The Virginia Gazette

The General Assembly of Rhode Island have passed an act, that in all commissions or officers, civil and military, and in all writs and processes in law, whether original, judicial, or executory, civil and criminal; wherever the name and authority of the King of Great Britain is made use of, the same shall be omitted, and in the room thereof the name and authority of the Governor and company of that colony shall be substituted, in the following words, to wit, "the Governor and company of the English colony of Rhode Island and Providence plantations;" that all such commissions, writs, and processes, shall be otherwise of the same form and tenor as they heretofore were; that the courts of law be no longer entitled nor considered as the King's courts; and that no instrument in writing, of any nature or kind, whether public or private, shall in the date thereof mention the year of the said King's reign: Provided, nevertheless, that nothing in this act contained shall render void, or vitiate any commission, writ, process, or instrument heretofore made or executed, on account of the name and authority of the said King being therein inserted.