[Williamsburg] Tuesday, June 4, 1776.
A petition of Joseph Jones, Joshua Campbell, James Ferebee, and William Burgess, merchants and partners, of North Carolina, was presented to the Convention, and read; setting forth that in the month of April last they loaded their sloop the two brothers, with a suitable cargo for the Island of Martinico in the West Indies, as will appear by the bill of lading; that, on the 14th of the said month, as she lay in Ocracock inlet, in North Carolina, ready to sail, a certain John Goodrich of Virginia, in an armed sloop called the Lilly, with force of arms violently seized and took possession of their said vessel and cargo, with her crew, and, having taken out their captain, put on board a prize master and some mariners, and ordered her to sea, under convoy of a certain lieutenant Wright, who commanded another armed vessel; that their vessels, on the 20th of the same month, as will appear by several affdavits, was stranded on the north of Cape Lookout, in Carolina, where she was taken under the care of the committee of the county of Carteret; that the said vessel and cargo, at a very accurate estimate, were worth 1149 l. 16s.10d. North Carolina currency; that as the loss they have sustained was occasioned by the hostilities of the said Goodrich, they beg leave to lay their case before the Convention, and submit it whether it is not agreeable to justice that satisfaction be made them out of the estate of the said Goodrich.
Ordered, That the said petition, together with the several exhibits, be referred to the Committee of Propositions and Grievances; that they inquire into the allegations thereof, and report the same, with their opinion thereupon, to the Convention.