The Plantation Councils of 1670 and 1672.
During the years 1668 and 1669 no member of the government was more active in promoting the development of the plantations than Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley. As one of the proprietaries of Carolina, he had taken the lead in advancing that settlement, had called upon John Locke to frame a new constitution, and had himself organized the expedition of 1669 which gave to the new colony its most important impetus. He became a proprietary of the Bahamas in 1670 and later attempted to found a plantation on the Edisto River. He planned to organize these colonies at Charles Town, Albemarle, Edisto, and New Providence into a kind of cooperative trading group of settlements, under the same laws and instructions, and from them he hoped to obtain in time for himself and the other proprietaries ample returns on their investments. It is of no concern to us here that his scheme failed, the important fact remains that Ashley and Locke were at this juncture in the very heyday of their interest in colonial affairs and were eager to take advantage of every opportunity for encouraging colonial trade. The revival of the Select Council for Foreign Plantations was due in largest part to the influence and initiative of these two men, particularly of Ashley, who in 1670 was at the height of his political power and on terms of closest intimacy with the King.[1] That he was sincere in this movement seems to me beyond question, and the charge that has been made against him of recommending the creation of this Council as a means of obtaining sinecures for his friends, does not appear capable of the slightest proof.[2] If membership on the Council was deemed at the first a position of ease, it must soon have lost that character, for few committee men ever worked harder than those who looked after plantation affairs in the years from 1670 to 1674. This fact will appear as we examine the nature and extent of their activities.
Experience with previous councils had shown that too numerous and fluctuating a membership was not conducive either to harmony or to despatch of business. Therefore, in reviving the Council for Plantations it was decided, as the most important change to be effected, that the number should be reduced to such terms as to enable the committee to apply itself as a whole to the business in hand. The commission was issued on July 30, 1670, to ten persons, of whom but three were members of the nobility. The commissioners were Edward, Earl of Sandwich; Richard, Lord Gorges, Baron of Dundalk in Ireland; William, Lord Allington, Baron of Killar in Ireland; Thomas Grey, son of Lord Grey, of Warke; Henry Brouncker, Sir Humphrey Winch, Sir John Finch, Edmund Waller, Henry Slingsby, master and worker of the mint and one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber, and Silas Titus, one of the grooms of the bed chamber. To this number was added in 1671 James, Duke of York; Prince Rupert, George, Duke of Buckingham, Master of the Horse; James, Duke of Ormond, Lord Steward of the Royal Household; John, Earl of Lauderdale, Secretary of State for Scotland; Thomas, Lord Culpeper; Sir George Carteret, Vice-Chamberlain; and John Evelyn, but of these only the last named stood on the same footing with those first appointed as a regular and salaried member, the others being appointed to give weight and dignity to the board and receiving no compensation. In August, 1671, Sir Richard Temple was added to the board, also to serve without pay. The only basis for the charge of self-seeking which has been brought against the members of this Council is the fact that for the first time, as far as we know, the working members received pay for their services. The allowances and salaries were as follows: the Earl of Sandwich, as president, received £700; Lord Gorges, Lord Allington, Thomas Grey, Henry Brouncker, Sir Humphrey Winch, Sir John Finch, Edmund Waller, Henry Slingsby, Silas Titus, and John Evelyn, each £500, paid quarterly. Dr. Benjamin Worsley, who held the position of advisor and assistant secretary under Slingsby, the secretary of the Council, was allowed £300, while for contingent expenses £1,000, the same amount that had been placed at the disposal of each of the secretaries, Sir Philip Frowde and Col. Duke, of the former councils, was appropriated.[3] Five members, always including the president or one of the officers of state authorized to attend, constituted a quorum of the Council, which was ordered to meet for the first time at Essex House, the residence of the Lord Keeper, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, near Temple Bar, at two in the afternoon. After the addition of the new members, May 16, 1671, it removed to the Earl of Bristol's house in Queen Street near Lincoln's Inn Fields;[4] and after February 12, 1672, to Lord Arlington's lodgings in Whitehall, in order, as Evelyn tells us, that the King might be present and hear the debates. It was authorized to employ clerks, messengers, solicitors, doorkeepers, and other inferior officers and attendants as it should think fit and necessary for its service.
By their commission the members of the Council were empowered "to inform themselves by the best ways and meanes they can of the present State and condition of our Plantations, together with the Increase, or Decay of the Trade, and strength of each of them respectively, And the Causes and Reasons of such Encrease or Decay, And to use all Industry and Diligence for gaining the full knowledge of all things transacted within any part of those our Dominions, either by the respective Governours themselves or their respective Deputies or by them and the respective Councills, or Assemblies, belonging to any of our said respective Plantations, and thereof from time to time to give us a true faithfull and certaine Accompt togeather with their best advice and opinion thereupon." The range of colonial interest was a wide one, "all the affaires which doe or may touch or concerne any of our Forreigne Plantations, Colonies, or Dominions, situate, lying and being in any part of America or in the Ocean lying betweene this and the maine Land of America, or in any part of the Bay of Mexico, or upon the Coast of Guinea, or within any of that circuit of the Globe, that is generally known or called by the name of the West Indies, whether the said Plantations, Countries, and Territories, be immediately held by us, or held by any others of us, by vertue of any Charters, Graunts, or Letters Patents thereof already made or graunted, or hereafter to be made or graunted, and of all other and forreigne Plantations, Colonies, and Dominions (our Towne, Citty and Garrison of Tangier only excepted)." The Council had power to send for any person or persons whom it deemed able to furnish information or advice; to call for any books, papers, or records that it judged likely to be useful to it, and to require of every person called upon or colonial official addressed prompt and ready response.
