On the first of November following, the Grand Jury of Halifax petitioned Governor Lawrence that some immediate steps may be taken to fortify the town so that the inhabitants might be placed in a more secure position in case of invasion. They refer to a petition presented to Lt. Governor Monkton on the same subject, to which no reply had been made, and concluded by asking that they might know without further delay what they were to expect; that if no further security is to be provided for the settlement they may have an opportunity of conveying themselves, their families and effects to a place of greater safety in some of the neighbouring Colonies. The names of the Grand Jury were Robert Saunderson, Joseph Rundell, John Anderson, Paul Pritchard, Hugh McKay, Joseph Fairbanks, William Schwartz, Robert Campbell, William Pantree, John Killick, John Brooks, Henry Wilkinson, Walter Manning, John Slayter, Richard Catherwood, Joseph Pierce, Alexander Cunningham, Richard Tritton, Jonathan Gifford and Benjamin Leigh.
On Monday, the 2nd of October, 1758, the newly elected members met in the Court House in Halifax, pursuant to summons from the Provost Marshall; their names were as follows:
| Joseph Gerrish, | Esquires. |
| Robert Saunderson, | |
| Henry Newton, | |
| William Foy, | |
| William Nesbitt, | |
| Joseph Rundell. | |
| William Best, | Gentlemen. |
| Alexr. Kedie, | |
| Jonathan Binney, | |
| Henry Ferguson, | |
| George Suckling, | |
| Robert Campbell, | |
| Willm. Pantree, | |
| Joseph Fairbanks, | |
| Philip Hammond, | |
| John Fillis, | |
| Lambert Folkers, | |
| Philip Knout. |
They sent Messrs. Nesbitt, Newton and Rundell, to wait on the Governor, who sent Messrs. Morris and Green from the Council to swear them in. They then chose Robert Saunderson their speaker, which was confirmed by the Governor, who addressed them as follows: "Gentlemen of the Council and House of Representatives: His Majesty having been most graciously pleased by his royal instructions to his Governors of this Province to direct the calling an assembly of the freeholders to act in conjunction with his Governor and Council as the Legislative Authority, when such a measure should be found essential to his service; I am to assure you that it is with particular pleasure I now meet you convened in that capacity, in consequence of a plan some time since formed here for that purpose, with the advice and assistance of His Majesty's Council, and by me transmitted to the Lord Commissioner for Trade and Plantations to be laid before His Majesty for his approbation.
"Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
"I entertain the most sanguine hopes that you are come together unanimously disposed to promote the service of the Crown, or in other words, the real welfare and prosperity of the people whom you have the honour to represent, in every point to the utmost of your authority and capacity.
"This, I presume, you will conceive is justly to be expected, not only from the immediate regard due to the Civil Rights and Interests of your constituents, but likewise from the unspeakable obligations you are under to demonstrate in their behalf your dutiful sense of His Majesty's paternal concern for the prosperity and security of those his subjects in those distinguishing marks of his royal favour and protection which we have from time to time so happily experienced in the fleets and armies sent out for our immediate preservation when we were under the most imminent danger of being swallowed up by a merciless enemy; also in the ample supplies of money for so many years annually granted for the support and encouragement of this infant colony; and moreover still, in the continuance of His Majesty's royal bounty for that purpose, when from the seeming inclination of the inhabitants to have an assembly convened some time ago, it might have been presumed, and indeed by an article of His Majesty's Instructions, which I shall order to be laid before you, it has been judged that the Colony has become capable of providing for the necessary support of government here, as has been usual in all His Majesty's other American Dominions.
"Gentlemen of both Houses:
"As my Military occupation requires my attendance as early as possible upon the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces to the Westward, and as the Lieutenant Governor is now necessarily employed, and will be for some time to come, upon an enterprise of importance in a distant part of the province, there is not at present an opportunity of entering upon such particulars as might otherwise call for your attention; I am therefore earnestly to recommend to your serious consideration the expediency, or rather the necessity of unanimity and dispatch in the confirmation of such Acts or resolutions of a legislative nature, as the Governor and Council under His Majesty's Royal Instructions have found expedient, before the forming of an assembly and indispensably necessary for promoting the welfare and peaceable Government of this people.
"You may depend upon it, Gentlemen, on my return to the Government you will find me perfectly disposed to concur with you in enacting such further laws, making such amendments to the present ones, and establishing such other regulations as shall appear upon more mature deliberations to be consistent with the honour and dignity of the Crown and conducive to the lasting happiness of His Majesty's subjects where I have the honour to preside.