case the contracts with them as to food and other necessaries were not faithfully performed, had the right to enter complaint with the nearest justice of the peace. Particular orders were published that no one should entertain a fugitive mariner, and that all ferrymen should refuse to set him over their ferries unless he could present a note from his captain showing that he had received permission to leave his ship. Any person could arrest him without warrant.[1]
Every vessel arriving in the Colony was compelled to show a cocquet upon pain of confiscation. It had also to pay certain duties imposed by law. What was known as the castle duty was established in February, 1631-32, at which time a fort at Point Comfort was in the course of erection.[2] This tax consisted of one barrel of powder and ten iron shot.[3] The fort was completed in the autumn of 1632, and the provision as to the amount of powder and shot to be delivered by every ship on its arrival was expressly renewed. In 1632, each vessel was made subject to the payment of one-quarter of a pound of powder and a proportionate quantity of shot for every ton represented in its bulk.[4] Three years after this enactment, the number of forts in Virginia had increased to five. The duty was now placed at fifty pounds of powder for every vessel
- ↑ British State Papers, Colonial; McDonald Papers, vol. VII, pp. 261, 262, Va. State Library.
- ↑ In addition to the castle duty, even the ships belonging to Virginians had to pay 2s. 6d. for entry, 2s. 6d. for license to trades, and 2s. 6d. for clearing. Hening’s Statutes, vol. II, p. 387. The cocquet rates were a halfpenny per hhd. for all bills of lading not containing above 20 hhd.; twelve pence for every cocquet if exceeding that number. Ibid., p. 387.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 176; Letter of Governor Harris to Dorchester, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. X, No. 5; McDonald Papers, vol. II, p. 40, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 218; British State Papers, Colonial, vol. X, No. 5; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1638, p. 50, Va. State Library.
