Early Governors' Papers

To the Honourable his Excellency Archibald Roan [sic], Governor of the State of Tennessee

Your Petitioners humbly complaining sheweth unto your Honour, at the last General Assembly of the state of Tennessee a William Bumpass was appointed a Justice of the peace for the County of Smith, but unfortu =nately for the inhabitants thereof was left out of said County by the division line of Smith & Wilson & fell into the latter which deprives your petitioners of a Justice of the peace & puts many of tjem to a considerable degree of inconveniency, also a Certain Buck Russle was appointed a Justice of the peace for the County of Jackson & upon an accurate survey or line run between the s^d. County & the County of Smith was left in Smith small distance, which also puts the inhabitants near that line & in that Company (or a part thereof) to greate [sic] trouble & inconveniency expecting that the division would have extended much lower down than it really has and many of the inhabitants in that quarter of the County of Smith hath, twenty or thirty miles to travel to an Acting Justice of the peace in said County, to give in their list of taxable property, or to do any other business which maybe cognizable, before a Justice of the peace, Now may it please your Honour to avoid those inconveniences Your Peititioners undertake to recommend to your Excellency a Certain Tandy Witcher as a proper person to act in the capacity of a Justice of the peace, whom your petitioners pray may meet