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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
Carolina. Lords Proprietors.
March 01, 1669
Volume 25, Pages 123-136

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THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTION OF CAROLINA
DRAWN UP BY JOHN LOCKE, 1 MARCH, 1669.

Our sovereign Lord the King having out of his royal grace and bounty granted unto us the Province of Carolina with all the royalties properties jurisdictions and privileges of a County Palatine as large and ample as the Counts Palatine of Durham with other great Privileges for the better settlement of the government of the said place and establishing the interest of the Lords Proprietors with equality and without confusion and that the government of this Province may be made most agreeable to the monarchy under which we live and of which this Province is apart; and that we may avoid erecting a numerous democracy We the Lords and proprietors of the Province aforesaid have agreed to this following form of government to be perpetually established amongst us unto which we do oblige ourselves, our heirs and successors, in the most binding ways that can be devised:

1 The eldest of the Lords Proprietors shall be Pallatine; and upon the decease of the Palatine the eldest of the seven surviving proprietors shall always succeed him

2nd There shall be seven other chief officers erected, viz., the Admirals Chamberlains, Chancellors, Constables, Chief Justices, High Stewards and Treasurers, which places shall be enjoyed by none but the Lords Proprietors, to be assigned first by lot; and upon the vacancy of any one of the seven great officers, by death or otherwise, the eldest proprietor shall have his choice of the said place

3rd The whole Province shall be divided into Counties; each county shall consist of eight signories eight baronies and four precincts each precinct shall consist of six colonies

4th Each signory, barony, and colony shall consist of twelve thousand acres the eight signories being the share of the eight proprietors and the eight baronies of the nobility, both which shares being each of them one fifth of the whole, are to be perpetually annexed, the one to the proprietors and the other to hereditary nobility, leaving the colonies being three fifths amongst the people; so that in setting out and planting the lands, the balance of the government may be preserved

5th At any time before the year one thousand seven hundred and one any of the lords proprietors shall have power to relinquish alienate and dispose to any other person his proprietorship and all the signories powers and interest thereunto belonging wholly and entirely together and not otherwise But after the one thousand seven hundred those who are then Lords Proprietors shall not have power to alienate or make over their proprietorship with the signories and privileges thereunto belonging or any part thereof to any person whatsoever otherwise than in section 18th; but it shall all descend unto their heirs male; and for want of heirs male it shall descend on that Landgrave or Cassique of Carolina who is descended of the next heirs female of the proprietor; and for want of such heirs it shall descend on the next heir general and for want of such heirs the remaining seven proprietors shall upon the vacancy choose a Landgrave to succeed the deceased proprietor who being chosen by the majority of the seven surviving proprietors he and his heirs successively shall be proprietors as fully to all intents and purposes as any of the rest

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6th. That the number of eight proprietors may be constantly kept; if upon the vacancy of any properitorship, the seven surviving proprietors shall not choose a Landgrave to be a proprietor, before the second biennial parliament after vacancy then the next Biennial Parliament but one, after such vacancy shall have power to choose any Landgrave to be a proprietor.

7th. Whosoever after the one thousand seven hundred either by inheritance or choice shall succeed any proprietor in his proprietorship and signories thereunto belonging shall be obliged to take the name and arms of that proprietor whom he succeeds which from thenceforth shall be the name and arms of his family and their posterity.

8th. Whatsoever Landgrave or Casique shall any way come to be a proprietor shall take the signories annexed to the said proprietorship; but his former dignity with the baronies annexed shall devolve into the hands of the Lords proprietors.

9th. There shall be just as many Landgraves as there are counties and twice as many Casiques and no more. There shall be the hereditary nobility of the Province and by right of their dignity be members of parliament. Each Landgrave shall have four baronies and each Casique two baronies hereditarily, and unalterably annexed to and settled upon the said dignity.

10th. The first Landgraves and Casiques of the twelve first counties to be planted shall be nominated thus that is to say of the twelve Landgraves, the Lords Proprietors shall each of them separately for himself nominate and choose one, and the remaining four Landgraves of the first twelve shall be nominated and chosen by the Palatine's Court in like manner of the twenty-four first Casiques each proprietor for himself shall nominate and choose two and the remaining eight shall be nominated and chosen by the Palatines court; and when the twelve first counties shall be planted the Lords Proprietors shall again in the same manner nominate and choose twelve more Landgraves and twenty-four more Casiques for the next twelve counties to be planted; that is to say two thirds of each number by the single nomination of each proprietor for himself and the remaining third by the joint election of the Palatine's court; and so proceed in the same manner till the whole province of Carolina be set out and planted according to the proportions in these fundamental constitution.

