Petition of Joseph Blanchard and others to the Provincial Congress of New-York

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To the Honourable Provincial Congress of the Province of NEW YORK:

The Petition of the subscribers, inhabitants upon LONG ISLAND, in said Province, humbly showeth:

That your petitioners were taken prisoners by a military power, and confined in jail in the City of New York, which confinement your petitioners apprehend to be occasioned by some mistaken opinion of their political principles. They hereby beg leave to assure the honourable Congress that they nor either of them have, by any ways or means whatsoever, directly or indirectly given or offered any aid, assistance, or information, to the Army or Navy of the King of Great Britain, relative to the dispute now subsisting between Great Britain and these Colonies. That your petitioners are all tradesmen and farmers, and at this season of the year in particular their business must greatly suffer by reason of their absence. Therefore your petitioners most humbly pray that, in tender compassion to their health, their families, and circumstances, your Honours will take their case under consideration, and cause them to be discharged, or otherwise suffer them to be brought before your Honours, that they may know of what they are accused, and what is expected of them to do. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.

Joseph Blanchard, residing in the City of New York.

Townsend Weeks, Henry Borland, William McCoun,
John Hutcheons, Andrew Allen, John Fleet,
Daniel Smith, Ezekiel Rayner, Elijah Rainer,
John Carman, Jacob Lamberson, Benjamin Pettit,
Samuel Townsend, Richard Smith, Joseph Dorlon,
Peter Wheeler, Thomas Fleet, Nathaniel Smith,
Joseph Bedell.

NEW YORK, July 10, 1776.