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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Memorandum from the Board of Trade of Great Britain to George III, King of Great Britain concerning the office of Baron of the Exchequer in North Carolina
Great Britain. Board of Trade
February 04, 1768
Volume 07, Pages 684-685

[B. P. R. O. America & W. Indias. Vol. 215.]
To the King's most Excellent Majesty

May it please your Majesty,

In obedience to your Majesty's commands, signified to us by the Earl of Shelburne, one of your Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, in his Letter dated November 14th, We have taken into Our Consideration the Question therein referred, relative to the expediency of keeping up the Office and Establishment of Baron of the Exchequer in your Majesty's Province of North Carolina, and beg leave thereupon humbly to Represent to Your Majesty—

That, altho' it does appear from the Report made by Mr Tryon, your Majesty's Governor of North Carolina, that no Business has as yet been transacted in the Court of Exchequer, notwithstanding the same has been frequently opened; and altho' from the Circumstances of the Colony we think it highly probable that there is no necessity for such Court, (which it seems is the Opinion of the Chief Justice there,) yet as Occurrences may arise, and circumstances may in process of time be so altered as to render such an institution expedient, We

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humbly recommend to your Majesty the keeping up the Office of Baron of the Exchequer on the usual Salary of £40 Sterling per Annum, deducting according to the suggestion of the Governor the yearly allowance of £30 for the charge of opening the said Court, until such time as the Crown shall think it necessary to establish the same, and this Power of the Crown can never, as we conceive, be brought into question from the want of Recognition in the Province (as seems apprehended by the Governor) but may at any time be carried into execution, and a Court of Exchequer established in the Province of North Carolina, by virtue of the Royal Prerogative, whenever the same shall be judged needfull, In Confirmation of which Right we find, that it was the express opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor General in the year 1738, upon a similar Query in the case of South Carolina, “that the Crown has by the Prerogative power to erect a Court of Exchequer; and that this may be done by Letters Patent under the Seal of the Province, by virtue of His Majesty's Commission to the Governor for that purpose.”

All which is most humbly submitted
CLARE,
SOAME JENYNS
THOMAS ROBINSON,
Wm. FITZHERBERT.

Whitehall
Febry 4 1768