Hon: Sirs We are sorry to have occasion to trouble you at this time on a disagreeable subject, but the inhuman Treatment which Mr Robert Stratford Byrn has received as an Officer of the Customs from a licentious Mob, renders it absolutely necessary that you should as speedily as possible be furnished with a clear and precise Account of the matter, for which purpose we beg leave to transmit a Copy of his Deposition, taken before a Provincial Magistrate, the original will be forwarded by the Governor as soon as he shall have laid it before the Council in order that a Proclamation may issue for apprehending and bringing to Justice the parties concerned within this Government. It is unfortunate for Mr. Byrn that he cannot particularise a single offender except two Waggoners, who are both non Residents. So soon as Mr Byrn related his unhappy situation, no time was lost before two Magistrates were called upon, who immediately declared their readiness to exert themselves in his behalf, in case he could name any of the Inhabitants within their County who had committed such a daring and outrageous breach of the Laws. The Fusee mentioned in the Deposition, we are informed, was broke and thrown into a Pond and the other effects have been secreted. Governor [Robert] Eden has also promised to write Governor [John] Penn a state of the matter in order to enable him to take such measures as the nature of the case may require Mr Byrn is now at Annapolis and cannot think of returning to his District without protection ー The Governor informed him that he had no Military Force and therefore he must depend alone on the exertion of the Civil Power ー as Mr Byrne is convinced he cannot during the present convuls'd state of the Colonies, be of any real service in his District he is very solicitous for your Permission to return to England which will enable him to lay his sufferings before the Lords of the Treasury. ー at his request we also inclose, for your perusal, his Letter to the Collector, written immediately after his releasement from the Mob.
We take the liberty of intimating to your Honors, that we have reason to believe, from the Tenor of Mr Byrne's past Conduct, that his Finances will not admit of his departure from this Province with Reputation.
Should you think proper to point out any different mode for us to pursue than those already adopted, as matters arc now circumstanced on this Continent, you will please to signify your pleasure therein.
sign'd Will Geddes Collr
John Clapham Compr