Books and Manuscripts

Kensington Palace, November 20, 1707. One sheet folded to make four pages, 12 1/2 x 8 in. (317 x 203 mm). Manuscript document in a secretarial hand, signed by Queen Anne of Great Britain ("Anne R."), to the Royal Governor of New Jersey and New York, Lord Cornbury (Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon), directing him to suspend members of the Council of New Jersey if they purposely prevented a quorum in the chamber: "Whereas We are sensible that effectual Care ought to be taken to oblige the Members of Our Councill to a due attendance therein, in order to prevent the many inconveniencies that many happen from the want of a Quorum of the Council to transact Business as occasion may require...if any of the Members of our said Councill shall hereafter wilfully absent themselves, when duly summoned, without a just and Lawfull Cause, and shall persist therein after admonition, you suspend the said Counsellors so absenting themselves..."; signed by Secretary of State Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, on second page; addressed and docketed on integral leaf, and marked "Duplicate" to same. Creasing from contemporary folds, separations along same; small loss on integral leaf from when opened; scattered spotting.

During a period of political turmoil and seven months before being stripped of his title as the first Royal Governor of New Jersey, Lord Cornbury (1661-1723) receives an order from Queen Anne of Great Britain (1665-1714) to suspend members of the New Jersey Council who willfully absent themselves from the chamber in order to prevent a quorum. This order likely stems from the intense political factionalism that beset the Jersey legislature during Cornbury's rule, and that was enflamed by his corrupt conduct while in office. Only six months before, in May 1707, Anne received a petition and list of grievances from the Assembly of New Jersey, asking her to remove the "detestable magot" Cornbury from his governorship due to his corruption and cronyism. The following year, in June 1708, Anne obliged and recalled him. He was replaced by John Lovelace (1672-1709).