Archive · The British register, 1783
April 21, 1783
Certificate for Cato Ramsay, “By Order of Brigadier General Birch”
The pass that let a Black refugee leave New York: a printed form with the bearer’s name written in, granting Carleton’s “Permission to go to Nova-Scotia, or wherever else He may think proper.” Shown on Board 1.
What it says, in plain language
A printed pass issued in New York in 1783. The clerk wrote in the bearer’s name, Cato Ramsay, and the form states that he came to the British lines under the Howe and Clinton proclamations and has Sir Guy Carleton’s permission to go to Nova Scotia or anywhere else he chooses. Refugees needed a pass like this to sail; the British register records the same certificate for Samuel Penilack of Millstone and Jack Richards of Trenton. Handwritten words are shown in a different style; the long s of the printed form is given as a modern s.
Page 1
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Transcription
NEW-YORK, 21st April 1783.
THIS is to certify to whomsoever it may concern, that the Bearer hereof Cato Rammsay a Negro, resorted to the British Lines, in consequence of the Proclamations of Sir William Howe, and Sir Henry Clinton, late Commanders in Chief in America; and that the said Negro has hereby his Excellency Sir Guy Carleton’s Permission to go to Nova-Scotia, or wherever else He may think proper.
By Order of Brigadier General Birch,
[The certificate continues on its second page, at the Nova Scotia Archives.]
Transcribed from the manuscript images for this project, checked against Founders Online where a text is published there. Original spelling and punctuation kept.