DEPOSITION OF JAMES WILKINS, 1765
Cumberland County, ss.
Personally appeared before me, one of his Majesty’s Justices for said County, personally appeared James Wilkins, who upon his Oath Saith, That on or about the Last Day of May last, he being at the House of Justice Smith, where he received some Horse Loads of Goods from John Givson, (to be carried to Fort Pitt,) at which place he saw a number of armed Men, some of Whom Did Declare, that they were at the taking of Lieut Grant, Commanding Officer at Fort Lowdon; And this Deponant further Saith, that being that Evening at the House of James Cunningham, (an Inn Contiguous to Justice Smith’s house, where Justice Smith & James Smith, who seemed to have headed the Above Mentioned Armed Party & others, were in Company by themselves, this Deponant did hear Justice Smith say, “that as John Gibson did Condescend to have his Goods Inspected by the Country People, if any of them should Destroy or Offer to Molest said Gibson’s Goods, he would use Endeavours to find Out & Prosecute the Transgressors in that Fact, & said that if he would take in hand to find them out, he would find them sooner than any Other Person who had hitherto undertaken to find Out the like, and further saith not.
(Signed,) JAS. WILKENS.
Sworn & Subscribed Before
JAS. MAXWELL.
(A Coppy.)
PENSYLVANIA ARCHIVES VOLUME IV page 223