The Archives

The ArchivesSourcesColonial Council Minutes

Colonial Council Minutes

The working minute books of the governors' councils of the English and British American and Caribbean colonies, serial administrative registers of executive sessions kept by a clerk of the council and surviving as colonial originals, as transcripts and enclosures sent to London, and as nineteenth and twentieth century printed editions, in which golden-age piracy, roughly 1690 to 1725, appears as one item of ordinary executive business among quit rents, land patents and prorogations.

Also writtenMinutes of Council; Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia; Calendar of Council Minutes 1668 to 1783 (New York); Records of the Executive Council, 1664 to 1734 (North Carolina, Second Series volume 7); Colonial council minute books; Proceedings of Governour and Council

A colonial council was the small body of appointed gentlemen who sat with the governor and gave him, in the records' repeated formula, "advice". Its clerk kept a minute book. In executive session the council advised on proclamations, commissions, pardons, seizures and trials; in legislative session it sat as the upper house of the assembly. Fernow's calendar finds the two apart in New York volumes 6 to 8, 1691 to 1702, and "mingled" in volumes 9 to 17, 1702 to 1736, the piracy years falling in volumes 11 to 14.1

For the piracy years the class takes in the books of Virginia, New York, the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Carolinas and Massachusetts. Virginia, New York and the Bahamas are established by the records cited here; Jamaica and North Carolina are reached only through printed and calendared derivatives, and for Massachusetts, and for a South Carolina minute book of 1718, nothing is established. The form is one class: a dated heading, those present, then orders beginning "It is ordered", the prose flat and short.

How the books were kept and sent

Minutes were made because the governor could act in certain matters only with his council's advice and consent, the book his proof. Accumulation followed an obligation to transmit, traced by McIlwaine to an order of 14 January 1679/80 that copies go to England, compliance decaying after. In October 1718 Governor Hamilton of the Leeward Islands ordered the secretaries and clerks of the islands to make good the arrears by 25 March and to deliver copies quarterly thereafter, on pain of suspension. Provenance is tripartite: colonial original, London enclosure in a Colonial Office class, printed edition.2

What the piracy entries look like

Piracy enters a stream of quit rents and land patents as one item among many. The councils gave jurisdictional opinions, and disagreed. On 29 October 1718 the Virginia Council resolved "That William Howard the Pirate now in the Publick Goal be tryed by Vertue of the Commission under the Great Seal", issued under the act of 11 and 12 William III behind the colonial commissions of oyer and terminer. A New York minute of 14 November 1717 had given the contrary opinion, that pirates could not be tried under King William's commission.3

What the minutes catch, and what they miss

The printed Virginia journals carry no order fitting out, manning or paying the sloops hired for Ocracoke; the expedition surfaces only in the session of 24 November 1718, where a residence bill leads the Council to instance "the Officers of the Sloops sent to No Carolina for Suppression of Pirates", the engagement, fought two days earlier, being evidently unknown at Williamsburg. Spotswood's despatch of 22 December explains the silence: "I undertook the other part of supplying at my own charge sloops and pilots". The absence is evidence about procedure rather than events.4

On 2 May 1719 the Virginia Council took proof of the men of Edward Thach's crew killed in the engagement with the King's sloops, and advised payment of the rewards demanded under the acts of assembly. On 22 February 1719/20 it named eight men lately convicted and directed four to hang in chains at Tindalls Point and Urbanna; on 22 April 1720 it advised pardon for two, six of the gang having already suffered.5

Outside Virginia the class survives mostly as enclosures. Woodes Rogers's despatch from Nassau of 31 October 1718 records the first royal council there, six he brought out and six found in the islands; its proceedings for 1 August to 28 September 1718 travelled with the letter as CO 23/1, No. 10 ii.6

Its limits as evidence

The minutes are dated, attributed to a named quorum and made by administrative necessity rather than narrative intent. They are compressed to opacity: an order that a proclamation issue fixes the decision and omits the argument. McIlwaine, printing the Virginia proclamations separately, warns that for 1719, 1720 and 1721 no proclamation is among the copies preserved in England. They record advice, not unanimity, unless dissent is entered; the settled opinion of 29 October 1718 conceals opposition Spotswood described privately.

Where it survives

The London layer is CO 5, CO 23, CO 137 and CO 140 at Kew, the printed calendar the finding aid. The editions carry the rest: McIlwaine's Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, volume 3, 1928; Fernow's Calendar of Council Minutes, Albany, 1902, made before the fire of 29 March 1911 that left all twenty-eight New York volumes standing, half of them in fair or poor condition; and Cain's Records of the Executive Council, 1664 to 1734, 1984.

What this source cannot yet give lies in the colonies whose books are untraced: no piece-level description for the Jamaica council volumes of 1718 to 1721, the manuscript minutes of the South Carolina council for 1718 untraced, and no council citation behind the North Carolina hearing of 27 May 1719 that cleared Tobias Knight.

