Residents of Clarksville ask that John and Lewis Wimbish be permitted to operate a ferry across the Roanoke River. Currently, the only ferry is operated by James Somerville, who charges them the full sixteen cents permitted by law. They pay the same when they have business across the river at the court house. Moreover, Somerville "keeps no white persons at his ferry" and his slaves "are disorderly drunken and unaccomodating." The landing is a "rallying point for drinking & Gambling on the Sabbath day and of nights when large numbers of slaves from the surrounding Country Congregate and Carry on a Contraband trade." The petitioners believe that fifteen hundred dollars a year would be adequate to pay to the overseers of the two ferries.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
