History of the government of the island of Newfoundland / With an appendix containing the Acts of Parliament made respecting the trade and fishery

by John Reeves

Contest between the justices and fishing admirals.

Such were the discussions raised on the occasion of these attempts to improve the police of the island. Mr. Osborn again went to Newfoundland: but in a letter from St. John’s in September 1730, he gives a very bad account of the new institution. He says, he had hoped that a proper submission and respect would have been paid to the orders he had given, and to the magistrates he had appointed; but instead thereof, the fishing admirals, and some of the rest of the masters of ships and traders in the island had ridiculed the justices’ authority very much, and had used their utmost endeavours to lessen them in the eyes of the lower sort of people, and in some parts had, in a manner, wrested their power from them. The admirals had brought the powers given them by the fishing act in competition with that of the justices, and had not even scrupled to touch upon that of the governor. All this discord proceeded from a jealousy the admirals and the rest of the masters of ships had conceived, that their privileges granted them by Stat. 10 & 11 Will. 3. were invaded by these magistrates; which power, says he, “those admirals could hardly ever be brought to make use of (without it was to serve their own purposes) before, nor till they saw these officers established; and they are now, adds the governor, doing all they can against these men, only because they bear this commission. Indeed, says he, I find by their will, they would be sole rulers, and have nobody to controul them in their arbitrary proceedings. He expostulated with them, but it seemed to serve no other purpose than to raise their resentment against him, as the abettor of the justices. He could not charge the justices with having taken any arbitrary steps; their fault was rather the contrary, whereas the admirals were guilty of many.”

“The commission of the peace was in general disliked by all the masters of ships, who were the chief people that opposed most of the steps the governor had taken; for which reason, and partly from the indifference of some of the justices, in their offices, who thought they suffered in their way of trade, and got the ill will of the people they dealt with, and partly from the incapacity of others, the commissions of the peace were but indifferently executed. However the governor, notwithstanding this opposition, proceeded to make appointments in places where he had before made none.”

The prison and court house at St. John’s were nearly finished, and people had very well complied with the rate. He agreed to a presentment for a rate to build a prison at Ferryland; and he said, he did not doubt but the very sight of these two prisons would, in some measure, check many people in their evil courses[52].

Memorials were presented to the governor, by the justices of St. John’s, complaining that they were obstructed in their duty by the fishing admirals, who had taken upon them the whole power and authority of the justices, bringing under their cognizance all riots, breaches of the peace, and other offences, and had seized, fined, and whipped at their pleasure; they had likewise appointed public-houses to sell liquor, without any licence from the justices; the admirals told the justices, they were only winter justices, and seemed to doubt of the governor’s authority for appointing; that the authority of the admirals was by act of parliament—the governor’s only from the privy council[53]. This distinction in the authority from whence they derived their power, was thought sufficient for the admirals to presume upon; and the comparative pretensions of them and the justices were rated accordingly in the minds of the ignorant and malicious[54].

The towns in the west were not backward to join in this clamour against the justices; they complained that the governor had taken the power out of the hands of the fishing admirals, and vested it in the justices, who had proceeded in an arbitrary way to tax the servants and inhabitants; had issued out their warrants not only against servants, but against the masters of vessels themselves, in the midst of their fishery; to their great prejudice, and in defiance of the admirals and the act of parliament. They suggested that these justices were, some of them New England men; and none of them ever coming to England, as the admirals did, there was no redress to be obtained against them for their illegal proceedings. They said, some of the justices supplied the fishermen and seamen with liquor at exorbitant rates, though the merchants would supply them at a moderate advance. After stating such plausible topics, which, it was well known, would always be listened to when Newfoundland was in question; they prayed, “That such justices might have no power during the stay of the fishing ships; but that the admirals might resume their authority, and that the commodore and captains of men of war should be ordered to be aiding and assisting to them therein[55].”

Opinion on the authority of the admirals.

This competition between the fishing admirals and the justices was taken into consideration by the board of trade, who called for the opinion of Sir Philip Yorke, then attorney-general, and he reported, that upon a view of the commission to the justices, of Stat. 10 & 11 Will. 3. and of all the complaints, it appeared to him the whole authority granted to the fishing admirals was restrained to seeing the rules and orders contained in that act, concerning the regulation of the fishery, duly put in execution; and to the determination of differences arising between the masters of fishing boats, and the inhabitants, or any bye boat-keepers, touching the right and property of fishing-rooms, stages, flakes, &c. which was a sort of civil jurisdiction in particular cases of property; whereas the authority of justices extended only to breaches of the peace. He was therefore of opinion, that the powers granted to the justices were not inconsistent with any of the provisions of the act, and that there was no interfering between the powers given by the act to the admirals, and those by the commission to the justices[56].

The struggle between the fishing admirals and the justices was still kept up; the west country merchants, and masters of ships supporting the former, and the governor standing by the latter. This produced complaints on both sides; and no doubt, in such a contest a just cause of complaint might often be found on both sides. But the aggressors were certainly those who set themselves against the authority of the governor and justices, and who, by their conduct on this occasion, plainly shewed they wished the inhabitants and poor planters should be deprived of all protection from legal government, and should be left wholly at their mercy.