This was similar in Maryland, where a so-called 'Court of Admiralty' heard cases of maritime issues including sailor's wages, the carriage of goods and piracy.
[1] Originally these courts dealt primarily with commercial matters, and the judges which presided over them were appointed by the local population and were paid from the colonial treasuries.
[2] British admiralty prepared commissions to authorize governors to erect vice-admiralty courts throughout the American colonies.
Other vice-admiralty judges in Pennsylvania and southern colonies faced similar difficulties as locally elected authorities strongly opposed the work they were sent to do.
This was not only because of the express prohibition of jury trials or the fact that vice-admiralty judges tended to believe that common law courts did not have superior status.
In the early years of the American Revolution, the British parliament increased the power of vice-admiralty courts throughout the colonies to regulate maritime activities and combat smuggling.
The Sugar Act 1764 established a so-called 'super' Vice-Admiralty Court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, presided over by a Crown-appointed judge, the first of which was British jurist and the later Governor of Barbados Dr. William Spry.
However, the court in Nova Scotia lost its utility fairly quickly not only because of its distance from the centers of commerce and trade in the colonies, but because the cold weather made it difficult to travel to.
The vice-admiralty courts were met with extensive protest from the colonies, and it became an important factor in motivating colonists to sever the political ties with their mother country.
[5] Further criticisms was that the owner of the ship or maritime goods seized had to post a large bond before allowing to defend himself.
In the proceedings of the Continental Congress held in Philadelphia on 5 September 1774, a complaint was drafted to King George III that the "judges of admiralty and vice-admiralty courts are empowered to receive their salaries and fees from the effects condemned by themselves" with officers of the customs being empowered to "break open and enter houses without the authority of any civil magistrate".
A Vice Admiralty Court was formed in Nova Scotia to try smugglers and to enforce the Sugar Act 1764 throughout British North America.