Lee, William

To His Excellency General the Right Honourable 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 William Lee residing in Grahams Town
most humbly and respectfully

Sheweth

That your Excellencys Memorialist belongs to the party which left
England under the superintendance of Mr Sephton but finding he could not provide
for the wants of his large family, (having a wife and five children) at his Location
he proceeded to this place, leaving a man to cultivate his Land, and hoping, that under
such circumstances he should be permitted to enjoy the same privileges as his Brother Settlers have
done, and which would be to him of the utmost importance, in a season of peril and distress
like the present, when the price of Bread and Rice (two essential necessaries of human
existance) is are absolutely advanced beyond that ability of every British Settler for purchase
and without some assistance is generously given by your Excellency, inevitable ruin to the
Settlement must ensue, for your Excellencys Memorialist in consequence of the difficulties with
which he is surrounded, made an application for the purchase of Meal from the stores, but
was absolutely refused any quantity even for payment while he has been denied the
Rice which others of his countrymen have received, Merely because Memorialist and his
family are residing in Grahams Town, so that his difficulties have become insurmountable, and
was it, even within his present means to purchase Bread and Rice, the very act, from the
extraordinary high price, must eventually complete his ruin

That while your Memorialist has been denied the Rice which has been
very kindly given by your Excellency to the British Settlers, for the cause before stated, he cannot in
Justice to himself and his family close this Memorial without stating to your Excellency that
a person belonging to the same party as himself, receives the valuable gratuity, by only leaving
his family at his location, although he himself is doing nothing thereon, but labouring
at a distance from home and absolutely earning a considerable sum more that what
your Memorialist can possibly do, Yet he does not state this for the purpose of having that
persons Rice taken off, but to shew your Excellency that he has equal (if not superior)
claims to some who enjoy the benefits of your very kind and seasonable donation at
so awful a crisis, for in consequence of the great and alarming scarcity of Money (every
one almost being in a state of insolvency, and the high price of every article connected
with the sustainance of human nature, the present time presents a most alarming
Picture of distress which can never be exhibited in shades equally dark as the
appaling original, for parental feelings were never more upon the rack in any part of
the Globe than at his moment in the province of Albany

That your Excellencys Memorialist most humbly prays that your
Excellency will be graciously pleased to take his case into your most graci serious consideration
& that you would be pleased in your wonted goodness and clemency to order
him to receive the Three Months rations of Rice which he has been witheld and to enjoy the
same priviliges as others for the future and your Memorialist (as in duty bound) will ever
pray for your Excellency and your noble family &c

Grahams Town
Augt 6 1822