BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION 7 1 



and Colonels Rich and Goffe, partners in his patent^; but 

 this statement is more than doubtful. Sir D. Kirke's wife, 

 sister, children, and grandchildren were still living in Ferry- 

 land in 1673, and his son in Renewse in 1680. 



The Commissioners appointed under the Commonwealth ivhick Com- 

 (165 1 et seq.) acted also as Governors. Convoy-captains ^^^ ^^ ^^^ 

 assisted them, or formed part of the Commission when it acted helped by 

 executively. In 1651 and 1652 the Commissions were for ^^^^^ 

 one year only, and the Commissioners were three or more in captains 

 number, the joint acts of any two of them being valid. In ^5. j ^„^ 

 1653 John Treworgie, a Devonian by origin and a New 1660. 

 Englander by domicile of choice, and then resident in New- 

 foundland, was appointed sole Commissioner, for one summer 

 only, but was ' assisted ' by the convoy-captains ; and in 1656 

 the Commissions and Instructions were issued 'to the 

 Commander-in-Chief of the convoys going thither and the 

 Governor there ',^ as though these functionaries were distinct 

 persons and the Governor were resident. Perhaps Treworgie 

 was meant, for Treworgie called himself Governor in 1660. 

 On the other hand, Treworgie's title was more probably 

 a mere survival, and a reminiscence, and he called himself 

 Governor, long after his office expired, even as Collins did 

 some sixty years later. 



The Commissions of the Commonwealth depended upon The Com- 

 the navy, which was only present during the short fishing ^^^^-^^^/^^ 

 season. In dealing with the eternal fishing question, what I Western 

 have called the ten commandments of 1634 were re-enacted i^^^i^ci the 

 with hardly a variation, but the executive provision which tax on 

 endowed the mayors of the south-west parts of England with on that part 



an illegal jurisdiction was omitted, and the crude ^x^-nxA^ of the coast 



which was 

 English. 

 * Cecil, Lord Baltimore's petition, June, 1660 {Colonial Entry Book ^ 

 vol. Ixv), assumes that Sir D. Kirke was alive in 1655, and it was 

 addressed to Charles II : so that he is inaccurate as well as interested. 



2 Instructions by the Committee of Trade to the * Commander-in- 

 Chief of the convoys— going thither and the Governor there', July i, 

 1656. State Papers, Domestic Interregnum, vol. 77, fol. 2i"3. 



