about the 10th day of May 1781 Three Men belonging to said Town were Inlisted into the Continental Army to serve Three years by the Inhabitants of other Towns & being a New Town not having been Incorporated more than one year they thought it would be sufficient without any further or other procedure to return the Names &c of said Men to the Superintendant of the County which was accordingly done However some Time ago the Treasurer of the Commonwealth Issued his Execution against the Select Men of said Town for the year 1781 for the Amount of the Fines of the said Three Men to pay which woud totally ruin them It was impossible for the Town to raise the Money to pay the Fines there not being a Tenth of a Sum Sufficient for that purpose in Town & at the same Time other Taxes were to be paid Therefore being in perplexity your Petitioner applied to some Gentlemen in a Neighbouring Town for Advice who recommended to us to procure the Three Soldiers & Send them forward to the Army which was done accordingly as will appear by a Certificate from Cap' Sam' Carr a continental Muster Master herewith to be presented The Expence of procuring said Three Men amounted to Two Hundred & Seventy Nine Pounds, the greater part of which is Still owed Wherefore as the said Town is poor & small as well as New your Petitioners humbly beg that their case & circumstances may be taken into the Consideration of the Legislature that the whole of the said Fines may be remitted & that the Sheriff of the said County may be directed to return the said Execution fully Satisfied & your Petitioners, as in duty bound will ever pray &c Joshua Ricker Selectmen of Coxhall In Senate Sept 20th 1782 Read & thereupon Orderd, that Nathaniel Wells Esq wth such as the Honble House shall join be a Committee to take the Petition into consideration & report what is proper to be done thereon Sent down for Concurrence S Adams Presid In the House of Representatives Sept 20th 1782. are joined. Nath Gorham Speaker Petition Martha Oxnard. To the Honorable Sennet and the Honble House of Representatives of the State of Massachusetts Bay in General Court Assembled The Petition of Martha Oxnard of Falmouth in the County of Cumberland & Commonwealth of Massachusetts, humbly sheweth, that your Petitioner's Husband is one of the Absentees, and now resident at Penobscot that he has never taken up Arms against his Country nor has he in The least degree been concerned in any Armed Vessell to Cruize against the United States of America that your Petitioner is now in Falmouth with three small Children neither of which is seven years Old, it is not from any attachment to the British Government that I ever had any inclination to leave my Native Country, but the tender connections that should always Subsist between Man and Wife. and the many inconveniences that attend liveing seperate is my only motive. and hope will plead an excuse for my troubling your Honor at this timeas there is no prospect of your Petitioners Husband having liberty to return to this Commonwealth She therefore most Humbly prays that she may have Liberty granted Her to proceed to Penobscot with Her three Children two Servant Maids and only a part of her Household Furniture ¶ and that she may have leave to Hire a small Schooner about twenty tons Named the Hazzard John Thurlo Master and that a Flag may be granted Accordingly and your Petitioner as in Duty bound Shall ever pray Martha Oxnard Resolve on Foregoing. Commonwealth of Massachusetts In Senate Sep 23d 1782. On the petition of Martha Oxnard praying for leave to go to her Husband at Penobscot Resolved that the prayer of the Petition be granted and that the said Martha Oxnard be & she is hereby permitted to go to Penobscot, by the way of a Flag as prayed for in the petition and that she have leave to take with her two servant Maids, and such part of her Household Goods as the Selectmen of Falmouth shall admit of-not to remove from the said Penobscot to any other part of this Commonwealth without leave from the General Court Sent down for Concurrence S Adams Presid In the House of Representatives Sept 23° 1782. Read & concurred Approv'd Nathaniel Gorham Speaker John Hancock Resolve on Petition Selectmen of Coxhall. The Committee of both Houses appointed to consider of the Petition of the Select Men of the Town of Coxhall & Report have attended that Service and ask leave to Report the following Resolve Commonwealth of Massachusetts Nath' Wells p' Order In Senate Septem' 23rd 1782 Whereas it appears that the Resolve of the general Court passed the 2nd day of December, 1780 for raising Soldiers for the Continental Service was not Received in the Town of Coxhall previous to the Issuing an Execution against the Select Men of said Town on Account of a Neglect of Duty required by said Resolve; since which they have at great expence procured Three good & effective Men to serve Three years & delivered the same to one of the Continental Muster Masters being the Quota required of said Town by said Resolve & have by their Petition for reasons therein set forth prayed for an Exemption from any Fine or Penalty for not furnishing said Soldiers sooner. Therefore ¶ Resolved that the prayer of said Petition be granted & that the said Town & the Selectmen thereof be & hereby are excused & exempted from any Fine or Penalty which they may have incurred for not procuring their said Soldiers sooner & that the Sheriff of the County of York be & hereby is directed to Return the said Execution Issued in Consequence of a Deficiency of said Soldiers in said Towns to the Treasurer of the Commonwealth as satisfied in full any Law or Resolve to the contrary notwithstanding Resolve in re Confiscation of Estates. Commonwealth of Massachusetts In the House of Representatives September 24th 1782 Whereas. In pursuance of the Law of this Commonwealth intituled "an Act for Confiscating the Estates of certain persons commonly called Absentees" Complaints were Exhibited to the Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the County of Lincoln on the last Tuesday of September Anno Domini 1781-against Sylvester Gardiner, Charles Callahan, John Lee William Vassal David Phips & Charles Ward Apthorp alledging that the Land lately owned by them respectively, lying within the same County were forfeited & escheated, which complaints were duly Continued to the then next Inferiour Court of Common Pleas to be holden for said County on the first Tuesday of June A. D. 1782 and notifications of the same were duly published according to Law at which last named Town the same Complaints ought to have been continued to the last Tuesday of September then next, but by mistake Judgment was then rendered against them by Default, whereby some Persons may be deprived of an opportunity of claiming the same, therefore A Resolved that the Justices of the Inferiour Court of Common Pleas for the County of Lincoln be and they hereby are impowered and directed to erase the Record of the Default of the said Complaints and to enter the same Continued B and that to the next term, being the last Tuesday of September A. D. 1782 the Same Complaints be brought forward as Continued and that any Claim to the same be received as tho' the same Complaints had not been defaulted, & that then the same Proceedings shall be had on the same Complaints as tho the same had been regularly continued to the said last Tuesday of September & from thence to the said first Tuesday of June next & that Notice of this Continuance be published in the public Newspapers & for the same Length of Time as by Law the first Notice of the Libels against such Estates is by Law to be published Sent up for concurrence In Senate October 24 1782 Nathaniel Gorham Speaker. Read & Concurred as taken into a New Draft Sent down for Concurrence S Adams Presid |