Descripción
Original manuscript document on vellum, 13 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches. Embossed paper seal of the British Customs Commissioners Office affixed to the left margin on the recto; and three small, blue, paper tax stamps (totaling 18 pence) affixed to upper margin on recto. Small paper seal of King George II affixed to verso. Old folds. Lightly soiled. Very good. Matted. This manuscript British royal commission appoints Robert Dinwiddie to the position of inspector general of Customs for the Colonies of Barbados and the Leeward Islands. It was issued near the beginning of a long career as a colonial administrator that saw Dinwiddie ardently root out financial corruption in the British colonies in the Caribbean, and would eventually culminate in his appointment as lieutenant governor of Virginia. As Virginia's acting governor he would play a crucial role on the colonial frontier in the early years of the French and Indian War. Dinwiddie came from a family of traders and merchants, and in 1727 he was made collector of customs for Bermuda. In 1738 his purview was expanded, and he was appointed surveyor- general of the Royal Customs for the Southern Part of America, which included the Bahamas, Jamaica, and the American colonies from Pennsylvania southward. The present commission was issued just a year later, and appoints Dinwiddie as inspector general of duties for Barbados and the Leeward Islands, including investigating the "Dutys of Four and a half percent payable to His Majesty." Dinwiddie had uncovered customs frauds in Barbados and the Leeward Islands in 1738, and this commission officially invests him with powers "for examining into the behavior and conduct of the Surveyor General, the Collectors, the Comptrollers, Searchers, and all other officers, clerks and persons appointed or employ'd in the managing charging or collecting the said Dutys according to such orders and instructions as we have already or shall hereafter give to the said Dinwiddie for that purpose." In this office he would charge several customs officials, including Edward Lascelles, with false entries, fraudulent sales, and corruption, and dismiss them from office. Dinwiddie was praised and criticized for his activities in Barbados, and the royal customs commissioners later characterized his work as proceeding with "more zeal than prudence" (see ANB). His greatest fame in the American colonies came with his appointment as lieutenant governor (and de facto acting governor) of Virginia. In 1753 he sent George Washington to push French commissioners south of the Great Lakes to abdicate lands claimed by Virginia. Dinwiddie's demand and the French rejection of it was one of the precipitating factors in the French and Indian War, and he was a significant early patron of George Washington's military career. The present customs appointment is signed in manuscript by Lord Thomas Fairfax (1693- 1781), proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia, as well as three of his colleagues in the Customs Commissioners Office, including John Evelyn and R. Corbet. Descended by his mother of the Culpeper family, which had for generations been intimately involved with Virginia affairs, Fairfax played an active role in the colony's frontier development, first venturing there in 1735, then permanently residing in Virginia from 1747 until his death in 1781. In 1754, at the request of Gov. Dinwiddie, Fairfax assumed duties as a lieutenant in Virginia's frontier militia. "[Dinwiddie's] career as colonial administrator was marked by vision, strength, attention to detail, and untiring energy. As the man who precipitated the struggle which brought about the downfall of New France, he is a figure of first importance in the early history of the American continent" - DAB. DAB V, pp.316-17. ANB 6, pp.620-21. N° de ref. del artículo WRCAM39057
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