11th. Any Landgrave or Casique at any time before the year one thousand seven hundred and one shall have power to alienate sell or make over to another person his dignity with the baronies thereunto belonging, all entirely together; but after the one thousand, seven hundred, no Landgrave or Casique shall have power to alienate sell make over, or let the hereditary baronies of his dignity, or any part thereof, otherwise than as in section 18th; but they shall all entirely, with the dignity thereunto belonging, descend unto his heirs male; and for want of heirs male, all entirely and undivided to the next heir general; and for want of such heirs shall devolve into the hands of the Lords proprietors.

12th. That the due number of Landgraves and Casiques, may always be kept up; if upon the devolution of any Landgravesship, or Casiqueship, the palatine, court shall not settle the devolved dignity, with the baronies thereunto annexed before the second biennial parliament, after such devolution, the next biennial parliament but one after such devolution, shall have power to make any one landgrave or casique, in the room of him who dying without heirs, his dignity, and baronies devolved.

13th. No one person shall have more than one dignity, with the signories

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or baronies thereunto belonging. But whensoever it shall happen that any one who is already Proprietor, Landgrave, or Casique, shall have any of these dignities descend to him by inheritance, it shall be at his choice to keep which of the dignities, with the lands annexed, he shall like best; but shall leave the other, with the lands annexed to be enjoyed by him, who not being his heir apparent, and certain successor to his present dignity, is next of blood.

14th. Whosoever by right of inheritance shall come to be landgrave or Casique shall take the name and arms of his predecessor in that dignity to be from thenceforth the name and arms of his family and their posterity.

15th. Since the dignity of Proprietor, Landgrave or Casique, cannot be divided and the signories or baronies, thereunto annexed, must forever all entirely descend with and accompanying that dignity; whensoever for want of heirs male it shall descend on the issue female, the eldest daughter and her heirs shall be preferred and in the inheritance of those dignities and in the signories or baronies annexed there shall be no co-heirs.

16th. In every signiory, barony, and manor, the respective Lord shall have power in his own name to hold court leet there, for trying of all causes, both civil and criminal; but where it shall concern any person being no inhabitant, vassal, or leet man, of the said signiory, barony or manor, he upon paying down of forty shillings, for the Lords Proprietors use shall have an appeal from the signiory, or barony court, to the county court, and from the manor court to the precinct court.

17th. Every manor shall consist of not less than three thousand acres, and not above twelve thousand acres, in one intire piece and colony; but any three thousand acres or more in one piece, and in the possession of one man, shall not be a manor, unless it be constituted a manor by the grant of the palatine's court.

18th. The lords of signiories and baronies, shall have power only of granting estates not exceeding three lives, or twenty-one years, in two thirds of the said signories, or baronies, and the remaining third shall be always demesne.

19th. Any Lord of a manor may alienate, sell, or dispose to any other person and his heirs forever, his manor all intirely together, with all the privileges and leet men, thereunto belonging, so far forth as any colony lands, but no grant of any part thereof either in fee or for any longer term than three lives, or one and twenty years shall be good against the next heir.

20th. No manor, for want of issue male, shall be divided amongst coheirs; but the manor if there be but one shall all intirely descend to the eldest daughter and her heirs. If there be more manors than one, the eldest daughter first shall have her choice, the second next and so on, beginning again at the eldest until all the manors be taken up; that so the privileges which belong to manors being indivisible, the lands of the manors to which they are annexed, may be kept intire, and the manor not lose those privileges, which upon parcelling out to several owners must necessarily cease.

21st. Every Lord of a manor, within his own manor, shall have all the powers jurisdictions and privileges which a Landgrave or Casique hath in his baronies.

22nd. In every signiory barony and manor, all the leet men shall be under the jurisdiction of the respective Lords of the said signiory, barony or manor without appeal from him. Nor shall any leet man, or leet woman have liberty to go off from the land of their particular Lord and live any

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where else without license obtained from their said Lord, under hand and seal.

23rd. All the children of leet men shall be leet men, and so to all generations.

24th. No man shall be capable of having a court leet, or leet men, but a Proprietor, Landgrave, Casique, or Lord of a Manor.

25th. Whoever shall voluntarily enter himself a leet man, in the registry of the county court, shall be a leet man.

26th. Whoever is Lord of leet men, shall upon the marriage of a leet man, or leet woman of his, give them ten acres of land for their lives, they paying to him therefore not more than one eighth part of all the yearly produce and growth of the said ten acres.

27th. No Landgrave or Casique shall be tried for any criminal cause, in any but the Chief Justice's court, and that by a jury of his peers.

