That by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Province of New York bearing date the nineteenth Day of March 1768 a Large Tract of Land containing near forty Townships each of the Contents of Six Miles square was erected into a County by the Name of the County of Cumberland and the Inhabitants thereof are in and by the said Letters Patent Declared to be vested with and entitled unto all and every the Powers Privileges and Immunities and subject to the same Laws Regulations and Government which the Inhabitants of any other county in the said Province of New York are entitled to do enjoy or are subject to as by the said Letters Patent or the record thereof to which We beg leave to referr may appear.

That your Petitioners acknowledge with the utmost Gratitude the Recent Marks cf your Excellency's Paternal Attention to the Welfair and Convenience of the Inhabitants of the said County by the late Salutary Regulations and as your Petitioners are wholly disposed to demean themselves as good subjects so they are desirous of Enjoying in common with the Inhabitants of the other Counties of this Province the Powers and Privileges extended to them by having Liberty to choose two representatives to serve in the General Assembly in this Province.

That such Representation will fulfil the hopes of your Petitioners by establishing that firm and lasting connection which they are desirous should ever subsist between them and the Government to which it is their happiness to belong and will enable the more readily to accomplish the good purposes of Government by obtaining such as Laws as will most tend to its honor and their own Prosperity.