105. Deposition of Paul Dudley. August 15, 1705.[1]
The Deposition of Paul Dudley, Esquire, Her Majestys Attourney General for the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, and Advocate of the Court of Admiralty—who saith
That on or about the fifth day of June last past, being at Newport on Road Island in Company with the Honourable Nathaniel Byfield, Esquire, Judge of the Court of Admiralty, etc.[2] at the House of Samuel Cranston, Esquire, Governour of said Island, The said Judge complaining of the said Governours granting a Commission to Captain Halsey, a Privateer,[3] after the Receipt of her Majesties Commands to the Contrary, The said Samuel Cranston replyed, That he had taken the advice of the Generall Court[4] of that Colony, who were all of opinion That her Majesties Commands did not forbid him or restrain him from Granting Commissions for Privateers, And that their Charter granting them Power of Vice Admiralty,[5] he was determined to Exercise that power, and Grant such Commissions untill their Charter was actually and wholly taken away; And that they would not part with their powers or Government by piece meal, but would Die all at once, And that they had parted with too many of their priviledges already....
Paul Dudley.
Boston in New England
15 August 1705
Sworne in presence of his Excellency the Governour before us
| Isa. Addington Andrew Belcher | of the Council |
[1] Public Record Office, C.O. 5:1263, no. 57 XXVI. Paul Dudley was the governor's oldest son. The deposition is one of 55 enclosures in the governor's letter of Nov. 2, 1705, to the Board of Trade respecting his complaints of irregularities in the governments of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Though Dudley's commissions as governor confined his civil authority to Massachusetts and New Hampshire, his commission as vice-admiral (printed in the Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, II. 220-224) gave him authority in Rhode Island also. The assembly of that colony, however, claimed the right under their charter to erect admiralty courts of their own, and for their governor the right to commission privateers. Queen Anne wrote to them in March 1704, repealing their act erecting a court, but they held that her letter did not forbid the commissioning of privateers. See Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, III. 508-510, 535-540.
[2] Nathaniel Byfield—founder of Bristol, Mass, (now R.I.), nephew of Archbishop Juxon and grandson of that Rev. Richard Byfield who was vicar of Stratford-on-Avon during most of Shakespeare's life—was commissioned admiralty judge for Massachusetts and Rhode Island during brief periods in 1698 and 1703, again 1704-1715 and 1728-1732.