Erith, James Thomas

Waaye Platz+, or New Botany Bay /
Nov\r/ 17\th/ 1821 /
May it please your Excellency /

During your last visit to Albany Mrs Erith /
had the honor to hand you her Memorial, detailing the cruel /
persecutions I have endured from Capt Trappes, the late provisional /
magistrate of this district when, with your usual goodnes+s, agreeable to /
the prayer it contained, you was pleased to direct our present worthy /
Landrost to remove me /from the rock upon which he has placed me\ to another Location, but added “ That you was /
prevented from attending to the other points contained in her Memorial, in /
consequence of Captain Trappes having as+serted that the allegations were # /
false, that he meant to commence an Action for defamation of character /
and therefore she would hear from His Majesty’s Fiscal in the course /
of a [few days] /and until that was determined could say no further upon the subject “\
Six Months however have nearly elapsed, and /
I have waited during that long period with great anxiety to the day of /
Trial, when I was confident Mrs Erith would prove to a demonstration /
that the whole of what she had stated were absolute facts, but notwith=standing /
the los+ses I have sustained in waiting, during this protracted /
period, [No Action] has been commenced ! but on the contrary he /
now denies his /original\ intention to do so ! and actually charges your Excellency /
with recommending the plan to him, but a Gentleman of great respectability /
in Grahams Town, who conversed with your Excellency upon the subject, /
perfectly remembers (and I have this moment left him) that your Excellency /
told him, “[Captain Trappes] was going to bring an Action against Mrs Erith” 7+c /
However {I} I beg to say that it is now my intention to commence an Action at /
Law against him, unles+s you are pleased to decide some other means, and /
therefore as the Reg\t/ to which Captain Trapps belongs is now retiring to England /
I have humbly to intreat that your Excellency will be pleased to discountenance /
his leaving this Colony, until he has answered the charges I have against /
him, at the next circuit Tribunal, or allow me to follow him, for I have /
been wantonly injured by that man, and I cannot think that His Majesty’s /
Ministers ever intended that any British Settler, should be then treated to /
gratify private feelings of revenge, and under the sanction of Office to make /
a property out of the Servants which I brought out under a written agreement /
from the distant shore of England, as I shall absolutely prove he has actually /
done, with a clearnes+s not surpas+sed by the noon day Sun, and from the most /
undeniable testimony too, I shall establish the fact, that it was [he alone]. /
([without my consent]) who dis+solved my party of Servants, in order to obtain /
a profit from their labours, and Your Excellency is hereby as+sured that these /
as+sertions are not the hasty diction of a moment, but that of the most cool /
and deliberate reflection, and therefore I humbly pray (as a British subject) /
that your Excellency will be pleased to interfere with your high authority /
in order that I may obtain that Justice to which I feel myself entitled, /
and am / Your Excellency’s /
Most obt and very humble Serv\t/ /
Jas Thos Erith /