Shawe-Woodcock (and McLelland)

To His Excellency the Rt Hon
General Lord Charles Henry
Somerset Governor and Commander
in Chief of the
Cape of Good Hope &c. &c .
We the undersigned British Settlers
residing at the Sub-drostdy of Clan William
beg to approach Your Excellency with
Sentiments of profound attachment to
your Excellencys person and Government
and those of the gracious Sovereign you
represent
We have heard with unfeigned regret
of the late vile attach on Your Excellency
by a low calumniator, but our number
is so reduced in the vicinity of this
Sub. drostdy, that we have been hitherto
delicate in bringing forward our humble
names, in opposition to the libellers and
in conjunction with the virtuous and
loyal.
We do not flatter ourselves that
any weight is atttached to our names,
but we should feel ourselves negligent
nay, culpable, if we did not follow the
Example of our Brethren in Albany
in expressing our Contempt for the libellers
And the Pleasure we feel in hoping that
the voice of the public united in proclaiming
your Excellencys virtues, will in a
short time show the enemies of decorum
the imbecility of their effors
to prison the minds of the peaceable

We hesitate not to express our
sense of a reign of darkness having long brooded
over this thriving Colony, but at the
Same time we cannot but congratulate
ourselves on seeing the Clouds of error
disappearing under your Excellencys
administration, and in their stead a system
now approaching to maturity
which will not only add to the national
character, but throw a lustre round your
Excellencys government, calculated to
render your name venerated by posterity
Francis McClelland Clr
S. E. Shawe
RWoodcock