Council, no part of the cargo was to be sold previous to the arrival of the ship at Jamestown, and this proclamation was ordered to be nailed to the mast as a means of giving it the fullest publicity.[1] The General Court, in 1626, adopted the rule that no one among the colonists should be allowed to enter a vessel on its way to that place without special license from the authorities. This was in strict conformity with the instructions received by Yeardley in the course of this year on his appointment to office.[2] That the provision was enforced is shown by the fact that in 1627, Michael Wilcox, a planter, was fined because he had gone on board of the Charlie while it was lying at anchor in James River and purchased twelve pounds of sugar.[3] So firmly resolved was the local government that no permission should be granted to shipmasters and owners to break the bulk of their cargoes, whether to sell in large quantities to a forestaller who might propose to take advantage of the necessities of the people, or to a person like Wilcox, who was only seeking to supply his private wants, that when the Marmaduke in 1626 ran aground below Mulberry Island, orders were given that no goods should be removed from her with a view to lightening the vessel for the purpose of floating her, unless the owners of these goods gave assurance that the merchandise, when removed, should be brought to Jamestown, without any effort being made in the interval to dispose of it by secret bargains and indirect sales.[4] In 1632, the Act requiring that a proclamation should
- ↑ Lawes and Orders, Feb. 16, 1623, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. III, No. 9; McDonald Papers, vol. I, p. 98, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Randolph MSS., vol. III, p. 199; British State Papers, Colonial Entry Book, vol. LXXIX, p. 257; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1626, p. 137, Va. State Library.
- ↑ General Court Orders, April 3, 1627, Robinson Transcripts, p. 63.
- ↑ Ibid., Dec. 18, 1626, p. 57.
