[1] Charleston, Records of the Court of Vice-admiralty of South Carolina, vol. A-B. The document is spread upon the records of the court for Nov. 27, 1716, at the beginning of the day's proceedings. This commission is a peculiar one. As has been explained in [note 2] to [doc. no. 51] and in [note 1] to [doc. no. 104], the act 28 Henr. VIII. ch. 15 (1536) provided for the trial of piracy by commissions specially appointed for the purpose, and with a jury, but did not extend to the oversea plantations, while the act 11 and 12 Will. III. ch. 7 (1699-1700) extended to those dominions the crown's authority to appoint such commissions. Before the passage of the latter statute, colonial governors had as vice-admirals appointed such commissions, which had then proceeded under the civil (Roman) law, and not under the statute. But South Carolina had in 1712 expressly adopted the act of 28 Henr. VIII. (Cooper, Statutes at Large, II. 470) and here we have a commission issued by the deputy governor and council, under authority of the proprietors of Carolina, for trial under the act of 1536, though action could have been taken under that of 1700. The accused persons for whose trial the commission was issued were acquitted. For the whole subject of piracy in or near Carolina, where it was rife in these years, see S.C. Hughson, "The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Commerce", in Johns Hopkins University Studies, XII. The most famous case was that of Major Stede Bonnet, but the original records of that case are fully printed in State Trials, ed. Hargrave, vol. VI.
[2] The six proprietors of Carolina here named held at this time six of the eight shares in the property. The holder of the seventh was a minor; the eighth was in litigation.
[3] Nicholas Trott, LL.D., attorney-general of Bermuda 1696-1697, the first attorney general of South Carolina 1698-1702, chief-justice 1702-1709, 1713-1719, a learned lawyer, and a great power in the politics of the province so long as the rule of the proprietors continued. He was the first vice-admiralty judge, having commissions as such from both the king and the proprietors. He is often erroneously identified with his cousin the governor (1693-1696) of the Bahamas, the Nicholas Trott of docs. nos. [63] and [64].
[4] Thus far quoting, correctly, sect. 2 of 28 Henr. VIII. ch. 15.
[5] Governor Edward Craven, sailing for England in April preceding, had left Col. Robert Daniel deputy governor in his stead. The other signers were deputies of individual proprietors.
THE PIRATES OF THE WHIDAH.
107. Cyprian Southack to Governor Samuel Shute. May [5?], 1717.[1]
Cape Cod Harbour[2] May [5?] 1717
Maye itt Pleass Your Excellency