XV.—Also we do, for Us, our Heirs, and Successors, Declare, by these Presents, that all and every the Persons, being our Subjects, which shall dwell and inhabit within every or any of the said several Colonies and Plantations, and every of their children, which shall happen to be born within any of the Limits and Precincts of the said several Colonies and Plantations, shall HAVE and enjoy all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities, within any of our other Dominions, to all Intents and Purposes, as if they had been abiding and born within this our Realm of England, or any other of our said Dominions.[6]

XVI.—Moreover, our gracious Will and Pleasure is, and we do, by these Presents, for Us, our Heirs, and Successors, declare and set forth, that if any Person or Persons, which shall be of any of the said Colonies and Plantations, or any other, which shall traffick to the said Colonies and Plantations, or any of them, shall, at any time or times hereafter, transport any Wares, Merchandises, or Commodities, out of any our Dominions, with a Pretence to land, sell, or otherwise dispose of the same, within any the Limits and Precincts of any the said Colonies and Plantations, and yet nevertheless, being at Sea, or after he hath landed the same within any of the said Colonies and Plantations, shall carry the same into any other Foreign Country, with a Purpose there to sell or dispose of the same, without the Licence of Us, our Heirs, and Successors, in that Behalf first had and obtained; That then, all the Goods and Chattels of such Person or Persons so offending and transporting, together with the said Ship or Vessel wherein such Transportation was made, shall be forfeited to Us, our Heirs, and Successors.

[Paragraph XVII reserves to the crown the right to disavow any unauthorized violence used by the Companies or their agents toward the subjects of other European countries; so that England need not be drawn into war by the colony if the king choose instead to leave it to its fate. The remaining paragraphs have to do mainly with landholding. They provide for a simpler method of transfer than was then common in England, and provide also that all land should be held as a freehold, not by military service,—"To be Holden of Us, our Heirs, and Successors, as of our Manor at East-Greenwich in the County of Kent, in free and common Soccage only, and not in Capite.">[

17. Instructions issued by King James

Hening's Statutes (1809, 1823), I, 67 ff.

The following instructions for the guidance of the colonizing companies were issued by King James, November 20/30, 1606, in accordance with power reserved by him in the charter. They do not merit the ridicule which has been heaped upon them.

[Recital of the grant in preceding charter.]

