To the Worthy Inhibitants of the City of New-York

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New-York, March 23, 1775.

Permit a stranger expelled from his habitation, and inhumanly abused by an insolent and persecuting rabble, who have long dealt destruction around them with impunity, to submit his unmerited sufferings to your compassionate attention. Seized, like the vilest malefactor, without the shadow of offence; condemned by a mock tribunal; severely and ignominiously beaten; stripped of his whole substance; compelled to abandon his wife and children in a distant County to the care of Providence; and plunged into want and distress, he has no place of refuge but in this hospitable City. It is his only consolation, amidst the most painful reflections, to flatter himself, that when this unhappy case is made publick, he will not only receive from Government the protection due to an innocent and much injured subject, but will partake of that benevolence from individuals for which the citizens of New-York are justly celebrated. He wishes to make no comment on the circumstances related in the following deposition; they admit of no aggravation.

BENJAMIN HOUGH.