Rhode Island (March 2, 1639) the freemen of Portsmouth voted that Judge William Coddington should have an assistant, to help:
<in the execution of justice and judgment, for the regulating and ordering of all offenses and offenders, and for the drawing up and determining of all such Rules and Laws as shall be according to God, which may conduct to the Good and Welfare of the Common weale...
That the Judge together with the Elders shall Rule and Govern according to the General Rule of the Word of God when they have no particular rule ftom God's Word...
That the Judge and Elders should report to the Assembly of freemen of the town, every three months, all such cases, actions and Rules which have passed through their hands, by them to be scanned and weighed by the word of Christ.> 1639WC001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1639WC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Rhode Island, March 2, 1639, Judge William Coddington voted by the freemen of Portsmouth to have an assistant. Thomas Williams Bicknell, The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (NY: The American Historical Society, 1920, Chapter XLIII, "The Judiciary," p. 935-940.