The Virginia Gazette

Nansemond, Sept. 20, 1768.

Justice, honour, religion, every thing worthy, every thing sacred, the good of society, the laws of my country, call upon me to make known to the public, the fraud, injustice, and injury, I saw committed and done in a neighbouring county. I saw Negroes worth eighty pounds sold for twenty; I saw plate, to the value of two hundred, sold for fifty pounds; saw a new, genteel, fashionable coach, which must at least have cost one hundred and twenty pounds sterling, sold for ten, together with two horses into the bargain; saw household furniture sold for less than a fourth part of the value. Can this be honest? Can it be just? I verily believe I saw goods to the amount of a thousand pounds, and they had they been fairly exposed to sale, that sold for not a great deal more than three hundred. Is this doing justice to the creditors, many of whom must, by such, and some other means, go unpaid? Can it be just to take from the creditors and give to the widow, when an estate is not sufficient to pay the demands against it, by many thousands? What can the executors of such an estate think of their oaths? What of their characters? Have they not sworn to sell the estate for as much as it would fetch, and pay the debts, &c. Let the public judge if such proceedings be just: if the executors do not deserve to be stigmatized: if it was the intention of the legislature, that by such unfair sale, such frauds should be committed.