Note 752 — Chapter V

A third set was sent out (dated January 12, 1682), and to please the Scots who were willing to emigrate, further alterations were made, and a fourth set (dated August 17, 1682, and containing 126 articles) was despatched to Governor Morton. Last of all, a fifth set (dated April 11, 1698, and containing only 41 articles), was sent out by the hands of Major Daniel, and with it, as an inducement for a favorable reception, six blank patents for landgraves and eight for cassiques. When the third set was sent, the sentiments of the people with regard to the whole subject may be fairly represented as in the letter to Sothel in 1691,—that, inasmuch as their lordships, under their hands and seals, had ordered that no person should be a member of the council nor of parliament, nor choose lands due to him, unless he subscribed his submission to this last set of the Constitutions; “the people remembering their oaths to the first, and deeming these not to be agreeable to the royal charters, which direct the assent and approbation of the people to all laws and constitutions, did deny to receive the said Fundamental Constitutions.” Governor Morton, in 1685, actually turned out of parliament the majority of the representatives for refusing to sign the third set, though they had sworn to the first set. In consequence, the laws that year enacted were enacted by only seven representatives and by eight of the deputies of the Proprietors.