To the Honorable the Delegates of the United States of America in
 Congress assembled most humbly Shewith

That your Petitioners Subjects of said States and Inhabitants of the States of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island long before and on the 19^th day of February AD. 1777 were imployed by and in the actual Service of said States as a Lieutenant and Midshipman on board the Warren Frigate which then and for a long time before lay in Providence River in the State of Rhode Island, which Frigate was commanded by John B. Hopkins Esq^r. as Captain under the command of his Father Esek Hopkins Esq^r. the Commodore.— Your Petitioners having lain on Board Said Ship in a total State of inactivity for Several Months, and being fully Satisfied that therein they could not Serve their Country in its defence were induced to petition the Hon^ble. Marine Committee to Inquire into the conduct of Comodore Hopkins, and did for that purpose on the 19^th. of February 1777 togeather with Roger Haddock John Truman James Brewer John Grannis John Reed James Sellers George Stillman & Barnabas Lathrop all Officers on board Said Ship Warren Sign and transmitt to said Marine Committee the Petition aforsaid with Vouchers therefor, that Congress might know and be truely inform’d of the real Character of an Officer so important to the Interest of said States as well as so dignified by Rank.¹ Your Petitioners humbly beg leave to Suggest that they then thought and Still think it was their bounden duty to make the information aforesaid in the manner they then did—and that it is the duty of every Subject to inform proper Authority of all public Injuries the States Suffer and to petition with freedom for an inquiery their into in order to their being removed; and this without personal danger & hazard Your Petitioners beg leave further to inform Congress that the Said Esek hath Since purchased out of the Clerks Office of the Inferior Court of common pleas for Providence County in the State of Rhode Island a Writ of Attachment against them with the other Persons before Named merely for Signing and transmitting to your Hon^rs Said Marine Committee the Said Petition, whereby your Said Petitioners have been arrested and held to most enormous Bail, to answer to the Said Eseks writ aforesaid and therein hath Alledged hemself to be endamaged by the Petitioners Petition aforesaid 10'000.£.² Your Petitioners most humbly Suggest, that altho Congress gave to the Said Esek the fairest and fullest notification of theire doings upon Said Petition, with their express declaration that he the Said Esek might appear and answer to the complaint of Said Petitioners upon a certain distant Day if he saw cause, yet from a consciousness of these as well as other & perhaps more weighty causes being Justly Assigned for his removal promised most important command: he never appeared as your Petitioners have been informed & verily beleive—

Your Petitioners, not being Persons of Affluent fourtunes but young Men who have Spent most of their time in the Service of their Country in Arms against its cruel Enemies Since the Commencement of the present war, finding themselves Arrested for doing what they then beleived and still beleive was nothing but their duty, held to Bail in a State where they were Strangers, without connections that can assist them in defending themselves as well as (in this Instance, they humbly think) the Rights of the Subjects at large in these free States, against a powerfull as well as artfull person, who by the advantages of his Offices and of the present war hath amassed great wealth—do most humbly implore the Interposition of Congress in there behalf in Such way and manner as the wisdom of that most august Body Shall direct and order—that Your Petitioners as well as the Subjects of these happy States may at all times be Secured from fear and dangers in their humble and Just Applications to the Supreme and Sovereign Authority of this Country and as in duty bound Your Petitioners Shall ever pray—³

Bridgwater [Mass.] 8 July 1778—