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Mr˙ Blackburn, from the Committee to whom the Petition of Stephen Pierce was referred, reported, that it appeared to the said Committee, that the Sloop whereof the Petitioner was master, cleared out at the Port of North Potomac, in the Province of Maryland, for Antigua, on the 25th day of September last, with three hundred barrels of Flour, two hundred bushels of Corn, and some live slock; that she arrived at Antigua, the 16th of November following, and on the 28th, cleared out from Turk' s Island with eight hundred bushels of Salt, for the County of St˙ Mary' s, in Maryland; that, by means of the late storm, she was driven into Hampton, and taken by Captain Barron,; that the said Stephen Pierce alledges, in his justification for exporting the Flour and other articles after the 10th of September, that the gust on the 6th of that month retarded his sailing, and he was permitted to sail at the same time, he did; but no evidence of those facts appears to your Committee, nor can any be procured at this time.
Resolved, That there is probable cause to suspect that the said Stephen Pierce hath, in the first instance, been guilty of a breach of the Continental Association; but, as our friends in Maryland may be in want of the Salt, it is the opinion of this Commitlee that the said Vessel be permitted to proceed on her voyage, and that the Committee of the said County of St˙ Mary' s ought to be informed of that transaction, that they may take such measures as to them may appear necessary.
Stephen Pierce
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And that they had come to the following Resolution thereupon; which he read in his place, and then delivered in at the Clerk' s table, where the same was again twice read, and agreed to: