Erith, James Thomas

Waaye Platz, Near Bathurst, March 13 1821
May it please Your Excellency
At the commencement of the Month of November
last I found it absolutely necessary to memorialize your Excellency concerning
the oppressive conduct of Captain Trappes, in his Official capacity
as provisional Magistrate towards myself and family, in removing me
from my first location (with which I was well satisfied) by force, and
placing me on a Rock (which Mr Damant had previously refused,)
under the sanction of Lt Col Cuyler to whom he had represented my
situation as being within the limits of the Township of Bathurst !!
and other acts which I conceive were both cruel and unjust, but a detail
of which I feel would now be superfluous as your Excellency is well acquainted
(if the statement has reached you) of the complaints I then made, the
purport of my present Letter being to apprize your Excellency that
although Four Months have elapsed since that period no communication
whatever relative to your Excellencys pleasure concerning this subject has
yet been handed to me, although I have had reasons to expect it, prior to
this date, from hints which have been given me of its having reached
Bathurst some time ago. and the procrastination is certainlyanswering
the end my persecutor designs in the continued waste of my property which it occasions
for it is impossible to cultivate the land upon which I am now placed
and to build thereon would betray a weakness of mind bordering on
insanity, as the other persons located near the place are leaving it one by one and
I expect by this time next year not an individual will be found living
near the place, My situation therefore would become almost similar to
that of the unfortunate Jefferies on his Rocky possession but whose cause
was warmly espoused by a British Parliament, as I have no doubt
but mine will be by your Excellency when it has been fairly investigated.
It is no small part of my sufferings to find
that the health of Mrs Erith and myself is impairing daily by being exposed
to all the inclemency of the weather in Tents almost torn to atoms and
the dreary prospects clouds which are gathering round us, as the effects
of unmerited persecution, while the thought which our state of ill health
as the consequence introduces that we shall probably have to leave Two
dear infant children unprotected in a foreign Land at the mercy of my
implacable enemy produces such painful sensations as language fails to
express, I therefore humbly pray for your Excellencys answer to my memorial
by all the goodness and clemency of your illustrious mind that I may
arrange my affairs so as to prevent that continual loss of propertywhich
I now experience and under which I so severely suffer and your Excellency will
ever find me your
Most grateful and obt Servant

Jas. Thos. Erith