28th. There shall be eight supreme Courts. The first called the palatine's court, consisting of the Palatine and the other seven Proprietors. The other seven courts of the other seven great officers, shall consist each of them of a proprietor and six counsellors added to him under each of these latter seven courts, shall be a college of twelve assistants. The twelve assistants of the several colleges shall be chosen, two out of the Landgraves, Casiques or eldest sons of the Proprietors, by the palatine's court, two out of the Landgraves, by the Landgraves chamber, two out of the Casiques by the Casiques chamber, four more of the twelve shall be chosen by the Commons chamber, out of such as have been or are members of parliament, sheriffs, or justices of the county court, or the younger sons of Proprietors, or the eldest sons of Proprietors, or the eldest sons of Landgraves or Casiques; the two others shall be chosen by the Palatine's court, out of the same sort of persons out of which the common's chamber is to choose.

29th. Out of these colleges, shall be chosen at first by the palatine's court six counsellors to be joined with each Proprietor in his court, of which six one shall be of those, who were chosen into any of the colleges by the palatine's court, out of the Landgraves, Casiques or eldest sons of Proprietors, one out of those who were chosen by the Landgraves chamber; one out of those who were chosen by the Casiques Chamber; two out of those who were chosen by the common's chamber; and one out of those who were chosen by the Palatine's court, out of the Proprietor's younger sons, or eldest sons of Landgraves, Casiques, or Commons, qualified as aforesaid.

30th. When it shall happen that any counsellor dies, and thereby there is a vacancy; the grand council shall have power to remove any counsellor that is willing to be removed out of any of the proprietor's courts, to fill up the vacancy, provided they take a man of the same degree and choice the other was of, whose place is to be filled up. But if no counsellor consent to be removed, or upon such remove the last remaining vacant place in any of the Proprietors courts shall be filled up by the choice of the grand council, who shall have power to remove out of any of the colleges any assisttant who is of the same degree and choice that counsellor was of into whose vacant place he is to succeed. The grand counsil also, have power to remove any assistant, that is willing, out of one college into another, provided he be of the same degree and choice. But the last remaining vacant place in any college, shall be filled up by the same choice, and out of the same degree of persons the assistant was of, who is dead or removed. No place shall be vacant in any proprietor's court above six months. No place shall be vacant in any college longer than the next session of parliament.

31st. No man being a member of the grand council or of any of the

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seven colleges, shall be turned out, but for misdemeanor, of which the grand council shall be judge, and the vacancy of the person so put out shall be filled, not by the election of the grand council but by those who first chose him and out of the same degree he was of, who is expelled. But it is not hereby to be understood that the grand council hath any power to turn out any one of the Lords Proprietors, or their deputies; the Lords Proprietors having in themselves an inherent original right.

32nd. All elections in the parliament in the several chambers of the parliament, and in the grand council, shall be passed by ballotting.

33rd. The Palatines court shall consist of the palatine and seven proprietors, wherein nothing shall be acted without the presence and consent of the Palatine or his deputy and three other of the Proprietors or their deputies. This court shall have power to call Parliaments to pardon all offences to make elections of all officers in the Proprietors dispose and to nominate and appoint port townes; and also shall have power by their order to the treasurer, to dispose of all public treasure, excepting money granted by the parliament, and by them directed to some particular public use; and shall also have a negative upon all acts, orders, votes, and judgments of the grand council and the parliament, except only as in Sec. 6th and 12th and shall have all the powers granted to the Lords Proprietors, by their patent from our sovereign lord the King, except in such things as are limited by these fundamental constitutions.

34th. The Palatine himself, when he in person shall be either in the army or any of the Proprietor's courts shall then have the power of general or of that proprietor in whose court he is then present, and the Proprietor in whose court the Palatine then presides, during his presence there, be but as one of the council.

35th. The chancellor's court consisting of one of the Proprietors, and his six counsellors, who shall be called vice chancellors, shall have the custody of the seal of the Palatine, under which charters of lands or otherwise, commissions and grants of the Palatine's court, shall pass. And it shall not be lawful to put the seal of the Palatinate to any writing, which is not signed by the Palatine or his deputy, and three other Proprietors or their deputies. To this court also belong all State matters, despatches and treaties with the neighbor Indians. To this court also belong all invasions of the law, of liberty, of conscience, and all invasions of the public peace, upon pretence of religion, as also the license of printing. The twelve assistants belonging to this court, shall be called recorders.

36th. Whatever passes under the seal of the Palatinate, shall be registered in that proprietor's court to which the matter therein contained, belongs.

37th. The Chancellor or his deputy, shall be always speaker in Parliament, and president of the grand council, and in his and his deputy's absence, one of the vice chancellors.

38th. The Chief Justice's court consisting of one of the proprietors and six counsellors, who shall be called justices of the bench, shall judge all appeals in cases both civil and criminal, except all such cases as shall be under the jurisdiction and cognizance of any other of the Proprietor's courts, which shall be tried in those courts respectively. The government and regulation of those registries of writings and contracts, shall belong to the jurisdiction of this court. The twelve assistants of this court shall be called masters.

