had served on the committee in the Kingswell-Vassall
case. An examination of later "subcommittees" shows that many of the
same men continued to be utilized by the Council in their capacity as
experts. Lord Goring, John Jacob, Sir Abraham Dawes, with Sir William
Becher and Edward Nicholas, clerks of the Council, and Edward Sandys,
brother of Sir Edwin Sandys, and a councillor of Virginia under Governor
Wyatt, formed the subcommittee to whom, on July 15, was referred the
complaint of Samuel Mathews against Governor Harvey. When the same
matter was referred again to a subcommittee on October 24, Sir Dudley
Carleton, formerly one of the commissioners for Virginia, and Thomas
Meautys, clerk of the Council, were substituted for Dawes and
Nicholas.[25] These committees were instructed "to call the parties
before them, to examine the matter, and find out the truth, and then
to make certificate to their lordships of the true state of things and
their opinion thereof."[26] Similar references continued to be made
during the year 1639, on January 4, February 22, March 8,[27] June 12,
16, July 17, 26, 28, August 28, and the evidence seems to show that the
committee, though frequently changing its membership, was considered
a body sitting regularly and continuously. The certificate of July 9,
1638, in answer to the reference of June 16, was signed by Sir William
Becher, Thomas Meautys, Sir Francis Wyatt, and Abraham Williams; that
of July 23 by Becher, Dawes, Jacob, and Williams. After August 28 we
hear no more of the subcommittee. Whether this is due to a failure of
the Register to enter further references and certificates or to the
actual cessation of its labors, we cannot say. The committee was always
appointed by the Council, and always reported to that body. Frequently
its certificates are entered at length in the Register.[28] The petition
upon which it acted was sometimes sent directly to itself, frequently
to the Privy Council, which referred it to the subcommittee, and but
rarely to the Commissioners for Foreign Plantations.[29] The committee
was limited in its scope to no one colony. It reported on matters in
England, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Somers Islands, and Virginia.
It dealt with secular business and ecclesiastical questions, and on one
occasion at least was required to examine and approve the instructions
issued to a colonial governor.[30] It does not appear ever to have acted
except by order of the Privy Council,