To His Excellency Thomas Burke, Governor of the State of North Carolina,

The Humble Petition of Margaret McCool Most Humbly Sheweth:

That your Petitioner is a poor woman, and has a large helpless family of Young Children to Support, one of which is Arrived to the Age of been Set on the muster list and has been Drafted. The boy is not Sufficient for the undertaking, nor at any rate fitting for the Service, nor is your Petitioner able to hire a Substitute in his room. Therefore I most humbly implore and Petition your Excellency that you will think and take pity on the distressed as an object truly deserving compassion, as what little work he did at times was the Chief help I had toward Supporting myself and family. I therefore once more most humbly implore that your Excellency will take your poor Distressed Petitioner’s Case into Consideration and grant her liberty to have her poor simple boy at home under her own Care, as he is in no wise fitting to be anywhere Else; and your Petitioner will ever Pray.

(Written on back in Burke’s handwriting):

“No order can be taken until some person appears to give satisfaction relating to facts, &c.”