39th. The Constable's Court, consisting of one of the Proprietors and his six counsellors, who shall be called Marshalls shall order and determine of

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all military affairs by land, and all land forces, arms, ammunition, artillery, garrisons and forts, &c., and whatever belongs unto war. His twelve assistants shall be called Lieutenant Generals.

40th. In time of actual war the Constable while he is in the army, shall be general of the army; and the six Counsellors, or such of them as the Palatin Court shall for that for service appoint, shall be the immediate great officers under him, and the Lieutenant Generals next to them.

41st. The Admiral's Court, consisting of one of the Proprietors, and his six Counsellors, called Consuls, shall have the care and inspection over all ports, moles, and navigable rivers so far as the tide flows, and also all the public shipping of Carolina, and stores thereunto belonging, and all maritime affairs. This court also shall have the power of the court of admiralty; and shall have power to constitute Judges in port towns, to try cases belonging to law-merchant, as shall be most convenient for trade. The twelve assistants belonging to this court shall be called proconsuls.

42nd. In time of actual war, the admiral while he is at sea, shall command in chief, and his six counsellors, or such of them as the Palatine's Court shall for that time or service appoint, shall be the immediate great officers under him, and the proconsuls next to them.

43rd. The Treasurer's Court, consisting of a Proprietor and his six counsellors, called under treasurers, shall take care of all matters that concern the public revenue and treasury. The twelve assistants shall be called Auditors.

44th. The High Steward's Court, consisting of a proprietor and his six counsellors, called comptrollers, shall have the care of all foreign and domestic trade, manufactures, public buildings, work houses, highways, passages, by water above the flood of the tide, drains, sewers and banks against inundations, bridges, posts, carriers, fairs, markets, corruption or infection of the common air or water, and all things in order to the public commerce and health; also setting out and surveying lands; and also setting out and appointing places for townes to be built on, in the precincts, and the prescribing and determining the figure and bigness of the said townes according to such models as the said courts shall order; contrary or differing from which models, it shall not be lawful for any one to build in any town. This court shall have power also to make any public building, or any new highway, or enlarge any old highway upon any man's land whatsoever; as also to make cuts channels, banks, locks and bridges for making rivers navigable, or for draining fens, or any other public use. The damage the owner of such lands (on or through which any such public things shall be made) shall receive thereby, shall be valued, and satisfaction made, by such ways as the grand council shall appoint. The twelve assistants belonging to this court shall be called surveyors.

45th. The Chamberlain's Court, consisting of a Proprietor and six Counsellors called vice chamberlains, shall have the care of all ceremonies, precedency, heraldry, reception of public messengers, pedigrees, the registry of all births, burials and marriages, legitimation, and all cases concerning matrimony or arising from it, and shall also have power to regulate all fashions, habits, badges, games, and sports. To this Court it shall also belong, to convocate the grand council. The twelve assistants belonging to this Court, shall be called Provosts.

46th. All causes belonging to, or under the jurisdiction of any of the Proprietor's Courts, shall in them respectively be tried, and ultimately determined, without any further appeal.

47th. The Proprietor's Courts shall have a power to mitigate all fines,

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and suspend all execution in criminal causes, either before or after sentence, in any of the other inferior courts respectively.

48th. In all debates, hearings or trials in any of the Proprietor's Courts, the twelve assistants belonging to the said Courts respectively, shall have liberty to be present, but shall not inter-pose unless their opinion be required, nor have any vote at all; but their business shall be, by the direction of the respective courts, to prepare such business as shall be committed to them; as also to bear such offices, and dispatch such affairs, either where the court is kept, or elsewhere, as the court shall think fit.

49th. In all the Proprietor's Courts, the Proprietor and any three of his Counsellors shall make a quorum; provided always, that for the better dispatch of business, it shall be in the power of the Palatine's Court to direct what sort of causes shall be heard and determined by a quorum of any three.

50th. The grand council shall consist of the Palatine and seven Proprietors and the forty-two Counsellors of the several Proprietor's Courts, who shall have power to determine any controversy that may arise between any of the Proprietor's Courts, about their respective jurisdictions, or between the members of the same court, about their manner and method of procedings; to make peace and war, leagues, treaties, &c. with any of the neighbor Indians; to issue out their general orders to the Constable's and Admiral's Courts, for the raising, disposing, or disbanding the forces, by land or by sea.

51st. The grand council shall prepare all matters to be proposed in Parliament. Nor shall any matter whatsoever, be proposed in Parliament but what has first passed the grand council; which after having been read, three several days in the Parliament, shall by majority of votes, be passed or rejected.

