ply the Vacancy occasioned by M Ashfield's Death. His Character & Abilities are such as will do credit to that Station, and tho' he at present resides at New York, yet he assures me that it is his Intention to remove into this Province, where he has a very considerable Estate. But as my Instructions require that I should, on these Occasions, transmit the Names of Three Persons whom I esteem best qualified for that Trust, I therefore recommend as such William Kelly, Esq': a Gentleman now in England, who has a large Estate in this Province on which he proposes to reside when he returns to America, and Michael Kearney, Esq' a Gentleman who has a Commission in His Majesty's Navy, but resides at present on his Paternal Estate in Monmouth County, and is related to some of the principal Families in the Colony. Their Characters and Qualifications are unexceptionable, and I think it will be for His Majesty's Service if they should all acquire Seats in the Council as Vacancys may happen, tho' I am induced to request that on this Occasion a Preference may be given to M' Bayard. I have the Honor to be, with great Respect, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient & most humble Servant

W FRANKLIN.

Deputization of Charles Pettit to be Deputy Secretary of the Province of New Jersey.

[From Book AB of Commissions, Secretary of State's Office, Trenton, fol. 37.] To all to whom these Presents shall come Maurice Morgann of parliament Street Westminster now in New Jersey Esq. sendeth Greeting, Whereas His present Majesty by his Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain bearing date at Westminster the

eighteenth day of June in the seventh year of his Reign, did give and grant unto the sd. Maurice Morgann the Offices & places of Secretary, Clerk of the Council, Clerk of the Supreme Court, Clerk of the pleas, Surrogate and Keeper and Register of the Records in the Colony of Nova Ceesarea or New Jersey To have hold Exercise and Enjoy the said Offices and Places by himself or his Sufficient Deputy or Deputies during pleasure. Together with all Fees, Profits Priviledges and Advantages to the said Offices belonging and Appertaining Now Know Ye that for divers good Causes and Considerations him the sd. Maurice Morgann hereunto moving He the said Maurice Morgann hath made ordained constituted deputed and appointed And by these presents doth make ordain Constitute depute and appoint Charles Pettit' of the

The Pettit or Petit family is of Huguenot origin, some of that name settling about 1650 at New Rochelle, N. Y., and others at Southold, L. I.-N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Record, October, 1881, 162; January, 1871, 2; N. Y. Doc. Hist., II., 258; Proc. West Jersey Surveyors' Association, 369. Charles Pettit married Sarah Reed, a half-sister of Joseph Reed; she and her three children were living with Reed in Trenton in 1766.-Hall's First Pres. Church, of Trenton, 75, 197. Prior to this time Pettit appears to have lived in Philadelphia, whence he wrote to his brother-in-law a spicy account of the election in 1764.-Reed's Reed, I., 37. When Reed was appointed Deputy Provincial Secretary he doubtless made a place at once for his brother-in-law, upon whom in time the entire duties of the office devolved. See ante, p. 3, and under date of May 11, 1769. When Governor Franklin commissioned Reed to be Provincial Surrogate, November 19, 1767 (ante, p. 8), he at the same time commissioned Charles Pettit to be one of the Surrogates of New Jersey, "accountable to Joseph Reed."-Book AB of Commissions in Secretary of State's office, fol. 9. Pettit studied law, and was admitted as an attorney, April 3, 1770, and as a counsellor, November 17, 1773.-Vroom's Supreme Court Rules, 1885, 60, 93. He appears to have acted as Governor Franklin's Private Secretary, and when the Governor removed in 1774 from Burlington to Perth Amboy, Pettit went with him, taking up his residence in the old Dr. Johnstone house.-Whitehead's Perth Amboy, 1. When the Governor was arrested for adhering to the Royal cause, Pettit took sides with the people, and although like many others despondent in the dark days of 1746 (Reed and Cadwallader Pamphlets-Cadwallader's Reply, 26), he did valua ble service in behalf of the Colonies, even when harassed with anxiety for the safety of his family.-N. J. Revolutionary Correspondence, 47. A service of peculiar interest was the framing of new forms in English, translated from the Old Law Latin precedents, for constituting Courts of Oyer and Terminer under the new State Government.--Ib., 67. The Provincial Congress on February 6, 1776, directed the records of the Secretary's office to be delivered to him, thereby virtually continuing him in office.-Minutes, 355. He resigned October 7, 1778, when his brotherin-law, Bowes Reed, was appointed by the Legislature.-Minutes Joint Meeting.

