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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Josiah Martin to the Board of Trade of Great Britain
Martin, Josiah, 1737-1786
March 24, 1775
Volume 09, Page 1172

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[B. P. R. O. No. Car. B. T. Vol. 19.]
Letter from Governor Martin to the Board of Trade.

No Carolina, New Bern, March 24th, 1775.

My Lord,

Pursuant to directions I have received from the Earl of Dartmouth, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, to transmit to your Lordships every three months, a state of His Majesty's Council of this Province, I have now the honor herewith to enclose to your Lordships an Account of the present state thereof, and I shall not fail to pay the most exact attention for the future to my orders on this head.

Mr Marmaduke Jones has formally signified to me by letter, his resignation of his seat at the Council of this Province, and it is to be presumed that Sir Nathaniel Dukenfield also relinquishes his Seat, as he has entered into His Majesty's Army since he went to England, and written to his friends here that he had no thought of returning to this Country.

Mr McGwire, His Majesty's Attorney General of this Province, whom I had the honor to recommend to your Lordships through the Earl of Dartmouth to succeed one of the first vacant Seats in the Council, has received a Mandamus, and I presume he will qualify and take his seat at the next meeting of the Board. Mr Willie Jones, another gentleman recommended to your Lordships at the same time, for a seat in Council, I understand declines the honor intended him, and he has indeed taken so extraordinary a part in the present distempered times, that I conceive he is of very unfit principles for such a Station. I would therefore beg leave to recommend to your Lordships Hugh Finlay Esqrs, one of His Majesty's Deputy Post Masters General to succeed to the vacancy of Sir Nathaniel Dukenfield, and as His Majesty's Instructions to me require that I should name three persons in every case of a vacancy in the Council, I would beg leave to join in nomination with Mr Finlay, Robert Munford and Thomas McKnight Esquires, who are Gentlemen of Fortune and good Characters in this Province.

I have the honor to be &c.
JO. MARTIN.