52nd. The grand council shall always be judges of all causes and appeals that concern the Palatine, or any of the Lords Proprietors, or any Counsellor of any Proprietor's Court, in any cause which should otherwise have been tried in the court of which the said Counsellor is Judge himself.

53rd. The grand council by their warrants to the Treasurer's Court shall dispose of all the money given by the Parliament, and by them directed to any particular public use.

54th. The quorum of the grand council shall be thirteen, whereof a Proprietor or his deputy shall be always one.

55th. The grand council shall meet the first Tuesday in every month, and as much oftener as either they shall think fit, or they shall be convocated by the Chamberlain's Court.

56th. The Palatine, or any of the Lords Proprietors shall have power under hand and seal, to be registered in the grand council to make a deputy, who shall have the same power to all intents and purposes, as he himself, who deputes him, except in confirming acts of Parliament as in Sec. 76th, and except also in nominating and choosing Landgraves and Casiques, as in Sec. 10th. All such deputations, shall cease and determine at the end of four years, and at any time be revocable, at the pleasure of the deputator.

57th. No deputy of any Proprietor shall have any power, whilst the deputator is in any part of Carolina, except the Proprietor, whose deputy he is be a minor.

58th. During the minority of any Proprietor, his guardian shall have power to constitute and appoint his deputy.

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59th. The eldest of the Lords Proprietors who shall be personally in Carolina, shall of course be the Palatine's deputy, and if no proprietor be in Carolina, he shall choose his deputy out of the heirs apparent of any of the Proprietors if any such be there; and if there be no heir apparent of any of the Lords Proprietors, above one and twenty years old in Carolina, then he shall choose for deputy, any one of the Landgraves of the grand council till he have by deputation under hand and seal chosen any one of the aforementioned heirs apparent, or Landgraves to be his Deputy, the eldest man of the Landgraves, and for want of a Landgrave, the eldest man of the Casiques, who shall be personally in Carolina, shall of course be his deputy.

60th. Each Proprietor's deputy shall always be one of his six Counsellors respectively; and in case any of the Proprietors hath not in his absence out of Carolina a deputy commissioned under his hand and seal, the eldest nobleman of his court, shall of course be his deputy.

61st. In every county, there shall be a court consisting of a sheriff, and four Justices of the county, for every precinct, one. The Sheriff shall be an inhabitant of the county, and have at least five hundred acres freehold within the said county; and the justices shall be inhabitants, and have each of them five hundred acres apiece freehold within the precinct for which they serve respectively. These five shall be chosen from time to time and commissioned by the Palatine's court.

62nd. For any personal causes exceeding the value of two hundred pounds sterling, or in title of land, or in any criminal cause, either party upon paying twenty pounds sterling to the Lords Proprietor's use, shall have liberty of appeal from the county court, unto the respective Proprietor's Court.

63rd. In every precinct there shall be a court consisting of a Steward and four Justices of the precinct, being inhabitants and having three hundred acres of freehold within the said precinct, who shall judge all criminal crimes; except for treason, murder, and any other offences punishable with death, and except all criminal causes of the nobility; and shall judge also all civil causes whatsoever; and in all personal actions not exceeding fifty pounds sterling without appeal; but where the cause shall exceed that value, or concern a title of land, and in all criminal causes; there either party upon paying five pounds sterling, to the Lords Proprietor's use, shall have liberty of appeal to the county court.

64th. No cause shall be twice tried in any one court, upon any reason or pretence whatsoever.

65th. For treason, murder, and all other offences punishable with death, there shall be a commission twice a year at least, granted unto one or more member of the grand council, or colleges, who shall come as itinerant Judges to the several counties, and with the Sheriff and four Justices, shall hold assizes to judge all such causes; but upon paying of fifty pounds sterling, to the Lords Proprietors use, there shall be liberty of appeal to the Respective Proprietors court.

66th. The Grand Jury at the several assizes, shall upon their oaths and under their hands and seals, deliver into their itinerant Judges, a presentment of such grievances, misdemeanors, exigencies, or defects, which they think necessary for the public good of the country; which presentments shall by the itinerant Judges, at the end of their circuit, be delivered in to the grand council, at their next sitting. And whatsoever therein concerns the execution of laws already made, the several Proprietor's courts, in the matters belonging to each of them respectively, shall take cognizance of

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it, and give such order about it, as shall be effectual for the due execution of the laws. But whatever concerns the making of any new law, shall be referred to the respective courts, to which that matter belongs, and be by them prepared and brought to the grand council.

