May it please your Excellency:

The bearer hereof, Mr. Francis Drake, (a very respectable inhabitant of this County) waits on your Excellency, as Chief Magistrate, in order to prove a will before you, and take out Letters Testamentary. The witness he will introduce, (Mr. Richard Drake), I can assure you he is a man of great integrity. Mr. Drake also brings with him a copy of the proceedings of our County Court, which I shall not animadvert on, not doubting but your Excellency will see the impropriety of their conduct on this occasion. I am induced at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Drake to trouble you in this affair as he is altogether unacquainted with business of this kind.