And for the better execution of Our pleasure herein, We doe hereby command all and singuler Customers, Comptrollers, Searchers, Wayters, and other Officers, attending in all, and every the Ports, Creekes, or places of lading or unlading, for the taking, collecting, or receiving of any of our Customes, Subsidies, or Duties, to take notice of this Our pleasure: And We do hereby command, and give power and authoritie unto them, and every of them, from time to time, as well to search any shippe, or other vessell, or bottome, ryding, or lying within any Port, Haven, or Creeke, within their severall charge of attendance, for all Tobacco imported, contrary to the intent of this Our Royall Proclamation; and the same being found, to seize and take to Our use, and also to take notice of the names, and apprehend the bringers in and buyers of the same, to the end they may receive condigne punishment for their offences, upon payne, that every of the said Officers, which shall bee found negligent, remisse or corrupt therein, shall lose his place and entertainement, and undergoe such paines and penalties, as by Our Lawes, or by the censure of Our said Court of Starre-chamber, may be inflicted upon them for the same.
And We doe likewise, will, ordaine, and appoint, that it shall and may bee lawfull, for such person or persons, as shall be thereunto authorized and appointed, by him, or themselves, or his, or their Deputy or Deputies, with a lawfull Officer to search any shippe, or other vessell, and to enter into any shoppe, house, seller, warehouse, or other suspected places, at lawfull and convenient times, and there to search, discover, and find out any Tobacco, imported, uttered, sold, or vented, or to be uttered, sold, or vented, not marked or sealed, as aforesaid, contrary to the true meaning hereof, and all such Tobacco so found, to seize, take away, and dispose of, and the owners thereof, or in whose custodie the same shall be found, to informe and complaine of, to the end they may receive punishment, according to Our pleasure before herein declared.
And further, We doe by these presents, will and require all and singuler Mayors, Sheriffes, Justices of Peace, Bayliffes, Constables, Headboroughs, Customers, Comptrollers, Searchers, Wayters, and all other Our Officers and ministers whatsoever, That they, and every of them, in their severall places and Offices, be diligent and attendant in the execution of this Our Proclamation, and also ayding and assisting unto such person and persons, and his and their Deputies and Assignes, as We shall so, as aforesaid, authorise et appoint,[2] as well in any search for discovery of any act, or acts to be performed contrary to the intent of these presents, as otherwise, in the doing or executing of any matter or thing, for the accomplishment of this Our Royall command. And further Our will and pleasure is, and Wee doe hereby charge and command Our Atturney generall, for the time being, to informe against such persons in Our Court of Starre-chamber, from time to time, whose contempt and disobedience against this Our Royall command, shall merit the censure of that Court, and to prosecute every such information speedily and effectually, untill the same shall bee brought to sentence. And Our pleasure and command is, that all the Tobacco which upon any seizure shall become forfeited, shall bee brought to Our Custome house, next adjoyning to the Port, or place where the same shall be seized, where the seizor thereof shall deliver the same to Our use, and the same shall be forthwith burnt, consumed, and destroyed; but the offendour, before he be discharged, shall pay to the partie, who seized the said Tobacco, the one halfe of the true value thereof: And that such person or persons, whom Wee shall appoint specially by Our Privie Seale, to take care and charge of the execution of Our pleasure in the premisses, shall have the one halfe of all the Fines, to bee imposed upon every offendour against this Our Proclamation, for their encouragement to bee diligent and faithfull, in, and about the performance of that service, We shall so commit unto them.
Given at Our Honour of Hampton Court, the nine and twentieth day of September, in the two and twentieth yeere of Our Reigne of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the eight and fiftieth.
God save the King.
Imprinted at London by Bonham Norton and John Bill, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majestie. 1624.
4 pp. folio. There are two issues varying only in set-up. Copies in Antiq., B. M., Canterbury, Dalk., I. T., P. C., and P. R. O.; also in John Carter Brown Library. Entered on Patent Rolls. Printed in Rymer's "Fœdera," xvii, 621.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Commons vote, dated May 24, 1624, is in the Journal of the House of Commons, i, 794. The several documents leading up to the issuing of this Proclamation are listed in Kingsbury's Records of the Virginia Company, i, 192-200.
[2] The commission, dated November 9, 1624, appointing Edward Dichfield and five others officers to take charge of the execution of the provisions of this Proclamation, is printed in Rymer's Fœdera, xvii, 633.