67th. For terms, there shall be quarterly such a certain number of days, not exceeding one and twenty at any one time, as the several respective courts shall appoint. The time for the beginning of the term in the Precinct Court shall be the first Monday in Jan. April, July, and October, in the County Court, the first Monday in February, May, August, and November; and in the Proprietor's Court, the first Monday in March, June, September, and December.

68th. In the Precinct Court, no man shall be a Juryman, under Fifty Acres of Freehold. In the County Court, or at the assizes, no man shall be a grand juryman, under three hundred acres of freehold; and no man shall be a petty juryman, under two hundred acres of freehold. In the Proprietor's courts, no man shall be a juryman, under five hundred acres of freehold.

69th. Every jury shall consist of twelve men; and it shall not be necessary they should all agree, but the verdict shall be according to the consent of the majority.

70th. It shall be a base and vile thing, to plead for money or reward; nor shall any one (except he be a near kinsman, nor farther off than cousin german to the party concerned) be permitted to plead another man's cause till before the judge in open court, he hath taken an oath that he doth not plead for money or reward, nor hath, nor will receive, nor directly, nor indirectly, bargained with the party whose cause he is going to plead, for money, or any other reward for pleading his cause.

71st. There shall be a Parliament consisting of the Proprietors, or their deputies, the Landgraves and Casiques, and one freeholder out of every precinct, to be chosen by the freeholders of the said precinct respectively. They shall sit altogether in one room, and have, every member, one vote.

72nd. No man shall be chosen a member of Parliament, who has less than five hundred acres of freehold within the precinct for which he is chosen, nor shall any have a vote in choosing the said member, that hath less than fifty acres of freehold within the said precinct.

73rd. A new Parliament shall be assembled the first Monday of the month of November, every second year, and shall meet and sit in the town they last sat in, without any summons, unless by the Palatine's court they be summoned to meet at any other place. And if there shall be any occasion of a Parliament in these intervals, it shall be in the power of the Palatin Court, to assemble them in forty days notice, and at such time and place as the said court shall think fit; and the Palatine's court shall have power to dissolve the said Parliament when they shall think fit.

74th. At the opening of every Parliament, the first thing that shall be done shall be the reading of these fundamnetal Constitutions, which the Palatine and Proprietors, and the rest of the members then present, shall subscribe. Nor shall any person whatsoever, sit or vote in the Parliament, till he hath that session subscribed these Fundamental Constitutions, in a book kept for that purpose, by the clerk of the Parliament.

75th. In order to the due election of members, for the biennial Parliament, it shall be lawful for the freeholders of the respective precincts to meet the first Tuesday in September, every two yars, in the same town or place that they last met in, to choose parliament men, and there choose those members that are to sit the next November following; unless the steward

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of the precinct shall by sufficient notice, thirty days before, appoint some other place for the meeting in order to the election.

76th. No act or order of Parliament shall be of any force unless it be ratified in open parliament during the same session, by the Palatine or his deputy, and three more of the Lords Propjrietors or their deputies; and then not to continue longer in force, but until the next biennial Parliament, unless in the meantime it be ratified under the hands and seals of the Palatine himself, and three more of the Lords Proprietors, themselves and by their order published at the next biennial Parliament.

77th. Any Proprietor or his deputy may enter his protestations against any act of the Parliament, before the Palatine or his deputy's consent be given as aforesaid; if he shall conceive the said act to be contrary to this establishment, or any of these Fundamental Constitutions of the Government. And in such case, after full and free debate, the several estates shall retire into four several chambers, the Palatine and Proprietors into one; the Landgraves into another; the Casiques into another; and those chosen by the Precincts into a fourth; and if the major part of any of the four estates shall vote that the law is not agreeable to this establishment and these Fundamental Constitutions of the Government, then it shall pass no farher, but be as if it had never been proposed.

78th. The quorum of the Parliament shall be one half of those who are members, and capable of sitting in the house, that present session of Parliament. The quorum of each of the Chambers of Parliament, shall be one half of the members of that chamber.

79th. To avoid multiplicity of laws, which by degrees always change the right foundations of the original government, all acts of Parliament whatsoever, in whatsoever form passed or enacted, shall at the end of a hundred years after their enacting, respectively cease, and determine of themselves, and without any repeal, become null and void, as if no such acts or laws had ever been made.

80th. Since multiplicity of comments, as well as of laws, have great inconveniences, and serve only to obscure and perplex; all manner of comments and expositions, or any part of these Fundamental Constitutions, or on any part of the common or statute laws of Carolina are absolutely prohibited.

81st. There shall be a registry in every precinct, wherein shall be enrolled all deeds, leases, judgments, mortgages, and other conveyances, which may concern any of the lands within the said precinct; and all such conveyances, not so entered and registered, shall not be of force against any person or party to the said contract or conveyance.

