Admiralty Courts in the colonial era dealt with maritime issues
requiring adjudication, including both criminal and noncriminal
matters. Although the royal Charters of 1663 and 1665 granted
power to the Lords Proprietors to create courts of admiralty,
they never did so. The Navigation Act of 1696, however, provided
that the High Court of Admiralty in England could create vice-
admiralty courts in the various colonies to enforce the act. One
such court established in Virginia in 1697 claimed jurisdiction
over North Carolina, but the assertion was successfully resisted
by the latter's Governor Henderson Walker. The colony's governor
and council thereafter appointed the court's judge, who tried
cases without a jury and named the register and other officials.
The judge also could designate surrogates for ports where he did
not hold court in person. Although few records of the vice-
admiralty courts survive for the colonial period or after, it is
known that they tried several prize cases during wartime and
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