Cooper, Joseph

To His Excellency The Right Honourable
General Lord Charles Henry Somerset
Governor of His Majestys Castle; Town
and Settlement of the Cape of Good Hope
&c &c &c
May it please Your Excellency
The Memorial of Joseph Cooper most humbly
Sheweth
That your Excellencys Memorialist came to this Colony
in the Year 1819 as an independent Settler, and has sunk a very
considerable Sum by the repeated failure of his Crops the Sickness among his Cattle the depradations of the Caffres, and the Memorable Flood in 1823
That your Excellencys Memorialist sowed this season a considerable
portion of Land with Barley, thinking that the sale of gree Forage
to the Commissariat Department, would relieve him from those embarrassts
into which his well know losses have plunged him, but he has been
disappointed by the present contract and this additional effort of his
industry has only contributed the more effectually to complete his ruin
as his Crop still remains on hand, and under these painful circumstances
he humbly implores that your Excellency will be graciously pleased to
grant him a Loan of 1000 Rix Dollars, for which the most undeniable
Security will be given, and your Memorialist as in duty bound will ever pray
Grahams Town Novr 16 _ 1824
Joseph Cooper