could not be obtained at all or only upon extravagant bail far beyond the value 
of the subject matter. Thirdly, an appeal to England could be tried only before 
the Queen in Council. If the governor were a member of a great family, 
his relations and friends on the Council Board would be biased and favor whatever 
redounded to his credit. 251 
VICE-ADMIRALTY APPEALS 
The next aspect of the Council's jurisdiction to be examined is that exercised 
over the vice-admiralty courts in Navigation Acts cases. Following the 
passage of the 1696 Act for Preventing Frauds and Regulating Abuses in the 
Plantation Trade an effort was made to assure the commissioning of courts 
of vice-admiralty in the several plantations. 252 As has been indicated previously, 
in connection with the Cole and Bean cause, this "dark, contradictory 
Act" was silent as to appellate proceedings from the courts to be established in 
the plantations. 253 There is nothing to indicate whether the King in Council 
or the High Court of Admiralty or both should exercise appellate, corrective 
power. Despite the fact that up to the year 1783 more than eighty appeals from 
vice-admiralty court sentences were entered in the Privy Council register, the 
jurisdiction of this body was contested sporadically during the entire period 
under discussion. The problem was raised as a general query by the governor 
of Maryland in 1699. There was no pending issue of jurisdiction, but apparently 
the matter was mooted in anticipation of such an issue. In May, 1699, 
Governor Blakiston wrote that following the condemnation of certain ships 
under the Acts of Navigation, it had been questioned whether an immediate 
appeal lay to the High Court of Admiralty. The governor felt that his commission 
as vice-admiral would allow such an appeal, but he was given pause 
by a clause in his commission as governor that appeals were to be made to 
the King in Council only. 254 Although no actual jurisdictional test case was 
251 The Groans of Jamaica, Expressed in a 
Letter from a Gentleman Residing There, to 
His Friend in London (1714), Preface viiviii. 

252 See supra, c. ii, n. 93. It was advanced in 
some quarters that the reference therein was 
to admiralty courts already established; see 
Attorney General Northey in CSP, Col., 1702, 
#708. 
253 For comment on the legislative draftsmanship 
see 4 H. of L. MSS (n.s.), 1699-1702, 
326. William Penn wrote, "This law is weaklypenned, 
and could not be otherwise, when 
only Comr. Chaddock and Ed. Randol were 
the framers of it" 4 Duk.e of Portland MSS 
(H.M.C., 15 Rep., App., Part IV [1897]), 31. 
254 CSP, Col., 1699, #433. For the commission 
as vice-admiral see 25 Md. Archives, 61; 
for the gubernatorial commission clause, presumably 
die same as that in Nicholson's commission, 
see 20 Md. Archives, 86-87. At a 
meeting of the Maryland Council on March 
18, 1698/9, the Attorney General stated that 
the pink Johanna had been condemned in the 
Vice-Admiralty Court and that the master 
demanded an appeal therefrom to the High 
Court of Admiralty in England, and prayed 
advice in what manner and to what tribunal 
such appeal should be granted. Upon consideration 
of the clauses relating to appeals 
in the governor's commission, the council 
board were of the opinion that appeals to