain with the Commander in Chief in your Military capacity, and to afford him your services during the present Campaign, does you great honor. I learnt with great satisfaction the number of letters of Marque which you had Commissioned, & the success they had met with. Nothing could have tended, in my opinion, more effectually to a successful Campaign, than the employment of so large a body of Men, which, at the same time, that it distresses the Trade of the Enemy, must be a great impediment to the recruiting the Rebel Army. I cannot but flatter myself that the Commissions to cruize against Spanish vessels, which will be forwarded by this conveyance, and of which I have apprized you in my circular letter of the 17th inst. will tempt a considerable part of Mr Washington's Army, as well as of the Inhabitants at large, to fit out the vessels, not only against the Ships of His Catholic Majesty, which may be met with in the Atlantic, but even to extend their views to the Spanish Commerce, and possibly even to some of the Spanish possessions in the South Seas.. I have the pleasure to assure you that Admiral Arbuthnot means to give every possible degree of assistance and encouragement to the fitting out of privateers, and that no attention |