Note note 2 — PREFACE
Reading edition
[2] For "Ignoramus" (we ignore), the word by which a grand jury indicated its refusal to prosecute an indictment. We here find the Superior Court, the highest common-law court of Massachusetts under the second charter, taking cognizance of a case of piracy. Governor Phips had a commission as vice-admiral (text in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, II. 206-215, 372-380), but no judge of admiralty had yet been appointed, nor any special commission to try pirates.