(respecting the Association, &c.) of the Reverend John Agnew, Rector of Suffolk Parish, in this County, as it appeared from the testimony of William Cowper and Solomon Shepherd, Esquires, Messrs. James Murdaugh, Willis Hardgraves, Thomas Minton, Jonathan Smith, and Major Thomas Godwin, taken before us this 6th day of March, at Suffolk.

Mr. Agnew being first summoned to attend, but refused, Mr. Shepherd declared, that upon his remonstrating to the said Agnew how disagreeable it was to his audience in general, and to himself in particular, to hear the Association, and those who had come into it, abused from the pulpit in the sermons he there preached, desired that he would in future, desist therefrom. His answer was, “If you do not like such sermons, you can only leave your seat;” and to the same gentleman said, that the Delegates of the Provincial Congress had rebelled in all their Resolves. In presence of Major Thomas Godwin and Captain William Cowper, he asserted, as his opinion, that it-was no hardship to be carried beyond sea for trial of crimes committed here. Mr. Hardgraves has frequently heard him (when speaking of the Congress) declare that all such combinations and associations were detestable. Mr. Minton says, that after condemning the present Association, he produced one of his own, and in his presence offered it for signing. In a conversation his Reverence had with Mr. Smith, he affirmed our gentlemen (meaning, as Smith took it, the gentlemen of the General Congress) knew not what they were about; that to resist the King and Parliament was rebellion, and that the proceedings of the General Congress were resisting the King and Parliament; that the designs of the great men were to ruin the poor people; and that, after a while, they would forsake them, and lay the whole blame on their shoulders, and by this means make them slaves. Upon Smith’s doubting how all this extraordinary villany could be brought about, “Why (says the parson) they have already begun; for the Committee of Suffolk has invaded private property; they have taken goods from a man of Carolina, and sold them against his will.” He likewise informed Mr. Smith there was an Association of the other party up the Country, and the people signing it very fast; that they had discovered their errour in signing the present one, and that he would see this fact published in the Norfolk paper shortly.

We have now related the substance of what the above named gentlemen declared upon their oaths, and here we could wish to end this narrative; but we have too much regard for our own characters to suffer them to be injured by so barefaced a slander as appears in Smith’s testimony, respecting the Carolina gentleman and his goods. The truth of that transaction is precisely this: Mr. Samuel Donaldson, merchant, and one of the Committee of this County, informed some of the members that his friend, Mr. John Thompson, merchant of North-Carolina, had imported some goods into this Colony, which come under the tenth Article of the Association, and desired that a Committee might be held to determine what should be done with them; and Mr. Donaldson (that Mr. Thompson might suffer as little inconvenience as possible from the detention of the goods) advertised them to be sold on the same day that the Committee was to sit. At the time appointed we met, when Mr. Thompson was present, and, on examining him and some letters he produced, we found that by the importation of these goods he had not violated any of the articles of the Association. And although we were not entirely pleased with Mr. Donaldson’s advertising the sale of the goods before he had orders from us so to do, yet we ordered them to be sold under the care and direction of three gentlemen of the Committee. Mr. Thompson bought the goods, expressed himself highly satisfied, and insisted on our partaking of a cheerful bowl with him.

Upon the whole the publick will plainly discover the principles this reverend gentleman entertains, and in what light he views the general Resolutions adopted and entered into for our relief from the oppressive hand of power. Had this zealous advocate for despotick rule been as assiduous in the discharge of the several duties of his function as he has been industrious in propagating false and erroneous principles, not only in private discourse, but in blending detestable tenets in his angry orations from the pulpit, in order to gain a party in opposition to the common cause, and thereby lending his little aid to seduce the very people that gave him bread to a state of wretchedness, this Committee had not been at the trouble to examine the eleventh Article of the Association, and opening his conduct to the censure of the world.

JOHN GREGORIE, Clerk of the Committee.

VOTE PASSED BY THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF WORCESTER COUNTY, (MASS.,) MARCH 24, 1775.

As a number of Towns in this County have not been publickly represented in this Convention, it is therefore recommended that the attendance of one or more members of the several Towns therein be given at their future meetings; and that they do not depart without leave when assembled, until an adjournment or dissolution thereof.

The Convention of the Committees of Correspondence of this County stands adjourned to the second Tuesday of June instant, at ten o’clock, A. M., at the Court-House, Worcester. By order of the County Committee:

WILLIAM YOUNG, Chairman.

TO THE PRINTERS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS GAZETTE.

Worcester, March 24, 1775.

Having seen a publication* in the Massachusetts Gazette of the 9th instant, relative to my conduct in resigning my command as Colonel of a Regiment, &c, I think it not improper to give the publick the following true state of the matter, viz: I was some time ago chosen Lieutenant-Colonel of a Regiment, whereof Mr. Thomas Dennie, of Leicester, was chosen Colonel. If was not without some persuasion that I accepted of the office, being very diffident of my abilities to discharge the duties of it with that propriety and martial dignity that the importance of the occasion required. But putting great dependance upon the abilities of the Colonel, I was prevailed upon to accept of the office; but very unfortunately for me, (as well as for the publick,) that very worthy gentleman was soon after suddenly taken away by death. I was then chosen Colonel of the Regiment, and was at that time determined absolutely to have refused, but was over-persuaded to accept of the office. From that time I was much burdened with the thoughts of our publick affairs, and the part I had to act in them. At this time some persons, whom I now think enemies to American liberty, and not friends to me, discovered my uneasiness, and set themselves to work to increase it, by painting the horrours of civil war and rebellion in the most frightful colours, which they pretended I was plunging myself into; and unless I immediately renounced the cause I was engaged in, I was ruined and undone; and I being (as I now think) thoroughly infatuated by their delusions and insidious conduct, was led to say, that I thought the people were wrong in the opposition they were making against the Acts of Parliament, &c. And at the same time declared I would have nothing further to do in the matter as Colonel of the Regiment, &c. I have accordingly resigned my command, and made such satisfaction to Officers of the Regiment for my behaviour as they kindly accepted of. At which time they proceeded to the choice of a much better man than myself to take my place; and the Regiment now is well-officered, as far as I know, which gives me greater pleasure than I ever felt by being at the head of it. But before I conclude, I would just remark, that the publication of the 9th instant, first mentioned, in some respects, is not consistent with truth. First, the representation of my having been concerned in mobs and riots, or violent measures, is invidious, and a false calumny, for which I appeal to all that know my general conduct, both Whigs and Tories. And secondly, to represent me as converted, when in truth and reality

* A correspondent informs us, “That Mr. Thomas Wheeler Colonel of a new-fangled Regiment in the County of Worcester, is so sensible of his errour in being any ways concerned in the violent measures now pursuing by our Sons of Liberty, that he has declared he will never be concerned any further, and has resigned his command. Two of his neighbours, namely, Captain Palmer Goulding, and Lieutenant Cornelius Spawell, both of said Town, on the evening of the 2d instant, returning home from a visit they had made said Wheeler, were suddenly attacked and knocked down by two men, and most grievously beat and wounded, and for no other reason but their being true friends to Government, and supposed by the Sons of Liberty to be instrumental in converting their neighbour Wheeler.”