[1] London, Privy Council, Unbound Papers, 1:47, copy; probably the original was addressed to the secretary to the Admiralty. John Menzies, a Scotsman and a member of the Faculty of Advocates of Edinburgh, was judge of the vice-admiralty court for New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, from Dec., 1715, to his death in 1728. See Mass. Hist. Soc., Proceedings, LIV. 93-94.
[2] Capt. Thomas Smart of H.M.S. Squirrel. Publications Col. Soc. Mass., VIII. 179; Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial, III. 30.
[3] There was constant friction between admiralty judges and common-law judges in America as there had been in England. In 1726 Judge Menzies was expelled from the legislature of Massachusetts for stoutly standing by the complaints he had made to the Admiralty on this subject. A discussion of one of them, by Richard West, counsel to the Board of Trade, is printed in Chalmers, Opinions (ed. 1858), pp. 515-519.
[4] See Acts P.C. Col., III. 38-40.
[5] Benjamin Norton of Newport was probably the father of the Benjamin Norton who in 1741 was commander of the privateer Revenge, and as such figures in docs. nos. [114-162]. Col. Joseph Whipple the younger, afterward deputy governor of Rhode Island.
[6] According to Johnson, General History of the Pyrates, first ed., pp. 183, 187, Roberts took at Dominica "a Dutch Interloper of 22 Guns and 75 Men" and a Rhode Island brigantine of which one Norton was master, and at Hispaniola, a little later, "mann'd Nortons Brigantine, sending the Master away in the Dutch Interloper, not dissatisfied".
[7] Tarpaulin Cove lies on the east side of Naushon, one of the Elizabeth Islands.
[8] Capt. John Whipple of Providence.
[9] The sheriff of Bristol county, Massachusetts, impressed twelve men and horses and went to Tarpaulin Cove and took the ship into custody. Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, XI. 147.
[10] Samuel Cranston, governor 1698-1727.