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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Proclamation by Alexander Spotswood concerning the arrest of North Carolina inhabitants in Virginia without a passport
Spotswood, Alexander, 1676-1740
June 15, 1715
Volume 02, Pages 184-185

[B. P. R. O. B. T. Virginia. Vol. 14. P. 55.]
PROCLAMATION FOR TAKING UP PERSONS COMING OUT OF NORTH CAROLINA WITHOUT PASSPORTS

Whereas the Governor of North Carolina hath represented to me that divers of the Inhabitants of that Province being apprehensive of an

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Indian War are preparing to leave the Country whereby the said Province and the Inhabitants that remain therein will become a more easy prey to their Enemies and hath thereupon desired that some effectual course may be taken for preventing such desertion by prohibiting the entertaining any such deserters within this Province I have therefore thought fit by and with the advice of the Council to issue this Proclamation hereby requiring all Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs and other Officers within the Countys bordring on North Carolina that during the present apprehension of danger from the Indians they cause to be taken up all persons being Inhabitants of the said Province or of South Carolina who shall be found coming into any of the said Countys without a Passport from the Governor of North Carolina for the time being or such persons as shall be appointed by him for granting the same and the person or person so taken up to cause to be conveyed from Constable to Constable untill they be delivered to some Magistrate with the said Province of North Carolina, Hereby requiring all His Majesty's subjects to be aiding and assisting in the execution hereof as they will answer the Contrary at their Peril and I do appoint this proclamation to be read and published in all Court Houses and in all Churches and Chappells within the Countys aforesaid.

Given at the Council Chamber the 15th day of June 1715. in the first year of his Majestie's Reign.

A. SPOTSWOOD.