162 HISTORY OF THE [book. im 
Innocent and injured man would undoubtedly have 
followed, if the evidence in his favour had not pro¬ 
ved too powerful to be overborne; so that the jury 
were compelled to pronounce his acquittal. 
Another of his exploits, was an attempt; to rob 
the Codrihgton family of the island of Barbuda, (of 
which they had held peaceable possession for thirty 
years), by calling on them to prove their title before 
himself and his council; a measure which gave 
every proprietor reason to apprehend, that he had 
no security for his possessions but the governor’s 
forbearance,- 
He declared, that he would suffer no provost- 
marshal to act, who should not at all times summon 
such juries as he should direct. He changed the 
mode of electing members to serve in the assembly, 
in order to exclude persons he did not like; and 
not being able by this measure to procure an assem¬ 
bly to his wish, he refused to call them together 
even when the French threatened an invasion. 
He entered the house of Mr. Chester, the per¬ 
son before mentioned, with an armed force, and 
seized several gentlemen (some of them the princi¬ 
pal men of the island) who were there met for the 
purpose of good fellowship, on suspicion that they 
were concerting measures against himself; most of 
whom he sent by his own authority to the com¬ 
mon jail, and kept them there without bail or 
trial. 
