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My Lord

As I am one, who in Queen Anne's Reign 1708 was by your Lordship's most worthy predecessor, sent to South and North Carolina to officiate in Both at several times as minister of the Church of England under the Royal and Espiscopal Protections, having for the full space of 20 years, Shared my office between a French Parish named St. Dennis & an English Parish called St. Thomas under the Revd Mr. Hazell the Rector of the same; I was at last called from this former Province to the next adjacent country named Cape Fear or New Hanover belonging to North Carolina where I have been already 4 years following my functions & now I see myself under the sad necessity of superseding them, for the reasons I shall acquaint your Lordship with, the people of my charge did at the first carry a fair correspondence with me, till one Mr. Richd Marsden came among us with a commission as he said from the Bishop of London & from the Honorable Society for the propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to be an inspector over the clergy in these parts of the North, tho' I could never hear that your Lordship had any other commissary besides the Revd Mr. Garden in South or North Carolina, moreover the said Mr. Marsden since that time has forsaken

such Pretentions; having taken upon him to be a public Merchant & traffickant. Since his late voyage to Lisbon in Portugal & follows it daily amongst us & thinks it no way inconsistent with the Sacred orders, for he it is who has set my hearers against me, with his proffers of serving them Gratis, which is the reason why my subscribers have not paid me according to their promise in writing & thereby have disabled me to wait upon them as their Minister & compell'd me, by the same means to work as a Slave, in the field for my living, after gratifying them with 8 months of my time. & the same Mr. Marsden himself who had made the people of Cape Fear such generous proffers, has left them since, having made interest with Govr Burrington for the new Parish of Core Sound & New River tho' not as yet settled but he is contented with the private acknowledgements of the inhabitants of that place. I have already laid before your Lordship the first obstacle to my going forward in my office, but there is still another my Lord of no less consequence viz. the great misunderstanding between the great men of the place & Govr Burrington; for having at his first arrival applied to his excellency on the behalf of their church in order to recommend it, to the Societys bounty & your Lordships protection; his excellency returned them this answerr from both; that this could not be done, till their church can be erected into a Parish & till they could allow to their Minister a parsonage & a Glebe, a thing they have not as yet thought upon but have endeavoured to shew in opposition to the Governors words that it was a Parish & their Vestry is gone so far that way as to assess the country for my last Payment which was before, consisting of Private subscriptions, but they altered it at their pleasure without the Governors consent, so that at this time I am the sufferer depending upon no manner of certainty & not daring to take the Bare word of those, who have already sufficiently imposed upon my simplicity; therefore my Lord as I account myself happy in following your commands, suffer me likewise to desire the favor of your paternal advice, tending to the preservation of,

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