82nd. No man shall be Register of any precinct, who hath not at least three hundred acres of freehold within the said precinct.

83rd. The freeholders of every precinct shall nominate three men, out of which three, the Chief Justice's Court shall choose and commission one to be Register of the said precinct, while he shall well behave himself.

84th. There shall be a Registry in every signiory, Barony and Colony, wherein shall be recorded all the births, marriages and deaths that shall happen within the respective Signiories, Baronies, and Colonies.

85th. No man shall be Register of a Colony that hath not above fifty acres of freehold within the said colony.

86th. The time of every one's age, that is born in Carolina, shall be reckoned from the day that his birth is entered in the registry, and not before.

87th. No marriage shall be lawful, whatever contract and ceremony

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they have used till both the parties mutually own it, before the Register of the place where they were married, and he register it, with the names of the father and mother of each party.

88th. No man shall administer to the goods, or have a right to them, or enter upon the estate of any person deceased, till his death be registered in the respective registry.

89th. He that does not enter in the respective registry, the birth or death of any person that is born or dies, in his house or ground, shall pay to the said register one shilling per week for each such neglect, reckoning from the time of each birth, or death respectively, to the time of entering it in the register.

90th. In like manner, the births, marriages, and deaths of the Lords Proprietors, Landgraves, and Casiques, shall be registered in the Chamberlain's Court.

91st. There shall be in every colony, one Constable, to be chosen annually by the freeholders of the colony. His estate shall be above a hundred acres of freehold within the said colony, and such subordinate officers appointed for his assistance, as the county court shall find requisite, and shall be established by the said county court. The election of the subordinate annual officers, shall also be in the freeholders of the colony.

92nd. All towns incorporate, shall be governed by a Mayor, twelve aldermen and twenty-four of the common Council. The said common council shall be chosen by the present householders of the said town; the Aldermen shall be chosen out of the common council, and the mayor out of the aldermen, by the palatine's court.

93rd. It being of great consequence to the Plantation that port towns should be built and preserved, therefore whoever shall lade or unlade any commoditie at any other place but a port town, shall forfeit to the Lords Proprietors, for each tun, so laden or unladen, the sum of ten pounds sterling; except only such goods as the palatine's court shall license to be laden or unladen elsewhere.

94th. The first port town upon every river, shall be in a colony, and be a port town forever.

95th. No man shall be permitted to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any estate or habitation within it, that doth not acknowledge a God, and that God is publicly and solemnly to be worshipped.

96th. (As the country comes to be sufficiently planted, and distributed in fit divisions, it shall belong to the Parliament to take care for the building of churches and the public maintenance of divines, to be employed in the exercise of religion, according to the Church of England; which being the only true and orthodox, and the national religion of all the king's dominions, is so also of Carolina, and therefore it alone shall be allowed to receive public maintenance by grant of parliament.)

97th. But since the natives of that place, who will be concerned in our plantation, are utterly strangers to Christianity, whose idolatry ignorance or mistake, gives us no right to expell or treat them ill, and those who remove from other parts to plant there will unavoidably be of different opinions, concerning matters of religion, the liberty whereof they will expect to have allowed them, and it will not be reasonable for us on this account to keep them out; that civil peace may be obtained amidst diversity of opinions, and our agreement and compact with all men, may be duly and faithfully observed, the violation whereof, upon what pretence soever, cannot be without offence to Almighty God, and great scandal to the true religion

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which we profess; and also that Jews, Heathens and other dissenters from the purity of the Christian religion, may not be scared and kept at a distance from it, but by having an opportunity of acquainting themselves with the truth and reasonableness of its doctrines, and the peaceableness and inoffensiveness of its professors, may by good usage and persuasion, and all those convincing methods of gentleness and meekness, suitable to the rules and deign of the gospel, be won over to embrace and unfeignedly receive the truth; therefore any seven or more persons agreeing in any religion, shall constitute a church or profession, to which they shall give some name, to distinguish it from others.

98th. The terms of admittance and communion with any church or profession shall be written in a book, and therein be subscribed by all the members of the said church or profession; which book shall be kept by the public Register of the Precinct wherein they reside.

99th. The time of every one, subscription admittance, shall be dated in the said book or religious record.

100th. In the terms of communion of every church or profession, these following shall be three, with out which no agreement or assembly of men upon pretence of religion, shall be accounted a church or profession within these rules.

1st. “That there is a God.”

2nd. “That God is publickly to be worshipped.”

3rd. “That it is lawful and the duty of every man being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear witness to truth; and that every church or profession shall in their terms of commuion, set down the eternal way where by they witness a truth as in the presence of God whether it be by laying hands on or kissing the Bible, as in the Church of England, or by holding up the hand, or any other sensible way.”

