At the General Assembly of the Governor and Company of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, begun and holden, by Adjournment, at East-Greenwich, within and for the State aforesaid, on Monday the First Day of December, in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-seven.

. . . Whereas John Grimes, late Commander of the private Ship of War American Tartar, hath represented unto this Assembly, That he was captured during his Cruize, by one of the British Ships of War, and carried into Halifax:¹ That being there a Prisoner, he was suffered by Sir George Collier to return to Boston upon his Parole: That either the Master of the British Ship Fox, who is a Prisoner of War within the State of Massachusetts-Bay, should be released in his Stead, or that he would surrender him self a Prisoner of War again: That the said Master of the Fox is designed to be exchanged for the late Master of the Continental Ship Hancock,² who is a Prisoner of War at Halifax: That the Master of the British Ship of War Syren is here a Prisoner,³ and it hath been proposed that he should be held, in order to exchange for Mr. Esek Hopkins, jun. who was an acting Lieutenant on board the Providence Sloop,⁴ and is a Prisoner of War at Halifax: And that Mr. Otway,⁵ Lieutenant of the British Frigate Lark, was captured by this State's Troops, and will be exchanged for said Hopkins: It is therefore Voted and Resolved, That it be, and hereby is, earnestly requested of the Honorable Major-General Spencer to suffer and permit the said Lieutenant Otway to be given up, in order to redeem said Mr. Hopkins from Captivity: And that, upon General Spencer's permitting the said Otway to be given in exchange as aforesaid, the late Master of the British Ship Syren, who is here a Prisoner, shall be delivered up to be exchanged for the Master of the Hancock, or Capt. John Grimes. . . .