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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Memorial from the Commissioners of Wilmington concerning the exportation of provisions
Potts, Joshua; Maclaine, Thomas; Evans, William; Huske, John, d. 1792
Volume 22, Pages 891-892

FROM COMMISSIONERS OF TOWN OF WILMINGTON.

To His Excellency Richard Caswell, Esq., Governor, Captain-General and Commander in Chief in and over the State of North Carolina:

The memorial of the Commissioners of the town of Wilmington humbly sheweth:

That from the general failure of the crops and the destruction occasioned last season by freshes of the River Cape Fear there prevails

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a very grievous scarcity of all kinds of provisions in the said town and the neighborhood thereof, with the alarming prospects of a dearth heretofore unexperienced in this country.

That a ship bound for Jamaica hath lately taken on board a quantity of corn for exportation, and another large ship is about to load with cattle for a British port, and many others may well be expected to follow the same practice unless they are prevented by the interposition of your Excellency’s authority.

Wherefore, your memorialists, on behalf of their constituents, the inhabitants of the said town of Wilmington, do earnestly pray that your Excellency will be pleased to grant an embargo or embargoes on all provisions from the port of Cape Fear, electing such time as you shall deem expedient. And your memorialists will pray, etc.

JOSHUA POTTS,
THOMAS MACLAINE,
WILLIAM EVANS,
JOHN HUSKE.
By order,
WM. HULL, Clerk.