Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 229

down his House should have been related with the two extra-
ordinary Circumstances you mention of the Attorney General's
& Sheriffs being present & exciting the Populace to Acts of
Violence for as to the Attorney General he was not present & so
far is he from being a Person that would encourage a Mob on
such or indeed on any occasion that I can assure Your Excel-
lency he is quite the Reverse & at that very time some Threats
were thrown out by the Mob as I have been well informed
against himself. With respect to the Sheriff the Case as I had
it a few Days afterwards from himself & others was this:
several People passing along the Street where he lived & was
then sitting came in & insisted upon his giving them a Bottle
of Wine which he could not refuse & afterwards insisted on
his going with them to some other House whence after drink-
ing one Glass with them he broke away returned directly
home & went to Bed at least two Hours before they pulled
down the House or committed any Act of Violence nor did he
then know or hear of their having an Intention to do any such
Act so that the Report Your Excellency had heard with
respect to him also was contrary to Truth I flatter myself
therefore Your Exc^y will not give it the least Credit. What
Your Excellency had probably heard about an Officer belong-
ing to His Majesty's Sloop The Hornet being very ill used at
a Publick House here a few Nights after the Mob had
assembled & pull'd down M^r Hoods House was too true, but
the Gentleman is I hope by this time pretty well recovered as
he was in a fair Way when he left this place about a Fortnight
ago. The occasion of it was an unlucky Dispute about their
Prowess into which a Passenger the Officer had with him &
one M^r Hammond had fallen about Midnight in a large Com-
pany at a Publick House which they agreed to decide by a
Bout at Boxing in which M^r Hammond was it seems defeated
& obliged to leave the Company, whereupon there was an
Outcry (supposed to have been raised by some who had been
concerned in M^r Hoods Affair) thro the Town that he had
been kill'd by the Officer who when the Mob was thereby
brought together had really like to have been murdered by
them upon that supposition, but as every Gentleman in Town
expressed their Abhorrence of this outrage as soon as it was
known no Body chose to acknowledge themselves the Actors
& very few that they had been even present, nor has there
been any Mob raised or the least Violence committed here
since that Night, & I am not without Hopes that when the
People have had time to cool & to consider that such Sort of
Proceedings may in the End be attended with very serious &
perhaps fatal Consequences to some of them they will behave
themselves for the future after a more orderly manner. With
the greatest Respect &c.

Letter Bk. III