266 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1761-1769.

Lib. C. B.

No. 20

said Jack turn'd off the Water from his Mill and threatned to
make a fire at the Mill House Door to burn the said Jack out.
John Jack

Sworn before me this 1^st of February 1769. Will: Allen.
All but Starret Gray and Thomas Gray live in Cecil County,
Maryland.

Whereupon Consideration of the Premisses being had, It is
the Humble Advice of this Honourable Board that the At-
torney General be directed to make Enquiry into the Nature
of the Offences, and Cause of the Riots complained of, and to
Report thereon to his Excellency.
Read the following Letter from Joseph Sim Esq^r to the
Honourable Daniel Dulany Esq^r which his Excellency was
pleased to Communicate to this Board desiring their Advice
thereon.
Januaryv 10^th 1769.
Sir.
The last Assizes held for Prince Georges County, John
Lillie, one of the Duputy Clerks, was presented by the Grand
Jury for erasing a Deed from the Records which was forged
and Entered on the Record Book by George Hamilton. As I
am well acquainted with the whole of this Affair, and know
this Man's Innocence, and the great Hardship he Labours
under, I have taken the Liberty of troubling you with a par-
ticular and full relation of the Transaction, and must request
the favour of you to apply to the Governor, in his behalf that
a Stop may be put to any further Proceedings against him,
that he may not be obliged to go through the pain of a Prose-
cution.
At our last August County Court, on Wednesday Evening,
M^r Thomas Sim Lee informed me that he had received a Letter
from George Hamilton requiring him to Copy a Deed with the
County Seal and send him, from George Gordon to his Father
George Hamilton for certain Lands therein mentioned, that he
had examined the Record of the Deed, and believed it to be
forged, and requested me to go with him to the Office and look
at it, which I immediately did, and found it to be entered at the
End of one of the Land Record Books, the greatest part of it
on the inside of the Cover of the Book, it was dated in the Year
1745, and the Deed immediately preceeding it, and which
finished the Record Book, in the Year 1746. from these Sus-
picious Circumstances, and the freshness of the Writing, I
was Convinced it was a forgery. Edward Sprigg Junior, then