What the evidence does not settle

South Carolina council journal survival

  • Whether an original pre-1721 South Carolina council journal survives is unresolved

North Carolina Tobias Knight proceedings

  • The council text recording Tobias Knight's 1719 clearance

New York council minute entry dates

  • The Caverley examination's exact date is uncertain

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Colonial council minutes form a single documentary class across the colonies, kept by a clerk of the council and divisible into an executive sequence, in which the council advised the governor on proclamations, commissions, pardons, seizures and the arrangement of trials, and a legislative sequence, in which the same body sat as the upper house of the assembly; in New York the two were entered separately only in volumes 6 to 8, covering 1691 to 1702, and were mingled in the same books in volumes 9 to 17, 1702 to 1736, which are the volumes covering the piracy years. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Printed calendar of a colonial council minute series: Berthold Fernow, compiler, Calendar of Council Minutes 1668 to 1783, New York State Library Bulletin, Albany, University of the State of New York, 1902, preface and day entries (Internet Archive identifier calendarofcounci00newy)
  2. Council minutes were made because the governor could act in specified matters only with the advice and consent of his council, and they accumulated in duplicate because copies were to be transmitted to England, an obligation traced to an order of 14 January 1679/80 that copies of the journals of the House of Burgesses and of the Council, in both its legislative and its executive capacity, be sent over, with compliance decaying thereafter; the duty was also policed inside the colonies, Governor Walter Hamilton of the Leeward Islands ordering his own secretaries, deputy secretaries and clerks in October 1718 to make good the arrears the Council of Trade required and to deliver copies of the Minutes of Council and Assembly quarterly henceforward, on pain of suspension. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Printed edition of a colonial council minute book and calendar of state papers: H. R. McIlwaine, editor, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, volume 3, Richmond, Virginia State Library, 1928, preface, for the order of 14 January 1679/80 and the decay of compliance; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, 1717 to 1718, edited by Cecil Headlam, London, 1930, entry 736 and enclosure 736 ii, Governor Hamilton to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Antigua, 26 October 1718, CO 152/12, Nos. 124, 124 i and ii (the Hamilton order Confirmed as calendared)
  3. The councils gave jurisdictional opinions on the trial of pirates and reached opposite conclusions: on 29 October 1718 the Virginia Council, having read the English statutes, the colony's own act and the commission under the Great Seal issued in pursuance of the act of 11 and 12 William III, resolved that William Howard the pirate then in the public gaol be tried by virtue of that commission, whereas the New York Council had given the opinion on 14 November 1717 that pirates could not be tried under the commission of King William. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Printed edition of a colonial council minute book and printed calendar of a council minute series: H. R. McIlwaine, editor, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, volume 3, 1928, session of 29 October 1718 (Confirmed, quoted from the printed text); Berthold Fernow, Calendar of Council Minutes 1668 to 1783, Albany, 1902, abstract of the minute of 14 November 1717 (Confirmed as calendared; the wording is the calendar's abstract, not the manuscript)
  4. The printed Virginia executive journals contain no council order fitting out, manning or paying the two hired sloops sent against Edward Thach, the expedition appearing only incidentally in the session of 24 November 1718, where a residence bill leads the Council to instance the officers of the sloops sent to North Carolina for the suppression of pirates; Lieutenant Governor Spotswood explained to London on 22 December 1718 that the men of war could not enter the shallow channels, that the naval captains were unwilling to bear the charge of hiring sloops, and that he undertook the supplying of sloops and pilots at his own charge, which is why no council order was required or entered. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed edition of a colonial council minute book and calendar of state papers: H. R. McIlwaine, editor, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, volume 3, 1928, session of 24 November 1718 and the absence of any fitting-out order in the printed volume (Confirmed); Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, edited by Cecil Headlam, 1930, entry 800, Spotswood to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 22 December 1718, CO 5/1318, Nos. 61 and 61 i to vi (Confirmed as calendared)
  5. The Virginia Council audited the administrative aftermath of the campaign against Thach in its own arithmetic: on 2 May 1719 it received proof of the pirates of Edward Thach's crew killed in the engagement with the King's sloops, and of others taken, tried and convicted, and advised payment of the rewards demanded under the acts of assembly; on 22 February 1719/20 it named eight men lately convicted of piracy and ordered two of them hung in chains at Tindalls Point in York River and two more at Urbanna in Rappahannock River; and on 22 April 1720 it advised pardon for two of the eight whom the governor had reprieved, six of the same gang having already suffered. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Printed edition of a colonial council minute book: H. R. McIlwaine, editor, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, volume 3, Richmond, Virginia State Library, 1928, sessions of 2 May 1719, 22 February 1719/20 and 22 April 1720. The count of six executions and two pardons is internal to the record and is reported as such
  6. Outside Virginia the class survives for the piracy years chiefly as enclosures to governors' despatches: Governor Woodes Rogers's despatch from Nassau of 31 October 1718 records the constitution of the first royal council of the Bahamas, six men he brought out with him sworn together with six found in the islands, and the council's own proceedings for 1 August to 28 September 1718 travelled with that letter and are now CO 23/1, No. 10 ii. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendar of state papers with council minutes as enclosure: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, 1717 to 1718, edited by Cecil Headlam, London, 1930, entry 737, Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Nassau, 31 October 1718, CO 23/1, Nos. 10 and 10 i to viii (Confirmed as calendared)