A HALF-CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 1713-63 II5 



jurisdiction had been summoned at St. John's in 1701 and 

 on one or two other occasions, and a permanent Vice- 

 Admiralty Court had been promised to Cummings in 1708; but 

 the combination of Custom House and Vice- Admiralty Court 

 was not realized until after the Treaty of Paris. Among the 

 earliest judges of the Vice- Admiralty Court the names of 

 W. Keen and M. Gill are conspicuous, and the Commis-l 

 sioners who officiated as co-judges in the Criminal Court were 

 usually the six or seven best magistrates in the colony, like 

 William Keen, Michael Gill, and Nathaniel Brooks, 



In 1 754 nine persons were tried for the murder of W. Keen, 

 who had succeeded Collins some thirty years previously as 

 the natural leader of the colony. The murder was the act of 

 ten conspirators and was committed for purposes of burglary, 

 but probably the ringleader was also actuated by revenge 

 for sentences inflicted by the murdered magistrate for petty 

 crimes. One of the murderers turned king's evidence, and 

 all who were tried were found guilty. Four of the condemned 

 persons were soldiers in St. John's garrison. Four were 

 executed, and five were ordered to be detained during the 

 King's pleasure, but were subsequently respited and allowed 

 to leave the colony. About the same time transportation 

 elsewhere than to the United Kingdom was inflicted on other 

 criminals. Thus, at the close of the half-century which we 

 are reviewing, five institutions more or less represented the 

 State — summer Governors, nominally annual but virtually 

 more or less triennial ; Justices of the Peace for the whole 

 year, nominally annual but virtually permanent; special 

 Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, who usually held 

 sittings once a year; and a more or less permanent Vice- 

 Admiralty Court and Custom House. 



Between 17 13 and 1763 equally important industrial ^^ ^/. 

 changes occurred. St. John's was transformed from a fishing- -^^^HtalTtfc 

 village into the semblance of a commercial town. In the merchants^ 

 background were big capitalists who were as yet too few to 



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