Colony of New Jersey afs Esq. his the sd. Maurice Morgann Deputy of and in the sd. Offices of Secretary, Clerk of the Council, Clerk of the Supreme Court, Clerk of the Pleas, Surrogate and Keeper and Register of the Records of the said Province for and during the pleasure of him the said Maurice Morgann. And the sd. Maurice Morgann doth hereby Authorize and Impower the said Charles Petit to do perform and Execute all & every such Act and Acts Matters and things as to the Duty and Offices of Secretary, Clerk of the Council, Clerk of the Supreme Court, Clerk of the Pleas, Surrogate & Keeper and Register of the Records of the said Province shall appertain or belong, or which may or ought to be done performed and Executed And Also to have receive and take all Fees dues Rights Profits priviledges and Advantages whatsoever to the same Offices or any or either of them belonging or of right appertaining thereto, or which shall arise happen or become due during such time as he shall continue Deputy in the Offices afsd. He the said Maurice Morgann hereby ratifying and Confirming all and whatsoever his said Deputy shall lawfully do or cause to be done in the premises hereby revoking and making Null and Void a Deputation heretofore given by the said Maurice Morgann to Joseph Reed Jun. of the sd. Province of New Jersey Esq. to Act in the said several Offices or Places and all & every the Powers Authorities and Priviledges therein contained In Witness whereof the sd. Maurice Morgann hath hereunto set his Hand and Seal this twenty seventh

He had meantime been appointed Assistant Quarter-Master-General of the ('ontinental army, in which capacity he was zealous and efficient until the close of the war. He then took up his residence in Pennsylvania, was elected to the Assembly, and while in that body was chosen by the Legislature April 7, 1785, to represent the State in Congress, being re-elected November 11, 1785, and again in November, 1786, rather against his will, he says.-Penn. Archives, X., 437, 534; XI., 267. In 1790 he was again pressed into the public service, being chosen to present to Congress the claims of Pennsylvania for compensation for money expended during the war.Penn. Col. Records, XVI, 387, 411, 540, 515; Penn. Archives, XI., 708.- [W. N.]

day of October in the tenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c. and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and sixty nine.

MAURICE MORGANN [L. S.]

Sealed and Delivered in the presence of us F. W. Smyth Chief Justice of New Jersey,

JAMES PARKER.

Be it Remembered that on the third day of November 1769 Charles Pettit in the within Deputation named appeared before me Frederick Smyth Esq. Chief Justice of New Jersey and took the Oaths and made and subscribed the Declaration according to Law and also an Oath for the due Execution of the Offices within mentioned, which I administered to him by virtue of a Dedimus Protestatum.

F. W. SMYTH.

Letter from Committee of the Assembly to Dr. Benjamin Franklin, notifying him of his appointment as Agent of the Colony.

Sir

[From New Jersey Historical Society Manuscripts.1]

BURLINGTON, Dec. 7th, 1769.

The House of Representatives of this Colony on the 8th of last month unanimously chose you their Agent in London, and appointed us to correspond with you on the affairs of the colony. The Resolve of the

This letter is also to be found in N. J. Hist. Soc. Proc., May, 1866, 168-70; in Works of Benjamin Franklin, VII., 460; and in "Letter to Benjamin Franklin," 46 It is here printed from a contemporaneous copy, presented to the Society in 1866 by William Duane, Esq., of Philadelphia, and compared with the copies elsewhere printed, as above.~[W. N.]

House by which you were appointed Agent, his Excellency will transmit to you properly attested.

To a Gentleman whose inclination to serve the Colonies, we believe equal to his knowledge of their true interests, much need not to be said to induce an attention to American concerns in the ensuing Sessions of Parliament, and the confidence the House have in the assurances of His Majesty's ministers that they will use their endeavours for the repeal of the Revenue Acts, and that those endeavours will be successful, renders any particular direction to you on this head unnecessary, but we could wish His Majesty's faithful American subjects to stand in their true point of light before, him that no doubt may remain of their loyalty and firm attachment to his Royal person and gov

ernment.

We are directed by the House to desire you will apply to the proper offices and solicit His Majesty's assent to the Bill for Septennial Election of Representatives and the Bill for giving the Counties of Morris, Cumberland, and Sussex a right to choose Representatives in the Assembly, transmitted in 1768. The Province is very solicitous for a confirmation of these laws and we must desire you will use your influence to obtain the Royal Assent to them as soon as possible. Another Bill in 1765 was transmitted for amending of the practice of the law, which the House would rather choose should not have the Royal Assent, as a Bill they like better has been passed by the House this Session, which although the Governor could not pass, yet he has, upon a Message from the House, promised to ask his Majesty's permission to give his assent at a future session.

His Excellency, our Governor, will transmit for his Majesty's Royal Approbation an Act of Assembly passed this session for making current One Hundred Thousand Pounds in bills of credit, to be let on loan