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The article discusses the Rhode Island admiralty documents and papers. In 1703, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island were constituted one district, and the Rhode Island court was held by a deputy appointed by the judge in Boston. The Vice Admiralty papers start in 1727, run with tantalizing gaps to 1772, and are most complete for 1740-52. After 1752, the papers are extremely fragmentary. With the Revolution and the establishment of a state court of admiralty, the records begin again, and for the period 1776-83 they are substantially complete. In a sense, therefore, the Rhode Island papers complement those of New York, since the latter, in the Vice Admiralty period, are most full for 1754-74, and in the state court run from 1784 to 1788.

The article focuses on the supremacy of the town in Rhode Island. In Rhode Island everything is done by the towns and nothing by the counties. The only county officers are the clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Common Pleas, who has the custody of the papers of these courts when they meet in the different counties; the sheriff of the county, whose writ, however, runs throughout the state; and the keeper of the county jail, who, in other than Providence County, is the sheriff of the county.