Vnto yor Honour that lately in the elecon of Representatives to assist in generall assembly in Queens County the petitioners abovenamed and others of their profession have been interrupted and deprived of their right & priviledge of voting by the Justices of s^ County or some of them & others appointed witnesses to the elecon upon pretence & colour of not having taken the oaths notwithstanding their having signed the declaracon appointed the people of that persuasion by act of Parliament. .

There being another eleccon to be had in said County in a few days that the peticoners may enjoy their right & priviledges and to prevent controversy for the future

They therefore humbly pray to have yo"^ honours opinion whether they being qualified otherways to vote for representatives in such eleccons are legally barrd & precluded from doing thereof by their not swearing and as in duty bound &c

Samuel Haight Octor SJ 1701 John Way

Robert ffield

1008 , PAPERS RELATING TO

COMPLAINT AGAINST THE SHERIFF OF WESTCHESTER

FOR REFUSING THE VOTES OF CERTAIN QUAKERS AT THE ELECTION.

To William Cosby Governour of the Province of New York &c. The Complaint and Humble Petition of Rich'i Cornwell, Nehemiali Palmer & S}ivanus Palmer in behalf of themselves and Some others of the People called Quakers Inhabitants in the County of West Chester in the Province of New York Sheweth that we are and for many years past have been Possessed of houses and Lands being Estates in fee Simple witliin Said County and have alwayes behaved and demeaned ourselves towards those placed in authority over us and to aU our fellow Subjects as becomes honest and peaceable men to do, and when there has been any occasion for our Evidences in any of the Courts within this Province and on other occasions, we have been admitted for these many years past to make our Solemn aJB&rmation, instead of an oath, by virtue of an Act of Assembly made in this Province in the year of our Lord 1691 and afterwards confirmed by the King and Queen of England, and we have also been allowed at all times since the making of that act to give our Votes at the Election of Representatives and when any doubt has arisen about any persons being a freeholder, our Solemn Affirmation has been allowed for the clearing tlie matter, Untill the late Election of a freeholder for a representative for the Said County when the High Sheriff Nicliolas Cooper did refuse and deny us and Severall more of our friends to give our votes for Lewis Morris one of the Candidates it the Said Election unless we would take an oath that we were Freeholders, though well known to be Such to most of the People present and when we ofiered our AfiELrmation according to Law that was rejected, when at the Same time two of our friends who voted for the other Candidate William Forster were admitted without either oath or affirmation and yet no better known to be freeholders then we that were denied, and one of us who was denied, was after when the Election was finished Suffered both by the Sheriff" and Forster too, to Joyne in the Execution of the Indentures as a principall Freeholder and that without oath.