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[Petition of Castle Haven Company.]
To the Honourable Convention of Maryland. The humble
petition of a majority of Castle Haven company sheweth :
That your Petitioners have laboured under repeated imposi-
tions from their Captain Joseph Byus which in their opinion
render him unworthy of the office which his country has
intrusted in his hands, and we knowing of no other justifiable
method of redress then presenting our petition; we hope and
trust that the honourable convention will either remove him
from his Captaincy or oblige him to appear before you, that
your petitioners may have an opportunity of proving their
accusations against him, which we doubt not are of such a
nature that the moment they are heard, they will be ajudged
sufficient cause for removal. To mention some of our accusa-
tions to your Honours, which we charge him with, is, we were
called on duty, which he our said Capt. provided for us thirty
four pounds of pork, three bushels of Indian corn meal, as also
thirty six pounds of bacon, thirty three pounds of pork, and
three gallons of rum, got from Capt. John Tripp, and as sum
of the neighbouring gentlemen was so good as to bestow their
charity upon us, by giving us sundry provisions, that out of
the above provisions we made use of only thirty six pounds of
pork twelve small loaves of bread, and three gallons rum, the
remainder of the provisions our Captain carried home and
converted to his own use, and charged us with the whole,
which charge was five pounds ten shillings, common money,
so that he stoped out of our wages and rations four shillings
from each officer, and two shillings from each private, when
we found ourselves thus treated with, we complained to our
field officers, which caused him to repay to each officer three
shillings and six pence, and eighteen pence to each private,
it was by mear chance that we got possession of a true accompt
of the provisions found, made use of and carried away, such a
chance as we cannot expect to meet with every time we are
thus used: which gives us great reason to believe that we
shall never be honestly dealt with, by a man that no trust can
be reposed in, and that requires a constant over-looking in
order to have justice don: he has also given orders to his
non-commissioned officers, that for the smallest offence to
knock down any man belonging to his company, and he will
support him in it contrary (as we view it) to the millitary
resolves of convention: these and sundry other threats and
useages gives uneasiness to your petitioners.
Till we have the determination of your Honourable Body we
shall continue to obey our Captain has we have hitherto done,
but as we are extremely unhappy in our present situation, we
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