Address of the Burgh of Ayr

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Address of the Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of the Burgh of Ayr, presented to His Majesty by the Right Honourable Sir George Macartney, Knight of the Bath, their Representative in Parliament.

The humble Address of the Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of your ancient Royal Burgh of AYR, in Common Council assembled.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty' s dutiful and loyal subjects, beg leave unanimously to express our sentiments of gratitude for the many blessings we have enjoyed under your mild Government, ever since your happy accession to the throne.

Being thus sensible of our own happiness, it is with horrour and detestation that we behold the standard of Rebellion erected in so many of your American Provinces, and an unnatural war carried on by your subjects there, against their lawful Sovereign and Mother Country, after the greatest marks of lenity and condescension have been shown to them, by your Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain.

We sincerely lament the present situation of these unhappy and deluded people, who, instead of enjoying liberty, law, justice, and property, as formerly, are now governed by the mob and rabble, headed by mad enthusiasts and desperate Republicans.

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We beg leave to assure your Majesty, that we, and the inhabitants of this Burgh, whom we represent, are ready to support, with our lives and fortunes, all such measures as shall be judged necessary, by your Majesty and Parliament, to put a speedy end to this unnatural rebellion, and to disappoint the seditious practices of a discontented faction at home, who appear to us to have greatly encouraged and instigated the rebellion of the Americans.

That Almighty God may bless your Majesty' s councils, give success to your arms; that a speedy peace and reconciliation may take place among all your subjects, and the further effusion of human blood be prevented; that you may have a long and prosperous reign, over a free and happy people — is our sincere prayer.

Signed in name and by appointment of the Magistrates and Town Council of the Burgh of Ayr, in Common Council assembled, this nineteenth day of October, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.

JAMES HUTCHISON, Provost.