[L.S.]
GEORGE R.
By the KING.
A PROCLAMATION:
FOR the discovering and
apprehending the
persons
who plundered and burnt the Gaspee schooner ; and barbarously
wounded
and ill-treated Lieutenant William Dudingston, commander of the
said schooner.
Whereas, we have received Information that upon the
10th day
of June last, between the Hours of Twelve and One in the
Morning,
in the Providence or Narrowganset River, in Our Colony
of Rhode-Island and Providence
Plantations, a great Number of Persons, armed with Guns and other
offensive
Weapons, and led by Two Persons, who were called the Captain
and Head-Sheriff,
in several armed Boats, attacked and Boarded Our Vessel called the Gaspee
Schooner, then lying at single Anchor in the said River, commanded by
Our
Lieutenant William Dudingston, under the Orders of our
Rear-Admiral
John Montagu, and having dangerously wounded and barbarously treated
the
said William Dudingston, took, plundered, and burnt the said
schooner:
We, to the Intent that said outrageous and heinous
Offenders
may be discovered, and brought to condign Punishment, have thought fit,
with the Advice of our Privy Council, to issue this Our Royal
PROCLAMATION:
And We are hereby graciously pleased to promise, that if any Person
or Persons shall discover any other Person or Persons concerned in the
said daring and heinous Offences above-mentioned, so that he or they
may
be apprehended and brought to Justice, such Discoverer shall have and
receive,
as a Reward for such Discovery, upon Conviction of each of the said
Offenders,
the Sum of Five Hundred Pounds. And if any Person or Persons
shall
discover either of the said Persons who acted as, or called themselves,
or were called by their said Accomplices, the Head-Sheriff or the
Captain,
so that they, or either of them, may be apprehended and brought to
Punishment,
such Discoverer shall have and receive, as a Reward for such Discovery,
upon Conviction of either of the said Persons, the further Sum of Five
Hundred Pounds, over and above the Sum of Five Hundred Pounds
herein before promised for the discovery and apprehending any of the
other
common Offenders above mentioned; and if any Person or Persons
concerned
therein, except the Two Persons who were called the Head-Sheriff and
Captain,
and the Person or Persons who wounded Our said Lieutenant William
Dudingston,
shall discover any one or more of the said Accomplices, so that he or
they
may be apprehended and brought to Punishment, such Discoverer shall
have
and receive the said Reward or Rewards of Five Hundred Pounds
or One
Thousand Pounds as the case may be: and Also our gracious Pardon
for
his said Offence. And the Commissioners for executing the Office
of Treasurer of our Exchequer, are hereby required to make Payment
accordingly
of the said Rewards. And We do hereby strictly charge and command all
Our
Governors, Deputy-Governors, Magistrates, Officers, and all other Our
Loving
Subjects that they do use their utmost Diligence, in their several
Places
and Capacities, to find out, discover, and apprehend the said
Offenders,
in order to their being brought to Justice. And We do hereby command
that
this Our Proclamation be printed and published, in the usual form, and
affixed in the principal Places of Our Town of Newport, and
other
Towns in Our said Colony, that none may pretend Ignorance.
GIVEN at Our Court at St. James,
the
Twenty-Sixth
Day of August, 1772, in the Twelfth Year of Our Reign.
GOD save the KING.
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Printed by SOLOMON SOUTHWICK, Printer to the
Honorable
the Governor and Company of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, in New England.
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