Erith, James Thomas

To His Excellency General Lord Charles Henry Somerset /
Governor and Commander of the Cape of Good Hope 7+c 7+c 7+c /
May it please your Excellency /
I have the Honour this Day to acknowledge (by /
Command of Your Excellency) the reply of Colonel /
Bird to my Memorial of April the 21\st/ and to /
apologiz+e for that Document being with out date /
Your Excellency therin states „you /
see with regret and surprise that I still continue to make /
Complaints which on Inquiry turn out Incorrect /
and unfounded” _ I beg leave to state that if Your Excell=ency /
will allow me the request I have made in my /
Memorial of the 2\nd/ of June to clear up my Charrater /
by a Public Investigation of the Case at Cape Town /
I Venture to affirm I will prove that the Charges /
I have brought are both Correct and well founded _ /
in every point where I have beged Your Excellencys Inte=ference /
Your Excellency must suppose that /
after all the serious and [Grave Accusations] I have /
brought forward _ and that that line of Persecutions /
is still being exercised on Your Memorialist _ it is not /
pos+siable for me to sit down contentedly under such a /
Complicated load of Misery _ without makin Your /
Excellency Acquainted with [part] of those num=erous /
Greivences _ when I last Memorializ+ed Your /
Excellency I therein Informed You that some Property /
of mine had been seiz+ed by the Sequestrator as long as /
as February last and that one sale had taken place /
and some then remained unsold _ I have now /
to state that last Week another sale was advertiz+ed /
and even now they are not all disposed of _ /
>
I have Memorializ+ed the Board of Landdrost and Hemradden /
(understanding they ware seiz+ed by the order of that Board) /
for the Items of their accounts that I might know what /
claims they have against me and yesterday requested /
the agent of the Sequestrator (whose Name was affixed to /
the advertisement) to give me an answer but I cannot /
obtain it /
While such repeated Griveances are stated to Your /
Excellency and you ware pleased to Call upon them for their /
answers _ the albany District being so many hundred of /
Miles from the Seat of Government will be the means /
of Continuing a Correspondance of complaints and defences /
to a period so protracted that the sufferer looses all chance /
for redres+s and the guilty is suffered to go free _ whereby /
if Your Excelency would allow the whole of the Charges /
to be brought forward and Personly replied to at Cape /
Town it will then prove wether the Charges are /
Correct and founded in truth or Incorrect and unfounded /
and I humbley conceive the only way of /
bringing this Complicated Busines+s to a final Conclusion /
and your Memorialist will Ever Pray /
James Thomas Erith /
Grahams Town /
10th of June 1823 /