Note 125 — MORTON OF MERRY-MOUNT.

There is some confusion about these dates. The letter itself is dated the 1st of May, and the commission is here said on that day to have passed the great seal. The commissioners may have designated Gorges as governor-general at this time, and ordered a commission as such to be at once made out to him; but a year later the King’s intention of appointing him was formally announced. (Proc. of Amer. Antiq. Soc., 1867, p. 120.) The probability is that the business relating to the colonies was regarded as of little moment and done in the most careless and irregular way, hardly a record even of it being kept. Some proceedings were thus begun and not carried out, and other things were done twice.