Williamsburg, August 7, 1774.
Dear Sir:
If this letter should (though I do not see any probable chance that it will,) reach your hands in time, it is to ask, if you do not think it necessary, that the deputies from this colony should be furnished with authentic lists of the exports and imports annually, more especially to and from Great Britain; and, in that case, to beg of you to obtain such from the customhouse officers on the Potomac and Rappahannock. I have desired the speaker, if he should think it expedient, and might not have thought of it, to do the same from the York, and James River offices.
I have got an account (though not a certified one,) from Mr. Wythe, of our number of taxables in 1770, since increased (Archy Carey says) to 10,000, as would have appeared by the list which would have been returned in May, if the session had gone on.
I am, &c.
1 Delegate to the Continental Congress; Signer of the Declaration of Independence. In June, 1776, on instructions from the Virginia Legislature, he moved the Resolution of Independence.
2 Patrick Henry.
3 The text is from Ford.