Addressed, To the Gentlemen forming a Convention of

the Comittees of the Towns of Guilford,

Halifax Brattleborough, &¢ & & Cumberland County.

PETITION OF COL. CHURCH

IN BEHALF OF HIMSELF AND OTHERS OF THE VERMONT SUFFERERS.

To his Excellency the Governor and the Honourable the Legislature of the State of New York, the Petition of the Subscribers, in behalf of themselves and others most Humbly Sheweth, That your Petitioners and those they represent are Inhabitants

of Cumberland County and by their attachment, zeal and activity

in Endeavouring to support the Just and Lawfull Authority of

New York Incurred a Displeasure from those who stiled themselves Freemen of Vermont, But by the encouragement from the

several Resolutions of Congress and Particularly that of the fifth of December 1782, and the laws and Resolutions of the State of

New York, your Petitioners were induced to believe that the

Lawless and ungratefull usurpers would be brought to submitt

to its Lawfull authority, or at least to permitt your Petitioners to

remain peaceably on their Farms, under the Jurisdiction of New

York, But notwithstanding the Resolutions and Laws, these

Lawless usurpers, raised in Arms to the Number of four or five

NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS. 1015

Hundred, Drove some of your Petitioners from their habitations, Imprisoned others, killed one, and wounded others, confiscated their Estates and sold their Effects.

Your Petitioners cannot but hope that having thus sacrificed their all, suffered such exquisite Tortures, Banishments, Imprisonments in loathsom Goals, half starved, and threatened with being put to Ignominious Deaths, But, that your Honours will take their case into your most serious Consideration, and grant them some relief in their Deplorable Situation, and your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever be good Citizens of the State of New York.