Admiralty Office 4th: June 1778.
Sir
It having been judged proper that His Majesty’s Governor in Chief of the Province of New York, should be authorized to grant Commissions for seizing Vessels and their Cargoes belonging to the Inhabitants of the Rebellious Colonies, or to His Majesty’s Subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, trading to or from such Rebellious Colonies; And my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having in consequence thereof, and by virtue of the Power vested in them by an Act of Parliament passed in the Seventeenth Year of His Majesty’s Reign, Chap: 7th,1 signed a Warrant empowering and appointing you to cause Commissions to be issued forth accordingly to Ships and Vessels fitting out in any of the Ports within the Limits of your Government;2 I am commanded by their Lordships to send you the same herewith, together with printed Copies of the Act abovementioned and of His Majesty’s Instructions dated at St Jame’s the 27th day of March 1777, to be given to the Commander of each Ship and Vessel which shall or may have a Commission pursuant to the said Act;3 & I have added thereto a printed Form of the Warrants given by their Lordships to the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty for issuing Commissions of the nature abovementioned, to serve in some measure as a guidance to you in the Warrants you will give to the Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court of New York upon the like Occasions;4 to all which I beg leave to refer you, and have the honour to be Sir [&c.]
Php. Stephens
PS I beg leave to trouble you with the inclosed Pacquet for the Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court of New York.5
L, NHi, Andrew Elliot Papers—MS 439. Addressed at foot of first page: “Wm. Tryon Esqr. Govr. New York.” Docketed on a separate sheet: “Php Stephens/Admty. Office 4t June 1778/Recd—Aug do/Ansd 23 Oct Do.”
1. For the act of Parliament authorizing the commissioning of privateers, see Public Advertiser, Tuesday, 11 March 1777, NDAR 8: 662–64.
2. A copy of the warrant is with Stephens’ letter in Andrew Elliot Papers, NHi.
3. See Instructions to Commanders of British Letters of Marque, 27 March 1777, NDAR 8: 715–20.
4. Many such printed forms can be found in UkLPR, H.C.A./26/60–63.
5. In early 1777, Tryon appointed Maj. Robert Bayard, a British army officer, to be judge of the New York Vice Admiralty Court. Tryon to Lord George Germain, 7 Jan. 1777, UkLPR, C.O. 5/1140.
