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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 indispensible Duty, take such Steps
as were in their Power, to gain the fullest and clearest Information
concerning the Facts complained of in the Petitions of John Don-
castle and William Wright. And though our Enquiry has been in
Part eluded, by the Disobedience of the said Richard Lee jun to the
Order and Process of this House, we are of Opinion, that the prin-
cipal Facts charged in the said Petitions are supported by the Evi-
dence 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 Committee of Griev-
ances, and the Deposition of William Wyatt 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 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 Complaints contained in the
said Petitions; and his refusing to do so, and declining to appear
and abide the Enquiry, give us just Grounds to infer his Conscious-
ness 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 maletreat them: When we find our fellow
Creatures, reduced by their Misfortunes to the Anguish of a Jail,
exposed to all the Miseries of Cold and Wet, in the most inclement
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 54
Dec. 18
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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 ignominiously scourged by his Order, by the Hand of a Slave;
and when upon Complaint made to the Delegates of the People,
whose Right and Duty it is to enquire into, and present all Griev-
ances of a public Nature, we find the Sheriff, refusing to pay Obedi-
ence to our Process, and to avoid an enquiry, not only absenting
himself from his County, where, by the Duty of his Station, he ought
at all Times to be found and amenable to Complaints, but even from
the Province; we hope your Excellency will think us excusable, if we
feel and express some Warmth of Resentment towards M.r Lee;
and under these Circumstances we cannot but think it a Justice due
to the Public that the said Richard Lee jun.r should be removed from
his Office of Sheriff of Charles County, as being unworthy of, and
unfit for, so important a Trust; and we do earnestly request that
your Excellency will be pleased to remove him
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p. 41
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