Richard Caswell Esq. Governor and Commander in chief of the
said State.
To all whom it may concern.
These are to certify that the bearer Mr. Duncan Ochiltree hath produced to me certificates of his having been called upon in Cumberland to take the oath of fidelity to the State where on his refusal he has given bond and security to depart the State in sixty days from July Term last in said County, and also that on his arrival soon after the said Term in Mecklenburg County, the place of his residence, he was cited to appear before the Justices of that County Court on the third Tuesday in October, next to take the said oath and obliged to give Bond and security to appear accordingly so that if he departs the State agreeable to his first Bond, 'tis probable the last will be forfeited; if he does not, but complies with the conditions of the last, the first may become forfeited, under these circumstances I have advised him to abide the determination of the Court of the County, in which he resides thinking that more agreeable to the intention and spirit of the Law, and in the mean time I will lay his case before the Council at their next sitting, and take their opinion respecting the forfeiture of the first Bond.—
I therefore request that the Justices and others in Cumberland and elsewhere will not consider the said Duncan Ochiltree altho' he remains longer than the sixty days after last July Court in Cumberland, in the said State, as a person who has willingly made a breach of his said first above mentioned bond—but as one compelled
to act in the manner above described. Under these circumstances I have no doubt he will be permitted to pass from hence to the place of his residence in Mecklenburg undisturbed.Given under my hand the 15th Sept. 1777.