To His Excellency William Tryon Esquire Captain General & Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of North Carolina.
To the Honourable Members of his Majesty's Council, To the Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly of the Province of North Carolina, the Petition of the Inhabitants of the County of Orange humbly sheweth,
That whereas by reason of the Great Distance we your petitioners live from any Publick Inspections, whereto we may carry Tobacco Hemp, and other Commodity's, that we your Petitioners are Greatly Discouraged from attempting the making Tobacco & the Cultivation of Hemp, Two of the most valuable as we apprehend profitable Branches (the Quality of the soil of this Country being Particularly suited to those articles) of Husbandry from Consideration after a long & laborious process of preparing them for sale, that the Possessor is obliged to be at the further Trouble, Labour and Expence, of Transporting those Weighty and Bulky Articles at least one Hundred miles by Land, before he can be Certain that his Commodity will pass an Inspection, or that he shall receive any satisfaction or Recompence, for the Fruits of his Long Industry, For Remedy whereof we your Petitioners most humbly pray, that for the Mutual Benefit of the Trader, & the Industrious Laborer & Planter that a Publick Inspection may be established at the Town of Hillsborough, in the County aforesaid Under such Rules & Regulations & Restrictions as to you in your Great Wisdom and Goodness may seem meet, and your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever pray &c,