Orders for the Governor and Council of St Helena.In 1708; Captain John Roberts was appointed by the East India Company to replace the recently deceased Captain Stephen Poirier as Governor ofSt Helena; a remote but commercially significant island in the South Atlantic. Upon taking up the post; Roberts and the island's council receivedorders from the directors of the company; reminding them to 鈥榯ake Effectuall care' that 鈥榯he Old Standing constitutions; which are as it were the Magna Carta of the Island; be religiously preserved & maintained'. The orders form part of a compilation of laws and ordinances sent to St Helena by the East India Company; which since 1683 had provided the island with a complete 鈥楽ystem of Laws and Constitutions'.Introducing trial by jury and due process; the laws were influenced by; and regularly compared to; Magna Carta; that association was consciously nurtured by the company; which presented the laws as the basis of a fundamentaland independent constitution for St Helena.England; c. 1714.From: The laws & ordinances of St. Hellena.IOR G/32/1; page 141London; British Library.