To the Honourable Justices of the Quarter Sessions to be held at Chester on the twenty-sixth day of May one thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty one ----------

The petition of Henry McQuaid Humbly Sheweth That Whereas William Baily my Father in Law last February petitioned that Court and Charged my wife with forbidding him of our house and threatening to starve him if he stayed any longer and that he gave us all his Substance which was Considerable. Please your Honours the true State of the Case is the Overseers of the poor of Eastown warned him out of this Town or demanded Security that he might not become Chargeable . The Blind man said they had little to do at home to Warn him out of their town, that his Son in Law Thomas Harris had invited him to come and live with him and he would maintain him all his life and that he would go there and he did as he said and of his Substance I never had the Value of Sixpence to my knowledge nor had he it to give. His father was poor and left him poor and Blind an object of Charity and the Bishop of Refo [probably Rapho in County Donegal, Ireland] gave him three pounds a year for many years for to help to Maintain him till for some reason left known to the Bishop he withheld that Charity which reduced him to want of the Necessaries of Life but it pleased God that his Brother Alexander came to this Province about forty five years past and by his and his wive’s Industry purchased a plantation in Willistown and had a good Stock of Cattle Corn a plenty out of debt and money to the fore and had no family only his old wife and himself and hearing of his Brother’s distress he sent for him to Ireland and he and his daughters Ann and Elizabeth took shipping and Came to this Province. His Brother Alexander paid their passages and they was all Brought to Alexander’s house. Ann was married and had a husband. Elizabeth was a single woman and lived with her Uncle and Aunt till she married one Thomas Harris and after Marriage She and her husband lived with Uncle and Aunt till they had a child and by some means they procured a deed of Gift for this plantation aforesaid to said Child. The Uncle was to enjoy it during his life and Thomas Harris procured an article or lease then or some time soon after during Alexander’s Natural life to himself for which he was to give Alexander his doyate [authority?] in his house and ten pounds a year during the life of Alexander Baily. Harris likewise got Baily’s horned Cattle Sheep and Corn in the ground and Corn Clean to his hand. He also borrowed all his Uncle’s money by degrees as occasion required to pay small debts and buy necessaries for the House. The Overseers of the poor of Willistown on hearing thereof came to Alexander Baily and Thomas Harris to know how this Blind man would be maintained without being Chargeable to the Town. Alexander Baily to satisfy them and provide for his Blind brother agreed with Richard McCaden my wive’s first husband to him this aid: Richard McCaden ten pounds a year to keep and Maintain the Blind man with both diet and clothing and give him a bond for the payment of the same and also an amount of the money he had lent Thomas Harris from time to time and of the Effects that Thomas Harris had of his and a power of Attorney to Sue for the same to the bond aforesaid and acknowledged the said power before Judge Copland and likewise an article to Receive the yearly rent coming from Thomas Harris during his the said Baily’s life with a promise that McCaden finds him the said Baily with Sufficient Clothing during his Natural life and that of all Kinds and see that he did not want in his time of sickness, that doyate [?] and ten pounds to be paid yearly during Baily’s life by Thomas Harris to blind folded Alexander Baily that he did not consider that his old wife that helped to gather that Estate was forgot and the Blind brother likewise. She fretted and grieved sorely that she was stripped of her all but it pleased God by Death to take her out of her troubles. My wive’s first husband and myself has kept our father in house Six Years or thereabouts and has received pay for only two years of this Money rents Effects aforesaid as McCaden died before he put the Law in force against Thomas Harris and Alexander Baily Complained to the Neighbors that Thomas Harris had got all his Substance in his hands and that his wife gave him said Baily vittles that was not suitable for him and if he could not eat it it was put by from meal to meal till hunger obliged him to eat it and that they moved him from his own room or bed to Live upstairs and some of his neighbors at his request went to Thomas Harris to get him better usage and he complained to several of his Neighbors that he knew nothing of Signing a deed of Gift to Harris’ Son; that if he did he was made drunk and knowed nothing of it and before Alexander Baily gave Richard McCaden the account Bond or Power as aforesaid he begged of one or more of his Neighbors to ask him to sue Thomas Harris for his Land and Substance that the said Harris was Cheating him of that which should have maintained him his old Wife and Blind brother under the circumstances aforesaid he fretted and grieved and instead of being a good Servant to Harris as he was for Some Years after he got his Substance he became Childish and bothersome to himself and others till it pleased God to take him out of the World. Whether the wrongs and usage Alexander Baily complained of brought him to that condition God only knows but this I know that all of Baily’s Lands money and other Effects moved Thomas Harris from a State of very low circumstances to be an able farmer and a Merchant Miller also, and as Thomas Harris gave me nothing in the writing before last February Court that he would petition that Court against me in behalf of my father in law the Blind man aforesaid that gives me reason to judge that Thomas Harris prevailed with my father in law to put in that petition Expecting it would have more weight in Court then if it was put in by Harris himself and be some means to Exclude him from being called to an account for the Effects aforesaid.

I your petitioner most Humbly prays your Honours will be pleased to take the Blind man my Father in Law’s Case into Consideration and make such order that he may have such part of his Brother’s Alexander’s Estate as is justly his due that he may be enabled to live independently and pay Richard McCaden’s heirs and me according to his Brother’s Contract for his own maintenance these several years and your Petitioner as in Duty bound will ever pray.

Henry McQuaid