CHAPTER II. 



The Preservation of the Woods. 



One of the most important results of the commission sent to 

 New England on behalf of the project for stimulating the im- 

 portation of colonial stores^ was the creation of the office of 

 Surveyor General of the Woods in America. It is not quite 

 accurate, perhaps, to say that the office was created at that time, 

 for there had been a surveyor of the woods in New England for 

 half a century. Edward Randolph, of sinister reputation in New 

 England as the enemy of charter-government, on being made 

 Surveyor General of Customs in America in 1691,- had peti- 

 tioned for the office of Surveyor of the Woods in addition, say- 

 ing, as proof of his experience, that he had been made surveyor 

 of woods and timber in Maine in the year 1656, where he had 

 marked and registered many large trees; and he "did provide 

 and deliver to his Majesty's stores forty masts and bowsprits 

 of largest dimensions, and in great measure restrained the in- 

 habitants from waste." Apparently his request was granted, but 

 neither he nor Jahleel Brenton, who subsequently combined 

 these two offices, accomplished much for the preservation 

 of the timber. Governor Bellomont complained to the Lords 

 of Trade of Brenton's neglect,^ and recommended that the of- 

 fice of surveyor be combined with the collectorship of customs 

 for New Hampshire, at a salary of £50. This was the amount 

 paid to Randolph and Brenton, who, wrote Bellomont, "never 

 did a sixpence of work." Brenton had remained in England 

 and employed one Ichabod Plaisted as deputy surveyor, who 

 being interested in some saw-mills, was of as little use as hig 



^See Part I, Ch. I, pp. 9-74. 



'Petition of Edw. Randolph, B. T. Plants. Gen., A: 15. 



'Bellomont to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., F: 17. 



