I take the Liberty to inform your Excellency that I have, by my Petition of this date, made Application to Council for the Appointment to the Offices of Prothonotary, Clerk of the Peace &c, of the new-erected County of Wyoming, and I presume to sollicit the Interest of your Excellency in obtaining for me the Suffrages of the Honorable Body in which you preside.

That I may be excused for giving your Excellency the Trouble of this Sollicitation, and to convince you that I am not altogether unworthy of your Patronage; you will please to be informed that I was born in the City of Philadelphia, the Son of William Sitgreaves who was also born in the City, and has been for a long Series of Years a Merchant of respectable Character and unblemished Reputation, that I received my Education in the College of Philadelphia, and finished my Academic Course in the same Class with my much esteemed Friend, your Grandson W.T. Franklin Esq, since which Time I have been admitted in due course to the Degrees of Batchelor and Master of Arts. From College, may it please your Excellency, I passed to the Study of the Law, and read four Years with Assiduity, and I flatter myself with Effect, under the Direction of the Honble Mr. Wilson. In 1783, I was admitted to the Practice of my Profession in several of the Counties, and in 1785 was received an Attorney of the Supreme Court. With these Advantages of Education and professional Knowledge, I presume to hope that your Excellency will not think me unqualified to fill the Offices which have been the Objects of my Petition, and which, in a new County, circumstanced as Wyoming is, seem particularly to demand some professional Acquirements.

As a young Man, Sir, I should have withheld any Application for Offices; and have depended upon my Industry in my professional Pursuits for Advancement in the World, did I not find by Experience that the Practice of the Law, differs from other Occupations in this, That it requires Time to obtain Business in it; and filled as it is with Gentlemem of long Standing and Experienced Abilities, a young Man must ascend to Eminence by a slow and almost imperceptible Gradation. Even this I would patiently submit to, but that I have a young and rising Family, whose Wants I must consult and supply, not by an Anticipation of future Wealth, but by immediate resources. It is this Circumstance which has drove me from fair Prospects in the City, and which now induces me to throw myself on your Excellency’s Patronage.

Should your Excellency choose to take the Trouble of Enquiry, I flatter myself it will not diminish any favourable opinions you may have formed of me. Should I be happy enough to meet your Choice, I shall ever preserve a grateful Sense of the Obligation. In any Event, I beg your Excellency to believe, that I am with Sentiments of the most perfect Veneration and respect, Your Excellency’s Most obedient Servant