Item

An Old Parchment

Beacon
Feb 18/1892
An Old Parchment
When St. Andrews was in the County of Sunbury, Province of Nova Scotia
The following is a copy of the oldest public document in the possession of the County Clerk of Charlotte:
            By His Excellency John Parr, Captain General and Governor in chief in and over His Majesty’s Province of Nova Scotia and its dependencies, Vice-Admiral of the same, etc, etc.,
            To John Curry, Philip Bailey, Robert Pagan and William Gallop, Esquires,
            By virtue of the power and authority to me entrusted b y His Majesty’s Commission and Royal Instructions, reposing special trust and confidence in your Loyalty, Fidelity and good conduct, I do by these presents during pleasure nominated, constitute and appoint you, and every of you the said John Curry, Philip Bailey, Robert Pagan, and William Gallop, Esquires, to be Justices of the Peace for the District of Passamaquoddy in the County of Sunbury in the province aforesaid. Whereof you the said . . . are herby empowered to hold sessions as the law directs, and you are invested with all the powers and authorities specified and contained in a Commission of the Peace for the said county bearing date the seventh day of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. [1783]
            In witness whereof I have signed these Presents and caused the seal of the provinces to be hereto affixed at Halifax, this eighteenth day of February in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord George the third by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King Defender of the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.
            By His Excellency’s Commands,
            J. F. Bulkeley
            Deputy Secretary
It is just about 118 years ago today since Captain General Parr dipped his quill into his ink bottle, and appended his name to this parchment.