Letter from the Committee of Norfolk, Virginia, to the Boston Committee

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Norfolk, June 3, 1774.

GENTLEMEN: We gladly take this first opportunity of assuring our brethren of Boston, on this melancholy occasion, that we are not indifferent spectators of their distress sing situation, under the present cruel exertion of British power, to support an edict calculated to ruin their trade, and for ever subject a very considerable property to the arbitrary pleasure of the Crown; our bosoms glow with tender regard for you; we sympathize with you in your sufferings; and thought it our duty devoutly to observe the appointment of the first of June as a day of fasting and prayer, solemnly to address the Almighty Ruler to support you in your afflictions, and to remove from our Sovereign those pernicious Counsellors that have been the

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As we have had occasion to communicate our sentiments to Charlestown and Baltimore, we refer you to those letters, and the other papers transmitted to you; and although we are not one of the larger commercial towns on the Continent, yet, as the trade is more collected here than in any other place of this well watered and extensive Dominion, we thought it our duty to communicate what we apprehended to be the sense of the mercantile part of the community among us.

That the Almighty arm may support you and shield you in the hour of danger, is the fervent prayer of, gentlemen, your affectionate brethren,

THOMAS NEWTON, JUN˙,
JOSEPH HUTCHINGS,
MATTHEW PHRIPP,
SAMUEL KERR,
ROBERT SHEDDEN, HENRY BROWN,
ALEXANDER SKINNER,
THOMAS BROWN,
ROBERT TAYLER.