By its instructions and additional instructions the Council was ordered to make full inquiry into the state of the plantations and to take every means of acquiring full and accurate information as to the powers of the governors, the execution of the same, the number of parishes, planters, servants, and slaves there, and the best means for increasing the supply where needed. It was to instruct the governors to live at peace with the Indians and not to suffer them to be injured in their persons, goods, or possessions; and to keep on terms of amity with their neighbors, whether Dutch, French, or Spanish; to take such measures that all commodities of the growth or making of the Plantations be duly manufactured and improved, and to inquire whether it were possible to promote in any way the production of such tropical commodities as cotton, ginger, cocoa, etc. It was to find out what islands were best fitted for the breeding of cattle and to encourage the same; to investigate the opportunities of obtaining masts and to stimulate the production of hemp, flax, pitch, and tar in New England, and the setting up of saw mills. It was instructed to study the question of procuring servants and slaves, to settle all difficulties between the Royal African Company and the colonies, and to do all in its power to check "spiriting" or the enticing of children and young persons from England to the plantations. It was to deal with colonial trade, both oceanic and coastwise, to see that the acts of navigation were duly enforced; to inquire into the conduct of colonial governments, to examine colonial laws and to recommend for annulment such as were contrary to honor, justice, or the law of England. It was to become familiar with colonial geography, to procure maps and charts, and to have them available for examination. It was to aid the spread of the Gospel, the purification of morals, and the instruction of Indians and slaves. By the additional instructions, issued August 1, 1670, it was to consider the question of colonial defence, to recommend the production of saltpetre, to consider how spices, gums, drugs, dyeing stuffs, etc., might be procured for the plantations from the East Indies, and to study the systems employed in other countries for the improvement of trade and the plantations.[5]
It is noteworthy that the sessions of the Council were held in secret, no one being admitted except the members, and even those only after each had taken an oath not to betray the proceedings. "You shall swear," so runs this oath, "to be true and faithful to our Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs and successors; you shall according to the best of your skill, discretion, knowledge, and experience give unto his Majtie true and faithful councell, in all things that shall be demanded of you touching or concerning his Maties forreigne Plantations. You shall keepe secret and conceale his Maties said Councells, without disclosing the same to any person except he be of the same Councill, and if the matter touch any of the same Councill you shall not disclose the same to him. You shall not promote or further any matter in the said Councill, for any reward, favour, affection, or displeasure, And in case you shall perceive anything to be done contrary to his Maties honour and service you shall to the utmost of your Power with stand and Lett the same."
The Council had its first meeting on August 3, 1670, when the commission and instructions were read; and from that time until September 20, 1672, a period of nearly twenty-three months, it held one hundred meetings of which we have record, and probably many more of which no record has been found.[6] It is reasonable to infer that during the working months the Council met twice a week.
The Council began by taking over much of the business left unfinished by the Committee of the Privy Council, but it soon increased its activity. It early inaugurated a policy and system of control that was more comprehensive than any which had been put into practice by the previous boards. Efficient though some of the former councils and committees had been, no one of them had endeavored to cover so wide a range of colonial business or to inquire so minutely into the details of colonial government as did this Council of 1670. It not only took into consideration all petitions, memorials, statements of claim, and subjects in dispute, but it also set up an elaborate system of inquiry on its own part, following out the instructions which had been given to it to require of every colonial governor frequent information regarding the condition of his government. It drafted long series of queries which were despatched to all the colonies, and to which elaborate replies were received, notably from Berkeley, of Virginia, Wheeler, of St. Christopher, and Lynch, of Jamaica. It supplemented the information thus received by demanding letters from the governors, and received in response long and frequent epistles, dealing with colonial affairs in the most minute detail. Wheeler, Stapleton, Lynch, Willoughby, Colleton, and others furnished the Council with all sorts of descriptive and statistical matter, and were always ready to offer suggestion and advice. Merchants, planters, agents, and others familiar with colonial trade were also called upon for statements, either in person or in writing, and at many a meeting outsiders were called in to make reports to the board. The evidence thus obtained was generally discussed in the Council itself, at which the King and officers of state were occasionally present, and it was also referred to committees of two or more, which made their report to the Council. Upon the information and opinions thus obtained, the Council based its orders and reports to the Privy Council.[7]
In addition to these functions, the Council assumed an important and in some ways a new rôle when it took upon itself the business of preparing all the preliminary drafts of the various commissions and instructions of the governors, often spending many days in the consideration of these instruments, and often receiving from the appointees themselves suggestions as to the wording of certain clauses. As far as the more general powers and duties were concerned, these instructions were modelled somewhat after those which the Council itself had received, and lively debate arose not infrequently over the nature and extent of the authority that ought to be conferred on the appointees. The drafts of the commission and instructions, when completed, were sent to the Secretary of State, by whom corrections might be made, then conveyed to the Privy Council, where the documents were frequently referred to the attorney general for his advice on legal points, and sometimes to the Committee of the Council, which at this time, as well as afterward, felt itself fully empowered to make any alterations it pleased. Thus many hands may have had a share in shaping these important papers before they were finally engrossed, although it is probable that in the majority of instances the draft of the Council was accepted unchanged by the King.