Wee, according to the effect and true meaning of the same letters pattents, doe by these presents, ... establish and ordaine, that our trusty and well beloved Sir William Wade, knight, our Lieutenant of our Tower of London, Sir Thomas Smith, knight, Sir Walter Cope, knight, Sir Gorge Moor, knight, Sir Francis Popeham, knight, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, knight, Sir John Trevor, knight, Sir Henry Montague, knight, recorder of the citty of London, Sir William Rumney, knight, John Dodderidge, Esq., Sollicitor General, Thomas Warr, Esqr., John Eldred of the citty of London, merchant, Thomas James of the citty of Bristol, merchant, and James Bagge of Plymouth, in the county of Devonshire, merchant, shall be our councel for all matters which shall happen in Virginia of any the territories of America, between thirty-four and forty-five degrees from the æquinoctial line northward, and the Islands to the several colonies limited and assigned, and that they shal be called the King's Councel of Virginia, which councel or the most part of them shal have full power and authority, att our pleasure, in our name, and under us, our heires and successors, to give directions to the councels of the several collonies which shal be within any part of the said country of Virginia and America, within the degrees first above mentioned, with the Islands aforesaid, for the good government of the people to be planted in those parts, and for the good ordering and disposing of all causes happening within the same, and the same to be done for the substance thereof, as neer to the common lawes of England, and the equity thereof, as may be, and to passe under our seale, appointed for that councel, which councel, and every or any of them shall, from time to time be increased, altered or changed, and others put in their places, att the nomination of us, our heires and successors, and att our and their will and pleasure; And the same councel of Virginia, or the more part of them, for the time being shall nominate and appoint the first several councellours of those several councells which are to be appointed for those two several colonies, which are to be made plantations in Virginia ... according to our said letters pattents in that behalfe made; And that each of the same councels of the same several colonies shal, by the major part of them, choose one of the same councel, not being the minister of God's word, to be president of the same councel, and to continue in that office by the space of one whole year, unless he shall in the mean time dye or be removed from that office; and wee doe further hereby establish and ordaine that it shal be lawful for the major part of either of the said councells, upon any just cause, either absence or otherwise, to remove the president or any other of that councel, ... from being either president or any of that councel, and upon the deathes or removal of any of the presidents or councel, it shal be lawfull for the major part of that councel to elect another in the place of the party soe dying or removed, so alwaies as they shal not be above thirteen of either of the said councellours, and we doe establish and ordaine, that the president shal not continue in his office of presidentship above the space of one year; and wee doe specially ordaine, charge, and require the said presidents and councells, and the ministers of the said several colonies respectively, within their several limits and precincts, that they, with all diligence, care, and respect, doe provide, that the true word and service of God and Christian faith be preached, planted, and used, not only within every of the said several colonies and plantations, but alsoe as much as they may amongst the salvadge people which doe or shall adjoine unto them, or border upon them, according to the doctrine, rights, and religion now professed and established within our realme of England; ... and moreover wee doe hereby ordaine and establish for us, our heires and successors, ... that the offences of tumults, rebellion, conspiracies, mutiny and seditions in those parts which may be dangerous to the estates there, together with murther, manslaughter, incest, rapes, and adulteries committed in those parts within the precincts of any the degrees above mentioned (and noe other offences) shal be punished by death, and that without the benefit of the clergy, except in case of manslaughter, in which clergie is to be allowed; and that the said several presidents and councells ... shall have full power and authority, to hear and determine all and every the offences aforesaid, within the precinct of their several colonies, in manner and forme following, that is to say, by twelve honest and indifferent persons sworne upon the Evangelists, to be returned by such ministers and officers as every of the said presidents and councells, or the most part of them respectively shall assigne, and the twelve persons soe returned and sworne shall, according to the evidence to be given unto them upon oath and according to the truth, in their consciences, either convict or acquit every of the said persons soe to be accused and tried by them, ... and that every the said presidents and councells, within their several limits and precincts, shall have power and authority by these presents, to hear and determine all and every other wrongs, trespasses, offences, and misdemeanors whatsoever, other than those before mentioned, upon accusation of any person, and proofe thereof made, by sufficient witnesse upon oath; and that in all those cases the said president and councel ... shall have power and authority to punish the offender, either by reasonable corporal punishment and imprisonment, or else by a convenient fine, awarding damages or other satisfaction to the party grieved, as to the same president and councell shall be thought fitt and convenient, having regard to the quality of the offence, or state of the cause; and that alsoe the said president and councel, shall have power and authority, by virtue of these presents, to punish all manner of excesse, through drunkennesse or otherwaise, and all idle loytering and vagrant persons, which shall be found within their several limits and precincts, according to their best discretions, and with such convenient punishment, as they or the most part of them shall think fitt; ... Alsoe our will and pleasure is, and wee doe hereby establish and ordaine, that the said several collonies and plantations, ... shall ... for the space of five years, next after their first landing upon the said coast of Virginia and America, trade together all in one stocke (or devideably, but in two or three stocks at the most), and bring not only all the fruits of their labours there, but alsoe all such other goods and commodities which shall be brought out of England, or any other place, into the same collonies, into severall magazines or store houses, for that purpose to be made and erected there, and that in such order, manner, and form, as the councel of that collony, or the more part of them, shall sett downe and direct....

18. Instructions by the Council in England to the Expedition to Virginia; December, 1606

Printed first in Neill's Virginia Company (1869) from the manuscript records of the Company at Washington. Reprinted in full in Brown's Genesis, I, 79 ff. About a third of the paper is given here.