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A Petition from Henry Hale Graham, Esq˙, Prothonotary, Recorder of Deeds, and Deputy Register for the Probate of Wills, &c˙, in the County of Chester, was presented to the House, and read, setting forth that the Publick Records of the said County are, by legal authority, ordered to be kept within the Borough of Chester, in the said County; that, soon after the Petitioner' s appointment to the said offices, he did (at his own private expense) erect a building, (detached from all others,) constructed in such manner as to preserve these Records from any common accident of fire, and from being destroyed by vermin, in which the said Records have ever since been lodged and kept; that a number of the inhabitants of the said County have "requested the Petitioner to remove those Records to some place of greater security, (out of the said Borough,) being
Ordered to lie on the table.
Petition from Henry Hale Graham
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fully sensible of the importance of their preservation, and being apprehensive from their situation that they may be easily destroyed by an armed force from the river;" that although the Petitioner might look upon himself highly justifiable, in cage of an actual invasion, to remove those Records out of the said Borough, yet he cannot think himself warranted in doing it until such a case did actually happen, (which might then be too late for their preservation,) unless directed so to do by legal authority; that the Petitioner, therefore, apprehends it to be his duty to apply to the honourable House, and humbly to request, that they would be pleased to take the premises into consideration, and do therein what shall appear to them expedient and necessary.