101st. No person above seventeen years of age, shall have any benefit or protection of the law, or be capable of any place of profit or honor who is not a member of some church or profession, having his name recorded in some one, and but one religious record at once.

102nd. No other person of any other church or profession shall disturb or molest any religious assembly.

103rd. No person whatsoever, shall speak anything in their religious assembly irreverently or seditiously of the government or governors, or of state matters.

104th. Any person subscribing the terms of commuion, in the record of the said church or profession, before the precinct register and any five members of the said church or profession, shall be thereby made a member of the said church or profession.

105th. Any person striking his own name out of any religious record, or his name being struck out by any officer thereunto authorized by such church or profession respectively, shall cease to be a member of that church or profession.

106th. No man shall use any reproachful reviling, or abusive language against any religion of any church or profession; that being the certain way of disturbing the peace, and of hindering the conversion of any to the truth, by engaging them in quarrels and animosities, to the hatred of the professors and that profession which otherwise they might be brought to assent.

107th. Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves as well as others, to enter themselves and be of what

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church or profession any of them shall think best, and thereof be as fully members as any freemen. But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all things in the same state and condition he was in before.

108th. Assemblies upon what pretence soever of religion, not observing and performing the above said rules, shall not be esteemed as churches, but unlawful meetings, and be punished as riots.

109th. No person whatsoever shall disturb, molest, or persecute another, for his speculative opinions in religion, or his way of worship.

110th. Every freeman of Carolina, shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever.

111th. No cause whether civil or criminal, of any freemen, shall be tried in any court of judicature, without a jury of his peers.

112th. No person whatever, shall hold or claim any land in Carolina, by purchase or gift or otherwise, from the natives or any other whatsoever; but merely from and under the Lords Proprietors, upon pain of forfeiture of all his estate, moveable or immoveable, and perpetual banishment.

113th. Whosoever shall possess any freehold in Carolina, upon what title or grant soever, shall at the farthest, from and after the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, pay yearly unto the Lords Proprietors, for each acre of land, English measure, as much fine silver as is at this present time in one English penny, or the value thereof, to be as a chief rent and acknowledgement to the Lords Proprietors, their heirs, and successors forever. And it shall be lawful for the palatine's court, by their officers at any time, to take a new survey of any man's land, not to oust him of any part of his possession, but that by such a survey, the just number of acres he possesseth may be known, and the rent thereon due may be paid by him.

114th. All wrecks, mines, minerals, quarries of gems and precious stones, with pearl fishing, whale fishing, and one half of all ambergris, by whomsoever found, shall wholly belong to the Lords Proprietors.

115th. All revenues and profits belonging to the Lords Proprietors, in common shall be divided into ten parts, whereof the palatine shall have three, and each proprietor one; but if the palatine shall govern by a deputy, the deputy shall have one of these three tenths, and the palatine the other two tenths.

116th. All inhabitants and freemen of Carolina, above seventeen years of age and under sixty, shall be bound to bear arms, and serve as soldiers whenever the grand council shall find it necessary.

117th. A true copy of these Fundamental constitutions shall be kept in a great book, by the register of every precinct, to be subscribed before the said register. Nor shall any person of what degree or condition soever, above seventeen years old, have any estate or possession in Carolina or protection or benefit of the law there, who hath not before a precinct register, subscribed these fundamental constitutions in this form:

“I, A. B. do promise to bear faith, and true allegiance, to our sovereign Lord King Charles the second, his heirs and successors; and with my utmost power, will defend them and maintain the government, according to this establishment in these fundamental constitutions.

118th. Whatsoever alien shall in this form, before any precinct register, subscribe these fundamental constitutions, shall be thereby naturalized.

119th. In the same manner shall every person, at his admittance into any office, subscribe these fundamental constitutions.

120th. These fundamental constitutions, in number a hundred and twenty, and every part thereof, shall be and remain, the sacred and unalterable

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form and rule of government of Carolina forever. Witness our hands and seals the first day of March, 1669.

RULES OF PRECEDENCY.

1st. The Lords Proprietors; the eldest in age first, and so in order.

2nd. The eldest sons of the Lords Proprietors; the eldest in age first and so in order.

3rd. The Landgraves of the grand council, he that hath been longest of the grand council, and so in order.

4th. The Casiques of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

5th. The seven Commoners of the grand council, that have been longest of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

6th. The younger sons of the Proprietors; the eldest first, and so in order.

7th. The Landgraves; the eldest in age first, and so in order.

8th. The seven Commoners, who next to those before mentioned have been longest of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

9th. The Casiques; the eldest in age first, and so in order.

10th. The seven remaining Commoners of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

11th. The male line of the Proprietors.

The rest shall be determined by the Chamberlain's Court.