Albany Inhabitants

May it please Your Excellency
The Inhabitants of Albany have assembled at
the Kowie to congratulate Your Excellency on your safe arrival
in this division of the Settlement, and at the same time to return
their gratefull acknowledgments on the spot, for the countenance and
support which your Excellency has invariably been pleased to bestow
on the important object of creating a Port in this River, The
benefits which have already arisen from this encouragement have
been felt not only by the immediate neighbourhood but by the whole
district and even by the adjoining one, and it is so universally
admitted to be an object of such general vital importance, that We
unitedly and respectfully solicit a continuance of your Excellencys
endeavours towards an improvement of the Navigation, either by the
erection of Piers or such other measures as Your Excellency may
deem advisable to be pursued. When these improvements shall
have been completed, We humbly trust that Your Excellency
will be pleased to cause to be extended to us the benefits of a free
Port, in as far, as to the permission of trading directly with Foreign
Countries, with these benefits in view, We are sanguine enough
to think that in a few years this newly settled District of Albany
will vie with the oldest established.
As Your Excellency has been graciously pleased to
express your desire to be made acquainted with our wants and
wishes, we beg to draw Your Excellencys attention whilst present to
the expediency of establishing some system of Police for this part of the
Country, situated as it is so far from Grahams Town, the only seat
of Magistracy for the District, & We presume to submit for your
Excellencys consideration such an appointment not only at the
village of Bathurst but likewise on this spot where under the
auspices of your Excellency a little Town has been commenced

and is fast rising into consequence.
We seize the opportunity of Your Excellencys
presence to state one more subject of local Interest, The
Town now erecting here has not as yet received a name, We
therefore most respectfully request that Your Excellency will be
pleased to accede to the general wish and permit it to be called
Port Frances as the only mode we have of paying a tribute of
respect to the Lady of Colonel Somerset: whose conduct and eminent
virtues during her long residence amongst us have greatly endeared
her to every one on the Frontier.
Kowie, 18 February 1825
A. B. Dietz
C. T. Thornhill
Thomas Philipps
Dun. Campbell
W. Gllfillan
R. N. Dunn
Richd. Daniell
C. Dalgairns
William Wait
Fred. Carlisle
John Thornhill
D. Moodie
John Carlisle
Robt. Bovey
Edwd. Philipps
J. COLLIS
J. Pawle
J. H. Heath

Thos. Hewson
C. Stone
P. Heugh & Co.
J. Nelson
Chas. Crause
T. F. Cowderoy
Alex. Bisset
H. Crause
J. Crause
C. Mackay
J. Johnson
W. Austin
Isaac Dyason, Senr.
William Cock
James Carney
John Grant
To His Excellency Lord
Charles Henry Somerset
Governor & Commander
in Chief & & &