Thus, may it please your Honour, you have an exact account of the scheme in agitation, as far as I am able at present to collect. I shall be in town till the first of November, and should be glad of a line from your Honour that I may be informed whether it would be advisable, should I make any further discoveries, to communicate them. If I can in any way be of service to the Colony it will give me great pleasure. I have the honour to subscribe myself, your Honour's most obedient and humble servant,

THADDEUS BURR.

New-York, November 3, 1774.

The following is an authentick account of the means whereby Mr. Peters's letters, (copies of which you are desired to publish,) came to the knowledge of the publick. I am sorry that the indiscretion of a few weak men, whose conduct evinces their ignorance of the English Constitution, and of the spirit of the religion they profess, should have brought such a scandal upon Episcopacy (or the Church of England) which in reality is inconsistent with all the unconstitutional measures of the British Ministry—which have nearly enslaved the people in Great Britain and Ireland, and occasioned all the contention and disturbance between the Colonies and the parent state.

The principles of the Church of England are so far from supporting or countenancing a persecuting spirit, or any pretensions to tyranny or arbitrary power, either in Church or State, that they lay the strongest restraints upon them, and many of the most firm and strenuous assertors of the natural and constitutional rights and liberty of the subject, in matters both civil and religious, have always been, and now are to be found, among the Episcopalians, who cordially unite with their brethren of other denominations in maintaining those rights that are common to all.

After the difference between Mr. Peters and his neighbours (before published) appeared, on the concessions he made, to have subsided; his conduct again exposed him to their resentment, and, on some discoveries, he thought proper to retire to Boston. After he had been there some time, two of his friends having made a journey to Boston, on their return, were by some of the neighbours suspected of having brought letters from him to his family. A party waited the return of these men, met them at a tavern on the road, and questioned them, whether they had any letters from Mr. Peters. The men denied having any, and offered to be searched. They were believed, without further examination, and suffered to depart; but one of them was overheard, by a man who was at work behind a fence, to say, "that they might yet be searched before they got home, might be brought into trouble, and therefore had better hide the letters." The man who overheard this conversation, and probably knew what had passed at the tavern, watched them, saw them alight near a stone fence, where they made some stay. When they were gone, he informed the men who had questioned the two men at the tavern of what he had heard, and directed them to the place where he had seen the men stop. There, in a hole in the fence, the letters were found; the two men were overtaken, and again questioned, concerning letters from Mr. Peters. They denied having any, and offered to declare upon oath that they had not, but the letters being produced, they owned the bringing and hiding them, which proved the means of making their contents known to the publick.

LETTER FROM THE REVEREND SAMUEL PETERS, OF HEBRON, TO HIS MOTHER.

DEAR MOTHER: I am well, and doing business for my intended route. I hear a mob was gathered for me the day I left Hebron; what they have done I cannot yet find out. As Jonathan will be obliged to attend at New-Haven when the Assembly sits, I desire him to tell Mr. Jarvis, Andrews, Hubbard, &c., to collect all facts touching mobs and insults offered the clergy of our churches, or her members; likewise to send me a copy of the Clergy's petition to Governour Trumbull, and what he does in answer. If Jonathan is hurt, or my house is hurt or damaged, let that be transmitted to me within fourteen days, or, after that, send accounts to the care of Mr. Rice Williams, a woollen draper in London. I am in high spirits; I should be happy if my friends and relations at Hebron were provided for at these bad times, when things are growing worse. Six regiments are now coming from England, and sundry men-of-war; so soon as they come hanging work will go on, and destruction will first attend the sea-port towns; the lintel sprinkled on the side posts will preserve the faithful. I wish Hannah to take some papers which she and I laid away and bring them to me; she knows where they be; or burn them if this letter appears to be opened before it is opened by you.

Mr. Beebe and Mr. David Jones, Mr. Warner and Mr. Griffin, of Millington, must draught a narrative of their sufferings, and such words as Colonel Spencer, &c, have spoke, by way of encouragement to mobs, and let Doctor Beebe, send the same to me, to the care of Mr. Thomas Brown, merchant in Boston.

I am, &c.

SAMUEL PETERS.

THE REVEREND SAMUEL PETERS TO THE REVEREND DOCTOR ACHMUTY OF NEW YORK.

Boston, October 1, 1774.

REVEREND SIR: The riots and mobs that have attended me and my house, set on by the Governour of Connecticut, have compelled me to take up my abode here; and the clergy of Connecticut must fall a sacrifice, with the several churches, very soon to the rage of the puritan mobility, if the old serpent, that dragon, is not bound. Yesterday I waited on his Excellency, the Admiral, &c., Doctor Canner, Mr. Troutbeck, Doctor Byles, &c. I am soon to sail for England; I shall stand in great need of your letters, and the letters of the clergy of New-York; direct to Mr. Rice Williams, woollen draper, in London, where I shall put up. Judge Achmuty, &c., &c., will do all things reasonable for the neighbouring charter; necessity calls for such friendship, as the head is sick, and the heart faint, and spiritual iniquity rides in high places with halberts, pistols, and swords. See the Proclamation I send you by my nephew, and their pious Sabbath day, the 4th of last month, when the preachers and magistrates left the pulpits, &c., for the gun and drum, and set off for Boston, cursing the King and Lord North, General Gage, the Bishops and their cursed Curates, and the Church of England. And for my telling the church people not to take up arms, &c., it being high treason, &c., the Sons of Liberty have almost killed one of my church, tarred and feathered two, abused others; and on the sixth day destroyed my windows, and rent my clothes, even my gown, &c., crying out, down with the church, the rags of Popery, &c.; their rebellion is obvious; treason is common; and robbery is their daily diversion; the Lord deliver us from anarchy. The bounds of New-York may directly extend to Connecticut river, Boston meet them, and New-Hampshire take the Province of Maine, and Rhode Island be swallowed up as Dathan. Pray lose no time, nor fear worse times than attend,

Reverend sir, your very humble servant,

SAMUEL PETERS.

N. B. I wrote to the Clergy of Connecticut; the letters may be intercepted; pray acquaint Mr. Dibble, &c.

JOEL WHITE TO GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL.

Bolton, November 30, 1774.

SIR: Agreeable to your Honour's request, I have waited on part of the Committee, others living at a distance in neighbouring towns have omitted, relative to Mr. Samuel Peters's affair, and here is enclosed as your Honour may see. As to the last transaction, in September last, the Committee, as I understand, were Captain Seth Wright, Captain Asahel Clark, and Mr. Hill, of Lebanon, and Mr. Larrabee, of Windham, &c.

Sir, I am your dutiful and humble servant,

JOEL WHITE.

To the Honourable Jonathan Trumbull, Esquire.

We, the subscribers, being desired by Joel White, Esquire, to give a narrative of our treatment to Mr. Samuel Peters, of Hebron, we, with some others being