May it please your Excellency.

It is extremely disagreeable to us to find ourselves under a
Necessity of laying before you our Proceedings against Rich-
ard Lee junior Sheriff of Charles County. Your Excellency
will find by the Papers hereunto annexed which we beg leave
to refer you to that this House did early in their Session, as
they thought it their indispensable Duty take such Steps as
were in their Power to gain the fullest and clearest Informa-
tion concerning the Facts complained of in the Petitions of
John Doncastle and William Wright And tho' our Inquiry has
been in part eluded by the Disobedience of the said Richard
Lee Junior to the Order and Process of this House we are of
Opinion that the Principal Facts charged in the said Petitions
are Supported by the Evidence we have been able to obtain.
The Condition and Size of the Room in which the said Sheriff
confines his Prisoners for Debt the want of Fire in the severe
Weather of the last Winter and the Effects thereof on the
Health of the Prisoners appear from the Report of our Com-
mittee of Grievances and the Deposition of William Wyat
Fentham taken before the said Committee, The Fact of tying
up and whipping the Petitioner William Wright as set forth
in his Petition we conceive is sufficiently evinced by the Record
of the said Richard Lee's Conviction and the Fine imposed
upon him for that Offence in Charles County Court, Further
Evidence it was in the Power of the Sheriff to have enabled us
to obtain for the more clear elucidating or refuting the Com-
plaints contained in the said Petitions and his refusing to do
so, and declining to appear and abide the Inquiry give us just
Grounds to infer his Consciousness of the Truth of the
whole. When we reflect how much in the Power of a Sheriff
his Prisoners are, and what Opportunities he has from the
very nature of his Office to Oppress and maltreat them;
when we find our Fellow Creatures reduced by their Mis-
fortunes to the Anguish of a Goal, exposed to all the Miseries
of Cold and Wet in the most inclement Season of the year, and
one of them over whom the Sheriff had no Lawful Power but
that of Confining his Person illegally cruelly and ignomini-